Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Anatomy of Me Lan CH 00 Burt
Anatomy of Me Lan CH 00 Burt
Anatomy of Me Lan CH 00 Burt
kV
'^
'<l
" .-.
s
' ^^
'*
V. A-^
.^^
forgotten quite
JUl former scenes of dear delist,
Connubial loTe -parentaljoy_
"No
HympathiPR Hke tkese "his soul employ,
But all ia dark within.
Fenrose
FKONTISPIKCE TO thp: ORIGINAL EDITION
THE
OATOMY or 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 DEMOCHITUS JUNIOR.
WITH
A. SATIRICAL PREFACE, CONDUCING TO THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE
^$i|ttr^tliii^m
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.
PHILADELPHIA:
E. CLAXTON & COMPANY,
930
Market Street.
1883.
^^
HONORATISSIMO DOMINO,
>
NGN MINVS VIRTUTE Sul, QUAM GENKRIS SPLENDORS
ILLVSTRISSIMO,
GEORGIO BERKLEIO,
MILIT7 DE BALNEO, BAHONI DE BERKLEY, MOUBREY, SEGRAVE,
D. DE BRUSE,
DOMINO SUO MULTIS NOMINIBUS OBSERVANDO,
HANC SUHM
MELANCHOLIA ANATOMEN,
JAM SEXTO REVISAM, D. D.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR.
riv)
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 de-
servedly applauded. It was th" 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 Englisli 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 dis-
dain to build two of his finest poems on it ; and a host of inferior writers have em
bellished their works with beauties not their own, culled from a performance which
they had not the justice even to mention. Change of times, ana the frivolity of
fashion, suspended, in some degree, that fame which had lasted near a century ; and
the succeeding generation afiected indifference towards an author, who at length was
only looked into by the plunderers of literature, the poachers in obscure volumes.
The plagiaiisms of Tristram Shandy, so successfully brought to light by Dr. Fer-
RiAR, at length drew the attention of the public towards a writer, who, though then
little knowii, might, without impeachment of modesty, lay claim to every mark of
respect; and inquiry proved, beyond a doubt, that the rails of justice had been little
attended to by others, as well as the facetious Yorick. Wood observed, more thar,
a century ago, that several authors had unmercifully stolen matter from Burton
without any acknowledgment. The time, however, at ienjth arrived, when ihe
merits of the Jinatomy
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 lepository 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.
(V)
ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR.
JloBERT Burton was the son of Ralph Burton, of an ancient and genteel
Umily at Lindley, in Leicestershire, and was born there on the 8th of Februarv
1576.* He received the first rudiments of learning at the free school of Sutton
Coldfield, in Warwickshire,t from whence he was, at the age of seventeen, in the
.ong vacation, l/>93, sent to Brazen Nose College, in the condition of a com-
moner, where he made considerable progress in logic and philosophy. In I )9t)
ne was elected student of Christ Church, and, for form's sake, was put under the
ttiition of Dr. John Bancroft, afterwards Bishop of Oxford. In 1614 he wafl
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, ir
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. 1I<
seems to have been first beneficed at Walsby, in Lincolnshire, through the muni
ficence 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;
*
His elder brother was William Burton, the Leicestershire antiquary, born 24th August, I.'iT.'J, eilucated at
Sutton Coldfield, admitted commoner, or jrentleman commoner, of Brazen Nose College, f59] ; at the Innft
Temple, 20lh May, 1593; B. A. 2-2d June, 1594 ; and afterwards a barrister and.reporter in the Court of Cotninoii
Pleas. "But his natural genius," says Wood, "leading him to the studies of heraldry, genealogies, and anti-
quities, 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
'
Oescription
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, 1622. He died at FaUle.
fler suffering much in the civil war, 6th April, 1645, and was buried in the parish church belonging th^reto.
called Hanbury.
1 Th'.s is Wood's account. His will says, Nuneaton; but a passage in this work fsee fol. 304
\
mention*
Sutton ')o -I.ield : piobablv he may have been at both schools.
A /w
vi
Account
of
the Author
and no man in his lime did surpass him for his ready and dexterous interlarding
his common discourses among them with verses from the poets, or sentences from
classic auth')rs; which being then ail the fashion in the University, made Ins
compai;
y
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 extra-
ordinary 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, ir
the intervals of his vapours, was esteemed one of the most facetious companions ir
the University."
His residence was chiefly at Oxford ; where, in his chamber in Christ Churcl
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 m
truth, we have no other evidence than an obscure hint in the epitaph hei'eafter
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, m 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 monu-
nrient, 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 :
1
discount
of
the Author.
^^i
and under the bust, this inscription of his own composition
:
"The Anatomy of Mklancholt, wherein the author hath piled up variety of much exceller
learning. Scarce any booli of philology in our land hath, in so short a time, passed so many
editions."
Bosivell's Life of
Johnson, vol. i.
p. 580. 8vo. edit.
Ferriar's Illustraiicnt
of
Sterne,
p.
58.
2
X Account
of
the Author.
'
The archness which Bdhtox displays occasionally, and his indulgence of playful digression*
from the most serious discussions, often give his style an air of familiar conversation, notwith-
standing the labonous collections which supply his text. He was capable of writing excelleni
poetry, but he seems to have cultivated this talent loo 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. 1.54, of the present edition.]
Ibid. p. 60.
"During a pedantic age, like that in which BanTorr's production appeared, it must have been
emrnently serviceable to writers of many descriptions. Hence the unlearned might furnish them-
eelves with ajipropriate scraps of Greek and Latin, whilst men of letters would find their emiuiries
shortened, by knowing where they might look for what both ancients and moderns had advaneco
on the subject of human passions. I confess my inability to point out any other English authoi
who has so largely dealt in apt and original quotation."
Mnmiscript note
of
the lute Geurgt
Sieevene, E}'/., in his copy
of
The Amtomy of Melancholt.
(xU
])EMOCRITUS JUNIOR AD LIBRUM SUUM.
Vade libur, qualis, non ausim dicere, fcelix,
Te nisi ioeiicem fecerit Alma dies.
Vade tamen quocunque lubet, quascunque per
oras,
Et Genium Domini fac imitere tui.
\ 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, turn te reverenter habeto
;
Sed nuUus; muscas non capiunt Aquilae.
Non vacat his tempus fugitivum impendere
nugis.
Nee tales cupio
;
par mihi lector erit.
Si matrona gravis casu diverterit istuc,
Illustris domina, aut te Comitissa legal
:
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 ilia tuis:
Da modo te facilem, et qusedam folia esse me-
mento
Conveniant oculis quae magis apta suis.
Si generosa ancilla tuos aut alma puella
Visura est ludos, annue, pande lubena.
Die utinam nunc ipse mens* (nam diligit istas)
In praesens esset conspiciendus herus.
Ignotus notusve mihi de gente togata
Sive aget in ludis, pulpita sive colet,
Sive in Lycoeo, 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
Hue 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:
Inveniot namque ipse meis quoque plunmi
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,
Turn legat, et forsan doctior inde siet.
Si quis cordatus, facilis, lectorque benignus
Hue oculos vertat, quae velit ipse legat
;
Candidus ignoscet, metuas nil, pande libenter,
OfJ'ensus mendis non erit iile tuis,
Laudabit nonnuUa. Venit si Rhetor ineptus,
Limata et tersa, et qui benn cocta petit,
Claude citus librum ; nulla hie nisi ferrea verba,
Ofi'endent stomachum quae minus apta suum.
At si quis non eximius de plebe poeta,
Annue ;
namque istic plurima licta leget.
Nos sumus e numero, nuUus mihi spirat Apollo,
Grandiloquus Vates quilibet esse nequit.
Si Criticus Lector, tumidus Censorque molestus,
Zoilus et Momus, si rabiosa cohors
:
Ringe, freme, et noli turn pandere, turba ma-
lignis
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.
Nee lasciva tamen, si pensitet omne
; sed esto
;
Sit lasciva licet pagina, vita proba est.
Barbarus, indoctiisque 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 nee pelle tamen ; laeto omnes accipe vultn,
Quos, quas, vel quales, inde vel unde viros.
Gratus erit quicunque venit, gratissimus hospeii
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 mails opposuisse bonum.
Haec sunt quae nostro placuit mandare libello,
Et quce dimittens dicere jussit Hems.
*
Hsc comics dicta ci^ve ne malA capias.
(xii)
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR TO HIS BOOK.
PARAPHRASTIC METRICAL TRANSLATION.
o forth my book mio the open day
;
Happy, if made so by its garish eye.
D'er earth's wide surface taiic 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 nothingtremble and revere :
No forceful eagles, butterflies e'er look.
rhey 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
jn
:
Cry odd, and silly, coarse, and yet amusing,
uld dainty damsels seek thy page to con,
Sp-ead thy best stores: to them be ne'er re-
fusing
:
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 auth.or 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 !
L'^nless (white crow) an honest one be found
;
He'll better, wiser go for what we say.
''hould some ripe scholar, gentle and benign,
With candour, care, andjudgment 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 ne'^er 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
) he will write no
matter what, and scrape together it boots not whence. '""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, "'"and get themselves a name,"
saith Scaliger,
"
though it be to the downfall and ruin of many others." To be
counted writers, scriptorcs ut salutentur., to be thought and held Polumathes and
Polyhistors, apud imperitum vulgus ob ventosce nomen artis^ to get a paper-kingdom
:
mdla spe quoistus sed aviplu famcB., in this precipitate, ambitious age, nunc ut est
scBculiun, inter immaturam eruditioncm., ambitiosum et prceceps ('tis
''^
Scaliger's cen-
sure)
;
and they that are scarce auditors, vix auditores, must be masters and teachefs
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 verc
doctiores, sed loquaciores., whereas they are not thereby better scholars, but greater
praters. They commonly pretend public good, but as "Gesner observes, 'tis pride
and vanity that eggs them on ; no news or aught worthy of note, but the same in
other terms. JYe feriarentur fortasse typographi., vel idea scribendum est aliquid ut
se vixisse testentur. As apothecaries we make new mixtures every day, 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 tlie cream of other men's wits,
oick the choice flowers of their tilled gardens to set out our own sterile plots.
^astrant alios ut li.bros suos per se graciles alieno adipe sujfarciant (so "Jovius
iuveighs.) 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,
8
M. Joh. Rous, our Protobib. Oxon. M. Hopper, M.
Guthridge, &c.
^a
Qu^e illi audire et legere solent,
oruin partim vidi egomet, alia gessi, quae illi literis,
ego militando didici, nunc vos existiinale facta an
dicta pluris sint. '^I'Dido Virg. "Taught by that
Power that pities me, I learn to pity them."
"
Cam-
den, Ipsa elephantiasi correpta elephantiasis hospicium
construxit. "'-Iliada post Hoinerum.
3
Nihil
pretermissum quod k quovis dici possit.
64
Mar-
tialis.
65
Magis inipium mortuorum lucubrationes,
qblUEi vcnes fura> EccI ult.
<'
Libroi
Eunuchi gignunt, steriles pariunt.
'*
D. King
priefat. lect. Jonas, the late right reverend Lord It.
of London.
m
Homines famelici gloriR ad osten-
tationem eriiditionis undique congerunt. Buchananus.
Effacinati etiam laudis amore, &c. Justus Baronius.
''>
Ex ruinisaliena* exist imationis sibigradum adfamam
struunt. Exercit.288. "
Omnessibifamam
quserunt et quovis modo in orbem spargi contendunt,
uc novs alicujus rei habeantur auctores. PrKf. bibli.
oth.
1*
Praefat. hist.
20 Democritus to the Reader.
"^
Trium Uterarum homines, dX\ thieves; they pilfer out of old writers to stuff up their
new comments, scrape Emiius dung-hills, and out of '^Democritus' pit, as I hare
Jone. By which means it comes to pass,
"''
that not only libraries and shops are
lull of our putrid papers, but every close-stool and jakes, Scribunt carmina qua
legunt cacantes ; they serve to put under pies, to "*lap spice in, and keep roast-meaf
from burning. "With us in France." saith
'"
Scaliger,
"
every man hath liberty t'
write, but few ability. ^"Heretofore learning was graced by judicious scholars, but
now noble sciences are vilified by base and illiterate scribblers," that either write
for vain-glory, need, to get money, or as Parasites to flatter and collogue with some
great men, they put out ^' hurras, quisquUUisque ineptiasque.
^^
Amongst so many
thousand authors you shall scarce find one, by reading of whom you shall be an}
whit better, but rather much worse, quibus inficllur potius, qudm perJicUur, b)' which
he is rather infected than any way perfected.
-Qui talia legit,
Quid diilicit tandem, quid scit nisi soinnia, nugasi
So that oftentimes it falls out (which Callimachus taxed of old) a great book is a
great mischief. ^'^ Cardan finds fault with Frenclimen and Germans, for their scrib-
bling to no purpose, no7i inquit ah edendo detcrreo, 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 ?
*^"
He must have a barren wit, that in this scrib-
bling age can forge nothing.
*^
Princes show their armies, rich men vaunt their build-
ings, soldiers their manhood, and scholars vent their toys
;"
they must read, they
must hear whether they will or no.
w
Et quodcunque semel cliartis iUeverit, omnes 1
^^^, ^^^^ j^ ^^jj ^j ^^^j^ g,, g ^^^j ,^
Gestiet a furno redeiinteg scire lacuque,
o,j ^^j^g^ ^^j children as they come and go.
Et pueros et anus
|
"
What a company of poets hath this year brought out," as Pliny complains to
Sossius Sinesius. ^'^"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 brouglit out ? Twice a year,
^^"
Proferunt se noim ingenia et
ostentant, we stretch our wits out, and set them to sale, magno conatu nihil agimiis.
So that which ^"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
infi-
nitum. Quis tarn avidus llbrorum helluo, who can read them ? As already, we
.shall have a vast Chaos and confusion of books, we are
*'
oppressed with them, ^'oui
eyes ache with reading, our fingers with turning. For my part I am one of the
number, nos numerus sumus, (we are mere cyphers) : I do not deny it, I have only
this of Macrobius to say for myself, Omne mewn, 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, Flori-
feris ut apes in saltibus omnia libant, I have laboriously
^
collected this Cento out of
divers writers, and that sine injuria, I have wronged no authors, but given every
man his own
;
which ^^Hierom so much commends in Nepotian
;
he stole not whole
verses, pages, tracts, as some do now-a-days, concealing their authors' names, but
still said this was Cyprian's, that Lactantius, that Hilarius, so said Minutius Felix,
so Victorinus, thus far Arnobiiift : I cite and quote mine authors (which, howsoever
some illiterate scribblers account pedantical, as a cloak of ignorance, and opposite
'spiautus. '6
E Democriti puteo. "Non
'
mense Aprili nullus fere dies quo non aliquis recitavit.
lam refertE hibliother.iE quani cloaca;.
'"
Et quic- ,
!"
Idem.
>
Principibus et docloribus deliberandum
quid cariis aniicitur ineptis. ^'Epist. ad I'etas. i
relinquo, ut arguantur auctoruni furta et milies repe-
in regno Francia; omnibus scribendi dalur libertas, ! lita tollantur, et temere scribendi libido coerceatur,
paucis facultas. >*Olim literie ob homines m aliter in infinitum prngressura.
si
Onerabuntur
precio, nunc sordent ob homines. *"
Ans. pac. I ingenia, nemo legendissufficit.
92
Librisobruimur,
"tnte, tot niille volumina vix unus a cujus lectione oculi legondo, inanus volilando dolent. Fam. Strad9
^luis melior evadat, irnmo potius non pejnr. " Palin- Momo. Lucretius.
"<
Quicquid ubiqiie bene dictum
genius. What does ai;y one, who reads such works,
'
facio nit-uni, et illud nunc nieis ad compendium, nunc
learn or know but dreams and trifling things.
"-i
Lib. I ad fidem et auctoriiatem alienis e.ipriino verbi.s, omnee
5. de Sap. ^s
Sterile oporlel esse ingenium quod
|
auctores meos clientes esse ofbitror, &c. Sarisburi-
in hoc scripturientum pruritus, &c.
"e
Cardan, l ensis ad Polycral. prol.
<
In Epitaph. Nep. i''..a'
prip ad Consol. <^
Hor. lib. 1, sat. 4.
an
Epist. I Cyp. hoc Lact. illud Hilar. et, ita Victorii\s, in !.unt
lib. 1. Magnum poetarum proventum annus hie attulit,
j
modum loquutua est Arnobius, &c
Democnt'is to the Reader. 21
i'o their affeLied fine style, I must and will use) sumpsi,^ non suripui, and what Varro,
lib. 6. de re rust, speaks of bees, minime malcjicce. nullius opus veUicantes
faciunl
determs^ I can say of myself, Whom have I injured ? The matter is theirs raos*
part, and yet mine, apparel unde sumptum sit (which Seneca approves), aliud tamen
qunm unde sumptum sit apparet, which nature doth with the aliment of our bodies
incorporate, digest, assimilate, I do toncoquere quod kausi., 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
''^
Weckcr e Tcr. nihil dicium quod non dicturi prius,
methodus sola artijicem ostendit.^ we can say nothing but what hath been said, the
composition and method is ours only, and shows a scholar. Oribasius, iEsius, Avi-
cenna, have all out of Galen, but to their own method, diverso stilo, non divtrsa
fide.
Our poets steal from Homer
;
he spews, saith iElian, they lick it up. Pivines use
Austin's words verbatim still, and our story-dressers do as much
\
he that comes last
is commonly best,
donee quid grandius setas
Postera sorsque ferat inelior.
98
Though there were many giants of old in Physic and Philosophy, yet I say with
^'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 tlian my predecessors ; and
it is no greater prejudice for me to indite after others, than for iElianus Montaltus,
that famous physician, to write de morhis capitis after Jason Pratensis, Heurnius,
Hildesheim, Slc, many horses to run in a race, one logician, one rhetorician, after
another. Oppose then what thou wilt,
Allatres licet usque nos et usque
Be gaunitibus iiiiprobis lacessas.
I solve it thus. And for those other faults of barbarism,
^
Doric dialect, extempora-
nean style, tautologies, apish imitation, a rhapsody of rags gathered together from
several dung-hills, 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 ; 1
confess all ('tis_ partly affected), thou canst not think worse of me than I do of
myself. 'Tis not worth the reading, 1 yield it, I desire thee not to lose time in
perusing so vain a subject, I should be peradventure loth myself to read him or thee
so writing; 'tis not opercz pretium. All 1 say is this, that J have
^^
precedents for it,
which Isocrates calls perfugium iis qui peccant, others as absurd, vain, idle, illiterate,
&.C. jVonnulli alii idem Jecerunt ; others have done as much, it may be more, and
perhaps thou thyself, JVoviimis et qui ie, Slc. We have all our faults ; scimus, et
hanc, veniam, &c.; '""thou censurest me, so have 1 done others, and may do thee,
Cedimus inque vicem, &c., 'tis lex talionis, quid pro quo. Go now, censure, criti-
cise, scofl^ and rail.
Nasutus ris usque licer, sis denique nasus: I
^ert thou all scoffs and flouts, a very Momus,
Aon poles in nugas dicere plura iiieas,
.^-^^.^^
.^g ourselves, thou canst not say worse of us.
Ipse ego quiin dixi, &.c.
|
'
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 stulii, as J do not
arrogate, 1 will not derogate. Primus vestrum non sum., nee imus, I am none of the
best, 1 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 there-
fore 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 arguU,, our style bewrays
us, and as ^hunters find their game by the trace, so is a man's genius descried by
his works, Multb melius ex sermone quam lineamentisy de moribus hominum judi-
'amus; it was old Cato's rule. I have laid myself open (I know it) in this treatise,
ned mine inside outward : I shall be censured, I doubt not ; for, to say truth with
v/asmus, nihil morosius hominum judiciis, there is nought so peevish as men's judg-
85 Prffif. ad Syntax, med.
si"
Until a later age and I apes. Lipsius adversus dialogist. 'supoabsurdo
happier lot produce something more truly grand. I dato niille sequunlur.
>'>
Non duhito multos lec-
'In Luc. 10. toin. 2. Tigmei Gigantuni huniens
'
tores hie fore stultos. '
Martial, 13, 2. '.i
lit
iniposili plusqiiani ipsi Gigantes vident.
""
Nee
j
venatores feram ft vestigio impresso, virum Bcriptiuu-
aranearum textus ideo melior quia ex se fila gignuntur, culi Lips,
nee noster idjo vilior, quia ex alienis libamus ut
'
22
Democriius to the Reader.
nieuts
;
ye' this is some comfort, ut palata, sic judicia., our censures are as varlou#
as OU7 palates.
n
...
J. . J . I
Three Biiests 1 have, (lissRntine at my feast,
Ires mihi convivre prope dissenlire videntur,
Oonnirin,, on^i, i ,-,ii- i>io ..Li
J' "= i
n . 1.1- 1 . o I
Kentiirins each lo ^ratiiy nis tasle
Poscenles vario muUum diversa palato, &c.
|
^Vjih different food.
(Our writings are as so many dishes, our readers guests, our books like beauty,
hat which one admires another rejects ; so are we approved as men's fancies are
mclined. Pro captu Iccl.oris habent sua
fata libellL Tliat which is most pleasing
to one is amaracum sui, most harsh to another. Quot homines, tot sentenlice, so
many men, so many minds : that which thou condemnest he commends.
"*
Qiwa
petis, id sane est invisum acidumque duohus. 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
^
Hieron. Natali the Jesuit hath cut to the Dominicals, to draw on the reader's atten-
tion, which thou rejectest; that which one admires, another explodes as most absurd
and ridiculous. If it be not pointblank to his humour, his method, his conceit, ^ si
quid forsan omissum, quod is animo conceperit, si quce diclio, &c. If aught be omit-
ted, or added, which he likes, or dislikes, thou art mancipium paucce 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.
'
Facilia sic putant omnes qucB jam
facta, ncc 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
.-'
SQuiddemI quidnondemi Reiiuis tu quod jubet ille.
What courses must I chuse 1
What noti What both would order you refuse.
How shall I hope to express myself to each man's humour and
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 '"Austin observes, not regarding what, but who write,
"
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 '^Baronius hath it of Cardinal Carafla'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 conlemptius 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,
""
aliud tibi quceras diversorium,'''' if you like not this, get you to another inn : 1
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
'^
Plinius Secundus to Trajan will prove true,
"
Every man's v/itty
labour takes not, except the matter, subject, occasion, and some commending favour
ite 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
'^
Jovius in like case, (absit verho jactantia) herown quorundam, pon
tificum, et virorum nobiUum familiaritatcm et amicitiam, gratasque graHas, et multO'
rum
'^
bene laudatorum laudcs sum hide promerilus, as I have been honoured by
some worthy men, so have I been vilified by others, and shall be. At the first pub
lishing of this book, (which "Probus of Persius satires), editum librum continuo
mirari homines, atque avide deripere coeperunt, I may in some sort apply to this m^
vii vrk. The first, second, and third edition were suddoily gone, eagerly read, an
as I have said, not so much approved by some, as scornfully rejectetl by otheiy
" Hor. < Hor. ' Antwerp, fol. 1607. 6 Mu- I dotem ex amplitudine redituum sordide deineCitur
retus. ' Lipj-ius.
*
Hor. "
Fieri non po- '3 Erasni. dial.
<
Episi lib. 6. Cujusque iiige
test, ut quod quist,ue cogitat, dicat unus. Murelus. niiim non statiin emergi*. risi niateriie fauior, occasio,
'Lib. 1. de ord., cap. 11. " Erasmus. '-An- conimendatorque contingat.
'o
Prsf. hist. '^i.au.
Dal. Tom. 3. ad annum 360. Est porcus ille qui socer-
| dari it laudato laua et.
''
Vii. Peraii.
Democritus to the Reader.
23
5b< it was Democritus his fortune, Idem admirationi et
"
irridoni habitus. 'Twas
3f>rtcca's fate, that superintendent of wit, learning, judgment,
'
ad stuporem doctus,
the best of Greek and Latin writers, in Plutarch's opinion ; that renowned correc-
toi of vice," as ^Fabius terms him, "and painfu' omniscious philosopher, that writ
so excellently and admirably well," could not please all parties, or escape censure.
Htw is he vilified by
^'
Caligula, Agellius, Fabius, and Lispsius himself, his chief
ptupugner ? In eo pleraque pernitiosa, saith the same Fabius, many childish tracts
anti sentences he hath, ser7no illahoratus^ too negligent often and remiss, as Agellius
observes, oratio vulgaris et protrita, dicaces et ineptce, sententice., eruditio pleheia,
an homely shallow writer as he is. In partibus spinas etfastidia habet, saith ^^Lip-
sius
;
and, as in all his other works, so especially in his epistles, alicB in argufiis et
ineptiis occupontur., intricaUis alicubi^ et parum compositus., sine copid rerum hoc
fecit., he jumbles up many things together immethodically, after the Stoics' fashion,
parum ordinavit., multa accumulavit.., kc. If Seneca be thus lashed, and many famous
men that I could name, what shall I expect ? How shall 1 that am vix umbra tanti
philosophi., hope to please ?
"
No man so absolute (^ 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;
''"*
jYon ego ventosce. venor sujfragia
pleb'is : again, non sum adeo informis., I would not be
^
vilified.
26 laudatus abiinde,
Non fastiilitus si libi, lector, ero.
I fear good mtn's censures, and to their favourable acceptance 1 submit my labours,
2'
et linguas mancipiorum
Conteiniio.
As the barking of a dog, I securely contemn those malicious and scurnle obloquies,
flouts, calumnies of railers and detractors
;
I scorn the rest. What therefore I have
said, pro tenuitate meci,, I have 'aid.
One or two things yet I was u*^sirous to have amended if I could, concerning the
nmnner of handling this my subject, for which I must apologise, deprecari., and
upon better advice give the friendly resder notice : it was not mine intent to prosti-
tute my muse in English, or to divulge recreta Minerva:, but to have exposed this
more contract in Latin, if I could have gr>t it printed. Any scurrile pamphlet is
welcome, to our mei<cenary stationers in English
;
they print all,
cuduiitque lihellos
In quorum foliis vix siiiiia nuda cacaret
;
But in Latin they will not deal ; which is one of the reasons
^
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, v/hich now flows remissly,
as it was first conceived
;
but my leisure would not permit ; Feci nee quod polui, nee
quod volui, I confess it is neither as I would, nor as it should be.
^^Ctlni relego scripsisse pudet, quia pluriina cerno I When I peruse ibis tract which I have writ,
Me quoque quee fuerant judice digna lini.
|
I am abash' d, and much I hold unfit.
Et quod gravissimum., in the matter itself, many tilings I disallow at this present,
which when I writ, ^"JVon eadem est cBtas., 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, nonum-
que 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
^'
Lucian, wanting a servant as he went
from Memphis to Coptus in Egypt, took a door bar, and after some superstitious
'*
Minuit prsesentia famara.
is
Lipsius .ludic. de lurpe frigide laudari ac insectanter vituperari. Pha-
Seneca. -"Lib. 10. Plurimnm studii, multam vorinus A. Gel. lib. 19, cap. 2.
-"^
Ovid, trist. 11
rerum cognitionem, omnem studiorum niateriam, &c. eleg. 6. ^Tjuven. sat. 5. ''"Aut srtis inscii
multa in eo probanda, multa admiranda.
'"
Suet
Arena sine calce. '-'' Introduct. ad Sen.
23
ju-
die. de Sen. Vix aliquis tam absoliitus, ut alteri per
omnia satisfaciat, nisi longa lemporis prsescriptio, se-
mota judicandi libertate, religione quadam animos
'
aquam liauriret, urnam pararet, ice.
eccupaijl. "Hor. Ep. 1, lib. 19. s^^aue
,
aut qusestui magis quam Uteris student, hab. Cantab
et Lond. Excus 1976. ''aOvid. de pout. Eleg. 1.6
^oHor. sixoni. 3. Philopseud. accepto pessjlo
quum carmen quoddam dixisset, effeci: u*. ai.hulre'
21 Democritus to the Render.
words pronounced ;^Eucrates the relator was then present) made it stand up like n
serving-man, fetch Ivini water, turn the spit, serve in supper, and what work he would
besides
;
and when lie iiud 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 "'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 f'^rm, as she doth her
young ones, but even so to publish it, as it was first wiitten qutsquid in buccam, oe-
nit, in an extemporean style, as ^^I do commonly all other exercises,
effudi quicquid
diclavit genius 7neus, out of a confused company of notes, and writ with as small
deliberation as I do ordinarily speak, without all afiectation of big words, fustian
phrases, jingling terms, tropes, strong lines, that like *' Acesta's arrows caught fire as
they llew, strains of wit, brave heats, elogies, hyperbolical exornations, elegancies.
&c., which many so much affect. I am
^^
aqua, potor, drink no wine at all, which
so much improves our modern wits, a loose, plain, rude writer, jicum, voco
ficum
et
ligonem Ugonem, and as free, as loose, idem calavio quod in menle,
^
I call a spade a
spade, animis hcec scribo, nan auribus, I respect matter not words ; remembering that
of Cardan, verba propter res, non res propter verba : and seeking with Seneca, quid
scribam^nonqucmadihodum, xdiihex what than how to write : for as Philo thinks,^'
"
He
that is conversant about matter, neglect* words, and those that excel in this art of
speaking, have no profound learning,
^ Verba iijlent plialeris, at nullus verbti inedullaa
Iiilus Inibcru
Besides, it was the observation of that wise Seneca,
''^"
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. JS'on est ornanienluvi virile concin-
nitas: as he said of a nightingale, vox es, prceterea nihil, &.c. I am therefore in this
point a professed disciple of
*"
ApoUonius 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
mjself readily and plainly as it happens. So that as a river runs sometimes precipi-
tate 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
inclosed ; barren in one place, better soil in another : by woods, groves, hills, dales,
plains, &c. 1 shall lead thee per ardua mo7ilium, et lubrica vallium, et roscida
cespitum, et
'^'
glebosa camporunu through variety of objects, that which thou shah
like and surely dislike.
For the matter itself or method, if if
be faulty, consider I pray you that of Colu-
mella, JYihil perfeclum, aut a singtilari consummatum industrid, no man can observe
all, much is defective no doubt, may be justly taxed, altered, and avoided in Galen,
Aristotle, those great masters. Boni vcnatoris (''^one holds) plures /eras 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, JWm hie sulcos ducimus, non hoc puhere desudamus.
I am but a smatterer, I confess, a stranger, ''^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
-
Eiisphins, ecdes. hist. lib. 6.
3:i
Stans pede in Epist. lib. 1. 21.
<"
Philostratiis, lib. 8. vlt. Apoi
lino, as he iiiaile verses.
^'i
Virg. ^-'ISon eadein Ne^'li^'ebat oraloriam facullatein, et peiiiliis asperiia-
ft siiiiitiio expecles, miniinnqiie poeta.
"'
.Siyliis
nic iiiilliis, pi>Eier parrhesiam 3'
Qui rebus se
exercet, verba tieuliait, et qui callet arteui dicetuli,
iiullam disciplinam hahet recopiiitam.
:*
I'alin-
geuius. Words may he resplendent with ornament,
liatur ejus professores, quod liti^juani duiitaxal, non
autem mentem redderent erudiliorem.
"
llic enim,
quod Seneca de I'nnio, bos herbam, ciconia larisam,
canis leporem, virgo flurem legal.
<-'
Pel. Nanniu.i
not. in Hor.
''
Non bic colonus domicilium habeo,
l)ul they contain no marrow within. "Cnjuscun- 1 sed lopiarii in tnorem, hinc inde floreir vellico, ui ca
que orationem vides politani e* sollicilam, sciio ani-
'
niB Niluni lambeni.
mum in |iuilis occupatuni, in ecriptis nil sulidiim. I
Dcmocntus to the Reader. 25
he hath done in Cardan's subleties, as many notable errors as
*"
Gul Laurenibergius. a
late professor of Rostocke, 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 a[l those former escapes, yet it was magni lahoris
xpus^i so difficu.lt and tedious, that as carpenter* 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 ihat which is written. If aught therefore be amiss (as 1 grant
mere is), I require a friendly admonition, no bitter invective, ^^Slnt musis socii Chariie^^
turia omnis ubesfOy otherwise, as in ordinary controversies, yimem co/en/<07ifcs necta-
mus., sed cut bono? We may contend, and likely m.isuse each othei, but to what
purpose ? We are both scholars, say,
40
Arcades amho I Both youns Arcadians, b th alike inspir'd
Et Cantare pares, el respondere parati.
|
To sing and answer as the song requlr'd.
If we ^o wrangle, what shall M^e get by it ? Trouble and wronsf 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 dissentancum., in sacris vel humanis Uteris a vie dictum
sit, id nee 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 ratlier para-
phrases than interpretations, non ad vcrbuvi, 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 propha.nis, but I hope not pro-
pliancd, and in repetition of authors' names, ranked thein per accidcns, not according
to chronology ; sometimes Neotericks before Ancients, as my memory suggested.
Some things are here altered, expunged in this sixth edition, others amended, much
added, because many good ''^authors in all kinds are come to my hands since, and
'tis no prejudice, no such indecorum, or oversight.
^*
Nunquam ita quicquam bene subductd ratione ad vitam fuil,
Quin res, <Ttas, usus, sonipor aliquid appnrlenl novi,
Aliquid mniieant, ut ill;i qua scire !e credas, nescias,
Et qua tibi putdris prima, in exercendo ul repudias.
N^'er was ought yet at first contriv'd so fit,
But use, age, or something would alter it;
Advise Ihee 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, JVe 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,
*^
Taniurnne est ah re tuk 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 ^"Lacede-
monians 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 dehonestabafur
fjessimo 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, mains auctor mutatus est. Thou say(3st 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 1 meddle with this tract
.''
Hear me speak. There be many othei
subjects, I do easily grant, both in humanity and divinity, fit to be treated of, of
ivhich 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
Hupra bis mille notabiles errores Laurentii de- I Adelph. ^^Heaul. Act 1. seen. I.
'o
Gelliut
onstravi, &.C.
'^
Thilo de Con.
">
Virg. lib. 18, cap. 3.
'
Frainhesa'ius, Sennertus, Ferandus, &.C
<*
Ter. I
6
Democntns to the Reader.
iuxuriaied, and better satisfied myself and others ; but that at this tinv* 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 1 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 sermoi\ 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 riglit worshipful, a sermon in Latin, in English, a sermon with a name,
a sermon witliout, a sermon, a sermon, &c. But I have been ever as desitous u.
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, ^'Zis litem
generate one begets another, so many (kiplications, triplications, and swarms of ques-
tions. In sacro hello hoc quod still mucrone agifur., that having once begun, I should
never make an end. One had much better, as
^^
Alexander, tlie sixth pope, long since
observed, provoke a great prince than a begging friar, a Jesuit, or a semhiary priest,
I will add, for incxpugnabile 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 *' said, /urome coicus^ an rapit vis acrior^ an culpa., responsum date ? Blind fury,
or error, or rashness, or what it is that eggs them, 1 know not, I am sure many times,
which
*^
Austin perceived long since, tempestate contentionis., sercnitas charitatis
ohnubilatur, with this tempest of contention, the serenity of charity is overclouded,
and there be too many spirits conjured up already in th.is 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 '^^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.
tr
At melius fiierat non scribere, namque tacere^
Tuliini semper erit,
_
is a general fault, so Severinus the Dane complains "in physic, "unhappy men as
we are, we spend our days in unprofitable questions and disputations," intricate
subtleties, de lani 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, JV*e 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 tliey 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, tliat can get nothing but by
simony, profess physic ? Drusianus an Italian (Crusianus, but corruptly, Trithemius
calls him)
'^^"
because he was not fortunate in his practice, forsook his profession,
and writ afterwards in divinity." Marcilius Ficinus was scmel et si7nul ; a priest
and a physician at once, and ^^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
SI
nt inrte catena qusedam fit. quae hseredes etiam
igat. Car<lan. Ileiisius.
'''
Malle se bellum cum
mairiio priucipe L'erere, qiiam cum unn ex fratriiin
mendicaniium ordine.
''^
Hor. epod. lib. od. 7.
M
Epist. 86, ad Casulam presb.
^ Lib. 12, cap. 1.
Mutos nasci, et nmni scienlia egere satius fuis!-et,
]U&in sic in propriam perniciem iiisanire. ^ But
.t would be better not to write, for silence is the safer
vouran
'' InfpliY mnrtalitas inutilihus aucstion-
ibus ac disceptationibiis vitam traducimuB, naturte
principes thesauros, in qiiilius gravissinicE morboniiu
mediciniB collocalK sunt, interim intactos relinquimus.
Nee Ipsi solum relinquimus, sed et alios proliibem'je,
impedimus, condeninanius, ludibriisque alficiniiu.
^
Quod in praxi niinime fortnnaius esset. medirinara
relimiit,et ordinibus initiatus in Tlieologia postinoduro
scripsit. Gesner Bibliotbeca.
'''
P. Jovius.
Democritus to the Reader- 27
greidy patrons hold us to such hard conditions, as commonly they do, they -wil
ma^e most of us work at some trade, as Paul did, at last turn laskers- malt
steis, costermongers, graziers, sell ale as some have done, or worse. Howsoevei
in undertaking this task, I hope 1 shall commit no great prror 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
^
elder
brother) drawn by a
"
natural love, the one of pictures and maps, prospectives and
corographical delights, writ that ample theatre of cities ; the other to the study ot
genealogies, penned thcatrum genealogicumP Or else 1 can excuse my studies with
*'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 whai
an agreement there is betwixt these two professions i A good divine either is ox
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 corjms per animam, as ^''our Regius Pro-
fessor 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
s^Alterius sic altera poscit opem.
-when in friendship joined
I
A mutual succour in eEith other find.
And 'tis proper to them both, and I hope not unbeseeming me, who am by my pro-
fession a divine, and by mine inclination a physician. I had Jupiter in my sixth
house ; I say with
"
Beroaldus, non sum medicus, nee medicincp prorsus expers., in
the theory of physic I have taken some pains, not witli 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 ^'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 suhslratam, 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 ciid
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 tliat
hungry
***
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 Kalender. I am so affected for my part, and hope as
^'
Theopnrastus did
^n
M. W. Burton, preface to his description of Leices-
tershire, printed at London by W. Jaggard, for J.
White, 1C22.
"i
In Hygiasticon, neqne enim hsec
Iractatio aliena videri debet 4 theologo, &c. agitur de
morbo aninie.
<
D. Clayton in comitiis, anno
1621. raHor.
' Lib. de pestil.
66
] Newark
'n Nottinghamshire. Cum duo edificasset castella, ad
olUodam structionis invidiam, et expiandam niacu-
1am, duo instituit coenobia, et collegis religiosis imple-
vit.
'*
Ferdinando de Quir. anno 1612. Anister-
dami impress.
'"
Prtefat. ad Characteres : Spero
enim (O Policies) libros nostros melioresinde futuros,
quod istiusniodi memoriae mandata reliquerimus, es
preceptis et 'jxemplis nostris ad vitam accomniodatia,
nt se iiide ci rrigant.
28 htinocritus to the Reader.
by his characters,
"
That ou r posterity, O friend Policies, sliall be the better for thi
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 slvin when he was dead, because he
thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to flight, 1 doubt not but that these
following lines, when they shall be recited, or hereafter read, will drive away melan-
choly (though 1 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
''*
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
^
Agrippa de occ. Phil.)
et caveant leclorcs ne cerebrum iis excutiat. The rest I doubt not they may securely
read, and to their benefit. But I am over-tedious, I proceed.
(jOf 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 w^rld, as
Cyprian adviseth Donat, "sup-
posing himself to be transported to the top of some high mountain, and thence to be-
hold the tumults and chances of tliis wavering workl, he cannot chuse but either
laugh at, or pity it." S. Ilierom out of a strong imagination, being in the wilder-
ness, 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 ex-
pressed not many years since in a map) made like a fool's head (with that motto. Ca-
put helleboro dignuin) a crazed head, cavea stultorum.i a fool's paradise, or as Apol-
lonius, 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, ap-
proves
;
the breast lies open from those Acroceraunian hills in Epirus, to tlie Sunian
promontory in Attica ; Pagae and Magaera are the two shoulders ; that Isthmus ot
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 ihat 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 blbuiit, 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 "'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
?
"
Dolus, asperitas, in jiistilia propria belloruni ne- gladio, bello, fame miserabiliter periertint. ^^ Pont,
gotta. T;rtiil.
"^
Tully. "' Liicaii, Paler lluterus. ''' Comineus. lit iiulliis noii execrelur et
ill filiiini affinis in affineiii, amicus in amicuni, &c. adniiretur crudelitalem, et barbaram insairium, qua^
Regin aiiin regione, resnuni regno colliditur. l'op\ilus inter homines eodem sub coslo natos, ejusdem lineu<e,
populo in mntuam pern'iciem, belluarum instar pan- sanguinis, religionis, exerreltatur. l.ucan
guinolente ruentium. *
Lihanii declam.
''s
Ira
i''
Virg.
^'
Bishop of Cnseo, an eye-vvitnes.s
enim et furor Bellona!Consullores, &c. dementessacer- ""Read Meteran of his slupend cruelties.
lien
dotes sunt Helium quasi bellua et ad omnia sius Auslriaco.
'""
Virg. Georg. "impious wa'
celera furor immissns.
"i
Gallornm decies centum rages throughout the whole world." .lanseniiii
>ii!ia ceciderunt. Ecclelfiaris 20 niillia fundanientis Gallobelgicus 159fi. Mundus furiosns, inscriptio Jjbri.
excisa
-
Belli civilis Gal. 1. 1. hoc ferali bello et 2 Exercitat. 250. serm 4. Fitat ileraclitiis aa
ce.*Mbu= omnia repleverunt, et regnum ampli.ssimum & i rideat Democritus. < Cure levss lo<juuntur, iti-
'V'tiameutia peiie everterunt, plebis tot niyriades i gentes stupent.
40 Democntus to the Reader.
'
was fo) grici quite stupified, and turned to a stone ? I have not yet saiO the worst,
iliat which is more absurd and ^mad, in their tumults, seditions, civil and unjust
wars, ^quod stulle sucipilur, hnpie gcr'dur., mlsere
finltur. Such wars 1 mean ; fdi
all are not to be condemned, as those fantastical anabaptists vainly conceive. Ouj
Ciiristian 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 acknowledo-p
that ol "Tully to be most true,
''
All our civil aflairs, all our studies, all our pleading
mdustry, and commendation lies under the protection of warlike virtues, and when-
^oever there is any suspicion of tumult, all our arts cease ;" wars are most behovefui,
"J, bellatorcs agricoUs civUali. sunt utiUores., as ^Tyrius defends: and valour is much
to be commended in a wise uian ; but they mistake most part, auferre., trucidare^
rapere^ falsls nomlnibus virtutcm votant, &.c. ('Twas Galgacus"' observation iii
Tacitus) they term theft, murder, and rapine, virtue, by a wrong name, rapes
slaugliters, massacres, &c. joais et ludtis., are pretty pastimes, as Ludovicus Vives
notes. ^"They commonly call the most hair-brain blood-suckers, strongest thieves,
the most desperate villains, treacherous rogues, inhuman murderers, rash, cruel and
dissolute cartilfs, courageous and generous spirits, heroical and worthy captains,
'"brave men at arms, valiant and renowned soldiers, possessed with a brute persuasion
of false honour," as Pontus Iluter 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, perdue, 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 \vith such pomp, as when Darius' army marched to meet Alexander at
IssLis. "\Void of all fear they run into imminent dangers, cannon's mouth, Stc, /
vidnTihls mis ferruni hnslium hcbctcnt., saith "Barletius, to get a name of valour,
honour and applause, wliich lasts not either, for it is but a mere flash this fame, and
like a rose, inira diem uniim cxlinguitur.i 'tis gone in an instant,
v
Of 15,000 prole-
taries slain in a battle, scarce^lifteea 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, sumtna vi ingenii et cloqiieiUio'^ set
out the renowned overtlirows at Thcrinopylcp.., Salamis., Maratkon.i Micah\ Man-
tinea., Cheronoia., Platcea. The Romans record their battle at Cannas, and Pharsa-
lian 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 auTl
vain-glory spur tliein on many times raslily and unadvisedly, to make away them-
selves and multitudes of others. Alexander was sorry, because there were no more
worlds for him to conquer, he is admired by some for it, anbuosa vox videtur., et
regia, 'twas spoken like a Prince; but as wise '^Seneca censures him, 'twas vox
mqiiissima et stiiltissima.., 'twas spoken like a Bedlam fool ; and that sentence which
the same '^Seneca appropriates to his father Philip and him, I apply to them all, JVow
minores fuere pesles mortalium qiidm inundatio., qudm conflagratio., quibus, Sec. they
did as much mischief to mortal men as fire and water, those merciless elements when
they rage. "Which is yet more to be lamented, they persuade them this hellish
course of life is holy, they promise heaven to such as venture tlieir lives hello sacro.
and tliat 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
s
Arma amens capio, nee sat rationis in armis.
IDriismus.
'
Pro Miirena. Oinnes urbanee res,
o.iiiiia sludia, nmnis fnrensis laiis i industria latet in
IuihI;i el praecidio belliCM virtulis. el giniiil atqiie in-
rrepiiil suspicio turniillus, arles illicn nnstrm cnnllces-
Cllni. " Ser. 13
^
Criidelissinins sa'vissi-
nidsqiie latrones, fnrtj?sinios halieri propiignatores,
fidissinios duces halient. hriila persiiiisiorie dmiali.
'"
Kohaiiiis Hessus. Qiiihus nmnis in a.nii". vita pla-
vitam, qute non assueverit arniis. " Lib. 10. vit.
Scanperbeg. ''Nulli bealioies hahiti, qiiini qui
in prcBliis cecidissenl. Brisonins de rep. Persaruni. 1
3. fol. 3. 44. Idem Laclanlius de Rnmanis et (Iraicis
Idem Animianus, lib. 23. de Pariliis. Jiiriic.itiir i
solus beams apud eos qui In proDlio fnderit aniniam
UeBenef. lib. 2 c. 1. i- Nal. qiuesl. lib. 3. Bo-
lerns Anipliltrldion. Busbeqiiiiis Til'*' hisl. Percaede*
et i^anyuinem parare hnnilnlbns asrensum in ccelum
eel, non ulla juvat nisi nurte, nee ullain esse puiant
|
piitant, Lactan. de falsa relig. I. {. cap. 8.
Democrilus to the Reader. 41
/^It they die in flie field, they go directly to heaven, and shall be canonized for saintsi*'
(()
diabolical invention
!)
put in the Chronicles, iri perpctuam rci memoriam, to theji
eternal memory : when as in truth, as
"^
some hold, it were much better (since wars
nre the scourge of God for sin, by which he punisheth mortal men's peevishness and
folly) such brutish stories were suppressed, because ad morum InstUutionem 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
'^ ''
divinity upon the most cruel and pernicious
plague of human kind," adore such men with grand titles, degrees, statues, images,
''
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
"*
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 inonstershell-hounds, feral plagues, devourers, conmion executioners of
human kind, as Lactantius truly proves, and Cyprian to Donat, such as were despe-
rate in wars, and precipitately made away themselves, (like those Celtes in Dania-
scen, with ridiculous valour, ut dedecorosum putarent muro rucntl se subducerCj 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, Madct orbis mutuo sanguine^ the earth wal-
lows in her own blood,
'^
Savit amor fcrri et scelerati insania belli ; and for that,
which if it be done in private, a man shall be rigorously executed, ^""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." ^^Prosperum ct foilix scelus, virtus
vocatur.
^^yVe measure all as Turks do, by the event, and most part, as Cyprian notes, in all
ages, countries, places, sceo/7/ viagniiudo impuniiatcm sccleris '^t :.qidrit., the foulness
of the fact vindicates the offender. ^^One is crowned for that which another is tor-
mented : lUe cracem sccleris prccium tulit^ hie diudema
;
made a knight, a lord, an
earl, a great duke, (as '^^Agrippa notes) for that which another should have hung in
gibbets, as a terror to the rest,
2^
"et tamen alter,
Si fecisset irtein, caderet sub judice morum."
rJA poor sheep-stealer is hanged for stealing of victuals, compelled peradventurr
jy
necessity of that intolerable cold, hunger, and thirst, to save himself from staring:
but a
^
great man in ofiice may securely rob whole provinces, undo thousands, pill
and poll, oppress ad libitum, fiea, grind, tyrannise, enrich himself by spoils of the^
.commons, be uncontrolable in his actions, and after all, be recomjiensed with tur-
,
gent titles, honoured for his good service, and no man dare find fault, or
^"^
mutter
,
at it.
How would our Democritus have been affected to see a wicked caitiff, or ^'"fool.
a very idiot, a lunge, 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, ^*and to honour hiir
with divine titles, and bombast epithets," to smother him with fumes and eulogies
whom they know to be a dizard, a fool, a covetous wretch, a beast, &.c.
"
because
he is rich
?"
To see sub exuviis leon'is onagrum, a filtliy loathesome carcass, a Gor
gon's head puffed up by parasites, assume this unto hiniself, glorious titles, in worth
an iiilant, a Cuman ass, a painted sepulchre, an Egyptian temple
.''
To see a wither-
ed face, a diseased, deformed, cankered complexion, a rotten carcass, a viperous mind,
and Epicurean soul set out with orient pearls, jewels, diadems, perfumes, curious
'6Qu(iniaii! bella aeerhissima del flapella sunt qtiibus
bominutn pertinaciam punit, ea perpelua ol)livione
sepelienOa poiius quam memoricB niaiulanda pleriqiie
judicant. Kich. Dinolli. prasf tiist. Oall. "Cru-
entam liumaui generis pestem, et perniciem divinita-
lis tiotS, insigniunt.
'''
Et quod dolendum, applau-
iim habent et occursum viri tales. '"Ilercull
eadem porta ad ctelum patuit, qui magnam generis
hun.ani partem perdidit. '"Virg. jEneid. 7.
20
Homicidlum quum committunt singuli, crimen est,
quum public^ geritur, virtus vocatur. Cyprianus.
"Seneca. Successful vice is called virtue. -
Ju-
fe. '-"'Devauit. scienl. de rt'"cip- nobililatis.
6 I)
2' Juven. Sat. 4.
^6
pansa rapit, quod Natta reli
quit. Tu pessimus omnium latro es, as Demetrius
the Pirate told Alexander in Ciirtius.
*'>
Non aus;
niutire, &c. JEfiop. ''Imfirobum et stultum, s
divitem multos lionos viros in servitutem habentem,
ob id dunlaxat quod ei contiugat aureorum numis-
matun) cumulus, ut appendices, et addilamenta nu-
mismatum. Morus Utopia. -''Eorumq; detes-
taritur Utoplenses insaniam, qui divinos honores iis
impendunt, quos sordidos et avaros agnoscunt; non
alio respeciu honorantes, quam quod diles iDt.
Idem. lib. 2.
42 Democritus to the Reader.
elab>,fa(.e works, as proiul of his clothes as a chikl of his new toals
;
and a goodiy
person, of an angel-like divine countenance, a saint, an humble mind, a meet spirit
clotlied in rags, beg, and now ready to be starved ? To see a silly contemptible
sloven in apparel, ragged in his coat, polite in speecli, of a divine spirit, wise ? another
neat in dotlies, 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 nevermore disorders
;
Tribunal lUium scgctcm., the Tribunal a labyrinth, so many thousand suits in one
cjurt sometimes, so violently followed? To see injuslissimum scppe juri prcesklen-
/em, impium rcUgioni., imperilissijnum eruditioni, olioslssi/mim labori, moTtslrosum
Immanilaii? to see a lamb
^^
executed, a wolf pronounce sentence, latro arraigned,
and
fur
sit on the bench, tlie judge severely punish others, and do worse himself,
^ emidem furtum facere et punire., '^Wapinam plectere., quum sii ipse raptor? Laws
altered, misconstrued, interpreted pro and con^ as the ^^ Judge is made by friends,
bribed, or otherwise affected as a nose of wax, good to-day, none to-morrow ; or
firm in his opinion, cast in his ? Sentence prolonged, changed, ad arbitrium judicis.,
still the same case,
'^
" one thrust out of his inheritance, another falsely put in by
favour, false forged deeds or wills." InciscB leges ncgliguntur., laws are made and
lot kept , or if put in execution,
'^^
tliey be some silly ones that are punislaed. As,
put case it be fornication, the father will disinherit or abdicate his chikl, quite cashiei
him (out, villain, be gone, come no more in my sight) ; a poor man is miserably
tormented willi loss of his estate p^rliaps, goods, fortunes, good name, for 'ever dis-
graced, forsaken, and must do penance to the utmost ; a mortal sin, and yet make
the worst of it, nunquid aliud fecit., saiih Tranio in the ^'poct, nisi quod faciunt sum-
mis nali gencribus? he liath done no more than what gentlemen usually do. "^JYe-
que novum., neque mirum., ncque secus quam alii solent. For in a great person, right
worshipful Sir, a right honourable Grandy, '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, aiul peradventure brags of it,
3' "
Natii (jiiod turpe bonis, Titio', Seioque, deceliat
Crispin mil"
r For wliat would be base in good men, Titius, and Seius, became Crnpinus.
^^Many poor men, younger brothers. Sec. by reason of bad policy and idle education
(for they are likely brouglit 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 doccnt, as sclioolmasters do rather correct th^ir pupils, than
teach them when they do amiss. ^^"i-Tliey had more need provide ther*? should be no
more thieves and beggars, as they ought with good policy, and take away the occa-
sions, 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 contioversies, lites
lustralcs et seculares^ by some more compendious means.". ; Whereas uowfoisevery
to}^ and trifle they go to law, '^"Mugit litibus insanum forum^
et scsvit invirem di&cor-
dantium rabies., they are ready to pull out one another's throats
;
and for mmmodity
"to squeeze blood," saith Hierom,
"
out of their brother's heart," defamo lie, dis-
grace, backbite, rail, bear false witness, swear, forswear, fight and wrani'"'e- spend
their goods, lives, fortunes, friends, undo one another, to enrich an harp}' advocate^
that preys upon them both, and cries Eia Socrates, Eia Xantippe ; or soi^e corrupt
Judge, that like the ''^Kite in Jilsop, while the mouse and frog fought, cauied both
away. Generally they prey one upon another as so many ravenous birds, brute
beasts, devouring fishes, no medium, '^o?Hnes hie aut capdanlur aid captant ; autcada-
vera quce'lacerantur, aut corvi qui lacerant, either deceive or be deceived ; tear others
'^sCyp. 2. ad Donat. ep. Ut reus innoceiis pereat,
i
tratinim culpa fit, qui malos iinitantir prteceptore*
,
sit nocens. Judex damnat foras, quod intus operatiir. qui diseipiilos libentius verbeca-^v \.iain docunl. Mo
'"Sidonius Apo
si
galvianiis 1.3. de orovMeu. i riis, Ulnp. lib. 1.
^a
Uecemuotur \uri frravia el
(n i.A . .1- . _ . ;t . .?.!.._ . I .__._-_ J, I- ;_ ., .: i I. .. J I.I
**
Krgo judicium nihil est nisi publica merces. letro-
nius. Quid faciaiit leges ubi sola pecunia regiiaf?
Idem. 33|lic arcentur hareditatibus liberi, hrc
donatiir bonis alienls, falsuni consulit, alter testaiiien-
tii.Ti corrumpit, &;c. Idem.
"i Vexat censura co-
liicahas. ^- IMaut. niDstel.
so
idem. '"Jiiven.
Bat. 4. *^Quod lot sint I'ures et uiendici, inagis-
horrenda supplicia, quum potius iioviilenduiii miiUJ.
fofet lie fures sint, ne cuiquaiii tn(i'a furandi aul
pereundi sit necessitas Idem.
'o
'i.^tenis de aug-
ment, urb. lib. 3. cap. 3
''
F f A* po cordc sau-
guineni eliciunt. *-' Milvus .11" c deglubit
" Petronius de C.'otone civil.
Democritus to the Reader. 43
: r be torn in pieces themselves ; like so many buckets in a well, as on': riseth
another falleth, one's empty, another's full; his ruin is a ladder to the third; such
are our ordinary proceedings,
f
What's the market ? A place, according to
''*
Ana-
charsis, wherein they cozen one another, a trap; nay, what's the world itself?
'^A vast chaos, a confusion of manners, as tickle as the air, domicilium insanoruniy
a turbulent troop full of impurities, a mart of walking spirits, goblins, the theatre of
hypocrisy, a shop of knavery, flattery, a nursery of villany, tlie scene of babbling,
the school of giddiness, the academy of vice
;
a warfare, ubi ? ells noils pvgnamlum
aut vijicas aut sucamibas, in which kill or be killed ; wherein every man is for him'
self, his private ends, and stands upon his own guard* No charity, '*'' love, friendship,
fear of God, alliance, affinity, consanguinity, Christianity, can contain them, but if
they be any ways offended, or tliat string of commodity be touched, they fall foul.
Old friends become bitter enemies on a suddeif 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 ""'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 villany,
as '^Bajazet the second Emperor of the Turks did by Acomethes Bassa, make him
away, or instead of ''^reward, hate him to death, as Sdius was served by Tiberius.
In a word, every man for his own ends. Our summuvi honwn is commodity, and the
goddess we adore Dca monetdj Queen money, to whom we daily offer sacrifice,
which steers our hearts, hands, ^"affections, all : that most powerful goddess, by
whom we are reared, depressed, elevated, *' esteemed the sole commandress of our
actions, for which we pray, run, ride, go, come, labour, and contend as fishes do for
a crvmib that falleth into the water. It's not worth, virtue, (that's homim theatrale^)
wisdom, valour, learning, honesty, religion, or any sufficiency for which we are
respected, but ^^ money, greatness, office, lionour, authority
;
honesty is accounted fol-
ly
;
knavery, policy
;
*^men admired out )f opinion, not as they are, but as they seem
to be : such shifting, lying, cogging, plotting, counterplotting, temporizing, ffattering,
cozening, dissembling,
^'"
that of necessity one must highly offend God if he be con-
formable to the world," Crctlzare cvm Cretc^'"'- 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
*""
hypocrites, ambidexters," out-sides, so many turning pictures, a lion on the one
side, a lamb on the other.*^ How would Democritus have been affected to see these
things
!
"
To see a man turn himself into all shapes like a camelion, or as Proteus, omnia
transformans sese in miracula rcrum., to act twenty parts and persons at once, for
his advantage, to temporize 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, mcntitls et mlmicls obscquis,
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, tyrannize in one place,
be baffled in another, a wise man at home, a fool abroad to make others merry.
Jo
s'ee so much difference betwixt words and deeds, so many parasangs betwixt
'''Qnid forum 1 locus quo alius aliuni circumvenit.
<^Vaslum chaos, larvarum emporium, tlipatriim hypo-
crisios, &c. '"'Nemo cosliim, nemo jusjurandum,
nemo Jovem pliiris facit, sed omnes apertis oculis
bona sua computant. Petron. '"Plutarch, vit.
ejus. Indecorum animatis ui viiiceis uti aut vitris,
que ubI fracta ahjicimus, nam ut de nieipso dicam,
nee bovem senem vendideram, neduni honiinem natu
giandem laboris socium. 'fjovius. Cum innu-
mera illius beneticia rependere non posset aliter, in-
lerfici jussit.
^^
Bcneficia eo usque lata sunt duni
videnlur solvi posse, ubi niultum antevenere pro gra-
tia odium redditur. Tac. 'oPaucis charior est
fides quani pecunia. Salust. Prima fere vota et
cuiietis, &c. 5'-Et genus et formam regina pecu-
nia donat. Quantum quisque sua nunimorum servat
in area, tanluni habet et fidei, ^
Non t periti^ sed
ab ornatu et vulgi vocibus habemur excellentes. Car-
dan. 1. 2. de cons.
^^
Perjurata suo postponit nu-
mina lucro, Mercator. Ut netessarium sit vcl Deo
displicere, vel ab hominibus contemni, vexari, neg-
llgi. 'SQui Curios simulant et Bacchanalia vivunt.
'' Tragelapho similes vel centauris, sursum bumineai
deorsum equi.
44 Democntus to the Reader.
tongae and neart, men like stage-players act variety of parts, ^'give good precepts to
others, soar aloft, whilst they themselves grovel on the ground.
.^
^To see a man protest friendship, kiss his hand,
''^
quern mallet truncatum videre%
'^ smile with an. intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he salutes, ^"magnify his
friend unworthy with hyperbolical eulogiums
;
his enemy albeit a good man, tc
vilify and disgrace him, yea all his actions, with the utmost that livor and malice
can invent.
.^^
To see a
"
servant able to buy out his master, him that canies the mace more
worth than the magistrate, which Plato, lib. 11, de leg., absolutely forbids, Epictetus
abhors. A horse that tills the
f^
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 Lviy smoke for wares, castles built with fools' heads, men like apes
follow the fashions in tires, gestures, actions : if the king laugh, all laugh
;
S3
"Rides'? majore chachinno
Conciititiir, flet si laclirymas conspexit amici."
"Alexander stooped, so %1 his courtiers
;
Alphonsus turned his head, and so did his
parasites.
^^
Sabina Popjjea, 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 with-
out 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 com-
manded by some great one, all the world applauds him
\
^
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
^'
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 Antliropophagi, ^to eat one another.
To see a man roll himself up like a snowball, from base beggary to right worship-
ful and right honourable titles, unjustly to screw himself into honours and offices;
another to starve his genius, damn liis soul to gather wealth, which he shall not en-
joy, which his prodigal son melts and consumes in an instant."^
To see the xa,xo(,7fKMv of our times, a man bend all his forces, means, time, fortunes,
to be a favorite's favorite's favorite, Stc, 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 kin-
dred, 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 '"paint Thais, play on
a fiddle, curl hair, &c., sooner get preferment than a philologer or a poet."
To see a fond mother, like Assop's ape, hug her child to death, a "wittol wink at
his wife's honesty, and too perspicuous in all other aflairs ; 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 distribuce
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; "find fault with
'"Praeceptis siiis coeluin promittunt, ipsi interim nius 1.37. cap. 3. capillos liabuit succineos, exinde
pulveris terieni vilia uiancipia. ^''jEneas Sily. factum ut omnes piiellK RomaiicE colorem ilium affee-
"lArridere lininines ut sreviant, blandiri ut fallaiit. tareut.
^e
Odit damnatos. Juv. ^-.Agrippa
Cyp. ad Doiiatuin. ""Love and hate are like the ep. 28. 1. 7. Quorum cerelirum est in ventre, ingenU
'wo ends of a perspective glass, the one nuilliplies, uni in patinis. '^"Psal. They eat up my people
the other makes less.
"i
Ministri locupletiores iis as bread. ^i^Absumil hsres ciecuba iignior ser-
quihus ministratnr, servus majnres opes habens qusm vata centum clavibiis, et mero distinguet paviinentis
patroiius. li-Qniterram colunt equi paleis pas- siiperbo, pontificum potiore coenis. Hor. '"Q-ii
cuntur, qui ntiantiir cahalli aveii4 saainantur, discal-. Thaideiri pinsere, inflare libiam, crispare crines
ceatus discurrit qui calces aliis facit. ''^Juven. " Doctus spoctare lacunar. ''Tullius. Est .eniin
Do you laugh 1 he is shaken by still greater laughter
l
;
proprium slultitite aliorum cernere vitia, oblicisci su-
70 weeps also when he has beheld the tears of liis
j
orum. Idem Aristippus Charidemo apud Lucianui;.
%iend. "Bodin, lib. 4. de repub. cap. 6.
espij.
| Umnino stultitise cujusdam esse puto, &c
Dtmocritus to the Reader.
45
others, and do worse themselves; '^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; colone toil and moil, till
and drudge for a prodigal idle drone, that devours all the gain, or lasciviously con-
sumes with phantastical expences , A noble man in a bravado to encounter death
and for a small flash of honour tc^cast away himself; A worldling tremble at an ex
ecutor, and yet not fear hell-fire ; To wish and hope for immortality, desire to b(
happy, and yet by all' means avoid death, a necessary passage to bring him to it.
To see a fool-hardy fellow like those old Danes, qui dccollari malunt quam
verbcrari, die rather than be punished, in a sottish humour embrace death with
alacrity, yet "''scorn to lament his own sins and miseries, or his dearest friends'
departures.
To see wise men degraded, fools preferred, one govern toMms and cities, and yet
a silly woman overrules him at home ;
'^
Command a province, and yet his own ser-
vants or children prescribe laws to him, as Themistocles' son did in Greece
;
v6a\vhat
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 ;
''
sheep demolish towns, devour men, &c. And in a word, the world
turned upside downward. O viveret Democritus.
'^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
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 TuUy so much wislied it were written in every man's forehead,
Quid quisque de rcpublicd senliret^ 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 hnniiniim ctccas, mnibos, votutnque labores, I "Blind hopes and wishes, their thoughts and affairs,
Et passim toto volitantes iethere curas." | Whispers and rumours, and those flying cares."
That he could cubiculorum obductas foras recludere et secreta cordium penetrare^
which
*
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
*'
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 pro-
jectors, &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 Icarome-
nippus in Lucian at Jupiter's whispering place,
^^
and heard one pray for rain, an-
other for fair weather ; one for his wife's, another for his father's death, &c
;
"
to ask
tha-t 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 ? Hcec sani esse hominis quis sanus juret Orestes ?
'SExecrari publice quod occulta agat. Salvianus
|
ep. praed. Hos. dejerantes et potantes deprehendet
lib. de pro. acres ulciscendis vitiis quibus ipsi vehe-
|
hos vomentes, illos litigantes, insidias molientes, siif-
inenter indulgent.
'^
Adamus eccl. hist. cap. 212.
Si(]uis damnatus fuerit, laetus esse gloria est'; nam
lachrymas et planctum csteraqiie coinpunctionum
genera qus nos salubria censemus, ita abominantur
Da-i, ut nee pro peccatis nee pro defunctis amicis ullt
flcie liceat. ''Orbi dat leges foras, vix famulum
fragantes, venena niiscentes, in amicoruni accusalio-
nem subscribentes, hos gloria, illos ambitione, ciipidi-
tate, mente captos, &c.
'->
Ad Doiiat. ep. 2. I. 1. O
si posses in specula sublimi cnnslilulus, &c.
"'
Lib.
1. de nup Philol. in qua quid singuli nationum popull
quotidianis niotibus agitarent. relutebat. *- O Ju-
rogit sine strepitu domi. 'i^Quicquid esro volo hoc piter contiiigat mihi aurum h<ereditas, &c. Multo? da
'''lit mater niea, et quod mater vult, facit pater. Jupiter annos. Dementia quanta est hominum, tur
"
Oves, olim mite pecus, nunc tarn Indomitum et edax pissima vota diis insusurrant, si quis admoverit aurem,
It homines devorent, &c. Morus. Utop. lib. 1 .
''
Ui- conticescunt ; et quod scire homines nolunt, Deo nar-
Br803 variis tribuit natura furores. ''^Democrit- ' rant. Seneo. ep 10. 1. 1.
46 Democritus to tht Reader.
Can all the hellebore in the Anticyrae cure these men ? No, sure,
^^
"
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 *' seek for any cure of it, for paiici vidcnt mnrbum
suum^ omncs umant. If our leg or arm offend us, we covet by all means possible to
redress it; '^and if we labour of a bodily disease, Ave send for a physician; but for
the diseases of the mind we take no notice of them: ''^Lust harrows us on the one
side ; envy, anger, ambition on the other. We efre torn in pieces by our passions,
as so many wild horses, one in disposition, another in habit
3
one is melancholy,
another mad
;
'''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, be-
cause nobody should discern him. Every man thinks with himself, Egomet videor
miki sanus^i I am well, I am wise, and laughs at others. And 'tis a general fault
amongst them all, that
***
wliich 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 dizards ; and as to sailors, terrce-
quc urbesque reccdunt 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
^^
scoff and point one at another, when
as in conclusion all are fools,
'"'''
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 ail
idiots and asses that are not affected as he is,
^'
nil rectum., nisi quod placuil
sihi., ducifj that are not so minded, ^^(quodque volunt homines se bene vcllc pulant.,)
all fools that think not as he doth : he will not say with Atticus, Suam quisque
sponsam.1 mild meam., let every man enjoy his own spouse ; but his alone is fair,
suus amor., &c., and scorns all in respect of himself,
^
will imitate none, hear none
*''but himself, as Pliny said, a law and example to himself. And that which Hippo-
crates, in his epistle to Dionysius, reprehended of old, is veriiied in our times, Quis-
que in alio siiperjluum esse ccjiset^ ipse quod non habet nee curat., that which he hath
not himself or doth not esteem, he accounts superfluity, an idle quality, a mere fop-
pery in another : like -^Esop's fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fel-
low foxes cut off theirs. The Chinese say, that we Europeans have one eye, they
themselves two, all the world else is blind : (though
^^
Scaliger accounts them brutes
too, merum pecus.,) so thou and thy sectaries are only wise, others indiflerent, 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, Jlliend opti-
mum frui insanid., to make ourselves merry with other men's obliquities, when an
he himself is more faulty than the rest, mutato nomine., de te fahula narralur, he may
take himself by the nose for a fool ; and which one calls maximum stultitia; 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 hahcri., saith
^
Apu-
leius ; 'tis his own cause, he is a convicted madman, as ^'Austin well infers
"
in the
eyes of wise men and angels he seems like one, that to our thinking walks with his
P3
Plaiitiis Menech. non potest haec res Flfllebnri jii- priscis exprohrat. Bud.de affec. lib. 5. **Sene
gere obtinerier. *>' Eoque gravior morbus quo
if;- pro stiillis babent juvenes. B;ilth. Cast. MClodiiii
notior peiitlitanti. f^'QufB Isediint ociilos, fcstiiias aciusat nifechos.
>
Omniiiiii stultissimi qui auri-
deiiiere
; si quid est aniiiiuu), differs curandi teuipiis culas sIudios6 tegurt. Sal. Meiiip.
9i
Hor. Epist. 2.
in aniiiini. Hor. ^^
Si caput, crus dolet, bracliiuni, "-Prosper. >*' Statitn sapiunt, statirn sciunt, nemi-
&c. Medicuni acrersiuius, recte et honeste, si par nem reverentiir, nemineni iinituntur, ipsi sibi exem-
etiam iiidustria ill animi morbis poueretur. Job. Pe- plo. I'lin. Epist. lib. 8. S'lNulli alteri sa|x.r
tenus .lesuita. lib. 2. de liuiu. affec. inorborumque cura.
i
concedit, ne desipere videatur. Arip. ""OninU
" Et quoli'squisque tamen est qui contra tot pestes I orbis persecbio a persis ad Lusitaniam.
ssS
Florid,
mediciiin ."(juiral vel icgrotare se agnoscat? ebullit
b?
August. Qiialis in ociilis honiinum qui invfrsi* di-
Ira, &c. Et nos tamen ffigms esse tiegamus. Inco-
j
bus anibulat, talis in ociilis sapipniuni et :ige>ta
unies medicum recusant. Prresens stag stultitiam i qui sibi placet, aut cui passiones dominantur.
Ifemocntus to the Reader. 47
/teels upwards." So thou laughest at me, and I at thee, both at a third
;
and he ro-
turns that of the poet upon us again. ^^Hei mild,, insanire me aiiinf, qnum ipsi ultra
insan'iant. We accuse others of madness, of folly, and are the veriest dizards our-
selves. 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 mer.
fools (JVon vidcmus manticcs 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 lo
write of constancy, a profane liver prescribe rules of sanctity and piety, a dizard
liimself make a treatise of wisdom, or with Sallust to rail downright at spoilers of
countries, and yet in
^^
office to be a most grievous poler himself. Tiiis argues
weakness, and is an evident sign of such parties' indiscretion. ^Peccnt 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, Satiefas erroris et dementice., pariter
absurditatcm et admirationem tollit. 'Tis with us, as it was of old (in
'
TuUy's cen-
sure at least) with C. Fimbria in Rome, a bold, hair-brain, mad fellow, and so es-
teemed of all, such only excepted, that were as mad as himself: now in such a case
there is
^
no notice taken of it.
"
Nimiium insanus paucis videatur ; et) quod I " When all are mad, where all are like opprest
Maxima pars hnminum morbo jactalur eodem."
[
Who can discern one mad man from the resf!"
But put case they do perceive it, and some one be manifestly convicted of madness
'
he now takes notice of his folly, be it in action, gesture, speech, a vain humour he
hath in building, br gging, jangling, spending, gaming, courting, scribbling, prating,
for which he is rid-> ulous to others,
^
on which he dotes, he dotli acknowledge as
much : yet with all the rhetoric thou hast, thou canst not so recall him, out to the
contrary notwithstanding, he will persevere in his dotage. 'Tis amahilis insania,i et
mcniis gratissimus error,, so pleasing, so delicious, that he
*
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 ^"'an angry man will
prefer vengeanpe, 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 occidlslls amici, he cries anon, you have
undone him, and as '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
Coiifundas, surdo narras,"^
demonstrate as Ulysses did to ^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 opi-
nion, 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 vin-
cor,, make it as clear as the sun, '"he will err still, peevish and obstinate as he is
;
and as he said
"
si in hoc erro,, Uhcnter erro,, nee hunc errorem aufcrri mihi volo
;
1
will do as T have done, as my predecessors have done, '^and as my friends now do
:
I will dote for company. Say now, are these men
'^
mad or no, '^Heus age responde ?
are they ridiculous .? cedo qucmvis arbitrum, are they sanm mentis,, sober, wise, and
discreet .?
have they common sense
?
'^
uter est insanior horum f I am of De-
mocritus' opinion for my part, I hold them worthy to be laughed at ; a company of
brain-sick dizards, as mad as '''Orestes and Athamas, that they may go "ride tht
iss," 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
98 Piautus Menechmi. '"Governor of Asnich by honores, avariis opes, &c. odimus hiec et accercimus.
C8Bsar"s appointment.
i
Nunc satiitatis patroci- Cardan. I. 2. de conso.
' I'rov. xxvi. 11.
Al-
nium est insanienlinm turba. Sen.
i
Pro Rnseio
;
thnu-jh you call out, and confound the sea and sky,
Amerino, et quod inter omnes constat insanissimus, ; yon still address a deaf man.
'>
Plutarch. Gryllo.
nisi inter cos. qui ipsi quoque insaiiiunt.*
'-i
Ne-
j
snilli linmines sic Clem. Alex. vo. '"Non per-
cesse est cum iiisanientihus furere, nisi solus relin-
j suadebis, etiamsi persuaseris. nTully. '^Malo
queris. Pelronius. 3 Q,io,|jn,i, ^on est genus !
cum illis insanire, quam cum aliis bene sentire.
unum stuliitisB qua me insanire putas. < Stultum
'
I'Qui inter hos enurriuntur, non magissai)ere possunt,
me fatenr, liceat coiicedcre verum, Alque etiam insa- qn4m qui in culind bene olere. Patron.
'^
Per-
num. Hor. ' Odi ner possum cupiens nee esse sins. i6Uor.2. ser. which of these is the more
quod odi. Ovid. Ermre prato libenter omnes insani- mad. i^Vesanum exagitant fueri, innuptaequ)
myy" " Amator s(ortnm viias prieponit, iracundns puellte.
ir.ili( tam :
fir Ufatdam. narasitus iulam, ambitiosiis
48 Democritus to tlie Reader.
sofemn protestation, or swear, I think yoii will believe me without an oath ; say at
a woril. 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 r
" "
Justuin ab injustis petere insipientia est." | I'll stand to your censure yet, what think you
?
^But forasmucli as 1 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 insis*
in, prove with more special and evident arguments, testimonies, illustrations, and
that in brief. ^^JVunc accipe quare desipi.ant omnes ceque ac tu. My first argument
is borrowed from Solomon, an arrow drawn OMt of his sententious quiver. Pro. iii.
7,
"
Be not wise in thine own eyes.'" And xxv 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 thei'
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 (saito '^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 wa/," too forward, too ripe, prcBpropcri, too quick ai^d
'leady, ^"citd prudentes., cito ph., citd marili, cilo patres^ clIo sacerdotes., cito 07miis
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 foi-mer 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
^'
" 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 : Ave have woirien politicians, children metaphysicians
;
every silly fellow can square a circle, make perpetual motions, find the philosopher'*
stone, interpret Apocalypses, make new Theories, a new system of the world, new
Logic, new Philosophy, &c. JYostra utique rcgio, saith ^^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 ^mple 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, ^^6ii to xaxbv p-i^eev ov6ev ^KuTttci)
"
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, Ixv. 14, "My servant
shall sing for joy, and ^^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.
^
Probus quis nohiscum vivif.?
Show me an honest man, J^emo malus qui non sfidhis., 'tis Fabius' apliorism 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, Q(/i iter adorned in nccidentcm^
quum properaret in oricnfcm ? that goes backwarc^ all his life, westward, when he is
bound to the east
.''
or hold him a wise man (saith ^''Musculus)
"
that prefers momen-
tary pleasures to eternity, that spends his master's goods in his absence, forthwith
to be condemned for it
?"
JYeqiiicquam sapit qui sibi non sapif^ who M'ill 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.'' ^'Theodoret, out of Plotinus
the Platonist,
"
holds it a ridiculous thing for a man^ to live after his own laws, to do
" Plaulus.
'
Hor. 1. 2. sat. 2. Superbam stulti- I
=
Malefactors. a^who can find a faitbful mani
tiam Plinius vocat. 7. epist. 21. quod semel dixi,ti.\um
'
Prov. xx. 6. ''^ii, Psiil. xlix. Qui moitientanea
ratumque sit. '^
Multisapientes proculdn^io fuis- sempilernis, qui delapidat heri ahsenlis bona, iriox in
sent, si se non putassent ad sapientiae snmmum per-
I jus vocandiis et datniiandus.
'-''
Perquain ridi-
venisse. -"Idem. '^' Plutarchus Solone. culuin est homines ex animi sententia vivere, el qu<c
IJetur sapientiori '"Tarn prepsentibus plena Uiis incrata sunt exequi, et tameii i solis Diis vella
est nui^inibus, ut facilius possis DoMin quam hominem solvos tien, quum propriie saluiis curam abjecerinl
inveiiire.
.
''^
Pulchrum bis dicere non nocut. , Theod. c. 6. de provid. lib. de curat, griec. affect
Democrifus to titc Reader. 4y
that which is offensive to God, and yet to hope that lie should save him : and wiien
he voluntarily neglects his own safety, and contemns the means, to think to be deliver-
ed by another : who will say these men are Avise ?
^
A third argument may be derived from the precedent, ^'all men are carried away
with passion, discontent, lust, pleasures, &c., they generallj' hate those virtues they
should love, and love such vices they should hate'. Therefore more than melancholy,
unite mad, brute beasts, and void of reason, so Chrysostom contends;
"
or rather
dead and buried alive," as ^^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 Lactantius stiffly maintains, "wisdom cannot dwell.
'qui ciipiet, metuet quoque pi)ir6.
Qui Mietuens vivit, liber inilii non erit unquam.'
" 3i
Seneca and the rest of the stoics are of opinion, that where is any the least perturba-
tion, wisdom may not be found. "What more ridiculous," as ^^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.? ^^Mortalis neino est.
qiicni non attingat dolor., morhusve., as *^Tully determines out of an old poem, no
mortal men can avoid sorrow and sickness, and sorrow is an inseparable companion
from melancholy. ''^Chrysostom pleads farther yet. that they are more than mad,
very beasts, stupified and void of common sense- >*
For how <'saith he) shall I know
^thee to be a man, when thou kickest iike an ass. neighest like a horse after women,
jravest in lust like a bull, ravenest Ifke 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 affi-ights me more, when I see a beast in likeness of a man.
^Seneca calls that of Epicurus, magnijicam rocem, 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 demen-
tem senectutcm, Tully exclaims. Therefore young, old, middle age, are all stupid,
and dote.
?^iEneas Sylvius, amongst many other, sets down three special ways to find a fool
hf.
He is a fool that seeks that he cannot find : he is a fool that seeks that, which
neing 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 dizards
and mad men the major part are.
J,
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 Jithencpus, sccunda gratiis, horis et Dyonisio : the second makes merry,
the third for pleasure, quarta ad insaniam, the fourth makes them mad. If this posi-
tion be true, what a catalogue of mad men shall we have .?
what shall they be that
drink four times four ? JYomie supra oinnejn furorem, supra omnem insanian red-
dunt insanissimos ? I am of his opinion, they are more than mad, much worse than
mad.
wThe ''"Abderites condemned Democritus for a mad man, because he was sometimes
sad, and sometimes again profusely merry. Hac Patria (saith Hippocrates) ob risvm
furere et insanire dicunt, his countrymen hold him mad because he laughs; ^^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
28 Sapiens sibi qui imperiosus, &c. Hor. 2. ser. 7.
^''Conclus. lib. de vie. offer, certuin est aninii morbis
laboranles pro mortuis coiisemios.
3"
Lib. de sap.
llbi timor aiest, sapientia ade.-<se iiequit.
si
He who
is desirous is also fearful, and he who lives in fear
never can be free. ^-Qiiid insanius Xerxe Helles-
ponturn verberante, &c.
'<
Eccl. xxi. 12. Where
IS bii'^rn'-ss. there is no understanding. Prov. xii.
6. An angrj' man is a fool.
3'
3 Tusc. Injuria in
japientem non cadit. 3-^ Horn. 6. In 2 Epist. ad Cor.
mulieres, ut ursns ventri indulgeas, qnum rapias lit
lupus, &;c. at inquis fnrniain hominis habeo. Id magia
terret, quum feram humana specie videre me putem.
36
Epist. lib. 2. 13. Stultus semper incipit vivere,
foeda homiiium levitas, nova quolidie fiindainenta vitie
ponere, novas spes, &c.
"t
Ue curial. miser.
Stullus, qui qurerit quod nequit invenire, slultiis qui
qiia;rit qund nocet inventiim, stullus qui cum plures
hahet calles, deteriorem deligit. Mihi videntur omnea
deliri, amentes, fee. * i.;p Demagele.
as
Amicis
lominem te agnoscere neqneo, cum tanquam asinus nnstris Rhodi dicilo, ne nimium rideant, aut niitiit-
eralcitres, lascivias ut taurus, hinnias ut equus post tristes aint
*
E
50 Democritus to the Reader.
seen what ^fleering and grinning there is in this age, they would certainly have
concluded, we had been all out of our wits.
^Aristotle in liis eth/cs holds fccllx idemque sapiens^ to be Avise and happy, are
leciprocal terms, bonus idemque sapiens honeslus. 'Tis
"
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 ?
-"sapiens slhiqiie iiiiperiosus,
Queni Deque pauperis, iieque mors, neque vincula
|
terrent, I
Respons:ire cupi(lin!l)us, contemncre honores i
Forlis, et in seii)so Knus teres atque rotundus." I
'He is wise that can command his own will.
Valiant and constant to himself still,
Wlinni poverty nor ieath, nor bands can fright.
Checks his desires, scorns Honours, jusi ana rigni.
(iut where shall such a man be found ? If no where, then e diametro, we are all
slaves, senseless, or worse. JVemo malus fcjcILv.
But no man is happy in this life,
none good, therefore no man wise. ''^Rari quippe hon'i For one virtue you shall
find ten vices in tlif same party
;
panel Promelhei., multi EpimethcL We may per-
adventure usurp ttie 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, Castillo a courtier, Galen temperament,
an aristocracy is described by politicians. But where shall such a man be found
.''
"
Vir bonus et sapienl;, qualem vix repperit ununi
Minibus 6 niullis huniinuni consullus 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 mlraculum homo
sapiens^ a wise man is a wonder : multl Thlrslgi^rl^ panel Baeehl.
Alexander when he was presented with that ricli and costly casket of king Darius,
and every man advised him what to put in it, he reserved it to keep
Romero's
works,
as the most precious jewel of human wit, and yet
'"
Scaliger upbraids Homer's muse,
JVulrlcem InsancE saplcntlce^ a nursery of madness,
'*'
impudent as a court lady, that
bluslies at notliing. Jacobus Mycillus, Gilbertus Cogiiatus, 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 mag-
nified, is by Lactantius and Theodoret condemned for a fool. Plutarch extols Sene-
ca's wit beyond all the Greeks, nulll secundus, yet '"'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 Subtilties, reckons up twelve super-eminent, acute
philosophers, for worth, subtlety, and wisdom: Archimedes, Galen, Vitruvius, Ar-
chitas Tarentinus, Euclid, Geber, that first inventor of Algebra, Alkindus the Mathe-
matician, both Arabians, with others. But his triumviri terrarum far beyond the
rest, are PtoloniiEus, Plotinus, .Hippocrates. Scaliger exereltat.' 224, scofk at this
censure of his, calls some of them carpenters and mechanicians, he makes Galen
fimhrlam
Hippocralis, a skirt of Hippocrates : and the said *'' Cardan himself else-
where condemns botli Galen and Hippocrates for tediousncss, obscurity, confusion.
Paracelsus will have them both mere idiots, infants in physic and philosophy. Sca-
liger and Cardan admire Suisset the Calculator, qui pene modum excessll humani in-
genll, and yet '"'Lod. Vives calls them nugas Suissetlens : and Cardan, opposite to
himself in another place, contemns those ancients in respect of times present, ''^Ma-
jorcsque nostras ad presentes collatos juste pueros appellari. In conclusion, the
said '^"Cardan and Saint Bernard will admit none into this catalogue of wise men,
^'
but only prophets and apostles ; how they esteem themselves, you have heard
before. We are worldly-wise, admire ourselves, and s(;ek for applause : but heai
Saint
^^
Bernard, quanto magis foras es sapiens, tanfo rruigis intus stultus
efficerls,
&c.
in omnibus es prudens, circa teipsum Inslplcns : 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 them-
selves ; sanctum Insanlum Bernard calls it (though not as blaspheming ^^Vorstius,
would infer it as a passion incident to God himself, but) familiar to good men, as
loPer multum risnm poteris cognoscere stultum.
Offic 3. c. 9 ^'Sapientes liheii, sttiiti servi, li-
berlas est potestas, &c. '-Hor. 2. ser. 7. ''Ju-
ven. "Good people are scarce." wilypocrit.
">Ut niulier aiilica nullius pudens. ''Epist 33.
Quanito fatuo delertari volo, iion e.ii Innge quaerendus,
BtH video.
*"
Primo conlradicenti'im. '"Lib.
de causis corrupt, artium.
'^
Actions ad subtil, in
Seal. fol. 12'26. ^oLih. 1. de sap.
^i
Vide miser
homo, quia totum est vanitas, tntum gtultitia. totuin
(Ifmentia, quic(iuid facis in hoc iiiurjilo, pra;ter hoc so-
lum quod propter Deum facis. Ser. de miser, hom.
^
In 2 Pl.itiiiiis dial. I de justo
^iDm,, iram CI
udiuiu in Deo revera ponit.
Democntus to the Reader. 51
lat of Paul, 2 Cor.
"
he was a fool," &c. and Rom. ix. he wisheth himself to he
anathematized 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, wnich
poets deciphered by the sacrifice of Dionysius, and in this sense with the poet,
'^insanire lubet, as Austin exhorts us, ad ehrietatem se quisque paret., let's all be mad
and
^'^
drunk. But we commonly mistake, and go beyond our commission, we reel
to the opposite part,
^
we are not capable of it, "'and as he said of the Greeks, Vos
Grcpci semper pueri^ vos Britanni, Galli, Germanic Itali, &.c. you are a company
.of fools.
i^' Proceed now a parfibus ad totwn^ or from the whole to parts, and you shall find
no other issue, the parts shall be sufliciently dilated in this following Preface. The
whole must needs follow by a sorites or induction. Every multitude is mad,
'^
bcllua multorum capitum^ (a many-headed beast), precipitate and rash without
judgment, stultum animal., a roaring rout.
*^
Roger Bacon proves it out of Aristotle,
Viilgus dividi in oppositum cordra sapicnlcs., quod vulgo vidclur vcrum., falswn 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 (vnlgus)^ and thou thyself art de
vulgo., one of the commonalty; and he, and he, and so are all the rest; and there-
fore, 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."
X-
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 inhabi-
ted : if itir be so that ^he earth is a moon, then are we also giddy, vertigenous 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 Oliinpo:
"
Tliroi|o;li such a train of words if I should run,
The day would sooner Ihan 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 mine-
rals, or those plants, rue, cypress, &.c. and hellebore itself, of which '^"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 hus-
bandry, that antipathy betwixt the vine and the cabbage, vine and oil. Put a bird
in a cage, he will die for suUenness, 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
^'
author.
Kingdoms, provinces, and politic bodies are likewise sensible and subject to this
disease, as "^^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 dis-
eases 111 a commonwealth, which do as diversely happen from several distempers,"
as you may easily percieve by their particular symptoms. For where you shall see
the people civil, obedient to God and princes, judicious, peaceable and quiet, rich,
fortunate, '^^ and flourish, to live in peace, in unity and concord, a country well tilled,
many fair built and populous cities, ubi incolce nitcnt as old
' Cato said, the peo})le
are neat, polite and terse, ubi bene., beateque vivunt, which our politicians make the
" Vir^. 1. Eccl. 3.
66
ps. inebriahuntur ab uber-
tate doiniis.
"
In Psal. civ. Austin.
'"
In Pla-
tonis Tim. sacerdos .Slgyplius.
'
Hor. t jigis iii-
anum
w
Palet ea diviso probabilis, &c. cy. Ar^at.
Top. ib. 1. c. 8. Rog. Bac. Epist. de secret. <.rt. et nat.
c. 8. non est judicium in vulgo.
eojje
occult. Pbi-
losop. 1. 1. c. 25 et 19. ejusd. 1. Lib. 10. cap. 4.
s'
See
Lipeius epist. "-De politai illustrium lib. 1. cap. 4.
ut in hunianis coporibus varia' accidunt mutationes
corporis, aniniique, sic in republica, &:c.
oa
ujjj
reges pliiiosophantur, Plato. "Lib. de re rust.
52 Democntus to the Reader.
chief end of a commonwealth; and which
^"^
Jiristotle PoUt. lib. 3., cap. 4 calls Cam.'
mune boniim., Polyhius lib. 6, optabilem et sclcclum stalum, that country is free from
'
melancholy ; as it was in Italy in the time of Augustus, now in China, now in many
other flourisliing kingdoms of Europe. But whereas you shall see many discontents,
common grievances, complaints, poverty, barbarism, beggary, plagues, wars, rebel-
lions, 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 tlie 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 Lybia, deserts of Arabia, places void of waters, as those of Lop and Belgian in
Asia, or in a bad air, as at Mexandretta., Bantam.^ Pisa, Durrazzo, S. John de Ulloa,
Stc, or in danger of tlie 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 *of wars, fires, plagues, inundations, "'wild beasts, decay of trades, barred
havens, the sea's violence, as Antwerp may witness of late, Syracuse of old, Brundu-
sium in Italy, Rye and Dover with us, and many tliat at this day suspect the sea''s
fury and rage, and labour against it as tlie 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. WheiiiAbraham
came to Gerar, and saw a bad land, he said, sure the fear of God was not in that
place.
''^
Cyprian Echovius, a Spanish chorographer, above all other cities of Spain,
commends
''
Borcino, in wliich there was no beggar, no man poor. Sec, but all rich,
and in good estate, and he gives the reason, because they were more religious tlian
their neighbours
:"
why was Israel so often spoiled by their enemies, led into capti-
vity, Slc, but for their idolatry, neglect of God's word, for sacrilege, even for one
Achau's fault } And what sliall 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 lilce Epicures .?
Other common grievances are generally noxious to a body politic , alteration of
laws and customs, breaking privileges, general oppressions, seditions, &c., observed
by '^^Aristotle, Bodin, Boterus, Junius, Arnisc.us, &c. I will only point at some of
chiefest. ""^Impofenlia giibernandi., afaxia., confusion, ill oovernment, which proceeds
from unskilfid, slothful, griping, covetous, unjust, ras,i, 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 :
'"
many nobic 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 govern-
ment ; and those vast kingdoms of Muscovia, Russia,
"'^
under a tyrannizing duke.
Who ever heard of more civil and rich populous countries than those of
"
Greece,
Asia Minor, abounding with all "wealth, multitudes of inhabitants, force, power,
splendour and magnificence
.''"
and that miracle of countries,
'*
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
^5 Vel publicam utilitatem: salus piiblica supreiiia
ex esto. Beata civilas noii iihi paiici bcati, sed lota
civitas beata. Plato qiiarlo de republica. "Maii-
vua VEE iiiisera; nimiiim vicjna Crenionae. 6'lnter-
dum a feris, lit olim Mauritania, &c. esDeliciig
Hisparias anno 1604. Nemo mains, nemo pauper, op-
tiniiis quisque atqiie ditissimus. Pie, sancteque vive.
5. c. 3.
'0
Boterus Polit. lib. 1. c. 1. Cum nempe
princeps rerum perendarum imperitus, segiii.s, osci-
tans, snique miineris irnniemor, ant faluus est.
"
Non viget respublica cujus caput infirniatur. Sa-
lisburiensis. c. 22.
'.*
See Dr. Fletcher's rela-
tion, and Alexander Gairninus' history.
'^ Abiin-*
dans nmni diviiiarum affluentia incolarnm mullitudina
bant sumniaqiie cum venoratione, et timore divino spleridnre ac poientia. "Not above 200 niiles ii'
eijJtui, eacrisque rebus inr.umbebant.
Polit. i. letisth. 60 in breadth, accordine to Adricomii'a
Dcmocritus to the Reader. 53
jngo premitnr ('^one saith) not ,n)y fire and water, goods or lands, sed ipse spirituh
ah insoJcnlissimi victorls vendct nutUj siich is tb.eir slavery, their lives and souls
depend upon his insolent v>all and command. A tyrant that spoils all wheresoever he
comes, insomuch that an '^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 '''Aristotle notes, JVods; exactiones., nova onera itnposita, new
burdens and exactiojis daily come upon them, like those of which Zosimus, lib.
2, so
grievous, ut viri uxores., patrcs fdios
prostituerent ut exadorihus e quesl.u.^ &.C., they
must needs be discontent, June civitatum gemitus et ploratus, as ''^TuUy holds,
hence come those complaints and tears of cities,
"
poor, miserable, rebellious, and
desperate subjects, as '^Hippolitus adds; and ""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 com-
plainings in that kind. "XThat 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 hi/pocrisl fragUius f wliat 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 faecm pripferre., lead the
way to all virtuous actions, are the ringleaders oftentimes of all mischief and disso-
lute courses, and by that means their countries are plagued,
^' ''
and they themselves
often ruined, banished, or murdered by conspiracy of their subjects, as Sardanapalus
was, Diouysius, junior, Heliogabalus, Periander, Pisistratus, Tarquinius, Timocrates,
Childericus, Appius Claudius, Andronicus, Galeacius Sforsia, 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, ^and with mutual murders let it bleed to death; our his-
tories are too full of such barbarous inhumanities, and the miseries that issue from
them.
^^hereas they be like so many horse-leeches, hungry, griping, corrupt,
^^
covetous.
avariticE mancipia., ravenous as wolves, for as TuUy writes : qui prcecst prodest, et
qui pccudihus prceest, debet eorum utiUtati inservire : or such as prefer their private
before the public good. For as ^^he said long since, res privatoi publicis semper
officere.
Or whereas they be illiterate, ignorant, empirics in policy, nbi deest
facul-
las, ^virtus (^Jlristot. pot. 5, cap. 8.,)
et scientia., wise only by inheriiance, and ir
authority by birth-right, favour, or for their wealth and titles ; there must needs be
a fault,
^^
a great defect : because as an
"
old pliilosopher affirms, such men are noi
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 **\Princes are, so are the people
;
Qiialis Rex., talis grex : and which
^Antigonus right well said of old, qui Macedonixz rcgcm erudil^ omnes etiani subditos
erudit,, he that teacheth the king of Macedon, teacheth all his subjects, is a true
saying still.
"For Princes are the stass, the school, the hook, I
f,
rT
"
Velocius et cilius iios
Where subjects' eyes do learn, do read, do look."
Corn.mpnni v.iion.m exempla domesfca, n.agn.3
' ' ' '
I
Cum subeant aminos auctoribus."
^d
Their examples are soonest followed, vices entertained, if they be profane, irreli-
" Romulus Ainascus. '^Sabellicus. Si quis in- ' plant and overthrow their adversaries, enrich thcnrio
cola vefiis, non agnosceret, si qiiis pcregrinus in?e- | selves, get honours, dissemble ; but whit is this to the
niisceret. '' Polit. 1. 5. c. 6. Crudelitas p\incipum, bene esse, or preservation of a Coiiimonwe.Tttlil
impunitas scelerum, violatio leguni, peculates pc^uniee f^Iinperiiim suapte sponte ccrruit.
^^
Apul. I'rim.
publicEB, etc.
'6
Epist.
'"
De increm. urb. cap. | Flor. Ex innumerabiUbus, pauci Senatores genere
i20. snbditi niiseri, i.;belles, riesperali, &c.
''
R. i nobiles, 6 consularibus pauci boni, 6 bonis adhuc pauci
D.irlington. 151)6. conclusio libri.
"
Botcrus !. 9. eruditi.
^^
Non solum viiia coni'ipi-int ipsi princi-
c. 4. Polit. Quo fit ut aut rebus desperatis exulenc, I pes, sed eliam infundunt in civitatem, plusque e.-em;jlo
aut conjuratione subditorum crudclissime tandem Iru-
[
quam peccato nocetit. Cic. 1. de legibus. Ifpist.
cidentur. - Mutuis odiis et ca=dihus exhausti, &c. ; aj Zen. Juvcn. .Sat. 4. Paupertas se^litionem gi^nit
" 63
Lucra ex malis, scelerastisqne cavisis. .' Salust. et maleficium. Arist. Pol. '2. c. 7.
s*
Vicioijs, c*i
For nio?f part we mistake the name of Politicians, inesiic examples opc.Tttc more quickly" upon us wb f
accounting such as read Machiavcl and 1 acitus, great Buggepted to our minds by high authorities.
><atosmen, that can dispute of nrJitical precpots, sup-
E 2
54
Democntits to the Reader.
gious, 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 {h
rtevux. ordatv f^rtout xal jcaxovpyi-'ai',
for poverty begets sedition and villany)
upon all occasions ready to mutiny and rebel, discontent still, complaining, mur-
muring, grudging, apt to all outrages, thefts, treasons, murders, innovations, in debt,
shifters, cozeners, outlaws, Profligatce. famce ac vita:. It was an old
^'
politician's
aphorism, 'hThey 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 Cati-
line 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
''^
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,
^'^
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,
^
Crumenimulga natio, &c. A purse-milking nation, a clamor-
ous company, gowned vultures, ^'^qui ex injuria vivcn> et sanguine civinm, thieves
and seminaries of discord ; worse than any polers by the highway side, auri accipi-
tres, auri extercbronides, pecuniarum hamiolce^ quadruplatores^ curice harpagones,
fori
tinlinahula.1 monstra hominum, mangoncs, &.c. tliat take upon them_ to make
peace, but are indeed the very disturbers of our peace, a company of irreligious har-
pies, scraping, griping catchpoles, (I mean our common hungry pettifoggers,
^
rabu-
las forenses^ love and honour in the meantime all good laws, and worthy lawyers,
that are so many ^'''oracles and pilots of a well-governed coiumonwealth). Without
art, without judgment, that do more harm, as ^**Livy said, quam hella externa,, fa?nes,
morbive., than sickness, wars, hunger, diseases ,
"
and cause a most incredible de-
struction of a commonwealth," saith
^
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 cum premulscris, he must be fed still, or else he is as mute as a fish, better open
an oyster without a knife. Experto crede (saith
'^
Salisburiensis) in manus eorum
millies incidi, et Charon immitis qui nulli pepcrcit unquam, his longe clementior est
;
"
1 speak out of experience, I have been a thousand times amongst them, and Charon
himself is more gentle tlian they ;
'
he is contented with his single pay, but they
multiply still, they are never satisfied," besides they liave damnijicas linguas^ as he
terms it, nisi funibus argenteis vincias, they must be fed to say nothing, and
'^
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,
''
" 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
cansas humi-
hum, to help them to their right., patrocina7itur afflictis,
*
hut aW is for their own
good, lit loculos plenioro/n exhauriant, they plead for poor men gratis, but they are
but as a stale to catch others. If there be no jar, ''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
91 Salust. Semper in civitate quibus opes nulls sunt
bonis invident, vctera oderfi, nova exoptant, odio su-
aruni renini mutari omnia petunt. ^ De lesiibus.
profligatffi in repiib. dir.ciplinffi est indicium jurisperi-
toriim nnmeriis, ot medii;orum copia.
"<
In pra;f.
stud, juris. Mulliplicantur nunc in tcrris m locustee
non pairife parentes, sed pestes, pessinii homines, ma-
jore ex parta snperciliosi contentiosi, &c. licit uni
latrociiiium exerrent.
"'
Dousa epid loquieleia
lurba, vultures logati,
96
Bare. Argen.
--li
Juris
xiDBulti doiuus orariilum civuatis. Tully. ^ Lib. 3.
w
Lib. 3. !Lib. 1. de rep. Gallorum, incredibilem
reipub. porniciom afferunt.
Polycrat. lib. 'Is
stipo contentus. et hi asses integros sibi niiiltiplicari^
jubent.
'^
Plus accipiunt tacore, quam nos loqui.'
'
Totiu.s inj\tstitiiB nulla capitalior, qiiAm eorum qui
cum ma.i;ime decipiunt, id asunt. ut boni viri esse vi-
deanlur.
*
Nam quocunque mndo causa procedat,
hoc semper agitur, ut loculi impleantur, etsi avarii a
nrqiiit saiiari.
^ Camdei- in Norfolk ; qui si niliU
sit litiiim juris apicibus litob tamen serere callenl.
Democritus to the Reader. i>5
time, delay suit* till they have enriched themselves, and beggared their clients. And,
as ''Cato inveighed against Isocrates' scholars, we may justly tax our wrangling law
yers, 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. 'Sinilerus
complains amongst the Snisseres of the advocates in his time, tliat when they should
make an end, they began controversies, and
"
protract their causes many years,
ner-
suading them their title is good, till their patrimonies be consumed, and tliat 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,
**
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; ^what difference
.''
They had wont heretofore,
saith Austin, to end matters, per communes arbitros ; and so in Switzerland (we are
informed by '"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 "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 '^a worthy chorographer
of ours observes, had wont paucuUs crucuUs cmreis^ 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 impllcite contained in some twenty lines or thereabouts
;
like that scede
or Sytala Laconica, so much renowned of old in all contracts, which '"TuUy so
earnestly commends to Atticus, Plutarch in his Lysander, Arisioile polity : Tlmcy-
dides., Uh. 1, '^Diodorus and Suidus approve and magnify, for that laconic brevity
in this kind; and well they might, for, according to '^TertuUian, 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 woful 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 mis-
placed, any little error, all is disannulled.
;
That which is a law to-day, is none to-
morrow
;
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 "^ Plutarch complained of them in
Asia, may be verified in our times.
"
These men here assembled, come not to sacri-
fice 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 perdentiimi et percuntlum,., 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, procrastina-
tions, 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 ''Corinthians long since, I may more positively infer now :
'7,
"There is a fault amongst you, and I speak it to your shame. Is there not a '^wise
/ man amongst you, to judge between his brethren
.''
but that a brother goes to law
Plutarch, vit. Cat. causas apud inferos quas in
"
Clenard. 1. 1. ep. Si quae controversiae utraqne pam
uam fidem receperunt, patrocinio suo tuebiintiir. judicem adit, is seniul et siiiiul rem transiirit, audit
:
"
' Lib. 2. de llelvet. repub. iion explicandis, sed nioli- nee quid sit appelliitio, lachrymosceque morjE noscunt
endis cinlroversiis operam dant, ita utliies in niultos
'*
Camden.
'3
Lib. 10. epist. ad Attiruni, epist. II.
annns extrahantur siimnia cum molesti^ utrisque
;
i''
Biblioth. 1. 3. '''Lib. de Aniui. '"Lib. major
partis el dum interea palrimotjia e.\liaiiriaiitur, iiiorb. corp. an animi. Hi non conveniunt ut diis nior
" Lupuni auribus leneiit. "
Hor. '"Lib. de majnrum sacra faciant, non ut Jnvi primitras offerarit,
Helvet. repub. Judices quocunque pago constiluunt aut Baccho commessaliones, sed anniversariiis nior-
qui amica aliqua Iransactione
fieri po.qsit, lites tol- bus exasperans Asiaui hue eo.s coegit, ut coiitentione*
lant. Ego majorum nosirorum siniplicitatein adiui- hie peragant. " 1 Cor. vi. 5, 6. '"cstulti quands
rur, qui ei: lausas gravissimas composueiint, Sec. deniutn sapietis 1 Fs. xlix.8.
.')0
Democritus to the Reader.
with a broiher." And "Christ's counsel concerning lawsuits, was never so'fit to be
incu cated as in this age :
^^
Agree with thine adversary <iuickly," &.c. Matth. v. 25.
1 could repeat many sucli 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 other-
wise, 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 lliat prudent policy of
the Romans, was brought from barbarism; see but what Ciesar 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, ^' to be fidl
of rich and populous cities, as now they are, and most flourishing kingdoms. Even
so might Virgmia, and those wdd Irish have been civilized long since, if that order
had been heretofore taken, which now begins, of planting colonies, &c. I have read
a
"^^
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 pro-
vinces of Holland, Zealand, &c., over against us ; those neat cities and populous
towns, full of most industrious artificers,
^^
so much land recovered from the sea, and
so painfully preserved by those artificial inventions, so wonderfully approved, as that
of Bemster in Holland, ?i/ nihil hide par aid simile invenias in toto orbe^ saitli Bertius
the geographer, all the world cannot match it, ^^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 bene-
ficial use of transportation, wholly neglected, so many havens void of ships and
towns, so many parks and forests for pleasure, barren lieaths, so many villages
depopulated. Sec. I think sure he would find some fault.
I may not deny bui that this nation of ours, doth bene audire apud exteros, is a
most noble, a most flourishing kingdom, by common consent of all '^geographers,
historians, politicians, 'tis unica velttl arj\'*' and which Quintius in Livy said of the
inhabitants of Peloponnesus, may be well applied to us, we are tcsludincs testa sua
inc/iisi^ 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
loarned countryman of ours right well hath it,
^'"-
Ever since the Normans first coming
into England, this country both for military matters, and all other of civility, hath
been paralleled with the m )st flourishing kingdoms of Europe and our Christian
world," a blessed, a rich c )untry, and one of the fortunate isles : and for some
things
^*
preferred before oth n- countries, for expert seamen, our laborious discover-
ies, art of navigation, true mjrcbants, they carry tlie bell away from all other nations,
even the Portugals and Hollanders themselves;
^^"
without all fear," saith Boterus,
'/'furrowing the ocean winter and summer, and Uvo of their captains, with no less
''valour tiian fortune, have sailed round about the world." ^"We iiave besides many
particular blessings, whicli our neighbours want, the Gospel truly preached, church
discipline established, long peace and quietness free from exactions, foreign fears,
invasions, domestical seditions, well manured, "'fortified by art, aim 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
'"
So intituled, and preaclied by oiir Repius Profes-
sor, D. Prideaux
;
printed at London hy Fojlix Kinjj;-
BKm, 10-21. -oOf wliitli Text lead two learned
Ki!!noiis. "
Sa'pins Ixina materia cessat sine ar-
litite. Saliellicus de CJennania. Si qiiis videret Ger
del par excellence." ''Jam inde non belli gloria
qiiitm hiinianitatis rultii intei' florontis-siina^ orbis
(lirisliani uentes imprimis floruit. Camden Brit, de
Normamiis. "' Geors. Keeker. '''Tani iileme
qnim testate inlrepide snicant Oceaniim. et duo illo-
nianiain iirliiliiis liodie exciilt.un. non diceret ut ollin rum duces non minore aiidacifl. (inam fnrtiinft totiui
Iristem cultii, asperam cop!.",, terram informem. '.*-
Hy
orl)etii terra? circmiinavipiriint. Amphitlieatro liote-
his Majesty's Attorney 'Jeiier.il tlieie. '.^SAsZeip- riis.
*i
a fertile soil, good air, ice. Tin, Lead
land, Hems'.i'r in Unlland. &c
-<
From 0:iiipit to Wool. Saffron, &.C.
!"
Tola Britannia unica veliu
^luce, from Unifies to the Sea, &c.
- Ortelins, arz Buter.
Iloterus, Mcrcalor. iMeteraiius, &.c. 2(i"Tlie cilu-
'
Democrilus to the Reader. 57
vise, learned^ligious king, another Numa, a second Augustiis, a true Josiah ; niosi )/^>l'
worthy senators, a learned clergy, an obedient commonalty, Stc Yet amongst many
roses, some thistles gi'ow, some bad weeds and enormities, which much disturb the
leace of this body politic, eclipse the honour and glory of it, iit to be rooted ou..
find with all speed to be reformed.
N,The first is idleness, by reason of wliich we have many swarms of roguei;, anc"
oeggars, thieves, drunkards, and discontented persons (M-hom Lycurgus in Plutarch
calls morbos reipublicce, the boils of the commonwealth), many poor people in all
our towns. Civitates ignobiles, as ^^Polydore calls them, base-built cities, inglorious,
ooor, 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 other-
wise, and we' are not so thrifty, circumspect, industrious. Idleness is the malus
genius of our nation. For as
''*
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 manu-
factures, 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.
^"^
England," saith he,
"
London only excepted, hath never a populous city, and yet
a fruitlul country. I find 46 cities and walled towns in Alsatia, a small province
i<a
Germany, 50 castles, an infinite number of villages, no ground idle, no not rock)
places, or tops of hills are unfilled, as ''^Munster informeth us. In '"^Greichgea, a
a small territory on the Necker, 24 Italian miles over, I read of 20 walled towns,
innumerable villages, each one containhig 150 houses most part, besides castles and
noblemen's palaces. I observe in ^'Turinge in Dutchland (twelve miles over by
their scale) 12 counties, and in them 144 cities, 20U0 villages, 144 towns, 250 cas-
tles. In ^*' Bavaria 34 cities, 46 towns, &c. ^PorliigaUiu intcramnis^ 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 J cities, 102
parishes. Brabant 26 cities, 102 parishes. Flanders 28 cities, 90 towns, 1 154 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 tlieii
mdustry and excellency in all manner of trades } Their connnerce, which is main-
tained by a multitude of tradesmen, so many excellent channels made by art and oppor-
tune 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 lliem. They have neither gold nor
silvr- oC iheir own, wine nor oil,
or scarce any corn growing in those
iinWr.'
jj-rovmces, little or no wood, tin, lead,
iron, silk, wool, any stufi" a'm.-:;,, or metal ; and yet Hungary, Transylvania, that
orag of their minr^, fciuie England cannot compare with them. I dare boldly say,
thpt '"'Tl.iier France, Tarentum, Apulia, Lombardy, or any part of Italy, Valentia in
.Spain, or that pleasant Andalusia, with their excellent fruits, wine and oil, two har-
vests, 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 -M'
.nan. 'I'is our Indies, an epitome of China, and all by reason of their industry, g^od
Oolicy, and commerce. Industry is a load-stone to draw all good things ; that alone
aiakes countries flourish, cities populous,
''
and will enforce by reason of much ma-
lure, which necessarily follows, a barren soil to be fertile and good, as sheep, sailh
Dion, mend a bad pasture.
\Tell me politicians, why is that fruitful Palestina, noble Greece, Egypt, Asu
s^Lib. 1. hi^t.
3s
Increment, iirb. I. 1. c. 9. si^Ortelius 6 Vaseo et Pet. de Medina. soAnliun-
Anglite, excepto Londino, nulla eat civitas memora- dred families in each. wPopuli multjtiido dilj-
bllis, !icel ra natio return onini\im copia aliundel. geiite ciiltiira fcBcundat solum. Boter. 1. . c. i
sCosmng. Lib. 3. cop. 119. Villarum non est niinie- -"Orat. 35. Terra ubi oves stabulantur ODlinia agri-
rns, iiullus loctisotiosus auv mcultus. ^echytreus i colis ob stercus.
Ofat. edit. Fiancot. 1563. Maginus Geog.
i
58 Democritus to the Reader.
Minor, so much decayed, and (mere carcases now) fallen from that thty were The
Jround is the same, but the government is altered, the people are grown siothfui,
idle, their good husbandry, policy, and industry is decayed. JYon faligata aut ejfcet.a
humus^ as ''^Columella well informs Sylvinus, sed noslrci
fit
inertia^ Sj.c. May a man
believe that which Ari='.otle in his politics, Pausanias, Stephanus, Sophianus, Gerbe-
lius relate of old Greerc ? ''^l find heretofore 70 cities in Epirus overthrown by Paulas
jEniilius, a goodly pro\nice in times past, "^now left desolate of good towns and al-
most inhabitants. Six*v-lwo cities in Macedonia in Strabo's time. I find 30 in Laconia,
but now scarce so man^ villages, saith Gerbelius. If any man from Mount Taygetus
should view the couniry round about, and see tot dellcias^ tot urbes per Pelopone-
sura dtspersasj so many delicate and brave built cities with such cost and exquisite
cunning, so neatly set out in Peloponnesus, ''^he should perceive them now ruinous
and overthrown, burnt, waste, desolate, and laid level with the ground.' Incrcdibik
dictii, &c. And as he laments, Quis taliafando Te?nperet a lachrymis? Quis tam
durus aid fcrreus^ (so he prosecutes it).''^ 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 ? Wiiat saith Pliny and ^lian of old
Italy ? There were in former ages 1 106 cities : Blondus and Machiavel, both grant
them now nothing near so populous, and full of good towns as in the time of Au-
gustus (for now Leander Albertus can find but 300 at most), and if we may give
credit to "'"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 7'3 cities in a short space for his part, our Saltans and Turks demolish twice
as mau}^, and leave al. 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 Con-
queror'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, Lacedeemonian, 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 Swit-
zers, Rheti, Grisons, Walloons, Territories of Tuscany, Luke and Senes of old, Pied-
mont, Mantua, Venice in Italy, Ragusa, &c.
That prince therefore as, ^'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 unvvrought, as tin, iron, wool, lead, Sj-c, to be transported out of his
country,
^^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 ''^Massilians would admit no man into their
city that had not some trade. Selym the first Turkish emperer procured a thousand
good artificers to bp b"oughtfrom 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 '^"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, mar- in France, Germany, have none other maintenance, especially
those within the land. ^' Mecca, in Arabia Petraea, stands in a most unfruitful coun-
^'Dr re rust. 1. 2. cap. . The soil is not tired or
|
'^Lib. 7. Septuaginta oliin lesiones scriploB diciintiii
;
exhausted, hut htis b'-co"*" barren through our sloth.
\
quas vires hodie, <fec.
J'
Polit. 1. 3. c. 8. i^l'iir
Hodie urbibus doouiatur, ct magna ex parte incoUs dyeing of cloths, and dressing, &;c.
Valer 1. i.
dest.tuitur. Gerbelius desc. Griecias, lib. 6.
Vi- c. 1.
^u
Hist. Scot. Lib. U). Magnis proDOSitij
<lebit eas fere oiunes aut evera<, aut solo tequatas, prsmii.?, ut Scoti ab iis edncerentur.
^'
Munst.
aut in ruflera fa-dissiine dejecta^; Gerbelius. cosin 1. 5. c. 74 Agro omnium rerum infoBCUndissiii.f
Not even the liardpst of our fons could hear,
' aqua indisente inter saxeta, urbs tamen elpgantisfi
Nor stern Ulysses lell witliout a tear.
> ma, ob OrienliB negotiationes et Occidentis
Democritus to the Reader. 59
try, that wants water, amongst the rocks (as Vertomanus describes it), and yet it is
a most elegant and pleasant city, by reason of the traftic 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 Grecioe, Tully calls
it) the Eye of Greece, by reason of Cenchreas and Lecheus, those excellent ports,
drew all that traffic of the Ionian and ^Egean seas to it ; and yet the country about
it was curva et superciliosa^ as ^^Strabo terms it, rugged and harsh. We may say
the same of Athens, Actium, Thebes, Sparta, and most of those toviiis in Greece.
(Nuremberg in Germany is sited in a most barren soil, yet a noble imperial city by
tKe" sole industry of artificers, and cunning trades, they draw the riches of most coun-
tries to them, so expert in manufactures, that as Sallust long since gave out of the like,
Scdem anbncK in extremis digltls habent, their soul, or intelkctus agcns, was placed in
their fingers' end ; and so we may say of Basil, Spire, Cambray, Frankfort, &c. It is
almost incredible to speak wliat some write of Mexico and the cities adjoining to it,
no place in the world at their first discovery more populous,
"^
Mat. Riccius, the
Jesuit, and some others, relate of the industry of the Chinese most populous coun-
tries, 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 ali sorts,
wool, flax, iron, tin, lead, wood, Slc.^ many excf;llent 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
^^
Spanish loiterers, we live
wholly by tippling-inns and ale-houses. Malting are their best ploughs, their great-
est trafhc to sell ale. ^^Meteran and some others object to us, that we are no whit
so industrious as the Hollanders :
"
Manual trades (saith he) which are more cu-
rious 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^** Mare Uberum, they fish under our noses,
and sell it to us when they have done, at their own prices.
Pudet hsec opprobria nobis
Et dici potuisse, et iion potiiisse refelli."
, I am ashamed to hear this objected by strangers, and know not how to answer it
Amongst our towns, there is only "London that bears the face of a city,
^^
Epitome
Britannicg^ 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
C^"
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, idle-
ness 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,
*"
that they
are not so fair built, (for the sole magnificence of this kingdom (concerning build-
ings) 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. H. we want wine and oil, their two harvests, we dwell in a colder air, and for
tliat cause must a little more liberally
^'
feed of flesh, as all northern countries do :
our provisions will not therefore extend to the maintenance of so many
;
yet notwith-
standing 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.,
5-I,ib 8. Genrgr . ob asperiini situm.
m
Lib.
|
^s
Camden,
so
York, Bristow, Norwich, Worcester,&c.
Edit, a Nic Tre^'ant. Bel". A. 1(516. expedit. in Sinag.
fo
M. Gainsford'.,; Argument : Because sentlenien dwell
s-i
Ubi nobiles probi loco habent artem aliqnam profi- with ua in the country villajres, our cities are less, is
teri. Cleonard.
cf..
1. 1. 6=Mb. 13. Belg. Hist,
i
nothing to the purpose: put three hundred or four
non tarn laboriosi ut Belgac, sed ut Hispani otiatores hundred villages in a shire, and every village yield a
vitam ut plnrinuim otiosam auentes : artes manuarise gentleman, what is four hundred families to increase
>)\i!P plurimum liahent in so laboris et dillicultatis, ma- one of our cities, or to contend with theirs, which
joremq
; requirunt industriam. a peregrinis et exteris stand thicker? And whereas ours usually consist of
exercentnr; habitant in piscosissimo mari, interea seven thousand, theirs consist of forty thousand inha-
antuni non pi?caniur quantum insulie suffecetit sed 4 bitants.
6'
Maxima pars victus i;i came coi sisti;
vicinif eniere coL'unti'r. ' Grotii t^iber. STXjtba
Polyd. Lib. 1. (list,
aniniis nuineroque potens, e<. roDure gentis. Sraliger
'
60 Uemocritus to the Reader.
and such enormities that follow it ? We have excellent laws enacted, you will say,
severe statutes, houses of correction, &c., to "jinall purpose it seems; it is not houses
will serve, but cities of correction
;
"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,
'"^
wants, defects, enormities, idle drones, tumults, discords, contention,
law-suits, many laws made against them to repress those innumerable brawls and
law-suits, excess in apparel, diet, decay of tillage, depopulations, ''^especially against
rogues, beggars, Egyptiau vagabonds (so termed at least) which have "swarmed all
over Germany, France, Italy, Poland, as you may read in '^'^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. JVe7no m
nostra cloifate mendicus eslo,^'' saith Plato : he will have tliem purged from a ^'^ com-
monwealth, "^^"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 ^rniseus, cap. 19
;
Botenis^ libra
8,
cap. 2
;
Osorius de Riibus gest. Einan. 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 em-
ploying them at home about some public buildings, as bridges, road-ways, for wliich
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. '"aqueducts, bridges, havens, those
stupend works of Trajan, Claudius, at ''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 Fla-
minian ways, prodigious works all may witness
;
and rather than they should be
'^idle, as those "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,
'^
Quo scilicet alaniur et ne
vagando laborare desuescant.
Another eye-sore is that want of conduct and navigable rivers, a great blemish as
''Boterus, ''^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 dutchy of Milan, territory of Padua, in
"
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 '^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 inhnite
commodities arise to the inhabitants.
.X^The Turks of late attempted to cut that Isthmus betwixt Africa and Asia, which
'^Sesostris and Darius, and some Pharaohs of Egypt had formerly undertaken, but
with ill success, as *Diodorus Siculus records, and Pliny, for that Red-sea being
three
^'
cubits higher than Egypt, would have drowned all the country, ccBpto des-
'^
Refrsnate monopolii licentiam, pauciores alantiir
otio, redinlegretur agricolatio, liinificiuiii instauretiir,
ut sil hiiiiestiiiii iie^ntiiiiii quo se exerceat otiosa ilia
tiirha. Nisi his malis medentiir, friistraexercent jiis-
tiliain Mor. Ltop. Lib. 1. ''' Mancipiis lociiples
eget a^ris Cappadncum ri'X. Hnr. ^^
Regis diiini-
tatis nop est exercere imperiuin in mendicos sed in
opulentos. Non est reuni decus, sed carceris esse
custos. Idem.
'''
Ccdiiivies liotriinum mirahiles
ciirratur, opificia condlscantur, tenues subleventur.
Biidin. I. 6. c. 2. num. 6,7.
" Amasis ^sypti rex
legem
prniniilgavit. ut omnes subdili quntannis ratio-
hem redderent unde viverent.
'>
Buscnidus dis-
cursii polit. cap. 2. "whereby they are supported, and
do not become vagrants by being less accustomed to
labour."
is
Lib. 1. de increm. tJrb. cap. 6. 'eCap.
5. de increm. urb Qiias fliimen, larus, aut mare alluit
Incredihilem conimoditalem, vectur^ mercir.m Ires
excocti solo, immundi vestes fiedi visu, furti imprimis Ifliivii navigabiles, &c. Koterus de Galli4. '"He-
acres, &c. ''Cosmog. lili. 3. cap. 5.
ti'
"Let
j
rodotus. "Und. Orient, cap. 2. Rotam in medio
~ia one in our city be a heugar."
es
Seneca. Ilaud Iflumirie conslituunt, cui ex pellibus animaliiim >onsu
minus turpia principi niulta supplicia, qua.m medico ! tos uteres appendunt, hi duin rota movetur, aquam
multa funera.
''
Ac pituitam el bilem a corpore per canales, &c.
no
Centum pedes lata fossa 30
(J J. de leg ) omnes vult exterminari. See Lip- alta.
"i
Ciiiitrary to that of Archimedes^ wh
iiUS Adniiranda.
""
De quo Suet, in Claudio, et holds the superficies of all waters even,
riinius, c. 36. "Ut egestati simul et ignaviae oc-
i
Democritus to the Reader. <1
tlterayit. they left off; yet as the same ^^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 Deme-
trius, by Julius Caesar, Nero, Domitian, Herodes Atticus, to make a speedy
^^
passage,
and less dangerous, from the Ionian and iEgean seas
;
but because it could not be
so well effected, the Peloponnesians built a wall like our Picts' wall about Schfe-
nute, where Neptune's temple stood, and in the shortest cut over the Isthmus, of
which Diodorus, lib. 1 1 . Herodotus, lib. 8. Vran. Our latter writers call it Hexa-
milium, which Amurath the Turk demolished, the Venetians, anno 145:?, 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 his-
torians speak of a famous aqueduct in France, intended in Flenry 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, ^M'i'om 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, vadiim olvei tumcn/is
effodit saith Vopiscus, et Tiheris 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 ex-
cellent means to enrich their territories, have been fostered, invented in most provin-
ces of Euprope, as planting some Indian plants amongst us, silk-worms,
^*^
the very
mulberry leaves in the plains of Granada yield 30,000 crowns per annum to the
king of Spain's coflers, 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, silk-worms
(1
mean) vines,
fir trees, &c. Cardan exhorts Edward the Sixth to plant olives, and is fully per-
suaded 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 tliey 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 Sj)ain, with cataracts and whirlpools, as jhe Rhine, and Danubius, about
Shaffausen, Lausenburgh, Linz, and Cremmes, to endanger navigators
;
or broad
shalloAV, as Neckar in the Palatinate, Tibris in ItaiV
;
but calm and fair as Arar in
France, Hobrus in Macedonia, Eurotas in Laconia, they gently glide along, and might
as well be repaired many of them (I mean Wye, Trent, Ouse, Thamisfs 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. ^^made a channel from Trent
to Lincoln, navigable
;
which now, saith Mr. Camden, is decayed, and much men-
tion is made of anchors, and such like monuments found about old
*'
Verulamium,
ffood ships have formerly come to Exeter, and many such places, whose channels,
liavens, 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 por-
tage is so dear, to eat up our commodities ourselves, and live like so many boars in
a sty, for want of vent and utterance.
,^-
i We have many excellent havens, royal havens, Falmouth, Portsmouth, Milford, &c.
equivalent if not to be preferred to that Indian Havanna, old Brundusium in Italy, Aulia
in (ireece, Ambracia in Acarnia, Suda in Crete, which liave tew ships in them, little or
no traffic or trade, which have scarce a village on them, able to bear great cities, sed vi-
derint pnlilici. ! could here justly tax many other neglects, abuses, errors, defects
among us, and in other countries, depopulations, riot, drunkenness, &c. and many such,
qucp nunc in^aurem susurrare non libet. But I must take heed, nc quid gravius dicam,
^ Lib. 1. cap. 3. raiHon.
Paiisanias, et Nic. Ger-
heliiis. Munster. Cosm. Lib. 4. cap. 36. Ut brevinr
foret navigatin el minus periciilosa.
"
Charles the
grea'.^fint about tn make a channe' from the Rhine
to the I iiiube. Bil. Pirkimerus descript. Ger. the
ruins ai' Tet seen about VVessenburg from Rednich to
Altimul. lit navigabilia inter se Occidentis et Sep-
tentrionis littora fierent.
'''
Maginiis Georpr. Siiti-
leriis de rep. Helvet. lib. 1. describit. * Cariiden
in Lintolrishire, Fopsedike.
"
Near St. Albiiiii.
'
which must not now be whispered in the ear
"
62 DemocrUus to the Reader.
that I do not overshoot myself, Sus Mincrvam., I am forth of my element, as you perad-
t'eiuure suppose; and sometimes Veritas odium parit., as he said, "verjuice and oat-
meal IS good for a parrot." For as Lucian said of an historian, I say of a politician.
'He tliat 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, wdl, 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 sliould reform what is amiss; a just army of Rosie-crosse
men, for they will amend all matters (they say) religion, policy, manners, with arts,
sciences, &.C. Another Attila, Tamerlane, Hercules, to strive with Achelous, Jiugea
stabnluin piirgare^i to sub(hie tyrants, as
*""
he did Diomedes and Busirisvto expel
thieves, as he did Cacus and Lacinius : to vindicate poor captives, as he did Hesione
to pass the torrid zone, the deserts of Lybia, 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 Alliens
'^As Hercules ''^purged the world of monsters, and subdued them, so did he light
against envy, lust, anger, avarice, &c. and all tliose feral vices and monsters of tlie
mind." It were to be wished we had some such visitor, or if Avishing would serve,
'one had such a ring or rings, as Timolaus desired in '"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 Avhat place
he desired, alter afi'ections, cure all manner of diseases, tliat he might range over the
world, and reform all distressed states and persons, as lie would himself -.He might
reduce tliose wandering Tartars in order, that infest China on the one side, Muscovy,
Poland, on the otlier ; and tame the vagabond Arabians that rob and spoil those east-
crn countries, that they sliould never use more caravans, or janizaries to conduct
them. He might root out barbarism out of America,, and fully discover Terra Jlus-
tralis Incngnila, find out the nortli-east and north-west passages, drain those mighty
Mitotian fens, cut down those vast Hircinian woods, Irrigate those barren Arabian
deserts, &c. cure us of our epidemical diseases, scorhulum^ plica^ morbus JYeapolita-
nus^i &.C. end all our idle controversies, cut off our tumultuous desires, inordinate
lusts, root out atheism, impiety, heresy, schism and superstition, which now so cru-
cify the world, catechise gross ignorance, purge Italy of luxury and riot, Spain of
superstition and jealousy, Germany of drunkenness, all our northern country of glut-
tony antl intemperance, castigate our hard-hearted parents, masters, tutors ; laeh
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, Sec. But as L. Licinius taxed Timolaus, you
may us. Tiiese are vain, absurd and ridiculous wishes not to be hoped : all must
be as it is, ^'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 twn demum slullescere quando esse desinc7it, 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 lapi-
dem sedeat^ and as tlie ''^apologist will, resp. /ss/, et graveolentia laboret, mundus
vdio^ let them be barbarous as they are, let them * tyrannize, epicurize, oppress,
luxuriate, consume themselves with factions, superetitions, lawsuits, wars and con-
tentions, live in riot, poverty, want, misery ; rebel, wallow as so many swine in their
own dung, with Ulysses' companions, stultos jubeo esse lihenter. I will yet, to satisfy
and please myself, make an Utopia of mine own, a new Atlantis, a poetical common-
wealth of mine own, in which I will freely domineer, build cities,* make laws, sta-
tutes, as I list myself And why may I not
.^
^^Pictoribus atque poetis, &c.
You know what liberty poets ever had, and besides, my predecessor Democritus
ssLisiiis Girald. Nat. comes.
b^
Apuleius, lib. 4. I monstra philosopluis iste Hercules fuit. Pestes ea
Flor. I.ar. fainiliaris inter linmines retaiis sure ciiltus nifiitihus e^egil oinnes, &c.
w
Votis navig.
est, liliuin oiiiiiiiiin et jiirgionmi inter propinquns ar- " Racmialios, part 2, cap. 2, et part 3, c. 17.
'^'
Ve-
bitrer et discepiatcir. A(iverus iracundiam, invidiam, lent. Andrea? A|)nlo<. manip. (i04. s-*
Qui sottlidu*
4v^r<liani, lihidineui. reteraq ; aiiiiui bugiani vitia et
|
est, eordescat adUuc.
^-
Hor.
Dcmocritus to the Reader. 63
icas 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 Auslrali In-
cognita^ there is room enough (tbi* of my knowledge neither that hungry Spaniard,^^
nor Mercurius Britannicus, have yet discovered half of it) or else one of these doat-
ing islands in Maro 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 oiie
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 ^''paradise of the world, uh'i sem-
per vircns 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, Stc. 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, he
shall have present possession. It shall be divided into 12 or 13 provinces, and those
by hills, rivers, road-ways, or some more eminent limits exactly bounded. Each pro-
vince shall have a metropolis, which shall be so placed as a centre almost in a cir-
cumference, and the rest at equal distances, some 12 Italian miles asunder, or there-
about, 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, ^with fair, broad, and straight
'*
streets, houses uniform, built of brick and stone, like Bruges, Brussels, Rhegium
Lepidi, Berne in Switzerland, Milan, Mantua, Crema, CambalG in Tartary, described
by M. Folus, or that Venetian palma. I will admit very few or no suburbs, anrl
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 ^^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 citadclla (in some, not all) to command it, prisons
for ofl^enders, 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, '"in whicli 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 precarid, or by gouty benefactors,
who, wlien 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 cprario., and so still
maintained, nan nobis solum nati su7nus, &c. I will have conduits of sweet and good
water, aptly disposed in each town, connnon 'granaries, as at Dresden in Misnia, Ste-
tein in Pomerland, Noremberg, Stc. Colleges ofmathematicians, musicians, and actors,
as of old at Labedum in Ionia, ^alchymists, physicians, artists, and philosophers : that
a^-Ferdinando Uiiir. 1612.
Vide Acostaet Laiet. 1 ">0Ve his Plin. epist. 42. lib. 2. et Tacit. Annal. 13. lib.
""Vide patritinni, lib 8. lit. 10. de Instit. Reipcib. |
i
Vide ISiisdniiiiii de regno Perse lib. 3. de his et Ve
* Si(, ohni Hlppodanms Milesins Aris. pnlit. cap. 11. getiimi, lib 2. cap. 3. de Annona. 2
Not to nialti
v;tri)viu:. I. I.- nit With walls of earth, &c.
|
Ruld, but for niatteis of phvsic.
04 Democritus to the Reader
i^'W
arts and sciences may sooner be perfected and better learned
;
and public hi?
-
loriographer?, as amongst those ancient ^Persians, <77/i m commentarios refcrel)an.
quce memoralu digna gercbanlur^ informed and appointed by the state to register all
tanious acts, and not by each insnfficient scriliblers, partial or parasitical pedant, as in
our times. I will provide public schools of all kinds, singing, dancing, fencing, Stc
especially of grammar and languages, not to be tauglit by thosp tedious precepts ordi-
narily used, but by use, example, conversation,'' as travellers learn abroad, and nurses
teach their children : as 1 will liave all such places, so will I ordain
*
public govern-
ors, fit odicers to each place, treasurers, .ediles, cpiestors, overseers of pupils, widows'
goods, and all public houses, Stc. and tliose once a year to make strict accounts of all
receipts, expenses, to avoid confusion, e/ sicfiet ut 7wn absinnant {as Pliny to Trajan,)
quad pudeat dicere. They shall be subordinate to tliose higher officers and govern-
ors of each city, which shall not be poor tradesmen, and mean artificers, but noble-
men and gentlemen, which sliall be tied to residence in those towns they dwell
next, at such set times and seasons: for I see no reason (which
"
Ilippolitus com-
plains of)
"
that it should be more dishonourable for noblemen to govern the city
than the country, or unseendy to dwell there now, than of old. , ^I will have no
bogs, fens, marshes, vast woods, deserts, heaths, commons, but all inclosed
;
(yet
not depopulated, and therefore take heed you ndstake me not) for that which is
common, and every man's, is no man's ; the richest countries are still inclosed, as
Essex, Kent, with us, &c. Spain, Italy ; and where inclosures are least in quantity,
they are best
*
husbanded, as about I'lorence in Italy, Damascus in Syria, Stc 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 s-hall be supplied by art
:
^
lakes and rivers shall not be left desolate. All common Jiighways, bridges, banks,
corrivations of waters, aqueducts, channels, public works, buildings, &.c. out of a
'"common stock, curiously maintained and kept in repair; no depopulations, engross-
ings, 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 qucsque ferat regio. el quid qucsque rrci/set
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 SM'allow up all, which is too common with us) what for lords,
"
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 tyran-
nizing landlords. Tliese supervisors shall likewise appoint what quantity of land in
each manor is fit for the lord's demesnes,
'^
what for liokhng of tenants, how it ought
to be husbanded, ut ^' magnetis equis, Minyce gens cngnita rcmis.how to be manured,
tilled, rectified, 'Vt/'c segetes vcniimt, illic foelicius wee, arhorci foetus alihi, atque
injussa virescunt Gramina, and what proportion is fit for all callings, because privatjL
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, '* rather than effected,
Respuh. Christianopolilana, Campanellas city of the Sun, and that new Atlantis,
viritty fictions, but mere chimeras; and Plato's community in many things is impious
3 Bresonins Josephns, lib. 9,1. antiqiiit. Jiid. cap. 6.
Herod, lib. 3.
<
So I,od. Vives thinks best, Coiti-
mineiis, and others. I'lato 3. de le^. .EdilHS
creari vult, qui fora. fontes, vias, portiis, plateas, et id
genus alia procurent. Vide Isaacuin I'ontanum de
civ. Ainstel. hajc omnia, &c. Rotarduni et alios,
i
De Increni. urb. cap. 13. Ingen>i6 faleor ine non in-
telligere cur tgnobilius sit urbes bene niunitas colere
nunc quiin olim. aut casie rusticse pra;sse quiin nrbi.
Idem Ubertus Foliot, de Neapoli. ' Ne lantillum
quidem soli incullum relinquitur, ut verum sit ne pol-
licetn quidein asrri in his reginnibus slerilem aut infoe-
cundum reperiri. Marcus riemltiKias Augustanus de
regno CliiiuB, I. 1. c. 3. " M. Carew, in his survey-
but since inclosure, they live decently, and have inonej
to spend (fol. 23); when their fields were coniinnn,
their wool was coarse, Cornish hair; but since inclo-
sure, it is almost as good as (,'olswol, and Ibeir soil
much mended. Tusser. cap. 52. of his husbandry, is
of his opinion, one acre inclosed, is worth three.com-
inon. The country inclosed I praise; the other de-
liKhleth not me, for nothing of wealth it doth raise, &c.
" Incredibilis navi^ioruiu copia, niliilo paiiciores in
aqiiis, quilni in continent! commoi-anlur M. Ricceu
e.\nedit. in Sinas, !. 1. c. 3. "'To this purpise,
Arist. |)olit. 2. c. 6. allows a third part of their reve-
nues, Ilippodamus half. nita lex Agraria olim
Roiriie. '- Hie segetes, illic veniunt fa-licius nvw.
of Cornwall, saith that before that country was in- I Arborei fa-tus alibi, atq ; injussa virescunt Gramina
:!ospd. the husbandmen drnnk water, did eat little or
j
Virg. 1. Georg. i-'Lucanus, 1. 6.
< if_j,
'uead, fol. f)6, lib. 1. their apparel was coarse, they
|
i5Joh. Valent Andreas, Lord Verulam
It bare legged, their dwelling was correspondent
;
Deniocr'dus to the Reader. 65
absurd and ridici.lous, it takes away all splendour and magnificence. I will have
seveial ortlers, degrees of nobility, and those hereditary, not rejecting younger bro-
thers 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 themsclvef<
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.'^ As some dignities shall be hereditary, so some
again by election, or by gift (besides free ofiicers, pensions, annuities,) like oui
bishoprics, prebends, the Bassa's palaces in Turkey, the '^procurator's houses and
offices in Venice, which, like tlie golden apple, shall be given to the worthiest, and
best deserving botli in war and peace, as a reward of their worth and good service, as
so many goals for all to aim at, [Itotios edit artes) and encouragements to others
Tor I hate these severe, unnatural, harsh, German, French, and Venetian decrees,
which exclude plebeians from lionours, be they never so wise, rich, virtuous, valiant,
and well qualified, they must not be patricians, but keep their own rank, this is naiu-
rce helium inferre., odious to God and men, I abhor it. My form of government
hall be monarciiical.
"
nunquaiii libertas gralior extat,
Quaiii sub Re!;e pio," Ate.
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 : '^and parents shall teach their children one
of three at least, bring up aiul instruct them in the mysteries of their own trade. Jn
each town these several tradesmen shall be so aptly disposed, as they shall free the
rest froiu danger or oflence : fire-trades, as smiths, forge-men, brewers, bakers, metal-
men, &c., shall dwell aj)art by themselves : dyers, tanners, felmongers, and such as
use water in convenient places by themselves : noisome or fulsome for bad smells, as
butchers' slaughter-houses, chandlers, curriers, in remotv<5 places, and some back lanes.
Fraternities aiul companies, I approve of, as merchants' bourses, colleges of drug-
gists, physicians, nuisicians, Stc, but all trades to be rated in the sale of wares, as
our clerks of the luarket do bakers and brewers ; corn itself, what scarcity soever
shall come, not to exteml such a price. Of such wares as are transported or brought
in, 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
j)aid, no taxes
;
but for such things as are for pleasure, delight, or ornament, as
wme, 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, ^'and some dis-
creet 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 Uterali in China. No parish to con-
tain 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, pliilosoj/hers should
know themselves, noblemen live honestly, tradesmen leave lying and cozoiing.
magistrates corruption, &c., but this is impossible, I must get such as I may. I will
therefore have ^^of lawyers, judges, advocates, physicians, chirurgeons, &c., a set
number, ^'^and every man, if it be possible, to plead his own cause, to tell that tale
'8
So is it in the kinpdom of Naples and France.
" See Contarenus and Osorius de rebus gestis Enui-
nuelis.
If
Claudian 1. 7.
'
I.iberly never is more
gratifying than under a pious king."
'^
Herodotus
Erato lib. 6. Cum jEgyptiis I.acedemonii in lioc coii-
gruunt, quod eoruni pra-cnnes, tibiciiu-s, coqui, et re-
iqui artifices, in pnterno artificio succedunt,et coquus
A coquo gigniliir, et patcrno opere perseverat. Idem
Marcus polus de Quinzay. Idem Osorius de Emanuele
"cge Lusitano. Riccius de Sinis. 'onippnl. &
c.oliibus (Ic iiicrem. urb. c. 20. Plato idem 7. de legi-
t'ls, quae ad vitam necessaria, et quibus carere non
Q
f2
imssumus, nullum dependi vectigal, &c
21
piato
12. de legibus, 40. aiinos natos vult, ut si quid memo-
rabile viderent apud e.xleros, hoc ipsum in rempuh
recipiatur.
^-
8iui!erus in Helvetia. -
IJlo-
pieuses causidicos exchidunt, qui causas callide el
val're tractent et dispntent. Iniquissimimi censens
hominem ullis obligaii legibus, qua; aut nnmerosioic'
sunt, quam ut perlegi queant, aut obscurinres qu&ni
ut a quovis possint intelligi. Voluiit ut siiam qu-sq
;
causam agat, eamij ; referal .ludici quaui narraturua
fueral patrono, sic minus eril ambagum, el Veritas
facilius elicielur. Mor. Utop. I. 2.
66
Democritwi to the Reader.
to ihc judge v^liich he Joth to his advocate, as at Fez in Africa, Bantam, Aleppi>,
Kao-usa, suam qiiisq
;
causam dicere tcnetur. Those advocates, chirurgeons, and
"physicians, which are allowed to be maintained out of the ^'conniion treasury, n<.
fees to be given or taken upon pain of losing their places ; or if they do, very small
fees, and when the ^"^ cause is fully ended. /^He that sues any man shall put in a
pledge, which if it be proved he hath wrongfully sued his advcrsqj-y, 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 otlier 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 ^*as the
literati, in Ciiina, or by those exact suffrages of the
^'^
Venetians, and such again not to
be eligible, or capable of magistracies, honours, offices, except they be sufficiently
'"qualified for learning, manners, and that by the strict approbation of deputed ex-
aminers : ^' first scholars to take place, then soldiers
;
for 1 am of Vigetius his opin-
ion, a scholar deserves better than a soldier, because Unius cBtatis sunt quce fortiter
fiunt^ qucB vera pro utilitate Reipub. scrihuntur., cpterna : a soldier's work lasts for an
age, a scholar's for ever. If they ''^misbehave themselves, they shall be deposed, and
accordingly punished, and whether their offices be annual '^or otherwise, once a year
they shall be called in question, and give an account ; for men are partial and pas-
sionate, merciless, covetous, corrupt, subject to love, hate, fear, favour, &.c., omne
sub regno graviore regniim : like Solon's Areopagites, or those Roman Censors,
some shall visit others, and
*^
be visited inviccm themselves, ^Hhey 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 cEquabile jus, justice equally done, live as friends and brethren
together ; and which
^"^
Sesellius would have and so much desires in his kingdom of
France,
"
a diapason an-d 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 etiiiri virlulein amplectitur ipsam,
Proemia si tollas V
"'
He that invents anything for public good in any art or science, writes a treatise, ^^or
performs any noble exploit, at home or abroad, ^^ shall be accordingly enriched,
^"honoured, and preferred. ! say with Hannibal in Ennius, Hostem quiferiet erit milii
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,
^'
to redeem captives, set free
'"
iMedici ex publico victum siimunt. Boter. 1. 1. c. 5.
de ^siyptiis. '^Da his leiie I'alrit. 1. 3. lit. 8. (ie
reip. Instit.
''''
Nihil i clieiitibiis palroni accipiant,
priusquatn lis finila est. Barcl. Arfjen. lib. 3. '^' It
is so ill most fiee cities in Germany. '-^Mat. Ric-
rius exped. in Sinas, 1. 1. c. ."J. de examinatione elec-
tionum copios* a!it, &c.
-^iContar. de repub. Ve-
net. !. 1. suOsor. 1. 11. de reb. gest. Eman. Qui
iti lileri.'i maximos proaressus fecerint inaximis hono-
.'ilins afficiunlur, secundus honoris gradus mililibus
years, Arist. polit. 5. c.8. 3<Narn quis custodiet
ipsos rustodes
? 35 Cylreus in Greisjeia. Qui non
ex sublimi despiciant inferiores, nee ut bestias concul-
cent sibi gubdilos auctorilatis nomini, coiifisi, &c.
36
Sesellius de rep. Gallorum, lib. 1 & 2.
' " For
who would cultivate virtue itself, if you were to take
away the reward
1" ^i"
Si quisegiegium rut be'lo
aut pace perfecerit. Sesel. I. 1.
s^
Ad regendam
rempub. soli literati admittuntur, nee ad earn rem
gratia magistraiuum aut regis indigent, omnia explo-
aasignatur, poslremi ordinis nieclianicis, doctoruui
|
rata cujusq ;
scientia et virtute pendent. Riccius lib.
hominum jiidiciis in altiorern locum quisq
;
prsesertur, 1. cap 5.
">
In defuncti locum eum jussit siihro-
et qui a piuriinis apprnbatur, ampliores in rep. digni- gari, qui inter majores Tirtute reliquis pra'irel
;
non
tales consequilur. Qui in hoc examine primas habet,
'
fuit apud mortales ullum excellentius cert.uneii, aut
insigni per totamvitam dignitate insianitur, marchioni cujus victoria magis esset expetenda, non eiiim inter
eimilis, aut duci apud nos.
3i
Cedant arma toese. celpres,celerrimo, non inter robustos robuslissimo, &c.
=
As in I'erne, Lucerne. Friburge in Switzerland, a
<' Nullum videres vol in hac vel in vicinis regionibu*
vicious liver is uncapable of any ofRce ; if a Senator, paupereiii, nullum oba;raluin, &c.
instantly deposed. Siui'erus.
aa
Not above three
.
Democritus to the Reader. 67
prisoners, and relieve all poor distressed souls that wanted niPins ; religiously done.
f 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 "'^beggars, rogues, vagabonds, or idle persons at all, that
cannot give an account of their lives how they ''^maintain themselves. If they be im-
potent, lame, blind, and single, they shall be sufficiently maintained in several boss-
pilals, built for that purpose ; if married and infirm, past work, or by inevitable loss.
or some such like misfortune cast behind, by distribution of "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. ^^"For 1
see no reason (as ''^he said) why an epicure or idle drone, a rich glutton, a usurer,
shouW 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
"all conditions shall be tied to their task, so none shall be overtired, but have theii
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 ''^that Saccarum festmn amongst
the Persians, those Saturnals in Rome, as well as his master.
''^
If any be drunk, he
shall drink no more wine or strong drink in a twelvemonth after. A bankrupt shall
be
'
Caladoniatus in JlmphUheatro, publicly shamed, and he that cannot pay his
debts, if by riot or negligence he have been impoverished, shall be for a twelve-
month imprisoned, if in that space his creditors be not satisfied, ^'he shall be hanged.
He ^^that commits sacrilege shall lose his bauds
;
he th&t bears false witness, or is
of perjury convicted, shall have his tongue cut out, excep*, he redeem it with his
head. Murder, ^^ adultery, shall be punished by death, ^''but not theft, except it be
some more grievous offence, or notorious offenders : otherwise they shall be con-
demned to the galleys, mines, be his slaves whom they have ofl^ended, during their
lives. I hate all hereditary slaves, and that duram Persarnm legen^ as ^^Brisonius
calls it; or as "^ Jlmviianvs^ iiripcndio formidatas et abominandas leges, per quas oh
noxam nnius, 07nni-'i vrojnv.qniius peril hard law that wife and children, friends and
allies, should suff^er for the father's offence.
No man shall marry until he ^'bo 25, no woman till she be 20, ^^nisi alitur dis-
pensatum fuerit. If one ^^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, *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: ^'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 olher respect, ^^but all shall be rather enforced than hindered,
Nullus mendicus apiid Sinas, nemini sano quam- i septennis puer. Paiilus Heuzner Itiner.
's
Atl e-
vis oculis turbatus sit mendicare perinittiliir, nmnes iiasus, I. 12. ^
Simlerus de repub. Helvet.
pro viiibiis laborare, cogiinlur, CKci molis ttusalilibus ,
M
Spartian. olim Rome sic.
i*'
He that provide*
versaiidis addiciintur, soli hospitiis gaudent, qui ad
labores sunt iiiepti. Osor. 1. 11. de reb. gest. Enian.
Heniins de reg. Chin. I. I. c. 3. Go'tard. Arth. Orient.
Ind. descr. " Alex, ab Alex. 3. c. 12. "Sic
dim Romae Isaac. Pontan. de his optime. Amstol.
1. 2. c. 9. '"Idem Arislot. pol. 5. c. 8. Vitiosutn
quuui soli pauperum liberi educantnr ad labores, no-
nol for his family, is worse than a tliief. Paul.
'^Alfrerii lex. iitraq
; manus et lingua pra-cidatur, nisi
earn capite redemerit.
^s
gj quis nuptam stuprJl-
fit, virga virilis ei prasciditur ; si mulier, nasus et au-
ricula prfficidatur. Alfredi lex. En leges ipsi Veneri
Martiq ; timendas.
'^
Pauperes non peccant, quum
extrenia necessitate coacti rem alienam capiunt. MaU
biliutn et divitum in voluptatibus etdeliciis. Qu!B
'
donat. summula quaist. 8. art. 3. Egocnm illis sentio
ha;c injusiitia ut nobilis quispiam, aut fosnerator qui qui licere putant i divite clam accipere, qui tenetui
nihil agat, lautam et spleiididam vitam agat, otio et
'
pauperi subvenire. Emmanuel Sa Aphor. confess.
delitiis,quum interim auriga.faber.agricola, quo res-
^c
Lib. 2. de Reg. Persaruni.
>
,ib. 24.
^7
Alitei
pub. carere non potest, vitam adeo miseram ducat, ut Aristoteles, a man at 25, a woman at 20. polit.
pejor quam jumentonim sit ejus conditio 1 Iniqua ^Lex olim Licurgi, hodie Chinensiuni ; vide Plutarch-
um, Riccium, Hemmingium, Arniseum, Nevisanum,
et alios de hac quaestione. ''' Alfredus.
^pujj
Lacones olim virgines fine dote nubebant. Boter. 1. 3.
c. 3.
61
Lege cautum non ita pridem apud Venetos,
ne quis Patrilius doteni excederet ISOOcoron.
c-
Bux
Synag. Jud. Sic .ludffii. Leo Afer Africs descript. n
sint aliter inconlitientes ob reipub. bonum. Ut Kn-
gasC. Cxsar. orat. ad cielibes Ronianos olim edocuit.
resp. qnai dat parasitis, adulatoribus, inanium volup
latum artificibus generosis et otiosis tanta munera
prodigit, at contri agricolis, carbonariis, aurigis, fa-
bris, &c. nihil prospicit, sed eorum abusa labore flo-
rentis ffitatis fame penset et serumnis, Mor. Utop. I. 2.
<'ln Segovia nemo otiosus, nemo mendicus nisi per
etatem aut morbum opus facere non potest : nulli
deest unde victum quaerat, aut quo se exerceat. Cypr.
Echovius Delit. Hispan. NuIIus Genevee otiosus, ne
68
Democritus to the Reader.
"except they be ^dismembered, or grievously deformed, infirm, or visited with some
snorinous hereditary disease, in body or mind ; in such cases upon a great pain,
)T mulct, ^^man or woman shall not marry, other order shall be taken for them to
their content. .1 If people overabound, they shall be eased by
"^"^
colonies.
^'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. ^^ Ltixus
funC'
rum shall be taken away, that intempestive expense moderated, and many others.
Brokers, takers of pawns, biting usurers, I will not admit
;
yet because hie cum
hominibus non cum diis ogitur., we converse here with men, not with gods, and for
the hardness of men's hearts I will tolerate some kind of usury
.^^
If we were honest,
I confess, si probi essemns, we should have no use of it, but being as it is, we must
necessarily admit it. Howsoever most divines contradict it, dicimus injicias^ sed vox
ea sola reperta est., it must be winked at by politicians. And yet some great d;ictors
approve of it, Calvin, Bucer, Zanchius, P. Martyr, because by so many grand law-
yers, decrees of emperors, princes' statutes, customs of commonwealths, churches'
approbations it is permitted, &c. J 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 em-
ploy it; and those so approved, not to let it out apart, but to bring their money to a
'"common bank which shall be allowed in every city, as in Genoa, Geneva, Nurem-
berg, Venice, at
"
5, 6, 7, not above 8 per centum, as the supervisors, or cerarii prcb-
fecti shall think fit. '^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 super-
visors shall approve of.
J
I will have no private monopolies, to enrich one man, and beggar a multitude,
'^''multiplicity of offices, of supplying by deputies, weights and measures, the same
throughout, and those rectified by the Primmn mobile., and sun's motion, three-
score 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 popnli sahdem, upon urgent occasion,
'"''
odimus accipifrim, quia semper vivit in armis.,'''' "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 "^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. ''' Peragit tranquilla poteslas.. Quod violenla nequit. I will have them
proceed with all moderation : but hear you, Fabius my general, not Minutius, nam
''^qui Consilio nititur plus hostibus nocet., quam qui sini animi ratione., viribus :
And in such wars to obstain as much as is possible from '^depopulations, burning of
towns, raassacreing 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
^Bonjinius apud Hungaros suos vult., virgam ferream., and money, which is nerves
MM-orbo lahorans, qui in prolem fticile diffunditiir, dearer, and better improved, as he hath jiidicia'ly
ne genus huinanuni foeda confagione hfdalur, juven- proved in his tract of usury, exhibited to the Parlia-
tute castratur, niulieres tales prociiiaconsorliovi.ro- inent anno 1621. ''^ Hoc fere Zanchius com. in 4
rum ablesantur, &c. Hector Boethius hist. lib. 1. de cap. ad Ephes. aequissimam vocaJ usuram, et charitati
vet. Scotorum moribus. " Speciosissimi juvenes Christianie consentaneani, inodo non exigant, &;c. nee
libtris dabunt operam. Plato 5. de iegUius. "^The omnes dent ad foenus, sed ii qui in pecuniis bona lia-
Saxons exclude dutub, blind, leprous, and such like bent, et ob a;talem, sexum, ariis alicujus ignorantiam,
persons from all iiibc'ritatuc, as we do fools. '"'Ut nnn possunt uti. Nee omnibus, sed mercatoribus et
dim Komani, nispani hodie, &c. "Rjccius lib. 11. iis qiiihoneste impendent, &c. "' Idem apud Per-
cap. 5. de 8inarum. expedit. sic Hispani couunt Mau- sas olim, lege Brisonium. '< " We hale the hawk,
ros arma deponere. So it is in most Italian cities, because he always lives in battle." '' Idem Plato
6"
Idem Plato 12. de legibus, it hath ever been immode- j de legibus. ""Lib, 30. Optimum qiiidem fuerat
rate, vide Guil. Stuckium antiq. convival. lib. 1. cap. 26.
'
eain patribus nostris mentem a diis datam esse, ut vos
'*
Plato 9. de legibus. "' As those Lombards beyond Italim, nos Africae imperio contenti essemus. Neque
^eas, though with some reformation, inons ptetatis, or enini Sicilia aut Sardinia satis digna precio sunt pro
bank of charity, as Malines terms if, cap. 33. Lax tot classibus, &c. " Claudian. '"Inucid'des.
mertat. part 2. that lend money upon easy pawns, or '^A depopulatione, asrorum incendiia, ei ejiis'nodi
take money upon adventure for men's lives. "That factis iiiimanibus. Piato. "'Hungar. dec i<
nroportion will make merchandise increase, land lib 9
Democritus to t/ie Reader. 69
belli, sti:l in a readiness, and a sufficient revenue, a third part as in old ^'Rome and
Egypt, reserved for tlie commonwealth
;
to avoid those heavy taxes and impositions
as well to defray this charge of wars, as also all other public defalcations, expenses
foes, pensions, reparations, chaste sports, feasts, donaries, rewards, and entertainments
^11 tilings in this nature especially 1 will have maturely done, and with great **^ deli-
beration : tiP quid
*^
Icmere, ne quid remisse ac limide fiat ; Sed quo feror hospes ?
To prosecute the rest would require a volume. Manii.m de tabellcti J 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
corslves and molestations, as frequent discontents as the rest. Great affinity there
's beUvixt a political and economical body; they differ only in magnitude and pro-
portion of business (so Scaliger^'' writes) as they have both likely the same period, as
^Bodin and "'^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 com-
mon 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 **' corographer 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 ovinia dissipuvii.^ riot hath consumed all, fine clothes and curious
buildings came into this island, as he notes in his annals, not so many years since
;
nonsine dispendin hospitalifatis, to the decay of hospitality. Howbeit many times
that word is mistaken, and under the name of bounty and hospitality, is shrowded
riot and prodigality, and that which is eommendable in itself well used, hath been
mistaken heretofore, is become by his abus?, thd 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 ^^Axilon in Homer, keep open
house for all comers, giving entertainment to such as visit them,
""^
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 Acta^on was by his hounds, devoured by
their kinsmen, friends, and multitude of followers. ^"It is a wonder that Faulus
Jovius relates of our norihsni countries, what an infinite deal of meat we consume
on our tables
;
that I nfi.-.y 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, herediUuy 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, Stc. gaming, excess
of pleasure, and that prodigious riot in apparel, by which means they are compelled
to break up house, and creep into holes. SeselliMs in his commonwealth of '"France,
gives three reasons why the French nobility were so frequently bankrupts :
"
First,
because they had so many law-suits 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 saJes, mortgages, and debts, or wholly sunk in their
estates.) "-The last was immodtrate excess in apparel, which consumed their reve-
nues." 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 misaftected, all the rest suffer with it : so is it with this economical body
*'
Seselliiis, lib. 2. de repiib. Gal. valde enim est in-
decorum, ubi quod praeter opiriionem accidit dicere,
Non putaram, presertim si res preecaveri potuerit.
Livius, lib. 1. Dion. lib. 2. Diodorus Siculus, lib. 2.
'
Peragit tranqiiilla potestas. Quod violenta nequit.
t^laudian.
'^'
Belluin nee tiniendum nee provocan-
dum. Plir.. Tanegyr. Trajano. "^Lib. 3. poet,
cap. 19. 66 Lib. 4. de repub. cap. 2. sepeuier.
lib. 1. de divinat. ' Camden in Cheshire. ""Iliad.
6. lib.
S9
Vide Puteaiii Comum, Gocletiium de por-
tentosis cosnis nostrorum teinporum. soMirabile
diet!! est, quantum opsoniorum una domiis singulii
diehus absumat, slernuntur iiiens<e in oniiies pene
lioras calentibus semper eduliis. Uescrip. Britan.
J' Lib. 1. de rep. Gallorum; quod tot lites et lauss
forensps, alia; ferantur ex aliis, iu immensnm produ-
eanlur, et masrnos sumptus requirant unde fit iil juri.i
administri plerumque iioliiljum possessiones adciul-
rant, turn quod sumptuosft vivani, et 4 niercaloribu*
absorbentur et splendissimd vestiantur. Sec.
70
Democntus to the Reader.
If the liead be naught, a spendthrift, a drunkard, a whoremaster, a gamester, how
shall the family live at ease ? ^^Ipsa si c^qnat salus servarc^ prorsus, non potest hanc
famillam^ as Demea said in the comedy. Safety herself cannot save it. A good, hon-
est, 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 difier in nature, he is tlirifty, she
spends all, he wise, slie sottish and soft ; what agreement can there be ? what friend-
ship ? Like that of the thrush and swallow in ^sop, instead of mutual love, kind
compellations, whore and thief is heard, they fling stools at one another's heads.
^QucR intemperies vexed hanc famiUarn? All enforced marriages commonly pro-
duce such effects, or if on their behalfs it be well, as to live and agree lovingly
together, they may have disobedient and unruly children, that take ill courses to
disquiet tliem,^'
"
their son is a thief, a spendthrift, their daughter a wliore
;"
a step
"^mother, or a daughter-in-law distempers all
;^^
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,^' and will not descend to their present for-
tunes. Oftentimes, too, to aggravate the rest, concur many other inconveniences,
unthankful friends, decayed friends, bad neighbours, negligent servants ^^servi
fu-
races^i Versipelles, callidi^ occlusa sibi mille clavUms rcscrant^ fiirlimque ; raptant^
consumunt., liguriunt ; casualties, taxes, mulcts, chargeable offices, vain expenses,
entertainments, loss of stock, enmities, emulations, frequent invitations, losses, surety-
ship, 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, Avant, grief, discontent and melancholy itself.
I have done with faradies, and will now briefly run over some few sorts and con-
ditions 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, sus-
picions, jealousies, discontents, folly and madness, I refer you to Xenophon's Tyran-\
nus, where king Hieron discourseth at large with Simonides the poet, of this subject.'
Of all others tliey are most troubled with perpetual fears, anxieties, insomuch, that .
as he said in ''^Valerius, if thou knewest with what cares and miseries this robe were .
stuffed, tliou wouldst not stoop to take it up. Or put case they be secure and free I
from fears and discontents, yet they are void "^of reason too oft, and precipitate in'
their actions, read all our histories, quos de stultis prodidere stulti, Iliades, jEneides.
Annales, and what is the subject
.?
Petrarch
i
Prov. iii. 12.
3**
Ilor. Epis. lib.
1.4 '~Deu' vi'" U. Qui stat videat ne nadat.
s'Quanto majoribiis beneliciis a Deo cumulatur, lanto
obligatiorein se debitorem fateri. '"Boteriis de
Inst, urbium. ^JJ^ege hist, relationem I.od. Froli
de rebus Japoricis ad annum 1596. '"Guicciard.
descript. Belg. anno 1421.
"
Giraldus Cambrens.
-Janus Dousa, ep. lib 1. car. 10. And we perceive n-
thing, except the dead bodies of cities in I lie open sea
"Munsler. I. 3. Cos. cap. 462. * Builiaiian. BaptLt
B8 Diseases in General.
[Part. 1. Sec. 1
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 venemous creatures, ready to offend us with stings, breath,
sight, or quite kill us ? How many pernicious fishes, y)lants, 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.
""^
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, tyrannize, vex, as one man doth another.
Let me not fall tlierefore (saith David, when wars, plague, famine were offered) into
the hands of mf ', merciless and wicked men
:
<^ "
Vix sunt homines hoc nomine digni,
Quimque hipi, sjevje plus ftritatis habenl."
We can most part foresee these epidemical diseases, and likely avoid them;
Dearths, tempests, plagues, our astrologers fortel us; Earthquakes, inundations,
ruins of houses, consuming fires, come by little and little, or make some noise be-
forehand
;
but the knaveries, impostures, injuries and villanies of men no art can
avoid. We can keep our professed enemies from our cities, by gates, walls and
towers, defend oui-selves 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, "witches : sometimes by impostures,
mixtures, poisons, stratagems, single combats, wars, we liack and hew, as if we were
ad hiternccionem nafi, like Cadmus' soldiers born to consume one another. 'Tis an
ordinary tiling 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, en-
gines, &c. '^^Jld uni/m corpus humanum siipplicia 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. ''"The fathers have eaten
sour grapes, and the children's teeth an-e 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
;
60
"moxdaturiprogeniemvitiosiorem." I
"And yet with crimes to us unknown,
I
Our sons shall mark the coming age their own
;
and the latter end of the world, as ^'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, ^^Perdit'io tua ex te. As ^'^ 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, turn-
ed 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 com-
monly do, we have too many instances. This St. Austin acknowledgeth of hi>a-
solf in his humble confessions, "promptness of wit, memory, eloquen<"e, 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
jji ofl'ending in some of those six non-natural things, of which I shall ^'' dilate more
at large
;
they are the causes of our infirmities, our surfeiting, and drunkenness, oiu
'^Horno homini lunus, homo homini daemon. I xviii 2. '^Hor. I. 3. Od. 6.
s'
2 Tim iii. i
'tvid de Trist. I. 5. lileg. 8.
<
Mifcent acoiiita
Eze. iviii. 31. Thy desiriiciion is from thvselt
novrtr.x. -^Lib. 2. Epist.2. ad Doiiatum. *" Kz.
|
iJI Alacc. iii. 12.
'
'<
I'art. i Sec. 2. Menib. 2
Mem. 1. Subs, 2.] Def.
JYum. Div.
of
Diseases. 99
Immoderate insatiable lust, and prodigious riot. Plures crapula, quam gladius^i is a
true saying, the board consumes more than the sword. Our intemperance it is, thai
pulls so many several incurable diseases upon our heads, that hastens **old age, per-
verts our temperature, and brings upon us sudden death. And last of all, that wliich
crucifies us most, is our own folly, madness [quos Jupiter perdit., dementat ; by su1)trac-
tion 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 pertur-
bation of the mind : by which means we metamorphose ourselves and degenerate into
beasts. All whicli that prince of
^'^
poets observed of Agamemnon, that when he was
well pleased, and could moderate his passion, he was
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
'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, wesel, chops, face, &c.) belonging properly to the brain, as baldi^ess, falling
of hair, furfaire, lice, Stc. '^Inward belonging to the skins next to the brain, called
dura and pia mater., as all head-aches, &c., or to the ventricles, caules, kels, 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
phrensy, lethargy, melancholy, madness, weak memory, sopor, or Coma VigiJ.ia el
vigil Coma. Out of these again 1 will single such as properly belong to the phan-
tasy, or imagination, or reason itself, which "Laurentius calls the disease of the
mind ; and Hildesheim, morhos imaginationis., aut rationis IcEsce, (diseases of the
imagination, or of injured reason,) which are three or four in number, phrensy,
madness, melancholy, dotage, and their kinds : as hydrophobia, lycanthropia. Chorus
sancti viti^ morhi damoniaci., (St. Vitus's dance, possession of devils,) which I will
briefly touch and point at, insisting especially in this of melancholy, as n^ore eminent
than the rest, and that through all his kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostics, cures
as Lonicerus hath done dc apoplexid., 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 ; thai
which one contracts, another may enlarge. To conclude with ^''Scrihanius,
"
that
which they had neglected, or profunctorily handled, we may more thoroughly ex-
amine; 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.
St'BSECT. IV.
Digression
of
Anatomy.
Before I proceed to define the disease of melancholy, what it is, or to discourse
farthc 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 myrache, hypocondries,
emrods, &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 perad-
venture give occasion to some men to examine more accurately, search further into
this most excellent subject, and thereupon with that royal
^^
prophet to praise God,
(" for a man is fearfully and wonderfully made, and curiously wrought") that have
time and leisure enough, and are sufliciently 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 tliis body and soul are,
how combined, of what parts and faculties they consist, or how a man difiers from a
dog. 'And what can be more ignominious and filthy (as ^'^Melancthon well inveighs)
''
tlian for a man not to know the structure and composition of his own body, espe-
cially 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 "^' Galen, Bauhines, Plater, Vesalius, Falopius, Laurentius,
Remelinus, Stc, 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 ^** Columbus and ^^Microcosmograjihia, in thirteen books, I have made
this brief digression. Also because ^"Wecker, "QVIelancthon, "'Fernelius, ^^Fuschius,
and those tedirms Tracts cle Animct (which have more compendiously liandled 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 pans of the body there may be many divisions : the most approved is that
of
^*
Laurentius, out of Hippocrates : which is, into parts contained, or containing.
Contained, are either humours or spirits.
Hiunonrs.] A humour is a liquid or fluent part of the body, comprehended m
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 main-
tain it : or acquisite, to maintain these four first primary humours, coming and pro-
ceeding from the first concoction in the liver, by whioh means chylus is excluded.
Some cuvide them into profitable and excrementitious. But ^^Crato out of Hippo-
crates will have all four to be juice, and not excrements, Avithout 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
fi om one another, and from those adventitious, peccant, or
^^
diseased humours, a
iilelancihon calls them.
Blood.] Blood is a hot, sweet, temperate, red humour, prepared in the miseraic
veins, and made of the most temperate parts of the chylus in the liver, whose offi;e
i^Lib. 1. c. 6. 2<Fuschius, . 3. sec. 1. cap. 7. 1 usu part. ^History of man. s^D.
Cioofce.
Hildesheirn, fol. 130. '^Psal. xxxix. 13. -''De h" In Syntax!. ^' De Aninia. s^instit. lib. 1.
Anima. Tiirpe enim est honiini ifrnnrare sui corporis 33 physiol. I. 1,2. a-tAnat. 1. 1. c. 18.
3^
In
(ut ta dicaiii) Eedificiiiin, prsesertim cum ad valeiudi-
|
Micro, succos, sine quibus animal sustenlari non pc
kern et mores bKccugnitio plurimum conducat. ^ l)e |
test.
^u
]^Iorboso3 humored.
90 Similar Parts. ^Part. i. Sec.
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,
wriich afterwards by the arteries are communirated to the other parts.
Pituita, or phlegm, is a cold and moist humour, beguuen of the colder part ol
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 excrenicnts.
Melancholy.] Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black, and sour, begotten of the
^lore feculent part of nourisliment, and purged from the spleen, is a bridle to the
other two hot humours, blood and choler, preserving them in the blood, and nourish-
ing the bones. These four humours have some analogy with the four elements, and
to the four ages in man.
SeniM^i Siveaf, 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 subtile lapeur, which is expressed from the blood, and
the instrument of the soul, to peri-Ji-m all his actions ; a common tie or medium
between the body and the soul, as some will have it ; or as
^'
Paracelsus, a fourth
soul of itself. Melancthon holds the fountain of those spirits to be the heart, be-
gotten there ; and afterward conveyed to tlie 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 swoon-
ing. The animal spirits formed of the vital, brought up to the brain, and diflused by
the nerves, to the subordinate members, give sense and motion to them all.
Sub SECT. III.
Similar Parts.
Similar Parts.] Containing parts, by reason of their more solid substance, are
either homogeneal or heterogeneal, similar oi dissimilar; so Aristotle divides them,
lib. 1, cap. 1, de Hist. Jlnimdl. ; Laurcntius., 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.
^^
Spermati-
cal are such as are immediately begotten of the seed, which are bones, gristles, liga-
ments, 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' ofiice is to cover the rest.
Nerves, or sinews, are membranes without, and full of marrow within ; they pro-
ceed from the brain, and carry the animal spirits for sense and motion. Of these
some be liarder, some softer; the softer serve the senses, and there be seven pair of
'.hem. The first be the optic nerves, by which we see ; the second move the eyes
;
ihe third pair serve for the tongue to taste ; the fourth pair for the taste in the
[^'ate ; the fifth belong to the ears ; the sixth pair is most ample, and runs almost
over cl\ 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.
-f-\Mrleries.] 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
S'Spirilalis anima. ^Laurentius, cap. 30, lib. 1- Anat.
Mem 2. Subs.
4.]
Dissimilar Parts.
97
lo cut up men alive. '^They arise in the left side of the heart, and are princr <Jly
two, from which the rest are derived, aorta and venosa : aorta is the root of &>- the
other, which serve the whole body
;
the other goes to the lungs, to fetch r to
refrigerate the heart.
Veins.] Veins are hollow and round, like pipes, arising from the liver, cam'ing
blood and natural spirits
;
they feed all the parts. Of tliese there be two chief, ^ena
porta and Vena coffl, from which the rest are corrivated. That Vena porta is a vRm
coming from the concave of the liver, and receiving those meseraical veins, by WMom
he takes the chylus from the stomach and guts, and conveys it lo the liver, i'he
other derives blood from the liver to nourish all the other dispersed members, f'^ie
branches of that Vena porta are the meseraical and liaemorrhoides. The branches
of the cava are inward or outward. Inward, seminal or emulgent. Outward, in the
head, arms, feet, Sec, and have several names.
Fibrcp, Fat, Flesh.] Fibrre are strings, white and solid, dispersed through "hi;
whole member, and right, oblique, transverse, all which have their several v ps.
Fat is a similar part, moist, without blood, composed of the most thick and v 'c-
tious matter of the b'ood. The ^skiu covers the rest, and hath cMlicuhim, or ah 'Ift
skin under it. Flesh is soft and ruddy, composed of the congealing of blood, &.(
SuBSECT. IV.
Dissimilar Parts.
Dissimilar parts are those which we call organical, or instrumental, and they be
inward or outward. Tiie chiefest outv/ard parts are situate forward or backward
fi fward, the crown and foretop of the head, skull, face, foreliead, temples, chin, eyes,
ears, nose, &c., neck, breast, chest, upper and lower part of the belly, hypocondries.
navel, groin, flan'k, &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 prcecipua el grandiora tantiim
;
quod reliquum ex
Hhris 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 '*'Laurentius is most notable, into
noble or ignoble parts. Of tlie noble there be three principal parts, to which all the
rest belong, and whom they servebrain, heart, liver
;
according to whose site, three
regions, or a threefold division, is made of the whole body. As first of the head, in
wliich 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 lo 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, expelUng
of excrements. This lower region is distinguished from the upper by the midriff, or
diaphragma, and is subdivided again by ""^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 melan-
choly. 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 Ara-
bians inake two parts of this region. Epigastrium and 'Hi/pogastriu?n, upper or lower
Epigastrium they call Miracli, from whence comes Mirachialis Melancholia, some-
times mentioned of them. Of these several regions I Avill treat in brief apart ; and
first of the third region, in which tlie natural organs are contained.
De Jinima.
The Loioer Region, JYalural Organs.] But you that are readers in
-
tie meantime, "Suppose you were now brought into some sacred temple, or majes-
^
tical palace (as
"^
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
In tliesi! they observe the beating of the puUe.
"oCiijiis est pars sininlaris a vi cutifica iit inlenora
niuniat. Capivac. Anat. pag. 252.
"
Anat. lib. 1.
**"
We can understand all things
^
Ptiysio. I. 1. c. 8.
"
Ut orator rejji : sic piilino I
si
Tusciil. qiiacsl.
^"
Lib. 6. Doct. Va. ,"!en".il. -. 13
ocis iiistruiiientum annectilur cordi, &c. Mel.uicth.
|
pag. 1-216. ^Aristot.
"i
Aiiiiiia (iiisque in
f
De anini. c. 1.
<J
Scalig. exerc. 307. Told, in lelligiiiius, et tamen quae sit ipsa intelligere non
.it), de aniina. cap. 1. &c.
^1. Ve annua, cap. 1.
|
valeiiius.
100 Anatomy
of
the Soul. [Part 1. Sec, 1
by her, but what she is we cannot apprehend." Some therefore make one soul,
divided into three principal facukies ; others, three distinct souls. Wliich question
of late hath been much controverted by Picolomineus and Zabarel.
^^
Paracelsus will
have four souls, adding to tlie three grand faculties a spiritual soul : which opinion of
his, Campanella, in his book de sensu rerum,'''' much labours to demonstrate and
prove, because cax'casses bleed at the sight of the murderer; with many such argu-
ments: And "some again, one soul of all creatures whatsoever, dillering 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 ^*'com-
moir division of the soul is into three principal facultiesvegetal, sensitive, and
rational, which make three distinct kinds of living creaturesvegetal plants, s.ensi-
ble beasts, rational men. How these three principal faculties are distinguished and
connected, Hinnano ingenio inaccessiwividetur., is beyond human capacity, as ''^Tau-
rellus, Phdip, 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) ul Irigonus in telragono, as a tri-
angle 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
'
"Stat sua ciiique dies, breve et. irreparabile tenipus I " A term of life is set to every man,
jinnibus est vi'ffi."
I
Wliicli is but short, and pass it no one can."
Generation.] The last of these vegetal faculties is generation, which begets another
ty 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 preser-
vation 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. Stc, though not so easily perceived. In all bodies it must
have radical ^^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, judg-
ment, breath, and motion." His object in general is a sensible or passible quality,
because the sense is aflected 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, hear-
ing, seeing, smelling, tasting, to which you may add Scaliger's sixth sense of titilla-
tion, if you please ; or that of speech, which is the sixth external sense, according
to Lullius. Inward are threecommon sense, phantasy, memory. Those five out-
ward 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 sun-beams. According to that axiom, Visibile forte
destruit scnsmn.^^ Or if the
object be not pleasing, as a bad sound to the ear, a stinking smell to the nose, Stc.
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 v/e learn, and
discern all things, a sense most excellent for use : to the sight three things are re-
quired ; the object, the organ, and the medium. The object in general is visible, or
that wbich is to be seen, as colours, and all shining bodies. The medium is the
illumination of the air, which comes from ^Might, 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
ioo far off. Many excellent questions appertain to this sense, discussed by philoso-
phers : as whether this sight be caused intra mittendo, vel extra mittendo., &.c., by
receiving in the visible species, or sending of them out, which ^' Plato, '' Plutarch,
82
Vita consistit in calido et humido.
63
"Too I actus perspicui. Lumen 4 luce provenit, lux est in
Drisllt an object destroys the organ.
"
Lumen est |
corpore lucido. *Satur. 7. c. 14, ^"1^ PhffidoB
I 2
102 Anatomy
of
the Soul. [Part. 1. Sec. I
*'Macrobius, ^^Lactantius and others dispute. And, besides, it is the subject of the
perspectives, of which Alliazen the Arabian, ViteUio, Roger Bacon, Baplista PorLi,
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 btrike, as the hand of a musician ; tlie body struck, which must be solid
and able to resist; as a bv-^U, liite-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 exqui-
site 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,
approjKiated 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.
SmelUng.] Smelling is an
"
outward sense, which apprehends by the nostril.=
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, sailh '^^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.
Taslc] 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 misafiected.
Touching.] Touch, the last of the senses, and most ignoble, yet of as great neces-
sity 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 philo-
sophers about these five senses ; their organs, objects, mediums, which for brevity I
omit
SuBSECT. Vn.
Of
the Inward Senses.
Common Sense.] Inner senses are three in number, so called, because they bo
within the brain-pan, as common sense, phantasy, men^cry. 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 tlie judge or mode-
rator of tlie rest, by whom we discern all ilifierences of objects; for by mine eye J
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. TJie fore
part of the brain is his organ or seat.
Phantasy.] Phantasy, or imagination, wliich some call estimative, or cogitative,
confirmed, saith "Fernelius, by frequent meditation,) is an inner sense which doth
more fully examine the species perceived by common sense, of things present Ox
absent, and keeps them longer, recalling them to mind again, or making new ol' his
own. In time of sleep this faculty is free, and many times conceive strange, stu-
pend, absurd shapes, as in sick men we commonly observe. His organ is the mid-
dle cell of the brain; his objects all the species communicated to him by the com-
mon sense, by comparison of which he feigns infinite other unto himself. In melan-
choly men this faculty is most powerful and strong, and often huris, producing many
"
De pract. PK;.09 4. esLac. cap. 8. de opif. Di, 1.
>
Lib. 19. cap. 2. ' Phis. 1. 5. c. 8
Mem. 2. Subs.
8.j
Jinalomy
of
the Soul. 103
monstrous and prodigious things, especially if it be stirred up by some terrible
object, presented to it irom common sense or memory. In poets and painters ima-
gination 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
alio bruLorwn.1 all the reason they have.
McTHory.] 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
<brgan tlie back part of the brain.
Jiff
eel ions
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
ihe outward senses, and of the common sense, for the preservation of body and
soul" (as "Scaliger defines it); for when the common sense resteth, the outward
senses rest also. Tlie 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, Stc, 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, filli;ig 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 spiiiis
uispersed 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 tliose inward and outward animal motions in the body. It is divided
nto two faculties, tlie 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 incli-
nation, 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 ; hun-
ger 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 appe-
tunt 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 translates it) coveting, anger
invading, or impugning. Concupiscible covets always pleasant and delightsome
things, and abhors that which is distasteful, harsh, and unpleasant. Irascibk., '''^qiiasi
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 afiections 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 concu-
piscence. 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 oi'
the boay, hindering all the operations of it, causing melancholy, and many times
death itself; or future, as fear. Out of these two arise those mixed afi^ections and
passions of anger, which is a desire of revenge ; hatred, which is inveterate angc,-
:
zeal, which is offended with him who hurts that he loves ; and
cnLxat,f>exaxoa, a coir
^ E.Tercit. 280. "T. W. Jefluite, in hia Passions of tlie Minde.
" Vekurio.
104 Anatomy of the Soul. [Part. 1. Sec 1
pound aflcction 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 wliieh
elsew here.
Mooing
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 pro-
secute 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 elficieni
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 ort^an by which it moves : and that con-
sists of nerves, muscles, cords, dispersed throagli iiib whole body, contracted and
relaxed as the spirits will, which move the muscles, or ''''nerves in the midst of them,
and draw the cord, and so per consequens the joint, to the place intended.^ Thai
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 predicam.ent of situs. Worms creep, birds fly, iishes 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
talking in fresh. Such a like motion is that of the pulse, of which, because manv
have written whole books, I will say nothing.
SuBSECT. IX.
Of
the Rational Soul.
:/ In the precedent subsections I have anatomized those inferior faculties of the soul;
the rational remaineth, "a pleasant, but a doubtful subject" (as ^^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 Aristoxe-
nus ; 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 Fhtl. 1. de Jlnimd., TcrtuUian., Lactantius de opific.
Dei,
cap. 19. Hugo, lib. de Spiritu et Anam't, Vinccntius Bellavic. spec, natural, lib. 23.
cap. 2. e/ 1 1. Hippocrates, Avicenna, and many '*^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 tlrey, a man begets but half a man, and is worse than a beast
that begets both matter and form ; and, besides, the tlires 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. "Galen sup-
poseth the soul crasin esse, to be the temperature itself; Trismegistus, Musaeus,
Orpheus, Homer, Pindarus, Phserecides Syrus, Epictetus, with the Chaldees and
Egyptians, affirmed the soul to be immortal, as did those British
'*
Druids of old.
The
'^
Pythagoreans defend Metempsychosis ; and Palingenesia, that souls go from
ine body to another, epotd prius Lethes undci, as men into wolves, bears, dogs, hogs,
as they were inclined in their lives, or participated in conditions
:
*o
"inque ferinas
Possumus ire donms, pecudumque in corpora condi."
*'Lucian's cock was first Euphorbxis, a captain:
"Ille eso (nam meniini) Trojani tempore belli,
Panllioides Euphorbus eram.
A horse, a man, a sponge. ^Uulian the Apostate thought AlexanoBr s soul was
lescended into his body: Plato in Timseo, and in his Phaedon, (for aught 1 can per-
"
Nervi a. spirit!! moventiir, spiritiis ab anima. Me- ! sequantur, &c. 'sCasar. 6. coin. ''Read
anct.
'i
Velciirio. .luciindum et anceps suhjec- jEneas Gazeus dial, of the immortality of the Soul,
mill. "Goclenius in 'irvj/iK
paj. 302. Bright in "OviiI. Mel. 15.
"
We, who may take up our abode in
Phys. i=!rrih. 1. 1. Divid Crusius, Melancthon, Hipoius
wild beae'.s. or be lodged iii the breasts of cattle."
Ueruiug, Uvinus Leminus. &..
"
Lib. an mores i
'
In Gall Idem.
^ Nicephorus. hist fib. 10. c 35.
Mom. 2. Subs.
9.]
Anatomy
of
the Soul. lOP
ceive,) dillers not much from this opinion, that it was from God at first, and knew
dll, but being inclosed in the body, it forgets, and learns anew, which he calls remi
liisceniia, or recalling, and that it was put into the body for a punisliment ; and
dience it goes into a beast's, or man's, as appears by his pleasant fiction de sortitione
animariim, lib. 10. de rep. and after ^ten thousand years is to return into the fomier
body again,
S4
"post varios annos, jier inille fisuras,
Rursus ad liumaiiiE fertur primordia vila;."
Others deny the immortality of it, which Pomponatus of Padua decided out of Aris
totle 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., Hippocra-
tes, Galen, Lucretius, lib. 1.
"
(PrEEterei gigiii pariter cum corpore. et uni
Cresere sentimus, pariterque senescere iiientem.)"
"^^
Averroes, and I know not how many Neoterics. ^^"This question of the mmor-
tality of the soul, is diversly and wonderfully impugned and disputed, especially
among the Italians of late," saith Jab. Colerus, lib. de vmnort. aniincB, cap. 1. The
popes themselves have doubted of it : Leo Decimus, that Epicurean pope, as ^'some
Tecord of liini, caused this question to be discussed pro and con before him, and con-
cluded at last, as a profane and atheistical moderator, with that verse of Cornelius
Gallus, Et redit in nihilum, quod
f
nit ante nihil. It began of nothing, and in nothing
it ends. Zeno and his Stoics, as '^'*Aastin quotes him, supposed the soul so long to
continue, till the body was fully putrilied, and resolved into materia prima : but after
that, m fumos evanescere, to be extinguished and vanished; and in the meantime,
whilst the body was consuming, it wandered all abroad, et e longinqi/o multa annun-
ciare, and (as that Clazomenian Hermotimus averred) saw pretty visions, and suffered
I know not what. ^^Errant exangues sine corpore et ossihiis umbra. 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 para-
dise. The souls of good men they deified; the bad (saith ''"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 ^'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 them-
selves, I rejourn all such atheistical spirits, as Tully did Atticus, doubting of this
point, to Plato's Phaidon. Or if they desire philosophical proofs and demonstra-
tions, I refer them to Niphus, Nic. Faventinus' tracts of this subject. To Fran, and
fohn 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 scnsu rerimi, is large in the same discourse, Albertinus the
Schoolman, Jacob. Naclantus, tom. 2. op. handleth it in four questions, Antony Bru-
nus, Aonius Palearius, Marinus Marcennus, with many others. This reasonable soul,
which Austin calls a spiritual substance moving itself, is defined bv philosophers to
be
"
the first substantial act of a natural, humane, organical body, by \\hich a man
lives, perceives, and underbcands, freely doing all things, and with election." Out of
which definition we may gather, that this rational soul includes the powers, and per-
forms the duties of the two other, which are contained in it, and all three facilties
make one soul, which is inorganical of itself, although it be in all parts, and incor-
poreal, using their organs, and working by them. It is divided into two chief parts,
differing in oflice 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.
'^Phffdo.
i*^
Cla;<dian, lib. 1. de rap. Proserp.
I
cap. 16.
en
Ovid. 4. Met. "The bloodless shades
** Besides, we observe lliat the mind is born with without either body or bones watider."
so
Bono-
the bodj, prows with it, and decays with it." "' Hc rum lares, malorum ver6 larvas et lemures.
'
Som
questio multos psr annos varie, ac miral iliter impug- say at three days, some six weelis, others other-
Data, to. *' Colerus, ibid. i*-
Do eccles. dog. I wise.
14
106 Anatomy
of
the SoiiL [Pan 1. Sec. i
SuBSECT. X.
Of
the Understanding.
*'
Understanding is a power of the soul, ^-by wliich we perceive, know, remem-
ber, and judge as well singulars, as universals, having certain innate notices or begin-
ings of arts, a reflecting action, by which it judgeth of liis 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 diherences
appear betwixt a man and a beast. As first, the sense only comprehends singulari-
ties, 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 under-
stood: which successively it apprehends. The object first moving the understanding,
is some sensible thing; after by discoursing, the mind finds out the corporeal sub-
stance, and from thence the spiritual. His actions (some say) are apprehension,
composition, division, discoursing, reasoning, memory, which some include in inven-
tion, and judgment. The common divisions are of the understanding, agent, and
patient ; speculative, and practical ; in habit, or in act
;
simple, or compound. Tlie
agent is that which is called the wit of man, acumen or subtility, sharpness of in-
vention, when he doth invent of himself witliout a teacher, or learns anew, which
abstracts those intelligible species from the phantasy, and transfers them to the pas-
sive understanding, "^''because there is nothing in the understanding, which was not
first in tlie 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 oflice is to keep and further judge of such tilings as are committed to his
charge ; as a bare and rased table at first, capable of all forms and notions. Now
these notions are two-fold, actions or habits : actions, by which we take notions of,
and perceive things ; habits, wliich are durable lights and notions, which we may
use when we will. Some reckon up eight kinds of them, sense, experience, intelli-
gence, faith, suspicion, error, opinion, science ; to which are added art, prudency,
wisdom : as also
^^
synteresis, dictamcn rafionis, 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 pru-
dency, 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 rar.her in the understanding than in the will.
This makes tlie major proposition in a practical syllogism. The dictamcn ralioms
is that which doth admonish us to do good or evil, and is the nimor 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 exan\ple of Regu-
lus the Roman, taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, and suflered to go to Rome, on
that condition he should return again, or pay so much for his ransom. The synte-
resis proposeth the question ; his word, oath, promise, is to be religiously kept,
although to his enemy, and that by the law of nature.
^^
Do not that to another
which thou wouldest 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
"^Melancthon. s'Nihil in intellectu, quod non I of the conscience. 9"Quo(i tibi fteri nn Vis. al-
9V'\% fuerat in sensu. Velcurio. wxhe pure part | teri ne feceris.
Mem. 2. Subs.
11.
J
Anatomy
of
the Soui 107
(losi well to perform thy promise, and oughtest to keep thiae oath. More of this in
Religious Melancholy.
SuBSECT. XI. 0///je Will.
Will is the other power of the rational soul, ^''"wliich 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. Aris-
totle 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, ^''Miiuch 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, de-
liberations, exhortations, counsels, precepts, rewards, promises, threats and punish-
ments :,and God should be the author of sin. But in * spiritual things we will nc
good, prone to evil (except we be regenerate, and led by the Spirit), we are egged on
by our natural concupiscence, and there is ataxia, a confusion in our powers, "''"our
whole will is averse from God and his law," not in natural things oidy, as to eat
and drink, lust, to which we are led headlong by our temperature and inordinate
appetite,
looi'jver
ros obniti contra, nee tendere tantum
Sufficinius,
"
we cannot resist, our concupiscence is originally bad, our heart evil, the seat of oui
affections captivates and enforceth our will. So that in voluntary things we are
averse from God and goodness, bad by nature, by '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 restram, 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,
relifirion, 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 hnnself ; although tlie 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
\^id 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 toiich 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 : Feriur equis aiiriga, nee audit currui
hahcnas, 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,
^"Trahit invilum nova vis, aliudque cupido,
Mens aliud siiadet,
"
Lust counsels one thing, reason another, there is a new reluctancy in men. ^OfZi,
nee possum, cujnens non esse, quod odi. We cannot resist, but as Phsedra confessed
'^
Res ab intellectii monstratas recipit, vel rejicit;
approbat, vel iniprnbat, Philip. Ignoti nulla cupido.
"1
Melancthon, Operationes plerumque lera;, etsllibera
sil ilia in essentia sua.
si"
In civilibus libera, sed
uon in spirilualibiis Osiander.
s^
Tola voluntas
Bversa i Peo. Omnis homo mendax.
'**
Virg.
"
We are neither able to contend against them, noi
only to make way."
' Vel propter ignorantium
quod bonis studiis non sit inslructa mens lit debuit
aut divinis praeceplis exculla.
^
Med. Ovid
'
Ovid.
4
*
108 Definition
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec. 1
^tD her nurse, *qucb loquer^'i^ vera sunt, sod furor suggerit aequi pejora : she said well
and true, she did ackn wledg-e it, but headstrong passion and fury made her to do
that whicli was opposite. So David knew the filthiness of his fact, what a loathsome,
foul, crving sin achdtery was, yet notwithstanding he would commit murder, and takp
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 hand'od at large in the ethics, and are, indeed, the subject of moral phi-
losophy.
MEMB. III.
Sub SECT. I.
Definition
of
Melancholy, JVame, Difference.
Having thus briefly anatomized 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, MiUivxoT^a. quasi MeXawaxo'Xr,,
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. ^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 un-
derstanding." ^Melanelius out of Galen, Ruffus, ^Etius, 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 'Hercules de Saxonia approves, lib. 1. caj). 1 fi. calling it ''a depravation of the
principal function:" Fuschius, lib. 1. cap. 23. Arnoldus Breviar. lib. Leap. 18,
Guianerius, and others :
"
By reason of black choler," Paulus adds. Halyabbas
simply calls it a "commotion of the mind." Aretajus, ^"a perpetual anguish of thi;
soul, fastened on one thing, without an ague ; which definition of his, Mcrcurialis
de
affect,
cap. lib. 1. cap. 10. taxeth : but jElianus Montaltus defends, lib. de morh.
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 y\ltomarus, cap. 7. art. medic. Jacchinus, in com. in lib. 9. Rhasis ad Al-
mansor, cap. 15. Valesius, exerc. 17. Fuschius, institut. 3. sec. I.e. 11. &c. which
common definition, howsoever approved by most, ^Hercules de Saxonia will not
allow of, nor David Crucius, Tlieat. morb. Herm. lib. 2. cap. 6. he holds it insuffi-
cient : as
'
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," Her-
cules de Saxonia adds, to distinguish it from cramp and palsy, and such diseases as
belong to the outward sense and motions [depraved]
"
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 phrensy, and that melancholy which is in a pestilent fever. (Fear
* Seneca, Hipp. ^ Melancholicos vocamus, qiins [ animi in una contentione defixus, absque febre.
exiiperaiitia vel pravitas Melantholiae ita male liabet, 1
"
Cap. 16. 1. !.
i"
Eor\iin defiiiitio morbus quid non
ut iiide insaniaiit vel in omnibus, vel in pluribiis iisque I sit potiiis quam quid sit, ex|ilicat. " Animre fiinc-
manifeslis sive ad rectam rationem, volunlat6 perti- | tioiies imminuHiitur in fatuitate, tolluntur in mania,
nent, vel electionem, vel intellectus operationes. depravantur solum in melancliolia. Here, de Sax
' Pessimura et pertinacissimum morbuni qui homines cap. 1. tract, de Melan'''*.
'.nbrutadegenerarecogit. ' Panth. Med. ^ Angor
Mem. 3. Subs.
2.] OJ
the Paris affected^
S^c. 109
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 '-Laurentius interprets it, "when some one piincipal faculty of the
mind, as imagination, or reason, is corrupted, as all melancholy persons have." It
is Avithout a fever, because the humour is most part cold and dry, contrary to putre-
faction. Fear and sorrow are the true characters and inseparable companions of most
melancholy, not all, as Her. de Saxonia, Tract, de posthiniw 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 griet", as hereafter shall be
declared.
, SuBSECT. II.
Of
tire part affected. Affection. Parties affected.
Some difference I find amongst writers, about the principal part affected in this
disease, whellier 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
'^
consent or essence, not
in his ventricles, or any obstructions in them, for then it would be an apoplexy, or
epilepsy, as '^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 '^Hippocrates confirms, Galen, the
Arabians, and most of our new writers. Marcus de Oddis (in a consultation of his,
luoted by '^Hildesheim) and five others there cited are of the contrary part; be-
cause fear and sorrow, which are passions, be seated in the heart. But this objec-
tion is suflicientlv answered by '"Montaltus, who doth not deny that the heart is
affected (as "*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,
widi the appetite, to whom spirits obey, and are subject to those principal parts, th<
brain must neetls ])rimarily be misaffected, as the seat of reason ; and then the hearty
as the seat of afi'ection.
'^
Cappivaccius and Mercurialis have copiously discussed
this question, and both conclude the subject is the inner brain, and from thence it is
communicated to tlie heart and other inferior parts, which sympathize and are n)uch
troubled, especiallv when it comes by consent, and is caused by reason of the
stomach, or myrach, as tiie Arabians term it, whole body, liver, or ^spleen, which
are seldom free, pvlorus, meseraic veins. Sic. For our body is like a clock, if one
wheel be amiss, all the rest are disordered
;
the whole fabric suffers : with such ad-
mirable art and liaiinonv is a man composed, sucli excellent proportion, as Ludt>-
vicus Vives in his Fable of Man hath elegantly declared. \
-As many doubts almost arise about the -'affection, whether it be imagination or
reason alone, or both, Hercules de Saxonia proves it out of Galen, iEtius, and
Altomarus, that tlie sole fault is in "imagination. Bruel is of the same mind : Mon-
taltus in his 2 cap. of Melancholy confutes this tenet of theirs, and illustrates tlie
contrary by many examples : as of him that thought himself a shell-fish, of a nun,
and of a desperate monk that would not be persuaded but that he was danmed
;
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 ? ^Avi-
cenna therefore holds both corrupt, to whom most Arabians subscribe. The same
is maintained by -^Areteus, -'Gorgonius. Guianerius, &.c. To end llie controversy, no
man doubts of imagination, but tliat it is hurt and misaffected here ; tor the other 1
determine with
^^
Albertinus Bottonus, a doctor of Padua, that it is first in
'^
imagi-
"Cnp. 4. de iiiel. "Per consensum sive per
]
>
Rarii qiiisqiiani liimorpin effugit lienis, qui hoc
essentinin.
'^
oa^.. f. de iiiel. 'Sef. 7. de niorho alticilur. Piso. Qiiis affHcliis.
'-'
.^e' Dmiat
mor. vuljrar. lib. 6. I'Spicel. de melaiiclinlia. i ab Altniiiar. - Facultas iiiiapinaiidi, noii cogitaiidi,
'
Cv*p. 3 de met. Pars a^'^c a cerebrum sive per con- nee iiiemorandi la;sa hie.
-
Lib. 3. Fen. 1. Trad.
senSiiMi, sive per crrt:nrnni contiiisjat, et proceriim 4. cap. 8.
-^
Lib. S. cap. 5. "Lib. Med. cap.
a;ctoritale el ratioiie slabilitiir.
'8
Lib. de niel. 19. pari. 2. Tract. 15. cap. '2.
Hildesheini, spicel
C> I vero viciiiitatis ratione uni nfficilur, atcepluni i 2 de Melanc. fol. 207, el fol. 127. Quaiidoque etiam
tran.^vers ini ac sumiachus cum dorsali spina, &;r. rationalis .u aflectus inveieratu.s sit
w
Lib. I cap. 10. Sutijectuni est cerebrum inierius.
|
no Matter
of
Melanchoty. [Part. 1 Sec .
latioii, and afterwards in reason ; if the disease be inveterate, or as it is more or
less of continuance ;" but by accident, as
'^'
Here, 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 genilures, such as live in over cold or
over hot climes : such as are born of melanclioly parents ; as offend in those six
non-natural things, are black, or of a high sanguine complexion,
'^^
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
''^
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 tliis arti-
ficial malady is more frequent in such as are of a
^
middle age. Some assign 40
years, Gariopontus 30. Jubertus excepts neither young nor old from this adventi-
tious. Daniel Sennertus involves all of all sorts, out of common experience,
^'
in
omnihus omnino corporibus cujuscunque conslilutionis dominatar. ^tius and Aretius^
ascribe into the number
"
not only ^^discontented, passionate, and miserable persons,
swartiiy, black; but such as are most merry and pleasant, scoffers, and high colour-
ed."
"
Generally," saitli Rhasis,
^'
" the finest wits and most generous spirits, are
before other obnoxious to it
;"
I cannot except any complexion, any condition, sex,
or age, but
^^
fools and stoics, which, according to
^'^
Synesius, are never troubled
with any manner of passion, but as Anacreon's cicada, sine sanguine et dolore
;
sinulcs fere diis sunt. Erasmus vindicates fools from this melancholy catalogue,
because they have most part moist brains and light hearts ;
''^
they are free iVom am-
bition, 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 '^Cardan's Contradictions, '''' Valesius' Controversies, Montanus,
Prosper Calenus, Capivaccius,
""^
Bright,
"
Ficinus, that have written either whole
tracts, or copiously of it, in their several treatises of this subject. ''^''' 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 adventitous, acquisite, redundant, unna-
tural, artificial; which '''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 divi-
sion of four humours and complexions, but our Galenists generally approve of it,
subscribing to this opinion of Montanus.
Tliis material melancholy is either simple or mixed; offending in quantity or
quality, varying according to his place, where it settleth, as brain, sjaleen, meseraic
veins, heart, womb, and stomach ; or differing according to the mixture of those
natural humours amongst themselves, or four unnatural adust humours, ts uhey are
diversely tempered and mingled. If natural melancholy abound in the body, which
'T/ih. pnsthnmo de Mebinc. edit. 1620. Deprivatiir land, calvit.
"?
Vacant cnnscientiK carniflcina,
fides, disciirsiis, opinio, &c. per viiiiim linagiiuitiories, nee piideliiint. nee verentnr, nee riilacerantur niillibiig
ex Acciilenti. *
Qui parvum caput liahent, in- ciiraniin, quilius tola vita olinoxia est. 3^IJ(). i
sensati pleriqne .'iinl. Arist. in pliysio2;iioniia. tract. 3. contradic. 18. '''Lib. I.cont. 21. Hrisht,
''' Aretciis, lih. 3. cap, 5. Qni prop6 statuni sunt. ca. Ifi. " Lib. 1. cap. 6. de saiiit. tnenda. ''-Qiiisve
Aret. Mediis cnnvenit setatibiis, Piso. ^' l)e ant qiialis sit liiunor ant qua; istins differentia, et quo-
quartano. 3- Lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 11. Mpfjmus modo cisnantur in corpore, &crutandnrn, liSc eniin r*
art Melancholiatn iion tain inoBstus sed et hilares, inulli veleruni laboravernnt, nee fieile aci ipere et
jocosi, cachinnantes, irrisores, et, qui plerunique Galeno sententiam ob loqnendi varietatein. Leon,
praerubri .sunt. ^jQuj sunt subtilis inpenii, et Jaccli. com. in 9. Rhasis, cap 15. cap. 16. in 9. Rhasis.
mullte perspicacitatis de facili incidiint in Melancho- ''Lib. postnin. de Melan. edit. Venetiis, 1620. c.i\p. 1
liain, lib. 1 cont. tract. 9. ^Nnnquam sanitate et 8. Ab inteniperie calid^, humida, &c.
mentis excidit aut dulore capitur. Erasm. ^1d
Wein. 3. Subs.
4.J
Species
of
Melancholy. IP:
js cokl and dry,
"
so that it be more
''^
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 adus-
tion of humours, most part hot and dry. Some difference I find, whether this me-
lancholy 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 pituiia, whose true assertion
''^
Valesius and Menardus stiffly maintain, and so doth
""Fuschius, Montaltus, "Montanus. How (say they) can white become black?
But Hercules de Saxonia, lih. post, de mel.a. c. 8,
and ** Cardan are of the opposite
part (it may be engendered of phlegm, etsi rarb confingat., though it seldom come it,
pass), so is ""^Guianerius and Laurentius, c. I. with Melanct. in his book de Anima, and
Chap, of Humours ; he calls it Asininam, dull, swinish melancholy, and saith that
he was an eye-witness of it: so is ^"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,
^'
varying according to their mixtures, as they are intended, an-d
remitted. And indeed as Kodericus a Fons. cons. 12. 1. determines, ichors, and
those serous matters being thickened become phlegm, and phlegm degenerates into
choler, choler adust becomes cBruginosa mchmchoUa., as vinegar out of purest wine
putrified or by exhalation of purer spirits is so matLe, and becomes sour and sharp;
and from the sharpness of this bumour proceeds much waking, troublesome thoughts
and dreams, &c. so tliat I conclude as before. If the humour be cold, it is, saith
^^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, ^^Capi-
vaccius. ^^"The colour of this mixture varies likewise according to the mixture,
be it hot or cold
;
'tis sometimes black, sometimes not, Altomarus. The same
"^ 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
;
w hen it is cold, looks black
;
and so doth the humour." This diversity of melan-
choly matter produceth diversity of effects. If it be within the ^^body, and not
putrified, it causeth black jaundice ; if putrified, a quartan ague ; if it break out to
tJie skin, leprosy ; if to parts, several maladies, as scurvy^ &c. If it trouble the
mind ; as it is diversly mixed, it produceth several kinds of madness and dotage
of which in their place.
SuBSEOT. 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 con-
fusedly of it, confounding melancholy and madness, as ^'Heurnius, Guianerius, Gor-
donius, 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, Aretasus,
'^Aurelianus, ^^Paulus ^gineta : others acknowledge a multitude of kinds, and leave
them indefinite, as iEtius in his Tetrabiblos, ^"Avicenna, Uh. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. cap
18. Arculanus, cap. 10. in 'J. Rasis. Montanus, med. part. 1. *'"If natural me-
lancholy be adust, it maketh one kind; if blood, another; if choler, a third, differ-
ing from the first ; and so many several opinions there are about the kinds, as there
" Secundum niagis ant mintis si in corpnrp fuerit,
ad intcrnpeiiem |iliisqiiaiii turpiis saluhritiT ferre
potpril : imie corpus niorbosiiiii effitnr. -"'Lih. 1.
cmitinvrrs. cap. 21. -"Lih. I. ?ect. 4. cap. 4.
C(incil. 26.
Jf
Mb. 2. contradic.cap. II.
J"
De
feb. tract. (iilT. 2. cap. r. Nnii est iiegaiidum exhac fieri
Melanclinlicos.
n
In Syntax. ^' Varie adnriliir,
et niiscetur. nude varia* amentiiim pecies. Melanct.
O' Humor frigidns delirii causa, furoris calidus, &c.
K'LiI:. I. cap 10. de affect, cap. 64Njg,escit flic
hun)or, aliquando superralefactns, aliqando super
fiigefiicius. ca. 7.
'
Humor hie nisfir aliquando
prEEter modiim calefactus, et alias refriireratus evadit
nam recentihus carbonibus ei quid simile accidit, quy
duriinte flHmnia pellucidissinie candent, ed extincU
prtirsus nigrescunt. Hippocrates ' Guianerius,
ditr 2. cap. 7. 6' Non est mania, nisi exten.sa me-
lancholia.
58
Cap. tj. lib. 1.
-"2
Ser. 2. cap
9. Morbus hie est omnifarius.
Species indefinitw
sunt.
i"
Si aduratiir naturalis nielancliolia, aliE
fit species, si sanguis, alia, si flavibilis alia, diversa I
primis : mn.xima est inter has differentia, et tot Dut
torum sententise, quot ipsi numero sunt.
1 12 Species
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec. 1.
be men lliemselves." ^'Hercules de Saxonia sets down two kinds, "material and
iinmalerial ; one from spirits alone, the other from humours and spirits." Savana-
rola, Ruh. 11. Tract. 6. cap. 1. le cegrilud. capitis^ will have the kinds to be infi-
nite, one from the myracn, called myrachialis of tlie Arabians; anotlier stomachalis,
irom the stomach ; another from the liver, heart, womb, hemrods,
''^''
one beginning,
inotiier consummate." Melancthon seconds him, ''^"as the humour is diversly
adust and mixed, so are tlie species divers
;"
but what these men speak of species J
think ought to be understood of symptoms, and so doth "^'Arculanus interpret him-
self: infinite species, id esl^ symptoms
;
and in that sense, as Jo. Gorrheus acknow-
ledgeth 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. ajfectis^ cap. 6. by Alexander, lib.
1. cap. 16. Rasis, lib. 1. Continent. Tract. 9. lib. 1. cap. 16. Avicenna and most of
our new Avriters. Th. Eraslus makes two kinds ; one perpetual, which is head me-
lancholy
;
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 tliat me-
lancholy of nuns, widows, and more ancient maids, to be a peculiar species of
melancholy differing from the rest : some will reduce enthusiasts, extatical and de-
moniacal persons to this rank, adding "^"love melancholy to the first, and lycanlhro-
pia. The most received division is into three kinds. The first proceeds from the
sole fault of the brainy and is called head melancholy ; tlie second sympathetically
proceeds from the whole body, when the whole temperature is melancholy : the
third ariselh from the bowels, liver, spleen, or membrane, called inesenterium, named
hypochondriacal or windy melancholy, which
"
Laurentius subdivides into three
parts, from those three members, hepatic, splenetic, meseraic. Love melancholy,
which Avicenna calls liisha : and Lycanthropia, which he calls cucubuthe, are com-
monly included in head melancholy ; but of this last, which Gerardus de Solo calls
amoreus, and most knight melancholy, with that of religious melancholy, virgimm
et viduarum., maintained by Rod. a Castro and Mercatus, and the other kinds ol" lovfc
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 analoinize
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 ex-
amine it in himself, and apply remedies unto it.
]t 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 con-
founded amongst themselves, having such affinity, that they can scarce be discerned
by the most accurate physicians ; and so often intermixed witii 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, ^Mulius Caesar Claudinus with stone, gout, jaundice. Tiincavellius
with an ague, jaundice, caninus appetitus, &c. '^^'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. '"Trincavellius, Fallopius,
and Francanzanus, famous doctors in Italy, all three conferred with about one party,
at the same time, gave three difl'erent 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 Avhat kind to reduce it. In his seventeenth consultation there is the like dis-
agreement about a melancholy monk. Those symptoms, which others ascribe to
misaffected parts and humours,
"
Here, de Saxonia attributes wholly to distempered
spirits, and tlwse immaterial, as I have said. Sometimes they cannot well discern
'^ Tract, de met. cap. 7. "Quiedam incipiens i Rasis. " Laurentius, cnp. 4. de mel. "TCap. 13
quiedam consummala. "Cap. de humnr.llb.de '480. et 116. consult, consil. 12.
"
lllldesheiin
anima. Varle aduritur et miscetur ipsa melancholia, spicil 2. fol. 166. "o Trincavellius, torn. 2. consil
Jnde varitB amentium species.
e."
Cap. 16. in 9. |
15 et 16. ''Cap. 13. tract, posth.de nielan.
Mem. 3. Subs.
4.] Causes
of
Mclanchnly.
113
iliis disease from others. In Reinerus Solinander's counsels, (^Seci consil.
5,)
he
and Dr. Brande both agreed, that the patient's disease was hypocondriacal melancholy.
Dr. Matholdus said it was asthma, and nothinsf else. '^Solinander ana Giiarionius,
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
""
he laboured of head melancholy, and that which proceeds from the whole tem-
perature both at once." I could give instance of some that have had all three kinds
semel el simul^ and some successively. So that I conclude of our melancholy spe-
cies, as ''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 "Polybius informeth us) as the Lac(idaemonian,
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 diflicult a thing is it to treat of several kinds apart; to
make any certainty or distinction among so many casualties, (hstractions, when
seldom two men shall be like effected per ovinia? 'Tis hard, I confess, yet never-
theless I will adventure througli 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.
Sub SECT. 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 '''Galen prescribes Glauco : and the common expe-
rience of others confirms that those cures must be imperfect, lame, and to no pur-
pose, wherein the causes have not first been searched, as '^Prosper Calenius well
observes in his tract de atra bile to Cardinal CiTesius. Insomuch that
"*"
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 ; suhlata causa tollllur
effeclus^ 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 '''variety to say what the beginning was. *^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 hi? 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 strucken with leprosy, 2 Reg. v. 27. Jehoram with dysentery and fluxi
and great diseases of the bowels, 2 Chron. xxi. 1.5. David plagued for numbering
his people, 1 Par. 21. Sodom and Gomorrah swallowed up. And this disease if
peculiarly specified. Psalm cxxvii. 12. "He brought down their heart through
heaviness." Deut. xxviii. 28.
"
He struck them with madness, blindness, and as-
t<mishment of heart." ^'"An evil spirit was sent by the Lord upon Saul, to vex
" Ouarion. cons. med. 2.
'3
Laboravit per essen-
tiani et a toto corpore. '^Machi.ivel, &c. Smithiis
de rep. Angl. cap. 8. Mb. 1. Biiscoldus, disriir. polit.
iscurs. 5. cap. 7. Arist. I. 3. polit. cap. iilt. Keckerm.
a<ii, &c. 'i^Lib. 6. '6
pi-jmo artis curitivie.
*
Nostri primum sit propositi affVctioniim c>>usas in-
dagare ;
ris ipsa hortari videtur, nam alioqui eariim
cu.atio, mhnca et inutilis esaet. '"Path. lib. 1.
cap. 11. Rerup^. cognoscere cansas, mcdicis imprimit
necessariuir., sine qua nee morbiim curare, nee pre-
cavere licet. '"Tanta enini morlii varietas ac
differentia ut non lacile dignosc.alur, unde initiiiig
morbus surnpserit. Melanelius 6 Galeoo MF4oij^
qui potuit reruin cognusccre causas
*'
1 8a>u
xvi. 14.
15
k2
il4 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec 2.
him." ^Nebuchadnezzar did eat grass like an ox, anc? his "heart was made like
the beasts of tlie field.'' Heathen stories are full of such punisluuents. 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. "Censor Fi.l-
vius ran mad for untiling Juno's temple, to cover a new one of his own, which lie
had dedicated to Fortune, """and was confounded to death with grief and sorrow of
heart." When Xerxes would have spoiled ^'Apollo's temple at Delphos of those
infinite riches it posse.ssed, a terrible thunder came from heaven and struck four
thousand men dead, the rest ran mad. ^^A little after, the like happened to Breiuius,
lightning, thunder, earthquakes, upon such a sacrilegious occasion. If we may be-
lieve our pontifical writers, they will relate unto us many strange and prodigious
punishments in this kind, inflicted by their saints. How ^'Clodoveus, sometime
king of France, tlie son of Dagobert, lost his wits for uncovering the body of St.
Denis : and how a ''*' sacrilegious Frenchman, that would have stolen a silver image
of St. John, at Birgburge, became IVautic on a sudden, raging, and tyrannising over his
own flesh: of a ^^''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
stricken blind. Of Tyridates an ^"Armenian king, for violating some iioly 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^ '""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 lieads. That lie can by his angels, which are his ministers, strilce and heal
(saith ^^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 Zan-
chius) doth a hatchet : hail, snow, winds, &c.
^^^
Ei conjurati veniunt in classica
vend
;"
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 GalUo'c : or with Apollo's priest in ^^Chrysos-
tom, O ccehim ! 6 terra! undo hostis hie? What an enemy is this ? And pray with
David, acknowledging his power,
"
1 am weakened and sore broken, I roar for the
grief of mine heart, mine heart panteth, Sj.c." Psalm xxxviii. 8.
"
O Lord, rebuke,
me not in thine anger, neither chastise me iu 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. *' Resto?;e to me the joy of thy salvation, and stablish
me with thy free spirit." For these causes belike ^^Hippocrates would have a phy-
sician take special notice whether the disease come not from a divine supernatural
cause, or whetlier it follow the course of nature. But this is farther discussed by
Fran. Valesius, de sacr. philos. cap. 8. ^^Fernelius, and ^'J. Coesar 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 sucli cases will not avail : JYun est
reluctandum euni 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 Her-
cules yielded. No striving with supreme powers. Nil jiwat immensos Cratero
proniiUere rnontes, physicians and physic can do no good,
^'*-'-
we must submit our-
selves unto the miglity hand of God, acknowledge our oflTences, call to him for
mercy. If he strike us una eademque manus vulnus opetnque ferel^ 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.
82Dan. V. 21. MLactant. irislit. lib. 2. cap. 8. versat, nee mora sacritegus mentis inops, atque ir
*
Meiiie captus, et sumino aniiiii moerore consuiiiptiis. ! semet insaiiieiis in proprios artiis ilesajvlt.
^'i
Gi-
*"
Mu.iSler cosniog. lil). 4. cap. 43. Ue coelo sul)sienie- 1 raldiis Canilirensis, lili 1. c. 1. llinerar. Canihrii*
lantii:-, tanqtiain ins:ini de sa.xis priecipilati, &c. I
"n
Delrio, toiii. ,S. lili. 0. sect. 3. qiwsl 3.
'
Psal
"Livliis lib. 38. "
Gafjuin. I. 3. c. 4. Quod Dionysii .\lvl. 1.
J
l,ib. 8. cap. de Ilierar.
'J^
Claudian
corpus discooperiierat, in iiisanani iiicidit.
^~
Idt-iii "' De liabili Martyre. ^ Lib. cap. 5, ,.ro[.
*
Lib
lib. 9- sub. Carol. 6. Sacroruni coiitenipt(U, tenipli fori- 1. de Abditis reruni i iusis.
" Ri <;ions. med 19
bus eU actis, diini D Johannis .iru'enteiini siniulacriim resp.
^'1
i'el. v t>
rapere contendit, siiiiiilac.riiiii aversu facie dorsum fi
Mem. 1. Subs. 2.1 JVature
of
Devils. IIA
SiBSECT. II.
A Digression
of
Ike nature
of
Spirits., had Angels., or Devils., and
how they cause Melancholy.
How far llie 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 consulered : for the
belter understanding of which, I will make a brief digression of the nature of spirits.
And altliough tlie question be very obscure, according to ^"Postellus, "full of contro-
versy and ambiguity," beyond the reach of human capacity, yrt/eor excedcre vires
inlcnlionis mece., saith '""Austin, I confess I am not able to understand \\.,finilum
de
infinilo nan jmlest stalucre., we can sooner determine witb Tully, de nat. denrunu quid
nan sin/., quam quid sint., our subtle schoolmen. Cardans, Scaligers, profound Tliom-
ists. 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 appreliend tliem
;
yet, as in the rest, I will adventure to say
something to this point. In former times, as we read. Acts xxiii., the Sadducees de-
nied that there were any such spirits, devils, or angels. So did Galen the physician,
the Peripatetics, even Aristotle himself, as Pomponatius stoutly maintains, and Scali
ger in some sort grants. Though Dandinus the Jesuit, com. in lib. 2. de animc.
stiffly denies it; subslanlice separatee and intelligences, are the same wliicli Chris-
tians call angels, and Platonists devils, for they name all the spirits, da^mnncs., be
they good or bad angels, as Julius Pollux Onomasticon, lib. 1. cap. 1. observes. Epi-
cures and atheists are of the same mind in general, because they never saw tliem.
Plato, Plotinus, Porpliyrius, Jamblichus, Proclus, insisting in tlie steps of Trisme-
gistus, Pythagoras and Socrates, make no doubt of it : nor Stoics, but tliat there are
such spirits, though much erring from tlie truth. Concerning the first beginning of
them, the 'Talmudists say tliat Adam had a wife called Lilis, before he married Eve,
and of her he begat nothing but devils. The Turks' ^Alcoran is altogether as absurd
and ridiculous in this point : but the Scripture informs us Christians, how Luciler,
the chief of them, with his associates, ^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."
JVature
of
Devils.] There is a foolish opinion which some hold, that they are
the souls of men departed, good and more noI)le were deified, tlie baser grovelled on
the ground, or in the lower parts, and were devils, the which with Tertullian, Por-
phyrins the philosopher, M. Tyrius, ser. 27 maintains. "These spirits," he ^ 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 ^neas
:
"Oninil)us uinl)ra locis adero : dahis iniprobe pcEiias."
"
My aiijiry glinst arising fruin tlie deep,
Sliall liaiint tliee waliiiij;, ami disturl) thy sleep;
At least Tiiy sliade thy piiiiisluiient shall know.
And Fame shall siiiead Uie l)leasing news below."
They are (as others suppose) appointed by those higher powers to keep men from
their nativity, and to protect or punisli them as they see cause : and are called honi
et mall Genii by the Romans. Heroes, lares, if good,lemures or larv^e if bad, by
the stoics, governors of countries, men, cities, saith ^Apuleius, Deos appellant qui
ex hominum numero iuste ac prudenter vita curricula gulyernato., pro nvmine., postea
ab hominibus prcediti fanis et ceremoniis vulgo admittuntur., ut in jEgypto Osyris, &.C.
Pro'stites., Capella calls them,
"
which protected particular men as well as princes,''
Socrates had his Dcemonium Saturninum et ignium., which of all spirits is best, ad
sublimes cogitationes animum erigentem., as the Platonists supposed ;
Plotinus his,
9' Lib. 1. c 7. de orbis contordia. In nulla re major
fiiit altercatio, major obsciiritas, minor opitiionum con-
tordia, quini de dtemonibus et siibstantiis separatis.
'"'Lib. 3. de Trinit. cap. 1.
' Pererius in Genesin.
lib. 4. in cap. 3. v. 23. =See Strozzuis Cicogna
omnifarise. Mag. lib. 2. c. 15. Jo. Anbanns, Hredenba-
ehiiig sAngeliis per superhiatn separalns & Ueo,
lai in veritate nor. stetit. Austin. <Nihilaliud
sunt Dismones quam nnd.-e animtE quffi corpore depo-
sito priorein miserati vilain, cognatis siiccurrnnt coni-
moti misericordia, &c.
^ De Deo Socratis. All
those mortals are called Gods, who, the conrse of life
being prudently guided and governed, are honoured
by men with temples and sacrifices, as ()siri \m
jtgypt, &c.
J16 jyature
of
Devils. [Part. 1. Sec. 2
and we christians our assistinsr angel, as Andreas Victorellus, a copious writer of
this subject, Lodovicus de La-Cerda, the Jesuit, in his vohuninous tract de Jlngch
Custode, Zanchius, and some divines think. But this absurd tenet of Tyreus, Pro-
clus confutes at large in his book de Jinimn et dccmone.
f
"Psellus, a christian, and sometimes tutor (saith Cuspinian) to Michael Parapina-
tius. Emperor of Greece, a great observer of the nature of devils, holds they are
^corpereal, and have ''aerial bodies, that they are mortal, live and die," (which
Marlianus Capella likewise maintains, but our christian philosophers explode)
''
that
*they are nourished and have excrements, they feel pain if they be hurt (which Car-
dan confirms, and Scaliger justly laughs him to scorn for; Si pascantur acre., cur
non pugnnnt ob puriorcm aera f &.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, Hermetic^ Philosophia?, lib. i. cap. 4, by several arguments proves angels
and spirits to be corporeal ; quicquid continetur in loco Corporeum est ; Jit spiritus
continetur in loco., ergo.^ Si spiritus sunt quanti^ erunt Corporei : Jit sunt quunii.,
ergo. Sunt
ftniti,
ergo quanti., See. '"Bodine goes farther yet, and will have these,
Animoi separata', genii., spirits, angels, devils, and so likewise souls of men departed,
if corporeal (which he most eagerly contends) to be of some shape, and tliat abso-
lutely round, like Sun and Moon, because that is the most perfect form, qmp. nihil
habet asperitatis., nihil angulis incisum., nihil anfractihus invGlutem., nihil emincns.,
sed inter corpora perfecia est perfectissimum
;
''
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 '''transform bodies of others into what shape they please, and witli
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 bap-
tised 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, progidies, and such strange objects to mortal men's eyes, '^ cause smells,
savours, &c., deceive all the senses ; most writers of this subject credibly believe
;
and that they can foretel 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 me-
tamorphosis, 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. Stroz-
zius Cicogna hath many examples, lib. iii. omnif. mag. cap. 4 and 5,
whicli 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,
nee optem videre., though he himself never saw them nor desired it ; and use sonie-
times carnal copulation (as elsewhere 1 shall '''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 dizard, 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. 1. 1. Paracelsi de vita longa. out of some Plato-
He lived 500 years since. ' Apiileiiis : spiritus
animalia sunt aniinn pasgibilia, menle ratinnulia, cnr-
pore aeria, tempore senipiterna.
* Nuiriuntur, et
excrementa liabent, quod pulsata dnieant solido per-
cussa corpore. "
Whatever occupies space is
corporeal
:
spirit occupies space, therefore, &.c. &c.
'4 1ih. 4. Tlieol. nat. fol. 535.
" Wliich lias no
toughness, anirles, fractures, prominences, but is the
lost perfect ainunjjst perfect b(>riii> ''^Ovorianua
in Epist. monies etiam et animalia fransferri possunts
as the devil did Christ to the top of the pinnacle; and
witches are often translated. See more in Strozzius
Cicogna, lib. 3. rap. 4. omnif. mag. Per aera subdu-
cere et in sublime corpora ferre possunt, Biarmanua.
Percussi dolent et uruntur in conspicuos cineres,
Agrippa, lib. 3. cap. de occiil. I'hilos.
'^ Agrsppa,
de occult. Philos. lib. 3. cap. 18.
"i
Part. 3. Sect
1
Mem. 1. Subs 1. J.ove Melancholy.
Mem. 1 . Subs. 2 . Nature
of
Devils. 1 17
aisls, will have the air to be as full of them as snow falling in the skies, and that thev
may be seen, and withal sets down the means how men may see them ; Si irrever
bcratus ocuUs sole splcndente versus caelum continuaverint. oblutus, &c.,'* and saith
moreover he tried it, prcEmissnrum feci
experi7nenfum^ and it was true, that the Pla-
tonists said. Paracelsus confesseth that he saw them divers times, and conferred
with them, and so doth Alexander ab "'Alexandro,
"
that he so found it by expe-
rience, when as before he doubted of it." Many deny it, saith Lavater, de spectris,
lart i. c. 2, and part ii. c. 11, "-because they never saw them themselves;" but as he
eports 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 "all travel-
lers besides
;
in the West Indies and our northern climes, J\'ihil faviiliarius quam
in agris ct urbibus spiritus videre, midire qui vetent, jtiheanl, &.c. Hieronimus vita
Pauli, Basil ser. 40, Nicephorus, Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomenus, '* Jacobus Boissar-
dus in his tract de spirituum ajipari.lionihus., Petrus Loyerus 1. de spectris, Wierus
1. 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 '^Author). After
be had done his business, he sailed to Livonia, on set purpose to see those familiar
spirits, \vhich are there said to be conversant with men, and do their drudgery works.
Amongst other matters, one of tliem told him where his wife was, in what room, in
what clothes, what doing, and brought him a ring from her, wiiich at his return, ?/on
sine omniiwi admiratioiK'., he found to be true ; and so believed that ever after, which
before he doubted of Cardan, 1. 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 ihey lived and died as men did, save that
they were far longer lived (700 or 800 ^''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
^'
governors and keepers they are moreover, which
^^
Plato in Critias de-
livered of old, and subordinate to one another, Ut enim homo homini, sic dcemon
dcemoni 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 na-
tures 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, JVihil magis cupicntes (saith Lysius, Phis. Stoicorum) quam ado-
rationem hominumP The same Author, Cardan, m his Hyperchen, out of the doc-
trine of Stoics, will have some of these Genii (for so he calls them) to be
^'
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 habcnt in terris
commercium : ''^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 black-
guard in a prince's court, and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational crea-
tures, are excelled of brute beasts."
That the} are mortal, besides these testimonies of Cardan, Martianus, &c., many
16
"By gazing steadfastly on the sun illuminated
with his brightest rays." leQenial. dierum. na
Blbi visum et compertum quum prius an essent ambi-
geret Fidera suam liberel.
"
Lib. I. de verit. Fidei.
Benzo, &c. "^Lib. de Divinatiotie et magia.
'"Cap. 8. Transportavit in Llvoniani cupiditate vi-
hominibus, quanto hi brutis animantibus.
22
Prse-
sides Pastores, Guhernatorcs hominiim, et illi anima-
lium.
23
"Coveting nothing more than the admi-
ration of mankind." '''Natura familiares ut cane*
hominibus miilti aversantiir el abhorrent. '''Ab
honiinc plus distant quam homo ab ignobilissimo ver-
Jendi, &c. -"Sic Hesiodus de Nymphis vivere ne, et tanien quidam ex hts ab hominibus superantur
Jii'it. 10. aetates phaenicum vel. 9. 7. 20.
21
cus-
j
ut homines & ieris, &c.
UMlcK hominum et provii ciarum, &.C. tanto meliores I
1 18 JS'alure
of
Spirits. [Pait. 1. Sec, 2
ither divines and philosophers hold, post prolixum tempiis viorluntur omnes ; The
'^Platonists, and some Rabbins, Porphyrins and Plutarch, as appears by that relation
of Tliainus :
-'"
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 ap-
peared lo St. Anthony in the wdderness, and told him as much.
^^
Paracelsus of
our late writers stiffly maintains that they are mortal, live and die as otlier creatures
Jo. Zozimus, 1. 2, farther adds, that religion and policy dies and alters with them.
The ^^Gentiles' gods, he saith, were expelled by Constantine, and together with them.
Imperii Romani mojestas, ct fortuna interiit, et proftigata est
;
The fortune and ma-
jesty of the Roman Empire decayed and vanished, as that heathen in ^''Minutius for-
merly bragged, wlien the Jews were overcome by the R( mans, 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, 1.4. Pererius in his comment, and Tos-
tatus questions on the 6th of Gen. Th. Aquin., St. Austin, Wierus, Th. Erastus,
Delrio, tom. 2, 1.
2,
qu.Bst.
29 ; Sebastian Michaelis, c. 2, de spiritibus, D. Reinolds
Lect. 47. They may deceive the eyes of men, yet not lake true bodies, or make a
real metamorphosis; but as Cicogna proves at large, they are ^^lUusorioe. et prasti-
giatrices transformatlones^ 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 fatlier
Mercury, because he could leave him no wealth, tauglit him many fine tricks to get
means, ^^for he could drive away men's catile, and if any pursued him, turn them
into what shapes he would, and so did mightily enrich himself, hoc astu maximam
pra>dam est adsccuius. This, no doubt, is as true as the rest
;
yet thus much in
general. Thomas, Durand, and others, grant that they hsve understanding far be-
yond men, can probably conjecture and ^^foretel 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 Iwvdne scientior (more know-
ing than any man), as ^''Cicogna maintains out of others. They know the virtues
of herbs, plants, stones, minerals, &c. ; of all creatures, birds, beasts, the four ele-
ments, stars, planets, can aptly apply and make use of them as tliey see good
;
per-
ceiving the causes of all meteors, and the like : Dant se colorihus (as ''^Austin hath
it) accommodant sejigiiris, adhcerent sonis., subjiciunt se odoribus, infundunt se sapo-
Hbus, omnes sensus etiam ipsam intelligentiam dcRmoncs fallunt^i tliey deceive all our
senses, even our understanding itself at once. ''^They can produce miraculous alter-
ations in the air, and most wonderful effects, conquer armies, give victories, help,
"urther, hurt, cross and alter human attempts and projects [Dei pennissu) as they see
good themselves. '^'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 tliat which Bodine, 1. 4, Theat. nat. thinks (following Tyrius belike, and
the Platonists,) they can tell the secrets of a man's heart, aut cogitationes Jiominum,
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 qua^st. 27, ad Antiochum Prin-
cipem, and others.
Orders.] As for those orders of good and bad devils, which the Platonists hold,
is altogether erroneous, and those Ethnics boni et mail Genii., are to be exploded :
these heathen writers agree not in this point among themselves, as Dandinus notes,
" Cib ) et pom uti et venere cum hominibus ac tan- cap. 17. Partim quia snhtilioris sensus aciimine, par-
den' niori, Cicoiina. 1. part. lib. 2. c 3.
-'
Plutarch, tiiri scientia calidiore vigent et experientia propter
de defect, oraculorum. "'Lib. de Zilphis et Pig-
j
inaRnam longitudineni vitoe, partim ab Angelis dis-
meis.
'^^
Dii sentium a Constantio prostigati sunt, cunt, &c. ' 1 ib 3. omnif. mag. cap. 3. '^^h 18.
&c. -"Octovian. dial. JudiRorum deum fuisse quest.
^e
Qumn tanti sit et tarn profunda opiritum
Romanorum numinibus una cum gente captivum. scientia, mirum non est tot tantJsque res visu admi-
'
Omnia spiritiiius olena, et ex eorum concordia et I raliiles ab ipsis patrari, et quidem rerun) ^laturaliuin
discordia omnes boni et mali effectus pronianant. om- ope quas multo melius intellisunt, multcqHe pcritius
nia humana reguntur: paradoxa veterum de quft Ci- suis locis et temporibus applicaii. norunt, quain homo,
cogna. omnif. mag. 1. 2. c. 3. -ijOves quas abac- , Cicogna.
3'
Aventinus, quicquid interdiu exhau-
tur-:<t era. in quascunque formas verlebat Pausanias, riebatur, ncctu explebatur. Inde pavefucti lura
!lvi;inua ^^Auitin in 1. 2. de Gen. ad liteiam tores, &.c.
Mem 1. Subs. 2.1 JVature
of
Spirits. 119
.9n siiit ^mali non comveniunf, 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 ; nee pisca-
torem piscis a7tiare potest^ Slc. But .lamblichus, Psellus, Plutarch, and most Plato-
nists acknowledge bad, et ab eorum malcficiis cavendum, and we should beware of
their wickedness, for they are enemies of mankind, and this Plato learned in Egypt,
that they quarj-elled with Jupiter, and were driven by him down to hell.^^ That
which ^Apuleius, Xenophon, and Plato contend of Socrates Daemonium, is most
absurd : That which Plotinus of his, that he had likewise Beiim pro Dccmonio
;
and
that which Porphyry concludes of them all in general, if they be neglected in their
sacrifice they are angry ; nay more,^s Cardan in his Hipperchen will, they feed on
men's souls, Elnncnla sunt plantis elemcntum., animaUbus plantce., Iwminibiis anima-
lia^ erunt et homines aliis, non autcm diis, nimis enim remota est eorum natura a
nostra^ quapropter dcemonibus : 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,
1. 9. c. 8. de Civ. Dei. Euseb. 1. 4. prajpar. Evang. c. 6. and others. Yet thus much
I find, that our School-men and other
'"
Divines make nine kinds of bad Spirits, as
Dionysius hath done of Angels. In the first rank are those false gods of the Gen-
tiles, 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
iEquivocators, 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 ''^vessels
of fury ; their Prince is Belial. The fourth are malicious revenging Devils ; and
their Prince is Asmodseus. The fifth kind are cozeners, such as belong to Magicians
and Witches
;
their Prince is Satan. The sixth are those aerial devils that
""^
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, combus-
tions, uproars, mentioned in the Apocalypse ; and called Abaddon. Tlie eighth is
that accusing or calumniating Devil, whom the Greeks call
At,tt/3oxo5, tliat drives men
to despair. The ninth are those tempters in several kinds, and their Prince is Mam-
mon. Psellus makes six kinds, yet none above the Moon : Wierus in his Pseudo-
monarchia Dasmonis, out of an old book, makes many more divisions >.nd subordi-
nations, with their several names, numbers, ofiices, &c., but Gazaeus cited by ''^Lip-
sius will have all places full of Angels, Spirits, and Devils, above and beneath the
Moon,^^ aetherial and aerial, which Austin cites out of Varro 1. vii. de Civ. Dei, c. 6.
'
The celestial Devils above, and aerial beneath," or, as some will, g-ods above, Se-
midei or half gods beneath. Lares, Heroes, Genii, which climb higher, if they live^l
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, Lamia?, Stc.
""^
They will have no place
but all full of Spirits, Devils, or some other inhabitants ; Plenum Ccelum^ aer, aqua
terra^ et omnia sub ierrct^ saith '''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
***
Paracelsus stiffly maintains, and that they
.ave 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
*'>
nonnulli crediint quoqiie sidera posse I " Some persons believe each star to he a world, an
Dici orbes, terramque appellant sidus opacum, this earth an opaque star, over which the least of the
Cui minimus divuni prtesit."
|
gods presides."
*
In lib. 2. de Anima text 29. Homerus discrimina-
' " Vasa irte. c. 13. '^ Quibus datum cr-i ru.tere t.:tra
am ou-.nes spiritus da;mone3 vocat.
>'
A Jove ad
'
et niari, &c.
^*
Physiol. Stoicorum 6 Senec. l.o. 1.
tnferos pulsi, &c. "' De Deo Socratis adesl mihi cap. 28. ^^Usque ad luniun animas esse Kthereas
divina sorte Dipmonium qnodd.im i prima pueritia me vocarique heroas, lares, genios.
^"
Marl. Capella
gfeculum, REpp dissuadet, imi)ellit nonniinquam instar <' Nihil vacuum ab his uhi vel capillum in aere vel
ovis, Plato.
^'
Aarippa lib. 3. de occul. ph. c. 18. aqua jaceas.
*
Lib. de Zilp.
*"
Palingeniua.
/.^nch. Pirtorus, Perer'us Ciuogna. I. 3 cap. 1.
V40 Digression
of
Spirits. Tart. 1. Sect. 2
""Gregorius Tholsanus makes seven kinds of aetherial Spiri^ or Angels, according
to the number of the seven Planets, Saturnine, Jovial, Martial, of which Cardan dis.-
courseth lib. xx. de subtil, he calls them suhslanlias pritnas., Olpnpicos dcemonts
IVilemliis, qui prcEmnt Zodiaco, &c., and will have them to be good Angels above.
Devils beneath the Moon, their several names and ofHces 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.
^'
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 hlp or hurt us, and so adore, love or
hate) but it is most likely from Plato, for he relying wholly on Socrates, qucm mori
potius quam menliri voluisse scribit, whom he says would rather die than tell a false-
hood, out of Socrates' authority alone, made nine kinds of them : which opinion be-
like 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. He-
roes, 8. Principalities, 9. Princes : of which some were absolutely good, as Gods,
some bad, some indifferent inter deos el hominrs., as heroes and daemons, which ruled
men, and were called genii, or as
^^
Proclus and Jamblichus will, the middle betwixt
(Jxod and men. Principalities and Princes, which commanded and swayed Kings and
countries ; and had several places in the Spheres pei-haps, for as every sphere is
higher, so hath it more excellent inhabitants : which belike is that GaliliEus a Gali-
leo and Kepler aims at in his nuncio Syderio, when he will have ''^Saturnine and
Jovial inhabitants : and which Tycho Brahe doth in some sort touch or insinuate
in one of his Epistles: but these things ^'Zanchius justly explodes, cap. 3. lib. 4.
P. Martyr, in 4, Sam. 28.
So that according to these men the number of aetherial spirits must needs be infi-
nite : 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
^^
Thomas Albertus, and most hold that there be far
more angels than devils.
Sublunary drvils^ and their Iii7ids.\ But be thev more or less. Quod supra nos
nihil ad nos i^what is beyond our comprehension does not concern us). Howsoever
as Marlianns foolislily supposeth, Miherii Dcpmones non curant res humanas^ they
care not for us, do not attend our actions, or look for us,
tVioeo
getherial spirits have
other worlds to reign in belike or business to foiiow. We are only now to speak
m brief of these sublunary spirits or devus : for the rest, our divines determine that
the Devil had no power over stars, or heavens
;
''^
Carminibus cailo possunt deducere
htnam, &c., (by their charms (verses) they can seduce the moon from the heavens).
Those are poetical fictions, and that they can
^"^
sistere aqua?7ijluviis, et vertere sidcra
ret.roy &c., (stop rivers and turn the stars backward in their courses) as Canadia in
Horace, 'tis all false. "They are confined until the day of judgment to this sublu-
nary 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 thofe fairies, satyrs, nymphs, &.c.
Fiery spirits or devils are such as commonly wort by blazing stars, fire-drakes,
*
r.ib 7. cap. 34 et 5. Syntax, art. niirab. s' Com-
mmil in dial. Plat, de aiiiore, cap. 5. Ut sphara qiiae-
libet super nns, ita praestaiitiores habent habitatores
suae sphieriE cniisortes, ut habet nostra.
^''
Lib de
Arnica, et da?iiiotie nie \. inter deos et homines, dica ad
nos el iiosira lequalitei id deos ferunt. a^airni.
na ot Jovialns accolas.
'^
]n Inr.a detrnsi snnt
lufia t.-slestes orbes in aerem scilicet el infra ubi Ju-
dicio geneiali reservantur. ""^q. 36 art. 9.
66
Vir>r. 8. Eg. ^' JEn. i.
w
Austin : hoc dixi,
ne quis existiniet habiiare ibi inala dEEinonia ubi Solem
et Lunam et Stellas Deus ordinavit, et alibi nenio ar-
bitraretur Dienionem coelis habitare cum Angelis suis
unde lapsiim credinius Idem. Zanch. 1. 4. c. 3. di
Angel, nialis. Pererius in fien. cap. 6. lib- 8. in v<r 9
\ltiii . ouDs.
2.]
Digression
af
Spirus.
12
J
or ignes fat.ui ; which lead men often in Jlnmina aut prcBcipUia, saith Bodino, lib. 2.
Theat. Naturae, fell. 221. Quos inquit arccre si volunt viatorcs^ clara once Deum
appellarer aid pronam facie
terram contingente adorare oportct, et hoc amuletu7n ma-
joribus nostris acceplum ferre dehcmus^ &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 summilatibus visuntnr
;
and
are called dioscuri, as Eusebius 1. contra Philosophos, c. xlviii. informeth us, out of
tile authority of Zeno-phanes ;
or little clouds, ud niotuin nescio quern volantes
;
which
never appear, saith Cardan, but they signify some mischief or other to come .into
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 JPolonian duke, calls this appari-
tion, Sancli Gcrmani sidus ; and saith moreover that lie saw the same after in a
storm, as he was sailing, 1582, from Alexandria to Rhodes.^'' Our stories are full
of such apparitions in all kinds. Some tliink they keep their residence in that Hecla,
a mountain in Iceland, Ji^tna in Sicily, Lipari, Vesuvius, &c. These devils were
worshipped heretofore by that superstitious
rivpo/xavTita^" and the like.
-
Aerial spirits or devils, are such as keep quarter most part in the
*^'
air, cause many
/tempests, thunder, and liglitnings, tear oaks, fire steeples, houses, strike men and
beasts, make it rain stones, as in Livy's time, wool, frogs, &c. Counterfeit armies in
tiie air, strange noises, swords, &c., as at Vienna before the coming of the Turks,
and many times in Rome, as Scheretzius 1. de spect. c. 1. part 1. Lavater de spect.
part. i. c. 17. Julius Obsequens, an old Roman, in his book of prodigies, ab urb.
cond. 505.
^^
Machiavel hath illustrated by many examples, and Josephus, in his
book de bello Judaico, before the destruction of Jerusalem. All whicli Guil. Postel-
lus, in his first book, c. 7,
de orbis concordia, useth as an eflectual argument (as in-
deed it is) to persuade them that Avill not believe there be spirits or devils. They
cause whirlwinds on a sudden, and tempestuous storms
;
which though our meteoro-
logists generally refer to natural causes, yet I am of Bodine's mind, Theat. Nat. 1. 2.
they are more ot\en caused by those aerial devils, in their several quarters ; for Tem-
vestatibus se moenm^, saith ''^ Rich. Argentine; as when a despeiate man makes awav
with himself, which by hanging or drowning they frequently do, as Kornmanns ob-
serves, de mirac. mort. part. 7, c. 76. tripudium ageyifes, 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 memor-
able example in "Jovianus Pontanus : and nothing so familiar (if we may believe
those relations of Saxo Grammaticns, Olaus Majjnus, Damianus A. Goes) as for
witches and sorcerers, in Lapland, Litluiania, 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 ^Melighted 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 hidians, being
adored and worshipped for ^gods. For the Gentiles' gods were devils (as "Trisnic-
gistus 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 (saUh
**Pictorius) under tlie name of saints." These are they which Cardan thinks desire
so much carnal copulation with witches (/nczi^i and Swcc//i/), transform bodies, and
jre so very cold, if they be touched ; and that serve magicians. His father had one
of them (as he is not ashamed to relate),
'^^
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, ApoUonius Tianeus, Jamblichus, and Tritemius
9Perigram. Jlierosol. ""Fire worship, or divl- I bello Neapniitano, lib. 5. Suffitibus gaiident.
nation by fire.
<>'
Domus Diruunt, niurns dejitiimt. Idem .lust. Mart. Apol. pro Christiaiiis. ''In Dei
immisceiit se turbinibus et procellis et pulvereiii instar |
imitationem, saith Eusebius. <^' Dii gentium Da-iiio-
eolumns evehunt. L'icogna 1. 5. c. 5.
e-
Quest, iiia, &c. e?o ii\ eorum statuas pellexi. ''Tt nunc
in Liv.
''^
De prfestigiis ds-monum. c. 16. Con- snb divoruin nimiine coluntur i I'ontiflciis. ^'' Lib
velli culmina videmus, prostenii sata, &c.
"'
De I
11. de rerum ver.
16 L
122 Digression
of
Spiruy. [Part. 1 Sec 2
of late, that sliowed Maximilian the emperor his wife, after she was dead ; Et ver-
rucam in collo ejus (saith Godolman) so much as the wart in her neck. Delric.
lib. ii. hath divers examples of their feats : Cicogna, lib. iii. cap. 3. and Wierus in
his book de prccsllg. dcEmonum. Bolssardus de magis et vcncficis.
Water-devils are those JVaiads or water nymphs wiiich have been heretofore con-
veisant about waters and rivers. The water (^as Paracelsus thinks) is their chaos,
wherein they live ; some call them fairies, and say that Ilabundia is their queen ;
these cause inundations, many times shipwrecks, and deceive men diveis ways, as
Succuba, or otherwise, appearing most part (saith Tritemius) in women's shapes.
"'
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 Lhem. Such a one as ^geria, wilii whom Numa was so familiar,
Diana, Ceres, &c. "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 v/ater nymphs or fairies, and was feasted by them ; and Hector Boethius, or
Macbelii, and Banquo, two Scottish lords, that as they were wandering in the woods,
had tlieir fortunes told them by three strange women. To these, heretofore, they
did use to sacrifice, by that vbpoixavriM, or divination by waters.
Terrestrial devils are those "Lares, Genii, Fauns, Satyrs, "^Wood-nymphs, Foliots,
Fairies, Robin Goodfellows, TruUi, Sic, 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, Slc.
;
some put our "^faries into this rank, which have been in formei
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 ''^Lavater thinks with Tritemius, and as "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 chil-
dren. Hierom. Pauli, in his description of tlie city of Bercino in Spain relates how
they have been familiarly seen near that town, about fountains and hilis
;
JVonnun-
qtiam (saith Tritemius) in sua latihula montium simpliciorcs homines ducunt^ stu-
penda miranlibiis ostentes miracula, nolnrum sonUus, spectacula^ &c." Giraldus
Cambrensis gives instance in a monk of Wales that was so deluded. '^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
ailk, cut wood, or do any manner of drudgery work. They would mend old irons
in those Jilolian isles of Lipari, in former ages, and have been often seen and heard.
'"'Tholosanus calls them TruUos 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 Foelix Malleolus, in his book de crudel. dcemon. affirms as much,
that these Trolli or Telchines are very common in Norway, '' and *'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, \\ hich frequent forlorn
*^
houses, which
the Italians call foliots, most part innoxous, ^"^ Cardan holds;
"
They will make
strange noises in the night, howl sometimes pitifully, and then laugh again, cause
great fiame and sudden lights, fling stones, rattle cliains, shave men, open doors and
"Lib. 3. cap. 3. De magis etveneficis, &c. Nereides. 1 treats, where they exhibit wonderful sisrhts to their
"Lib. de Zilphis. ''^Lib. 3.
'^
Pro salute marvelling eyes, and astonish their ears by the soiin J
honiinuin e.\cul)are se simulant, sed in eorum periii- l of bells, See. '''Lib. de Zil|ih. et Pisnisus Olaiis
cicm omnia moliuiitur. Aust. "'
Dryades, Oriades, lib. 3.
m
Lib. 7. cap. 14. Qui et in famulitio viri
Hamadryades. '"Elvas Glaus voc. at lib. 3
"^
Part r. cap. 19. ''Lib. 3. cap. 11. Elvarum
choreas OIlmir lib. 3. vocat sallum adeo profundi in
terras iinpriiriunl, ut locus iiisigni deinceps virore or-
bicularis sit, et gramen non pereat. "Sometimes committed. "Lib. 16. de rerum varietal
tbey Reduce too simple men into their moantaiii re-
el fa;minis inserviunt, conclavia scopis purgant, pati-
nas muiidant, ligna portant, equos ciirant, &c.
"'
Ad
minisleria utuntur.
'-
Where ireasure is .1 d (ai
some think) or some murder, or such like v ..an)
Mem. 1. Subs.
2.]
Digression
of
Spirits. \2ii
hut them, fling down platters^ stools, chests, sometimes appear in the likeness of
/larc s, crows, black dogs, &c." of which read
*^
Pet ThyraGus the Jesuit, in his
Tra-*t. 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 ^Sigismundus Scheretzius, lib. de spectris, part 1.
c. 1. which he saith lie took out of Luther most part; there be many instances. *Pli-
nius Secundus remembers such a house at Athens, which Athenodoius the philoso
pher hired, which no man durst inhabit for fear of devils. Austin, dc 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
anima-
lium et servorum suorum. Many such instances are to be read in Niderius Formicar,
lih. 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 devds many times appear to
men, and aflright them out of their wits, sometimes walking at **' noon-day, some-
times 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, ^^JYulla nox sine lerrore transacta, donee in-
cendio consiimpta ; every night this happened, there was no quietness, till the house
W9S burned. About Hecla, in Iceland, gliosis commonly walk, animas mortuorum
simulunles., saith Job. Anan, lih. .3. de nat. deem. Olaiis. lib. 2. cap. 2. JYatal Tal-
lopid. lib. de apparil. spir. Kornmannus de mirac. mort. part. 1. cap. 44. such sight.<5
are frequently seen circa sepulchra et monasteria., saith Lavat. lib. 1. cap. 19. in
monasteries and about churchyards, loca pahidinosa., ampla cexlijicia., solitaria^ e:
ccede hominum notata, Stc. (marshes, great buildings, solitary places, or remarkable
as the scene of some murder.) Thyreus adds, ubi gravius pcccatum est commissum^
impii, pauperum oppressores et nequiter insignes habitant (where some very henious
crime was committed, there the impious and infamous generally dwell). These spirits
often foretel men's deaths by several signs, as knocking, groanings, &c. ^Hhougli Rich.
Argentine, c. 18. de prcEstigiis damonum., will ascribe these predictions to good angels,
out of the authority of Ficinus and others
;
prodigia in obitu principnm scepius con-
tingunf., &c. (prodigies frequently occur at the deaths of illustrious men), as in the
Lateran church in ^"Rouje, 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
^'
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 fceditatem sentiunt, as
'-^^
Baracellus conjectures, et idea
super ledum injirmorum crocitant^ because they smell a corse; or for that (as ^'^Ber-
nardinus 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, tumulluose perstre-
"pcntes., they pulled the pillow from under his head. Rob. Gaguinus, hist. Franc, lib
8, telleth such another wonderful story at ihe death of Johannes de Monteforti, a
French lord, anno 1345, tanta corvorrim multiludo cedibus morientis inscdit^ quantam
esse in Gallia nemo judicasset (a multitude of crows alighted on the house of the
dying man, such as no one ii^iagined 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
!
Vel spiritus sunt hujnsmodi datniiatorutn, vel 6
jiurgatorio, vel ipsi dsemoiies, c. 4. I'-Quidarn le-
Inuros doniesticis instrumeniis noctii liidiint : putinas,
^lla^, caiilharas, et alia vasa dejii;iunt, et qiiidam
s'Meridionales Dtemones Cicngna calls them, or Alas-
tores, 1. 3. cap. 9. 'Sueton. c. 69. in Caligula.
b"
Strozzius Cicogna. lih. 3. tiiag. cap. 5
sn
idem. c. 18.
91
M. Carew. Survey of Cornwall, lib. 2 folio 140
oceB emitiunt, ejulant, risuin emittuut, &c. ut canes S'JHortoGeniali, folio 137.
^'
Part I.e. 19. AhducunI
igri< feles variis formis, &c. sEp;st. lib. 7. eos & recta via, et viain iUr fatientibus inter cludi"*
124 Digression
of
Spirits. Part. 1. Sect. 2
places, which (saith ^''Luvater) "draw men out of the way, and lead them all night
a bye-way, or quite bar them of their way
;"
these have several names in several
places ; vve 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
^^
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 ^Nubrigensis), that had
an especial grace to see devils, Gratiam divinitus collatam, and talk with them, Et im-
pavidus cum spiritihus sermonevi 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. (5, cap. 19, make six kinds of them; some bigger, some less. These
(saith "'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 sahterraneis animantibus. cap. 37, reckons two more notable kinds of them,
which he calls ''^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 be-
sides, ^^ 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, lie 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 Ji^tna, Lipari, Mons Hecla in Iceland, Vesuvius, Terra del Fuego, Si-c., because
many shrieks and fearful cries are continually heard thereabouts, and familiar appa-
ritions of dead men, ghosts and goblins.
Their
Offices.,
Operations., Study.] Tiius 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
'*"
some will have his proper place tlie air
;
all that space between us and the moon for them that transgressed least, and hell for
the wickedest of them. Hie velut in carcere ad Jincm mundi, tunc in locum funestio-
rum 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
'
Lactantius thinks,
with other men's falls, he labours all he can to bring them into the same pit of per-
dition with him. "Foremen's miseries, calamities, and ruins are the devil's ban-
queting dishes. By many temptations and several engines, he seeks to captivate our
souls. The Lord of Lies, saith ''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 covet-
ousness, drunkenness, pleasure, pride, &c., errs, dejects, saves, kills, protects, and
rides some men, as they do their horses. He studies our overthrow, and generally
___
.,
*<
Lib. 1. cap. 44. Dffimonum cernunliir et audiuntiir I dis honiinihiis operantur.
^^
Mnrtalium calami-
ibi frequentes illii^ioiies, nude viatoribus caveiidum
|
tales epula; sunt maloruni da^iiinnuiii, Synesius.
ne ce dissocietil, aiit & tergo inaneaiit, voces enim ^ Daminus inendacii cl seipso deceptus, alios decipere
fingiint socioriiiii, ut i recto ilinere abducanl, &c,
"^
Mons sterilis et nivosus, iibi inteiiipesla iiocte urii-
bree apparent. "''Lib. 2. cap. 21, Offendicula fa-
ciiint transeunlibus in viaet petulanter ridet cum vel
liotniiieni 7el jmnentuni ejus pedes attprere faciant,
et maxima si homo nialedictus et calcaiibiis sa^vint.
'>*
In Cosinogr. ""Vesliii more metallicorum,
ciipit, adversarius hiimani generis. Inventor mortis,
superbite instiiutor, radix maliliiE, scelerum caput,
princeps omnium viliorum, fuit inde in Dei contunie-
iiam, homiiuim perniciem : de liorum conatibus el
operaiionibus lege Epiphaniutn. 2. Tom. lib. 2. Dio-
nysiiun. c. 4. Amhros. Epistol. lib. 10. ep. et 84. Au-
gust, de civ. Dei lib. 5. c. 9. lib. 8. cap. 22. lib. 9. 18.
gestus et opera eorum imitanlur.
"''
Immisso in i lib. 10. 21. Theophil. in 12. Mat. Pasil. ep. 141. Leonem
terra; carceres vento norribiles terrae molus efRciunt, Ser. Theodoret. in 11. Cnr. ep. 22. Chrys. hom. 53. in
quibus s!Epe non domiis modo et turres, sed civitates 12. Gen. Greg, in 1. c. John. Uarlhol. de prop. 1. 2. c.
iTitegriB et insulse haustse sunt. '""Hierom. in 3. 20. Zancli. 1. 4. de malis angelis. I'erer. in Gen. I. 8.
Ephes. Idem Michaelis. c. 4. de spiritibus. Idem in c. 6. 2. Origen. saepe prasliis intersunt, itinera el
Thyreus de locis iiifeslis. 'Lactantius 2. de I negotia nostra qufecumqiie dirigunt, clandestinis sob-
Uigitie error'" cap. 15. lii nialigni spiritns per oinnem
'
sidils optatos sjepe prasbent succisaus, Pet. yar. in
.erram vagantur. et solatium perditionifi sua: perden- i iiam. &c. Ruscam de Infcno.
Mem. 1. Subs. 2.]
Digression
of
Spirits. 125
.seeks our destruction ; and although he pretend many times numan good, anu vin-
dicate himself for a god by curing of several diseases, agris sanit.atem^ et ccecis
himinis usum restiluendo, as Austin declares, lib. 10, de civit Dei., cap.
6,
as Apollo
.-Esculapius, Isis, of old have done ; divert plagues, assist them in wars, pretenc?
then- happiness, yet nihil his hnpurius., scelestiiis, nihil humano gencri infestiiis,
nothing so impure, nothing so pernicious, as may well appear by their tyrannical
uid 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 obe-
dience, their false oracles, sacrifices, their superstitious impositions of fasts, penury,
&.C. Heresies, superstitious observations of meats, times, &c., by which they ""cru
cify the souls of mortal men, as shall be showed in our Treatise of Religious Me-
lancholy. ModiCO adhuc tempore sinitur malignari, as ^Bernard expresseth it, by
God's permission he rageth a while, hereafter to be confined to hell and darkness,
"
M'hich 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." ^''They govern pro-
vinces and kingdoms by oracles, auguries," dreams, rewards and punishments, pro-
phecies, 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, ''Adstanfes hie jam nobis, spectanfes, 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. 'In a word, JVUiil magis qucErunt quam mctum et admirationem hominum
;
and
as another hath it, Did non potest,, quam impotenti ard.ore in homines dominium^ et
Divinos cultus mnligni spiritus offectent.^
Tritemius in his book de septem secun-
dis, 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 1 find
them cited by "Cicogna) farther add, that they are not our governors only, Sfd ex
eoriim concordid 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 incUfferent, jilqua Venus Tcucris., Pallas iniquafnii .
some are for us still, some against us, Prtmente Deo, fcrt
Deus alter opcm. Reli-
gion, policy, public and private quarrels, wars are procured by them, and they are
'^delighted perhaps to see men fight, as men are with cocks, bulls and dogs, bears,
&cc., plagues, dearths depend on them, our bene and male esse, and almost all o"r
other peculiar actions, (for as Anthony Rusea contends, lib. 5, cap. 18, every ma;?
hath a good and a bad angel attending on him in particular, all his life long, which
Jamblichus calls dcemnnem,) preferments, losses, weddings, deaths, rewards and
ptmishments, and as
'^
Proclus will, all offices whatsoever, alii gcnetricem, alii
op'/icem potesiatem habent, &c. and several names they give them according to their
offices, as Lares, Indegites, Preestites, &c. When the Arcades in that battle at Che-
rona;, which was fought against King Phdip for the liberty of Greece, had deceitfully
carried themselves, long after, in the very same place, Diis Grcscia; 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. '''That base fellows are often advanced, undeserving
Gnathoes, and vicious parasites, whereas discreet, wise, virtuous and worthy men
4 Et veliit mancipia circumfert Psellus.
s
i,ib. de ttiehnnour of being divinely worshipped." " Oinnif
trans, milt. Malar,, pp.
"
Ciistodes sunt hominiiiii, mag. lib. 2. cap.
2."!. '-Liidus deorum sumus.
et eonim, ut nos animaliuni : turn et prnvinciis prEepo- '-'Lib. de aniina et deemono-
n
Quoties fit, iil
Bili regiint aui!uriis, soniniis, nraciilis, pramiis, &;c. Principes novitiiim aiilicuni divitiis et dijiiitatibus
>
Lipsius, Physiol. Stoic, lib. 1. cap. 19.
"
Leo pene obriiant, et iniiltoriim aiinoniiTi niinistriiiii. qui
Suavis idem et Trileiiiitis. "
They seek nothing non semel pro hern peticiilum siiblit, ne lernntio (lo-
inore earnestly than the fear and admiration of men." , nent, &c. Idem. Quod I'hilosophi non remunerentur
'""It is scarcely possible to describe the impotent
'
cum scurra et ineplus oh insulsumjocuia saepe pne-
ferduur with which these malignant spirits aspire to mmm reportet, inde fit, &.c.
1.2
126 Digression
of
Spirits.
,
Part. 1. 3eC. 1
are neglected and unrewarded ; they refer to those domineering spirits, or suhordi-
nate Genii; as they are inclined, or favour men, so they tlirive, are ruled an(hover-
conie ; for as '^Libanius supposeth in our ordinary conflicts and contentions. Genius
Genio cedU et oblcmperat, one genius yields and is overcome by another. All par-
ticular events almost they refer to these private spirits ; and (as Paracelsus acids)
they direct, teach, inspire, and instruct men. Never was any man extraoniinary
famous in any art, action, or great commander, that had not famillarcm dcumonerr
to inform him, as Nnma, Socrates, and many such, as Cardan illustrates, cap. 128.
Arcanis prudentice civilis, ^^Spe.c'iall siquidmi gratia, se a Deo donari asserunt magi,
a Gcniis ccelestibus instrui, ab lis doceri. But these are most erroneous paradoxes.
incptcE et fabulosce nugcp,, rejected by our divines and Christian churches. 'Tis tiue
they have, by God's permission, power over us, and we find by experience, that
they can 'Miurt not our fields only, cattle, goods, but our bodies and minds. At
Hammel in Saxony, Jin. 1484. 20 Junii, the devil, in likeness of a pied piper, carried
away 130 children that were never after seen. Many times men are
'^
affrighted out
of tiici" wits, carried away quite, as Scheretzius illustrates, lib. 1, c. iv., and seve-
rally 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 pro-
nounceth otherwise, that he can work both upon body and mind. Tertullian is
of this opinion, c. 22.
'^"
That he can cause both sickness and health," and that
secretly.
'^
Taurellus adds
"
by clancuiar poisons he can infect the bodies, and hinder
the operations of the bowels, though we perceive it not, closely creeping into
them," saith
^'
Lipsius, and so crucify our souls : El nociva melancholia furiosos
ejficil. For being a spiritual body, he struggles with our spirits, saith Rogers, and
suggests (according to
^^
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, suffi-
ciently declares.
^^"
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 hu-
mours
;
although many physicians are of opinion, that the devil can alter the mind,
and produce this disease of himself. Quibusdam medicorum visum, saith ^^Avicenna,
quod Melancholia contingat a dcemonio. Of the same mind is Fsellus and Rhasis
the Arab. lib. 1. Tract. 9. Cont. ^^"That this disease proceeds especially from the
devil, and from him alone." Arculanus, cap. 6. in 9. Rhasis, JTilianus 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 parlies affected prophesy,
speak strange language, but non sine intcrventu humoris, not without the humour, as
he interprets himself; no more doth Avicenna, si contingat a dcsmonio, sujjicit nobis
ut convertat complexionem ad choleram nigram, et sit causa ejus propinqua cholera
nigra; the immediate cause is choler adust, which ^^Pomponatius likewise labours
to make good : Galgerandus of Mantua, a famous Physician, so cured a dajmoniacal
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, Stc, mingling himself among these humours. This is that which Tertul-
lian avers, Corporibus infligunt acerbos casus, animceque repenlinos, membra distor-
qiient, occulte repentes, &c. and which Lemnius goes about to prove, Immiscent se.
mali Genii pravis humoribus, atque atrce bili, &c. And "Jason Pratensis,
"
that the
i^I/ib. de cruelt. Cadaver.
"i
Boissardus, c. 6 i neqiiit, primum movit phantasiam, et ita obfirmat va-
ma;;ia.
Godelmanus, cap. 3. lib. 1. de Masjis.
'
nis conceptibus aut ut ne quern faciiltati jEstimativK
Jem Zanchius, lib. 4. cap. 10 et 11. de nialis anjielis. rationi locum relinquat. Spiritus inalus invadit ani-
"
Nociva Melancholia furiosos efficit, el quaiul6que i mam, turbat sen.=!us, in furorem conjicit. Austin, de
penitus interficit. G. Picolominens Idemque Zanch. vit. Beat. '^' Lib. 3 Fen. 1. Tract. 4. c. 18. --"'A
cap. 10. ib. 4. si Deus permittat, corpora nostra mo- Usemone maxime proficisci, et SEepe solo.
-lo
Lib.
vere possunt, alterare, quovis morboruin et malorum de incant.
-
Ca^p. de mania lib. de morbis cere-
genere afficere, imo et in ipsa penetrare et sfRvire. hri ; Dajinones, quurn sint tenues et incomprehensi-
'*
Inducere potest morbos et sanitates.
-o
Visce- biles spiritus, se insinuare corporibus hunianis pos-
rum actiones potest inhibere latenter, et venenis no- sunt, et occulte in visceribus operti, valeiudinem vi-
bis isnotis corpus inficere.
'i
jfrepentes corporibus tiare, somniis aiiimas terrcre et mentes fiiroribus
occult6 morbos flngunt, mentes terrent, membra dis- quatere. Insinuant se melancholicorum penetralibu>,
lorquent. Lips. I'tiil. Stoic. 1. 1. c. 19.
''-
De reriim intus ibiqiie coiisidiiiit et deliciantur tanquam in regi-
rar. 1. 16. c 93
'^
Quum mens immediate decipi one clarissimnruui sideriini, coguntque afmum furij\.
Mem. 1. Subs.
2.]
JYature
of
Spirits. 127
^evil, 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 anotiier
place,
''
These unclean spirits settled in our bodies, and now mixed with our melan-
clioly humours, do triumph as it were, and sport themselves as m 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 percefve our temperature inclined of itself and
most apt; to be deluded. ^^Agrippa and ^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 en-
tertain 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 damoniacis, de locis infestis, dc Terrificationibus nocturnis., Kieroni-
mus Mengus Flagel. dam. 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 ''"without grace, or signing it with the sign of the
cross, and was instantly possessed. Durand. lib. 6. Rational!, c. 8G. 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, JVe dce-
mon ingredi ausif., and exorcise all manner of meats, as being unclean or accursed
otherwise, as Bellarmine defends. Many such stories I find amongst pontifical writ-
ers, to prove their assertions, let them free their own credits
;
some few 1 will recite
in this kind out of most approved physicians. Cornelius Gemma, lib. 2. de nat. mi-
rac. c. 4. relates of a young maid, called Katherine Gualter, a cooper's daughter, ./Sn.
1571. that had such strange passions and convulsions, three men could not some-
times 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, peices of wood, pigeon's dung, parchment, goose dung,
coals ; and after them two pounds of pure blood, and then again coals and stones, of
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 indi., this [ saw with horror. They could do no good on her by physic,
but left her to the clergy. Marcellus Donatus, lib. 2. c. I. de med. mirab. hath such
another story of a country fellow, that had four l^'nives in his belly, Instar serrce den-
tatos, 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, Ccrfe nan alio qua7n dofmonis astuiia 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 Christopherus a Vega : Wierus,
Skenkius, Scribonius, all agree that they are done by the subtilty and illusion of the
devil. If you shall ask a reason of this, 'tis to exercise our patience; for as ^'Ter-
tullian holds. Virtus non est virtus., nisi comparem habet aliquein., in quo superando
vhn suam osicndat 'tis to try us and our faith, 'tis for our offences, and for the pun-
ishment of our sins, by God's permission they do it, Carnifices vindictcB jusicc Dei
as ^^Tolasanus 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 s^enclinw out of evil angels : so did he afflict Job, Saul, the Lunatics and da?moniacal
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, incredu
lity, weakness, distrust, &c.
28Lib 1. cap. C. occult. Philos. part 1. cap. 1. de
j
demone obsessa. dial. soGrea;. pag. c. 9.
3i
p.
pectris
^'i
Sine cruce et sanctificatione sic ft |
null, de pnific. Dei. ^Lib. 2S. caj). 26. torn. U.
128 J^ature
of
Devils. [Part. 1. Sec. 2.
SuBSECT. III.
Of
Witches and Magicians, how they cause Melanchclv.
You have heard what the devil can do of himself, now^ you shall liear what he can
perform by liis instruments, who are many times worse (if it be possible) than he
himself, and to satisfy their revenge and lust cause more mischief, Malta en\m mala
non egisset dcBtnon, nisi provocatus a sagis, as ^^Erastus thinlis ; 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 ; JYec morbos
vel hominibus., vel brutis infigeret (Erastus maintains) si saga: quiesccrcnt ; 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
prcEStig. daim. Austin Lerchemer a Dutch wiiter, Biarmanus, Ewichius, E.uwaldus,
our countryman Scot ; with him in Horace,
Division
of
PfHirbations.
Perturbations and passions, which trouble the pht*itasy, though they dwell be-
tween the confines of sense and reason, yet they rather follow sense than reason, be-
cause they are drowned in corporeal organs of sense. They are commonly '"reducec'
into two inclinations, irascible and concupiscible. The Thomists suodivide them into
*
Lib. de Incantatione, Imaginatio subitum humorum, I
'
Plures sanat in queni plures confldunt. lib. de sapi-
et snirituum molum infert, unde varlo affertu rapitur I entia. ''Marcelius Ficinus, 1. 13. c. 18. de theolog
anKuis, ac un4 inotbificas causas parlibus affectis | Platonica. Imaginatio est tanqunra Proteus vcl Cha-
eripit. 6i,ib. 3. c. 18. de prsestig. Ut impia ere- j meleon, corpus proprium et alicnum nonnunquam
duiitatequis Iffditur, sic et levari eundem credibile est, 1
afficiens. ''Cut oscitaiites oscitont, Wierua
iisuque observatum.
"
iEgri persuasio et fiducia, i ^oT. W. Jesuit.
DMinl arti et consilio et medicinae praeferenda. Avicen.
'
21 o 2
1 62 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1 Si^c.
'-^
elever., six ii the coveting, and five in the invading. Aristotle reduceth ad to plea-
sure and pain, Plato to love and hatred,
"
Vives to good and bad. If good, it is pre-
ient, and then we absolutely joy and love; or to come, and tlien we desire and hojie
for it. If evil, we absolute hate it ; if present, it is by sorrow
;
if to come fear. These
four passions
'^
Bernard compares
"
to tire wheels of a chariot, by whicli we are car-
ried 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, emula-
tion, pride, jealousy, anxiety, mercy, shame, discontent, despair, ambition, avarice,
&.C., are reducible unto the first; and if they be immoderate, they '^consume the
spirits, and melancholy is especially caused by them. Some few discreet men theu
are, that can govern themselves, and curb in these inordinate atlections, by religion,
philosophy, and such divine precepts, of meekness, patience, and the like ; but mosi
part for want of government, out of indiscretion, ignorance, they suHer 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, "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. Con-
tumax iH)luntas^ as Melancthon calls it, malumfacit : this stubborn will of ours per-
verts judgment, which sees and knows what should and ought to be done, and yet
v'ill not do it. Mancipia gulcR., slaves to their several lusts and appetite, they pre-
cipitate and plunge 'Hliemselves into a labyrinth of cares, blinded with lust, blinded
with ambition
;
'"'''They seek that at God's hands which they may give unto them-
selves, if they could but refrain from those cares and perturbations, wherewith they
continually macerate tlieir 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 '"crucify their own souls.
SuBSECT. IV.
Sorrow a Cause
of
Melancholy.
Sorroxo. Insanus dolor.] L\ 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 theii
order,) the first place in this irascible appetite, may justly be challenged by sorrow.
An inseparable companion,
"*''
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 symp-
tom shall be shown in its place. That it is a cause all the world acknowledgeth.
Dolor nonnullis insanice, causa fait., et aliorum morhorum msanabiliujn., saith Plutarch
to Apollonius ; a cause of madness, a cause of many other diseases, a sole cause of
this mischief, '^Lemnius calls it. So doth Rhasis, conf. I. 1. tract. 9. Guinerius,
Tract. 15. c. 5, And if it take root once, it ends in despair, as ^"Foslix Plater ob-
serves, and as in ^'Cebes' table, may well be coupled with it. ^^Chrysostom, in liis
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 bodilv punish-
"3. de Aninia. '2Ser. 35. H(e qiiatiior passiones boles atri humoris sunt, et in circuliim se procreant.
mnttanquain rotiein curru,qiiibus veliiniur hoc niundo. Hip. Aphoris. 23. I. 6. Ide m Montallus, ...ip. 19, Vie-
''H.iniui qiiippe inimoderatione, spiritiis marcescunt. torius FaventUMTSi'ifrkcl. iiuag. '"M'llti ex niterore
Feme). 1. 1. I'ath. c 18. " Mala consuetndiiie depra- , et metu luic delapsi sunt. I^enin., lib. 1. cap. 10.
vatur ingeniuui ne bene facial. Prosper Caleiius, 1. de ; '^'' Multa cura et tristitia faciunt accedere nielancho-
alra bile. Plura faciunt hnuiines ^coiisuetudine quam Ham (cap. 3. de mentis alien ) si altas iidices ajral, ip
6 ratione. A teneiis assuescere niultum est. A'ideo veram fixamque degenerat Mielancholiam et in de.spe-
meliora proboque deteriora sequor. Ovid. '^Nenio rationeni desiriit. '-' Ille luctus. ejus verO soror
Isditiir nisi Jlseipso.
'^
MnUi ge j,, inquietudiiiem desperatio siniul ponitur. ^-Aniiiiarum crudele
praicipitant ambitione et cupidllatlbus exciecati, non tormentum, dolor inexplicabilis, tinea non solum ossa,
intelli^unt se illud k diis petere, quod sibi ipsis si ve- sed corda pertingens, perpetuus carnifex, vires anims
lint prKstare possint, si curis et perturbationibus, qui- consumens, jut'is no.x, et tenebrffi profundie, tempostas
bus assidue se macerant, imperare velleiit.
i'
Tanto et turbo et febris non ajiparens, onini ijine validiiu
tudio niiseriarum causas. et alimenta dolornm qua-ri- 'ncendens ; Innsior. et pugna' finem non liabons
mils, vitamque secus fiMicissimam, tristein et misera- Crucem circumlfert dolor, facieuique omni tyraiinc
bilem pfficinius. Petrarch, prsfat. de Rnmediis, &c. crudelioreni pree se fert.
'*
Timor et inoestitia, si diu perseverent, causa et so-
Vlcni. 3. Subs,
5.]
Fear., a Cause.
163
ment is like unto it. 'Tis the eagle without question which the poets feigned to'gnaw
'^Promeliieus' heart, and "no heaviness is like unto the heaviness of the heart,"
Eccles. XXV. 15, 16.
^''"
Every perturbation is a misery, but grief a cruel torment,"
a domineering passion : as in old Rome, when the Dictator was created, ^11 inferior
magistracies ceased ; when grief appears, all other passions vanish.
"
It dries up the
bones," saith Solomon, ch. 17. Pro., "makes them hollow-eyed, pale, and lean, fur-
row-faced, to have dead looks, wrinkled brows, shrivelled cheeks, dry bodies, and
quite perverts their temperature that are misaflected with it. As Eleonara, that exiled
mournful duchess (in our ^* English Ovid), laments to her noble husband Humphrey;
Duke of Gloucester,
I, _
, ,
.,
.t<-ii.
Sorrow hath so despoil 'd me of all grace,
'
Sawest thou those eyes in whose sweet cneeriul look
Duke Humphrey once such joy and pleasure took,
Thou couldst not say this was my Eluor's face.
Like a foul Gorgon," &.c.
^^"it hinders concoction, refrigerates the heart, takes away stomach, colour, and
sleep, tliickens tlie blood, ^''(Fernelius, I. 1. c. 18. de morb. causis.) contaminates the
spirits." ^^(Piso.) Overthrows the natural heat, perverts the good estate of body
and mind, and makes them weary of tlieir 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." An-
tiochus complained that he could not sleep, and that his heart fainted for grief,
^* Christ himself, Vir dolorum., out of an apprehension of grief, did sweat blood.
Mark xiv.
"
His sool was heavy to the death, and no sorow was like unto his."
Crato, consil. 21. I. 2,
gives instance in one that was so melancholy by reason of
^
grief ; and Montanus, consil. 30, in a noble matron,
^'"
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, ''^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, ^^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'*'*
died for grief-; and how ^^many myriads besides.? Tanta illi est. feritas, tanta est
insanla luctus?^ 'sl\lelancthon gives a reason of it, ^'"the gathering of much melan-
choly blood about the heart, which collection extinguisheth the good spirits, or at
least duUeth 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, Jidus .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 ''^Virgil of the Harpies, I may justly say
of them both,
"Tristius haud illis monstrum, nee Sfevior ulla I "A sadder monster, or more cruel plague so fell,
Pcstis et ira Deum stygiis sese extulit undis." | 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 I^acedaemo-
nians, and most of those other torturing
"^
affections, and so was sorrow amongst
23
Nat. Comes Mythol. 1. 4. c. 6. 24Tully 3. Tusc.
oinnis perturbatio miseria et carnificina est dolor.
's
M. Drayton in his Her. ep.
-^
Crato consil. 21.
lib. 2. moestitia universum infrigidat corpus, calorem
innatuin extinguit, appetitum destruit.
27
cor re-
frigerat tristitia, spiritus exsiccat, innatumque calorem
obruit, vigilias inducit, concoctionem laberfactat, san-
guinem incrassat, exageratque melancholicum suc-
cum. 28Spifi[ggt sanguis hoc conlaminatur.
Piso. 29j|arc. vi. 16. II.
so
Msrore maceror,
marcesco et conseriesco miser, ossa atque pellis sum
misera macritndice. Plaut.
si
Malum ineeptum
et actum iL tristi'ia sola.
^
Hildesheim, spicel. 2.
de me anrholia, maerore animi postea accedente, in
priora symptomata incidit.
S3
vives, 3. df anima,
c. de maerore. Sabin. in Ovid. s^Herodian. 1. 3.
mEerore magis quern morbo consumptus est.
ss
Bolh-
wellius atribilarius obiit Brizarrus Genuensis hist. &c.
"^So great is the fierceness and madness of melan-
choly.
27
Moestitia cor quasi percussum constringi-
tur, iremit et languescit cum acri sensu dolorin. In
tristitia cor fugiens altrahit ex Splene lentum humo-
rem melancholicum, qui effusus sub costis in sinistro
latere hypocondriacos flatus facit, quod sffpe accidil
iis qui diuturna cura et moestitia conflictantur. Me-
lancihon.
3^
l,ib. 3. JEri. 4.
SJ
Et nietuni ideo
deam sacrarunt ut bonam memem concederet. Varrcs
Lactantius, Aug.
164 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec. 2.
the rest, under the name of Angerona Dea, they stood in such awe of them, as
Aujstin, de Civitat. Dei., lib. 4. cap. 8,
noteth out of Varro, fear was commonly
'"adored and painted in their temples with a lion's head ; and as Macrobius records,
I. 10. Saturnallum ;
''''
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 ; tliat, being propitious to them, she might expel all cares, anguish,
and vexation of the mind for that year following." Many lamentable efl'ects this
fear causeth in men, as to be red, pale, tremble, sweat, "^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 personagcs./as TuUy 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,
""^
what they do, and that which is
worst, it tortures them many days before with continual alfrights and suspicion. It
hinders most honourable attempts, and makes their hearts ache, sad and heavy.
They that live in fear are never free, ^^ resolute, secure, never merry, but in continual
pain : that, as Vives truly said, JVulla est miseria major quitm metus, no greater
misery, no rack, nor torture like unto it, ever suspicious, anxious, solicitous, they
are childishly drooping without reason, without judgment, ''^"especially if some
terrible object be ofTered," as Plutarch hath it. It causeth ol'tentimes sudden mad-
ness, and almost all manner of diseases, as I have sufTiciently illustrated in my
* digression of the force of imagination, and shall do more at large in my' section
of *' terrors. Fear makes our imagination conceive what it list, invites the devil to
come to us, as
""
Agrippa and Cardan avouch, and tyrannizeth over our phantasy more
than all other affections, especially in the dark. We see this verified in most men,
as "'^Lavater saith. Qua; mctuunt, 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 Caesai
durst not sit in the dark, nisi aliquo assidente, saith ^"Suetonius, JVunquam tenebris
evigilavit. And 'tis strange what women and children will conceive unto them-
selves, if they go over a church-yard 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 scirct ultimum vita' diern^ saith Suetonius, valde solicilus, much
tortured in mind because he foreknew his end; with many such, of which T shall
speak more opportunely in another place.^' Anxiety, mercy, pity, indignation, &.C.,
and such fearful branches derived from these two stems of fear and sorrow, I volun-
tarily omit; read more of them in ^^Carolus Pascalius, ^^Dandinus, &c.
Sub SECT. VI.
if the rest : '^'Q'lany men neglect the tumults of the world, and care not for glory
and yet they are afraid of infamy, repulse, disgrace, [Tul.
offic.
1.
1,)
they can se
verely contemn pleasure, bear grifif indifferently, but they are qtiite
'^'^
battered and
broken with reproach and obloquy
:"
(^siquidem vita ei 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 melancholize in corners, and keep in holes. The most
generous spirits are most subject to it; Spiritus altos frangit et gcnerosos : Hiero-
nymus. .4!'Mplle, because he could not understand the motion of Euripus, for grief
and shame drowned himself: CceJius Rodiginus antiquar. lee. lib. 29. cap. 8. Home-
rus piidore co7isumptus., was swallowed up with this passion of shame ^'"because
he could not unfold the fisherman's riddle." v^pliocles killed himself, ^^"for that a
tragedy of his was hissed off" the stage
:"
VoTer. max. lib. 9. cap. 12. Lticretia
stabbed herself, and so did * Cleopatra,
''
when she saw that she was reserved for a
triumph, to avoid the infamy." iAntonius the Roman,
^"
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 llhodius ^'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, ^'^Mat
Riccius expedit. ad Sinas., I. 3. c. 9. Hostratus the friar took that book which
Reuclin had writ against him, under the name of Epi-st. obscurorum virormn., so to
heart, that for shame and grief he made away with himself, ^'^Jovius in elogiis. A
grave and learned minister, and an ordinary preacher at Alcrnar in Holland, was (one
day as he walked in the fields for his recreation) suddenly taken with a lax or loose-
ness, and thereupon compelled to retire to the next ditch; but being ^^ 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, brazen-faced rogues, that will ^^JVulld
pallescere culpa, be moved with nothing, take no infamy or disgrace to heart, laugh
at all ; let them be proved perjured, stigmatized., convict rogues, thieves, traitors,
lose their ears, be whipped, branded, carted, pointed at, hissed, reviled, and derided
with ^''Ballio the Bawd in Plauius, they rejoice at it, Cantores probos ; "babe and
Bombax," what care they
.''
We have too many such in our times,
0^
-"
Exclaniat Melicerta perisse
-Fronteiii de rebus."'''
Yet a modest man, one that hath grace, a generous spirit, tender of his reputation,
M'ill he deeply wounded, and so grievously afi(?cted with it, that he had rather give
myriads of crowns, lose his life, than suffer the least defamation of honour, or blol
in his good name. 'And if so be that he cannot avoid it, as a nightingale. Que can-
tando victa moritur., (saith ^^Mizaldus,) dies for shame if another bird sing better, he
languisheth and pineth away in the anguish of his spirit.
65
Mjlli conteinnuiit niuiidi strepit'im. reputaiit pro | duntur.
^^
Hostratus ciicullatus adeo praviter ob
nihi o fjloriam, sed timenl infamiam, offeiisioneni, re- Reuclini librum, qui iiiscribitur, Epislolse obscurorum
pulsaui. Voluptatem severissiiiiS conteinnunt, in do- virorum, dolore siinul et pudore sauciatus, ut seipsutn
lore hunt molliores, gloriani nepligunt, franguntur
'
iuterfecerit.
^*
Propter ruborem confnsus, statim
infamia. sBGravius contumeliani feriinus quam
j
cepit delirare, &c. ob suspicionem, quod vili ilium
detrirnentum, ni abjecto niinis aniiiio simus. Plut. in I criniine accusarent. ''Herat.
^^
Ps. Inipudice
Timol. "Quod piscatoris enigma solvere non i E. ita est. Ps. sceleste. B. dicis vera Ps. Verbero. B,
posset.
M
Ob Tragffidiani explosam, mortem sibi
gladio concivit. wcum vidit in triumphum se
servari, causa ejus isnoniiniR vitandie mortem sibi
concivit. Plut.
"<>
Bello victus, per tres dies sedit
ii. prora navis, abstinens ah omni consortio, etiam
Cieopati'E, postea se interfecit.
ei
Cum male re-
citasset Argoiiautica, ob pudorem exulavit.
'''
Qui-
dam pre verecundia simul et dolore in insaniam incl-
dukit, eo quod a titeralorum gradu in examine exclu-
quippeni Ps. furcifer. B. factum optiine. Ps. socl
fraude. B. sunt mea istaec Ps. parricida B. perge tl
Ps. sacrilege. B. fateor. Ps. perjure B. vera dicis. Ps
per!i!ties adolescentum B. acerrime. Ps. fur. B. babe
rs. fugitive. B. bombax. Ps. fraus populi. B. Plants-
sinie. Ps. impure leno, cosnum. B cantnres probos.
Pseudoius. ad. 1 Seen. 3. "'Melicerta exclaims,
"all shame lias vanished from human transactions.'
Pereius. Sat. V.
Cent. 7. Plinio.
166 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec 2
SuBSECT. VII.
Anger, a Cause.
Anger, a perturbation, which carries llie spirits outwards, preparmg the body to
mehiiicholy, and inachiess itself: Ira furor hrevis es/,
'f
anger is temporary madness^"
and as ^Piccoioniineus accounts it, one of the three most violent passions. '"Areteus
sets it down for an especial cause (so doth Seneca, ep. 18. /.
1,)
of this malady. "Mag-
niniis gives the reason, Ex frequenti ira supra modum calefmnt.
j
it overheats their
boches, and if it be too frequent, it breaks out into manifest madness, saith St. Ambrose
'Tis a known saying. Furor
fit
Iczsa Scepius palienlia, the most patient spirit that is.
if he lie 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 lenchras ralionis, viorbum
animo'^ et dccmonem pessimum; the darkening of our understanding, and a bad angel.
''' Lucian, in Jihdicalo, lorn. 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 overnuich, 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 dillerence between a mad man, and an angry man, in the time of his
fit; anger, as Lactantius describes it, L. de Ira Dei., ad Donaluin, c, 5, is ^^scEva uniim
le7npestas,&LC.,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 rilthy
imitation can be of a nuul man
.'"
U"()r:i tiiiiiciil irn, fcrvt smut siinguiiie ven:e,
l.iiiniiiii (Jor^'i'tM'j oteviO.' iiiij;iie iMic:iiit."
They are void of reason, inexorable, b'lir.J, i<ke beasts and monsters for the time, say
and do they know not what, ciu'se, swear, ra'i, tight, and what not.'' How can a mad
man do more
.'
as he said in the comedy, '^Jrc^ciindia non s^im upud me, J am not
mine own man. If these fits be innnoderate, continue long, or be frequent, without
doubt they provoke madness. Montanus, consil. 21, had a melancholy Jew to hip
patient, he ascribes this for a principal cause : Irascehalur levihus de ca.usis, 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, "* incensed against the duke of Britain, he could
neither eat, driidc, nor sleep for some days together, and in tlie 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, jEmil., lib.
10. Gal. hisl. ^gesijipus de exid. urhis Hieros., 1. I.e. 37, hath such a story of Herod,
that out of an angry fit, became mad, '^ 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.
Poslquam deferhuil 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. /. 1. de hum. afeci,
ca^isis
;
Savguinem imminuit
,
fel
auget:
and as '^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, '^"but it
ruins and subverts whole towns, ^'^ cities, families, and kingdoms;" JYulIa pesfis hu-
mano generi pluris slelil., saith Seneca, de Ira, HI). 1 . No plague hath done mankind
(
so much harm. Look into our histories, and you shall almost meet with no other
subject, but vdiat a company
^'
of hare-brains 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, vain-glory, and hypocrisy, from envy, hatred and malice, anger,
and all such pestiferous perturbations, good Lord deliver us."
9 Grad. 1. c. 54. '"Ira et in niffiror et injrens aninii
conslernalio iiielancliolicos facit. Areteiis. Ira niiiiio-
dica trignit insaniaiii.
"
Reg. satiit. parte 2. c 8. in
apertaiii iiisaniatn iiiox (inciter iraius. ''Glllierto
Cc)gn,ito inlerprele. Miiltls. et prscscrtiin senibus ira
'.inpotens iiisaniain fecit, et iinporlnna calnninia, litec
'liitin (lerlnrltat aniinuni, panlalini vergii ad iiisaniam.
Porro iniiliernin corpora tiinlta infesiaiit, et in lintic
luorlMMii addncnnt, pra'cipiie si que oderint aut iiivi-
d iaiit, &.C. lisc paulatiiii in insaniani tandem evadunC.
22 P
'^Sipva aninii tempestas tantos excitans. flnctns ut
statiin ardescant oculi os treniat, lingua titubet, dentes
cniirrepanl, &(. ''Ovid. ''' Terence. '*'\n-
fensus Uriiannise Duci, et in nitinnein versus, nee
cibuni cepit, nee quietem, ad Caleiidas .lu'.ias 1392
cnmites occidit.
''
Indignatione nimia furens, aiii-
inique iinpntens, exiliit de lecto, furenteiu non capie-
bat aula, &c.
'*
An ira possit honiinein interiniere.
''J
Abernclhy.
-"
As Troy. sBev.T nieinorem Junonis ot
iram.
''''
Stultoruiu regiiin el pupulorum coniinet asiua.
170 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec. 2
SuBSECT. X.
Love
of
Gaming^ <Sfc. and pleasures immoderate
;
Causes.
V
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 de-
scended, 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, gaining, pleasure and riot.^ 'Tis the common end of
all sensual epicures and brutish prodigals, that are stupified and carried away head-
long with their several pleasures and lusts. Cebes in his table, St. Ambrose in his
second book of Abel and Cain, and amongst the res(^ 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 arraj^ed, and
all the dainty fare that might be had, with all kind of welcome and good respect,
is now upon a sudden stript of all,
"
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. V As the
''*
prodigal son had exquisite music, merry company, dainty Sre at
2"
Agellius, lib. 3. cap. 1. interdmn eo sceleiis per-
veiiiunt ob lucrum, ut vitani propriam conimutent.
^Lil). 7. cap. 6.
"
Onines perpeluo niorbo agi-
tanlur, suspicatur omnes timidus, sibique nb auruin
insidiari putat, nunquani quiescens, Plin. ProcEiii. lib.
\4 'Cap. 18. in leclo jaceiis interrogat uxoreni
dn arcam probe c!usit, an capsula, &c. E lecto sur-
gens iiudus et absque calceis, accensa luceriia omnia
oliiens et lustrans, ei vix somno indulgens.
''s
C'uris
extPD'jatus, vigilans ei secum supputans.
*^
Cave
'
ciens, &c.
Luke xv.
^uequam alienum in ledes intromiseris. Ignem extin
gui volo, ne causae quidquam sit quod te qiiisqiian
quffiritet. Si bona forlnna veniat ne intromiseris;
Occlude sis fores anibobiis pessulis. Discriitior animi
quia donio aheundum est mihi : Niinis here ule invi-
tus abeo, nee quid again scio.
"
Floras aquam pro-
fundere, &c. periit dum funius de tigillo exit foras
""Juv. Sat. 14.
"
Ventricosus, nudus, pallidns,
lipva pudorem nccultans, dextra siepsuiii strangulang,
occurit autem exeniiti ptEnilentia his mierum (onfl-
180 Causes
of
Melancholy. Tart 1, Sect. 2
first ; but a sorrowful reckoning in the end ; so have all such A'ain delights and their
followers, *^Tri.stes volupfalum exitus^ et quisquis voluptatum suarum reminisci
volct^ intelliget, as bitter as gall and wormwood is their last; grief of mind, madness
itself The ordinary rocks upon which such men do impigne and precipitate them-
selves, are cards, dice, hawks, and hounds, Insanum venandi sludium^ one calls it,
insance. substructiones : their mad structures, disports, plays, &c., when they are un-
seasonably 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 ; Inuliles
demos., ^Xenophon calls them, which howsoever they be delightsome things in
themselves, and acceptable to all beholders, an ornament, and benefitting some great
men
;
yei unprofitable to others, and the solo overthrow pf their estates. Forestus
in his observations liath 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 *' overthrown by those
mad sports of hawking and hunting; honest recreations, and fit for some great men,
but not for every base inferior person ; Avhilst they will maintain their falconers,
dogs, and hunting nags, their wealth, saith ^^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 ^^Agrippa taxeth them, ^' Action
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 some-
times are our great men in delighting, and doting too much on it. ^^'^' When they
drive poor husbandmen from their tillage," as '''^ Sarisburiensis objects, Polycraf. t. 1.
c. 4,
''
Hing down country farms, and whole towns, to make parks, and forests,
starving men to feed beasts, and ^''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.. jA 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, j)^o modo insanice., as they were more or less alTected.
One of them by chance, that was well recovered, stood in the door, and seeing a gal-
lant 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 pa-
tient 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 tl:eir Inisiness and necessary aftairsA, Leo decimus, that hunting pope, is
much discommended by ^^Jovius in his life, for his immoderate desire of hawking
and Imnting, in so much that (as he saith) he would sometimes live about Ostia
weeks and months together, leave suitors '^^unrespected, bulls and pardons unsigned,
to his own prejudice, and many private men's loss. ''""And if he had been by chance
crossed in his sport, or his game not so good, he was so impatient, thai he would
"Boethins. '"In Oeconom. Quid si nunc osten-
ilam f.vs qui magna vi argenti donius inutiles ipdifi-
cant, intuit Socrates.
"'
Sarisburiensis Polycrat.
I. 1. c. 14. venatores omnes adhiic institulionem redo-
'ent centaurorutn. Raro invenitur quisquam eorum
Miodeslus et gravis, rarocoiiiinens, et ut credo sobrius
unquain.
'
Pancirol. Tit. 23. avolant opes cum
accipitre. ^'Insigtiis venatorum stullitia, et super-
Tacania cura eoruin, qui duui niiniiim venationi insis-
.unt, ipsi abjecia omni ti<imanilate in feras desenerant,
t Acteon, &;c.
s*
Sabin. in Ovid. Metanior.
'*
Agrippa lie vanit. sclent. Insanum venandi studiuni,
4uin & nov;ilibus arcenlur agricola^ siiblrahunt pricdia
rusticis, agricolonis pra;cluduntur sylvte et prata pas-
toribus ut augeantur pasciia feris. Majestatis
reus agricola si gustarit.
A novalibus suis ar-
centur agricolce, dum ter.T habeant vasandi liberta-
tem : istis, ut pascua augeantiir prasdia subtrahuntur,
&c. Sarisburiensis.
'
Fens quain liominibus
EEquiores. L'anibd- de Guil. Conq. qui 36 Ecclesia*
matrices depopulatus est ad forestani novam. Mat,
Paris i^Toni. 2. de vitis illustriuni, I. 4. de vit.
I.eon, 10.
S9
Venationibus adeo perdile studebat
et aucupiis.
<)
Aiit infeliciter venatus tarn inipa
tiens inde, ut summos snppe vrros acerbissimie contu
nieliis oneraret, et incredit)ile est qiiali viiltus aniro'
que habitu dolorem iracundiaiuque praeferret, &c.-
Mem. 3. Subs. 13.] Love
of
Gaming. \Hi
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."VBut if he had good sport, and been well pleased, on the other side, incredibili
miinijicentia., with unspeakable bounty and munificence he would reward all his fel-
low 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 '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 difl^ering 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, theii
winnings are not Munera fortuncB., sed insidicc, as that wise Seneca determines, not
fortune's gifts, but baits, the common catastrophe is "^^ beggary,
^
Ut pestis vitam, sic
adimit alca pecuniam, as the plague takes away life, doth gaming goods, for ^'^omnes
nudi, inopes el egeni
;
"''"Alea Scylla vorax, species certissima fiirti,
Noil coiitenta bonis aniniuin quoque perfida mergit,
Focda, furax, infaiiiis, iners, fiiriosa, ruiiia."
For a little pleasure they take, and some small gains and gettings now and then, their
wives and children are jinged 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, per-
dendcB pecunicB genitos., as he
^^
taxed Anthony, Qui pntrinio7iium sine ulla
fori calum-
nia amittunt., saith "Cyprian, and ^^mad Sybaritical spendthrifts, Quiqiw una come
dunt patrimonia ccena ; that eat up all at a breakfast, at a supper, or amongst bawds
parasites, and players, consume tliemselves in an instant, as if they had flung it into
'
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.
'Irati pecuniis, as he saith, angry with their money: ''"what with a wanton eye, a
liquorish tong-ue, and a gamesome hand, when they have indiscreetly impoverished
themselves, mortgaged their wits, together with their lands, and entombed their ances-
tors' 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
f
undo parsimonia, 'tis then too late to look about; their
'^end is misery, sorrow, shame, and discontent. And well they deserve to be infa-
mous and discontent. ''^ Calamidiari in Jlmphitheatro, as by Adrian the emperor's edict
they were of old, decoclores lonorum suorum, so he calls them, prodigal fools, to be
publicly shamed, and hissed out of all societies, rather than to be pitied or relieved.''''
^The Tuscans and Boetians brought their bankrupts into the market-place in a bier
with an empty purse carried before them, all the boys following, where they sat all
day circumslanle jdebe., to be infamous and ridiculous. At
'
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 '^ 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,
wme and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people ; they gc
commonly together.
""dui vino indulget, quemque alea decoquit, ille
In venerem putret"
"HJnicuiqueantera hoc a natura insitum est, utdoleat
siculii erraverit aut deceptus sit. ^-iuven. Sat. 8.
Vec enim loculis comilan tibus itur, ad casum tabulse,
<)Osita sed luditur area Lemnius instit. ca. 44. menda-
.iorum qiiidein.et perjuriorum et paupertatis mater est
alea, niillain liabens patrimonii reverentiam, quum
illud effiiderit, sensim in furta delabitur et rapinas.
Saris, polycrat. I. 1. c. 5.
^3 Damhoderus. <^^Daii.
Bouter. espetrar. dial. 27. eegalust. 6? Tom. 3.
Ser. de Allea. wpintus in Aristop. calls all such
(aiiiesters madmen. Si in insanum bomiiiem contigero.
Spontaneum ad se trahunt furorem, et ns, et nares e
oculnsrivos faciuiit furoris et diversoria.Chrys. horn. ]
.
69
Pascasius Justus 1. 1. de alea. Seneca. "Hall.
i^Iii Sat. II. Sed deficieiite crumena; et crescente gula
qnis te manet exitus rebus in ventrein mer.-iis
"Spartiaii. Adriano.
'4
Alex. ab. Alex. lib. fl. c. 10
Idem Gnrbelius, lib. 5. GrjE. disc. '^ Fines Mori*
'6
Justinian Dijestis. " Persiiis Sal. 5. "On
inilult'es in wine, another the die coiAuines, a ihirrt i.
decomposed by venery."
183
Causes
of
Melancholy. Pan. I. Sec. 2
To who n is sorrow, saitli Solomon, Pro. xxiii. 39, to whom is woe, but lo such it
one as loves drink? it causeth torture, (^vino tortus et ird) and bitterness of inind,
Sirac. 31 21. Vinum furoris, Jeremy calls it, 15. cap. wine of nmdness, as well he
may, for insanirc
facd sanos, it makes sound men sick and sad, and wise men '^mad,
to say and do they know not what. Accldlt hodid terrlbilis casus (saith '^S. Austin")
hear a miserable accident; Cyrillus' son this day in his drink, Matrem prcRgnantem
nequitcr opprcssi.t., sororcm violare voluil., patrcm occidit
fere,
et duas alias sorores
ad mortem vulnera'vit, would have violated his sister, killed his father, &c. A true
saying it was of him. Vino dari Iccliliam et dolorem, drink causeth mirth, and drink
causeth sorrow, drink causeth "poverty and want," (Prov. xxi.) shame and disgrace.
Midti ignohiles evascre oh vhil potum, et (Austin) amissis honoribus
prqfngi aberrd-
runt
: many men have made shipwreck of their fortunes, and go like rogues and
beggars, having turned all their substance into auriim potabile, that otherwise might
have lived in good worship and happy estate, and for a iew hours' pleasure, for their
Hilary term's but short, or *'free madness, as Seneca calls it, purchase unto them-
selves eternal tediousness and trouble.
That other madness is on women, Apostatare facit cor, saith the wise man, ^^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
^"
oxen to the slaughter
:"
and that which is worse, Avhoremasters and drunkards shall be judged, amittunt gra'
tiarn, saitli Austin, perdunt gloriam, incurrunt damnationem ceternam. They lose
prace and glory;
"
brevis ilia voluptas
Abrogat seternuin ca!li decus'
they gain hell and eternal damnation.
SuBSECT. XIV.
Love
of
Learning, or overmuch study. With a Digression
of
the
misery
of
Scholars, and why the Muses are Melancholy.
Leonartus Fuchsius Instil, lib. iii. sect. 1. cap. I. Faelix Plater, lib. in. de mentis
alienat. Here, de Saxonia, IVact. post, de melanch. cap. 3, speak of a ^'peculiar fury,
which comes by overmucii study. Fernelius, lib. 1, cap. 18, ^^puts study, contem-
plation, 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 Jilnansorem, cap.
16,
amongst other causes reckons up stadium vehemens : so doth Levinus Lemnius, lib.
de pccul. nat. mirac. lib. 1,
cap. 16. *^"Many men (saith he) come to this malady
by continual
^
study, and night-waking, and of all other men, scholars are most sub-
ject to it:" and such Rhasis adds, ^^''that have commonly the finest \^its." 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 '"''Fatritius 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,
*'
" leave them that plague, which in time will consume
all tlieir vigour, and martial spirits." The
^^
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 conse-
quens 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 ?)iusis
free from bodily exercise, and those ordinary disports which other men use : anu
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 ^'^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 experi-
ence, in two of his patients, a young baron, and another that contracted this malady
by too vehement study. So Forestus, observat. I. 10, obscrv. 13, in a young divine
m Louvaine, that was mad, and said
^'^
^
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,
*''''
why
students dote more often than others." The first is their negligence;
*^"
other men
w
Processit sqiialidiis et siibmissus, ut hesterni Diei
aaiiiliiini iiiteiiiperaiis tiodie casligaret. ^^Uxor
Hen. 8. ^ Neutriiis se fortunte extreinuni libenter
exjv;! turairi dixit: sed si necessitas alterius subinde
iiii|)oneretur, optare sc difficilem et adversain : quod in
Imc iiiilli iii.quain defiiit solatium, in altera multis con-
siliuiii, etc L,od. ViVKS.
SI
Peculiaris t'uror, qui ex
lileris til.
^^
Nihil niaf;i9 auget, ac assidua studia,
et profunds cogilationes.
o3
Non desunt, qui ex
/uj;i studio, ei lutempestiva lucubratione, hue devene-
ruiit, hi prw cteteris eiiim pleruiique melancholia solent
itife;lan.
m
study is a continual and earnest medi-
tation applied to soiiiethinj; with great desire. Tully.
55
Et ill) qui sunt suhliiis iiigenii, et multai prsmedita-
tio'iis, de f'acili inridunl in mclancholiam. "Ob
tiidiorum solicitiilinen] lib. 5. Tit. 5. ^^Gaspar
j
Ens Thesaur Polit. Apoteles. 31. GriBcis hanc pestem
relinquite qnffi dubium non est, quiu brevi omnein is
vigorem ereptura Martiosque spirilus exhaiistura sit;
Ut ad anna tractanda plane inliabiles fiituri sint.
ssRnoles Turk. Hist.
s"
Acts, xxvi. 24.
i*"
Niuiiia
stiidiis nielancliolicusevasit, dicens se Biblium in capite
habere.
S'
Cur melancholia assidua, crebrisque de-
liramentis vexentur eoruni auiuii nt desipere cogantur,
^^Solers quilibet artifex instruinenta sua diligeiitissime
curat, penicollos pictor ; malleos incudesque faber fer-
rarius; miles equos, anna venator, auceps aves, e^
canes, Cytharam Cylhara^dus, <fcc. soli niusaruni niysiie
tarn negligentes sunt, ut insirumeutum illud quo louii-
diim universurn metiri solent. spiriium scilicet, penitu*
riegligere videantur.
188 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec. 2.
look to their tools, a painter will wash his pencils, a smith will look to his hammer
anvil, forge ; a husbandman will me(l 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 over all the world, which by much study is consumed." Vide (saith
hxician) ne fimiculum nimis intendendo aliquando ahrumpas : "See thou twist n(jt
the rope so hard, till at length it
*^
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 par*
beggars
;
for that their president Mercury had no better fortune himself. The desti-
nies of old put poverty upon him as a punishment; since when, poetry and beggarj-
are Gemelli, twin-born brats, inseparable companions
;
!
"And to this day is every scholar poor
f
iiross gold from tlieia runs headlong to the boor;"
Mercury can help them to knowledge, but not to money. The second is contem-
plation,
^^"
which dries the brain and extinguisheth natural heat; for whdst 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," 8tc. The same reasons are repeated
by Gomesius, lih. 4, cap. ],de sale ^^JVymannus oral, de Lnag.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,
^^
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, Hieroni, Stc, and many thousands besides.
"
Qui ciipit optatam cursu contiiigere metarri,
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. ^"Not a da}
that I spend idle, part of the night I keep mine eyes open, tired with waking, and
now slumbering to their continual task." lieav TuUy pru <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
dizards, neglecting all worldly alTairs 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 spied. 2, de mania et
delirio: read Trincavellius, l.\^,consil. 36, e/ c. 17. Montanus, consil. 233. ^^Garceus
de Judic. genii, cap. 33. Mercurialis, consil. 86, cap. 25. Prosper '"Calenius in his
Book de atrd 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"
'
stalua taciturnius exit,
Pleruinque et risum populi quatit."
He becomes more silent than a statue, and generally excites people's laughter."
(s
Arc{is et arma libi non sunt imilanda Dianac. Si
punqiiani cesses tendere mollis erit. Ovid. ^^Ephemer.
toContemplatio cerehriiin exsiccat et extingiiit calorem
naturalem, iinde cerebrum frisiidum et siccum evadit
quod est inelancholicum. Accedit ad hoc, quod natura
in contemplatione, cerebro prorsus cordique iiitenta,
Ftninachum heparque destituit, uiide ex alimentis male
coctis, sanguis crassiis et niger efficitur, duni nimio olio
membroruni supprflui vapores non exhalatit. ^Cpth-
!>ruui exskfutur. coruo'a sensim gracilescunt ^ Stu-
diosi sunt Cacectici ct nunquarn bene colorati, propter
dehililatem digustivie facullatis, mulliphcantur in iis
superHuitates. Jo. Voscbius parte 2. cap. 5. de peste.
6"
Niillus mihi (ler otium dies exit, partem noctis sludiis
dedico, non vero somno, sed iiculos vigilia fatigatos ca-
dentesquo, in operani detineo.
^9
Johannes Hanus*
cliius liohemus. iiat. 1516. eruditus vir, nimiis studiisin
Phrenesin iiicidit. Montanus instances in a F.'ench
mail of Tolosa. '"('ardinalis Ctecius; ch laboreor
vigiliam, et diuturna studia factus Melanchuiinus
Vleni. 3. Subs.
15.J
Study^ a Cause. 189
Because they cannot riiJe a horse, which every clown can do ; salute and court
gentlewoman, carve at table, cringe and make conges, which every common swasher
can do, '^'hos populus ridet, &.c., they are laughed to scorn, and accounted silly foola
by our gallants. Yea, many times, such is their misery, they deserve it : "a merp
scholar, a mere ass.
'
Obstipo capite, et figentes lumine terram,
Muriiiura cum serum, et rabiosa silerjtia rodunt,
Atque experreclo trutinantur verba labello,
^groti veteris meditantes somnia, gigni
De nihilo nihilum; in iiihilum nil posse reverti."
.74 '
who do lean awry
Their heads, piercing tlie earth with a fixt eye,
When, by themselves, they gnaw their murmuring,
And furious silence, as 'twere balancing
Each word upun their outstretched lip, and when
'I'hey meditate the dreams of old sick men.
As, 'Out of nothing, nothing can he brought;
And that which is, can ne'er be turn'd to nought.'"
Tkus they go commonly meditating unto themselves, thus they sit, such is their
action and gesture. Fulgosus, I. 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, concliisum est contra Manichcsos, his wits were a wool-gathering, as they say,
and his head busied about other matters, when he perceived his error, he was much
'^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 supjyxa,
I have found :
'
" and was com-
monly 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. Theoplirastus saith as much of Heraclitus, for that he continually wept,
and Laertius of Menedemus Lampsacus, because he ran like a madman,
"
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,
absuid, 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
'^
he well observed) they neither hear nor see such things as are commonly
practised abroad
?"
how should t.hey get experience, by what means .'
"''
1 knew
in my time many scholars," saith ^neas Sylvius (in an epistle of his to Gasper
Scitick, chancellor to the emperor),
"
excellent well learned, but so rude, so silly, tha
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 lieard him tell that his sow had eleven pigs, and his ass had but one foal."
To say the best of this profession, 1 can give no otner testimony of them in general,
than that of Pliny of Isasus ;
^"
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 greatei
*'
privileges than the rest, that adventure themselves and abbreviate their lives for the
public good." But our patrons of learning are so far now-a-days 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
'ipers. Sat. 3. They cannot fiddle; but, as Themisto- cata. 'spelronins. E^o arbjtror in srholis ?tultis-
cles said, he could make a small town become a great sitnos fieri, quia nihil eoriiin (iii;e in usu habemiis hiM
city. ''Pers. Sat. '^Ingenium sibi quod vanas audiunt a(it vident. "Novi meis .liebus, plerosque
desumpsit Athenas et septem studiis annos dedit, in
senuitque. Libris et curis statua taciturnius exit,
I'lerunqiie et risu popijlum quatit, Hor. ep. 1. lib. 2.
"Translated by M. B. Holiday. ''5 Thomas rnbore
sonfusus dixit se de arguniento coaitasse. '"'Plutarch,
vita Marcelli, Nee seiisit urhem captain. n-JC milites in
lioniuni irriientes, adeo intentus studiis, &c. "Sub
Furiie larv.i circumivit urbeni, dictitansseexploratorem
all inferisi enissc,delaturum dsmonibus inorlalium pec-
tudiis literarum deditos.qui disci pi in is admodum abun-
dabant, sed si nihil civilitatis hahent, nee rem piibl. ner
domesticam Tenure norant. Stnpuit Paglarensis e'
fiirti vilicum accusavit, qui fueni fcetani undecim por
cellos, asinani unum duntaxat piilliiin enixam retulerai
)Lib. 1. Epist. 3. Adhuc scholasticus taiuium est; qii'
genere hominum, nihil aut est simplicius au? sino-rnu
aut melius. i-'Jure privilegiaiuu, qui ob coaimuiu
bonum abbreviant sihi vltam.
iOw Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sect S
pains taken in the universities, cost and charge, expenses, irksome hours, laboriou*
tasks, wearisome days, dangers, hazards, (barred interim from all pleasures whicl
other men have, mewed up like hawks all their lives) if they chance to wade througl.
them, they sliall in the end be rejected, contemned, and which is their greatest misery
driven to their shifts, exposed to want, poverty, and beggary. Their familis" attend
ants are,
2'
Piilleiites morbi, luctus, cur.Tque labnrque 1 'j Grief, labour, care, pale sickness, miseries,
El nu'lus, et inalnsiiada fames, et turpis egcstas,
[
Fear, filthy puverTy, hiinaer that cries,
Terrililles visu forma;"
|
\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 merchan
adventures his goods at sea, and though his hazard be greit, yet if one ship return
of four, he likely makes a saving voyage. An husbandm-^n's gains are almost cer
tain; qu'ihus ipse Jupiter nocere non potest (whom Jove himself can't harm) ('tis
^'Cato's hyperbole, a great husband himself); only scholars methinks are most un-
certain, 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,
^*
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 philosopliers, artists, orators, poets ; we can soon
say, as Seneca well notes, O virum ionum^ o divitem.) point at a rich man, a good, a
happy man, a prosperous man, sumptuose vestiium^ Calamistratum., bene olentem,
magno temporis impendio constat hcic laudatioj 6 virum Uterarum^ 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 im-
pingunt., 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, indus-
trious, 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,
cereis intestinis^ with a body of brass, and is now consummate and ripe, he hath pro-
fited 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 liis 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
^^
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 ?
M "
Hoc qiinque te manet lit piieros eleinenta docentem I " At last thy snow-white age in suburb schools,
Occupet extremis in vicis alba senectus."
|
Sliall toil in teaching boys their grammar rules."
Like an ass, he wears out his time for provender, and can show a stum rod, togam
iritajii et laceram.) saith
^'
Hajdus, an old torn gown, an ensign of his infelicity, he
iiatli his labour for his pain, a modicum to keep him till he be decrepid, and tiiat is
.all. Grammaticus non estfcelix^ <^c. If he be a trencher chaplain in a gentleman's
tioiiso, as it befel
*^
Euphormio, after some seven years' service, he may perchance
nave 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
Virg 6. Mn.
^
Plutarch, vita ejus. Certiim I ciliir. > Mat. '.!!.
*^6
Hor. epis. 2U. 1. 1
"
!/
agricolatioriis lucrum, &.c. ''^(iuoiaiiiiis fiuut cmi- 1. tie contem. amor.
^t
gatyrjcoa
u)''.9 et orticoiistiles. Ki-x el Poetaqunlaiiiiis non iias-
|
Mem. 3. Subs. 15.]
the time of his life.
in the mean time,
Study, a Cause. 191
Buv if he offend his good patron, or displease his lad^ mistress
W"
Diicetiir Planta velut ictus ab Her.-ule Cacu3,
I'onetuique foras, si quid teiilaveril unquain
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 per-
sons 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, ^"mathematicians, sopl.istei
!,
&c. ; they are like grasslioppers, 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, wiiich he told fair Pha^drus 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, aid Lyclorum 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 ^' manucodiatse, those Indian birds of paradise,
as we commonly call them, those 1 mean that live with the air and dew of heaven,
and need no other food
;
for being as they are, their
^^
" rlietoric only serves them to
curse their bad fortunes," and many of them for want of means are driven to hard
shifts ; from grasslioppers 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 anO
poor, to complain pitifully, and lay open their wants to their respectless patrons, as
'^Cardan doth, as ''*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 excel-
lent virtues, whom they should rath-er, as
^'
Machiavel observes, vilify, and rail at
downright for his most notorious viilanies and vices. So they prostitute themselves
as fiddlers, or mercenary tradesmen, to serve great meii^s turns for a small reward.
They are like
^
Indians, they have store of gold, but know not the worth of it : for
I am of Synesius's opinion, ^^^'Kiiig Hieron got more by Simonides' acquaintance,
than Simonides did by his 5" 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 Caisars, but for Suetonius and Dion ?
8"Vixerunt fortes ante Agamemtiona
Mulli : sed oriines illaclirymabiles
llrgentur, ienotique lojiga
Nocte, careiit quia vate sacro."
"
Before great Agamemnon reign'd,
Reigii'd kings as great as he, and brave,
VVliose 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 encyclo-
pfedian, all the learning in the world; they must keep it to themselves, ^^"live in
base esteem, and starve, except they will submit," as Budajus well hath it,
"
so man}
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 tan-
quam rmires alienum jjanem comedunf. For to say trutli, arlcs hce non sunt Lucra-
fivcr,, as Guido Bonat that great astrologer could foresee, they be not gainful a;ts
these, sed esuricntes et famclicce, but poor and hungry.
S9juv. Sat. 5.
90
Arscolit astra. ' Aldrovandu.*
de Avihns. 1. \-i. Gesner, &c. 9' Literas habent queis
cibi el fortuniE suae maledicant. Sat. Menip. "Lib.
\c lihri* Propriis fol. 24. Priefat translat. Plutarch.
Polit. disput laudihiis exlollunt eos ac si virtutibus
poljerent quos ob iiitinita si-.eleia potius vituperare
osorterel.
*<
Ur as horses know not tlieir strength, they
con.oider not their own worth.
9'
Phira ex Simonidi*
familiaritate Hieron consequutusest.quamex Hieronij
Simonides.
98
Hor. lib. 4. od. 9.
'^
Inter iiierte.'= el
Plebeins fere jacet, ultimum locum habens, nisi tot atl't
virtutisqiie insijniii, turpitcr obnoxie, .^upparisilandc
fascibussubji'cerit proterv<e insole nlisqiif polentia;, Lit'
1. de contempt, reruoi ibrtuiU .iin
192 Causes'
of
Melandioiy. [Part. 1. Sec.
i
Pat Oaleiius opes, dat Justinianiis honores,
^i-'d genus et species co(.'itiir ire pedes:"
"The rich physician, honour'd lawyers
Whilst the poor scholar foots it liy thei
.X'
ride,
[\
ir side."^
'^overty is the muses' patrimony, and as tliat^ poetical divinity teacheth us, whet
j'upiter's daughters were each of them married to the gods, the muses alone were
eft soUtary, Helicon forsaken of all suitors, and I believe it was, because they had
no portion.
'Calliope Inngiim cslebs cur vixit in avum ?
P/enipe nihil dolis, quod nunieraret, 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. Inspmuch,
that as
'
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."
'Q.iii Pelago credit, inagiio se fa?nore tollit.
Q,ui pugnas et rostra petit, praecingitur auro
:
Vilis adulator pictn jacet ehrius nstro,
Sola pruinosia liorret facundia pannis."
'
A merchant's gain is great, that goes to sea;
A soldier emhnssed all in gold
;
A fliitterpr lies lox'd in brave array;
A scholar only ragged to behold."
All which our ordinary students, right well perceiving in the universities, how unpro-
fitable these poetical, mathematical, and philosophical studies are, how little respect-
ed, how few patrons
;
apply themselves in all haste to those three commodious
professions of law, physic, and divinity, sharing themselves between them, ^rejecting
these arts in the mean time, history, philosophy, philology, or ligluly passing them
over, as pleasant toys fitting only table-talk, and to furnish them with discourse.
Thev 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 astrolo-
ger, 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 plitlosopher, 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
''
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 Greed Latinique
delirantcs scripscrunt. Ex hoc numero deinde veniunt ad gubernacula reipub. inter-
sunt et prcBSunt consiliis regum, o pater^ o patria ? so he complained, and so may
others. For even so we find, to serve a great man, to gel 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 expa-
tiate } Their fields are so scant, the civil law with us so contracted with prohibi-
tions, so few causes, by reason of those all-devouring municipal laws, quibus nihil
illiferatius^ saith ^Erasmus, an illiterate and a barbarous study, (for though they be
never so weJl learned in it, f 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, Caucijici et sanicidcB, so
Clenard terms them, wizards, alchemists,
poor vicars, cast apothecaries, physicians' men, barbers, and good wives, professing
'">
Buchanan, eleg. lib. ' In Satyricon. intrat senex,
ed culta non ita speciosus, ut facile appareret euni hao
nota literatum esse, quos divites odisse solent. Ego
inquit Poetasuni: (luare ergo tani male vestitus es ?
Prop'er hoc ipsum ; amor ingenii neminem unquam
diviiem fecit. ^ Petronius Arbiter. 'Oppressus
paupertate animus nihil eximium, aiit sublime cogitare
potest, aniCBiiitates literarnm, ant elegantiani,<|uoniam
nihil prajsidii in his ad viti comnioduin vidi.t, primft
negligere, mox odisse incipit. Hens. Epistol.
qnaest. lib. 4. p. 31. "Ciceroii. dial. 'ftpibt
lib. 2.
Mem 3 Sabs. 15.]
Study, a Cause. 193
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 euoh
harpies, so covetous, so clamorous, so impudent; and as ''he said, litigious idiots,
'duibus Inqiiacis affatim arrogantiffi est,
Periti;e parum aut niliil,
Neo iilla mica literarii salis,
Crumenimulga natio:
Loquiiteleia turba, litium stroptiiE,
Maligna litigantiuiii cnhurs, togati vultures,
"
Which have no skill but prating arrogsnce,
No learning, such a pnrse-inilking nation:
Gown'd vultures, thieves, and a litiiiioiis rout
Of cozeners, that haunt this occupation,"
Laverrjie alumni, Agyrta;," &.C.
that they cannot well tell how to live one by another, but as he jested in the Comedy
of Clocks, they were so many,
^
major pars popiili aridd replant
fame, they are
almost starved a great part of tliem, and ready to devour their fellows,
^
Et noxia
calllditate se corripere, such a multitude of pettifoggers and empirics, such impostore,
that an honest man knows not in what sort to compose and beliave himself in their
society, to carry himself with credit in so vile a rout, scienticE nomcn, tot sumptibus
partmn et iiigiliis^ profileri
dispudeat, postqitam, S^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,
'
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 uni-
versity, if we live of the college allowance, as Phalaris objected to the Leontines,
Hav rwi' f6? 7i%riv Xt^ov xai ^o'^ov, 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 50Z. 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 tlie 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 neces-
sary beggary ? What christinn 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
hcec aUquis de ponJe negabit : "a beggar's brat taken from the bridge where he sits
a begging, if he knew the inconvenience, had cause to refuse it." Tiiis being thus,
have not we fished fair all this while, that are initiate divines, to find no better fruits
v'f our labours,
^'
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.? '^"leaping (as
he saith) out of our beds, when we hear the bell ring, as if we had heard a thunder-
clap." If this be all the respect, reward and honour we shall have,
^^frange leves
calamos, et scinde Thalia libeJIos : let us give over our books, and betake ourselves
to some other course of life ; to what end should we study }
'
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.
'*
PrcBStat dentiscalpia radere, quant
literarils monumentis magnatum favof-em emendicare.
Yea, but methinks 1 hear some man except at these words, that though this bf
' Ja. Donsa Epodoii. lib. 2. car. 2. "Plautus. I " Pers. Sat. 3. "E lecto exsilientes, ad subitum tin
Barr. Argenis lib. 3.
">
Joh. Howson 4 Novembris tinnabuli plaii8um quasi Tuluiino territi. 1. "Marl
1^97. the sermon was printed by Arnold Harttield. | ^Mart. ''Sat. Menip.
25
R
194 Causes
of
Melanchily. [Pan, 1. Sec. 2
true wliich I liave 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 liave 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 mani-
festly appear, that tlie fountain of lliese 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 1 would, or as it should, I do
ascribe the cause, as '* Cardan did in the like case; meo infortunio potius quam illo-
rum scelfri^ to "mine own infelicity rather than their naughtiness: altliough 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 Alexan-
der in '^Plutarch, Crassus his tutor in pliilosophy, who, though he lived many years
familiarly with rich Crassus, was even as j)oor when from, (which many wondered
at) as when he came first to him ; he never asked, the other never gave him any-
thing; 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, thev gave me as much as I requested, and that wasAnd as Alexander
ah Jllexandro Genial, dier. I. 6. c. 16. made answer to Hieronimus Massainus, that
wondered, quum pliires ignavos et ignohiles ad dignilates et sacerdolia promotos quo-
tidie videret^ when other men rose, still he was in the same state, eodcm tenore et
fortuna citi merccdem 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 ohjurgabundus suam segnitiem accusaret, cum
obscures sortis homines ad sacerdotia et pontijicatus evectos^ (S|-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 J had enough, and more peradventure than I deserved ; and with Libanius So-
phista, that rather chose (when honours and offices by the emperor were offered unto
him) to be talis Sophista, quain talis Magistratus. 1 had as lief be still Democritus
junior, and privus privalus^ si mild jam daretur optio, quam talis fortasse Doctor^
talis Domirais. Sed quorsum hcec ? For the rest 'tis on both sides
f
acinus
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 ; 1 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,
'^
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 '"Julian the
apostate did, spoil parsons of their revenues (in keeping half back, ^' 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 Jc
ihey these things
.?
M"Opesque totis virihus venamini,
At inde mossis accidit miserrima."
'"Lib. 3. (ie cons. "I had no money, I wanted im- 1 nee facile jiidicare potest utrum paiiperinr cum primo
pndence, I could not scramble, temporise, dinsemhle :
|
ad Crassiim, &c. "Deum habent iratiini, Ribiqiie
noil prande'et olus, &;c. vis dicam, ad palpaiuiiini et
j
mortem aslernain acquirunl, aliis miserabilem ruinaiti.
adulnndiiin penitus insiilsuB, reciidi non possum, jam I Serrariiis in Josiiain, 7. Euripides.
3 \icppliorus lib
neniorin sim talis, el fingi nolo, utciinque male cedat in 10. cap, 5. 2' Lord Cook, in liis Reports, second par
tain aieam et obscurud inde delitescam. '^ Vit. Crassi. | fol. 44 ^ Euripides.
Mem. 3. Subs. 15.]
Study, a Cause. 193
They toil and moil, but what reap they.? They are commonly i/nfortunate tamilie
that use it, accursed in their progeny, and, as common experience evinceth, accurseu
'Jieniselves in all their proceedings. "With what face (as ^he quotes out of Aust.^
can tliey 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. Tilflye, and Mr
Montague, which they have written of that subject. But though they should read,
it would be to small purpose, dames 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
^^
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,
oplime^ they cry and applaud themselves with that miser, ^'simul ac nummos con-
tcmplor in area : say what you will, quocunque modo rem : as a dog barks at the
moon, to no purpose are your savings ; 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 Halicarnasseus observes,
Antiq. Horn. lib. 7. ^^Primjim locum, Stc.
"
Greeks and Barbarians observe all reli-
gious rites, and dare not break them for fear of offending their gods ; but our simo-
niacal contractors, our senseless Achans, our stupifled 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 per-
ceive, that as he said, frost and fraud come to foul ends; yet as "Chrysostom fol-
lows it JYulla ex pcend sit correctio, et quasi adversis malitia hominum provocetur,
crescit quotidie quod puniatur : they are rather worse than better,
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,*^
Jason Pratcnsis puts thi. of education for a principal cause; bad parents, stcp-mo-"*
thers, 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 iti
it, many times, saith Lavater, de spectris, part
1, cap. 5. ex vietu in morbos graves
incidunt et noctu dorjnicntes 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 7nagistri, so
^
Fabius terms them, Jljaces JlageJUferi.f
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, tliat they
arefracti animis., moped many times, weary of their lives,
^
nimia sevcritate deficiunJ.
et desperant, and think no slavery in the world (as once I did myself) like to that
of a grammar scholar. Praiceptoruvi ineptds discruciantur ingenia puerorum.,^ saiih
Erasmus, they tremble at his voice, looks, coming in. St. Austin, in the first bookj>
of his confess, et 4 ca. calls this schooling meliculosam necessitatcm., and elsewhere
a martyrdom, and confesselh of himself, how cruelly he was tortured in mind for
learning Greek, nulla verba noveram., et scevis terroribus et pcenls^ ut nossem., insta-
batur mild vehetnenter., I know nothing, and with cruel terrors and punishment ] was
daily compelled. '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 him-
self, had he not met by the way with an uncle of his that vindicated him from that
misery for the thne, by taking him to his house. Trincavellius, lib. 1. consil. 16.
had a patient nineteen years of age, extremely melancholy, ob nimium studiuni., Tar-
vitii et prcBceptoris minus, hy reason of overmucli study, and his ^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 des-
perate, and can never be recalled.
Others again, in that opposite extreme, do as great harm by their too much remiss-
ness, 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, idle-
ness, 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,
^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
;
s
Lib. de morbis capitis, cap. de mania ;
Haud pogtre-
ma causa supputatiir ediicatio, inter has mentis alialie-
nationis causas. Injnsta iioverca.
* Lib. 2. cap. 4.
i Idjni. El quod niaxime nocet, dum in tenei-is ita
iinio in nihil coiiantur. '"The pupil's faculties are
perverted by the indiscretion of the master." ' PrtEfal
ad Testam.
'
Plus mentis pferiagogico supercilio ab
stulit, quam unquam preeceptis suis sapieiiti<e instilla
vit. Ter. A.lel. 3. 4.
Mein 1. Subs. 3.]
Lxtucafion,
Terrors and ,AJfrights, Cables. 305
iO"Obsnnet, potet, oleat ungiienta de meo
:
Aiiiat ? dabiliir a me argeiituiii ubi erit commodum.
Fores effregit ? reslituentur : descidit
Vestem ? resarcietur. Facial quod liibet,
Suiiiat, consuiiiat, perdat, decretum est pati."
Hut as Demeo told him, tu ilium corrumpi sinis, your lenity will be his undoing;
pra^videre videor jam diem ilium, qnum hie egens
prof
ugiet aliquo militutum, 1 fore
see his ruin. ,^So parents often err, many fond mothers especially, doat so much upon
heir children, like
"
^Esop's ape, till in the end they crush them to death, Corporum
tutrices animarum novercce, pampering up their bodies to tlie undoing of their souls :
hey will not let them be
'^
corrected or controlled, but still soothed up in everything
thpy 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, lieadstrong, incorrigible, and graceless
;" "
tliey love them so foolishly,"
saith
'^
Cardan,
"
that thev rather seem to hate them, bringing tiiem 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
.?
'"'
" Education is another nature, altering the mind
ami 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 Lata
d? insti/uLjiHce, 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 '*"that are more careful
of tlieir shoes than of their feet," that rate their wealth above their children. And
he, saith
'^
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 ho
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 arne
from the apprehension of some terrible object heard or seen, from other fears, and !o
doth Patritius lib. 5. Tit. 4. dc 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 recove'-ed.
causing more grievous and fiercer melancholy, as Felix Plater, c. 3. de mentis alienni.
"
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 wer^! let
out of the body, it could hardly be extracted. This horrible kind of melancholv
(for so he terms it) had been often brought before him, and troubles and affriiifhts
commonly men and women, young and old of all sorts."
'^
Hercules de Saxonia
calls this kind of melancholy i^ab agitatione spiriluum) by a peculiar name, it comes
from the agitation, motion, contraction, dilatation of spirits, not from any distemper-
ature oi humours, and produceth strong effects. This terror is most usually caused,
'0
Idem. Ac. 1. so. 2. "Let him feast, drink, perfume
himself at my expense: \( he be in love, I sliall 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." "Camerarius em.
77. cent. '2. Iiath elegantly expressed it an emblem, per-
dit amando, &c.
'^
Prov. xiii. 24.
"
He that spareth
the rod hates his son."
'3
Lib. de consol. Tam Stulie
pueros diliginnis ut odisse potius videan)iir, illos non
ad virtiitem sed ad injuriam, non ad eruditionem sed
aj| luxum noM ad virtutem sed voluptatem edncantes.
"Lib. !... a. Educatio altera natnra, alterat aminos et
volnnlatem, atque ntinam (inquit) liberorum nostrorum
riiores non iosi perderemus, quum infantiam statim de-
'iciis solvimus mollior ista educatio, quam iridulgen-
libia vocamus, nervos omnes, et mentis ct corporis
frangit; fit ex his consuetudo, inde natnra. i^Peiinde
agit ac siquis de calceo sit sollicitiis, pedem nihil ciiret.
Jiiven. Nil patri minus est quam filius.
'^
Lib. 3. de
sapient: qui avnris p.edagogis pueros alendosdant, vel
claiisos in ccenobiis jcjunare simul et sapere, nihil aliud
agunt, nisi ul sint vel non sine stultitia eruiliti, vel non
integra vita sapieiites. " Terror et metus man:iin
ex improviso accedentes ita aiiiniuni coinmovent, ul
spiritus iiunquam recuperent, gravioremque melancho-
liam terror facit. quam qux ah interna causa (it. Im-
pressio tam fortis in spirilibus liumoribusque cerebri,
ut extracta lota sanguiiiea iiiassa, <Egre exprimatur, el
haec horrcnda species melaiicholiae frequenter o lata
mihi, onines exercens, viros, juvenes, sene.s. '*'I act,
de melan. cap. 7.elt". non ab intemperie, sed agital sue
dilatatione, coiitractione, motu spirituum.
206
Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec. 2.
as "Plutarch will have, "from some imminent danger, when a terrible object is a;
hand," heard, seen, or concpived,
^''"
truly appearing, or in a '^' dream
:"
and many
limes the more sudden the accident, it is the more violent.
?*" Slat terror aniinis, et cor altoriituni salit,
Pavidiiitique trepidis palpilat veiiiti jecur."
"
Their soul's affri^lit, tlieir heart amazed quakes,
The iriiiiibling liver pants i' th' veins., and aches.'
Arthemedorus the grammarian 1 kst his wits by the unexpected sight of a crocodile,
.jaurentius 7. de vielan. ^"The massacre at Lyons, 1572, in the reign of Charles IX.,
was so teiTible and fearful, that many ran mad, some died, great-bellied women were
brought to bed before tlieir time, generally all affrighted aghast. Many lose their
wits
'^^
" by the sudden sight of some spectrum or devil, a thing very common in all
ages," saith Lavater /lari 1. cap. 9. as Orestes did at the sight of the Furies, which
appeared to him in black, (as
^'
Pausanias records). The Greeks call them ^op;Uoxi);^fMi,
which so terrify their souls, or if they be but affrighted by some counterfeit devils
in jest,
55 "
lit piierl trepidant, atqiie omnia CKcis
In tenebris luetininl"
as children in the dark conceive hobgoblins, and are so afraid, they are the worse for
It ail their lives. Some by sudden fires, earthquakes, inundations, or any such dismal
objects : Themison the physician fell into a hydrophobia, by seeing one sick of that
disease: (^Dioscorides I. 0. 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 ^' Basil many little children in the spring-time
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 ba-k,
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. ^"^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. Z. 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 mis-
liked, 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 loath
some 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 her-
self 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 ; '^''or if
they read by chance of some terrible thuig, the symptoms alone of such a disease,
or that which they dislike, they are instandy 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 s^ibi iiidcntur somniare
.,
ihey dream and continually
think of it. As lamentable effects are caused by such terrible objects heard, read, or
seen, audltus maximos motus in corpore facile
as
*
Plutarch holds, no sense makes
greater alteration of body and mind : sudden speech sometimes, unexpected news,
be they good or bad, prcBvlsa minus oratio., will move as much, animum obruere, et
de sede sud dejicere., as a
'^
philosopher observes, will take away our sleep and appe-
tite, 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
WLib. de fort, et virtut. Alex, prae-sertiin ineunte
oericiilo, iihi res prope adsiint lerribilcs.
2"
Fit a
fisicine horrenda, revera apparente, vel per insomnia,
Plati-rus. 3' A painter's vi-ife in Basil, lt',00. Soiii-
niavit filium bello mortunm, inde Melancholica conso-
lari noliiit. "Senec. Here. Get. a^anarta pars
comment, de Statu religionis in Gallia sub Carolo. !).
\5Ti.
*
Ex occursu da^monuin aliqui furore corripi-
untur. ct experientia notuni est.
'
Lib. 8. in Arcad.
*
Lui ret.
*'
Puells extrn urbem in prato concur-
rentes, &;c. ina;sta et melancholica domuiii rediit per die*
aliquot vexata, dum inortua est. Plater.
^6
Altcm
traiis-Rlienana ingressa sepulchrum recens aperlum,
vidit cadaver, el doiiiuin subito reversa putavil earn
vocare, post paucos dies obiil, proximo sepulcliro col-
locata. Altera patibuliitn sero prKlerieiis, metuebat
ne urbe exclusa illic pernociaret, uiide melancholic*
facta, per nniltos aiiiios laboravil. Platerus. Hjii.
tus occursMS inopinalH lectio. ^ Lib. de audi tionok
S'Theod. Prodromus lib. 7. Amorutn.
Hem 4. Subs. 4.1 Terrors and Affrights^ Scoff's, <^c., Causes. 2(7
the (Jead of the nij^ht by irruption ot enemies and accidental fires, &.C., those
^''
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
"Midianites were so affrighted by Gideon's soldiers, they breaking but every one a
pitcher; ar.d
*^
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 Mar
cellus eris., (Sf-c, fell down dead in a swoon. Edinus king of Denmark, by a sudden
sound which he heard,
'^^
'
was turned into fury with all his men," Cranzius, L
5,
Dan. hisl. el Alexander ab Alexandra I. 3. c. 5. Amatus Lusitiinus had a patient
that by reason of bad tidings became epilepticus, cen.'Z.cura
90, Cardan subtil. I. 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, light-
ning, tempests, &c. At Bologna in Italy, Anno 1504, there was such a fearful earth-
quake about eleven o'clock in ihe night (as ^"^Beroaldus in his book de terrce motu, hath
commended to posterity) that all the city trembled, the people thought the world was
at an end, actum de morfalibus, such a fearful noise, it made such a detestable smell,
the inhabitants were infinitely affrighted, and some ran mad. Audi rem afrocem, et
unnalibus 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
^''
was first melancholy, after doted,
at last mad, and made away himself At
'"*
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
''^
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 phy-
sician had prescribed unto him, was so much moved, '"'''that at the very sight of
physic he would be distempered," though he never so much as smelled to it, the box
of j)hysic long after would give him a purge ; nay, the very remembrance of it did
effect it ;
'"
"
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, hitter Jests, how they cause Melancholy.
It is an old saying, '"^"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 griev-
ously vexed with these pasquilling libels, and satires: they fear a railing ''^Aretme.
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."
"
52
Effuso cernens fugientes agmine turmas, Q.nis mea
nunc iiiflat corniia Fauiius ait. Alciat. embl. 12,;.
5'Ju(l. 6. 19.
3j
piinarcliiis vita ejus.
^5
i,, fm-oreni
cum soti is versus,
^o
Siibilnriiis lerrae motiis. s7(;iEpj[
inde desipere cum dispptidio sanitatis, inde adeo demeri-
taiis, ut sibi ipsi monein inferret. ^
Historica relatio
de rebus Japonjcis Tract. 2. de legat. regis Chinensls, a
Lodovico Frois Jesuita. A. 1590. Fuscini deropente
taiita acris caligo et terrteinotus, ut mulli capite dole-
rent, pliirimus cor monrore et melancholia obruerctur.
''^nnium rremiiuni edebat, ut 'ouitru fiagorem imitari
viderctur, tantamque, &c. Fn urbe Sacai tarn horrificus
fuit, ut homines vix sui compotes essent a sensibus
abalienali, moerore oppressi tarn horrendo spectaculo,
&c. ^sQuum subit illlus tristissima noctis Imago.
*"Q.ui solo aspectu medicinie movebatur ad purgandum.
*'Sicut viatores si ad saxum impegerint, aut nauta;,
memores sui casus, non ista modo qu<e offendunt, sed
et similia horrent perpetuo et tremunt "
Levitef
volant gravitcr vulnerant. Bsrnardus. '3
Eusis sau-
cifit corpus, nientem seruio. "Soatis eum esse qui
a nemicie fereisvi sui inaenate, non illustre stipcndium
208 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec 2
The Gods had their Momus, Horner his Zoilus, Achilles his Thersites, Philip hi?
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
Fuphormio, a Boccalinus in ours. Adrian the sixth pope
""
was so highly offended,
and grievously vexed with Pasquillers at Rome, he gave command that liis statue
should be demolished and burned, the ashes flung into the river Tiber, and had done
it forthwith, had not Ludoviciis 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 v/orse and louder than before,
Loss
of
Liberty, Servitude, Imprisonment, how they cause Melancholy.
To this catalogue of causes, I may well annex loss of liberty, servitude, or impri-
sonment, 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
^^
aliena quadra, at another man's table and
command. As it is ^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 saiietas, 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 nmst 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, vir-
tuous, and well qualified, because they are theirs ; our present estate is still the
worst, we cannot endure one course of life long, et quod modu vovcrat, odit, one
callinorlong, esse in honore jiiv at, max displicet ; one place long,
'"'
Roince Tibur amu,
ventosus Tybure Romam, that which we earnestly sought, we now contemn. Hoc
quosdam agil ad mortem, (saith
""
Seneca) quod proposita scepe mutando in eade.m
revolvuntur, et non relinquunt novitati locum : Fastidio cccpit esse vita, et ipsus muu'
dus, et subit illud rapidissimarum deHciarum,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,
tJiey run round, without alteration or news, their life groweth odious, the world~"
loathsome, and that which crosselh their furious delights, what .^ still the same?
Marcus Aurelius and Solomon, that had experience of all worldly delights and plea-
sure, confessed as much of themselves ; what they most desired, was tedious ai
last, and that their lust could never be satisfied, all was vanity and affliction of mmd.
^ Tilly Tiisc. qusest.
""
Every reproach uttered
jgainst one already condemned is mean-spirited.'
4
Mart. lib. 1. epit;. ?i5.
66
|';,ies joci ab iiijuriis non
KiSBiJit discerni. Ga.ateiis fo. 55.
m
Pybrac in his
Q.uadraint 37.
"
Ego hujiis inisera fatuitate et de
inenlia conflirtor. Tull.adAtticli.il.
^^
Miserufii
est aliena vivere quadra. Juv. ^9 cramba- Ids c< ctoe
Vine me redde ermri. ") Hor. " He "-Mnquil ai>>iits.
Mem. 4. Subs.
6.]
Poverty and Want^ Causes 211
Now il 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 otherwisp as thi"" 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 tristi.us morte^ in se.rvitute
vivcndtim, as Hermolaus told Alexander in
'^
Curtius, worse than death is bondaffe :
'"^ hoc animo scilo omnesfortes^ ut mortem servituti anteponant, All brave men ai arms
(Tally holds) are so affected.
''^
Equidem ego is sum, qui servitulem extrerrMm om-
nium 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 liard
taskmasters, in gold mines (like those 30,000 'Mndian slaves at Potosi, in Peru), tin-
mines, lead-mines, stone-quarries, coal-pits, like so many jnouldwarps under ground,
condemned to the galleys, to perpetual drudgery, hunger, tliirst, 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
'
pole
itself, where they have six niontlis' perpetual night. Nay, wliat misery and discon-
tent do they enihire, tiiat are in prison .? They want all those six non-natural things
at once, good air, good diet, exercise, company, sleep, rest, ea.se, &c., that are bound
in cliains all day long, sufl^er hunger, and (as "Lucian describes it) "must abide that
Hltiiy stink, and rattling of chains, bowlings, pitiful outcries, that prisoners usually
make ; these things are not only troublesome, but intolerable." They lie nastily
among toads and fiogs in a dark dungeon, in their own dung, in pain of body, in
pain of soul, as Joseph did, Psal. cv. 1
8,
"
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 "^Arculanus put long imprisonment for a cause, espe-
cially to such as have lived jovially, in all sensuality and lus^, 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 ?
Robert Duke of Normandy being imprisoned by his
youngest brother Henry I., ab illo die inconsolabiU dolore in carcere contabuil, saith
Matthew Paris, from that day forward pined away with grief
^
Jugurtha that gene-
rous captain,
"
brought to Rome in triumph, and after imprisoned, through anguish
of his soul, and melancholy, died."
*'
Roger, Bishop of Salisbury, the second man
from King Stephen (he that built that famous castle of
*^
Devizes in Wiltshire,) was
so tortured in prison with hunger, and all those calamities accompanying such men,
^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.
multos numerabit
umicos, all
'^
happiness ebbs and flows with his money. He shall be accounted a
gracious lord, a Mecssnas, a benefactor, a wise, discreet, a proper, a valiant, a fortu-
nate man, of a generous spirit, Piillus Jovis^et gaUino' JiJius albce: a hopeful, a good
man, a virtuous, hongst man. Quando ego tc Junonium puerum., et matris partvm
vere aureum, as ^^Tully said of Octavianus, while he was adopted Caesar, and an
heir
^
apparent of so great a monarchy, he was a golden child. AH
*'
honour, offices,
applause, grand titles, and turgent epithets are put upon him, omncs omnia bona
dicere ; all men's eyes are upon him, God bless his good worship, his honour;
*
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 Thcmistocles in the Olympics, if he speak, as of Plerod, Vox Dei^ non
hominis^ the voice of God, not of man. All the graces. Veneres, pleasures, elegances
attend him,
^^
golden fortune accompanies and lodgeth with him ; and as to those
Roman emperors, is placed in his chamber.
38
"Secura nnvitet aura,
Fonunamque suo leinperel 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 :
^
Divines (for Pythia Philippisal) lawyers, physicians, phi-
losophers, scholars are his, wholly devote to his service. Every man seeks his
'"^acquaintance, his kindred, to match with him, though he be an oaf, a ninny, a
monster, a goosecap, uxorem ducat Danaen^
'
when, and whom he will, hunc optant
generum Rex et Regma -he is an excellent
^
match for my son, my daughter, my
niece, Etc. Quicquid calcaverit hie, Rosajiet, let him go whither he will, trumpets
Part. 2. Sect. 3. Memb 3. eiCliiem ut difficilem
mnrbuiii piipris trailere fi)rmidatiiiis. I'liit.
*'
Liicnii.
1. 1.
"6
As in the silver mines at Friburgli in Gin-
niany. Fines Murison. "'Euripides. ""Tom. 4.
dial, minore periculo Solem quam hunc defixis oculis
licet intunri.
^i
Oninis enim res, virtns, fama, decus,
riivina, humanaqtie pulchris Divitiis parect. Hor. Ser.
I. 2. Sat. 3. Clarus eris, fortis jnstus, sapiens, ptiam
lex. Et quicquid volet. Hor.
i*
Et genus, et formani,
legina pecunia donat. Money adds spirits, courage,
tc. 3 Episl. ull. ad Atticum.
'*
Our young iiias-
er, a line towardly gentleman, Gud bless him, and
hopeful; why? he is heir apparent to the right wor-
shipful, to the riglit honourable, &.C. KsOnumm'
nummi : vohis .'lunc pra"stat honorem. ^ Exinde
sapere euni otnnes dicimus, ac quisque fortunam habet.
Plaut. Pseud. i"Aurea fortuna, principiim cuhic.ulis
reponi soUta. Julius Capitolinus vita Antmiini.
9
I'e-
tronius. s'j'j'deologi opulentis adh8eren.t, Jiirisperiti
pecuniosis, literati nuiniaosis, liberalihus artifices.
J""
Multi ilium jiivenes, multa; petiere puella^ ' "
llf
may have Daiiae to wife." ^Dummndo sit rii"-'
bfj-barus, ille plate
Tcio. 4. Subs.
6.]
Poverty and Want^ Causes. 213
sound, bells ring, Stc, all happiness attends him, every man is willing to entertain
him, he sups in ^Apollo wheresoever he comes ; what preparation is made for his
'entertainment? fish and fowl, spices and perfumes, all that sea and land affords,
What cookery, masking, mirth to exhilarate his person r
S"
Da Treliio, p'liie ad Treliium, vis fralor ab illis
llibus
?"
"Sweet apples, and whateVr thy fields afford,
Before tliy Gods be serv'd, let serve thy Lord,
What dish will your good worship eat of.?
* "
diilcia poinn, I
Et qiioKciuiqiie ft-rel ciiltiis tibi fundus honores, I
Ante Lareni, guste' venerabilior Lare dives."
|
Wliat sport will your honour have
.?
hawking, hunting, fishing, fowling, bulls, bears
cards, dice, cocks, players, tumblers, fiddlers, jesters, &c., they are at your good wor-
sliip's command. Fair houses, gardens, orchards, terraces, galleries, cabinets, plea-
sant walks, delightsome places, they are at hand :
'
in uurcis /dc, vinum in argenfeis,
adohscentulce ad nutum specioscB., wine, wenches, &r. a Turkish paradise, a heaven
uj)on earth. Though lie be a silly soft fellow, and scarce have common sense, yet
if he be borne to fortunes (as 1 have said) ^jure hcereditario sapere jubctur^ he must
have honour and office in his course: ^JYemonisi dives honore dignus (Ambros.
offic. 21.) none so worthy as himself: he shall have it, atque esto quicquid Servius
uiit Labeo. Get money enough and command
'
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 emilur diadema^ argento coelum pan-
dllur., denarius philosophum conducit^ numnms jus cogit, oboliis literatum pascit.
7iietallum sanitatem conciliate as amices conglutinat.
"
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, amongs't 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 cliil-
dren, sound and rich:" for wealth sways all. It is not with us, as amongst those
Lacedemonian senators of Lycurgus in Plutarch,
"
He preferred that deserved best,
was most virtuous and worthy of the place, '^not swiftness, or strength, or wealth,
or friends carried it'in those days
:"
but inter optimos optimus., inter temperantes tem-
peranlissimus, the most temperate and best. We have no aristocracies but in con-
templation, all oligarchies, wiierein a few rich men domineer, do what they list, and
are privileged by their greatness. '^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 area Jovem. Let them be epicures, or atheists, libertines, machia-
velians, (as they often are) ^'^''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
'*
honourably interred in mausolean tombs, com-
mended by poets, registered in histories, have temples and statues erected to their
names, e manibus illis
A heap
of
other Accidents causing Melancholy, Death
of
Friends.
Losses, Sfc.
In this labyrinth of accidental causes, the farther I wander, the more intricate I
find the passage, multcE ambages, and new causes as so manv by-paths offer them
selves 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
'*
Vives well observes, jdos/ deUcias, convivia, dies ftstos,
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 levdrat tuus
advcnfus, sic discessus affixit,
(which ''^Tully writ to Atticus) thy coming was not
so welcome to me, as ihy departure was harsh. Montanus, consil. 1 32. makes men-
tion of a country woman that parting with her friends and native place, became
grievously melancholy for many years ; and Trallianus of cmother, 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 mis
chance 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 efl^ects, 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 gernien matris, 6 sanguis mi'us,
Eheii tepcntfis, &.C. 6 flns tener.")
s'
howling, roaring, many bitter pangs,
^"^
lamentis gemituque etfcemineo ululatu Tecta
frcmunt) and by frequent meditation extends so far sometimes, "^"they think they
see their dead friends continually in their eyes," ohservantes imagines, as Conciliator
confesseth he saw his mother's ghost presenting herself still before him. Quod
nimts miseri volunt, hoc facile credimt, still, still, still, that good father, that good
>on, that good wife, that dear friend runs in their minds : Totus animus hac una
..gaatione
defixus
est, all the year long, as
^^
Pliny complains to Romanus,
"
me-
thinks I see Virginius, I hear Virginius, I talk with Virginius, &c."
100"
Te sine, v:e misero iiiihi, lilia niura videntiir,
Palleiitesciue rostp, nee dulee nihens hyacintlius,
Niillos nee in) rtus, iiec laurus spiral odores."
They that are most staid and patient, are so furiously carried headlong by the pas-
sion of sorrow in this case, that brave discreet men otherwise, oftentimes forget
themselves, and weep like children many months together, '"as if that they to
water would," and will not be comforted. They are gone, they are gone ; wha
shall I do
.?
"
Alistulit alra dies et funere mersit acerbo,
Quis dabit in laclirynias fontein inihi ? quissatis altos
Arxendet fremitus, et acerbo verba dolori ?
Exhaurit pietas oculos, et hiantia frangit
Pectora, nee plenos avido sinit edere questus,
Magna adeo jactura preniit," &c.
'
Fountains 6f tears who cives, who lends nie groans,
Deep sii;hs sufficient to express my moans?
Mine eyes are dry, my breast in pieee.i torn,
My loss so great, I cannot enough mourn."
92 He that hath 5/. per annum coming in more than
others, scorns him that hath less, and is a better man.
" Prov. \xx. H.
!*'
De anima. cap. de nisrore.
65 Lib.
12. epist. ''8"Oh sweet offsprint;; oh my very blond;
Jh tender flower, ice." S7Vir. 4. JEn. "("Patres
nortuus coram astantes et filios,&.c. MarcellusDunutus.
"'Epist. lib. 2. Virginium video audio defnnctum cogito
alloquor. lO^Calphurnius Gr.tcus. "Without ihee
ah! wretched me, tlie lillies lose their whiteness. i<i
rose? become |)alli(l, the hyacinth forgets lo h "!
neither tile myrtle nor the laurel retains Us odictm
'
1 Chaucer.
."lem. 4. Subs. 7. Otktr Accidents and Grievances. 219
So Slroza 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,
he yields wholly to sorrow,
"
Nunc fateor do terga malis, mens ilia fatiscit,
Iiidoinitus quondaiM vigor et constantia mentis."
How doth ^Quintilian complain for the loss of his son, to despair almost : Cardan
lament his only child in his book de Ubris propriis^ and elsewhere in many of his
tracts,
*
St. Ambrose his brother's death ? an ego possum non cngitare de te, aiit sine
luchrymis cogilare ? O amari dies^ b Jlebiles 7ioctes,
Sfc.
"
Can I ever cease to think
of thee, and to think with sorrow ? O bitter days, O nights of sorrow," &c. Gre-
gory Nazianzen, that noble Pulcheria ! O decorem^
Sfc.Jlos reccns^ puUuIans^
&fc.
Alexander, a man of most invincible courage, after Hephestion's death, as Curtius
relates, (riduiim jacuit ad moriendmn obstinutus, 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.
"
fleil 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."
"
Rachael 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, Niolse her
children, insomuch that the
*
poets feigned her to be turned into a stone, as being
stupitied through the extremity of grief.
^
Mgeas., signo higubri
filii
consternatus,,
in mare se pra;cipitat.e7n dedil., impatient of sorrow for his son's death, drowned
himself Our late physicians are full of such examples. Montanus const/. 242. ^had
a patient troubled with this infirmity, by reason of her husband's death, many years
together. Trincavellius, I. I.e. 14. hath such another, almost in despair, after his
'mother's departure, ut se ferme prcecipitatem 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 some-
times, that it daunts whole kingdoms and cities. Vespasian's death was pitifully
lamented all over the Roman empire, lotus orhis lugebat^ saith Aurelius Victor.
Alexander commanded the battlements of houses to be pulled down, mules and
horses to have their manes shorn ofl^ and many common soldiers to be slain, to
accompany his dear Hephestion's death ; which is now practised amongst the Tar-
tars, when *a great Cham dieth, ten or twelve thousand must be slain, men and
horses, all they meet; and amongr those the ^ 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,
^
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,
"
but after his decease an iron season succeeded, barbara vis etfosda vastitas., et dira
malorum omnium incommoda., wars, plagues, vastity, discontent. When Augustus
Caesar died, 'saith Faterculus, orbis ruinam timueramus, we were all afraid, as if hea-
ven had fallen upon our heads. '^Budaeus records, how that, at Lewis the Twelfth
his death, /.? subita mutatio, ut qui priiis digito caelum attingere videbantur., nunc
hu7ni derepente serpere, sideratos esse dir.cres^ they that were erst in heaven, upon a
sudden, as if they had been planet-strucken, lay grovelling on the ground
;
" "
Concussis ceciilere aniniis, seu frondibus ingens
Sylva dolet lapsis"
they looked like cropped trees. '''At Nancy in Lorraine, when Claudia Valesia,
Henry the Second French king's sister, and the duke's wife deceased, the temples for
s
I'raefat. lib e
s
Lib. de obitu Satyri fratris.
Ovid. Mel
">
Pint, vita ejns. 6 Nohilis matrona
iiit-lanrholiCrt '>.i mortem iiiariti. '
Ex inatris obitu
in desperationem iiicidit. ^ Maihias a Micliou. Boter.
Am|iliitheat. ^ Lo Vertniiian. M. Polus Venelus lib.
t. ca|). 54. pnrimunt eos quos in via obvios habent, di-
e<'nie., he, et domino nostro regi servile in alia vita.
Nee tain in homines insaiii int sed in equoi?, &cc.
">
Vita
ejus. " Lib. 4. vitsB ejus, aurearn EBtatem condiderat
ad humani generis salulem quum nos statim ab optirni
principis exci-ssu, vere ferream patereniur, fau-em, pes-
teni, &;c. i2Lib. 5. de asse.
i3
Maph.
'
'IMiey be-
c.inie fallen in feelings, as the great forest laments ita
fallen leaves." '''Orlelius Itinerario: ob annum
integrum a cantu, tripudiis et saltatiunibub totacivita*
abstinere jubelur.
220 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1 &ec. Vi
forty days were all shut up, no prayers nor masses, but in that room where she waa
The senators all seen in black,
"
and for a twelvemonth's space throughout the city,
they were forbid to sing or dance.''
"'
\on ulli pastos illis egre iliehiis I
"
Tilt- swains forgot their sheep, nor ne.Tr the brink
Friffida (Daphne) boves ail fluiiiina, nulla nee
|
Of runnin;; waters brought their herils to ilrink
aniiiein The thirsty cattle, of themselves, abstained
Libavil quadrupes, nee Kraniiiiis attigit herbani."
|
From water, and their grassy fare disdain'd."
How were we allected here in England for our Titus, dellcicB. himiani generis, Prince
Henry's immature deatli, as if all our dearest friends' lives had exhaled with his ?
'^ Scanderbeg's death was not so much lamented in Epirus. In a word, as "he saith
of Edward the First at the news of Edward of Caernarvon his son's birth, immor'
talUer gavisas, he was immortally glad, may we say on the contrary of friends'
deaths, immortalUcr gemenles, 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 for-
tunes, which equally afHicts, 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 pro-
cureth this malady and mischief:
18"
Ploratur lachrymis amissa pecunia veris:"
|
" Lost money is bewailed with grief sincere."
it wrings true tears from our eyes, many sighs, nmch sorrow from our hearts, and
often causes habitual melancholy itself, Guianerius tract. 15. 5. repeats this for an
especial cause: "'"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. I. I.e. 18. ex rcrum amissions, 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
'^
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
^'
Plater)
"
and out of many dis-
positions, procureth an habit." '"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 build-
ing.
^^
Roger that rich bishop of Salisbury, exutus opihus et castris a Rege Siephuito,
spoiled of his goods by king Stephen, ui doloris absorptus.i 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 them-
selves. A poor fellow went to hang himself, (which Ausonius hath elegantly
expressed in a neat
^^
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, postquani non reperit auruin,
Aptavit collo, quern reperit laqueuni."
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, Lucius publicus, Sec. 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 Vcnctorum dux, ^c, and they
had lost Padua, Biixia, Verona, Forum Julii, their territories in the continent, and
had now nothing left, but the city of Venice itself, et urbi qvoque ipsi (saith
^*
Bern-
bus) timendum putarent, and the loss of that was likewise to be feared, tantus repente
1^
Virg.
'6
See Barletius de vita et ob. Scanderbeg.
"b. 13. hist. "Mat. Paris. isjuvenalis. lUMuIti
qui res amatas perdirierant, ut filiiis, opes, non speran-
Icsrecuperare, propter assiduain taliiini considerationeni
aieiancliulici fiunt, ul iuse vidi.
'"
'^'.aniburslus Hib.
Hist. "'Cap. 3. Melancholia semper venit ab jactu-
ram pecuniie, victoriaj, repulsain, mortem lilteroruin.
quibus longo post tempore animus torquetur, et a dis-
positione sit habitus. ^soonsil. 20.
s*
\ubrigeiisi
'<
Epig. 22. " Lib. 8. Venet. hisl
Mem. 4. Subs. 7.]
Other Accidents and Grievances. 221
dolor omncs tenuity ul nunquam.^ alias., 4'C., they were pitifully plunged, nevei before
in such lamentable distress. Anno 1527, when Rome was sacked by Burbonius, the
common soldiers made such spoil, that fair '**' 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, Stc, trampled in the dirt. ^'Theii
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, Stc, that erst lived in all manner of delights.
'^**
" 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 himsdf
(some say) for die loss of his comedies, which suffered shipwreck. When a pcor
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, temporali^tm
amor., quantum ajicit, cum hcpret possessio, tantum quum subtrahitur., urit do! ir;
riches do not so much exhilarate us with their possession, as they torment us \\ (th
their loss.
Next to sorrow still I may annex such accidents as procure fear ; for besides th )se
terrors which I have
^^
before touched, and many other fears (which are infinite) there
is a superstitious fear, one of the three great causes of fear in Aristotle, commoily
caused by prodigies and dismal accidents, whicli much trouble many of us. {^JYei.cio
quid animus mi/ii prcesagit 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 towtrds
them, a black spot appear in their nails, &c., with many such, which Delrio Tom,
2. I. 3. sect. 4. Austin Niphus in his book de Auguriis. Polydore Virg. I. 3. de
Prodigiis. Sarishuricnsis Polycrat. l.l.c. 13. discuss at large. They are so much
affected, that with the very strength of imagination, fear, and the devil's craft, ''""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 denouncelh
Ixvi. 4. which if
*'
"
they could neglect and contemn, would not come to pass, Eorum
vires nostra resident opinione, ut morhi gravitas cpgrotantium cogitatione., they are
intended and remitted, as our opinion is fixed, more or less. N. N. dat pcenas., saitli
'^
Crato of such a one, utinam non attraheret : he is punished, and is the cause of it
''himself:
^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 desti-
nies foreseen : multos angit prcescientia raalorum: The foreknowledge of what shall
come to pass, crucifies many men : foretold by astrologers, or wizards, iratum oh
coelum,., be it ill accident, or death itself: which often falls out by God's permission;
quia dcBmonem Lbnent (saith Chrysostom) Deus ideo permittit accidere. Severus,
Adrian, Domitian, can testify as much, of whose fear and suspicion, Sueton, Hero-
dian, and the rest of those writers, tell strange stories in this behalf ^^Montanus
consil. 31. hath one example of a young man, exceeding melancholy upon this occa-
sion. Such fears have still tormented mortal men in all ages, by reason of those
lying oracles, and juggling priests.
''^
There was a fountain in Greece, near Ceres'
temple in Achaia, where the event of such diseases was to be known ; '"A glass let
28Templa ornamentis nudata, spoliata, in stahula
equormii et asinoruiii versa, &c. IiisuliE humi conciil-
caliE, peditae, <fec. ^Tjnoculis (naritnrum dilectissimre
toiijiiges ab Hispannriiin lixis coiistijpratfe sunt. Filire
iiiagiiatiim Ilmris destinatfE, &c.
38
ita fastu ante
unuin mensem turL'ida civilas, et cacuminihos coBhiin
(lulsare visa, ad inferos usque paucis diehus dejecta.
Sct. '2. VJenib. 4. Subs. 3. fear from ominous acci-
dents, destinies foretold.
so
Accersiint sibi malum.
"Si non oliservenius, nihil valent. I'olidor. 3'Consil.
26.1.2.
'3
Harm walili harm catch.
3<
Opor. Bucha.
36
Juvenis solicitus de futuris frusira, factus nielancho-
licus. 36
paiisanius in Acliair.is lib. T. Uoi omnium
eventus dignoscuntur. Speculum itiMii siispensuni funi-
culo demittunt : et ad Cyaneas petras sd Lycia> {u"'ii9
&.C.
t2
2n Causes
of
MelancTwly. Part. 1 . Sec.
c.o\v 1 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 tliis (hy^Metusfutiirorinn inaxime torquet Sinas, this foolish fear,
mightily crucifies them in China: as ^'Matthew Riccius the Jesuit informeth us, in
his commentaries of those countries, of all nations they are most superstitious, and
much tormented in tliis kind, attributing so much to their divinators, ut ipse metus
Jidem facial^ that fear itself and conceit, cause it to ^*fall out: If he foretell sickness
sucli a day, that very time they will be sick, vi mefiis ajfficti in cpgrifudincm cadnnt
,
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. Inqiiietam nobis vitam
facit. mortis metus^ a worse plague cannot happen to a man, than to be so troubled
in his mind
;
'tis trist.c 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 phi-
losopher was bold and courageous all his life, and gave good precepts de contcmnenda
mortCi and against the vanity of the world, to others ; but being now ready to die
himself, he was mightily dejected, hdc luce privahor? his orbabor bonis f^^ he
lamented like a child, &c. And though Socrates himself was there to comfort him,
ubi prisfina virtutum jaclatio O Jlx'ioche f
"
where is all your boasted virtue now,
my friend
.'"'
yet he was very timorous and impatient of death, much troubled in his
mind, ImbeUis pavor et impafienfia, S^-c.
"
O Clotho," Megapetus the tyrant in
Lucian exclaims, now ready to depart,>' let me live awhile longer.
^
J 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,"
"
saith another," what goodly manors
shall 1 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
.'"'
*^Jlnimula 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 so//c/7m(Zo, ''^"superfluous industry about unprofitable
things, and their qualities," as Thomas defines it : an itcliing 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 ''''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 herseJf to little purpose. Be it in religion, humanity, magic, philo-
sophy, policy, any action or study, 'lis 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, Stc, 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 philosupuers, cavillers, and mad men, circa subtiUa Cavillatore^ pro insanis
habuif.) palam eos arguens^ saith ""^Eusebius, because they commonly sought after
such things qucB ncc percipi. d nobis neque comprehetidi 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 Cassiopea from us,
how deep the sta, &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 subtilties, and fruitless
abstractions } alchemy, but a bundle of errors
.?
to what end are such great tomes ?
''Expedil. in Sinas, lih. 1. c. 3. ssTimendo praRoc-
cupat, quod vital, ultro provncuique quod fugil, gau-
detque niceroiis et luliens miser fiiit. Heinsius Austriac.
>9'lVIusl 1 be deprived of this life, of those posses-
ion3?' "Tom 4. dis' S Cataph Auri pun iijille
talenla,nie hodie tihi datiirum proniitto, &<;.
<'
Ibidem.
Hei inihi qu* relinquenda pr^dia? quaiii fertile." agri I
&c. "Adrian.
^ liidiistria superiiua circa rea Inu
tiles.
"
Flav secreta Minerva; ut videral Aglaurot
Uv. Mel. y. <6(;oiiira Pliilos. cap. 61.
Mem. 4, Subs.
7.]
Other Accidents ana Grievances. '12'A
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: stuUus labor est me/j/iarzim, to build a house
A'ithout pins, nialce a rope of sand, to what end } cui bono P tie studies on, but as
Jie boy told St. Austin, when I have laved tlie sea dry, thou shall understand the
mystery of the Trinity, He makes observations, keeps limes and seasons ; and as
"'
Conradus tlie emperor would not touch liis new bride, till an astrologer had told
him a masculine hour, but witlr what success ? He travels into Europe, Africa Asia,
searchelh every creek, sea, city, mountain, gulf, to what end } See one promontory
;^sai(l Socrates of old), one mountain, one sea, one river, and see all. An alchemist
spends liis 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 aurQii 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 loselh 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.
*'' Turbine magno spes solicitce in urbibus errant; we run, ride, take indefatigable
pams, all up early, down late, striving to get that which we had better be without
,
'Ardelion's busy-bodies as we are) it were much fitter for us to be quiet, sit still, and
take our case. His sole study is for words, that they be Lepidce lexeis com-
postcR ut tesserulce 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-fetclied, peregrini aeris volu-
cres, 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 sel-
dom pleased with any meal, whilst a trivial stomach useth all with delight and is
never olfended. Another must have roses in winter, alieni temporis flores^ snow-
water m summer, fruits before they can be or are usually ripe, artificial gardens and
fish-ponds on the tops of houses, all things opposite to the vulgar sort, intricate and
rare, or else they are nothing worth. So busv, nice, curious wits, make that insup-
portable 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 head-
long, through our indiscretion, perverse will, and want of government, into many
needless cares, and troubles, vain expenses, tedious journeys, painful hours ; and
when ail is done, quorsum hcec f cui bono ? to what end
.'
48"
Nescire velle quve Mngister inaximus
Docere iion vult, erudita luscitia est."
Unfortunate marriage.] Amongst these passions and irksome accidents, unfortu-
iiate marriage may be ranked : a condition of life appointed by God himself in Para-
'^ise, an honourable and happy estate, and as great a felicity as can befall a man in
chis world,
""^
if the parties can agree as they ought, and live as ^Seneca lived with
nis 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. 1
4,
"
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.A' Her
^'
properties Jovianus
<'Mat. Paris. ""Scnera. <8
Jqs. Scaliger in
|
^^"\
virtuous woman is the crown of her hiishaiiri,"
Gnoniit.
"
'I\) pnifr^s? a i.'jsinclination for that know- Prov. \ij. 4.
"
liut shf," fee Slc.
^o
ijb. 17. ejiisl '05.
te.lge which s beyond our reach, is pedantic ignorance
"
|
6i
Titionalur, candelabratur, <Scc.
224 Cause*
of
Melancholy. [Part. I. Sec. 2.
Poritanus hath describee] 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 Jigellius
lib. 2. cop. 22., complains much of an
^\t\ \viff> flum ejus morti ijihio, egomet mortuus
LHvo inter vivos., whilst I gape after her death, 1 live a dead man amongst the living,
or if they dislike upon any occasion.
6'J"
Judge who that are iinforlimatRly w(l
What 'lis to (oiiie into a hialhed bed."
The same inconvenience befals women.
53"
At vos o duri iniseram liijcte parentes.
Si ferro aiil laqiieo liEVa liac ine exsolvere sorte
Susliiieo
:"
'
Hard hearted parents both lament my fate,
If self I kill or hang, to ease my state."
''A young gentlewoman in Basil was married, saith Felix Plater, observat. Z. 1, to an
ancient man against her will, whom she could not affect ; she was continually melan-
choly, and pined away for grief; and though her husband did all he could possibly
U) give her C3ntent, in a discontented humour at length she hanged herself Many
'ther stories he relates in this kind. Thus men are plagued with women
;
they again
with men, when they aie of divers humours and conditions; he a spendthrift, she
paring; one honest, the other dishonest, &c. Parents many times disquiet their
children, and they their parents. ^^''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 induccret ; what offence had he done, that he should marry
again ?
Unkind, unnatural friends, evil neighbours, bad servants, dehts arid debates, &c.,
'twas Chilon's sentence, comes ceris alieni et litis est miserin, misery and usury do
commonly together ; suretyship is the bane of many families, Sponde., prcpstd 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 put of neighbours
and friends. discordia demcns
(
Virg. ^n.
6,)
are equal to tlie first, grieve many
a man, and vex his soul. JVihil sane miserabiUus eorum mentibus., (as ^Boter holds)
'
nothing so miserable as such men, full of cares, griefs, anxieties, as if thev were
stabbed with a sharp sword, fear, suspicion, desperation, sorrow, are their ordinarv
companions." Our Welshmen are noted by some of their "own writers, to con-
sume one another in this kind ; but whosoever they are that use it, these are their
common symptoms, especially if they be convict or overcome,
**
cast in a suit.
Arius put out of a bishopric by Eustathius, turned heretic, and lived after discon-
tented all his life.
^^
Every repulse is of like nature
;
heu quanta de spe dccidi ! Dis-
grace, 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.,
"
Pliny saith, both hanged themselves. All oppositions, dan-
gers, perplexities, discontents,
^'
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 bene-
fits, ingratitude, unthankful friends, much disquiet and molest some. Unkind s|)eeches
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 brow-beating, or bad look, especially to courtiers, or such
as attend upon great persons, is present death: Ingenium vuUu statque caditqne sun,
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
52 Daniel in Rosamund. sachniinofus lib. !). de
repuli. Angl.
w
Klegans virgn iiivita ciiidarn e nos-
tratilms impsit, &c.
^a
prov.
^c
Df. increm.
iirli lih. :i. c. ;l. tanquani diro inucrone coiifossi, his
nulla reqiiiea, nulla delectatio, solicitudine, gemitii,
furore, desperatione, titnore, tanquain ad perpetiinni
airumnam infeliciter rapti.
''i
Humfredus (,hiyd
epi6t. ad Abrahamnin <^lrlelium. M. Vaiighan in hi
Golden Fleece. Litibus et controversiis usque ad om
niiiin bonornm consuniptioneni cotitcMidiint.
*>
Spre-
txque injuria forniiK.
'
''''Qua>que repulsa gravis.
'"Lib. 3l>. e.
.'>. ^i
Nihil seque ainaruni, quam iliu
pendere : quidam tpquiore aniiiio fiTuiit [tfmciii .!po!ii
suam quaM tralii. Scier? cap. 3. lib. "2.
de Uen. Vin
Plater obsrvat. M'. 1
Mem. 4. Subs.
7.]
Other Accidents and Grievances. 22J>
her gossips, was upbraided with a secret infirmity (no matter what) in public, and
Si} much grieved with it, that she did thereupon solitudines qucsrere., omnes ab st
ahlegare. ac tandem in gravissimnm incidens inelancholiam, contabescere^ forsake all
company, (piite moped, and in a melancholy humour pine away. Others are as much
tortured to see themselves rejected, contemned, scorned, disabled, defamed, detracted,
undervalued, or ^"left behind their fellows." Lucian brings in Ji^tamacles, a philo-
sopher 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 JPlutarch, 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,
''^
especially if they be generous spirits, scarce anything affects
them more than to be despised or vilified. Crato, consil. 16, J. 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
*^''
Tully complain, Omnem hilaritatcm in perpetuum
amisi.) mine heart's broken, I shall never look up, or be merry again, ^^hcec jactura
intolerabilis., to some parties 'tis a most intolerable loss. Banishment a great misery
as Tyrteus describes it in an epigram of his,
'
Nam ruiseriim est patria ainissa, larihusque vagari
Mendicuni, el timida voce ro{;are cibns:
Omnibus invisus, qnociinque accesserit exul
Semper erit, semper spretus egensque jacet," &c.
"A miserable thing 'tis so to wander,
And like a begsjar for to wiiine at door,
Cdnteiiin'rt of all the world, an exile is,
Hated, rejected, needy still and poor."
Polynices in his conference with Jocasta in
^^
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 prssente, anifenum
^
Ver florit gratiis, absque te nemo beatns:"
(O blessed health! "thou art above all gold and treasure," Ecclns. 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, pale-
ness, leanness, redness, baldness, loss or want of hair, &.C., hie ubifluere ccp/pit, diros
ictus cordi infert, saith ^'Synesius, he himself troubled not a little ob comce 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 dclapsa est., (Cailius
Rho/liginus I. 17, c.
2,)
ran mad.* ^^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 not abide to look upon it
^"^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.
- 6 deornm
Q.iiisquis ha^c aiidis, utinam inter errem
Nuda leones,
Antequani turpis macies decentea
Occnpet malas, tenersque succiis
Deflnat praedae, speciosa quierro
Pascere tigres."
'
Hear me, some gracious lieaveniy 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 ir.
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 manv . 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, dis-
^'^Turpe relinqui est, Hor. wgcimus enim gene- I epist. lib. 12. csEpist. ad Brutura. osinPhsenisf
'osas nafruras, nulla re citius moveri, aut gravius affici \^ In laudem calvit.
oe
(jvid.
w
E Ore'
'">
Hf
qiiam contemptu ac despicientia
64
Ad Atticum
|
Car. Lib. 3. Ode. 27
29
226 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part. 1. Sec. 2
graced, vilified, or any way injured : minime miror eos (as he said) ([ui insanire cccu
piunt ex injuria, 1 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 1
must omit. No tidings troubles one
;
ill reports, rumours, bad tidings or news, hard
5iap, ill success, cast in a suit, vain hopes, or hope deferred, another : expectation,
adeo omnibus in rebus molcsla semper est. expeclatio, as
"
Polybius observes; one is
too eminent, another loo base born, and that alone *.ortures him as much as the rest
:
one is out of action, company, employment ; aiiother overcome and tormented with
worldly cares, and onerous business. But what "tongue can suffice to speak of all?
Many men catch this malady by eating certain meals, herbs, roots, at unawares;
as henl)ane, nightshade, cicula, mandrakes, &.c. "A company of young men at
Agrigeiitum in Sicily, came into a tavern ; where after they had freely taken their
iquor, whether it were the wine itself, or something mixed with it 'tis not yet known,
'*
but upon a sudden they began to be so troubled m their brains, and their phantasy
BO erased, that tiiey 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 tlie 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 TritoneSj ego in imnjucui,
I beseech your deities, &c. for J 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,
''*
he would build an altar to their service. The magis-
trate 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 occa-
sions. Some are so caused by pliilters, 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 Skenck. I. 6. de Venrnis, in Calabria and Apulia in Italy,
Cardan. suhtiJ. I. 9. Scaliger exrrcitat. 185. Their symptoms are merrily described
by Jovianus Pontanus, ^n/. dial, how they dance altogether, and are cured by music.
^''Cardan speaks of certain stones, if they be carried about one, vvhich will cause
melancholy and madness; he calls them unhappy, as an '"^ adamant, sclcnites, 6^~c.
"
which dry up ihe body, increase cares, diminish sleep
:"
Ctesias in Persicis, makes
mention of a well in those parts, of which if any man drink,
'^"
he is mad for 24
hours." Some lose their wits by terrible objects (as elsewhere I have more '^copi-
ously dilated) and life itself many times, as Hippolitus affrighted by Neptune's sea-
horses, Athemas by Juno's furies : but these relations are connnon in all writers.
BO"
Hie alias potcram, et pliires siibnectere caiisas,
SeJ jiimeiita vocant, et Sol iiiclinat, Eundiim est.'
"
Many such causes, much more could 1 say.
But th.tt 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, seidom, 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, xiis
unila forlior; et quce nan obsunt singula, multa nocent, they may batter a strong con-
stitution ; as ^'Austin said, "many grains and small sands sink a ship, many small
drops make a flood," &c., often reiterated ; many dispositions produce an habit.
'1
Hist. lib. 6. '-Non mihi si centum linguffi sint,
oraque centum. Omnia caiisarum percurrere nomina
possem. '3CeIius I. 17. cap. 2.
'^
Ita uiente exagi-
tati sunt, ut in triremi se constitutos piitaient, marique
vadatmndo tempestate jactatos, proiiide naufragium
veriti, egestis undique rehus vasa omnia in yiam e
fenestris, seu in mare pnecipitarunt : postriilie, Slc.
10
.\xan\ vohis servatorihus diis erij;emus.
'
Lih. de
|!iutnJ8. ''Quae gestatte infelicein et tristem reddiint.
curas augent, corpus siccant, somnum minuunt. ".Ad
unnni die mente alienatns.
'^
Part. I. Sect. 2. Sul>-
sect. 3.
w
Juven .Sat. 3.
"i
Intus bestir minnti
multcE necanl. Numqnid minutissjma sunt graiia
areuDE? sed si arena auiplius in navem mitlatur, mergit
illam
;
quam minutae gutla;, pluvicB? et tann'n irnplent
tlumina. domus ejiciujil, tinienda ergo ruina multitu-
diiiis, si non inagiiitudinis.
Vlem. 5. Subs. 1.]
Continent, inv^ard Causes, <^c,
25i7
MEMB. V.
SiTBSECT. I.Continent, imvard, antexedent, next cfi
,
v<fnd how the Body works on
the Mind.
Asa purly hunter, I have hitherto beaten ab -t the circuit of the forest of this
microcosm, and followed only those outward ac, i-ntitious causes. I will now break
into the inner rooms, and rip up the antecedent immediate causes which are th^re 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 1
have formerly said, lay the greatest fault upon the soul, excusing the body
;
others
igain accusing the body, excuse the soul, as a principal agent. Their reasons are,
because
''^'
the manners do follow the temperature of the body," as Galen proves in
his book of that subject. Prosper Calcnius de Atra bile, Jason Pratensis c. de Mania.,
Lemnms I. 4. c. 16. and many others. And that which Gualter hath commented,
ho,a. 10. in epist. Johannis, is most true, concupiscence and originals in, inclinations,
and bad humours, are
'^^
radical in every one of us, causing these perturbations, affec-
tions, 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 ^apostle teacheth us: that
niethinks the soul hath the better plea against the body, which so forcibly inclines
us, that we cannot resist, JV*cc nos ohniti contra, nee tenderc tardmn
sufficinms. 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
^^
anger, fear, sorrow, obtrectation, emulation, &c. si mentis inlimos recessus occupa-
rint, saith
^
Lemnius, corpori quoque infesta sunt, et illi teterrimos morbos infcrnnf,
cause grievous diseases in the body, so bodily diseases affect the soul by consent.
Now the chiefest causes proceed from the
*'
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,
^^
corpus onuslum hesternis
vitiis, animum quoque prcegravat una. The body is domicilium animce, her house,
abode, and stay ; and as a torch gives a better light, a sweeter smell, accordimr to
the matter it is made of; so doth our soul perform all her actions, better or vf< rse,"
as he*- organs are disposed; or as wine .favours 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, melan-
choly sad, phlegmatic dull, by reason of abundance of those humours, and they
cannot resist such passions which are inflicted by them. ,For in this Miiirmity of
human nature, as Melancthon declares, the understanding is so tied to, an 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 outvvard parts, but
suffers herself to be overruled by them
;
that 1 must needs conclude with Lemnius,
spiritus et hmnores maximum nocuvientum ohtinent, spirits and humours do most harm
ill
*^
troubling the soul. How should a man choose but be choleric and angry, that
nath 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 jyerco/ise^'Mens cause melan-
*^
Mores sequuntur temperaturam corporis. "'Sciii- I itidem morbi animam per consensiim, a leee consorfii
tillEE latent in corporibus. 8<Gal. 5. ssgict ex
|
afficiiint, et quaMqiiam iihji^cta iniiitos motiis tiirbiileii-
anirni affectionibus corpus langiiescit : sic ex corporis 1 tos in hoiiimn concitet, priEcipiia tatiipn cau^a in cordf
vims, el m'^'borcj-f olerisque cruciatibus animum vide- et humoribirs spiritihiisque consistit. &c.
"*'
Mor
inns hebctan. Galenix '* Lib. I. c. 16. ^Corporis I Vide oHte.
_
^
H imore.s pravi nientiim oonutiilani
228 Causes
of
Melancholy. [Part 1. SfC.
'4
choly, according to the consent of the most approved physicians. ^''"Thi? hununn
'as Avicenna I. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. c. 18. Arnokhis breviar. I. 1. c. 18. Jacchinus
comment, m 9 Rhasis, c. 15. Montaltus, c. 10. Nicholas Pisa c. de Melan. Sfc. sup-
oose^ IS begotten by the distemperaiure of some inward part, innate, or left after
me inflammation, or else included in the blood after an ^' ague, or some other ma-
jgnant disease." This opinion of theirs concurs with that of Galen, I. l^. c. 6. de
locis affect. Guianerius gives an instance in one so caused by a quartan ague, and
Montanus co/tsi/. 32.in a young man of twenty-eight years of age, so (Hstempered afttr
a quartan, which had molested him five years together; Hildesheim sp7cel.2. de
Mania., relates of a Dutch baron, grievously tormented with melancholy after a long
**ague: Galen, I. de atra bile., c. 4. puts the plague a cause. Botaldus in his book
de lue vener. c. 2. the P^rench pox for a cause, others, phrensy, epilepsy, p'lojjlexy,
because those diseases do often degenerate into this. Of suppression of hemorrhoids,
hajmorogia, 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 vvidows, handled apart by Rodericus a Castro, and Mer-
oatus, 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.
lyistemperature
of
particular Parts., causes.
There is almost no part of the body, which being distempered, doth not cause
this n)alady, as the brain and his parts, heart, liver, spleen, stomach, matrix or womb,
pylorus, mirache, mesentery, hyj)ochondries, nieseraic veins ; and in a word, saith
''Arculanus,
"
there is no part which causeth not melancholy, either because it is
dust, or doth not expel the superfluity of the nutriment." Savanarola Pract. major,
rubric. 11. Tract. 6. caj). 1. is of the same opinion, that melancholy is engendered
in each particular part, and
^^
Crato in consil. 17. lib. 2. Gordonius, who is instar
omnium., lib. med. pcrrtic. 2. cap. 19. confirms as much, putting the
^"
matter of
melancholy, sometimes in the stomach, liver, heart, brain, spleen, mirach, hypochon-
dries, 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,
"
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, ^"that have a
hot heart and moist brain," which Montaltus cap. 11. de Melanch. approves out of
Halyabbas, Rhasis, and Avicenna. Mercurialis consil. 1 1 . assigns the coldness of the
brain a cause, and Salustius Salvianus med. lecf. I. 2. c 1.
^*
will have it "-arise from
a cold and dry distemperature of the brain." Piso, Eenedictus Victorius Faventinus,
will have it proceed from a ^''''hot distemperature of the brain;" and "* Montaltus
cap. 10. from the brain's heat, scorching the biood. The brain is still distempered
by himself, or by consent: by himself or his proper afl^ection, as Faventinus calls it,
'
" or by vapours which arise from the other parts, and fume up into the head, alter-
ing the animal faculties."
Hildesheim spicel. 2. de Mania., thinks it may be caused from a
^''
distemperature
of the heart; sometimes hot; sometimes cold." A hot liver, and a cold stomach,
are put for usual causes of melancholy: Mercurialis consil. II. et consil. 6. consil.
86. assigns a hot liver and cold stomach for ordinary causes. "Monavius, in an
90
Hie humor vel a partis intemperie generatur vel
lelinqiiitur post intlainmationes, vel crassif)r in veiiis
conclusus Vel torpidiis irialianani qiialitatt"in contrahit.
'Saepe constat in fehre honiinein Melancliolicnm vel
post febrem reodi, anl alium morhum. Caliila intern-
peries innata. vel a fehre conlracta. s^Raro quis
diuturno niorbo laborat, qui nnn sit melancholicus,
Mercurialis de atiect. capitis lib. I. c. 10. de Melaiic.
*
Ad nonuni lib. Rhasis ad Almansor. c. 16. Universa-
liter a quacunque parte potest fieri melancholicus. Vel
quia aduritur, vel quia iion expellit superfluitatem ex-
crcmenti.
s*
A Liene, jecinore, utern, et aliis partibus
oritur. ^^ Materia Melincholis aliquaiidoin corde, in
stomacho, hepate, ab hypocomlriis, niyrache, splene,
cum ibi remanel humor melancholicus.
96
Ex san-
guine adnsto, intra vel extra caput.
"
Q.ni calidum
cor habent, cerebrum humidum, facile melancholici.
"^Sequitur melancholia malam mteinperiem frigiilam
et siccam ipsius cerebri.
^s
^jg-pe fit ex calidiore cere-
bro, aut corpore colligente melancholiam. Piso.
'oo
Vel
per propriam atfectionem, vel per consensum, cuin
vapores exiialant in cerebrum. Montall.cap. 14.
i
Au
ibi gignitur, melancholicus fumus, aut aliunde veliitur
alterando animales facultates.
^
Ab intemperie corriiB.
modo calidiore, modo frigidiore. Epist. 206.
Scoltzii.
Mein. 5. Subs.
3.]
Causes
of
Head-Melancholy. r*i9
Symptoms., or Signs
of
Melancholy in the Body.
Parrhasius, a painter of Athens, amongst those Olynthian captives Philip of
Macedon brought home to sell,
^
bougiit one very old man
;
and when he had him
at Athens, put him to extreme torture and torment, the better by his example tc
express the pains and passions of his Prometheus, whom he was then about to paint
1 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
stili as I go, they cannot conceal it, their grievances are too well known, I need not
seek far to describe them.
Symptoms tlierefore are either
^^
universal or particular, saith Gordonius, lih. med.
cap.
19,
part. 2, to persons, to species
;
"
some signs are serret, some manifest, some
in the body, some in the mind, and diversely vary, according to the inward or out-
ward causes," Cappivaccius : or from stars, according to Jovianus Pontanus, de r&b.
calest. lib. 10, cap. 13, and celestial influences, or from the humours diversely mixed,
Ficinus, lib. 1, cap. 4, de sanit. tnendd : as they are hot, cold, natural, unnatural,
intended, or remitted, so will J^tius 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
<:ap.
7,
art. med. And as wine produceth divers effects, or that herb Tortocolla in
'*
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
^
these first qualities arise many other second, as that of
^''
colour, black,
swarthy, pale, ruddy, &c., some are impcnse rubric as Montaltus cap. 16 observes out
of Galen, lib. 3, de locis ajfcctis., very red and high coloured. Hippocrates in his
book '^^de insanla et melan. reckons up these signs, that they are
^^
" lean, withered,
hollow-eyed, look old, wrinkled, harsh, much troubled with wind, and a griping in
their bellies, or belly-ache, 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," "^^Annasoror., qucz me suspensam insomnia terrent? The
fame symptoms are repeated by Melanelius in his book of melancholy collected out
of Galen, Ruffus, jEtius, by Pvhasis, Gordonius, and all the juniors, '"continual, sharp,
and stinking belchings, as ii' 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." ''^Some add pal-
pitation of the heart, cold sweat, as usual symptoms, and a leapmg in many parts of
the body, saltum in multis corporis partibus., a kind of itcliing, saith Laurentius, on
the superficies of the skin, like a flea-biting sometimes. "'Montaltus cap. 21. puts
fixed eyes and much twinkling of their eyes for a sign, and so doth Avicenna, ocft/os
habentcs palpitantes, trauli, veJiemcnter rubicundi., ^'c, lib. 3. Fen. 1 . Tract. 4. cap. 1 8.
They stut most part, which he took out of Hippocrates' aphorisms.
"^
Rhasis makes
33
Seneca cont. lib. 10. cnnt. 5. "'duoeilain uni-
VHisalia, partioularirp, quiEil^rn inanifesta, qiiaxlani in
ci>rpi)ie, (|iifEilain in cogitalione el aniino, quaidani a
slellis, quaidani ab huiiiDribiis, qiije lit vinuni corpus
vane rlisponit, &c. Diversa pliaiitasniata pro v.uiotate
caiisai externa;, interna;. 35 Lib 1. iJt risu. fol. 17.
Ad ejns esurn alii sudant, alii voinnnt, stent, bibunt,
saltant, alii rident, tremunt, dorniinnt, &c.
3r.
'i'.
Bright, cap. 20.
si
Nififescit hie hniner aliqnando
snpercalet'actns, aliqnando snperfrigefactus. Melanel.
? GhI. 3lnterprete F. Calvo. auQcnlihis
rxeavanlnr, venti gignuntur cirrnin priecordia et acidi
(II -Ins. siici fere ventres, vertiuo, tinnitus auriuin.
somni pusilli, somnia lerribilia et interrupta.
^o
Vir?
JRn.
n
AssiiluEe eiKqne acidae ruclationes qnt
cibnm virulentum cnlentitmqiie nidorein, et si nil tiilr
incestnin sit, referant ob cruditatein. Ventres hisre
aridi, soinnns plernniqne parens et interruptus, soninia
absnrdissima, Inrhnlenla, corporis tremor, capitis gra
vedo, strepitua circa aures et visiones ante ocnios, aa
venerem prodigi.
'i
Altomarus, Bruel, Piso, Mon.
taltns.
"13
Freqiicntes habent ocnioruin nictationes,
aliqiii laivien fixis ncniis plerunKjiie sunt. 'MJent.
lib. I. 'I'racl. St. Sii'iia hnjns inorliisnnt pinrimns sallns,
soiiitns anrinni, capitis gravedo, Iji.gua titubat, oc'iii
excavaiilur. &c.
Mem. 1 . Subs. 2.]
Symptoms in the Mind. 233
'
head-ache and a binding heaviness for a principal token, much leaf5ing of wmd
about the skin, as well as stutting, or tripping in speech, Stc, hollow eyes, gross
veins, and broad lips." To some too, if they be for gone, mimical gestures are too
familiar, lauglung, grinning, fleering, murmuring, talking to themselves, with strange
mouths an^ faces, inarticulate voices, exclamations, &c. And although they be com-
monly 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. Tiieir hot and drv brains make
them they cannot sleep, Ingentes habent et crebras vigllias (Arteus) mighty and often
watchings, sometimes waking for a month, a year together. ''^Hercules de Saxonia
faithfully averreth, that he hath heard his mother swear, she slept not for seven
months together: Trincavelius, Tom.2. cons. IG. speaks of (ne that waked 50 days,
and Skenkius hath examples of two years, and all without offence, hi natural
actions their appetite is greater than their concoction, mult.a appetunt., pauca digerunt^
as Rhasis hath it. they covet to eat, but cannot digest. And although they
'^^''^
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 ''Carotides, which is very strong; but that varies
according to their intended passions or perturbations, as Struthius hath proved at
large, Spiginaticce artis I. 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
'^^
Crato notes,
and so many diff*erences 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., biJiosa,
(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. ''^''' 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. l( the heart, brain, liver, spleen,
be misafiected, as usually they are, many inconveniences proceed from them, many
diseases accompany, as incubus, ^"apoplexy, epilepsy, vertigo, those frequent wakings
and terrible dreams,
*'
intempestive laughing, weeping, sighing, sobbing, bashfulness,
blushing, trembling, sweating, swooning, &c.
^^
All their senses are troubled, they
think they see, hear, smell, and touch that which they do not, as shall be proved in
the foliowinar discourse.
Sub SECT. II.
Sympfom,s
of
windy Hypochondriacal Melancholy.
"
In this hypochondriacal or flatuous melancholy, the symptoms are so ambigu-
ous," saith
''
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, '^''no physician can truly say what part
Symptoms
of
Melancholy abounding in the whole body.
Their bodies that are affected with this universal melancholy are most part black,
*^"
the melancholy juice is redundant all over," hirsute they are, and lean, they have
broad veins, tlieir "blood is gross and thick.
^"^^
Their spleen is weak," and a liver
apt to engender the humour ; they have kept bad diet, or have had some evacuation
stopped, as hasmorrhoids, or months in women, which ^'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
^*
they be blacky
it proceeds from abundance of natural melancholy ; if it proceed from cares, agony,
chscontents, diet, exercise, kc, they may be as well of any other colour : red, yellow,
pale, as black, and yet their whole blood corrupt : preerubri colore scepe sunt talcs.,
scepeflavi., (saith ^^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 syinptoms, and not so grievously troubled with them, or those
of the head, it argues they are melanclioly, 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 ;
^
''
Dead men's bones, hobgob-
lins, ghosts are ever in their minds, and meet them still in every turn :
all the bug-
bears of the night, and terrors, fairybabes 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 thej^- 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, A''uns, and Widov^s" 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
23Hypochondriaci maxime affectant cnire, et n)ulti
plicallir coitus in ipsis, eo quod vfiiitositales inultipli-
cantiir in tivpochondriis, et coitus siepe allevat has ven-
tositates.
'
'^Coiit. lih. 1. tract. 9. "syVecker,
Melaiictiolic'is siiccus toto corpore redundans.
"6
Spien
natiira imiiecilior. Montaltiis cap. 22. "Lib. 1.
cap. 'iB. [nterrogare cnnvenit, an aliqua evacuationis
reteiitio obvenerit, viri in lia-morrhoid, iniilieruin men-
iliuis, et vide taciein siinili^ur an sit riibicunda. ^Na-
tiirales nigri acqiiisili a tolo corpore, sa-pe rubicundi
23Montaltns cap. 22. Piso Ex colore sanguinis si mi
nuas venam, si flnat niger. &c.
so
Apiil. lib. 1. seni
per obviie species mortnorum qiiicqnid iinibrarnni esl
uspiain, qnicqiiid leniurum et larvarum ncnlis suis ag
gernnt, sibi fingunt omnia noctiuni occursaciila, omnia
bnstorum <brinidamina, omnia sepiilchro'um lerricula-
menia.
LVlem. 2. Subs.
4.J
Symptoms
of
JVovi'^nh Melancholy. 251
Daniel Seiinertus of Wittenberg lib. 1. part 2. cap. 13. with others, have viuchsafed
in their works not long since published, to write two just treatises de Melancholia
virgimwi^ Moniallum et Viduariim., as a particular species of melancholy (which 1
javo already specified) distinct from the rest;
^'
(for it much differs from that wliich
commonly befalls men and other women, as having one only cause proper to women
Klone) 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
GyncBciorum Scriptores^ of this feral malady, in more ancient maids, widows, and
barren women, ob septum transvcrsum violatum^ saith Mercatus, by reason of the
midriff or Diaphragma, heart and brain offended with those vicious vapours which
come from menstruous blood, injlammationem arlerice. circa dorsum., Rodericus adds,
an inflammation of the back, which with the rest is offended by
^^
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 ajfectus 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 in-
tended or remitted
;
si amatorius accesscrit ardor, or any other violent object or per-
tubation 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 ciiild-bed 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, *^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, Stc, 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, ya(/ces siccitate prcpxluduntur, ut
difficuUer possit ab uteri strangulatione
decerni, like fits of the mother, Alvus plcrisque nil rcddit, aliis exiguum, acre, bilio'
sum, lotium Jlavum. 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, &tc.
And from hence proceed ycWrta 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,
^
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
tliis 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
" Differt enim ab ea qui viris et reliquis feminis
coiiimiinitprcoriliiigit, propriam liahens causani.
^'^
Ex
menstrui sanguinis tetra ad cor et cerebrum exiialatione,
vitiaturn semen mentem pertnrbat, &c. non per essen-
tiam, sed per cnnsensum. Animus moBrens ei anxius
ndc malum trahit.'et spiritus cerebrum obfuscanlur,
ua; cuncta aupentur, &,c. 23Lm,i tacito delirio ac
uolore alicujus partis interna;, dorei. hypochondrii, cor-
diii fegionem et universam inainmain uiterdum occu-
pantis,&c. Cutis aliquando squalida, aspera, rugosa.
prscipue cubitis, genibus, et digitorum articulis, pras-
cordia ingenti SEepe torrore aestuant et pulsant, cunique
vap.ir excitatus sursum evolat, cor palpital aut premi-
tur, animus: deficit, &c.
**
Animi dejectio, perversa
reruni existimatio, prffiposterum judicium. Fastidiosm
languentes, ta;diosoe, consilii innpes, lachrymosa", tiiiien
tes, moestx, cum sumina rerum melioriim desperationa
nulla re delectantur, sulitudinem auiaut, Slc.
252 Symptoms
of
Melancholy. '^art. 1. Sec. 3
si> by fits it takes them now and then, except the malady ob inveterate, and then 'tis
more frequent, vehement, and continuate. Many of them cannot tell now 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 stupi-
fied and distracted, they think themselves bewitched, they are in despair, aptce ad
jleiwiu desperationem.^ dolores manimis cl hypocondriis. Mercatus therefore adds, now
heir breasts, now their hypochondries, belly and sides, then their heart and head
aches, now Iieat, then wind, now this, now that offends, they are weary of all
;
*^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, weepmg, and dis-
contented still, sine causa manifestct., 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, ah they are more or less affected, and as the
inner humour is intended or remitted, or by outward objects and perturbations aggra-
vated, 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
^^
Rodericus a Castro, Sennertus, and Mercatus, which whoso will, as occa-
sion 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 illce lachrymo', that is the
primary cause, and this the ready cure, to give them content to their desires. T write
not this to patronise any wanton, idle flirt, lascivious or light housewives, which are
loo 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 will-
ing to make any resistance, discontented otherwise, of weak judgment, able bodies,
and subject to passions, (grandiores virgincs, saith Mercatus, steriles et viduce ple-
rumque melanchoUc<c,) such for the most part are misaffected, and prone to this dis-
ease. 1 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, reli-
gious, 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 mani-
festly 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, nee ego sane ineptus qui
hcec dixerim, I confess 'tis an indecorum, and as Pallas a virgin blushed, when Jupiter
SBNoIunt apprire molepfiamquam patiuntur, sedcon- I erigi, &c. Familiares non ciirant, non loquiintiir, no
queruiilur tamen dfi oapite. corde, mamniis, &c. In |
reppoiidi'nt, &c. et hsec sraviora, si, &e. ^eoiisterei
puteos ftre maiiiaci pmsilire, ac strangulari uipiunt, I et Helleburiemum Mattiioli suiiiuie laudat.
nuMa orationis suavitate ad speni salulis recupeiandam
|
[^]^,,n_ 3.]
Causes
of
these Symptoms.
2F3
oy
chance
snake of love matters in her presence, and turned away her face; me re-
i/rimari,
though my subject
necessarily
require It, I will say no more.
/^nd yet I must and will say
something
more, add a word or two in
graUam Vir-
g,num It
Viduarum, m favour of all such
distressed parties in ^o;;^'^'^^;-^;^"
^
their present estate. And as I cannot
choose but condole their mishap
that labou
o; this infirmity,
and are
destitute of help in this case, so must I needs mveigh 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,
unnatufal friends, allies, (call them how you will,) those careless and stupid over-
seers, that out of worldly
respects,
covetousness,
supme
negligence, their own pri-
vate 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 griev-
ous miseries of sucli poor souls
committed to their charge. How odious and abomi-
nable are those
superstitious
and rash vows of Popish
monasteries, so o bind and
enforce men and women to vow virginity, to lead a single life, against the laws ot
nature,
opposite to religion,
policy, and humanity,
so to starve, to offer violence, o
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 in-
clined,
urgently carried, and
sometimes
precipitated,
even irresistibly led, to the pre-
judice 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
be^To-ars, and their parishes
pestered with orphans
;
stupid
politicians
;
ha.eci.ne fteri
fiagUia?
ought these things so to be earned ?
better marry th^^"
burii
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 mm miserescere. and they are miserable in the
meantime that cannot pity them-
selves, the common good of all, and per conseqmns 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 ' Kemnitius and
others), and notorious
fornications, those
Spintrias, Tribadas,
Ambubeias,
&c, those
rapes, incests, adulteries,
mastuprations,
sodomies,
buggeries of
monks and triars.
See Bale's
visitation of abbies,
''
Mercurialis,
Rodericus a Castro,
Peter Forestus,
and divers physicians; i know their ordinary
apologies and
excuses for these things,
sed viderinl PoUtici, Medici, Theologi, I
shall more
opportunely
meet with them
^''
elsewhere.
>"
lUius viiiuae, aiit patronum Virginis hiijiis,
Ne me tone putes, verbum non ainplius Hddaiii."
MEMB. III.
Immediate
cause
of
these
precedent Symptoms.
To .rive some satisfaction
to melancholy men that are troubled with these symp-
toms, a better means in my
judgment caniiot be taken, than to show them the causes
whence thev 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 ano
nward 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
aialddy not to be avoided. The reason why they are so, TEtius
discusseth at large,
Tetrabib 2 2. in his first problem out of Galen, lib. 2. de causis sympt. I. For Galen
imputeth ali to the cold that is black, and thinks that the spirits being darkened, and
'^Examen cone. Trident, de cielit.atii sacerd. ^Cap. I that widow or this virgin. I shall not add another
df Satvr. et Prinpis.
S9
part. 3. sert. 2. Memh. 5. word."
aub 5
*"'
Lest you may imagine that I patronise
|
w
Symptoms
of
Melancholy [Part. 1. Sec. S
254
tho subj!tauce of the brain cloudy and dark, all the objects thereof appear terrible
and the
"
mind itself, by those dark, obscure, gross fumes, ascending from black
humours, is in continual darkness, fear, and sorrow; divers terrible monstrous fictions
m a thousand shapes and apparitions occur, with violent passions, by which the
brain and fantasy are troubled and eclipsed.
''^
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 dark-
ness (as physicians tliink) for many melancholy men dare boldly be, continue, an J
walk in the dark, and delight in it:" soUtm frigldi thnidi: 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. ''^Averroes scoffs at Galen for his reasons, and brings five arguments to
repel them : so doth Here, de Saxonia, Tract, de Melanch. cap. 3. assigning other
causes, which are copiously censured and confuted by iElianus Montaltus, cap. 5
and 6. Lod. Mercatus de Inter, morh. cur. lib. 1. cap. 17. Altomarus, cap. 7. de mel.
Guianerius, tract. 15. c. I. Bright cap. 37. Laurentius, cap. 5. Valesius, med. cant,
lib. 5, C071. 1.
'''"
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 o' midriff^, and so per
consequens the mind, which is obscured as
*'"
the sun by a clonrl To this opinion of
Galen, almost all the Greeks and Arabians subscribe, the Latins new and old, interna,
tenebrcc ojfuscant anitmmi, ut externa noccnt pueris., as cliildren are affrighted in the
dark, so are melancholy men at all times, ''^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, midrifti 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 l^ugh at this
dejected pusillanimity, and those other symptoms of melancholy, to make them-
selves 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, con-
sider 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. Byarus, Tract, de pest, gives
instance (as I have said) ''''"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, ybrwia 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
*
Fracastorius,
"
that fear is the cause of suspicion, and still they suspect somo
treachery, or some secret machination to be framed against them, still they distrust."
4'Vapores crHPsi et nigri, a veiitriciilo in cerebrum
exhalant. Fel. Platerus. "Calidi hilares, frigifli
indispopiti ad liBtitiain, et ideo snlitarii, taciturni, non
Ob tenehras interiias, ut niedici voluiil, sed ob friffus:
miilti tiTilaiicholici iiocte ainhulant iiitrepidi.
w
Va-
pores iiiutanchnlici. spiritibiis niisti, tenebrariim caiisff
a> nt, cap. 1.
"
Intemperies facit succum niffnim,
nigrities, obsciirat spiriiuni, obsciiratio spiritiis far-it
metiitii et tristiain. ^IJl nubecula Solem otfuscat.
yiinstantinus lib. de inulaiich.
<6 Altomarus c. 7.
Causam timnris circiimfert aler humor pa?sionls mate,
ria, ft atri spiritus perpeluam animffi domicllio offun-
dunt nocteni.
"
Pone rxoioplum, quod quis potest
ambulare super trahem qiias est in via: sed si sil super
aq{iam profundani, loco pontis, non ambulabit super
eam.eo quod imat'ineturiii animoet timet vehementer,
forma cadendi luiprpssa, cui obediunt membra omnia
el facullales reliquse.
46 |,jh. 2. de intellect one.
Suspiclosi ob timorem et obliqu'.im discuriui'i, ol ieni-
per inde putant sibi fieri insidias. Lauren. .5
^Um. 3
J
Causes
of
these Symptomx.
25.'.
Restlessness proi^ern;^ trom the same spring, variety of fumes make them like anil
dislike. SoUtormess, avoiding of light, that they are weary of their lives, hate int-
world, arise from me same causes, for their spirits and humours are opposite to light,
fear makes them avow company, and absent themselves, lest they should be misused,
hissed at, or oveisrioot themselves, which still they suspect. They are prone to
veneii bv reasoii of wirtd. Angry, waspish, and fretting still, out of abundance of
chole.) wnxch CAiiseih tearful dreams and violent perturbations to them, both sleep-
ing ant. waking ; Thui they suppose they have no heads, fly, sink, they are polb,
glasses, (xt.. is wind in their heads.
""^
Here, de Saxonia doth ascribe this to the
several m<Lfvions in the animal spirits,
"
their dilation, contraction, confusion, altera-
tion, tenebrosity, hot or cold distemperature," excluding all material humours. ^Fra-
castorius "accounts it a thing worthy of inquisition, why they should entertain sucli
false conceits, as that they have horns, great noses, that they are birds, beasts," Stc.
why they should think themselves kings, lords, cardinals. For the first, ''Fracasto-
rius gives two reasons : ' One is the disposition of the body ; the other, the occa-
sion 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 melanclioly and mad, the philosopher of
"'^
Conimbra assigns this reason,
"
because by a vehement and continual meditation
of that wherewith they arc afte^ted, 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 '^' all learned men, famous philosophers, and lawgivers, cZ
U7in7n
fere omnes melancholici, have still been melancholy, is a problem much con-
troverted. Jason Pratensis will have it understood of natural melancholy, which
opinion Melancthon inclines to, in his book dc Jlnima^ 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,
^'
Out so mixed as that blood be half, with little
or no adustion, that they be neither loo hot nor too cold. Aponensis, cited by
Melancthon, thinks it proceeds from melancholy adust, excluding all natural melan-
choly 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,
JVuIliim magnum ingenium sine mixturd dement'ue., no excellent wit without a mix-
ture of madness. Fracastorius shall decide the controversy,
^^
'
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 extreine 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, sailh
vElian, an elephant is the wisest of all brute beasts, because his brain is driest, et oh
a*rcR bills copiam: this reason Cardan approves, subtil. I. 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
6'
narrat. med.
"^Tract. (1(! iiu'l. cap. 7. Ex ililatione, cnntrartione,
confusione, tenehrnsilate spirituiiiii, ralida, frigida in-
tempi rie, ifcc. 6 llliid inqiiisitJDrie digiiiim, cur lam
falsa roripiant, habere se corniia, esse mnrtiius, nasutos,
esse avis, tc. "
I. Dispositio corporis. 2. Occasio
lina^riiiationis. '^
i,, pro. |i. de coslo. Veheiiiens
ct assidiia cogitatio rei pri'a qiiani alficitur, spiritiis in
"-ybrum eviicat.
s.i
Mi.lantholici ingeniosi nmiies.
summi viri in artibus et disciplinis, sive circuni iinpe
ratoriam aut reip. disciplinani omnes fi-re melancholici
Aristoleles. 6*
Adeo miscentnr, ul sit diipliiin san
guinis ad reliqua iluo. ^^
Lib. 'J. de intellection'
Pineni sunt Minerva phlpgmatici : sannninei anialiile>
grati, hilari s, at iion insreniosi ; cholerici r^^cres mot,;
et ob id eontemplationis impatientes : Melancholici
solum excellentes. &.c.
23'3 Symptoms
of
Melancholy. [Pan 1. Sec. S.
ill re. 'le Saxonia, Trad posth. de mel. cap. 3. Lodovicus Mercatus, de inter morb.
cur. lib. cap. 17. Baptista Porta, Physiog. lib. I.e. 13. and many others.
Weeping, sighing, laughing, itching, trembling, sweating, blushing, hearing and
seeing strange noises, visions, wind, crudity, afe motions of the body, depending
upon these precedent motions of the mind : neither are tears, affections, but actions
(as Scaliger holds)
^'^"
the voice of such as are afraid, trembles, because tlie heart is
shaken" (^Conimb. prob. 6. sec. 3. de som.) why they stutter or falter in their speech,
Mercurialis and Montaltus, cflj9. 17. give like reasons out of Hippocrates,
""
dryness,
which makes the nerves of the tongue torpid." Fast speaking (which is a symptom
of some few) ^tius will have caused
^*
^
from abundance of wind, and swiftness of
imagination:
^^
baldness comi's from excess of dryness," hirsuteness from a dry teni
perature. The cause of much waking in a dry brain, continual meditation, discon-
tent, 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
wmd from ill concoction, weakness of natural heat, or a distempered heat and cold
;
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 subtile wind.
^'
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, "^^jEtius answers : Os ventris frigesot., cold in those inner parts,
cold belly, and hot liver, canseth crudity, and intention proceeds from perturba-
tions,
*^
our souls for want of spirits cannot attend exactly to so many intenti've
operations, being exhaust, and overswayed by passion, she cannot consider the
reasons which may dissuade her from such affections.
"
Bashfulness and blushing, is a passion proper to men alone, and is not only
caused for ^some shame and ignominy, or that they are guilty unto themselves of
some foul fact committed, but as
'^'^
Fracastorius well determines, ob defectum pro-
prium.1 et t'wiorem.,
^
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 subtilest 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 subtile blood to arise in the face, not so much
for the reverence of our betters in presence, ^'"-but for joy and pleasure, or if any-
thing at unawares shall pass from us, a sudden accident, occurse, or meeting:"
(which Disarius m ^^Macrobius confirms) any object heard or seen, for blind men
never blush, as Dandinus observes, the night and darkness makp 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.
*^
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,
ovinis jmdor ex vitio commlsso.. all shame for some offence. But we find otlierwise,
it may as well proceed from fear, from force and inexperience, i^so "Dandinus
holds) as vice; a hot liver, saith Duretus {noiis in Holkrium:) "from a hot brain,
from wind, the lungs heated, or after drinking of wine, strong drink, perturba-
tions," &c.
Laughter what it is, saith '^TuUy, "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 Democtitus determine." The cause thai
it often affects melancholy men so much, is given by Gomesius, lib. 3. de sale genial.
seTrppidantiuin vox tremiila, quia cor quatitur. et voliiptatpm foras exit sanguis, aut ob rnelioris reve-
5' Ob ariditatc'iu qiis reddit nervos lingus torpidos. reiuiam, aut ob jsubituni occursum, aut si quid incau-
VI
Incontinentia lingua; ex copia flatuum, et velocitate , tius exciderit.
^ Coin, in Arist. de aninia. CoBci
iiaginationis.
f^'J
Calvitii-s ob ficcilati? exces.suin
'u^tius.
S'
Lauren, c. IS.
Hi'petrab. 2. ser. '2.
cap. 10.
63 Ant. Lodovicus prob. lib. 1. sect. 5. do
alrabilariis.
<
Suhrusticus pudor vitiosus pudnr.
o.'Ob ignoniiniain aut lurpedineni fncti, &c.
"O
Dy
ut plurlmuin impudentes, mix facit impudenies
i^
Alexander Aphrodisiensis makes all basbfulness a
virtue, eanique se refert in seipso experiri solitum, etsi
esset ariinodnni senex. '0Sa;pe post cibi in apti ad
ruboreni, ex potu vini ex timore saepe, et ab 'lepate ca-
yinp. et Antip cap. l-i. laborat facies ob praesentiam
'
lido, cerehro calido, &c. "Com in Arist. lie aiilma,
ejus qui defeclnrn nostrum videl, - ..utura qua.^i opem tarn a vj et inexperientia .piam a vitin
'
Oe
'.aliira calorem illnc niittit, calor sanguinem trahit,
'
oratore, quid ipse risus, quo pct3 ooncitatiir uoi ni
unde rubor, audaces noii rubent, &c. ' Ob eaudium
' &.C.
Mein H.| Causes
of
these Symptoms. 257
cap. 18. abundance of pleasant vapours, which, in sanguine melancholy especial!)',
break from the heart, ""and tickle the niidriif, 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 Jletu,
Vives 3 de Anlma. Tears, as Scaliger defines
proceed I'rom grief and pity,
^^
" or from the heating of a moist brain, for a dry cannot
weep.'"
That they see and hear so many phantasms, chimeras, noises, visions, Stc. as
Fienus hath discoursed at large in his book of imagination, and
''^,
Lavater dt- spectris,
part. 1. cap. 2. 3. 4. their corrupt phantasy makes them see analiear that which
indeed is neither heard nor seen, Qui muUum jejunant., aut nodes ducunt insomnes.,
they that much fast, or want sleep, as melancholy or sick men commonly do, see
visions, or such as aie weak-sighted, very timorous by nature, mad, distracted, or
earnestly seek. Sabini quod volant 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, JlmcBnissimayn planilltm despicere slbl vlsuS fait., cedijicia magn'ifica., quam-
plurimos Pagos., altas Turres, splendida Templa.) and brave cities, built like ours in
Europe, not, saith mine '^author-, that there was any such thing, but that he was
vanissimus et nimis credulus, and would fain have had it so. Or as
"
Lod. Mercatus
proves, by reason of inward vapours, and humours froiu blood, choler, Stc. 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,
'*
mad
men and such as are near death, quas extra se vldere putant Liiagines., intra oculos
habcni., '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 ci
aridu.m.1 ut imaginentur se videre (saith Boissardus) qucs 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 everytliing he sees to be red; corrupt vapours mounting Irom the
body to the head, and distilling again from thence to the eyes, wlien they have
mingled themselves with the watery crystal which receiveth the shadows of thina"s
lo 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 while,
&.C. Or else as before the organs corrupt by a corrupt phantasy, as Lemnius, Jib. 1.
cap. 16. well quotes,
^''"
cause a great agitation of spirits, and humours, which wan-
der to and fro in all the creeks of the brain, and cause such apparitions beiore ttieir
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 : Oi'estes now
mad supposed he saw the furies tormenting him, and his mother still ready to run
upon him
6' "
O mater obsecro noli me persequi
His fiiriis, aspuctu anouineis, horribilihiis,
Ecce L'coe iiic iiivadunt, in nie jam ruuiit
;"
but Electra told him thus raving in his mad fit, he saw no such sights at all, it was
but his crazed imagination.
82"
Qiiipsce, quiesr.e miser in linteis tuis,
Noil ceriiis etenim qus videre te putas."
So Pentheus (in Bacchis Euripidis) saw two suns, two Thebes, his bram alone
was troubled. Sickness is an ordinary cause of such sights. Car-dan, subtil. 8. Menx
(Bgra laboribus et jejuniis fracta.,facit eos videre., audire^ S^c. And. Osiander beheiu
strange visions, and Alexander ab Alexandre both, in their sickness, which he relates
de rerum varietaf. lib. 8. cap. 44. Albategnius that uoble Arabian, on his death-bed,
aw a ship ascending and descending, which Fracastorius records of his friend Bap-
"
Diaphragma titillant, quia transversuin et nerve- I sunt, res quas extra se videre putant, intra oculus ua-
siim, quia titillatlone niotosensu atque arteriis disten-
|
hent. '^Cap. 10. de Spirit apparitione.
>^
De
tig, spiriius Hide latera, venas, os, oculos occupant.
'<
Ex calefactione humidi cerebri: nam ex sicco lachry-
na; non fluuiit. '^
Res niirandas iniaginantur : et
putant se videre quEP nee vident, nee audiunt.
'
Laet.
'i''. 13. cap. 2. deseript. India? Occident.
"
Lib. I.
i 17 rap. de inel.
"
Inaani, et qui raorti vicini
33 w 9.
occult. Nat. mirac.
'
" O mother! I beseech yo4i
not to persecute me with those horrible-looking furies.
See! seel they attack, they assault me
!" S'^ '
Peace
'
peace! unhappy being, for you do not see what you
think you see."
a^S Causes
of
these Symptoms. [Fart. 1. Sec S
tista Tirriaiius. 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. Tiie thickness of the air may cause such effects, or any objec'
not well-discerned in the dark, fear and phantasy will suspect to be a ghost, a
devil, Stc. ^'^Quod nimis miseri fi7nrnf^ hoc facile credunt^ we are apt to believe, and
mistake in such cases. Marcellus Donatus, lih. 2. cap. I. 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. \0. perspect. hath such another instance of a
familiar acquaintance of his, that after the want of three or four nights sleep, as he
was ri(Ung 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
frequendy 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 dis-
covery of witchcraft, and Cardan, suhtil. 18. sulfites, perfumes, suflimiigations, mixed
candles, perspective glasses, and such natural causes, make men look as if they were
dead, or with horse-heads, buU's-horns, and such like brutish shapes, tlie room full
of snakes, adders, dark, light, green, red, of all colours, as you may perceive in Bap-
tista Porta, Alexis, Albertus, and others, glow-worms, fire-drakes, meteors, Ignis
fatimsj which Plinius, /ib. 2. cap. 37. calls Castor and Pollux, with many such that
appear in moorisli grounds, about church-yards, moist valleys, or where battles have
been fought, the causes of whicli 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 tliey were dead, ^'so/Z/o majores., b'gger, lesser, fairer, fouler, xit aslantcs sine
capitibus videanfur ; aut toll igniti., aut forma dcemonum., accipc piJos canis nigri.,
6fc.
saitli 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 mys ? 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 ^^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 appeal in his perspectives. But most part
it is in the brain that deceives them, although 1 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 ol jugglers, exorcists, mass-priests, and mountebanks, of whom Roger
Bacon speaks, &c. de miraculis nafurce et artis. cap. 1. ^^they can counterfeit th(
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 dience much astonished and aflVighted with it. Besides,
those artificial devices to over-hear their confessions, like that whispering place of
Gloucester**' 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 Echomelria
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
thmketh, 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
an-d walls. "'At Cadurcum, in Aquitaine, words and sentences are repeated by a
strange echo to the full, or whatsoever you shall play upon a musical aistrumtm,
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
"Seneca. Q.iind inctuunt iiiniis, niinqiiani amoveri I vocnm varielateui in venire et giittiire fingentes, for-
posFe, nee ti)lli piiiaMt. <Satigiiip upupoeciim inelle iriant vores liuinanas a Innge vhI propc, proul volimt
sornoositus et ceiitHurea, &c. Albertus. ^Lib. 1. ! ac si spiritiis ciun hoinine loqueretiir, et soiios briittirun
icc'.ilt. philDs. Iinperiti hoininos diPinoniim et iiinhrH- i tiiigiiPit, &o.
'
(Jliiiici'ster calheiiral. "''I'air
ilin) i^iagines viilere se piilant. qiiuiii nihil sint aliiid,
]
ciare el articulate amlies repetiluin, ut perleclior sil
UHni siiiiulRclira annua; expertia.
Pjthoiiissa;
| Kch) quaiii ipse dixeris.
Mem. 1
.]
Prognostics of Melancholy.
^
2o9
Some twelve times, as at Charenton, a village near raris, In France At Delphus, in
Greece, heretofore was a miraculous echo, and so in many other piaces. Cardan,
stifdil. I. 18,
hath wonderful stories of such as have been deluded by these echoes.
Blaiicanus tlie Jesuit, in his Echometria, hath variety of examples, and gives his
reader full satisfaction of all such sounds by way of demonstration. ^^At Barrey, an
isle in the Severn mouth, they seem to hear a smith's forge ; so at Lipari, and those
oulplmreous isles, and many such like, which Olaus speaks of in the continent of
Scandia, and those northern countries. Cardan de reruni var. I. 1
5,
c. 84, mentioneth
a woman, that still supposed she heard the devil call her, and speak ino- to her, she
was a painter's wife in Milan
:
and many such illusions and voices, which proceed
most part from a corrupt imagination.
Wlience 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)
:
^
I have in brief touched, only this I will here add, that Arculanus, Bodin.
lib.
3,
cap.
6,
dcBinon. and some others,
^^
hold as a manifest token that such persons
are possessed with the devil
; so doth
^^
Hercules de Saxonia, and Apponensis, and
fit only to be cured by a priest. But
^^
Guianerius, ^^Montaltus, Pomponatius of
Padua, and Lemnius lib. 2. cap.
2, refer it wholly to the ill-disposition of the
'*
humour, and that out of the authority of Aristotle prob. 30. 1, because such symp-
toms are cured by purging
; and as by the striking of a tlint fire is enforced, so by the
vehement motion of spirits, they do clicere voces inauditas.^ compel strange speeches
to be spoken : another argument he hath from Plato's reminiscent in., which all out
as likely as that which ^''Marsilius Ficinus speaks of his friend Pierleonus
;
by a
divine kind of infusion he understood the secrets of nature, and tenets of Grecian
frnd barbarian philosophers, before ever he heard of, saw, or read their works : but
in this 1 should rather hold with Avicenna and his associates, that such symptoms
proceed from evil spirits, which take all opportunities of humours decayed, or other-
wise 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. ]V. MEMB. L
Prognostics
of
Melancholy
Progxostics, or signs of things to come, are either good or bad. il ihis malady
be not hereditary, and taken at the beginning, there "is good hope of cure, recens
curationem non habei dijicilem., saith Avicenna, I.
3, Fen.
1, Tract.
4, c. IB. That
which is with laughter, of all others is most secure, gentle, and remiss, Hercules de
Saxonia.
^'"
If that evacuation of hicmorrhoids, or varices, which the'y call the
water between the skin, shall happen to a melancholy man, his misery is ended,"
Hippocrates Aphor. 6,
1 1. Galen /. 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,
I. 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 betUir after a
quartan
;
*
Jobertus saith, scarce any man hath that ague twice ; but whether it free
89
Blowing of bellows, and knocking of hammers, if
they apply their ear to the cliff.
*)
Menib. 1. Sub.
3. of this partition, cap. 16. in 9. Rhasis. sigjijna
isinonis nulla sunt nisi quod loqiiantur ea qute ante
nesciebant, ut Teiitonicum aiit aliud Idionia, &c.
"Cap. 12. tract, ile me' wTra-t. 15. c. 4. <Cap 9.
^^Mira vis concitat humores, ardorque veheinens men
tern e.Tai;itat, quum, &c.
>
Pra-fat lamblif,!
niysteriis. s'
Si melanchnli<:is h^inorroides superve-
nerint varices, vel ut quibusilani placet, aqua intet
cutein, solvitur malum. s^Cap. 10. de quartana.
Prognostics
of
Melancholy.
[Fart. 1. Sec. 4.
26U
lum from this mala.ly,
'tis a
question ; for many physicians ascribe all long agues
for especial causes, and a
quartan ague amongst the rest.
''
Rhasis conl. hb. 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
galeen 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
scubs,
morphews, and
breaking out, and proves it out of the 6lh of Hippocrates
Apliorisms.
,
7-
tt c
\
Evil
prognostics on the other part. Inveterata melancholia incural)ilis, it it be
inveterate, !t is
incurable, a
common axiom, aut difficulter
curahi.lis as they say
thut make the best, hardly cured. This Galen witnesseth, I.
3,
de he.
affect,
cap.
*)
'"be it in whom it will, or from what cause soever, it is ever long, wayward,
tedious, antl hard to be cured, if once it be habituated. As Lucian said of the gout,
she was ^"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
olherwi-e, as T. Erastus par. 3,
objects to him ;
although in another place, heredi-
tary diseases he accounts hicurable,
and by no art to be removed. ^
llddesheim
spicel 2, tZe mel. holds it less dangerous if only
^
"
imagination be hurt, and not
reason,
'
tlie o-entlest is from blood.
Worse from choler adust, but the worst of all
from melanclioly
putrefied."
'
Bruel esteems
hypochondriacal least dangerous, and
the other two species (opposite to Galen) hardest to be cured. 'The cure is hard
in man, but much more ditticult in women. And both men and women must take
notice of that saying of Montanus
consil. 230,
pro Mate Italo,
''
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
ind sharp than at first, and that upon every small occasion or error
:" as in Mer-
cury's
weatlier-beaten
statue, that was once all over gilt, the open parts were clean,
vet
there was infmbriis
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 easdy to be
rooted out.
'
Ol'lentimes it degenerates into epilepsy, apoplexy,
convulsions, and
blindness: by the aulhoriiy of Hippocrates and Galen, '"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. " If it come trom 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.
'^
If it come from a hot cause, they are more furious, and boisterous, and
in conclusion mad.
Calescentem
melancholnim
scepius seqiutur mama. If it heat
and increase, that is the common
event, >er clrcuitus, aut semper insanit.he is mad
by fits or
altoirPther. For as
'^
Sennertus
contends out of Crato, there is sermnarim
ignis in this humour, the very seeds of fire. If it come from melancholy
natural
a'dust, and in excess, they are often demoniacal,
Montanus.
' Seldom this malady
procures death, except
(which is the greatest, most grievous
calamity, and the misery of all miseries,) they make away tliemselves, which is a
frequent thing, and familiar amongst them. 'Tis
'^
Hippocrates'
observation, Galen s
sentence, Etsi mortem timent, tamcn plerumque sibi ipsis mortem consciscunt, I. 3.
dt
locisaffLcap.l.
The doom of all
physicians.
^Tis -Rabbi Moses'
Aphorism,
the
pro.rosticon of Avicenna,
Rhasis,
Jitius,Gordonius,
Valescus, Altomarus, SalusL
Salvianus,
Capivaccius,
Mercatus,
Hercules de Saxonia, Piso, Bruel, I uchsius, all, &.c.
Cum sanguis i-xit por superficiem et residet melan-
cholia prr !-caliiem,
inorphram iiigraiii, vcl expurgatur
per
interiorcs partes, vel uriiiani, &c, non erit, &c.
splcn
iiiajiiiificaluret.
varices
apparent.
lucama jam
toiiv&-<:a ill naturaiii.
' In quocunqiie sit a qiia-
ciir.Mue
causa Hypocon.
pra;sertini, semper est longa,
morosa, nee facile ciirari potest
^ Regina niorbonim
et
inexoraliilis.
Oiiine delirium quod oritur a pau-
citalecoiehriincurahile,
Hildesheiiii,spicel.2. de mania.
<
Si sola
imaginatio la;datiir, et nnn ratio. Mala a
saneuine
fervente, deterior a bile assata, pessiiiia ah
atra hile putrefaHa.
Dillicilior cura ejus qua; fit
*,tio corporis tolius et cerebri.
' Difficilis curatu iii
."1-3 niiiilo difficilior in fieniinis.
" Ad interituin
plerumque
homines comitatur, licet medici levent ple-
rumque, tamen non tolluiit unquam, sed recidet arer-
bior quain anlea minima occasione, aut errore.
Peri-
ciilum est ne degunereret in Epil.psiam,
Apoplexiam,
Convulsionem,
cfficitatem.
' Montal. c. 25. Lauren
tins Nic I'lso.
11
Her. de Saxonia, Aristotle, Capi-
vaccius
i2Favent. Humor frigidiis sola delirii causa,
liiroris vero humor caliJus.
'^ Heurnius calls mad
ness sobolem
nielaiicholiie.
Alexander I. 1. c.
)H.
IS
Lib. 1. part. 2. c. 11.
" Montalt. c. 15.
Raro mur
aut nunquam,
nisi sibi ipsis inferant
' Lib. i-
Insan. Fabio Calico luterprf te.
' Nonulli vialenU-
manus sibi inferunt.
Mem.
l.J
Prognostics
of
Melanclwly. 2f)l
>'"
Et SiEpe usque adeo mortis forniidine vitae
I'ercipit infelix (idiuiii liicisqiie videndae.
Ut siLii CDiisciscat maurenli peclore lelliuin."
'
And so far forth death's terror doth affright,
He makes away Intnself, and hates the ligh
To make an end of fear and grief of lieart.
He voluntary dies to ease his smart."
J:i such sort doth the torture and extremity of his misery torment him, that he cau
u-\ke no pleasure in liis life, but is in a manner enforced to offer violence unto him
self, to be freed from his present insufferable pains. So some (saith
^
Fracastori us;
''
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 day-time they are atfrighted still by some terrible object, and
torn in pieces with suspicion, fear, sorrow, discontents, cares, shame, anguish, &tc.
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 them-
selves, 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,
'^'
being bound in
misery aad iron
:"
they
^"
curse their stars with Job, '^''"and day of their birth, and
wish for death
:"
for as Pineda and most interpreters hold. Job was even melancholy
to despair, and almost ^madness itself; they murmur many times against the world,
friends, allies, all mankind, even against God himself in the bitterness of their pas-
sion,
^''
vivere nolunt^ morl nesclunt^ 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,
^^
no remedy in this wretched life, to be eased of all by death. Omnia ap-
pcf.unt bonum, all creatures seek the best, and for their good as they hope, sub specie^
in show at least, vel quia mori pulchrum jnitant (saith
^'
Hippocrates) vel quia putant
inde se majoribus malis liberari^ to be freed as they wish. Though many times, as
iEsop'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
^*
Flaterus)
"
after many tedious days
at last, either by drowning, hanging, or some such fearful end," they precipitate or
make away themselves :
"
inany lamentable examples are daily seen amongst us
:"
alius ante fores se laqueo suspendit (as Seneca notes), alius se prcecipitavit 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 dag-
ger into his heart,"so many causes there are His amor exitio est, furor his
love, grief, anger, madness, and shame, 8j.c. 'Tis a common calamity,
^^
a fatal end
to this disease, they are condemned to a violent death, by a jury of physicians, furi-
ously 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, insuflerable, grievous, and
violent is their pain, '^so unspeakable and continuate. One day of grief is an hun-
dred years, as Cardan observes : 'Tis carnificina hominum, angor animi, as Avell saith
Aretpus, 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 melan-
choly in earnest.
WLucret. I. 3. 20Lib_o, je jntell. saspe mortem sibi
consciscunt ob timorem et tristitiam la;di() vitae afl'ecti
ob furorem et desperationem. Est enim infera, &c.
Ergo sic perpetuo affliclati vitam oderunt, se prajcipi-
tant, his malis carituri aut interficiunt se, ant tale quid
committunl. ^' Psal. cvii. 10. ssjobxxxiii.
"Job vi. a.
^ Vi doloris et tristitise ad insaniam
ene redact js. ''^Seneca.
"^
in salutis suiE
desperatione proponunt sibi mortis desiderium, Oct.
Horat. 1. 2. c. 5.
^^
Lib. de insania. Sicsicjuvat
ire per umbras. ^^Cap. 3. de mentis alienat. ma-sti
degunt, dutii tandem mortem qiiam timetit, suspendio
aut submersione, aut aliqua alia vi, nt multa tristia
exempla vidimus.
29
Arculanus in 9. Rhasjs, c. lb
caveiidum iie ex alto se prsecipitent aut alias lafdaut
80
O omnium opinionibus incogitaliile malum. Lucian.
Mortesque mille, mille flun', vivit neces gent, peritque
Heirjsius Aiistriaco.
262 Prognostics
of
Melancholy. [Pan. 1 Sec. *
"O 'riste nomeii . o diis odibile
Mtlanchdiia lacrymosa, Cocyti fliia,
Tu Tarlari speciilids oi)acis edita
Eriiinys utero quaiii Mejjara suo tulit,
Et ab u^iriblls aliiit, ciiiiiiie parviilte
Amaruletitiiin in os lac Alecto dedit,
Oiiiiies ahoininahilein tp diEiiiones
Prodiixeie in luceni cxilio morlalium.
Non Jupiter ferit tale tekim fulniinis,
Noil ulla sic procella sievit iequoris,
Non impetiiosi taiita vis est turbinis.
An asppros sustineo ninrsiis Cerberi ?
Nuni virus EchidniE membra mea ilepascitur?
Aut tunica sanie tincla Nessi sanguinis?
Illacryniabile 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 v dwell.
The Furies brought it up, Megara's 'eat,
Alecto gave it bitter milk to eat.
And all conspir'd a bane to mortal men,
Et paulo To bring this devil out of that black den.
post, Jupiter's thunderbolt, not storm at sea.
Nor whirl-wind doth our hearts so much dismay
What? am I bit by that fierce Cerberus
?
Or stung by s^gerpent 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, SicuU non invenere tyranni majus tormentum, no
strappadoes, hot irons, Plialaris' bulls,
33"
]Vec ira deiim tantiim, nee tela, nee hostis,
Quaiituni sola noces aiiimis illapsa."
*'
Jove's wrath, not 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 coaguhmi omnium (srumnarum: which
^*
Ammianus applied to his dis-
tressed Palladius. I say of our melancholy
man, he is the cream of human adver-
sity, the ^^quintessence, and upshot; all other diseases whatsoever, are but flea-
bitings to melancholy in extent: 'Tis the pith of them all, ^^ Hospitium est calami-
tatis; quid verbis opus est?
-auamcunque n.alam rem qu.ris. iUic reperies:"
|
The^e^ra::7:^^c.S 'fi^wiu^n?"'
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 doih
^
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 tilings 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, sub-
stance, 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, ^^ 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 lo preserve "^he abhors, he alone; so intolerable are his pains;
some make a question, graviores morbi corporis an animi^ whether the diseases of
he body or mind be more grievous, but there is no comparison, no doubt to be made
of it, multo cnim scuvior longeque est alrocior animi., quam corporis cruciatus (^Lem
I. 1. c. 12-) the diseases of the mind are far more grievous.Totum hie pro vulnere
corpus, body and soul is misaffected here, but the soul especially. So Cardan testifies
de rerum var. lib. 8. 40. '"'Maximus Tyrius a Platonist, and Plutarch, have made
just volumes to prove it. '^^Dies adimit cpgritudinem 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 I. de beatitud. c. 7. and Socrates himself de-
fends it, in Plato's Phajdon,
"
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
*^
Seneca amongst the rest, quamcunque veram
esse viam ad libertatem, any way is allowable that leads to liberty, ''^"let us give
God thanks, that no man is compelled to live against his will;" ^^quid ad himinem
SI
Regina morborum cni famulantur omnes et obedi-
i.nt. Cardan. s-
Eheu quis intus Scorpio, &c.
Seneca Act. 4. Here. O Et. sagiijug italiciis.
*<
Lib. 29. 35
Hie omnis imhonitas et insuavitas
consistit, ut Tertulliaiii verbis utar, orat. ad. martvr.
Plautus. 87
Vit. Hnrculis.
3*
Persius. K>auid
esi mjseriusin vita. c nam velle mori ? Seneca. *>Toni.
2. Libello, an graviores passiones, &c. *' Ter.
"2
Patet exitus ; si pugnare non vultis, lii et fugere
; quii
vos tenet invilos ? De provid. cap. 8. ''^Agamu*
Deo gratias, quod nemo invitus in vita tene i potest
*^
Epist. 26. Seneca et de sacra. 2. cap. 15. it Epial
7(. et 12.
Mem.
l.J
Prognostics
of
Melancholy. 263
claustra., career, cusfodla? liberum ostium habei, death is aiways reanyand at hand.
Vides ilium prcEcipitem locum, ilhul fhimcn, dost thou see that steep place, that river,
that pit, that tree, there's liberty at hand,
effugia
servitutis et doloris sunt, as that
'^coniaii lad cast himself lieadlong [n^n seroiam aiehat p^ier) to be freed of his
misery : every vein in thy body, if tliese be nimi$ operosi exiius, will set thee free,
juid tua refert finem facias an accipias? there's no necessity for a man to live in
misery. Malum est neccssitati vivere
;
sed in necessitate vivere, necessitas nulla est.
Ignavus qui sine causa moritur, et stultus qui cum dolore vivit, Idem epi. 58. Where-
fore hath our mother the earth brought out poisons, saith
""^
Pliny, in so great a
quantity, but that men in distress might make away themselves ? which kings of old
Kdd ever in a readiness, ad incerta fortunce venenum sub cuslode promptum. Livy
writes, and executioners always at hand. Speusippes being sick was met by Dio-
genes, 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.
^^
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, Han-
nibal did, as Junius Brutus, as Vibius Virus, and those Campanian senators in Livy
[Dec. 3. lib. G.) to escape the Roman tyranny, that poisoned themselves. Themis-
tocles drank bull's blood, rather than he would figlit against his country, and Demos-
thenes 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 rtianu, Sfc.
'''
Rliasis in the Maccabees is magnified for it, Sam-
son's death approved. So did Saul and Jonas sin, and many worthy men and women,
quorum memoria celebratur in Ecclesia, saith ^^Leminchus, for killing themselves to
save their chastity and honour, when Rome was taken, as Austin instances, I. I. de
Civ it. Dei, cap. 16. Jerom vindicateth the same in lonam et Ambrose, I. 3. de vir-
ginitate 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 quce sic, &,c.
Titus Pomponius Atticus, that wise, discreet, renowned Roman senator, Tully'sdeai
friend, when he had been long sick, as he supposed, of an incurable disease, vitam-
que 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 taciturnd sua obstina-
tione depressit. Even so did Corellius Rufus, another grave senator, by the relation
of Plinius Secundus, epist, lib. I. epist. 12. famish himself to death; pedibus correptus
cum incredibil.es cruciatus et indignissima formenta pateretur, d cibis omnino absti-
nuit;*^ neither he nor Hispilla his wife could divert him, but destinatus mori obstinate
magis. Sec. die he would, and die he did. So did Lycurgus, Aristotle, Zeno, Chry-
sippus, Empedocles, with myriads. Sec. In wars for a man to run rashly upon
imminent danger, and present death, is accounted valour and magnanimity,
^
to be
the cause of his own, and many a thousand's ruin besides, to commit wilful murd^ir
in a manner, of himself and others, is a glorious thing, and he shall be crowned f'>r
it. The ^' Massegatae in former times,
^^
Barbiccians, and I know not what natlon^5
besides, did stifle their old men, after seventy years, to free them from those griev-
ances 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, p^iusquam manci forent, aut imbecillitas accederet, papavere vel cicufa, with
poppy or Hemlock they prevented death. Sir Thomas More in las Utopia commends
<6Lib. 2. cap. 83. Terrs mater nostri miserta.
| tionai tortures, he abstained from food altogether.
6
Epist. 24. 71. 22.
" Mac, 11. 42.
*
Vindi-
so
As amongst Turlis and others.
6i
Boheiniis de
entio Apoc. lib.
i^"
Finding that he would be des- morihus gent. ^''^'Eliaii. lib 4. cap. 1. oiunes 70
tind tu endure excruciating nam of the feet, and addi-
| annum egressos interliciunt.
2<4 Prognostics
of
Melancholy. Part. 1 . sttt. 4
voluntary death, if he bo .m.''/ aut aids molestus, troublesome lo .limself or others.
^
"'*'' especially if lo live be a torment to him,) let him free liimself with his ovvr
hands from this techous life, as from a prison, or suHer himself lo be freed by others.'
'^
And 'lis the same tenet wiiich Ijaerlius relates of Zeno, of old. Juste sapiens siM
mortem consciscit^ si in acerbis doloribiis verselur^ mevibrorurn mutilatione aul morhif
ctgre curandis^ and which Plalo 9. de legibus approves, if old age, poverty, igno
miny, &,c. oppress, and which Fabius expresseth in effect. i^Prcpfai. 7. Instituf.)
JYemo nisi sua culpa diu dolet. It is an ordinary thing in China, (sailh Mat. Kiccius
the Jesuit,) =^"if they be in despair of better fortunes, or tired and tortured with
misery, to bereave themselves of life, and many limes, to spite their enemies th
more, lo hang at their door." Tacitus the historian, Plutarch the philosopher, muc
approve a voluntary departure, and Aust. de civ. Dei^ I. I.e. 29. defends a violen
death, so that it be undertaken in a good cause, nemo sic mortuus., qui non fuerat
aUquando moriturus; quid aulcm interest., quo mortis gcnere vita isia Jiniutur., quando
die cuifinilur., iterum mori non cogitur? Sfc. ^no man so voluntarily dies, but uoZens
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 vivcndo.,
"
rather suffer one, ihan fear all.
"
Death is belter than a bitter life,"'
Eccl. XXX. 17. ^^and a harder choice tu live in fear, than by once dying, to be freed
from all. Theombrolus Ambracioles persuaded I know not how many hundreds of
his auditors, by a luculenl 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,
S3"
Jaiiuiue vale Soli ciitn dicprft Ainbrocioles,
III St>'is;i(is f'tTtiir desiliiisse laciis.
Mofte nihil digiuiiii passus: scd forte Platonis
Uivini eiiiiiuiii de iiece If^git opiis."
'^'Calenus and his hidians hated of old to die a natural death: the Circumcellians
and Donalisls, loathing life, compelled others to make them away, with many such :
"but these are false and pagan positions, profane stoical paradoxes, wicked exam
"les, it boots not what headien philosophers determine in this kind, they are impious
abominable, and upon a wrong ground.
"
No evil is lo be done that good may comi
of it;" rcclamat Christus., reclamat Scriptura., God, and all good men are ^^agains-
it: He that stabs another, can kill his body; but he tliat stabs himself, kills his own
soul.
"^
Male meretur^ qui dat mendico., quod edat; nam et illud quod dat, pent; et
illi producit vitam ad miseriain: he that gives a beggar an alms (as that comical poet
said) doth ill, because he doth but prolong his miseries. But Lactanlius /. 6. c. 7.
de vero cultu^ calls it a detestable opinion, and fully confutes it, lib. 3. de sap. cap.
18. and S. Austin, ep. 52. ad Maccdoniuin,cap.Ql. ad Dulcitium Tri.bunum: so doth
fiierom to Marcella of Blesilla's death, JVon recipio tales animas., Sfc, he calls such
men martyres stultce Philosophice: so doth Cyprian de duplici martyrio; Si qui sic
Moriantur., aut infirmitas., aut ambitio., aut dementia cogit eos; 'tis mere madness so
to do,
'''^furore est ne moriare mori. To this effect writes Arist. 3. Ethic. Lipsius
Manuduc. ad Stoicam Philosophicp.m lib. 3. disserlat. 23. but it needs no confuta-
tion. This only let me add, that in some cases, those "^^hard censures of such as
offer violence to their own persons, or in some de-sperate fit to others, which some-
limes they do, by slabbing, slashing, &.c. are to be mitigated, as in such as are n)ad,
beside themselves for the time, or found to have been long melancholy, and that in
53Li|)_
t>.
Prffisertiin quiim tonneiitum ei vila sit,
bona spe fretus, acerba vita velut a carrere se exinial,
vil ab aliis eximi sua voluutale paliatnr.
s4
iVam
qiiis ainphoram exsiccaiis f'CErx'in exorUeret (Smieca
epist. 58.) 'uis in poeiias et risuni viveret? stiilti est
inanere in /ita nini sit miser. ^ Expedit. ad Sinas
I. I. c. 9. Vel bnnoriiin desperatione, vel iiialoruni per-
pessione fracti et fagitati, vel manus violeiitas sibi in-
fi-rnnt vol ul iiiiniicis siiis sere faciant, &c.
'^"
No
one ever died in this way, who would not have died
some time or other ; hut what does it signify how life
iiself may be ended, since he who comes to the end is
not oblised to die a second time?" " So did An-
thony, Galba, Vitelliiis, Oiho, Aristotle himself. Set:.
Ajax in despair; Cleopatra to save her honour. " In-
semel moriendo, nullum deinceps formidare. '''"And
now when Ambrociotes was bidding farewell to tlie
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 liad read that divine
work of Plato upon Death." ^ocurtius I. l(i.
6'
Laqiieus pra:cisus, conl. 1. I. 5. quidam naufragio
facto, amissis tribus liberis, el uxore, suspeiidit se
pra?cidit illi quidam ex prfetereuntibus laqiieum : A li
berato reus fit maleficii. Seneca. 6'l?ee l,ipsius
Manuduc. ad Stoicam philosophiam lib. 3. dissert. 22
D. Kings 14. Lect. on Jonas. D. Abbot's ti I.ect. on the
same prophet,
63
pi^utus.
" lyiartial. ''''Aii
to be buried out of Christian burial with a stake. Idem.
Plato 9. de legibus, viill separatim se|)eliri, qui siin ij
"rtiuB deligitur d i vivere quam in limore tot morborum [ sis mortem coiisciscunt, &c. lose their goods. &r
Mem. l.j Prognostics
of
Melancholy. 265
extremilv, they know not what they do, deprived of reason, judgment, all, ^^as a
ship that is void of a pilot, must needs impinge upon the next rock or sands, ant'
suffer shipwreck. ^T. Foresius hath a story of two melancholy bretliren, 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 oi
old
;
but upon farther examination of their misery and madness, the ceJisure was
""revoked^ and they were solemnly interred, as Saul was by David, 2 Sam. ii. 4. and
Seneca well adviseth., Irascere inlcrfeclori^sed miserere interfecti; be justly oflended
witii 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 ponfcm el fontevi., inter gladium et jiigulum.,
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:
'^
QiicB 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.
* Navis destituta nauclero, in terribilera aliqueni
Bropuluin impiiigit.
i>7
Qbservat.
ss' Seneca
'.lact 1. I. 8. c. 4. Lex, Homicida in se jnsepultus al>ji-
^atur, conlradicitur ; Eo quod afferre sibi inanus coac-
tus sit assiduis malis; siiminam infteliciiatem siatri m
line reiiinvit, quoil exiftiiiiattat licero n)i4>^ uiori,
8
Btictiaiian. Kkg. lib.
34
(266)
THE
SY^^OrSIS OF THE SECOND PArxTITION,
Cure of
;<ieluncholy
is bilher
Unlawful
means
forbidden,
(Sect. 1.
General
to all,
which
contains
f2
Lawful
means,
which are
Memb.
1. From the devil, magicians, witches, &c., by charms,
spells, incantations, images, &c.
Quest. I. Whether they can cure this, or other sucli
like diseases i*
Queft. 2. Whether, if they can so cure, it be lawful
to seek to them for help 1
Immediately from God, a Jove principiuin, by
prayer, &c.
3. Quest. 1. Whether saints and their relics can help
this infirmity 1
Quest 2. Whether it be lawful in this case to sue to
them for aid.
r Subsecf.
1. Physician, in whom is required science,
confidence, honesty, &c.
2. Patient in whom is required obedi-
ence, constancy, willingness, patience, con-
fidence, bounty, &c., not to practise on
himself.
3. Physic, fDietetical T
which < Pharmaceutical H
[
consists of [Chirurgical EL
I
Particular to the three distinct species, ol? i^
TJK
Such m'ats as are easy of digestion, well-dressed, hot,
sod, .Vc., young, moist, of good nourishment. Ate.
Bread of pure wheat, well-baked.
Water clear from the fountain.
Wine and drink not too strong, &c.
4. Medi
ately bj
Nature
which
concerns
and
works by
<
Matter
and qua-
lity.
1. Subs.
Diet rec-
tified.
I
1. Memb.
Y
Sect. 2.
Dieietical,
vhieh con-
oisls in re-
forniug
tliise six
nun-natural
things, as in
Flesh
Fish
Herbs
V
2. Quan-
tity.
r Mountain birds, partridge, pheasant, quails,
\ &c.
:Hen, capon, mutton, veal, kid, rabbit, &c.
J That live in gravelly waters, a? pike, perch,
I trout, sea-fish, solid, white, &c.
Borage, bugloss, balm, succory, endive, violets,
in broth, not raw, &c.
Fruits
j
Raisins of the sun, apjdes corrected for wind,
and roots, i oranges, &c., parsnips, potatoes, &c.
At seasonable and unusual times of repast, in good order,
not before the first be concocted, sparing, ni)t overmuch
of one dish.
2. Rectification of retention and evacuation, as costiveness, venery, bleeding at nose,
j
months stopped, baths, &c.
3. Air recti- (-Naturally in the choice and site of our country, dwelling-place, to
fied, with a I be hot and moist, light, wholesome, pleasant, Stc.
digression of 1 Artificially, by often change of air, avoiding winds, fogs, tempests,
the air
I.
opening windows, perfumes, &c.
fOf body and mind, but moderate, as hawking, hunting, riding,
shooting, bowling, fishing, fowling, walking in fair fields, galleries
4. Exercise < tennis, bar.
Of mind, as chess, cards, tables, &c., to see plays, masks, Ac. <.iriou
studies, business, all honest recreations.
5. Rectification of waking and terrilile dreams, &c.
6. Rectification of passions and perturbations of the mind.
Mer,.b 6.
and (lertur
batloiis of
tlie niiiid
reclilifd.
From
himself
from his
frienils,
Syno2)sis
of
the Second PxrlUion. 267
r SiiLsect.
]
1. By using all good means of help, confessing to a t u, (Stc.
I
Avoiding all occasions of his infirmity.
I, Not giving way to passions, but resisting to his ut .<t.
2. by fair and foul means, counsel, comfort, good persuasion, witty
devices, fictions, and, if it be possible, to satisfy his mind
3. Music of all sorts aptly applied
4. Mirth and merry company.
(Menib.
I
1 General discontents and grievances satisfied.
2. Particular discontents, as deformity of boi'y, sick-
Sect. 3. ness, baseness of birth, &c.
A consola- 3. Poverty and want, such calamities and adve"-
tory digres- sities.
sion, con- 4. Against servitude, loss of liberty, imprisonment,
taining re- banishment, &c.
medies to all
"*
5. Against vain fears, sorrows for death of friends, or
discontents otherwise.
and passions 6. Against envy, livor, hatred, malice, emulation,
of the mind. ambition, and self-love, &C.
7. Against repulses, abuses, injuries, contempts, dis-
graces, contumelies, slanders, and scoffs, &c.
8. Against all other grievous and ordinary symptoms
of this disease of melancholy.
Sect. 4.
Pharmaceu-
tics, or Phy-
sic which
cureth with
medicines,
with a di-
gression of
this kind of
pliVsic, is
either
Men/). 1.
'3u/iyect. 1.
Q
rSim^jles
altering
melan-
choly,
with a di-
gression
of exotic
simples.
2. Subs.
<0T
Com-
pounds
altering
melan-
choly,
with a di-
gression
of com-
pounds.
1. Subs.
fTo the heart; borage, bugloss, scorzonera, &c.
To the head ; balm, hops, nenuphar, &c.
f
Herbs.
|
Liver
; eupatory, artemisia. &c.
3. Subs. } Stomach
;
wormwood, centaury, pennyroyal.
I I
Spleen ; ceterache, ash, tamarisk.
J
To purify the blood; endive, succory, &c.
Against wind; origan, fennel, aniseed, &c.
4. Precious stones
; as snaragdes, chelidonies, &c. Minerals;
as gold, &c.
r ^
5
fluid
con-
sisting
hot
solid, as
I
those
I
aroma- (
tical
con fee-
I
tions.
r Wines; as of helleoore, bugloss, ta-
! marisk, &c.
Syrups of borage, bugloss, hops, epi-
thyme, endive, succory, &c.
("Conserves of violets, maidenhair, borage,
I
bugloss, roses, &c.
j
Confections ; treacle, mithridate, ecleg-
I
mes or linfitures.
fDiambra, dianthos.
Diarnargaritum calidum.
{ Diamoscum dulce.
Electuarium de gemrnis.
Lfetificans Galeni et Rhasis
rDiamargaritum frigidum.
^
Diarrhodon ahbatis.
[Diacoroili, diacodium with their tables.
I Condites of all sorts, &c.
Purging
'
Particular to the three distinct species,
roils of camomile, violets, roses, &-c.
Out- Ointments, alablastritum, populeum, &c.
wardly { Liniments, plasters, cerotes, cataplasms, frontal^,
used, as I fomentations, epithymes, sacks, bags, odora
l_
ments, posies, &c.
U "K.
268 Synopsis
of
Ihe Second Parlilion
1
MeiHcines
[.urging
melan-
choly, are
I'lther
Mciiil. 2.
Simples
purging
melan-
choly.
3. Subs,
Com-
pounds
purging
melan-
.choly.
n Chirurgical physic,
which consists of Mernb. 3,
f 1. Subf:.
Upward,
as vomits,
Down-
ward.
2. Subs.
Superior
parts
I
Acrabecca, hiurel, white hellebore, scilla, or sea-onion,
f antimony, tobacco.
More gentle ;
as senna, epithyme, polipody, nnrooa.anes,
fumitory, &c.
Stronger; aloes, lapis Armenus, lapis lazuli, black helle-
1,
bore.
r
Mouth
r
2 ("Liquid, as potions, juleps, syrups, wine .>f
^
hellebore, bugloss, &c.
I
1 Solid, as lapis Armenus, and lazuli, pills
g_
I
of Indae, pills of fumitory, &c.
Q
Electuaries, diasena. confection of hainech,
I hierologladium, &;c.
Not swallowed, as gargarisms, masticatories,
&c.
Nostrils, sneezing powders, odoraments, perfumes, &c.
Inferior paits, as clysters strong and weak, and suppositories of Casti
lian soap, honey boiled, &c.
("Phlebotomy, to all parts almost, and all the distinct species
I
With knife, horseleeches.
j
Cupping-glasses.
]
Cauteries, and searing with hot irons, boring.
Dropax and sinapismus.
L issues to several parts, and upon several occasions.
Sect. 5.
Cure of
head-melan-
choly.
Mernb. 1
f 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.
2. Blood-letting, if there be need, or that the blood be corrupt, in the arm, fore-
head, &c., or with cupping-glasses.
f Preparatives ; as syrup of borage, bugloss, epithyme, hops, with
their distilled waters, &c.
3. Prepara- Purgers ; as Montanus, and Matthiolus helleborismus, Quercplanus,
lives and .; syrup of hellebore, extract of hellebore, pulvis Hali, antimony
purgers. prepared, Ru/aiidi aqua tjiirabilis , which are used, if gentler
medicines will not take place, with Arnoldus, vinum buglossa-
tuni, senna, cassia, mirohalanes. aurnni pofabile, or before
Hamech, Pil. Indse, Hiera. Pil. de lap. Armeno, lazuli.
Cardan's nettles, frictions, clysters, suppositories, sneezings, iiiasti-
calories, nasals, cupping-glasses.
To open the haemorrhoids with horseleeches, to apply horse-
]
leeches to the forehead without scarification, to the shoulders,
thighs.
Issues, boring, cauteries, hot irons in the suturo of the crown
(A cup of wine or strong drink.
Bezars stone, amber, spice.
Conserves of borage, bugloss, roses, fumitory,
r' f . (-11
Confection of alchermes.
Electuarium Isiiijicans Galeni et Rhasi^, <^c.
\. Diumargarilum
frig,
diuburairinatum, <\f.
4. Averters.
6. Cordials,
resol
hinderers.
Synopsis
of
the
''i>'r.07id Partition.
209
6. Correctors
of accidents,
f
Odoraments of roses, violets.
Irrigations of the head, with the decoctions of nj mphea, lettuce
1
mallows, &c.
I
Epithymes, ointments, bags to the heart.
I
Fomentations of oil for the belly.
Baths of sweet water, in which were sod mallows, violets, roses
water-lilies, borage flowers, ramsheads, &c.
i
Poppy, nymphea, lettuce, roses, purs-
lane, henbane, mandrake, night-
shade, opium, &c.
i...^._,
,
or
f
Liquid, as syrups of poppy, verbasco,
taken,
violets, roses.
Com-
^
Solid, as requies Nicholai, Phi-
pounds.
Ionium, Romanum, Laudanum
^ ^ J I Paracclsi.
Oil of nymphea, poppy, violets, roses, mandrake,
nutmegs.
Odoraments of vinegar, rose-water, opium.
Frontals of rose-cake, rose-vinegar, nutmeg.
. Ointments, alablastritum, unguentum populeum,
simple or mixed with opium.
Irrigations of the head, feet, sponges, music, niur
mur and noise of waters.
Frictions of the head and outward parts, sacculi
j^
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.
Si 2. Memb. cDiet,
preparatives, purges, averters, cordials, correctors, as before.
'Jure of me- j Phlebotomy in this kind more necessary, and more frequent,
"ancholy over
')
To correct and cleanse the blood with fumitory, senna, succory, dandelion
die body. I. endive, &c.
r Subsect.
Phlebotomy, if need require.
Diet, preparatives, averters, cordials, purgers, as before, saving that fney 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.
Outward-
. ly used, as
"R Cure
of hypo-
chondria-
cal or
windy
melan-
choly.
^. Memb.
2. To ex-
(pel wind.
Inwardly
taken.
Herbs,
Spices,
Seeds,
TGalanga, gentian, enula, angelica, calamus
Roots, ! aromaticus, zedoary, china, condite giii-
[
ger, &c.
Pennyroyal, rue, calamint, bay leaves, and
berries, scordium, bethany, lavender, camo-
mile, centaury, wormwood, cummin, broom,
[
orange pills.
Saffron, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, pepper,
musk, zedoary with wine, &c.
Aniseed, fennel-seed, ammi, cary, cummin
I.
'
[ nettle, bays, parsley, grana, paradisi.
^
rDianisum, diagalanga, diaciminum, diacalaminthes, eler-
"
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 '^Hudson's discovery be true of a-^''
new found ocean, any likelihood of Button's Bay in 50. degrees, llubberd'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 ""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
'^
Marcus Polus the Venetian's narration be true or false, of tliat great city
of Qiiinsay and Cambalu ; whether there be any such places, or that as
'^
Matth.
Riccius the Jesuit hath written, China and Cataia be all one, the great Cham of Tar-
tary 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 fronr
Tartary : whether
"
Presbyter John be in Asia or Africa
;
M. Polus Venetus pats him
in Asia,
'*
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 '^Guinea
be an island or part of the continent, or that hungry ^"Spaniard's discovery of Terra
Jlustralis Incognita., or Magellanica, be as true as that of Mercurius Britannius, or
his of Utopia, or his o( 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,
anu 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
Nich. de Lynna, cited by Mercator in his map.
N
Mons Sloto. Sniriecall it the highfst hill in the world,
next 'I'eneriffe in the Canaries, Lat. Hi. "Cap. 26.
In his Treatise of Majmetic Bodies.
n
Lea;e lib. 1.
c;*p. 23. et 24. de magnetica philosnphia, et lib. 3. cap.
4.
>3
1613.
'^
M. Brigs, his map, and Northwest
FoK. i6Lih. 2. ca. 64. de nob. civitat. Quinsay, el
cap. 10. de Cambalu. "'Lib. 4. e.xped.ad Sinas, ca.
3. et lib. 5 c. 18.
"
M. Polus in Asia Fref b. Job.
meminit lib. 2. cap. 30.
i*
Alluaresius et alii.
'"
Lat. lU. Gr. Ausl.
>
Ferdinando de (iuif Anno
Mem. 3.]
Digression
of
Air 289
a more convenient passage to Mare pacijicum: metninks srme of our modern argo-
nauts should prosecute the rest. As 1 go by Madagascar, I would see that great
bird
^'
ruck, that can carry a man and horse or an elephant, with that Arabian plioenix
described by
^^
Adricomius ; see the pelicans of Egypt, those Scythian gryphes in
Asia : and afterwards in Africa examine the fountains of Nilus, whether Hero
dotus,
^^
Seneca, Plin. lib. 5. cap. 9. Strabo. lib. 5. give a true cause of hi>.
annril flowing, "'' Pagaphetta discourse rightly of it, or of Niger and Senegal
,
examine Cardan,
^''
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 v^hich are so frequent to the inhabitants within the
tropics, when the sun is vertical, and cause such vast inundations in Senegal, Marag-
nan, 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 here-
after 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 eartli's motion, which
Galileus, in the fourth dialogue of his system of tlie world, so eagerly proves, and
flrmly demonstrates
;
or winds, as
-''
some will. Why in that quiet ocean of Zi.r, in
mari pacifico^ it is scarce perceived, in our British seas most violent, in the Mediter-
ranean and Red Sea so vehement, irregular, and diverse ? Why the current in that
Atlantic Ocean should still be in some places fi'om, 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 ^'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, uhi nee aurce ner.
venti spirant., (insomuch that they that ascend die suddenly very often, the air is so
subtile,) 1250 paces hiffh, according to that measure of Dicearchus, or 78 miles per-
pendicularly high, as Jacobus Mazonius, sec. 3. et 4. expounding that place of Aris-
totle about Caucasus ; and as
^'
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 Americit^/
whether there be any such great city of Manoa, or Eldorado, in that golden empire, V^
where the highways are as much beaten (one reports) as between Madrid and Vala-
dolid in Spain; or any such Amazons as he relates, or gigantic Patagones in Chica;
with that miraculous mountain ^^Ybouyapab in the Northern Bva^iil., cujiis jiigum
slcrnilur in amcenissimavi planitiem., <Sfc. or that of Pariacacca so high elevated in
Peru. ^The peak of Teneriflfe how high it is
.^
70 miles, or 50 as Patricius holds,
or y as Snellius demonstrates in his Eratosthenes : see that strange
'"
Cirknickzerksey
lake in Carniola, whose waters gush so fast out of the ground, that they will over-
take 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 '^^Esmellen in Muscovi^, qua. visitiir hor-
riendo hiaiu, ^c. which if anything casually fell in, makes such a roaring noise, that
no thunder, or ordnance, or warlike engine can make the like ; such another is Gil-
ber'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 I. 3.C. 16. hot in a cold country, the spring of which boils up in the middle
'^'Afariim pennsE continent in longitudine 12. passus,
I'lephantpm in sublime tollcre potest. Polus I. 3. c. 40.
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,
m'ust 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,
no7i dolere, curls 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 opi
oion, 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 with-
out a cause, and lashed by all posterity. ""Fear and sorrow, therefore, are espe-
cially 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, cj9. 15. mQ.Rhasis, Capivaccius, Hildesheim, &c., all inculcate
this as an especial means of their cure, that their
'^
" minds be quietly pacified, vain
conceits diverted, if it be possible, with terrors, cares,
'^
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. '''"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 '^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 ; /'^^rdanapalus is love-sick ; these men are ill-affected
all, and can never be cured, tlil 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 reliquuin est., animce, accidentia corrigantur., from which alone
proceeds melancholy ; they are the fountain, the subject, the hinges whereon it
turns, and must necessarily be reformed.
'^
"
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, ^lianus Montallus attributes so
much to them,
" "
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 tbeir 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 } hie labor, hoc opm
est. 'Tis a natural infirmity, a most powerful adversary, all men are subject to pas-
sions, 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, rea-
son, 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
'
Animi pfirturbationes summe fugiendae, inetus po-
(issimurii et tristilia : enriinique loco animus deinulceii-
ilus hilaiitate, aniini constantia, bona s()e ; reniovendi
terrores, et eoruin consortium quos non probant.
wPhantasicB eorum placide subverlenda>, terrores ab
a^'rao removendi.
'^
Ab oniiii fixa cogitatione
quovismodo avertantur. KCuncla mala corporis
ab animo procedunt, quie nisi cursntur, corpus curari
rniniine potest, Cbarmid. "Disputat. An morbi
gtaviores corporis an animi. Renoldo interpret, ut
parum absit a furore, rapitur a Lyceo in concionem, a
concione ad mare, a mari in Siciliam, &c.
>
Ira
hilem movet, sanguinem adurit, vitales spiritus accen-
dit, mcestitia universum corpus infrijidat, calorem if,,
natuin extinguit, appctilum destruit, concoctionera
inipedit, corpus exsiccat, intellecluni pervertit. Qua-
mobrem lisc omnia pto.'-sus vitanda sunt, et pro virili
fugienda. "De mel. c. 2t. ex lllis solum remediuio;
inuiti ex vUis, audilis, &c. sanati sunt.
a28 Cure
of
Melancholy. [Part. 2. bee. 'i
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 niav advise and giv*
good precepts, as vvlio cannot } But how shall they be put in practice
.''
I may not
deny but our passions are violent, and tyrannise of us, yet tiiere be means to curb
them ; though they be headstrong, they may be tamed, tliey 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 viagnam 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 run
neth in his mind, vain conceit, be it pleasing or displeasing, which so much affects
or troubleth him, "*"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 begin-
ning, 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, fol-
lowing his passions, giving reins to his appetite, let him now stop upon a sudden,
curb himself in; and as '"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 imagina-
tions, yet as ^"Tully and Plutarch advise, let him oppose, fortify, or prepare himself
against them, by pre-meditation, reason, or as we do by a crooked staff, bend him-
self another way.
"
In thn meantime expel tliem fVom ttiy mind,
Pale fears, sad cares, and jrriefs which do it ^rind,
Revengeful aiiger, pain and discontent,
I
Let all thy soul be set on merriment."
Curas tolle graves, irasci crede profanum. If it be idleness hath caused this in-
firmity, 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
"
Roger Bacon hath it,
"
we
could but moderate ourselves in those six non-natural things.
^^
If it be any dis-
grace, abuse, temporal loss, calumny, death of friends, imprisonment, banisliment,
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. l^.de conser. vit.) Tu contra audenlior ito.
^^
If
it be sickness, ill success, or any adversity that hath caused it, oppose an invmcible
courage,
"
fortify thyself by God's word, or otherwise," 7nala bonis persiiadenda. set
prosperity against adversity, as we refresh our eyes by seeing some pleasant meadow.
21
"Tu tamen iiiterea effugito qnce tristia mentem
Sniicitant, prociil esse jiibe ciirasque metuirKiue
Pallentuin, ultrices iras, sint omnia Ixta."
'spro viribus annitendum in pra-dlctis, turn in aliis,
I qiiibus malum velut a primaria causa occasionem
fiactum est, imaginationes ahsurdtB fals.Tqueet mosstitia
i,uiecunque subierit propulsetiir, aut aliud agendo, auf
tatinne persuadendo earuni iniitationem subito facere.
''J
L.ib. 2. c. 16. de occult, iiat. Ciuisqnis huic main ob-
aoxiiis est, acriter ohsistat, et suninia cura oblucfetur,
aer alio inodo foveat imacinationes tacite nbrepontes
aniino, hlandas ab initio et hmahiles, sed qus adeocon-
va escuiit, >n nulla ratione excuti qiieant. ""S. Tusc.
ad Apollonium. Fracasturius. ^Epist.do
secretis artis et natursecap. 7. de retard, .sen. Kemediillu
psset contra corruptionem propriam, si quilibet exerce-
ret regimen saiiilatis, quod cousrstit in rebus sex noii
naturalibus.
^^
Pro aliqui) vituperio non indi-gneris,
neo pro amissione alicujus rei, pro inorte alicnjiis, iiec
pro carcere, nee pro exilio, nee pro alia re, nee irascaris,
iiec limeas, nee doleas, sed cum suuiina pr;esentia hiec
sustineas. ^tQuodsi incommoda adversiiaiis infor-
tnnia hoc nialinn invexerint, bis infraetnm animum op
ponas, Uei verbo ejusque tiducia te siitl'iilcias, &c.. In
nius, lib. 1. c. 16.
jttom. 6. Subs.
l.J
Passions rectijied. 329
fountain, picture, or the like : recreate thy mind by some contrary object, with so..>^
more pleasing meditation divert thy thoughts.
Yea, but you infer again, yaci/e consilium damns aids, we can easily give ounsel
lo others; every man, as the saying is, can tame a shrew but he that hath her; si
hie esses, aliter sentires; if you were in our misery, you would find it otheiwise,
'tis not so easily performed. We know this to be true; we should moderate our-
selves, but we are furiously carried, we cannot make use of such precepts, we ar*^
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 melai>-
choly man not to fear, not to be sad ; 'tis within his blood, his brains, his whole tem-
perature, 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 bitlen 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, reluctantc sf, 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 balneof 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 .^ con-
sider 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 mayest 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 sihi imperavit ani?nus
obtinuit (as
^
Seneca saith) niiUi tarn fcri
ajfecfus^ ut nan discipUnd perdomentur^
whatsoever the will desires, she may command: no such cruel affections, but by dis-
cipline 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 mayest refrain if thou wilt,
and master thine affections. '^''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, chi-
meras upon us, but we have reason to resist, yet we let it be overborne by our appe-
tite; ^'"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 pas-
sions. And as to him that is sick of an ague, all things are distasteful and unplea-
sant, 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 vvay for ease is to impart our misery to some friend, not to smother it
up in our own breast: aliter vitium crescitque tegendo, <S|-c., and that which was most
asLih. 2. de ira. "sCap. 3. de affect, a-niin. Ut in
livitatihus conliimaces qui non cediint politico imperio
vi coercendi sunt; ita Dens nohis iiididit alternni im-
perii formani ; si cor non depnnit vitiosnni atfi'ctum,
nembra forascoercenda sunt, na ruant in i|uod atf>::ctus
42 2 c 3
impellat: et locomotiva, qus herili imporioobtemperat.
alteri resistat.
2?
|ina!;inatio inipcllit spiritns, el
inde nervi nioventur. &c et oblernperant imaeina
tioni et appetitui iiiirat)ili fivdere, ud exequenduin quoi
jnlient.
330 Cure
of
Melancholy. [Part 2 =ect. 2
offensive to us, a cause of fear and grief, quod nunc te coquif., another hell ; for
'^strangulat inclusus dolor atque excestuat intus, grief concealed strangles the soul;
but when as we shall but impart it to some discreet, trusty, loving friend, it is
'''instantly removed, by his counsel happily, wisdom, persuasion, advice, bis good
means, which we could not otherwise apply unto ourselves. A friend's counsel is
a charm, like mandrake wine, ciiras sopit. ; and as a ^'bull that is tied to a lig-tree
becomes gentle on a sudden (which some, saith
^'
Plutarch, interpret of good words),
so is a savage, obdurate heart mollified by fair speeches.
"
All adversity finds ease
in complaining (as ^Msidore holds), "and 'tis a solace to relate it," ^'AyaOride rfopou,'-
papt,^ iotiv troipov. Friends' confabulations are comfortable at all times, as fire in
winter, shade in summer, quale sopor fcssis in gramine, meat and drink to him that
is hungry or athirst ; Democritus's coUyrium is not so sovereign to the eyes as this
!s 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 waif,
which Camerarius hath well illustrated in an emblem. Lenit animum simplex vel
scppe narralio, the simple narration many times easeth our distressed mind, and in
the midst of greatest extremities; so diverse have been relieved, by ** 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
;
quavla
inde voluplas, quanta securitas, Chrysostom adds, what pleasure, what security by
that means ! ^^^ 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, ^.''fl live here (saith he) in a great city, where I have a multi-
tude 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, perad-
venture, may he and he say with ihat old man in the comedy,
37"
Neinn est inrorum amicorum hodie,
Apud quein e.xpromere occulta niea audeani."
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,
^*
Semper habens Pylademquc 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 quia in caelum ascendisset,
8fc.
as he said in
^^
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
'
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 delightelh 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
*"
Commineus 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."
^eOvidTrist. lib. 5.
29 Participes inde calaiiiltatis
nostra; sunt, et velut exonerata in eos sarcina onere
Icvamiir. Arist. Kth. lib. 9.
ao
Camerarius Enibl. 26.
Cen. 2.
31
Sympos. lib. 6. cap. 10.
sa
Epist. 8.
lib. 3. Adversa I'ortuna liabet in querelis levanientum
;
et nialorumj^latio, &,c.
^ Alloquium chari jiivat,
et solanien aiiiici. Eiiiblem. 54. cent. 1.
3^
As David
did to Jonathan, 1 Sam. xx. ^Seneca Epist. t)7
86 Hie in civitale macna et turb.^ magna neminem
feperire po.-isntnus quocum suspirare familiariter aut
jocari libere possimns. dnare te expectamus, te desi-
deramus, te arcessinnis. Multa sunt enim (\uve nie
solicit.'i'it et angunt, quae mihi videor aures tuas nactus,
dnius ambulatiunis serinone ezhaurire posse.
'^
I
have not a single friend this rlay, to whom I dare to
disclose my secrets." s^Ovid.
so
Oe amicitia,
^oDe tranquil, c. 7. Optimum est amiciim fidelem nan-
cisci in quem secreta nostra infundaniiis; nihil aique
oblectat animum, quam uhi sint pra'parata pc^ctora, in
quEE tuto secreta descendant, quorum coiiscientia teque
ao tua: quorum sernio solitudineni leniat, seiit<;ntia
consilium expediat, hilaritas tristitjam dissipet, con-
spectusque ipse delectet. 4' Comment. /. 7. Ad
Deum confugiamus, et peccatis veniam precemur 'Tide
ad aniicos, et cni pluriinum trihuimus, nos pat'.^oia
mus lotos, et animi vnlniis quo aflligimur: n Ai! a(t
reficiendum animum edicacius.
Mem. 6. Subs.
2.
J
Mind rectified. 331
SuBSECT. II.
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." '^Rhasis, cont. 9. Tract. 15
Altomarus, cap. 7. J^lianus Montaltus, c. 26. Ficinus. Bened. Victor. Faventinus are al-
most immoderate in the commendation of it ; a most forcible medicine
*"
Jacchinus calls
it: Jason Pratensis, "a most admirable thing, and worthy of consideration, tliat can
so mollify the mind, and stay those tempestuous affections of it." Musica est mentis
medicina moestce., a roaring-meg against melancholy, to rear and revive the languish-
ing soul; ^'"afl^ecting not only the ears, but the very arteries, the vital and animal
spirits, it erects the mind, and makes it nimble." Lemnius, instil, cap. 44. This it
will efl^ect in the most dull, severe and sorrowful souls,
^^'^
expel grief with mirth,
and if there be any clouds, dust, or dregs of cares yet lurking in our thoughts, most
"Cap. 3. Castratio olim a veterihiis usa in morbis
desperatis, &c. ''Lib. 1. cap. 5. sic morbum morbo,
ut clavuiii clavo, retuiuliinus, et inalo nodo nialiim cu-
neuni adhibemiis. Novi ego qui ex subito hnstiuni in-
ciKsii f t inopi natotiinorpquartaiiam ilepiilerat.
"3
Lib.
7. cap. 50. In acie pugnans fehre qiiartana liberatus
i-Ft.
'*
Jacchinus, c. 15. in 9. Rhasis Moiit. cap. 26.
"Lib. J. cap. 16. aversantiir eos qui enrum affectiis ri-
dent, tontemnunt. Si ranas et viperas cnmndisse se
piitant, concedcre deberniis, et sppin dc ciira facere
"Tap. 8. de mel.
TiOistnni nosiiit ex Medicorum
consilin prope eutn, in qiiem alium se mortiium fingen-
trm paciiit; liic in cisia jacens, .fcc. 't'Serres. 1550.
'
In 9. Rhasis. Magnani vim haliet musica.
>
('ai-
de Mania. Admiranda profeclo res est, et difrna expei.-
sione, quod sniinrnm concinnitas nientem emolliat, t-is-
tatque procellnsas ipsius aflecliones.
' Lansuens
animus inde erigitnr et reviviscit, nee tarn anres afficit,
sed et sonitu per arterias undiqiie diffiisn, spiritus tuni
vitales turn aninialps exci'lt. nientPin reddens anilem,
Sci:.
<
Musica venustate sua mentes severiores
capit., &c.
Mem. 6, Subs.
3.J
Perturbations
rectified.
335
powerfully it wipes thepi al. away," Salisbur. 7)o//7. lib. 1. cap. 6. and that which is
more, it will perform all this in an instant:
^^"
Cheer up the countenance, expel
austerity, bring in hilarity (Girakl. Cnmb. cap. 12. Topog. Hiber.) inform our man-
iiers, mitigate anger;" Athenseus (Dipnosophist. lib. 14. cap. 10.) calleth it an infinite
treasure to such as are endowed with it : Dulcisonum
reficit tristia corda melos.
Eobunas Hessus. Many other properties
^^
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
causelli quiet rest ; it takes away spleen and hatred," be it instrumental, vocal, with
strings, wind, ^^Qu.ce. a spiritu., sine manuum dexteritate gubernet.ur.i Sfc. it cures all
irksomeness and heaviness of the soul.
"^^
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
**'
Censorinus informeth us, mnsica depellUur. '( It
makes a child quiet," the nurse's song, and many times the sound of a trumpet on
a sudtTen, 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,
^'*'*'
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 rbused up at the tunes of
,
music. And 'tis not only men that are so affected, but almost all other creatures
J-'You know the tale of Hercules Gallus, Orpheus, and Amphlon, fcelices animas Ovid
calls them, that could saxa movere sono testudinis., S^c. make stocks and stones, as
well as beasts and other animals, dance after their pipes : the dog and hare, wolf and
lamb; viciniimque lupo prcebuit agna latus ; clamosus gracalus^ stridula comix., ei
Jovis aquilaf as Philostratus describes it in his images, stood all gaping upon Or-
pheus
;
and
*^
trees pulled up by the roots came to hear him, Et comitem quercum
pivMS arnica trahit.
Arion made fishes follow him, which, as common experience evinceth, ^are much
affected with music. All singing birds are much pleased with it, especially nightin-
fi^ales, if we may believe Calcagninus
;
and bees amongst the rest, though they be fly-
mg away, when they hear any tingling sound, will tarry behind.
^'
" Harts, hinds,
horses, dogs, bears, are exceedingly delighted with it." Seal, 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
^^
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
^
despair and melancholy, and will
drive away the devil himself. Canus, a Rhodian fiddler, in
^''
Philostratus, when
ApoUonius 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,
^'
Chiron the centaur, is said to have cured this and many other diseases by
music alone : as now they do those, saith
'"^
Bodine, that are troubled with St. Vitus's
Bedlam dance.
'
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.
*3 Animns tristes subiloexhilarat, niibilos viiUiis sere- show tliemselves dancing at the sounil of a Trumpet,
nal, ausle -ilalein reponit, jiiciiiiditatHm exponit, har- fol. 35. 1. et fol. 1,54. iJ huok.
^i
f)e cervo, eqim, cane,
barieiiiriue facit deponere geriles, mores iiisiitiiit, ira-
;
urso idem compertum ;
musica afficiiiritiir. ^-Sfuir.eii
ciiiidiam initigat. 64(;jthara Iristitiain jucundat,
;
inest numeris.
^13
S;epe graves iikorbos modiilatiuri
tJmidos furores attenuat, cnieiitam sa;vitiain blande re- ; carmen abef;it. Et desperatis conciliavit opem.
^"^
Lib.
fic.it, laiigiioreiii. &c. "'Pet Aretiiie. s'-Castilio
'
5. cap. 7. IMoBrentibus moBrorem adimam. lEtatitem
de aiilic. lib 1. ibl. 27. ^' Lib. de Natali. cap. 12. vero seipso reddam hilariorem, amantem calidioreiii,
"(iuod spiritiis qui in corde agilarit Ireniulem et sub- religiosiim divine numine rorreptnm, et ad Deos colen-
altaiitem recipiunt aerem in pectus, et Inde excitantur, dos paratiorem.
^ Natalis Comes .Myth. lib. 4. cap.
i spiritu niusculi moventiir, &c. ' Arhores radicihiis
|
12
"6
Lib. 5. de rep. Curat. iMu.<ica furorein Sanrf
viilsEP, &c.
^ .VI. Carew of Aiithotiy, in descript. viti.
''>
Kxiliro 6 convivio. Cardan, subtil, lib. 11.
Ciiriiwall, saith of vt'liales, that they will come and
j
336 Cure
of
Melancholy. [Part. 2. Sec 2.
Dei^ lib. 17. cap. 14. so much commends for it. Who hath not heard how David's
harmony drove away tlie 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. re-
ports how Asclepiades the physician helped many frantic persons by this means, p/ire-
neLicorummentes morho turbatasJason Pratensis, cap.de Mania., hath many examples,
how Clinias and Empedocles cured some desperately melancholy, and some mad by
this our nmsic. Which because it hath such excellent virtues, belike
^
Homer brings
in Phemius playing, and the Muses singing at the banquet of the gods. Aristotle,
Polit. I. 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 ^^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. Epic-
tetus calls mensam mulam prcesepe, a table without music a manger : for
"
the con-
cert of musicians at a banquet is a carbuncle set in gold ; and as the signet of an
emerald well trimmed with gold, so is tlie melody of music in a pleasant banquet.
Ecclus. xxxii. 5,
6.
'"'^
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.
'
Lucian in his book, de salla-
fione, 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) didsl
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, erercit. 274.
^"
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, 1 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 lie be not some light ina7narato, some idle phan-
tastic, 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, hi such cases
music is most pernicious, as a spur to a free horse will make him run himself blind, or
break his wind; Incitamenfum 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.
^
Plato for this reason
forbids music and wine to al' young men, because they are most part amorous, ne
ignis addalur igni., lest one fire increase another. Many men are melancholy by
hearing music, but it is a p'.easing 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
*
Plutarch, Musica magis dementat quam vinum ; music makes some men mad as a
tiger; like Astolplios' horn in Ariosto ; or Mercury's golden wand in Homer, that
made some wake, others sleep, it hath divers effects : and
^
Tlieophrastus right well
prophesied, that diseases were either procured by music, or mitigated.
SuBSECT. IV.
dum mndo
tu sis jEacidce similis, non natus^ sed
f
actus, noble xat'' s^oxrjv,
'*"
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 shall be honoured, when as he, strip him of his
fine clothes, " dispossess him of his wealth, is a funge (which '^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
seignior 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 terrcB filius, or upstart, insult at this which I have said, no worthy gentle-
man take offence. I speak it not to detract from such as are well deserving, trnly
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
'^
he said of that great river Danube, it riseth from a small fountain, a little brook
'
Exercit. 265.
^^"
It is a thing deserving of our
notice, that most great men were horn in ohscurity, and
of unchaste mothers." MFIor. hist. 1. .3. Uuod si
nudos nos conspici contingat, umniuui una eadeniqne
erit facies; nam si i[isi nostras, nns eorum vestes indu-
amiis, nos, &c.
'">
Ut merito dicam, quod sinipliciter
eentiam, Paulum Schalicliium scriptorein, et doctorem,
pluris facio quam con\itrm Hunnoruui, et Baroneui
Skradinum; Encyclopajdiam tuam, et orbem discip'.ina-
rum omiiibns provinciia aiitefero. Calajus epist. nun-
cupat. ad 5 cent, ultimam script. Brit. " Priefat
hist. lib. I. virtute tua major, quam aut Hetrusci im-
perii fortuna, aut nuinerosa et decora prolis fielicitate
lu.-alior evadiB. '^'.'Curlius. ''^Bodiiie de rep.
lib. 3. cap. 8.
'<
.lErieas Siivius, lib. 2. cap. 20.
">"
If children he proud, haughty, foolish, they defile
the nobility of their kindred," Eccl.xxii. 8. '^Cujus
possessio nee furto eripi, nee incendio absumi, nee
aquarum vorasine absorberi, vel vi morbi destrui po-
test. "Send them both to some strange place
naked, ad ignotos, as Aristippus said, you shall see the
difference. Bacon's Essays.
'*
Familiae splendor
nihil opis attulit. Sec. '^Fluvius hie illusJris,
humaiiarum reruin imago, qiise parvis ductce sub inltiis,
in immensum irescunt, et siibit.i evanesrunt. E.xilii
hie priiiio fluviiis, in admirandam magnitudinem ex
crescit, laiidemque in mari Euxino evanesnit. 1 Siunii
ius pere^. iiiar. Euxini
Mem. 2.]
Remedies against Discontents. 351
at first, sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, now slow, then swift, increased at last
o an incredible greatness by the confluence of sixty navigable rivers, it vanishetb in
conclusion, loseth his name, and is suddenly swallowed up of the Euxine st^a
^
may say of our greatest families, they were mean at first, augmented by rich mar-
riages, purchases, ofiices, they continue for some ages, with some little alteration oi
circumstances, fortunes, places, &c., by some prodigal son, for some default, or for
<vant o^ 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,
fo
"nee enirn fernces
Progeneraiit aquilai 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 stan^ps, cuts, or outsides than of
old
;
yet if he ittain those ancient characters of true gentry, he will be more affable,
courteous, gently disposed, of tairer carriage, better temper, or a more magnanimous,
heroica'l, and generous spirit, than that vuJgus hominum, those ordinary boors and
peasants, qui adeo improbi., agrestes, et inculti plerumque sunt, ne dicam maliciosi,
ut ncmini ullam humanitatis officium prceslent, ne ipsi Deo si advencrit, as
^'
one
observes of them, a rude, brutish, uncivil, wild, a currish generation, cruel and mali-
cious, incapable of discipline, and such as have scarce common sense. And it may
be generally spoken of all, which ^"Lemnius the physician said of his travel into
England, the common people were silly, sullen, dogged clowns, sed mitior nobililas.,
ad omne humanitatis ojicium 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 rusticitry
can hardly be shaken ofl;
63"
Licet siiperbus ambulet pecunia,
Fortuna iioii inutat genus."
And though by their education such men may be better qualified, and more refined^
yet there be njany symptoms by which they may likely be descried, an aflfected
fantastical carriage, a tailor-like spruceness, a peculiar garb in all their proceedings
;
choicer 'than ordinary in his diet, and as
^^
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 htingry 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 :
"
No-
thing so intolerable as a fortunate fool," as
^
TuUy found out long since out of his
experience ; Asperius nihil est humili cum surgit in altum, set a beggar on horse-
back, and he will ride a gallop, a gallop, Slc.
M "
desffivit in omnes
Diiin se posse piitat, nee bellua sajvior ulla est,
Qiiani servi rabies in lil)era 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, 'ignoh\e,factis,natis; yet still in all callings, as some dege-
nerate, some are well deserving, and most worthy of their honours. And as Busbe-
quius said of Solyman the Magnificent, he was tanto dignus imperio, worthy of that
great empire. Many meanly descended are most worthy of their honour, politice
nohilcs, and well deserve it. Many of our nobility so born (which one said of
llephaestion, Ptolemeus, Seleucus, Antigonus, &c., and the rest of Alexander's fol-
lowers, they were all worthy to be monarchs and generals of armies) deserve to be
princes. And I am so far forth of
*'
Sesellius's mind, that they ought to be preferred
(if capable) before others, "as being nobly born, ingenuously brought up, and from
<*)"For fierce eagles do not procreate timid ring-
'oves." sisahinus in ti. Ovid. Met. fab. 4.
ea
Lib.
1. de 4. Complexinnihiis.
^.3
Hor. ep. Od. 2. "And
although he boast of his wealth, Fortune has not
'laneed his nature.''
si
| jh. \>, ep 1.5. Nalus sor-
tido tiigunolo et paupere (^oiiio, qui vix inilio rugien-
tem vent rem, &c.
*
Nihil fortunato insipienie
intolenibilius. sepiaud. I. 9. in Eiitrop. ' Lib.
J.deRep. Gal. duoniain el coinniodiore utiinturcon-
ditione, el nonesiiore loco nati, jam indo a parviilis a"*
moruni civiliiatem educali sunt, el assuefacli.
352
Cure
of
Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 3.
theii infancy trained to all manner of civility." For learning and virtue in a noble-
man 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 hi.s
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. El sic
demonstraiur, quod erat dernonstrandum.
MEMB. 111.
.Against Poverty and Want, with such other Adversities.
One of the greatest miseries that can befal a man, in the world's esteem, is poverty
)r want, which makes men steal, bear false witness, swear, forswear, contend, mur-
der and rebel, which breaketh sleep, and causeth death itself, ovbtv rtfw'a; fiapvtipov
iazi ^optuov, no burden (saith ^^Menander) so intolerable as poverty: it makes men
desperate, it erects and dejects, census honorcs., 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, unfor-
tunate. Christ himself was poor, born in a manger, and had not a house to hide his
head in all his life, ^''"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.
"
Sil/ver and gold have J
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,
""^
a nobleman by birth, many servants he had, an honourable
attendance, much wealth, many manors, fine apparel; but when he saw this, that ai
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 afl^ected. 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 ;
^'
many that have refused honours, titles, and all this
vain pomp and happiness, which others so ambitiously seek, and carefully study to
"ompass and attain. Riches I deny not are God's good gifts, and blessings; and honoj
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 trsti-
met : 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
^^
compare both estates, for natural parts they are
not unlike
;
and a beggar's child, as ^ 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,
8"
Nullum paupertate gravius onus.
*
Ne quis irse
diviniE judicium putaret, ant paupertas exosa foret.
Gault. in cap. 2. ver. 18. Lucsb. winter proceres
Tliebanns iiumeratus, lectum habuit grnus, frequens
famulitium, domus amplas, &c Apuleiiis Florid. 1. 4.
" P. Blesensis ep. 72. et 232. oblatos respui hcmores px
>nte meliens; iiiotus ambitiosos rogaiiis non ivi. &c.
^Sudat pauper forasin opere, dives in cogitatione : hic
OS aperit oscitatione, ille ructatione
;
pravius ille fasli
riio, quam hic inedia nruciatur. Ber. ser.
"^
In Hy
perchen Natura a>qua est, puprosque videmus meuiil
corum nulla ex pane repmu filiis dissimiles, plerumou*
saniores.
Mem. 3 Remefi.iS asainst Discontents.
353
dainty iDUsic, gay clothes, lordci it bravely out, Stc, and all that which Misillus
admired in
^'^
Lucian ; but with them he hath the gout, dropsies, apoplexies, palsies,
stone, pox, rheums, catarrhs, crudities, oppiliations,
^
melancholy, &.c., lust enters in,
anger, ambition, according to '^Chrysostom, "-the sequel of riches is pride, riot
intemperance, arrogancy, fury, and all irrational courses."
""
turpi fregenint scula luxu
DiviticE 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
***
Lucian answered the discontented common-
alty, (which because of their neglected Saturnal feasts in Rome, made a grievous
complaint ana exclamation against rich men) that they were much mistaken in sup-
posing such happiness in riches; ^^"you see the best (said he) but you know not
their several gripings and discontents :"
they are like painted walls, fair without, rot-
ten within: diseased, filthy, crazy, full of intemperance's effects; '"""and who can
reckon half? if you but knew their fears, cares, anguish of mind and vexation, to
which they are subject, you wouid hereafter renounce all riches."
"
O si pateant peclora divitiiin,
Qiiantos iiitus siiblimi:< a.^il
Fortuna metus? Briitia Coro
Pulsaiite fretum iiiitior unda est."
"
O that their breasts were but conspicuous
How full of fear within, hcuv furious?
The narrow seas are not so boisterous."
Tea, 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, ^adored like a god, a prince, every man seeks to him, applauds, honours,. ad-
mires him. He hath honours indeed, abundance of all things; but (as I said) withal
'"
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
fulness, lust, surfeiting and drunkenness, all manner of diseases : pecuniis augetur
improbitas., the wealthier, the more dishonest. ''"He is exposed to hatred, envy,
peril and treason, fear of death, degredation," &c. 'tis lubrica slatio et proxima prcn-
cipitioj and the higher he climbs, the greater is his fall.
5
"
celssE graviore casu
Decidunt turres, feriuntque summo8
Fulgura montes,"
the lightning commonly sets on fire the highest towers; ^in the more eminent place
he is, the more subject to fall.
"
Rumpitur innumeris arbos uberrima pomis,
Et suhito niniiie prsecipitantur opes."
As a tree that is heavy laden with fruit breaks her own boughs, with their own great-
ness 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 miscarr)^, they fat themselves like so many hogs, as ''^Eneas 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 dignitns altlor., casus gravi.or
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
"I know the Lord," saith ''David, "will avenge the afflicted and judge the
poor."
"
No man (as
**
Plato farther adds) can so severely punish his adversary, as
God will such as oppress miserable men."
8"
Iterurii ille rem jiidicatam judical,
Majoreque iiiulcia iniilctat."
If there be any religion, any God, and that God be just, it shall be so ; if thou be-
lievest the one, believe the other : Erit, eriU it shall be so. JYemesis comes after,
sero sed serio, stay but a little and thou shall see God's just judgment overtake him
'
Raro antecedenteiii scelestum
Deseruit pede pcena 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 timongst other
women." It shall be doye to them as they have done to others. Conradinus, that
brave Suevian prince, came with a well-prepared army into tlie kingdom of Naples,
was taken prisoner by king Charles, and put to death in the flower of his youth ; a
little after {riUlonem Conradini mortis., Pandiilphus Collinutius Hist. JYeap. 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 qiiisqm
peccat in eo punictur.,
"
they shall be punished in the same kind, in the same part,
.^ike nature, eye with or in the eye, head with or in the head, persecution with per-
secution, 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.
""
Ad generum Cereris sine c^de et sanguine pauci
Descendunt rages et sicca morte tyranni.
'
'
Few tyrants in their beds do die,
Bui stabb'd or niaiin'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 de-
stroyed from under the heaven," Thre. iii. 64,65, 66. Only be thou patient: ^^vincit
qui p-atitur: 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 Cbi. grave^ b homo! 'tis not so grievous,
" "
neither had God commanded it, if it
had been so difficult." But how shall it be done.'' "Easily," as he follows it, "if
ihou 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 tlie world is, to right thyself, or hast given just cause of offence, 'tis no
injury then but a condign punishment ; thou bast deserved as much : A te princi-
100
Pro. 1 Contend not with a greater man, Pro.
Occidere possum. Non facile aut tutum in eum
ecribere qui potest proscribere. Arcana lacere,
otium rectecollocare, iiijuriam posse ferre.ditlicillinium.
Psal. xlv. 'Rom. xii. ' ['sa. xiii. 12. 'Nullus
tarn .severe iniinicum siiuni ytcisci potest, quam Dens
olet miiscrorum oppressores Arctiirus in Plaul.
"
He adjudicates judgment again, and punishes with a
still greater penalty."
'
Hor. 3. od. 2.
" VVisd.
xi. 6.
'2 Juvenal.
'^
Apud Christipios non
n^jl
patitur, sed qui facit injiiriani miser est. Lec Mt.
14 Neijue pr-Tcepisset Deus si grave fuisset, >jt'
V'
'
tiorje potero? facile si coeluir. suepexeiid; e. sju*
S
cbritudine, f,' quod pollicetur Deus, &c.
iM..m
7.
J
Remedies af^ainst Discontents. 381
pium, .n te recrc^it crimen quod a te fuit
;
peccasfi, quiesce, as Ambrose txpustiilates
with Cain, li.t. 3. de Mel et Cain. '^Dionysius of Syracuse, in his exile, was madf
to sia^nA. \\'\\hQVii doox., patienter fcrendum.1 fortassc nos tale quid fecimus, quum in
hofvore 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
""Tully's axiom, y^rre ea molestissime homines non debeni, quce ipsorum culpa con-
tractu simt, self do, self have, as the saying is, they may thank themselves. For
lie that doth wrong must look to be wronged again; habet et musca splenem^ et
for-
mica, sua bills inest. The least fly hath a spleen, and a little bee a sting. "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 liis hand into a mouse's nest and hurt her young ones, she
bit him by the finger:
**
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, '^do no wrong to others; if any be done thee, put
it up, with patience endure it, for
^''"
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 bufleted for you faults, ye take it patiently } But if when
you do well, ye sufler wrong, and take it patiently, there is thanks with God ; for
hereunto verily we are called." Qui mala nonfert^ ipse sibi testis est per impatien-
tiam quod bonus non est.^ "he that cannot bear injuries, witnesseth against himself
that he is no good man," as Gregory holds. ^'"-'Tis die nature of wicked men to
do injuries, as it is the property of all honest men patiently to bear them." Impro-
bitas nullojlectitur obsequio. The wolf in the ^emblem sucked the goat (so the
shepherd would have it), but he kept nevertheless a wolf's nature; "^a knave will
be a knave. Injury is on the other side a good man's footboy, his^j^ws Achates^
and as a lackey follows him wheresoever he goes. Besides, misera est forluna qum
caret inimico., he is in a miserable estate that wants enemies
:^^
it is a thing not to
be avoided, and therefore with more patience to be endured. Cato Censorius, tliat
upright Cato of whom Paterculus gives that honourable eulogium, bene fecit quod
aliter facere non potuit, was
^^
fifty times indicted and accused by his fellow citizens,
and as ^"Ammianus well hath it, Quis erit innocens si clam vel palam accusasse
suffi-
ciat? 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-suflering and patient, yet methinks the nature of injury itself is suf-
ticient 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 gams 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.
^^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
;^'^
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, coiUention; the more they strive, tlie 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 fwnore^ and twenty enemies for one. JYoli irrilare cra-
brones^ 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.
^^
I say the same of scofls, slanders, contumelies, obloquies, defamations, detrac-
16
Valer. lib. 4. cap. 1.
WEp.
Q. frat. "Came-
rarius, enib. 75. cen. 2.
'
Pape, inquit : nullum
animal tam pu8ilh n quod non cupiat iilcisci. i^duod
tihi fieri n< ii vis alteri ne feceris.
20
j i>et. ii.
"Siquideni malurum proprium est inferre daniiia, et
!)onorum pedissequa est injuria. "Ainiat. emh.
*
Naturaui exfiellas furca licet usque recurret.
^"
By
itiauy indignities we come to dignities. Tibi subjicito
<|ua; fiuiit aliis. furtum convitia. &:c. Etin iix in te ad-
missis non excandesces. Epictetus.
^s
Plutarch,
quiiiquaaies Catojii dies dicta ab inimicis.
26
Lji). 18.
2' Hoc PCI o pro certo quod si cum stercore certo, vinco
seu vincor, semper ego luaculor.
^s
|,ib. 8. cap. 2
'^1*
Obloquutus est, probruuique tibi intulit quispiam,
sive vera is dixerit, sive falsa, maximaiii tii>i curonam
texueris si mansuete convitiuiii tuieris. Ck"- ys. in }
cap. ad Rom. sur, 10.
382
Cure of
Melancholy. [Part. 2. Sec. 3
lions, oasquilling 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 woult'
reflect on them that ofiered 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 m^ns
madded her more, because she saw that he would not be moved. Diogenes in a
crowd when one call-ed him back, and told him how the boys laughed him to scorn,
Ego, inquH, 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 jElian 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 \\\m, per infaviiam et honam famam grassari ad
immortaUtatem, march on tiirough good and bad reports to immortality,
not to be
moved : for honesty is a sufficient reward, probltas sibi premium
;
and in our times
the sole recompense to do well, is, to do well : but naughtiness will punish itself at
last, ^^Improhls ipsa nequitia suppUcium. As the diverb is,
"Giii beri6 feceruiit, illi sii;i facta sequentur; " I "They that do well, shall have reward at last:/'^
aui male feceruiit, facta sciiuentur eos
:"
|
But they that ill, shall suffer for that's past:"
Yea, but I am ashamed, disgraced, dishonoured, degraded, exploded : my noto-
rious crimes and villanies are come to light [dcprendi miserum est), my filthy lust,
abominable oppression and avarice lies open, my good name's lost, my fortune 's
gone, I have been stigmatised, whipt at post, arraigned and condemned, I am a com-
mon obloquy, I have lost my ears, odious, execrable, abhorred of God and men. Bt
content, 'tis but a nine days' wonder, and as one sorrow drives out another, one pas
sion 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 tlie 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, trea-
son, 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 hiiriself; 'tis heavy,
ghastly, fearful news at first, in every man's mouth, table talk; but after a while
who speaks or thinks of it
.?
Jt will be so with thee and thine ofl^ence, it will be
forgotten in an instant, be it theft, rape, sodomy, murder, incest, treason, &c., thou
art not the first ofl^ender, nor shalt not be the last, 'tis no wonder, every hour such
malefactors are called in question, nothing so common, Quocunque in populo, quo-
cunque sub axef^ 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, de-
served much more, and were far more guilty than thou thyself. But it is thine infe-
licity 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 wouldest peradventure be a saint in com-
parison
;
vexat censura cohwibas, poor souls are punished
;
the great ones do twenty
thouse-^vd times worse, and are not so much as spoken of.
33"
Non rete accipitri tenditur neque iiiilvio, I "The net's not laid for kites or birds of prey,
Q.ui male faciunt nohis ; illis qui nil faciunt tenditnr." | But for the harmless still our gins we lay."
Be not dismayed then, humanum est errare, we are all sinners, daily and houn^
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 juventre ma-
culas prcBclaris factis delevit, but made the world amends by brave exploits
;
H last
soTullius epist. Dolabella, tu fnrti sis animn; et tna 1
s>
Boethius consol. lib. 4. pros. 3. W'Ainongst per
moderatio, constanlia, eoruij infamet iiijuriani.
1
pie in ever) clim.ite."
ss
-j'er. Phor.
Mem 7
^
Remedies against Discontents. 383
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 dm before. JVemo 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
Jit, infectum nor.
potest esse, mat 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, con-
team, or seem not to regard it, to make no reckoning of it, Deesse robur arguit dica-
citas : if thou be guiltless it concerns thee not
:
^* "
Irrita vaniloquiE quid ciiras spicula lingus,
Latraiitfin curatiie alta Diana canem
?"
Doth the moon care for the barking of a dog } They detract, scoff and rail, saith
one,
^
and bark at me on every side, but I, like that Albanian dog sometimes given
to Alexander for a present, vindico me ab ilUs solo contemptu, I lie still and sleep,
vindicate myself by contempt alone. ^^Expers terroris Ackilles armatus: as a tor-
toise in his shell,
^'^
virtute mea me involvo, or an urchin round, nil moror ictus, ^a.
lizard in camomile, I decline their fury and am safe.
"
InK-gritas virtiisqiie suo munimine tuta, I " Virtue and integrity are their own fence.
Noil patet adverscB inorsibus invidiae:"
|
Care not for envy or what comes from thence."
Let them rail then, scoff, and slander, sapiens contumellci non ajicitur, a wise man,
Seneca thinks, is not moved, because he knows, contra Sycophantce morsum non est
remedium, there is no remedy for it : kings ami princes, wise, grave, prudent, holy,
good men, divine, are all so served alike. '^'^OJane dtergo quem nulla ciconia pi/nslt,
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
:
nondu7n
felix es si te nondum turba deridet. It is an ordinary thing so to be mis-
used. '^Kegiu7n est cum bene faceris male audire, the chiefest men and most under
standing are so vilified ; let him take his
""
course. And as that lusty courser in
Ji^sop, that contemned the poor ass, came by and by after with his bowels burst, i
pack on his back, and M'as derided of the same ass : contemnentur ab Us qiios ipsi
priUs contempsere, et irrldebuntur ab Us quos ipsi priiis irriserc, they shall be con-
temned 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, ''^"a good conscience is a continual feast," inno-
cency M'ill 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 prce foribus, my posy is,
"
not to be moved, that
"
my palladium,
my breast-plate, my buckler, with which I ward all injuries, offences, lies, slanders
;
1 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 instruc-
tions, 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
diey 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 pait so irreconcilable as we are, perverse, proud, insolent, factious, and
3<Camerar. emb. 61. cent. 3. "Why should you re- insipientis sermone peiidere ? Tullius 2. de flnibus.
gard the harmless shafts of a vain.speaking tongue j <2|'ua it coiiscientia salvare, in cuhiculum iiigredere
does the e-xalted Diana care for tile barking of a dog ?"
ubi secure requiescas. Minuii se quodammodo probs
"I.ipsiiis elect, lib. 3. ult. Latraut nie jaceo, ac taeeo,
&c. '^Catullus. ^' The symbol of I. Kevenlieder,
a Carinthian baroii, saith Sambucus. 3* The symbol
proba
bonitas conscientis secretum, Boelhius, 1. 1, pros, s
13
Ringantur licet et maledicnnt; Palladium iilud pec-
tori oppono, non moveri : consisto iiiodestia; veiuri 8ij(i
of Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua.
sj
I'ers. sat. 1. iiinitens, excipio et Irango stultissimum impetum livb-
""Magiii jcimi tst injurias despicere, Seneca de ira.i -is. Put<^an. lib. '2. epist. 58.
Hu. 31.
'
Quid turpiiis quaui sapientis vitaiu ex 1
Cure
of
Melancholy. [Part 2. Sec. 3
384
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 pro
voKe and misinterpret to the worst, everything that is said or done, ami tliereupoT
heap unto themselves a great deal of troul)!e, and disquietness to others, sniatlerer.*
in other men's matters, tale-bearers, whisperers, liars, tliey cannot speak in season
or hold their tongues when they should, '**Et sumn parte?n itidem tacere^ cum aliena
est oralto : they will speak more than comes to their shares, in all companies, ana
by those bad courses accumulate much evil to their own souls (qui contendil, sibi
convichmifacit)^ their life is a perpetual brawl, they snarl like so many dogs, with
their wives, children, servants, neiglibours, 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, con-
temn, 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, in-
firmity, disgrace, reproach, the best way is to speak of it first thyself,'"' 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 de-
/brmed 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 sufit;rs him-
self 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, igno-
rance, 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 vain-glory, but with meekness of mind, every man esteeming of others
better than himself: love one another;" or that epitome of the law and the propliets,
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, '"' Hierom commends
to Celantia as an excellent way, amongst so many enticements and worldly provo-
cations, to rectify her life. Out of human authors take these few cautions, """"know
thyself. **Be contented with thy lot.
''^
Trust not wealtn, beauty, nor parasites,
they will bring thee to destruction. ^"H^ve peace with all men, war with vice.
"Be not idle. "Look before you leap. *^ Beware of Had I wist. ^Mlonour thy
parents, speak well of friends. Be temperate in four things, lingua, locis, oculis, el
poculis. Watch thine eye.
*^
Moderate thine expenses. Hear much, speak little.
*i
Mil. glor. Act. 3. Plautiis.
Bion said his
fatlier was a rogue, hi? iiiothtjr a whore, to prpvent ob-
loquy, and to show tliat nougtit belonged to him but
goods of the mind. ^ Lib. S. en. 25. " Nosce teip-
Kum. lecoiilentiis abi.
I'J
Nfe Adas opihus, neque
parasitis, trahiint in preciuitiiim.
'
Pace cum honii-
nibus babe, belluin cua> vitiis. Othn. 2. imperat. symb.
siDsmon te nunquam otiosum inveniat. Hieron-
'^Diu deliberandum quod statuenduin est semel.
ssjn.
sipieiitis est dicere non putarnm. ^ Ames parentem.
si equuni, aliter feras ;
prsstcs parentibus pielatem,
amicis dilcttionem. ^sconiprime linguam. Quid d
quoque viro et cui dicas saepe caveto. l.iibentius audia.
quam loquaris : vive ut vivas
IVTem. 7.]
Remedies against Discontents. 385
^sustine et absfine. If thou seesl ought amiss in another, mend it in thyself. Keep
dune own counsel, reveal not thy secrets, be silent in thine intentions.
*'
Give not
ear to tale-tellers, babblers, be not scurrilous in conversation : *^jest without bitter-
ness : give no man cause of offence : set thine house in order
^
take heed of surety-
ship. ^Fide et dijftde^
as a fox on the ice, take heed whom you trust.
'''
Live noi
beyond thy means.
^'
Give cheerfully. Pay thy dues willingly. Be not a slave to
hy money ;
^^
omit not occasion, embrace opportunity, lose no time. Be humble
o thy superiors, respective to thine equals, affable to all,
^^
but not familiar. Flatter
"
o man.
^^
Lie not. dissemble not. Keep thy word and promise, be constant in a
good resolution. Speak truth. Be not opiniative, maintain no factions. Lay nu
wagers, make no comparisons. ^Find no faults, meddle not with other men's mat-
ters. Admire not thyself
''^
Be not proud or popular. Insult not. Purtunam reve-
rentur Jiabe.
''^
Fear not that which cannot be avoided.
^
Grieve not for that which
cannot be recalled.
Undervalue not thyself
"
Accuse no man, commend no man
rashly. Go not to law without great cause. Strive not with a greater man. Cast
Jiot off an old friend, take heed of a reponciled enemy.
"
If thou come as a guesl
stay not too long. Be not unthankful. Be meek, merciful, and patient. Do good
to all Be not fond of fair words. "Be not a neuter in a faction ; moderate thy
passions. "Think no place without a witness. "Admonish thy friend in secret,
commend him in public. Keep good company. Love others to be beloved thy-
self Ama tanquam osurus. Amicus tardojias. Provide for a tempest. JVb/i 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. "Live merrily as thou canst. "^Take
heed by other men's examples. Go as thou wouldst be met, sit as thou wouldst be
found,
'^
yield to the time, follow the stream. Wilt thou live free from fears and
cares.? '*Live innocently, keep thyself upright, thou needest no otlier keeper, &c."
f
Look for more in Isocrates, Seneca, Plutauch, Epictetus, Stc, and for defect, consult
with cheese-trenchers and painted cloths.
MEMB. VIII.
Against Melancholy itself.
"Every man," saith *' Seneca, "thinks his own burthen the heaviest," and j
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 con-
tinuate, as the
*'^
Vejentes were to the Romans, 'tis hosfis mugis 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 him-
self, when he was grievously sick of the stone, though it was most troublesome, and
tu intolerable pain to him, yet it was no whit offensive to others, not loathsome to
^Epictetus: nptiine feceris si ea fiigeris quae in alio
.eprehendis. Nemitii dixeris quae nolis efferri. ' Fuge
Busurrones. Percontatorem fugito, Sec. "iSint
sales sine vilitatp. Sen. s^Sponde, preslo nnxa.
""
Cainerar. enib. 55. cent. 2. cave cui credas, vel nemini
.das Epicarinus. s'
Tecum habita. Baflisdat
qui ciio dat.
!
post est occasio calva. "
Ni-
niia faniiliarltas paril conteniptU(n. ssMendacium
servile vitiiim.
ss
Arcanum neqiie inscrutaberis
Jllius unquam, commlssumque teges, Hor. lib. 1, ep. 10.
Nee tua 'audabis .<tudia ant aliena reprendes. H(ir. ep.
>lt-. le. ' Ne te qiiffisiveris extra. eegtuit,,,,,
rst tiinere, quod v''ari non potest.
'^
De re ainissa
'teparabili ne doleas. 'I'lartt eris aliis quanli
'
snum onus intolerabile viilotnr
"^
Liviiw.
^9
2 H
tibi fueris. " Neminem esto laudes vel accusew.
^Nullius hnspitis grata est mora longa. 'sSolonis
lex apud. Aristntelem Oellius lib. 2. cap. 12.
'<
Nullum
locum putes sine teste, semper adesse Dcum rogita
'sSecreto amicos admone, lauda palaiii. i^Vt
ameris amabilis esto. Eros et anterosgemelli Veneris,
amatio et redaniatio. Plat. "Dum fata sinunt
vivite la-ti, Seneca.
"'
Id apprime in vita utile, ex
aliis observare sibi quod ex usu siet. Ter. '.l)um
furor in cursn currenti cede furori. Cretizandum cum
Crete. Teniporibus servi, nee contra tiainina (la(o.
M
Nulla certiorcustodia innocentia inexpugnabile nsu-
nimentum innniiiiento non egere.
''i
I'nicuiQu*
386 Cure
of
Melancholy. [Part. 2. Sec. i
the spectators, gnictly, fulsome, terrible, as plagues, apoplexies, leprosies, wound?
sores, tetters, pox, pestilent agues are, which either admit of no company, terrify oi
')ffeiid those that are present. In this malady, that which is, is wholly to them-
selves : and those symptoms not so dreadful, if they be compared to the opposite
extremes. They are most part bashful, suspicious, solitary, &c., therefore no sucli
ambitious, impudent intruders as some are, no sharkers, no conycatchers, nc
prowlers, no sniell-feasts, praters, panders, parasites, bawds, drunkards, whoremas-
ters , necessity and defect compel them to be honest ; as Mitio told Demea in the
**
co.nedy,
'
Hpbc si neqiie ego neque tu fecinius,
Noil si nit ogestas facere nos."
''
If we be honest 'twas poverty made us so
:"
if we melancholy men be not as Gad
as he that is worst, 'tis our dame melancholy kept us so : JVon decrat voluntas sed
facultas.
^*
Bes^ides 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, ''''JYam pal qui maxime cavet., is scppe" 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 tlierefore 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 under-
standing 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, ^^hic furor b superi, sit mihi perpetuus. Some think
fools and dizzards live the merriest lives, as Ajax in Sophocles, JYihil 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 tliink ; 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 ^'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
"*
countries, as amongst the
Turks, honoured for saints, and abundantly maintained out of the common stock.
^'^
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, qw^im
sapere el ringi^ to be wise and still vexed ; better to be miserable than happy : of
two extremes it is the best.
SECT. IV. MEMB. I.
Sub SECT. 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 apotheca-
ries 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 ^"Hector
Boethius relates o^ 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
8Ter. scen.a. Adelpliiis.
^i
"
'Twjis not the will I <iires. BushequiHs. Sands, lib. 1. fol. 89. s^ft^iis
but the way that was w.Tntinfr."
es
Plaufiis. Iioilie hemior, quaiii cui lieiH stiiltuiii esse, et eorMiiiiarD
Pelronius Catul.
*"
Pariiicno Caelestina", Act. 8. iiiiiiiuiiiialibiis tVui. Sat. Menip. ^ Lih. Hifcl
3i itultitia dolur esset, in nulla noii tlomo ejulalus au-
Vlem.
1.] Medicinal Phvsic. S87
itineiarj J' the inhabitants of the Forest of Araen,
*"
" they are very painful, ionjr-
ived, S'/und," kc. "^Martianus Capella, speaking of the Indians of his time, saith
they were (much like our western Indians now) "bigger than ordinarv men, bred
coarsely, very long-lived, insomtich, that he that d:ed at a hundred years of age,
went before his time," &.c. Damianus A-Goes, Saxo-Gramnmticus, Aubanus Bohe-
mus, 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,
'"*"
which is dried fish instead of bread, butter, cheese, ajid salt meats, most part they
drink water and vvhey, 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, ob-
serve as much of this our island, that there was of old no use of
^^
physic amongst
us, and but little at this day, except it be for a few nice idle citizens, surfeiting cour-
tiers, and stall-fed gentlemen lubbers. The country people use kitchen physic, and
common experience tells us, 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 : ^^some think physicians
kill as many as they save, and who can tell, ^Quot Themison cegros auluvino occi-
dcrlt. unoP^
"
How many murders they make in a year," quibus impune licet homi-
ncni 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 church-yard
;
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 them-
selves
;
'twas Pliny's dilemma of old,
'*''
" 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 com-
monwealth, where lawyers and physicians did abound
;
and the Romans (Ustasted
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 ^^Pet. And. Canonherius a patri-
cian 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 re-
ward. 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 im^
posture, uncertainty, and doth generally more harm than good. The devil himself
was the first inventor of it : Inventum est medicina mewn^ 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, Colu-
mella, most of their best medicines were derived from his oracles. iEsculapius his
son had his temples erected to his deity, and did many famous cures
;
but, as Lac-
tantius 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
ScaUger calls Fimbriam Hippocratis; but as '^^ Cardan censures them, both imme-
thodical and obscure, as all those old ones are, their precepts confused, their medi-
cines obsolete, and now most part rejected. Those cures which they did, Paracelsus
holds, were rather done out of their patients' confidence, ""and good opinion they
9'
Parvo viventes laboriosi, longiBvi, siio conienti, ad
centum annos vivunt.. 92
Lib. 6. de Nup. Philol.
Ultra liumaiiam fragilitatem prolixly ut immature pe-
real qui centenarius moriatur, &c.
^3
Victus enrum
caseo et lacle consistit, potus aqua et serum; pisces
loco panis habent ; ita multos annns sspe 250 absque
medico ! medicina vivunt.
si
Lib. de 4. complex.
*
Per mortes aaunt experimenta et animas nostras rie-
goiiantiir
pi
quod aliis exitiale hoiniuem occid*'''" '''"f
iitipunitas summa. Plinius.
"sj^ypj,.
67 Omnis
morbus lethalis aut ciirabilis, in vitatn definit aut iu
mortem. Ulroque igitur modo medicina iiiutilis; si
lethalis, curari iion potest; si curabilis, non nqiiirit
medicum: natura expellet.
'
In interpretationes
politico-morales in 7 Aphorism. Hippoc. lihros.
"9
Pra;-
fat. de coiitrad. med. ""Opinio Cacil niidiios: a fail
g.Twn, a velvet cap, Uis uauie of a doctor is ull in all.
388
'
Cure
of
Melancholy. [Part. 2. Sec. 4.
had of tbem, tlian 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
eceived 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, impostois,
mountebanks, empirics, disagreeing of sectaries, (which are as many almost as theie
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 par
ties' constitution,
'
disease, and causes of it, they give quite contrary physic
5
''''one
.saith this, another that," out of singularity or opposition, as he said of Adiian, mul-
iiliido mcdicorum principcm interfecit,
"
a multitude of physicians hath (idled the
Muperor
;"
plus a medico quam a morho periculi,
"
more danger there is from the
physician, than from the disease." Besides, there is much imposture and malice
'imongst them. "All arts (saith "Cardan) admit of cozening, physic, amongst the
rest, doth appropriate it to herself;" and tells a story of one Curtius, a physician
HI Venice : because he was a stranger, and practised amongst them, Uie re^t of the
f)hysicians did still cross him in all his precepts. If he prescribed not medicines
,hey would prescribe cold^ viiscentes pro calidis
frigida^i pro frigit is humida., pro
purgantihus astringentia., binders for purgatives, omnia perturhahani. If the party
miscarried, Curtium dcminabant, Curtius killed him, that disagreed fr* m them : if he
recovered, then '' they cured him themselves. Much emulation, int^,osture, maHce,
there is amongst them : if they be honest and mean well, yet a ki j,ve apothecary
ihat administers the physic, and makes the medicine, may do infin ie harm, by his
old obsolete doses, adulterine drugs, bad mixtures, quid pro quo, S^i . See Fuchsius
lib. 1. sect. 1. cap. 8. Cordus' Dispensatory, and Brassivola's Ex Men simpl. <Sr,:.
But it is their ignorance that doth more harm than rashness, their a. 1, is wholly con-
jectural, if it be an art, uncertain, imperfect, and got by killing of men, they are a
kind of butchers, leeches, men-slayers; chirurgeons and apothecarii i especially, that
are indeed the physicians' hangman, carnifices, and common exec*, doners ; though
to say truth, physicians themselves come not far behind
;
for accor-mg to that facete
epigram of Maximilianus Urentius, what's the difference ?
"
Chinirgiciia medico quo differt ? scilicet isto,
Eiieciit hie siiciis, enecat ille iiiaiui :
Cariiifii-e hoc umbo tatitiiin differre videntur,
Tardius hi faciuiit, quod facit ille cito."
But I return to their skill ; many diseases they cannot cure at all, as apoplexy,
epilepsy, stone, strangury, gout, Tollere nodosum nescit medicina Podagram ;
"
quar-
.an agues, a common ague sometimes stumbles them all, they cannot so much as
3ase, they know not how to judge of it. If by pulses, that doctrine, some hold, is
wholly superstitious, and I dare boldly say with 'Andrew Dudeth, "that variety of
pulses described by Galen, is neither observed nor understood of any." And for
urine, that is meretrix medicoruvi, 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, 8cc. The most rational of them, and skilful, are so often deceived, that
as "^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 Baby-
lonians, 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 Au-
banus 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; ^"One
cured the eyes, a second the teeth, a third the head, another the lower parts," Sec,
not for gain, but in charity, to do good, they made neither art, profession, nor trade
Lib. 3. de sap. Oinnes arles fraudem admiltiiiit, sola iiec a quoquam iiitellif;i, nee ob.servari posse. 8i,j(,.
medicina sponte earn accersit. <Omfiis jEf,'rotus, I
2H. cap. 7. syntax, art. niirab. Mallem ego expertis
propria culpa porit.sed nemo nisi medici beneficio resti-
<
credere solum, quam mere ratiocinantibus: neque
tuitiir. Agrippa.
"
How does the surgeon differ
|
satis laudare possum iiistitutum Babylonicum, &c.
<'rom the doctor? In this respect: one kills by drugs, i
Herod. Eu'terpe de Egyptiis. Apud eos singuloruiD
the oliier by the hand ; both only differ from the hang- i morhorum sunt singuli medici ; alius curat orulos, alin*
nan in this way, they do slowly what he does in an in- dentes, alius caput, partes occulcas al'Us.
tant
"
"
Medicine cannot cure the knotty gnut."
>leip I. Subs. 2.]
Medicinal Physic.
339
of it, \\'hich in other places was accustomed : and therefore Cambyses in '"Xenophon
lold 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 cavil-
ling 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 distinguisli the abuse from the use, in this and many other arts and sciences :
"n^liud vinwm., aliud chriclas., wine and drunkenness are two distinct things. I
acknowledge it a most noble and divine science, in so much that Apollo, iEsculapius,
and the first founders of it, merllo pro diis habiti., were worthily counted gods by suc-
ceeeding ages, for the excellency of their invention. And whereas Apollo at Delos,
Vcnu= at Cyprus, Diana at Ephesus, and those other gods were confined and adored
alone in some peculiar places: A^-sculapius and his temple and altars everywhere, in
Corinth, Lacedaemon, Athens, Thebes, Epidaurus, &c. Pausanius records, for the
latitude of his art, diety, 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 sliall be admired. The Lord hath created medicines of the
earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them," Eccies. Iviii 1. But of this noble
subject, how many panegyrics are worthily written.^ For my part, as Sallust said
of Carthage, prcRstat silere, quam pauca dlccre ; 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 1
say, than that which Arnoldus prescribes in his 8. Aphoris.
'-'^
A discreet and goodly
physician doth first endeavour to expel a disease by medicinal diet, than by pure
medicine:" and in his ninth, '^"he that may be cured by diet, must not meddle
with physic." So in 11. Aphoris. ""'A modest and wise physician will never hasten
lo use medicines, but upon urgent necessity, and that sparingly too
:"
because (as
he adds in his 13. Aphoris.) '^"Whosoever takes much physic in his youth, shall
soon bewail it in his old age
:"
purgative physic especially, which doth much debi-
litate nature. For which causes some physicians refrain from the use of purgatives,
or else sparingly use them.
'
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 cacochyniia," which "Celsus and others observe,
or ill digestion, and bad juice through all the parts of it. Galen himself confesseth,
'^"
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 cor-
dials no man doubts, be they simples or compounds. I will amongst that infinite
variety of medicines, which I find in every pharmacopoeia, every physician, herb-
alist, '&.C., single out some of the chiefest.
SuBSECT. II.
prosiltiil dicenda, and as our poets drink sack to improve their inven-
tions
(1
find it so registered by Agellius lib. 17. cap. 15.) Carneades the academic,
when he was to write against Zeno the stoic, purged himself with hellebore first,
which
^^
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
*Crato and some junior physicians. Their reasons are, because Aristotle I. I. dp
plant, c. 3. said, henbane and hellebore were poison ; and Alexander Aphrodiseus, in
the preface of his problems, gave out, that (speaking of hellebore)
^'^
"
Quails fed on
that which was poison to men." Galen. I. 6. Epid. com. 5. Text. 35. confirms as
much: ''^ Constantine the emperor in his Geoponicks, attributes no otlier virtue to
it, than to kill mice and rats, flies and mouldwarps, and so Mizaldus, Nicander of
old, Gervinus, Sckeukius, and some other Neoterics that have written of poisons,
speak of hellebore in a chief place,
'l^
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. ^"Gariopontus lib. 1. cap. 13. Codronchus com. de helle.b. Fallopius
lib. de med. pitrg. simpl. cap. 69. et consil. 15. Trincavelii, Montanus 239. Friseme-
lica consil. 14. Hercules de Saxonia, so that it be opportunely given. Jacobus de
Dondis, Agg. Amatus, Lucet. cent. 66. Godef. Stegius cap. 13. HoUerius, and all our
herbalists subscribe. Fernelius metli. med. lib. 5. cap. 16.
"
confesseth it to be a
*'
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. Rhaeis, commends a receipt of his own
preparing ; Penottus another of his chemically prepared, Evonimus another. Hilde-
she'm 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 ""^ 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
^
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 sub-
stance : the receipt is there to be seen ; his excrements were like ink,
'*''
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
weet medicine, an easy, that may be securely given to women, children, and weak-
Engs. Baracellus, horto geniali, terms it maximce prcestantia medicamentum., a medi-
^ PseuJolo ant. 4. seen. ult. hellehoro hisce hoininibus
opus est.
34
Hor.
36
i Satyr.
^
Crato
eoiiail. 16. 1.2. Etsi multi magni viri probent, in bonain
ariem accipiant medic;, non probern. s'
Vescun-
tur veratro coturnices quod hoininibus toxicuin est.
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
"Contra eos qui lingua vulgari er vernacula remedia I lib. 2. cap. 19. MRenodeus, lib. 5. cap. 21. dft his
et medicanienta prsscribunt, Pt quibusvis cominunia Mercurialis lib. 3. de coniposit. med. cap.24. Heurnius.
hciunt. "Quig_ quantum, quando. "Fernelius,
|
lib. 1. prax. med. Wecker, &.c.
i04 Cure
of
Melancholy. [Part. 2. Sec. 5
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 Iiand 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 T have said, is not only in choice of meat and drink, but of all those other
non-natnral tilings. 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
^^
Rhasis saith,
"
and thou
hast finished the cure." Exercise not too remiss, nor too violent. Sleep a little more
than ordinary. ^Excrements daily to be voided by art or nature; and which Fer-
nelius enjoins his patient, consll. 44, above the rest, to avoid all passions and pertur-
bations 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, Lau-
rentius, cap. 8. et 9. de mela. MYian 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 Bohetam., 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. Platter, Stokerus, Bruel. P. Baverus, Forestus, Fuchsius, Cappivaccius,
Rondoletius, Jason Pratensis. SuUust. Salvian. de remed. lib. 2. cap. 1. Jacchinus, in 9
Rhasis, Lod. Mercatus, de Inter, morb. cur. lib. Leap. 17. Alexan. Messaria, j^rac/. med.
lib. \.cap.2\. de mel. Piso. HoUerius, &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. Renerus Soli-
nander, consil. 6. sec. 1. et consil. 3. sec. 3. Crato, consil. 16. lib. 1. iVIontanus 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, Frambe-
sarius, Sennertus, &c. Wherein he shall find particular receipts, the whole method,
preparatives, purgers, correcters, averters, cordials in great variety and abundance
:
out of which, because every man cannot attend to read or peruse them, I will colled
for the benefit of the reader, some few more notable medicines.
Sub SECT. II.
Blood-letting.
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 Pi.so, cap. 23. and Altomarus, cap. 7. Fuchsius, cap. 33.
*^
"
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,
^*
" 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 horse-leeehes
on the head, and in all melancholy diseases, whether essential or accidental, they
cause the hasmorrhoids to be opened, having the eleventh aphorism of the sixth
6Cont. lib. 1. c. 9. f(!stines ad impinguationeni, et
|
nisi ob alias causa? sanguis inittatur, si multufi i*
rum impinguantur, reinovetur malum.
^ Beueficiuni i vasis, &c. frustra enim fatigatur corpus, &,c.
'*'
"on>
veiitris. ^' Si ex primario cerehri affectii mnlan- I petit its phlebotomia frontis.
etioliri evasorint, sanguinis detractione uon indigent.
Mom. 1. Subs.
3.j
Preparatives and Purgers.
406
book of Hippocrates for their ground and warrant, which saith,
"
That in melan
eholy and mad men, the varicose tumour or haemorroids appearing doth heal th<i
same." Valescus prescribes blood-letting in all three kinds, whom Sallust. Salvian
follows.
^^'''
If the blood abound, which is discerned by the fulness 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,
"r 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 foreliead, or provoke il
,ut of the nostrils, or cupping-glasses," &c. Trallianus a''iows of this,
^^'-
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 ankle?
"
Yet he doth hardly
approve of this course, if melancholy be situated in the head alone, or in any other
dotage, ^'''except it primarily proceed from blood, or that the malady be increased
by it ; for blood-letting refrigerates and dries up, except the body be very full of
blood, and a kind of ruddiness in the face." Therefore 1 conclude with Areteus,
*^
''
before you let blood, deliberate of it," and well consider all circumstances be-
longing to it.
SuBSECT. III.
Aiierlers.
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 ttiose 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 mucli good; Clysteres mitriunt, sometimes clysters nou-
rish, as they may be prepared, as 1 was informed not long since by a learned lecture
of our natural philosophy
^^
reader, which he handled by way of discourse, out ot
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 baihe them with warm
water. Instead of ordinary frictions. Cardan prescribes rubbing with nettles till they
blister the skin, which likewise ^"Basardus Visontinus so much magnifies.
Sneezing, masticatories, and nasals are generally received. Montaltus c. 34. Hil-
desheim spicel. S.fol.
136 and 238. give several receipts of all three. Hercules de
Saxonia relates of an empiric in Venice
^' *'
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, ^^"If they have been
formerly stopped." Faventinus would have them opened w^ith horse-leeches, so
would Hercul. de Sax. Julius Alexandrinus consil. 185. Scoltzii thinks aloes fitter:
"
most approve horse-leeches in this case, to be applied to the forehead,
^
nostrils,
and other places.
Montaltus cap. 29. out of Alexander and others, prescribes
^^
" cupping-glasses, and
MQuercetan.cap. 4. Phar. Osvvaldus Crolliiis. MCap.
1. Licet tola Galeiiistarum scliola, miiieralia noii sine
ihtpio et iiigrato fastu a sua practica detestentur ; tamen
in gravioribus inorbis omiii vegetabilium derelicto sub-
sidin, ad miiieralia confugiunt, licet ea teinere, igiiavi-
ter, et inutiliter usurperit. Ad fineiii libri.
*^
Veleres
maledictis iucessil, vincit, et contra omnem antiquita-
tein toronatur, ipseque a se victor declaratur. Gal. lib.
1. metli. c. 2.
86 Oulr.inchus de sale absynthii.
*
Idem Paracelsus in mediciua, quod Lutherus in Ttieo-
logia.
SBDjsput. in eundem, parte 1. Majus ebriiis,
illiteratus, dsnioiiem prJEceptorem habuit, daemones fa-
miliares, &c.
eg
Master D. Lapworth.
> Ant.
Pliilos. cap. de raelan. frictio vertice, &c.
9' Aqua
fortissima pursrans os, nares, quani non vult a;iro vi^n-
dere.
^
Meriurialis consil 6. et 30. hajrnorr jiduin et
niensium provocatio juvat, niodo ex eoruni suppreseione
nrtuin tiabuerit.
M
Laurentius, Bruel, &c
'^
P.
Bayerus, 1. 2. cap. 13 naribus, &c.
6 Uucurbituj
siccu;, ct fontaneilce crure sinistro.
408 x^ure
of
Melancholy. Tart. 2. Sect 5
issues in, the left thigh." Aretus lib. 7. cap. 5. ^Paulns Regolinus, Sylvius vvil*
have them without scarification,
"
applied to the shoulders and back, thighs and feet:'*
"
Montaltus cap. ;^4. "bids open an issue in the arm, or hinder part of the head.**
"'Piso enjoins ligatures, frictions, suppositories, and cupping-glasses, still without
scarification, and the rest.
Cauteries and hot irons are to be used ^"in the suture of the crown, and the
seared or ulcerated place suffered to run a good while. 'Tis not amiss to bore ihe
skull with an instrument, to let out the fuliginous vapours." Sallus. Salvianus de re
medic, lib. 2. cap. 1.
'""^
because this humour hardly yields to other physic, would
have the leg cauterised, or the left leg, below the knee,
'
and the head bored in two
or tiiree places," for that it much avails to the exhalation of the vapours; ^"I saw
l^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 excel-
lently cured." Another, to the admiration of the beholders,
^"
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.
'"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 brain-
pan 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. l.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, ^"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. and 19 and 25. Montanus 86,
Rodericus a Fonseca torn. 2. consult. 84. pro hypochond. coxa dextrd, <^c., but most
in the head,
"
if other physic will do no good."
SuBSECT. V.
Love
of
Men, which varies as his Objects,
Profitable, Pleasant,
Honest.
Valesius, lib. 3. confr. 13, defines this love which is in men, "to be ^^an affec-
tion 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 afiected of both, and carried a thousand ways by consent. The sensitive
faculty most part>()verrules reason, the soul is carried hoodwinked, and the under-
standing captive like a beast. ^^"The heart is variously inclined, sometimes they
are merry, sometimes sad, and from love arise hope and fear, jealousy, fury, despera-
tion." Now this love of men is diverse, and varies, as the object varies, by which
ihey 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 Aris-
81
Mantuan. 82Charitas munifica, qua mercamur
de Deo regnum Dei.
m
Polanus partit. Zanchius
dc iiatura Dei c. 3. copiose de hoc nmore Dei agit.
M
Nich. Bellus, discurs. 28. de amatoribus, virlutem
provocat, conservat pacem in terra, tranquillitateni in
ap're, ventis \x iliam, &c.
"*
Cumerarius Emh. JOU.
een. 2. Dial. 3. 8'Juven. osGen.
1.
wCaussinus. soTheodoret 6 Plotino.
si
Where
charily prevails, sweet desire, joy, and Icfve towards
God are also present."
'^
Ati'ectus nunc appetitivai
potentiaj, nunc ralionalis, alter cerebro residet allei
hepaie, corde, Sec. MCor varie iticlinatur, nunc
tiaudens, nunc mcerens; statira ex tiinore DLMitttf
Zelotypla, furor, spes, desperft'o.
Viem. 'i. Subs, .j
Ohjecis
of
Lot 431
totle 6elike 8. moral.) of which he discoursetli at large, and whatsover is beautiful
.111(1 lair, is '-fferred to them, or any way to be desired. '^^''To profitable is abscribed
Neallb, wealth, honour, &.c., which is rather ambition, desire, covetousness, than
ove
:"
friends, children, love of women, ''^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 iionest. ^'^ St. Austin calls
"
profitable, worldly
;
pleasant, carnal ;
honest,
pinlual. ^'Of and from all three, result charity, friendsliip, 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 lair enticing objects, which procure love, and bewitch the soul
>'
m-dti 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, aflectioned, and bound in all duty: tell him good tidings in this
kind, there spoke an angel, a blessed hour tliat brings in gain, he is thy creature,
and thou his creator, he luigs and admires thee ; he is thine for ever^ No loadstone
so attractive as that of profit, none so fair an object as tliis of gold;
^*
nothing wins a
man sooner than a good turn, bounty and liberality command body and soul:
'
Munera (crede mihi) placant horiiinesque deusque
;
Placatur doiiis Jupiter ipse datis."
'Good turns dnlli pacify both God and men,
And Jupiter liiinsulf 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 iniuermir, saith Austin, and we had rather sec it than the
sun. Sweet and pleasant in getting, in keeping; it seasons all our labours, intole-
rable pains we take for it, base employments, endure bitter flouts and taunts, long
journeys, heavy burdens, all are made liglit and easy by this hope of gain: ^t mihi
plaudo ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in area. The sight of gold refresheth
our spirits, and ravisheth our hearts, as that Babylonian garment and ^'golden wedge
did Achan in the camp, the very sight and hearing sets on tire 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
'"
he well observed, the mass of gold is fairer than all your Grecian pictures,
that Apelles, Phidias, or any doaiing painter could ever make : we are enamoured
with it,
*"
Prima fere vota, et r.unrtis notissima templis,
Divitia; ut crescant."
All our labours, studies, endeavours, vows, prayers and wishes, are to get, ho\*
to compass it.
"
HiPC est ilia cui famulatur maximns nrbis,
Diva potens rerum, doniilrixque 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, des^
perate, 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
<
Ad Utile sanitas refertur; utilium est ambitio,
tupldo desiderium potiiis quam amor excessiis avR.-ilia.
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, ^PuJcherri-
mam insulam videmus, etiam cum non videmus, we see a fair island by description,
when we see it not. The ^sun never saw a fkirer city, Thessala Tempe, orchards,
gardens, pleasant walks, groves, fountains, &c. The heaven itself is said to be '"fair
or foul: fair buildings, "fair pictures, all artificial, elaborate and curious works,
clothes, give an admirable lustre: we admire, an'^ gaze upon them, ut pueri Junonis
avem, as children do on a peacock : a fair dog, a fair horse and hawk, &.C. '^Thcs'
salus amat equum puUinum, buculum ^Egyptius, Laccdczmonius Catuluvi, 4'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
Lucianiis Timon. *Perg. "The bust of a
|
serermm. cobIiiiii visum fEEdum. Polirl. lib. 1. de .^tiglia
beautiful woman with the tail of a fish." > Part. 1. " Credo equntem vivos duceiit e inarmore vultua
Bee. 2. memb. sub. Vi.
i
1 Tim. i. 8. Lips, epist. '=
Max. Tynus, ser. 9.
{''(undeiio.
d
Inland of 8t E<liiioiiUsbury. '"Cffiluiul
Mrm. 2. Subs.
2.] Ohjects
of
Love. 433
on them over much, this pleasure may turn, to pain, bring much sorrow and discon-
kint unto us, work our final overthrow, and cause melancholy in the end. Many
are carried away with those bewitcliing sports of gaming, hawking, hunting, and
such vain pleasures, as
"*
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,
vi'hich are infinitely varied to please the palate, the epicure on his several pleasures,
the superstitious on his idol, and lats himself with future joys, as Turks feed them-
selves with an imaginary persuasion of a sensual paradise : so several pleasant ob-
jects 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, (^qiiod me tJh'i temperat aslrum?) They do
singularly dote on such a man, hate sucli again, and can g've no reason for it. '''JVoM
amo te Sabidi.,
8fc.
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 "heir genitures, love
and hatred of planets; '^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 '^Gomesius, princes and great men entertain jesters and players com-
monly in their courts. But ^'' Pares cum paribus facillime congregantur^ 'tis that
'^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 oppo-
site in manners, they can seldom agree. Secondly,
'^
aflability, custom, and fami-
liarity, may convert nature many times, though they be different in manners, as if
thoy be countrymen, fellow-students, colleagues, or have been fellow-soldiers, ^"bre-
thien in affliction,
('^'
acerba calamitatum socletas, diversi efiam ingenii homines con-
jungit) affinity, or some such accidental occasion, though they cannot agree amongst
themselves, they will stick together like burrs, and hold against a third; so after
some discontinuance, or death, enmity ceaseth
;
or in a foreign place :
"
Pascitiir in vivis livor, post fata quiescil
:
Et cecjdere odia, et tristes mors obruit iras."
A third cause of love and hate, may be mutual offices, accepfum bencficium^
^
com->
mend him, use him kindly, take his part in a quarrel, relieve him in his misery, thoii
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
^^
Schoppius by Scali-
ger and Casaubonus : mjilus mulum scabit.; who but Scaliger with him
.?
what enco-
miums, epithets, eulogiums ? Jlntistes sapienli.cp^ perpetuus dictator, literarum
ornamentum, EuropcB miraculum, noble Scaliger,
^^
incredibilis ingenii prcBStantia,
Sfc, diis potius quam hominibiis per omnia comparandus, scripta ejus aurea ancylia
de ccelo delapsa poplitibus veneramur Jlexis,^^ S^c, but when they began to vary,
none so absurd as Scaliger, so vile and base, as his books de Burdonumfamilid, and
other satirical invectives may witness. Ovid, in Jbin, Archilocus himself was not
so bitter. Another great tie or cause of love, is consanguinity : parents are dear 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 porfenti simile, if they do not :
^"a
mother cannot forget her child :"^^Solomon so found out the true owneri; 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 chil-
^'
Tart 1. sec. 2. memb. 3. " Mart. "
Omnif.
mag. lib. 12. cap. 3.
wDe sale geniali, 1. 3. c. 15.
I'
Theod. Prodromus, amor. lib. 3.
'8
Similitude
moruin parit amjcitiam. i9Vives3..de anima.
"KQ,!!!
simul fttcere naufragium, ant una pertulere vin-
cula vel eonsilii coiijiirationisve societate jungiintur,
inviccm amaiit : Brutum et Cassium invicem infensos
Cajsarianns dominatus cniiciliavit. iEmilius Lepidus
t Julius Flaccus, quum essent inimicissimi, censores
renunciati siinultates illico deposuere. Scultet. cap. 4.
55 2M
de causa amor.
i"
Papinius. "
Isocrates
demoiiico prscipit ut quum alicujus amicitiam velle-
ilium laudet, quod laus initium amoris sit, vituperatio
-simultaium.
^'i*
Suspect leet. lib. i. cap. 2. 2i"Tti5
priest of wisdom, pprpetual dictator, ornament of lite-
rature, wonder of Kiirope." 2
Oli incredible excf.'-
lence of genius, &c., more comparable to gods' than
man's, in every respect, we venerate youi writings on
bended knees, as we do the shield that fell from he
ven," *> Isa. xlix.
434 Love-Melancholy. [Part, o Sec i.
dren, of
^^
d'sagreeing brothers, nothing so common. The love of kinsmen is grown
cold, '^"many kinsmen (as the saying is) few friends;" if thir.e estate be good, and
-hou able, par pari rcferre, to reqnite their kindness, there will be mutual corre-
spondence, otherwise thou art a burden, most odious to them above all others. Th^
last object that ties man and man, is comeliness of person and beanj^y alone, as men
love women with a wanton eye: which zar' t^ox^t^is termed heroical, or love-melan-
choly. 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 sliall be
dilated apart in the next section.
SuBSECT. III.
Honest Objects
of
Love.
Beauty is the common object of all love,
^^"
as jet draws a straw, so doth beauty
love
:"
virtue and honesty are great motives, and give as fair a lustre as tho rest,
especially if they be sincere and right, not fiicate, 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 llattering
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 virlutis et umbra, when as reveru and indeed, there is no worth
or honesty at all in them, no truth, but mere hypocrisy, subtilty, knavery, and the
like. As true friends they are, as he that Cslius 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, tliat they are taken for men of excellent worth, wisdom, learning, demi-
gods, 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 com-
monwealth, overthrew themselves and others. Tandlerus and some authors make a
doubt, v/hether 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^"] shall elsewhere discuss. The true object of this honest love is virtue,
wisdom, lionesty, "'real worth, Interna
forma,
and this love cannot deceive or be
compelled, ut ameris amabilis esfo, love itself is the most potent philtrum, virtue and
wisdom, gratia gratum facicns, the sole and only grace, not counterfeit, but open,
honest, simple, naked, ^^''' 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 pre-
sence, 1 Sam. ix. 1. Joseph found favour in Pharaoh's court. Gen. xxxix, for
''^
iiis
person
;
and Daniel with the princes of tlie eunuchs, Dan. xix. 19. Christ was gra-
cious 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 vuJl, undt
vulf, he pulls them to him by speech alone : a sweet voice causeth admiration ; and
he tiiat 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 poeta-
rum, 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 minJ
denominate them fair. Plato commends the beauty of Socrates; yet who was more gnivr^
of countenance, stern and ghastly to look upon.? So are and have been many great phi-
i"
Rara est coiiciirdia fratriini. "SGrad. ]. cap 2i. I hnrniiie prolio. ''' James iii. 10. "^flratic
* Vives 3. (Ic aiiiiiia, ut paleain succiiiuiii sic fHrinaiii
i
pulchro veiiieiis ^ corpore vjrlus.
amor trahit. *Secl. seq.
''
Niiiil divinius i
Hnn. 2 Subs.
3.]
Honest Objects
of
Love. 435
.'<
gophers, as ** Gregory Nazianzen observes, "deformed most part in that which is to
tve seen with the eyes, but most elegant in that wliich is not to be seen." ScBpe sub
utlriUi latitat sapientla veste. ^Esop, Democritus, Aristotle, Politianus, Melancthon,
'iesner, &c. withered old men, Sileni Jllcibiadls, 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 superjicient, to the
^ye, as
^^
Boethius observes, but he had Corpus turpissirnum interne, a most deformed''^
loul ; honesty, virtue, fair conditions, are great enticers to such as are well given,
and much avail to get the favour and good-will of men. Abdolominus in Curtius, a
poor man, (but which mine author notes,
^^
"
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, iiijecta ei vestis purpunl auroque distincta, "a purple embroidered garment
was put upon him, ^''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 con-
dilionc'i, of so sweet a carriage, that he was generally beloved of all good men, of
Ciesar, Pompey, Antony, TuUy, of divers sects, &c. multas hcBreditates
(^^
Cornelius
I\ epos writes) sola, bonitate consequutus. Operce pretlum audire., ^c. It is worthy
of your attention, Livy cries,
"^
" 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,
''
Ilaephestion loved Alexander, but Parmenio
the kmg: Titus deUcics Immani generis, and which Aurelius Victor hath of Vespatian,
the darling of his time, as
"
Edgar Etheling was in England, for his
''^
excellent vir-
tues : their memory is yet fresh, swe-'t, and we love them many ages after, though
they be dead : Suavem me?noriam sui reliquit, saith Lipsius of his friend, living and
dead they are all one. ''^"I have ever loved as thou knowest (so Tully wrote to
Dolabella) Marcus Brutus for his great wit, singular honesty, constancy, sweet con-
ditions ; and believe it ''''there is nothing so amiable and fair as virtue." "I '''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 8tth Psalm,
''''
there is a peculiar beauty of jus-
tice, and inward beauty, which we see with the eyes of our hearts, love, and are
enamoured with, as in martyrs, though their boches be torn in pieces with wild
beasts, yet this beauty shines, and we love their virtues."
f
Tlie
^'^
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
*^
Xenophon, especially deserve the
name of beauty, and denominate one fair, e< incomparabiliter pulchrior est (as Austin
holds) Veritas Christianormu qua?n Helena Grcecorum. "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 mer-
chandise 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 com-
pared to her," Prov. ii. 13, 14, 15, a wise, true, just, upright, and good man, I say
it again, is only fair: ''^it is reported of Magdalene Queen of France, and wife tcr"^
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, ^"hard-favoured
81
Oral. 13. deformes plerunique philosnplii ad id quod
In aspHctiim cadit ea parte elegantes qiuc ociilos fiigit.
5
43 (le cnnsol.
S"" Causa ei paiiperlalis, philosophia,
Bicul plerisque piobitas fiiit. sT^lilue corpus et
cape regis auimum, et in earn fortunani qua dignus es
contiiientiain istam profer. s-^Vitaejns. 39Q(,j
Dr^ divitiis humana spernunt, nee virtuti locum putant
nisi opes affluant. Q,. Cincinnatus consensu patruni in
dictatoreni Romanuni electus. ''''urtius. "Edgar
Stheling, England's darling. ^^Moruin suavitas,
obvia comitas, pronipta officia mortaliuin aniinos de-
merentur *3Epist. lib. 8. Semper aniavl ut tu scis,
M. Bruuun propter ejus summum in(;eniuni, suavissi-
nios mores, singularem probitatem et constantiam;
nihil est, niilii crede, virtute forniosius, nihil aniabiliusi.
^^Ardentes amores excitaret, si simulacrum ejus ad
oculos penetraret, Plato PhcBdone.
^s
Epjgt. lib. 4
Validissime diligo virum rectum, disertiiin, quod apud
me potentissimum est.
^^
Est quffidam pulchrituilo
justitiae quam videmus oculis cordis, aniamus, et exar
descinius, ut in martyrihus, quum eorum ineuihra
besliiE lacerarent, etsi alias deformes, &c.
"
Lipsiu*
manuduc. ad Phys. Stoic, lib. 3. difi" 17. solus sap en*
pulcher. '^Fortitudo et prudenlia piilcliritud nih
iitudein pjEcipue norentiir.
i*
Franc. Belforisl is
hist. an. 1430. ^ Brat autem fcede deformis, et ei
430
Love-Mclanclwly.
[Part. 3. Sec. L
man fast asleep in a bower, and kissed him sweetly, when the young ladies laughed
at her ibr it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did embrace and reve-
rence, but, witli a platonic love, the divine beauty of
^'
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 fol-
lowed u])on earth as Christ himself: and as the Psalmist saith, xlv. 2,
''He was
fairer than the sons of men." Chrysostom Horn. 8 in Mat. Bernard Ser. 1. de. omni-
his Sanctis; Austin, Cassiodore, Hier. in 9 Mat. interpret it of the *^ beauty of his
pl;^^on ; 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. Jcsu et Maria;,
adding as much of Joseph and the Virgin Mary, hcec alias forma
prcBcesserit
onmes, *'' 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:
ApoUonius travelled into ^Ethiopia, Persia, to consult with the Magi, Brachmanni,
gymnosophists. The Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon ; and
"
many, saith
"^
Hierom, went out of Spain and remote places a thousand miles, to behold that
eloquent Livy
:"
^^Multi Romam non ut urhem pulcherrimam, aut urbis et orbis dojni-
nwii Octavianum, sed ul hunc unum inviserent audirentque, d Gadibus profecti sunt.
No beauty leaves such an impression, strikes so deep, ^or links the souls of men
closer liian virtue.
s' "
Not) per deos aut pictor posset,
Aut statuariiis ullus finpcre
Talem puli^hritudiiieiii iiualom 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 quarebant Mcibiadem; but the beauty of Socrates is still the same;
"*
vir-
tue'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. ^^"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,
60"
Voile et nolle ambobiis 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
'
David and Jonathan, Damon
and Pythias, Pylades and Orestes, ^^Nysus and Euryalus, Theseus and Pirithous,
'^they will live and die together, and prosecute one another with good turns. ^Wm
vinci in amore tiirpissimum putani, not only living, but when their friends are dead,
with tombs and monuments, Nenias, epitaphs elegies, inscriptions, pyramids, obe-
lisks, statues, images, pictures, histories, poems, annals, feasts, anniversaries, many
ages after (as Plato's scholars did) they will parenfare still, omit no good office that
may tend to the preservation of their names, honours, and eternal memory. ^Ullum
colorihis., ilium cerci, ilium cere., 8jC.
"
He did express his friends in colours, in wax,
m brass, in ivory, marble, gold, and silver (as Pliny reports of a citizen in Rome),
forma, qua citius pueri terreri possent, qtiam invitari
ad isciilum puella;.
ei
Deformis iste etsi videatiir
senex. divinum animum habet. ^SFulgeliat vultu
8uo: fulgor et divina majestas homines ad se trahons.
" "
She excelleil all others in beauty."
^4
Prsjefat. hib.
vulgar. s' Pars inscrip. Til. Livii status; Patavii.
Sophocles.
37
He divides I he empire of the sea
with Thetis, of the Sliades, with .^acus, o" t>>e
Heaven, with Jove." 3Tom. 4. ''Dial, deorum,
torn. 3. '"Quippe matrem ipsius quihus modis
me afficit, nunc in Idam adigens Anchisie causa, &c.
"
Jampridem et plagas ipsi in nates incussi sandalio.
*-
Altopiliis, fol. 7i>.
*^
Nullis amor est medicnbilis
herbis.
Plutarch in Amatorio. Dictator auu
creato cessant reliqui magistraius.
*Iein 1 Subs.
l.J
Love''s Puxer and Extent. 445
lamiliar examples ma} be proved, especially of palm-trees, which are both 1 e ana
she, and express not a sympathy but a love-passion, and by many observations have
been confirmed.
45"
vivunt in venerem frondes, omnisque vicissim
Felix arbor amat, nutaiit et miitiia palms
Fcedera, popiileo suspirat populiis ictii,
Et platano platanus, alnoque assihilat ainus."
Constantine de Agric. lib. 10. cap. 4. gives an instance out of Florentius his
Georgics, of a palm-tree that loved most fervently,
"^
" 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,
re-
ports that they marry one anotlier, 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.1 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
"'Constantine, "stroke many palms that grow together, and so stroking again the
palm tliat 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 .
*^"
which are enamoured, they can perceive
by the bending of boughs, and inclination of their bodies." If any man think this
w'hich 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 JYova repert. Tit. I. de novo orbe, Mizaldus Arcanorum lib. 2. Sand's
Voyages, lib. 2.fol.
103. S^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
!
.., , . . .. r I
"
All kind of creatures in the earth,
""Omne adeo genus in terns hominiimqiip frrarum,
And fihes of the ^ea
Et genus aequoreum, pecudes. picta-que volucres
^,,j -^^^^
^^^^^ ^j^
^'
3,;^
In furias ignemque ruuni ; amor omnibus idem.
|
^.j^J^ 1^^^ ^^^^^ equal sway."
M"
Hie 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 equa-
rum.
^'
" Cupid in Lucian bids Venus his mother be of good cheer, for he was now
familiar with lions, and oftenthnes 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 espe-
cially cocks,
*^
lions, and harts, which are so fierce that you may hear them fight
half a mile ofl^, saith ^^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 aflbrds him such great delight. How birds
aiti affected in this kind, appears out of Aristotle, he will have them h:> sing obfutu-
ram venerem, for joy or in hope of their venery which is to come.
W'iEeriffi primum volucres te Diva tuumque
Significant initum, percuiss corda tua vi.'
''
Fishes
and are
Significant initum, percuiss corda tua vi."
pine away for love and wax lean," if ^^Gomesius's authority may be taken,
rampant too, some of them: Peter Gellius, lib. 10. de hist, animal, tells
'^Claui^iaa descript. vener. aula. "Trees are in-
fluenced 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."
"i
Neque prius in iis desiderium cessat dum dejectus
consoletur; videreenim est ipsain arborem incurvatam,
ultroramis ab utrisque vicissim ad osnulum exporrectis.
IWanifesta dant riiutui desiderii signa.
"
Multas
palnias contingens qus siniul crescunt, rursusque ad
amantem regrediens, eamque manu attingens, quasi
usi'.uluni mutuo luiiiistrare videtur, et expediti concu'
bitus gratiam facit. leCiuam vero ipsa desidere*
aflectu ramorum significat, et adullam respicit; aman
tur, &c. Virg. 3. Georg MFropertius.
^i
Dial,
deorum. Confide mater, leonibus ipsis fanriliaris jam
factiis sum, et saepe conscendi eorum terga et appre-
hendi jubas; equorum more insidens eos agito, et illi
mihi caudis adblandiuntur.
62 Leones prs amore
furunt, Plin. I.8.C. 1(5. Arist. 1. 6. hist, animal.
i>3
0ap.
17. of his book of hunting.
^4
Lucretius.
'^
De
sale lib. I. c. 21. Pisces oh amorem marcescunl, pallcs-
cunt, &C. ,
2N
4 4G Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2
w onders of a triton in Epirus : there was a well not far from the shore, m here the
country wenches fetched water, they, ^^tiitons, stupri causd would set upon them
and carry them to the sea, and there drown them, if they would not yield
;
so Iovp
tyranniseth in dumb creatures. Yet this is natural for one beast to dote upon an-
other of the same kind ; but what strange fury is that, when a beast shall dote upon
a man.? Saxo Grammaticus, lib. 10. Duv. hist, halh 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 : Julian, Pliny, Peter Gillius, are full of such relations. A pea-
cock in Lucadia loved a maid, and when she died, the peacock pined.
*'"
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, jEgypt. lib. 15. a dolphin at
Puteoli loved a child, would come often to him, let him get on his back, and carry
him about, "^^and when by sickness the child was taken away, the dolphin died."
69uygj.y
book is full (saith Busbequius, the emperor's orator with the grand signior,
not long since, e.p. 3. legal. Tare.)., and yields such instances, to believe which 1
was always afraid lest I should be thought to give credit to fables, until 1 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, ^""-and when he took his last farewell,
famished herself." Such pretty pranks can love play with birds, fishes, beasts
:
6'(" CcElestis itheris, pntiti, terrte claves liabet Venus,
Solaque istorutii omniiiiii imperiuin otitiiiet.")
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 lasciviouus 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. 1 know that Biarmannus, Wierus, lib. 1. cap. 19.
et 24. and some others stoutly deny it, that the devil hath any carnal copulation withr'^
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. do. civil. Dei^
doth acknowledge it : Erastus de Lamiis, Jacobus Sprenger and his colleagues, &,c.
*^Zanchius, cap. 16. lib. 4. de oper. Dei. Dandinus, in Jirisl. de Jlnimd., lib. 2. lexl. 29.
com. 30. Bodin, lib. 2. caji. 7. and Paracelsus, a great champion of this tenet amongst
the rest, which give sundry peculiar instances, by many testimonies, proofs, and con-
fessions evince it. Hector Boethius, in his Scottish history, hath three or four such
examples, which Cardan confirms out of him, lib. 10. cap. 43. of such as have hai.
familiar company many years with them, and that in the habit of men and women
Philostratus in his fourth book dc vita Jipollonii., 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 iiim home to her
house in the suburbs of Corinth, and told him she was a Phoenician by biith, and
if he would tarry with her, '^''"he should hear her sing and play, and drink such
M
Haiiriendae aqus causa venientfs ej insidiis a , derium suum testatus post inediam aliquot, diprum
Tritoiie cnmprehensiB, &c.
s'
Pliri. I. 10. c. 3. quuiii- iiiteriit.
ci
Orpheus liyiniio Veti.
"
Venus keeps the
que ahorta lemposlate periisset Hernias in sicco picis keys of the air, earth, sea. and she alone retains thn
expiravit. '"Postquum puer morbo ahiit, i'. ipse
|
command of all." "'^Clui hfRC in atrSE bills aut
deipliinus periit. ^gpiefii sunt lihri quib'>s ferie in i Imaginallonis vim referre conati sunt, nihil faciunt.
noinines inflammatae fuerunt, in quibu r-gn quidcni I
^3
Cantantein audies et vinum bibes, qmie antea nun.
einper assensum siistinui, verilus ne fabulosa crede-
|
quam hibisti ; te rivaiis turbabit nullus puldira auiem
rem; Donee vidi lynceni quern habui nb Assyria, sic pulchro autem pulchro contents vivam ct m >rii>r
iffrctum erga unum de meie hominibuc, Sec i^Dvsi-
Mem.
1. "^ubs .j
Lovc''s Power and Extent. 447
wine as never any drank, and no man should molest him
;
but she being fair and
lonely 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 pas-
sions, 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,
oy some probable conjectures, found her out to be a serpent, a lamia, and that all h^r
furniture was like Tantalus's gold described by Homer, no substance, but mere illu-
sions. 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 :
^^
"
many thousands took notice of tiiis 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: '^'"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.
^
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 din-
ner with the bride and his friends went a walking into the fields, and towards even-
ing 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 loth to make his com-
pany 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 follow-
ing niglUs. 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 cammanded her to deliver his ring, which forthwith she did, and so the gentle-
man was freed. Many such stories I find in several
^''
authors to confirm this which
I have said ; as that more notable amongst the rest, of Philinium and Machates in
^
Phlegon's Tract, de rebus 7)urabllUms, and though many be against it, yet I, for my
part, will subscribe to Lactantius, lib. 14. cap. 15. ^^"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 Anaxagoras, de resurrect.
"^
Many of those spi-
ritual bodies, overcome by the love of maids, and lust, failed, of whom those were
born we call giants." ^Vjustin Martyr, Clemens Alexandrinus, Sulpitiu? Severus,
Eusebius, &c., to this sense make a twofold fall of angels, one from the oeginning
of the world, another a little before tlie deluge, as Muses teaclieth us,
"
openly pro-
fessing tliat these genii Can beget, and have carnal copulation with women. At Japan
M
Mulli factum hor cognnvere, quou in meaia Gitpcia i misit ad tutelain cultumque generis Iminani ; sad illoa
l^rstiim sit.
''^
Rem curaiis dniiiesticam, iit ante,
pcperit aliquot lilieros, semper tameii trislis et pallida.
6
lliec audivi a ninltis fide difi'iis qui asseverahaiit dii-
cem Bavarian eadem retulifse Duci Siiyuni^ pro veris.
SI
Fabiila Uimaiati ei Aiistonis in Herodolo lib. 6.
Kraio.
""
liii.erpret. Mersr
<!
Oeus Angelus
cum hominibus commoraiiies, doniinator ille terri-E sala-
cissimus paulatiiii ad vitia pellexit, et iniilieruni con
gressibus inqiiinavit. (iiii.iam ex illo capti sun
arnore vjrginiim, el libidine vicli itefecerant, ex qiii'mi
t'lgantes qui vocantur, iiali sunt.
"'
Pererius m
Gen. lib. 8. c. 6. ver. 1. Zaiic. Sec.
448 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3 Sect. 2
in the East Indies, at this present (if we may believe the relation of ''^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 foloqui, or church, where she
sits alone to be deflowered. At certain times "the Teuchedy (which is thought to
be the devil) appears to her, and knoweth her carnally. Every month a fair virgin
is taiven in ; but what becomes of the old, no man can tell. In that goodly templf
of Jupiter Belus in Babylon, there was a lair chapel,
'^
saith Herodotus, an eye-wit-
ness of it, in which was splcndide stratus Icctus et apposila mensa atirea^ a brave
bed, a table of gold, Stc, 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 Tlw;bes 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 witn
"
Lipsius, that since
"
examples, testimonies, and confessions, of those unhapp^"
women are so manifest on the other side, and many even in this our town of
Louvain, that it is likely to be so. "One thing I will add, that I suppose that
in no age past, I know not by what destiny of this unhappy time, have theie
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. JVmnce., Austin de civ.
Dei. lib. 15. Wierus, lib. 3. de prcesfig. Dcpin. Giraldus Cambrensis, itinerar.
Camb. lib. 1. Malleus, ?nalejic. qucBsi. b. part. 1. Jacobus Reussus, lib. 5. cap. 6.
fol.
54. Godelman, lib. 2. cap. 4. Erastus, Valesius de sacra philo. cap. 40. John
Nider, Formcar. lib. 5. cap. 9. Stroz. Cicogna. lib. 3. cap. 3. Delrio, Lipsius
Bodine, dcBmonol. lib. 2. cap. 7. Pererius in Gen. lib. 8. in 6. cap. ver. 2. King
James, &c.
Sub SECT. II.
iEtliiop. 1. 3.
=1
Atheneus, lib. 8.
ss
Apuleius
Aur. asiiio. saghakspeare. 3' Marlowe.
s"
Ov.
Met. 1.
S9
0vid. Met. lib. 5.
^ "
And with her
baud wiping off the drops from her green tresses, thus
began to relate the loves of Alpheus. I was formerly an
Achaian nymph."
<i
Leiand. " Their lips resound
with thou.~and kisses, their arms are pallid with the
close embrace, and their necks are mutually entwined
by their fond laresses." "Anserianus.
'^
Si
longe aspiciens hsc urit lumiue divos atque homines
prope, cur urere lina nequit ? Angerianus.
2o2
402 Love-Melancholy. iTart. 3. Sec. 2.
oi 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 liot when naked Ccelia came into it,
Miramur quis sit tantus et unde vapor,'''''*^ S,-c. But of all the tales in this kind, that
is the most memorable of
*^
Death himself, when he should have strucken a swset
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, stupified many times at the first sight of beauty, amazed,
*^as that fisherman in Aristaenetus tliat spied a maid bathing herself by the sea-side,
<'"Soliiia mihi sunt omnia membra
A capite ad calcem. sensiisqiie omnis periit
De pectore, tarn immensus stupor aniiiiam invasit mihi.
And as ^^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 ''^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. ^"Miseri quibus in-
tentala nites, poor wretches are compelled at the very sight of her ravishing looks to
'un mad, or make away with themselves.
""They wait the sentence of her scornful eyes;
And whom she favours lives, the other dies."
^^Heliodorus, lib. 1. brings in Thyamis almost besides himself, when he saw Cha-
.iclia first, and not daring to look upon her a second time,
"
for he thought it impos-
sible for any man living to see her and contain himself'J 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,
^^
long journeys.
Penia or Atalanta shall not overgo them, through seas, deserts, mountains, and dan-
gerous 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.
"
mis Trojam qui forte diebus
Venerat insano Cassandrse 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
^'^
Graecian gods forsook their heavenly mansions
for that fair lady, Philo Dioneus daughter's sake, the paragon of Greece in ihose
days ; ea enim xienustate
fidl.,
ut earn certatlm omnes dii conjugem expeterent :
"
for
she was of such surpassing beauty, that all the gods contended for her love." ^''For-
mosa divis imperat puclla.
"
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
^
Hero came abroad, the eyes, hearts, and affections of her spectators were
still attendant on her.
" "
Et niedios inter vultus supereminet omnes,
Perque urbem aspiciunt venieiitem numinis instar."
'
So far above the rest fair Hero shined.
And stole away the enchanted gazer's mind."
'^When Peter Aretine's Lucretia came first to Rome, and that the fame of her beauty,
ad urbanarum deliciarum seclatores venerat, nemo non ad videndam earn., Sfc. was
spread abroad, they came in (as they say) thick and threefold to see her, and hovered
44 "
We wonder how great the vapour, and whence it
comes." ' Idem Anger. <' Obstupuit mirabundas
membrorum elegantiam, &c. Ep. 7.
"
Stohajiis e
griEco. "My limbs bucame relaxed, I was overcome
from head to foot, all self-possession fled, so great a
stjipor overburdened my mind."
**
Parum abfiiit quo
minus saxuni ex homine factus sum, ipsis statuis im-
mobilioreni me fecit. " Veteres Gorgonis fahulain
ftonfinxerunt, eximium forma; decus stupidos reddens.
Artificial allurements
of
Love., Causes and Provocations to Lust;
Gestures., Clothes., Doiver, S^c.
Natural beauty is a stronger loadstone of itself, as you have heard, a great temp-
tation, and pierceth to the very heart;
^*
forma verecii.ndce nocuit mihi visa puella:
;
but much more when those artificial enticements and provoct. -ons of gestures,
clothes, jewels, pigments, exornations, shall be annexed unto it; thoso other circum-
stances, opportunity of time and place shall concur, which of themselves alone were
all sufficient, each one in particular to produce this eflfect. It is a question much
controverted by some wise men, forma debeat plus arti an natures? 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 sup-
pressed, 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.
5S"
Sic deptata sibi videtur ^gle,
Empti's ossihijs Indicoqiie cornu
;
Sic qiire nijrrior est cadente moro,
Cerussata si hi placet Lychoris."
'
So toothless Mg\e seems a pretty one,
Set out with new-hoiight 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 Avhereas (saith he) at our coming to Brazil, we found both men and women
naked as they were born, without ^ny covering, so much as of their privities, and
could not be persuaded, by our Frenchmen that lived a year with them, to wear any,
"'\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 gar-
ments, 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, aiul stronger provocations proceed from out-
ward 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 forci-
ble than it was, when those curious needleworks, variety of colours, purest dyes,
jeM'els, spangles, pendants, lawn, lace, tiffanies, fair and fine linen, embroideries,
calamistrations, ointments, &.c. 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
62
Nee mirum si reliqiios morbos qui ex contagione
nascunlur considereniiis, pestem, pruritum, scabiem, &c.
K>
Lucretius.
"
And the body naturally seeks whence it
is that the mind is so wounded by love." "In
beauty, that of favour is preferred before that of
colours, nd decent motion is more than that of favour.
Bacon's Essays.
e5
jyiartialis.
66
Multi tacit e
opinantur commercium illud adeo frequens cum bar-
baris nudis, ac presertim cum fceminis ad libiriinem
provocare, at minus multo no.\ia illorum nuditas quam
nostrarum fcBminarum cultus. Ausia; asseverare splcn
didum-illum cultum, fucos, &c.
Mem. 2. Sabs.
3.J
Artificial Allurements.
471
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
^^
Baradius, that ever lived, but withal so modest, so chaste, that wno-
soever looked on them was freed from that passion of burning lust, if we may
iielieve ^^Gerson and ^^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 ^Apuleius, Juno came
with majesty upon the stage, Minerva gravity, but Venus dulce subridens, constitit
amcRne ; et gratissimce. Gratlce deam propitiant.es, <S(-c. came in smiling with her gra-
cious graces and exquisite music, as if she had danced, et nonnunquam saltare solis
ocuUs, 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,
61"
Soon could I make my brow to tyrannise,
And forc" 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 man^
times, and understand one another's meanings, before they come to speak a word
*^Eurialus 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 sujfragari, and gave consent with a pleasant look. That
**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
^^
Salvianus observes,
"
the eyes are the win-
dows 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, ^""Qiiid procacibus intuere occllis? <^c. I may say the
same of smiling, gait, nakedness of parts, plausible gestures, &c. To laugh is l)Jie
proper passion of a man, an ordinary thing to smile ; but those counterfeit, com-
posed, 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 then
favour ; sure she loves them, she is willing, coming, &c.
"
Stultus quando videt quod pnlclira puellula ridet,
Turn 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,
'duis credaf discunt eliam ridere pucllse,
Qucerilur 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.
'
"subrisit molle puella.
Cor tibi rite salit."
"She makes thine heart leap with ^^a pleasing gentle smile of hers."
63"
Dulce ridi'ntem Lalagen amabo,
Dulce loquentein,"
"
I love Lalage as much for smiling, as for discoursing," delectata ilia risit tarn
hlandum, as he said in Petronius of his mistress, being well pleased, she gave so
sweet a smile. It won Ismenius, as he
confesselh, /s??ierte 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
''
Faustus the shepherd. Me
6'
Harmo. evangel, lib. 6. cap. 6.
's
Serni. de
eoncep. Virg. Physiognomia virginis omnes movei ad
castitatem. 533.
gent. d. 3. q. 3. mirum, virgo
forniosissima, sed a nemine concupita.
^o
Met. 10.
" Rosamond's complaint, by Sam. Daniel. jEneas
Silv. 63
Heliodor. I. 2. Rodolphe Thracia tam
'nevitabili fascino instructa, tam exacte oculis intueiis
attraxit, ut si in illam quis incidisset, fieri non posset
quin caperetur. 64
Lib. 3. de providontia : Animi
fenestra oculi, et omnis improba cupiditas per ocellos
tanquam canales introit.
65
Buchanan. 660vid
de arte tmandi.
67
Per,?. 3 Sat.
68
Vel centum
Charites ridere putaret, Museus of Hero.
68
jjcr.
Od. 22. lib. 1.
T>
Eustathius, I 5.
'1
Mantuaw
472 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2
aspicif.nn viotis blande subrisit ocellis. All other pfestures of the body will enforce
as much. Daphnis in '^Lucian was a poor tattered wench when I knew her first,
said Corbile, pannosa et laccra., but now she is a stately piece indeed, hath her niaida
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 car
riage, affability, sweet smiling upon all," &c. Many women dote upon a man foi
his compliment only, and good behaviour, they are won in an instant; too credulous
to believe that every light wanton suitor, wlio 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."
''^^^Urit voce, manu, gressii., pcctore^fronte, oculisP When art shall be annexed
to beauty, when wiles and guiles shall concur ; for to speak as it is, love is a kmd
of legerdemain
;
mere juggling, a fascination. When they show their fair hand, i.ne
foot and leg withal, magnum sid desiderium nobis rcUnquunt, saith '''Balthazar
'
/,ts-
tilio, lib. 1. they set us a longing, "and so when they pull up their petticoats, tnd'
outward garments," as usually they do to show their fine stockings, and thos' of
purest silken dye, gold fringes, laces, embroiderings, (it shall go hard but when t'ley
go to church, or to any other place, all shall be seen) 'tis but a springe to catch
woodcocks; and as '''' Chrysostom telleth them downright, "though they say nothmg
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 iuut
only to tempt men to lust
!
W"
Nam quid lacteolus sinus, et ipsas
PriE te fers sine linteo papiilas ?
Hoc est dicere, posce, posce, trado;
Hoc est ad Venerein vocare ainanles."
There needs no more, as
"
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,
'8"
Look out, look out and see I In rich and gaudy clothes,
Wliat object this may be
|
But whither away God knows,
That doth perstriiige mine eye; look out, &c., et qua; sequuntur,"
A gallant lady goes
|
or to what end and purpose
.J*
But to leave all these fantastical raptures, I'll prose-
cute my intended theme. Nakedness, as I have said, is an odious thing of itseli^
remedium amoris; yet it may be so used, in part, and at set times, that there can be
no such enticement as it is
;
79"
\e^ niihi cincta Diana placet, nee nuda Cythere,
Ilia voluptalrs nil habet, hue nitnium."
David so espied Bathsheba, the elders Susanna : ^"Apelles was enamoured with Cam-
paspe, when he was to paint her naked. Tiberius in Suet. cap. 42. supped widi
Sestius Gallus an old lecher, li.bidinoso scne, ed lege ul nudce puellce administrarent,
some say as much of Nero, and Pontus Huter of Carolus Pugnax. Amongst tht
"Tom. 4. merit, dial. Exnrnando seipsam eleganter,
facilem et hilarem se gerendo erga cunctos, ridendo
suave ac blandum quid, &,c. " Angerianus.
'
Vel
si forte vestimentum de industria elevetur, ul pedum
ac tibianim para aliqua conspicialur, duni templum aut
'ocum aliquem adicrit.
">
Seruione, quod non
nemina' viris cohabilent. Non loquula es lingua, sed
(oquiita es gressu : non loquuta es voce, sed oculis lo-
>)uula es clarius quAm voce.
'^
Jovianus Pontanus
Baiar. lib. 1. ad H. rmionein. " For why do you exhibit
j
est
"our
uiilky way,' your uncovered bosoms ? What else
i
is it but to say plainly, Ask me, ask me, I will surren-
der; and what is that but love's call?" "Deluxu
vestiuni discurs. 6. Niliil aliiid deest nisi ut prreco vos
pr;ecu(lat, &c. "*lf you can tell how, you may sing
this to the tune a sovv-geldi^r blows.
'"
Auson
epig 28. "Neither draped Diana nor naked Venus
pleases me. One has too much voluptiiousiieSN about
hei. the othernone."
Plin. lib. 33. cap. 10. Gain-
paspen nudam picturui< Apelles, araore ejus illaauent'it
Mem. 2. Subs.
3.]
Artificial Allurements. 473
Babylonians, it was the custom of some lascivious queans to dance frisking m that
fashion, saith Curtius lib. 5. and Sardus de mor. gent. lib. 1. writes of others to that
effect. The
^'
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, etiajn coram agentes, ut ad venerem inciiareni:
So things may be abused. A servant maid in Aristaenetus spied her master and mis-
tress through the key-hole ^^ merrily disposed; upon the sight she fell in love with
her master. ^''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 J
might; which she by chance overhearing, replied as impudently, '*Qic9?</(i libeL
licet., thou mayest 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 car-
riage of it.
When you have all done, uenmn/ a veste sagittce^ the greatest provocations of lust
are from our apparel ; God makes, they say, man shapes, and there is no motive like
unto it
;
86"
Which ddth even beauty beadtify,
And most hewitch a wretched eye,"
a filthy knave, a deformed quean, a crooked carcass, a maukin, 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 Itixii
rice aucupium., one calls it, the first snare of lust ;
^
Bossus aucupium a.nim,aru7n,
leihalem arundinem, a fatal reed, the greatest bawd, ybr^c lenocinium., sanguineis
lachrymis deplorandum., saith
"
Matenesius, and with tears of blood to be deplored.
Not that comeliness of clothes is therefore to be condemned, and those usual orna-
ments : 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 pro-
digious 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 needle-works,
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, ear-rings, chains, girdles, rings, pins, spangles, embroideries,
shadows, rebatoes, versicolour ribands .' why do they make such glorious shows
with their scarfs, feathers, fans, masks, furs, laces, tiffanies, rufis, 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 ^^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?
*^
Dum moliunfiir, dum comuntur., annus est : a
^
gardener takes not so much delight
tnd 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 daynet catcheth larks, to make young men stoop unto them ?
Philocharus, a gallant in Aristenaetus, advised his friend Poliaenus to take heed of
uch enticements,
^'
" for it was the sweet sound and motion of his mistress's
*'
In Tj'rrhenisconvivii^, nudse mulieresministrahant.
*Arnitoria iniscentes vidit, et in ipsis complexibiis
audit, &c. emersit inde cupido in pectus virginis.
8Epist. 7. Iib.2. eigpartian. 5 Sidney's Arcadia,
"o
Dp immod. mulier. cullu.
^7
DIscurs, 6. de liixu
vestiuni.
'6
Petrnnins fol. 95. quo pppctaiit ftpxs
eoinee? quo facies medicamine attrita et oculorum
mollis petulantia? quo incessus tarn compositi! *, fce.
MTer. "They take a year to deck and comb them-
selves" 8P. Aretine. Hortulanus nnn ita exercctur
visendis horlis, eques equis, armis, nauta navihus, ic.
s'
Epist. 4. Sonus armillarum bene sonantium. o^or
unguentoruni, &.C.
60
2P2
474 Love-Melancholy. [Part 3. Sec. 2
spangkr'
^1(1
bracelets, the smell of her ointments, that captivated Lim first, Illafuii
mentis prima ruina mecE. Quid sibi vult pixidum turba, saith
^^
Lucian,
"
to what use
are pins, pots, glasses, ointments, irons, combs, bodkins, setting-sticks ? why bestow
they all their patrimopies and husbands' yearly revenues on such fooleries?" ^^bina
pitlrimonia singulis aurihus ; "why use they dragons, wasps, snakes, for chains,
pnamelled jewels on their necks, ears?" dignuin potius foret ferro manus istas reli-
gari^ alque uiinam monilia vere dracones essent ; they had more need some of them
be tied in HpfUam with iron chains, have a whip for a fan, and hair-cloths next to
tbeir skms, 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 stufi"? ^''"Because forsooth they would be fair and fine, and where
nature is defective, supply it by art."
^
Sanguine quce vero non rubel^ arte rubet,
(Ovid); and to that purpose they anoint and paint their faces, to make Helen of
Hecuba parvamque exortamque puellam
" Auferimur cultu, et gemmis, auroque teguntur | And with a strange tire we are won.
Omnia
;
pars minima est ipsa puella sui." (Whilst she's the least part of herself)
I
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 ipscB.
a
"For wliat is beauty if it be not seen.
Or what is't to he seen if not admir'd.
And though admir'd, unless in love desir'd?"
whv do they go with such counterfeit gait, which ^Philo Judaeus reprehends them
for, and use (I say it again) such gestures, apish, ridiculous, indecent attires, sybari-
tical tricks, fucos
gents, purpurissam venis, cerussam fronti, leges occults,
&fc.
use those
sweet perfumes, powders and ointments in public; flock to hear sermons so frequent,
is it for devotion ? or rather, as
*
Basil tells them, to meet theii sweethearts, and see
fashions; for, as he saith, commonly they come so provided to that place, with such
WTom. 4. dial. Amor, vascula plena niulta; infelici-
tatis omneni niaritorum opulentiam in h<ec inpendunt,
dracones pro monilihus habent, qui utinam vere dra-
cones essent. Lucian.
ssgeneca. s^Casliliode
aulic. lib. 1. Mulierihus omnibus hoc imprimis in votis
est, ut formosBR sint, aut si reipsa non sint, videantur
lamen esse; et si qua parte iiatura defuit, artis sup-
petias adjungunt: unde illfe faciei unctiones, dolor et
crnciatus in arctandis corporibus, &c. s^Ovid. epist.
M'll. Jasoni. ^''''A distorted dwarf, an Europa."
'
Modo caudatas tunicas, &c. Bossus. Mgcribanius
philos. Christ, cap. 6. '" Ter. Eunuc. Act. 2. seen. 3.
loostroza fil.
i
Ovid. ^g. Daniel. sLiU.ds
victimis. Fracto iucessu, obtuitu laseivo, oalamistrata.
cincinnata, fucata, recens lota, purpurissata, pretioso
quo amicta palliolo, spirans unguenta, ut juvenum
aiiiinos circumveniat.
"
Orat. in ebfios. Impu-
denter se masculorum aspectibus e.yponunt, insnienter
comas jactantes, frahunt tunicas pedibus nllidentes,
oculoque petulanti, risu effiiso, ad tripu Jium insr.ni-
entes, omnem adoleseentum intemporantiani in se pro
vocantes, idque in templis menioriie martyrum conse-
cratis; poniusrium civitatis officinaiii (ycrunt im
pudentie.
Mem. 2. Subs.
3.j Artificial Allurements. 475
curious compliments, with such gestures and tires, as 't'they shoBld go to a dancing
school, a stage-play, or bawdy-house, litter than a church.
"
When such a sliepriest comes her mass to say,
Twenty to one they all forget to pray."
''
They make those holy temples, consecrated to godly martyrs and religious i:ses,
the shops of impudence, dens of whores and thieves, and little better than brothel
.louses." When we shall see thf se things daily done, their husbands bankrupts, il
not cornutos, their wives light h< dsewives, daughters dislionest ; and hear of such
dissolute acts, as daily we do, hi w should we tliink otherwise .?
what is their end,
but to deceive and inveigle young men ? As tow takes fire, such enticing objects
n' oduce their effect, how can it be altered
.''
When Venus stood before Anchises fa.s
*
Homer feigns in one of his hymns) in her costly robes, he was instantly taken,
Cum ante ipsum staret Jovis filia, videns earn I " When Venus stood before Anchises first,
Anchises, admirahatur formam, et stupeiidas vestes
;
He was amaz'd to see her in her tires;
Erat enim induta pepio, igneis radiis splendidiore; For she had on a hood as red as fire,
'-Jabebat quoque torques fulgidos, flexiles hcelices, And glittering chains, and ivy-twisted spires,
Teneruin collum aniliiebant monilia pulchra, About her tender neck were costly brooches,
Aurea, variegata."
I
And necklaces of gold, enaraell'd ouches."
So when Medea came in presence of Jason first, attended by her nymphs and ladies,
as she is described by ^ApoUonius,
'
Cunctas vero ignis instar seqnebatur splendor, I " A lustre followed them like flaming fire,
Tantntr ab auieis fimbriis resplendebat jubar, And from their golden borders came such beams,
Accenditque in oculis dulce de.siideriuni."
|
Which in his eyes provok'd a sweet desire."
Such s relation we have in ''Pl'utarch, when the queens came and offered themselves
to Ai.tony,
*
" 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 trans-
formed themselves to Bacchus shapes, the men-children to Satyrs and Pans ; but
Antony himself was quite besotted with Cleopatra's sweet speeches, philters, beauty,
jjleasing 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" Helio-
dorus, lib. 1. brings in Dameneta, stepmother to Cnemon,
"
whom she saw in big
scarfs, rings, robes, and coronet, quite mad for the love of him." It was Judith's
pantofles that ravished the eyes of Holofernes. And '"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 "Naomi
give Ruth counsel how to please Boaz .^ and '^Judith, seeking to captivate Holo-
fernes, washed and anointed herself with sweet ointments, dressed her hair, and put
3n costly attires. The riot in this kind hath been excessive in times past ; no man
almost came abroad, but curled and anointed,
13"
Et matutino suadans Orispinus amomo."
(Quantum vis redolent duo funera."
'
one spent as much as two funerals at once, and with perfumed hairs,"
'*
et rosa
canos odorati capillos Assyriaque nardo. What strange thing doth
'^
Sueton. relate
in this matter of Caligula's riot.? And Pliny, lib. 12. & 13. Read more in Dios-
"orides, Ulmus, Arnoldus, Randoletius de fuco
et decoratione
;
for it is now an art,
as 11 was of old, (so
'^
Seneca records) officince
sunt odores coquentium. Women are
bad and men worse, no diflference at all between their and our times; '^"good man-
ners (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, hcec vir, more like players, butterflies, baboons, apes, antics, than
men. So ridiculous, moreover, we are in our attires, and for cost so excessive, that
ds Hierome said of old, Unofilio
villarum insunt pretia, uno lino decies sestertiiim
Hymno Veneri dicato. Argonaut. 1. 4.
i
Vit.
Anton.
Regia domo ornatuque certantes, sese ac
turniam suain Antonio ofTerentes, &c. Cum ornatu et
incredibili pompa per Cydnuni fluvium navigarent
aurata puppi, ipsa ad similitudinem Veneris ornata,
uuells Gratiis similes, pueri Cnpidinibus, Antonius ad
visum stupefactus.
Amictiim Chlamyde et coronis,
quum nrimam aspexit Cuemonem, ex potestate mentis
excidit.
i"
Lib. de lib. prop.
'i
Ruth, iii. 3
"Cap. ix. 5. "Juv. Sat. 6.
h
Hor. lib. 2. Od. 11
16
Cap. 27. "Epist. 90. " Quicquid est boni
moris levitate extinguitur, et politura corporis mullie-
bres munditias antecessimus colores meretricios virt
siiniimus, tenero et molli gradu suspendimus gradum
non ambulamus, nat. quiEst. lib. 7. cap. 31.
*76 Love-Melancfioly.
I
Part. 3. Sec. Z
inseriltj' '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, scarfs, bands, cufls. Sec, in a short space their whole patri-
monies 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 '^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 '^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 ^"Bernard's counsel: "shine in jewels, stink in condi-
tions
;
tiave 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, brace-
lets, 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 '^'Cyprian adviseth,
"
that while they wander too loosely abroad,
they lose not their virginities
:"
and like Egyptian t.emples, seem fair without, but
prove rotten carcases within. How much better were it for them to follow that
good counsel of Tertullian
.?
^^"To have their eyes painted with chastity, the
Woru 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
chasiiiy, and so painted, they shall have God himself to be a suitor : let whores and
queans prank up themselves,
^^
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, vir-
tuous, and religious matrons, let sobriety, modesty and chastity be your honour, and
God himself your love and desire." Mulier recii^ 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 plain-
ness, and seem fairer than they that are set out with baubles, as a butcher's meat is
with pricks, pufled 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
^''
more soli-
citous 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 common-
wealth turned topsyturvy 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,
^''
Honcsta
nmlieris instar quce uiitur auro pro eo quod est., ad ea tanlum quibus opus csl, 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 perad-
18
Liv. lib. 4. dec. 4.
'
Quid pxultas in pulchritu-
oine panni ? ftuid gloriaris in geinniis ut facilius in-
/itesad libidinosiim incendium? Mat. Bossus de iin-
moder. malie. cultu. MEpj^t. 113. fulgent nionilihus,
moribus sordent, ptirpurata vestis, conscientia pannosa,
eap. 3. 17.
2'
De vir^inali hutiitu : duin oriiari cui-
lius, duni evagari virgines volunt, desinunt esse vir-
lines. Clemens Aiexandrinus, lib. de pulclir. aniins,
bid.
2'
Lib. 2. de cultu inuiieruin, oiiulos depiclos
erecundia, inferentes in aures serinonem dei, annec-
nteii crinibus juguin Clirisii, caout mariiis subjicien-
tes, sic facile et satis eriti? ornatsc: vestite vos serico
probitatis, hyssino sanctitatis, purpura pudiciltai; tali-
ter pjgnientalffi deum habebitis aniatorem. ^sgung
habeant Rurnanx lascivias; purpurissa, ac ceiussa ora
perungant, fcinienta libidinum, et cnrruptn; mentis in-
dicia ; vestrtini ornamcntuni deus sit, pudicitia, virtutit
studium. Bossus Plautus. 24Sollicitiores de capifin
sui decore quam de salute, inter peclincni et specuiuni
diem perdunl, concinniores esse malunt quam honesti-
(ires, et rempiib. minus turbari curant 'juam coiuam.
Seneca.
^
Lucinn.
Mem. 2. Subs. 3.] Artificial Alluremerui. 477
venture damn their own souls ? How much more would it be for their honour and
credit ? Thus doing, as Hierom said of Blesilla,
^^
" Furius did not so triumph ovei
the Gauls, Papyrius of the Samnites, Scipio of Numantia, as she did by lier tern
pjerance
;"
pulla semper veste, ^c., tliey should insult and domineer over lust, folly
vain-glory, all such inordinate, furious and unruly passions.
But 1 am over tedious, I confess, and whilst 1 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 sagittce^ money makes tlie
match
;
^^
M.ovbv apyupoi/ ^KiTiovoLv : '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 ^^care not for honesty, bringing up, birth, beauty
person, but for money.
'
Canes et equos (6
Cyme) qutErimus
NoliilHS, et a bona progenie;
Malain vero uxorem, maliquo patris filiam
Ducere non curat vir bonus,
Modo ei niagnam dotem aflferat."
'
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 tliey 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 ; aslnum auro onustwn; 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 hei
sake, but for her lands or money, and an excellent match it were (as he added) it
she were away. So on the other side, many a young lovely maid will cast awa>
herself upon an old, doting, decrepit dizzard,
30 "
Bis puer efTcoto quamvis balbutiat ore.
Prima legit rarse tarn culta roseta puellffi,"
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 ^' money, she will have him before all other suitors,
^^
Dummodo sit dives
barbarus ilk 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 ; Galesmus de monte aureo. Sir Giles
Goosecap, Sir Amorous La-Fool, shall have her. And as Philemasium in ^^'Aristae-
netus told Emmusus, absque argento omnia vana, hang him that hath no money,
"
'tis to no purpose to talk of marriage without means,"
'"'
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, ^^De moribus ultima
fiet
qiiestio, for his condi-
tions, she shall inquire after them another time, or when all is done, the match made,
and everybody gone home.
^"^
Lucian's Lycia was a proper young maid, and had
many fine gentlemen to her suitors ; Ethecles, a senator's son, Melissus, a merchant,
gtc; but she forsook them all for one Passius, a base, hirsute, bald-pated k;iave
;
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 prosti-
tute their souls for money, but with this bait you may catch our most potent, puis-
sant, and illustrious princes. That proud upstart domineering Bishop of Ely, in ihe
time of Richard the First, viceroy in his absence, as ="Nubergensis relates it, to for-
tify himself, and maintain his greatness, propjnquarum suarum
connubiis, p!urimos
sihi potenies 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 tarn prczclaram affinitatem
sub spe magnce
promolionis non optaret f Who would
28
Non sic Furius de Gallis, noil Papyrius de Samni-
tibus, Scipio de Numantia triumphavit, ac ilia se vin-
cendo III hac parte.
"'
Anacreon. 4. solum intuemur
aurum.
^ Asser tecum si vis vivere meciiin.
8
Theognis.
-" Chaloner, 1. 9. de Repub. Ang.
"
Uxorem ducat Danaen, &c.
^2
ovid.
s^
Epist.
14. forinam spectant alii per gratias, ego pecuniam, &c.
ne r 'li negoliuin facesse. aui caret argento.
friistra utitur
argumento.
s'Juvenalis.
seT.im.
4. merit, dial, multus amatores rejecit, quiu pater ejui
nuper mortuus, ac rioniiinis ipse factiis bonoriim om-
nium.
37
Lib. 3. cap. 14. quia nohilium eo tempore
sibi aiit filio aul nepoti uxorem accipere cupiens, obia
tam sihi aliquam propinquarum ejus iion acciperet ob
viis manibus? auaruiii turbaiii acciverat 6 Normannia
in Angliam ejus rei gratia.
478 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Se*^. 2
not hAVt. done as much for money and preferment? as mine author '^adds. Vorti-
gcr, Kiiig, of Britain, married Rowena the daughter of Hengist the Saxon prince, his
mortal enemy
",
but wherefore ? she had Kent for her dowry. lagello the great
Duke of Lithuania, 1386, was mightily enamoured on Hedenga, insomuch tliat he
turned Chiistian from a Pagan, and was baptized himself by the name of Uladislans,
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 ^^Zonarus, oh reg-
num, 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, quosfceda libido co7ijimxit, what follows ? they are almost mad at first, but 'tis
a mere flash ; as chafl^ 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; ^"but after a few days, the young man began to loath, could not so
much as endu e 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.
Symptoms or signs
of
Love Melancholy, in Body, Mind, good, had^ Sfc
Sybiptoms are either of body or mind; of body, paleness, leanness, dryness, &c.
^ Pallidus omnis amans, color hie est apius amanti, as the poet describes lovers;
fecit amor maciem, love causeth leanness. ^^Avicenna de Ilishi, c. 33. "makes hol-
low 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.
Laurentins, cap. 10. iElianus Montaltus de Her. amore. Langius, epist. 24. lib. 1.
epist. med. deliver as much, corpus exangue pallet, corpus gracile, oculi civi, lean,
pale, ut nudis qui pressit calcibus U7igiiem, "as one who trod with naked foot
upon a snake," hollow-eyed, their eyes are hidden in their heads,
^'
Tenerque
nitidi corposis cecidit decor, they pine away, and look ill with waking, cares, sighs.
"
Et qui terifbant pigiia Plioehea; faois?
Oculi, liiliil gentile nee p.Ttriuin niicant."
"And eyes that once rivalled the locks of Phoebus, lose the patrial and paternal
lustre." With groans, griefs, sadness, dulness,
28 "
Nulla jam Cereris subi
Cura aut salulis"
want of appetite, 8tc. A reason of all this,
^^
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 suste-
nance, 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, an<'
lamentations, which are too frequent. As drops from a still,
ut occluso stillat ai
igne liquor, doth Cupid's fire provoke tears from a true lover's eyes,
'
The mighty Mars did oft for Venus shriek.
Privily moistening his horrid cheek
With womanish tears,
"ignis distillat in undas,
Testis erit largus qui rigat ora liquor,"
with many such like passions. When Chariclia was enamoured of Theagines, as
'^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,
^^
pallor deformis, marcentes oculi, Sfc, she had ugly
paleness, hollow eyes, restless thoughts, short wind, &c. Eurialus, in an epistle
sent to Lucretia, his mistress, complains amongst other grievances, tu mihi et so?nni
et cibi nsum abstulisti, thou hast taken my stomach and my sleep from me. So he
describes it aright
:
31
His sleep, his meat, his drink, in him bereft.
That lean he waxeth, and dry as a shaft.
His eyes holtoic and grisly to behold.
His hew pale and ashen to nvfold,
Jind solitary he was ever alone,
.^nd waking all the night making mone.
n^heocritus Edyl. 2. makes a fair maid of Delphos, in love with a young man ol
Minda, confess as mucli,
'
Ut vidi ut insanii, ut animus mihi male afTectns est,
Mi^ra' mihi forma tahescebat, neque amplius piimpam
Ullum curabam, aut quaiido doumm redieram
Novi, sed me ardens quidam morbus consumebat,
Decubiii in lectn dies decern, et noctes decern.
Df fluehant capite capilli, ipsaque sola reliqua
Ossa et cutis"
No sooner seen I had, but mad I was.
My beauty fa i I'd, and I no more did care
For any pomp, I knew not where I was.
But sick I was, and evil \ 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
^
that heroical poet in the person of Dido
'
At non infsli.x animi Phsnissa, nee unquam
Solvilur in somnos, oculisque ac pectore aniores
Accipit; ingeminant curee, rursusque resurgens
StBvit amor," ice.
"
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."
55
Ovid. Facit hunc amor ipse colorem. Met. 4.
26
Signa ejus profunditas oculorum, privatio lachryma-
rum, susplria, syepe rident sibi, ac si quod delectabile
viderent. aut audirent.
" Seneca Hip.
"s
Seneca
Viip.
29
De inoris cerebri de erot. amore. Ob spiri-
-uum distractionem liepar officio sno iion fungjtur, nee
vtriit aliinerituin in sanguinem, ut debeat Ergo mem-
bra debilia, et penuria alibilis succi marcescunt, sqiia
lentque ut herbie in horto meo hoc mense Maio Zeriscx
ob inihrinm defectum.
3"
Faerie ftueene, I. 3. cant.
1"
31
Aniator Emblem. 3. ^iLib. 4. Animo errat, e
quidvis (divium loquitur, vigilias absque causa sustinel
et surcum corporis subito ainisit.
33
Apuleiui
sTihaucer, 111 the Knight's Tale.
Virg. Ma 4
Mem. 3. Subs.
1.]
Symptoms
of
Love. 497
Accius Sanazarius Egloga 2. de Galatea, in the same manner feigns his Lychoris
^
tormenting herself for want of sleep, sighing, sobbing, and lamenting ; and Eusta-
thius in his Ismenias much troubled, and
^''"
panting at heart, at the sight of his mis
tress," he could not sleep, his bed was thorns. ''^AU make leanness, want of appe-
tite, want of sleep ordinary symptoms, and by that means they are brought often so
low, so much altered and changed, that as ^^he jested in the comedy, "one scarce
know them to be the same men."
"Attenuant juvenum vigilatse corpora noctes,
Curaque et inuneiiso qui fit amore dolor."'
Many such symptoms there are of the body to discern lovers by,
Kustathius makes an argument of Ismene's afl^ection, that when she met her sweet-
heirt by chance, she changed her countenance to a maiden-blush. 'Tis a common
thing amongst lovers, as ''^Arnulphus, that merry-conceited bishop, hath well ex-
pressed in a facetious epigram of his,
Alteriio fades sibi dat respoiisa rubore, I
"
Their faces answer, and by blushing ssyi.^
lit tener aifuctuin prodit utrique piidor," &c.
|
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
"Slratocles, the physician, upon his wedding-day, when he was at dinner, JV*//^!/
prius sorbiUavit., quam tria basin puelhv. pangerel, could not eat his meat for kissing
the bride, See. 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, ^^Hoc nan deficit incipUque
semper, 'tis never at an end,
^*^
another kiss, and then another, another, and ano4^her,
Stc.
Myrrha in
"^
Ovid.
"
Ilia quidem sentit, foedoque repugnat amori, i " She sees and knows her fault, and doth resist
Et secuni quo mente feror, quid molior, inquit. Against her filthy lust she doth contend
Dii precor, et pietas," &c.
And whither go I, what am I about ?
I
And God forbid, yet doth it in the end."
o
Pars epilaphii ejus.
ei
Epist. prima. 62 Boe-
thius, I. 3. Met. ult.
63
Epist. lib. 6. Valeat pudor,
valeat honestas, valeat honor.
' Theodor. proriro-
mus, lib. 3 Amor Mystili genibus obvolutus, uber-
timque lachrimans. &c. Nihil ex tola prceda priEter
2lK)danthem virginem accipiam. ^sLjb. 2. Certe
vix ori'dain, et bona fide fateare .^ratine, te non amasse
deo vehementor; si eiiiin vere aniapses, nihil prius aut
pi(tiiis opiasses, quam amalre inulieri placere. Ea enim
D^oris lex est idem velle
f
nolle.
segiroza, sil.
Epig. ^(iuippe hffic omnia ex atra bile et amor
proveniunt. Jason Praiensis.
68 immeiisus amoi
ipse stultitia est. Cardan, lib. 1. de sapietitia. 69 Man-
tuan. "Whoever is in love is in slavery, he followi
his sweetheart as a captive his captor, and wears a y^ke
on his submissive neck."
'" Virg. Mn. 4. " Sh
began to speak, but stopped in the middle of her dis-
course."
" Seneca riippo!. ' What reason equirei
raging love forbids."
'
Met. 10.
Mem. 3. Subs. 1.]
Symptoms
of
Love. 507
Again,
"
Perviiiil igne
Carpitur indoinito, furiosaque vota relrectat,
Et niodo desperat, inodo vult teiitare, piKletque
Et cupit, et quid agat, non inveiiit," &c.
'
With raging lust she burns, and now rtcalls
Her vow, and then despairs, and when lis past,
Her former thoughts she'll prosecute in haste,
And what to do she knows not at the lasf
"
She will and will not, abhors : and yet as Medsea did, doth it,
"Trahit inv
Mens aliiid suadet
Deteriora sequor."
Trahit invitam nova vis, aliudque cupido, I
"
Reason pulls one way, burning lust another.
Mens all lid suadet ; video mellora, proboque. She sees and knows what's good, but she doth neither."
'3"0
I'raus, attiorque, et mentis emotai furor,
Q,uo me abstulistis
?"
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,
'''
Calisto a bear, Elpenor and Grillus into swine by Circe. For
what else may we think those ingenious poets to have shadowed in their witty fic-
tions and poems but that a man once given over to his lust (as "Fulgentius inter-
prets that of Apuleius, Jilciat.
of
Tereus)
"
is no better than a beast."
'*"
Rex fueram, sic crista docet, sed sordlda vita I
"
I was a king, my crown my witness is,
Immundam e tanto culmine fecit aveui."
|
But by my flithiness 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, "love is blind, as the say-
ing is, Cupid's blind, and so are all his followers. Qiiisquis amat ranavi., ranam
putat esse Dianam. Every lover admires liis mistress, though she be very deformed
of herself, ill-favour&d, 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 squis'd cat, hold her head still awry, heavy, dull, hollow-eyed, black or yel-
low about the eyes, or squint-eyed, sparrow-mouthed, Persian hook-nosed, have a
sharp fox nose, a red nose, Chiaia flat, great nose, nare sinio patuloque, a nose like a
promontory, gubbertushed, rotten teeth, black, uneven, brown teeth, beetle browed,
a witch'.s beard, her breath stink all over the room, her nose drop winter and sum-
mer, with a Bavarian poke under her chin, a sharp chin, lave eared, with a long
crane's neck, which stands awry too, pendulis 7na7nmis,
"
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
hack, she stoops, is lame, splea-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
fustylugs, a truss, a long lean rawbone, a skeleton, a sneaker (si qua latent meliora
puta), and to thy judgment looks like a mard in a lantern, whom thou couldst not
fancy for a world, but hatest, loalhest, 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, ru le, foohsh, 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, ''^ Ipsa hcec delecfant, veluti
Balhinum Polypus Jignce ; 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 hidies to endow her with, a carrack of diamonds,
ii chain of pearl, a cascanet of jewels, (a pair of calf-skin gloves of four-pence a pair
were fitter), or some such toy, to send her for a token, she should have it with all
''Buchanan. "Oh fraud, and love, and distraction i amans; ave hac nihil fsdius, nihil libidinosius. Sabia
ot mind, whither have you led me?"
'
An ininio-
'
in Ovid. Met.
" Love is like a false glass, wbicli
de.=t woman is like a bear.
's
Feram induit dum represents everything fairer than it is.
' Hor. ger
losas comedat, idem ad se redcat.
'6
Alciatus de , lib. sat. 1. 3. " These very things please him, aa th*
upupa Enibl. Aiiima <<ximundum upupa stercora I weii of Agna did Balbinus."
608 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec.
'4.
his heart , Jie would spend myriads of crowns for her sake. Venus herself, Panthea,
Cleopatra, Tarquin's Tanaquil, Herod's Mariamne, or '^Mary of Burgundy, if she
were alive, would not match her.
80 "
(Vincit vultus hc Tyndarios,
Q,ui nioverunt horrida bella."
Let Paris himself be judge) renowned Helen comes short, that Rodopheian Phillis,
Lurissean Coronis, Babylonian Thisbe, Polixena, Laura, Lesbia, &c., your counter-
feit ladies were never so fair as she is.
" "
Q.iiicqiiid erit placidi, lopidi, grati, atque faceti, I
"
Whate'er is pretty, pleasant, facete, well,
Vivida cunctorum retiiies Pandora deorum."
|
Whate'er Pandora had, she doth excel."
^Dicebam Trivice formam nihil esse Diance. 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,
' CiElia ridens
^,
I 64
Pairesl of fair, that fairness doth excel."
Est Venus, incodens Juno, Minerva loquens
Ephemerus in Aristaenetus, so far admireth his mistress' good parts, that he makes
proclamation of them, and challengeth all comers in her behalf
^^"
Whoever saw
the beauties of the east, or of the west, let them come from all quarters, all, and telK(^
truth, if ever they saw such an excellent feature as this is." A good fellow in Pe-
tronius cries out, no tongue can
^
tell his lady's fine feature, or express it, quicquid
dixeris minus erit, Sfc.
"
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 nuUi secunda, a rare
creature, a phoenix, the sole commandress of his thoughts, queen of his desires, his
only delight : as
^'
Triton now feelingly sings, that love-sick sea-god :
"Candida Leucothoe placet, et placet atra Melsne, I " Fair Leiicothe, black Melcene please ine well,
Sed Galatea placet longe magis omnibus una."
|
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; wlialsoever, I say, is pleasant, amiable, sweet,
grateful, and delicious, are too little for her.
.. nu L , I.
r.1 1
I
" His Phfflbe is so fair, she is so bright,
Phffibo pulchrior et sorore Phoebi.'
|
g,^g
^-^^^ ^^^^ ^^^.^ l^^^^g^ ^^j ^^^^ ,on'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,
^^
so soft, so tender, so radiant, sweet, so fair, is she.
Mollior cuniculi capillo, Sfc.
69"
Lydia bella, puella caiulida, 1 "Pine Lydia, my mistress, white and fair,
(ins bene superas lac, et lilium,
|
The milk, the lily do not tliee come near;
Alliamqiie simul rosam et rubicundam, I The rose so white, the rose so red to see,
Et expolitum ebur Indicum."
I
And Indian ivory comes short of thee."
Such a description our English Homer makes of a fair lady
:
"0
That Emilia that was fairer io seen,
TIten is lily upon the stalk green :
.,^11(1 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
^'
Polyphemus courts Galatea
:
"
Candidior folio iiivei Galatea ligustri, I
"
Whiter Galet than the white withie-wind,
Floridior prato, longa procerior alno,
|
Fresher than a field, higher than a tree,
Splendidior vitro, lenero lascivior hsedo, &c. I Brighter than glass, more wanton than a kid,
Mollior et cygni plumis, et lacte coacto."
|
Softer than swan's down, or ought that may be."
So she admires him again, in that conceited dialogue of Lucian, which John Secun-
dus, an elegant Dutch modern poet, hath translated into verse. When Doris and
"The daughter and heir of Carolus Piignax. >Se- I omnes, et dicant veraces, an tani insignem virierint for
neca in Octavia. "Her beauty excels the Tyndarian mam.
* Nulla vox tormam ejus possit comprehen.
Helen's, which caused such dreadful wars."
ei
Loeche- dere.
87 Calcagnini dial. Galat.
e
Catullu*
us.
8-iMantuan. Egl. I.
"9 Angerianus.
m
paerie petronii Catalect.
i> Chaucer, in the Knight'i
Queene, Cant. lyr. 4.
Epist. 12. Quis unquarn Tale. 9 Ovid. Met. 13.
formaa vidit orientis, quis occidentis, veniant undique
'
Mem. 3. Subs.
1.]
Symptoms
of
Love. 009
ihose other sea nymphs upbraided her with her ugly misshapen lovec, Polvphemus;
slie replies, they speak out of envy and malice,
**"
Et plane iiividia hue mera vos stimiilare 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 expeterel, mallem tua essr.
meretrix quam orbis imperatrix
;
she had rather be his vassal, l\is quean, than th<
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,
^^
for he saw
no such beauty in it ; Nibhomachus a love-sick spectator replied, Sume tibi meos
oculos et (learn existimabis., take mine eyes, and thou wilt think she is a goddess,
dote on her forthwith, count all her vices virtues ; her imperfections infirmities, ab-
solute 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 nee ipsum amicce stercus fcetet^ 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,
'^
venerilla, queen, the quintessence of beauty, an angel, a star, a goddess.
"
Thou art my Vesta, thou my goddess art.
Thy hallowed teuiple only is my heart."
The fragrancy of a thousand courtesans is in her face:
^^
JYec pulchrce ejigies., hcec
Cypridis aid 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 mis-
tress, forsooth, his dainty Dulcinia, his dear Antiphila, to whose service he is wholly'
consecrate, whom he alone adores.
'"Cui comparatus indecens erit pavo,
Inamabilis sciurus, el Irequens Phcenix."
"To whom conferr'd a peacock's indecent,
A squirrel's harsli, a phcenix too frequent.
All the graces, veneries, elegancies, pleasures, attend her. He prefers her before a
myriad of court ladies.
9'"
He that commends Phillis or Nersa,
Or Amarillis, or Galatea,
Tityrus or Mclibea, by your leave,
Let him be mute, his love the praises have."
Nay, before all the gods and goddesses themselves
his squint-eyed friend Roscius
So
^^
Quintus Catullus admired
'
Pace mihi licoat (Coelestes) dicere vestra,
Mortalis visus pulchrior esse Deo."
I
" By your leave gentle Gods, this 1
'11 say true,
I
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^ S^c. pleasant
names may be invented, bird, mouse, lamb, puss, pigeon, pigsney, kid, honey, love,
dove, chicken, &c. he puts on her.
"
Meum mel, mea suavitas, meum cor,
Meum suavioluin, niei lepores,"
"
my life, my light, my jewel, my glory, ^ Margareta speciosa., cujus respectu omnia
mundi pretiosa sordent, my sweet Margaret, my sole delight and darling. And as
'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, arid 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 ilia manus
.'
pretty foot, pretty coronets, her sweet car-
riage, sweet voice, tone, O that pretty tone, her divine and lovely looks, her every
93
"It is envy evidently thai prompts you, because
Polyphemus does not love you as he does me." " Plu-
.fcfch. sihi dixit lam nulchram non videri. See.
*Q,uanto quam Lucifer aurea Phrebe, tanio virginibus
donspp-ctior omnibus lierce. Ovid. 96 jyi. D. Son. 30.
96
Martial. I. 5. Epfg. 38.
9? Ariosto. * Tnlly lib
J. de nat. deor. pulcnrior deo, et tamen erat oculis per-
versissimis.
9S
ivjarullus ad Nearam epig. lib
"X"
Barlhius. Arios;o, lib. 2'J. hist, e
2S2
510
Love-Melancholy.
[Part. 3. Sec. 2.
vhiiig, 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, whethei
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. ^Milh habet ornatus., mille de-
center hahet. Let her wear what she will, do what she will, say what she will,
'Quicquid eni7n dicit, seu facit, omne decel. He applauds and admires everything
she wears, saith or doth.
' "
Illam quir.quid a^'it, qiioqiio vestigia vertit,
Coiiiposult furtim subsequiturque decor;
Seu solvit crines, fusis decet esse capillis,
Seu cunipsit, coniptis est reverenda coniis."
"
Wliate'er she doth, or whither e'er she go,
A sweet and pleasing grace ntteii'ls forsooth
,
Or loose, or hind her hair, or cnnih i't up.
She's to be tionoured in what she doth."
^Vestem induitur,
formosa est : exuitur^ lota
forma est., let her be dressed or un-
dressed, 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 ni
Aristeenetus)
"
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, Thysbe in her Pyramus, as she is enamoured on
her Mopsus,
"
Be thou the inarygold, and I will be the suti,
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 amiccB manci
pium, as
'
Castillo terms him, his mistress' servant, her drudge, prisoner, bondman,
.
what not .? "
He composeth himself wholly to her affections to please her, and, as
iEmelia said, makes himself her lacquey. All his cares, actions, all his thoughts, are
subordinate to her will and commandment
:"
her most devote, obsequious, affection-
ate servant and vassal. "For love" (as ^ 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 ^TuUy expostulates) than to be in love ? <-fh
he a free man over whom a woman domineers, to whom she prescribes laws, com-
mands, forbids what she will herself; that dares deny nothing she demands ; she
asks, he gives
;
she calls, he comes ; she threatens, he fears ; JYcquissirnvm Iivnc
servum piito., I account this man a very drudge." And as he follows it,
'"
I.s 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
.?"
Yei 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.
" "
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 cohge 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
Tibullus. 'Marul. lib. 2. Tibullus I. 4.
de Sulpicia. ' Aristencetus, Epist. 1. tEpist. 24.
veni Clio charissiine Lycia, cito veni
;
pra^ te Satvri
otnnes videntur non homines, iiullo loco solus es, &;c.
' Lib. 3. de aulico, alterius airectui se tolurn componit,
lotus placers stuilet, et ipsiiis aniuiam arnatie pedise-
quaui r-icit. Cyropted. I 5. amor servitus, et qui
aniaiil optHtse liherari non secusac alio quovis mnrlio,
neque liherari tameu possunt. sed validiori necfssitate
li^'ati BUMt quatii si in ferrea viucula confectiforent.
In paradoxis. An ille mihi liber videtur cui muliei
imperat? Cui leges imponit, pra;scribit, jubet, vetal
quod videtur. Qui nihil imperanti negat, nihil aiidet,
&c. piiscil? danduni : vocal? veniendum; niinaiur?
extimiscendnm. '"Ulane parva est servitus ania-
toriiiii singulis fere horis pecline capillum, calimistro-
que barbam componere, faciem aquis redolentibu^
diluere, &.c. " Si quando in pavimentuui incL.iitiu9
()nid mihi excidisset, elevare inde quam prompti- jimc,
nee nisi osculo compaclo uiihi coniiiiendare, Sec
jlem. 3. Subs.
l.J
Symptoms
of
Love
511
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 recoun*
with himself his actions, words, gestures, what entertainment he had, how kindiv
she used him m 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.
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 efTectually tor-
ments hin). And these are his exercises between comb and glass, madrigals, ele-
gies, Slc, these his cogitations till he see her again. But all this is easy and gentle.
and the least part of his labour md 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.
W"
Ipsa comes veniatn, neque me salebrosa movebunt
Saxa, nee oliliqui) dente timenilus 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 boister-
ous, 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. Intempestd
nocte non delerrelur, 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 monies vidcnhir omnes franabiles, he will swim through an ocean, ride
post over the Alps, Appenines, or Pyrenean hills,
13"
Ijnem marisqiie fluctus, atqiie turbines
Venti paratiis est traiisire,"
though it rain daggers with their points down'vvard, light or dark, all is one:
Roscida per tenehras Faunus ad antra venit), for her sweet sake he will undertake
Hercules's tweb'e labours, endure, hazard, &.c., he feels it not. '^"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, expostula-
tions, 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. ^^ Ego me Thaidi dedam; et
faciam. quod juhet, I am at her service. Philostratus in an epistle to his mistress,
'"I am ready to die sweetheart if it be thy will; allay his thirst whom tliy stai
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, noi
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
"
kill, stab, or
whip him to death, he would strip himself naked, and not resist. Another will take
a journey to Japan, Longce. navigationis molcsHs nnn curans : a third (if she say it)
will not speak a word for a twelvemonth's space, her command shall be most in-
violably kept : a fourth will take Hercules's club from him, and with that centurion
in the Spanish
'*
Caelestina, will kill ten men for his mistress Areusa, for a word of
i2"]Vnr will Ihe rude rocks affright nie, nor the
trooked-tusked hear, so that 1 shall not visit my mis-
tress in pleasant mood." " piQtarchus amat. dial.
<
Lib. I. de coutein. amor, quid refcram eornm perirula
i"t chides, qui in amicRniin cedes per fenestras irisre.ssi
nillii icliiiqni- cijrosi iudeqilf detiirhati, sed aut priPci-
^tes, membra frangiint, colliduni, a^it aiimam amit-
tunt. i^Ter. Eunuch. Act. 5. Seen. 8. '6 Paratus
sum ad obeundum mortem, si tu jnbeas; hano sitim
xstuantis seda, quam tuum sidns perdidit, aqu<e el
fontes non necant, &c. "
Si orcidere placet, ferruin
meiim vides, si verheribus coutenta es, curro nuilus art
prenam. 18
Act. 1.5. 18. Iinpera mihi ; occidair
decern vires, &.c.
512 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2
her mouth he will cut bucklers in two like pippins, and flap clown men like flies^
Klige quo mortis genere ilium occidi cupis? '^Galeatus of Mantua did a little more,
for when be was almost mad for love of a fair maid in the city, she, to try him l>3like
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
"'icinum 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.
^"
Money
(saith Xenophon) is a very acceptable and welcome guest, yet I had rather give it
my dear Chnia than take it of others, 1 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,
^'"Command me Avhat you will, I will do it; bid me go to sea, I am gone in an
instan-t, 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 iEolus to Juno.
"
Tuus 6 regina quoii optas
Explorare labor, inihi jussa capescere fas est."
And Phaedra to Hippolitus,
"
Me vel sororem Hippolite aut famulam voca,
Fatnulaojque potius, omne servitium feram."
2S "
Noil me per alias ire si juheas nives,
Pigeat galatis ingredi Pindi jugis,
Nun si per ifines ire aul infesta agmina
Ciincler, paratusM ensibus pectus dare,
Te tuncjubere, me decet jussa exequi."
"O queen it is thy pains to enjoin me still,
And I am bound to execute thy will."
"
O call me sister, call me servant, choose.
Or rather servant, I am thine to use."
"
It shall not grieve me to the snowy hills,
Or frozen Pindus' tups forthwith to climb,
Or run through fire, or through an army.
Say but the word, for I am always thine."
Callicratides in
^^
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 Iter, he should kill me ; if she should die, 1 would not live,
and one grave should hold us both." "^Finiet ilia meos moriens morientis amores.
Abrocomus in ^ Aristrenetus makes the like petition for his Delphia,
'"Tecum
viverc amem.1 tecum obeam lubens.
"
I desire to live with ihee, and 1 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.
^'^
Parcite dum propero., mergite dum redeo.
"
Spare me whilst I go, drown me as I
return." 'Tis the common hun/our of them all, to contemn death, to wish for death,
to confront death in this case, Quippe quels nee
f
era., nee ignis., neque prcecipitiiim,
nee
f
return, nee 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 thou
sand dragons or devils keep the gates, Cerberus himself, Scyron and Procrastes la)
in wait, and the way as dangerous, as inaccessible as hell, through fiery flamesi
an.' uver burning coulters, he will adventure for all this. And as ^^ 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
iGasper Ens. puellam misere deperiens, per jocum
ah ea in Padum desilire jussus statim e poiite se pra^-
ripitavit. Alius Ficino insano amore ardens ah arnica
jusns se suspendire, illico fecit.
20
Intelligo pecu-
niam rem esse jurundissimain, meam tamen libentius
darem Clinis quaoi ab aliis acciperem ; lihentius hui-'
servirem, quam aliis imperarem, &c. Nocteni et som-
num accuso, quod ilium non videam, luci aulem et soli
gratiam habeo quod mihi Cliniam ostendant. Ego
etiain cum Cliniii in i?nem curro'em ; et srio '-ns quo-
qti<.' mecum ingrc- suros si vjderetis.
^i
Iinpera quid-
vis; naviaars j'lt ?, navem conscendo; plagas accipere,
utector: animuin profuiidere, in ignem currere, non
recuse, lubens faci*>. ^^ Seneca in Hipp. act. 2.
23
Hujus ero vivus, mortuus hujus ero. Properl. lib. 2.
vivam si vivat ; si cadat ilia, cadam, Id.
24
Djai.
Amorum. Mihi 6 dii coelestes ultra sit vita hcec per-
petua ex adverso amicK sedere, et suave loquentpin
audire, &c. si moriatur, vivere non sustinebo, et idem
erit se pulchrum utrisque.
25
Buchanan. "When
she dies my love shall also be at rest in the tornb."
26
Epist. 21. Sit hoc votum a diis amart Delpbidem,
ab ea amari, adioqui pulchram el loqiientem judirr
J'
Hor.
*'<
Marl.
ae
Lege Calimitatea Pt> \bt
hardi Epist. prima.
Mem. U Subs. I.] Symptoms
of
Love.
513
those oays
.'
and in the hour or moment of death, 'tis their sole comfort to remem-
ber their dear mistress, as ^"Zerbino slain in France, and Brandimart in Barbary; aa
Arcite did his Emily.
91
v>hen he felt death.
Dusked been his eyes, and faded is his breath
But on /lis lady yet casteth he Ins eye,
His Inst word was, mercy Emely,
His spirit c/iang'il, and out went there,
Whether I cannot tell, ne where.
9
"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 1 see my sweetheart Rodanthe ? Sic amor mortem^ (saith
mine author) aut quicquid humanitiis accidit., aspernatur^ so love triumphs, contemns,
insults over death itself. Thirteen proper young men lost their lives for that fair
Hippodaniias' sake, the daughter of Onomaus, king of El is : when that hard condi-
tion 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.
^^
As many gallants desperately
adventured their dearest blood for Atalanta, the daughter of Sclienius, in hope of
marriage, all vanquished and overcame, till Hippomenes by a few golden apples hap-
pily 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, 1 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,
3<"0rlanflo, who long time had loved dear
Angelica the fair, and tor lier 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,
^^
or as that Thessa-
lian Thero, that bit off his own thumb, provocans rivalem ad hoc cBmulandiim^ to
make his co-rival do as much. 'Tis frequent with them to challenge the fiqld fci
their lady and mistress' sake, to run a tilt,
S6
" 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
^'^
"
till their head-piece, 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'** 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,
^^
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 ""Gesmunda, the daughter of Tan-
credus, prince of Salerna, did for Guisardus, her true love, eat his heart when he
died ; or as Artemesia drank her husband's bones beaten to powder, and so bury him
in herself, and endure more torments than Theseus or Paris. Er his coUtur Venus
magis quam Ihure, et victimis, with such sacrifices as these (as ^' Aristasnetus holds^
Venus is well pleased. Generally they undertake any pain, any labour, any toil, for
heir 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 every-
thing she wears, they adore it as a relic. If any man come from her, they feas'
30
Ariosto.
31
Chaucer, in the Knight's Tale.
"
'J'heodorus prodromus, Amorum lib. 6. Interpret,
rfaiilmino.
sJOvid. )0. Met. Higinius, c. 185.
M
Anost. lib. 1. Cant. 1. staff. 5.
^j
p|ut. dial. amor.
"Faerie Qiieene, cant. 1. lib. (. et cant. 3. lib. 4.
65
3^
Dum cassis pertusa, ensis instar Serrae excisus, scu
turn, &c. Barthius Caelestina.
38
Lesbia sex cyathig,
spptem Justina bibatur.
sa
\s Xanthiis for the love of
Eurippe, omnem Europam peragravit. Parthenius Erot
cap. 8.
M
Beroaldu.se Bocatio. <' Euist. 17. I. S
514 Love-Melancholy.
[Part. 3. Sec 1
hicn, reward liim, will not be out of his company, do him all offices, still remember-
ing, still talking of her:
Nam si abest quod ames, praesto simulacra tamen sunt
Illius, et noinen dulce ohservatur ad aures."
Th- 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 ^''Lucretia did by Euryalus,
'
kiss the letter a thousand tinges together, and then read it
:"
And
''''
Chelidonia by
Philonius, after many sweet kisses, put the letter in her bosom,
'
And kiss again, and often look thereon.
And slay the uiessenger 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.
'
" Vult placere sesfi arnica;, vult niihi, vult pedissequae,
Vult faniulis, vult eliain ancillis, et catulo ineo."
"
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,
46"
Pignnsque 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,
""
'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, Slc. 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 forihus miser oscula figit^"^
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.
<"
O cfnoties dixi Zepliyris properantibus illnc,
j
Felices pulclirain visuri Aniaryllada venti."
|
He will send a message to her by the wind,
'"'Vosaurff Alpinse, placidis de montibus aurx,
H;ec ilii porlate,"
*'
he desires to confer with some of her acquaintance, for his heart is still with her,
^
to talk of her, admiring and commending her, lamenting, moaning, wishing him-
self anything for her sake, to have opportunity to see her, O that he might but enjoy
her presence ! So did Philostratus to his mistress,
^"
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.
"O happy western winds that blow that way.
For you shall see my love's fair face to day."
"
Ridebunt vallps, ridebunt obvia Tempe,
In floreiii viridis protinus ibi humus."
"The fields will laugh, the pleasant valleys burn,
And all the grass will into flowers turn."
Omnis Jimhrosiam spirahif aura.
^'*
"
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 mis-
<2 Lucretius. "For if the object of your love be ab-
sent, hi^r image is present, and her sweet name is still
familiar in my ears." ^s^neas Sylvius, Luoretie
qnum accepil; Kuriali literas hilaris statim milliesqua
papiruni hasiavit.
**
Meiliis inseruit papillis litteratn
ijus, mille prius pangens suavia. Arist. 2. epist ]J.
<
Plautiis Asinar.
^8
Hor.
'
Some token snatched
from her arm or her gently resisting (iiiger."
<'
Ilia
doigi sedens imaginem ejus fi.\is ociilis assidue corispi-
ista.
<8"
Anil distracted will imprint kisses on the
ioora."
K
Buchanan Sylva.
<
Fracastorius
Naugerio.
"
Ye alpine winds, ye mountain brcezeg.
hear these gifts to her."
" Happy servants that
serve her, hap|iy men that are in her company.
^^
Non
ipsos solum sed ipsoruni meinoriam amant. I.uciar
M
Epist. O ter felix solum ! beatu? ego, si me citlc*-
veris ; vultiis tuns anines sistere pniest, &c.
*'
Moia
epist. in pralo cum sit tlores siipi-rat ; illi piilchri Md
iinius tantuin diei ;
fluviirs gratis sed iv.ine= .1 ; *t
tuns fliiviu< iiiari niajnr. Si icEliim aspicio, soleiii txm
timo cecidisse. ei in terra ainliulair', &,c.
Mem. 3. Subs.
1.] Symptoms
of
Love. 515
tress,
^ "
If thou goest forth of the city, the protecting gods that keep the town
will run after to gaze upon thee : if th^u 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
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 to-mor
row, so that she might kdl him with her own hands. ^Ovid would be a flea, a
gnat, a ring, Catullus a sparrow,
s'
" O si tecum ludere sicut ipsa possem,
Et tristes animi levarecuras."
^
Anacreon, a glass, a gown, a chain, anything,
"
Sed speculum ego ipse fiam,
Ut me tuuni usque cernas,
El vestis ipse fiam,
Ut me tiium usque gestes.
Mutari et opto in uudam,
Laveiii tuos ut artus,
Nardus puella tiam,
Ut ego teipsum inungam,
Sim fascia in papillis,
Tuo et monile collo.
Piamque caloeus, me
Saltern ut pede usque calces.
i'"But I a looking-glass would be.
Still to be look d upon by thee.
Or I, my love, would be tliy gown.
By thee to be worn up and down;
Or a pure well full to the brims,
That I might wasli 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
""Salmacis to Hermaphroditus,
' "
Felices mater, &c. felix nutrix.
Sed loiige cunctis, longeque heatior ille,
Qiiem fructu spousi et socii dignabere lecti."
The same passion made her break out in the comedy, ^^JYce ill<z fortunatcB sunt quce
cum illo cziJanZ,
"
happy are his bedfellows;" and as she said of Cyprus, *'*5ecfia
quos illi uxor futura essef, blessed is that woman that shall be his wife, nay, thrice
happy she that shall enjoy him but a night.
''*
Una nox Jovis sceptro cequiparanduj
such a night's lodging is worth Jupiter's sceptre.
*' "
Qualis nox erit ilia, dii, desque,
Uuam mollis thorus
?"
"
O what a blissful night would it be, how soft, how sweet a bed
!"
She will ad-
venture all her estate for such a night, for a nectarean, a balsam kiss alone.
."
Q.iti te videt beatus est,
Beatiorqui te audiet,
dui te potitur est Deus."
The sultan of Sana's wife in Arabia, when she had seen Vertomannus, that comely
tra^'eller, lamented to herself in this manner, "'^O God, thou hast made this man
wli'ter than the sun, but me, mine husband, and all my children black ; 1 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 tlie rhetoric
she could, extrenium hoc misercB 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 scqui charum corpus ut
umbra soJet^ so that she might enjoy him, threatening moreover to kdl herself, &e.
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.
"
But kings in this yet privileg'd may he,
I'll be a monk so I may live with thee."
M
Si civitate egrederis, sequentur te dii custodes,
pectifi;ulocommoti ; si naviges sequentur; quis fluvius
galum tuum non rigaret ? 58EI. 15. 2. "^'''Oh, ifl
might only dally with thee, and alleviate the wasting
sorrotvs of my mind." wcarm. 30. s' Englished
by M B. Holliday, in liis Technog. act 1. seen. 7.
"Ov.d. Met. lib. 4.
'
Xenophon Cyropaed. lib. ."j.
spia.tUA de milite. "Lucian. " E Graeco Ruf.
85
Petronius.
^ "
He is happy who sees thee, more
happy who hears, a god who enjoys thee." "
Lod.
Vertomannus navig. lib. 2. c. 5. O deus, hunc creasti
sole candidiorem, e diverso mc et conjugem tneuni et
natos meos omnes nigricaritec Utinam hie. &c. Ibit
Gazella, Tegeia, Galzerana, e* promissis oneravil, el
donis, &,c. 68M. D.
516 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3, Sec. 2.
The very Gods will endure any shame [alque aliquis de diis nan trlstibus inquit,
Sfc.)
be a sjiectacle as Mars and Venus were, lo all tlie rest; so did Lucian's Mercury
wish, and peradventure so dost thou. They will adventure their lives with alacrity
^^pro qua non vietuam mori nay more, 2)ro qua non metuam his 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
omb.
'
Q,iiincia obiit, sed non Q.iiincia sola obiit,
duincia ohiit, sed cum (iuiiicia et ipse obii
;
Kisus obit, obit gralia, lusus obit,
Nee mca nunc aninia 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 smibjs, 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.
'
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."
^coeh prcefertur Jldonis. Old Janivere,
"
Atqiie aliquis inter juvcnes iniratus est, et verbum dixit.
Noil ego in coelo cupereni Deus esse,
Nostrani uxorem liabens doini Hero."
Venus forsook heaven for Adonis' sake,-
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.
'CoBlum diis ego non suum invirierem,
Sed sortem mihi dii nieam 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 Icav*
all this, and more than this to see her alone.
''i
" Omnia qua; patior mala si pensare velit fors,
Una aliqua nobis pro^peritate, dii
Hoc prf i^or, ut faciaiit, faciant me cernere coram.
Cor mihi captivum quffi tenet hocce, deam.
"
'
If all my mischiefs were recompensed
And God would give we what I requested,
I would iny niistnss' pr^sence only seek.
Which doth inin.i 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, incon-
veniences, phantastical 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 ;
"
it makes
base fellows become generous, cowards courageous," as Cardan notes out of Plu-
tarch
;
"
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." Fcras mcnles 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. qucsst. I, ''''saitli, "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, ''^Jludacem faciehat amor. Ariatlne's love made Theseus so ad-
venturous, and Medea's beauty Jason so victorious
;
expe.ctorat amor Vnnorem. 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 "he that desired of his enemy now dying, to lay him with
his face upward, ne amasius videret eum d iergo vulneraium^ lest his sweetheart
should say he was a coward. "And if it were "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
69
Hi.r Ode 9. lib. 3.
'
Ov. Met. 10. " Buchanan.
Hendecasyl.
'2
petrarch. "Cardan, lib. 2. de sap.
ex vilibus generosos efficere solct, ex timidis audaces,
ex avaris splendidos, ex agrestihus civiles, ex cnideli-
^us mansiietos, ex iinpiis religiosns, ex sordidis nitidos
^tquocultos.ex riuris misericordes. ex mutis eloqueiilns.
Aniina homi'iis anion; capti tola referta suflitibus
et odoribus : Paeanes resonat, &c. '^ Ovid.
'6
in
convivio, amor Veneris Marlem detinet, et fortem facit
;
adolescentem maxime erubescere cernimusquum ama-
trix eum turpe quid comniittentem ostendit. "
Pit!
tarch. Amator. dial. 'sgi quo p;icto fieri civitas aiit
exercitus posset partim ex his qui amant, partim of
his, &.C.
Mem. 3. Subs.
1.]
Symptoms
of
Love 51?
lie said in like case,
''^
Toia rual cccli moles, nan terreor,
Sfc. 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
W"
And drawing both their swords with rage anew,
JLike two mad iiiastives each other slew.
And shields did share, and males did rash, and helms
So furiously each other did assail, [did hew
;
As if their souls at once they would have rent.
Out of their breasts, that streams of blood did trail
Adown ^s 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 wuuld they relent.
So mortal was their malice and so sore,
That both res(dved (than yield) to die before."
Every base swain in love will dare to do as much for his dear mistress' sake. lie
will fight and fetch.
^'
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 Row-
land, 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
^^
Agatho contends,
a true lover is wise, just, temperate, and valiant.
^"
I doubt not, therefore, but if a
man had such an army of lovers (as Castillo supposeth) he might soon conquer all
the world, except by chance he met with such another army of inamoratos to oppose
it."
*'''
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. Castillo thinks Ferdinand King
of Spain would never have conquered Granada, had not Queen Isabel and her ladies
b'den present at the siege :
^
" 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
^
Plato holds, pro amicis mori appetunf, 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
*'
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, ^^JYamque doles inspired amor, fraiidesque ministrat, ^'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 dormicntem Jupiter compressit, by which means Jupiter had his will.
Infinite such tricks love can devise, such fine feats in abundance, with wisdom and
wariness,
^
quis fallere possit amantcm. All manner of civility, decency, compliment
and good behaviour, plus solis et leporis, polite graces and merry conceits. Boccac-
cio 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 farm-
house 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 bur-
gomaster'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 ^' Cymon
saw her, he stood leaning on his staff, gaping on her immoveable, 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 gen
tlemanlike 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
"Angerianus.
m
Faerie Q,u. lib. 4. cant. 2.
i
Zened. preverb. cont. 6.
e^
piat, coiiviv.
fa
Lib. a
de Aulico. Non dubito quin is qui talem exercitum
taaberet, totius orbis statim victor esset, nisi forte cum
aliquo exercitu onfligcndum esset in quo omnes ama-
tores essenl.
"i
Higinus de cane et lepore coelesti,
et decimator. f^Vix dici potest quantam inde auda-
ciam assuuierent Hispani, inde pauci infinitas Man-
rorum copias superarunt. ^Lib. 5. de logibua,
8'
Spenser's Faerie dueene, 3. book. cant. 8.
88
Hy.
ginus, I. 2.
"
For love both inspires us with stratagem*,
and suggests to us frauds."
^
Aratus in phKnoiB
30
Virg. "Who can deceive t lover."
*'
Hanc u(r
conspicatus est Cynion, b< :ulo innixus, imiaobiln
stetit, et mirabundus, ice.
2T
SIS Love-Mclancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2
complete gentlemen in Cyprus, did many valorous exploits, and all for the . .c 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,
^^
Omnibus rebus, et nitidis nitoribus antevenit. amor^
they will follow the fashion, begin to trick up, and to have a good opinion of them
seives^vcnustatem enim jnatcr Venus ; a ship is not so long a rigging as a young gentle
woman a trimming up iierself against her sweetheart comes. A painter's shop, a
flowery meadow, no so gracious aspect in nature's storehouse as a young maid, nubilis
jmella, 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, ^^prcetcr quam res pah-
iur student. eleganticB, they are beyond all measure coy, nice, and too curious on a
sudden ; 'tis all tlieir 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, Sic. When Mercury was to come before his mistress,
'
"Chlamydemque ut pendeat apt6
Collucat, ut liinbiis Intumquu appareal aurum."
"
He put his nioak 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 her-
self first,
Nee tainen ante adiit, etsi properabat adire,
Q.uani se compnsuit, quam circumspexit amictus,
El 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 ^^neas was to appear before
Queen Dido, he was
'*
Os humerosque dec similis (namque ipsa decorara
Ca!sariem nato genetrix, lumenque juveiitse
Purpureum et la;tos ocuiis 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;
'n "
Jumque tibi formiP, jamque est tibi cura placendi,
Jam rigidos pedis rastris Polypheme capillos.
Jam libet hirsulain tibi falce recidere barbam,
Et spectare feros in aqua et componere vultus."
'
And then he did begin to prank himself,
To plait and comb bis head, and beard to shave.
And look his fare i' Ih' 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.
'
Come now, my Galatea, scorn me not.
Nor my poor presents; for but yesterday
I saw myself r th' water, and methought
"
Jam Galatea veni, nee inunera despice nostra,
Certe ego me novi, liquidaque in imagine vidi
Nuper aquae, placuitqne mihi mea forma videnti."
Full fair I was, then scorn me not I say.'
S8 "
Non sum adeo informis, nnoer me in littore vidi.
Cum placidum vciitis 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, co?nptus et calimis-
tratus, with a long love-lock, a flower in his ear, perfumed gloves, rings, scarfs,
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,
"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 pickitivant,
sapiautiis Casina, act. 0. sc. 4.
m
piautus. 8< Ovid.
Met. i.
36
Ovid. Met. 4.
96
Virg. I. iEn. "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."
''
Ovid. Met. 13.
sVirg E. I. 'Z "t am not so deformed, I lately saw
otysclf n th<i tranquil glassy sea, as I stood upon the
shore."
m
Epist. An uxor literato sit djcenda
Noctes insomnes traducenris. Uteris renunciandum,
SEEpe gemendum, nonnunquam el illacrymandum sorti
et cnn<litioni luiE. Videndum qja; vestes. quis. culiu
te deceat, quis in usu sit, utrum lalus barlip, fcu. Cuio
cura loquenduni, incedendum, bibendum t cum cura
insaniendum.
Mem. 3. Subs. 1.] Symptoms
of
Love.
519
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
foatish
beard, fit to make ropes with, as in his Mysopogone, ot that apologetical ora-
tion he made
at Antioch to excuse himself, he doth ironically confess, it hindered
iiis kissing, nam non Ucidt inde pura purls, eoque suavioribus labra labris adjimgere,
but he did not much esteem it, as it seems by the sequel, de accipiendis dandisvt
osculis non
laboro, yet (to follow mine author) it may much concern a young lover,
he must be
more resp^ictful in this behalf,
"
he must be in league with an excellent
tailor, barber,"
"""Tonsorem piierutn sed arte talem,
Q,ualis nee Thalainis fuil 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 amofous 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
'
Erasmus hath it, Musi-
cam docet amor et Poesin^ 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. ^Jupiter perceived Mercury to be in love with Philologia,
liecause 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. ^"Who," saiih Castillo, "-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 coat
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,
''"
he flung down a bowl of nectar, which distilling upon
the white rose, ever since made it red
:"
^nd Caiistratus, by the help of Daedalus,
abo^^t Cupid's statue *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 ^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 Musiccs super ingressa Venus saUavit., but his mother Venus
danced to his and their sweet content. Witty Tjucian in that pathelical 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 sing-
ing Hymeneus, Cupid nimbly tripping on the top of the waters, and Venus herself
(oming after in a shell, strewing roses and flowers on their heads. Praxiteles, in al
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
*
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
*
France, as for citizens' wives and maids to dance a round in the streets, and often
loo
Mart. Epig. 5. > Chil. 4. cent. 5. pro. 16.
Mar-
tianiis. Capellu lib. 1. de niipt. philnl. Jam. Uliun seiitio
umore .eiieri, ejiisqiie studio plures habere cnrnparatas
in faiiiiiltin distiplinas, &c.
^
Lib. 3. de aiilico. Q,iii3
r.horeis insudaret, nisi foeininarum causa? (iuis niiisi-
ex tantam navaret nperairi nisi quod illius dulcedine
pcrmulcere sperel? Uuis tot carniina componeret. nisi
>< iride affectUS suog in nitAicres explicaret? <Cra-
terein nectaris evertit saltans apud Doos, qui in terrain
cadens, rosani prius albain ruhore infecit. * Puellaa
choreantes circa juveiiil>'in Oupidinis statuain fecit.
I'hilostral. Imag. lib. 3. de statuis. E-vercitiuin amori
aptissiinum. Lib. (i. Met. iToin. 4. 'KorB-
nian deciir. mort. part. 5. cap. 2H. Sat. puells dorraienti
insultantiuni, ic ViewofFr.
i20 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3 Sec. 2
lOO, 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 loes than teeth, dance, "John, come kiss me now," mask and mum; for
Comus and Hymen love masks, and all such niferriments 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 .lovius taxeth Augus-
tine Niphus the philosopher, '""for that being an old ni&n, 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 w^ould
have it so.
"
"
Pr,l"','^i'!l''r?l'.'^ ,^ai. I
' Love hasty with liis purple staffdid mukc
rrouerans amor, tiie aneeit . | ^ n j .u j . j . i ..
Viole.iler ad sequendum
"
|,
^^
'^"""^ =*'"* '*"= '^'""'^ '"
""derlake.
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
'^"
Sic moritur Juvenis, sic moribundus amat. And who can then with-
stand 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 nc
remedy, we must dance trenchmore for a need, over tables, chairs, and stools, &.c.
And princum prancum is a fine dtnce. Plutarch, Sympos. I. qucEst. 5. doth in some
sort excuse it, and telleth us moreover in what sense, Musicam docct amor., licet prius
fuerit rudis., how love makes thenj that had no skill before learn to sing and dance;
he concludes, 'tis only that power and prerogative love hath over us.
" "
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
'*
hundred sesterces
for a night's lodging, as they did of old to Lais of Corinth, or '^dncenta 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, wliine, sing, dance, and what not.
But above all the other symptoms of lovers, this is not liglitly to be overpassed,
1 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, "'"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.
n "
Ne ringas Mariana, iiicos me displce ranos, I " Swpcl Marian do not mine age disdain,
De sene nam juvenein dia referre potes," &.c. |
For tliou canst make an old man young Kgain."
They will be still singing amorous songs and ditties (if young especially), and can-
not abstain though it be when they go to, or sliould be at church. We have a pretty
story to this purpose in '^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
"
Equitabal homo per sylvam frondosam, I
"
A fellow rid ly the greenwood side,
Ducebatque setum Meswinden (ormosam. And fair Meswinde was his bride,
Q.uid slanius, r.ur noii imus?"
!
Why stand we so, and do not go?"
">Vita ejus Puelisp, aniore septuagenarius senex
usque ad insaniani correptus, multis liheris susceptis
:
inulli lion sine pudore ronspexerunt seneni et pliilo-
Miphuni podagriciini, iion sine risu saltaiilem ad tibiae
modos. " Aiiacreon. Carni. 7. " Joach. Bellius
Epig "Thus youth dies, thuf 'n death lie loves."
'
D: acitiiriio loqiiaeeiii facit, et de verecuiido officio-
luiE rv!il<lit, de negligeiite industriuin, de sacorde iin-
pjgrum. I'tJosephus antiq. Jud. lib. 18. cap. 4.
"i
Gellius, 1. 1. cap. 8. Pretium noctis centum sestertia.
>^
Ipsi eiiim voliint suariiin amasiarum ^mlrhritiidinid
prsecoiies ac testes esse, eas laudibus, et caiitiienis et
veisihiis exonare, ut auro ^tatiias. ut meniorentur, ol
ah omnibus adiiiireiiliir.
'^
Tom. ? Ant. I ialofta
"8
Flores hist. fol. 298.
fUent. 3. Subs,
1.]
Symptoms
of
Liove. 521
This they sung, he chafi, till at length, impatient as he was, he pn yed to St. Magnus,
patron of the church, they might all three sing and dance 11 that time twelvemonth,
and so
"*
they did without meat and drink, wearisomeness or giving over, till at year'sj
end they ceased singing, and were absolved by Herebertus archl ishop of Cologne.
They wdl 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 lascivi-
ous tales, scurrilous tunes, such objects are their sole delight, their continual medi-
tation, and as Guastavinius adds, Co7n. in 4. Sect. 27. Prnv. Jirist. oh seminis abun-
dantlam crebrcB cogltationes, veneris frequens recordatio et pruriens voluptas, ^c. an
earnest longing comes hence, pruriens corpus^ pruriens ani7na, amorous conceits,
tickling thoughts, sweet and pleasant hopes ; hence it is, they can think, discourse
willing'iy, 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 tiiey shall have, by cromnyomanlia,
a kind of divination with
"^^
onions laid on the altar on Ciiristmas eve, or by fasting
on St. Anne's eve or night, to know who shall be their first husband, or by amphi-
tomantia, by beans in a cake, Slc, to burn the same. This love is the cause of all
good conceits,
^'
neatness, exornations, plays, elegancies, delights, pleasant expres-
sions, sweet motions, and gestures, joys, comforts, exultancies, and all the sweetness
of our life, ^-qualis jam vitaforel., aut quid jucundi sine aurea Veneref
^
Emoriar
cutn istd non ainpUus mild cura fuerit, let me live no longer than I may love, saith
a mad merry fellow in Mimnermus. This love is that salt tliat seasoneth our harsh
and dull labours, and gives a pleasant relish to our other unsavory proceedings,
^Absil amor^ surgunt tenebrce, torpedo., veternum., pestis., ^t. All our feasts almost,
masques, mummings, banquets, merry meetings, wedcUngs, pleasing songs, tine tunes,
poems, love stories, plays, comedies, atlelans, jigs, fescenines, elegies, odes, &c. pro-
ceed hence. ^^Danaus, the son of Belus, at his daughter's wedding at Argos, insti-
tuted the first plays (some say) that ever were heard of symbols, emblems, impresses,
devices, if we shall believe Jovius, Contiles, Paradine, Camillus de Camillis, may be
ascribed to it. Most of our arts and sciences, painting amongst the rest, was first
invented, saith
^''
Patritius ex amoris bcnejicio, for love's sake. For when the daugh-
ter of
^
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.
^^
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, J^unquam ialia
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, Slc.
Cure
of
Love-Melancholy, by Labour, Diet, Physic, Fasting,
Sfc.
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,
*'* "
facilis descensus Averni
;
Sed revocare gradnin, superasque evadere ad auras;
Hie labor, hoc opus est."
'It Is an easy passage down to hell.
But to come back, once there, you cannot well."
S8
Pausanias Achaicis, I. 7.
*'
Megarensis amore
flagrans Lucian. Tom. 4. '"' Ovid. 3. met.
"
Furi-
bumlus piitavit se videre imaginem puelloe, et coram
logui blandiens illi, &c. "Juven. Hebrsus.
".luvenis Medicinse operam dans dnctoris filiam depe-
ribat, &.c. "<Gotardus Arthiis Gallobelgicus, nund.
vernal. 1C15. rollum novacula aperuit: et inde expi-
ravit. '6 Cum renuente parente iitroque et ipsa
virgine frui non posset, ipsum et ipsam interfecit, lioc
i. magistratu pelens, ul in eodem sppulchro sepeliri
piixsent.
'"'
Boccaccio. " Series eoruni qui pro
imoris impilienlia pereunt, Virg 6. .^.nid. ' "
Whom
cruel love with its wasting power destroyed." ""Anii
a myrtle grove overshadow thee; nor do cares reliii
quish lliee even in death itself" "OSal. Val,
eiSabel. lib. 3. En. (). s^Curlius, lib. 5. i^aChal-
cocondilas de reb. Tuscicis, lib. 9. Nerei uxor Athena-
rum doniina, &c.
84
ivicpphorus Greg, hist lib.?,
Uxorem occidit liberos et Michaelem filium videre
abhorruit. Thessalonicae amore caplus pronotarii,
filije, &c.
f-ii
Parthenius Ernt. lib. cap. .5.
d^m
ca. 21. Gubernatoris alia Achillis amore capta civi-
latem prodidit. Idem. cap. 9.
6s
Virg jEn. 6
526 Love-Melancholy.
[Part. 3. Sec. 2.
Yet 'without question, if it be taken in time, it may be helped, and by many goot'.
remedies amended. Avicenna, lib. 3. Fen. cap. 23. et 2t. sets down seven compen-
dious ways liow this malady may be eased, altered, and expelled. Savanarola 9
prinenpal observations, Jason Pratensis prescribes eight rules besides physic, how
this passion may be tamed, Laurentius 2. main precepts, Arnoldus, Valleriola, Mon-
taltus, 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
Baccho friget Venus (love grows cool without bread and wine). As an ^^idle seden-
tary 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 Cupidtnis artea,
Conleniplaeqiie 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.
"< "
Frustra blanditis appulistis ad has,
Frustra nequitis veiiistis ad has,
Frustra deiiti.'e obsidebiti? has,
Frustra has illecebra-, et procacitates,
Et suspi/ia, et osciila, et susurri,
Et quisquis male saiia 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, Occupdrt
in mullis et magnis negotiis., and Avicenna's precept, cap. 24.
^'
Cedit amor relms;
res, age tutus eris. To be busy still, and as '''Guianerius enjoins, about matters of
great moment, if it may be.
^*
Magninus adds,
"
Never to be idle but at the hours
of sleep."
Poscas ante diem librum ciim lumine, si non
Intendas anitnum studiis, et rebus honestis,
Invidia vel amore miser torquebere."
"For if thou dost not ply thy book.
By candle-liclit to study bent,
Eniploy'd about some honest tiling.
Envy or love shall thee torment."
No better physic than to be always occupied, seriously intent.
" "
Cur in penates rarius tenues subit,
Hffic delicatas eligens pestis domus,
Mediuinque sanos vulgus afl'ectus 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 wolward and bare. ^JS'on hahet
unde suum paupertas pascal amorem.
^'
Guianerius therefore prescribes his patient
"
to go with hair-cloth next his skin, to go bare-footed, and bare-legged 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 i^ an all-sufficient remedy of itself ; for, as Jason Pratensis holds, the bodies
of such persons that feed liberally, and live at ease, *"are full of bad spirits and
devils, devilish thoughts ; no better physic for such parties, than to fast." Hildes-
heim, spicel. 2. to this of hunger, adds,
^^"
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
"*
Ambrose,
"
is a friend of virginity, so is it an enemy to lasciviousness, but fulness 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
89
0tium naufragium castitatis. Austin. mBu-
chanan. Hendeca syl. "' Ovid lib. 1. remed. "Love
yields to business; be employed, and you 'II be safe"
"('ap. 16. circares arduas e.xerceri. "3
part 2. c. 23.
reg. San. His, prster horam somni, nulla per otiuni
transeat.
m
Hor. lib. I. epist. 2. ssgeneca.
6'
Poverty has not the means of feeding her passion."
"Tract, 16. cap. 18. smpe nuda carne ciiicium portent
temporp frigido sine caligis, et iiudis pedibus incedant,
in pane et aqua jejuiienl, siepius se verberibus rsdanl.
&c. w'Dxmonibus referta sunt corpora nostra, illo
rum priPcipuequi delicatis vescuntur eduliis, advolitant,
et corporibus inherent; lianc ob rem jejunium im-
pendio prnbaturad pudicitiaiii.
m
Victussit altenua-
tus, balnei frequens usus et sudationes, cold baths, not
hot, saith Magninus, part 3. ca. 23. to dive over he'id
and ears in a cold river, (Slc. '""Ser. de gula; fames
amica virgitiitati est, iiiirnica lascivi:E: satiiritas vrn
caslitatem perdit, et iiutrit illecebras.
Mem. 5. Subs. 1.] Cure
of
Love- Melancholy. 527
Pauls, Hilaries, Anthonies, and famous anchorites, subdued the lusts of the flesh
;
by
this means Hilarion
"
made his ass, as he callod his own body, leave kicking, (so
'
Hierome relates of him in his life) when the devil tempted him to any such foul
offence." By this means those ^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
m practice, and if that will not serve,
'^
Gordonius
"
would have them soundly
wliipped, or, to cool their courage, kept in. prison," and there fed with bread and
water till they acknowledge tlieir error, and become of another mind. If imprison-
ment and hunger will not take them down, according to the directions of that
*
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 men-
tioned, which cause venery, or provoke lust, so they must use an opposite diet.
*
Wine must be altogether avoided of the younger sort. So
^
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 anima; virus et vitiorum
fomes^ a plague
itself, if immoderately taken. Women of old for that cause, '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. 1. 3. cap. 87, 88. out of Alhenaeus
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.
'
Nee minus erucas aptum est vitare salaces,
Et quicquid veneri corpora nostra parat."
"
Eriiigos are not good for to be taken,
And all lascivious meats must he forsaken."
Those opposite meats which ought to be used are cucumbers, melons, purslain,
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
*
Magninus, hath a wonderful virtue iii it. Those Athenian
women, in their solemn feasts called Thesmopheries, were to abstain nine days from
the company of men, during which time, saith JEUan, 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, Crescen-
tius 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 alid honestd venerem scepe exercendo., which
Langius epist. med. lib. 1. epist. 24. approves out of Rhasis (ad assid7talionem coitus
invitat) and Guianerius seconds it, cap. 16. tract. 16. as a ^very profitable remedy.
10 "
tument tibi quum inguina, cum si
Ancilla, aut verna prfesto est, teritigiiie ruinpi
Malls? non ego nainque," &c.
"
Jason Pratensis subscribes to this counsel of the poet, Excretio enim aut toilet
prorsus aut lenit cegritiidinem. As it did the raging lust of Ahasuerus,
'^
qui ad im-
patieniiam amoris leniendam., per singulas
fere
uoctes 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.,'"'" A lover that hath as it were lost himself through impbtency, impatience,
'Vita Hilarionis, lib. 3. epist. cum tentasset eum
dsenion lilillatione inter csetera, E^o inquit, aselle, ad
corpus suuni, faciam, 4.C. Stralio. I. 15. Geog. sub
pellibus, cuhanl, &c. Cup '2. part. 2. Si sit juve-
ois, el nnn vult obedire, flagelletur frequenter et forti-
ter, dum incipiat ftetere. Laertius, lib. 6. cap. 5.
amori niedetur fames; sin aliter, tempus; sin non hoc,
laqiieus. 8 Vina parant aniiiioK Veneri, tc. *3
de f.egibus. ' Non minus si vinuni tiiliissent ac si
aduttei'iuin adinisisNetit. Gelliu& lib. JO. c. 'i.'). (Rer.
Sam. part. 3. cap. 23. Mirahilem vim habet. Cum
muliere aliqua gratinsa ssepe coire erit utilissimum.
Idem Laurentius, cap. 11.
">
Hor. '-Cap. 29. de
morb. cereh.
i'
Bcroaldus oral, de amore.
'3
Ama-
tori, cujus est pro iinpotenlia mens amota, opus nst ut
paulatiin animus vilut a peregrinafione domum revoce.
tur per musicani, cunvivja. &.r.. Per aucupium. fab<i.
laa, et Ketivas narraliones, laborem ufiquc: ad audorem
ii28 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2.
must be called home as a traveller, by music, feasting, good wine, i nood be to
drunkenness itself, wliich many so much commend for the easing of tlio 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 pas-
sion to be diverted till he be fully weaned from anger, suspicion, cares, fears, &lc.,
and habituated into another course." Semper tecum sil^ (as
'''
Sempronius adviseth
Calisto his love-sick master) qui sermnnes joculares moveat^ condones ridiculas^ d'lc-
teria
falsa, suaves hislorias, fahilas venuslas recenseat, coram ludat, Sfc. 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 aug
ment the passion of some lovers, as '^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, ^n
amantes et amantes risdem 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 Valle-
riola observat. lib. 2. observ. 7. Lod. Mercatus lib. 2. cap. 4. de mulicr. ujfecf. Daniel
Sennertus lih. 1. part. 2. cap. 10. '^Jacobus Ferrandus the Frenchman, in his Tract
Le amore Erotique, Forestus lib. 10. observ. 29 and 30, Jason Pratensis and others
or peculiar receipts. '^Amatus Lucitanus 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 : '^Avicenna confirms as much if need require,
and
'^^
blood-letting above the rest," which makes amantes ne jint amentes., lovers to
come to themselves, and keep in their right minds. 'Tis the same which Schola
Salernitana, Jason Pratensis, Hildesheim, &.c., prescribe blood-letting to be used as
principal remedy. Those old Scythians had a trick to cure all appetite of burning
ust,"*by
^
letting themselves blood under the ears, and to make both men and women
barren, as Sabellicus in his /Eneades relates of them. Which Salmuth. Tit. 10. de
Herol. comment, in Pancirol. de nov. report. Mercurialis, var. lee. 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.
Hue faciunt medicamenta venerem sopientia, ut camphora pudendis alligata, et in
brachd gestata [quidam ait) membrum Jlaccidum reddit. Laboravit hoc morbo virgo
nobilis, cui inter ccrtera prascripsit medicus, ut laminam plumbeam multis foramini-
bus pertusam ad dies viginti portaret in dorso ; ad exiccandum vera sperma jussit
earn quam parcissime cibari, et manducare frequentur coriandrum prceparatum., et
semen lactucce et acctosa,, et sic earn a morbo liberavit. Porro imped iunt et remittunt
coitum folia salicis trita et epota, et si frequentius usurpentur ipsa in lotum auferunt.
Idem prasstat 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, pulvisquas ranae decoUatae et exiccatse. Ad extin-
guendum 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 virgag impedit; idem efficit synapium ebibitum.
Da verb^nam in potu et non erigetur virga sex diebus; utcre mcnthd sicca cum aceto^
genitalia illinita succo hyoscyami aut cicutcs., coitus appetitum sedant.^ Sfc. R. seminis
'actuc. portulac. coriandri an. 3j. menthce. siccce
3(5-
sacchari albiss. 3iiij. pulveriscen-
lur omnia subtiliter, et post ea simul misce aqua neunpharis,
f.
confec. solida in mor-
"Cffilestinw, Act. 2. Bartliio interpret. J6Cap.de
illishi. Miiltiis hoc affVctu sanat cantilena, Istitia,
nusica, et quiiiam sunt quos nc angpnt. '"Thig
aiitlior ranie tn my hands since the third edition of this
oook "Cent. 3. curat. .TO. .Syrupo hellehorato et
aliis qtiiE ad atram bileni pertinent.
i^
Pureetur si
ejus dispositio veiierit ad adust, liiimnris, et phleliolo-
niizetnr.
i
Amantium innrl)iis ut pruritus sulvitur
venip sectione et cucuriiitiilis. * Cura a venie sec
tione per aures, unde semner steriles.
Mc'in. 5. Subs.
2.]
Cure
of
Love-Melancholy. 529
sulis. Ex his sumat mane unum quum surgat. Innumera fere his similia petas ab
Ilildishemo loco praedicto, Mizaldo, Porta, caeterisque.
Si'BSECT. II.Withstand the beginnings, avoid occasions, change his place : fair and
foul
means, contrary passions, with witty inventions : to bring in another, and di
commend the former.
Other good rules and precepts are enjoined by our physicians, which, if n(
alone, yet certainly conjoined, may do much ; the first of which is obstare princi-
pits, to withstand the beginning,
^'
Quisquis in 2}rinio obstitit, Pepulitque amorem
tutus ac victor fait, he that will but resist at first, may easily be a conqueror at the
last. Baltazar Castilio, /. 4. urgeth this prescript above the rest,
^^"
wlien he shall
chance (saith he) to light upon a woman that hath good behaviour joined with hei
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 dis-
cern those subtle spirits sparkling in her eyes, to administer more fuel to the fire, he
must wisely withstand the beginnings, rouse up reason, stupified 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,
* "
Oppiime diim nova sunt subiti mala semina morbi, I " Thy quick disease, whilst it is fresh to-day,
Dum licft, in prinio lumine siste pedein."
| 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^^ [qui tacitus ardet magis uritur, the more he conceals, the greater
is his pain) that by his good advice may iiappily 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 ?
ss "
Sussilite obsecroet mittite istanc foras,
CiuJB misero niihi ainanti ebibit sanguinein."'
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 ^^ Gregory Tholosanus exhorts, "kissing, dal-
liance, all speeches, tokens, love-letters, and the like," or as Castilio, lib. 4. to con-
verse witli them, hear them speak, or sing, (tolerabilius est audire basiliscum sibi-
lantern, thou hadst better hear, saith
^^
Cyprian, a serpent hiss)
^^"
those amiable
smiles, admirable graces, and sweet gestures," which their presence affords.
* "
Neil capita liment solitis niorsinnculis,
Et his papiilarum oppressiuiiculis
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 remem-
brance.
^
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.
31
" Et fngitare decet simulacra et pabula amoris,
Abstinere sibi atque alio convertere menlem."
"
Gaze not on a maid," saith Syracides,
"
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 Fici-
nus adviseth, let not thine eye be intentus ad libidinem, do not intend her more than
he rest
:
for as
^'^
Propertius holds. Ipse alimenta sibi maxima prcebet amor, love as
2' Seneca. ^'Cum in mulierem inciderit, quae cum
forma nionim suavitatem conjunctam habet, et jam
oculns persenserit formae ad se imaginem cum aviditate
quadam rapere cum eadem, See. ^
Ovid, de rem. lib.
1.
^'
jEneas Silvius.
26
piautus gurcn. "Remove
and throw her quite out of doors, she who has drank
sny lovesick blood." !Tom. 2. lib. 4. cap. 10.
Syitag. med. arc. Mira. vitentur oscuta. tsctus sermo,
67
2U
el scripta impudica, liierae. Sec. ^
Lib. de singul
Cler. 28'fam admirabilem splendorem declinet,
gratiam, scintillas, amabiles risus, gcstus suavissiraoa;
&c. *Lipsius, hort. leg. lib. 3. antiq. lee.
so
i^n^^
3. de vit. coBlitus compar. cap. 6.
^i
Lucretius.
"
It
is best to shun the semblance and the food of love, t*
abstain from it, and totally avert the mind from ttw
object." MLib. 3. eleg. 10.
530 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2.
a snow bal] ttnlargeth itself by sight : but as Hierome to Nepoti^n, aut cequlUer am(u
aut ceqnaatBr ignora, either see all alike, or let all alone ; make a league with thine
eyes, as
''
Job did, and that is the safest course, let all alone, see none of ihem.
Nothing sooner revives,
^^
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 multimi saliens incital unda
sitim. The sight of drink makes one dry, and the sight of meat increaselh appetite.
'Tis dangerous therefore to see. A
^^
young gentleman in merriment would needs
put on his mistress's clothes, and walk abroad alone, which some of her suitors es-
pying, 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.
S6 "
Infirniis oatisa pusilla nocet,
Ut pene e.xiinctuni ciiicreni si sulphure tangas,
Vivet, et ex miniino maxinuis ignis erit :
Sic nisi vitabis quirquiil renovabit aiiioreni,
Flamma recrudescet, quae iiiodo nulla fuit."
"
A sickly man a little thing offends.
As brimstone doth a fire decayed renew.
And makes it hum afresh, doth love's dead flamsa,
If that the former object it review."
Or, as the poet compares it to embers in ashes, which the wind blows, ^^ut solet a
ventis^
Sfc.^ 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 acknowledgeth as much of himself, when he had been long
absent, and almost forgotten his mistress,
''^
"
at the first sight of her, as straw in a
fire, I burned afresh, and more than ever I did before." ^^"Chariclia was as much
moved at the sight of her dear Theagines, after he had been a great stranger."
^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 pre-
^
sence, she could not contain, effuse aniplcxa attrectari se sinit, <Sfc., she broke her
vow, and did profusely embrace him. Hermotinus, a young man (in the said ""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, agnotntveteris vestigia JlainrrKe,
he raved amain. Ilia tamen emergens veliiti lucida slella cepit elucere, S^'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 tliat comes by seeing, ''^"when he heard Darius's V
wife so much commended for her beauty, would scarce admit her to come in his
'
bight," foreknowing belike that o{ VXniaxch, 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 thai divine face of Panthea to Cyrus, ,
*^"by how much she was fairer than ordinary, by so n)uch he was the more unwill-
>
ing to see her." Scipio, a young man of twenty-three years of age, and the most
l)eautiful of the Romans, eaual in person to tbat Grecian Charinus, or Homer's
Nireus, at the siege of a city in Spain, when as a noble and most fair young gentle-
woman was brought unto him,
''''
" and he had heard she was betrothed to a lordy-\
rewarded her, and sent her back to her sweetheart." St. Austin, as
'*^
Gregory reports
of him, ne cum sorore quidem sua ptitcwii habilandum, would not live in the house
with his own sister. Xenecrates 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, '^^soliis cum solo to lie in the chamber
with, and was wooed by him besides, as the said Alcibiades publicly ''^coniessed,
formam sprevit et superbe contempsif, he scornfully rejected him. Petrarch, that had
so magnified his Laura in several poems, when by the pope's means she was oflbred
s^Jobxxxi. Pepigi fiedus cum oculis meis ne cogi- I dorus, I. 4. inflammat mentem noviis aspectus, perindt,
tarem de virgine.
^*
Dial. 3. dp contemptu mundi ;
'
ac ignis materia; admotus, Chariclia, &c.
*"
Epist. 15.
nihil facilius recrudescit quam amor; nt pompa visa; 1.2. <' Epist. 4. 1.2. <2 Curtius, lib. 3. cum uxorein
renovat ambitionem, auri species avaritiam, spectata
corporis forma inceiidit luxuriam.
3=
Seneca cont.
lib. 2. ront. 9.
3
Ovid.
s^
Met. 7. ut solet a ventis
alimenta resumere, quaque Pavia sub inducia latuit
cinlilla favilla. Crescere et in veleres agitata resur-
fere flammas. ^ pu^tathi. i. 3. aspectus amorem
incendit, ut marrescen em in palea ignem vcntus;
Ardebam interea majore concepto iiiccndio.
s'
Fleiio-
Darii laudatam audivisset, lantum cupiditati suee fne-
num injecit, ut illam vix vellel intueri.
<3
Cyro-
paedia. cum Panthefe forman evexisset Araspus, tanto
magis, inqiiit Cyrus ahstinere oportet, quanto pulchrior
est.
**
Livius. cum eam regulo cuidam dosponsaram
audivisset muueribus cuimilstam remisit
Ep. 39.
III). 7.
*^
Et <'a loqui posset qus" suli aniaturris l<<(ui
Solent.
"
Platoiiis Coiivivio.
iVIem. 5. Subs.
2.J
Cure
of Love-Melancholy. 531
unto him, would not accept of her. ''^"It is a good happiness to be i'ree 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 las he saith) is a sin-
gular point of wisdom."
**"
Nam vitare plagas in amoris ne jaciamur
Non itd (litficile est, qiiam capturn retibus ipsis
Exile, et validos VeiieDS perrunipere 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 them-
selves, 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 head-strong pas-
sion of raging lust, and their weakness, ferox ille ardor d natura insitus,
^
as he
terms it
"
such a furious desire nature hath inscribed, such unspeakable delight."
"Sic Diva? Veneris furor,
Irisanis adeo iiieiitibus incubat,"
which neither reason, counsel, poverty, pain, misery, drudgery, partus dolor.^ (Sfc, 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 pairid^ 'tis Sava-
narola's fourth rule, and Gordonius' precept, distrahaiur 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 :
^'
as a sick
man he must be cured with change of air. Tally 4 Tuscul. The best remedy is to
get thee gone, Jason Pratensis : change air and soil, Laurentius.
62"Fugp llttus amatuin.
Vitg. Utile fiiiitimis abstiiiuisse locis."
Travelling is an antidote of love,
M"
Ovid. I procul, et longas carpere pergje viaa.
sed luge tutus eris."
w "
Magnum iter ad doctas proficisci cogor Athenas,
Ut me ionga gravi solvat aniore via."
For this purpose, saith '^Propertius, my parents sent me to Athens; time and patience
wear away pain and grief, as fire goes out for want of fuel. Quanturn oculis, animo
tarn, procul ibit amor. But so as they tarry out long enough : a whole year ^"^Xeno-
phon prescribes CritobuluSfVix enim intra hoc iempus ab amore sanari poteris : some
will hardly be weaned under. All this
"
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 pliilosopher 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 prinres oculos
amisisset, (saith mine
^*
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 doated,
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 ^^^Eneas fled from Dido, not vouchsafing her any farther
parley, loathing his folly, and ashamed of that which formerly he had done. ^"JYoii
<8
Heliodorus, lib. 4. expertem esse ainoris beatitude
est, at quuni captus sis, ad moderationem revocare
animum prudentia singularis.
*3
Lucretius, 1. 4.
K>
Heedus, lib. 1. de amor, coiitem.
'
Loci muta-
tiune tanquam non convalesceis curandus est. cap. 11.
W"Fly the cherished shore. It is advisable to with-
draw from the places near it."
"'^
\mor'jm, I. 2.
'Depart and lake a long journeysafety is in flight
nly."
M
Uuisquis amat, loca nuia nocenv ; dies
iegritudinem adimit, absentia delet. [re licet procul
hiiic patriieque relinquere fines. Ovid. si.ib. 3.
eleg. 20. 66LJI,. j. Socrat. memor. Tibi O Orito-
bule consulo ut integrum annum absis, &,c. 57prr>xi.,
mum est ut esurias 2. ut mnram temporis opponas.
"
3. et .locum mutes. 4. ut de laqueo cogites.
*>
phi
lostratus de vita iVtphistraiuiij.
**
Virg. tj. M
">
Buchanan.
S32 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sect. 2.
sum stullus ut ante jam Keara.
"
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, Amanies 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, blindnessj 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,
^'
" 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.
'^"That he is made some great governor, or hath some honour, office, some inherit-
ance 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, ^'''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" hijuries, slanders, contempts, dis-
graces sprefceque injuria forma., ''the insult of, her slighted beauty," are very
forcible means to withdraw men's affections, contumelid affecii amatores amare desi-
nuntf as
^^
Lucian saith, lovers reviled or neglected, contemned or misused, turn love
to hate ;
^^
redeam ? J\on si me obsecret,
"
I
'11 never love thee more." Egone illam^
qucR ilium., qua: me, quce nonf So Zephyrus hated Hyacinthus because he scorned
him, and preferred his co-rival Apollo (^PaJephcpJus
fab.
JVar.), 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 dis-
ease, gout, stone, stranguary, 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 in-
curable 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~S
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 can-
not hold his water, that he cries out or walks in the night, will stab his bed-fellow,
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 porlet subtus
gremium pannum menslrualem., et dicat quod amica sua sit ebriosa, et quod mingat in
81
Annuncientur valde tristia, ut major tristitia posBit
minorein obfuscare.
*2
Aut quod sit factus senes-
callufe, aiit habeat honorem magnum.
^^
Adolescens
Grfficiis erat in Egypti ccEnobio qui nulla operis magni-
ludine, nulla uersiias'ione flaminam poterat sedare
:
monasterii pater hac arte servavit. Imperat cuidam i
sociis, &c. Flebat ille, omiies adversabantur ; solus
pater calidS opponere, ne abundantia tristitite absoru-;-
relur, quid mulla ? hoc invento curatus est,et J cogii*
tionibus pristiniis avocatus.
w
Tom 4 Tei
iHein. 5, Subs.
2,]
Cure
of
Love-Melancholy. 53j>
lecto. et quod est epileptica et impudicia; et quod in corpore suo sunt eccc^'scentict
enorjnes., cum fcetore anhclitus.i et alice enormitates, quibus vetulce sunt edoctce : si nolU
his persuaderi., siibitd extrahat ^^pannuiii menstrualem, coram facie
portando., excla
mando, talis est arnica tua ; et si ex his non demiserit., non est homo, sed diabolus in-
carnatus. Idem fere, Jlvicenna, cap. 24, de cura Elishi, lib.
3,
Fen. 1. Tract. 4. JYar-
rent res immundas vetulce, ex quibus abominationem incurrat, et res
^'^
sordidas et hoc
assiduent. Idem Arculanus cap. IG. in 9. Rhasis, Sfc.
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 hei
to be wooed, or woo some other that shall be fairer, of better note, better fortune
birth, parentage, much to be preferred,
^^''-
Invenies alium si te hie fastidit Mexis,'''
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 ^^sub-
dividing to diminish it, as a great river cut into many channels runs low at last.
'0 u
fjorior et ut pariter Unas habcatis amicus,''''
8fc.
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 loth to depart from it, though in the
next room there be a better which will refresh him as much; there's as much dif-
ference of hcBC 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 (Enone'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
''
Theseus left
Ariadne fast asleep in the island of Dia, to seek her fortune, that was erst his loving
mistress. ^'^JYunc 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 forth-
with, 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 "Lucian
was pitifully in love, he came to the theatre by chance, and by seeing other fair
objects there, mentis sanitateni recepit, was fully recovered, '"""and went merrily
home, as if he had taken a dram of oblivion." '*A mouse (saith an Apologer) was
brought up in a chesti, 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,
'**
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, cegerrime solem inlueri; but after they were accustomed a little to it,
""they deplored their fellows' misery that lived under ground." A silly lover is in
like stale, 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, '''^ Priorem
flammam
novus ignis
extrudit; et ea multorum natura, ut prcBsentes maxime ament, one fire drives out an-
other; 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 Floriat, 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, qudm
decens, S^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.
Triton, the sea-god, first loved Leucothoe, till he came in
presence of Milaene, she was the commandress of his heart, till he saw Galate^: but
(as
^
she complains) he loved another eftsoons, another, and another. 'Tis a thing
WHypatia Alexandrina quendam se adamantem pro-
'atis muliebribus pannis, et in eum conjectis ab amoris
nsaiiia laboravit. Suidas et Eunapius. 'Savana-
'ola, ret;- 5.
8*
Vir?. Eel. 3.
"
Yoii will easily find
another if this Alexis disdains you."
^^
Distribiitio
amoris fiat in plures, ail plures arnicas animum applicet.
oOvid. "i recommend you lo have two mistresses."
"
iiiginus, sab. 43.
'^
Petr Miius.
<>
Lib. de salt,
j
arnserit,
2u2
'<
E theatre egressus hilaris, ao si pharmacum obli
vionis bibisset. '5 Mus in cista natus, &c.
">
In
quern e specu subterraneo modicum lucis illabitur.
" Deplorabant eorum miseriam qui subterraneis illia
locis vilam ilegunt.
'
Talius lib. 6. '^Aris-
tsnelus, epist. 4. ^"Calcaifnin. Dial. Galat, Mo*
aliain prstulit, aliani pr<elaturus quam primum occasio
534 Love-Melancholy. Tart. 3. Sec. 2.
which, by Hieron.'s report, hath been usually practised.
"'
' 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,
^^
''
AUerius vires subfrahit alter amnr
;''"'
and Tully, 3. JVaL
Dear, 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 Basill, a patient of his, by this stratagem alone, that doted upon a poor ser-
vant 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 tho
death of Lucretia, ^^Euryalus would admit of no comfort, till the Emperor Sigismond
married him to a noble lady of his court, and so in short space he was freed.
SuBSECT. III.
Exliiiguitur virilitas ex inrantarneritoruin nialeficiis; Junoneni deperiret Jupiter impotenter, ibi sol>tu
Degue eaim fabula est, noiinulli reperti sunt, qui ex
'
lavare.
&(*
Mem. 5. bubs.
5,J
Cure
of
Lone-Melancholy.
547
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.
*
Cupidinis (P.stro
vercita e summo prceceps ruit, hoping thus to ease herself, and to be freed of her
love pangs.
'<>"
Hic se Deucalion Pyrrhre suocensus amore
Mersit, et illjeso corpore pressit aquas.
Nee mora, fugil ainor,"&c.
'
Hither Deucalion came, when Pyrrha's love
Tormented him, and leapt down to the sea.
And had no harm at all, hut by and by
His love was gone and chased quite away."
This medicine Jos. Scaliger speaks of, Jlusoniarum lectionu/n 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 pas-
sion is mitigated : and Anthony Verdurius Iniag. deorum de Cupid, saitli, that amongst
the ancients there was ^^Jlmor Lethes^
"
he took burning torches, and extinguished
them in the river ; his statute was to be seen in the temple of Venus Eleusina," of
wmcn Ovid makes mention, and saith
"
that all lovers of old went thither on pil
grmjage, that would be rid of their love-pangs." Pausanias, in '^Phocicis, writes
of a leniple dedicated Veneri in speluncd, to Venus in the vault, at Naupactus in
Achaia (now Lepanto) in which your widows that would have second husbands,
made ineir supplications to the goddess ; all manner of suits concerning lovers were
commenced, and their grievances helped. The same author, in Achaicis, tells as
much oi the river
"
Senelus in Greece; if any lover washed himself in it, by a
secret vn>.ue of that water, (by reason of the extreme coldness belike) he was healed
of love's torments,
'*
A7noris vulnus idem qui sanai facit ; which if it be so, that
water, as ne holds, is onmi aura pretiosior^ better tiian 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 '^Ausonius, and crucify Cupid till he grant their re-
quest, or sait'sfy their desires.
Sub SECT. V The last and best Cure
of
Love-Melancholy, is to let them have their
Desire.
The last -efuge and surest remedy, to be put in practice in the utmost place, when
no other mc-tns will take effect, is to let them go together, and enjoy one another
:
potissima cvra est ut heros amasia sua potiatur., saith Guianerius, cap. 15. tract. 15.
iEsculapius nimself, to this malady, cannot invent a better remedy, qudm ut amanf.i
cedat atuatuti,''' (Jason Pratensis) than that a lover have his desire.
"
Et par|l^l torulo bini jungantur in uno,
Et pulcu/o detur ^nece Lavinia conjux."
"
And let them both be joined in a bed,
And let ^neas fair Luvinia wed;"
'Tis the special cure, to let them bleed in vena Hymena;a, for love is a pleurisy, and
if it be possible, so let it be, optataque gaudia carpant.
"
Arculanus holds it
the speedieft and the best cure, 'tis Savanarola's
'^
last precept, a principal infallible
remedy, the last, sole, and safest refuge.
'
Julia sola potes nostras extinguere flammas,
Non nivfc, 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, sailh
'^""
Avicenna, there is no speedier or safer course,
ihan to join the parties together according to their desires and wishes, the custom
and form of law ; and so we liave seen him quickly restored to his former health,
that was languished away to skin and bones ; after his desire was satisfied, his dis-
content 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 in-
stance of a young man,
^'
when no other means could prevail, was so speedily re-
lieved, What remains then but to join them in marriage }
* Menander.
"
Stricken by the gadfly of love, rushed
headlong from the summit."
i"
Ovid. ep. 21. " Apud
aniiquos amor Lethes olini fuit, is ardentes fasces in
profluentum inclinabat; hujus statua Veneris Eleusina;
teniplo visebatur, quo ainantes confluebant, qui amiCEB
menioriam deponere volebant.
"
ljI). jq. Vota ei
nunciipant amatores. multis de causis, sed imprimis
vidiiae mulieres, ut sibi alteras a dea nuptias exposcant.
'sRodiginus, ant. lect. lib. Iti. cap. 25. calls it Seleiiiis.
Omni aniore liberal. "Seneca. "The rise and
remedy of love tlie same." '^Cupido crucifixus:
Lepidum poema.
'6
Cap. 19. de morb. cerebri
1'
Patiens potiatur re amata, si fieri possit, optima cura,
cap. 11). in 9 Rhasis.
i*
Si nihil aliud, nuptiae et co-
pulatio cum ea.
'9
Petronius Catal.
2"
Cap. dp
llishi. Nun invenitur cura, nisi regimen connexioiiis
inter eos. secundum modum promissioiiiB, et legis, et sic
vidimus ad carnem restitutiini, qui jam venerat ad arc-
factioneiii ; evaniiit cura postquani seiisil &c.
'^i
Faina
est melancholicuin queiidam ex amore iiisai tihiliter st
liabentein, ubi puellx se conjunxisset, restit turn, &c.
648 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2.
''"Tiincet basia morsiunciilasqiie
Siirreptim dare, mutuos fovere
Afiiplexus 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,
Cmijiincto siiniil ore siiavientur,
Et soinnos agitent quiete in una."
Tea, but hie labor, hoc opus, this cannot conveniently be done, by reason of man?
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, semcl el
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, ^^'^O that
1 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, J 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 1
have never a suitor, Exjiectant stolidi ut ego illos rogatum veniani, as
^'*
slie said, A
company of silly fellows look belike that I should woo them and speak first : fain
they would and cannot woo, ^^qu(B primian exordia sumam? being merely pas-
sive they may not make suit, with many such lets and inconveniences, v.hich J 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 dearly love, the one noble, the other ignoble,
they may not by their laws match, though equal otherwise in years, fortunes, edu-
cation, and all good aflection. In Germany, except they can prove their gentility by
three descents, tliey scorn to match with them. A nobleman must marry a noble-
woman : a baron, a baron's daughter; a knight, a knight's; a gentleman, a gentle-
man'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, dandurn aliquid amori, we are all the
sons of Adam, 'tis opposite to nature, it ought iiot to be so. Again : he loves her
most impotenily, she loves not him, and so e contra. "^^"Pan loved Echo, Echo
Satyrus, Satyrus Lyda..
"Quantum ipsorum aliquis amaiitem oderat,
Tantum ipsius anians odiosus erat."
''They love and loathe of all sorts, he loves her, she hates him; and is loathed ot
him, on whom she dotes." Cupid hath two darts, one to force love, all of gold,
and that sharp,
^^
Quod facit. auratum est; another blunt, of lead, and that to
hinder; fugat hoc, facit ilJud amorem,
"
this dispels, that creates love." This
we see too often verified in our common experience.
^^
Choresus dearly loved that
virgin Callyrrhoe but the more he loved her, the more she hated him. ffinone
loved Paris, but he rejected her : they are stiff of all sides, as if beauty were there-
fore created to undo, or be undone. I give her all attendance, all observance, I pray
and intreat, ^^Mma precor miserere mei, fair mistress pity me, I spend myself, my
'"Jovian. Pontanus, Basi. lib. 1.
23
gpeede's hist.
e M. S. Ber. Andres.
"i
Lucretia in Coelestina, act.
W. Barthio interpret.
25
Virg. 4 JEn.
"
How shall
; begin
?" as
E Graecho Moschi. ^ Ovid. Met. 1.
The efficacious one is goldeu."
'>
Tausanias i
Achaicis, lib. 7. Perdite amabat Callyrhoen v*rginem,
et quanto erat Choresi amor vehementior era ', tanttt
erat puellse animus ab ejus ainore alienior.
*
Vin
Mem. 5. Subs.
5.]
Cure,
of
Love-M lancholy. 54a
time, friends and fortunes, to win her favour, y&s he complains in the ""Eclogue,) J
lament, sigh, weep, and make my moan to her,
"
but she is hard as flint," cau-
tibus Ismarlis imnwtlor as fair and hard as a diamond, she will not respect,
Despecms tibi sum^ or hear me.
What shall I do ?
"
fugit ilia vocantem
Nil lachrymas miserata meas, nil flexa querelis.'
'
I wooed her as a young man should do,
But sir, she said, I love not you."
"
Rock, marble, heart of oak with iron liarr'd.
Frost, flint or adamsnts, are not so hard."
^Rusti.cus est Condon^ Jiec
32"
D'irior at scopulis mea Coelia, marmore, ferro,
Robore, rupe, antro, cornu, adamante, gelu."
I give, I bribe, I send presents, but they are refused.
munera curat Alexis. I protest, I swear, I weep,
'*
"odioque rependit amores,
Irrisu laclirymas"
"
She neglects me for all this, she derides me," contemns me, she hates me,
"
Phillida
flouts me:" Caute,fe7is, 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.
* "
Multi illam petlere, ilia aspernate petentes, I " Many did woo her, but she soorn'd them still,
Nee quid Hymen, quid amor, quid sint connubia curat."
|
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, qu^t torsit amant.es? one suitor pines away, languisheth in love, mori quol
denique cogit ! another sighs and grieves, she cares not : and which
"^
Stroza ob-
jected to Ariadne,
"Nee niagis Euryali gemitu, lacrymisque moveris,
(iuam prece turbati flectitur ora sali.
Tu juvenem, quo non fonnosior alter in urbe,
Spernis, t insano cogis aniore 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'sl him almost mad for love to die:"
They take a pride to prank up themselves, to make young men enamoured,
*'
capture viros et spernere captos, to dote on them, and to run mad for their sakes,
' "
sed nullis ilia movetur
Fletibus, aut voces ullas tractabilis ai|dit."
'"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 aman-
tis et spol'ds. 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,
39"
Multi ilium juvenes, multa; petiere puellae,
Sed fuit in tenera tarn dira superbia forma,
Nulli ilium juvenes, nullae petiere puella;."
'
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, Jlnte ait emoriar quam sit tibi copia nostri,
"
he
would rather die than give consent." Psyche ran whining after Cupid,
>"Kormosum tua te Psyche formosa requirit,
Et poscit te dia deum, puerunique puella ;"
'Fair Cupid, thy fair Psyche to thee suea
A lovely lass a fine young gallant woos
,
but he rejected her nevertheless. Thus many lover.s do hold out so long, doting on
30
Erasmus Egl. Galatea.
3i
Having no compas-
sion for my tears, she avoids my prayers, and is in-
flexible to my plaints."
32 Angerianus Erotopffignion.
Virg.
3
Lschcus.
3i
ovid. Met. 1. 36 Erot.
lib. 2.
3Tr. H. "To captivate the men, but despise
them when ciiptive." 3 Virg. 4 .lEn. 33Metamor
3.
*"
Fracastorius Dial, de anim.
ft 50
Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2
ihemselves, stand in their own light, till in the end they come to be scorned and re-
jected, as Stroza's Gargiliana was,
"
Te juveiies, te odere senes, desertaque Ungues, I " Both young and old do hate thee scorned now,
Quae fueras procerum publica oura prius." |
That once was all their joy and comfort too."
As Narcissus was himself,
," Wiio despising many.
Died ere he coLid 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
^'
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.
I
"
I love a maid, she loves me not : fdll fain
""
Hanc volo quae nnn vult, lllam qure vult ego nolo: | She would have me, but I not her again
;
Vincere vult animos, non satiare Venus." I So love to crucify men's souls is bent
:
I
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 accedi.t et ardet., their affection
cannot be reconciled. Oftentimes they may and will not, 'tis their own foolish pro-
ceedings 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 desperandiun^ there's hope enough yet : Mopso JVisa 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 com-
monly 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, "'qiiin stulfos excutii. 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 ^neas take her, or M^ith a milder farewell, let her
go. Et Phillida solus habtto^
"
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; careTy
not then for that which may not be had.
Many such inconveniences, lets, and hindrances there are, which cross their pro-
jects 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
loAc 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 insaninnf, as
"''
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 e\rnes ily.
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
Dial. Am. Ausonius. Ovid. Met.
Horn. 5. in 1. epist. Theus. <:ap. 4, ver. J
Mem. 5. Subs.
5.]
Cure
of
Love-Melancholy. 551
of it, she must and shall tarry. Many slack and careless parents, iniqui patres^
measure their ciiildren's affections by their own, they are now cold and decrepit
themselve?, past all such youthful conceits, and they will therefore starve their
children's genus, have them a pueris *'illico nascl se?ies, they must not marry, nee
tarum affmcsesse rerum quas secuinfert adolescentia : ex sua libidine moderatur quce
est nunc^ non quce. olimfuit: as he said in the comedy : they will stifle nature, their
young bloods must not participate of youthfu. pleasures, but be as they are them-
selves old on a sudden. And 'lis a general iault amongst most parents in bestowing
of their children, the father wholly respects wealth, when through his folly, riot, in-
discretion, he hath embezzled his estate, to recover himself, he confines and prosti-
tutes his eldest son's love and affection to some fool, or ancient, or deformed piece
for money.
*5 "
Plianaretee ducet filiam, rufani, illam virginein,
Caesiam, sparse ore, adunco naso"
and though his son utterly dislike, with Clitipho in the comedy, JYon possum pater
.
If she be ricii, 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 sliall marry, not when or whom he loves, Jlrconidis hujusjiliarn, but whom
Ills 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 iu these busi-
nesses the father is still for the best advantage; now the mother respects good kin-
dred, must part the son a proper woman. All whicli
'*''
Livy exempliffes, 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, quce 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,
*^
Virgo
for
inosa., etsi oppidd pauper, abunde dotata est, ''"Rachel was so married to
Jacob, and Bonaventure, ""/n 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.
^'
Plato holds, that in their contracts "young men should never avoid tlie affinity of
poor folks, or seek after rich." Poverty and base parentage may be sufficiently
recompensed by many other good qualities, mo'desty, virtue, religion, and choice
bringing up,
^^
" I am poor, I confess, but am 1 therefore contemptible, and an abject r
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 Jlmor cogi non potest, love cannot be compelled
they must affect as they may : ^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 ^^Aristaenetus loved her mistress's minion, which when her dame
perceived, yi<rio.sd cemulatione, in a jealous humour she dragged her about the house
by the hair of the head, and vexed her sore. The wench cried out,
^^"0
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 covet-
ousness, 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 ^"^Bodine's
mmd, that families have their bounds and periods as well as kingdoms, beyond which
46
Ter. Ter. Heaut. Seen. ult.
"
He will marry
the daughter of rich parents, a red-haired, blear-eyed,
|>ig-m'"'"!i'3d, crooked-nosed wench."
^'
Pleliiius et
nob>.._ tiiribiebant puellam, pucllx certainen in partes
neque divifum sectentur. ''^Philost. ep. duoniuin
pauper sum, idcirco conteniptior et abjeclior tibi
videar \xaot ipse iiundus est, gratis et astrii ; H
-
cules pelle leoiiina indutus. 63 Juvenal. ^ Lib. 2.
venil, &.C.
'8
Apuleius apol. '-iGen. xxvi. ep. 7.
"*
Ejulans inquit, non meiiteni une addixil
*
Non peccat venialiter qui mulierem rtucit ob pulchri- niih! fortuna servitute. '^Bs repub. c. de perio<L
Itidineni.
i
Lib. 6. de leg. Kx usu roipub. est ut in rerunipub.
uuftiis jiivenes neque pauo^runi atfinit^tem fugiaut, I
552 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sect. 2
lor talent or continuance they shall not exceed, six or seven hundied years, as they
mere illustrate by a multitude of examples, and which Peucer and
*'
Melancthon
approve, but in a perpetual tenor (as we see by many pedigrees of knights, gentle-
men, yeomen) continue as they began, for many descents with liitle alteration. How-
soever let them, 1 say, give something to youth, to love; they must not think they
can fancy whom they appoint; ^Amor enim non imperaiur^
affcctus 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 aftections.
a correspondency : invito non datur nee aufertur^i it may not be learned, Ovid him-
self cannot teach us how to love,^olomon describe, Apelles paint, or Helen express
it. They must not therefore compel or intrude;
^"^
quis enim (as Fabius urgeth)
amare alieno anitno 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. Syracides cap. 7. vers. 25.
calls it ''a weighty matter to perform, so to marry a daughter lo a man of under-
standing in due time
:"
Virgines enim tempestive locandce., as ^Lemnius admonisheth,
"
1. cap. 6. Virgins must be provided for in season, to prevent many diseases, of
tvhich
'
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 ] know besides; ubi nuptiarum tempus et alas advenerit., as Chrysostom ad-
viseth, 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.
^"
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 1 do apo-
logise here for any headstrong, unruly, wanton flirts. I do approve that of St. Am-
brose (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,
^^
lest
she be reputed to be malpert and wanton, if she take upon her to make her own
choice; "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 tuuth, they are past date, and nobody will respect
them. A woman with us ia Italy (saith
''*
Areti:.e's Lucretia) twenty-four years of
age,
"
is old already, past the best, of no account." An old fellow, as Lycistrata
confesseth in ''^Aristophanes, eisi sit canus^ cilb 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 apprchcnderit., nemo vult diicere uxorern, expectans
verb 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.
'"Q.uam inodo nascentem rulilus conspexit Eous,
Hanc rediens sero vespere vidit ainiin."
"
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 yi
th,
and as he
prescribes.
^''Collige virgo rosas dum flos novus et nova pubes,
Et inemor esto iEvuni sic properare tuum."
"
Fair maids, go gather roses in the primt,
And think that as a flower so goes on time."
Let's all love, du7n vires annique sinunl, while we are in the flower of years, fit for
ove matters, and while time serves : for
'"Soles occidere et redire possunt.
Nobis cum semel occidi'. l}revis lux,
Nox est perpetuo una dormienda."
">
" Suns that set may rise again.
But if once we lose this light,
'Tis with us perpetual night."
V'olat irrevocabile tempus, time past cannot be recalled. But we need no siich
"Com. in car. Chron.
m
pijn. in pan. ^9 Declam.
306.
6"
Puellis imprimis nulla dnnda occasio lapsus.
Lemn. lib. 1. 54. de vit instil.
oi
g^e more part I. s.
mem. ?. subs. 4.
'''^
Filia excedens annum -iS potest
inscio patre nubere, licet imlignus sit manlus, et eum
togere ad cong'' e dotaiidum.
'^
Ne appetentiie
procacinris rej)utetur auctor. ^ Expetitia enim
niaj;is debet videri a viro quam ipsa virum expetisse
I'' Mulier apud nos 24. aniiorum vetiila est et ^rojec
titia.
fis
(joniued. Lycistrat. And. Divo Iriterpr
6' Ausoiiius edy. 14.
<
Idem. sgcatulliu
'loi'ranslated by M. B. Johnson.
Mem. 5. Subs. 5.]
Cure
of
Love-Melancholy. 553
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 taugh
nim no better, if a maid or young man miscarry, I think their parents oftentimes,
juardians, overseers, governors, ncque vos (saith "Chrysostom) a supplicio imnmnes
cvadetis, si non stalim ad nupiias, Sfc. 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 fr^id
counsel of the comical old man were put in practice,
'2"
0|)ulentiores pauperiorum ul filias I
"
That rich men would marry poor maidens some,
Indotas (hicaiit iixores donuim : |
And that without dowry, and so bring tliem home,
Et multo tiet civitas concordior, I So woulinuicli concord be in our city,
Et invidia nos minore utemur, qiidm utimur." |
Less envy should we have, much more pity."
Jf
they would care less for wealth, we should have much more content and quiet-
ness in a commonwealth. Beauty, good bringing up, methinks, is a sufficient portion
of itself,
''^
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 ''''Aristaenetus, married a
poor man's child, facie non illcetahili, 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, I
"
I swear by all the rites of Diana,
Me tibi venturum coniitem, sponsumque futurum." | I'll come and be thy husband if I may."
She considered of it, and upon some small inquiry of his person and estate, wa
married unto him.
"
Blessed is the wooinst,
'I'hat IS not long a doing."
As the saying is; when .the parties are sufliciently 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.
'^
Dido and ^neas were accidentally driven by a storm both into one
cave, they made a match upon it; Massinissa was married to that fair captive Sopho-
nisba. 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 Ogyges belike, before staggering Ninus began
to domineer) if all be true that is reported : and -some few now-a-days will do as
much, here and there one; 'tis well done methinks, and all happiness befal them for
so doing. "Leontius, a philosopher of Athens, had a fair daughter called Athenais.
multo corporis lepbre ac Venere, (saith mine author) of a comely carriage, he gave
her no portion but her bringing up, occuUo formce prcBsagio, out of some secret fore-
knowledge 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 Pidcheria, the emperor's sister, of whom she was baptised and called Eudt-
cia. 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.
'*
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 Jlquilce, 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. 1 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 foi
love, &c., marry their children. If he be rich, let him take such a one as wants, if
" Horn. 5. in I. Thes. cap. 4. 1. "
Plautus. "Ovid.
'<
Epist. 12. 1.2. Eligit coiijiigem pauperem, indotatam
tt subito deamavit, et comniiseratione ejus inopiw.
"Virg /En. ' Fabius pictor : amor ipse conjuiixit
populos &r. "
Lipsius polit. Sebast. Mayer. Select.
70 2 W
Sect. 1. cap. 13.
"^
Mayerus select, sect. 1. c. 14. el
(Elian. 1. 13. c. 3.3. cum famul* lavantis vestes incu-
rinsns cusiodirent,&c. mandavil per universam ^gyr
tum lit foemina qua^reretur, cujus is calc.eus esse
>ainque sic inventain in tnatrimoniuiu accepit.
554 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2.
she be virtuously given; for as Syracides, liap. 1. ver. 19. advisetl "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. Banaus of Lacedaenion 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
'^
sent for a company of brave young gallants to his house,
'
and bid his daughters choose every one one, whom she liked best, and tiike 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 sqjne such by-respects. Crales, a Servian prince (as
Nicephorus Gregoras Ro7n. 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 ''"abide
him, for he had tiiree former wives, all basely abused
;
but the emperor still, Oralis
amiciliam magni faciens,, because he was a great prince, and a troublesome neigh-
hour, 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
^'
years older than
ihe 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 vain-
glory, pride, ambition, do as much harm as wretched covetousness itself in anothei
extreme. If a yeoman hare one sole daughter, he must overmatch her, above hei
birth and calling, to a gentleman forsooth, because of her great portion, too good foi
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. ^^Paulus Jovius gives instance in
Galeatius the Second, that heroical Duke of Milan, externas ajinitates, decoras qui-
dem rcgio
fastu^i
sed sihi et posteris damnnsas et fere
exitiales qucEsivit; he married
his eldest son John Galeatius to Isabella the King of France his sister, but she was
socero tarn gravis., ut. duccniis milhbus aureorum constiterit., her entertainment at
Mitan 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 Eng-
land, but, ad ejus adventum tantce opes tarn admirabili liberalitate profusce sunt., ul
opulentissimorum rcgum 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 dinne
for him and his company, in which were thirty-two messes and as much provision
left, ut relates a mensa dapes decern millibus hominum siifflcerent, as would serve ten
thousand men : but a little after Lionel died, nov(2 nuptce. et vnt'>mpestivis conviviis
operant 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, (tliough 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,
coUegiates, states of lives in copyholds, or in some base inferior offices,
^^
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, Sfc. Tiieir love is lost, and vain it is /
in such an estate to attempt. ^Gravissimum est adamare nee potiri, 'tis a grievous'i
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, tliey must either burn or starve. 'Tis
cornutum sophisma, hard to resolve, if they r.iarry they forfeit their estates, they are
undone, and starve themselves through beggary and want : if they do not marr) , in
'
Pausanias lib. 3. de Laconicis. Dimisit qui nuncii I qiiinque circiter aniios natu minor. " Vit.' GaleU
runt, &c. optioneni piiellis dedit, u'. earum quaelibet euin
|
serundi. *" Apuleius in Catel. nobis cuj ido velle Q*
ruill, C.U. 0|IIIU11CI1I piirilis utruil, II- cn uili v)Uti;iiucL cuiii ) s.;* uiiui. r
Ihi viruni delijferet, ciijus inaxnnp essut forma com- posse abnegat.
placila.
w
llliusconjugium abuiiii.ialitur. "' Socero
|
"'
Anacreon. dC.
Mem 5. Subs. 5. Cure
of
Love-Melancholy. 555
this heroical passion they furiously rage, are tormented, and torn in pieces by their
predominate affections. Every man hath not tlie gift of continence, let him ^'pray
for it then, as Beza adviseth in his Tract de Divorliis, because God hath so called
him to a single life, in taking away the means of marriage.
^^
Paul would have gone
from Mysia to Bilhynia, but the spirit suffered him not, and thou wouldst peradven-
ture 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
"
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, aud therefore they grumble at their hard "brtune, they are well in-
clined 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 genifur. exempl. 1. which Sextus ab Heminga takes to be the horo-
scope of Hieronymus Wolfius, what Pezelius, Origanaus and Leovitius his illustrator
Garceus, cap. 12. what .Tunctine, Protanus, Campanella, what the rest, (to omit those
Arabian conjectures a parte conjugii^ d parte lascivicp,., triplicitates veneris^
Sfc.^ and
those resolutions upon a question, an arnica, potiatur, Sfc.) determine in this behalf,
viz. an sit natus conjugem habiturus, facile an difficulter sit sponsain impetraturus,
qvot conjuges, quo tempore^ quales decernantur nato uxores^ de mutuo amore conju-
gem^ both in men's and women's genitures, by the examination of the seventh house
the almutens, lords and planets there, a
<I '^
ci
O
*
^c, by particular aphorisms, Si
dominus
7'"*
in
7'"^
vel secunda nobilem decernit uxorem^ servam aut ignobilem si
duodecimo,. Si Venus in
12"!",
<Src., 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
^^
dialogue, non sunt prcetoriana decreta, they be but
f*onjectures, the stars incline, but not enforce,
*'"
Sidera cnrporihiis prssunt coelestia nostris,
Sunt ea de vili condita nainque lulo:
Cogere sed neqiieunt aiiimum ralione frupntem,
Quippe sub iniperio solius ipse dei est."
wisdom, diligence, discretion, may mitigate if not quite alter such decrees, Foituna
sua il cujusque fingitur moribus^ ^Qui cauti., prudentes, voti compotes^ Sfc.^ 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,
"rest satisfied, lugentes virginitatis Jlorem 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. ^Vofoque suo sua forma repugnat. What merits
and indulgences they heap unto themselves by it, what commodities, 1 know not,
but I am sure, from such rash vows, and inhuman manner of life, proceed many
inconveniences, many diseases, many vices, masturpation, satyriasis,
^^
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,
^^
"
that Pope Gregory when he saw 600 skulls and
^
Dones of iniants 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
tjrieved at it, and purged himself by repentance." Read many such, and then ask
85C()ntin;ntiEE dnuum ex fide postulet quia cerium sit
e.ini vocari ad coelibatum cui deniis, &c.
"*
Act. xvi. 7.
SI
Rom. i. 13 ""Pra'fix. f;pii. l-eovitii.
so
"The
stars iti 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."
"
Idem Wolfius dial.
9i "
That is, make the best of
.t. and take his lot as it falls." ^Ovid. 1. Met
"Their beauty is inconsistent with their vows."
83 Mercurialis de Priapismo. w^emorabile quod
Ulricus epistola refert Gregorium quuin ex piscina
quailam allala plus quam sex mille infantum cap;ta
vidisset, ingemuisse et decretum de coelihatu tantain
c.Tdis causam coiifessiis condigno illud posnitettii*
fructii purgasse. Kemnisius ex concil. Trident, part.
;
de ccelibatu sacerdotuin.
556 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2
what is to be done, is this vow to be broke or not? No, saith Bellarmine, cap. 38,
lib. de Monach. metlus est scortari et. tiri quam de voio cxlibatus ad nuptias transire^
better burn or fly out, than to break thy vow. And Coster in his Enchirid. de coeli-
hat. sacerdolum., saith it is absolutely gravius peccatum^
^^"
a greater sin for a priest
to marry, than to keep a concubine at home." Gregory de Valence, cap. 6. de caeli-
bat. 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.
^'
^Vnno 1419. Pius
2,
Pope, James Rossa, nephew to the King of Portugal, and then elect Archbishop of
Lisbon, being very sick at Florence,
^'
"
when his physicians
*
j'd him, that his dis-
ease 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, Mies sunt leges Ccesarum,.! alice
Christi, aliud Papinianus^ alhid Paulus noster prcecipit^ 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 humanofurore statuitur, ut dis-
positio divina violetur, it is abominable, impious, adulterous, and sacrilegious, what
men make and ordain after their own furies to cross God's laws.
^^
Georgius Wice-
lius, 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, ^^you must allow them concubines, or
suffer them to marry, for scarce shall you find three priests of three thousand, qui
per chtatem non anient., that are not troubled with burning lust. Wherefore I con-
clude it is an unnatural and impious thing to bar men of this Christian liberty, too
severe and inhuman ao edict.
w
The silly wren, the titmouse also,
The little redbreast have their election,
Tliey
fly
I saw and together gone.
Whereas hem list, about environ
.^s they of kinde hare inclination,
^nd 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,
.Slid debarred from all such pleasance :
What meanelh 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
'
these are hard-hearted, unnatural,
monsters of men, shallow politicians, they do not
^
consider that a great part of the
world is not yet inhabited as it ought, how many colonies into America, Terra Aus-
tralis incognita, Africa, may be sent ? Let them consult with Sir William Alexander's
Book of Colonies, Orpheus Junior's Golden Fleece, Captain Whitburne, Mr. Hag-
thorpe, &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 popu-
lous.
"
Adrian the emperor said he had rather have men than money, malle se homi-
num adjectione ampUare impcrium., quam pecunid. Augustus Ccesar made an oration
in Rome ad ccelibus, to persuade them to marry ; some countries compelled them to
marry of old, as
*
Jews, Turks, Indians, Chinese, amongst the rest in these days, who
much wonder at our discipline to sutler so many idle persons to live in monasteries,
and often marvel how they can live honest.
*
In the isfe 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 im-
possible, 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 nun-
neries in Padua, in Venice 34 cloisters of monks, 28 of nuns, &.c. ex iingue 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 TertuUian's mind, that
"^Si nuhat, quam si domi conciihinam alat.
s^
yVI-
plionsus Oicaonius lib. de gesl. poiitificuiii.
97
Cum
medici suadereut ut aut nuheret aut cnitu uteretur, sic
mortem vitari posse morteni potius intrepidus expecta-
Vil, &.C.
9
Epist. 30.
**
Vide vitam ejus edit, lb'23.
by I. T. James. ">Lidgate, in Chaucer's Flower of
Curtesie. ' 'Tis not multitu.de but idleness whicb
causeth beggary. Or to set tliem awork, and bring
them up in some honest trades. sDion. Cas.sius. lib.
50. *Sardus Buxtorpliius. . 'Claude Albaville ir
his hist, of the Frenchmen to the Isle of Maragnav
An. 1()14.
Mem. 5. Subs.
5.]
Cure
of
Love-Melancholy. 557
few can continue but by compulsion. ^"O chastity (saith he) thou an a rare god-
dess in the world, not so easily got, seldom continuate : thou mayest 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 iEgypt, as 'Radzivilus observes, are tolerated, besides boys : how
many at Fez, Rome, Naples, Florence, Venice, &c., and still in many other pro-
vinces and cities of Europe they do as much, because they think young men, church-
men, and servants amongst the rest, can hardly live honest. The consideration of
this belike made Vibius, the Spaniard, when his friend ^Crassus, that rich Roman
gallant, lay hid in the cave, ut voluptatis quam cetas ilia desiderat copiamfaceret, to
gratify him tlie more, send two
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, '"in most countries they do much en-
courage them to marriage, give great rewards to such as have many children, and
mulct those that will not marry. Jus trium Uberorum^ and in Agellius, lib. 2. cap. 15.
Elian, lib. 6. cap. 5. Valerius, lib. 1. cap. 9. "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
'"
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 '^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 '^Boetius infers, and if at all happy, yet ijifortunio 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 The-
ophilus 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 ihey
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, con-
fined 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 dis-
trustful of God's providence,
"
they will not, dare not for such worldly respects,"
fear of want, woes, miseries, or that they shall light, as
'^ "
Lemnius saith, on a scold,
a slut, or a bad wife." And therefore,
'
Tristem Juvenfam venere deserid colunt,
they are resolved to live single, as
"
Epaminondas did,
'^
" JVil aii esse prius, melius
Rara quidein dea tu es Ochastitas in his terris, nee.
facile perfecta, rarius perpetua, cogi noniitiiiqii.iin po-
te?l, ol) nalurje defectum, vel si dipcipliiia pervaseril,
censura coinpresseril.
>
Peregrin. Hierosol. Plu-
tarch, vita ejus, adolescentia; medio constitutus. An-
cilia's duas egrcgia forma et fetalis flora.
'O
Alex. ab.
Alex. I. 4. c. 8.
" Tres filii patrem ahexeuhiis,
"juinque ab omtiibus officiis liberahanto.
n
Praiceplo
primn cogacur nubere aut mulctetiir el pecunia tcmpio
2w2
Junonis dedicelur et publica fiat. "
Consol. 3. pros.
7. 1'' Nic. Hill. Epic, philos. '*
Q,ui .e capistro
matrimonii alligari noii patiuntur, Lemn. lib. 4. 13. d
occult, nat. Abhorrent multi a matrimonio, ne moro-
sam, querulam, acerbani, amaram nxorem perferre co-
gatitur. '^Senec. Hippol. "Cielebs enini vixerat
nee ad uxorem ducendam unquam induci potuit.
issenec. Hip. "There is nothing better, nothing pre-
ferable to a single life
''
658 Love-Melancholy. [fart. 3. Sec. 2
nil Loellbe vita,'''' and ready with Hippolitus to abjure all women, ^^Detestor omnes,
horrzo^fngio, execror, Sfc. But,
"
Hippolite nescis quod fugis viliE bonum,
Hippolite nescis"
"
alas, poor Hippolitus, thou knowest not what thou sayest, 'tis otherwise, Hippo-
litus." ^Sonie make a doubt, an uxor Uterato sit ducenda, whether a scholar should -
marry, if she be fair she will bring him back from his grammar to his horn book, or
J
else with kissing and dalliance she will hinder his study ; if foul with scolding, he
cannot well intend to do both, as Philippus Beroald us, that great Bononian doctor, once
writ, impediri enim studia literarum,
Sfc, 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 1 lived a single life, et ah uxore ducenda semper ah-
horruj., nee quicquam libera lecto censui jucundius. I could not abide marriage, but
as a rambler, erraticus ac volaticus amator (to use his own words) per muUiplicet
amores discurrebam, I took a snatch where I could get it ; nay more, I railed at mar-
riage 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, nee poenitet censeri in
ordine maritoriwi, I approve of marriage, 1 am glad I am a
^'
married man, I am
heartily glad I have a wife, so sweet a wife, so noble a wife, so young, so chaste a
wile, so loving a wife, and I do wish and desire all other men to marry ; and espe-
cially scholars, that as of old Martia did by Hortensius, Terentia by TuUius, Cal-
phurnia to Plinius, Pudenlilla to Apuleius,
^"
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, Sfc, a single man is a happy man, &c., but
this is a toy. ^^JVec dulces amores sperne puer, neque tu choreas ; these men are too
distrustful and much to blame, to use such speeches,
^^
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 Solo-
mon hath said in their praises, Prov. xiii. and Syracides, 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,
^^
Qui capit uxorem, fratrem capit atque sororem. And 30,
"
He
that hath no wife wandereth to and fro mourning." Minuuntur atrce conjuge cures,
women are the sole, only joy, and comfort of a man's life, born ad usum et lusum
hominum.,Jirmamenta families,
W'Delitis humani generis, solatia vitae,
Blandiliae noctis, placidissirna cura diei,
Vota viriini, juveiium spes," Sck.
""
A wife is a young man's mistress, a middle age's companion, an old man's nurser?*
Particeps Itetorum et tristium, a prop, a help, &.c.
W"
Optima viri possessio est uxor benevola, I
"
JMan's best possession is a loving wife,
Mitigans irain et avertens aniiiiaui ejus a Iristitia."
|
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,
M "
Q.iiam ciim chara domi conjm, 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 Thes-
saly, when he lay upon his death-bed, was told by Apollo's Oracle, that if he could
>
Hor.
M
_^neas Sylvius de dictis Sigismundi. Hen- 1 who chooses a wife, takes a brother and a sister."
Bius. Primiero.
ai
Habeo uxorem ex animi sententia
|
!"
Lorheus. "The delight of mankind, the sol.ice ol
Camillani Palentti Jurisconsuiti tiliam.
-2
Leienli- life, lhi> blandishment.* <if night, delicious cares of day,
bus et nieditantibus candelas et canilelahruni teniie-
|
the wishes of older men, the hopes of young."
"
Ba-
runt.
'^
llor.
'
Veithnr despise airreeable love, nor con's Essays.
^c
Enrjpjrtes
-'
" How harmoniouslj
mirthful pleasure.'
^^
Ovid. ^ Aphraiiiiis. " He
|
do a Inving wift and constant husband lead their livna.'
Mem. 5. Subs.
5.] Cure
of
Love-Melancholy. 559
get anybody to die for him, he should live longer yet, but when all refused, his
parents, etsi decrepiii^ friends and followers forsook him, Alcestus, his wife, though
young, most willingly undertook it ; what more can be desired or expected "i 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, ""at plough by the
sea-side, 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 ;
"'
" He thai
will avoid trouble must avoid the world." (Eusebius prcp.par. Evangel. 5. cap. 50.)
Some trouble there is in marriage I deny not, Etsi grave sit matrimonium, saith
Erasmus, edulcafur famen multis, Sfc, yet there be many things to ''^sweeten it, a
pleasant wife, placens uxor, pretty children, dulces nati, delicice filiorum honmium,
the chief delight of the sons of men
;
Eccles. ii. 8. &c. And howsoever though it
were all troubles,
^
utiUtatis puhliccR causa devorandum., grave quid libenter subeun-
dum, it must willingly be undergone for public good's sake,
'<
" Aiidite (populiis) ha.'c, inqiiit Susarion,
I .. .i .-> . .... c
-
Malffi sunt miiheres, veruntamen O populares.
"?"
'" ^ ""y
countrymen saithSiisarion.
Hoc sine nialu domum inhab.tare nmi l.cet."
|
Women are naught, yet no life without one."
'^ Malum est mulier, sed necessarium malum. They are necessary evils, and for our
own ends we must make use of them to have issue,
^
Supplet Venus ac restituit hu-
manum genus, and to propagate the church. For to what end is a man born } whv
lives he, but to increase the world
.''
and how shall he do that well, if he do noi
marry
.-^
Matrimonium humano generi immortalitatem tribuit, saith Nevisanus, ma-
trimony makes us immortal, and according to
^'
Tacitus, ^tis Jirmissimu?n imperii mu-
nimenfum, the sole and chief prop of an empire. ^ Indigne vivit per quern non vivit
et alter,
^^
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 '"' Trismegis-
tus 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 mar-
riage as a thing most necessary for all kind of persons, most laudable and fit to be em-
braced : 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 with-
out wives," as Marcellus Numidicus said in '"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 ''^Euripides
halh 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:
o
"
Orhis jacehit squallido tiirpis situ,
1 .. tt. .u i i <. u
Vanum sine ull.s class.bus stabit mare,
^Z
'
"h T\/'! m h""?
""'"'''^'='""': o nought.
Alesqueccelodeeritetsylv.sfera."
'
The world .tself should be to ruin brought."
Necessity therefore compels us to marry.
*Cum juxta mare agnim coleret : Omnis eniin i s'
Hist. lib. 4.
ss
palingenius. "
He lives contempti
miseriie imniemdrem, ciipijuaalis amor eum fecerat. I biy by whom no other lives." sj
firusoii. lib.
'
Non sine ingenti admiratioiic, tnnta hominis chantate ! cap. 23. " Noli societatcm habere, &c.
<'
Lib I
motus r<-.x liberos esse ju^sit, &c.
'
Qui viilt vitare
i
cap. 6. Si, inquil, duiriles, sine uxore e.^se possemus
molfStia.s vitet munHum. ^^
Ti(5 /Ji'os tiQz rcpi:vov onines careremus ; Sed quoniam sic est, saluti potiut
uTcp ^pvarif aipoohiriK Quid vita est quicso qindve est
]
puhlicae quam voluplati consulendum.
BeatUHk
Bine (,'ypride du'lo- ? iMimner. '3
Krasmus. 3
k
fnrel si liberos auro et argeiito mercari, &c. "Senecs
s!ot>eo J'
Meander s
Seneca Hyp. lib. 3. nuri
i '
Hvn.
560 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 2
But what do I trouble myself, to find arguments to persuade to, or commend mar-
riage } behold a brief abstract of all that which I have said, and much more, suc-
cinctly, pithily, pathetically, perspicuously, and elegantly delivered in twelve motions
to mitigate the miseries of marriage, by ''^Jacobus de Voragine,
1. Res est? habes qucB tueatur et augeat.
6. Foras?
Discendentcm visu prosequitur, absentem desiderat, redeuntem Iceta excipit.
7. Nihil
jucundum absque societate? Nulla societas matrimonio suavior.
8. Vinculum con-
jugalis charitatis adtimcntinum.
9. Accrescit dulcis
affinium
turba, duplicatur
numerus parcntum, fratum, sororum, nepotum.
10. Pulchra sis prole parens.
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,
si.sters, nephews.10. Thou art made a father by a fair and happy issue.1 1 . Moses
curseth the barrenness of matrimony, how much more a single life
?
12. If nature
escape Mot 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 Jlntiparodia quite opposite unto it.? To
exercise myself ] 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 hornir in thine absence, scowl on tliee coming
home.7. Nothing gives more content than solitariness, no solitariness like this of
a single life
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 Torn viduo jacos ?
Tristem juventam solve: nunc luxus rape,
Effunde liaheiias. nptinios vits dies
Effliiere prohibe."
"
Why dost thou lie alone, let thy youth and best day? to pass away
?"
Marry
whilst thou mayest, donee viventi canities ahest morosa, whilst thou art yet able, ye*
lusty, ^'"Elige cui dlcas, tu mihi sola places, make thy choice, and that freely forth-
with, make no delay, but take thy fortune as it falls. 'Tis true,
^o
"
calamitosus est qui inciderit.
In inalam uxorein, felix qui in bonam,"
'Tis s hazard both ways I confess, to live single or to marry, ^''JYam et. uxorem ducere.
et non ducere jnalum 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
Gen. ii. Adjutorium sini'le, &c.
<s
Ovid.
"
Find I met a bsd wife, happy who found a good one.'
her to whom you niiiy say, 'thou art my only plea- *' E Gra>co Valerius, lib. 7. cap. 7.
"
To marry, and no*
ture
*"
EuriDides.
"
Unhappy the man who h;iti
|
to marvH, are eivually base
"
ft! en.. 5. Subs.
5.] Cure
of
Love-Melancholy.
561
not then so wayAvard. so covetous, so distrustful, so curious and nice, but let's all
marry, mutuos fovenles amplexus ; "Take nie to thee, and thee to me," to-morrovr
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
""*
Venus' vigil with our ancestors for company
together, singing as they did,
'Crasani et qui nuiiquam amavit, quique amavit, eras
amet,
Ver novum, ver jam canorum, ver natus orbis est,
Vere concordant aniores, vere nubunt alites,
Et nenius coma resolvit, Sec.
Cras aniet, &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 jnder boughs their pledges sing," &c.
Let him that is averse from marriage read more in Barbarus de re uxor. lib. I. cap. 1.
Lemnius de institul. cap. 4. P. Godefndus de Jlmor. lib. 3. cap. \.
""^
Nevisanus, lih. 3.
.Alox. ab Alexandro, lib. 4. cap. 8. Tunstall, Erasmus' tracts in laudem matrimonii^
Sfc, 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 tjpon his altar, and be as willing at last to embrace marriage as the rest
There will not be found, I hope, ^"No, not in that severe family of Stoics,, who
shall refuse to submit his grave beard, and superciUious looks to the clipping of a
wife," or disagree from his fellows in this point.
"
For what more willingly (as
^'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 other-
wise be helped
.''
God send us all good wives, every man his wish in this kind, and
me mine!
^'^And Ood 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.
^'^
Fruitur Rhodanthe sponsa^
sponso Dosicle, Rhodanthe and Dosicles shall go together, Cliliphon and Leucippe,
Theagines and Chariclea, Poliarchus hath his Argenis. Lysander Calista, to make
up the mask)
^^
Potiturque sua puer Iphis lanlhi.
j?nd Troilus in lust and in quiet
Is ui\th Creseid, his own heart sweet.
And although they have hardly passed the pikes, through many difficulties and de-
lays brought the match about, yet let them take this of ^^Aristaenetus (that so marry)
for their comfort:
^^"
after many troubles and cares, the marriages of lovers are
more sweet and pleasant." As we commonly conclude a comedy with a
"
wedding,
and shaking of hands, let's shut up our discourse, and end all with an
^^
Epithala-
miitm.
Felicifer nuptis., God give them joy together.
^^
Hymen O Hy7nenee, Hymen ades
O Hymejicee ! Bonum factum., 'tis well done. Hand equidem sine mente reor, sine
numine Divum, 'tis a happy conjunction, a fortunate match, an even couple,
"
Ambo aniniis, ambo prsestantes viribus, ambo
Florentes aniiis,"
"
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,
ludite ut lubet et brevi I
Liberos date.'
'
Then modestly go sport and toy,
And let 's have every year a boy.'
*'
" 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,
<"
Pervigilium Veneris 6 vetere poeta. I'Drimus
non potest consistere sine uxore. Nevisanus lib. 2.
num. i8.
'-^
Nemo in severissima Stoicorum familia
qui non harbam quoque et supercilium amplexibus
iixores subniiserit, ant in ista parte a reliquis dissen-
lerit. Hensius Primiero.
si
Quid lihenlius homo
uiasculus videre debet qiiam bellam uxorem ? ^^Qdau.
r "3
Conclusio Theod. Podro. mi. 9. 1 Amor.
7
"Ovid. 65 Epist. 4. 1. 2. Jucundiores multo et
suaviores longe post molestas turbasamanliiim nuptiffi.
'6
Olim meminisse juvabit.
"
Cluid expeclatis, intus
fiunt nuplia;, the music guests, and all the good chee*
is within.
^8
The conclusion of Cliaucer's poem ot
Troilus and Creseid.
= Catullus.
o
Catullus. J
Secundus Sylvar. lib. Jam virgo thalamum subibit und*
ne virgo redeat, marite cura.
'
Ecclus. xxxix. 1
502
Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. :^
lie, ai\rf, O juvenes,
<"
non murmura vestra columbie,
Bracliia, noii hetlercc, neque vuicant oscula coiicliie."
'
Gentle youths, go sport yourselves betimes.
Let not the doves outpass your niurinurings,
Or ivy-clasping arms, or oyster-kissiiigs."
And in the morn betime, as those
^*
Lacetlaemonian lasses saluted Helena and Mene
laus, singing at their windows, and wishing good success, do we at yours
:
'
Salve O sponsa, salve felix, det vobis Latona
Felicem soboleui, Venus dea det a?qnalcai amorem
Inter vos mutuo ;
Saturnus durabiles divjtias,
Durinite in pectora mutuo aniorein inspirantes,
Et desideriuni
!"
Even all your lives long.
'Contingat vobis turturum concordia,
Cornicula; vivacilas"
Good morrow, master bridegroom, and mistrew
Many fair lovely bernes to you betide
"^brif**
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."
'*
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 befal
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 hnra duos eadem, iiec conjugis usquam
Busta sua; videat, nee sit tumulandus ab il)a."
"
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 iet jointly separate."
66 "
Fortunati ambo si quid mea carmina possunt.
Nulla dies unquam inemori vos eximet ffivo.'
Atque hasc de amore dixisse sufRciat, sub correclione.,
'
quod ait ille, cujusque me-
lius sentientis. Plura qui volet de remediis amoris, legat Jasonem Pratensem., Ar-
no'idum^ Montaltutn, Savanarolum, Langium, Valescum, Crimisonum^ Mexandrum
Benedicfum., Laurentium, Valleriolam, e Poetis JVasonem, e nostratibus Chaucerum
Sfc,
with whom I conclude.
w
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
viy language, that I you beseech :
But now to purpose of my rather speech.
SECT. III. MEMB. I.
SuBSECT. I.
Causes
of
Jealousy. Who are most apt. Idleness, melancholy, im-
poiency, 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 Albubator, Pontanus, Schoner, .Junctine, &c. Bodine,
cap. 5. meih. 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 '''Asia, Tur-
key, Spaniards, Italians. Germany hath not so many drunkards, England tobacco-
nists, France dancers, Holland mariners, as Italy alone hath jealous husbands. And
in
'*
Italy some account ihem of Piacenza more jealous than the rest. In '^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
w
PinuB puella quondam fuit, &;c.
i^
Mars zelo-
ypus Adonidem interfecit. " R. T. '^ ] Sam. i. 6.
Blazon of Jealousy. " Mulieriim ronditio niisera :
nullam honestam credunt nisi domo con''lusa rivat
'6
Fines Morison.
'>*
>fomen zelotypicB il> td iMM
locum nou habet, lib. 3. c. o.
Mem. 1. Subs. 2.]
Causes
of
Jealousy. 5fi7
lutu the baths together, without all suspicion,
'"
the name of jealousy (^saith Manbter
js not so much as once heard of among tliem." In Friesland the women kiss hiro
they druik to, and are kissed again of those they pledge. The virgins in Holland
go hand in hand with young men iVom home, glide on tht 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 otlier 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,
^"
which, Siena only
excepted, Italians may not abide. The
^'
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
^^
Bodine observes lib. 5. de repuh.
"
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 sufler them to be near men, so much as in
the
^^
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 vlri simul cum muUeribus in ecclesid inleressent : for being prodigiously naught
himself, aliorum naturam ex sua vitiosa mente speciavit, 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, 7iwdo 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 1. 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:
'^ '"'
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.
"
Std neque fulvus aper media lain fulvus in ira est, I
"
Tiger, boar, bear, viper, lioness,
Fulniiiieo rapidos Uum rotal ore caiies.
J^l
woman's fury cannot express."
Nee leo," &c.
|
^
Some say red-headed women, pale-coloured, black-eyed, and of a shrill voice,
are most subject to jealousy.
28"
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.
(7 Of
ale jealousy, child of insatiate love, I With heedless youth and error vainly led.
Of heartsick thoughts whi:h melancholy bred,
|
A mortal plague, a virtuedrowiiiiig flood,
A liell-toruienting fear, no failli can move,
I
A hellish tire not quenched but with blood.'
By discomenl with deadly poison fed;
I
If idhness concur with melancholy, such persons are most apt to be jealous; hiss
"
Nevisanus' note, ''an idle woman is presumed to be lascivious, and often jealous."
Mulier cum sola cogital, 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
* Fines Moris, part. 3. cap. f.
2'
Busbequius. terquain quod sunt infida;, suspicaces, inconstantes, 11
Siiids.
^a
Prae amore et zelotvpia saepius insaniunt.
|
sidioste, simulatrices, superstiliosa;, et si polentes, in
*' Australes ne sacra quidem publica tieri patiuntur,
'
tolerabiles, amore iselotypa; supia modum. Ovid.Sde
nisi uterque sexus pariete medi'^ dividatur: et quum in
'
art. 25 Bartello.
26
k. T.
27
Lib. 2. num. a
Angliam inquit, legatioi.is cau.-,a piofeoius essein, au- iiiulier otiosa facile prsesumitur luxuriosa, et 8pe M
div! .Mendozain legatum Hispa.-.aruni diceniem turpe lotypa.
ffise viroa e< faiminas in, &c. >'> Idea: iiiulieres piae-
I
D68 Love-MeLuncholy. [Part. 3. Sect. 3.
act able (jf liimselt' to perform those dues which he ought unto his wife : for though
Me be an honest liver, hurt no man, yet Trebius the lawyer may make a question,
an suum cuique Iribuat, whether he give every one their own ; and therefore when
he takes notice of his wants, and perceives her to be more craving, clamorous, in-
(.atiable and prone to lust than is fit, he begins presently to suspect, that wherein he
IS defective, she will satisfy herself, sbe will be pleased by some other means. Cor-
nelius Gallus hath elegantly expressed this humour in an epigram to his Lychoris.
2*"
Jamqiie alios jiiveiies aliosque requirit aiiiorf.s,
iVle vucat iiiibelleiii Uecrepitiiinque seneiii," &.c.
For this cause is most evident in old men, that are cold and dry by nature, and mar-
ried sued, 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,y^
And therefore he feared to he a cuckold.'
And how should it otherwise be
.''
old age is a disease of itself, loathsome, full of sus-
picion and fear; when it is at best, unable, unlit for such matters. ^^Tam aplanuptiis
quilm bruma 7nessibus^ as welcome to a young woman as snow in harvest, saith Ne-
visai^us.: Eft si capis juvenculum, fuciet tibi cornua : marry a lusty maid and she
will surely graft horns on thy head. ^""All women are slippery, often unfaithful to
their husbands (as iEneas Sylvius episl. 38. seconds him), but to old men most
treacherous : they had rather mortem amplexarier^ lie with a corse than such a one:
*'
Oderunt ilium pueri^ contemnunt muiiercs. On the other side many men, saith
Hieronymus, are suspicious of their wives, ''^if they be lightly given, but old folks
above the rest. Insomuch that she did not complain without a cause in ^^Apuleius,
of an old bald bedridden knave she had to her good man : ''Poor woman as I am,
what shall I do
.?
1 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
l<K-ked upon me, w oe 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 liy out, that was otherwise honest,
3< '
plera.sque bonas traciatio pravas
Esse facii,"
''
bad usage aggravates the matter." JVam quando mulieres cognoscunt tnarnum hoc
advertere^ licentiiis peccant, '^'- as Nevisanus holds, when a woman thinks her hus^-Y
band watcheth her, she will sooner oflend
;
^"Librriiis peccant, et pudor oinnis abest,
rough handling makes them worse : as the goodwife of Bath in Chaucer brags,
1)1 his oirn grease I made him frie
for anger andfor every jcalousie.
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 '''Senior Deliro on his
Fallace, to be too efleminate, or as some do, to be sick for their wives, breed ciiil-
dren for them, and like the ^^Tiberini lie in for them, as some birds hatch eggs by turns,
they do all women's offices : Calius Rhodiginus ant. lect. lib. 6. cap. 24. makes men-
tion of a fellow out of Seneca,
^^
that was so besotted on his wife, he could not en-
dure 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' pack-horses 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 mufti dog, and fan, let her wear th(?
breeches, lay out, spend, and do what she will, go and come whither, when she will,
they give consent.
'
Here, take my nuitt", and, do you hear, good man
;
Now give me pearl, and carry you my fan,"&.c.
9"And now she requires other youths and other
loves, calls me an imbecile and decrepit old man."
w
Lib. 'i. num. 4. s^Ciuum omnibus infideles
foeminae, senibus infidelissim;e.
3;
Mimuernus.
2Vi.\ aliqua noii inipudica, et quam non suspeclani
merito qiiis haheat.
sa
j^ib. 5. de aur. asiiio At
ego misera patre meo seniorcm niaritum nacta sum,
deoj cucurbita calviorem et quovis pueio pumiliorem.
"> "
poscit pallam, redimicula, inaures
;
Curre, quid hie cessas ? vulgo vult ilia vidcri,
Tu pete leclicas"
cunctam domum seris et catenis obditam custodientem.
sJCIialoner. 35Lb. 4. ii. I^O.
se
Ovid _>.
de art.
amandi. 3' Kvery Man out of his Humour. sscal-
CHgiiiiius Apol. 'J'iberini ab u.xorum partu earuni viuoa
subeurit, ut aves per vices incuhant, &c. ^^Exituiu*
t'H>cia uxuris pectus allig.ihat, nee momento prx.senlia
ejus carere poterat, poiuniuu'j non hauriebat nisi pi.
gustatum labrisejus. < Chaloner.
Mem. 1 Subs
2.]
Causes
of
Jealousy. 5G9
many brave and worthy men have trespassed in this kind, multos foras claros do-
mestica hcfx destruxit infcuuia, and many noble senators and soldiers (as
"
Pliny
notes) have lost their honour, in being uxoril., 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 oliend
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 i'rivolous, impertinent journeys, tarry long abroad to no purpose, lie
out, and are gadding still, upon small occasions, it must needs yield matter of sus-
picion, when they use their wives unkindly in the meantmie, and never tarry at home,
it cannot use but engender some such conceit.
<*"
Uxor si cessas ainare le cogitat
|
"
If tliou be ahserjt long, iliy wife then thinks,
Aut tele aiiiari, aut polare, aut animo obsequi,
|
Th' ail drunk, at ease, or with some pretty minx.
Ex tibi bene esse soli, quuiii sibi sit male." "J'is well with llieu, or else beloved of some,
I
Whilst she poor soul doth fare full ill at home."
Hippocrates, the physician, had a smack of tliis 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 ''^Epistles be his)
'*'*"
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 he 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.
^
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 m 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 Lucielia were trusty, and one Penelope, yet
Clytemnestra made Agamemnon cuckold
;
and no question there be too many of her
conditions. U their husbands tarry too long abroad upon unnecessary business, well
they may suspect: or if they run one way, their wives at home will lly out another,
Quid pro quo. Or if present, and give them not that content whicli they ought,
^Primum ingratce.^ mox invisce nodes qucz per sonmimi trunsigimlur, they cannot
endure to lie alone, or to fast long. '"Peter Godefndus, 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 lie hath out of
Absiemius, one persuaded a new married man, ''^''' to forbear the three fiist 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 Hemsius 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 grains, corpore glabel-
lus, arte multiscius, et fortuna opulentus, like that Apollo in ^'^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, purpureisformosa rosis cum Aurora ruberet,
when the fair morn with purple hue 'gan shine, he made an excuse, J know not what,
out of Hippocrates Cous, &j.c., and for that time it went current: but when as after-
waid he did not play the man as he should do, she fell in .oague with a good fellow,
and whilst he sat up late at his study about those criticisms, mending some hard
" Panegyr. Trajano. ^^fer. Adelph. act 1. see. 1. adiit.
<"
Nelribus prioribus noctibus rem haberet
M
Fab. Calvo. Ravennate interprete. Dum cum ea, ut asset in pecoriliiis fortuiialus, ab uxore mor
rediero domurn meam habitabis, et licet cum parentibus impatiente, &.C.
^^
'J'otain noctem bene et pudice ne-
.labitet hac mea peregrinatione ; eam tamen et ejus mini molestus dormiendo transegit ; mane autem quuin
mores observabis uti absentia viri sui probe degat, nee nullius conscius facinoris sibi esset, et inertis puderet,
alios viros cogitet aut quferal.
FtBmina semper ! audisse se ilicehat eum dolore calculi solere earn con-
rustode eget qui se pudicam contineat; suapte enim flictari. Duo priecepta juris una node expressit. ne-
natura nequitias insitas habet, quas nisi indies cum- miiiein Iseserat ei honeste vixerat, sed an suum ournue
primal, ut arbores slolones emittunt, &c.
>
Hein- 1 reddiilifsel, qiia!ri pnteral. iMutius opiiior et Trebatius
ius.
*''
Uxor cujiisdam nnhilis qiinm debitum niati- , hoc iiegassenl. lib. J.
lale sacro passioms hebdomada iion obtiiierel, alterujii
72
2x2
570 Lave-Melanc, ^ly [Part, 3. Sec. 3.
places ill Festus or Pollux, came cold to bed, and would tell her still what he had
done, she did not much regard what he said, Stc. ^"She would have another mat-
ter mended much rather, which he did not conceive was con-'ipt
:"
thus he continued
at his study late, she at her sport, ctUbi enim fesHvas nodes agitabal^ hating all
scholars for his sake, till at length he began lo ospect, and turned a little yellow, as
well he might; for it was his own fault; and if men be jealous in such cases (^' ad
oft it falls out) the mends is in their own hands, they must thank themselves. Who
will pity them, saith Neander, or be much oflended with such wives, si decepta
prius viros decipiani, et corvutos reddant,, if they deceive those that cozened them
first. A lawyer's wife in ^^Aristaenetus, because her husband was negligent in his
business, quando lecto danda oj9cr, 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 grdtiis 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. ^^Lis est cum forma magna pudicitia:^ 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
^^
Philostratus,
ne moecharctur^ sandalio scilicet deferente, that he might hear by them when she
stirred, which Mars indigne ferre,
"
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 un-
chaste.
"
Can she be fair and honest too
.?"
56 "
S;Epe eteniiii oculuit picta sese hydra sub herba,
Sub specie foriiia;, iiicaiito se sa;pe niarito
Ncquam aiiiiiiiis veiiilit,"
He that marries a wife that is snowy fair alone, let him look, saith
^'
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 aflect, and she most absolutely fair and able on the other
side, if she be not very virtuously given, how can she love him
.''
and althougli 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 wiih 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 afiect him, or be not so kind
and loving as she should, she certainly loves some other man better than himself.
^^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 te 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 be-
fore the cards were shuffled ; they shall have therefore legem, talionis. like for like.
'' "
Ipse miser docui, quo posset ludere pacto I " Wretch as I was, I taiifiht her bad to be,
Cuslodes, eheu nunc premor arte uica."
|
And now mine own sly tricks are put upon ine."
Mala mens, malus animus, as the saying is, ill dispositions cause ill suspicions.
O"
There is none jealous, I durst pawn my life,
Bui he that hath detiled another's wife.
And for that he himself haili jtoiie astray,
He straightway thinks liis wife will tread iiat way."
MAIterius loci eniendationem serio ;tabat, quem I
m
Hor. epist. 15. "Often has tlie serpent lain hid oe-
oorruptuin esse ille non iiiveiiit. <>' Such another nraili the coloured grass, under a beautiful aspect, and
liile is in Neander de Jocoseriis, his first tale.
6j
Lj , often has the evil inclination atlecled a sale without
2. Ep. 3. Si petiiit alienis neiintiis operam dare
="
!
'b<- liirshand'a iirivitv "
'"
Of re 'nrvij, .1
,(> i.
Begligei.?, erit alius mihi orator qui rem meam agat. i
"< uni steriles sum, ex iiiiifiMoiie viri se puianl (01-
'
. 'Vid fara est loiicirdi.i forma' alqiie piidiciiite cipere
'i"
Tibiilliis. elee-
P
W'itof r's ."-"-it
'^wiet.
^
Q,uoil slrulerel e'us calci 'Jiieatum. I
Mem. 1. Subs. 2.] Causes
of
Jealousy. 571
To these two above-named causes, or incendiaries of tnis rage, I may very well
annex those circumstances of time, place, persons, by which it ebbs and flows, the
fuel of this fury, as
*''
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 manv 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 licentia peccandi^ et muU
titudo peccuntium are great motives) though their own wives be never so fair, noble,
virtuous, honest, wise, able, and well given, they must have change.
"^ "
Qui cum iHgitiiiii junguiitur fojdere lecti,
Virlute egregiis', facieque doiiKiqiie puellis,
Scoria taiiien, foedasqiie lupas iu rdrnice quxrunt,
Kt per ailullf-riuui nova tarpere gaudia tentaiit." |
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.
'^'^
Cerinthus rejected Sulpitia, a nobleman's daughter, and courted a poor
servant maid. tanta est aliena in messe voluntas, for that
^
''
stolen waters be
more pleasant
:"
or as Vitellius the emperor was wont to say, Jucundiores amoresy
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.
'
Who being niatch'd to wives most virtuous,
Noble, and fair, fly out lascivious."
6a"Aspice ul in codIo niodo sol, niocloluna niinistret,
i:sic etiani n<>l>is una peli.i paiuai est."
"As sun and moon in heaven change their course,
So tliey cliange 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. "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 ofli^red violence uiHo 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.
"^^
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 CoUaline
commend his wife, and was so far enraged, that in the midst of the night to her he
went.
^**
Theseus stole Ariadne, vi rapuit that Trazenian Anaxa, Antiope, and now
being old, Helen, a girl not yet ready lor a husband. Great men are most part thus
aflected all,
'-'
as a horse they neigh," saith
^^
Jeremiah, after their neighbours' wives,
ut visa jmllus adhinnit equd : 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 kissmg Ganymede before her
face, which did not a little otlijnd 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 dis-
honest; Fietas, probiias, Jides, privata bona sunt, as '"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.
''
Montaigne, m his Essays, gives instance in Caesar, Mahomet the Turk, that sacked
Constantmople, and Ladislans, 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,
'^"Militis in galea niduni fecere r.olumbE,
Apparet Marti nuam sit ainica Venus."
"A dove within a head-piece 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.) asGalba, Otho, Domitian, and remarkable Caesar amongst
"13 de Anima. Crescit ac decrescit zelotypia cuin
pi'rsonis, locis, ten poribus, negotiis.
*'-
Marullus.
TibuJf s Epig.
M
Prov. x. 17
'
Propert. eleg.
a ecuvid. lib. 9. Met Pausa'iiai Sirab . quuni
crevit imbribus hyemalibus. Deianiram suscipit, Her-
culfcin nando sequi jubet.
s'
Lucian, torn. 4
60
Plutarch. ^jcap. v. 8. '"Seneca. 'iLib
2. cap. 23. " Fetroniua Catal.
572 Love-Melancholy. i^Part 3. Sec. 3.
the rest. ''^Urbanl servate uxores, vimclmm calvum adducimus ; besides, this bald
Caesar, saith Curio in Sueton, was omnium mulierum vir ; l.c made love to Eunoe,
vjueen 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 1 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 Ccesari decrctos (as Sue-
ton, cap. 52. de Julio, and Dion, lib. 44. relate) jus illi datum, cum quibuscunque
fceminis se jungendi. Every private history will yield such variety of instances
.
otiiervvise good, wise, discreet men, virtuous and valiant, but too faulty in this.
Prianius had fifty sons, but seventeen alone lawfully begotten.
'*
Philippus Bonus
left fourteen bastards. Lorenzo de Medici, a good prince and a wise, but, saith
Machiavel,
''^
prodigiously lascivious. None so valiant as Castruccius Castrucanus,
but, as the said author hath it, '**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
(" 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 whore-
master." In Italy he is not a gentleman, that besides his wife hath not a courtezan
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
.-'
\ '^Qwis tibi nunc Dido cernenti talia sensusf
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
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 demi-god, how sweetly he carried himself,
with how comely a grace, sic oculos, sic ille manus, sic ora J'erebat, how neatly he
did wear his clothes! ^Quam sese ore ferens, quam forti
pectore et armis, how
bravely did he discourse, ride, sing, and dance, Slc, and then she begins to loathe
her husband, repugnans osculalur, to hate him and his filthy beard, his goatish com-
plexion, as Doris said of Polyphemus,
^^
totus qui saniem, totus ut hircus olet, he is
a rammy fulsome fellow, a goblin-faced fellow, he smells, he stinks, Et ccepas simul
alliumque ructat^^ si quando ad Ihalamum, &;c., how like a dizzard, a fool, an
ass, he looks, how like a clown he behaves himself! '^she will not come near him
by her own good Avill, but wholly rejects him, as Venus did her fuliginous Vulcan,
at last, JS'ec Deus hunc mensd, Dea ncc dignala cubili est."^ So did Lucretia, a lady
of Senae, after she had but seen Euryalus, in Eurialutii tota ferebatur, domum reversa^
^c, she would not hold her eyes oil' him in his presence,
^^
tantum egregio
decus enitet ore, and in his absence could think of none but him, odit virui/i^ she
loathed her husband forthwith, might not abide him
:
's "
Et coiijugalis negligens tori, viro
I'raisciite, acerlio iiauseat fasiidio
;"
"All against the laws of matriinoiiy.
She did abhor her husband's phis'noiny
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 I'amiliar with every gallant,
her immodesty and wantonness," (as
^'
Camerarius notes) it must needs yield matter
"3
Sueton.
'*
Poiitus Heuler, vita ejus.
'^
Lib.
8. Flor. hist. Dii.x omnium optiinus et sapientissimus.
Bed in re venerea prodigiosus.
'^
Vita Castruccii.
Idem uxores mantis abalir-navit. "Seselius, lib.
2. de Repub. Gallorum. Ita nunc apud iiifiiiios oiktinuit
hoc viijiim, ut riullius fere prelil sit, et ignavus miles
qiinonin scortatioiie iiiaxime e.xcellat, et adulterio.
'*Virg. .^n. 4. "What now must have been Diiiu's
enEations when she witnessed these doings?" '"Epig.
9. lib. 4.
6"
Virg. 4. JEit. "Secundus syl.
^2"Aiid belches out Ihe smell of onions and garlic."
^iEiieas Sylvius.
'
" Neither a god honoured him
with his table, nor a goddess with her bed." " Virg.
4. JEii.
"
Sucii beauty shines in his graceful features."
66
S. Grajco Simonides. I'Cont. 2. ca. 38. Oper.
subcis. mulieris liberius et fainiliarius communicantit
cum omnibus licentia et imiiiodestia, sinistri dcruionit
et suspicionis niateriam viru pra?bet.
Mem. I. feiibs.
2.]
Causes
of
Jealousy. 573
of suspicion to him, when she still pranks up herself beyond her means a':d for-
tuiit-s, makes impertinent Journeys, unnecessary visitations, stays out so long, with
sucii and such companions, so frequently goes to plays, masks, feasts, and all public
meetings, shall use such immodest
*'^
gestures, free speeches, and withal show some
distaste of her own husband
;
how can he choose,
"
though he were another Socra-
tes, but be suspicious, and instantly jealous
?"
^^''Socraticas tandem faciei trans-
cendere metas ;" more especially when he shall take notice of their more secret and
sly tricks, which to cornute their husbands they commonly use (^diim Judis, Judos
hcEC te faclt), 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,
^
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 coun-
tenance 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
"
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 hreath abideth in my breast;
Peai^e, my sweet h)ve and wife, Jocundo said,
Ami weeps as fast, and comforts her his best, Sec.
All this might not assuage the woman's pain,
Needs must I die before you come again.
Nor bow to keep my life 1 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
Ynkd 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
^^
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-r\
*
"similis si permutatio detnr,
Morte viri cupiuut aniuiam servare catellae."
Many of them seem to be precise and holy forsooth, and will go to such a
"^
church,
to hear such a good man by all means, an excellent man, when 'tis for no other in-
tent (as he follows it) tlian
''
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
thf;y persuade themselves, as '"'Nevisanus shows, ''That it is neither sin nor shame
to lie with a lord or parish priest, if he be a proper man ;
^''
and though she kneel
often, and pray devoutly, 'tis (saith Platina) not for her husband's welfare, or chil-
dren'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, ^'^Et simulat subito condo-
luisse caput : her head aches, and she cannot stir : but if her paramour ask as much,
slie is for him in all seasons, at all hours of the night.
^^
In the kingdom of Mala-
bar, 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,
^^"
they \vill make them sleep
/or 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
allpc'sons they like, others more wary to some few, at such and such seasons, as
Augusta, Livia, non nisi plena navi vectorem tollehat. But as he said,
"^
Voces liberie, oculorum collnquia.contracliones pa-
rum verecunilte, motus immodici. &c. Heinsius. "SCha-
loner.
>*"
What is here said, is not prejudicial lo
honest women.
i
Lib. 28. sc. 13.
m
ojal. amor.
Pendet fallax et blanda circa oscula niariti, quem in
cruc.e, si fieri pnssct, deosculari velit: illius vitam cha-
riorem esse sua jurejurando affirmat: quem certe non
redinieret anima catelli si posset.
^^
Adeunt tem-
luin ut rem divinam audiant, nt ips<e simulant, sed vel
lit monachum fratrem, vel adulteruni lingua, oculis, ad
Ubidinein provocent.
'''
Lib. 4. num. HI. Ipse sibi
persuadent,quod adulterium cum principe vel cum pra;-
sule, non est puilor, nee petcaiuin.
'=
Ueum rogat,
non pro salute inariti, filii.cognati vota susci pit, sed pro
reditu moeclii si abest. pio valetudine lenonis si aigrotet.
s^Tibullus. 9'Gortardus Arthiis descrip. Indie
Orient. Linchnflen. i<Garcias ah Horto, hist. lib.
2. cap. 24 Daturam herbam vocat et describit, tarn pro.
dives sunt ad venereni mulieres ut viros inebrient per
24 horas, liquore quodam, ut nihil videant, recordentur,
at doriniant, el post lotionem pedum, ad se restituunt
&c.
574 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3 Sect. 3.
9"
No pen cnuld write, no tonpue attain to tell,
By force of eloquence, or lielp of art.
Of women's treaclieries the liundredth part."
Both, ty say truth, are often faulty; men and women give just occasions m this
humoui of discontent, aggravate and vield matter of suspicion: but most part of the
chief causes proceed from other adventitious accidents and circumstances, thougii
the parties be free, and both well given themselves. The indiscreet carriage of some
lascivious gallant (e/ 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 Benedilto 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. ""' 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. '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 circumstafnces of time and place, opportunity and impor-
tunity shall concur, what will they not effect ^
"
Fair opportunity can win the coyest she that is,
.
So wisely he takes time, as he 11 he sure he will not miss:
Then he that loves her gamesome vein, and tempers toys with art,
Brings love that swiinmeth in lier 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 ^Satirist did to his Glycerium, ^adsidens et interio-
rem palmam amabiliter concutiens,
"
Q.uod mens hortus hahet sumat impune licebit,
Si dederis nobis quod tuus hortus habet
;"
With many such, &c., and then as he saith,
* She may no while in chastity abide.
That is assaid on every side.
For after a great feast,
Symptoms
of
Jealousy, Fear, Sorrmo, Suspicion, strange Actions,
Gestures, Outrages, Locking up. Oaths, Trials, Laws,
Sfc.
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, anxi&ty of mind, sus-
picion, 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 curi-
osity, a gall corrupting the honey of our life, madness, vertigo, plague, hell, the) are
more than ordinarily disquieted, they lose honum pads, as
'^
Chrysostom observes
;
and though they be rich, keep sumptuous tables, be nobly allied, yet miserrimi om-
nium sunt, they are most miserable, they are more than ordinarily discontent, moie
sad, nihil tristius, more than ordinarily suspicious. Jealousy, saith '^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, ob-
serves to a hair. 'Tis proper to jealousy so to do,
"Pale hag, inTernal fury, pleasure's smart,
Envy's observer, prying in every part."
Besides those strange gestures of staring, frowning, grinning, rolling of eyes, me-
nacing, ghastly looks, broken pace, interrupt, precipitate, half-turns. He will some-
times sigh, weep, sob for anger. JS'empe suos imbres etiam ista tonitrua
fundunt,^'^
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, im-
patient 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, en-
treat 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 .':im, but most part brawling, fret-
ting, unquiet he is, accusing and suspecting not strangers only, but brothers and sis-
ters, father and mother, nearest and dearest friends. He thinks with those Italians,
"Chi non tocca parentado,
'I'occa 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
"Cap. 18. de Virg. 12 Horn. 38. in c. 17. Gen. I himnia. Maximg suspiciosi, Pt ad ppjora credendum
Etfii masiiisalfliintit divitiis, &c. '33de Aninia.
|
proclives.
'''"
These thunders pour down their
Onines voces, auras, onines susurros capiat zelotypus, peculiar showers
"
et ainpliticat apud se cum iiiiquissima de singulis ca-
j
57
o
Love-Melanclioly. [Part. 3. Sec. 3.
a mouse, his eye is never off her's ; he gloats on him, on her, accurately observing
on wliom 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, mandring, gazirig,
listening, affrighted with every small object; why did she ^lile, 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,
15
"Omnia me terrent, timidus sum, ignosce tiniori. I
"
Each thing affrights me, I do fear,
Et miser in tunica puspicnr esse virum.
|
Ah pardon me my fear.
Me laedit si multa tibi dabiloscula mater, I doubt a man is hid within
Me soror, et cum qua durmit aniica simul."
|
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 good-will 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.
"'JVon ita bovem arguSj Sfc. 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 busi-
ness 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 her-
self 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 compa-
nies, "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 de-
parture, that she would scarce eat her meat, or converse with any man
;
and thougl
she were with child, the season of the year very bad, the wind against her, in al
haste she would to sea after him. Neither Isabella her queen mother, the arch-
bishop, or any other friend could persuade her to the contrary, but slie would after
him. When she was now come into the Low Countries, and kindly entertained by
her husband, she could not contain herself,
'^
" 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 thinjf
for women in such cases to scratch the faces, slit the noses of such as they sus
pect; as Henry the Second's importune Juno did by Rosamond at Woodstock; foi
she complains in a '^modern poet, she scarce spake,
'
But flies with eager fury to my face, I So fell she on me in outrageous wise,
Otfering me most unwomanly disgrace. As could disdain and jealousy devise."
Look how a tigress, &c.
|
"Proiiertius.
"i
iEneas Silv.
"
Ant. Dial. I hiliter insultans faciem vibicibus fxdavit. >*DaniM
Annal. lib. 12. Principis mujieris zelotypsE est in I eunnchorum millia numerantur in regia familia qui
alias mulieres quas susptctas habet, odium insepara-
|
servant uxores ejus.
'^^
Lib. 57. ep. 81.
="
Semotif"
bile. 31 St.,ieca ill Medea. ^^
Alcoran cap. 1 a viris servant in iiiterioribus, ah eoruir conspectu iK
Bovis, interprete Kicardo pra;d. c. 8. Confutalionis. niunes.
*
Lib. I. fol. 7. 29 Diruptiones liymenM
nautu 21 Expedit. in Sinas. I. 3. c.9. 25 Decem | .!Hpe fiunt a propriis digitis vel ab aliis instrumentis
73
2Y
578 Love-Melancholy. [Part 3. Sect. 3
too much n favour of women.
'"
Ludovicas Uoncialus iih. 4. cap. 2. miilhhr. nO'
luralcm illavi uteri tubiorum constrtctionem, in qua virginitatem consist.ere volunt,
aslringentibus nwdicinis fieri posse vendicat, et si dejloratcp, sint^ astutce.
^'
mulieres
{inquit) nos fallunt in his. Idem Jllsarius Crucius Genuensis iisdem
fere verbis.
Idem Avicemia lib. 3. Fen. 20. Trad.
1, cap. 47.
^^
Rhasis Continent, lib. 24. Ro-
dericus a Castro de nat. vnd. lib. 1. cap. 3. An old bawdy nurse in
^
Aristzenetus,
(like that Spanish Ctelestina.
^''
^// quinque mille virgines fecit mulieres, totidemqur
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, JVo/i vercri flia, Sfc. "-Fear not, daugh-
ter, I
'11 teach thee a trick to help it." Sed hcec extra callem. To what end are all
those astrological questions, an sit virgo., an sit casta., an sit mulierf 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, JS'um. v.'l4. Adulterers
Dent. cap. 22. v. xxii. as amongst the Hebrews, amongst the Egyptians (read ^^Bo-
hemus /. 1. c. 5. de mar. 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 expurga-
tions, &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 ^^Jilmilia, 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 Ciiunegunda the
wife of Henricus Bavarus emperor, suspected of adultery, insimulata adulterii per^^
ignites vomeres iUoisa transiit., trod upon red hot coulters, and had no harm : such
another story we find in Kegino lib. 2. In Avenlinus and Sigonius of Charles the
Third and his wife Richarda, An. 887, that was so purged vvilh hot irons. Pausanias
saith, that he was once an eye-witness of such a miracle at Diana's temple, a maid
without any harm at all walked upon burning coals. Pius Secund. in his descrip-
tion 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, So-
linus, and many writers, make mention of ^'Geronia's temple, and Dionysius Ilali-
carnassus, lib. 3. of Memnon's statue, which were used to this purpose. Tatius lib.
6. ot Pan his cave, (much like old St. Wilfrid's needle in Yorkshire) wherein they
did use to try maids,
^^
whether they were honest; when Leucippe went in, suavis-
simus exaudiri sonus ccepit Austin de civ. Dei lib. 10. c. 16. relates many such ex-
amples, all which Lavater de spectr. part. 1. cap. 19 contends to be done by the
illusion of devils; though Thomas qucsst. 6. de potentid^ Sfc. ascribes it to good
angels. Some, saith ''^Austin, compel their wives to swear they be honest, as if
perjury were a lesser sin than adultery
;
""^some consult oracles, as Phserus that blind
king of Egypt. Others reward, as those old Romans used to do ; if a woman were
contented with one man, Corona pudicilicB donabutur, she had a crown of chastity
bestowed on her. When all this will not serve, saith Alexander Gaguinus, cap. 5.
descript. MuscovicB., 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
^'
Gauls have done in former
ages. Of this tyranny of jealousy read more in Parthenius Erot. cap. 10. Camera-
rius cap. 53. hor. subcis. et cent. 2. cap. 34. Ca?lia's epistles, Tho. Chaloner de
rtpub. Jing. lib. 9. Ariosto lib. 31. slasse 1. Faelix Palterus observat. lib. 1.
Sfc.
30
Mem Rliasis Arab. cont.
si
ita clausa; phar- " Viridi gaiidens Feronia luco. Virg.
ss
|gn,f,,,e
niacis lit noil (jossiiiit coitiiin exercere. satlm gt was so tried by Dian's well, in which maids did swim.
phariiiacuin pritscribit dncetque. 33
Epist. li. Mer-
cero liit(>r.
^4
Barlhius. Ludiis illi C(::ineratuiii
piidiciliae florem nientitis niachinis pro iiitegro vendere.
Ego doci'bo te.qiii iiiulier ante iinptias sponso te probes
wrcineiii. ''(iiii iiiuliereni violasset, virilia execa-
ham, el tnille virgus dabanl.
3t>
Uioii. Halic.
unchaste were drowned, Eustathius, lib. 8. 3(j;r)iitra
iiiendac. an confess. '21 cap.
"
i'liairus iEfrypii rei
capliis ociilis per decennium, oraculuiii consnliiit de
uxoris pudicitia. Herod. Eiiterp. '"Caesar, lib 6
hello Gail, vita; iiecisque in uxures habuerunt poteHta
teui.
Mem. 3. Symptoms
of
Jealousy.
570
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,
*""
pro-
ceed from suspicion to hatred, from hatred to frenzy, madness, injury, murder and
despair."
>
'/A plague by whose most damnable effect,
Vpivers in deep despair to die have sought.
By which a man to madness near is brought.
As well with causeless as with just suspect."
]n their madness many times, saith
*^
Vives, they make away themselves and others.
Which induceth Cyprian to call it, Fcecundam et multipUcem perniciem, fontem cla-
dium el seminurium delictorum, a fruitful mischief, the seminary of offences, and foun-
tain of murders. Tragical examples are too common in this kind, both new and
old, in all ages, as of ""Cephalus and Procris, ""^Phasreus of Egypt, Tereus, Atreus,
and Thyestes. "'Alexander Phiereus was murdered of his wife, ob pcUicatus suspi-
twnem, TuUy saith. Antoninus Verus was so made away by Lucilla ; Demetrius the
son of Antigonus, and Nicanor, by their wives. Hercules poisoned by Dejanira,
***Caecinna murdered by Vespasian, Justina, a Roman lady, by her husband.
""^
Ames-
ti-is, Xei-xes' 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.
^^
Paulus iiimilius, 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 sti-ike 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 efliect hath a tragical narration of one Ferdinandus Chalderia,
that wounded Gotherinus, a noble countryman of his, at Goa in the East Indies,
*'"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 cegrilud.inatr. speaks of a silly jealous fellow, that seeing his
child new-born included in a caul, thought sure a
^
Fi-anciscan that used to come to
his house, was the father of it, it was so like the friar's cowl, and thereupon threat-
ened the friar to kill him : Fulgosus of a woman in Narbonne, that cut off her hus-
band'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 1 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 ^^ Martian his physician gave it out, "-and she
for her part after a melancholy discontented life, misspent in lurking-holes and
corner-s, made an end of her miseries." Faelix Plater, in the first book of his ob-
,
servations, hath many such instances, of a physician of his acquaintance,
^' ''
that
was first mad through jealousy, and afterwards desperate
:"
of a merchant
*'
''
that
killed his wife in the same humour, and after precipitated himself:" of a doctor of
<2
Animi dolores et zelotypia si diutius perserverent,
dementes reddunt. Acak. commpnl. in par. art. Gn-
leni. Ariosto, lib. 31. staff.6. "3deaniiua,
c. 3. de zelotyp. transit in rabiem et odium, et sibi et
aliis vidlentas SEEpe nianus itijiciunt. **
Higinus,
cap. Ifcfl. Ovid, &c.
'^
Pha;rus iEgypti rex de caeci-
tale oraculum consulens, visum ei rediturum atcepit, si
oculos abluisset lotio mnlieris qus aliorum viroruni
esset expers; u.xoris urinam expertus nihil profecit, et
aliarum frustra, eas onines (ea excepta per quain tura-
us fuit) unum in locum coactas concremavit. Herod.
Eulerp. "Offic. lib. 2.
*
Aurelius Victor,
w
Herod, lib. 9. in Calliope. Masistse uxorem excarni-
4t, manimillas pra^scindil, aesque canibus abjicit,
fliiic nares prajscidit, lahra, lingiiam,&c.
'"
Lib. 1.
Ouin forms curaiido: intenta capillum in sole pvctit, &
marito per lusum leviter percussa furtim superveniente
virga, riau suborto, mi handrice dixit, frontem vir fortig
petet, &c. Marito conspecto attonita, cum Landnco
mox in ejus mortem conspirat, et statiui inter vriinn-
duiii efficit.
!>'
Qui Goae uxorem habeiis, Gothi.-ri-
nuni principem qiiendam virum quod uxori sure oculos
adjecisset, ingeiiti vulnere delbrniavit in facie, et libi-
am libscidit, mide niiitUiB ca-des.
62
j^q quod infans
iialus iiivolutus essel paniiiculo, credebat euni filiiim
fratris Francisci, &c.
'^
Zelotypia regime reais
mortem acceleravit paulo post, ut Martianus nieilii;u
mihi retulit. Ilia autem ata bile inde exagitata in
latehrasse subduceiis pne iBirritudine aniiui reliquum
tempiis consumpsit. o<
\ zelotypia ri'd;<ctiis ad in
saniam et def^perationeni. so
(Jxnrem inieruuii
inde desyerabundus ex alto sp prxcipitavii.
680 Love-Melancholy. Tart. 3. Sec. 3
law that cut off his man's nose: of a painter's wife in Basil, anno 1600, that was
mother of nine chihlren and had been twenty-seven years married, yet afterwa.'ds
jealous, and so impatient that she became desperate, and would neither eat nor drink
n her own house, for iear her husband should poison her. 'Tis a common sign
his; for when once the humours are stirred, and the imagination misatTected, it will
vary itself in divers forms ; and many such absurd symptoms will accompany, even
madness itself. Skenkius oiserva^ lib. 4. cap. de Uler hath an example of a jealous
woman that by this means had many fits of tlie 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.
"Q,ui timet lit sua sit, ne quis sibi suhtrahat itlam,
Ille Machaonia vix ope salvus erit."
MEMB. IV.
SuBSECT I.Ciire
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, Sfc.
As of all other melancholy, some doubt whether this malady may be cured or no,
they think 'tis like the ^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.
6'
"This is the cruel wound against whose smart,
No liquor's force prevails, or any plaister.
No skill of stars, tio 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 he incurable."
Vet what I have formerly said of other melancholy, I will say again, it may be cured
or mitigated at \east by some contrary passion, good counsel and persuasion, if it be
withstood in the beginning, maturely resisted, and as those ancients hold,
'*'^"
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 im-
portance, 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 ^^Hierome well
hath it, Odium suifacit, 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. ^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 archbi.'ihop of Toledo then lived, that
by his good counsel (as for the present she was) she might be cased.
*'"
For a dis-
ease 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
tliat comfortable and pithy speech to this purpose of Ximenius, in the author him-
self, as it is recorded by Qomesius ; consult with Chaloner lib. U. de repub. Anglor.
or Caslia 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
M
Tollere nodosam nescit medicina podagram. 6' Ari-
osto, lib. 31. staff.
M
Veteres mature suadent
ungues amoris esse radendos, priusqu.Tm producanl se
S8
In Jovianum. "OGoii-esius. lib. 3. de I corda'li honiinis sermone.
reb. gestis Ximenii.
" f/rit enim prrccorriia fign
tndo animi compressa, et in angusliis ad<lu( ta mentew
subvertit, nee alio medicainine facilius erigitur, quam
Mem. 4. S( :3s. 1
.] ^
Cure
of
Jealousy. 581
;;apital matter, that it should make so deep a wound. 'Tis a blow that hurts not,
an insensible smart, grounded many times upon false suspicion alont, 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
.''
multce tandem deposuerunt (saith
^
Vives) quum Jlecti
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, Sola?nen miseris socios habuisse doloris
;
Who can say
he is free ? Who can assure himself he is not one de praiterito, or secure himself
defuturo? If it were his case alone, it were hard; but being as it is almost a com-
mon calamity, 'tis not so grievously to be taken. If a man have a lock, which ever^
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 qaidein., saith '^^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,
"
Argetocovus, a British prince's wife, told Julia
Augusta, when she took her up for dishonesty,
"
We Britons are naught at least with
some k\Y 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 *^Dion Nicaeus relates in his life, tria
millia ma:chorum, three thousand cuckold-makers, or naturcB monetam adulferantes,
as Philo calls them, false coiners, and clippers of nature's money, were summoned
ajto the court at once. And yet, JYon omnem molitor quoe. Jtuit 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.
''^
Martial's Epigram I suppose might have been generally applied in
those licentious times, Omnia solus habes^ S^c.^ thy goods, lands, money, wits are
thine own, Uxorem sed habes Candide cum populo
;
but neighbour Candidas your
wife is common : husband and cuckold in that age it seems were reciprocal terms
;
the emperors themselves did wear Actason's badge ; how many Caesars might 1
reckon up together, and what a catalogue of cornuted kings and princes in every
story.'' Agamemnon, Menelaus, Phillippus of Greece, Ptolomeus of ^Egypt, Lucul-
lus, Caesar, Pompeius, Cato, Augustus, Anton ius, 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. ^'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
't, was an arrant honest woman. Parcerem libenter (saith mine ^"^author) Heroina-
rum IcEsce majeslati., si non historice verilas aurem vellicaret, 1 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 ? thi^ is hard to be effected : si non caste^ tarien caute they carry
the matter so cunningly, that though it be as common as simony, as clear and as
tnanifest as the nose in a man's face, yet it cannot be evidently proved, or they likely
"SDeanima. 63 Lib. 3. "
Argetocoxi Cale-
[
moechis fecit, ex civibus pliires in jus vocati.
^e
l 3
torn Regull uxor, Julias Augusta; cum ipsam inordKret Epi-;. 2G.
^^
Asser Artliuri; parcerecn libenter heroi
quod iiilioiieste versarttur, respondet, nos cum opiiuiis nariini \xsie iriaje=*ali s nor historiae verilas aurem
viris cousueludiiieEn habeinus; vos Ronianas auteni oc- vellicaret, Lelani
Leiaiid's a.sserl. A thmi
cuite passini hoicnes ccustuprant. "
Leges de I
2r2
582 Love-Melancholy.
.
[Part. 3. Sec. 3.
taken in tre fact ; they will have a knave Gallus to vi'atch, or with that Roman
"
Sulp tia, ^11 made fast and sure,
"
Ne se Cadiircis destitutaiii fasciia,
Nudam Caleiio cuiicuiiibentem videat."
"
she will hardly be surprised by her husband, be he never so wary." Mucb. better
then to put it up : the more he strives in it, the more he shall dH'uige 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 ov/n fault, and he hath no reason to
complain, 'tis quid pro quo., she is bad, he is worse: '""Bethink thyself, hast thou
not done as mucli for some of thy neighbours
.''
why dost thou require that of thy
wife, which thou wilt not perform thyself? Thou ranges', like a town bull,
"
why
ait thou so incensed if she tread awry
?"
""Be it tliat some woman break chaste wedlock's She feels that he his love from her withdraws,
laws, And hath on some perhaps less worthy placed.
And leaves her husband and becomes unchaste
:
Who strike with sword, the scabbard them may
Vet commonly it is not without cause, strike, a
She sees her man in sin her goods to waste. And sure love craveth love, like asketh like."'
Ea semper studebit., saith ^^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 les-
son against thyself," which as Jansenius, Lyranus, on his text, and Carthusianus in-
terpret, is no otherwise to be understood than that she do thee not a mischief. I do
lot excuse her in accusing thee; but if both be naught, mend thyself first; for as
he old saying is, a good husband makes a good wife.
Yea but thou repliest, 'tis not the like reason betwixt man and woman, through
ler fault my children are bastards, I may not endure it ;
'*
Sit amarulenta, sit impe-
"iosa prodiga., Sfc. 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
'aith, my fame, mine eye must not be touched," as the diverb is, JYon patitur factum
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, JYullius 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,
^'
better be any man's son than thine,
to be begot of base Jrus, poor Seius, or mean Mevius, the town swineherd's, a shep-
herd's son : and well is he, that like Hercules he hath any two fathers; for thou thyself
nast 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 viilnus insanabile, sic
vulnus inscnsibitc, as it is incurable, so it is insensible. But art thou sure it is so ^ '^^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 su^^'h 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 kneeied 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 whidh will away.
" "
Nee custodiri si velit ulla potest
;
Nee meiiteiu 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 scepe
fefeUit amor, as in
"Ariosto,
* Epigram. TOCoeita an sic aliis tu unqiiam
leceris; an hoc tibi nunc fieri dignum sit ? severus aliis,
indulgens tibi, cur. ab uxor* exigis quod non ipse prtps-
tas? Piutar. "iVags iibidiTie cum ipse quovis rapi-
ris.cur si vel modicum beiiet ipsa, insanias 7
'^
Ari.
osto, li. 28. staffe 80. "Sylv" nupt. I 4. num. Ti.
1*
Lemnius, lib. 4. cap. 13. de occult, nal. tnir. "Opti
mum b^ne nasci.
"
Mart.
"
Ov( 1. amor. lib. 3
eleg. '8 Lib. 4. St. 72.
Mem. 4. Subs. 1.]
Cure
jf
Jealousy.
'
If all our hearts wen; eyes, yet sure they said
We hiisliaiids of our wives should be betrayed."
583
Hierome holds, Uxor impudica seroari non potest.) pudica non debet, injida c^istns
castifatis est nccessilas., to what end is all your custody? A dishonest woman can-
not be kept, an honest woman ought not to be kept, necessity is a keeper not to be
trusted. Difficile
cuslndiiur^ quod plures amani ; that which many covet, can hardly
be preserved, as '^- Salisburiensis thinks. I am of jEneas Sylvius' mind,
^'^
Those
jealous Italians do very ill to lock up their wives ; for women are of such a disposi
tion, 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 tyrrani-
cum impcrium, as our great Mr. Aristotle calls it, too tyrannical a task, most unfit:
for when she perceives her husband observes her and suspects, Uberi.us peccat, saith
^'Nevisanus.
^^
Toxica Zelofypo dedit uxor maecha marito, she is exasperated, seeks
by all means to vindicate herself, and will therefore ofTend, because she is unjustly
5uspected. 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 dehnrt.
For biaiity w ill 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 sem-
per Uh/ssis ero ;
"
I shall always be Penelope the wife of Ulysses." And as Phocias'
wife in ^'^ Plutarch, called her husband
"
her wealth, treasure, world, joy, delight, orb
and sphere," she will her's. 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
:
'
At niihi vel tellus optem prius ima dehiscat,
Aut pater omnipotens adiaat me fcilmine ad umbras,
Pallunles umbras Erebi, nocteinqiie prcjfundam,
Ante piidur quam te vjoleni, aut tua jura resolvam."
"
First I desire the earth to swallow me,
Before I violate mine honesty,
Or thunder from aliove 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,
85"
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, thnu^ih 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
^
St. Austin, one Archidamus, a Consul of An-
tioch, offered a hundred pounds of gold to a fair young wife, and besides to set hei
husband free, who was then sub gravissimd cusfodici, a dark prisoner, pro unius noc-
iis concuhitu : but the chaste matron would not accept of it. "^'When Ode com-
mended Theana's fine arm to his fellows, she took him up short,
"
Sir, 'tis not com-
mon:" she is wholly reserved to her husband. ^^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."
^^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 espe-
cially commend in him .^ "she swore she did not observe him; when he repliec
again, what then she did observe, whom she looked on } She made answer, hei
husband, that said he would die for her sake." Such are the properties and condi
tions of good woinen : and if she be well given, she will so carr) herself; if other-
wise she be naught, use all the means thou canst, she will be naught, JVon deest am-
mus sed corruptor she hath so many lies, excuses, as a hare hath muses, tricks, pan
ders, bawds, shifts, io deceive, 'tis to no purpose to keep her up, or to reclaim her
by hard usage. "
Fair means perjdventure may do somewhat."
^
Obsequio vinces
" Policrat. lU). 8. c. 11. De amor.
>
Euriel. et
Lucret. qui u.\ores occludunt, meo judicio minus utili-
ter faciunt; sunt enim eo ingenio mulieres ut id potis-
aimuni cupiant, quod maxinie denegatur: si liheras
habent habenas, minus delinquunt; frustra seram ad-
hibes, si non sit spontfi casta.
i^i
Qnando tognos-
cunl marilos hoc advertere.
**
Ausonius.
63
0pes
tuaa mundum suuin, thesaurun suum, &c ^ Virg.
JP^n. Mnaniel. 86
| j^ germ. d. in monte ros 16.
"' O quam formosus lacertus hie quidam iinjiiit ad
equales conversus; at ilia, pulilicus. inquil, non t-st.
*
Bilia Dinutum virurn setiem h ibuit el spiritiim fffiti-
diim hahentem, quern quum qunlani exprobrasset, &c.
6"
Numquid tibi, ."Vrmena, Tigranes videbatur esse pul
clier? et ilium, inquit, sedepol, ice. Xenoph. Cyrupl
I. 3.
e
Ovid.
5b4 Love-Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sect. 3.
aptius ipse tuo. Men and women are both in a
predicament in this behalf, no soone
won, and better pacified. Duci volunt., non nogi : though she be as arrant a scold as
Xantippe, as cruel as Medea, as clamorous as Hecuba, as lustful is Messalina, by
Buch means (if at all) she may be reformed. Many patient ^' Grizels, by then obse-
quiousness 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 Elec-
tra, 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 dissimulavU., 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 gal-
lant, 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 learn-
ing, Socrates' patience, Argus' vigilance, will not serve turn. Therefore Minus ma-
lum^ ^''a less mischief, Nevisanus holds, dissimulare^ to be
^^
Cunarum emptor^ a buyer
of cradles, as the proverb is, than to be too solicitous, ^''''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." *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 up-
braided with his wife's dishonesty, cum tot victor regnoruvi ac populorum esset, Sfc.^
a conqueror of kingdoms could not tame his wife (for she thrust him out of doors),
he made a jest of it. Sapientes porlant cornua in pectore, siulti infronte^ saith Nevi-
sanus, wise men bear their horns in tlieir hearts, fools on their foreheads. Eumenes,
king of Pergamus, was at deadly feud with Perseus of Macedonia, insomuch that
Fersn:is hearing of a journey he was to take to Delphos, "^set a company of soldiers
to intercept him in his passage; they did it. accorcHngly. and as they supposed left
him stoned to death. The news of this fact was brouglit' instantly to Pergamus;
Attains, Eumenes' brother, proclaimed himself king forthwith, took possession oi
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 lie knew all particulars passed, yet dissembling the mat-
ter, kindly embraced his brotlier, and look 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. "'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 vvas true ; with which confession he was satis-
fied, 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 wile), so to divulge his own shame, and to I'emain for ever a cuck-
old 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 Zelotypitr
>
Read Petrarcirs Tale of Patient Grizel in Chaucer, rent : hi protenus niandHtiiin e.teqnentes, &lc. Ille et
"Sil iiup. lib. 4. num. 80.
"S
(Erasmus. sjQuum rex declaratur, el Stratoniceni qiiie fralri niip'^erat, uxo-
iccepist^el uxoreni peperisse secundo a nuptiis mense, rem ducit: sed po.^tquani amlivil fratrein viveie, Ilc.
tunas qiiinas vel Senas coeniit, lit si forte ii.xor singulis i Atlaliim cuniiter accepit, pristin.imijue uxoren> Ci.ni
biniensilius pareret.
^
JiilinsCapitol. vita ejus, i
plexus, inagno tionore .ipud se liahiiit. s"Sc .uS*
quum palaiu I'ithanedus uxorein dilicerei, niiiiinie cii- i Harrtuglun's notes in 28. book of Ariostu.
(iosufl fuit. siDispoKt it arinatos qui ipsuin inlerfice-
1
/\lem. 4. Subs. 2.1 Cure
of
Jealousy. 585
:tiris, saith Erasmus, se conjicrre, 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
's 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 conmiodity, or some great man's sake, his landlord,
patron, benefactor, (as Calbas the Roman saith
^"^
Plutarch did by Maecenas, and
Phayllus of Argos did by King Philip, wiien he promised him an olfice on that (on
dition he might lie witli his wife) and so let it pass
:
''9"pol me hand poenilet,
Scilicet hoiii (iiiiiidium dividere cum Jove,"
"
it never troubles me (saith Amphitrio) to be cornuted by Jupiter,
Ipt
it not molesi
thee then ;" be friends with her
;
'ooTuciJiii Alcmena uxnre antiquam in gratiam
Redi"
'
Receive Alcmena to your grace again
;"
let it, I say, make no breach of love be-
tween you. Howsoever the best way is to contemn it, which
'
Henry ]i. king of
France advised a courtier of his, jealous of his wife, and complaining of her un-
chasteness, to reject it, and comfort himself; for he that suspects his wife's incon-
tinency, 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 thac counsel of
'Nevisanus, si vitium uxoris corrigl non potest, fcrcnduiii 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 palcEstram phllosophicB, et domesticum
gymnasium a school of philosophy, put it up. There is no other cure but time to
wear it out, Injuriarum remtdium est oblivio, as if ihey 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.
"Tlie mind's afl'ectioiiB patience will appease,
It passions kills, and liealelli each disease."
Subject. II.
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 o{
^^
Religious Melancholy be warrantable, it
may be controverted.
"O"
Pergite Pierides, medio iiec calle vagantem
Liiiquite ine, qui nulla pedum vestigia diicunt.
Nulla rota; currus testaiitur signa priores."
] 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.
^'
Areteus, Alexander, Rhasis, Avi-
cenna, and most of our late writers, as Gordonius, Fuchsius, Plater, Eruel, Montal-
tus, Stc. repeat it as a symptom.
^
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 ''^ Laurentius holds.
If they have been precisely given, all their meditations tend that way, and in con-
clusion produce strange etiects, the humour imprints symptoms according to their
several inclinations and conditions, which makes ^^Guianerius and ^' 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, niokes men-
tion of two distinct furies ; and amongst our Neoterics, Hercules de Saxonid lib. I,
pract. med. cap. 16. cap. de Melanch. doth expressly treat of it in a distinct spec.'es.
**"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, Stc, the other about
women." Peter Forestus in his observations delivereth as much in the same words
:
and Felix Plqterus de mentis alienat. cap. Z. frequentissima est ejus species., in qua
curanda scepissitne multumfui impeditus
;
'lis a frequent disease; and they have a
ground of what they say, forth of Areteus and Plato.
^'
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.
'"*
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
dl mad, as well he might ; and he that shall but consider that superstition of old,
M"Ye gods avert such a pestilence from the world."
Called religious because it is still conversant about
religion and such divine olijecla. '"Grotius.
"
Pro-
ceed, ye muses, nor' desert ine in tlie middle of my
journey, where no footsteps lead me, no wheeltracks
indicate the transit of former chariots."
ai
Lib. 1.
cap. 16. noiinulli upinionibiis aildicti sunt, et futiira se
prajdicere aroitrantur. ^ Aliis viilelur quod sunt
prophetcE et inspirati aSpiritu sancto, et incipiunt pro-
phetare, et multa futura praedicunt. s^Cap.
B. de
Melanch. '*<Cap 5. Tractat. multi ob timorem
Ofi sunt melancholic!, et limorera gehennae. They are
75 2z2
still troubled for their sins.
'
Plater c. 13.
'^
Me-
lancholia Erotica vel quse cum amore est, duplex eat:
prima qua; ali aliis forsan non meretur nomen melan-
cholicE, est atfttctio eorum quse pro ohjecto proponunt
Deum et idoo nihil aliud curant aut cogitant quam
Deuin, jejunia, vigilias : altera ob rnulieres. *' Aha
reperitur furoris species a prima vel a secuiida, deorura
rogantiuni, vel afflatu iiuniinum furor hie venit
**Q,ui in Delphis futura praedicunt vates, et in Doilooa
sacerdotes furents quiilein multa jnciindi Grtecis (lefe.
runt, sani vero exigua aut nulla.
B94
Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. i
those prodigious eflec^s ol it (as in its place I will shew the several* furies of our
fatidici dii, pythonissas, sibyls, enthusiasts, pseudoprophets, heretics, and schisiiiaiics
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, tiian any other above named whatsoever, does more harm, works more dis-
quietness 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 1 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 shapea
roaring waves, tempests, and siren cahns, 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 novifia^
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 allurelh, 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
^^
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.
'
''
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 ajjpears 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.'' Caelum pulehruni, sed pulchrior ccbU fabricator ; if heaven be so fair, the
sun so fair, how much fairer shall he be, that made them fair.? "-For by the great-
ness 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.
'
Ornnis pulchritudo Jlorem,
hominum., angelorum^ et rerum omnium pulcherrimarum ad Dei pulchritudinem collala.
nox est et tenebrce^ all other beauties are night itself, mere darkness to this our inex-
plicable, incomprehensible, unspeakable, eternal, infinite, admirable and divine beauty.
This lustre, piilchritudo 07nniu?n jmlcherrima. Tiiis beauty and ^"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 bount}/^, good-
ness, to adore and seek him ; the magnificence and structure of the world itself, ani
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
M
Deiis bonus, Justus, pulcher, juxta Platonem. I nares, genas, oculns, in ellectuni, omnia pulchra ; si sie
'Mirdr ft stiipeo cum cfEluiii aspicio et pulcliritudi in creauiris laliorauius
;
quki in ip-iodeo? Dicxe
nem sidrrutn, angoloruiii, &c. et quis digne laudel quod lius Niret. lili. 2. rap. 11. Fulgor divi-^e majet-tatia.
Ui nobis viget, coruuNiaiii pulc4iruMi, tr<^(item pulcliraiu,
| Aug.
\Iem. 1. Subs.
1.]
That it is a distinct species. 595
are christians, regenerate, that are his adopted sons, illuminated by his vord, having
the eyes of our hearts and understandings opened
;
how fairly doth he offer and
expose himself? Jlmhit nos Deus (Austin saith) donis et forma swa, he woos us by
his beauty, gifts, promises, to come unto him ;
'^"
the whole Scripture is a message,
an exhortation, a love letter to this purpose;" to incite us, and invite us, ''God's
epistle, as Gregory calls it, to his creatures. He sets out his son and his church in
that epiihalamium 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 do vn
pure juice, his hands as rings of gold set with chrysolite : and his church to a vine-
yard, a garden inclosed, a fountain of living waters, an orchard of pomegranates,
with sweet scents of saffron, spike, calamus and cinnamon, and all the trees of in-
cense, as the chief spices, the fairest amongst women, no spot in her, *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, *John, in his apocalypse, makes a description of that heavenly Jeru-
salem, 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
dotli 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 ex-
pressed to our apprehensions,
"
no tongue can tell, no heart can conceive it," as Paul
saith. Moses himself, Exod. xxxiii. 18. v/hen he desired to see God in his glory,
was answered that he might not endure it, no man could see his face and live.
Senslbile forte desLruit scnsum., a strong object overcometh the sight, according to
that axiom in \A\\\osoY)\\y : fulgorem soils
f
erre non potes^ muUo magis creatoris
;
if thou canst not endure the sunbeams, how canst thou endure that fulgor and bright-
ness of him that made the sun ? The sun itself and all that we can imagine, are
but shadows of it, 'tis visio prtEcellens., as '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; *""Bat this is an im-
mortal 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."
"
For as one saith, where this vision is, there is ab-
solute 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,
'"
be-
hold 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
"
Melancthon discourseth, and to enjoy it.
"And him our will would have loved and sought alone as our summum bonum^ or
>In Psal. Ixiv. misit ad nna Epistolas et totam
Bcripturam, qui bus nobis faceret aiiiaiidi desiderium.
Episl. 48. 1. 4. quid est tota scriplura nisi Epislola oiii-
nipiiteiitis Dei ad creaturum suam? Cap. vi. 8.
Cap. xxvii. II.
i
In Psal. Ixxxv. oinnes pulchri-
udiiies terreiias auri, argenti, neiiiorum et camporuui
julchritiidintjiii Soliset Luiise,stellaruin, omnia pulclira
guperans. linniortalis litec visio iinniortalis aiiinr,
indefessus amor et vi.sio. Osorius; ubicuiique viaio
et pulchritudo divini aspectus, ibi voluplas ex eodem
fontp omnisque beatitudo, nee abejus aspectu voluptas.
nee ab ilia voluptate aspeclus separari potest,
i"
lieon
H^breus. Diibitatur an huinana felicitas Deo eognos-
eendo an aniando terniinetur.
" Lib. de anima.
Ad hoc objectuni anianduni et fruendum nati suinus;
et huiie expetisset, uniciiin hunc aniasset liumana, vo-
luntas, ut summum bonum, et Citleras res oinnas oc
ordine.
696 Religious Melancholy. [Part 3. Sec. 4
principal good, md all other good things for God's 5-dke : and nature, as she pro-
ceeded from it. would have sought this fountain ; but in this inlirmity of human
nature this order is disturbed, our love is corrupt
:"
and a man is like that monster
in
'^
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 "'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.;
'*
" In this
world tliere be so many beautiful objects, splendours and brightness of gold, majesty
of fflory, 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 passelh away and the lust thereof; but he that fulrilleth the will of God
abidelh for ever. No man, saith our Saviour, can serve two masters, but he must
love the one and hate the other, &c.,
"
bonos vel inalos mores, boni reZ viali faciunt
amores, Austin well infers : and this is that which all the fathers inculcate. He can-
not (''Austin admonisheih) 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 aiiid rears our souls with the motion of our
hearts, and sweetness of contemplation
:"
so saith Gregory cited by '^Bonaventure.
And as
'"
Philo Juda^us 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 '^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
'^
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.
^^
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 cx-
hortor 6 amicl et obsccro. In
^'
Ficinus's words,
'*
1 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." Foi
9. de Repub.
"
Horn. 9. in epist. Johai.nis cap.
2. Multos coiijiigium liecepit, res alioqui salutaris et
necessaria, en quod c*co eju.s amore tlecepti, <liviiii
amoris el gloria; studiiiiii in umvorsum abjecerunt
;
pluriiiios cilms el [)Otus perdit. In tnundo splendor
opuni gljiriiE majestas, amicitiarum pra;sidia, verbonini
blatidilia>, voluptatuni omniis generis illecebrre, victoria;,
triumphi, et intinita alia ab amore dei nos abstrahunt,
tc.
i^In Psal. xxxii. Dei amicus esse non potest
^ui mundi studiis delectatur; ut hanc, formam videas
munda cor, f^erena cor, JItc. 'econtemplalionia pliiina
iioti sublevat, atque inde erigiiiiur iiitentione cordis.
dulcedine contemplraionis distinct. 6. de 7. Itineribus.
"
Lib de viclimis : amnns Deum, snhlimia petit, sump,
tis alis m in coeluni rccle volat, relicta terra, cupidiiii
aberrandi cum sole, luna, slellaruinque sncra inilitia,
ipso Deo duco.
'"
In com. Plat. cap. 7. ut Solcni
videas oculis, fieri dehes solans: ut divinam aspiciaa
pulchritudinem, deniitte niateriam, dcmitte seiisum. et
Deum qualis sit videbis.
i9
Avare, quid inliias liis
&c. pulchrior est qui te ambit ipsum visurus, ipsuni ha-
biluriis.
20 prov. vlii. 2' Cap. 18. Rom. Aniorem
hunc diviniim totis viribus amplexamini ; Deum vohif
oiiini oflicioruni genere propitiuiii facile.
Mem. 1. Subs. 1.]
Causes
of
Religious Melancholy. 597
whom alone, saitli ^^Piotinus, "'we must forsake the kingdoms and emphes of thr
whole earth, sea, land, and air, if we desire to be ingrafted into him, leave all an(}
follow him."
Now, forasmuch as this love of God is a habit infused of God, as ^''Thomas holds,
1. 2. qucssf. 23. "by which a man is inclined to love God above all, and his neigh-
bour 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 tliat
he requires of us, Deut. vi. and Josh, xxiii.
"
to love God above all, and our neigh-
bour 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, know-
eth 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 ^''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 wiiich 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
^^
Clemens Alexandrinus
calls amoris el amiciiicp. impletionem et extentionem, the extent and complement of
love; and that not for fear or worldly respects, but ordine ad Dewn, 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
^
defective, in worldly things too excessive, there is ajar in both. We
love the world too much ; God too little ; our neighbour not at all, or for our own
ends. Vulgus aviicitias utilitate proiat. "The chief thing we respect is our com-
modity;" and what we do is for fear of worldly punishment, for vain-glory, 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 in-
volve ourselves into a multitude of errors, we swerve from this true love and wor-
ship 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 aflfected 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 re-
duce them to a two-fold 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 be-
cause we do aliud age.re., 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, Gre-
gory 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 no-
thing 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
'"Cap. 7. de pulclirituriine regna et itnperia totius I quem inclinatiir homo ad dili^endUm Deum super omnia.
terriB et maris et corli oportet ahjicere pi ad ipsum con-
*<
Dial. 1. Omnia, convsrtit aimir in ipsius pulcliri natu
versus velis luseri. ^ Habitus a Deu iiifiisiis, per | ram. ^^Slrumatum lib. 2. ^eQi-g^nham.
598 Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 4.
secrets, and thereupon presume, say and do that many times wh ch is not befitting
to be said or done. Of this number are all superstitious idolaters, ethnics, Ma-
hometans, Jews, heretics,
^'
enthusiasts, divinators, prophets, sectaries, and schisma-
tics. Zanchius reduceth such infidels to four chief sects ; but I will insist and fol-
low 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 ban-
ner, 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 symp
toms : and yet all miserably out, perplexed, doting, and beside themselves for reli-
gion's sake. For as ^'^Zanchy well distinguished, and all the world knows religiou
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,
^^
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^ '"'Meteran calls it, or insanus
error, as
"'
Seneca, a frantic error ; or as Austin, Insanus animi morbus, a furious dis-
ease of the soul ; insania omnixmi insanissima, a quintessence of madness ;
"^
for he
that is superstitious can never be quiet. 'Tis proper to man alone, uni siiperbia, ava-
riiia, superstitio, saith Plin. lib. 7. cap. 1. alqtie etiam post scBvit de faturo, which
wrings his soul for the present, and to come : the greatest misery belongs to man-
kind, a perpetual servitude, a slavery,' '^Ex tlmore timor, a heavy yoke, the seal of
damnation, an intolerable burden. They that are superstitious are still fearing, sus-
pecting, vexing themselves with auguries, prodigies, false tales, dreams, idle, vain
works, unprofitable labours, as
''''
Boterus observes, curd mentis ancipite versantur
:
enemies to God and to themselves. In a word, as Seneca concludes, Religio Deum
colit, superstitio destmit, superstition destroys, but true religion honours God. True
religion, ubi verus Deus vere colitur, w^here 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 aflbrds, 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, bold-
ness, 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 perse-
cutions 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, ^^Sifrac-
tus illabatur orbis, impavidos ferient ruincR, 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.scclerata hominum arma conlcmnit, qui dei proisidio tutus est
:
or as
'"'
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 nosf 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
*' Austin) vita vitcB mortalis, the life of this our mortal life, hope of immortality,
the sole comfort of our misery: otherwise, as Panl 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
^^
Eusr>bius,
iiuctor nobis de Deo Deus est, God is the author of our religion himself, his wort
'"De primo prJEcepto.
^s
ne relig. I. 2. Thes. 1. I stitione imbutus est, quietus ijsse nunquani )>ote8t
"i! De iiat. deorum. Hist. Belgic. lib. 8. 3' Super- 33 Greg.
S4
polit. lib. 1. cap. J < ' Flor. s6Epi
ttitio error iiisjiinus est epist. 2^23. ^
Nam qui super-
|
Ptialar.
^
In Psal. iii.
38
x^i), 9. cap. S.
Mem. 1. Subs.
1.]
Parties
affected.
599
is our rule, a lantern to us, dictated by the Holy Ghost, he plays upon our hearts an
many harpstrings, and we are his temples, he dwelleth in us, and we in him.
The part afiected of superstition, is the brain, heart, will, understanding, sou.
Iself, and all the faculties of it, tolum comjjositiwi, all is mad ahd dotes : now for the
extent, as J say, the world itself is the subject of it, (to omit that grand sin of
iUieism,) 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 com-
prehends all) hath infatuated in all ages, besotted by this blind zeal, which is reli-
gion'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 be-
hold 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 hodic celebrat tarn
atlonite, saith ^" Pliny, taiUis 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 ''"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 por-
tion hath tlie true cliurch ever been! Divisum imperium cum Jove Dcemon hahet.^
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 dis-
creet, and understanding man, philosophers, dynasts, monarchs, all were involved
and overshadowed in this n)ist, in more than Cimmerian darkness. '^^Jldeo ignara
superstitio mentes hominum dcpravat^ et nonnunquam sapientum animos transoersos
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, is 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 1 know not how many negro princes in Africa, all Terra Australis incognita
most of America pagans, ditiering all in their several superstitions; and yet all idola-
ters. The Mahometans extend themselves over the great Turk's dominions in Eu-
rope, Africa, Asia, to the Xerifles in Barbary, and its territories in Fez, Sus, Mofocco.
&c. The Tartar, the great Mogor, tlie Sophy of Persia, with most of their domi-
nions and subjects, are at this day Mahometans. See how the devil rageth : those
at odds, or difiering among themselves, some for ''^Ali, some Enbocar, for'Acmor,
and Ozunen, those four doctors, Mahomet's successors, and are subdivided uito
seventy-two inferior sects, as '''Leo Afer reports. The Jews, as a company of vaga-
bonds, are scattered over all parts ; wliose story, present estate, progress from time
to time, is fully set down by ''^Mr. Thomas Jackson, Doctor of Divinity, in his com-
ment on the creed. A fifth part of the world, and hardly that, now professelh
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 dit-
ferent from us, with such new absurdities and ceremonies, such liberty, such a mix
ture of idolatry and paganism,
'"*
that they keep little more than a bare title of chris-
'8
Lib. 3.
*o
Lib. 6. descrip. Grsc. nulla est via
qr.i. lion innumeris idolis est leferta. Tantuui tunc
temporis in iniscrriwnc
rnortales polentiiB el crudelis
Tyrannidis Saian exercuu.
< "
The devil divides
Uie empire with Jupiter."
Alex. ab. Alex. lib. 0.
cap. 2e. "Purchas Pilgrim, lib. J c. 3. << Lib. 3
*^-i Part. sect. 3. lib. 1. cap. et deinccps.
48
Titelmaii
nus. Maginus. Bredenbactiius. Fr. Aluaresiiis llin. de
Abyssinis Herbis solum vescuntur vutarii, aqiiis meat*
tenus dormiuni, &,c.
600 Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sect i
tianity. They suffer polygamy, circumcision, stupend fastings, i^ivorce as they will
themselves, &c., and as the papists call on tlie Virgin Mary, so do they on Thomas
Didynius before Christ. '"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 Asie
Minor, Syria, Egypt, Stc, Greece, Walachia, Circassia, Bulgaria, Bosnia, Albania,
Illyricum, Sclavonia, Croatia, Thrace, Servia, Rascia, and a sprinkling amongst the
Tartars, ttie Russians, Muscovites, and most of that great duke's (czar's) subjects,
are part of the Greek Churcli, and still christians : but as
""*
one sailh, temporis suc-
cessu miillas illi addidcrunt supcrsliliones. In process of time they have added so
many superstitions, they be rather senii-christians than otherwise. That which re-
mains 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, thePhilippinas, 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),
Arrians, anabaptists are to be found, as well as in some German cities. Scandia is
christian, but ""'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,
^"
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, Miscra liax gens (saith mine
^'
author)
SatancB hacttnus possession,
'i'liere is a contest amongst the living wives as to 10 Boii-ni de repub lul. 111. s^Quji,
ipsms diaboli
which shall follow the husband, and not be allowed to ut nequitiani rel'erant. 33 |, jb.de siiperstit. ^* Ho-
die for him is accounted a disgrace." '^"Matthias a
|
minibus vit* finis mors, non auteni supero'litionis, pro-
Mic.tou.
29
pist. Jesuit, anno. 1549 a Xaverto et
socus. Idemque Riccius expedid. ad Siiias I. 1. per to-
tniii Jejunatores apud eos toto die cariiibus abstinent
el ,~'stibus <ib religionem, node et die Idola colenles;
iiusi^^ani egredieiites.
*>
Ad immnrtalltatem morte
a?iiirii-'t iuiniiii iiagistratus, &c. Et multi mortaies
liai. 'nsaiii& ct ; epostero iiiiiiiortaiKatis studio labo-
fert lia;r suoslerminos ulira vita' tiaem.
"
Buxtortiui
Syna^'og. Jud. c. 4. Inter preL..iidniii nemo pediculog
attingat, vel pulicein, aut per giittur inlerius ventiiic
eiiiittas, &c. Id. c 5 et seq. cap. 3tj.
^s
|||j(. oiuiiiJ
aniinalia, pisces, avea, quos Deu-^ unquam c'C^V't inar
labuntur, el vinum generosum, Hcc.
622 Religious Melancholy. [Pait. 3. Sec. 4.
BO big,
'^
" thai by chance tumbling out of the nest, it knocked down three hundred
tail cedars, and breaking as it I'ell, drowned one hundred and sixty villages
:"
this
bird stood up to the knees in the sea, and ihe sea was so deep, that a hatchet would
not fall to the bottom in seven years : of their Messiah's
''^
wives and children
;
Adam
and Eve, &.c., and that one slupend fiction amongst the rest: when a Roman prince
asked of rabbi Jehosiia 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 forth-
with the lion set forward.
^^''-
Dut 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 per-
suasions 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 galli-
maufry 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, """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 ppcorinis
hominibus scriplum, bestialis beatiiudo., 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,
"
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,
""^
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
"*
abstemious some of them, than Carthusians, Franciscans, Anchorites, forsake ail,
live solitary, fare hard, go naked, &c.
""^
Their pilgrimages are as far as to the river
'^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 hidies ; 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 tliey
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
iOt bricks, when they return, will put out their eyes, ^''"that they never after
see any profane thing, bite out their tongues," Stc. They look for their prophet
Mahomet as Jews do for their Messiah. Read more of their customs, rites, cere-
monies, in Lonicerus Turcic. hist. torn. I. from the tenth to the twenty-fourth chap-
ter. Bredenbachius, cap.
4, 5, 6. Leo Afer, lib. 1. Busbequius Sabellicus, Pur-
chas, lib. 3. cap.
3,
et 4, 5. TLeodorus Bibliander, &c. Many foolish ceremonies
37Cuju3 lapsucedri altissimi SOOdejecti sunt.quumqiie
i lapsu ovum fuerat confractum, pa^i lUO inde <iihinersi,
et alluvioiie inundati.
ss
Jjvery king of the world
shall send hiin one of his dangliters to be his wife, be-
cause it is written, Ps. xlv. 10.
"
Kings' daughters shall
attend on him," &c. ^aQum,, quadringenlis adhuc
milliaribus ab imperatore Leo hie nbesset, tarn fortiter
rugiebat, iit mulieres Roniana: aborlierint omf-s, mii-
tiqiie, &c.
<"
Strozius Cicogna oninif. mag ib. I.e.
I. putida multa recensel ex Alcorano, de coelo stellis,
|
vohiiit deiiirep.i videre.
Angelis, |y>"icerus c. 21, 22. I. ]. *' &iiiii<)uies in die
orare TurcE tenentiirad meridiem. Bredenbachius cap.
5.
*''
In quolibet anno mensem integrum jejunant
interdiu, nee comedentes nee bibentes, Sec.
'^
Nullig
unqiiam mulli per tolam tclatem carnibus vesciintur.
l.eo Afer. "Lonicerus to I. Leap. 17. 18. '5(jtar.
dus Arthus ca. 33. hist, orient. Indiie ; opinio est expia
torium esse Gangem ; et nee mundiim ab omni peccali)
nee salvum fieri posse, qui iion hoc ilumitie se ahluii
quam obcausam ex tota India, &c. ^'Quia nil
Mem. 1. Subs.
3.]
Symptoms
of
Religious Melancholy.
6*43
you shall find in them ; and which is most to be lamented, the people are i^ene-
raily so curious in observing of them, that if the least circumstance be omitted,
they think they shall be damned, 'tis an irremissible oflence, and can hardly be for-
given. I kept in my house amongyt my followers (saith Busbequius, sometime the
Turk's orator in Constantinople) a Turkey boy, that by chance did eat shell-fish, 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 '"'grieve many days after, torment himself for his foul offence. Another Turk
being to drink a cup of w^ie in his cellar, first made a huge noise and filthy faces,
^^^
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 con-
science-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 symp-
toms, as a mixture of the rest, 1 may say that which St.. Benedict once saw in a
vision, one devil in the market-place, 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 re-
ligious houses a thousand devils could scarce tempt one silly monki All the prin-
cipal devils, I think, busy themselves in subverting Christians ; Jews, Gentiles, and
Mahometans, are extra caulern^ out of the fold, and need no such attendance, they
make no resistance, '^^eos enim pidsare ncgUgit, quos quicfo jure possidere se sentit,
they are his ov^n 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 tho.se seve-
ral 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 : jYuUius addicti jurare
in verba magistri;
^
they will approve of nought but what tltfey first invent them-
selves, no interpretation good but what their infaliibile spirit dictates: none shall be in
secimdis, no not in terfiis., they are only wise, only learned in the truth, all damned
but they and their followers, ccedem 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
'
Bernard (erroneously some say)
speaks of P. Aliardus, omnes patres sic, afque ego sic. Though all the Fathers, Coun-
cils, the whole world contradict it, they care not, they are all one : and as ^"Gregory
well notes
'
of such as are vertiginous, they think all turns round and moves, all
e/T : when as the error is wholly in their own brains." Magallianus, the Jesuit, in
his Comment on 1 Tim. xvi. 20, and Alphonsus de casfro lib. 1. adversus hcereses^
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)
^^'^
First they affect
novelties and toys, and prefer falsehood before truth
;
^'"secondly, they care not what
they say, that which rashness and folly hath brought out, pride afterward, peevish-
ness and contumacy shall maintain to the last gasp." Peculiar symptoms are profii-
gious paradoxes, new doctrines, vain phantasms, wliich are many and diverse as they
"Nullum se ronfliciandi fiiiem facit.
^f
Ut in
^liqiiem anjiuhini se reci^wret. ne reus fieret ejus
dc.lir.ti quod ipse erat adiiii.-surus. ^'^GreffDr. Hoiii.
*
Bound lol he (iiclatesipf nil iiiHster."
oi
Epist. lUO.
"Oral. a. ut verlijiine correptis videiitur omnia moveri,
omnia iis falsa sunt, quiirn error in ipsnrum cerebro sit
^ Khs novas affectant et inutiles, falsa veris prcpferunt.S
quod temerilaseffutiprit, id superhia post nioduin luebi
tur et coulUDiacise, tc.
s*
See more in Vincent
Lyrin.
624 Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sect. 4.
themselves. *' Nicholaites of old, would have wives in common: Montanists will
not marry at all, nor Tatians, forbidding all flesh, Severians wine ; Adamians go
naked,
*"
because Adam did so in Paradise; and some *'' barefoot all their lives,
because God, Exod. iii. and Joshua v. bid Moses so to do ; and Jsaiah xx. was bid
put off his shoes; Manichees hold that Pythagorean transmigration of souls from
men to beasts ;
*^
" the Circumcellions in Africa, with a mad cruelty made away them-
selves, 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 ^^Austin
(for there were fourscore and eleven heresies in his times, besides schisms and
smaller factions) Epiphanius, Alphonsus de Castro, DancBus, Gab, Prateolus, Sfc. Of
prophets, enthusiasts and impostors, our Ecclesiastical stories aflbrd many examples;
of Elias and Chrisls, as our
''
Eudo de stelHs, 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
;
notliing 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. JYulla scabies, as
'^'
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 em-
brace it, and without further examination approve it.
Sed Vetera querimur, these are old, hcec prius fuere. In our days we have a new
scene of superstitious impostors and heretics. A new company of actors, of Anti-
christs, 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 them-
selves 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 Gos-
pel was quite eclipsed, darkness over all, the Scriptures concealed, legends brought in,
religion banished, hypocritical superstition exalted, and the Church itself
^"
obscured
and persecuted : Christ and his members crucified more, saith Benzo, by a few necio-
mantical, atheistical popes, than ever it was by
^^
Julian the Apostate. Porphyrins
the Platonist, Celsus 4he physician, Libanius the Sophister ; by those heathen em-
perors, 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, Osian-
der. Bale, Mornay, Fox, Usher, and many others relate. In the mean time, he thai
shall but see their profane rites and foolish customs, how superstitinusly kepi,
how strictly observed, their multitude of saints, images, that rabble of Romish dei-
ties, 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 pliiloso-
phers
;
Crispin, shoemakers; Katherine, spinners
;
&.c. Anthony for pigs
;
Gallus,
geese; Wenceslaus, sheep; Pelagius, oxen; Sebastian, the plague; Valentine, fall7
ing sickness : Apollonia, tooth-ache ; Petronella for agues ; and the Virgin Mary for
sea and land, for all parties, oflices : he that shall observe these things, their shrines,
iiuages, oblations, pendants, adorations, pilgrimages they make to them, what creep-
ing to crosses, our Lady of Loretto's rich
^^
gowns, her donaries, the cost bestowed
jn 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, Pra-
'6
Aiist.de liaeres. usus'mnlierum iiidifferens. '^(iuod
ante poccavit Adam, ruidus erat.
^"
Alii nudis
pedihus semper anihulant. ^Iiisana fehlate f^ihi
non parciiiit nam per murlos varias pneiipitioruiii aqiia-
rum et ijiiiimii. serpsos necaiit. et in istuin fiiroreiri alios
M
Jovian. Pont. Ant. Dial. "'^("um per Paganou
nomen ejus porsequi non poterat, sub sjiecie religionio
fraiidulenler siibverfere disponehnt. ''That writ
de professo against Christians, et palestinuni deiim (ul
Socrates lib. :i rap. ID.) scriptnram niijis plenam, &c.
ingunt, morlem minan<es ni faciant.
^
Elench.
|
viile C> rilhini in Julianum. Orii>ineni in Celsum, d.
isret. ab orbe nonditu * Nnbrigensis. lib. cap. 19. !
*
One linage had one gown worth 400 crowns and noor
Mem. I. Subs.
3.]
Symptoms
of
Religious Melancholy. 625
turn, 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
^^
churches, and they rise at all hours of the night to mass, come barefoo-t,
&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
fastingSy 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 al!
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, obe-
diynce, vows, alms, fasling, supererogations, before God's Commandments; their
own ordinances instead of his precepts, and keep them in ignorance, blindness, they
nave 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 them-
selves, 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.
68 "
Ul pueri infantes credunt signa omnia ahena I "As children think their babies live to be,
Vivere, et esse hoinines, el sic isli omnia ficta Do they these brazen images tliey see."
Vera putant, credunt signis cor inesse ahenis." |
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 merty
m their chambers with their punks, they do indulgere genio, and make much of them-
selves. The middle sort, some for private gain, hope of ecclesiastical preferment,
[quis expedivit psUtaco suum
z^-^pi) 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. scbc prim, sex.., puzzles himself to vindicate that
ridiculous fable of St. Ursula and the eleven thousand virgins, as when they live,''''
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 scEculum Ursula cum
comilibus., cujus hisloria ulinam tam mild esset expedita et certa., quam in animo rneo
certum ac expedition est., earn esse cum sodalibus beatam in coslis virginem. They
must and will (I say) either out of blind zeal believe, vary their compass whh 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, can-
onists, Jesuits, friars, priests, orators, sophisters, who either for that they had nothing
else to do, luxuriant witp 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 theii
lies, fictions, miracles, transubstantiations, traditions, pope's pardons, purgatories,
masses, impossibilities, &.c. with glorious shows, fair pretences, big words, and
-)lausittle wits, have coined a thousand idle questions, nice distinctions, subtleties,
Obs and Sols, such tropological, allegorical expositions, to salve all appearancus,
* As at our lady's church at Bergamo in Italy.
"
Lncilius lib. I. cap. 22. de fal?a relig.
f
An. 441.
79
3C
626 Religious Melancholy. Tart. 3. Sec. 4
objections, s-;ch quirks and qiiiddilies, ^wodZtie/anes, as Bale saith of Ferribrigge and
Strode, instances, ampliations, decrees, glosses, canons, that instead of sound com-
mentaries, good preachers, are come in a company of mad sophisters, prima secundo
sccundurii^ sectaries, Canonists, Sorbonists, Minorites, with a rabble of idle contro-
versies and questions, ^'^an Papa sit Deus., an qxiasi Deusf An participct. utramque
Chrisli naluram f 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 8
whore a virgin ? fetch Trajan's soul from hell, and how ? with a rabble of questions
about hell-iire : whether it be a greater sin to kill a man, or to clout shoes upon a
t'unday ? whether God can niake another God like unto himself? Such, saith Kem-
nisius, are most of your schoolmen, (mere alchemists) 200 commentators on Petei
Lambard
;
[Pitsins catal. scriptorum Jlnglic. reckons up 180 English commentators
alone, on the matter of the sentences), Scotists,Thomists, Reals, Nominals, &c., and
so perhaps that of St.
^
Austin may be verified. Indocti rapiuni ccclum., docli interiiu
desccndimt ad infcrnum. 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 Churcli, 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 Ciuirch. And after him many good and godly men,
divine spirits, have done their endeavours, and still do.
"
And what their ignorance esleein'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.
" ''
Dum vitani slulti vUla in
contraria currunt
;''"'
that out of too much zeal in opposition to Antichrist, human
traditions, those Romish riles and superstitions, will quite demolish all, they will
admit of no ceremonies at all, no fasting days, no cross in baptism, kneeling at com-
munion, no church music, &c., no bishops' courts, no churcli government, rail at all
our cluirch 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 w^holly for ornament, decency, or distinction'-
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 sub-
scribe to them. They will admit of no holidays, or honest recreations, as of hawk-
ing, 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, '^ Per capillos spiritum sanctum teneni, et omnia sciunt cum sint asini omnium
obsiinatissitni, 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 prcecipiles 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 attri-
Dutes into question, as Vorstius and Socinus ; some princes, civil magistrates, and
* Hospiiiian Osi.Tndejr. An hxc propositio Dens sit
|
die doiiiinicn c.-ilceurn consiiere ?
'o
De doct. rhris-
jiirurlula ve. scarabeus, sit wque possiliilis .jc Uciis et } tian. 'JDnnitrl. "' Whilst IlKse fools aviiiit
lioiiio ? An possit respcclu!!) prmliiceri' siiif- fiindiiim iilo
'
one vice th('y rnu into anotlier of an opposite caiar
il teraiiiio. Ai> levius sit liomineiu jtiguiare quau< I ter."
'^
Agrip. eii. 29.
Mem. 1. Subs.
4.]
Prognostics
of
Religious Melancholy.
62'<
their :nilhorities, as anabaptists, will do all their own private spirit dictates and
nothing else. Brownists, Barrowists, Familists, and tliose Ainsterdamian sects and
sectaries, are led all by so many private spirits. It is a wonder to reveal what pas-
sages Sleidan relates in his Commentaries, of Cretinck, Knipperdoling-, and their
associates, those madmen of Munster in Germany; wh.at strange enthusiasms, sottish
revelations they had, how absurdly they carried themselves, deluded otliers : 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, sim-
pliciores reddil homines., breeds nothing so courageous soldiers as that Roman: we
may sav 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 "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.
''^
One David
George, an illiterate painter, not many years since, did as much in Holland, took
upon him to be the Messiah, and had man}^ followers. Benedictus Victorinus Fa-
ventinus, consil. 15, writes as much of one Honorius, that thought he was not only
inspired as a prophet, but tiiat he was a God himself, and had "familiar conference
with God and his angels. Lavat. de sped. c. 2, part. 8. hath a story of one John Sar-
torious, 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 fami-
liar examples at home : Hackett that said he was Christ ; Coppjnger and Arthington
his disciples; '^Burchet and Hovatus, burned at Norwich. We are never likely
seven years together without some such new prophets that have several inspirations,
some tG convert the Jews, some fast forty days, go with Daniel to the lion's den
;
some forstell strange things, some for one thing, some for another. Great precisians
of mean conditions and very illiterate, most part by a preposterous zeal, fasting, medi-
tation, 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, Icesam habent imaginationem,
they are like comets, round in all places but where they blaze, ccelera sani^ they
have impregnable wits many of them, and discreet otherwise, but in this their mad-
ness and folly breaks out beyond measure, in infinitum erumpit stultitia. Tiiey 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.
Sub SECT. 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 repro-
bate sense, "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 a.^ter 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, Stc. 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. there'^jre 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
''^
Alex.Gaguin.22. Discipulis ascitis minim in modum
p<ipuhnn decepit.
'<
Guicciard. desjcrip. Belj;. com.
|<nire8 habuit asseclas ah iisdem L'cnoxalus. "
Hen.
Nicholas at Leiden 1^80. sutli a oive.
'^
See Cam-
ber's Annals fo. 3#2. et 285.
"
Arius his bowls
burst; .Montaiius hanged himself, &c. Eudo de stelliu,
his disciples, ardere potius qnam ad vitam corrigi ina-
lueruiit; tanta vis intixi semel erroris. tliey died blas-
pheming. Nubrigensi.-; c. 9. lib. 1. Jer. vii. 23. Antus. v.
Cure
of
Religious Melancholy.
<!rT( To purge the world of idolatry and superstition, will require some monster-tammg
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 reli-
gion 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 theii
synagogues : Spaniards permit Moors to live amongst them : the Mogullians, Gen-
tiles : 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 con-
science'-sake, but let him be of what religion he will, he may be saved, as Corne-
lius 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 Cracow and Rakow in Poland, have
renewed this opinion) serve his own God, with th.at 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
"sThe Gentiles in India will eat no sensible crea-
tures, or aughl that liath blood in it. ''<' Vandor-
milius de Auciipio. cap. 27. s'Some e.xplode all
liuman authors, art.s, and sciences, poets, histories, &c.,
BO precise, their zeal overruns their wits; and so stupid,
Miey oppose all human learning;, because they are igno-
rant themselves and illiterate, nothing must be read
lit Scriptures; hut these men d&=erve to be pitied,
rather than r.unfMltjd. Utheis art i strict they will
admit of no honest eaine and pleasure, no dancing,
singing, other phiys, recreations and games, hawking,
Iniiiting, cock-tighting, bear-baiting, &c., because to see
one beast kill another is the fruit of our rebellion
against God, &c.
*
Nuda ac treniebunda rruentig
Irrepet genihiis si Candida jusserit Ino. Juvenalig.
Sect. 6. "^Munster Cosmog. lib. 3. cap. 444. Incidil
in cloacam, unde se non possit eximere, implorat opfia
socioriini, seu illi negaiit, Sec. "> De benetic. 7 2.
3c2
630 Rt ligious Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 4
.
and luca. goda, as Syinmachus calls them. Isocrates adviseth Demonicus,
"
when he
came to i stmnge city, to
^'
worship by all means the gods of the place," et unuri-
qucmqiie, Topicum deiim sic coli oforlere., quomodo ipse prcpxeperif : which Ceciliu^
in
^'^
Minutius labours, and would have every nation sacrorum ritus gentiles habere ei
4eos colere mimicipes, keep their own ceremonies, worship their peculiar gods, which
Pomponius Mela reports of the Africans, Deos suos patrio more veneranlur^ they wor
ship 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 quern nee
ostendunt. nee vidtnt., discurranlem silicet et ubique pra;sentem, in omnium mores,
actus,, et occijJtas, cogitaliones inquirentein, Sfc, as Christians do: let every province
enjoy their liberty in this behalf, worship one God, or all as they will, and are in
formed. The Romans built altars Diis Asiae, Europae, Lybise, diis ignotis et pere-
g'^inis : others otherwise, &c. Plinius Secundus, as appears by his Epi-Jtle 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, JVullus cogatur invitus ad hunc vel ilium deorum cultum,
"
let
no one be compelled against his will to worship any particular deity," and by Con-
stantine in the 19th year of his reign as ^^Baronius informeth us, JVemo alteri ex~
hibeat 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.
De aiiima, c. de hnmoribns.
Juvenal. "That
there are many ghosts and subterranean realms, and >
boat-pole, and black frogs in the Stygian gulf, and lliat
so many thousands pass over in one boat, not even boyi
believe, unless those not as yet washed for money."
682 Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sect. 4.
That tnere is eilher heaven or hell, resurrection of the dead, pain, happiness, oi
vorld to come, crcdat Judceus ^pella ; for their parts they esteem them as so many
poet's tales, bugbears, Liician's Alexander; Moses, Mahomet, and Christ are all as
one in their creed. When those bloody wars in France for matters of religion (sailh
'Richard Dinolh) wer so violently pursued between Huguenots and Papists, there
was a company of good fellows laughed them all to scorn, for being such supersti-
tious fools, to lose their wives and fortunes, accounting faith, religion, immortality
of the soul, mere fopperies and illusions. Such loose 'atheistical spirits are ton
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,
"
Haiiil iilla niimina e.xpavescunt cselitum, I
"
They fear no God hut one,
Sfd vicliiiias urii deonim inaxiiiio,
|
They sacrifice to none,
Veiitri offerunt, decs ignorant cseteros." j But belly, and him adore,
I
For gods they know no more."
"Their God is their belly," as Paul saith, Sancta mater sattiritas
;
quihus in
solo Vivendi causa palolo est. The idol, which they worship and adore, is their
mistress ; with him in Plautus, malle.m hcec 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 tlieir end. All their endeavours are to satisfy their lust and ap-
petite, how to please their genius, and to be merry for the present, Ede., lude., bibe^
post mortem nulla voluptas.^
"
The same condition is of men and of beasts ; as the
one dieth, so dieth the other," Eccles. iii. 19. The world goes round,
"
truditur dies die,
Nova>que (lergunt interire Lnna
:"
'"They did eat and drink of old, marry, bury, bought, sold, planted, built, and will
do still. ""Our life is short and tedious, and in the death of a man there is no re-
covery, 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, Stc, and the spirit vanisheth as the soft air.
'^Come let us enjoy the pleasures that are present, let us cheerfully use the creatures
as in youth, let us till 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 wither-
ed, &.C. '^Viva7mis men Lesbia ci umcmus^
8fc.
'''Come let us take our fill of love,
and pleasure in dalliance, for this is our portion, this is our lot. Tempora labuntur,
tacitisquc senescimus annis.'^ For the rest of heaven and hell, let children and super-
stitious fools believe it : for their parts, they are so far from trembling at the dread-
ful 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 re-
venge that, as Paterculus said of some caitiffs in his time in Rome, Quod nequitir
ausi., fortiter exccuti: it shall not be so wickedly attempted, but as desperately per-
formed, whatever they take in hand. Were it not for God's restraining grace, fear
and shame, temporal punishment, and their own infamy, they would Lycaou-like
exenterate, as so many cannil^tls 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 h"pocrisy
;
with Peniheus they neglect and contemn these rites and religious
ceremonies of the gods ; they will be gods themselves, or at least socii deoruin.
Divisum imperium cum Jove Ccesar habet.
"
Caesar divides the empire with Jove."
Aproyis, an Mgypilan tyrant, grew, saith
'^
Herodotus, to that height of pride, in-
solency 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. "A certain blasphemous king of Spain (as '^Lansius reports
*(ji.5. Gal. hist, quampliirinii reperli sunt qui tot
pericula sulieuntes irridehant ; et qua; do fide, reliyione,
%c. dicfhant, Indibrio habehant, nihil enruin adinitten-
s de futura vita. ''50,0(10 atheists at this day in
hasten to their wane." '"Lukexvii.
" Wiso
ii.2.
"
Vers. 6, 7, 8. '3(Jatullus.
h
Prov vii. p
* "
Time jrl'des away, and we grow old by years insen
sibly acoumulating."
'
Lib, 1. "
M. Montap
Palis, Mercennus thinks.
Eat, drink. I)e merry; lib. 1. cap. 4. Orat. Cont. Hispan. ne prosinu
UmI*" is i\o more pleasure after death." Hor. I. 2. decennio deum adorareni, &r..
od. 16. ' One day succeeds another, and new moona
Alem. 2. Subs. 1.] Religious Melancholy in Defect.
63.H
made an edict, that no subject of his, for ten years' space, should believe in, call on,
or worship any god. And as '^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
limes past, this present age, that love, fear, obey, and perform all civil duties as they
shall find them expedient or behovefiil to their own ends. Securi adversus Decs,
securi udversus liomines^votis non est opus, which '^"Tacitus reports of some Germans,
they need not pray, fear, hope, for they are secure, to their thinking, both from Gods
and men. Bnlco Opiliensis, sometime Duke of '"Silesia, was such a one to a hair;
he lived (saith ^"^JEneas Sylvius) at ^^Uralislavia, 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 out sfet 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, ""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 bleed-
ing to death, audicba^t amicos nihil references de iminortnlitale ani?nce, aut savienlun
placitis, sed levia carmina et faciles versus
;
instead of good counsel and divine
meditations, he made his friends sing him bawdy verses and scurrilous sono-s. Let
them take heaven, paradise, and that future happiness that will, honmn est esse hie, it
is good being here : there is no talking to such, no hope of their conversion, thev
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.
""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 tiniide et hcesitanter, tempted thereunto out of that
horrible consideration of diversity of religions, which are and have been in the world
(which argument Campanella, Atheismi Triumphati, ccrp. 9. both urgeiii and answers),
besides the covetousness, imposture, and knavery of priests, y/zce faeiunt (as ^^Postel-
ius 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 Sextua
Empericus, lib. 8. advers. Malhematicos : after many philosopiiieal arguments and
reasons pro and con that there are gods, and again that there are no gods, he so
concludes, cu7n tot in'er se pugnent, Sfc. Una tantum potest esse vera, as Tully like-
wise 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.
^'Cecilius in Minutius, Celsus and Porphyrins the philosopher object : and as Ma-
chiavel contends, were much more noble, generous, victorious, had a more flourish-
ing conunonwealth, better cities, better soldiers, better scholars, better wits. Their
gods overcame our gods, did as many miracles, &c. Saint Cyril, Arnobius, Minu-
tius, with many other ancients of late, Lessius, Morneus, Grotius de Verit. Reliu-.
Chrifeiianae, Savanarola de Verit. Fidei Christianae, well defend
;
but Zanchius,
^^
Cam-
"Talpm se exhibiiit. iit nee in Christum, nee Maho-
metan crederet. undo pffecliiui ut promissa ni.si quatenug
in suum cominoduiu cedereiit uiiniiiie servaret, uec ullo
Bcelere peccatuin statueret, ut suis desideriis satisfa-
ceret.
"o
Lib. de nior. Gerin.
'^^
Or Brcslau.
^ Usque adco iusanus. ut ncc inferos, nee superos esse
<icat, animasque cum c()rporil)us iiilerire credat. &e.
8
Euroiia* deser rap. 'J4.
^i
pratrts a Bry Ainer.
i)ar G. IJ rum a Vineeulio monachu daiuui aojcc t, nih:l
SO
se videre ibi hiijiismodi dicens ro^ansque unde h*f
sciret, quuni de ctElo et 'I'artaro contineri ibi dicercl
''^
Now iniuus hi furuiit qiiaui Hercules, qji conjugem e\
liberos jiiterfecit; habet liaec ajtas pliira nuj.isuiodi por
tentosa nioiistra.
ac
Dq ,,rhis con. lib. 1. cap. 7.
2: Noiiiie Roujaiii sine Deo vestrn re(.'riant et fruuiitur
orbe loto, et vos et Di'os vestnis captivns teneiii, cStc.
Miiiutius OclHviano. ^Couiiiient. in Genesin cj.pio-
siis lu tic 8ubjeoto.
B34 Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3. See 4.
panella, I\larinii:s Marcennus, Bozius, and Gentillettus answer all these atheistical
arguments at large. But this again troubles many as of old, wicked men generalJj
\hrive, professed atheists thrive,
28 "
Niillns iisse Deos, inane ccEliim,
AffirHiat Seliiis: pr(ih:il(|iii, quod se
Factiiiii, (luiii iiegat h:bc, videt beatum."
"There are no gods, heavens are toys,
Selius in puhlic justifies;
Bncaiise that whilst he tfins denies
Tht-ir deities, he better thrives."
This is a prime argument : and most part your most sincere, upright, honest, and
'"good men are depressed, ''The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to tlie strong
(Eccles. ix. 11.), nor yet bread to the wise, favour nor riches to men of understand-
ing, 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 (saiih he) awed any man, because the plague swept all away
alike, good and bad ; tiiey 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
^'
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 pro-
vidence, to let one man be deaf, another dumb
.''
A poor honest fellow lives in dis-
grace, woe and want, wretched he is; when as a wicked catiff abounds in superfluity
of wealth, keeps whores, parasites, and what he will himself:" Audis Jupiicr hcpxf
Talia multa comiectcnles.) longum reprehensionis sermonem erga Dei providentiam
conlexunt. ''^Tlius they mutter and object (see the rest of their arguments in Mar-
cennus in Genesin, and in Campanella, amply confuted), v/ilh 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 tliey are the same (accounting
no man a good scholar that is not an atheist), nimis altum sapiunt., too much learn-
ing makes them mad. Whilst they attribute all to natural causes,
"^
contingence of
all things, as Melancthon calls them, Perlinax homlnum genus^i 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 rea-
son and philosophy, tliough for fear of magistrates, saith ^^Vaninus, they durst not
publicly profess it. Ask one of them of what religion he is, he scoffingly replies, a
philosopher, a Galenist, an ^^Averroist, and with. Rabelais a physician, a peripatetic,
an epicure, hi spiritual things God must demonstrate all to sense, leave a pawn
with them, or else seek soivie 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 tilings changeable that are beside reason and expectation. To this
purpose ''^Minutius in Octavio, and '''Seneca well discourseth with them, Jib. 4. de
bvne/iciis^ 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,
s
Ecce pars vestrum et major et melior alget, fame
aboral, el dens paiitur, dissimulat, non vnit, noii
potest opitulari suis, et vel invalidiis vel iniquus est.
Ceciliiis in Minut. Diim rapiunt mala fata bonos,
igiioscite fasso, Sollicitor nnllos esse pntare deos. Oviil.
Vidi ego diis fretus, inultos decipi. Plautus Casina
BCt. 2. seen. 5. soMartial. i. 4. epig. 21.
Ser. 30.
iiij. c.np ad Ephes. hie fractii est pedibus, alter furit,
alius ad exlieniani seneclani progressus oitMieni vitani
paiipi^rlale peragit. ille niorhjs sravi.siinis : sunt banc
j
miinera
rruvidenlia- opera ? hie surdua, illeniutus,&c. "Uli!
Jupiter, do you hear 'hose things ? Collecting many such
faLJs, they weave a tissue of reproaches against God's
providence."
3^
Omnia contingeiiter fieri volunt.
Melancthon in prseceplum primum.
3*
Dial. 1. lib. 4.
de admir. nat. Arcanis.
3=
Anima nica sit cum
aniniis philosophoruni.
s"
Deuin ijnum inultis d<sig-
nant noniiiiibus. &,c.
^ Non intelligifi te uuuui "laec
dicis, negare te ipsuni notnen Dfi : q'tid enim est u iud
Natura quam Deus ? &c tot habet uipellat<>. ie& n.wit
Mem. 2. Subs. I
J
Religious Melancholy in Defect. 635
from whom all Illinois depend, ^"a quo., et per queyn omnia., JYam 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
j
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 mathema-
ticians, Nigidius Figulus, magicians, and Priscilianists, whom St. Austin so eagerly
confutes, those Arabian questionaries, Novem Judices, Albumazer, Dorotheus, &,c.,
and our coifntryman ^'Estuidus, that take upon tiiem to define out of those great con-
junction of stars, with Ptolomeus, the periods of kingdoms, or religions, of all future
accidents, wars, plagues, schisms, heresies, and wliat not.'' all from stars, and such
things, saith Maginus, Quce sibi et intelligentiis suis reservavit Deus., which God hath
reserved to himself and his angels, they will take upon them to foretel, as if stars
were immediate, inevitable causes of all future accidents. Caesar Vaninus, in his book
de admirandis naturce Jircanis, 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, ac-
cidents, alterations of religions, kingdoms, SiC. (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 in-
telligences that move the orbs. Inlelligentia quce niovet orbem mediante ccclo, Sfc
Intelligences do all : and after a long discourse of miracles done of old, si hcec
dceinones possint., cur non et intelligentioi ccclorum matrices ? 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^ religiojiibus^ ac in particuiaribus hominibus, hac vera ac manifesta
sunt., ut Jiristoteles innuere videtur^ et quotidiana docet experientia, ut historias per-
legcns vidcbit
;
quid olim in Genlili lege Jove sanctius et illustrius? quid nunc vile
magis et execrandum? Ita coeleslia corpora pro mortaliwn benejicio religiones cp,di-
jicant., et cum cessat injluxus., cessat lex.,''"
6fc.
And because, according to their tenets,
the world is eternal, intelligences eternal, influences of stars eternal, kingdoms, reli-
gions, alterations shall be likewise eternal, and run round after many ages
j
Jllque
iterum ad Troiam magnus mittciur Achilles ; rcnascenlur religiones, et ceremonicBj
res humancB in idem recident, nihil nunc quod non olimfuit, et post sceculorum revo-
lutiones alias est, erit.1*' <Src. idem specie., saith Vaninus, non individuo quod Plato
signijicavit. These (saith mine ''^author), these are the decrees of peripatetics, which
though I recite, in obsequium Christiana: Jidei detestor., as I am a Christian I detest
and hate. Thus peripatetics and astrologians held in former times, and to this efTect
of old in Rome, saith Dionysius Halicarnassus, lib.
7,
when those meteors and pro-
digies appeared in the air, after the banishment of Coriolanus,
''^"
Men were diversely
afl'ected : 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 ah initio., and could not be altered. The two
last opinions of necessity and chance were, it seems, of greater note than the rest.
<^ "
Sunt qui in ForturiEe jam casibus omnia poniuit,
Et inundiiin credunt nullo reclore nioveri,
Natura VDlvente vices," &c.
For the first of chance, as
"^
Sallust likewise informeth us, those old Romans gene-
rally received ;
"
They supposed fortune alone gave kingdoms and empires, wealth,
*
Austin.
33
Principio phiEmer. *<" In cities,
ki-ni;s. religions, and in individual men, these things
sre true and obvious, as Aristotle appears to imply, and
daily experience teaches to llie reader of history : for
what was more sacred and illustrious, by Gentile law,
than Jupiter? what now more vile and execrable? In
IQis way celestial objects suggest religions for worldly
notives, and when the influx ceases, so does the law,"
&,c.
^>
"And again a great Achilles shall he sent
against Troy; religions and their ceremonies shall be
born again ;
however aU'airn relapse into the same
oraculis. " Varie lioniines atfecti, alii dei judi-
cium ad tarn pii exilium, alii ad iiaturam referebant,
nee ab indigiiatloiie dei, sed hiimaiiis causis, ikc. 12.
Natural, qusst. 3;i. 3U.
<
Juv. Sat. 13. "There
are those who ascribe everything to chance, and believe
that the world is made without a director, nature in-
fluencing the vicissitudes," &c.
i^
Epist. ad C Caisar.
Koniani oliin putaliant fortiinain regiia et iniperia
dare: Credebant antea niortales fortunani solam ope
et honores largiri, idquc riuabus de causis; priinum
qu. d indignus qui.*que dives honoratus, poleiis ; alte-
track, there is nothing now that was not formerly and rum. vix qiiisqiiam perpetiio bonis iisfrui visas. Posteu
will not be again
"
dtc.
" Vaninus dial. Si- de
|
prudentiores didicere furtunain euain quenique fingete
nSB Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sec. 4.
honours, offices . and that for two causes
;
first, because every wicked liase unwortliy
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 secnndis, so tied
to second causes, to that inexorcible Necessity, that he could alter nothing of that
which was once decreed
;
sic erat infatis, it cannot be altered, semel jussit., semper
paref. Deus., nulla vis rumpit, nullce preces, nee ipstim 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. (i. 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, de-
rogate at their pleasure from him. 'Twas so in
'"^
Plato's time,
"
Some say there be
no gods, otiiers that they care not for men, a middle sort grant both." Si non sit
Deus., unde mala? si sit Deus., unde mala? So Colta argues in Tully, why made
he not all good, or at least tenders not the welfare of such as are good ? As tlie
woman told Alexander, if he be not at leisure to hear causes, and redress them, why
doth he reign? '*'' 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 ''^Celsus objects,
and whom Origen confutes), ''We Christians adore a person put to ''^ 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 5" 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' En-
chiri{Uon equivalent to wise Solomon's Proverbs. They do openly and boldly speak
this and more, some of tliem, in all places and companies.
^''-
Claudius the emperor
was angry with Heaven, because it thundered, and challenged Jupiter into the field
;
with what niathiess ! saith Seneca; he thought Jupiter could not hurt him, but he
co'-IJ hurt Jupiter." Diagoras, Demonax., Epicurus., Pliny, Lucian, Lucretius,
Contemptorque Deiim Mezentius, "professed atheists all" in their times: though not
simple atheists neither, as Cicogna proves, lib. 1. cajJ. 1. they scofied 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 apologize for Epicurus, but all in vain ; Lucian scoffs at all, Epicurus he denies
all, and Lucretius his scholar defends him in it
:
61
" Humana ante oculus fitile cum vita jaceref i
"
Wlien human kind was drcncli'd in superptitinn.
In teriis oppressa gravi cum reli<jione,
|
With ghastly looks aloft, which frighted mortal
(iure caput a toeli regionibus ostendebat, men," &.c.
Horribili super aspectu tnortalibus instans," &c.
|
He alone, like another Hercules, did vindicate the world from that monster. Unci?
'^
Pliny, lib. 2. cap. 7. nat. hist, and lib. 7. cap. 55, in express words denies the im
mortality of the soul.
'*
Seneca doth little less, lib. 7. epist. 55. ad Lucilium, ei lib.
de consol. ad Marliam, or rather more. Some Greek Commentators would put as
much upon Job, that he should deny resurrection, &.c., whom Pineda copiously con-
futes in cap. 7. Job, vers. 9. Aristotle is hardly censured of some, both divines and
philosophers. St. Justin in Peranetica ad Gentes, Greg. JVazianzen. in disput. ad-
oersus Eun., Theodoret, lib. 5. de curat, grcpc. ajfec, Origen. lib. de principiis.
Pomponatius justifies in his Tract (so styled at least) De immortalilate Animce, Sca-
liger (who would forswear himself at any time, saith Patritius, in defence of his
<8lOde lesib. Alii negant esse deos, alii decs non
|
putavitsibi nocere non posse, et se nocere lamen Jnv'
eurare res hunianas, alii utraque concedunt.
"
Lib.
l
posse.
^'
Lib. 1. 1.
''''
Idem status post mort.in,,
8- ad niathem. <Orijien. contra Celsuni. I. 3. hos
j
ac fuit antequam nasccremur, et ?ei.eca. Idem eril
immerito iiobiscum conferri fuse declarat.
*^
Cruci- 1 post me quod ante me fuit.
m
Lu<rnas eadem cob-
fiium deudi ignomiiiiose Lucian us vita pere<!rin. Chris- ditiucjuum eziinguitur, ac fuit aniequaui accenderetur
turn vocitt.
^
De ira, 16. 34. Iratus cielo quod ob ita et hominis.
treperet, ad pugnarn vocann Jovem, quanta dementis ? I
Mf*ni. 2. Subs.
1.]
Rrligious Melancholy in Defect. 637
great master Aristotle), and Dandinus, lib. 3. de animd, acknowltdge as much, \ver-
roes oppugns all spirits and supreme powers; of late Brunus [infcBlix Brunn/i^
"K(;pler calls him), Machiavel, Caesar Vaninus lately burned at Toulouse in France,
und Pet. Aretine, have publicly maintained such atheistical paradoxes, ^^with that
Italian Boccacio with his fable of three rings, &.C., ex quo infert hand posse internosc,
qua. sit verior religio., Judaica., Mahometana, an Christiana, quoniam eadem signa., S^a.
"
from which he infers, that it cannot be distinguished which is the true religion,
Judaism, Mahommedanism, or Christianity," &.c.
^'^
Marinus Mercennus suspects
Cardan for his subtleties, Campan<ella, and Charron's Book of Wisdom, with some
other Tracts, to savour of ^'atheism: but amongst the rest that pestilent book de
tribus mundi impostoribus., quern sine horrore [inquit) non legas., et mundi Cymhalum
dialogis quatuor contentum, anno 1538, auctore Peresio, Parisiis excusum,
^^
&c. And
as there have been in all ages such blasphemous spirits, so there have not been want-
inof their patrons, protectors, disciples and adherents. Never so many atheists in
Italy and Germany, saith ^^Colerus, as in this age: the like complaint Mercennus
makes in France, 50,000 in that one city of Paris. Frederic the Emperor, as ^"Mat-
thew Paris records licet non sit recitabile (I use his own words) is reported to have
said, Tres prcesligiafores, MoseSf Christus., et Mahomet., uti mundo dominarentur, totum
populiim sibi contcmporaneum seduxisse. (flenry, the Landgrave of Hesse, heard him
speak it,) Si principes imperii instilutioni mece adhrBrererit, ego multd meliorem modum
credendi el vivendi ordinarem.
To these professed atheists, we may well add that impious and carnal crew ol
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, tiiey have cauterized consciences, and are indeed in
a reprobate sense,
'
past all feeling, have given themsolves 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 evasisscnt ; ita ludunt ac ridcnt, 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
:
6'
"
Metus onines, et inexorahile fatiim
Subjecit pedibijs, strepitumque Acheronlis .ivari."
Those rude idiots and ignorant persons, that neglect and contemn the means of their
ealv.ation, may march on with these
;
but above all others, those Hero(ilian temporizing
statesmen, political Machiavelians 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
"
Paul forbids, and like Mer-
cury, the planet, are good with good, bad with bad. When they are at Rome, they
-
o there as they see done, puritans with puritans, papists with papists; omnium hora-
rujn homines., formalists, ambidexters, lukewarm Laodiceans. ^''Ail 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,
""With the fool in their hearts, they say there is no God." Heus tu de Jove
quid sentis?
*'
HuUoa ! what is your opinion about a Jupiter
?"
Their words are as
soft as oil, but bitterness is in their hearts; like ^^ Alexander VI. so cunning dis-
semblers, 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, sohrii solem vident orientem,
sobrli vident occidentem., they rise sober, and go sober to bed, plain dealing, upright,
lionest 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
6'
Dissert, oiini nunc sider. ^acampanella, cap. ]8.
Atheism, triiimphat.
^^
Continient. in Gen. cap. 7.
"So that a man may meet an atheist as soon in his
study as in the street. sssimonis religio iricerto
luctore Cracovire edit. 1568, cnnclusio lihri est, Ede
itaque l>ihf
. lude, &c. j.nii Deus fijinientuin est.
so
Ljh.
1 64
Psal. xiii. 1. 63Gjc,;iardini.
3D
de immortal, animx.
>
Pa<;. 645. an. 1238. ad finem
Henrici tertii. Idem Pisterius. pag. 743. 111 compilat
sua.
61
Virg.
"
'J'hey place fear, fate, and the sound
of craving Acheron under their feet."
-
Rom. xii. S>
esOiiinis Aristippuiii deciiit color, et status, et reA
i38 Religions JMclanchoJy. [Part. 3, Sec. 4
better how to judge, he that examines the heart, saith they arc hypocrites, Cor dolo
plenum; sonant vitinm percussa malignc^ they are not sound wiihin. As it is with
wrivCrs
^"^
ofientimes, Plus sanctimonicB in libello^ qudm liheUi auctore^ more holiness
is in ihe 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 ^vguslino, read Austin, frequent sermons, and yet professed
usurers, mere gripes, totavitxe ratio epicurea est; all their life is epicurism and atheism,
come to church all day, and lie with a courtezan at night. Qui curios simulant et
Bacchanalia vivuni^ 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." ^^ Latet plerumque sub tristi
amictu lascivia, et deformis horror vili veste tegilur ; 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 } If 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
m their rage, flattering and dissembling (all for their own ends) will surely think
the}' are not truly religious, but of an obtiurate 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, Sfc. so shall they
certainly rue it in the end, (^^m se spuit, qui in ccelum 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 aflection, 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 gene-
ral God, non iatem demn, 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. Sic, out of the strength of
wit and pliilosophy 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 mentejn, to a better mind,
though to small purpose many times. Amongt 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 im
Viorlalilate JlnimcE : Lelius Vincentius of tjie same subject : Thomas Giaminus,
dnd Franciscus Collins 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 vvritten well of this subject in
our mother tongue : in Latin, Colerus, Zanchius, Paleareus, Illyricus, *^^Philippus.
Faber Favtntinus, &c. But instar omnium, xhe most copious confuter of atheists m
Marinus Mercennus in his Commentaries on Genesis :
'"
with Campane.la's Atheis-
mus Triumphalus. He sets down at large the causes of this brutish passion, (seven-
teen in numier I take it) answers all their arguments and soph'sms, which he re>
"Erasmus. *' Hi<^roin. <*
Senpo. consol. I Athens. Vpojetiii 1627, (JuarUj
'"
Edit.RomiP. W
d Pdlyb. ca. 3\. "Disput. 4 rtiil<xoophix adVM | l(i3i.
Mem. 2. Subs.
2.]
Desvair^s Definition. 639
duceth to twenty-six heads, proving withal his own assertion
;
"
Thtrc is a God,
Piich a God, the true and sole God," by thirty-five reasons. His Colophon is how
lo resist and repress atheism, and to that purpose he adds four especial means OT
ways, which who so will may profitably peruse.
SuBSECT. II.
yEli^niitas est ilia vox, I jEternitas est ill.i vox, I ^ternitas, jEternitas
Vox ilia fulininairix,
|
meta careris et orta, &c.
(
Versat coquilque pectus.
ToiiilriJis luinaci.ir, T Toriiieiita nulla territaiil, Auget hsc poenas iniiies,
Fragoribusque caeli,
|
Quae (iniuntur atiiiis
; |
Centuplicatque flaminas," &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 choaked. Whom he hath predesti-
nated he hath chosen. He will have mercy on whom he will have mercy." JVon
est volentis nee currenlis, sed miserentis J)ei^<iThese 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, contempla-
tion, solicitude, wherein they trouble and puzzle themselves about those questions
of grace, free will, perseverance, God's secrets ; they will know more than is re-
vealed of God in his word, huiTian capacity, or ignorance can apprehend, and too
importunate inquiry after that which is revealed ; mysteries, ceremonies, observation
of Sabbaths, laws, duties, Stc, with many such which the casuists discuss, and
schoolmen broach, which divers mistake, misconstrue, misapply to themselves, to
their own undoing, and so iiill 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; ^'"and do more harm in the cliurch (^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, ^*St. Bernard
well adviseth, "We should not meddle with the one without the other, nor speak
of jutlgment 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 wilh burdens grievous to be borne, which they themselves touch not with a
fiuger.y 'Tis familiar with our papists to terrify men's souls with purgatory, tales,
visions, apparitions, to daunt even the most generous spirits, "to ^^ require charity,"
" Defperahiindus inisere periit.
^^
In 17. Johaiinis.
Non pauci se cruciaiit, et excarnificant in taiitiiin, ut
non pariiMi ahsinl at) insania ; neqiie taiiien aliiid hac
tnenti? anxistate efficiunt, qiiam ill riiabolo pdtestatein
faclant ip^oi per despcrationein ad infernos producendi.
*s
Drexelius Nicet. Iih. 2. cap. II." Eternity, that word,
that trernendons word, more threatening than thunders
and the artillery of heaven F.ternity, that word, with-
out end or orijjin. No tornienls affrii;ht us which are
fold."
87
Ecclesiast. 1. 1. Haud scio an inajns din
crimen ah his qui blandiuntur, an ab his qui lerritaiit;
ingeiis utrinque periculum: alii ad secuntatem ducunt,
alii attiictionum magnitudine nientem absorbent, et in
desperationem trahunt.
** Bern. sup. 16. cant. L
alterutn sine altero proferre non expedit; rec.ordatio
solius judicii in desperalioneni prs-cipilat, et miseri-
cordiie fallax ostentalio peisimam generat securilatein
^
In l.uc. hom. 103. exigunt ab aliis charitatein, benefl
limited to years: Eternity, eternity, occupies and in- I centiaiii, cum ipsi nil spertent pru-ter liLidineni,
flames <he heartthis it is that daily augments our suf- I vidiaiii, avaritiaui.
fiiringij, and multiplies our heart-burnings a hundred- I
Mem. 2. Subs.
3.]
Despair his Causes. 643
as Brentius observes,
"
of others, bounty, meekness, love, patience, when they them-
selves breathe nought but lust, envy, covetousness." They teach others to fast, give
alms, do penance, and crucify their mind with superstitious observations, bread and
vi^ater, hair clothes, whips, and the like, when they themselves have all the dainties
the world can afford, lie on a down-bed with a courtezan in their arms : Heu quan-
tum palimur pro Christo^ as
"*'
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, re-
probation, ab cEterno, subtraction of grace, praeterition, voluntary permission, &c., by
what sign* and tokens they shall discern and try themselves, whether they be God's
true children elect, an sinl reprobi, prcedestinati, <^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
'
Erasmus) are still in their mouths, nothing but gall
snd 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 com-
plain 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 for-
merly committed,
^
O miser Oreste, quid morbi te perdil? Or: Conscientia^ Sum
enim miki conscius de malls perpctratis.^ "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 ''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 ownselves,
*"Sin lies at door," Stc. I know there be many other causes assigned by Zanchius,
*Musculus, and the rest; as incredulity, infidelity, presumption, ignorance, blind-
ness, ingratitude, discontent, those five grand miseries in Aristotle, ignominy, need,
sickness, enmity, death, &c. ; but this of conscience is the greatest, '' Instar ulceris
f-orpus jugii.er perceUens : The scrupulous conscience (as
*
Peter Forestus calls it)
which tortures so many, that either out of a deep apprehension of their unworthi-
ness, and consideration of their own dissolute life,
''
accuse themselves and aggra-
vate 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 ^furies
dire, but it is the conscience alone which is a thousand witnesses to accuse us,
^"JYocfe dieque suum geslant in pectore testem. A continual testor to give in evidence,
to empanel a jury to examine us, to cry guilty, a persecutor with hue and cry to fol-
low, 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, denounc-
mg, torturing and molesting. And as the statue of Juno in that holy city near Eu
ph rates in
"
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, con-
venticles, actions, our conscience will be still ready to accuse us. After many plea-
""
Leo decinius. Den fiituro judicio, de damna-
tione horrenriuin crepunt, et amaras illas polationes in
ore semper habent, ut miiltos inde in desperationem
cop:ant. ' Euripides. "O wretched Orestes, what
malady consumes you
?"
'"Conscience, for I am
conscious of evil." Pierius. Gen. iv.
9 causes Musculus makes. Plutarch. 'Alius
misere castigat plena scrupulis conscientia, nodum in
scirpo quaerunt, et ubi nulla causa subest, mit'ericordia
divincB diffidenles, se Oreo destinant. ^Cceliut,
lib. 6. '"Juvenal. " Night and day they corry
their witnesses in the breast.' "
Lucian. de dea
Syria. Si adstiteria, te aspicit ; si transeas, vim V
sequitur.
644 Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3. Sect. 4
sant clays, and fortunate adventures, merry tides, this conscience at last doth arrest
us. Well he may escape temporal punishment,- '^ bribe a corrupt judge, and avoid
the censure of law, and flourish for a time; "for ''who ever saw (saith Chrysostom)
a covetous man troubled in mind when he is telling of his money, an adulterer mourn
with his mistressin his arms? we are then drunk with pleasure, and perceive no-
thing :"
yet as the prodigal son had dainty fare, sweet music at first, merry com-
pany, jovial entertainment, but a cruel reckoning in the end, as bitter as wormwoodj
a fearful visitation commonly follows. And the devil that then told thee that it was
ft light sin, or no sin at all, now aggravates on the other side, and telleth thee, that
it is a most irremissible oflence, 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 ofl^ences committed, murders, rapes, extortions, injuries, that they
were weaiy of their lives, and could get nobody to kill them. '''Kennetus, King of
Scotland, when he had murdered his nephew Malcom, King DufTe's son, Prince of
Cumberland, and with counterfeit tears and protestations dissembled the matter a
long time, '^"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
rfU his life." /It is strange to read what "'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 Cominaeus) 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 Falk-
oners
;
both Ferdinand his father, and he himself never made conscience of any com-
mitted 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
.''
'''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 villanies ? Why had Richard the Third such fearful dreams, saith Poly-
dore, 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-i*ii-law, those worthy Romans.? Ca?lius,
lib. 27. cap. 22. See more in Plutarch, in his tract De his qui sero a JYwmine puniuri'
tur^ and in his book De tranquillitate animi^ S^c. Yea, and sometimes GOD him-
self hath a hand in it, to show his power, humiliate, exercise, and to try their faith,
(divine temptation, Perkins calls it, Cos. cons. lib. 1. cap. 8. sect. 1.) to punish them
for their sins. God the avenger, as
'^
David terms hirn, ultor a tergo Dens., his wrath
is apprehended of a guilty soul, as by Saul and Judas, which the poets expressed by
Adrastia, or Nemesis
:
1'"
Assequitur Nemesiqiie virutn vestif'a servat,
Ne male quid facias."
And she is, as ^"Ammianus, lib. 14. describes her, "the queen of causes, and mode-
rator 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
"Prima hasc est ultin, quod se judice nemo nocens
absolvitiir, iinproha quamvis gratia fallacis prstoris
vicerit iiriiam. Juvenal.
'^
Quig unquatn vidit ava-
rum ringi, dum lucrum adest, adulterum duin potitur
veto, lugere in perpetrando scelere ? voluptate sumus
ebrii, proinde noii sentimus, &c.
'*
Buchanan, lib. 6.
HiKt. Scot. '^
Animus consclentia sceleris inquietus,
nullum admisit gaudium, sed semper vexatua noctu et
interdiu per somnum visis horrore plenis putremefac-
lus, &c.
'*
De hello Neapol.
"
Thirens de loci*
infestis, part. 1. cap. 2. Nero'3 mother was still in hia
eyes. ' Psal. xliv. I. '*"And Nemesis pur.
sues and notices the steps of men, lest you commit
any evil." "ORegina cnu.sarum et arbitra -erura.
nunc erfictas cervices oppriuiit, &c.
Mem. 2. Subs.
4.J
Symptoms
of
Despair. 64&
and vengeance, are to bo found in all histories, of some that have been eaten to death
with rats and mice, as
^'
Popelius, the second King of Poland, ann. 830, his wife and
children
;
the like story is of Hatto, Archbishop of JVTentz, ann. 969, so devoured bjr
these vermin, which howsoever Serrarius the Jesuit Mogunt. rerum lib. 4. cap. 5.
impugn by twenty-two arguments, Tritemius,
^^
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
f'-'^quent, 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.
fThere 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 seve-
ral 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 Camerce Apostolicce., which was first published to get money in the
days of Leo Decimus, that sliarking 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 pro-
voke him to offend, metliinks, that otherwise would not) such comfortable remis-
sion, so gentle and parable a pardon, so ready at hand, with so small cost and suit
obtained, that 1 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
misaflected, 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 plausi-
ble speeches and terrible threats, for their best advantage settle and remove, erect
with such facility and deject, let in and out, that ] 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 v/ounded spirit who can
bear it?'' Prov. xviii. 19. What, therefore, ^''Timanthes did in his picture of Iphige-
nia, now ready to be sacrificed, when he had painted Chalcas mourning, Ulysses sad,
but most sorrowful Menelaijs ; 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 sor-
row in summo gradu, such as his was, could not by any art be deciphered. What
he did in his picture, 1 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 con-
ceive 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
;
3>Alex. Gai;uinu8 catal. reg. Pol. "('osinog. I oiiines quern posseut, maximum moerorem in virgiail
Muiister. et Mag(*j.
^ Pliniiis, cap. 10. I. 35. Con-
J
patre cugitareiil.
Muopui 'aHecl^tui, AgdiKUifoi.is caput velavit, ut
646
Religious Melancholy.
[Part. 3. Sec. 4.
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 thev
cannot comfort a distressed soul
:
who can put to silence the voice of desperation ?
All that is single ii. other melancholy, Horribile^ diru7n, peslilens, atrox^
ferum, con-
cm m this, it is more than melancholy in the highest degree ; a burning fevor of the
soul; so mad, saith '^Macchinus, by this misery; fear, sorrow, and despair, he puts
for ordmary 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,
'
Perpetiia iiiipjetas, nee mensae tempore cessat,
Exagitat vesaiia quies, somnique furenles.'
'Neither at bed, nor yet at board,.
/
Willany rest dfspair afford."
Feiir 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 -
Lemnius) tortured m 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 Iv. 4.
"My heart trem-
bleth 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
'^
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
1
ully 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
'
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,
^^^
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 U-embling heart they have, a sorrowful mind, and litUe or no
rest.
Terror uhique tremor^ timer undique et undigue (error.
"
Fears, terrors, and
affrights in all places, at all times and seasons."
Cibum et potmn
pertinacit^r aver-
santur muUi,
nodum in scirpo qua;ritantes, et culpam
imaginantes uhi 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, 66.
*
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."
"
Marinas Mercennus,
in his Com-
ment 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
athe-
istical
speeches, too fearful to relate, when they wished him lo trust in God, Quis
est ille Deus {inquit) ut serviam ilU, quid proderit si oraverim
;
si prcesens est, cur
non
succurntf cur non me carcere, inedia, squalore
confectum liberot?
quid ego
feci?
&fc.
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
*<Cap. 15. in 9. Rhasis. 2*
Juv. Sat. 13 asMen-
leni eripit tinior hie; vultum, lotuiiique eorporis habi-
tuni iinniulat, etiain in delieiis, in tripudiis, in sym-
posiis, in auiple.\u eonjugis carnihcinam exereet, lib. 4.
cap. 21. 3'
Non sinit conscientia tales liomi-
68 recta verba proferre, aut rectis quenquain oculis
a^iiere, ab omni hoininui< coetu eosdem extermiuat.
et dormientes perterrefaeit. Philost. lib. 1. de vita
Apolionii. as
EuSjbius, Nieephorus eecles. hirt.
lib. 4. c. 17. 29
Seneca, lib. 18. epist. 106. Con-
scientia aliud agere noii patitur, perturbatr/n
vitam
agunt, nunquam vacant, &c.
i
Artie. 3. ea. I. fol.
2:!0. quod horrenduin dictu, de!<perabundiis quidam' me
presente cum ad patientiain tiortaretur, gic.
Mem. 2. Subs. 5.1 Prognostics oj Despair.
64"
their extremity, think they hear and see visions, outcries, confer with devils, tha*
tliey 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 sen-
tence of condemnation is already past, and not to be revoked, the devil will cer-
tainly 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 cngantur ad impia cogUandum etiam contra
voluntatem.1 said
'"
Foelix Plater, ad hlasphemiam erga deum^ ad mulla horrenda per'
petraiida^ ad manus viohntas sibi inferendas^ <Sfc., and in their distracted fits and
desperate humours, to ofier violence to others, their familiar and dear friends some-
times, 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, tliey 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 ^^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 tliem, sometimes he is within them,
as they think, and there speaks and talks as to such as are possessed : so ApoUo-
dorus, in Plutarch, thought his heart spake within him. There is a most memora-
ble example of
^^
Francis Spira, an advocate of Padua, Ann. 1545, that being despe-
rate, by no counsel of learned, men could be comforted : he ielt (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. 2'S.cap. lib. 3. Whilst I was writing this Treatise,
saith Montaltus, cap. 2. de mel.
^'''^
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." Foelix
Plater hath store of instances of such as thought themselves damned,
^^
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, <rc.
X^
Most part these kind of persons make *away themselves, some are mad, blas-
pheme, curse, deny God, but most offer violence to their own persons, and some-
times to others.
"
A wounded spirit who can bear
?"
Prov. xviii. 14. As Cain, Saul,
Achitophel, Judas, blasphemed and died. Bede saith, Pilate died desperate eiglit years
after Christ. *' Foelix Plater hath collected many examples.
''^
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 despe-
rate as he was in the Rhine : some cut their throats, many hang themselves. But
ihis 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 obsti-
nately and suddenly, that they cannot so much as wish for mercy, the worst is to
\>e suRpected, because they die impenitent.
^^
If their death had been a little more
lingering, wherein they might have some leisure in their hearts to cry for mercy,
Lib. 1. obser. cap. 3.
s^
Ad maledicendiini Deo. I ex damnatorurn numero. Deo non esse curoe nliaqu*
Goulart.
3*
Dciiii hsec scribo, implorat opem ineatn iiifinita qute proferre non audcbant, vel abhorrebant.
loiiaclia, in rrliquis sana, et judicio recta, per. 5. annos
3*
Musciiliis, Patritus, ad vim sibi inferendaincofrit homi
melancholica 'ainnatuin sedicit, conscientis stimiillis nes. s' DtMiientis alienat. observ. lib. I. ^'UxorMer-
oppressa, &.c.
^ Alios conquerenles aiidivi se esse |
caioris diu vexalionihus teritata, &.c.
^
Abernuthy
648
Reliyious
Mdanrlinly.
[Part. 8. Sec. 4.
chanty may judge the best; divers have been recovered out of the very act of haul-
ing aud drowning
themselves, and so brought ad smiam. nunit^m
they have beeli
very penitent, much abhorred their former act, confessed that thev have
repented ia
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
ot 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
^
Turks do, that think all fools
and madmen go directly to heaven.
SUBSECT. YLCure 0/ Despair hy 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 faunbvs Ereh!, from the chops of hell, and out of the devil's paws'
though they have by
^'
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.
^^Bellovacus cured a monk by alter-
ing his habit, aud 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
teral 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 fortloi-
''they must go hand in hand to this disease
:"
alu-rlux sic altera poscit opcni.
hoY 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 hearino-,
read-
ing of Scriptures, good divines, good advice and conference,
applying God's word lo
their distressed souls, it must be corrected and counterpoised. Many excellent exhor-
tations, phrsenetical
discourses, are extant to this purpose, for such as are any way
troubled in mind
: Perkins, Greenham,
Hayward. Bright,
Abernethy, Bolton Cul-
mannus, Helmmgius, Caelius Secundus, Nicholas Laurentius, are copious on this sub-
ject
:
Azorius, Navarrus, Sayrus, &c., aud such as have written cases of conscience
amongst our pontifical writers. But because these men's works are not to aU parties
at hand, so parable at all times, I will fur the benefit and ease of such as are afflicted
at the request of some
friends, recollect out of their voluminous
treatises, some few
such comfoi-table
speeches, exhortations,
arguments, advice, tending to this subject,
and out of God's word, knowing, as (^ulmannus saith upon the like occasion,
*^"
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
Pre-supposing first that which Beza, Greenham, Perkins, Bolton, give in charge the
parties to whom counsel is given be sufficiently
prepared, humbled for their sin's fit
tor 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 there-
fore as are so thoroughly
searched and examined, I address this following discourse.
Two main antidotes,
"niemmingius
observes, opposite to despair, good hope out
of (jod s word, to be embraced
;
perverse security and presumption from the devil
treachery, to be rejected; Ilia salus animce hcBc j^estis ; one saves, the other kills
occulu <rmmam, saith Austin, and doth as much harm as despair itself,
^
Navarrus thv
casuist reckons up ten special cures out of Anton. I. part. Tit. 3. cap. 10. I. God
li. Physic, a. ''Avoiding such objects as have caused it. 4. Submission of himsel'
to other men's judgments.
5. Answer of all objections, &c. All which Cajetan
" Biisbeqiiius.
John Major vitis patium : qui-
dam iiigavit Christum, per Chirographuin iiost resti-
tiitus. "
Trincavelius lib. 3.
"
Mv bi-other
George Biirtou, M. James Whitehall, rector ufCheckley'
iti Staff(irfl8hire, my quondam chambcr-lellow, and late
lllow student in Christ Church, Oxon.
"
Sdo
quam vana sit et inefficax humanorum verborum penej
afflictos consolatio, nisi verbuin l)ei audiatur, i qco
vita, refrigeratio, solatium, poeniteiitia.
Anlid.
adversus de.sporatioiiein. **
Tom. 2. c. 27. num. 2S2.
*''
Aversio cogitaiiunis a re scrupiiloda, contraventiu
scrupuloruni.
Mem. 2. Subs. C] Cure
of
Despair. b4y
Gerson, //7>. de vit. spirit. Sayrus, lib. 1. cons. cap. 14, repeat and approve out of
Emanuel Roderiques, caj^- 51 ct 52. Greenham prescribes six special rules, Cul-
mannus 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 them-
selves 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 repro-
bates, quite forsaken of God, already damned, past all hope of grace, incapable of
mercy, diaholl mancipia., slaves of sin, and their offences so great they cannot be
forgiven. But these men must know thei-e is no sin so heinous which is not par-
donable in itself, no crime so great but by God's mercy it may be forgiven.
"
Where sin aboundetli, grace aboundeth much more," Rom. v. 20. And what
the Lord said unto Paul in his extremity, 2 Cor. xi. 9,
"
My grace is sufiicient 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 sin-
ners 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 remem-
brance saith the Lord." Isaiah xliii. 25,
"
I even T am He that put away ttiine ini-
quity 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 en-
tertained, Luke XV., if they shall so come with tears in their eyes, and a penitent
heart. Peccator agnoscat. Dens igvoscit.
"
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 medi-
cine, 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 ^* doubts of the remission of his sins, denies God's mercy, tnd
doth Him injury, saith Austin. Yea, but thou repliest, I am a notorious sinner, mine
offences are not so great as infinite. Hear Fulgentius,
'""
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
^
Chrysostom,
"
Thy
malice may be measured, but God's mercy cannot be defined
;
thy malice is circum-
scribed. 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
*
Magnam injuriam Deo facit qui diffidit da ejus
mieericordia.
*"
Bonitas iuvicti non vincitur; in-
fiuiti misericordia non tinitur.
>
Horn. 3. De
Sopn: irntia : Tua quidem malitia mensuram habet.
82 3E
Dei autem misericordia mensuram non habet. Tna
malitia circumscripta est, &c. Pelagus etsi magnum,
mensuram habet; dui autem, &c.
650 Religious Melancholy. [Part. a. Sea 4
'great, yet may be measured, but God's mercy cannot be circumscribed. Wiiatsoever
iliy sins be tiien in quantity or quality, multitude or magnitude, fear them not, dis
trust not. 1 speak not tliis, saith
^'
Chrysostom,
"
to make thee secure and negligent,
but to cheer thee up."\ Yea but, thou urgest again, 1 have little comfort of this
which is said, it concerns me not : Inanis pcenitentia quam sequens culpa coinquinaty
'tis to no purpose for me to repent, and to do worse than ever I did before, to per-
severe in sin, and to return to my lusts as a dog to his vomit, or a swine to the
mire :
^^
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 r 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, 1 am fallen from that J was or would be, worse and
worse,
*'
my latter end is worse than my beginning : Si quotidice peccas, quotidie,
saith Chrysostom, pcEnilentiam age, if thou daily oflend, daily repent: *^''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. 'Z4. Jf 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 con-
science (saith
^*
Ansehn) dictates to me that ] deserve damnation, my repentance will
not suffice for satisfaction : but thy mercy, O Lord, quite overcometh all my trans-
gressions." The gods once (as the poets feign) with a gold chain would pull Jupi-
ter 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 Ibrce 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 shall soon perceive that his power is infinitely
beyond it. God is better able, as
*'
Bernard informeth us,
''
to help, than sin to do
us hurt; Christ is better able to save, than the devil to destroy." ''^U he be a skil-
ful Physician, as Fulgentius adds,
''
he can cure all diseases ; if merciful, he will."
JYon est perfecia bonitas a qua non omnis malilia vincitur, His goodness is not abso-
lute and perfect, if it be not able to overcome all malice. Submit thyself unto Him,
as St. Austin advisetti,
^'
"
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 pron)iseth
;
qui fecit inundum de inunundo, sdi\\h
Chrysostom, he that made a fair world of nought, can do tliis 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
attra(,tive loadstone to draw God's mercy and graces unto us. ^^Peccatum vulnu&,
poiniteritia medicinain : sin made the breach, repentance must help it; howsoever
thine ofience came, by error, sloth, obstinacy, ignorance, exilur per pcenitr.nt i am, this
is the sole means to be relieved.
^^
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. *"''' This doth not repel a
*'
Non ul desidiures vos faciain, sed ut alacriores red-
dam.
^^
J'ro peccatis veiiiam poscere, et mala de
Dovo ilerare. "^Si his, si ler, si cenlies, si cenlies
millies, toties poBiiitentiaiii age. "Conscientia
oiea uieruit dariinatioiiein, pcenitentia non sutficit ad
ealisfaclionein : scU tua niisericordia superat oninein
offensionein.
^ Miilto efiicacior Christi mors in
bnnum, quam peccata nostra in malum. Christus po.
leiilior ad salvandum. quam (Ismon ad perdendum.
*<
Peritiis medicus potest oinnes infiirnilales sanare ; si
miserictrs. vult. " Omnipotenti medico nullus
languor insanabilis occurrit : tu tantum doceri te sin9,
manum ejus ne repelle: novit quid agat ; non tantum
delecteris cum fovet, sed toleres quum secat. "jchrys.
hom. 3. de poenit.
"*
Spes salutjs per quam pecca-
tores salvantur, Deus ad mispricordiaui provocatur.
Isidor. omnia ligala tu solvis, contrita sanas, confusa
lucidas. desperata aninias. ^Ctirys. hom 5. no .
fornicatorem ahnuit, non ehrium avertit, nui su^ier-
hum repellit, non aversatur Idololatiam, n' n atiult^
rum, sed oinnes <uscipit, omnibus comuiunicat.
Men. 2. Subs.
6.]
Cure
of
Despair. 651
forni;ator, reject a drunkard, resist a proud fellow, turn away an idolater, nut enter-
tains all, communicates itself to all." Wiio persecuted the church more than Paul.
offended more than Peter ? and yet by repentance (saith Curysologus) they got both
Magisterium et rtiinister'ium sanctitatis^ the Magistery of lioliness. The prodigal son
went far, but by repentance he '^ame home at last. >, ^'"This alone will turn a wolf
into a sheep, make a publican a preacher, turn a thorn into an olive, make a de-
bauched fellow religious," a blaspliemer sing halleluja, make Alexander the copper-
smith truly devout, make a devil a saint. .
""
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 v/ill go forth a dove (saith
'''^
Chrysostom), a wolf go out a sheep,
d lion a lamb. "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 wi-ll, do but repent, it is sufficient.
^^
Quern pceniiet pec-
casse pene est. innoccns. '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 them-
selves, but rather a delight, no groaning of spirit, but are carried headlong to their
own destruction,
"
heaping wrath to themselves against the day of vs^rath," 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 mayest be called at length,
restored, taken to His grace, as the thief upon the cross, at the last hour, as Mary
Magdalen and many other sinners have been, that were buried in sin. "God (saith
"Fulgentius) is delighted in the conversion of a sinner, he sets no time
;"
proZmioj
temporis Deo nan prcejudicat., aut gravUas peccati, deferring of time or grievousnesa
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. ^''"This heaven of repentance is still open
for all distressed souls
;"
and howsoever as yet no signs appear, thou mayest repent
in good time. Hear a comfortable speech of St. Austin,
'"''
" 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 in-
vites thee to repentance." Howsoever as yet, 1 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 re-
pent, 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 ffourish in the spring! these vir-
tues may lie hid in thee for the present, yet hereafter show themselves, and perad-
venture 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, "^^"Lord help mine unbelief:" and hereafter thou siialt certainly
believe: '' Dab'itur sitienti, it shall be given to him that thirsteth. Thou canst not
yet repent, hereafter thou shalt ; 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 hearlily sorry; comfort thyself, no time is overpast, 'tis
never too late. A desire to repent is repentance itself, though not in nature, yet in
" Chrys. hom. .5.
"^
Q,ui turpihus cantilenis ali-
quando inqiiinavit ns. divinis hymiiis aniiiium purga-
bit.
63
Hoin. 5. Introivit hie qiiis accipiter, columba
exit; introivit lupus, ovis egreditur, &,c. MQmnes
laimuores saiiat, CEecis visum, claudjs LTessum, gratiam
oonfert, &v
66
Seneca. " He who repents of his
8i.".8 is well nigh innocent." oejjelectatiir Deus
couversione peccaturis; omne tempus vits conversioni
deputatur
;
pro prssentibus habentiir tain prsterita
(]iiani futura.
^7
Austin. Semper poeniteiilrE portui
apertus est ne desperenius. 6Ciuicquid feceris,
'luantuniouiiquo peccaveris, adhuc in vita ea, unde Id
omnino si sanare te nollet Deus, auferret
;
parcend'
cJamat ut redeas, &c.
'
Matt. vi. 23.
'">
Eti*
xxi. 6.
652 Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3, Sect. 4.
God's acceptance; a willing mind is sufficient. "Blessed are tney that hnngor and
thirst after righteousness," Matt. v. 6. He that is destitute of God's grace, and
vvisheth for it, sha.l 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
ihou 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, halest 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 evi-
dent 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. '"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 re-
pentance itself. For it is not thy faith and repentance, as ''^Chrysostom truly teacheth,
that is available, but God's mercy that is annexed to it. He accepts the will for the
deed : so that 1 conclude, to feel in ourselves the want of grace, and to be grieved
for it, is grace itself. 1 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 j-et 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 m.ore, thou hast voluntarily blasphemed,
renounced God and all religion, thou art worse than Judas himself, or they that cru-
cified 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 con-
jurors do, expUcite 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'-sake, with a kind of reluctance, 'twas troublesome and pain-
ful to thee to perform any such thing, prcBter voluntatefti, against thy will. Thou
never mad'st any conscience of lying, swearing, bearing false witness, murder, adul-
tery, bribery, oppression, theft, drunkenness, idolatry, but hast ever done nil 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, ,'<iting that thou
shouldest love, and loving that thou shouldest hate. Instead of faith, ffar and lov(> of
God, repentance, &c., blasphemous thoughts have been ever harboured in his mind,
even against God himself, the blessed Trinity ; the
"
Scripture false, rude, harsh, imme-
thodical : heaven, hell, resurrection, mere toys and fables,
'''*
incredible, impossible, ab-
surd, vain, ill contrived ; religion, policy, and human invention, to keep men in obe-
dience, or for profit, invented by priests and law-givers to that purpose. If there bp
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 '^tragedy pelUces ccpjam tenent,, there they
shine, Suasque Perseus aureus Stellas habet, where is his providence.? how appears it?
'6"
Marniorco Licinus tuniulo jacet, at Cato parvo,
Pompoiiius nullo, quis piitel esse Deos."
'1
Ahornethy, Perkins.
'2
Non est poenitentia, I and ohjections are. well answered In John Downam's
Bed Dei niiserir.ordia arinexa.
'3
Cascilius Miiiutio, Christian Warfare. "Seneca.
' "
LIciniii
On.nia ista fisnieiita mala saute religioriis, et inepla | lies in a marble tomb, hiil Cato in a mean one: Pom-
<olatia A poetis invent.i, vel ab aliis ob romnioiiuiii,
]
poniiis has none, who can think therefore that ihetr
fupentiliosa mistena, &:c.
'*
These temptations I are ^Jods
?"
Mem. 2. Subs. 6. Cure
of
Despair. 65J
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 "venomous creatures, rocks, sands, deserts, this earth itself the muck-hill of the
world, a prison, a house of correction
.''
"'^Menlimur regnare Jovem, <Sfc., with many
such horrible and execrable conceits, not fit to be uttered; Terribilia dejide, hor-
ribiha de DivinUate. They cannot some of them but think evil, they are compelled
vohntes nolenlcs^ 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, tenta
Hones fcBdce et i7npi(s^ 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 seme 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 him-
self with our spirits, and sometimes more slily, 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
diabolic, 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
intermfxed 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 :
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 slily 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 per-
sonal sins, for which thou shalt incur the wrath of God, or his displeasure : con-
temn, 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 tiiem. Satance 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 tliou 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
'T
Vid. Oampanella cap. 6. Atheis. triumphal, et c. 2. I coluin, &c.
'^
Lucan.
"
II can't he true that Just
VI ariiian)Dtuni 1^^. uhi pluru. Si Deus bonus unde
|
Jove reigns." '^Perkins.
ii K 2
G54 Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3. Stc. 4
may be forgiven, if they be penitent and sorry for them. Paul himself confesseth,
Rom. xvii. 19. "He di(l not the good he would do, but the evil which he would not
do; 'tis not
1,
but sin that dwelleth in me." 'Tis not thou, but Satan's suggestions,
his craft and subtility, 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.
^"
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, abso-
lute 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, vvhere 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 ? E|ut 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 tliy life. Though he say, thou art not of the number of the elect, a reprobate,
forsaken of God, hold thine own still, hie murus aheneus esto,
"
let this be as a bul-
wark, a brazerr 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 mayest so be resolved again ; comfort thyself; this persuasion can-
not come from the devil, and much less can it be grounded from thyself.' men are
liars, and why shouldest 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 shouldest
thou then distrust, misdoubt thyself, upon what ground, what suspicion.? This
.pillion 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.
I 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
">
Hetningius. Nemo peccat in spiritum sanctum nisi I saliis; A. quo peccato liberet nos Doininus Jesus Cliria*
^ui finaliter et voluntarie renuiiciat Christum, eumquu lUB. Amen.
t ejus verbum extreme contemnit, sine qua nulla
|
yiem. 2. Subs.
6.]
Cure
of
Despair. 655
ihc world, but that through him the world might be saved." John iii. 17.
"
He that
aoknowledgeth 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.
''
Th'is is the will of him that sent me, that every man that believelh 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. XXVI ii. 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 secuie 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,
*'
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 there-
fore 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
mayest 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,
praythou mayest be, or at least wish and desire thou mayest 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, tor-
ment 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 miti-
gate 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 ortho-
doxal, will have a far greater part saved than shall be damned, (as ^"Caelius Secundus
stiffly maintains in his book, De amplitudine regni. ccclestis, or some impostor under
his name) beaiorum numerus multo major qudm damnatorum.
^^
He calls that other
tenet of special ^"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," &j.c. And four especial arguments he produceth, one from God's power.
If more be damned than saved, he erroneously concludes,
**
the devil hath the greater
sovereignty! for what is power but to protect.? and majesty consists in multitude.
'
Jf the devil have the greater part, where is his mercy, where is his power ? how
is he Dens Optimus Maximus^ misericorsf Sfc, where is his greatness, where his
goodness?" He proceeds, ^''"We account him a murderer that is accessary 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 accessary, 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!
^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 ofience, one
small ofience, eating of an apple
.?
why should we acknowledge him for our governor
' Abernethy.
^^
See whole bnoks of these argu-
ments.
*i3
Lib. 3. fol. IvJi. Prsjudicata opinio, jii-
ifida, maligna, et apta ad iuipellendos aiiiinos in dspe-
raiioneui.
^
See the Antidote in Chaniier's toni. 3.
lib. 7. Downam's Christian Warfare, &c.
"^ Potentior
em ileo dial)ohis ct niundi princeps, et in miillitudine
bominuiu sita est uiajcslas.
i)^
Houiicida qui non
subvenit quum potest ; hoc de Deo sine scelere cogitari
non potest, ntpote quum quod vult licet. Boni natura
cominiinicari. Bonus Deus, qiioniodo inisericordic,
pater, &c.
*'
Vide Cyrilluni lib. 4. adversus Julia-
num. qui poteri aus illi gratias agere qui nobis una
inisit Mosen et irophetas, et contempsit boni aiaiina.
rum nustraruin.
656 Religious Melancholy. [Part. 3 Sec <
ihat h&th wholly neglected the palvation of our souls, contemned us, and sei.t co
orophets or instructors to teach us, as lie hath done to the Hebrews
?"
So Julian the
apostate objects. Why should these Christians (Caelius ur^eth) reject us and appro-
priate God unto themselves, Deum ilium suum unicun. ^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 nafuralibus, with the Pelagians, and proves it out of Ori-
gen and others. "They (saith ''^Origenj 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 indictd 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 woMld 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
^^
Turkey,
of what sect Rustan Bassa was patron, defended by *"Galeatius ^'Erasmus, by Zu-
inglius in exposit. Jidei ad Regem Gallice, whose tenet BuUinger 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, Andra-
dius 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 vilam atcrnam pro?nereri, and be saved in the e.m], Sesellius, and Benedictus
Justinianus in his comment on the first of the Romans, Mathias Ditmarsh the poli-
tician, 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 Collins hath fully censured all opinions in his Five Books, de Pagann-
rum animabus post viortem., 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 them-
selves shall be saved at last," as^^Origen himself long since delivered in his works,
and our late ^'^Socinians defend, Ostorodius, cap. 4J. institid. Smaliius, &^c. Tliose
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 oflence, quid meruistis oves? But these absurd
paradoxes are exploded by our church, we teach otherwise. That this vocation,
predestination, election, reprobation, 7ion ex corrupta 7nassd, pranuso.,fide^ as our
Arminians, or ex prcevisis operibtis, as our papists, non ex prcmteritionr,., but God's
absolute decree ante mundum crcatum., (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 Tall, as others will, homo lapsus ohjectum est reprobationis) with pirseve-
rantia sanctorum., we must be certain of our salvation, we may Oill but not iinally,
which our Arminians will not admit. According to his immutable, eternal, just de-
cree and counsel of saving men and angels, God calls all, and would have ail to be
saved according to the efficacy of vocation : all are invited, but only the elect ap-
prehended : the rest that are unbelieving, impenitent, whom God in his just judg-
ment 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
8
Venia danda est iia qui non audiunt oh i^noratiam.
|
cerus, Tiir. hist. To. 1.1.2. Oleni. Alex.
s'
Pati-
Non est tani iniqiiiis Judex Dens : \it queiKiiiain indicia
|
lus Jovius V.\os. vir. Illust.
w
jVon homines sed el
causa daiiiiiare vclit. ii solum daiiiiiaiitur, qui obla. I ipsi deEiiioius aliguando servandi.
w
Vid Pelsu
tarn Christ) gratiuui rKJiciint.
>^ Busbeqiiius Loni { Uariiioiiiam art. 'J^. |>. 2.
Mem. 2 Subs.
6.] Cure
of
Despair. 057
our end may be received. I might have said more (k this subject; but ibrasmuch
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 ^'Erasmus of such controversies: Pugnet qui voJet,,cgo
ceni^eo leges majoriim reverenter suscipiendas, et religiose olseriiandas^ velut a Deo
profcctas; nee esse tiifura^ nee esse pium^ de potestate publico, sinistram concipere aul
severe suspicionem. Ei siqiiid est tyrannidls^ quod tamen 7ion cogat ad impielatem,
saliits
estfcrre^ 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
wr^th, a most intolerable pain and grief of heart seizeth on them: to their thinking
they are already damned, they sufler the pains of hell, and more than possibly can
be expressed, tiiey smell brimstone, talk familiarly with devils, hear and see chimeras,
prodigious, uncouth shapes, bears, owls, antiques, black dogs, fiends, hideous out-
cries, fearful noises, shrieks, lamentable complaints, they are possessed, ^^and through
impatience they roar and howl, curse, blaspheme, deny God, call his power in ques-
tion, abjure religion, and are still ready to ofl'er violence unto themselves, by hang-
ing, 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 judg-
ments." 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:" f/re, seca, occide O Domine,
(saith Austin) rnodo 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, arid hath no feeling at all of them :
"
I
have sinned (he saith) &nd 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 velUf., 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 \\ as afflicted
I went astray, but now I keep Thy word."
"
Tribulation works patie'ice, 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 scho-
lars are prepared to the commencements of the Deity. And though it be most
troublesome and grievous for the time, yet know ihis, it comes by God's permission
and providence; He is a spectator of thy groans and tears, still present with thee,
<
Epist. Erasini de utilitatecolloquior. ad lectorem.
VntMiui snliti sunt haiic lierharii poiiere in r.cBiiii^ I irrisi piuliirf tsufli'cii sunt el re infecta abieniiit
Ct?iirt! ideoijuod, &.r.
""'
Nun ilt;suiit iioslra ajtate
|
iiilo Engli^li 0) W. B.. I<il3
Kicnficuli, qui talc 'juid aiieiiiaiit, E>e>l a cacodwiuone I
>Iem. 2. Subs.
6.J
Cure
of
JOespair. 601
remedy is to fly to God, to call on him, hope, pray, trust, rely on him, to conmiit
ourselves wholly to him. What the practice oi" the primitive church was in this
behalf, El guts dcp.moniu ejicicndi modus^ read Wierus at large, lib. 5. de Cura. Lam.
meles. cap. 38. et deincejjs.
Last of all : if the party aflected shall certainly know this malady to have pro-
ceeded from too much fasting, meditation, precise life, contemplation of God's judg-
ments (for the devil deceives many by such means), in that other extreme he cir-
cumvents melancholy itself, reading some books, treatises, hearing rigid preachers,
&LC. If he shall perceive that it hath begun first from some great loss, grievous ac-
cident, 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,
'
avertat cogitationem d re scrupulosa, by all opposite means, art, and industry, let him
laxare anirnuni^ 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 uo 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 conlraventio scrupulorum, as '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,'' whose words are as flagons of wine. Let him not be obstinate, head-
strong, 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
tiiraldom
;
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 FCELICESHAPPY BE CALTTIOUS. >
Vis d duhio I'tierari? vis quod incertum est evadere? Age poenitentiam dum
sanus es ; sic agens^ dico tibi quod securus es, quod poenitentiam egisti eo tempore
quo peccare potuisli. 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 mighJ
have been guilty of sin."
*
'I om. 2. cap. 27, num. 282.
"
Let him avert his thoughts from the painful ubject." >Nararrus. I8. 14.
F
(flraV
IN.^EX.
Abaenck a cure of love-melancholy, 531
Absence over long, cause of jealousy, 569
Ai)slinence commended, 283
Acadeinicnrum Errata, 197
Adversity why better than prosperity, 367
Aerial devils, 115
Affections whence they arise, 103
;
how they
transform us, 89
;
of sleeping and waking,
103
AH'ection in melancholy, what, 109
Against abuses, repulse, injuries, contumely, dis-
graces, scoffs, 376
Against envy, livor, hatred, malice, 375
Against sorrow, vain fears, death of friends, 369
Air, how it causeth melancholy, 149
;
how rec-
tified it cureth melancholy, 303308 ;
air in
love, 461
Alkermes good against melancholy, 411
All are melancholy, 110
All beautiful parts attractive in love, 466
Aloes, his virtues, 400
Alteratives in physic, to what use, 391
; against
melancholy, 408
Ambition defined, described, cause ^of melan-
choly, 167, 175; of heresy, 604; hinders and
spoils many matches, 554
Amiableness loves object, 427
Amorous objects causes of love-melanchoiy, 479,
489
, Amulets controverted, approved, 412, 413
Amusements, 314
Anger's description, effects, how it causeth me-
lancholy, 169
Antimony a purger of melancholy, 399
Anthony inveigled by Cleopatra, 475
Apology of love-melancholy, 422
Apfietite, 103
Apples, good or bad, how, 140
Apparel and clothes, a cause of love-melancholy,
473
Aqueducts of old, 281, 282
Anninian's tenets, 655
Arteries, what, 96, 97
Artificial air against melancholy, 304
Artificial allurements of love, 470
Art of memory, 322
Astrological aphorisms, how available, signs or
causes of melancholy, 130
Astrological signs of love 4?>3 454
Atheists described, 632
Averters of melancholy, 407
Aurum polabile censured, approved, !19
B.
Baits of lovers, 491
Bald lascivious, 571, 572
Balm good against melancholy, 392
Banishment's effects, 225 ; its cure and anti-
dote, 368
Barrenness, what grievances it causeth, 225; i
cause of jealousy, 570
Barren grounds have best air, 304
Bashfulness a symptom of melancholy, 235',
of love-melancholy, 243; cured, 414
'
Baseness of birth no disparagement, 459
Baths rectified, 285
Bawds a cause of love-melancholy, 492
Beasts and birds in love. 445, 446, 461
Beauty's definition, 427 ; described, 465 ; in
parts,
466 ; commendation, 457 ; attractive
power, prerogatives, excellency, how it causeth
melancholy, 459 469; makes grievous
wounds, irresistible, 464 ; more beholding to
art than nature, 470 ;
brittle and uncertain,
537; censured, 539; a cause of jealousy,
570
; beauty of God, 594
Beef a melancholy meat, 137
Beer censured, 141
Best site of a house, 304
Bezoar's stone good against melancholy, 411
Black eyes best, 468
Black spots in the nails signs of melancholy,
132
Black man a pearl in a woman's eye, 467
Blasphemy, how pardonable, 653
Blindnes-s of lovers, 507
Blood-letting, when and how cure of melan-
choly, 404, 415; time and quantity, 403
Blood-letting and purging, how causes of m"
lancholy, 149
Blow on the head cause of melancholy, 226
Body, how it works on the mind, 157, 227,
241
Body melancholy, its causes, 231
Bodily symfitoms of melancholy, 232
; o .ovt-
melancholy, 496
Bodily exercises, 308
t)<5i
INDEX,
Books of all sorts, 320
Borage and bugloss, sovereign herbs against
melancholy, 391
;
their wines and juice most
excellent, 397
Boring of the head, a cure for melancholy, 408
Brain distempered, how cause of melancholy,
228
;
his parts anatomised, 99
Bread and beer, how causes of melancholy, 140,
141
Brow and forehead, which are most pleasing,
466
Brute beasts jealous, 565
Business the best cure of love-melancholy, 526
C.
Cahbak's father conjured up seven devils at
once, 117; had a spirit bound to him, 121
Cards and dice censured, approved, 315
Care's effects, 170
Carp fish's nature, 138, 139
Cataplasms and cerates for melancholy, 397
Cause of diseases, 86
Causes immediate of melancholy symptoms, 253
Causes of honest love, 434 ; of heroical love,
453; of jealousy, 569
Cautions against jealousy, 590
Centaury good against melancholy, 391
Charles the Great enforced to love basely by a
philter, 494
Change of countenance, sign of love-melan-
choly, 498
Charity described, 438
; defects of it, 440
.Character of a covetous man, 178
Charles the Sixth, king of France, mad for
anger, 169
Chemical physic censured, 407
Chess-play censured, 316
Chiromantical signs of melancholy, 131, 133
Chirurgical remedies of melancholy, 403
Choleric melancholy signs, 243
Chorus sancti Viti, a disease, 92
Circumstances increasing jealousy, 571
Cities' recreations, 313, 314
Civil lawyers' miseries, 192
Climes and particular places, how causes of
love-melancholy, 455
Clothes a mere cause of good respect, 214
Clothes causes of love-melancholy, .473
Clysters good for melancholy, 417
Coffee, a Turkey cordial drink, 410
Cold air cause of melancholy, 150
Comets above the moon, 296
Compound alteratives censured, approved, 395
;
compound purgers of melancholy,
402 ; com-
pound wines for melancholy, 408
Community of wives a cure of jealousy, 385
Compliment and good carriage causes of love-
melancholy, 472
Confections and conserves against melancholy,
397
Confession of his grief to a friend, a principal
cure of melancholy, 329, 330
Confidence in his physician half a cure, 278
Conjugal love best, 450
Conscience what it is, 106
* 'onscience troubled, a cause of despair, 643, 0^6
Contindal cogitation of his mistress a sympton
of love-melancholy, 503
Contention, brawling, law-suits, effects, 224
Continent or inward causes of melancholy,
22*"
Content above all, whence to be had, 35B
Contention's cure, 381
Cookery taxed, 142 .
Copernicus, his hypothesis of the earth's mo-
tion, 298, 300
Correctors of accidents in melancholy, 413
Correctors to expel windiness, and costivenes
helped, 418
Cordials against melancholy, 408
Costiveness to some a cause of melancholy, 147
Costiveness helped, 419
Covetou^ness defined, described, how it causeth
melancholy, 177
Counsel against melancholy, 331, 534
; cure of
jealousy, 584 ; of despair, 648
Country recreations, 313
Crocodiles jealous, 565
Cuckolds common in all ages, 581
Cupping-glasses, cauteries how and when used
to melancholy,
403, 408
Cure of melancholy, unlawful, rejected, 270
{
from God, 272
;
of head-melancholy, 404
;
over all the body,
415; of hypochondriacal
melancholy,
416; of love-melancholy. 525:
of jealousy,
580; of despair, 648
Cure of melancholy in himself, 327
;
or friends.
331
Curiosity described, his effects, 222
Custom of diet, delight of appetite, how u, b*
kept and yielded to, 145
D.
Dancing, masking, mumming, censured, ap.
proved, 487, 488 ; their effects, how they
cause love-melancholy, 487
;
how symptoma
of lovers, 519
Death foretold by spirits, 123
Death of friends cause of melancholy,
218;
other effects, 218; how cured, 369; death
advantageous, 373
Deformity of body no misery, 345
Delirium, 90
Despair, equivocations, 639
; causes. 640 ; symp. .
toms, 645
;
prognostics, 647
; cure, 648
Devils, how they cause melancholy, 115; their
beginning, nature, conditions,
115; feel paii^
swift in motion, mortal, 116; their orders.
118; power, 125; how they cause religious
melancholy, 601 ; how despair,
640; devils
are often in love, 446
; shall be saved, as some
hold, 656
Diet what, and how causeth melancholy, 136
quantity, 142; diet of divert nations, 145
Diet rectified in substance, 280 ; in quantity
282
Diet a cause of love melancholy, 456 ; a cure,
527
Diet, inordinate, of parents, a cause of melan-
choly to their offspring, 135
Digression against ail manner of discontents
341; digression of air, 288
; of anatomy, 95
of devils and spirits, 115
INDEX.
rtoo
Discommodities of une([ual matches, 587
Disgrace a cause of melancholy, 164, 224;
qiialiiied by counsel, 382
Dissimilar parts of the body, 97
Distemper of particular parts, causes of melan-
choly, and how, 228
Discontents, cares, miseries, causes of melan-
choly, 170; how repelled and cured by goiid
counsel, 331, 341
Diseases why inflicted upon us, 86; their num-
ber, definition, division, 89; diseases of the
head, 90; diseases of the mind, 91; more
grievous than those of the body, 262
Divers accidents causing melancholy, 218
Divine sentences, 384
Divines' miseries, 193; with the causes of their
miseries, 194
Dotage what, 90
Dotage of lovers, 506
Dowry and money main causes of love-melan-
choly, 477
Dreams and their kinds, 103
Dreams troublesome, how to be amended, 326,
414
Drunkards' children often melancholy, 134
Hrunkenness taxed, 143, 340
E.
Earth's motion examined, 298 ; compass,
centre, 299
; an sit aiiamaia, 297
Eccentrics and epicycles exploded, 296
Education a cause of melancholy, 204
i
Effects of love, 520522
Election misconceived, cause of despair, 654
656
Element of fire exploded, 296
Emulation, hatred, faction, desire of revenge,
causes of melancholy, 167, 168; their cure,
375
Envy and malice causes of melancholy, 166;
their antidote, 375
Epicurus vindicated, 327
Epicurus's remedy for melancholy, 337
Epicures, atheists, hypocrites how mad, and
melancholy, 631
Epithalamium, 561
Equivocations of melancholy, 93; of jealousy,
562
Eunuchs why kept, and where, 577
Evacuations, how they cause melancholy, 148
Ylxercise if immoderate, cause of melancholy,
151; before meals wholesome, 152; exercise
rectified, 308; several kinds, when fit, 316;
exercises of the mind, 318323
Exotic and strange simples censured, 395
Extasies, 396, 397
'Eyes main instruments of love, 457; love's
darts, seats, orators, arrows, torches, 467
;
Dow they pierce, 471
Pace's prerogative, a most attractive part, 465,
466
Fairies, 122
Fasting cause of melancholy, 144; a cure of
84 3
love-melancholy, 52fi, 527 alused, the
devil's instrument, 611, 612; etrecls of it,
610
Fear cause of melancholy, its effects, 163; fear
of death, destinies foretold, 221
; a sympivtB
of luelarjcholy, 234; sign of love-melancholy
500, 501 ; aniidote to fear, 374
Fenny fowl, melancholy, 138
Fiery devils, 120, 121
Fire's rage, 87
Fish, what melancholy, 138
Fish good, 282
Fishes in love, 445
Fishing and fowling, how and when good exer-
cise, 310
Flaxen hair a great motive of love, 466
,
Fools often beget wise men, 135; by love be-
come wise, 517, 518
Force of imagination, 158
Friends a cure of melancholy. 330
Fruits causing melancholy, 139 ; allowed, 282
Fumitory purgeth melancholy, 392
G.
Gaming a cause of melancholy, his eflfects, 181
Gardens of simples where, to what end, 390, 391
Gardens for pleasure. 31 1
General toleration of religion, by whom per-
mitted, and why, 629
Gentry, whence it came first, 349; base with-
out means, 348 ;
vices accompanying it, 348;
true gentry, whence, 351
;
gentry commended,
351
Geography commended, 319
Geometry, arithmetic, algebra, commended, 322
Gesture cause of love-melancholy, 472
^Gifts and promises of great force amongst lovers,
489
God's just judgment cause of melancholy, 86
;
sole cause sometimes, 113
Gold good against melancholy, 394; a most
beautiful object, 431
Good counsel a charm to melancholy, 331
;
good counsel for love-sick persons, 534
;
against melancholy itself, 333 ;
for such as
are jealous, 580
Great men most part dishonest, 571
Gristle what, 96
Guts described, 98
H.
Hand and paps how forcible in love-meian-
choly, 466, 467
Hard usage a cause of jealousy, 568
Hatred cause of melancholy, 168
Hawking and hunting why gi)od, 310
Head melancholy's causes, 229; symptom*.
247; its cure, 404
Hearing, what, 102
Heat immoderate, cause of melancholy, 149
Health a treasure, 225
Heavens penetrable, 297; infiniteiv swift, 298
Hell where, 292
Hellebore, white and black, purgers ot melan-
choly, 406; black, its virtues and history,
400
P2
660
INDEX.
Help from friends against melancholy, 331
HoiDorrhage cause of melancholy, 147
Hemorrhoids stop[)ed cause of melancholy, 147
rierbs causing melancholy, 139; curing melan-
choly, 282
Hereditary diseases, 133
Heretics their conditions, 623; their symptoms,
623
Heroical love':^ pedigree, power, extent, 443;
definition, part affected, 448; tyranny, 448
Hippocrates' jealousy, 569
Honest objects of love, 434
Hope a cure of misery, 371 ;
its benefits, 640
Hope and fear, the Devil's main engines to
entrap the world, 607
Hops good against mehincholy, 392, 416
Horse-leeches how and when used in melan-
choly, 404, 416
Hot countries apt and prone to jealousy, 566
How oft 'tis fit to eat in a day, 282, 283
How to resist passions, 328
How men fall in love, 469
Humours, what they are, 95
Hydrophobia described, 92
Hypochondriacal melancholy, 112; its causes
inward, outward, 230; symptom, 244; cure
of it, 416
Hypochondries misaffected, causes, 228
Hypocrites described, 638
I.
Idleness a main cause of melancholy, 152; of
love-melancholy, 456; of jealousy, 567
Ignorance the mother of devotion, 608
Ignorance commended, 386
Ignorant persons still circumvented, 609
Imagination what, 102; its force and effects,
J 59
Imagination of the mother affects her infant,
135
Immaterial melancholy, 110
Immortality of the soul proved, 105; impugned
by whom, 636
Impediments of lovers, 557
Importunity and opportunity cause of love-
melancholy, 478
; of jealousy, 574
Imprisonment cause of melancholy, 210
Impostures of devils, 607 ; of politicians, 603
;
of priests, 604
Impolency a cause of jealousy, 568
Impulsive cause of man's misery, 85
Incubi and succubi, 446
Inconstancy of lovers, 540
Inconstancy a sign of melancholy, 237
Infirmities of body and mind, what grievances
they cause, 227
Injuries and abuses rectified, 378. 379
Instrumental causes of diseases, 87
Instrumental cause of man's misery, 87
Interpreters of dreams, 103
Inundation's fury, 87
Inventions resulting from love, 521
Inward causes of melancholy, 227
Inward senses described, 1(12
Issues when used in melancholy, 403
J.
Jealous.t a symptom of melancholy, 2.37; de-
fined, described, 563; of princes, 564; of
brute beasts, 565 ; causes of it, 566
; symp-
toms of it, 575
;
prognostics, 579 ; cure of
it, 580
Jests how and when to be used, 209
Jews' religious symptoms, 614, 615
Joy in excess cause of melancholy, 186,
18'>
K.
Kings and princes' discontents, 174
Kissing a main cause of love-inelancholy, 482;
a symptom of love-melancholy, 498
L.
Labouh, business, cure of love-melancholy
526
;
Lapis Arinenus, its virtues against me-
lancholy, 400
Lascivious meats to be avoided, 527
Laughter, its effects, 256, 257
Laurel a purge for melancholy, 398
Laws against adultery, 578
Leo Decimus the pope's scoffing triclis, 208
Lewellyn prince of Wales, his submission, 379
Leucuia petra the cure of love-sick persons, 646
Liberty of princes and great men, how abused,
574
Libraries commended, 321
Liver its site, 97 ; cause of melancholy distem-
pers, if hot or cold, 229
Loss of liberty, servitude, imprisonment, cause
of melancholy, 210
Losses in general how they offend, 220; cause
of despair, 369, 641
; how eased, 373
Love of gaming and pleasures immoderte,
cause of melancholy, 181
Love of learning, overmuch study, cause of
melancholy, 187
'Love's beginning, object, definition, division.
426; love made the world, 430; love's
power, 444; in vegetables, 445; in sensible
creatures, 445 ; love's power in devils and
spirits, 446; in men, 448; love a disease,
500; a fire, 504; love's passions, 505;
phrases of lovers, 509; their vain wishes
and attempts, 514; lovers impudent, 515;
courageous, 516; wise, valiant, free, 517;
neat in apparel, 518; poets, musicians,
dancers, 519: love's effects, 521; love lost
revived by sight, 530; love cannot be com-
pelled, 554
Love and hate symptoms of religious melan-
choly, 614
Lycanthropia described, 91
M.
Madness described, 91
;
the extent of melan
choly, 259; a symptom and effect of love-
melancholy, 524
Made dishes cause melancholy, 142
Magicians how they cause melancholy, 128
how they cure it, 271
INDEX.
667
Mahometans their symptoms, 698
Maids', nuns', and widows' melancholy, 250
Man's excellency, misery, 85
Man the greatest enemy to man, 88
Many means to divert lovers, 529 ; to cure
them, 534
Marriage if unfortunate cause of melancholy,
223 ; hest cure of love-melancholy, 547
;
marriage helps, 585; miseries, 641
;
benefits
and commendation, 450, 561
Mathematical studies commended, 322
Medicines select for melancholy, 386
;
against
wind and costiveness, 419
;
for love-melan-
choly, 529
Melancholy in disposition, melancholy equivo-
cations, 93
;
definition, name, difference, 108
;
part and parties aflected in melancholy, it's
afTection, 109; matter, 110; species or kinds
of melancholy, 111
;
melancholy an heredi-
tary disease, 133; meats causing it, 136, &c.;
antecedent causes, 227
;
particular parts, 228
;
symptoms of it, 232 ; they are passionate
above measure, 238; humorous, 238; me-
lancholy, adust symptoms, 242; mixed symp-
toms of melancholy with other diseases, 244
;
melancholy, a cause of jealousy, 567 ;
of des-
pair, 640 ; melancholy men why witty, 255
;
-
why so apt lo laugh, weep, sweat, blush, 256;
why they see visions, hear strange noises,
257
; why they speak untaught languages,
prophesy, &c., 259
Memory his seat, 103
Menstruus concuhitus causa melanc, 135
Men seduced by spirits in the night, 123
Metempsychosis, 104
Metals, minerals for melancholy, 393
Meteors strange, how caused, 295, 296
Metoposcopy foreshowing melancholy, 131,132
Milk a melancholy meat, 138
Mind how it works on the body, 155
Minerals good against melancholy, 394
Ministers how they cause despair, 642, 643
Mirach, mesentery, matrix, meseraic veins, causes
of melancholy, 228
Mirabolanes purgers of melancholy, 399
Mirth and mercy company excellent against me-
lancholy, 336 ; their abuses, 340
Miseries of man, 85 ; how they cause melan-
choly, 171
;
common miseries, 170
;
miseries
of both sorts, 342 ; no man free, miseries'
eflects in us, 343 ; sent for our good, 344
;
miseries of students and scholars, 187
Mitigations of melancholy, 384
Money's prerogatives, 431
;
allurement, 477
Moon inhabited, 299
;
moon in love, 444
Mother how cause of melancholy, 134
Moving faculty described, 103
Music a present remedy for melancholy, 334
;
its effects, 335 ; a symptom of lovers, 519
;
causes of love-melancholy, 481
N.
Nakedness of parts a cause of love-melan-
choly, 472, 473
;
cure of love-melancholy,
536
Narrow streets where in use, 305
Natural melancbioly signs, 242
Natural signs of love-melancholy, 496
Necessity to what it enforceth, 146, 216
Neglect and contempt, 'lest cures of jealousy
581
Nemesis or punishment comes after, 380
Nerves what, 96
News most welcome, 315
Nobility censured, 348
Non-necessary causes of melancholy, 20
Nuns' melancholy, 251
Nurse, how cause of melancholy, 202
O.
Objects causing melancholy to be removed
529
Obstacles and hindrances of lovers, 548
Occasions to be avoided in love-melancholy, 529
Odoraments to smell to for melancholy, 412
Ointments, for melancholy, 413
Ointments riotously used, 475
Old folks apt to be jealous, 568
Old folks' incontinency taxed, 58
Old age a cause of melancholy, 132
;
old men's
sons often melancholy, 134
One love drives out another, 533
Opinions of or concerning the soul, 104
Oppression's effects, 224
Opportunity and importunity causes of love-
melancholy, 478
Organical parts, 98
Overmuch joy, pride, praise, how causes of me-
lancholy, 186
Palaces, 313
*
Paleness and leanness, symptoms of love-melan-
choly, 496
Papists' religious symptoms, 615, 624
Paracelsus' defence of minerals, 394
Parents, how they wrong their children, 554
;
how they cause melancholy by propagation,
133; how by remissness and indulgence, 204,
205
Parsnetical discourse to such as are troubled in
mind, 648
Particular parts distempered, how they cause
melancholy, 228
Parties affected in religious melancholy, 597
Passions and perturbations causes of melan
choly, 157
;
how they work on the bo-Jy. 158
their divisions, 161 ; how rectified and eased
327
Passions of lovers, 500
Patience a cure of misery, 379
Patient, his conditions that would be cured, 277
patience, confidence, liberality, not to practise
on himself, 278 ; what he must do himsell,
328 ; reveal his grief to a friend, 330
Pennyroyal good against melancholy, 400
Perjury of lovers, 491
Persuasion a means to cure love-melancholy,
534; other melancholy, 332, 333
Phantasy, what, 102
Philippiis Bonus, how he used a country fel-
low, 317
668
INDEX.
Philosophers
censured, 183; their errors, 183
Philters cause of love-melancholy,
494 ; how
they cure melancholy, 546
Phlel)otomy cause of melancholy, 149
;
how to
be used, when, in melancholy, 404, 415', in
head melancholy,
407, 408
Phlegmatic
melancholy signs, 242
Phrenzy's description, 91
Physician's
miseries, 192, 193; his qualities if
he be good, 276
Physic censured,
380, 388
; commended, 389
;
when to be used, 389
Physiognomical
signs of melancholy, 131
Pictures good against melancholy, 318
; cause
of love-melancholy,
482
Plague's ellects, 87
Planets inhabited, 299
Plays more famous, 314
Pleasant palaces and gardens, 311
Pleasant objects of love, 432
Pleasing tone and voice a cause of love-melan-
choly, 481
Poetical cures of love-melancholy, 546
Poets why poor, 191
Poetry a symptom of lovers, 522
Politician's pranks, 604
Poor men's miseries,
215; their happiness, 356,
365
;
they are dear to God, 364
Pope Leo Decimus, his scoffing, 208
Pork a melancholy
meat, 137
Possession of devils, 93
Poverty and want causes of melancholy, their
ellects, 211
; no such misery to be poor, 354
Power of spirits, 125
Predestination
misconstrued,
a cause of despair,
654656
Preparatives
and purgers for melancholy, 405
Precedency,
what stirs it causeth, 167
Precious stones, metals, altering melancholy.
393
Preventions to the cure of jealousy, 585
Pride and praise causes of melancholy, 182
Priests, how they cause
religious melancholy.
605
^
Princes' discontents, 174
.Prodigals, their miseries, 181; bankrupts and
spendthrifts, how punished, 181
Profitable objects of love, 431
Progress of love-melancholy
exemplified,
484
Prognostics or events of
love-melancholy,
579
;
of despair, 579
; of jealousy, 523
; of melan-
choly, 259
Prospect good against melancholy,
307
Prosperity a cause of misery, 366
Protestations and deceitful promises of lovers
491
Pseudo-prophets,
their pranks,
627; their symp-
toms, 623
Pulse, peas, beans, cause of melancholy, 140
Pulse of melancholy men, how it is afiected,
233
Pulse a sign of love-melancholy,
497
Purgers and preparatives to head
melancholy.
405
^
Purging
simples upward, 397 ; downward, 399
Purging,
how cause of melancholy, 149
QuANTiTT of diet cause, 142; care of meiaiH
choly, 282
R.
Rational soul, 104
Reading Scriptures good against melancholy, 32J
Recreations good against melancholy, 309
Redness of the face helped, 414
Regions of the belly, 98
Relation or hearing a cause of lovc-melan
choly, 457
Religious
melancholy a distinct species, 593;
its object, 594
;
causes of it, 601
; symptoms,
613; prognostics, 627; cure, 629; religious
policy, by whom, 604
Repentance, its effects, 650
Retention and evacuation causes of melancholy,
146 ; rectified to the cure, 285
Rich men's discontents and miseries,
178, 360;
their prerogatives, 212
Riot in apparel, excess of it, a great cause of
love-melancholy,
475, 480
Rivers in love, 461
Rivals and co-rivals, 565
Roots censured, 139
Rose cross-men's or Rosicrucian's
promises, 323
Saints' aid rejected in melancholy,
274
Salads censured, 139
Sanguine melancholy signs, 242
Scholars' miseries, 189
Scilla or sea onion, a pwrger of melancholy, 398
Scipio's continency, 530
Scoffs, calumnies, bitter jests, how they
causo
melancholy,
207; their antidote, 383
Scorzonera, good against melancholy, 392
Scripture misconstrued,
cause of religious
me-
lancholy, 654; cure of melancholy, 322
Sea-sick, good physic for melancholy, 393
Self-love cause of melancholy, his effects, 183
Sensible soul and its parts, 101
Senses, why and how deluded in melancholy,
257
Sentences selected out of humane authors,
384
385
Servitude cause of melancholy,
210; and im-
prisonment eased, 367
Several men's delights and recreations,
306
Severe tutors and guardians causes of me an-
choly, 204
Shame and disgrace how causes of melancholy,
their effects, 164
Sickness for our good, 346
Sighs and tears symptoms of love-melancholy,
496, 497
Sight a principal cause of love-melancholy,
457,
458
Signs of honest love, 434
Similar parts of the body, 96
Simples censured proper to melancholy, .M89
,
fit to be known,
390; purging melaLcnoly
upward,
397; downward,
purgi ig simpler
399
INDEX.
669
Singing a symptom of lovers, 519; cause of
love-melancholy, 418
Sin the impulsive cause of man's misery, 85
Single life and virginity commended, 544
;
theii prerogatives, 545
Slavery of lovers, 510
Sleep and waking causes of melancholy, 156;
by what means procured, helped, 414
Small bodies have greatest wits, 346
Smelling what, 102
Smiling a ca ise of love-mnlancholy, 471
Sodomy, 448, 449
Soldiers most part lascivious, 572
Solitariness cause of melancholy, 154; coact,
voluntary, how good, 155; sign of melan-
choly, 239
Sorrow its effect, 162; a cause of melancholy,
163; a symptom of melancholy, 236; eased
by counsel, 370
Soul defined, its faculties, 99 ; ex traduce as
some hold, 104
Spices how causes of melancholy, 140
espirits and ilevils, their nature, 115; orders,
118; kinds, 120;
power, &c., 125
Spleen its site, 97 ; how misafl'ected cause of
melancholy, 228
Sports, 314
Spots in the sun, 301
Spruceness a symptom of lovers, 518
Stars, how causes or signs of melancholy, 130
;
of love-melancholy, 453; of jealousy, 566
Step-mother, her mischiefs, 224
Stews, why allowed, 586
Stomach distempered a cause of melancholy,
228
Stones like birds, beasts, fishes, &c., 290
Strange nurses, when best, 203
Streets narrow, 305
Study overmuch cause of melancholy, 187
;
why and how, 188, 255; study good against
melancholy, 318
Subterranean devils, 124
Supernatural causes of melancholy, 113
Superstitious effects, symptoms, 616; how it
domineers, 599, 624
Surfeiting and drunkenness taxed, 143
Suspicion and jealousy symptoms of melan-
. choly, 237 ;
how caused, 254
Swallows, cuckoos, &c., where are they in
winter, 290
Sweet tunes and singing causes of love-melan-
choly, 481
Sym|)toms or signs of melancholy in the body,
232; mind, 233; from stars, members, 240;
from education, custom, continuance of time,
mixed with other diseases, 244; symptoms
of head melancholy, 247; of hypochondriacal
melancholy, 248 ; of the whole body, 250
;
symptoms of nuns', maids', widows' melan-
choly, 250 ;
nnmediate causes of melancholy
symptoms, 253; symptoms of love-melan-
choly, 496; symptoms of a lover pleased,
502; dejected, 505; symptoms of jealousy,
675; of religions melancholy, 613; of
despair, 645, 646
Sjnterrsis, 106
Sjrsps, 397, 413
T.
Tale of a prebend, 377, 378
Tarantula's stinging effects, 236
Taste what, 102
'I'emperament a cause of love-melan:hol ', 453
Tempestuous air, dark and fuliginous, how
cause of melancholy, 151
Terrestrial devils, 122
Terrors and affrights cause melancholy, 205
Theologasters censured, 301
The best cure of love-melancholy is to let ihera
have their desire, 547
Tobacco approved, censured, 399
Toleration, religious, 629
-Torments of love, 501
'J'ransmigration of souls, 104
Travelling commended, good against molau-
choly, 306; for love-melancholy especiiUy
531
Tutors cause melancholy, 204
U.
"Uncharitable men described, 440
['ndorstanding detined, divided, 106
i;nk.rtunate marriages' effects, 174, 223, 588
V .^k.ad friends cause melancholy, 224
(lulawful cures of melancholy rejected, 270
Upstarts censured, their symptoms, 350, 357
Urine of melancholy persons, 233
Uxurii, 568, 569
V.
Vainglory described a cause of melanchfjj
182
Valour and courage caused by love, 517
Variation of the compass, where, 288
Variety of meats and dishes cause melancholy,
283
Variety of mistresses and objects a cure of
melancholy, 534
Variety of weather, air, manners, countries,
whence, &c., 293, 294
Variety of places, change of air, good agaii.sJ
melancholy, 306
Vegetal soul and its faculties, 100
Vegetal creatures in love, 444, 445
Veins described, 97
Venus rectified, 287
Venery a cause of melancholy, 148
Venison a melancholy meat, 137, 138
Vices of women, 540
Violent misery continues not, 342
Violent death, event of love-melancholy, 525
prognostic of despair, 647
;
by some defended,
262
;
how to be censured, 265
^Virginity, by what signs to be known, 577
commended, 545
.Virtue and vice, principal habits of the will, 108
Vitex or agnus castus good against love-
melancholy, 527
W.
Wakinb cause of melancholy, 154, 163; a
symptom, 232; cured, 325
Walking, shooting, swimming, &c., good agaiRil
melancholy, 307, 311, 528
670 INDEX.
Want of sleep a symptom of love-melancholy,
233, 496, 497
Wanton carriage and gesture cause of love-
melancholy, 470
Water devils, 122
Water if foul causeth melancholy, 141
.Vaters censured, their effects, 141
Waters, which good, 281
^Vaters in love, 461
Wearisomeness of life a symptom of melan-
choly, 505
What physic fit in love-melancholy, 526
Who are most apt to be jealous, 567
Whores' properties and conditions, 535
Why good men are often rejected, 377
'Why fools beget wise children, wise men
fools, 135
Widows' melancholy, 251
Will defined, divided, its actions, why over-
ruled, 107
Wine causeth melancholy, 140, 182; a good
cordial against melancholy, 410
;
forbid
in love-melancholy, 527
Winds in love, 461
^''itty devices against melancholy, 334, 532
Wit proved by love, 517
Withstand the beginnings, a principal cure
of love-melanclioly, 529
Witches' power, how they cause melancholy,
128; their transformations, 129; they can
cure melancholy, 129, 270; not to be
sought to for help, 272 ; nor saints, 275
Wives censured, 560; commended, 661;
choice of a wife, 590
Women, how cause of melancholy, 182; their
exercises, 324; their vanity in apparel
"
taxed, 473 ; how they cozen men, 474 ; their
counterfeit tears, 491 ; their vices, 540
Woodbine, amni, rue, lettuce, how good in
love-melancholy, 527
World taxed, 171
Wormwood good against melancholy, 392
Writers of the cure of melancholy, 270
Writers of imagination, 159
;
de consolatione,
341; of melancholy, 108; of love-melan-
choly, 521, 522; against despair, 648
Young man in love with a picture, 499
Youth a cause of love-melancholy, 454
7HB EMi).
6 8 4
if
^j/zr.
V V, <
r
''-
V
,/
i*:
.;. rV5
.*^-^
0^
\^'
,--^^ -^^
.\^'
V
,0 o.
,^-^
'^.
.0-'
-c
.0 C'
.^^
^/
.ON.,
^>,
'J- V
.^
,N^^
"^
.-^^
A. ^'
V^^^^
'^/. ' '
.
^
^
S^
? o., ,.0' .,'
.S''
^-S-^
Deacidified using the Bookkeeper process.
Neutralizing agent: Magnesium Oxide
Treatment Date: Feb. 2009
PreservationTechnologies
A WORLD LEADER IN COLLECTIONS PRESERVATION
111 Thomson Park Drive
Cranberry Township, PA 16066
(724) 779-2111
V."'^
.> s
,
.V
.^^
'O.
.-^"^
.V..,
^<o
^^^^'^
^
-i.^
." -^c^.
-^'
^^A
V^
tf :
^.^
..^ ,^^'
^^\V
'/
.'
'^..
,-i^-'
,00
^^^ %=:,
-0
..,*^