The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton V.2

THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY

BY

ROBERT BURTON

THE SECOND PARTITION

THE CURE OF MELANCHOLY

THE SYNOPSIS OF THE SECOND PARTITION.

Cure of melancholy is either

* Sect 1. General to all, which contains

* Unlawful means forbidden,

* Memb. 1. From the devil, magicians, witches, &c., by

charms, spells, incantations, &c.

* Quest. 1. Whether they can cure this, or other such

like diseases?

* Quest. 2. Whether, if they can so cure, it be lawful

to seek to them for help?

* or Lawful means, which are

* Memb. 2. Immediately from God, a Jove principium by

prayer &c.

* Memb. 3. Quest. 1. Whether saints and their relics can

help this infirmity?

Quest. 2. Whether it be lawful to sue to them

for aid.

* or Memb. 4. Mediately by Nature which concerns and

works by

* Subsect. 1. Physician, in whom is required science,

confidence, honesty, &c.

* Subsect. 2. Patient, in whom is required obedience,

constancy, willingness, patience, confidence,

bounty, &c., not to practise on himself.

* Subsect. 3. Physic, which consists of

* Dietetical A

* Pharmaceutical B

* Chirurgical C

* or Particular to the three distinct species, D, E, F

A Sect. 2. Dietetical, which consists in reforming those six

non-natural things, as in

* Diet rectified 1. Memb.

* Matter and quality 1 Subs.

* Such meats as are easy of digestion, well-dressed,

hot, sod, &c., young, moist, of good nourishment,

&c.

* Bread of pure wheat, well-baked.

* Water clear from the fountain.

* Wine and drink not too strong, &c.

* Flesh

* Mountain birds, partridge, pheasant, quails,

&c. Hen, capon, mutton, veal, kid, rabbit, &c.

* Fish

* That live in gravelly waters, as pike, perch,

trout, sea-fish, solid, white, &c.

* Herbs

* Borage, bugloss, balm, succory, endive, violets,

in broth, not raw, &c.

* Fruits and roots.

* Raisins of the sun, apples corrected for wind,

oranges, &c., parsnips, potatoes, &c.

* or Subs. 2. Quantity.

* At seasonable and unusual times of repast, in good

order, not before the first be concocted, sparing,

not overmuch of one dish.

* Memb. 2. Rectification of retention and evacuation, as

costiveness, venery, bleeding at nose, months stopped,

baths, &c.

* Memb. 3. Air rectified, with a digression of the air

* Naturally in the choice and site of our country,

dwelling-place, to be hot and moist, light, wholesome,

pleasant &c.

* Artificially, by often change of air, avoiding winds,

fogs, tempests, opening windows, perfumes, &c.

* Memb. 4. Exercise

* Of body and mind, but moderate, as hawking, hunting,

riding, shooting, bowling, fishing, fowling, walking in

fair fields, galleries, tennis, bar.

* Of mind, as chess, cards, tables &c., to see plays,

masks, &c., serious studies, business, all honest

recreations.

* Memb. 5. Rectification of waking and terrible dreams, &c.

* Memb. 6. Rectification of passions and perturbations of

the mind.

* From himself

* Subsect. 1. By using all good means of help,

confessing to a friend, &c.

* Avoiding all occasions of his infirmity.

* Not giving way to passions, but resisting to his

utmost.

* or from his friends.

* Subsect. 2. By fair and foul means, counsel,

comfort, good persuasion, witty devices, fictions,

and, if it be possible, to satisfy his mind.

* Subsect. 3. Music of all sorts aptly applied.

* Subsect. 4. Mirth and merry company.

* Sect. 3. A consolatory digression, containing

remedies to all discontents and passions of the

mind.

* Memb. 1. General discontents and grievances

satisfied.

* Memb. 2. Particular discontents, as deformity of

body, sickness, baseness of birth, &c.

* Memb. 3. Poverty and want, such calamities and

adversities.

* Memb. 4. Against servitude, loss of liberty,

imprisonment, banishment, &c.

* Memb. 5. Against vain fears, sorrows for death of

friends, or otherwise.

* Memb. 6. Against envy, livor, hatred, malice,

emulation, ambition, and self-love, &c.

* Memb. 7. Against repulses, abuses, injuries,

contempts, disgraces, contumelies, slanders, and

scoffs, &c.

* Memb. 8. Against all other grievous and ordinary

symptoms of this disease of melancholy.

B. Sect. 4. Pharmaceutics, or Physic which cureth with

medicines, with a digression of this kind of physic, is

either Memb. 1. Subsect. 1.

* General to all

* Alterative

* Simples altering melancholy, with a digression of

exotic simples 2. Subs.

* Herbs. 3. Subs.

* To the heart; borage, bugloss, scorzonera,

&c.

* To the head; balm, hops, nenuphar, &c.

* Liver; eupatory, artemisia, &c.

* Stomach; wormwood, centaury, pennyroyal.

* Spleen; ceterache, ash, tamarisk.

* To Purify the blood; endive, succory, &c.

* Against wind; origan, fennel, aniseed, &c.

* 4. Subs Precious stones; as smaragdes,

chelidonies, &c. Minerals;

* or compounds altering melancholy, with a digression

of compounds. 5. Subs.

* Inwardly taken

* Liquid

* fluid

* Wines; as of hellebore, bugloss,

tamarisk, &c.

* Syrups of borage, bugloss, hops,

epithyme, endive, succory, &c.

* or consisting.

* Conserves of violets, maidenhair,

borage, bugloss, roses, &c.

* Confections; treacle, mithridate,

eclegms or linctures.

* or solid, as those aromatical confections.

* hot

* Diambra, dianthos.

* Diamargaritum calidum.

* Diamoscum dulce.

* Electuarium de gemmis.

* Laetificans Galeni et Rhasis.

* or cold

* Diamargaritum frigidum.

* Diarrhodon abbatis.

* Diacorolli, diacodium with their

tables.

* Condites of all sorts, &c.

* or Outwardly used, as

* Oils of camomile, violets, roses, &c.

* Ointments, alablastritum, populeum, &c.

* Liniments, plasters, cerotes, cataplasms,

frontals, fomentations, epithymes, sacks,

bags, odoraments, posies, &c.

* or Purging H

* or Particular to three distinct species, I; J; K

H. Medicines purging melancholy are either Memb. 2.

* Simples purging melancholy

* 1. Subs. Upward, as vomits

* Asrabecca, laurel, white hellebore, scilla, or

sea-onion, antimony, tobacco

* or Downward. 2. Subs.

* More gentle; as senna, epithyme, polypody,

mirobalanes, fumitory, &c.

* Stronger; aloes, lapis Armenus, lapis lazuli, black

hellebore.

* or 3. Subs. Compounds purging melancholy

* Superior parts

* Mouth

* swallowed

* Liquid, as potions, juleps, syrups, wine of

hellebore, bugloss, &c.

* Solid, as lapis Armenus, and lazuli, pills of

Indie, pills of fumitory, &c.

* Electuaries, diasena, confection of hamech,

hierologladium, &c.

* or Not swallowed, as gargarisms, masticatories,

&c.

* or Nostrils, sneezing powders, odoraments,

perfumes, &c.

* or Inferior parts, as clysters strong and weak, and

suppositories of Castilian soap, honey boiled, &c.

C Chirurgical physic, which consists of Memb. 3.

* Phlebotomy, to all parts almost, and all the distinct

species.

* With knife, horse-leeches.

* Cupping-glasses.

* Cauteries, and searing with hot irons, boring.

* Dropax and sinapismus.

* Issues to several parts, and upon several occasions.

D Sect. 5. Cure of head-melancholy. Memb. 1.

* 1. Subsect. Moderate diet, meat of good juice, moistening,

easy of digestion.

* Good air.

* Sleep more than ordinary.

* Excrements daily to be voided by art or nature.

* Exercise of body and mind not too violent, or too remiss,

passions of the mind, and perturbations to be avoided.

* Subsect. 2. Bloodletting, if there be need, or that the

blood be corrupt, in the arm, forehead, &c., or with

cupping-glasses.

* Subsect. 3. Preparatives and purgers.

* Preparatives; as syrup of borage, bugloss, epithyme,

hops, with their distilled waters, &c.

* Purgers; as Montanus, and Matthiolus helleborismus,

Quercetanus, syrup of hellebore, extract of hellebore,

pulvis Hali, antimony prepared, Rulandi aqua mirabilis;

which are used, if gentler medicines will not take

place, with Arnoldus, vinum buglossatum, senna, cassia,

mirobalanes, aurum potabile, or before Hamech, Pil.

Indae, Hiera, Pil. de lap. Armeno, lazuli.

* Subsect. 4. Averters.

* Cardan's nettles, frictions, clysters, suppositories,

sneezings, masticatories, nasals, cupping-glasses.

* To open the haemorrhoids with horse-leeches, to apply

horse-leeches to the forehead without scarification, to

the shoulders, thighs.

* Issues, boring, cauteries, hot irons in the suture of

the crown.

* Subsect. 5. Cordials, resolvers, hinderers.

* A cup of wine or strong drink.

* Bezoars stone, amber, spice.

* Conserves of borage, bugloss, roses, fumitory.

* Confection of Alchermes.

* Electuarium laetificans Galeni et Rhasis, &c.

* Diamargaritum frig. diaboraginatum, &c.

* Subsect. 6. Correctors of accidents, as,

* Odoraments of roses, violets.

* Irrigations of the head, with the decoctions of

nymphea, lettuce, mallows, &c.

* Epithymes, ointments, bags to the heart.

* Fomentations of oil for the belly.

* Baths of sweet water, in which were sod mallows,

violets, roses, water-lilies, borage flowers,

ramsheads, &c.

* To procure sleep, and are

* Inwardly taken,

* Simples

* Poppy, nymphea, lettuce, roses, purslane,

henbane, mandrake, nightshade, opium, &c.

* or Compounds.

* Liquid, as syrups of poppy, verbasco, violets,

roses.

* Solid, as requies Nicholai, Philonium,

Romanum, Laudanum Paracelsi.

* or Outwardly used, as

* Oil of nymphea, poppy, violets, roses, mandrake,

nutmegs.

* Odoraments of vinegar, rosewater, opium.

* Frontals of rose-cake, rose-vinegar, nutmeg.

* Ointments, alablastritum, unguentum populeum,

simple or mixed with opium.

* Irrigations of the head, feet, sponges, music,

murmur and noise of waters.

* Frictions of the head and outward parts, sacculi

of henbane, wormwood at his pillow, &c.

* Against terrible dreams; not to sup late, or eat peas,

cabbage, venison, meats heavy of digestion, use balm,

hart's-tongue, &c.

* Against ruddiness and blushing, inward and outward

remedies.

E. 2. Memb. Cure of melancholy over the body.

* Diet, preparatives, purges, averters, cordials, correctors,

as before.

* Phlebotomy in this kind more necessary, and more frequent.

* To correct and cleanse the blood with fumitory, senna,

succory, dandelion, endive, &c.

F. Cure of hypochondriacal or windy melancholy. 3. Memb.

* Subsect. 1 Phlebotomy, if need require.

* Diet, preparatives, averters, cordials, purgers, as

before, saving that they must not be so vehement.

* Use of pennyroyal, wormwood, centaury sod, which alone

hath cured many.

* To provoke urine with aniseed, daucus, asarum, &c., and

stools, if need be, by clysters and suppositories.

* To respect the spleen, stomach, liver, hypochondries.

* To use treacle now and then in winter.

* To vomit after meals sometimes, if it be inveterate.

* Subsect. 2. To expel wind.

* Inwardly Taken,

* Simples,

* Roots,

* Galanga, gentian, enula, angelica, calamus

aromaticus, zedoary, china, condite ginger,

&c.

* Herbs,

* Pennyroyal, rue, calamint, bay leaves, and

berries, scordium, betony, lavender, camomile,

centaury, wormwood, cumin, broom, orange pills.

* Spices,

* Saffron, cinnamon, mace, nutmeg, pepper, musk,

zedoary with wine, &c.

* Seeds,

* Aniseed, fennel-seed, ammi, cary, cumin,

nettle, bays, parsley, grana paradisi.

* or Compounds, as

* Dianisum, diagalanga, diaciminum, diacalaminthes,

electuarium de baccis lauri, benedicta laxativa,

&c. pulvia carminativus, and pulvis descrip.

Antidotario Florentine, aromaticum, rosatum,

Mithridate.

* or Outwardly used, as cupping-glasses to the

hypochonrdies without scarification, oil of camomile,

rue, aniseed, their decoctions, &c.

THE SECOND PARTITION. THE CURE OF MELANCHOLY.

THE FIRST SECTION, MEMBER, SUBSECTION.

Unlawful Cures rejected.

Inveterate Melancholy, howsoever it may seem to be a

continuate, inexorable disease, hard to be cured, accompanying them

to their graves, most part, as Montanus observes, yet many times it

may be helped, even that which is most violent, or at least,

according to the same author, "it may be mitigated and much eased."

Nil desperandum. It may be hard to cure, but not impossible for him

that is most grievously affected, if he but willing to be helped.

Upon this good hope I will proceed, using the same method in

the cure, which I have formerly used in the rehearsing of the

causes; first general, then particular; and those according to their

several species. Of these cures some be lawful, some again unlawful,

which though frequent, familiar, and often used, yet justly

censured, and to be controverted. As first, whether by these

diabolical means, which are commonly practised by the devil and his

ministers, sorcerers, witches, magicians, &c., by spells,

cabalistical words, charms, characters, images, amulets, ligatures,

philters, incantations, &c., this disease and the like may be cured?

and if they may, whether it be lawful to make use of them, those

magnetical cures, or for our good to seek after such means in any

case? The first, whether they can do any such cures, is questioned

amongst many writers, some affirming, some denying. Valesius, cont.

med. lib. 5. cap. 6. Malleus Maleficar, Heurnius, lib. 3. pract.

med. cap. 28. Caelius lib. 16. c. 16. Delrio Tom. 3. Wierus lib. 2.

de praestig. daem. Libanius Lavater de spect. part. 2. cap. 7.

Holbrenner the Lutheran in Pistorium, Polydore Virg. l. 1. de

prodig. Tandlerus, Lemnius, (Hippocrates and Avicenna amongst the

rest) deny that spirits or devils have any power over us, and refer

all with Pomponatius of Padua to natural causes and humours. Of the

other opinion are Bodinus Daemonamantiae, lib. 3, cap. 2. Arnoldus,

Marcellus Empyricus, I. Pistorius, Paracelsus Apodix. Magic. Agrippa

lib. 2. de occult. Philos. cap. 36. 69. 71. 72. et l. 3, c. 23, et

10. Marcilius Ficinus de vit. coelit. compar. cap. 13. 15. 18. 21.

&c. Galeottus de promiscua doct. cap. 24. Jovianus Pontanus Tom. 2.

Plin. lib. 28, c. 2. Strabo, lib. 15. Geog. Leo Suavius: Goclenius

de ung. armar. Oswoldus Crollius, Ernestus Burgravius, Dr. Flud, &c.

Cardan de subt. brings many proofs out of Ars Notoria, and Solomon's

decayed works, old Hermes, Artelius, Costaben Luca, Picatrix, &c.

that such cures may be done. They can make fire it shall not burn,

fetch back thieves or stolen goods, show their absent faces in a

glass, make serpents lie still, stanch blood, salve gouts,

epilepsies, biting of mad dogs, toothache, melancholy, et omnia

mundi mala, make men immortal, young again as the Spanish marquis is

said to have done by one of his slaves, and some, which jugglers in

China maintain still (as Tragaltius writes) that they can do by

their extraordinary skill in physic, and some of our modern chemists

by their strange limbecks, by their spells, philosopher's stones and

charms. "Many doubt," saith Nicholas Taurellus, "whether the devil

can cure such diseases he hath not made, and some flatly deny it,

howsoever common experience confirms to our astonishment, that

magicians can work such feats, and that the devil without impediment

can penetrate through all the parts of our bodies, and cure such

maladies by means to us unknown." Daneus in his tract de Sortiariis

subscribes to this of Taurellus; Erastus de lamiis, maintaineth as

much, and so do most divines, out of their excellent knowledge and

long experience they can commit agentes cum patientibus, colligere

semina rerum, eaque materiae applicare, as Austin infers de Civ. Dei

et de Trinit. lib. 3. cap. 7. et 8. they can work stupendous and

admirable conclusions; we see the effects only, but not the causes

of them. Nothing so familiar as to hear of such cures. Sorcerers are

too common; cunning men, wizards, and white-witches, as they call

them, in every village, which if they be sought unto, will help

almost all infirmities of body and mind, Servatores in Latin, and

they have commonly St. Catherine's wheel printed in the roof of

their mouth, or in some other part about them, resistunt

incantatorum praestigiis ( Boissardus writes) morbos a sagis motos

propulsant &c., that to doubt of it any longer, "or not to believe,

were to run into that other sceptical extreme of incredulity," saith

Taurellus. Leo Suavius in his comment upon Paracelsus seems to make

it an art, which ought to be approved; Pistorius and others stiffly

maintain the use of charms, words, characters, &c. Ars vera est, sed

pauci artifices reperiuntur; the art is true, but there be but a few

that have skill in it. Marcellius Donatus lib. 2. de hist, mir. cap.

1. proves out of Josephus' eight books of antiquities, that "Solomon

so cured all the diseases of the mind by spells, charms, and drove

away devils, and that Eleazer did as much before Vespasian." Langius

in his med. epist. holds Jupiter Menecrates, that did so many

stupendous cures in his time, to have used this art, and that he was

no other than a magician. Many famous cures are daily done in this

kind, the devil is an expert physician, as Godelman calls him, lib.

1. cap. 18. and God permits oftentimes these witches and magicians

to produce such effects, as Lavater cap. 3. lib. 8. part. 3. cap. 1.

Polid. Virg. lib. 1. de prodigiis, Delrio and others admit. Such

cures may be done, and as Paracels. Tom. 4. de morb. ament. stiffly

maintains, "they cannot otherwise be cured but by spells, seals, and

spiritual physic." Arnoldus, lib. de sigillis, sets down the making

of them, so doth Rulandus and many others.

Hoc posito, they can effect such cures, the main question is,

whether it be lawful in a desperate case to crave their help, or ask

a wizard's advice. 'Tis a common practice of some men to go first to

a witch, and then to a physician, if one cannot the other shall,

Flectere si nequeant superos Acheronta movebunt. "It matters not,"

saith Paracelsus, "whether it be God or the devil, angels, or

unclean spirits cure him, so that he be eased." If a man fall into a

ditch, as he prosecutes it, what matter is it whether a friend or an

enemy help him out? and if I be troubled with such a malady, what

care I whether the devil himself, or any of his ministers by God's

permission, redeem me? He calls a magician, God's minister and his

vicar, applying that of vos estis dii profanely to them, for which

he is lashed by T. Erastus part. 1. fol. 45. And elsewhere he

encourageth his patients to have a good faith, "a strong

imagination, and they shall find the effects: let divines say to the

contrary what they will." He proves and contends that many diseases

cannot otherwise be cured. Incantatione orti incantatione curari

debent; if they be caused by incantation, they must be cured by

incantation. Constantinus lib. 4. approves of such remedies:

Bartolus the lawyer, Peter Aerodius rerum Judic. lib. 3. tit. 7.

Salicetus Godefridus, with others of that sect, allow of them; modo

sint ad sanitatem quae a magis fiunt, secus non, so they be for the

parties good, or not at all. But these men are confuted by Remigius,

Bodinus, daem. lib. 3. cap 2. Godelmanus lib. 1. cap. 8, Wierus,

Delrio lib. 6. quaest. 2. tom. 3. mag. inquis. Erastus de Lamiis; all

our divines, schoolmen, and such as write cases of conscience are

against it, the scripture itself absolutely forbids it as a mortal

sin, Levit. cap. xviii. xix. xx. Deut. xviii. &c. Rom. viii. 19.

"Evil is not to be done, that good may come of it." Much better it

were for such patients that are so troubled, to endure a little

misery in this life, than to hazard their souls' health for ever,

and as Delrio counselleth, "much better die, than be so cured." Some

take upon them to expel devils by natural remedies, and magical

exorcisms, which they seem to approve out of the practice of the

primitive church, as that above cited of Josephus, Eleazer,

Irenaeus, Tertullian, Austin. Eusebius makes mention of such, and

magic itself hath been publicly professed in some universities, as

of old in Salamanca in Spain, and Krakow in Poland: but condemned

anno 1318, by the chancellor and university of Paris. Our pontifical

writers retain many of these adjurations and forms of exorcisms

still in the church; besides those in baptism used, they exorcise

meats, and such as are possessed, as they hold, in Christ's name.

Read Hieron. Mengus cap. 3. Pet. Tyreus, part. 3. cap. 8. What

exorcisms they prescribe, besides those ordinary means of "fire

suffumigations, lights, cutting the air with swords," cap. 57.

herbs, odours: of which Tostatus treats, 2. Reg. cap. 16. quaest. 43,

you shall find many vain and frivolous superstitious forms of

exorcisms among them, not to be tolerated, or endured.

MEMB. II.

Lawful Cures, first from God.

Being so clearly evinced, as it is, all unlawful cures are to

be refused, it remains to treat of such as are to be admitted, and

those are commonly such which God hath appointed, by virtue of

stones, herbs, plants, meats, and the like, which are prepared and

applied to our use, by art and industry of physicians, who are the

dispensers of such treasures for our good, and to be "honoured for

necessities' sake," God's intermediate ministers, to whom in our

infirmities we are to seek for help. Yet not so that we rely too

much, or wholly upon them: a Jove principium, we must first begin

with prayer, and then use physic; not one without the other, but

both together. To pray alone, and reject ordinary means, is to do

like him in Aesop, that when his cart was stalled, lay flat on his

back, and cried aloud help Hercules, but that was to little purpose,

except as his friend advised him, rotis tute ipse annitaris, he

whipped his horses withal, and put his shoulder to the wheel. God

works by means, as Christ cured the blind man with clay and spittle:

Orandum est ut sit mens sana in corpore sano. As we must pray for

health of body and mind, so we must use our utmost endeavours to

preserve and continue it. Some kind of devils are not cast out but

by fasting and prayer, and both necessarily required, not one

without the other. For all the physic we can use, art, excellent

industry, is to no purpose without calling upon God, nil juvat

immensos Cratero promittere montes: it is in vain to seek for help,

run, ride, except God bless us.

------"non Siculi dapes

Dulcem elaborabunt saporem.

Non animum cytheraeve cantus."

"Non domus et fundus, non aeris acervus et auri

Aegroto possunt domino deducere febres."

"With house, with land, with money, and with gold,

The master's fever will not be controll'd."

We must use our prayer and physic both together: and so no

doubt but our prayers will be available, and our physic take effect.

'Tis that Hezekiah practised, 2 King. xx. Luke the Evangelist: and

which we are enjoined, Coloss. iv. not the patient only, but the

physician himself. Hippocrates, a heathen, required this in a good

practitioner, and so did Galen, lib. de Plat. et Hipp. dog. lib. 9.

cap. 15. and in that tract of his, an mores sequantur temp. cor. ca.

11.. 'tis a rule which he doth inculcate, and many others. Hyperius

in his first book de sacr. script. lect. speaking of that happiness

and good success which all physicians desire and hope for in their

cures, "tells them that it is not to be expected, except with a true

faith they call upon God, and teach their patients to do the like."

The council of Lateran, Canon 22. decreed they should do so: the

fathers of the church have still advised as much: whatsoever thou

takest in hand (saith Gregory) "let God be of thy counsel, consult

with him; that healeth those that are broken in heart, (Psal.

cxlvii. 3.) and bindeth up their sores." Otherwise as the prophet

Jeremiah, cap. xlvi. 11. denounced to Egypt, In vain shalt thou use

many medicines, for thou shalt have no health. It is the same

counsel which Comineus that politic historiographer gives to all

Christian princes, upon occasion of that unhappy overthrow of

Charles Duke of Burgundy, by means of which he was extremely

melancholy, and sick to death: insomuch that neither physic nor

persuasion could do him any good, perceiving his preposterous error

belike, adviseth all great men in such cases, "to pray first to God

with all submission and penitency, to confess their sins, and then

to use physic." The very same fault it was, which the prophet

reprehends in Asa king of Judah, that he relied more on physic than

on God, and by all means would have him to amend it. And 'tis a fit

caution to be observed of all other sorts of men. The prophet David

was so observant of this precept, that in his greatest misery and

vexation of mind, he put this rule first in practice. Psal. lxxvii.

3. "When I am in heaviness, I will think on God." Psal. lxxxvi. 4.

"Comfort the soul of thy servant, for unto thee I lift up my soul:"

and verse 7. "In the day of trouble will I call upon thee, for thou

hearest me." Psal. liv. 1. "Save me, O God, by thy name," &c. Psal.

lxxxii. Psal. xx. And 'tis the common practice of all good men,

Psal. cvii. 13. "when their heart was humbled with heaviness, they

cried to the Lord in their troubles, and he delivered them from

their distress." And they have found good success in so doing, as

David confesseth, Psal. xxx. 12. "Thou hast turned my mourning into

joy, thou hast loosed my sackcloth, and girded me with gladness."

Therefore he adviseth all others to do the like, Psal. xxxi. 24.

"All ye that trust in the Lord, be strong, and he shall establish

your heart." It is reported by Suidas, speaking of Hezekiah, that

there was a great book of old, of King Solomon's writing, which

contained medicines for all manner of diseases, and lay open still

as they came into the temple: but Hezekiah king of Jerusalem, caused

it to be taken away, because it made the people secure, to neglect

their duty in calling and relying upon God, out of a confidence on

those remedies. Minutius that worthy consul of Rome in an oration he

made to his soldiers, was much offended with them, and taxed their

ignorance, that in their misery called more on him than upon God. A

general fault it is all over the world, and Minutius's speech

concerns us all, we rely more on physic, and seek oftener to

physicians, than to God himself. As much faulty are they that

prescribe, as they that ask, respecting wholly their gain, and

trusting more to their ordinary receipts and medicines many times,

than to him that made them. I would wish all patients in this

behalf, in the midst of their melancholy, to remember that of

Siracides, Ecc. i. 11. and 12. "The fear of the Lord is glory and

gladness, and rejoicing. The fear of the Lord maketh a merry heart,

and giveth gladness, and joy, and long life:" and all such as

prescribe physic, to begin in nomine Dei, as Mesue did, to imitate

Laelius a Fonte Eugubinus, that in all his consultations, still

concludes with a prayer for the good success of his business; and to

remember that of Creto one of their predecessors, fuge avaritiam, et

sine oratione et invocations Dei nihil facias avoid covetousness,

and do nothing without invocation upon God.

MEMB. III.

Whether it be lawful to seek to Saints for Aid in this Disease.

That we must pray to God, no man doubts; but whether we should

pray to saints in such cases, or whether they can do us any good, it

may be lawfully controverted. Whether their images, shrines, relics,

consecrated things, holy water, medals, benedictions, those divine

amulets, holy exorcisms, and the sign of the cross, be available in

this disease? The papists on the one side stiffly maintain how many

melancholy, mad, demoniacal persons are daily cured at St. Anthony's

Church in Padua, at St. Vitus' in Germany, by our Lady of Loretto in

Italy, our Lady of Sichem in the Low Countries: Quae et caecis lumen,

aegris salutem, mortuis vitam, claudis gressum reddit, omnes morbos

corporis, animi, curat, et in ipsos daemones imperium exercet; she

cures halt, lame, blind, all diseases of body and mind, and commands

the devil himself, saith Lipsius. "twenty-five thousand in a day

come thither," quis nisi numen in illum locum sic induxit; who

brought them? in auribus, in oculis omnium gesta, novae novitia; new

news lately done, our eyes and ears are full of her cures, and who

can relate them all? They have a proper saint almost for every

peculiar infirmity: for poison, gouts, agues, Petronella: St.

Romanus for such as are possessed; Valentine for the falling

sickness; St. Vitus for madmen, &c. and as of old Pliny reckons up

Gods for all diseases, (Febri fanum dicalum est) Lilius Giraldus

repeats many of her ceremonies: all affections of the mind were

heretofore accounted gods, love, and sorrow, virtue, honour,

liberty, contumely, impudency, had their temples, tempests, seasons,

Crepitus Ventris, dea Vacuna, dea Cloacina, there was a goddess of

idleness, a goddess of the draught, or jakes, Prema, Premunda,

Priapus, bawdy gods, and gods for all offices. Varro reckons up

30,000 gods: Lucian makes Podagra the gout a goddess, and assigns

her priests and ministers: and melancholy comes not behind; for as

Austin mentioneth, lib. 4. de Civit. Dei, cap. 9. there was of old

Angerona dea, and she had her chapel and feasts, to whom (saith

Macrobius) they did offer sacrifice yearly, that she might be

pacified as well as the rest. 'Tis no new thing, you see this of

papists; and in my judgment, that old doting Lipsius might have

fitter dedicated his pen after all his labours, to this our goddess

of melancholy, than to his Virgo Halensis, and been her chaplain, it

would have become him better: but he, poor man, thought no harm in

that which he did, and will not be persuaded but that he doth well,

he hath so many patrons, and honourable precedents in the like kind,

that justify as much, as eagerly, and more than he there saith of

his lady and mistress: read but superstitious Coster and Gretser's

Tract de Cruce, Laur. Arcturus Fanteus de Invoc. Sanct. Bellarmine,

Delrio dis. mag. tom. 3. l. 6. quaest. 2. sect. 3. Greg. Tolosanus

tom. 2. lib. 8. cap. 24. Syntax. Strozius Cicogna lib. 4. cap. 9.

Tyreus, Hieronymus Mengus, and you shall find infinite examples of

cures done in this kind, by holy waters, relics, crosses, exorcisms,

amulets, images, consecrated beads, &c. Barradius the Jesuit boldly

gives it out, that Christ's countenance, and the Virgin Mary's,

would cure melancholy, if one had looked steadfastly on them. P.

Morales the Spaniard in his book de pulch. Jes. et Mar. confirms the

same out of Carthusianus, and I know not whom, that it was a common

proverb in those days, for such as were troubled in mind to say,

eamus ad videndum filium Mariae, let us see the son of Mary, as they

now do post to St. Anthony's in Padua, or to St. Hilary's at

Poitiers in France. In a closet of that church, there is at this

day St. Hilary's bed to be seen, "to which they bring all the madmen

in the country, and after some prayers and other ceremonies, they

lay them down there to sleep, and so they recover." It is an

ordinary thing in those parts, to send all their madmen to St.

Hilary's cradle. They say the like of St. Tubery in another place.

Giraldus Cambrensis Itin. Camb. c. 1. tells strange stories of St.

Ciricius' staff, that would cure this and all other diseases. Others

say as much (as Hospinian observes) of the three kings of Cologne;

their names written in parchment, and hung about a patient's neck,

with the sign of the cross, will produce like effects. Read

Lippomanus, or that golden legend of Jacobus de Voragine, you shall

have infinite stories, or those new relations of our Jesuits in

Japan and China, of Mat. Riccius, Acosta, Loyola, Xaverius's life,

&c. Jasper Belga, a Jesuit, cured a mad woman by hanging St. John's

gospel about her neck, and many such. Holy water did as much in

Japan, &c. Nothing so familiar in their works, as such examples.

But we on the other side seek to God alone. We say with David,

Psal. xlvi. 1. "God is our hope and strength, and help in trouble,

ready to be found." For their catalogue of examples, we make no

other answer, but that they are false fictions, or diabolical

illusions, counterfeit miracles. We cannot deny but that it is an

ordinary thing on St. Anthony's day in Padua, to bring diverse

madmen and demoniacal persons to be cured: yet we make a doubt

whether such parties be so affected indeed, but prepared by their

priests, by certain ointments and drachms , to cozen the commonalty,

as Hildesheim well saith; the like is commonly practised in Bohemia

as Mathiolus gives us to understand in his preface to his comment

upon Dioscorides. But we need not run so far for examples in this

kind, we have a just volume published at home to this purpose. "A

declaration of egregious popish impostures, to withdraw the hearts

of religious men under the pretence of casting out of devils,

practised by Father Edmunds, alias Weston, a Jesuit, and divers

Romish priests, his wicked associates," with the several parties'

names, confessions, examinations, &c. which were pretended to be

possessed. But these are ordinary tricks only to get opinion and

money, mere impostures. Aesculapius of old, that counterfeit God,

did as many famous cures; his temple (as Strabo relates) was daily

full of patients, and as many several tables, inscriptions,

pendants, donories, &c. to be seen in his church, as at this day our

Lady of Loretto's in Italy. It was a custom long since,

------"suspendisse potenti

Vestimenta maris deo."

("To offer the sailors' garments to the deity of the deep.")

Hor. Od. 1. lib. 5. Od.

To do the like, in former times they were seduced and deluded

as they are now. 'Tis the same devil still, called heretofore

Apollo, Mars, Neptune, Venus, Aesculapius, &c. as Lactantius lib. 2.

de orig. erroris, c. 17. observes. The same Jupiter and those bad

angels are now worshipped and adored by the name of St. Sebastian,

Barbara, &c. Christopher and George are come in their places. Our

lady succeeds Venus (as they use her in many offices), the rest are

otherwise supplied, as Lavater writes, and so they are deluded. "And

God often winks at these impostures, because they forsake his word,

and betake themselves to the devil, as they do that seek after holy

water, crosses," &c. Wierus, lib. 4. cap. 3. What can these men

plead for themselves more than those heathen gods, the same cures

done by both, the same spirit that seduceth; but read more of the

Pagan god's effects in Austin de Civitate Dei, l. 10. cap. 6. and of

Aesculapius especially in Cicogna l. 3. cap. 8. or put case they

could help, why should we rather seek to them, than to Christ

himself, since that he so kindly invites us unto him, "Come unto me

all ye that are heavy laden, and I will ease you," Mat. xi. and we

know that there is one God, "one Mediator between God and man, Jesus

Christ," (1 Tim. ii. 5) "who gave himself a ransom for all men." We

know that "we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ" (1

Joh. ii. 1.) that there is no "other name under heaven, by which we

can be saved, but by his," who is always ready to hear us, and sits

at the right hand of God, and from whom we can have no repulse,

solus vult, solus potest, curat universos tanquam singulos, et

unumquemque nostrum et solum, we are all as one to him, he cares for

us all as one, and why should we then seek to any other but to him.

MEMB. IV.

SUBSECT. I.--Physician, Patient, Physic.

Of those diverse gifts which our apostle Paul saith God hath

bestowed on man, this of physic is not the least, but most

necessary, and especially conducing to the good of mankind. Next

therefore to God in all our extremities ("for of the most high

cometh healing," Ecclus. xxxviii. 2.) we must seek to, and rely upon

the Physician, who is Manus Dei, saith Hierophilus, and to whom he

hath given knowledge, that he might be glorified in his wondrous

works. "With such doth he heal men, and take away their pains,"

Ecclus. xxxviii. 6. 7. "when thou hast need of him, let him not go

from thee. The hour may come that their enterprises may have good

success," ver. 13. It is not therefore to be doubted, that if we

seek a physician as we ought, we may be eased of our infirmities,

such a one I mean as is sufficient, and worthily so called; for

there be many mountebanks, quacksalvers, empirics, in every street

almost, and in every village, that take upon them this name, make

this noble and profitable art to be evil spoken of and contemned, by

reason of these base and illiterate artificers: but such a physician

I speak of, as is approved, learned, skilful, honest, &c., of whose

duty Wecker, Antid. cap. 2. and Syntax. med. Crato, Julius

Alexandrinus medic. Heurnius prax. med. lib. 3. cap. 1. &c. treat at

large. For this particular disease, him that shall take upon him to

cure it, Paracelsus will have to be a magician, a chemist, a

philosopher, an astrologer; Thurnesserus, Severinus the Dane, and

some other of his followers, require as much: "many of them cannot

be cured but by magic." Paracelsus is so stiff for those chemical

medicines, that in his cures he will admit almost of no other

physic, deriding in the mean time Hippocrates, Galen, and all their

followers: but magic, and all such remedies I have already censured,

and shall speak of chemistry elsewhere. Astrology is required by

many famous physicians, by Ficinus, Crato, Fernelius; doubted of,

and exploded by others: I will not take upon me to decide the

controversy myself, Johannes Hossurtus, Thomas Boderius, and Maginus

in the preface to his mathematical physic, shall determine for me.

Many physicians explode astrology in physic (saith he), there is no

use of it, unam artem ac quasi temerarium insectantur, ac gloriam

sibi ab ejus imperitia, aucupari: but I will reprove physicians by

physicians, that defend and profess it, Hippocrates, Galen, Avicen.

&c., that count them butchers without it, homicidas medicos

Astrologiae ignaros, &c. Paracelsus goes farther, and will have his

physician predestinated to this man's cure, this malady; and time of

cure, the scheme of each geniture inspected, gathering of herbs, of

administering astrologically observed; in which Thurnesserus and

some iatromathematical professors, are too superstitious in my

judgment. "Hellebore will help, but not alway, not given by every

physician," &c. but these men are too peremptory and self-conceited

as I think. But what do I do, interposing in that which is beyond my

reach? A blind man cannot judge of colours, nor I peradventure of

these things. Only thus much I would require, honesty in every

physician, that he be not over-careless or covetous, harpy-like to

make a prey of his patient; Carnificis namque est (as Wecker notes)

inter ipsos cruciatus ingens precium exposcere, as a hungry

chirurgeon often produces and wire-draws his cure, so long as there

is any hope of pay, Non missura cutem, nisi plena cruoris hirudo.

("The leech never releases the skin until he is filled with blood.")

Many of them, to get a fee, will give physic to every one that

comes, when there is no cause, and they do so irritare silentem

morbum, as Heurnius complains, stir up a silent disease, as it often

falleth out, which by good counsel, good advice alone, might have

been happily composed, or by rectification of those six non-natural

things otherwise cured. This is Naturae bellum inferre, to oppugn

nature, and to make a strong body weak. Arnoldus in his 8 and 11

Aphorisms gives cautions against, and expressly forbiddeth it. "A

wise physician will not give physic, but upon necessity, and first

try medicinal diet, before he proceed to medicinal cure." In another

place he laughs those men to scorn, that think longis syrupis

expugnare daemones et animi phantasmata, they can purge fantastical

imaginations and the devil by physic. Another caution is, that they

proceed upon good grounds, if so be there be need of physic, and not

mistake the disease; they are often deceived by the similitude of

symptoms, saith Heurnius, and I could give instance in many

consultations, wherein they have prescribed opposite physic.

Sometimes they go too perfunctorily to work, in not prescribing a

just course of physic: To stir up the humour, and not to purge it,

doth often more harm than good. Montanus consil. 30. inveighs

against such perturbations, "that purge to the halves, tire nature,

and molest the body to no purpose." 'Tis a crabbed humour to purge,

and as Laurentius calls this disease, the reproach of physicians:

Bessardus, flagellum medicorum, their lash; and for that cause, more

carefully to be respected. Though the patient be averse, saith

Laurentius, desire help, and refuse it again, though he neglect his

own health, it behoves a good physician not to leave him helpless.

But most part they offend in that other extreme, they prescribe too

much physic, and tire out their bodies with continual potions, to no

purpose. Aetius tetrabib. 2. 2. ser. cap. 90. will have them by all

means therefore "to give some respite to nature," to leave off now

and then; and Laelius a Fonte Eugubinus in his consultations, found

it (as he there witnesseth) often verified by experience, "that

after a deal of physic to no purpose, left to themselves, they have

recovered." 'Tis that which Nic. Piso, Donatus Altomarus, still

inculcate, dare requiem naturae, to give nature rest.

SUBSECT. II.--Concerning the Patient.

When these precedent cautions are accurately kept, and that we

have now got a skilful, an honest physician to our mind, if his

patient will not be conformable, and content to be ruled by him, all

his endeavours will come to no good end. Many things are necessarily

to be observed and continued on the patient's behalf: First that he

be not too niggardly miserable of his purse, or think it too much he

bestows upon himself, and to save charges endanger his health. The

Abderites, when they sent for Hippocrates, promised him what reward

he would, "all the gold they had, if all the city were gold he

should have it." Naaman the Syrian, when he went into Israel to

Elisha to be cured of his leprosy, took with him ten talents of

silver, six thousand pieces of gold, and ten changes of raiment, (2

Kings v. 5.) Another thing is, that out of bashfulness he do not

conceal his grief; if aught trouble his mind, let him freely

disclose it, Stultorum incurata pudor malus ulcera celat: by that

means he procures to himself much mischief, and runs into a greater

inconvenience: he must be willing to be cured, and earnestly desire

it. Pars sanitatis velle sanare fuit, (Seneca). 'Tis a part of his

cure to wish his own health, and not to defer it too long.

"Qui blandiendo dulce nutrivit malum,

Soro recusat ferre quod subiit jugum."

"He that by cherishing a mischief doth provoke,

Too late at last refuseth to cast off his yoke,"

"Helleborum frustra cum jam cutis aegra tumebit,

Poscentes videas; venienti occurrite morbo."

"When the skin swells, to seek it to appease

With hellebore, is vain; meet your disease."

By this means many times, or through their ignorance in not

taking notice of their grievance and danger of it, contempt, supine

negligence, extenuation, wretchedness and peevishness; they undo

themselves. The citizens, I know not of what city now, when rumour

was brought their enemies were coming, could not abide to hear it;

and when the plague begins in many places and they certainly know

it, they command silence and hush it up; but after they see their

foes now marching to their gates, and ready to surprise them, they

begin to fortify and resist when 'tis too late; when, the sickness

breaks out and can be no longer concealed, then they lament their

supine negligence: 'tis no otherwise with these men. And often out

of prejudice, a loathing, and distaste of physic, they had rather

die, or do worse, than take any of it. "Barbarous immanity" (

Melancthon terms it) "and folly to be deplored, so to contemn the

precepts of health, good remedies, and voluntarily to pull death,

and many maladies upon their own heads." Though many again are in

that other extreme too profuse, suspicious, and jealous of their

health, too apt to take physic on every small occasion, to aggravate

every slender passion, imperfection, impediment: if their finger do

but ache, run, ride, send for a physician, as many gentlewomen do,

that are sick, without a cause, even when they will themselves, upon

every toy or small discontent, and when he comes, they make it worse

than it is, by amplifying that which is not. Hier. Capivaccius sets

it down as a common fault of all "melancholy persons to say their

symptoms are greater than they are, to help themselves." And which

Mercurialis notes, consil. 53. "to be more troublesome to their

physicians, than other ordinary patients, that they may have change

of physic."

A third thing to be required in a patient, is confidence, to

be of good cheer, and have sure hope that his physician can help

him. Damascen the Arabian requires likewise in the physician

himself, that he be confident he can cure him, otherwise his physic

will not be effectual, and promise withal that he will certainly

help him, make him believe so at least. Galeottus gives this reason,

because the form of health is contained in the physician's mind, and

as Galen, holds "confidence and hope to be more good than physic,"

he cures most in whom most are confident. Axiocus sick almost to

death, at the very sight of Socrates recovered his former health.

Paracelsus assigns it for an only cause, why Hippocrates was so

fortunate in his cures, not for any extraordinary skill he had; but

"because the common people had a most strong conceit of his worth."

To this of confidence we may add perseverance, obedience, and

constancy, not to change his physician, or dislike him upon every

toy; for he that so doth (saith Janus Damascen) "or consults with

many, falls into many errors; or that useth many medicines." It was

a chief caveat of Seneca to his friend Lucilius, that he should not

alter his physician, or prescribed physic: "Nothing hinders health

more; a wound can never be cured, that hath several plasters." Crato

consil. 186. taxeth all melancholy persons of this fault: "'Tis

proper to them, if things fall not out to their mind, and that they

have not present ease, to seek another and another;" (as they do

commonly that have sore eyes) "twenty one after another, and they

still promise all to cure them, try a thousand remedies; and by this

means they increase their malady, make it most dangerous and

difficult to be cured." "They try many" (saith Montanus) "and

profit by none:" and for this cause, consil. 24. he enjoins his

patient before he take him in hand, "perseverance and sufferance,

for in such a small time no great matter can be effected, and upon

that condition he will administer physic, otherwise all his

endeavour and counsel would be to small purpose." And in his 31.

counsel for a notable matron, he tells her, "if she will be cured,

she must be of a most abiding patience, faithful obedience, and

singular perseverance; if she remit, or despair, she can expect or

hope for no good success." Consil. 230. for an Italian Abbot, he

makes it one of the greatest reasons why this disease is so

incurable, "because the parties are so restless, and impatient, and

will therefore have him that intends to be eased," "to take physic,

not for a month, a year, but to apply himself to their prescriptions

all the days of his life." Last of all, it is required that the

patient be not too bold to practise upon himself, without an

approved physician's consent, or to try conclusions, if he read a

receipt in a book; for so, many grossly mistake, and do themselves

more harm than good. That which is conducing to one man, in one

case, the same time is opposite to another. An ass and a mule went

laden over a brook, the one with salt, the other with wool: the

mule's pack was wet by chance, the salt melted, his burden the

lighter, and he thereby much eased: he told the ass, who, thinking

to speed as well, wet his pack likewise at the next water, but it

was much the heavier, he quite tired. So one thing may be good and

bad to several parties, upon diverse occasions. "Many things" (saith

Penottus) "are written in our books, which seem to the reader to be

excellent remedies, but they that make use of them are often

deceived, and take for physic poison." I remember in Valleriola's

observations, a story of one John Baptist a Neapolitan, that finding

by chance a pamphlet in Italian, written in praise of hellebore,

would needs adventure on himself, and took one dram for one scruple,

and had not he been sent for, the poor fellow had poisoned himself.

From whence he concludes out of Damascenus 2 et 3. Aphoris. "that

without exquisite knowledge, to work out of books is most dangerous:

how unsavoury a thing it is to believe writers, and take upon trust,

as this patient perceived by his own peril." I could recite such

another example of mine own knowledge, of a friend of mine, that

finding a receipt in Brassivola, would needs take hellebore in

substance, and try it on his own person; but had not some of his

familiars come to visit him by chance, he had by his indiscretion

hazarded himself: many such I have observed. These are those

ordinary cautions, which I should think fit to be noted, and he that

shall keep them, as Montanus saith, shall surely be much eased, if

not thoroughly cured.

SUBSECT. III.--Concerning Physic.

Physic itself in the last place is to be considered; "for the

Lord hath created medicines of the earth, and he that is wise will

not abhor them." Ecclus. xxxviii. 4. ver. 7. "of such doth the

apothecary make a confection," &c. Of these medicines there be

diverse and infinite kinds, plants, metals, animals, &c., and those

of several natures, some good for one, hurtful to another: some

noxious in themselves, corrected by art, very wholesome and good,

simples, mixed, &c., and therefore left to be managed by discreet

and skilful physicians, and thence applied to man's use. To this

purpose they have invented method, and several rules of art, to put

these remedies in order, for their particular ends. Physic (as

Hippocrates defines it) is nought else but "addition and

subtraction;" and as it is required in all other diseases, so in

this of melancholy it ought to be most accurate, it being (as

Mercurialis acknowledgeth) so common an affection in these our

times, and therefore fit to be understood. Several prescripts and

methods I find in several men, some take upon them to cure all

maladies with one medicine, severally applied, as that panacea,

aurum potabile, so much controverted in these days, herba solis, &c.

Paracelsus reduceth all diseases to four principal heads, to whom

Severinus, Ravelascus, Leo Suavius, and others adhere and imitate:

those are leprosy, gout, dropsy, falling-sickness. To which they

reduce the rest; as to leprosy, ulcers, itches, furfurs, scabs, &c.

To gout, stone, colic, toothache, headache, &c. To dropsy, agues,

jaundice, cachexia, &c. To the falling-sickness, belong palsy,

vertigo, cramps, convulsions, incubus, apoplexy, &c. "If any of

these four principal be cured" (saith Ravelascus) "all the inferior

are cured," and the same remedies commonly serve: but this is too

general, and by some contradicted: for this peculiar disease of

melancholy, of which I am now to speak, I find several cures,

several methods and prescripts. They that intend the practic cure of

melancholy, saith Duretus in his notes to Hollerius, set down nine

peculiar scopes or ends; Savanarola prescribes seven especial

canons. Aelianus Montaltus cap. 26. Faventinus in his empirics,

Hercules de Saxonia, &c., have their several injunctions and rules,

all tending to one end. The ordinary is threefold, which I mean to

follow. ??a?t?t??? [Diaitaetike], Pharmaceutica, and Chirurgica,

diet, or living, apothecary, chirurgery, which Wecker, Crato,

Guianerius, &c., and most, prescribe; of which I will insist, and

speak in their order.

SECT. II. MEMB. I.

SUBSECT. I.--Diet rectified in substance.

Diet, ??a?t?t??? [Diaitaetike], victus, or living, according

to Fuchsius and others, comprehends those six non-natural things,

which I have before specified, are especial causes, and being

rectified, a sole or chief part of the cure. Johannes Arculanus,

cap. 16. in 9. Rhasis, accounts the rectifying of these six a

sufficient cure. Guianerius, tract. 15, cap. 9. calls them, propriam

et primam curam, the principal cure: so doth Montanus, Crato,

Mercurialis, Altomarus, &c., first to be tried, Lemnius, instit.

cap. 22, names them the hinges of our health, no hope of recovery

without them. Reinerus Solenander, in his seventh consultation for a

Spanish young gentlewoman, that was so melancholy she abhorred all

company, and would not sit at table with her familiar friends,

prescribes this physic above the rest, no good to be done without

it. Aretus, lib. 1. cap. 7. an old physician, is of opinion, that

this is enough of itself, if the party be not too far gone in

sickness. Crato, in a consultation of his for a noble patient, tells

him plainly, that if his highness will keep but a good diet, he will

warrant him his former health. Montanus, consil. 27. for a nobleman

of France, admonisheth his lordship to be most circumspect in his

diet, or else all his other physic will be to small purpose. The

same injunction I find verbatim in J. Caesar Claudinus, Respon. 34.

Scoltzii, consil. 183. Trallianus, cap. 16. lib. 1. Laelius a Fonte

Aeugubinus often brags, that he hath done more cures in this kind by

rectification of diet, than all other physic besides. So that in a

word I may say to most melancholy men, as the fox said to the

weasel, that could not get out of the garner, Macra cavum repetes,

quem macra subisti, ("When you are again lean, seek an exit through

that hole by which lean you entered.") the six non-natural things

caused it, and they must cure it. Which howsoever I treat of, as

proper to the meridian of melancholy, yet nevertheless, that which

is here said with him in Tully, though writ especially for the good

of his friends at Tarentum and Sicily, yet it will generally serve

most other diseases, and help them likewise, if it be observed.

Of these six non-natural things, the first is diet, properly

so called, which consists in meat and drink, in which we must

consider substance, quantity, quality, and that opposite to the

precedent. In substance, such meats are generally commended, which

are "moist, easy of digestion, and not apt to engender wind, not

fried, nor roasted, but sod" (saith Valescus, Altomarus, Piso, &c.)

"hot and moist, and of good nourishment;" Crato, consil. 21. lib. 2.

admits roast meat, if the burned and scorched superficies, the brown

we call it, be pared off. Salvianus, lib. 2. cap. 1. cries out on

cold and dry meats; young flesh and tender is approved, as of kid,

rabbits, chickens, veal, mutton, capons, hens, partridge, pheasant,

quails, and all mountain birds, which are so familiar in some parts

of Africa, and in Italy, and as Dublinius reports, the common food

of boors and clowns in Palestine. Galen takes exception at mutton,

but without question he means that rammy mutton, which is in Turkey

and Asia Minor, which have those great fleshy tails, of forty-eight

pounds weight, as Vertomannus witnesseth, navig. lib. 2. cap. 5. The

lean of fat meat is best, and all manner of broths, and pottage,

with borage, lettuce, and such wholesome herbs are excellent good,

especially of a cock boiled; all spoon meat. Arabians commend

brains, but Laurentius, c. 8. excepts against them, and so do many

others; eggs are justified as a nutritive wholesome meat, butter and

oil may pass, but with some limitation; so Crato confines it, and

"to some men sparingly at set times, or in sauce," and so sugar and

honey are approved. All sharp and sour sauces must be avoided, and

spices, or at least seldom used: and so saffron sometimes in broth

may be tolerated; but these things may be more freely used, as the

temperature of the party is hot or cold, or as he shall find

inconvenience by them. The thinnest, whitest, smallest wine is best,

not thick, nor strong; and so of beer, the middling is fittest.

Bread of good wheat, pure, well purged from the bran is preferred;

Laurentius, cap. 8. would have it kneaded with rain water, if it may

be gotten.

Water.] Pure, thin, light water by all means use, of good

smell and taste, like to the air in sight, such as is soon hot, soon

cold, and which Hippocrates so much approves, if at least it may be

had. Rain water is purest, so that it fall not down in great drops,

and be used forthwith, for it quickly putrefies. Next to it fountain

water that riseth in the east, and runneth eastward, from a quick

running spring, from flinty, chalky, gravelly grounds: and the

longer a river runneth, it is commonly the purest, though many

springs do yield the best water at their fountains. The waters in

hotter countries, as in Turkey, Persia, India, within the tropics,

are frequently purer than ours in the north, more subtile, thin, and

lighter, as our merchants observe, by four ounces in a pound,

pleasanter to drink, as good as our beer, and some of them, as

Choaspis in Persia, preferred by the Persian kings, before wine

itself.

"Clitorio quicunque sitim de fonte levarit

Vina fugit gaudetque meris abstemius undis."

(Ovid. Met. lib. 15. "Whoever has allayed his thirst with the

water of the Clitorius, avoids wine, and abstemious delights

in pure water only.")

Many rivers I deny not are muddy still, white, thick, like

those in China, Nile in Egypt, Tiber at Rome, but after they be

settled two or three days, defecate and clear, very commodious,

useful and good. Many make use of deep wells, as of old in the Holy

Land, lakes, cisterns, when they cannot be better provided; to fetch

it in carts or gondolas, as in Venice, or camels' backs, as at Cairo

in Egypt, Radzivilius observed 8000 camels daily there, employed

about that business; some keep it in trunks, as in the East Indies,

made four square with descending steps, and 'tis not amiss, for I

would not have any one so nice as that Grecian Calis, sister to

Nicephorus, emperor of Constantinople, and married to Dominitus

Silvius, duke of Venice, that out of incredible wantonness, communi

aqua uti nolebat, would use no vulgar water; but she died tanta

(saith mine author) foetidissimi puris copia, of so fulsome a

disease, that no water could wash her clean. Plato would not have a

traveller lodge in a city that is not governed by laws, or hath not

a quick stream running by it; illud enim animum, hoc corrumpit

valetudinem, one corrupts the body, the other the mind. But this is

more than needs, too much curiosity is naught, in time of necessity

any water is allowed. Howsoever, pure water is best, and which (as

Pindarus holds) is better than gold; an especial ornament it is, and

"very commodious to a city" (according to Vegetius) "when fresh

springs are included within the walls," as at Corinth, in the midst

of the town almost, there was arx altissima scatens fontibus, a

goodly mount full of fresh water springs: "if nature afford them not

they must be had by art." It is a wonder to read of those stupend

aqueducts, and infinite cost hath been bestowed in Rome of old,

Constantinople, Carthage, Alexandria, and such populous cities, to

convey good and wholesome waters: read Frontinus, Lipsius de admir.

Plinius, lib. 3. cap. 11, Strabo in his Geogr. That aqueduct of

Claudius was most eminent, fetched upon arches fifteen miles, every

arch 109 feet high: they had fourteen such other aqueducts, besides

lakes and cisterns, 700 as I take it; every house had private pipes

and channels to serve them for their use. Peter Gillius, in his

accurate description of Constantinople, speaks of an old cistern

which he went down to see, 336 feet long, 180 feet broad, built of

marble, covered over with arch-work, and sustained by 336 pillars,

12 feet asunder, and in eleven rows, to contain sweet water.

Infinite cost in channels and cisterns, from Nilus to Alexandria,

hath been formerly bestowed, to the admiration of these times; their

cisterns so curiously cemented and composed, that a beholder would

take them to be all of one stone: when the foundation is laid, and

cistern made, their house is half built. That Segovian aqueduct in

Spain, is much wondered at in these days, upon three rows of

pillars, one above another, conveying sweet water to every house:

but each city almost is full of such aqueducts. Amongst the rest he

is eternally to be commended, that brought that new stream to the

north side of London at his own charge: and Mr. Otho Nicholson,

founder of our waterworks and elegant conduit in Oxford. So much

have all times attributed to this element, to be conveniently

provided of it: although Galen hath taken exceptions at such waters,

which run through leaden pipes, ob cerussam quae in iis generatur,

for that unctuous ceruse, which causeth dysenteries and fluxes; yet

as Alsarius Crucius of Genna well answers, it is opposite to common

experience. If that were true, most of our Italian cities,

Montpelier in France, with infinite others, would find this

inconvenience, but there is no such matter. For private families, in

what sort they should furnish themselves, let them consult with P.

Crescentius, de Agric. l. 1. c. 4, Pamphilius Hirelacus, and the

rest.

Amongst fishes, those are most allowed of, that live in

gravelly or sandy waters, pikes, perch, trout, gudgeon, smelts,

flounders, &c. Hippolitus Salvianus takes exception at carp; but I

dare boldly say with Dubravius, it is an excellent meat, if it come

not from muddy pools, that it retain not an unsavoury taste.

Erinacius Marinus is much commended by Oribatius, Aetius, and most

of our late writers.

Crato, consil. 21. lib. 2. censures all manner of fruits, as

subject to putrefaction, yet tolerable at sometimes, after meals, at

second course, they keep down vapours, and have their use. Sweet

fruits are best, as sweet cherries, plums, sweet apples, pearmains,

and pippins, which Laurentius extols, as having a peculiar property

against this disease, and Plater magnifies, omnibus modis

appropriata conveniunt, but they must be corrected for their

windiness: ripe grapes are good, and raisins of the sun, musk-melons

well corrected, and sparingly used. Figs are allowed, and almonds

blanched. Trallianus discommends figs, Salvianus olives and capers,

which others especially like of, and so of pistick nuts. Montanus

and Mercurialis out of Avenzoar, admit peaches, pears, and apples

baked after meals, only corrected with sugar, and aniseed, or

fennel-seed, and so they may be profitably taken, because they

strengthen the stomach, and keep down vapours. The like may be said

of preserved cherries, plums, marmalade of plums, quinces, &c., but

not to drink after them. Pomegranates, lemons, oranges are

tolerated, if they be not too sharp.

Crato will admit of no herbs, but borage, bugloss, endive,

fennel, aniseed, balm; Callenius and Arnoldus tolerate lettuce,

spinach, beets, &c. The same Crato will allow no roots at all to be

eaten. Some approve of potatoes, parsnips, but all corrected for

wind. No raw salads; but as Laurentius prescribes, in broths; and so

Crato commends many of them: or to use borage, hops, balm, steeped

in their ordinary drink. Avenzoar magnifies the juice of a

pomegranate, if it be sweet, and especially rose water, which he

would have to be used in every dish, which they put in practice in

those hot countries, about Damascus, where (if we may believe the

relations of Vertomannus) many hogsheads of rose water are to be

sold in the market at once, it is in so great request with them.

SUBSECT. II.--Diet rectified in quantity.

Man alone, saith Cardan, eats and drinks without appetite, and

useth all his pleasure without necessity, animae vitio, and thence

come many inconveniences unto him. For there is no meat whatsoever,

though otherwise wholesome and good, but if unseasonably taken, or

immoderately used, more than the stomach can well bear, it will

engender crudity, and do much harm. Therefore Crato adviseth his

patient to eat but twice a day, and that at his set meals, by no

means to eat without an appetite, or upon a full stomach, and to put

seven hours' difference between dinner and supper. Which rule if we

did observe in our colleges, it would be much better for our

healths: but custom, that tyrant, so prevails, that contrary to all

good order and rules of physic, we scarce admit of five. If after

seven hours' tarrying he shall have no stomach, let him defer his

meal, or eat very little at his ordinary time of repast. This very

counsel was given by Prosper Calenus to Cardinal Caesius, labouring

of this disease; and Platerus prescribes it to a patient of his, to

be most severely kept. Guianerius admits of three meals a day, but

Montanus, consil. 23. pro. Ab. Italo, ties him precisely to two. And

as he must not eat overmuch, so he may not absolutely fast; for as

Celsus contends, lib. 1. Jacchinus 15. in 9. Rhasis, repletion and

inanition may both do harm in two contrary extremes. Moreover, that

which he doth eat, must be well chewed, and not hastily gobbled, for

that causeth crudity and wind; and by all means to eat no more than

he can well digest. "Some think" (saith Trincavelius, lib. 11. cap.

29. de curand. part. hum.) "the more they eat the more they nourish

themselves:" eat and live, as the proverb is, "not knowing that only

repairs man, which is well concocted, not that which is devoured."

Melancholy men most part have good appetites, but ill digestion, and

for that cause they must be sure to rise with an appetite; and that

which Socrates and Disarius the physicians in Macrobius so much

require, St. Hierom enjoins Rusticus to eat and drink no more than,

will satisfy hunger and thirst. Lessius, the Jesuit, holds twelve,

thirteen, or fourteen ounces, or in our northern countries, sixteen

at most, (for all students, weaklings, and such as lead an idle

sedentary life) of meat, bread, &c., a fit proportion for a whole

day, and as much or little more of drink. Nothing pesters the body

and mind sooner than to be still fed, to eat and ingurgitate beyond

all measure, as many do. "By overmuch eating and continual feasts

they stifle nature, and choke up themselves; which, had they lived

coarsely, or like galley slaves been tied to an oar, might have

happily prolonged many fair years."

A great inconvenience comes by variety of dishes, which

causeth the precedent distemperature, "than which" (saith Avicenna)

"nothing is worse; to feed on diversity of meats, or overmuch,"

Sertorius-like, in lucem caenare, and as commonly they do in Muscovy

and Iceland, to prolong their meals all day long, or all night. Our

northern countries offend especially in this, and we in this island

(ampliter viventes in prandiis et caenis, as Polydore notes) are most

liberal feeders, but to our own hurt. Persicos odi puer apparatus:

"Excess of meat breedeth sickness, and gluttony causeth choleric

diseases: by surfeiting many perish, but he that dieteth himself

prolongeth his life," Ecclus. xxxvii. 29, 30. We account it a great

glory for a man to have his table daily furnished with variety of

meats: but hear the physician, he pulls thee by the ear as thou

sittest, and telleth thee, "that nothing can be more noxious to thy

health than such variety and plenty." Temperance is a bridle of

gold, and he that can use it aright, ego non summis viris comparo,

sed simillimum Deo judico, is liker a God than a man: for as it will

transform a beast to a man again, so will it make a man a God. To

preserve thine honour, health, and to avoid therefore all those

inflations, torments, obstructions, crudities, and diseases that

come by a full diet, the best way is to feed sparingly of one or two

dishes at most, to have ventrem bene moratum, as Seneca calls it,

"to choose one of many, and to feed on that alone," as Crato

adviseth his patient. The same counsel Prosper Calenus gives to

Cardinal Caesius, to use a moderate and simple diet: and though his

table be jovially furnished by reason of his state and guests, yet

for his own part to single out some one savoury dish and feed on it.

The same is inculcated by Crato, consil. 9. l. 2. to a noble

personage affected with this grievance, he would have his highness

to dine or sup alone, without all his honourable attendance and

courtly company, with a private friend or so, a dish or two, a cup

of Rhenish wine, &c. Montanus, consil. 24. for a noble matron

enjoins her one dish, and by no means to drink between meals. The

like, consil. 229. or not to eat till he be an hungry, which rule

Berengarius did most strictly observe, as Hilbertus, Cenomecensis

Episc. writes in his life,

------"cui non fuit unquam

Ante sitim potus, nec cibus ante famem,"

and which all temperate men do constantly keep. It is a

frequent solemnity still used with us, when friends meet, to go to

the alehouse or tavern, they are not sociable otherwise: and if they

visit one another's houses, they must both eat and drink. I

reprehend it not moderately used; but to some men nothing can be

more offensive; they had better, I speak it with Saint Ambrose, pour

so much water in their shoes.

It much avails likewise to keep good order in our diet, "to

eat liquid things first, broths, fish, and such meats as are sooner

corrupted in the stomach; harder meats of digestion must come last."

Crato would have the supper less than the dinner, which Cardan,

Contradict. lib. 1. tract. 5. contradict. 18. disallows, and that by

the authority of Galen. 7. art. curat. cap. 6. and for four reasons

he will have the supper biggest: I have read many treatises to this

purpose, I know not how it may concern some few sick men, but for my

part generally for all, I should subscribe to that custom of the

Romans, to make a sparing dinner, and a liberal supper; all their

preparation and invitation was still at supper, no mention of

dinner. Many reasons I could give, but when all is said pro and con,

Cardan's rule is best, to keep that we are accustomed unto, though

it be naught, and to follow our disposition and appetite in some

things is not amiss; to eat sometimes of a dish which is hurtful, if

we have an extraordinary liking to it. Alexander Severus loved hares

and apples above all other meats, as Lampridius relates in his life:

one pope pork, another peacock, &c.; what harm came of it? I

conclude our own experience is the best physician; that diet which

is most propitious to one, is often pernicious to another, such is

the variety of palates, humours, and temperatures, let every man

observe, and be a law unto himself. Tiberius, in Tacitus, did laugh

at all such, that thirty years of age would ask counsel of others

concerning matters of diet; I say the same.

These few rules of diet he that keeps, shall surely find great

ease and speedy remedy by it. It is a wonder to relate that

prodigious temperance of some hermits, anchorites, and fathers of

the church: he that shall but read their lives, written by Hierom,

Athanasius, &c., how abstemious heathens have been in this kind,

those Curii and Fabritii, those old philosophers, as Pliny records,

lib. 11. Xenophon, lib. 1. de vit. Socrat. Emperors and kings, as

Nicephorus relates, Eccles. hist. lib. 18. cap. 8. of Mauritius,

Ludovicus Pius, &c., and that admirable example of Ludovicus

Cornarus, a patrician of Venice, cannot but admire them. This have

they done voluntarily and in health; what shall these private men do

that are visited with sickness, and necessarily enjoined to recover,

and continue their health? It is a hard thing to observe a strict

diet, et qui medice vivit, misere vivit, as the saying is, quale hoc

ipsum erit vivere, his si privatus fueris? as good be buried, as so

much debarred of his appetite; excessit medicina malum, the physic

is more troublesome than the disease, so he complained in the poet,

so thou thinkest: yet he that loves himself will easily endure this

little misery, to avoid a greater inconvenience; e malis minimum

better do this than do worse. And as Tully holds, "better be a

temperate old man than a lascivious youth." 'Tis the only sweet

thing (which he adviseth) so to moderate ourselves, that we may have

senectutem in juventute, et in juventute senectutem, be youthful in

our old age, staid in our youth, discreet and temperate in both.

MEMB. II.

Retention and Evacuation rectified.

I have declared in the causes what harm costiveness hath done

in procuring this disease; if it be so noxious, the opposite must

needs be good, or mean at least, as indeed it is, and to this cure

necessarily required; maxime conducit, saith Montaltus, cap. 27. it

very much avails. Altomarus, cap. 7, "commends walking in a

morning, into some fair green pleasant fields, but by all means

first, by art or nature, he will have these ordinary excrements

evacuated." Piso calls it, Beneficium ventris, the benefit, help or

pleasure of the belly, for it doth much ease it. Laurentius, cap. 8,

Crato, consil. 21. l. 2. prescribes it once a day at least: where

nature is defective, art must supply, by those lenitive electuaries,

suppositories, condite prunes, turpentine, clysters, as shall be

shown. Prosper Calenus, lib. de atra bile, commends clysters in

hypochondriacal melancholy, still to be used as occasion serves;

Peter Cnemander in a consultation of his pro hypocondriaco, will

have his patient continually loose, and to that end sets down there

many forms of potions and clysters. Mercurialis, consil. 88. if this

benefit come not of its own accord, prescribes clysters in the first

place: so doth Montanus, consil. 24. consil. 31 et 229. he commends

turpentine to that purpose: the same he ingeminates, consil. 230.

for an Italian abbot. 'Tis very good to wash his hands and face

often, to shift his clothes, to have fair linen about him, to be

decently and comely attired, for sordes vitiant, nastiness defiles

and dejects any man that is so voluntarily, or compelled by want, it

dulleth the spirits.

Baths are either artificial or natural, both have their

special uses in this malady, and as Alexander supposeth, lib. 1.

cap. 16. yield as speedy a remedy as any other physic whatsoever.

Aetius would have them daily used, assidua balnea, Tetra. 2. sect.

2. c. 9. Galen cracks how many several cures he hath performed in

this kind by use of baths alone, and Rufus pills, moistening them

which are otherwise dry. Rhasis makes it a principal cure, Tota cura

sit in humectando, to bathe and afterwards anoint with oil. Jason

Pratensis, Laurentius, cap. 8. and Montanus set down their peculiar

forms of artificial baths. Crato, consil. 17. lib. 2. commends

mallows, camomile, violets, borage to be boiled in it, and sometimes

fair water alone, and in his following counsel, Balneum aquae dulcis

solum saepissime profuisse compertum habemus. So doth Fuchsius, lib.

1. cap. 33. Frisimelica, 2. consil. 42. in Trincavelius. Some beside

herbs prescribe a ram's head and other things to be boiled.

Fernelius, consil. 44. will have them used ten or twelve days

together; to which he must enter fasting, and so continue in a

temperate heat, and after that frictions all over the body. Lelius

Aegubinus, consil. 142. and Christoph. Aererus, in a consultation of

his, hold once or twice a week sufficient to bathe, the "water to be

warm, not hot, for fear of sweating." Felix Plater, observ. lib. 1.

for a melancholy lawyer, "will have lotions of the head still

joined to these baths, with a lee wherein capital herbs have been

boiled." Laurentius speaks of baths of milk, which I find approved

by many others. And still after bath, the body to be anointed with

oil of bitter almonds, of violets, new or fresh butter, capon's

grease, especially the backbone, and then lotions of the head,

embrocations, &c. These kinds of baths have been in former times

much frequented, and diversely varied, and are still in general use

in those eastern countries. The Romans had their public baths very

sumptuous and stupend, as those of Antoninus and Diocletian. Plin.

36. saith there were an infinite number of them in Rome, and

mightily frequented; some bathed seven times a day, as Commodus the

emperor is reported to have done; usually twice a day, and they were

after anointed with most costly ointments: rich women bathed

themselves in milk, some in the milk of five hundred she-asses at

once: we have many ruins of such, baths found in this island,

amongst those parietines and rubbish of old Roman towns. Lipsius, de

mag. Urb. Rom. l. 3, c. 8, Rosinus, Scot of Antwerp, and other

antiquaries, tell strange stories of their baths. Gillius, l. 4.

cap. ult. Topogr. Constant. reckons up 155 public baths in

Constantinople, of fair building; they are still frequented in that

city by the Turks of all sorts, men and women, and all over Greece,

and those hot countries; to absterge belike that fulsomeness of

sweat, to which they are there subject. Busbequius, in his epistles,

is very copious in describing the manner of them, how their women go

covered, a maid following with a box of ointment to rub them. The

richer sort have private baths in their houses; the poorer go to the

common, and are generally so curious in this behalf, that they will

not eat nor drink until they have bathed, before and after meals

some, "and will not make water (but they will wash their hands) or

go to stool." Leo Afer. l. 3. makes mention of one hundred several

baths at Fez in Africa, most sumptuous, and such as have great

revenues belonging to them. Buxtorf. cap. 14, Synagog. Jud. speaks

of many ceremonies amongst the Jews in this kind; they are very

superstitious in their baths, especially women.

Natural baths are praised by some, discommended by others; but

it is in a divers respect. Marcus, de Oddis in Hip. affect.

consulted about baths, condemns them for the heat of the liver,

because they dry too fast; and yet by and by, in another counsel for

the same disease, he approves them because they cleanse by reason of

the sulphur, and would have their water to be drunk. Areteus, c. 7.

commends alum baths above the rest; and Mercurialis, consil. 88.

those of Lucca in that hypochondriacal passion. "He would have his

patient tarry there fifteen days together, and drink the water of

them, and to be bucketed, or have the water poured on his head."

John Baptista, Sylvaticus cont. 64. commends all the baths in Italy,

and drinking of their water, whether they be iron, alum, sulphur; so

doth Hercules de Saxonia. But in that they cause sweat and dry so

much, he confines himself to hypochondriacal melancholy alone,

excepting that of the head and the other. Trincavelius, consil. 14.

lib. 1. refers those Porrectan baths before the rest, because of the

mixture of brass, iron, alum, and consil. 35. l. 3. for a melancholy

lawyer, and consil. 36. in that hypochondriacal passion, the baths

of Aquaria, and 36. consil. the drinking of them. Frisimelica,

consulted amongst the rest in Trincavelius, consil. 42. lib. 2.

prefers the waters of Apona before all artificial baths whatsoever

in this disease, and would have one nine years affected with

hypochondriacal passions fly to them as to a holy anchor. Of the

same mind is Trincavelius himself there, and yet both put a hot

liver in the same party for a cause, and send him to the waters of

St. Helen, which are much hotter. Montanus, consil. 230. magnifies

the Chalderinian baths, and consil 237. et 239. he exhorteth to the

same, but with this caution, "that the liver be outwardly anointed

with some coolers that it be not overheated." But these baths must

be warily frequented by melancholy persons, or if used, to such as

are very cold of themselves, for as Gabelius concludes of all Dutch

baths, and especially of those of Baden, "they are good for all cold

diseases, naught for choleric, hot and dry, and all infirmities

proceeding of choler, inflammations of the spleen and liver." Our

English baths, as they are hot, must needs incur the same censure:

but D. Turner of old, and D. Jones have written at large of them. Of

cold baths I find little or no mention in any physician, some speak

against them: Cardan alone out of Agathinus commends "bathing in

fresh rivers, and cold waters, and adviseth all such as mean to live

long to use it, for it agrees with all ages and complexions, and is

most profitable for hot temperatures." As for sweating, urine,

bloodletting by haemrods, or otherwise, I shall elsewhere more

opportunely speak of them.

Immoderate Venus in excess, as it is a cause, or in defect; so

moderately used to some parties an only help, a present remedy.

Peter Forestus calls it aptissimum remedium, a most apposite remedy,

"remitting anger, and reason, that was otherwise bound." Avicenna

Fen. 3. 20. Oribasius med. collect. lib. 6. cap. 37. contend out of

Ruffus and others, "that many madmen, melancholy, and labouring of

the falling sickness, have been cured by this alone." Montaltus cap.

27. de melan. will have it drive away sorrow, and all illusions of

the brain, to purge the heart and brain from ill smokes and vapours

that offend them: "and if it be omitted," as Valescus supposeth, "it

makes the mind sad, the body dull and heavy." Many other

inconveniences are reckoned up by Mercatus, and by Rodericus a

Castro, in their tracts de melancholia virginum et monialium; ob

seminis retentionem saviunt saepe moniales et virgines, but as

Platerus adds, si nubant sanantur, they rave single, and pine away,

much discontent, but marriage mends all. Marcellus Donatus lib. 2.

med. hist. cap. 1. tells a story to confirm this out of Alexander

Benedictus, of a maid that was mad, ob menses inhibitos, cum in

officinam meritoriam incidisset, a quindecem viris eadem nocte

compressa, mensium largo profluvio, quod pluribus annis ante

constiterat, non sine magno pudore mane menti restituta discessit.

But this must be warily understood, for as Arnoldus objects, lib. 1.

breviar. 18. cap. Quid coitus ad melancholicum succum? What affinity

have these two? "except it be manifest that superabundance of seed,

or fullness of blood be a cause, or that love, or an extraordinary

desire of Venus, have gone before," or that as Lod. Mercatus

excepts, they be very flatuous, and have been otherwise accustomed

unto it. Montaltus cap. 27. will not allow of moderate Venus to such

as have the gout, palsy, epilepsy, melancholy, except they be very

lusty, and full of blood. Lodovicus Antonius lib. med. miscet. in

his chapter of Venus, forbids it utterly to all wrestlers, ditchers,

labouring men, &c. Ficinus and Marsilius Cognatus puts Venus one of

the five mortal enemies of a student: "it consumes the spirits, and

weakeneth the brain." Halyabbas the Arabian, 5. Theor. cap. 36. and

Jason Pratensis make it the fountain of most diseases, "but most

pernicious to them who are cold and dry:" a melancholy man must not

meddle with it, but in some cases. Plutarch in his book de san.

tuend. accounts of it as one of the three principal signs and

preservers of health, temperance in this kind: "to rise with an

appetite, to be ready to work, and abstain from venery," tria

saluberrima, are three most healthful things. We see their opposites

how pernicious they are to mankind, as to all other creatures they

bring death, and many feral diseases: Immodicis brevis est aetas et

rara senectus. Aristotle gives instance in sparrows, which are parum

vivaces ob salacitatem, short lived because of their salacity, which

is very frequent, as Scoppius in Priapus will better inform you. The

extremes being both bad, the medium is to be kept, which cannot

easily be determined. Some are better able to sustain, such as are

hot and moist, phlegmatic, as Hippocrates insinuateth, some strong

and lusty, well fed like Hercules, Proculus the emperor, lusty

Laurence, prostibulum faeminae Messalina the empress, that by

philters, and such kind of lascivious meats, use all means to enable

themselves: and brag of it in the end, confodi multas enim, occidi

vero paucas per ventrem vidisti, as that Spanish Celestina merrily

said: others impotent, of a cold and dry constitution, cannot

sustain those gymnics without great hurt done to their own bodies,

of which number (though they be very prone to it) are melancholy men

for the most part.

MEMB. III.

Air rectified. With a digression of the Air.

As a long-winged hawk, when he is first whistled off the fist,

mounts aloft, and for his pleasure fetcheth many a circuit in the

air, still soaring higher and higher, till he be come to his full

pitch, and in the end when the game is sprung, comes down amain, and

stoops upon a sudden: so will I, having now come at last into these

ample fields of air, wherein I may freely expatiate and exercise

myself for my recreation, awhile rove, wander round about the world,

mount aloft to those ethereal orbs and celestial spheres, and so

descend to my former elements again. In which progress I will first

see whether that relation of the friar of Oxford be true,

concerning those northern parts under the pole (if I meet obiter

with the wandering Jew, Elias Artifex, or Lucian's Icaromenippus,

they shall be my guides) whether there be such 4. Euripes, and a

great rock of loadstones, which may cause the needle in the compass

still to bend that way, and what should be the true cause of the

variation of the compass, is it a magnetical rock, or the pole-star,

as Cardan will; or some other star in the bear, as Marsilius

Ficinus; or a magnetical meridian, as Maurolieus; Vel situs in vena

terrae, as Agricola; or the nearness of the next continent, as Cabeus

will; or some other cause, as Scaliger, Cortesius, Conimbricenses,

Peregrinus contend; why at the Azores it looks directly north,

otherwise not? In the Mediterranean or Levant (as some observe) it

varies 7. grad. by and by 12. and then 22. In the Baltic Seas, near

Rasceburg in Finland, the needle runs round, if any ships come that

way, though Martin Ridley write otherwise, that the needle near the

Pole will hardly be forced from his direction. 'Tis fit to be

inquired whether certain rules may be made of it, as 11. grad. Lond.

variat. alibi 36. &c. and that which is more prodigious, the

variation varies in the same place, now taken accurately, 'tis so

much after a few years quite altered from that it was: till we have

better intelligence, let our Dr. Gilbert, and Nicholas Cabeus the

Jesuit, that have both written great volumes of this subject,

satisfy these inquisitors. Whether the sea be open and navigable by

the Pole arctic, and which is the likeliest way, that of Bartison

the Hollander, under the Pole itself, which for some reasons I hold

best: or by Fretum Davis, or Nova Zembla. Whether Hudson's discovery

be true of a new found ocean, any likelihood of Button's Bay in 50.

degrees, Hubberd's Hope in 60. that of ut ultra near Sir Thomas

Roe's welcome in Northwest Fox, being that the sea ebbs and flows

constantly there 15. foot in 12. hours, as our 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 that

great city of Quinsay 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 Tartary and the king of China be the

same; Xuntain and Quinsay, and the city of Cambalu be that new

Peking, or such a wall 400 leagues long to part China from Tartary:

whether Presbyter John be in Asia or Africa; M. Polus Venetus puts

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 Australis Incognita, or

Magellanica, be as true as that of Mercurius Britannius, or his of

Utopia, or his of Lucinia. And yet in likelihood it may be so, for

without all question it being extended from the tropic of Capricorn

to the circle Antarctic, and lying as it doth in the temperate zone,

cannot choose but yield in time some flourishing kingdoms to

succeeding ages, as America did unto the Spaniards. Shouten and Le

Meir have done well in the discovery of the Straits of Magellan, in

finding a more convenient passage to Mare pacificum: methinks some

of our modern argonauts should prosecute the rest. As I go by

Madagascar, I would see that great bird ruck, that can carry a man

and horse or an elephant, with that Arabian phoenix described by

Adricomius; see the pelicans of Egypt, those Scythian gryphes in

Asia: and afterwards in Africa examine the fountains of Nilus,

whether Herodotus, Seneca, Plin. lib. 5. cap. 9. Strabo. lib. 5.

give a true cause of his annual 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 which are so frequent to the inhabitants within

the tropics, when the sun is vertical, and cause such vast

inundations in Senegal, Maragnan, Oronoco and the rest of those

great rivers in Zona Torrida, which have all commonly the same

passions at set times: and by good husbandry and policy hereafter no

doubt may come to be as populous, as well tilled, as fruitful, as

Egypt itself or Cauchinthina? I would observe all those motions of

the sea, and from what cause they proceed, from the moon (as the

vulgar hold) or earth's motion, which Galileus, in the fourth

dialogue of his system of the world, so eagerly proves, and firmly

demonstrates; or winds, as some will. Why in that quiet ocean of

Zur, in mari pacifico, it is scarce perceived, in our British seas

most violent, in the Mediterranean and Red Sea so vehement,

irregular, and diverse? Why the current in that Atlantic Ocean

should still be in some places from, in some again towards the

north, and why they come sooner than go? and so from Moabar to

Madagascar in that Indian Ocean, the merchants come in three weeks,

as Scaliger discusseth, they return scarce in three months, with the

same or like winds: the continual current is from east to west.

Whether Mount Athos, Pelion, Olympus, Ossa, Caucasus, Atlas, be so

high as Pliny, Solinus, Mela relate, above clouds, meteors, ubi nec

aurae nec venti spirant (insomuch that they that ascend die suddenly

very often, the air is so subtile,) 1250 paces high, according to

that measure of Dicearchus, or 78 miles perpendicularly high, as

Jacobus Mazonius, sec. 3. et 4. expounding that place of Aristotle

about Caucasus; and as Blancanus the Jesuit contends out of Clavius

and Nonius demonstrations de Crepusculis: or rather 32 stadiums, as

the most received opinion is; or 4 miles, which the height of no

mountain doth perpendicularly exceed, and is equal to the greatest

depths of the sea, which is, as Scaliger holds, 1580 paces, Exer.

38, others 100 paces. I would see those inner parts of America,

whether there be any such great city of Manoa, or Eldorado, in that

golden empire, where the highways are as much beaten (one reports)

as between Madrid and Valadolid in Spain; or any such Amazons as he

relates, or gigantic Patagones in Chica; with that miraculous

mountain Ybouyapab in the Northern Brazil, cujus jugum sternitur in

amoenissimam planitiem, &c. or that of Pariacacca so high elevated in

Peru. The peak of Tenerife how high it is? 70 miles, or 50 as

Patricius holds, or 9 as Snellius demonstrates in his Eratosthenes:

see that strange Cirknickzerksey lake in Carniola, whose waters gush

so fast out of the ground, that they will overtake a swift horseman,

and by and by with as incredible celerity are supped up: which

Lazius and Wernerus make an argument of the Argonauts sailing under

ground. And that vast den or hole called Esmellen in Muscovia, quae

visitur horriendo hiatu, &c. which if anything casually fall in,

makes such a roaring noise, that no thunder, or ordnance, or warlike

engine can make the like; such another is Gilber's Cave in Lapland,

with many the like. I would examine the Caspian Sea, and see where

and how it exonerates itself, after it hath taken in Volga, Jaxares,

Oxus, and those great rivers; at the mouth of Oby, or where? What

vent the Mexican lake hath, the Titicacan in Peru, or that circular

pool in the vale of Terapeia, of which Acosta l. 3. c. 16. hot in a

cold country, the spring of which boils up in the middle twenty foot

square, and hath no vent but exhalation: and that of Mare mortuum in

Palestine, of Thrasymene, at Peruzium in Italy: the Mediterranean

itself. For from the ocean, at the Straits of Gibraltar, there is a

perpetual current into the Levant, and so likewise by the Thracian

Bosphorus out of the Euxine or Black Sea, besides all those great

rivers of Nile, Po, Rhone, &c. how is this water consumed, by the

sun or otherwise? I would find out with Trajan the fountains of

Danube, of Ganges, Oxus, see those Egyptian pyramids, Trajan's

bridge, Grotto de Sybilla, Lucullus's fishponds, the temple of

Nidrose, &c. (And, if I could, observe what becomes of swallows,

storks, cranes, cuckoos, nightingales, redstarts, and many other

kind of singing birds, water-fowls, hawks, &c. some of them are only

seen in summer, some in winter; some are observed in the snow, and

at no other times, each have their seasons. In winter not a bird is

in Muscovy to be found, but at the spring in an instant the woods

and hedges are full of them, saith Herbastein: how comes it to pass?

Do they sleep in winter, like Gesner's Alpine mice; or do they lie

hid (as Olaus affirms) "in the bottom of lakes and rivers, spiritum

continentes? often so found by fishermen in Poland and Scandia, two

together, mouth to mouth, wing to wing; and when the spring comes

they revive again, or if they be brought into a stove, or to the

fireside." Or do they follow the sun, as Peter Martyr legat

Babylonica l. 2. manifestly convicts, out of his own knowledge; for

when he was ambassador in Egypt, he saw swallows, Spanish kites, and

many such other European birds, in December and January very

familiarly flying, and in great abundance, about Alexandria, ubi

floridae tunc arbores ac viridaria. Or lie they hid in caves, rocks,

and hollow trees, as most think, in deep tin-mines or sea-cliffs, as

Mr. Carew gives out? I conclude of them all, for my part, as Munster

doth of cranes and storks; whence they come, whither they go,

incompertum adhuc, as yet we know not. We see them here, some in

summer, some in winter; "their coming and going is sure in the

night: in the plains of Asia" (saith he) "the storks meet on such a

set day, he that comes last is torn in pieces, and so they get them

gone." Many strange places, Isthmi, Euripi, Chersonesi, creeks,

havens, promontories, straits, Lakes, baths, rocks, mountains,

places, and fields, where cities have been ruined or swallowed,

battles fought, creatures, sea-monsters, remora, &c. minerals,

vegetals. Zoophytes were fit to be considered in such an expedition,

and amongst the rest that of Harbastein his Tartar lamb, Hector

Boethius goosebearing tree in the orchards, to which Cardan lib. 7.

cap. 36. de rerum varietat. subscribes: Vertomannus wonderful palm,

that fly in Hispaniola, that shines like a torch in the night, that

one may well see to write; those spherical stones in Cuba which

nature hath so made, and those like birds, beasts, fishes, crowns,

swords, saws, pots, &c. usually found in the metal mines in Saxony

about Mansfield, and in Poland near Nokow and Pallukie, as Munster

and others relate. Many rare creatures and novelties each part of

the world affords: amongst the rest, I would know for a certain

whether there be any such men, as Leo Suavius, in his comment on

Paracelsus de sanit. tuend. and Gaguinus records in his description

of Muscovy, "that in Lucomoria, a province in Russia, lie fast

asleep as dead all winter, from the 27 of November, like frogs and

swallows, benumbed with cold, but about the 24 of April in the

spring they revive again, and go about their business." I would

examine that demonstration of Alexander Picolomineus, whether the

earth's superficies be bigger than the seas: or that of Archimedes

be true, the superficies of all water is even? Search the depth, and

see that variety of sea-monsters and fishes, mermaids, seamen,

horses, &c. which it affords. Or whether that be true which Jordanus

Brunus scoffs at, that if God did not detain it, the sea would

overflow the earth by reason of his higher site, and which Josephus

Blancanus the Jesuit in his interpretation on those mathematical

places of Aristotle, foolishly fears, and in a just tract proves by

many circumstances, that in time the sea will waste away the land,

and all the globe of the earth shall be covered with waters; risum

teneatis amici? what the sea takes away in one place it adds in

another. Methinks he might rather suspect the sea should in time be

filled by land, trees grow up, carcasses, &c. that all-devouring

fire, omnia devorans et consumens, will sooner cover and dry up the

vast ocean with sand and ashes. I would examine the true seat of

that terrestrial paradise, and where Ophir was whence Solomon did

fetch his gold: from Peruana, which some suppose, or that Aurea

Chersonesus, as Dominicus Niger, Arias Montanus, Goropius, and

others will. I would censure all Pliny's, Solinus', Strabo's, Sir

John Mandeville's, Olaus Magnus', Marcus Polus' lies, correct those

errors in navigation, reform cosmographical charts, and rectify

longitudes, if it were possible; not by the compass, as some dream,

with Mark Ridley in his treatise of magnetical bodies, cap. 43. for

as Cabeus magnet philos. lib. 3. cap. 4. fully resolves, there is no

hope thence, yet I would observe some better means to find them out.

I would have a convenient place to go down with Orpheus,

Ulysses, Hercules, Lucian's Menippus, at St. Patrick's purgatory, at

Trophonius' den, Hecla in Iceland, Aetna in Sicily, to descend and

see what is done in the bowels of the earth: do stones and metals

grow there still? how come fir trees to be digged out from tops of

hills, as in our mosses, and marshes all over Europe? How come they

to dig up fish bones, shells, beams, ironworks, many fathoms under

ground, and anchors in mountains far remote from all seas? Anno 1460

at Bern in Switzerland 50 fathom deep a ship was digged out of a

mountain, where they got metal ore, in which were 48 carcasses of

men, with other merchandise. That such things are ordinarily found

in tops of hills, Aristotle insinuates in his meteors, Pomponius

Mela in his first book, c. de Numidia, and familiarly in the Alps,

saith Blancanus the Jesuit, the like is to be seen: came this from

earthquakes, or from Noah's flood, as Christians suppose, or is

there a vicissitude of sea and land, as Anaximenes held of old, the

mountains of Thessaly would become seas, and seas again mountains?

The whole world belike should be new moulded, when it seemed good to

those all-commanding powers, and turned inside out, as we do

haycocks in harvest, top to bottom, or bottom to top: or as we turn

apples to the fire, move the world upon his centre; that which is

under the poles now, should be translated to the equinoctial, and

that which is under the torrid zone to the circle arctic and

antarctic another while, and so be reciprocally warmed by the sun:

or if the worlds be infinite, and every fixed star a sun, with his

compassing planets (as Brunus and Campanella conclude) cast three or

four worlds into one; or else of one world make three or four new,

as it shall seem to them best. To proceed, if the earth be 21,500

miles in compass, its diameter is 7,000 from us to our antipodes,

and what shall be comprehended in all that space? What is the centre

of the earth? is it pure element only, as Aristotle decrees,

inhabited (as Paracelsus thinks) with creatures, whose chaos is the

earth: or with fairies, as the woods and waters (according to him)

are with nymphs, or as the air with spirits? Dionisiodorus, a

mathematician in Pliny, that sent a letter, ad superos after he was

dead, from the centre of the earth, to signify what distance the

same centre was from the superficies of the same, viz. 42,000

stadiums, might have done well to have satisfied all these doubts.

Or is it the place of hell, as Virgil in his Aenides, Plato, Lucian,

Dante, and others poetically describe it, and as many of our divines

think? In good earnest, Anthony Rusca, one of the society of that

Ambrosian College, in Milan, in his great volume de Inferno, lib. 1.

cap. 47. is stiff in this tenet, 'tis a corporeal fire tow, cap. 5.

I. 2. as he there disputes. "Whatsoever philosophers write" (saith

Surius) "there be certain mouths of hell, and places appointed for

the punishment of men's souls, as at Hecla in Iceland, where the

ghosts of dead men are familiarly seen, and sometimes talk with the

living: God would have such visible places, that mortal men might be

certainly informed, that there be such punishments after death, and

learn hence to fear God." Kranzius Dan. hist. lib. 2. cap. 24.

subscribes to this opinion of Surius, so doth Colerus cap. 12. lib.

de immortal animae (out of the authority belike of St. Gregory,

Durand, and the rest of the schoolmen, who derive as much from Aetna

in Sicily, Lipari, Hiera, and those sulphureous vulcanian islands)

making Terra del Fuego, and those frequent volcanoes in America, of

which Acosta lib. 3. cap. 24. that fearful mount Hecklebirg in

Norway, an especial argument to prove it, "where lamentable

screeches and howlings are continually heard, which strike a terror

to the auditors; fiery chariots are commonly seen to bring in the

souls of men in the likeness of crows, and devils ordinarily go in

and out." Such another proof is that place near the Pyramids in

Egypt, by Cairo, as well to confirm this as the resurrection,

mentioned by Kornmannus mirac. mort. lib. 1. cap. 30. Camerarius

oper. suc. cap. 37. Bredenbachius pereg. ter. sanct. and some

others, "where once a year dead bodies arise about March, and walk,

after awhile hide themselves again: thousands of people come yearly

to see them." But these and such like testimonies others reject, as

fables, illusions of spirits, and they will have no such local known

place, more than Styx or Phlegethon, Pluto's court, or that poetical

Infernus, where Homer's soul was seen hanging on a tree, &c., to

which they ferried over in Charon's boat, or went down at Hermione

in Greece, compendiaria ad Infernos via, which is the shortest cut,

quia nullum a mortuis naulum eo loci exposcunt, (saith Gerbelius)

and besides there were no fees to be paid. Well then, is it hell, or

purgatory, as Bellarmine: or Limbus patrum, as Gallucius will, and

as Rusca will (for they have made maps of it) or Ignatius parler?

Virgil, sometimes bishop of Saltburg (as Aventinus anno 745 relates)

by Bonifacius bishop of Mentz was therefore called in question,

because he held antipodes (which they made a doubt whether Christ

died for) and so by that means took away the seat of hell, or so

contracted it, that it could bear no proportion to heaven, and

contradicted that opinion of Austin, Basil, Lactantius that held the

earth round as a trencher (whom Acosta and common experience more

largely confute) but not as a ball; and Jerusalem where Christ died

the middle of it; or Delos, as the fabulous Greeks feigned: because

when Jupiter let two eagles loose, to fly from the world's ends east

and west, they met at Delos. But that scruple of Bonifacius is now

quite taken away by our latter divines: Franciscus Ribera, in cap.

14. Apocalyps. will have hell a material and local fire in the

centre of the earth, 200 Italian miles in diameter, as he defines it

out of those words, Exivit sanguis de terra -- per stadia mille

sexcenta, &c. But Lessius lib. 13. de moribus divinis, cap. 24. will

have this local hell far less, one Dutch mile in diameter, all

filled with fire and brimstone: because, as he there demonstrates,

that space, cubically multiplied, will make a sphere able to hold

eight hundred thousand millions of damned bodies (allowing each body

six foot square) which will abundantly suffice; Cum cerium sit,

inquit, facta subductione, non futuros centies mille milliones

damnandorum. But if it be no material fire (as Sco. Thomas,

Bonaventure, Soncinas, Voscius, and others argue) it may be there or

elsewhere, as Keckerman disputes System. Theol. for sure somewhere

it is, certum est alicubi, etsi definitus circulus non assignetur. I

will end the controversy in Austin's words, "Better doubt of things

concealed, than to contend about uncertainties, where Abraham's

bosom is, and hell fire:" Vix a mansuetis, a contentiosis nunquam

invenitur; scarce the meek, the contentious shall never find. If it

be solid earth, 'tis the fountain of metals, waters, which by his

innate temper turns air into water, which springs up in several

chinks, to moisten the earth's superficies, and that in a tenfold

proportion (as Aristotle holds) or else these fountains come

directly from the sea, by secret passages, and so made fresh again,

by running through the bowels of the earth; and are either thick,

thin, hot, cold, as the matter or minerals are by which they pass;

or as Peter Martyr Ocean. Decad. lib. 9. and some others hold, from

abundance of rain that falls, or from that ambient heat and cold,

which alters that inward heat, and so per consequens the generation

of waters. Or else it may be full of wind, or a sulphureous innate

fire, as our meteorologists inform us, which sometimes breaking out,

causeth those horrible earthquakes, which are so frequent in these

days in Japan, China, and oftentimes swallow up whole cities. Let

Lucian's Menippus consult with or ask of Tiresias, if you will not

believe philosophers, he shall clear all your doubts when he makes a

second voyage.

In the mean time let us consider of that which is sub dio, and

find out a true cause, if it be possible, of such accidents,

meteors, alterations, as happen above ground. Whence proceed that

variety of manners, and a distinct character (as it were) to several

nations? Some are wise, subtile, witty; others dull, sad and heavy;

some big, some little, as Tully de Fato, Plato in Timaeo, Vegetius

and Bodine prove at large, method. cap. 5. some soft, and some

hardy, barbarous, civil, black, dun, white, is it from the air, from

the soil, influence of stars, or some other secret cause? Why doth

Africa breed so many venomous beasts, Ireland none? Athens owls,

Crete none? Why hath Daulis and Thebes no swallows (so Pausanius

informeth us) as well as the rest of Greece, Ithaca no hares, Pontus

asses, Scythia swine? whence comes this variety of complexions,

colours, plants, birds, beasts, metals, peculiar almost to every

place? Why so many thousand strange birds and beasts proper to

America alone, as Acosta demands lib. 4. cap. 36. were they created

in the six days, or ever in Noah's ark? if there, why are they not

dispersed and found in other countries? It is a thing (saith he)

hath long held me in suspense; no Greek, Latin, Hebrew ever heard of

them before, and yet as differing from our European animals, as an

egg and a chestnut: and which is more, kine, horses, sheep, &c.,

till the Spaniards brought them, were never heard of in those parts?

How comes it to pass, that in the same site, in one latitude, to

such as are Perioeci, there should be such difference of soil,

complexion, colour, metal, air, &c. The Spaniards are white, and so

are Italians, when as the inhabitants about Caput bonae spei [Cape of

Good Hope] are blackamoors, and yet both alike distant from the

equator: nay they that dwell in the same parallel line with these

Negroes, as about the Straits of Magellan, are white coloured, and

yet some in Presbyter John's country in Ethiopia are dun; they in

Zeilan and Malabar parallel with them again black: Manamotapa in

Africa, and St. Thomas Isle are extreme hot, both under the line,

coal black their inhabitants, whereas in Peru they are quite

opposite in colour, very temperate, or rather cold, and yet both

alike elevated. Moscow in 53. degrees of latitude extreme cold, as

those northern countries usually are, having one perpetual hard

frost all winter long; and in 52. deg. lat. sometimes hard frost and

snow all summer, as Button's Bay, &c., or by fits; and yet England

near the same latitude, and Ireland, very moist, warm, and more

temperate in winter than Spain, Italy, or France. Is it the sea that

causeth this difference, and the air that comes from it: Why then is

Ister so cold near the Euxine, Pontus, Bithynia, and all Thrace;

frigidas regiones Maginus calls them, and yet their latitude is but

42. which should be hot: Quevira, or Nova Albion in America,

bordering on the sea, was so cold in July, that our Englishmen could

hardly endure it. At Noremberga in 45. lat. all the sea is frozen

ice, and yet in a more southern latitude than ours. New England, and

the island of Cambrial Colchos, which that noble gentleman Mr.

Vaughan, or Orpheus junior, describes in his Golden Fleece, is in

the same latitude with little Britain in France, and yet their

winter begins not till January, their spring till May; which search

he accounts worthy of an astrologer: is this from the easterly

winds, or melting of ice and snow dissolved within the circle

arctic; or that the air being thick, is longer before it be warm by

the sunbeams, and once heated like an oven will keep itself from

cold? Our climes breed lice, Hungary and Ireland male audiunt in

this kind; come to the Azores, by a secret virtue of that air they

are instantly consumed, and all our European vermin almost, saith

Ortelius. Egypt is watered with Nilus not far from the sea, and yet

there it seldom or never rains: Rhodes, an island of the same

nature, yields not a cloud, and yet our islands ever dropping and

inclining to rain. The Atlantic Ocean is still subject to storms,

but in Del Zur, or Mare pacifico, seldom or never any. Is it from

tropic stars, apertio portarum, in the dodecotemories or

constellations, the moon's mansions, such aspects of planets, such

winds, or dissolving air, or thick air, which causeth this and the

like differences of heat and cold? Bodin relates of a Portugal

ambassador, that coming from Lisbon to Danzig in Spruce, found

greater heat there than at any time at home. Don Garcia de Sylva,

legate to Philip III., king of Spain, residing at Ispahan in Persia,

1619, in his letter to the Marquess of Bedmar, makes mention of

greater cold in Ispahan, whose lat. is 31, than ever he felt in

Spain, or any part of Europe. The torrid zone was by our

predecessors held to be uninhabitable, but by our modern travellers

found to be most temperate, bedewed with frequent rains, and

moistening showers, the breeze and cooling blasts in some parts, as

Acosta describes, most pleasant and fertile. Arica in Chile is by

report one of the sweetest places that ever the sun shined on,

Olympus terrae, a heaven on earth: how incomparably do some extol

Mexico in Nova Hispania, Peru, Brazil, &c., in some again hard, dry,

sandy, barren, a very desert, and still in the same latitude. Many

times we find great diversity of air in the same country, by reason

of the site to seas, hills or dales, want of water, nature of soil,

and the like: as in Spain Arragon is aspera et sicca, harsh and evil

inhabited; Estremadura is dry, sandy, barren most part, extreme hot

by reason of his plains; Andalusia another paradise; Valencia a most

pleasant air, and continually green; so is it about Granada, on the

one side fertile plains, on the other, continual snow to be seen all

summer long on the hill tops. That their houses in the Alps are

three quarters of the year covered with snow, who knows not? That

Tenerife is so cold at the top, extreme hot at the bottom: Mons

Atlas in Africa, Libanus in Palestine, with many such, tantos inter

ardores fidos nivibus, Tacitus calls them, and Radzivilus epist. 2.

fol. 27. yields it to be far hotter there than in any part of Italy:

'tis true; but they are highly elevated, near the middle region, and

therefore cold, ob paucam solarium radiorum refractionem, as

Serrarius answers, com. in. 3. cap. Josua quaest. 5. Abulensis quaest.

37. In the heat of summer, in the king's palace in Escurial, the air

is most temperate, by reason of a cold blast which comes from the

snowy mountains of Sierra de Cadarama hard by, when as in Toledo it

is very hot: so in all other countries. The causes of these

alterations are commonly by reason of their nearness (I say) to the

middle region; but this diversity of air, in places equally

situated, elevated and distant from the pole, can hardly be

satisfied with that diversity of plants, birds, beasts, which is so

familiar with us: with Indians, everywhere, the sun is equally

distant, the same vertical stars, the same irradiations of planets,

aspects like, the same nearness of seas, the same superficies, the

same soil, or not much different. Under the equator itself, amongst

the Sierras, Andes, Lanos, as Herrera, Laet, and Acosta contend,

there is tam mirabilis et inopinata varietas, such variety of

weather, ut merito exerceat ingenia, that no philosophy can yet find

out the true cause of it. When I consider how temperate it is in one

place, saith Acosta, within the tropic of Capricorn, as about

Laplata, and yet hard by at Potosi, in that same altitude,

mountainous alike, extreme cold; extreme hot in Brazil, &c. Hic ego,

saith Acosta, philosophiam Aristotelis meteorologicam vehementer

irrisi, cum, &c., when the sun comes nearest to them, they have

great tempests, storms, thunder and lightning, great store of rain,

snow, and the foulest weather: when the sun is vertical, their

rivers overflow, the morning fair and hot, noonday cold and moist:

all which is opposite to us. How comes it to pass? Scaliger poetices

l. 3. c. 16. discourseth thus of this subject. How comes, or

wherefore is this temeraria siderum dispositio, this rash placing of

stars, or as Epicurus will, fortuita, or accidental? Why are some

big, some little, why are they so confusedly, unequally situated in

the heavens, and set so much out of order? In all other things

nature is equal, proportionable, and constant; there be justae

dimensiones, et prudens partium dispositio, as in the fabric of man,

his eyes, ears, nose, face, members are correspondent, cur non idem

coelo opere omnium pulcherrimo? Why are the heavens so irregular,

neque paribus molibus, neque paribus intervallis, whence is this

difference? Diversos (he concludes) efficere locorum Genios, to make

diversity of countries, soils, manners, customs, characters, and

constitutions among us, ut quantum vicinia ad charitatem addat,

sidera distrahant ad perniciem, and so by this means fluvio vel

monte distincti sunt dissimiles, the same places almost shall be

distinguished in manners. But this reason is weak and most

insufficient. The fixed stars are removed since Ptolemy's time 26.

gr. from the first of Aries, and if the earth be immovable, as their

site varies, so should countries vary, and diverse alterations would

follow. But this we perceive not; as in Tully's time with us in

Britain, coelum visu foedum, et in quo facile generantur nubes, &c.,

'tis so still. Wherefore Bodine Theat. nat. lib. 2. and some others,

will have all these alterations and effects immediately to proceed

from those genii, spirits, angels, which rule and domineer in

several places; they cause storms, thunder, lightning, earthquakes,

ruins, tempests, great winds, floods, &c., the philosophers of

Conimbra, will refer this diversity to the influence of that

empyrean heaven: for some say the eccentricity of the sun is come

nearer to the earth than in Ptolemy's time, the virtue therefore of

all the vegetals is decayed, men grow less, &c. There are that

observe new motions of the heavens, new stars, palantia sidera,

comets, clouds, call them what you will, like those Medicean,

Burbonian, Austrian planets, lately detected, which do not decay,

but come and go, rise higher and lower, hide and show themselves

amongst the fixed stars, amongst the planets, above and beneath the

moon, at set times, now nearer, now farther off, together, asunder;

as he that plays upon a sackbut by pulling it up and down alters his

tones and tunes, do they their stations and places, though to us

undiscerned; and from those motions proceed (as they conceive)

diverse alterations. Clavius conjectures otherwise, but they be but

conjectures. About Damascus in Coeli-Syria is a Paradise, by reason

of the plenty of waters, in promptu causa est, and the deserts of

Arabia barren, because of rocks, rolling seas of sands, and dry

mountains quod inaquosa (saith Adricomius) montes habens asperos,

saxosos, praecipites, horroris et mortis speciem prae se ferentes,

"uninhabitable therefore of men, birds, beasts, void of all green

trees, plants, and fruits, a vast rocky horrid wilderness, which by

no art can be manured, 'tis evident." Bohemia is cold, for that it

lies all along to the north. But why should it be so hot in Egypt,

or there never rain? Why should those etesian and northeastern winds

blow continually and constantly so long together, in some places, at

set times, one way still, in the dog-days only: here perpetual

drought, there dropping showers; here foggy mists, there a pleasant

air; here terrible thunder and lightning at such set seasons, here

frozen seas all the year, there open in the same latitude, to the

rest no such thing, nay quite opposite is to be found? Sometimes (as

in Peru) on the one side of the mountains it is hot, on the other

cold, here snow, there wind, with infinite such. Fromundus in his

Meteors will excuse or solve all this by the sun's motion, but when

there is such diversity to such as Perioeci or very near site, how

can that position hold?

Who can give a reason of this diversity of meteors, that it

should rain stones, frogs, mice, &c. rats, which they call Lemmer in

Norway, and are manifestly observed (as Munster writes) by the

inhabitants, to descend and fall with some feculent showers, and

like so many locusts, consume all that is green. Leo Afer speaks as

much of locusts, about Fez in Barbary there be infinite swarms in

their fields upon a sudden: so at Aries in France, 1553, the like

happened by the same mischief, all their grass and fruits were

devoured, magna incolarum admiratione et consternatione (as

Valleriola obser. med. lib. 1. obser. 1. relates) coelum subito

obumbrabant, &c. he concludes, it could not be from natural causes,

they cannot imagine whence they come, but from heaven. Are these and

such creatures, corn, wood, stones, worms, wool, blood, &c. lifted

up into the middle region by the sunbeams, as Baracellus the

physician disputes, and thence let fall with showers, or there

engendered? Cornelius Gemma is of that opinion, they are there

conceived by celestial influences: others suppose they are

immediately from God, or prodigies raised by art and illusions of

spirits, which are princes of the air; to whom Bodin. lib. 2. Theat.

Nat. subscribes. In fine, of meteors in general, Aristotle's reasons

are exploded by Bernardinus Telesius, by Paracelsus his principles

confuted, and other causes assigned, sal, sulphur, mercury, in which

his disciples are so expert, that they can alter elements, and

separate at their pleasure, make perpetual motions, not as Cardan,

Tasneir, Peregrinus, by some magnetical virtue, but by mixture of

elements; imitate thunder, like Salmoneus, snow, hail, the sea's

ebbing and flowing, give life to creatures (as they say) without

generation, and what not? P. Nonius Saluciensis and Kepler take upon

them to demonstrate that no meteors, clouds, fogs, vapours, arise

higher than fifty or eighty miles, and all the rest to be purer air

or element of fire: which Cardan, Tycho, and John Pena manifestly

confute by refractions, and many other arguments, there is no such

element of fire at all. If, as Tycho proves, the moon be distant

from us fifty and sixty semi-diameters of the earth: and as Peter

Nonius will have it, the air be so angust, what proportion is there

betwixt the other three elements and it? To what use serves it? Is

it full of spirits which inhabit it, as the Paracelsians and

Platonists hold, the higher the more noble, full of birds, or a mere

vacuum to no purpose? It is much controverted between Tycho Brahe

and Christopher Rotman, the landgrave of Hesse's mathematician, in

their astronomical epistles, whether it be the same Diaphanum

clearness, matter of air and heavens, or two distinct essences?

Christopher Rotman, John Pena, Jordanus Brunus, with many other late

mathematicians, contend it is the same and one matter throughout,

saving that the higher still the purer it is, and more subtile; as

they find by experience in the top of some hills in America; if a

man ascend, he faints instantly for want of thicker air to

refrigerate the heart. Acosta, l. 3. c. 9. calls this mountain

Periacaca in Peru; it makes men cast and vomit, he saith, that climb

it, as some other of those Andes do in the deserts of Chile for five

hundred miles together, and for extremity of cold to lose their

fingers and toes. Tycho will have two distinct matters of heaven and

air; but to say truth, with some small qualification, they have one

and the self-same opinion about the essence and matter of heavens;

that it is not hard and impenetrable, as peripatetics hold,

transparent, of a quinta essentia, "but that it is penetrable and

soft as the air itself is, and that the planets move in it, as birds

in the air, fishes in the sea." This they prove by motion of comets,

and otherwise (though Claremontius in his Antitycho stiffly

opposes), which are not generated, as Aristotle teacheth, in the

aerial region, of a hot and dry exhalation, and so consumed: but as

Anaxagoras and Democritus held of old, of a celestial matter: and as

Tycho, Eliseus, Roeslin, Thaddeus, Haggesius, Pena, Rotman,

Fracastorius, demonstrate by their progress, parallaxes,

refractions, motions of the planets, which interfere and cut one

another's orbs, now higher, and then lower, as Mars amongst the

rest, which sometimes, as Kepler confirms by his own, and Tycho's

accurate observations, comes nearer the earth than the Sun and is

again eftsoons aloft in Jupiter's orb; and other sufficient reasons,

far above the moon: exploding in the meantime that element of fire,

those fictitious first watery movers, those heavens I mean above the

firmament, which Delrio, Lodovicus Imola, Patricius, and many of the

fathers affirm; those monstrous orbs of eccentrics, and Eccentre

Epicycles deserentes. Which howsoever Ptolemy, Alhasen, Vitellio,

Purbachius, Maginus, Clavius, and many of their associates, stiffly

maintain to be real orbs, eccentric, concentric, circles aequant, &c.

are absurd and ridiculous. For who is so mad to think that there

should be so many circles, like subordinate wheels in a clock, all

impenetrable and hard, as they feign, add and subtract at their

pleasure. Maginus makes eleven heavens, subdivided into their orbs

and circles, and all too little to serve those particular

appearances: Fracastorius, seventy-two homocentrics; Tycho Brahe,

Nicholas Ramerus, Heliseus Roeslin, have peculiar hypotheses of

their own inventions; and they be but inventions, as most of them

acknowledge, as we admit of equators, tropics, colures, circles

arctic and antarctic, for doctrine's sake (though Ramus thinks them

all unnecessary), they will have them supposed only for method and

order. Tycho hath feigned I know not how many subdivisions of

epicycles in epicycles, &c., to calculate and express the moon's

motion: but when all is done, as a supposition, and no otherwise;

not (as he holds) hard, impenetrable, subtile, transparent, &c., or

making music, as Pythagoras maintained of old, and Robert

Constantine of late, but still, quiet, liquid, open, &c.

If the heavens then be penetrable, as these men deliver, and

no lets, it were not amiss in this aerial progress, to make wings

and fly up, which that Turk in Busbequius made his fellow-citizens

in Constantinople believe he would perform: and some new-fangled

wits, methinks, should some time or other find out: or if that may

not be, yet with a Galileo's glass, or Icaromenippus' wings in

Lucian, command the spheres and heavens, and see what is done

amongst them. Whether there be generation and corruption, as some

think, by reason of ethereal comets, that in Cassiopea, 1572, that

in Cygno, 1600, that in Sagittarius, 1604, and many like, which by

no means Jul. Caesar la Galla, that Italian philosopher, in his

physical disputation with Galileis de phenomenis in orbe lunae, cap.

9. will admit: or that they were created ab initio, and show

themselves at set times. and as Helisaeus Roeslin contends, have

poles, axle-trees, circles of their own, and regular motions. For,

non pereunt, sed minuuntur et disparent, Blancanus holds they come

and go by fits, casting their tails still from the sun: some of

them, as a burning-glass, projects the sunbeams from it; though not

always neither: for sometimes a comet casts his tail from Venus, as

Tycho observes. And as Helisaeus Roeslin of some others, from the

moon, with little stars about them ad stuporem astronomorum; cum

multis aliis in coelo miraculis, all which argue with those Medicean,

Austrian, and Burbonian stars, that the heaven of the planets is

indistinct, pure, and open, in which the planets move certis legibus

ac metis. Examine likewise, An coelum sit coloratum? Whether the

stars be of that bigness, distance, as astronomers relate, so many

in number, 1026, or 1725, as J. Bayerus; or as some Rabbins, 29,000

myriads; or as Galileo discovers by his glasses, infinite, and that

via lactea, a confused light of small stars, like so many nails in a

door: or all in a row, like those 12,000 isles of the Maldives in

the Indian ocean? Whether the least visible star in the eighth

sphere be eighteen times bigger than the earth; and as Tycho

calculates, 14,000 semi-diameters distant from it? Whether they be

thicker parts of the orbs, as Aristotle delivers: or so many

habitable worlds, as Democritus? Whether they have light of their

own, or from the sun, or give light round, as Patritius discourseth?

An aeque distent a centra mundi? Whether light be of their essence;

and that light be a substance or an accident? Whether they be hot by

themselves, or by accident cause heat? Whether there be such a

precession of the equinoxes as Copernicus holds, or that the eighth

sphere move? An bene philosophentur, R. Bacon and J. Dee, Aphorism.

de multiplicatione specierum? Whether there be any such images

ascending with each degree of the zodiac in the east, as Aliacensis

feigns? An aqua super coelum? as Patritius and the schoolmen will, a

crystalline watery heaven, which is certainly to be understood of

that in the middle region? for otherwise, if at Noah's flood the

water came from thence, it must be above a hundred years falling

down to us, as some calculate. Besides, An terra sit animata? which

some so confidently believe, with Orpheus, Hermes, Averroes, from

which all other souls of men, beasts, devils, plants, fishes, &c.

are derived, and into which again, after some revolutions, as Plato

in his Timaeus, Plotinus in his Enneades more largely discuss, they

return (see Chalcidius and Bennius, Plato's commentators), as all

philosophical matter, in materiam primam. Keplerus, Patritius, and

some other Neoterics, have in part revived this opinion. And that

every star in heaven hath a soul, angel or intelligence to animate

or move it, &c. Or to omit all smaller controversies, as matters of

less moment, and examine that main paradox, of the earth's motion,

now so much in question: Aristarchus Samius, Pythagoras maintained

it of old, Democritus and many of their scholars, Didacus Astunica,

Anthony Fascarinus, a Carmelite, and some other commentators, will

have Job to insinuate as much, cap. 9. ver. 4. Qui commovet terram

de loco suo, &c., and that this one place of scripture makes more

for the earth's motion than all the other prove against it; whom

Pineda confutes most contradict. Howsoever, it is revived since by

Copernicus, not as a truth, but a supposition, as he himself

confesseth in the preface to pope Nicholas, but now maintained in

good earnest by Calcagninus, Telesius, Kepler, Rotman, Gilbert,

Digges, Galileo, Campanella, and especially by Lansbergius, naturae,

rationi, et veritati consentaneum, by Origanus, and some others of

his followers. For if the earth be the centre of the world, stand

still, and the heavens move, as the most received opinion is, which

they call inordinatam coeli dispositionem, though stiffly maintained

by Tycho, Ptolemeus, and their adherents, quis ille furor? &c. what

fury is that, saith Dr. Gilbert, satis animose, as Cabeus notes,

that shall drive the heavens about with such incomprehensible

celerity in twenty-four hours, when as every point of the firmament,

and in the equator, must needs move (so Clavius calculates) 176,660

in one 246th part of an hour, and an arrow out of a bow must go

seven times about the earth, whilst a man can say an Ave Maria, if

it keep the same space, or compass the earth 1884 times in an hour,

which is supra humanam cogitationem, beyond human conceit: ocyor et

jaculo, et ventos, aequante sagitta. A man could not ride so much

ground, going 40 miles a day, in 2904 years, as the firmament goes

in 23 hours: or so much in 203 years, as the firmament in one

minute: quod incredibile videtur: and the pole-star, which to our

thinking scarce moveth out of his place, goeth a bigger circuit than

the sun, whose diameter is much larger than the diameter of the

heaven of the sun, and 20,000 semi-diameters of the earth from us,

with the rest of the fixed stars, as Tycho proves. To avoid

therefore these impossibilities, they ascribe a triple motion to the

earth, the sun immovable in the centre of the whole world, the earth

centre of the moon, alone, above [Symbol: Mars] and [Symbol:

Mercury], beneath [Symbol: Saturn], [Symbol: Jupiter], [Symbol:

Mars] (or as Origanus and others will, one single motion to the

earth, still placed in the centre of the world, which is more

probable) a single motion to the firmament, which moves in 30 or 26

thousand years; and so the planets, Saturn in 30 years absolves his

sole and proper motion, Jupiter in 12, Mars in 3, &c. and so solve

all appearances better than any way whatsoever: calculate all

motions, be they in longum or latum, direct, stationary, retrograde,

ascent or descent, without epicycles, intricate eccentrics, &c.

rectius commodiusque per unicum motum terrae, saith Lansbergius, much

more certain than by those Alphonsine, or any such tables, which are

grounded from those other suppositions. And 'tis true they say,

according to optic principles, the visible appearances of the

planets do so indeed answer to their magnitudes and orbs, and come

nearest to mathematical observations and precedent calculations,

there is no repugnancy to physical axioms, because no penetration of

orbs; but then between the sphere of Saturn and the firmament, there

is such an incredible and vast space or distance (7,000,000 semi-

diameters of the earth, as Tycho calculates) void of stars: and

besides, they do so enhance the bigness of the stars, enlarge their

circuit, to solve those ordinary objections of parallaxes and

retrogradations of the fixed stars, that alteration of the poles,

elevation in several places or latitude of cities here on earth

(for, say they, if a man's eye were in the firmament, he should not

at all discern that great annual motion of the earth, but it would

still appear punctum indivisibile and seem to be fixed in one place,

of the same bigness) that it is quite opposite to reason, to natural

philosophy, and all out as absurd as disproportional (so some will)

as prodigious, as that of the sun's swift motion of heavens. But hoc

posito, to grant this their tenet of the earth's motion: if the

earth move, it is a planet, and shines to them in the moon, and to

the other planetary inhabitants, as the moon and they do to us upon

the earth: but shine she doth, as Galileo, Kepler, and others

prove, and then per consequens, the rest of the planets are

inhabited, as well as the moon, which he grants in his dissertation

with Galileo's Nuncius Sidereus, "that there be Jovial and Saturn

inhabitants," &c., and those several planets have their several

moons about them, as the earth hath hers, as Galileo hath already

evinced by his glasses: four about Jupiter, two about Saturn (though

Sitius the Florentine, Fortunius Licetus, and Jul. Caesar le Galla

cavil at it) yet Kepler, the emperor's mathematician, confirms out

of his experience, that he saw as much by the same help, and more

about Mars, Venus, and the rest they hope to find out, peradventure

even amongst the fixed stars, which Brunus and Brutius have already

averred. Then (I say) the earth and they be planets alike, moved

about the sun, the common centre of the world alike, and it may be

those two green children which Nubrigensis speaks of in his time,

that fell from heaven, came from thence; and that famous stone that

fell from heaven in Aristotle's time, olymp. 84, anno tertio, ad

Capuas Fluenta, recorded by Laertius and others, or Ancile or

buckler in Numa's time, recorded by Festus. We may likewise insert

with Campanella and Brunus, that which Pythagoras, Aristarchus,

Samius, Heraclitus, Epicurus, Melissus, Democritus, Leucippus

maintained in their ages, there be infinite worlds, and infinite

earths or systems, in infinito aethere, which Eusebius collects out

of their tenets, because infinite stars and planets like unto this

of ours, which some stick not still to maintain and publicly defend,

sperabundus expecto innumerabilium mundorum in aeternitate per

ambulationem, &c. (Nic. Hill. Londinensis philos. Epicur.) For if

the firmament be of such an incomparable bigness, as these

Copernical giants will have it, infinitum, aut infinito proximum, so

vast and full of innumerable stars, as being infinite in extent, one

above another, some higher, some lower, some nearer, some farther

off, and so far asunder, and those so huge and great, insomuch that

if the whole sphere of Saturn, and all that is included in it, totum

aggregatum (as Fromundus of Louvain in his tract, de immobilitate

terrae argues) evehatur inter stellas, videri a nobis non poterat,

tam immanis est distantia inter tellurem et fixas, sed instar

puncti, &c. If our world be small in respect, why may we not suppose

a plurality of worlds, those infinite stars visible in the firmament

to be so many suns, with particular fixed centres; to have likewise

their subordinate planets, as the sun hath his dancing still round

him? which Cardinal Cusanus, Walkarinus, Brunus, and some others

have held, and some still maintain, Animae, Aristotelismo innutritae,

et minutis speculationibus assuetae, secus forsan, &c. Though they

seem close to us, they are infinitely distant, and so per

consequens, there are infinite habitable worlds: what hinders? Why

should not an infinite cause (as God is) produce infinite effects?

as Nic. Hill. Democrit. philos. disputes: Kepler (I confess) will by

no means admit of Brunus's infinite worlds, or that the fixed stars

should be so many suns, with their compassing planets, yet the said

Kepler between jest and earnest in his perspectives, lunar

geography, & somnio suo, dissertat. cum nunc. sider. seems in part

to agree with this, and partly to contradict; for the planets, he

yields them to be inhabited, he doubts of the stars; and so doth

Tycho in his astronomical epistles, out of a consideration of their

vastity and greatness, break out into some such like speeches, that

he will never believe those great and huge bodies were made to no

other use than this that we perceive, to illuminate the earth, a

point insensible in respect of the whole. But who shall dwell in

these vast bodies, earths, worlds, "if they be inhabited? rational

creatures?" as Kepler demands, "or have they souls to be saved? or

do they inhabit a better part of the world than we do? Are we or

they lords of the world? And how are all things made for man?"

Difficile est nodum hunc expedire, eo quod nondum omnia quae huc

pertinent explorata habemus: 'tis hard to determine: this only he

proves, that we are in praecipuo mundi sinu, in the best place, best

world, nearest the heart of the sun. Thomas Campanella, a Calabrian

monk, in his second book de sensu rerum, cap. 4, subscribes to this

of Kepler; that they are inhabited he certainly supposeth, but with

what kind of creatures he cannot say, he labours to prove it by all

means: and that there are infinite worlds, having made an apology

for Galileo, and dedicates this tenet of his to Cardinal Cajetanus.

Others freely speak, mutter, and would persuade the world (as

Marinus Marcenus complains) that our modern divines are too severe

and rigid against mathematicians; ignorant and peevish, in not

admitting their true demonstrations and certain observations, that

they tyrannise over art, science, and all philosophy, in suppressing

their labours (saith Pomponatius), forbidding them to write, to

speak a truth, all to maintain their superstition, and for their

profit's sake. As for those places of Scripture which oppugn it,

they will have spoken ad captum vulgi, and if rightly understood,

and favourably interpreted, not at all against it; and as Otho

Gasman, Astrol. cap. 1. part. 1. notes, many great divines, besides

Porphyrius, Proclus, Simplicius, and those heathen philosophers,

doctrina et aetate venerandi, Mosis Genesin mundanam popularis nescio

cujus ruditatis, quae longa absit a vera Philosophorum eruditione,

insimulant: for Moses makes mention but of two planets, [Symbol:

Sun] and [Symbol: Moon-3/4], no four elements, &c. Read more on him,

in Grossius and Junius. But to proceed, these and such like insolent

and bold attempts, prodigious paradoxes, inferences must needs

follow, if it once be granted, which Rotman, Kepler, Gilbert,

Diggeus, Origanus, Galileo, and others, maintain of the earth's

motion, that 'tis a planet, and shines as the moon doth, which

contains in it "both land and sea as the moon doth:" for so they

find by their glasses that Maculae in facie Lunae, "the brighter parts

are earth, the dusky sea," which Thales, Plutarch, and Pythagoras

formerly taught: and manifestly discern hills and dales, and such

like concavities, if we may subscribe to and believe Galileo's

observations. But to avoid these paradoxes of the earth's motion

(which the Church of Rome hath lately condemned as heretical, as

appears by Blancanus and Fromundus's writings) our latter

mathematicians have rolled all the stones that may be stirred: and

to solve all appearances and objections, have invented new

hypotheses, and fabricated new systems of the world, out of their

own Dedalaean heads. Fracastorius will have the earth stand still,

as before; and to avoid that supposition of eccentrics and

epicycles, he hath coined seventy-two homocentrics, to solve all

appearances. Nicholas Ramerus will have the earth the centre of the

world, but movable, and the eighth sphere immovable, the five upper

planets to move about the sun, the sun and moon about the earth. Of

which orbs Tycho Brahe puts the earth the centre immovable, the

stars immovable, the rest with Ramerus, the planets without orbs to

wander in the air, keep time and distance, true motion, according to

that virtue which God hath given them. Helisaeus Roeslin censureth

both, with Copernicus (whose hypothesis de terrae motu, Philippus

Lansbergius hath lately vindicated, and demonstrated with solid

arguments in a just volume, Jansonius Caesins hath illustrated in a

sphere.) The said Johannes Lansbergius, 1633, hath since defended

his assertion against all the cavils and calumnies of Fromundus his

Anti-Aristarchus, Baptista Morinus, and Petrus Bartholinus:

Fromundus, 1634, hath written against him again, J. Rosseus of

Aberdeen, &c. (sound drums and trumpets) whilst Roeslin (I say)

censures all, and Ptolemeus himself as insufficient: one offends

against natural philosophy, another against optic principles, a

third against mathematical, as not answering to astronomical

observations: one puts a great space between Saturn's orb and the

eighth sphere, another too narrow. In his own hypothesis he makes

the earth as before the universal centre, the sun to the five upper

planets, to the eighth sphere he ascribes diurnal motion,

eccentrics, and epicycles to the seven planets, which hath been

formerly exploded; and so, Dum vitant stulti vitia in contraria

currunt, as a tinker stops one hole and makes two, he corrects them,

and doth worse himself: reforms some, and mars all. In the mean

time, the world is tossed in a blanket amongst them, they hoist the

earth up and down like a ball, make it stand and go at their

pleasures: one saith the sun stands, another he moves; a third comes

in, taking them all at rebound, and lest there should any paradox be

wanting, he finds certain spots and clouds in the sun, by the help

of glasses, which multiply (saith Keplerus) a thing seen a thousand

times bigger in plano, and makes it come thirty-two times nearer to

the eye of the beholder: but see the demonstration of this glass in

Tarde, by means of which, the sun must turn round upon his own

centre, or they about the sun. Fabricius puts only three, and those

in the sun: Apelles 15, and those without the sun, floating like the

Cyanean Isles in the Euxine sea. Tarde, the Frenchman, hath observed

thirty-three, and those neither spots nor clouds, as Galileo, Epist.

ad Valserum, supposeth, but planets concentric with the sun, and not

far from him with regular motions. Christopher Shemer, a German

Suisser Jesuit, Ursica Rosa, divides them in maculas et faculas, and

will have them to be fixed in Solis superficie: and to absolve their

periodical and regular motion in twenty-seven or twenty-eight days,

holding withal the rotation of the sun upon his centre; and all are

so confident, that they have made schemes and tables of their

motions. The Hollander, in his dissertatiuncula cum Apelle, censures

all; and thus they disagree amongst themselves, old and new,

irreconcilable in their opinions; thus Aristarchus, thus Hipparchus,

thus Ptolemeus, thus Albateginus, thus Alfraganus, thus Tycho, thus

Ramerus, thus Roeslinus, thus Fracastorius, thus Copernicus and his

adherents, thus Clavius and Maginus, &c., with their followers, vary

and determine of these celestial orbs and bodies: and so whilst

these men contend about the sun and moon, like the philosophers in

Lucian, it is to be feared, the sun and moon will hide themselves,

and be as much offended as she was with those, and send another

messenger to Jupiter, by some new-fangled Icaromenippus, to make an

end of all those curious controversies, and scatter them abroad.

But why should the sun and moon be angry, or take exceptions

at mathematicians and philosophers? when as the like measure is

offered unto God himself, by a company of theologasters: they are

not contented to see the sun and moon, measure their site and

biggest distance in a glass, calculate their motions, or visit the

moon in a poetical fiction, or a dream, as he saith, Audax facinus

et memorabile nunc incipiam, neque hoc saeculo usurpatum prius, quid

in Lunae regno hac nocte gestum sit exponam, et quo nemo unquam nisi

somniando pervenit, but he and Menippus: or as Peter Cuneus, Bona

fide agam, nihil eorum quae scripturus sum, verum esse scitote, &c.

quae nec facta, nec futura sunt, dicam, stili tantum et ingenii

causa, not in jest, but in good earnest these gigantical Cyclops

will transcend spheres, heaven, stars, into that Empyrean heaven;

soar higher yet, and see what God himself doth. The Jewish

Talmudists take upon them to determine how God spends his whole

time, sometimes playing with Leviathan, sometimes overseeing the

world, &c., like Lucian's Jupiter, that spent much of the year in

painting butterflies' wings, and seeing who offered sacrifice;

telling the hours when it should rain, how much snow should fall in

such a place, which way the wind should stand in Greece, which way

in Africa. In the Turks' Alcoran, Mahomet is taken up to heaven,

upon a Pegasus sent on purpose for him, as he lay in bed with his

wife, and after some conference with God is set on ground again. The

pagans paint him and mangle him after a thousand fashions; our

heretics, schismatics, and some schoolmen, come not far behind: some

paint him in the habit of an old man, and make maps of heaven,

number the angels, tell their several names, offices: some deny God

and his providence, some take his office out of his hands, will bind

and loose in heaven, release, pardon, forgive, and be quarter-master

with him: some call his Godhead in question, his power, and

attributes, his mercy, justice, providence: they will know with

Cecilius, why good and bad are punished together, war, fires,

plagues, infest all alike, why wicked men flourish, good are poor,

in prison, sick, and ill at ease. Why doth he suffer so much

mischief and evil to be done, if he be able to help? why doth he not

assist good, or resist bad, reform our wills, if he be not the

author of sin, and let such enormities be committed, unworthy of his

knowledge, wisdom, government, mercy, and providence, why lets he

all things be done by fortune and chance? Others as prodigiously

inquire after his omnipotency, an possit plures similes creare deos?

an ex scarabaeo deum? &c., et quo demum ruetis sacrificuli? Some, by

visions and revelations, take upon them to be familiar with God, and

to be of privy council with him; they will tell how many, and who

shall be saved, when the world shall come to an end, what year, what

month, and whatsoever else God hath reserved unto himself, and to

his angels. Some again, curious fantastics, will know more than

this, and inquire with Epicurus, what God did before the world was

made? was he idle? Where did he bide? What did he make the world of?

why did he then make it, and not before? If he made it new, or to

have an end, how is he unchangeable, infinite, &c. Some will

dispute, cavil, and object, as Julian did of old, whom Cyril

confutes, as Simon Magus is feigned to do, in that dialogue betwixt

him and Peter: and Ammonius the philosopher, in that dialogical

disputation with Zacharias the Christian. If God be infinitely and

only good, why should he alter or destroy the world? if he confound

that which is good, how shall himself continue good? If he pull it

down because evil, how shall he be free from the evil that made it

evil? &c., with many such absurd and brain-sick questions,

intricacies, froth of human wit, and excrements of curiosity, &c.,

which, as our Saviour told his inquisitive disciples, are not fit

for them to know. But hoo! I am now gone quite out of sight, I am

almost giddy with roving about: I could have ranged farther yet; but

I am an infant, and not able to dive into these profundities, or

sound these depths; not able to understand, much less to discuss. I

leave the contemplation of these things to stronger wits, that have

better ability, and happier leisure to wade into such philosophical

mysteries; for put case I were as able as willing, yet what can one

man do? I will conclude with Scaliger, Nequaquam nos homines sumus,

sed partes hominis, ex omnibus aliquid fieri potest, idque non

magnum; ex singulis fere nihil. Besides (as Nazianzen hath it) Deus

latere nos multa voluit; and with Seneca, cap. 35. de Cometis, Quid

miramur tam rara mundi spectacula non teneri certis legibus, nondum

intelligi? multae sunt gentes quae tantum de facie sciunt coelum,

veniet, tempus fortasse, quo ista quae, nunc latent in lucem dies

extrahat longioris aevi diligentia, una aetas non sufficit, posteri,

&c., when God sees his time, he will reveal these mysteries to

mortal men, and show that to some few at last, which he hath

concealed so long. For I am of his mind, that Columbus did not find

out America by chance, but God directed him at that time to discover

it: it was contingent to him, but necessary to God; he reveals and

conceals to whom and when he will. And which one said of history and

records of former times, "God in his providence, to check our

presumptuous inquisition, wraps up all things in uncertainty, bars

us from long antiquity, and bounds our search within the compass of

some few ages:" many good things are lost, which our predecessors

made use of, as Pancirola will better inform you; many new things

are daily invented, to the public good; so kingdoms, men, and

knowledge ebb and flow, are hid and revealed, and when you have all

done, as the Preacher concluded, Nihil est sub sole novum (nothing

new under the sun.) But my melancholy spaniel's quest, my game is

sprung, and I must suddenly come down and follow.

Jason Pratensis, in his book de morbis capitis, and chapter of

Melancholy, hath these words out of Galen, "Let them come to me to

know what meat and drink they shall use, and besides that, I will

teach them what temper of ambient air they shall make choice of,

what wind, what countries they shall choose, and what avoid." Out of

which lines of his, thus much we may gather, that to this cure of

melancholy, amongst other things, the rectification of air is

necessarily required. This is performed, either in reforming natural

or artificial air. Natural is that which is in our election to

choose or avoid: and 'tis either general, to countries, provinces;

particular, to cities, towns, villages, or private houses. What harm

those extremities of heat or cold do in this malady, I have formerly

shown: the medium must needs be good, where the air is temperate,

serene, quiet, free from bogs, fens, mists, all manner of

putrefaction, contagious and filthy noisome smells. The Egyptians by

all geographers are commended to be hilares, a conceited and merry

nation: which I can ascribe to no other cause than the serenity of

their air. They that live in the Orcades are registered by Hector

Boethius and Cardan, to be of fair complexion, long-lived, most

healthful, free from all manner of infirmities of body and mind, by

reason of a sharp purifying air, which comes from the sea. The

Boeotians in Greece were dull and heavy, crassi Boeoti, by reason of

a foggy air in which they lived, Boeotum in crasso jurares aere natum,

Attica most acute, pleasant, and refined. The clime changes not so

much customs, manners, wits (as Aristotle Polit. lib. 6. cap. 4.

Vegetius, Plato, Bodine, method. hist. cap. 5. hath proved at large)

as constitutions of their bodies, and temperature itself. In all

particular provinces we see it confirmed by experience, as the air

is, so are the inhabitants, dull, heavy, witty, subtle, neat,

cleanly, clownish, sick, and sound. In Perigord in France the air is

subtle, healthful, seldom any plague or contagious disease, but

hilly and barren: the men sound, nimble, and lusty; but in some

parts of Guienne, full of moors and marshes, the people dull, heavy,

and subject to many infirmities. Who sees not a great difference

between Surrey, Sussex, and Romney Marsh, the wolds in Lincolnshire

and the fens. He therefore that loves his health, if his ability

will give him leave, must often shift places, and make choice of

such as are wholesome, pleasant, and convenient: there is nothing

better than change of air in this malady, and generally for health

to wander up and down, as those Tartari Zamolhenses, that live in

hordes, and take opportunity of times, places, seasons. The kings of

Persia had their summer and winter houses; in winter at Sardis, in

summer at Susa; now at Persepolis, then at Pasargada. Cyrus lived

seven cold months at Babylon, three at Susa, two at Ecbatana, saith

Xenophon, and had by that means a perpetual spring. The great Turk

sojourns sometimes at Constantinople, sometimes at Adrianople, &c.

The kings of Spain have their Escurial in heat of summer, Madrid for

a wholesome seat, Valladolid a pleasant site, &c., variety of

secessus as all princes and great men have, and their several

progresses to this purpose. Lucullus the Roman had his house at

Rome, at Baiae, &c. When Cn. Pompeius, Marcus Cicero (saith

Plutarch) and many noble men in the summer came to see him, at

supper Pompeius jested with him, that it was an elegant and pleasant

village, full of windows, galleries, and all offices fit for a

summer house; but in his judgment very unfit for winter: Lucullus

made answer that the lord of the house had wit like a crane, that

changeth her country with the season; he had other houses furnished,

and built for that purpose, all out as commodious as this. So Tully

had his Tusculan, Plinius his Lauretan village, and every gentleman

of any fashion in our times hath the like. The bishop of Exeter had

fourteen several houses all furnished, in times past. In Italy,

though they bide in cities in winter, which is more gentlemanlike,

all the summer they come abroad to their country-houses, to recreate

themselves. Our gentry in England live most part in the country

(except it be some few castles) building still in bottoms (saith

Jovius) or near woods, corona arborum virentium; you shall know a

village by a tuft of trees at or about it, to avoid those strong

winds wherewith the island is infested, and cold winter blasts. Some

discommend moated houses, as unwholesome; so Camden saith of Ew-

elme, that it was therefore unfrequented, ob stagni vicini halitus,

and all such places as be near lakes or rivers. But I am of opinion

that these inconveniences will be mitigated, or easily corrected by

good fires, as one reports of Venice, that graveolentia and fog of

the moors is sufficiently qualified by those innumerable smokes. Nay

more, Thomas Philol. Ravennas, a great physician, contends that the

Venetians are generally longer-lived than any city in Europe, and

live many of them 120 years. But it is not water simply that so much

offends, as the slime and noisome smells that accompany such

overflowed places, which is but at some few seasons after a flood,

and is sufficiently recompensed with sweet smells and aspects in

summer, Ver pinget vario gemmantia prata colore, and many other

commodities of pleasure and profit; or else may be corrected by the

site, if it be somewhat remote from the water, as Lindley, Orton

super montem, Drayton, or a little more elevated, though nearer, as

Caucut, Amington, Polesworth, Weddington (to insist in such places

best to me known, upon the river of Anker, in Warwickshire,

Swarston, and Drakesly upon Trent). Or howsoever they be

unseasonable in winter, or at some times, they have their good use

in summer. If so be that their means be so slender as they may not

admit of any such variety, but must determine once for all, and make

one house serve each season, I know no men that have given better

rules in this behalf than our husbandry writers. Cato and Columella

prescribe a good house to stand by a navigable river, good highways,

near some city, and in a good soil, but that is more for commodity

than health.

The best soil commonly yields the worst air, a dry sandy plat

is fittest to build upon, and such as is rather hilly than plain,

full of downs, a Cotswold country, as being most commodious for

hawking, hunting, wood, waters, and all manner of pleasures.

Perigord in France is barren, yet by reason of the excellency of the

air, and such pleasures that it affords, much inhabited by the

nobility; as Nuremberg in Germany, Toledo in Spain. Our countryman

Tusser will tell us so much, that the fieldone is for profit, the

woodland for pleasure and health; the one commonly a deep clay,

therefore noisome in winter, and subject to bad highways: the other

a dry sand. Provision may be had elsewhere, and our towns are

generally bigger in the woodland than the fieldone, more frequent

and populous, and gentlemen more delight to dwell in such places.

Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire (where I was once a grammar

scholar), may be a sufficient witness, which stands, as Camden

notes, loco ingrato et sterili, but in an excellent air, and full of

all manner of pleasures. Wadley in Berkshire is situate in a vale,

though not so fertile a soil as some vales afford, yet a most

commodious site, wholesome, in a delicious air, a rich and pleasant

seat. So Segrave in Leicestershire (which town I am now bound to

remember) is situated in a champaign, at the edge of the wolds, and

more barren than the villages about it, yet no place likely yields a

better air. And he that built that fair house, Wollerton in

Nottinghamshire, is much to be commended (though the tract be sandy

and barren about it) for making choice of such a place. Constantine,

lib. 2. cap. de Agricult. praiseth mountains, hilly, steep places,

above the rest by the seaside, and such as look toward the north

upon some great river, as Farmack in Derbyshire, on the Trent,

environed with hills, open only to the north, like Mount Edgecombe

in Cornwall, which Mr. Carew so much admires for an excellent seat:

such is the general site of Bohemia: serenat Boreas, the north wind

clarifies, "but near lakes or marshes, in holes, obscure places, or

to the south and west, he utterly disproves," those winds are

unwholesome, putrefying, and make men subject to diseases. The best

building for health, according to him, is in "high places, and in

an excellent prospect," like that of Cuddeston in Oxfordshire (which

place I must honoris ergo mention) is lately and fairly built in a

good air, good prospect, good soil, both for profit and pleasure,

not so easily to be matched. P. Crescentius, in his lib. 1. de

Agric. cap. 5. is very copious in this subject, how a house should

be wholesomely sited, in a good coast, good air, wind, &c., Varro de

re rust. lib. 1. cap. 12. forbids lakes and rivers, marshy and

manured grounds, they cause a bad air, gross diseases, hard to be

cured: "if it be so that he cannot help it, better (as he adviseth)

sell thy house and land than lose thine health." He that respects

not this in choosing of his seat, or building his house, is mente

captus, mad, Cato saith, "and his dwelling next to hell itself,"

according to Columella: he commends, in conclusion, the middle of a

hill, upon a descent. Baptista, Porta Villae, lib. 1. cap. 22.

censures Varro, Cato, Columella, and those ancient rustics,

approving many things, disallowing some, and will by all means have

the front of a house stand to the south, which how it may be good in

Italy and hotter climes, I know not, in our northern countries I am

sure it is best: Stephanus, a Frenchman, praedio rustic. lib. 1. cap.

4. subscribes to this, approving especially the descent of a hill

south or south-east, with trees to the north, so that it be well

watered; a condition in all sites which must not be omitted, as

Herbastein inculcates, lib. 1. Julius Caesar Claudinus, a physician,

consult. 24, for a nobleman in Poland, melancholy given, adviseth

him to dwell in a house inclining to the east, and by all means to

provide the air be clear and sweet; which Montanus, consil. 229,

counselleth the earl of Monfort, his patient, to inhabit a pleasant

house, and in a good air. If it be so the natural site may not be

altered of our city, town, village, yet by artificial means it may

be helped. In hot countries, therefore, they make the streets of

their cities very narrow, all over Spain, Africa, Italy, Greece, and

many cities of France, in Languedoc especially, and Provence, those

southern parts: Montpelier, the habitation and university of

physicians, is so built, with high houses, narrow streets, to divert

the sun's scalding rays, which Tacitus commends, lib. 15. Annat., as

most agreeing to their health, "because the height of buildings, and

narrowness of streets, keep away the sunbeams." Some cities use

galleries, or arched cloisters towards the street, as Damascus,

Bologna, Padua, Berne in Switzerland, Westchester with us, as well

to avoid tempests, as the sun's scorching heat. They build on high

hills, in hot countries, for more air; or to the seaside, as Baiae,

Naples, &c. In our northern countries we are opposite, we commend

straight, broad, open, fair streets, as most befitting and agreeing

to our clime. We build in bottoms for warmth: and that site of

Mitylene in the island of Lesbos, in the Aegean sea, which Vitruvius

so much discommends, magnificently built with fair houses, sed

imprudenter positam unadvisedly sited, because it lay along to the

south, and when the south wind blew, the people were all sick, would

make an excellent site in our northern climes.

Of that artificial site of houses I have sufficiently

discoursed: if the plan of the dwelling may not be altered, yet

there is much in choice of such a chamber or room, in opportune

opening and shutting of windows, excluding foreign air and winds,

and walking abroad at convenient times. Crato, a German, commends

east and south site (disallowing cold air and northern winds in this

case, rainy weather and misty days), free from putrefaction, fens,

bogs, and muck-hills. If the air be such, open no windows, come not

abroad. Montanus will have his patient not to stir at all, if the

wind be big or tempestuous, as most part in March it is with us; or

in cloudy, lowering, dark days, as in November, which we commonly

call the black month; or stormy, let the wind stand how it will,

consil. 27. and 30. he must not "open a casement in bad weather," or

in a boisterous season, consil. 299, he especially forbids us to

open windows to a south wind. The best sites for chamber windows, in

my judgment, are north, east, south, and which is the worst, west.

Levinus Lemnius, lib. 3. cap. 3. de occult. nat. mir. attributes so

much to air, and rectifying of wind and windows, that he holds it

alone sufficient to make a man sick or well; to alter body and mind.

"A clear air cheers up the spirits, exhilarates the mind; a thick,

black, misty, tempestuous, contracts, overthrows." Great heed is

therefore to be taken at what times we walk, how we place our

windows, lights, and houses, how we let in or exclude this ambient

air. The Egyptians, to avoid immoderate heat, make their windows on

the top of the house like chimneys, with two tunnels to draw a

thorough air. In Spain they commonly make great opposite windows

without glass, still shutting those which are next to the sun: so

likewise in Turkey and Italy (Venice excepted, which brags of her

stately glazed palaces) they use paper windows to like purpose; and

lie, sub dio, in the top of their flat-roofed houses, so sleeping

under the canopy of heaven. In some parts of Italy they have

windmills, to draw a cooling air out of hollow caves, and disperse

the same through all the chambers of their palaces, to refresh them;

as at Costoza, the house of Caesareo Trento, a gentleman of Vicenza,

and elsewhere. Many excellent means are invented to correct nature

by art. If none of these courses help, the best way is to make

artificial air, which howsoever is profitable and good, still to be

made hot and moist, and to be seasoned with sweet perfumes, pleasant

and lightsome as it may be; to have roses, violets, and sweet-

smelling flowers ever in their windows, posies in their hand.

Laurentius commends water-lilies, a vessel of warm water to

evaporate in the room, which will make a more delightful perfume, if

there be added orange-flowers, pills of citrons, rosemary, cloves,

bays, rosewater, rose-vinegar, benzoin, laudanum, styrax, and such

like gums, which make a pleasant and acceptable perfume. Bessardus

Bisantinus prefers the smoke of juniper to melancholy persons, which

is in great request with us at Oxford, to sweeten our chambers.

Guianerius prescribes the air to be moistened with water, and sweet

herbs boiled in it, vine, and sallow leaves, &c., to besprinkle the

ground and posts with rosewater, rose-vinegar, which Avicenna much

approves. Of colours it is good to behold green, red, yellow, and

white, and by all means to have light enough, with windows in the

day, wax candles in the night, neat chambers, good fires in winter,

merry companions; for though melancholy persons love to be dark and

alone, yet darkness is a great increaser of the humour.

Although our ordinary air be good by nature or art, yet it is

not amiss, as I have said, still to alter it; no better physic for a

melancholy man than change of air, and variety of places, to travel

abroad and see fashions. Leo Afer speaks of many of his countrymen

so cured, without all other physic: amongst the Negroes, "there is

such an excellent air, that if any of them be sick elsewhere, and

brought thither, he is instantly recovered, of which he was often an

eyewitness." Lipsius, Zuinger, and some others, add as much of

ordinary travel. No man, saith Lipsius, in an epistle to Phil.

Lanoius, a noble friend of his, now ready to make a voyage, "can be

such a stock or stone, whom that pleasant speculation of countries,

cities, towns, rivers, will not affect." Seneca the philosopher was

infinitely taken with the sight of Scipio Africanus' house, near

Linternum, to view those old buildings, cisterns, baths, tombs, &c.

And how was Tully pleased with the sight of Athens, to behold those

ancient and fair buildings, with a remembrance of their worthy

inhabitants. Paulus Aemilius, that renowned Roman captain, after he

had conquered Perseus, the last king of Macedonia, and now made an

end of his tedious wars, though he had been long absent from Rome,

and much there desired, about the beginning of autumn (as Livy

describes it) made a pleasant peregrination all over Greece,

accompanied with his son Scipio, and Atheneus the brother of king

Eumenes, leaving the charge of his army with Sulpicius Gallus. By

Thessaly he went to Delphos, thence to Megaris, Aulis, Athens,

Argos, Lacedaemon, Megalopolis, &c. He took great content, exceeding

delight in that his voyage, as who doth not that shall attempt the

like, though his travel be ad jactationem magis quam ad usum reipub.

(as one well observes) to crack, gaze, see fine sights and fashions,

spend time, rather than for his own or public good? (as it is to

many gallants that travel out their best days, together with their

means, manners, honesty, religion) yet it availeth howsoever. For

peregrination charms our senses with such unspeakable and sweet

variety, that some count him unhappy that never travelled, and pity

his case, that from his cradle to his old age beholds the same

still; still, still the same, the same. Insomuch that Rhasis, cont.

lib. 1. Tract. 2. doth not only commend, but enjoin travel, and such

variety of objects to a melancholy man, "and to lie in diverse inns,

to be drawn into several companies:" Montaltus, cap. 36. and many

neoterics are of the same mind: Celsus adviseth him therefore that

will continue his health, to have varium vitae genus, diversity of

callings, occupations, to be busied about, "sometimes to live in

the city, sometimes in the country; now to study or work, to be

intent, then again to hawk or hunt, swim, run, ride, or exercise

himself." A good prospect alone will ease melancholy, as Comesius

contends, lib. 2. c. 7. de Sale. The citizens of Barcino, saith he,

otherwise penned in, melancholy, and stirring little abroad, are

much delighted with that pleasant prospect their city hath into the

sea, which like that of old Athens besides Aegina Salamina, and many

pleasant islands, had all the variety of delicious objects: so are

those Neapolitans and inhabitants of Genoa, to see the ships, boats,

and passengers go by, out of their windows, their whole cities being

situated on the side of a hill, like Pera by Constantinople, so that

each house almost hath a free prospect to the sea, as some part of

London to the Thames: or to have a free prospect all over the city

at once, as at Granada in Spain, and Fez in Africa, the river

running betwixt two declining hills, the steepness causeth each

house almost, as well to oversee, as to be overseen of the rest.

Every country is full of such delightsome prospects, as well within

land, as by sea, as Hermon and Rama in Palestina, Colalto in Italy,

the top of Magetus, or Acrocorinthus, that old decayed castle in

Corinth, from which Peloponessus, Greece, the Ionian and Aegean seas

were semel et simul at one view to be taken. In Egypt the square top

of the great pyramid, three hundred yards in height, and so the

Sultan's palace in Grand Cairo, the country being plain, hath a

marvellous fair prospect as well over Nilus, as that great city,

five Italian miles long, and two broad, by the river side: from

mount Sion in Jerusalem, the Holy Land is of all sides to be seen:

such high places are infinite: with us those of the best note are

Glastonbury tower, Box Hill in Surrey, Bever castle, Rodway Grange,

Walsby in Lincolnshire, where I lately received a real kindness, by

the munificence of the right honourable my noble lady and patroness,

the Lady Frances, countess dowager of Exeter: and two amongst the

rest, which I may not omit for vicinity's sake, Oldbury in the

confines of Warwickshire, where I have often looked about me with

great delight, at the foot of which hill I was born: and Hanbury in

Staffordshire, contiguous to which is Falde, a pleasant village, and

an ancient patrimony belonging to our family, now in the possession

of mine elder brother, William Burton, Esquire. Barclay the Scot

commends that of Greenwich tower for one of the best prospects in

Europe, to see London on the one side, the Thames, ships, and

pleasant meadows on the other. There be those that say as much and

more of St. Mark's steeple in Venice. Yet these are at too great a

distance: some are especially affected with such objects as be near,

to see passengers go by in some great roadway, or boats in a river,

in subjectum forum despicere, to oversee a fair, a marketplace, or

out of a pleasant window into some thoroughfare street, to behold a

continual concourse, a promiscuous rout, coming and going, or a

multitude of spectators at a theatre, a mask, or some such like

show. But I rove: the sum is this, that variety of actions, objects,

air, places, are excellent good in this infirmity, and all others,

good for man, good for beast. Constantine the emperor, lib. 18. cap.

13. ex Leontio, "holds it an only cure for rotten sheep, and any

manner of sick cattle." Laelius a Fonte Aegubinus, that great

doctor, at the latter end of many of his consultations (as commonly

he doth set down what success his physic had,) in melancholy most

especially approves of this above all other remedies whatsoever, as

appears consult. 69. consult. 229. &c. "Many other things helped,

but change of air was that which wrought the cure, and did most

good."

MEMB. IV.

Exercise rectified of Body and Mind.

To that great inconvenience, which comes on the one side by

immoderate and unseasonable exercise, too much solitariness and

idleness on the other, must be opposed as an antidote, a moderate

and seasonable use of it, and that both of body and mind, as a most

material circumstance, much conducing to this cure, and to the

general preservation of our health. The heavens themselves run

continually round, the sun riseth and sets, the moon increaseth and

decreaseth, stars and planets keep their constant motions, the air

is still tossed by the winds, the waters ebb and flow to their

conservation no doubt, to teach us that we should ever be in action.

For which cause Hieron prescribes Rusticus the monk, that he be

always occupied about some business or other, "that the devil do not

find him idle." Seneca would have a man do something, though it be

to no purpose. Xenophon wisheth one rather to play at tables, dice,

or make a jester of himself (though he might be far better employed)

than do nothing. The Egyptians of old, and many flourishing

commonwealths since, have enjoined labour and exercise to all sorts

of men, to be of some vocation and calling, and give an account of

their time, to prevent those grievous mischiefs that come by

idleness: "for as fodder, whip, and burthen belong to the ass: so

meat, correction, and work unto the servant," Ecclus. xxxiii. 23.

The Turks enjoin all men whatsoever, of what degree, to be of some

trade or other, the Grand Signior himself is not excused. "In our

memory" (saith Sabellicus) "Mahomet the Turk, he that conquered

Greece, at that very time when he heard ambassadors of other

princes, did either carve or cut wooden spoons, or frame something

upon a table." This present sultan makes notches for bows. The Jews

are most severe in this examination of time. All well-governed

places, towns, families, and every discreet person will be a law

unto himself. But amongst us the badge of gentry is idleness: to be

of no calling, not to labour, for that's derogatory to their birth,

to be a mere spectator, a drone, fruges consumere natus, to have no

necessary employment to busy himself about in church and

commonwealth (some few governors exempted), "but to rise to eat,"

&c., to spend his days in hawking, hunting, &c., and such like

disports and recreations ( which our casuists tax), are the sole

exercise almost, and ordinary actions of our nobility, and in which

they are too immoderate. And thence it comes to pass, that in city

and country so many grievances of body and mind, and this feral

disease of melancholy so frequently rageth, and now domineers almost

all over Europe amongst our great ones. They know not how to spend

their time (disports excepted, which are all their business), what

to do, or otherwise how to bestow themselves: like our modern

Frenchmen, that had rather lose a pound of blood in a single combat,

than a drop of sweat in any honest labour. Every man almost hath

something or other to employ himself about, some vocation, some

trade, but they do all by ministers and servants, ad otia duntaxat

se natos existimant, imo ad sui ipsius plerumque et aliorum

perniciem, as one freely taxeth such kind of men, they are all for

pastimes, 'tis all their study, all their invention tends to this

alone, to drive away time, as if they were born some of them to no

other ends. Therefore to correct and avoid these errors and

inconveniences, our divines, physicians, and politicians, so much

labour, and so seriously exhort; and for this disease in particular,

"there can be no better cure than continual business," as Rhasis

holds, "to have some employment or other, which may set their mind

awork, and distract their cogitations." Riches may not easily be had

without labour and industry, nor learning without study, neither can

our health be preserved without bodily exercise. If it be of the

body, Guianerius allows that exercise which is gentle, "and still

after those ordinary frications" which must be used every morning.

Montaltus, cap. 26. and Jason Pratensis use almost the same words,

highly commending exercise if it be moderate; "a wonderful help so

used," Crato calls it," and a great means to preserve our health, as

adding strength to the whole body, increasing natural heat, by means

of which the nutriment is well concocted in the stomach, liver, and

veins, few or no crudities left, is happily distributed over all the

body." Besides, it expels excrements by sweat and other insensible

vapours; insomuch, that Galen prefers exercise before all physic,

rectification of diet, or any regimen in what kind soever; 'tis

nature's physician. Fulgentius, out of Gordonius de conserv. vit.

hom. lib. 1. cap. 7. terms exercise, "a spur of a dull, sleepy

nature, the comforter of the members, cure of infirmity, death of

diseases, destruction of all mischiefs and vices." The fittest time

for exercise is a little before dinner, a little before supper, or

at any time when the body is empty. Montanus, consil. 31. prescribes

it every morning to his patient, and that, as Calenus adds, "after

he hath done his ordinary needs, rubbed his body, washed his hands

and face, combed his head and gargarised." What kind of exercise he

should use, Galen tells us, lib. 2. et 3. de sanit. tuend. and in

what measure, "till the body be ready to sweat," and roused up; ad

ruborem, some say, non ad sudorem, lest it should dry the body too

much; others enjoin those wholesome businesses, as to dig so long in

his garden, to hold the plough, and the like. Some prescribe

frequent and violent labour and exercises, as sawing every day so

long together (epid. 6. Hippocrates confounds them), but that is in

some cases, to some peculiar men; the most forbid, and by no means

will have it go farther than a beginning sweat, as being perilous if

it exceed.

Of these labours, exercises, and recreations, which are

likewise included, some properly belong to the body, some to the

mind, some more easy, some hard, some with delight, some without,

some within doors, some natural, some are artificial. Amongst bodily

exercises, Galen commends ludum parvae pilae, to play at ball, be it

with the hand or racket, in tennis-courts or otherwise, it

exerciseth each part of the body, and doth much good, so that they

sweat not too much. It was in great request of old amongst the

Greeks, Romans, Barbarians, mentioned by Homer, Herodotus, and

Plinius. Some write, that Aganella, a fair maid of Corcyra, was the

inventor of it, for she presented the first ball that ever was made

to Nausica, the daughter of King Alcinous, and taught her how to use

it.

The ordinary sports which are used abroad are hawking,

hunting, hilares venandi labores, one calls them, because they

recreate body and mind, another, the "best exercise that is, by

which alone many have been freed from all feral diseases."

Hegesippus, lib. 1. cap. 37. relates of Herod, that he was eased of

a grievous melancholy by that means. Plato, 7. de leg. highly

magnifies it, dividing it into three parts, "by land, water, air."

Xenophon, in Cyropaed. graces it with a great name, Deorum munus, the

gift of the gods, a princely sport, which they have ever used, saith

Langius, epist. 59. lib. 2. as well for health as pleasure, and do

at this day, it being the sole almost and ordinary sport of our

noblemen in Europe, and elsewhere all over the world. Bohemus, de

mor. gent. lib. 3. cap. 12. styles it therefore, studium nobilium,

communiter venantur, quod sibi solis licere contendunt, 'tis all

their study, their exercise, ordinary business, all their talk: and

indeed some dote too much after it, they can do nothing else,

discourse of naught else. Paulus Jovius, descr. Brit. doth in some

sort tax our "English nobility for it, for living in the country so

much, and too frequent use of it, as if they had no other means but

hawking and hunting to approve themselves gentlemen with."

Hawking comes near to hunting, the one in the air, as the

other on the earth, a sport as much affected as the other, by some

preferred. It was never heard of amongst the Romans, invented some

twelve hundred years since, and first mentioned by Firmicus, lib. 5.

cap. 8. The Greek emperors began it, and now nothing so frequent: he

is nobody that in the season hath not a hawk on his fist. A great

art, and many books written of it. It is a wonder to hear what is

related of the Turks' officers in this behalf, how many thousand men

are employed about it, how many hawks of all sorts, how much

revenues consumed on that only disport, how much time is spent at

Adrianople alone every year to that purpose. The Persian kings hawk

after butterflies with sparrows made to that use, and stares: lesser

hawks for lesser games they have, and bigger for the rest, that they

may produce their sport to all seasons. The Muscovian emperors

reclaim eagles to fly at hinds, foxes, &c., and such a one was sent

for a present to Queen Elizabeth: some reclaim ravens, castrils,

pies, &c., and man them for their pleasures.

Fowling is more troublesome, but all out as delightsome to

some sorts of men, be it with guns, lime, nets, glades, gins,

strings, baits, pitfalls, pipes, calls, stalking-horses, setting-

dogs, decoy-ducks, &c., or otherwise. Some much delight to take

larks with day-nets, small birds with chaff-nets, plovers,

partridge, herons, snipe, &c. Henry the Third, king of Castile (as

Mariana the Jesuit reports of him, lib. 3. cap. 7.) was much

affected "with catching of quails," and many gentlemen take a

singular pleasure at morning and evening to go abroad with their

quail-pipes, and will take any pains to satisfy their delight in

that kind. The Italians have gardens fitted to such use, with nets,

bushes, glades, sparing no cost or industry, and are very much

affected with the sport. Tycho Brahe, that great astronomer, in the

chorography of his Isle of Huena, and Castle of Uraniburge, puts

down his nets, and manner of catching small birds, as an ornament

and a recreation, wherein he himself was sometimes employed.

Fishing is a kind of hunting by water, be it with nets,

weeles, baits, angling, or otherwise, and yields all out as much

pleasure to some men as dogs or hawks; "When they draw their fish

upon the bank," saith Nic. Henselius Silesiographiae, cap. 3.

speaking of that extraordinary delight his countrymen took in

fishing, and in making of pools. James Dubravius, that Moravian, in

his book de pisc. telleth, how travelling by the highway side in

Silesia, he found a nobleman, "booted up to the groins," wading

himself, pulling the nets, and labouring as much as any fisherman of

them all: and when some belike objected to him the baseness of his

office, he excused himself, "that if other men might hunt hares, why

should not he hunt carps?" Many gentlemen in like sort with us will

wade up to the arm-holes upon such occasions, and voluntarily

undertake that to satisfy their pleasures, which a poor man for a

good stipend would scarce be hired to undergo. Plutarch, in his book

de soler. animal. speaks against all fishing, "as a filthy, base,

illiberal employment, having neither wit nor perspicacity in it, nor

worth the labour." But he that shall consider the variety of baits

for all seasons, and pretty devices which our anglers have invented,

peculiar lines, false flies, several sleights, &c. will say, that it

deserves like commendation, requires as much study and perspicacity

as the rest, and is to be preferred before many of them. Because

hawking and hunting are very laborious, much riding, and many

dangers accompany them; but this is still and quiet: and if so be

the angler catch no fish, yet he hath a wholesome walk to the

brookside, pleasant shade by the sweet silver streams; he hath good

air, and sweet smells of fine fresh meadow flowers, he hears the

melodious harmony of birds, he sees the swans, herons, ducks, water-

horns, coots, &c., and many other fowl, with their brood, which he

thinketh better than the noise of hounds, or blast of horns, and all

the sport that they can make.

Many other sports and recreations there be, much in use, as

ringing, bowling, shooting, which Ascam recommends in a just volume,

and hath in former times been enjoined by statute, as a defensive

exercise, and an honour to our land, as well may witness our

victories in France. Keelpins, tronks, quoits, pitching bars,

hurling, wrestling, leaping, running, fencing, mustering, swimming,

wasters, foils, football, balloon, quintain, &c., and many such,

which are the common recreations of the country folks. Riding of

great horses, running at rings, tilts and tournaments, horse races,

wild-goose chases, which are the disports of greater men, and good

in themselves, though many gentlemen by that means gallop quite out

of their fortunes.

But the most pleasant of all outward pastimes is that of

Areteus, deambulatio per amoena loca, to make a petty progress, a

merry journey now and then with some good companions, to visit

friends, see cities, castles, towns,

"Visere saepe amnes nitidos, per amaenaque

Tempe, Et placidas summis sectari in montibus auras."

"To see the pleasant fields, the crystal fountains,

And take the gentle air amongst the mountains."

To walk amongst orchards, gardens, bowers, mounts, and

arbours, artificial wildernesses, green thickets, arches, groves,

lawns, rivulets, fountains, and such like pleasant places, like that

Antiochian Daphne, brooks, pools, fishponds, between wood and water,

in a fair meadow, by a river side, ubi variae, avium cantationes,

florum colores, pratorum frutices, &c. to disport in some pleasant

plain, park, run up a steep hill sometimes, or sit in a shady seat,

must needs be a delectable recreation. Hortus principis et domus ad

delectationem facia, cum sylva, monte et piscina, vulgo la montagna:

the prince's garden at Ferrara Schottus highly magnifies, with the

groves, mountains, ponds, for a delectable prospect, he was much

affected with it: a Persian paradise, or pleasant park, could not be

more delectable in his sight. St. Bernard, in the description of his

monastery, is almost ravished with the pleasures of it. "A sick man"

(saith he) "sits upon a green bank, and when the dog-star parcheth

the plains, and dries up rivers, he lies in a shady bower, Fronde

sub arborea ferventia temperat astra, and feeds his eyes with

variety of objects, herbs, trees, to comfort his misery, he receives

many delightsome smells, and fills his ears with that sweet and

various harmony of birds: good God" (saith he), "what a company of

pleasures hast thou made for man!" He that should be admitted on a

sudden to the sight of such a palace as that of Escurial in Spain,

or to that which the Moors built at Granada, Fontainebleau in

France, the Turk's gardens in his seraglio, wherein all manner of

birds and beasts are kept for pleasure; wolves, bears, lynxes,

tigers, lions, elephants, &c., or upon the banks of that Thracian

Bosphorus: the pope's Belvedere in Rome, as pleasing as those horti

pensiles in Babylon, or that Indian king's delightsome garden in

Aelian; or those famous gardens of the Lord Cantelow in France,

could, not choose, though he were never so ill paid, but be much

recreated for the time; or many of our noblemen's gardens at home.

To take a boat in a pleasant evening, and with music to row upon the

waters, which Plutarch so much applauds, Elian admires, upon the

river Pineus: in those Thessalian fields, beset with green bays,

where birds so sweetly sing that passengers, enchanted as it were

with their heavenly music, omnium laborum et curarum obliviscantur,

forget forthwith all labours, care, and grief: or in a gondola

through the Grand Canal in Venice, to see those goodly palaces, must

needs refresh and give content to a melancholy dull spirit. Or to

see the inner rooms of a fair-built and sumptuous edifice, as that

of the Persian kings, so much renowned by Diodorus and Curtius, in

which all was almost beaten gold, chairs, stools, thrones,

tabernacles, and pillars of gold, plane trees, and vines of gold,

grapes of precious stones, all the other ornaments of pure gold,

"Fulget gemma floris, et jaspide fulva supellex,

Strata micant Tyrio"------

(Lucan. "The furniture glitters with brilliant gems, with

yellow jasper, and the couches dazzle with their purple dye.")

With sweet odours and perfumes, generous wines, opiparous fare, &c.,

besides the gallantest young men, the fairest virgins, puellae

scitulae ministrantes, the rarest beauties the world could afford,

and those set out with costly and curious attires, ad stuporem usque

spectantium, with exquisite music, as in Trimaltion's house, in

every chamber sweet voices ever sounding day and night,

incomparabilis luxus, all delights and pleasures in each kind which

to please the senses could possibly be devised or had, convives

coronati, delitiis ebrii, &c. Telemachus, in Homer, is brought in as

one ravished almost at the sight of that magnificent palace, and

rich furniture of Menelaus, when he beheld

"Aeris fulgorem et resonantia tecta corusco

Auro, atque electro nitido, sectoque elephanto,

Argentoque simul. Talis Jovis ardua sedes,

Aulaque coelicolum stellans splendescit Olympo."

"Such glittering of gold and brightest brass to shine,

Clear amber, silver pure, and ivory so fine:

Jupiter's lofty palace, where the gods do dwell,

Was even such a one, and did it not excel."

It will laxare animos, refresh the soul of man to see fair-

built cities, streets, theatres, temples, obelisks, &c. The temple

of Jerusalem was so fairly built of white marble, with so many

pyramids covered with gold; tectumque templi fulvo coruscans auro,

nimio suo fulgore obcaecabat oculos itinerantium, was so glorious,

and so glistened afar off, that the spectators might not well abide

the sight of it. But the inner parts were all so curiously set out

with cedar, gold, jewels, &c., as he said of Cleopatra's palace in

Egypt,-- Crassumque trabes absconderat aurum, that the beholders

were amazed. What so pleasant as to see some pageant or sight go by,

as at coronations, weddings, and such like solemnities, to see an

ambassador or a prince met, received, entertained with masks, shows,

fireworks, &c. To see two kings fight in single combat, as Porus and

Alexander; Canute and Edmund Ironside; Scanderbeg and Ferat Bassa

the Turk; when not honour alone but life itself is at stake, as the

poet of Hector,

------"nec enim pro tergore Tauri,

Pro bove nec certamen erat, quae praemia cursus

Esse solent, sed pro magni viraque animaque -- Hectoris."

(Iliad. 10. "For neither was the contest for the hide of a

bull, nor for a beeve, which are the usual prizes in the race,

but for the life and soul of the great Hector.")

To behold a battle fought, like that of Crecy, or Agincourt,

or Poitiers, qua nescio (saith Froissart) an vetustas ullam proferre

possit clariorem. To see one of Caesar's triumphs in old Rome

revived, or the like. To be present at an interview, as that famous

of Henry the Eighth and Francis the First, so much renowned all over

Europe; ubi tanto apparatu (saith Hubertus Veillius) tamque

triumphali pompa ambo reges com eorum conjugibus coiere, ut nulla

unquam aetas tam celebria festa viderit aut audieriti, no age ever

saw the like. So infinitely pleasant are such shows, to the sight of

which oftentimes they will come hundreds of miles, give any money

for a place, and remember many years after with singular delight.

Bodine, when he was ambassador in England, said he saw the noblemen

go in their robes to the parliament house, summa cum jucunditate

vidimus, he was much affected with the sight of it. Pomponius

Columna, saith Jovius in his life, saw thirteen Frenchmen, and so

many Italians, once fight for a whole army: Quod jucundissimum

spectaculum in vita dicit sua, the pleasantest sight that ever he

saw in his life. Who would not have been affected with such a

spectacle? Or that single combat of Breaute the Frenchman, and

Anthony Schets a Dutchman, before the walls of Sylvaducis in

Brabant, anno 1600. They were twenty-two horse on the one side, as

many on the other, which like Livy's Horatii, Torquati and Corvini

fought for their own glory and country's honour, in the sight and

view of their whole city and army. When Julius Caesar warred about

the banks of Rhone, there came a barbarian prince to see him and the

Roman army, and when he had beheld Caesar a good while, "I see the

gods now" (saith he) "which before I heard of," nec feliciorem ullam

vitae meae aut optavi, aut sensi diem: it was the happiest day that

ever he had in his life. Such a sight alone were able of itself to

drive away melancholy; if not for ever, yet it must needs expel it

for a time. Radzivilus was much taken with the pasha's palace in

Cairo, and amongst many other objects which that place afforded,

with that solemnity of cutting the banks of the Nile by Imbram

Pasha, when it overflowed, besides two or three hundred gilded

galleys on the water, he saw two millions of men gathered together

on the land, with turbans as white as snow; and 'twas a goodly

sight. The very reading of feasts, triumphs, interviews, nuptials,

tilts, tournaments, combats, and monomachies, is most acceptable and

pleasant. Franciscus Modius hath made a large collection of such

solemnities in two great tomes, which whoso will may peruse. The

inspection alone of those curious iconographies of temples and

palaces, as that of the Lateran church in Albertus Durer, that of

the temple of Jerusalem in Josephus, Adricomius, and Villalpandus:

that of the Escurial in Guadas, of Diana at Ephesus in Pliny, Nero's

golden palace in Rome, Justinian's in Constantinople, that Peruvian

Jugo's in Cusco, ut non ab hominibus, sed a daemoniis constructum

videatur; St. Mark's in Venice, by Ignatius, with many such;

priscorum artificum opera (saith that interpreter of Pausanias), the

rare workmanship of those ancient Greeks, in theatres, obelisks,

temples, statues, gold, silver, ivory, marble images, non minore

ferme quum leguntur, quam quum cernuntur, animum delectatione

complent, affect one as much by reading almost as by sight.

The country hath his recreations, the city his several gymnics

and exercises, May games, feasts, wakes, and merry meetings, to

solace themselves; the very being in the country; that life itself

is a sufficient recreation to some men, to enjoy such pleasures, as

those old patriarchs did. Diocletian, the emperor, was so much

affected with it, that he gave over his sceptre, and turned

gardener. Constantine wrote twenty books of husbandry. Lysander,

when ambassadors came to see him, bragged of nothing more than of

his orchard, hi sunt ordines mei. What shall I say of Cincinnatus,

Cato, Tully, and many such? how they have been pleased with it, to

prune, plant, inoculate and graft, to show so many several kinds of

pears, apples, plums, peaches, &c.

"Nunc captare feras laqueo, nunc fallere visco,

Atque etiam magnos canibus circundare saltus

Insidias avibus moliri, incendere vepres."

"Sometimes with traps deceive, with line and string

To catch wild birds and beasts, encompassing

The grove with dogs, and out of bushes firing."

------"et nidos aviumscrutari," &c.

Jucundus, in his preface to Cato, Varro, Columella, &c., put

out by him, confesseth of himself, that he was mightily delighted

with these husbandry studies, and took extraordinary pleasure in

them: if the theory or speculation can so much affect, what shall

the place and exercise itself, the practical part do? The same

confession I find in Herbastein, Porta, Camerarius, and many others,

which have written of that subject. If my testimony were aught

worth, I could say as much of myself; I am vere Saturnus; no man

ever took more delight in springs, woods, groves, gardens, walks,

fishponds, rivers, &c. But

"Tantalus a labris sitiens fugientia captat

Flumina;"

("thirsting Tantalus gapes for the water that eludes his

lips.")

And so do I; Velle licet, potiri non licet.

Every palace, every city almost hath its peculiar walks,

cloisters, terraces, groves, theatres, pageants, games, and several

recreations; every country, some professed gymnics to exhilarate

their minds, and exercise their bodies. The Greeks had their

Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, Nemean games, in honour of Neptune,

Jupiter, Apollo; Athens hers: some for honour, garlands, crowns; for

beauty, dancing, running, leaping, like our silver games. The Romans

had their feasts, as the Athenians, and Lacedaemonians held their

public banquets, in Pritanaeo, Panathenaeis, Thesperiis, Phiditiis,

plays, naumachies, places for sea-fights, theatres, amphitheatres

able to contain 70,000 men, wherein they had several delightsome

shows to exhilarate the people; gladiators, combats of men with

themselves, with wild beasts, and wild beasts one with another, like

our bull-baitings, or bear-baitings (in which many countrymen and

citizens amongst us so much delight and so frequently use), dancers

on ropes. Jugglers, wrestlers, comedies, tragedies, publicly

exhibited at the emperor's and city's charge, and that with

incredible cost and magnificence. In the Low-Countries (as Meteran

relates) before these wars, they had many solemn feasts, plays,

challenges, artillery gardens, colleges of rhymers, rhetoricians,

poets: and to this day, such places are curiously maintained in

Amsterdam, as appears by that description of Isaacus Pontanus, rerum

Amstelrod. lib. 2. cap. 25. So likewise not long since at Friburg in

Germany, as is evident by that relation of Neander, they had Ludos

septennales, solemn plays every seven years, which Bocerus, one of

their own poets, hath elegantly described:

"At nunc magnifico spectacula structa paratu

Quid memorem, veteri non concessura

Quirino, Ludorum pompa," &c.

("What shall I say of their spectacles produced with the most

magnificent decorations,-- a degree of costliness never

indulged in even by the Romans.")

In Italy they have solemn declamations of certain select young

gentlemen in Florence (like those reciters in old Rome), and public

theatres in most of their cities, for stage-players and others, to

exercise and recreate themselves. All seasons almost, all places,

have their several pastimes; some in summer, some in winter; some

abroad, some within: some of the body, some of the mind: and diverse

men have diverse recreations and exercises. Domitian, the emperor,

was much delighted with catching flies; Augustus to play with nuts

amongst children; Alexander Severus was often pleased to play with

whelps and young pigs. Adrian was so wholly enamoured with dogs and

horses, that he bestowed monuments and tombs of them, and buried

them in graves. In foul weather, or when they can use no other

convenient sports, by reason of the time, as we do cock-fighting, to

avoid idleness, I think, (though some be more seriously taken with

it, spend much time, cost and charges, and are too solicitous about

it) Severus used partridges and quails, as many Frenchmen do still,

and to keep birds in cages, with which he was much pleased, when at

any time he had leisure from public cares and businesses. He had

(saith Lampridius) tame pheasants, ducks, partridges, peacocks, and

some 20,000 ring-doves and pigeons. Busbequius, the emperor's

orator, when he lay in Constantinople, and could not stir much

abroad, kept for his recreation, busying himself to see them fed,

almost all manner of strange birds and beasts; this was something,

though not to exercise his body, yet to refresh his mind. Conradus

Gesner, at Zurich in Switzerland, kept so likewise for his pleasure,

a great company of wild beasts; and (as he saith) took great delight

to see them eat their meat. Turkey gentlewomen, that are perpetual

prisoners, still mewed up according to the custom of the place, have

little else beside their household business, or to play with their

children to drive away time, but to dally with their cats, which

they have in delitiis, as many of our ladies and gentlewomen use

monkeys and little dogs. The ordinary recreations which we have in

winter, and in most solitary times busy our minds with, are cards,

tables and dice, shovelboard, chess-play, the philosopher's game,

small trunks, shuttlecock, billiards, music, masks, singing,

dancing, Yule-games, frolics, jests, riddles, catches, purposes,

questions and commands, merry tales of errant knights, queens,

lovers, lords, ladies, giants, dwarfs, thieves, cheaters, witches,

fairies, goblins, friars, &c., such as the old woman told Psyche in

Apuleius, Boccace novels, and the rest, quarum auditione pueri

delectantur, senes narratione, which some delight to hear, some to

tell; all are well pleased with. Amaranthus, the philosopher, met

Hermocles, Diophantus and Philolaus, his companions, one day busily

discoursing about Epicurus and Democritus' tenets, very solicitous

which was most probable and came nearest to truth: to put them out

of that surly controversy, and to refresh their spirits, he told

them a pleasant tale of Stratocles the physician's wedding, and of

all the particulars, the company, the cheer, the music, &c., for he

was new come from it; with which relation they were so much

delighted, that Philolaus wished a blessing to his heart, and many a

good wedding, many such merry meetings might he be at, "to please

himself with the sight, and others with the narration of it." News

are generally welcome to all our ears, avide audimus, aures enim

hominum novitate laetantur ( as Pliny observes), we long after rumour

to hear and listen to it, densum humeris bibit aure vulgus. We are

most part too inquisitive and apt to hearken after news, which

Caesar, in his Commentaries, observes of the old Gauls, they would

be inquiring of every carrier and passenger what they had heard or

seen, what news abroad?

------"quid toto fiat in orbe,

Quid Seres, quid Thraces agant, secreta novercae,

Et pueri, quis amet," &c.

as at an ordinary with us, bakehouse or barber's shop. When that

great Gonsalva was upon some displeasure confined by King Ferdinand

to the city of Loxa in Andalusia, the only, comfort (saith Jovius)

he had to ease his melancholy thoughts, was to hear news, and to

listen after those ordinary occurrences which were brought him cum

primis, by letters or otherwise out of the remotest parts of Europe.

Some men's whole delight is, to take tobacco, and drink all day long

in a tavern or alehouse, to discourse, sing, jest, roar, talk of a

cock and bull over a pot, &c. Or when three or four good companions

meet, tell old stories by the fireside, or in the sun, as old folks

usually do, quae aprici meminere senes, remembering afresh and with

pleasure ancient matters, and such like accidents, which happened in

their younger years: others' best pastime is to game, nothing to

them so pleasant. Hic Veneri indulget, hunc decoquit alea -- many

too nicely take exceptions at cards, tables, and dice, and such

mixed lusorious lots, whom Gataker well confutes. Which though they

be honest recreations in themselves, yet may justly be otherwise

excepted at, as they are often abused, and forbidden as things most

pernicious; insanam rem et damnosam, Lemnius calls it. "For most

part in these kind of disports 'tis not art or skill, but subtlety,

cony-catching, knavery, chance and fortune carries all away:" 'tis

ambulatoria pecunia,

------"puncto mobilis horae

Permutat dominos, et cedit in altera jura."

("In a moment of fleeting time it changes masters and submits

to new control.")

They labour most part not to pass their time in honest

disport, but for filthy lucre, and covetousness of money. In

foedissimum lucrum et avaritiam hominum convertitur, as Daneus

observes. Fons fraudum et maleficiorum, 'tis the fountain of

cozenage and villainy. "A thing so common all over Europe at this

day, and so generally abused, that many men are utterly undone by

it," their means spent, patrimonies consumed, they and their

posterity beggared; besides swearing, wrangling, drinking, loss of

time, and such inconveniences, which are ordinary concomitants: "for

when once they have got a haunt of such companies, and habit of

gaming, they can hardly be drawn from it, but as an itch it will

tickle them, and as it is with whoremasters, once entered, they

cannot easily leave it off:" Vexat mentes insania cupido, they are

mad upon their sport. And in conclusion (which Charles the Seventh,

that good French king, published in an edict against gamesters) unde

piae et hilaris vitae, suffugium sibi suisque liberis, totique

familiae, &c. "That which was once their livelihood, should have

maintained wife, children, family, is now spent and gone;" maeror et

egestas, &c., sorrow and beggary succeeds. So good things may be

abused, and that which was first invented to refresh men's weary

spirits, when they come from other labours and studies to exhilarate

the mind, to entertain time and company, tedious otherwise in those

long solitary winter nights, and keep them from worse matters, an

honest exercise is contrarily perverted.

Chess-play is a good and witty exercise of the mind for some

kind of men, and fit for such melancholy, Rhasis holds, as are idle,

and have extravagant impertinent thoughts, or troubled with cares,

nothing better to distract their mind, and alter their meditations:

invented (some say) by the general of an army in a famine, to keep

soldiers from mutiny: but if it proceed from overmuch study, in such

a case it may do more harm than good; it is a game too troublesome

for some men's brains, too full of anxiety, all out as bad as study;

besides it is a testy choleric game, and very offensive to him that

loseth the mate. William the Conqueror, in his younger years,

playing at chess with the Prince of France (Dauphine was not annexed

to that crown in those days) losing a mate, knocked the chess-board

about his pate, which was a cause afterward of much enmity between

them. For some such reason it is belike, that Patritius, in his 3.

book, tit. 12. de reg. instit. forbids his prince to play at chess;

hawking and hunting, riding, &c. he will allow; and this to other

men, but by no means to him. In Muscovy, where they live in stoves

and hot houses all winter long, come seldom or little abroad, it is

again very necessary, and therefore in those parts, (saith

Herbastein) much used. At Fez in Africa, where the like

inconvenience of keeping within doors is through heat, it is very

laudable; and (as Leo Afer relates) as much frequented. A sport fit

for idle gentlewomen, soldiers in garrison, and courtiers that have

nought but love matters to busy themselves about, but not altogether

so convenient for such as are students. The like I may say of Col.

Bruxer's philosophy game, D. Fulke's Metromachia and his

Ouronomachia, with the rest of those intricate astrological and

geometrical fictions, for such especially as are mathematically

given; and the rest of those curious games.

Dancing, singing, masking, mumming, stage plays, howsoever

they be heavily censured by some severe Catos, yet if opportunely

and soberly used, may justly be approved. Melius est foedere, quam

saltare, ("It is better to dig than to dance.") saith Austin: but

what is that if they delight in it? Nemo saltat sobrius. (Tullius.

"No sensible man dances.") But in what kind of dance? I know these

sports have many oppugners, whole volumes writ against them; when as

all they say (if duly considered) is but ignoratio Elenchi; and some

again, because they are now cold and wayward, past themselves, cavil

at all such youthful sports in others, as he did in the comedy; they

think them, illico nasci senes, &c. Some out of preposterous zeal

object many times trivial arguments, and because of some abuse, will

quite take away the good use, as if they should forbid wine because

it makes men drunk; but in my judgment they are too stern: there "is

a time for all things, a time to mourn, a time to dance," Eccles.

iii. 4. "a time to embrace, a time not to embrace," (verse 5.) "and

nothing better than that a man should rejoice in his own works,"

verse 22; for my part, I will subscribe to the king's declaration,

and was ever of that mind, those May games, wakes, and Whitsun ales,

&c., if they be not at unseasonable hours, may justly be permitted.

Let them freely feast, sing and dance, have their puppet-plays,

hobby-horses, tabors, crowds, bagpipes, &c., play at ball, and

barley-breaks, and what sports and recreations they like best. In

Franconia, a province of Germany, (saith Aubanus Bohemus) the old

folks, after evening prayer, went to the alehouse, the younger sort

to dance: and to say truth with Salisburiensis, satius fuerat sic

otiari, quam turpius occupari, better to do so than worse, as

without question otherwise (such is the corruption of man's nature)

many of them will do. For that cause, plays, masks, jesters,

gladiators, tumblers, jugglers, &c., and all that crew is admitted

and winked at: Tota jocularium scena procedit, et ideo spectacula

admissa sunt, et infinita tyrocinia vanitatum, ut his occupentur,

qui perniciosius otiari solent: that they might be busied about such

toys, that would otherwise more perniciously be idle. So that as

Tacitus said of the astrologers in Rome, we may say of them, genus

hominum est quod in civitate nostra et vitabitur semper et

retinebitur, they are a debauched company most part, still spoken

against, as well they deserve some of them (for I so relish and

distinguish them as fiddlers, and musicians), and yet ever retained.

"Evil is not to be done (I confess) that good may come of it:" but

this is evil per accidens, and in a qualified sense, to avoid a

greater inconvenience, may justly be tolerated. Sir Thomas More, in

his Utopian Commonwealth, "as he will have none idle, so will he

have no man labour over hard, to be toiled out like a horse, 'tis

more than slavish infelicity, the life of most of our hired servants

and tradesmen elsewhere" (excepting his Utopians) "but half the day

allotted for work, and half for honest recreation, or whatsoever

employment they shall think fit for themselves." If one half day in

a week were allowed to our household servants for their merry

meetings, by their hard masters, or in a year some feasts, like

those Roman Saturnals, I think they would labour harder all the rest

of their time, and both parties be better pleased: but this needs

not (you will say), for some of them do nought but loiter all the

week long.

This which I aim at, is for such as are fracti animis,

troubled in mind, to ease them, over-toiled on the one part, to

refresh: over idle on the other, to keep themselves busied. And to

this purpose, as any labour or employment will serve to the one, any

honest recreation will conduce to the other, so that it be moderate

and sparing, as the use of meat and drink; not to spend all their

life in gaming, playing, and pastimes, as too many gentlemen do; but

to revive our bodies and recreate our souls with honest sports: of

which as there be diverse sorts, and peculiar to several callings,

ages, sexes, conditions, so there be proper for several seasons, and

those of distinct natures, to fit that variety of humours which is

amongst them, that if one will not, another may: some in summer,

some in winter, some gentle, some more violent, some for the mind

alone, some for the body and mind: (as to some it is both business

and a pleasant recreation to oversee workmen of all sorts,

husbandry, cattle, horses, &c. To build, plot, project, to make

models, cast up accounts, &c.) some without, some within doors; new,

old, &c., as the season serveth, and as men are inclined. It is

reported of Philippus Bonus, that good duke of Burgundy (by

Lodovicus Vives, in Epist. and Pont. Heuter in his history) that the

said duke, at the marriage of Eleonora, sister to the king of

Portugal, at Bruges in Flanders, which was solemnised in the deep of

winter, when, as by reason of unseasonable weather, he could neither

hawk nor hunt, and was now tired with cards, dice, &c., and such

other domestic sports, or to see ladies dance, with some of his

courtiers, he would in the evening walk disguised all about the

town. It so fortuned, as he was walking late one night, he found a

country fellow dead drunk, snorting on a bulk; he caused his

followers to bring him to his palace, and there stripping him of his

old clothes, and attiring him after the court fashion, when he

waked, he and they were all ready to attend upon his excellency,

persuading him he was some great duke. The poor fellow admiring how

he came there, was served in state all the day long; after supper he

saw them dance, heard music, and the rest of those court-like

pleasures: but late at night, when he was well tippled, and again

fast asleep, they put on his old robes, and so conveyed him to the

place where they first found him. Now the fellow had not made them

so good sport the day before as he did when he returned to himself;

all the jest was, to see how he looked upon it. In conclusion, after

some little admiration, the poor man told his friends he had seen a

vision, constantly believed it, would not otherwise be persuaded,

and so the jest ended. Antiochus Epiphanes would often disguise

himself, steal from his court, and go into merchants', goldsmiths',

and other tradesmen's shops, sit and talk with them, and sometimes

ride or walk alone, and fall aboard with any tinker, clown, serving

man, carrier, or whomsoever he met first. Sometimes he did ex

insperato give a poor fellow money, to see how he would look, or on

set purpose lose his purse as he went, to watch who found it, and

withal how he would be affected, and with such objects he was much

delighted. Many such tricks are ordinarily put in practice by great

men, to exhilarate themselves and others, all which are harmless

jests, and have their good uses.

But amongst those exercises, or recreations of the mind within

doors, there is none so general, so aptly to be applied to all sorts

of men, so fit and proper to expel idleness and melancholy, as that

of study: Studia, senectutem oblectant, adolescentiam alunt,

secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium et solatium praebent, domi

delectant, &c., find the rest in Tully pro Archia Poeta. ("Study is

the delight of old age, the support of youth, the ornament of

prosperity, the solace and refuge of adversity, the comfort of

domestic life," &c.) What so full of content, as to read, walk, and

see maps, pictures, statues, jewels, marbles, which some so much

magnify, as those that Phidias made of old so exquisite and pleasing

to be beheld, that as Chrysostom thinketh, "if any man be sickly,

troubled in mind, or that cannot sleep for grief, and shall but

stand over against one of Phidias' images, he will forget all care,

or whatsoever else may molest him, in an instant?" There be those as

much taken with Michael Angelo's, Raphael de Urbino's, Francesco

Francia's pieces, and many of those Italian and Dutch painters,

which were excellent in their ages; and esteem of it as a most

pleasing sight, to view those neat architectures, devices,

escutcheons, coats of arms, read such books, to peruse old coins of

several sorts in a fair gallery; artificial works, perspective

glasses, old relics, Roman antiquities, variety of colours. A good

picture is falsa veritas, et muta poesis: and though (as Vives saith)

artificialia delectant, sed mox fastidimus, artificial toys please

but for a time; yet who is he that will not be moved with them for

the present? When Achilles was tormented and sad for the loss of his

dear friend Patroclus, his mother Thetis brought him a most

elaborate and curious buckler made by Vulcan, in which were engraven

sun, moon, stars, planets, sea, land, men fighting, running, riding,

women scolding, hills, dales, towns, castles, brooks, rivers, trees,

&c., with many pretty landscapes, and perspective pieces: with sight

of which he was infinitely delighted, and much eased of his grief.

"Continuo eo spectaculo captus delenito maerore

Oblectabatur, in manibus tenens dei splendida dona."

Who will not be affected so in like case, or see those well-

furnished cloisters and galleries of the Roman cardinals, so richly

stored with all modern pictures, old statues and antiquities? Cum se

-- spectando recreet simul et legendo, to see their pictures alone

and read the description, as Boisardus well adds, whom will it not

affect? which Bozius, Pomponius, Laetus, Marlianus, Schottus,

Cavelerius, Ligorius, &c., and he himself hath well performed of

late. Or in some prince's cabinets, like that of the great dukes in

Florence, of Felix Platerus in Basil, or noblemen's houses, to see

such variety of attires, faces, so many, so rare, and such exquisite

pieces, of men, birds, beasts, &c., to see those excellent

landscapes, Dutch works, and curious cuts of Sadlier of Prague,

Albertus Durer, Goltzius Vrintes, &c., such pleasant pieces of

perspective, Indian pictures made of feathers, China works, frames,

thaumaturgical motions, exotic toys, &c. Who is he that is now

wholly overcome with idleness, or otherwise involved in a labyrinth

of worldly cares, troubles and discontents, that will not be much

lightened in his mind by reading of some enticing story, true or

feigned, whereas in a glass he shall observe what our forefathers

have done, the beginnings, ruins, falls, periods of commonwealths,

private men's actions displayed to the life, &c. Plutarch therefore

calls them, secundas mensas et bellaria, the second course and

junkets, because they were usually read at noblemen's feasts. Who is

not earnestly affected with a passionate speech, well penned, an

elegant poem, or some pleasant bewitching discourse, like that of

Heliodorus, ubi oblectatio quaedam placide fuit, cum hilaritate

conjuncta? Julian the Apostate was so taken with an oration of

Libanius, the sophister, that, as he confesseth, he could not be

quiet till he had read it all out. Legi orationem tuam magna ex

parte, hesterna die ante prandium, pransus vero sine ulla

intermissione totam absolvi. O argumenta! O compositionem! I may say

the same of this or that pleasing tract, which will draw his

attention along with it. To most kind of men it is an extraordinary

delight to study. For what a world of books offers itself, in all

subjects, arts, and sciences, to the sweet content and capacity of

the reader? In arithmetic, geometry, perspective, optics, astronomy,

architecture, sculpture, painting, of which so many and such

elaborate treatises are of late written: in mechanics and their

mysteries, military matters, navigation, riding of horses, fencing,

swimming, gardening, planting, great tomes of husbandry, cookery,

falconry, hunting, fishing, fowling, &c., with exquisite pictures of

all sports, games, and what not? In music, metaphysics, natural and

moral philosophy, philology, in policy, heraldry, genealogy,

chronology, &c., they afford great tomes, or those studies of

antiquity, &c., et quid subtilius Arithmeticis inventionibus, quid

jucundius Musicis rationibus, quid divinius Astronomicis, quid

rectius Geometricis demonstrationibus? (Cardan. "What is more subtle

than arithmetical conclusions; what more agreeable than musical

harmonies; what more divine than astronomical, what more certain

than geometrical demonstrations?") What so sure, what so pleasant?

He that shall but see that geometrical tower of Garezenda at Bologna

in Italy, the steeple and clock at Strasburg, will admire the

effects of art, or that engine of Archimedes, to remove the earth

itself, if he had but a place to fasten his instrument: Archimedes

Coclea, and rare devices to corrivate waters, musical instruments,

and tri-syllable echoes again, again, and again repeated, with

myriads of such. What vast tomes are extant in law, physic, and

divinity, for profit, pleasure, practice, speculation, in verse or

prose, &c.! their names alone are the subject of whole volumes, we

have thousands of authors of all sorts, many great libraries full

well furnished, like so many dishes of meat, served out for several

palates; and he is a very block that is affected with none of them.

Some take an infinite delight to study the very languages wherein

these books are written, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Chaldee, Arabic, &c.

Methinks it would please any man to look upon a geographical map,

sauvi animum delectatione allicere, ob incredibilem rerum varietatem

et jucunditatem, et ad pleniorem sui cognitionem excitare, (Hondius

praefat. Mercatoris. "It allures the mind by its agreeable

attraction, on account of the incredible variety and pleasantness of

the subjects, and excites to a further step in knowledge.")

chorographical, topographical delineations, to behold, as it were,

all the remote provinces, towns, cities of the world, and never to

go forth of the limits of his study, to measure by the seale and

compass their extent, distance, examine their site. Charles the

Great, as Platina writes, had three fair silver tables, in one of

which superficies was a large map of Constantinople, in the second

Rome neatly engraved, in the third an exquisite description of the

whole world, and much delight he took in them. What greater pleasure

can there now be, than to view those elaborate maps of Ortelius,

Mercator, Hondius, &c.? To peruse those books of cities, put out by

Braunus and Hogenbergius? To read those exquisite descriptions of

Maginus, Munster, Herrera, Laet, Merula, Boterus, Leander, Albertus,

Camden, Leo Afer, Adricomius, Nic. Gerbelius, &c.? Those famous

expeditions of Christoph. Columbus, Americus Vespucius, Marcus Polus

the Venetian, Lod. Vertomannus, Aloysius Cadamustus, &c.? Those

accurate diaries of Portuguese, Hollanders, of Bartison, Oliver a

Nort, &c. Hakluyt's voyages, Pet. Martyr's Decades, Benzo, Lerius,

Linschoten's relations, those Hodoeporicons of Jod. a Meggen, Brocard

the monk, Bredenbachius, Jo. Dublinius, Sands, &c., to Jerusalem,

Egypt, and other remote places of the world? those pleasant

itineraries of Paulus Hentzerus, Jodocus Sincerus, Dux Polonus, &c.,

to read Bellonius' observations, P. Gillius his surveys; those parts

of America, set out, and curiously cut in pictures, by Fratres a

Bry. To see a well-cut herbal, herbs, trees, flowers, plants, all

vegetables expressed in their proper colours to the life, as that of

Matthiolus upon Dioscorides, Delacampius, Lobel, Bauhinus, and that

last voluminous and mighty herbal of Beslar of Nuremberg, wherein

almost every plant is to his own bigness. To see birds, beasts, and

fishes of the sea, spiders, gnats, serpents, flies, &c., all

creatures set out by the same art, and truly expressed in lively

colours, with an exact description of their natures, virtues,

qualities, &c., as hath been accurately performed by Aelian, Gesner,

Ulysses Aldrovandus, Bellonius, Rondoletius, Hippolitus Salvianus,

&c. Arcana coeli, naturae secreta, ordinem universi scire majoris

felicitatis et dulcedinis est, quam cogitatione quis assequi possit,

aut mortalis sperare. (Cardan. "To learn the mysteries of the

heavens, the secret workings of nature, the order of the universe,

is a greater happiness and gratification than any mortal can think

or expect to obtain.") What more pleasing studies can there be than

the mathematics, theoretical or practical parts? as to survey land,

make maps, models, dials, &c., with which I was ever much delighted

myself. Tails est Mathematum pulchritudo (saith Plutarch) ut his

indignum sit divitiarum phaleras istas et bullas, et puellaria

spectacula comparari; such is the excellency of these studies, that

all those ornaments and childish bubbles of wealth, are not worthy

to be compared to them: credi mihi (saith one) extingui dulce erit

Mathematicarum artium studio, I could even live and die with such

meditation, and take more delight, true content of mind in them,

than thou hast in all thy wealth and sport, how rich soever thou

art. And as Cardan well seconds me, Honorificum magis est et

gloriosum haec intelligere, quam provinciis praeesse, formosum aut

ditem juvenem esse.( "It is more honourable and glorious to

understand these truths than to govern provinces, to be beautiful or

to be young.") The like pleasure there is in all other studies, to

such as are truly addicted to them, ea suavitas (one holds) ut cum

quis ea degustaverit, quasi poculis Circeis captus, non possit

unquam ab illis divelli; the like sweetness, which as Circe's cup

bewitcheth a student, he cannot leave off, as well may witness those

many laborious hours, days and nights, spent in the voluminous

treatises written by them; the same content. Julius Scaliger was so

much affected with poetry, that he brake out into a pathetical

protestation, he had rather be the author of twelve verses in Lucan,

or such an ode in Horace, than emperor of Germany. Nicholas

Gerbelius, that good old man, was so much ravished with a few Greek

authors restored to light, with hope and desire of enjoying the

rest, that he exclaims forthwith, Arabibus atque Indis omnibus

erimus ditiores, we shall be richer than all the Arabic or Indian

princes; of such esteem they were with him, incomparable worth and

value. Seneca prefers Zeno and Chrysippus, two doting stoics (he was

so much enamoured of their works), before any prince or general of

an army; and Orontius, the mathematician, so far admires Archimedes,

that he calls him Divinum et homine majorem, a petty god, more than

a man; and well he might, for aught I see, if you respect fame or

worth. Pindarus, of Thebes, is as much renowned for his poems, as

Epaminondas, Pelopidas, Hercules or Bacchus, his fellow citizens,

for their warlike actions; et si famam respicias, non pauciores

Aristotelis quam Alexandri meminerunt (as Cardan notes), Aristotle

is more known than Alexander; for we have a bare relation of

Alexander's deeds, but Aristotle, totus vivit in monumentis, is

whole in his works: yet I stand not upon this; the delight is it,

which I aim at, so great pleasure, such sweet content there is in

study. King James, 1605, when he came to see our University of

Oxford, and amongst other edifices now went to view that famous

library, renewed by Sir Thomas Bodley, in imitation of Alexander, at

his departure brake out into that noble speech, If I were not a

king, I would be a university man: "and if it were so that I must

be a prisoner, if I might have my wish, I would desire to have no

other prison than that library, and to be chained together with so

many good authors et mortuis magistris." So sweet is the delight of

study, the more learning they have (as he that hath a dropsy, the

more he drinks the thirstier he is) the more they covet to learn,

and the last day is prioris discipulus; harsh at first learning is,

radices amarcae, but fractus dulces, according to that of Isocrates,

pleasant at last; the longer they live, the more they are enamoured

with the Muses. Heinsius, the keeper of the library at Leyden in

Holland, was mewed up in it all the year long: and that which to thy

thinking should have bred a loathing, caused in him a greater

liking. "I no sooner" (saith he) "come into the library, but I bolt

the door to me, excluding lust, ambition, avarice, and all such

vices, whose nurse is idleness, the mother of ignorance, and

melancholy herself, and in the very lap of eternity, amongst so many

divine souls, I take my seat, with so lofty a spirit and sweet

content, that I pity all our great ones, and rich men that know not

this happiness." I am not ignorant in the meantime (notwithstanding

this which I have said) how barbarously and basely, for the most

part, our ruder gentry esteem of libraries and books, how they

neglect and contemn so great a treasure, so inestimable a benefit,

as Aesop's cock did the jewel he found in the dunghill; and all

through error, ignorance, and want of education. And 'tis a wonder,

withal, to observe how much they will vainly cast away in

unnecessary expenses, quot modis pereant (saith Erasmus) magnatibus

pecuniae, quantum absumant alea, scorta, compotationes, profectiones

non necessariae, pompae, bella quaesita, ambitio, colax, morio, ludio,

&c., what in hawks, hounds, lawsuits, vain building, gormandising,

drinking, sports, plays, pastimes, &c. If a well-minded man to the

Muses, would sue to some of them for an exhibition, to the farther

maintenance or enlargement of such a work, be it college, lecture,

library, or whatsoever else may tend to the advancement of learning,

they are so unwilling, so averse, that they had rather see these

which are already, with such cost and care erected, utterly ruined,

demolished or otherwise employed; for they repine many and grudge at

such gifts and revenues so bestowed: and therefore it were in vain,

as Erasmus well notes, vel ab his, vel a negotiatoribus qui se

Mammonae dediderunt, improbum fortasse tale officium exigere, to

solicit or ask anything of such men that are likely damned to

riches; to this purpose. For my part I pity these men, stultos jubeo

esse libenter, let them go as they are, in the catalogue of

Ignoramus. How much, on the other side, are all we bound that are

scholars, to those munificent Ptolemies, bountiful Maecenases,

heroical patrons, divine spirits,

------"qui nobis haec otio fecerunt, namque erit ille mihi

semper Deus"------

"These blessings, friend, a Deity bestow'd,

For never can I deem him less than God."

that have provided for us so many well-furnished libraries, as well

in our public academies in most cities, as in our private colleges?

How shall I remember Sir Thomas Bodley, amongst the rest, Otho

Nicholson, and the Right Reverend John Williams, Lord Bishop of

Lincoln (with many other pious acts), who besides that at St. John's

College in Cambridge, that in Westminster, is now likewise in Fieri

with a library at Lincoln (a noble precedent for all corporate towns

and cities to imitate), O quam te memorem (vir illustrissime) quibus

elogiis? But to my task again.

Whosoever he is therefore that is overrun with solitariness,

or carried away with pleasing melancholy and vain conceits, and for

want of employment knows not how to spend his time, or crucified

with worldly care, I can prescribe him no better remedy than this of

study, to compose himself to the learning of some art or science.

Provided always that this malady proceed not from overmuch study;

for in such case he adds fuel to the fire, and nothing can be more

pernicious: let him take heed he do not overstretch his wits, and

make a skeleton of himself; or such inamoratos as read nothing but

play-books, idle poems, jests, Amadis de Gaul, the Knight of the

Sun, the Seven Champions, Palmerin de Oliva, Huon of Bordeaux, &c.

Such many times prove in the end as mad as Don Quixote. Study is

only prescribed to those that are otherwise idle, troubled in mind,

or carried headlong with vain thoughts and imaginations, to distract

their cogitations (although variety of study, or some serious

subject, would do the former no harm) and divert their continual

meditations another way. Nothing in this case better than study;

semper aliquid memoriter ediscant, saith Piso, let them learn

something without book, transcribe, translate, &c. Read the

Scriptures, which Hyperius, lib. 1. de quotid. script. lec. fol. 77.

holds available of itself, "the mind is erected thereby from all

worldly cares, and hath much quiet and tranquillity." For as Austin

well hath it, 'tis scientia scientiarum, omni melle dulcior, omni

pane suavior, omni vino, hilarior: 'tis the best nepenthe, surest

cordial, sweetest alterative, presentest diverter: for neither as

Chrysostom well adds, "those boughs and leaves of trees which are

plashed for cattle to stand under, in the heat of the day, in

summer, so much refresh them with their acceptable shade, as the

reading of the Scripture doth recreate and comfort a distressed

soul, in sorrow and affliction." Paul bids "pray continually;" quod

cibus corpori, lectio animae facit, saith Seneca, as meat is to the

body, such is reading to the soul. "To be at leisure without books

is another hell, and to be buried alive." Cardan calls a library the

physic of the soul; "divine authors fortify the mind, make men bold

and constant; and (as Hyperius adds) godly conference will not

permit the mind to be tortured with absurd cogitations." Rhasis

enjoins continual conference to such melancholy men, perpetual

discourse of some history, tale, poem, news, &c., alternos sermones

edere ac bibere, aeque jucundum quam cibus, sive potus, which feeds

the mind as meat and drink doth the body, and pleaseth as much: and

therefore the said Rhasis, not without good cause, would have

somebody still talk seriously, or dispute with them, and sometimes

"to cavil and wrangle" (so that it break not out to a violent

perturbation), "for such altercation is like stirring of a dead fire

to make it burn afresh," it whets a dull spirit, "and will not

suffer the mind to be drowned in those profound cogitations, which

melancholy men are commonly troubled with." Ferdinand and Alphonsus,

kings of Arragon and Sicily, were both cured by reading the history,

one of Curtius, the other of Livy, when no prescribed physic would

take place. Camerarius relates as much of Lorenzo de Medici. Heathen

philosophers are so full of divine precepts in this kind, that, as

some think, they alone are able to settle a distressed mind. Sunt

verba et voces, quibus liunc lenire dolorem, &c. Epictetus,

Plutarch, and Seneca; qualis ille, quae tela, saith Lipsius, adversus

omnes animi casus administrat, et ipsam mortem, quomodo vitia

eripit, infert virtutes? when I read Seneca, "methinks I am beyond

all human fortunes, on the top of a hill above mortality." Plutarch

saith as much of Homer, for which cause belike Niceratus, in

Xenophon, was made by his parents to con Homer's Iliads and Odysseys

without book, ut in virum bonum evaderet, as well to make him a good

and honest man, as to avoid idleness. If this comfort be got from

philosophy, what shall be had from divinity? What shall Austin,

Cyprian, Gregory, Bernard's divine meditations afford us?

"Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non,

Plenius et melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicunt."

"Who explain what is fair, foul, useful, worthless, more fully

and faithfully than Chrysippus and Crantor?"

Nay, what shall the Scripture itself? Which is like an apothecary's

shop, wherein are all remedies for all infirmities of mind,

purgatives, cordials, alteratives, corroboratives, lenitives, &c.

"Every disease of the soul," saith Austin, "hath a peculiar medicine

in the Scripture; this only is required, that the sick man take the

potion which God hath already tempered." Gregory calls it "a glass

wherein we may see all our infirmities," ignitum colloquium, Psalm

cxix. 140, Origen a charm. And therefore Hierom prescribes Rusticus

the monk, "continually to read the Scripture, and to meditate on

that which he hath read; for as mastication is to meat, so is

meditation on that which we read." I would for these causes wish him

that, is melancholy to use both human and divine authors,

voluntarily to impose some task upon himself, to divert his

melancholy thoughts: to study the art of memory, Cosmus Rosselius,

Pet. Ravennas, Scenkelius' Detectus, or practise brachygraphy, &c.,

that will ask a great deal of attention: or let him demonstrate a

proposition in Euclid, in his five last books, extract a square

root, or study Algebra: than which, as Clavius holds, "in all human

disciplines nothing can be more excellent and pleasant, so abstruse

and recondite, so bewitching, so miraculous, so ravishing, so easy

withal and full of delight," omnem humanum captum superare videtur.

By this means you may define ex ungue leonem, as the diverb is, by

his thumb alone the bigness of Hercules, or the true dimensions of

the great Colossus, Solomon's temple, and Domitian's amphitheatre

out of a little part. By this art you may contemplate the variation

of the twenty-three letters, which may be so infinitely varied, that

the words complicated and deduced thence will not be contained

within the compass of the firmament; ten words may be varied 40,320

several ways: by this art you may examine how many men may stand one

by another in the whole superficies of the earth, some say

148,456,800,000,000, assignando singulis passum quadratum (assigning

a square foot to each), how many men, supposing all the world as

habitable as France, as fruitful and so long-lived, may be born in

60,000 years, and so may you demonstrate with Archimedes how many

sands the mass of the whole world might contain if all sandy, if you

did but first know how much a small cube as big as a mustard-seed

might hold, with infinite such. But in all nature what is there so

stupendous as to examine and calculate the motion of the planets,

their magnitudes, apogees, perigees, eccentricities, how far distant

from the earth, the bigness, thickness, compass of the firmament,

each star, with their diameters and circumference, apparent area,

superficies, by those curious helps of glasses, astrolabes,

sextants, quadrants, of which Tycho Brahe in his mechanics, optics (

divine optics) arithmetic, geometry, and such like arts and

instruments? What so intricate and pleasing withal, as to peruse and

practise Heron Alexandrinus's works, de spiritalibus, de machinis

bellicis, de machina se movente, Jordani Nemorarii de ponderibus

proposit. 13, that pleasant tract of Machometes Bragdedinus de

superficierum divisionibus, Apollonius's Conics, or Commandinus's

labours in that kind, de centro gravitatis, with many such

geometrical theorems and problems? Those rare instruments and

mechanical inventions of Jac. Bessonus, and Cardan to this purpose,

with many such experiments intimated long since by Roger Bacon, in

his tract de Secretis artis et naturae, as to make a chariot to move

sine animali, diving boats, to walk on the water by art, and to fly

in the air, to make several cranes and pulleys, quibus homo trahat

ad se mille homines, lift up and remove great weights, mills to move

themselves, Archita's dove, Albertus's brazen head, and such

thaumaturgical works. But especially to do strange miracles by

glasses, of which Proclus and Bacon writ of old, burning glasses,

multiplying glasses, perspectives, ut unus homo appareat exercitus,

to see afar off, to represent solid bodies by cylinders and

concaves, to walk in the air, ut veraciter videant, (saith Bacon)

aurum et argentum et quicquid aliud volunt, et quum veniant ad locum

visionis, nihil inveniant, which glasses are much perfected of late

by Baptista Porta and Galileo, and much more is promised by Maginus

and Midorgius, to be performed in this kind. Otocousticons some

speak of, to intend hearing, as the other do sight; Marcellus

Vrencken, a Hollander, in his epistle to Burgravius, makes mention

of a friend of his that is about an instrument, quo videbit quae in

altero horizonte sint. But our alchemists, methinks, and

Rosicrucians afford most rarities, and are fuller of experiments:

they can make gold, separate and alter metals, extract oils, salts,

lees, and do more strange works than Geber, Lullius, Bacon, or any

of those ancients. Crollius hath made after his master Paracelsus,

aurum fulminans, or aurum volatile, which shall imitate thunder and

lightning, and crack louder than any gunpowder; Cornelius Drible a

perpetual motion, inextinguishable lights, linum non ardens, with

many such feats; see his book de natura elementorum, besides hail,

wind, snow, thunder, lightning, &c., those strange fireworks,

devilish petards, and such like warlike machinations derived hence,

of which read Tartalea and others. Ernestus Burgravius, a disciple

of Paracelsus, hath published a discourse, in which he specifies a

lamp to be made of man's blood, Lucerna vitae et mortis index, so he

terms it, which chemically prepared forty days, and afterwards kept

in a glass, shall show all the accidents of this life; si lampus hic

clarus, tunc homo hilaris et sanus corpore et animo; si nebulosus et

depressus, male afficitur, et sic pro statu hominis variatur, unde

sumptus sanguis; ("If the lamp burn brightly, then the man is

cheerful and healthy in mind and body; if, on the other hand, he

from whom the blood is taken be melancholic or a spendthrift, then

it will burn dimly, and flicker in the socket.") and which is most

wonderful, it dies with the party, cum homine perit, et evanescit,

the lamp and the man whence the blood was taken, are extinguished

together. The same author hath another tract of Mumia (all out as

vain and prodigious as the first) by which he will cure most

diseases, and transfer them from a man to a beast, by drawing blood

from one, and applying it to the other, vel in plantam derivare, and

an Alexi-pharmacum, of which Roger Bacon of old in his Tract. de

retardanda senectute, to make a man young again, live three or four

hundred years. Besides panaceas, martial amulets, unguentum

armarium, balsams, strange extracts, elixirs, and such like magico-

magnetical cures. Now what so pleasing can there be as the

speculation of these things, to read and examine such experiments,

or if a man be more mathematically given, to calculate, or peruse

Napier's Logarithms, or those tables of artificial sines and

tangents, not long since set out by mine old collegiate, good

friend, and late fellow-student of Christ Church in Oxford, Mr.

Edmund Gunter, which will perform that by addition and subtraction

only, which heretofore Regiomontanus's tables did by multiplication

and division, or those elaborate conclusions of his sector,

quadrant, and cross-staff. Or let him that is melancholy calculate

spherical triangles, square a circle, cast a nativity, which

howsoever some tax, I say with Garcaeus, dabimus hoc petulantibus

ingeniis, we will in some cases allow: or let him make an

ephemerides, read Suisset the calculator's works, Scaliger de

emendatione temporum, and Petavius his adversary, till he understand

them, peruse subtle Scotus and Suarez's metaphysics, or school

divinity, Occam, Thomas, Eutisberus, Durand, &c. If those other do

not affect him, and his means be great, to employ his purse and fill

his head, he may go find the philosopher's stone; he may apply his

mind, I say, to heraldry, antiquity, invent impresses, emblems; make

epithalamiums, epitaphs, elegies, epigrams, palindroma epigrammata,

anagrams, chronograms, acrostics, upon his friends' names; or write

a comment on Martianus Capella, Tertullian de pallio, the Nubian

geography, or upon Aelia Laelia Crispis, as many idle fellows have

essayed; and rather than do nothing, vary a verse a thousand ways

with Putean, so torturing his wits, or as Rainnerus of Luneburg,

2150 times in his Proteus Poeticus, or Scaliger, Chrysolithus,

Cleppissius, and others, have in like sort done. If such voluntary

tasks, pleasure and delight, or crabbedness of these studies, will

not yet divert their idle thoughts, and alienate their imaginations,

they must be compelled, saith Christophorus a Vega, cogi debent, l.

5. c. 14, upon some mulct, if they perform it not, quod ex officio

incumbat, loss of credit or disgrace, such as our public University

exercises. For, as he that plays for nothing will not heed his game;

no more will voluntary employment so thoroughly affect a student,

except he be very intent of himself, and take an extraordinary

delight in the study, about which he is conversant. It should be of

that nature his business, which volens nolens he must necessarily

undergo, and without great loss, mulct, shame, or hindrance, he may

not omit.

Now for women, instead of laborious studies, they have curious

needleworks, cut-works, spinning, bone-lace, and many pretty devices

of their own making, to adorn their houses, cushions, carpets,

chairs, stools, ("for she eats not the bread of idleness," Prov.

xxxi. 27. quaesivit lanam et linum) confections, conserves,

distillations, &c., which they show to strangers.

"Ipsa comes praesesque operis venientibus ultro

Hospitibus monstrare solet, non segniter horas

Contestata suas, sed nec sibi depertisse."

"Which to her guests she shows, with all her pelf,

Thus far my maids, but this I did myself."

This they have to busy themselves about, household offices,

&c., neat gardens, full of exotic, versicolour, diversely varied,

sweet-smelling flowers, and plants in all kinds, which they are most

ambitious to get, curious to preserve and keep, proud to possess,

and much many times brag of. Their merry meetings and frequent

visitations, mutual invitations in good towns, I voluntarily omit,

which are so much in use, gossiping among the meaner sort, &c., old

folks have their beads: an excellent invention to keep them from

idleness, that are by nature melancholy, and past all affairs, to

say so many paternosters, avemarias, creeds, if it were not profane

and superstitious. In a word, body and mind must be exercised, not

one, but both, and that in a mediocrity; otherwise it will cause a

great inconvenience. If the body be overtired, it tires the mind.

The mind oppresseth the body, as with students it oftentimes falls

out, who (as Plutarch observes) have no care of the body, "but

compel that which is mortal to do as much as that which is immortal:

that which is earthly, as that which is ethereal. But as the ox

tired, told the camel, (both serving one master) that refused to

carry some part of his burden, before it were long he should be

compelled to carry all his pack, and skin to boot (which by and by,

the ox being dead, fell out), the body may say to the soul, that

will give him no respite or remission: a little after, an ague,

vertigo, consumption, seizeth on them both, all his study is

omitted, and they must be compelled to be sick together:" he that

tenders his own good estate, and health, must let them draw with

equal yoke, both alike, "that so they may happily enjoy their

wished health."

MEMB. V.

Waking and terrible Dreams rectified.

As waking that hurts, by all means must be avoided, so sleep,

which so much helps, by like ways, "must be procured, by nature or

art, inward or outward medicines, and be protracted longer than

ordinary, if it may be, as being an especial help." It moistens and

fattens the body, concocts, and helps digestion (as we see in

dormice, and those Alpine mice that sleep all winter), which Gesner

speaks of, when they are so found sleeping under the snow in the

dead of winter, as fat as butter. It expels cares, pacifies the

mind, refresheth the weary limbs after long work:

Somne quies rerum, placidissime somne deorum,

Pax animi, quem cura fugit, qui corpora duris

Fessa ministeriis mulces reparasque labori."

"Sleep, rest of things, O pleasing deity,

Peace of the soul, which cares dost crucify,

Weary bodies refresh and mollify."

The chiefest thing in all physic, Paracelsus calls it, omnia

arcana gemmarum superans et metallorum. The fittest time is "two or

three hours after supper, when as the meat is now settled at the

bottom of the stomach, and 'tis good to lie on the right side first,

because at that site the liver doth rest under the stomach, not

molesting any way, but heating him as a fire doth a kettle, that is

put to it. After the first sleep 'tis not amiss to lie on the left

side, that the meat may the better descend;" and sometimes again on

the belly, but never on the back. Seven or eight hours is a

competent time for a melancholy man to rest, as Crato thinks; but as

some do, to lie in bed and not sleep, a day, or half a day together,

to give assent to pleasing conceits and vain imaginations, is many

ways pernicious. To procure this sweet moistening sleep, it's best

to take away the occasions (if it be possible) that hinder it, and

then to use such inward or outward remedies, which may cause it.

Constat hodie (saith Boissardus in his tract de magia, cap. 4.)

multos ita fascinari ut noctes integras exigant insomnes, summa,

inquietudine animorum et corporum; many cannot sleep for witches and

fascinations, which are too familiar in some places; they call it,

dare alicui malam noctem. But the ordinary causes are heat and

dryness, which must first be removed: a hot and dry brain never

sleeps well: grief, fears, cares, expectations, anxieties, great

businesses, In aurum utramque otiose ut dormias, (Ter. "That you may

sleep calmly on either ear.") and all violent perturbations of the

mind, must in some sort be qualified, before we can hope for any

good repose. He that sleeps in the daytime, or is in suspense, fear,

any way troubled in mind, or goes to bed upon a full stomach, may

never hope for quiet rest in the night; nec enim meritoria somnos

admittunt, as the poet saith; inns and such like troublesome places

are not for sleep; one calls ostler, another tapster, one cries and

shouts, another sings, whoops, halloos,

------"absentem cantat amicam,

Multa prolutus vappa nauta atque viator."

(Hor. Scr. lib. 1. Sat. 5. "The tipsy sailor and his

travelling companion sing the praises of their absent

sweethearts.")

Who not accustomed to such noises can sleep amongst them? He

that will intend to take his rest must go to bed animo securo,

quieto et libero, with a secure and composed mind, in a quiet place:

omnia noctes erunt placida composta quiete: and if that will not

serve, or may not be obtained, to seek then such means as are

requisite. To lie in clean linen and sweet; before he goes to bed,

or in bed, to hear "sweet music," which Ficinus commends, lib. 1.

cap. 24, or as Jobertus, med. pract. lib. 3. cap. 10. "to read some

pleasant author till he be asleep, to have a basin of water still

dropping by his bedside," or to lie near that pleasant murmur, lene

sonantis aquae. Some floodgates, arches, falls of water, like London

Bridge, or some continuate noise which may benumb the senses, lenis

motus, silentium et tenebra, tum et ipsa voluntas somnos faciunt; as

a gentle noise to some procures sleep, so, which Bernardinus

Tilesius, lib. de somno, well observes, silence, in a dark room, and

the will itself, is most available to others. Piso commends

frications, Andrew Borde a good draught of strong drink before one

goes to bed; I say, a nutmeg and ale, or a good draught of

Muscadine, with a toast and nutmeg, or a posset of the same, which

many use in a morning, but methinks, for such as have dry brains,

are much more proper at night; some prescribe a sup of vinegar as

they go to bed, a spoonful, saith Aetius Tetrabib. lib. 2. ser. 2.

cap. 10. lib. 6. cap. 10. Aegineta, lib. 3. cap. 14. Piso, "a little

after meat," "because it rarefies melancholy, and procures an

appetite to sleep." Donat. ab Altomar. cap. 7. and Mercurialis

approve of it, if the malady proceed from the spleen. Salust.

Salvian. lib. 2. cap. 1. de remed. Hercules de Saxonia in Pan.

Aelinus, Montaltus de morb. capitis, cap. 28. de Melan. are

altogether against it. Lod. Mercatus, de inter. Morb. cau. lib. 1.

cap. 17. in some cases doth allow it. Rhasis seems to deliberate of

it, though Simeon commend it (in sauce peradventure) he makes a

question of it: as for baths, fomentations, oils, potions, simples

or compounds, inwardly taken to this purpose, I shall speak of them

elsewhere. If, in the midst of the night, when they lie awake, which

is usual to toss and tumble, and not sleep, Ranzovius would have

them, if it be in warm weather, to rise and walk three or four turns

(till they be cold) about the chamber, and then go to bed again.

Against fearful and troublesome dreams, Incubus and such

inconveniences, wherewith melancholy men are molested, the best

remedy is to eat a light supper, and of such meats as are easy of

digestion, no hare, venison, beef, &c., not to lie on his back, not

to meditate or think in the daytime of any terrible objects, or

especially talk of them before he goes to bed. For, as he said in

Lucian after such conference, Hecates somniare mihi videor, I can

think of nothing but hobgoblins: and as Tully notes, "for the most

part our speeches in the daytime cause our fantasy to work upon the

like in our sleep," which Ennius writes of Homer: Et canis in somnis

leporis vestigia latrat: as a dog dreams of a hare, so do men on

such subjects they thought on last.

"Somnia quae mentes ludunt volitantibus umbris,

Nec delubra deum, nec ab aethere numina mittunt,

Sed sibi quisque facit," &c.

(Aristae hist. "Neither the shrines of the gods, nor the

deities themselves, send down from the heavens those dreams

which mock our minds with those flitting shadows,-- we cause

them to ourselves.")

For that cause when Ptolemy, king of Egypt, had posed the

seventy interpreters in order, and asked the nineteenth man what

would make one sleep quietly in the night, he told him, "the best

way was to have divine and celestial meditations, and to use honest

actions in the daytime." Lod. Vives wonders how schoolmen could

sleep quietly, and were not terrified in the night, or walk in the

dark, they had such monstrous questions, and thought of such

terrible matters all day long. They had need, amongst the rest, to

sacrifice to god Morpheus, whom Philostratus paints in a white and

black coat, with a horn and ivory box full of dreams, of the same

colours, to signify good and bad. If you will know how to interpret

them, read Artemidorus, Sambucus and Cardan; but how to help them, I

must refer you to a more convenient place.

MEMB. VI.

SUBSECT. I.-- Perturbations of the mind rectified. From himself, by

resisting to the utmost, confessing his grief to a friend, &c.

Whosoever he is that shall hope to cure this malady in himself

or any other, must first rectify these passions and perturbations of

the mind: the chiefest cure consists in them. A quiet mind is that

voluptas, or summum bonum of Epicurus, non dolere, curis vacare,

animo tranquillo esse, not to grieve, but to want cares, and have a

quiet soul, is the only pleasure of the world, as Seneca truly

recites his opinion, not that of eating and drinking, which

injurious Aristotle maliciously puts upon him, and for which he is

still mistaken, male audit et vapulat, slandered without a cause,

and lashed by all posterity. "Fear and sorrow, therefore, are

especially to be avoided, and the mind to be mitigated with mirth,

constancy, good hope; vain terror, bad objects are to be removed,

and all such persons in whose companies they be not well pleased."

Gualter Bruel. Fernelius, consil. 43. Mercurialis, consil. 6. Piso,

Jacchinus, cap. 15. in 9. Rhasis, Capivaccius, Hildesheim, &c., all

inculcate this as an especial means of their cure, that their "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; Sardanapalus is

lovesick; these men are ill-affected all, and can never be cured,

till their minds be otherwise qualified. Crato, therefore, in that

often-cited Counsel of his for a nobleman his patient, when he had

sufficiently informed him in diet, air, exercise, Venus, sleep,

concludes with these as matters of greatest moment, Quod reliquum

est, animae accidentia corrigantur, from which alone proceeds

melancholy; they are the fountain, the subject, the hinges whereon

it turns, and must necessarily be reformed. "For anger stirs choler,

heats the blood and vital spirits; sorrow on the other side

refrigerates the body, and extinguisheth natural heat, overthrows

appetite, hinders concoction, dries up the temperature, and perverts

the understanding:" fear dissolves the spirits, infects the heart,

attenuates the soul: and for these causes all passions and

perturbations must, to the uttermost of our power and most

seriously, be removed. Aelianus Montaltus attributes so much to

them, "that he holds the rectification of them alone to be

sufficient to the cure of melancholy in most patients." Many are

fully cured when they have seen or heard, &c., enjoy their desires,

or be secured and satisfied in their minds; Galen, the common master

of them all, from whose fountain they fetch water, brags, lib. 1. de

san. tuend., that he, for his part, hath cured divers of this

infirmity, solum animis ad rectum institutis, by right settling

alone of their minds.

Yea, but you will here infer, that this is excellent good

indeed if it could be done; but how shall it be effected, by whom,

what art, what means? hic labor, hoc opus est. 'Tis a natural

infirmity, a most powerful adversary, all men are subject to

passions, and melancholy above all others, as being distempered by

their innate humours, abundance of choler adust, weakness of parts,

outward occurrences; and how shall they be avoided? The wisest men,

greatest philosophers of most excellent wit, reason, judgment,

divine spirits, cannot moderate themselves in this behalf; such as

are sound in body and mind, Stoics, heroes, Homer's gods, all are

passionate, and furiously carried sometimes; and how shall we that

are already crazed, fracti animis, sick in body, sick in mind,

resist? we cannot perform it. You may advise and give good precepts,

as who cannot? But how shall they be put in practice? I may not deny

but our passions are violent, and tyrannise of us, yet there be

means to curb them; though they be headstrong, they may be tamed,

they may be qualified, if he himself or his friends will but use

their honest endeavours, or make use of such ordinary helps as are

commonly prescribed.

He himself (I say); from the patient himself the first and

chiefest remedy must be had; for if he be averse, peevish, waspish,

give way wholly to his passions, will not seek to be helped, or be

ruled by his friends, how is it possible he should be cured? But if

he be willing at least, gentle, tractable, and desire his own good,

no doubt but he may magnam morbi deponere partem, be eased at least,

if not cured. He himself must do his utmost endeavour to resist and

withstand the beginnings. Principiis obsta, "Give not water passage,

no not a little," Ecclus. xxv. 27. If they open a little, they will

make a greater breach at length. Whatsoever it is that runneth in

his mind, vain conceit, be it pleasing or displeasing, which so much

affects or troubleth him, "by all possible means he must withstand

it, expel those vain, false, frivolous imaginations, absurd

conceits, feigned fears and sorrows; from which," saith Piso, "this

disease primarily proceeds, and takes his first occasion or

beginning, by doing something or other that shall be opposite unto

them, thinking of something else, persuading by reason, or howsoever

to make a sudden alteration of them." Though he have hitherto run in

a full career, and precipitated himself, following his passions,

giving reins to his appetite, let him now stop upon a sudden, curb

himself in; and as Lemnius adviseth, "strive against with all his

power, to the utmost of his endeavour, and not cherish those fond

imaginations, which so covertly creep into his mind, most pleasing

and amiable at first, but bitter as gall at last, and so headstrong,

that by no reason, art, counsel, or persuasion, they may be shaken

off." Though he be far gone, and habituated unto such fantastical

imaginations, yet as Tully and Plutarch advise, let him oppose,

fortify, or prepare himself against them, by premeditation, reason,

or as we do by a crooked staff, bend himself another way.

"Tu tamen interea effugito quae tristia mentem

Solicitant, procul esse jube curasque metumque

Pallentum, ultrices iras, sint omnia laeta."

"In the meantime expel them from thy mind,

Pale fears, sad cares, and griefs which do it grind,

Revengeful anger, pain and discontent,

Let all thy soul be set on merriment."

Curas tolle graves, irasci crede profanum. If it be idleness

hath caused this infirmity, or that he perceive himself given to

solitariness, to walk alone, and please his mind with fond

imaginations, let him by all means avoid it; 'tis a bosom enemy,

'tis delightsome melancholy, a friend in show, but a secret devil, a

sweet poison, it will in the end be his undoing; let him go

presently, task or set himself a work, get some good company. If he

proceed, as a gnat flies about a candle, so long till at length he

burn his bodv, so in the end he will undo himself: if it be any

harsh object, ill company, let him presently go from it. If by his

own default, through ill diet, bad air, want of exercise, &c., let

him now begin to reform himself. "It would be a perfect remedy

against all corruption, if," as Roger Bacon hath it, "we could but

moderate ourselves in those six non-natural things." "If it be any

disgrace, abuse, temporal loss, calumny, death of friends,

imprisonment, banishment, be not troubled with it, do not fear, be

not angry, grieve not at it, but with all courage sustain it."

(Gordonius, lib. 1. c. 15. de conser. vit.) Tu contra audentior ito.

If it be sickness, ill success, or any adversity that hath caused

it, oppose an invincible courage, "fortify thyself by God's word, or

otherwise," mala bonis persuadenda, set prosperity against

adversity, as we refresh our eyes by seeing some pleasant meadow,

fountain, picture, or the like: recreate thy mind by some contrary

object, with some more pleasing meditation divert thy thoughts.

Yea, but you infer again, facile consilium damus aliis, we can

easily give counsel to others; every man, as the saying is, can tame

a shrew but he that hath her; si hic esses, aliter sentires; if you

were in our misery, you would find it otherwise, 'tis not so easily

performed. We know this to be true; we should moderate ourselves,

but we are furiously carried, we cannot make use of such precepts,

we are overcome, sick, male sani, distempered and habituated to

these courses, we can make no resistance; you may as well bid him

that is diseased not to feel pain, as a melancholy man not to fear,

not to be sad: 'tis within his blood, his brains, his whole

temperature, it cannot be removed. But he may choose whether he will

give way too far unto it, he may in some sort correct himself. A

philosopher was bitten with a mad dog, and as the nature of that

disease is to abhor all waters, and liquid things, and to think

still they see the picture of a dog before them: he went for all

this, reluctante se, to the bath, and seeing there (as he thought)

in the water the picture of a dog, with reason overcame this

conceit, quid cani cum balneo? what should a dog do in a bath? a

mere conceit. Thou thinkest thou hearest and seest devils, black

men, &c., 'tis not so, 'tis thy corrupt fantasy; settle thine

imagination, thou art well. Thou thinkest thou hast a great nose,

thou art sick, every man observes thee, laughs thee to scorn;

persuade thyself 'tis no such matter: this is fear only, and vain

suspicion. Thou art discontent, thou art sad and heavy; but why?

upon what ground? consider of it: thou art jealous, timorous,

suspicious; for what cause? examine it thoroughly, thou shalt find

none at all, or such as is to be contemned; such as thou wilt surely

deride, and contemn in thyself, when it is past. Rule thyself then

with reason, satisfy thyself, accustom thyself, wean thyself from

such fond conceits, vain fears, strong imaginations, restless

thoughts. Thou mayst do it; Est in nobis assuescere (as Plutarch

saith), we may frame ourselves as we will. As he that useth an

upright shoe, may correct the obliquity, or crookedness, by wearing

it on the other side; we may overcome passions if we will. Quicquid

sibi imperavit animus obtinuit (as Seneca saith) nulli tam feri

affectus, ut non disciplina perdomentur, whatsoever the will

desires, she may command: no such cruel affections, but by

discipline they may be tamed; voluntarily thou wilt not do this or

that, which thou oughtest to do, or refrain, &c., but when thou art

lashed like a dull jade, thou wilt reform it: fear of a whip will

make thee do, or not do. Do that voluntarily then which thou canst

do, and must do by compulsion; thou mayst refrain if thou wilt, and

master thine affections. "As in a city" (saith Melancthon) "they do

by stubborn rebellious rogues, that will not submit themselves to

political judgment, compel them by force; so must we do by our

affections. If the heart will not lay aside those vicious motions,

and the fantasy those fond imaginations, we have another form of

government to enforce and refrain our outward members, that they be

not led by our passions." If appetite will not obey, let the moving

faculty overrule her, let her resist and compel her to do otherwise.

In an ague the appetite would drink; sore eyes that itch would be

rubbed; but reason saith no, and therefore the moving faculty will

not do it. Our fantasy would intrude a thousand fears, suspicions,

chimeras upon us, but we have reason to resist, yet we let it be

overborne by our appetite; "imagination enforceth spirits, which, by

an admirable league of nature, compel the nerves to obey, and they

our several limbs:" we give too much way to our passions. And as to

him that is sick of an ague, all things are distasteful and

unpleasant, non ex cibi vitio saith Plutarch, not in the meat, but

in our taste: so many things are offensive to us, not of themselves,

but out of our corrupt judgment, jealousy, suspicion, and the like:

we pull these mischiefs upon our own heads.

If then our judgment be so depraved, our reason overruled,

will precipitated, that we cannot seek our own good, or moderate

ourselves, as in this disease commonly it is, the best way for ease

is to impart our misery to some friend, not to smother it up in our

own breast: aliter vitium crescitque tegendo, &c., and that which

was most offensive to us, a cause of fear and grief, quod nunc te

coquit, another hell; for strangulat inclusus dolor atque exaestuat

intus, grief concealed strangles the soul; but when as we shall but

impart it to some discreet, trusty, loving friend, it is instantly

removed, by his counsel happily, wisdom, persuasion, advice, his

good means, which we could not otherwise apply unto ourselves. A

friend's counsel is a charm, like mandrake wine, curas sopit; and as

a bull that is tied to a fig-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 Isidore holds), "and 'tis a solace to relate

it," ??a?? de pa?a?fas?? est?? eta???? [Agathe de paraiphasis estin

etairou]. Friends' confabulations are comfortable at all times, as

fire in winter, shade in summer, quale sopor fessis in gramine, meat

and drink to him that is hungry or athirst; Democritus's collyrium

is not so sovereign to the eyes as this is to the heart; good words

are cheerful and powerful of themselves, but much more from friends,

as so many props, mutually sustaining each other like ivy and a

wall, which Camerarius hath well illustrated in an emblem. Lenit

animum simplex vel saepe narratio, the simple narration many times

easeth our distressed mind, and in the midst of greatest

extremities; so diverse have been relieved, by exonerating

themselves to a faithful friend: he sees that which we cannot see

for passion and discontent, he pacifies our minds, he will ease our

pain, assuage our anger; quanta inde voluptas, quanta securitas,

Chrysostom adds, what pleasure, what security by that means!

"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. "I live here" (saith he) "in a

great city, where I have a multitude of acquaintance, but not a man

of all that company with whom I dare familiarly breathe, or freely

jest. Wherefore I expect thee, I desire thee, I send for thee; for

there be many things which trouble and molest me, which had I but

thee in presence, I could quickly disburden myself of in a walking

discourse." The like, peradventure, may he and he say with that old

man in the comedy,

"Nemo est meorum amicorum hodie,

Apud quem expromere occulta mea audeam."

("I have not a single friend this day, to whom I dare to

disclose my secrets.")

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

Pylademque aliquem qui curet Orestem, a Pylades, to whom freely and

securely he may open himself. For as in all other occurrences, so it

is in this, Si quis in coelum ascendisset, &c. as he said in 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 delighteth and easeth the mind, as

when we have a prepared bosom, to which our secrets may descend, of

whose conscience we are assured as our own, whose speech may ease

our succourless estate, counsel relieve, mirth expel our mourning,

and whose very sight may be acceptable unto us." It was the counsel

which that politic Comineus gave to all princes, and others

distressed in mind, by occasion of Charles Duke of Burgundy, that

was much perplexed, "first to pray to God, and lay himself open to

him, and then to some special friend, whom we hold most dear, to

tell all our grievances to him; nothing so forcible to strengthen,

recreate, and heal the wounded soul of a miserable man."

SUBSECT. II.--Help from friends by counsel, comfort, fair and foul

means, witty devices, satisfaction, alteration of his course of

life, removing objects, &c.

When the patient of himself is not able to resist, or overcome

these heart-eating passions, his friends or physician must be ready

to supply that which is wanting. Suae erit humanitatis et sapientiae

(which Tully enjoineth in like case) siquid erratum, curare, aut

improvisum, sua diligentia corrigere. They must all join; nec satis

medico, saith Hippocrates, suum fecisse officium, nisi suum quoque

aegrotus, suum astantes, &c. First, they must especially beware, a

melancholy discontented person (be it in what kind of melancholy

soever) never be left alone or idle: but as physicians prescribe

physic, cum custodia, let them not be left unto themselves, but with

some company or other, lest by that means they aggravate and

increase their disease; non oportet aegros humjusmodi esse solos vel

inter ignotos, vel inter eos quos non amant aut negligunt, as Rod. a

Fonseca, tom. 1. consul. 35. prescribes. Lugentes custodire solemus

(saith Seneca) ne solitudine male utantur; we watch a sorrowful

person, lest he abuse his solitariness, and so should we do a

melancholy man; set him about some business, exercise or recreation,

which may divert his thoughts, and still keep him otherwise intent;

for his fantasy is so restless, operative and quick, that if it be

not in perpetual action, ever employed, it will work upon itself,

melancholise, and be carried away instantly, with some fear,

jealousy, discontent, suspicion, some vain conceit or other. If his

weakness be such that he cannot discern what is amiss, correct, or

satisfy, it behoves them by counsel, comfort, or persuasion, by fair

or foul means, to alienate his mind, by some artificial invention,

or some contrary persuasion, to remove all objects, causes,

companies, occasions, as may any ways molest him, to humour him,

please him, divert him, and if it be possible, by altering his

course of life, to give him security and satisfaction. If he conceal

his grievances, and will not be known of them, "they must observe by

his looks, gestures, motions, fantasy, what it is that offends," and

then to apply remedies unto him: many are instantly cured, when

their minds are satisfied. Alexander makes mention of a woman, "that

by reason of her husband's long absence in travel, was exceeding

peevish and melancholy, but when she heard her husband was returned,

beyond all expectation, at the first sight of him, she was freed

from all fear, without help of any other physic restored to her

former health." Trincavellius, consil. 12. lib. 1. hath such a story

of a Venetian, that being much troubled with melancholy, "and ready

to die for grief, when he heard his wife was brought to bed of a

son, instantly recovered." As Alexander concludes, "If our

imaginations be not inveterate, by this art they may be cured,

especially if they proceed from such a cause." No better way to

satisfy, than to remove the object, cause, occasion, if by any art

or means possible we may find it out. If he grieve, stand in fear,

be in suspicion, suspense, or any way molested, secure him, Solvitur

malum, give him satisfaction, the cure is ended; alter his course of

life, there needs no other physic. If the party be sad, or otherwise

affected, "consider" (saith Trallianus) "the manner of it, all

circumstances, and forthwith make a sudden alteration," by removing

the occasions, avoid all terrible objects, heard or seen, "monstrous

and prodigious aspects," tales of devils, spirits, ghosts, tragical

stories; to such as are in fear they strike a great impression,

renewed many times, and recall such chimeras and terrible fictions

into their minds. "Make not so much as mention of them in private

talk, or a dumb show tending to that purpose: such things" (saith

Galateus) "are offensive to their imaginations." And to those that

are now in sorrow, Seneca "forbids all sad companions, and such as

lament; a groaning companion is an enemy to quietness." "Or if there

be any such party, at whose presence the patient is not well

pleased, he must be removed: gentle speeches, and fair means, must

first be tried; no harsh language used, or uncomfortable words; and

not expel, as some do, one madness with another; he that so doth, is

madder than the patient himself:" all things must be quietly

composed; eversa non evertenda, sed erigenda, things down must not

be dejected, but reared, as Crato counselleth; "he must be quietly

and gently used," and we should not do anything against his mind,

but by little and little effect it. As a horse that starts at a drum

or trumpet, and will not endure the shooting of a piece, may be so

manned by art, and animated, that he cannot only endure, but is much

more generous at the hearing of such things, much more courageous

than before, and much delighteth in it: they must not be reformed ex

abrupto, but by all art and insinuation, made to such companies,

aspects, objects they could not formerly away with. Many at first

cannot endure the sight of a green wound, a sick man, which

afterward become good chirurgeons, bold empirics: a horse starts at

a rotten post afar off, which coming near he quietly passeth. 'Tis

much in the manner of making such kind of persons, be they never so

averse from company, bashful, solitary, timorous, they may be made

at last with those Roman matrons, to desire nothing more than in a

public show, to see a full company of gladiators breathe out their

last.

If they may not otherwise be accustomed to brook such

distasteful and displeasing objects, the best way then is generally

to avoid them. Montanus, consil. 229. to the Earl of Montfort, a

courtier, and his melancholy patient, adviseth him to leave the

court, by reason of those continual discontents, crosses, abuses,

"cares, suspicions, emulations, ambition, anger, jealousy, which

that place afforded, and which surely caused him to be so melancholy

at the first:" Maxima quaeque domus servis est plena superbis; a

company of scoffers and proud jacks are commonly conversant and

attend in such places, and able to make any man that is of a soft,

quiet disposition (as many times they do) ex stulto insanum, if once

they humour him, a very idiot, or stark mad. A thing too much

practised in all common societies, and they have no better sport

than to make themselves merry by abusing some silly fellow, or to

take advantage of another man's weakness. In such cases as in a

plague, the best remedy is cito longe tarde: (for to such a party,

especially if he be apprehensive, there can be no greater misery) to

get him quickly gone far enough off, and not to be overhasty in his

return. If he be so stupid that he do not apprehend it, his friends

should take some order, and by their discretion supply that which is

wanting in him, as in all other cases they ought to do. If they see

a man melancholy given, solitary, averse from company, please

himself with such private and vain meditations, though he delight in

it, they ought by all means seek to divert him, to dehort him, to

tell him of the event and danger that may come of it. If they see a

man idle, that by reason of his means otherwise will betake himself

to no course of life, they ought seriously to admonish him, he makes

a noose to entangle himself, his want of employment will be his

undoing. If he have sustained any great loss, suffered a repulse,

disgrace, &c., if it be possible, relieve him. If he desire aught,

let him be satisfied; if in suspense, fear, suspicion, let him be

secured: and if it may conveniently be, give him his heart's

content; for the body cannot be cured till the mind be satisfied.

Socrates, in Plato, would prescribe no physic for Charmides'

headache, "till first he had eased his troubled mind; body and soul

must be cured together, as head and eyes."

"Oculum non curabis sine toto capite,

Nec caput sine toto corpora,

Nec totum corpus sine anima."

(E graeco. "You shall not cure the eye, unless you cure the

whole head also; nor the head, unless the whole body; nor the

whole body, unless the soul besides.")

If that may not be hoped or expected, yet ease him with

comfort, cheerful speeches, fair promises, and good words, persuade

him, advise him. "Many," saith Galen, "have been cured by good

counsel and persuasion alone." "Heaviness of the heart of man doth

bring it down, but a good word rejoiceth it," Prov. xii. 25. "And

there is he that speaketh words like the pricking of a sword, but

the tongue of a wise man is health," ver. 18. Oratio, namque saucii

animi est remedium, a gentle speech is the true cure of a wounded

soul, as Plutarch contends out of Aeschylus and Euripides: "if it be

wisely administered it easeth grief and pain, as diverse remedies do

many other diseases." 'Tis incantationis instar, a charm, aestuantis

animi refrigerium, that true Nepenthe of Homer, which was no Indian

plant, or feigned medicine, which Epidamna, Thonis' wife, sent

Helena for a token, as Macrobius, 7. Saturnal. Goropius Hermat. lib.

9. Greg. Nazianzen, and others suppose, but opportunity of speech:

for Helena's bowl, Medea's unction, Venus's girdle, Circe's cup,

cannot so enchant, so forcibly move or alter as it doth. A letter

sent or read will do as much; multum allevor quum tuas literas lego,

I am much eased, as Tully wrote to Pomponius Atticus, when I read

thy letters, and as Julianus the Apostate once signified to Maximus

the philosopher; as Alexander slept with Homer's works, so do I with

thine epistles, tanquam Paeoniis medicamentis, easque assidue

tanquam, recentes et novas iteramus; scribe ergo, et assidue scribe,

or else come thyself; amicus ad amicum venies. Assuredly a wise and

well- spoken man may do what he will in such a case; a good orator

alone, as Tully holds, can alter affections by power of his

eloquence, "comfort such as are afflicted, erect such as are

depressed, expel and mitigate fear, lust, anger," &c. And how

powerful is the charm of a discreet and dear friend? Ille regit

dictis animos et temperat iras. What may not he effect? As Chremes

told Menedemus, "Fear not, conceal it not, O friend! but tell me

what it is that troubles thee, and I shall surely help thee by

comfort, counsel, or in the matter itself." Arnoldus, lib. 1.

breviar. cap. 18. speaks of a usurer in his time, that upon a loss,

much melancholy and discontent, was so cured. As imagination, fear,

grief, cause such passions, so conceits alone, rectified by good

hope, counsel, &c., are able again to help: and 'tis incredible how

much they can do in such a case, as Trincavellius illustrates by an

example of a patient of his; Porphyrius, the philosopher, in

Plotinus's life (written by him), relates, that being in a

discontented humour through insufferable anguish of mind, he was

going to make away himself: but meeting by chance his master

Plotinus, who perceiving by his distracted looks all was not well,

urged him to confess his grief: which when he had heard, he used

such comfortable speeches, that he redeemed him e faucibus Erebi,

pacified his unquiet mind, insomuch that he was easily reconciled to

himself, and much abashed to think afterwards that he should ever

entertain so vile a motion. By all means, therefore, fair promises,

good words, gentle persuasions, are to be used, not to be too

rigorous at first, "or to insult over them, not to deride, neglect,

or contemn," but rather, as Lemnius exhorteth, "to pity, and by all

plausible means to seek to redress them:" but if satisfaction may

not be had, mild courses, promises, comfortable speeches, and good

counsel will not take place; then as Christophorus a Vega

determines, lib. 3. cap. 14. de Mel. to handle them more roughly, to

threaten and chide, saith Altomarus, terrify sometimes, or as

Salvianus will have them, to be lashed and whipped, as we do by a

starting horse, that is affrighted without a cause, or as Rhasis

adviseth, "one while to speak fair and flatter, another while to

terrify and chide, as they shall see cause."

When none of these precedent remedies will avail, it will not

be amiss, which Savanarola and Aelian Montaltus so much commend,

clavum clavo pellere, "to drive out one passion with another, or by

some contrary passion," as they do bleeding at nose by letting blood

in the arm, to expel one fear with another, one grief with another.

Christophorus a Vega accounts it rational physic, non alienum a

ratione: and Lemnius much approves it, "to use a hard wedge to a

hard knot," to drive out one disease with another, to pull out a

tooth, or wound him, to geld him, saith Platerus, as they did

epileptical patients of old, because it quite alters the

temperature, that the pain of the one may mitigate the grief of the

other; "and I knew one that was so cured of a quartan ague, by the

sudden coming of his enemies upon him." If we may believe Pliny,

whom Scaliger calls mendaciorum patrem, the father of lies, Q.

Fabius Maximus, that renowned consul of Rome, in a battle fought

with the king of the Allobroges, at the river Isaurus, was so rid of

a quartan ague. Valesius, in his controversies, holds this an

excellent remedy, and if it be discreetly used in this malady,

better than any physic.

Sometimes again by some feigned lie, strange news, witty

device, artificial invention, it is not amiss to deceive them. "As

they hate those," saith Alexander, "that neglect or deride, so they

will give ear to such as will soothe them up. If they say they have

swallowed frogs or a snake, by all means grant it, and tell them you

can easily cure it;" 'tis an ordinary thing. Philodotus, the

physician, cured a melancholy king, that thought his head was off,

by putting a leaden cap thereon; the weight made him perceive it,

and freed him of his fond imagination. A woman, in the said

Alexander, swallowed a serpent as she thought; he gave her a vomit,

and conveyed a serpent, such as she conceived, into the basin; upon

the sight of it she was amended. The pleasantest dotage that ever I

read, saith Laurentius, was of a gentleman at Senes in Italy, who

was afraid to piss, lest all the town should be drowned; the

physicians caused the bells to be rung backward, and told him the

town was on fire, whereupon he made water, and was immediately

cured. Another supposed his nose so big that he should dash it

against the wall if he stirred; his physician took a great piece of

flesh, and holding it in his hand, pinched him by the nose, making

him believe that flesh was cut from it. Forestus, obs. lib. 1. had a

melancholy patient, who thought he was dead, "he put a fellow in a

chest, like a dead man, by his bedside, and made him rear himself a

little, and eat: the melancholy man asked the counterfeit, whether

dead men use to eat meat? He told him yea; whereupon he did eat

likewise and was cured." Lemnius, lib. 2. cap. 6. de 4. complex,

hath many such instances, and Jovianus Pontanus, lib. 4. cap. 2. of

Wisd. of the like; but amongst the rest I find one most memorable,

registered in the French chronicles of an advocate of Paris before

mentioned, who believed verily he was dead, &c. I read a multitude

of examples of melancholy men cured by such artificial inventions.

SUBSECT. III.--Music a remedy.

Many and sundry are the means which philosophers and

physicians have prescribed to exhilarate a sorrowful heart, to

divert those fixed and intent cares and meditations, which in this

malady so much offend; but in my judgment none so present, none so

powerful, none so apposite as a cup of strong drink, mirth, music,

and merry company. Ecclus. xl. 20. "Wine and music rejoice the

heart." Rhasis, cont. 9. Tract. 15. Altomarus, cap. 7. Aelianus

Montaltus, c. 26. Ficinus, Bened. Victor. Faventinus are almost

immoderate in the commendation of it; a most forcible medicine

Jacchinus calls it: Jason Pratensis, "a most admirable thing, and

worthy of consideration, that can so mollify the mind, and stay

those tempestuous affections of it." Musica est mentis medicina

moestae, a roaring-meg against melancholy, to rear and revive the

languishing soul; "affecting not only the ears, but the very

arteries, the vital and animal spirits, it erects the mind, and

makes it nimble." Lemnius, instit, cap. 44. This it will effect in

the most dull, severe and sorrowful souls, "expel grief with mirth,

and if there be any clouds, dust, or dregs of cares yet lurking in

our thoughts, most powerfully it wipes them all away," Salisbur.

polit. lib. 1. cap. 6. and that which is more, it will perform all

this in an instant: "Cheer up the countenance, expel austerity,

bring in hilarity" (Girald. Camb. cap. 12. Topog. Hiber.) "inform

our manners, mitigate anger;" Athenaeus (Dipnosophist. lib. 14. cap.

10.) calleth it an infinite treasure to such as are endowed with it:

Dulcisonum reficit tristia corda melos, Eobanus Hessus. Many other

properties Cassiodorus, epist. 4. reckons up of this our divine

music, not only to expel the greatest griefs, but "it doth extenuate

fears and furies, appeaseth cruelty, abateth heaviness, and to such

as are watchful it causeth quiet rest; it takes away spleen and

hatred," be it instrumental, vocal, with strings, wind, Quae, a

spiritu, sine manuum dexteritate gubernetur, &c. 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, musica depellitur. "It makes a

child quiet," the nurse's song, and many times the sound of a

trumpet on a sudden, bells ringing, a carman's whistle, a boy

singing some ballad tune early in the streets, alters, revives,

recreates a restless patient that cannot sleep in the night, &c. In

a word, it is so powerful a thing that it ravisheth the soul, regina

sensuum, the queen of the senses, by sweet pleasure (which is a

happy cure), and corporal tunes pacify our incorporeal soul, sine

ore loquens, dominatum in animam exercet, and carries it beyond

itself, helps, elevates, extends it. Scaliger, exercit. 302, gives a

reason of these effects, "because the spirits about the heart take

in that trembling and dancing air into the body, are moved together,

and stirred up with it," or else the mind, as some suppose

harmonically composed, is roused up at the tunes of music. And 'tis

not only men that are so affected, but almost all other creatures.

You know the tale of Hercules Gallus, Orpheus, and Amphion, felices

animas Ovid calls them, that could saxa movere sono testudinis, &c.

make stocks and stones, as well as beasts and other animals, dance

after their pipes: the dog and hare, wolf and lamb; vicinumque lupo

praebuit agna latus; clamosus graculus, stridula cornix, et Jovis

aquila, as Philostratus describes it in his images, stood all gaping

upon Orpheus; and trees pulled up by the roots came to hear him, Et

comitem quercum pinus amica trahit.

Arion made fishes follow him, which, as common experience

evinceth, are much affected with music. All singing birds are much

pleased with it, especially nightingales, if we may believe

Calcagninus; and bees amongst the rest, though they be flying away,

when they hear any tingling sound, will tarry behind. "Harts, hinds,

horses, dogs, bears, are exceedingly delighted with it." Scal,

exerc. 302. Elephants, Agrippa adds, lib. 2. cap. 24. and in Lydia

in the midst of a lake there be certain floating islands (if ye will

believe it), that after music will dance.

But to leave all declamatory speeches in praise 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 Apollonius was inquisitive to know what he could do with his

pipe, told him, "That he would make a melancholy man merry, and him

that was merry much merrier than before, a lover more enamoured, a

religious man more devout." Ismenias the Theban, 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. Dei, lib. 17. cap. 14. so

much commends for it. Who hath not heard how David's harmony drove

away the evil spirits from king Saul, 1 Sam. xvi. and Elisha when he

was much troubled by importunate kings, called for a minstrel, "and

when he played, the hand of the Lord came upon him," 2 Kings iii.

Censorinus de natali, cap. 12. reports how Asclepiades the physician

helped many frantic persons by this means, phreneticorum mentes

morbo turbatas -- Jason Pratensis, cap. de Mania, hath many

examples, how Clinias and Empedocles cured some desperately

melancholy, and some mad by this our music. Which because it hath

such excellent virtues, belike Homer brings in Phemius playing, and

the Muses singing at the banquet of the gods. Aristotle, Polit. l.

8. c. 5, Plato 2. de legibus, highly approve it, and so do all

politicians. The Greeks, Romans, have graced music, and made it one

of the liberal sciences, though it be now become mercenary. All

civil Commonwealths allow it: Cneius Manlius (as Livius relates)

anno ab urb. cond. 567. brought first out of Asia to Rome singing

wenches, players, jesters, and all kinds of music to their feasts.

Your princes, emperors, and persons of any quality, maintain it in

their courts; no mirth without music. Sir Thomas More, in his

absolute Utopian commonwealth, allows music as an appendix to every

meal, and that throughout, to all sorts. Epictetus calls mensam

mutam praesepe, a table without music a manger: for "the concert of

musicians at a banquet is a carbuncle set in gold; and as the signet

of an emerald well trimmed with gold, so is the melody of music in a

pleasant banquet." Ecclus. xxxii. 5, 6. 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 saltatione, is not ashamed to confess that he

took infinite delight in singing, dancing, music, women's company,

and such like pleasures: "and if thou" (saith he) "didst but hear

them play and dance, I know thou wouldst be so well pleased with the

object, that thou wouldst dance for company thyself, without doubt

thou wilt be taken with it." So Scaliger ingenuously confesseth,

exercit. 274. "I am beyond all measure affected with music, I do

most willingly behold them dance, I am mightily detained and allured

with that grace and comeliness of fair women, I am well pleased to

be idle amongst them." And what young man is not? As it is

acceptable and conducing to most, so especially to a melancholy man.

Provided always, his disease proceed not originally from it, that he

be not some light inamarato, some idle fantastic, who capers in

conceit all the day long, and thinks of nothing else, but how to

make jigs, sonnets, madrigals, in commendation of his mistress. In

such cases music is most pernicious, as a spur to a free horse will

make him run himself blind, or break his wind; Incitamentum enim

amoris musica, for music enchants, as Menander holds, it will make

such melancholy persons mad, and the sound of those jigs and

hornpipes will not be removed out of the ears a week after. Plato

for this reason forbids music and wine to all young men, because

they are most part amorous, ne ignis addatur igni, lest one fire

increase another. Many men are melancholy by hearing music, but it

is a pleasing melancholy that it causeth; and therefore to such as

are discontent, in woe, fear, sorrow, or dejected, it is a most

present remedy: it expels cares, alters their grieved minds, and

easeth in an instant. Otherwise, saith Plutarch, Musica magis

dementat quam vinum; music makes some men mad as a tiger; like

Astolphos' horn in Ariosto; or Mercury's golden wand in Homer, that

made some wake, others sleep, it hath divers effects: and

Theophrastus right well prophesied, that diseases were either

procured by music, or mitigated.

SUBSECT. IV.--Mirth and merry company, fair objects, remedies.

Mirth and merry company may not be separated from music, both

concerning and necessarily required in this business. "Mirth,"

(saith Vives) "purgeth the blood, confirms health, causeth a fresh,

pleasing, and fine colour," prorogues life, whets the wit, makes the

body young, lively and fit for any manner of employment. The merrier

the heart the longer the life; "A merry heart is the life of the

flesh," Prov. xiv. 30. "Gladness prolongs his days," Ecclus. xxx.

22; and this is one of the three Salernitan doctors, Dr. Merryman,

Dr. Diet, Dr. Quiet, which cure all diseases -- Mens hilaris,

requies, moderata dieta. Gomesius, praefat. lib. 3. de sal. gen. is a

great magnifier of honest mirth, by which (saith he) "we cure many

passions of the mind in ourselves, and in our friends;" which

Galateus assigns for a cause why we love merry companions: and well

they deserve it, being that as Magninus holds, a merry companion is

better than any music, and as the saying is, comes jucundus in via

pro vehiculo, as a wagon to him that is wearied on the way. Jucunda

confabulatio, sales, joci, pleasant discourse, jests, conceits,

merry tales, melliti verborum globuli, as Petronius, Pliny,

Spondanus, Caelius, and many good authors plead, are that sole

Nepenthes of Homer, Helena's bowl, Venus's girdle, so renowned of

old to expel grief and care, to cause mirth and gladness of heart,

if they be rightly understood, or seasonably applied. In a word,

"Amor, voluptas, Venus, gaudium,

Jocus, ludus, sermo suavis, suaviatio."

"Gratification, pleasure, love, joy,

Mirth, sport, pleasant words and no alloy,"

are the true Nepenthes. For these causes our physicians generally

prescribe this as a principal engine to batter the walls of

melancholy, a chief antidote, and a sufficient cure of itself. "By

all means" (saith Mesue) "procure mirth to these men in such things

as are heard, seen, tasted, or smelled, or any way perceived, and

let them have all enticements and fair promises, the sight of

excellent beauties, attires, ornaments, delightsome passages to

distract their minds from fear and sorrow, and such things on which

they are so fixed and intent." "Let them use hunting, sports, plays,

jests, merry company," as Rhasis prescribes, "which will not let the

mind be molested, a cup of good drink now and then, hear music, and

have such companions with whom they are especially delighted;"

"merry tales or toys, drinking, singing, dancing, and whatsoever

else may procure mirth:" and by no means, saith Guianerius, suffer

them to be alone. Benedictus Victorius Faventinus, in his empirics,

accounts it an especial remedy against melancholy, "to hear and see

singing, dancing, maskers, mummers, to converse with such merry

fellows and fair maids." "For the beauty of a woman cheereth the

countenance," Ecclus. xxxvi. 22. Beauty alone is a sovereign remedy

against fear, grief, and all melancholy fits; a charm, as Peter de

la Seine and many other writers affirm, a banquet itself; he gives

instance in discontented Menelaus, that was so often freed by

Helena's fair face: and Tully, 3 Tusc. cites Epicurus as a chief

patron of this tenet. To expel grief, and procure pleasure, sweet

smells, good diet, touch, taste, embracing, singing, dancing,

sports, plays, and above the rest, exquisite beauties, quibus oculi

jucunde moventur et animi, are most powerful means, obvia forma, to

meet or see a fair maid pass by, or to be in company with her. He

found it by experience, and made good use of it in his own person,

if Plutarch belie him not; for he reckons up the names of some more

elegant pieces; Leontia, Boedina, Hedieia, Nicedia, that were

frequently seen in Epicurus' garden, and very familiar in his house.

Neither did he try it himself alone, but if we may give credit to

Atheneus, he practised it upon others. For when a sad and sick

patient was brought unto him to be cured, "he laid him on a down

bed, crowned him with a garland of sweet-smelling flowers, in a fair

perfumed closet delicately set out, and after a portion or two of

good drink, which he administered, he brought in a beautiful young

wench that could play upon a lute, sing, and dance," &c. Tully, 3.

Tusc. scoffs at Epicurus, for this his profane physic (as well he

deserved), and yet Phavorinus and Stobeus highly approve of it; most

of our looser physicians in some cases, to such parties especially,

allow of this; and all of them will have a melancholy, sad, and

discontented person, make frequent use of honest sports, companies,

and recreations, et incitandos ad Venerem, as Rodericus a Fonseca

will, aspectu et contactu pulcherrimarum foeminarum, to be drawn to

such consorts, whether they will or no. Not to be an auditor only,

or a spectator, but sometimes an actor himself. Dulce est desipere

in loco, to play the fool now and then is not amiss, there is a time

for all things. Grave Socrates would be merry by fits, sing, dance,

and take his liquor too, or else Theodoret belies him; so would old

Cato, Tully by his own confession, and the rest. Xenophon, in his

Sympos. brings in Socrates as a principal actor, no man merrier than

himself, and sometimes he would "ride a cockhorse with his

children."--equitare in arundine longa. (Though Alcibiades scoffed

at him for it) and well he might; for now and then (saith Plutarch)

the most virtuous, honest, and gravest men will use feasts, jests,

and toys, as we do sauce to our meats. So did Scipio and Laelius,

"Qui ubi se a vulgo et scena in secreta remorant,

Virtus Scipiadae et mitis sapientia Laeli,

Nugari cum illo, et discincti ludere, donec

Decoqueretur olus, soliti"------

"Valorous Scipio and gentle Laelius,

Removed from the scene and rout so clamorous,

Were wont to recreate themselves their robes laid by,

Whilst supper by the cook was making ready."

Machiavel, in the eighth book of his Florentine history, gives this

note of Cosmo de Medici, the wisest and gravest man of his time in

Italy, that he would "now and then play the most egregious fool in

his carriage, and was so much given to jesters, players and childish

sports, to make himself merry, that he that should but consider his

gravity on the one part, his folly and lightness on the other, would

surely say, there were two distinct persons in him." Now methinks he

did well in it, though Salisburiensis be of opinion, that

magistrates, senators, and grave men, should not descend to lighter

sports, ne respublica ludere videatur: but as Themistocles, still

keep a stern and constant carriage. I commend Cosmo de Medici and

Castruccius Castrucanus, than whom Italy never knew a worthier

captain, another Alexander, if Machiavel do not deceive us in his

life: "when a friend of his reprehended him for dancing beside his

dignity," (belike at some cushion dance) he told him again, qui

sapit interdiu, vix unquam noctii desipit, he that is wise in the

day may dote a little in the night. Paulus Jovius relates as much of

Pope Leo Decimus, that he was a grave, discreet, staid man, yet

sometimes most free, and too open in his sports. And 'tis not

altogether unfit or misbeseeming the gravity of such a man, if that

decorum of time, place, and such circumstances be observed. Misce

stultitiam consiliis brevem--and as he said in an epigram to his

wife, I would have every man say to himself, or to his friend,

"Moll, once in pleasant company by chance,

I wished that you for company would dance:

Which you refus'd, and said, your years require,

Now, matron-like, both manners and attire.

Well, Moll, if needs you will be matron-like,

Then trust to this, I will thee matron-like:

Yet so to you my love, may never lessen,

As you for church, house, bed, observe this lesson:

Sit in the church as solemn as a saint,

No deed, word, thought, your due devotion taint:

Veil, if you will, your head, your soul reveal

To him that only wounded souls can heal:

Be in my house as busy as a bee.

Having a sting for every one but me;

Buzzing in every corner, gath'ring honey:

Let nothing waste, that costs or yieldeth money.

And when thou seest my heart to mirth incline,

Thy tongue, wit, blood, warm with good cheer and wine:

Then of sweet sports let no occasion scape,

But be as wanton, toying as an ape."

Those old Greeks had their Lubentiam Deam, goddess of

pleasure, and the Lacedaemonians, instructed from Lycurgus, did Deo

Risui sucrificare, after their wars especially, and in times of

peace, which was used in Thessaly, as it appears by that of

Apuleius, who was made an instrument of their laughter himself:

"Because laughter and merriment was to season their labours and

modester life." Risus enim divum atque; hominum est aeterna voluptas.

Princes use jesters, players, and have those masters of revels in

their courts. The Romans at every supper (for they had no solemn

dinner) used music, gladiators, jesters, &c. as Suetonius relates of

Tiberius, Dion of Commodus, and so did the Greeks. Besides music, in

Xenophon's Sympos. Philippus ridendi artifex, Philip, a jester, was

brought to make sport. Paulus Jovius, in the eleventh book of his

history, hath a pretty digression of our English customs, which

howsoever some may misconstrue, I, for my part, will interpret to

the best. "The whole nation beyond all other mortal men, is most

given to banqueting and feasts; for they prolong them many hours

together, with dainty cheer, exquisite music, and facete jesters,

and afterwards they fall a dancing and courting their mistresses,

till it be late in the night." Volateran gives the same testimony of

this island, commending our jovial manner of entertainment and good

mirth, and methinks he saith well, there is no harm in it; long may

they use it, and all such modest sports. Ctesias reports of a

Persian king, that had 150 maids attending at his table, to play,

sing, and dance by turns; and Lil. Geraldus of an Egyptian prince,

that kept nine virgins still to wait upon him, and those of most

excellent feature, and sweet voices, which afterwards gave occasion

to the Greeks of that fiction of the nine Muses. The king of

Ethiopia in Africa, most of our Asiatic princes have done so and do;

those Sophies, Mogors, Turks, &c. solace themselves after supper

amongst their queens and concubines, quae jucundioris oblectamenti

causa ( saith mine author) coram rege psallere et saltare

consueverant, taking great pleasure to see and hear them sing and

dance. This and many such means to exhilarate the heart of men, have

been still practised in all ages, as knowing there is no better

thing to the preservation of man's life. What shall I say, then, but

to every melancholy man,

"Utere convivis, non tristibus utere amicis,

Quos nugae et risus, et joca salsa juvant."

"Feast often, and use friends not still so sad,

Whose jests and merriments may make thee glad."

Use honest and chaste sports, scenical shows, plays, games;

Accedant juvenumque Chori, mistaeque puellae. And as Marsilius Ficinus

concludes an epistle to Bernard Canisianus, and some other of his

friends, will I this tract to all good students, "Live merrily, O my

friends, free from cares, perplexity, anguish, grief of mind, live

merrily," laetitia caelum vos creavit: "Again and again I request you

to be merry, if anything trouble your hearts, or vex your souls,

neglect and contemn it, let it pass. And this I enjoin you, not as a

divine alone, but as a physician; for without this mirth, which is

the life and quintessence of physic, medicines, and whatsoever is

used and applied to prolong the life of man, is dull, dead, and of

no force." Dum fata sinunt, vivite laeti (Seneca), I say be merry.

"Nec lusibus virentem Viduemus hanc juventam."

It was Tiresias the prophet's council to Menippus, that

travelled all the world over, even down to hell itself to seek

content, and his last farewell to Menippus, to be merry. "Contemn

the world" (saith he) "and count that is in it vanity and toys; this

only covet all thy life long; be not curious, or over solicitous in

anything, but with a well composed and contented estate to enjoy

thyself, and above all things to be merry."

"Si Numerus uti censet sine amore jocisque,

Nil est jucundum, vivas in amore jocisque."

("If the world think that nothing can be happy without love

and mirth, then live in love and jollity.")

Nothing better (to conclude with Solomon, Eccles. iii. 22),

"than that a man should rejoice in his affairs." 'Tis the same

advice which every physician in this case rings to his patient, as

Capivaccius to his, "avoid overmuch study and perturbations of the

mind, and as much as in thee lies live at heart's-ease:" Prosper

Calenus to that melancholy Cardinal Caesius, "amidst thy serious

studies and business, use jests and conceits, plays and toys, and

whatsoever else may recreate thy mind." Nothing better than mirth

and merry company in this malady. "It begins with sorrow" (saith

Montanus), "it must be expelled with hilarity."

But see the mischief; many men, knowing that merry company is

the only medicine against melancholy, will therefore neglect their

business; and in another extreme, spend all their days among good

fellows in a tavern or an alehouse, and know not otherwise how to

bestow their time but in drinking; malt-worms, men-fishes, or water-

snakes, Qui bibunt solum ranarum more, nihil comedentes, like so

many frogs in a puddle. 'Tis their sole exercise to eat, and drink;

to sacrifice to Volupia, Rumina, Edulica, Potina, Mellona, is all

their religion. They wish for Philoxenus' neck, Jupiter's

trinoctium, and that the sun would stand still as in Joshua's time,

to satisfy their lust, that they might dies noctesque pergraecari et

bibere. Flourishing wits, and men of good parts, good fashion, and

good worth, basely prostitute themselves to every rogue's company,

to take tobacco and drink, to roar and sing scurrilous songs in base

places.

"Invenies aliquem cum percussore jacentem,

Permistum nautis, aut furibus, aut fugitivis."

(Juven. sat. 8. "You will find him beside some cutthroat,

along with sailors, or thieves, or runaways.")

Which Thomas Erastus objects to Paracelsus, that he would be

drinking all day long with carmen and tapsters in a brothel-house,

is too frequent among us, with men of better note: like Timocreon of

Rhodes, multa bibens, et multa vorans, &c. They drown their wits,

seethe their brains in ale, consume their fortunes, lose their time,

weaken their temperatures, contract filthy diseases, rheums,

dropsies, calentures, tremor, get swollen jugulars, pimpled red

faces, sore eyes, &c.; heat their livers, alter their complexions,

spoil their stomachs, overthrow their bodies; for drink drowns more

than the sea and all the rivers that fall into it (mere funges and

casks), confound their souls, suppress reason, go from Scylla to

Charybdis, and use that which is a help to their undoing. Quid

refert morbo an ferro pereamve ruina?( Hor. "What does it signify

whether I perish by disease or by the sword?") When the Black Prince

went to set the exiled king of Castile into his kingdom, there was a

terrible battle fought between the English and the Spanish: at last

the Spanish fled, the English followed them to the river side, where

some drowned themselves to avoid their enemies, the rest were

killed. Now tell me what difference is between drowning and killing?

As good be melancholy still, as drunken beasts and beggars. Company

a sole comfort, and an only remedy to all kind of discontent, is

their sole misery and cause of perdition. As Hermione lamented in

Euripides, malae mulieres me fecerunt malam. Evil company marred her,

may they justly complain, bad companions have been their bane. For,

malus malum vult ut sit sui similis; one drunkard in a company, one

thief, one whoremaster, will by his goodwill make all the rest as

bad as himself,

------"Et si Nocturnos jures te formidare vapores,"

(Hor "Although you swear that you dread the night air.")

be of what complexion you will, inclination, love or hate, be

it good or bad, if you come amongst them, you must do as they do;

yea, though it be to the prejudice of your health, you must drink

venenum pro vino. And so like grasshoppers, whilst they sing over

their cups all summer, they starve in winter; and for a little vain

merriment shall find a sorrowful reckoning in the end.

SECT. III. MEMB. I.

A Consolatory Digression, containing the Remedies of all manner of

Discontents.

Because in the preceding section I have made mention of good

counsel, comfortable speeches, persuasion, how necessarily they are

required to the cure of a discontented or troubled mind, how present

a remedy they yield, and many times a sole sufficient cure of

themselves; I have thought fit in this following section, a little

to digress (if at least it be to digress in this subject), to

collect and glean a few remedies, and comfortable speeches out of

our best orators, philosophers, divines, and fathers of the church,

tending to this purpose. I confess, many have copiously written of

this subject, Plato, Seneca, Plutarch, Xenophon, Epictetus,

Theophrastus, Xenocrates, Grantor, Lucian, Boethius: and some of

late, Sadoletus, Cardan, Budaeus, Stella, Petrarch, Erasmus, besides

Austin, Cyprian, Bernard, &c. And they so well, that as Hierome in

like case said, si nostrum areret ingenium, de illorum posset

fontibus irrigari, if our barren wits were dried up, they might be

copiously irrigated from those well-springs: and I shall but actum

agere; yet because these tracts are not so obvious and common, I

will epitomise, and briefly insert some of their divine precepts,

reducing their voluminous and vast treatises to my small scale; for

it were otherwise impossible to bring so great vessels into so

little a creek. And although (as Cardan said of his book de consol.)

"I know beforehand, this tract of mine many will contemn and reject;

they that are fortunate, happy, and in flourishing estate, have no

need of such consolatory speeches; they that are miserable and

unhappy, think them insufficient to ease their grieved minds, and

comfort their misery:" yet I will go on; for this must needs do some

good to such as are happy, to bring them to a moderation, and make

them reflect and know themselves, by seeing the inconstancy of human

felicity, others' misery; and to such as are distressed, if they

will but attend and consider of this, it cannot choose but give some

content and comfort. "'Tis true, no medicine can cure all diseases,

some affections of the mind are altogether incurable; yet these

helps of art, physic, and philosophy must not be contemned."

Arrianus and Plotinus are stiff in the contrary opinion, that such

precepts can do little good. Boethius himself cannot comfort in some

cases, they will reject such speeches like bread of stones, Insana

stultae mentis haec solatia.

"Words add no courage," which Catiline once said to his

soldiers, "a captain's oration doth not make a coward a valiant

man:" and as Job feelingly said to his friends, "you are but

miserable comforters all." 'Tis to no purpose in that vulgar phrase

to use a company of obsolete sentences, and familiar sayings: as

Plinius Secundus, being now sorrowful and heavy for the departure of

his dear friend Cornelius Rufus, a Roman senator, wrote to his

fellow Tiro in like case, adhibe solatia, sed nova aliqua, sed

fortia, quae audierim nunquam, legerim nunquam: nam quae audivi, quae

legi omnia, tanto dolore superantur, either say something that I

never read nor heard of before, or else hold thy peace. Most men

will here except trivial consolations, ordinary speeches, and known

persuasions in this behalf will be of small force; what can any man

say that hath not been said? To what end are such paraenetical

discourses? you may as soon remove Mount Caucasus, as alter some

men's affections. Yet sure I think they cannot choose but do some

good, and comfort and ease a little, though it be the same again, I

will say it, and upon that hope I will adventure. Non meus hic

sermo, 'tis not my speech this, but of Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus,

Austin, Bernard, Christ and his Apostles. If I make nothing, as

Montaigne said in like case, I will mar nothing; 'tis not my

doctrine but my study, I hope I shall do nobody wrong to speak what

I think, and deserve not blame in imparting my mind. If it be not

for thy ease, it may for mine own; so Tully, Cardan, and Boethius

wrote de consol. as well to help themselves as others; be it as it

may I will essay.

Discontents and grievances are either general or particular;

general are wars, plagues, dearths, famine, fires, inundations,

unseasonable weather, epidemical diseases which afflict whole

kingdoms, territories, cities; or peculiar to private men, as cares,

crosses, losses, death of friends, poverty, want, sickness,

orbities, injuries, abuses, &c. Generally all discontent, homines

quatimur fortunae, salo. No condition free, quisque suos patimur

manes. Even in the midst of our mirth and jollity, there is some

grudging, some complaint; as he saith, our whole life is a

glycypicron, a bitter sweet passion, honey and gall mixed together,

we are all miserable and discontent, who can deny it? If all, and

that it be a common calamity, an inevitable necessity, all

distressed, then as Cardan infers, "who art thou that hopest to go

free? Why dost thou not grieve thou art a mortal man, and not

governor of the world?" Ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes, Nemo

recuset, "If it be common to all, why should one man be more

disquieted than another?" If thou alone wert distressed, it were

indeed more irksome, and less to be endured; but when the calamity

is common, comfort thyself with this, thou hast more fellows,

Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris; 'tis not thy sole case, and

why shouldst thou be so impatient? "Aye, but alas we are more

miserable than others, what shall we do? Besides private miseries,

we live in perpetual fear and danger of common enemies: we have

Bellona's whips, and pitiful outcries, for epithalamiums; for

pleasant music, that fearful noise of ordnance, drums, and warlike

trumpets still sounding in our ears; instead of nuptial torches, we

have firing of towns and cities; for triumphs, lamentations; for

joy, tears." "So it is, and so it was, and so it ever will be. He

that refuseth to see and hear, to suffer this, is not fit to live in

this world, and knows not the common condition of all men, to whom

so long as they live, with a reciprocal course, joys and sorrows are

annexed, and succeed one another." It is inevitable, it may not be

avoided, and why then shouldst thou be so much troubled? Grave nihil

est homini quod fert necessitas, as Tully deems out of an old poet,

"that which is necessary cannot be grievous." If it be so, then

comfort thyself in this, "that whether thou wilt or no, it must be

endured:" make a virtue of necessity, and conform thyself to undergo

it. Si longa est, levis est; si gravis est, brevis est. If it be

long, 'tis light; if grievous, it cannot last. It will away, dies

dolorem minuit, and if nought else, time will wear it out; custom

will ease it; oblivion is a common medicine for all losses,

injuries, griefs, and detriments whatsoever, "and when they are once

past, this commodity comes of infelicity, it makes the rest of our

life sweeter unto us:" Atque haec olim meminisse juvabit,

"recollection of the past is pleasant:" "the privation and want of a

thing many times makes it more pleasant and delightsome than before

it was." We must not think the happiest of us all to escape here

without some misfortunes,

------"Usque adeo nulla est sincera voluptas,

Solicitumque aliquid laetis intervenit."------

(Ovid. "For there is no pleasure perfect, some anxiety always

intervenes.")

Heaven and earth are much unlike: "Those heavenly bodies

indeed are freely carried in their orbs without any impediment or

interruption, to continue their course for innumerable ages, and

make their conversions: but men are urged with many difficulties,

and have diverse hindrances, oppositions still crossing,

interrupting their endeavours and desires, and no mortal man is free

from this law of nature." We must not therefore hope to have all

things answer our own expectation, to have a continuance of good

success and fortunes, Fortuna nunquam perpetuo est bona. And as

Minutius Felix, the Roman consul, told that insulting Coriolanus,

drunk with his good fortunes, look not for that success thou hast

hitherto had; "It never yet happened to any man since the beginning

of the world, nor ever will, to have all things according to his

desire, or to whom fortune was never opposite and adverse." Even so

it fell out to him as he foretold. And so to others, even to that

happiness of Augustus; though he were Jupiter's almoner, Pluto's

treasurer, Neptune's admiral, it could not secure him. Such was

Alcibiades's fortune, Narsetes, that great Gonsalvus, and most

famous men's, that as Jovius concludes, "it is almost fatal to great

princes, through their own default or otherwise circumvented with

envy and malice, to lose their honours, and die contumeliously."

'Tis so, still hath been, and ever will be, Nihil est ab omni parte

beatum,

"There's no perfection is so absolute,

That some impurity doth not pollute."

Whatsoever is under the moon is subject to corruption,

alteration; and so long as thou livest upon earth look not for

other. "Thou shalt not here find peaceable and cheerful days, quiet

times, but rather clouds, storms, calumnies, such is our fate." And

as those errant planets in their distinct orbs have their several

motions, sometimes direct, stationary, retrograde, in apogee,

perigee, oriental, occidental, combust, feral, free, and as our

astrologers will, have their fortitudes and debilities, by reason of

those good and bad irradiations, conferred to each other's site in

the heavens, in their terms, houses, case, detriments, &c. So we

rise and fall in this world, ebb and flow, in and out, reared and

dejected, lead a troublesome life, subject to many accidents and

casualties of fortunes, variety of passions, infirmities as well

from ourselves as others.

Yea, but thou thinkest thou art more miserable than the rest,

other men are happy but in respect of thee, their miseries are but

flea- bitings to thine, thou alone art unhappy, none so bad as

thyself. Yet if, as Socrates said, "All men in the world should come

and bring their grievances together, of body, mind, fortune, sores,

ulcers, madness, epilepsies, agues, and all those common calamities

of beggary, want, servitude, imprisonment, and lay them on a heap to

be equally divided, wouldst thou share alike, and take thy portion?

or be as thou art? Without question thou wouldst be as thou art." If

some Jupiter should say, to give us all content,

"Jam faciam quod vultis; eris tu, qui modo miles,

Mercator; tu consultus modo, rusticus; hinc vos,

Vos hinc mutatis discedite partibus; eia

Quid slatis? nolint."

"Well be't so then; you master soldier

Shall be a merchant; you sir lawyer

A country gentlemen; go you to this,

That side you; why stand ye? it's well as 'tis."

"Every man knows his own, but not others' defects and

miseries; and 'tis the nature of all men still to reflect upon

themselves, their own misfortunes," not to examine or consider other

men's, not to compare themselves with others: To recount their

miseries, but not their good gifts, fortunes, benefits, which they

have, or ruminate on their adversity, but not once to think on their

prosperity, not what they have, but what they want: to look still on

them that go before, but not on those infinite numbers that come

after. "Whereas many a man would think himself in heaven, a pretty

prince, if he had but the least part of that fortune which thou so

much repinest at, abhorrest and accountest a most vile and wretched

estate." How many thousands want that which thou hast? how many

myriads of poor slaves, captives, of such as work day and night in

coal-pits, tin-mines, with sore toil to maintain a poor living, of

such as labour in body and mind, live in extreme anguish, and pain,

all which thou art free from? O fortunatos nimium bona si sua

norint: Thou art most happy if thou couldst be content, and

acknowledge thy happiness; Rem carendo, non fruendo cognoscimus,

("You know the value of a thing from wanting more than from enjoying

it.") when thou shalt hereafter come to want that which thou now

loathest, abhorrest, and art weary of, and tired with, when 'tis

past thou wilt say thou wert most happy: and after a little miss,

wish with all thine heart thou hadst the same content again, mightst

lead but such a life, a world for such a life: the remembrance of it

is pleasant. Be silent then, rest satisfied, desine, intuensque in

aliorum infortunia solare mentem, comfort thyself with other men's

misfortunes, and as the mouldwarp in Aesop told the fox, complaining

for want of a tail, and the rest of his companions, tacete, quando

me occulis captum videtis, you complain of toys, but I am blind, be

quiet. I say to thee be thou satisfied. It is recorded of the hares,

that with a general consent they went to drown themselves, out of a

feeling of their misery; but when they saw a company of frogs more

fearful than they were, they began to take courage, and comfort

again. Compare thine estate with others. Similes aliorum respice

casus, mitius ista feres. Be content and rest satisfied, for thou

art well in respect to others: be thankful for that thou hast, that

God hath done for thee, he hath not made thee a monster, a beast, a

base creature, as he might, but a man, a Christian, such a man;

consider aright of it, thou art full well as thou art. Quicquid vult

habere nemo potest, no man can have what he will, Illud potest nolle

quod non habet, he may choose whether he will desire that which he

hath not. Thy lot is fallen, make the best of it. "If we should all

sleep at all times," (as Endymion is said to have done) "who then

were happier than his fellow?" Our life is but short, a very dream,

and while we look about immortalitas adest, eternity is at hand:

"Our life is a pilgrimage on earth, which wise men pass with great

alacrity." If thou be in woe, sorrow, want, distress, in pain, or

sickness, think of that of our apostle, "God chastiseth them whom he

loveth: they that sow in tears, shall reap in joy," Psal. cxxvi. 6.

"As the furnace proveth the potter's vessel, so doth temptation try

men's thoughts," Eccl. xxv. 5, 'tis for thy good, Periisses nisi

periisses: hadst thou not been so visited, thou hadst been utterly

undone: "as gold in the fire," so men are tried in adversity.

Tribulatio ditut: and which Camerarius hath well shadowed in an

emblem of a thresher and corn,

"Si tritura absit paleis sunt abdita grana,

Nos crux mundanis separat a paleis:"

"As threshing separates from straw the corn,

By crosses from the world's chaff are we born."

'Tis the very same which Chrysostom comments, hom. 2. in 3

Mat. "Corn is not separated but by threshing, nor men from worldly

impediments but by tribulation." 'Tis that which Cyprian

ingeminates, Ser. 4. de immort. 'Tis that which Hierom, which all

the fathers inculcate, "so we are catechised for eternity." 'Tis

that which the proverb insinuates. Nocumentum documentum; 'tis that

which all the world rings in our ears. Deus unicum habet filium sine

peccato, nullum sine flagello: God, saith Austin, hath one son

without sin, none without correction. "An expert seaman is tried in

a tempest, a runner in a race, a captain in a battle, a valiant man

in adversity, a Christian in tentation and misery." Basil, hom. 8.

We are sent as so many soldiers into this world, to strive with it,

the flesh, the devil; our life is a warfare, and who knows it not?

Non est ad astra mollis e terris via: "and therefore peradventure

this world here is made troublesome unto us," that, as Gregory

notes, "we should not be delighted by the way, and forget whither we

are going."

"Ite nunc fortes, ubi celsa magni

Ducit exempli via, cur inerti

Terga nudatis? superata tellus

Sidera donat."

(Boethius l. 5. met. ult, "Go now, brave fellows, whither the

lofty path of a great example leads. Why do you stupidly

expose your backs? The earth brings the stars to subjection.")

Go on then merrily to heaven. If the way be troublesome, and

you in misery, in many grievances: on the other side you have many

pleasant sports, objects, sweet smells, delightsome tastes, music,

meats, herbs, flowers, &c. to recreate your senses. Or put case thou

art now forsaken of the world, dejected, contemned, yet comfort

thyself, as it was said to Agar in the wilderness, "God sees thee,

he takes notice of thee:" there is a God above that can vindicate

thy cause, that can relieve thee. And surely Seneca thinks he takes

delight in seeing thee. "The gods are well pleased when they see

great men contending with adversity," as we are to see men fight, or

a man with a beast. But these are toys in respect, "Behold," saith

he, "a spectacle worthy of God; a good man contented with his

estate." A tyrant is the best sacrifice to Jupiter, as the ancients

held, and his best object "a contented mind." For thy part then rest

satisfied, "cast all thy care on him, thy burthen on him," "rely on

him, trust on him, and he shall nourish thee, care for thee, give

thee thine heart's desire;" say with David, "God is our hope and

strength, in troubles ready to be found," Psal. xlvi. 1. "for they

that trust in the Lord shall be as Mount Zion, which cannot be

removed," Psal. cxxiv. 1. 2. "as the mountains are about Jerusalem,

so is the Lord about his people, from henceforth and for ever."

MEMB. II.

Deformity of body, sickness, baseness of birth, peculiar

discontents.

Particular discontents and grievances, are either of body,

mind, or fortune, which as they wound the soul of man, produce this

melancholy, and many great inconveniences, by that antidote of good

counsel and persuasion may be eased or expelled. Deformities and

imperfections of our bodies, as lameness, crookedness, deafness,

blindness, be they innate or accidental, torture many men: yet this

may comfort them, that those imperfections of the body do not a whit

blemish the soul, or hinder the operations of it, but rather help

and much increase it. Thou art lame of body, deformed to the eye,

yet this hinders not but that thou mayst be a good, a wise, upright,

honest man. "Seldom," saith Plutarch, "honesty and beauty dwell

together," and oftentimes under a threadbare coat lies an excellent

understanding, saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste. Cornelius

Mussus, that famous preacher in Italy, when he came first into the

pulpit in Venice, was so much contemned by reason of his outside, a

little lean, poor, dejected person, they were all ready to leave the

church; but when they heard his voice they did admire him, and happy

was that senator could enjoy his company, or invite him first to his

house. A silly fellow to look to, may have more wit, learning,

honesty, than he that struts it out Ampullis jactans, &c. grandia

gradiens, and is admired in the world's opinion: Vilis saepe cadus

nobile nectar habet, the best wine comes out of an old vessel. How

many deformed princes, kings, emperors, could I reckon up,

philosophers, orators? Hannibal had but one eye, Appius Claudius,

Timoleon, blind, Muleasse, king of Tunis, John, king of Bohemia, and

Tiresias the prophet. "The night hath his pleasure;" and for the

loss of that one sense such men are commonly recompensed in the

rest; they have excellent memories, other good parts, music, and

many recreations; much happiness, great wisdom, as Tully well

discourseth in his Tusculan questions: Homer was blind, yet who

(saith he) made more accurate, lively, or better descriptions, with

both his eyes? Democritus was blind, yet as Laertius writes of him,

he saw more than all Greece besides, as Plato concludes, Tum sane

mentis oculus acute incipit cernere, quum primum corporis oculus

deflorescit, when our bodily eyes are at worst, generally the eyes

of our soul see best. Some philosophers and divines have evirated

themselves, and put out their eyes voluntarily, the better to

contemplate. Angelus Politianus had a tetter in his nose continually

running, fulsome in company, yet no man so eloquent and pleasing in

his works. Aesop was crooked, Socrates purblind, long-legged, hairy;

Democritus withered, Seneca lean and harsh, ugly to behold, yet show

me so many flourishing wits, such divine spirits: Horace a little

blear-eyed contemptible fellow, yet who so sententious and wise?

Marcilius Picinus, Faber Stapulensis, a couple of dwarfs, Melancthon

a short hard-favoured man, parvus erat, sed magnus erat, &c., yet of

incomparable parts all three. Ignatius Loyola the founder of the

Jesuits, by reason of a hurt he received in his leg, at the siege of

Pampeluna, the chief town of Navarre in Spain, unfit for wars and

less serviceable at court, upon that accident betook himself to his

beads, and by those means got more honour than ever he should have

done with the use of his limbs, and properness of person: Vulnus non

penetrat animum, a wound hurts not the soul. Galba the emperor was

crook-backed, Epictetus lame: that great Alexander a little man of

stature, Augustus Caesar of the same pitch: Agesilaus despicabili

forma; Boccharis a most deformed prince as ever Egypt had, yet as

Diodorus Siculus records of him, in wisdom and knowledge far beyond

his predecessors. A. Dom. 1306. Uladeslaus Cubitalis that pigmy

king of Poland reigned and fought more victorious battles than any

of his long-shanked predecessors. Nullam virtus respuit staturam,

virtue refuseth no stature, and commonly your great vast bodies, and

fine features, are sottish, dull, and leaden spirits. What's in

them? Quid nisi pondus iners stolidaeque ferocia memtis, What in Osus

and Ephialtes (Neptune's sons in Homer), nine acres long?

"Qui ut magnus Orion,

Cum pedes incedit, medii per maxima Nerei

Stagna, viam findens humero supereminet undas."

"Like tall Orion stalking o'er the flood:

When with his brawny breast he cuts the waves,

His shoulder scarce the topmost billow laves."

What in Maximinus, Ajax, Caligula, and the rest of those great

Zanzummins, or gigantical Anakims, heavy, vast, barbarous lubbers?

------"si membra tibi dant grandia Parcae,

Mentis eges?"

Their body, saith Lemnius, "is a burden to them, and their

spirits not so lively, nor they so erect and merry:" Non est in

magno corpore mica salis: a little diamond is more worth than a

rocky mountain: which made Alexander Aphrodiseus positively

conclude, "The lesser, the wiser, because the soul was more

contracted in such a body." Let Bodine in his 5. c. method. hist.

plead the rest; the lesser they are, as in Asia, Greece, they have

generally the finest wits. And for bodily stature which some so much

admire, and goodly presence, 'tis true, to say the best of them,

great men are proper, and tall, I grant,-- caput inter nubila

condunt, (hide their heads in the clouds); but belli pusilli little

men are pretty: Sed si bellus homo est Cotta, pusillus homo est.

Sickness, diseases, trouble many, but without a cause; "It may be

'tis for the good of their souls:" Pars fati fuit, the flesh rebels

against the spirit; that which hurts the one, must needs help the

other. Sickness is the mother of modesty, putteth us in mind of our

mortality; and when we are in the full career of worldly pomp and

jollity, she pulleth us by the ear, and maketh us know ourselves.

Pliny calls it, the sum of philosophy, "If we could but perform that

in our health, which we promise in our sickness." Quum infirmi

sumus, optimi sumus; for what sick man (as Secundus expostulates

with Rufus) was ever "lascivious, covetous, or ambitious? he envies

no man, admires no man, flatters no man, despiseth no man, listens

not after lies and tales," &c. And were it not for such gentle

remembrances, men would have no moderation of themselves, they would

be worse than tigers, wolves, and lions: who should keep them in

awe? "princes, masters, parents, magistrates, judges, friends,

enemies, fair or foul means cannot contain us, but a little

sickness," (as Chrysostom observes) "will correct and amend us." And

therefore with good discretion, Jovianus Pontanus caused this short

sentence to be engraven on his tomb in Naples: "Labour, sorrow,

grief, sickness, want and woe, to serve proud masters, bear that

superstitious yoke, and bury your clearest friends, &c., are the

sauces of our life." If thy disease be continuate and painful to

thee, it will not surely last: "and a light affliction, which is but

for a moment, causeth unto us a far more excellent and eternal

weight of glory," 2 Cor. iv. 17. bear it with patience; women endure

much sorrow in childbed, and yet they will not contain; and those

that are barren, wish for this pain; "be courageous, there is as

much valour to be shown in thy bed, as in an army, or at a sea

fight:" aut vincetur, aut vincet, thou shalt be rid at last. In the

mean time, let it take its course, thy mind is not any way disabled.

Bilibaldus Pirkimerus, senator to Charles the Fifth, ruled all

Germany, lying most part of his days sick of the gout upon his bed.

The more violent thy torture is, the less it will continue: and

though it be severe and hideous for the time, comfort thyself as

martyrs do, with honour and immortality. That famous philosopher

Epicurus, being in as miserable pain of stone and colic, as a man

might endure, solaced himself with a conceit of immortality; "the

joy of his soul for his rare inventions, repelled the pain of his

bodily torments."

Baseness of birth is a great disparagement to some men,

especially if they be wealthy, bear office, and come to promotion in

a commonwealth; then (as he observes) if their birth be not

answerable to their calling, and to their fellows, they are much

abashed and ashamed of themselves. Some scorn their own father and

mother, deny brothers and sisters, with the rest of their kindred

and friends, and will not suffer them to come near them, when they

are in their pomp, accounting it a scandal to their greatness to

have such beggarly beginnings. Simon in Lucian, having now got a

little wealth, changed his name from Simon to Simonides, for that

there were so many beggars of his kin, and set the house on fire

where he was born, because no body should point at it. Others buy

titles, coats of arms, and by all means screw themselves into

ancient families, falsifying pedigrees, usurping scutcheons, and all

because they would not seem to be base. The reason is, for that this

gentility is so much admired by a company of outsides, and such

honour attributed unto it, as amongst Germans, Frenchmen, and

Venetians, the gentry scorn the commonalty, and will not suffer them

to match with them; they depress, and make them as so many asses, to

carry burdens. In our ordinary talk and fallings out, the most

opprobrious and scurrile name we can fasten upon a man, or first

give, is to call him base rogue, beggarly rascal, and the like:

Whereas in my judgment, this ought of all other grievances to

trouble men least. Of all vanities and fopperies, to brag of

gentility is the greatest; for what is it they crack so much of, and

challenge such superiority, as if they were demigods? Birth? Tantane

vos generis tenuit fiducia vestri? ("Does such presumption in your

origin possess you?") It is non ens, a mere flash, a ceremony, a

toy, a thing of nought. Consider the beginning, present estate,

progress, ending of gentry, and then tell me what it is.

"Oppression, fraud, cozening, usury, knavery, bawdry, murder, and

tyranny, are the beginning of many ancient families:" "one hath been

a bloodsucker, a parricide, the death of many a silly soul in some

unjust quarrels, seditions, made many an orphan and poor widow, and

for that he is made a lord or an earl, and his posterity gentlemen

for ever after. Another hath been a bawd, a pander to some great

men, a parasite, a slave," "prostituted himself, his wife,

daughter," to some lascivious prince, and for that he is exalted.

Tiberius preferred many to honours in his time, because they were

famous whoremasters and sturdy drinkers; many come into this

parchment-row (so one calls it) by flattery or cozening; search your

old families, and you shall scarce find of a multitude (as Aeneas

Sylvius observes) qui sceleratum non habent ortum, that have not a

wicked beginning; aut qui vi et dolo eo fastigii non ascendunt, as

that plebeian in Machiavel in a set oration proved to his fellows,

that do not rise by knavery, force, foolery, villainy, or such

indirect means. "They are commonly able that are wealthy; virtue and

riches seldom settle on one man: who then sees not the beginning of

nobility? spoils enrich one, usury another, treason a third,

witchcraft a fourth, flattery a fifth, lying, stealing, bearing

false witness a sixth, adultery the seventh," &c. One makes a fool

of himself to make his lord merry, another dandles my young master,

bestows a little nag on him, a third marries a cracked piece, &c.

Now may it please your good worship, your lordship, who was the

first founder of your family? The poet answers, Aut Pastor fuit, aut

illud quod dicere nolo. Are he or you the better gentleman? If he,

then we have traced him to his form. If you, what is it of which

thou boastest so much? That thou art his son. It may be his heir,

his reputed son, and yet indeed a priest or a serving man may be the

true father of him; but we will not controvert that now; married

women are all honest; thou art his son's son's son, begotten and

born infra quatuor maria, &c. Thy great great great grandfather was

a rich citizen, and then in all likelihood a usurer, a lawyer, and

then a -- a courtier, and then a -- a country gentleman, and then he

scraped it out of sheep, &c. And you are the heir of all his

virtues, fortunes, titles; so then, what is your gentry, but as

Hierom saith, Opes antiquae, inveteratae divitiae, ancient wealth? that

is the definition of gentility. The father goes often to the devil,

to make his son a gentleman. For the present, what is it? "It began"

(saith Agrippa) "with strong impiety, with tyranny, oppression," &c.

and so it is maintained: wealth began it (no matter how got), wealth

continueth and increaseth it. Those Roman knights were so called, if

they could dispend per annum so much. In the kingdom of Naples and

France, he that buys such lands, buys the honour, title, barony,

together with it; and they that can dispend so much amongst us, must

be called to bear office, to be knights, or fine for it, as one

observes, nobiliorum ex censu judicant, our nobles are measured by

their means. And what now is the object of honour? What maintains

our gentry but wealth? Nobilitas sine re projecta vilior alga. (Hor.

"Nobility without wealth is more worthless than seaweed.") Without

means gentry is naught worth, nothing so contemptible and base.

Disputare de nobilitate generis, sine divitiis, est disputare de

nobilitate stercoris, saith Nevisanus the lawyer, to dispute of

gentry without wealth, is (saving your reverence) to discuss the

original of a merd. So that it is wealth alone that denominates,

money which maintains it, gives esse to it, for which every man may

have it. And what is their ordinary exercise? "sit to eat, drink,

lie down to sleep, and rise to play:" wherein lies their worth and

sufficiency? in a few coats of arms, eagles, lions, serpents, bears,

tigers, dogs, crosses, bends, fesses, &c., and such like baubles,

which they commonly set up in their galleries, porches, windows, on

bowls, platters, coaches, in tombs, churches, men's sleeves, &c. "If

he can hawk and hunt, ride a horse, play at cards and dice, swagger,

drink, swear," take tobacco with a grace, sing, dance, wear his

clothes in fashion, court and please his mistress, talk big fustian,

insult, scorn, strut, contemn others, and use a little mimical and

apish compliment above the rest, he is a complete, (Egregiam vero

laudem) a well-qualified gentleman; these are most of their

employments, this their greatest commendation. What is gentry, this

parchment nobility then, but as Agrippa defines it, "a sanctuary of

knavery and naughtiness, a cloak for wickedness and execrable vices,

of pride, fraud, contempt, boasting, oppression, dissimulation,

lust, gluttony, malice, fornication, adultery, ignorance, impiety?"

A nobleman therefore in some likelihood, as he concludes, is an

"atheist, an oppressor, an epicure, a gull, a dizzard, an illiterate

idiot, an outside, a glowworm, a proud fool, an arrant ass," Ventris

et inguinis mancipium, a slave to his lust and belly, solaque

libidine fortis. And as Salvianus observed of his countrymen the

Aquitanes in France, sicut titulis primi fuere, sic et vitiis (as

they were the first in rank so also in rottenness); and Cabinet du

Roy, their own writer, distinctly of the rest. "The nobles of Berry

are most part lechers, they of Touraine thieves, they of Narbonne

covetous, they of Guienne coiners, they of Provence atheists, they

of Rheims superstitious, they of Lyons treacherous, of Normandy

proud, of Picardy insolent," &c. We may generally conclude, the

greater men, the more vicious. In fine, as Aeneas Sylvius adds,

"they are most part miserable, sottish, and filthy fellows, like the

walls of their houses, fair without, foul within." What dost thou

vaunt of now? "What dost thou gape and wonder at? admire him for his

brave apparel, horses, dogs, fine houses, manors, orchards, gardens,

walks? Why? a fool may be possessor of this as well as he; and he

that accounts him a better man, a nobleman for having of it, he is a

fool himself." Now go and brag of thy gentility. This is it belike

which makes the Turks at this day scorn nobility, and all those

huffing bombast titles, which so much elevate their poles: except it

be such as have got it at first, maintain it by some supereminent

quality, or excellent worth. And for this cause, the Ragusian

commonwealth, Switzers, and the united provinces, in all their

aristocracies, or democratical monarchies, (if I may so call them,)

exclude all these degrees of hereditary honours, and will admit of

none to bear office, but such as are learned, like those Athenian

Areopagites, wise, discreet, and well brought up. The Chinese

observe the same customs, no man amongst them noble by birth; out of

their philosophers and doctors they choose magistrates: their

politic nobles are taken from such as be moraliter nobiles, virtuous

noble; nobilitas ut olim ab officio, non a natura, as in Israel of

old, and their office was to defend and govern their country in war

and peace, not to hawk, hunt, eat, drink, game alone, as too many

do. Their Loysii, Mandarini, literati, licentiati, and such as have

raised themselves by their worth, are their noblemen only, though

fit to govern a state: and why then should any that is otherwise of

worth be ashamed of his birth? why should not he be as much

respected that leaves a noble posterity, as he that hath had noble

ancestors? nay why not more? for plures solem orientem we adore the

sun rising most part; and how much better is it to say, Ego meis

majoribus virtute praeluxi, (I have outshone my ancestors in

virtues), to boast himself of his virtues, than of his birth?

Cathesbeius, sultan of Egypt and Syria, was by his condition a

slave, but for worth, valour, and manhood second to no king, and for

that cause (as, Jovius writes) elected emperor of the Mamelukes.

That poor Spanish Pizarro for his valour made by Charles the fifth

marquess of Anatillo; the Turkey Pashas are all such. Pertinax,

Philippus Arabs, Maximinus, Probus, Aurelius, &c., from common

soldiers, became emperors, Cato, Cincinnatus, &c. consuls. Pius

Secundus, Sixtus Quintus, Johan, Secundus, Nicholas Quintus, &c.

popes. Socrates, Virgil, Horace, libertino parte natus. The kings of

Denmark fetch their pedigree, as some say, from one Ulfo, that was

the son of a bear. E tenui casa saepe vir magnus exit, many a worthy

man comes out of a poor cottage. Hercules, Romulus, Alexander (by

Olympia's confession), Themistocles, Jugurtha, King Arthur, William

the Conqueror, Homer, Demosthenes, P. Lumbard, P. Comestor,

Bartholus, Adrian the fourth Pope, &c., bastards; and almost in

every kingdom, the most ancient families have been at first princes'

bastards: their worthiest captains, best wits, greatest scholars,

bravest spirits in all our annals, have been base. Cardan, in his

subtleties, gives a reason why they are most part better able than

others in body and mind, and so, per consequens, more fortunate.

Castruccius Castrucanus, a poor child, found in the field, exposed

to misery, became prince of Lucca and Senes in Italy, a most

complete soldier and worthy captain; Machiavel compares him to

Scipio or Alexander. "And 'tis a wonderful thing" ( saith he) "to

him that shall consider of it, that all those, or the greatest part

of them, that have done the bravest exploits here upon earth, and

excelled the rest of the nobles of their time, have been still born

in some abject, obscure place, or of base and obscure abject

parents." A most memorable observation, Scaliger accounts it, et non

praetereundum, maximorum virorum plerosque patres ignoratos, matres

impudicas fuisse. "I could recite a great catalogue of them," every

kingdom, every province will yield innumerable examples: and why

then should baseness of birth be objected to any man? Who thinks

worse of Tully for being Arpinas, an upstart? Or Agathocles, that

Silician king, for being a potter's son? Iphicrates and Marius were

meanly born. What wise man thinks better of any person for his

nobility? as he said in Machiavel, omnes eodem patre nati, Adam's

sons, conceived all and born in sin, &c. "We are by nature all as

one, all alike, if you see us naked; let us wear theirs and they our

clothes, and what is the difference?" To speak truth, as Bale did of

P. Schalichius, "I more esteem thy worth, learning, honesty, than

thy nobility; honour thee more that thou art a writer, a doctor of

divinity, than Earl of the Huns, Baron of Skradine, or hast title to

such and such provinces," &c. "Thou art more fortunate and great"

(so Jovius writes to Cosmo de Medici, then Duke of Florence) "for

thy virtues, than for thy lovely wife, and happy children, friends,

fortunes, or great duchy of Tuscany." So I account thee; and who

doth not so indeed? Abdolominus was a gardener, and yet by Alexander

for his virtues made King of Syria. How much better is it to be born

of mean parentage, and to excel in worth, to be morally noble, which

is preferred before that natural nobility, by divines, philosophers,

and politicians, to be learned, honest, discreet, well- qualified,

to be fit for any manner of employment, in country and commonwealth,

war and peace, than to be Degeneres Neoptolemi, as many brave nobles

are, only wise because rich, otherwise idiots, illiterate, unfit for

any manner of service? Udalricus, Earl of Cilia, upbraided John

Huniades with the baseness of his birth, but he replied, in te

Ciliensis comitatus turpiter extinguitur, in me gloriose

Bistricensis exoritur, thine earldom is consumed with riot, mine

begins with honour and renown. Thou hast had so many noble

ancestors; what is that to thee? Vix ea nostra voco, when thou art a

dizzard thyself: quod prodest, Pontice, longo stemmate censeri? &c.

I conclude, hast thou a sound body, and a good soul, good bringing

up? Art thou virtuous, honest, learned, well-qualified, religious,

are thy conditions good?--thou art a true nobleman, perfectly noble,

although born of Thersites -- dum modo tu sis -- Aeacidae similis, non

natus, sed factus, noble ?at e????? [chat exochen], "for neither

sword, nor fire, nor water, nor sickness, nor outward violence, nor

the devil himself can take thy good parts from thee." Be not ashamed

of thy birth then, thou art a gentleman all the world over, and

shalt be honoured, when as he, strip him of his fine clothes,

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

signor of Italy, I care not how descended, of what family, of what

order, baron, count, prince, if thou be well qualified, and he not,

but a degenerate Neoptolemus, I tell thee in a word, thou art a man,

and he is a beast.

Let no terrae filius, or upstart, insult at this which I have

said, no worthy gentleman take offence. I speak it not to detract

from such as are well deserving, truly virtuous and noble: I do much

respect and honour true gentry and nobility; I was born of

worshipful parents myself, in an ancient family, but I am a younger

brother, it concerns me not: or had I been some great heir, richly

endowed, so minded as I am, I should not have been elevated at all,

but so esteemed of it, as of all other human happiness, honours,

&c., they have their period, are brittle and inconstant. As he said

of that great river Danube, it riseth from a small fountain, a

little brook at first, sometimes broad, sometimes narrow, now slow,

then swift, increased at last to an incredible greatness by the

confluence of sixty navigable rivers, it vanisheth in conclusion,

loseth his name, and is suddenly swallowed up of the Euxine sea: I

may say of our greatest families, they were mean at first, augmented

by rich marriages, purchases, offices, they continue for some ages,

with some little alteration of circumstances, fortunes, places, &c.,

by some prodigal son, for some default, or for want of issue they

are defaced in an instant, and their memory blotted out.

So much in the mean time I do attribute to Gentility, that if

he be well-descended, of worshipful or noble parentage, he will

express it in his conditions,

------"nec enim feroces

Progenerant aquilae columbas."

("For fierce eagles do not procreate timid ring-doves.")

And although the nobility of our times be much like our coins,

more in number and value, but less in weight and goodness, with

finer stamps, cuts, or outsides than of old; yet if he retain those

ancient characters of true gentry, he will be more affable,

courteous, gently disposed, of fairer carriage, better temper, or a

more magnanimous, heroical, and generous spirit, than that vulgus

hominum, those ordinary boors and peasants, qui adeo improbi,

agrestes, et inculti plerumque sunt, ne dicam maliciosi, ut nemini

ullum humanitatis officium praestent, ne ipsi Deo si advenerit, as

one observes of them, a rude, brutish, uncivil, wild, a currish

generation, cruel and malicious, incapable of discipline, and such

as have scarce common sense. And it may be generally spoken of all,

which Lemnius the physician said of his travel into England, the

common people were silly, sullen, dogged clowns, sed mitior

nobilitas, ad omne humanitatis officium paratissima, the gentlemen

were courteous and civil. If it so fall out (as often it doth) that

such peasants are preferred by reason of their wealth, chance,

error, &c., or otherwise, yet as the cat in the fable, when she was

turned to a fair maid, would play with mice; a cur will be a cur, a

clown will be a clown, he will likely savour of the stock whence he

came, and that innate rusticity can hardly be shaken off.

"Licet superbus ambulet pecunia,

Fortuna non mutat genus."

(Hor. ep. Od. 2. "And although he boast of his wealth,

Fortune has not changed his nature.")

And though by their education such men may be better

qualified, and more refined; yet there be many symptoms by which

they may likely be descried, an affected fantastical carriage, a

tailor-like spruceness, a peculiar garb in all their proceedings;

choicer than ordinary in his diet, and as Hierome well describes

such a one to his Nepotian; "An upstart born in a base cottage, that

scarce at first had coarse bread to fill his hungry guts, must now

feed on kickshaws and made dishes, will have all variety of flesh

and fish, the best oysters," &c. A beggar's brat will be commonly

more scornful, imperious, insulting, insolent, than another man of

his rank: "Nothing so intolerable as a fortunate fool," as Tully

found out long since out of his experience; Asperius nihil est

humili cum surgit in altum, set a beggar on horseback, and he will

ride a gallop, a gallop, &c.

------"desaevit in omnes

Dum se posse putat, nec bellua saevior ulla est,

Quam servi rabies in libera colla furentis;"

he forgets what he was, domineers, &c., and many such other

symptoms he hath, by which you may know him from a true gentleman.

Many errors and obliquities are on both sides, noble, ignoble,

factis, natis; yet still in all callings, as some degenerate, some

are well deserving, and most worthy of their honours. And as

Busbequius said of Suleiman the Magnificent, he was tanto dignus

imperio, worthy of that great empire. Many meanly descended are most

worthy of their honour, politice nobiles, and well deserve it. Many

of our nobility so born (which one said of Hephaestion, Ptolemeus,

Seleucus, Antigonus, &c., and the rest of Alexander's followers,

they were all worthy to be monarchs and generals of armies) deserve

to be princes. And I am so far forth of Sesellius's mind, that they

ought to be preferred (if capable) before others, "as being nobly

born, ingenuously brought up, and from their infancy trained to all

manner of civility." For learning and virtue in a nobleman is more

eminent, and, as a jewel set in gold is more precious, and much to

be respected, such a man deserves better than others, and is as

great an honour to his family as his noble family to him. In a word,

many noblemen are an ornament to their order: many poor men's sons

are singularly well endowed, most eminent, and well deserving for

their worth, wisdom, learning, virtue, valour, integrity; excellent

members and pillars of a commonwealth. And therefore to conclude

that which I first intended, to be base by birth, meanly born is no

such disparagement. Et sic demonstratur, quod erat demonstrandum.

MEMB. III.

Against Poverty and Want, with such other Adversities.

One of the greatest miseries that can befall a man, in the

world's esteem, is poverty or want, which makes men steal, bear

false witness, swear, forswear, contend, murder and rebel, which

breaketh sleep, and causeth death itself. ??de? pe??a? ?a??t????

est? f??t??? [oyden penias Baruteron esti phortion], no burden

(saith Menander) so intolerable as poverty: it makes men desperate,

it erects and dejects, census honores, census amicitias; money

makes, but poverty mars, &c. and all this in the world's esteem: yet

if considered aright, it is a great blessing in itself, a happy

estate, and yields no cause of discontent, or that men should

therefore account themselves vile, hated of God, forsaken,

miserable, unfortunate. Christ himself was poor, born in a manger,

and had not a house to hide his head in all his life, "lest any man

should make poverty a judgment of God, or an odious estate." And as

he was himself, so he informed his Apostles and Disciples, they were

all poor, Prophets poor, Apostles poor, (Act. iii. "Silver and gold

have I none.") "As sorrowing" (saith Paul) "and yet always

rejoicing; as having nothing, and yet possessing all things," 1 Cor.

vi. 10. Your great Philosophers have been voluntarily poor, not only

Christians, but many others. Crates Thebanus was adored for a God in

Athens, "a nobleman by birth, many servants he had, an honourable

attendance, much wealth, many manors, fine apparel; but when he saw

this, that all the wealth of the world was but brittle, uncertain

and no whit availing to live well, he flung his burden into the sea,

and renounced his estate." Those Curii and Fabricii will be ever

renowned for contempt of these fopperies, wherewith the world is so

much affected. Amongst Christians I could reckon up many kings and

queens, that have forsaken their crowns and fortunes, and wilfully

abdicated themselves from these so much esteemed toys; many that

have refused honours, titles, and all this vain pomp and happiness,

which others so ambitiously seek, and carefully study to compass and

attain. Riches I deny not are God's good gifts, and blessings; and

honor est in honorante, honours are from God; both rewards of

virtue, and fit to be sought after, sued for, and may well be

possessed: yet no such great happiness in having, or misery in

wanting of them. Dantur quidem bonis, saith Austin, ne quis mala

aestimet: malis 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, dainty music, gay

clothes, lords it bravely out, &c., and all that which Misillus

admired in Lucian; but with them he hath the gout, dropsies,

apoplexies, palsies, stone, pox, rheums, catarrhs, crudities,

oppilations, 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 fregerunt saecula luxu

Divitiae molles"- -----

(Juven. Sat. 6. "Effeminate riches have destroyed the age by

the introduction of shameful luxury.")

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 commonalty, (which because of their

neglected Saturnal feasts in Rome, made a grievous complaint and

exclamation against rich men) that they were much mistaken in

supposing such happiness in riches; "you see the best" (said he)

"but you know not their several gripings and discontents:" they are

like painted walls, fair without, rotten within: diseased, filthy,

crazy, full of intemperance's effects; "and who can reckon half? if

you but knew their fears, cares, anguish of mind and vexation, to

which they are subject, you would hereafter renounce all riches."

"O si pateant pectora divitum,

Quantos intus sublimis agit

Fortuna metus? Brutia

Coro Pulsante fretum mitior unda est."

"O that their breasts were but conspicuous,

How full of fear within, how furious?

The narrow seas are not so boisterous."

Yea, but he hath the world at will that is rich, the good

things of the earth: suave est de magno tollere acervo, (it is sweet

to draw from a great heap) he is a happy man, adored like a god, a

prince, every man seeks to him, applauds, honours, admires him. He

hath honours indeed, abundance of all things; but (as I said) withal

"pride, lust, anger, faction, emulation, fears, cares, suspicion

enter with his wealth;" for his intemperance he hath aches,

crudities, gouts, and as fruits of his idleness, and fullness, lust,

surfeiting and drunkenness, all manner of diseases: pecuniis augetur

improbitas, the wealthier, the more dishonest. "He is exposed to

hatred, envy, peril and treason, fear of death, degradation," &c.

'tis lubrica statio et proxima praecipitio, and the higher he climbs,

the greater is his fall.

------"celsae graviore casu

Decidunt turres,feriuntque summos"

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 subito nimiae praecipitantur opes."

As a tree that is heavy laden with fruit breaks her own boughs, with

their own greatness they ruin themselves: which Joachimus Camerarius

hath elegantly expressed in his 13 Emblem cent. 1. Inopem se copia

fecit. Their means is their misery, though they do apply themselves

to the times, to lie, dissemble, collogue and flatter their lieges,

obey, second his will and commands as much as may be, yet too

frequently they miscarry, they fat themselves like so many hogs, as

Aeneas Sylvius observes, that when they are full fed, they may be

devoured by their princes, as Seneca by Nero was served, Sejanus by

Tiberius, and Haman by Ahasuerus: I resolve with Gregory, potestas

culminis, est tempestas mentis; et quo dignitas altior, casus

gravior, honour is a tempest, the higher they are elevated, the more

grievously depressed. For the rest of his prerogatives which wealth

affords, as he hath more his expenses are the greater. "When goods

increase, they are increased that eat them; and what good cometh to

the owners, but the beholding thereof with the eyes?" Eccles. iv.

10.

"Millia frumenti tua triverit area centum,

Non tuus hinc capiet venter plus quam meus"------

Hor. "Although a hundred thousand bushels of wheat may have

been threshed in your granaries, your stomach will not contain

more than mine."

"an evil sickness," Solomon calls it, "and reserved to them for an

evil," 12 verse. "They that will be rich fall into many fears and

temptations, into many foolish and noisome lusts, which drown men in

perdition." 1 Tim. vi. 9. "Gold and silver hath destroyed many,"

Ecclus. viii. 2. divitia saeculi sunt laquei diaboli: so writes

Bernard; worldly wealth is the devil's bait: and as the Moon when

she is fuller of light is still farthest from the Sun, the more

wealth they have, the farther they are commonly from God. (If I had

said this of myself, rich men would have pulled me to pieces; but

hear who saith, and who seconds it, an Apostle) therefore St. James

bids them "weep and howl for the miseries that shall come upon them;

their gold shall rust and canker, and eat their flesh as fire,"

James v. 1, 2, 3. I may then boldly conclude with Theodoret,

quotiescunque divitiis affluentem, &c. "As often as you shall see a

man abounding in wealth," qui gemmis bibit et Serrano dormit in

ostro, "and naught withal, I beseech you call him not happy, but

esteem him unfortunate, because he hath many occasions offered to

live unjustly; on the other side, a poor man is not miserable, if he

be good, but therefore happy, that those evil occasions are taken

from him."

"Non possidentem multa vocaveris

Recte beatum; rectius occupat

Nomen beati, qui deorum

Muneribus sapienter uti,

Duramque callet pauperiem pati,

Pejusque laetho flagitium timet."

"He is not happy that is rich,

And hath the world at will,

But he that wisely can God's gifts

Possess and use them still:

That suffers and with patience

Abides hard poverty,

And chooseth rather for to die;

Than do such villainy."

Wherein now consists his happiness? what privileges hath he

more than other men? or rather what miseries, what cares and

discontents hath he not more than other men?

"Non enim gazae, neque consularis

Summovet lictor miseros tumultus

Mentis, et curas laqueata circum

Tecta volantes."

("Nor treasures, nor majors officers remove

The miserable tumults of the mind:

Or cares that lie about, or fly above

Their high-roofed houses, with huge beams combin'd.")

'Tis not his wealth can vindicate him, let him have Job's

inventory, sint Croesi et Crassi licet, non hos Pactolus aureas undas

agens, eripiat unquum e miseriis, Croesus or rich Crassus cannot now

command health, or get himself a stomach. "His worship," as Apuleius

describes him, "in all his plenty and great provision, is forbidden

to eat, or else hath no appetite," (sick in bed, can take no rest,

sore grieved with some chronic disease, contracted with full diet

and ease, or troubled in mind) "when as, in the meantime, all his

household are merry, and the poorest servant that he keeps doth

continually feast." 'Tis Bracteata felicitas, as Seneca terms it,

tinfoiled happiness, infelix felicitas, an unhappy kind of

happiness, if it be happiness at all. His gold, guard, clattering of

harness, and fortifications against outward enemies, cannot free him

from inward fears and cares.

"Reveraque metus hominum, curaeque sequaces

Nec metuunt fremitus armorum, aut ferrea tela,

Audacterque inter reges, regumque potentes

Versantur, neque fulgorem reverentur ab auro."

("Indeed men still attending fears and cares

Nor armours clashing, nor fierce weapons fears:

With kings converse they boldly, and kings peers,

Fearing no flashing that from gold appears.")

Look how many servants he hath, and so many enemies he

suspects; for liberty he entertains ambition; his pleasures are no

pleasures; and that which is worst, he cannot be private or enjoy

himself as other men do, his state is a servitude. A countryman may

travel from kingdom to kingdom, province to province, city to city,

and glut his eyes with delightful objects, hawk, hunt, and use those

ordinary disports, without any notice taken, all which a prince or a

great man cannot do. He keeps in for state, ne majestatis dignitas

evilescat, as our China kings, of Borneo, and Tartarian Chams, those

aurea mancipia, are said to do, seldom or never seen abroad, ut

major sit hominum erga se observantia, which the Persian kings so

precisely observed of old. A poor man takes more delight in an

ordinary meal's meat, which he hath but seldom, than they do with

all their exotic dainties and continual viands; Quippe voluptatem

commendat rarior usus, 'tis the rarity and necessity that makes a

thing acceptable and pleasant. Darius, put to flight by Alexander,

drank puddle water to quench his thirst, and it was pleasanter, he

swore, than any wine or mead. All excess, as Epictetus argues, will

cause a dislike; sweet will be sour, which made that temperate

Epicurus sometimes voluntarily fast. But they being always

accustomed to the same dishes, (which are nastily dressed by

slovenly cooks, that after their obscenities never wash their bawdy

hands) be they fish, flesh, compounded, made dishes, or whatsoever

else, are therefore cloyed; nectar's self grows loathsome to them,

they are weary of all their fine palaces, they are to them but as so

many prisons. A poor man drinks in a wooden dish, and eats his meat

in wooden spoons, wooden platters, earthen vessels, and such homely

stuff: the other in gold, silver, and precious stones; but with what

success? in auro bibitur venenum, fear of poison in the one,

security in the other. A poor man is able to write, to speak his

mind, to do his own business himself; locuples mittit parasitum,

saith Philostratus, a rich man employs a parasite, and as the major

of a city, speaks by the town clerk, or by Mr. Recorder, when he

cannot express himself. Nonius the senator hath a purple coat as

stiff with jewels as his mind is full of vices; rings on his fingers

worth 20,000 sesterces, and as Perox the Persian king, an union in

his ear worth one hundred pounds weight of gold: Cleopatra hath

whole boars and sheep served up to her table at once, drinks jewels

dissolved, 40,000 sesterces in value; but to what end?

"Num tibi cum fauces urit sitis, aurea quaeris

Pocula?"------

Doth a man that is adry desire to drink in gold? Doth not a

cloth suit become him as well, and keep him as warm, as all their

silks, satins, damasks, taffeties and tissues? Is not homespun cloth

as great a preservative against cold, as a coat of Tartar lamb's-

wool, died in grain, or a gown of giant's beards? Nero, saith

Sueton., never put on one garment twice, and thou hast scarce one to

put on? what's the difference? one's sick, the other sound: such is

the whole tenor of their lives, and that which is the consummation

and upshot of all, death itself makes the greatest difference. One

like a hen feeds on the dunghill all his days, but is served up at

last to his Lord's table; the other as a falcon is fed with

partridge and pigeons, and carried on his master's fist, but when he

dies is flung to the muck-hill, and there lies. The rich man lives

like Dives jovially here on earth, temulentus divitiis, make the

best of it; and "boasts himself in the multitude of his riches,"

Psalm xlix. 6. 11. he thinks his house "called after his own name,"

shall continue for ever; "but he perisheth like a beast," verse 20.

"his way utters his folly," verse 13. male parta, male dilabuntur;

"like sheep they lie in the grave," verse 14. Puncto descendunt ad

infernum, "they spend their days in wealth, and go suddenly down to

hell," Job xxi. 13. For all physicians and medicines enforcing

nature, a swooning wife, families' complaints, friends' tears,

dirges, masses, naenias, funerals, for all orations, counterfeit

hired acclamations, eulogiums, epitaphs, hearses, heralds, black

mourners, solemnities, obelisks, and Mausolean tombs, if he have

them, at least, he, like a hog, goes to hell with a guilty

conscience (propter hos dilatavit infernos os suum), and a poor

man's curse; his memory stinks like the snuff of a candle when it is

put out; scurrilous libels, and infamous obloquies accompany him.

When as poor Lazarus is Dei sacrarium, the temple of God, lives and

dies in true devotion, hath no more attendants, but his own

innocency, the heaven a tomb, desires to be dissolved, buried in his

mother's lap, and hath a company of Angels ready to convey his soul

into Abraham's bosom, he leaves an everlasting and a sweet memory

behind him. Crassus and Sylla are indeed still recorded, but not so

much for their wealth as for their victories: Croesus for his end,

Solomon for his wisdom. In a word, "to get wealth is a great

trouble, anxiety to keep, grief to lose it."

"Quid dignum stolidis mentibus imprecer?

Opes, honores ambiant:

Et cum falsa gravi mole paraverint,

Tum vera cognoscant bona."

(Boethius de consol. phil. l. 3. "How contemptible stolid

minds! They covet riches and titles, and when they have

obtained these commodities of false weight and measures, then,

and not before, they understand what is truly valuable.")

But consider all those other unknown, concealed happinesses,

which a poor man hath (I call them unknown, because they be not

acknowledged in the world's esteem, or so taken) O fortunatos nimium

bona si sua norint: happy they are in the meantime if they would

take notice of it, make use, or apply it to themselves. "A poor man

wise is better than a foolish king," Eccles. ii. 13. "Poverty is the

way to heaven," "the mistress of philosophy," "the mother of

religion, virtue, sobriety, sister of innocency, and an upright

mind." How many such encomiums might I add out of the fathers,

philosophers, orators? It troubles many that are poor, they account

of it as a great plague, curse, a sign of God's hatred, ipsum

scelus, damned villainy itself, a disgrace, shame and reproach; but

to whom, or why? "If fortune hath envied me wealth, thieves have

robbed me, my father have not left me such revenues as others have,"

that I am a younger brother, basely born,-- cui sine luce genus,

surdumque parentum -- nomen, of mean parentage, a dirt-dauber's son,

am I therefore to be blamed? "an eagle, a bull, a lion is not

rejected for his poverty, and why should a man?" 'Tis fortunae telum,

non culpae, fortune's fault, not mine. "Good Sir, I am a servant,"

(to use Seneca's words) "howsoever your poor friend; a servant, and

yet your chamber-fellow, and if you consider better of it, your

fellow-servant." I am thy drudge in the world's eyes, yet in God's

sight peradventure thy better, my soul is more precious, and I

dearer unto him. Etiam servi diis curae sunt, as Evangelus at large

proves in Macrobius, the meanest servant is most precious in his

sight. Thou art an epicure, I am a good Christian; thou art many

parasangs before me in means, favour, wealth, honour, Claudius's

Narcissus, Nero's Massa, Domitian's Parthenius, a favourite, a

golden slave; thou coverest thy floors with marble, thy roofs with

gold, thy walls with statues, fine pictures, curious hangings, &c.,

what of all this? calcas opes, &c., what's all this to true

happiness? I live and breathe under that glorious heaven, that

august capitol of nature, enjoy the brightness of stars, that clear

light of sun and moon, those infinite creatures, plants, birds,

beasts, fishes, herbs, all that sea and land afford, far surpassing

all that art and opulentia can give. I am free, and which Seneca

said of Rome, culmen liberos texit, sub marmore et auro postea

servitus habitavit, thou hast Amaltheae cornu, plenty, pleasure, the

world at will, I am despicable and poor; but a word overshot, a blow

in choler, a game at tables, a loss at sea, a sudden fire, the

prince's dislike, a little sickness, &c., may make us equal in an

instant; howsoever take thy time, triumph and insult awhile, cinis

aequat, as Alphonsus said, death will equalise us all at last. I live

sparingly, in the mean time, am clad homely, fare hardly; is this a

reproach? am I the worse for it? am I contemptible for it? am I to

be reprehended? A learned man in Nevisanus was taken down for

sitting amongst gentlemen, but he replied, "my nobility is about the

head, yours declines to the tail," and they were silent. Let them

mock, scoff and revile, 'tis not thy scorn, but his that made thee

so; "he that mocketh the poor, reproacheth him that made him," Prov.

xi. 5. "and he that rejoiceth at affliction, shall not be

unpunished." For the rest, the poorer thou art, the happier thou

art, ditior est, at non melior, saith Epictetus, he is richer, not

better than thou art, not so free from lust, envy, hatred, ambition.

"Beatus ille qui procul negotiis

Paterna rura bobus exercet suis."

Happy he, in that he is freed from the tumults of the world, he

seeks no honours, gapes after no preferment, flatters not, envies

not, temporiseth not, but lives privately, and well contented with

his estate;

"Nec spes corde avidas, nec curam pascit inanem

Securus quo fata cadant."

He is not troubled with state matters, whether kingdoms thrive

better by succession or election; whether monarchies should be

mixed, temperate, or absolute; the house of Ottomon's and Austria is

all one to him; he inquires not after colonies or new discoveries;

whether Peter were at Rome, or Constantine's donation be of force;

what comets or new stars signify, whether the earth stand or move,

there be a new world in the moon, or infinite worlds, &c. He is not

touched with fear of invasions, factions or emulations;

"Felix ille animi, divisque simillimus ipsis,

Quem non mordaci resplendens gloria fuco

Solicitat, non fastosi mala gaudia luxus,

Sed tacitos sinit ire dies, et paupere cultu

Exigit innocuae tranquilla silentia vitae.

"A happy soul, and like to God himself,

Whom not vain glory macerates or strife.

Or wicked joys of that proud swelling pelf,

But leads a still, poor, and contented life."

A secure, quiet, blissful state he hath, if he could

acknowledge it. But here is the misery, that he will not take notice

of it; he repines at rich men's wealth, brave hangings, dainty fare,

as Simonides objected to Hieron, he hath all the pleasures of the

world, in lectis eburneis dormit, vinum phialis bibit, optimis

unguentis delibuitur, "he knows not the affliction of Joseph,

stretching himself on ivory beds, and singing to the sound of the

viol." And it troubles him that he hath not the like: there is a

difference (he grumbles) between Laplolly and Pheasants, to tumble

i' th' straw and lie in a down bed, betwixt wine and water, a

cottage and a palace. "He hates nature" (as Pliny characterised him)

"that she hath made him lower than a god, and is angry with the gods

that any man goes before him;" and although he hath received much,

yet (as Seneca follows it) "he thinks it an injury that he hath no

more, and is so far from giving thanks for his tribuneship, that he

complains he is not praetor, neither doth that please him, except he

may be consul." Why is he not a prince, why not a monarch, why not

an emperor? Why should one man have so much more than his fellows,

one have all, another nothing? Why should one man be a slave or

drudge to another? One surfeit, another starve, one live at ease,

another labour, without any hope of better fortune? Thus they

grumble, mutter, and repine: not considering that inconstancy of

human affairs, judicially conferring one condition with another, or

well weighing their own present estate. What they are now, thou

mayst shortly be; and what thou art they shall likely be. Expect a

little, compare future and times past with the present, see the

event, and comfort thyself with it. It is as well to be discerned in

commonwealths, cities, families, as in private men's estates. Italy

was once lord of the world, Rome the queen of cities, vaunted

herself of two myriads of inhabitants; now that all-commanding

country is possessed by petty princes, Rome a small village in

respect. Greece of old the seat of civility, mother of sciences and

humanity; now forlorn, the nurse of barbarism, a den of thieves.

Germany then, saith Tacitus, was incult and horrid, now full of

magnificent cities: Athens, Corinth, Carthage, how flourishing

cities, now buried in their own ruins! Corvorum, ferarum, aprorum et

bestiarum lustra, like so many wildernesses, a receptacle of wild

beasts. Venice a poor fisher-town; Paris, London, small cottages in

Caesar's time, now most noble emporiums. Valois, Plantagenet, and

Scaliger how fortunate families, how likely to continue! now quite

extinguished and rooted out. He stands aloft today, full of favour,

wealth, honour, and prosperity, in the top of fortune's wheel:

tomorrow in prison, worse than nothing, his son's a beggar. Thou art

a poor servile drudge, Foex populi, a very slave, thy son may come to

be a prince, with Maximinus, Agathocles, &c. a senator, a general of

an army; thou standest bare to him now, workest for him, drudgest

for him and his, takest an alms of him: stay but a little, and his

next heir peradventure shall consume all with riot, be degraded,

thou exalted, and he shall beg of thee. Thou shalt be his most

honourable patron, he thy devout servant, his posterity shall run,

ride, and do as much for thine, as it was with Frisgobald and

Cromwell, it may be for thee. Citizens devour country gentlemen, and

settle in their seats; after two or three descents, they consume all

in riot, it returns to the city again.

------"Novus incola venit;

Nam propriae telluris herum natura, neque illum.

Nec me, nec quenquam statuit; nos expulit ille:

Illum aut nequities, aut vafri inscitia juris."

------"have we liv'd at a more frugal rate,

Since this new stranger seiz'd on our estate?

Nature will no perpetual heir assign,

Or make the farm his property or mine.

He turn'd us out: but follies all his own,

Or lawsuits and their knaveries yet unknown,

Or, all his follies and his lawsuits past,

Some long-liv'd heir shall turn him out at last."

A lawyer buys out his poor client, after a while his client's

posterity buy out him and his; so things go round, ebb and flow.

"Nunc ager Umbreni sub nomine, nuper Ofelli

Dictus erat, nulli proprius, sed cedit in usum

Nunc mihi, nunc aliis;"------

"The farm, once mine, now bears Umbrenus' name;

The use alone, not property, we claim;

Then be not with your present lot depressed,

And meet the future with undaunted breast;"

as he said then, ager cujus, quot habes Dominos? So say I of land,

houses, movables and money, mine today, his anon, whose tomorrow? In

fine, (as Machiavel observes) "virtue and prosperity beget rest;

rest idleness; idleness riot; riot destruction from which we come

again to good laws; good laws engender virtuous actions; virtue,

glory, and prosperity;" "and 'tis no dishonour then" (as

Guicciardine adds) "for a flourishing man, city, or state to come to

ruin," "nor infelicity to be subject to the law of nature." Ergo

terrena calcanda, sitienda coelestia, (therefore I say) scorn this

transitory state, look up to heaven, think not what others are, but

what thou art: Qua parte locatus es in re: and what thou shalt be,

what thou mayst be. Do (I say) as Christ himself did, when he lived

here on earth, imitate him as much as in thee lies. How many great

Caesars, mighty monarchs, tetrarchs, dynasties, princes lived in his

days, in what plenty, what delicacy, how bravely attended, what a

deal of gold and silver, what treasure, how many sumptuous palaces

had they, what provinces and cities, ample territories, fields,

rivers, fountains, parks, forests, lawns, woods, cells, &c.? Yet

Christ had none of all this, he would have none of this, he

voluntarily rejected all this, he could not be ignorant, he could

not err in his choice, he contemned all this, he chose that which

was safer, better, and more certain, and less to be repented, a mean

estate, even poverty itself; and why dost thou then doubt to follow

him, to imitate him, and his apostles, to imitate all good men: so

do thou tread in his divine steps, and thou shalt not err eternally,

as too many worldlings do, that run on in their own dissolute

courses, to their confusion and ruin, thou shalt not do amiss.

Whatsoever thy fortune is, be contented with it, trust in him, rely

on him, refer thyself wholly to him. For know this, in conclusion,

Non est volentis nec currentis, sed miserentis Dei, 'tis not as men,

but as God will. "The Lord maketh poor and maketh rich, bringeth

low, and exalteth" (1 Sam. ii. ver. 7. 8), "he lifteth the poor from

the dust, and raiseth the beggar from the dunghill, to set them

amongst princes, and make them inherit the seat of glory;" 'tis all

as he pleaseth, how, and when, and whom; he that appoints the end

(though to us unknown) appoints the means likewise subordinate to

the end.

Yea, but their present estate crucifies and torments most

mortal men, they have no such forecast, to see what may be, what

shall likely be, but what is, though not wherefore, or from whom,

hoc anget, their present misfortunes grind their souls, and an

envious eye which they cast upon other men's prosperities,

Vicinumque pecus grandius uber habet, how rich, how fortunate, how

happy is he? But in the meantime he doth not consider the other

miseries, his infirmities of body and mind, that accompany his

estate, but still reflects upon his own false conceived woes and

wants, whereas if the matter were duly examined, he is in no

distress at all, he hath no cause to complain.

------"tolle querelas,

Pauper enim non est cui rerum suppetit usus,"

"Then cease complaining, friend, and learn to live.

He is not poor to whom kind fortune grants,

Even with a frugal hand, what Nature wants."

he is not poor, he is not in need. "Nature is content with bread and

water; and he that can rest satisfied with that, may contend with

Jupiter himself for happiness." In that golden age, somnos dedit

umbra salubres, potum quoque lubricus amnis, the tree gave wholesome

shade to sleep under, and the clear rivers drink. The Israelites

drank water in the wilderness; Samson, David, Saul, Abraham's

servant when he went for Isaac's wife, the Samaritan woman, and how

many besides might I reckon up, Egypt, Palestine, whole countries in

the Indies, that drank pure water all their lives. The Persian kings

themselves drank no other drink than the water of Chaospis, that

runs by Susa, which was carried in bottles after them, whithersoever

they went. Jacob desired no more of God, but bread to eat, and

clothes to put on in his journey, Gen. xxviii. 20. Bene est cui deus

obtulit Parca quod satis est manu; bread is enough "to strengthen

the heart." And if you study philosophy aright, saith Maudarensis,

"whatsoever is beyond this moderation, is not useful, but

troublesome." Agellius, out of Euripides, accounts bread and water

enough to satisfy nature, "of which there is no surfeit, the rest is

not a feast, but a riot." S. Hierome esteems him rich "that hath

bread to eat, and a potent man that is not compelled to be a slave;

hunger is not ambitious, so that it have to eat, and thirst doth not

prefer a cup of gold." It was no epicurean speech of an epicure, he

that is not satisfied with a little will never have enough: and very

good counsel of him in the poet, "O my son, mediocrity of means

agrees best with men; too much is pernicious."

"Divitiae grandes homini sunt vivere parce,

Aequo animo."------

And if thou canst be content, thou hast abundance, nihil est, nihil

deest, thou hast little, thou wantest nothing. 'Tis all one to be

hanged in a chain of gold, or in a rope; to be filled with dainties

or coarser meat.

"Si ventri bene, si lateri, pedibusque tuis, nil

Divitiae poterunt regales addere majus."

"If belly, sides and feet be well at ease,

A prince's treasure can thee no more please."

Socrates in a fair, seeing so many things bought and sold,

such a multitude of people convented to that purpose, exclaimed

forthwith, "O ye gods! what a sight of things do not I want?" 'Tis

thy want alone that keeps thee in health of body and mind, and that

which thou persecutest and abhorrest as a feral plague is thy

physician and chiefest friend, which makes thee a good man, a

healthful, a sound, a virtuous, an honest and happy man. For when

virtue came from heaven (as the poet feigns) rich men kicked her up,

wicked men abhorred her, courtiers scoffed at her, citizens hated

her, and that she was thrust out of doors in every place, she came

at last to her sister Poverty, where she had found good

entertainment. Poverty and Virtue dwell together.

------"O vitae tuta facultas

Pauperis, angustique lares, o munera nondum

Intellecta deum."

(Lucan. "O protecting quality of a poor man's life, frugal

means, gifts scarce yet understood by the gods themselves.")

How happy art thou if thou couldst be content. "Godliness is a

great gain, if a man can be content with that which he hath," 1 Tim.

vi. 6. And all true happiness is in a mean estate. I have a little

wealth, as he said, sed quas animus magnas facit, a kingdom in

conceit;

------"nil amplius opto

Maia nate, nisi ut propria haec mihi munera faxis;"

I have enough and desire no more.

"Dii bene fecerunt inopis me quodque pusilli

Fecerunt animi"------

'tis very well, and to my content. Vestem et fortunam concinnam

potius quam laxam probo, let my fortune and my garments be both

alike fit for me. And which Sebastian Foscarinus, sometime Duke of

Venice, caused to be engraven on his tomb in St. Mark's Church,

"Hear, O ye Venetians, and I will tell you which is the best thing

in the world: to contemn it." I will engrave it in my heart, it

shall be my whole study to contemn it. Let them take wealth,

Stercora stercus amet so that I may have security: bene qui latuit,

bene vixit; though I live obscure, yet I live clean and honest; and

when as the lofty oak is blown down, the silky reed may stand. Let

them take glory, for that's their misery; let them take honour, so

that I may have heart's ease. Duc me O Jupiter et tu fatum, &c. Lead

me, O God, whither thou wilt, I am ready to follow; command, I will

obey. I do not envy at their wealth, titles, offices;

"Stet quicunque volet potens

Aulae culmine lubrico,

Me dulcis saturet quies."

("Let whosoever covets it, occupy the highest pinnacle of

fame, sweet tranquillity shall satisfy me.")

let me live quiet and at ease. Erimus fortasse (as he comforted

himself) quando illi non erunt, when they are dead and gone, and all

their pomp vanished, our memory may flourish:

------"dant perennes

Stemmata non peritura Musae."

(Marullus. "The immortal Muses confer imperishable pride of

origin.")

Let him be my lord, patron, baron, earl, and possess so many

goodly castles, 'tis well for me that I have a poor house, and a

little wood, and a well by it, &c.

"His me consolor victurum suavius, ac si

Quaestor avus pater atque meus, patruusque fuissent."

"With which I feel myself more truly blest

Than if my sires the quaestor's power possess'd."

I live, I thank God, as merrily as he, and triumph as much in

this my mean estate, as if my father and uncle had been lord

treasurer, or my lord mayor. He feeds of many dishes, I of one: qui

Christum curat, non multum curat quam de preciosis cibis stercus

conficiat, what care I of what stuff my excrements be made? "He that

lives according to nature cannot be poor, and he that exceeds can

never have enough," totus non sufficit orbis, the whole world cannot

give him content. "A small thing that the righteous hath, is better

than the riches of the ungodly," Psal. xxxvii. 19; "and better is a

poor morsel with quietness, than abundance with strife," Prov. xvii.

7. Be content then, enjoy thyself, and as Chrysostom adviseth, "be

not angry for what thou hast not, but give God hearty thanks for

what thou hast received."

"Si dat oluscula

Mensa minuscula

pace referta,

Ne pete grandia,

Lautaque prandia

lite repleta."

("If your table afford frugal fare with peace, seek not, in

strife, to load it lavishly.")

But what wantest thou, to expostulate the matter? or what hast

thou not better than a rich man? "health, competent wealth,

children, security, sleep, friends, liberty, diet, apparel, and what

not," or at least mayst have (the means being so obvious, easy, and

well known) for as he inculcated to himself,

"Vitam quae faciunt beatiorem,

Jucundissime Martialis, haec sunt;

Res non parta labore, sed relicta,

Lis nunquam," &c.

I say again thou hast, or at least mayst have it, if thou wilt

thyself, and that which I am sure he wants, a merry heart. "Passing

by a village in the territory of Milan," saith St. Austin, "I saw a

poor beggar that had got belike his bellyful of meat, jesting and

merry; I sighed, and said to some of my friends that were then with

me, what a deal of trouble, madness, pain and grief do we sustain

and exaggerate unto ourselves, to get that secure happiness which

this poor beggar hath prevented us of, and which we peradventure

shall never have? For that which he hath now attained with the

begging of some small pieces of silver, a temporal happiness, and

present heart's ease, I cannot compass with all my careful windings,

and running in and out," "And surely the beggar was very merry, but

I was heavy; he was secure, but I timorous. And if any man should

ask me now, whether I had rather be merry, or still so solicitous

and sad, I should say, merry. If he should ask me again, whether I

had rather be as I am, or as this beggar was, I should sure choose

to be as I am, tortured still with cares and fears; but out of

peevishness, and not out of truth." That which St. Austin said of

himself here in this place, I may truly say to thee, thou

discontented wretch, thou covetous niggard, thou churl, thou

ambitious and swelling toad, 'tis not want but peevishness which is

the cause of thy woes; settle thine affection, thou hast enough.

"Denique sit finis quaerendi, quoque habeas plus,

Pauperiem metuas minus, et finire laborem

Incipias; parto, quod avebas, utere."

Make an end of scraping, purchasing this manor, this field,

that house, for this and that child; thou hast enough for thyself

and them:

------"Quod petis hic est,

Est Ulubris, animus si te non deficit aequus."

'Tis at hand, at home already, which thou so earnestly

seekest. But

------"O si angulus ille

Proximus accedat, qui nunc denormat agellum,"

O that I had but that one nook of ground, that field there,

that pasture, O si venam argenti fors quis mihi monstret -- O that I

could but find a pot of money now, to purchase, &c., to build me a

new house, to marry my daughter, place my son, &c. "O if I might but

live a while longer to see all things settled, some two or three

years, I would pay my debts," make all my reckonings even: but they

are come and past, and thou hast more business than before. "O

madness, to think to settle that in thine old age when thou hast

more, which in thy youth thou canst not now compose having but a

little." Pyrrhus would first conquer Africa, and then Asia, et tum

suaviter agere, and then live merrily and take his ease: but when

Cyneas the orator told him he might do that already, id jam posse

fieri, rested satisfied, condemning his own folly. Si parva licet

componere magnis, thou mayst do the like, and therefore be composed

in thy fortune. Thou hast enough: he that is wet in a bath, can be

no more wet if he be flung into Tiber, or into the ocean itself: and

if thou hadst all the world, or a solid mass of gold as big as the

world, thou canst not have more than enough; enjoy thyself at

length, and that which thou hast; the mind is all; be content, thou

art not poor, but rich, and so much the richer as Censorinus well

writ to Cerellius, quanto pauciora optas, non quo plura possides, in

wishing less, not having more. I say then, Non adjice opes, sed

minue cupiditates ('tis Epicurus' advice), add no more wealth, but

diminish thy desires; and as Chrysostom well seconds him, Si vis

ditari, contemne divitias; that's true plenty, not to have, but not

to want riches, non habere, sed non indigere, vera abundantia: 'tis

more glory to contemn, than to possess; et nihil agere, est deorum,

"and to want nothing is divine." How many deaf, dumb, halt, lame,

blind, miserable persons could I reckon up that are poor, and withal

distressed, in imprisonment, banishment, galley slaves, condemned to

the mines, quarries, to gyves, in dungeons, perpetual thraldom, than

all which thou art richer, thou art more happy, to whom thou art

able to give an alms, a lord, in respect, a petty prince: be

contented then I say, repine and mutter no more, "for thou art not

poor indeed but in opinion."

Yea, but this is very good counsel, and rightly applied to

such as have it, and will not use it, that have a competency, that

are able to work and get their living by the sweat of their brows,

by their trade, that have something yet; he that hath birds, may

catch birds; but what shall we do that are slaves by nature,

impotent, and unable to help ourselves, mere beggars, that languish

and pine away, that have no means at all, no hope of means, no trust

of delivery, or of better success? as those old Britons complained

to their lords and masters the Romans oppressed by the Picts. mare

ad barbaros, barbari ad mare, the barbarians drove them to the sea,

the sea drove them back to the barbarians: our present misery

compels us to cry out and howl, to make our moan to rich men: they

turn us back with a scornful answer to our misfortune again, and

will take no pity of us; they commonly overlook their poor friends

in adversity; if they chance to meet them, they voluntarily forget

and will take no notice of them; they will not, they cannot help us.

Instead of comfort they threaten us, miscall, scoff at us, to

aggravate our misery, give us bad language, or if they do give good

words, what's that to relieve us? According to that of Thales,

Facile est alios monere; who cannot give good counsel? 'tis cheap,

it costs them nothing. It is an easy matter when one's belly is full

to declaim against fasting, Qui satur est pleno laudat jejunia

ventre; "Doth the wild ass bray when he hath grass, or loweth the ox

when he hath fodder?" Job vi. 5. Neque enim populo Romano quidquam

potest esse laetius, no man living so jocund, so merry as the people

of Rome when they had plenty; but when they came to want, to be

hunger-starved, "neither shame, nor laws, nor arms, nor magistrates

could keep them in obedience." Seneca pleadeth hard for poverty, and

so did those lazy philosophers: but in the meantime he was rich,

they had wherewithal to maintain themselves; but doth any poor man

extol it? "There are those" (saith Bernard) "that approve of a mean

estate, but on that condition they never want themselves: and some

again are meek so long as they may say or do what they list; but if

occasion be offered, how far are they from all patience?" I would to

God (as he said) "No man should commend poverty, but he that is

poor," or he that so much admires it, would relieve, help, or ease

others.

"Nunc si nos audis, atque es divinus Apollo,

Dic mihi, qui nummos non habet, unde petat:"

"Now if thou hear'st us, and art a good man,

Tell him that wants, to get means, if you can."

But no man hears us, we are most miserably dejected, the scum

of the world. Vix habet in nobis jam nova plaga locum. (Ovid. "There

is no space left on our bodies for a fresh stripe.") We can get no

relief, no comfort, no succour, Et nihil inveni quod mihi ferret

opem. We have tried all means, yet find no remedy: no man living can

express the anguish and bitterness of our souls, but we that endure

it; we are distressed, forsaken, in torture of body and mind, in

another hell: and what shall we do? When Crassus the Roman consul

warred against the Parthians, after an unlucky battle fought, he

fled away in the night, and left four thousand men, sore, sick, and

wounded in his tents, to the fury of the enemy, which, when the poor

men perceived, clamoribus et ululatibus omnia complerunt, they made

lamentable moan, and roared downright, as loud as Homer's Mars when

he was hurt, which the noise of 10,000 men could not drown, and all

for fear of present death. But our estate is far more tragical and

miserable, much more to be deplored, and far greater cause have we

to lament; the devil and the world persecute us, all good fortune

hath forsaken us, we are left to the rage of beggary, cold, hunger,

thirst, nastiness, sickness, irksomeness, to continue all torment,

labour and pain, to derision and contempt, bitter enemies all, and

far worse than any death; death alone we desire, death we seek, yet

cannot have it, and what shall we do? Quod male fers, assuesce;

feres bene -- accustom thyself to it, and it will be tolerable at

last. Yea, but I may not, I cannot, In me consumpsit vires fortuna

nocendo, I am in the extremity of human adversity; and as a shadow

leaves the body when the sun is gone, I am now left and lost, and

quite forsaken of the world. Qui jacet in terra, non habet unde

cadat; comfort thyself with this yet, thou art at the worst, and

before it be long it will either overcome thee or thou it. If it be

violent, it cannot endure, aut solvetur, aut solvet: let the devil

himself and all the plagues of Egypt come upon thee at once, Ne tu

cede malis, sed contra audentior ito, be of good courage; misery is

virtue's whetstone.

"--serpens, sitis, ardor, arenae,

Dulcia virtuti,"

as Cato told his soldiers marching in the deserts of Libya, "Thirst,

heat, sands, serpents, were pleasant to a valiant man;" honourable

enterprises are accompanied with dangers and damages, as experience

evinceth: they will make the rest of thy life relish the better. But

put case they continue; thou art not so poor as thou wast born, and

as some hold, much better to be pitied than envied. But be it so

thou hast lost all, poor thou art, dejected, in pain of body, grief

of mind, thine enemies insult over thee, thou art as bad as Job; yet

tell me (saith Chrysostom) "was Job or the devil the greater

conqueror? surely Job; the devil had his goods, he sat on the muck-

hill and kept his good name; he lost his children, health, friends,

but he kept his innocency; he lost his money, but he kept his

confidence in God, which was better than any treasure." Do thou then

as Job did, triumph as Job did, and be not molested as every fool

is. Sed qua ratione potero? How shall this be done? Chrysostom

answers, facile si coelum cogitaveris, with great facility, if thou

shalt but meditate on heaven. Hannah wept sore, and troubled in

mind, could not eat; "but why weepest thou," said Elkanah her

husband, "and why eatest thou not? why is thine heart troubled? am

not I better to thee than ten sons?" and she was quiet. Thou art

here vexed in this world; but say to thyself, "Why art thou

troubled, O my soul?" Is not God better to thee than all

temporalities, and momentary pleasures of the world? be then

pacified. And though thou beest now peradventure in extreme want, it

may be 'tis for thy further good, to try thy patience, as it did

Job's, and exercise thee in this life: trust in God, and rely upon

him, and thou shalt be crowned in the end. What's this life to

eternity? The world hath forsaken thee, thy friends and fortunes all

are gone: yet know this, that the very hairs of thine head are

numbered, that God is a spectator of all thy miseries, he sees thy

wrongs, woes, and wants. "'Tis his goodwill and pleasure it should

be so, and he knows better what is for thy good than thou thyself.

His providence is over all, at all times; he hath set a guard of

angels over us, and keeps us as the apple of his eye," Ps. xvii. 8.

Some he doth exalt, prefer, bless with worldly riches, honours,

offices, and preferments, as so many glistering stars he makes to

shine above the rest: some he doth miraculously protect from

thieves, incursions, sword, fire, and all violent mischances, and as

the poet feigns of that Lycian Pandarus, Lycaon's son, when he shot

at Menelaus the Grecian with a strong arm, and deadly arrow, Pallas,

as a good mother keeps flies from her child's face asleep, turned by

the shaft, and made it hit on the buckle of his girdle; so some he

solicitously defends, others he exposeth to danger, poverty,

sickness, want, misery, he chastiseth and corrects, as to him seems

best, in his deep, unsearchable and secret judgment, and all for our

good. "The tyrant took the city" (saith Chrysostom), "God did not

hinder it; led them away captives, so God would have it; he bound

them, God yielded to it: flung them into the furnace, God permitted

it: heat the oven hotter, it was granted: and when the tyrant had

done his worst, God showed his power, and the children's patience;

he freed them:" so can he thee, and can help in an instant, when it

seems to him good. "Rejoice not against me, O my enemy; for though

I fall, I shall rise: when I sit in darkness, the Lord shall lighten

me." Remember all those martyrs what they have endured, the utmost

that human rage and fury could invent, with what patience they have

borne, with what willingness embraced it. "Though he kill me," saith

Job, "I will trust in him." Justus inexpugnabilis, as Chrysostom

holds, a just man is impregnable, and not to be overcome. The gout

may hurt his hands, lameness his feet, convulsions may torture his

joints, but not rectam mentem his soul is free.

------"nempe pecus, rem,

Lectos, argentum tollas licet; in manicis, et

Compedibus saevo teneas custode"------

"Perhaps, you mean,

My cattle, money, movables or land,

Then take them all.--But, slave, if I command,

A cruel jailor shall thy freedom seize."

"Take away his money, his treasure is in heaven: banish him his

country, he is an inhabitant of that heavenly Jerusalem: cast him

into bands, his conscience is free; kill his body, it shall rise

again; he fights with a shadow that contends with an upright man:"

he will not be moved.

------"si fractus illabatur orbis,

Impavidum ferient ruinae."

Though heaven itself should fall on his head, he will not be

offended. He is impenetrable, as an anvil hard, as constant as Job.

"Ipse deus simul atque volet me solvet opinor."

"A God shall set me free whene'er I please."

Be thou such a one; let thy misery be what it will, what it can,

with patience endure it; thou mayst be restored as he was. Terris

proscriptus, ad coelum propera; ab hominibus desertus, ad deum fuge.

"The poor shall not always be forgotten, the patient abiding of the

meek shall not perish for ever," Psal. x. 18. ver. 9. "The Lord will

be a refuge of the oppressed, and a defence in the time of trouble."

"Servus Epictetus, multilati corporis, Irus

Pauper: at haec inter charus erat superis."

"Lame was Epictetus, and poor Irus,

Yet to them both God was propitious."

Lodovicus Vertomannus, that famous traveller, endured much

misery, yet surely, saith Scaliger, he was vir deo carus, in that he

did escape so many dangers, "God especially protected him, he was

dear unto him:" Modo in egestate, tribulatione, convalle

deplorationis, &c. "Thou art now in the vale of misery, in poverty,

in agony," "in temptation; rest, eternity, happiness, immortality,

shall be thy reward," as Chrysostom pleads, "if thou trust in God,

and keep thine innocency." Non si male nunc, et olim sic erit

semper; a good hour may come upon a sudden; expect a little.

Yea, but this expectation is it which tortures me in the mean

time; futura expectans praesentibus angor, whilst the grass grows

the horse starves: despair not, but hope well,

"Spera Batte, tibi melius lux Crastina ducet;

Dum spiras spera"------

(Theocritus. "Hope on, Battus, tomorrow may bring better luck;

while there's life there's hope.")

Cheer up, I say, be not dismayed; Spes alit agricolas: "he that sows

in tears, shall reap in joy," Psal. cxxvi. 7.

"Si fortune me tormente,

Esperance me contente."

Hope refresheth, as much as misery depresseth; hard beginnings have

many times prosperous events, and that may happen at last which

never was yet. "A desire accomplished delights the soul," Prov.

xiii. 19.

"Grata superveniet quae non sperabitur hora:"

"Which makes m'enjoy my joys long wish'd at last,

Welcome that hour shall come when hope is past:"

a lowering morning may turn to a fair afternoon, Nube solet pulsa

candidus ire dies. "The hope that is deferred, is the fainting of

the heart, but when the desire cometh, it is a tree of life," Prov.

xiii. 12, suavissimum est voti compos fieri. Many men are both

wretched and miserable at first, but afterwards most happy: and

oftentimes it so falls out, as Machiavel relates of Cosmo de Medici,

that fortunate and renowned citizen of Europe, "that all his youth

was full of perplexity, danger, and misery, till forty years were

past, and then upon a sudden the sun of his honour broke out as

through a cloud." Huniades was fetched out of prison, and Henry the

Third of Portugal out of a poor monastery, to be crowned kings.

"Multa cadunt inter calicem supremaque labra,"

"Many things happen between the cup and the lip,"

beyond all hope and expectation many things fall out, and who knows

what may happen? Nondum omnium dierum Soles occiderunt, as Philippus

said, all the suns are not yet set, a day may come to make amends

for all. "Though my father and mother forsake me, yet the Lord will

gather me up," Psal. xxvii. 10. "Wait patiently on the Lord, and

hope in him," Psal. xxxvii. 7. "Be strong, hope and trust in the

Lord, and he will comfort thee, and give thee thine heart's desire,"

Psal. xxvii. 14.

"Sperate et vosmet rebus servate secundis."

"Hope, and reserve yourself for prosperity."

Fret not thyself because thou art poor, contemned, or not so

well for the present as thou wouldst be, not respected as thou

oughtest to be, by birth, place, worth; or that which is a double

corrosive, thou hast been happy, honourable, and rich, art now

distressed and poor, a scorn of men, a burden to the world, irksome

to thyself and others, thou hast lost all: Miserum est fuisse,

felicem, and as Boethius calls it, Infelicissimum genus infortunii;

this made Timon half mad with melancholy, to think of his former

fortunes and present misfortunes: this alone makes many miserable

wretches discontent. I confess it is a great misery to have been

happy, the quintessence of infelicity, to have been honourable and

rich, but yet easily to be endured: security succeeds, and to a

judicious man a far better estate. The loss of thy goods and money

is no loss; "thou hast lost them, they would otherwise have lost

thee." If thy money be gone, "thou art so much the lighter," and as

Saint Hierome persuades Rusticus the monk, to forsake all and follow

Christ: "Gold and silver are too heavy metals for him to carry that

seeks heaven."

"Vel nos in mare proximum,

Gemmas et lapides, aurum et inutile,

Summi materiam mali

Mittamus, scelerum si hene poenitet."

(Hor. "Let us cast our jewels and gems, and useless gold, the

cause of all vice, into the sea, since we truly repent of our

sins.")

Zeno the philosopher lost all his goods by shipwreck, he might

like of it, fortune had done him a good turn: Opes a me, animum

auferre non potest: she can take away my means, but not my mind. He

set her at defiance ever after, for she could not rob him that had

nought to lose: for he was able to contemn more than they could

possess or desire. Alexander sent a hundred talents of gold to

Phocion of Athens for a present, because he heard he was a good man:

but Phocion returned his talents back again with a permitte me in

posterum virum bonum esse to be a good man still; let me be as I am:

Non mi aurum posco, nec mi precium ("I do not desire riches, nor

that a price should be set upon me.") -- That Theban Crates flung of

his own accord his money into the sea, abite nummi, ego vos mergam,

ne mergar, a vobis, I had rather drown you, than you should drown

me. Can stoics and epicures thus contemn wealth, and shall not we

that are Christians? It was mascula vox et praeclara, a generous

speech of Cotta in Sallust, "Many miseries have happened unto me at

home, and in the wars abroad, of which by the help of God some I

have endured, some I have repelled, and by mine own valour overcome:

courage was never wanting to my designs, nor industry to my intents:

prosperity or adversity could never alter my disposition." A wise

man's mind, as Seneca holds, "is like the state of the world above

the moon, ever serene." Come then what can come, befall what may

befall, infractum invictumque animum opponas: Rebus angustis

animosus atque fortis appare. (Hor. Od. 11. lib. 2.) Hope and

patience are two sovereign remedies for all, the surest reposals,

the softest cushions to lean on in adversity:

"Durum sed levius fit patientia,

Quicquid corrigere est nefas."

"What can't be cured must be endured."

If it cannot be helped, or amended, make the best of it;

necessitati qui se accommodat, sapit, he is wise that suits himself

to the time. As at a game at tables, so do by all such inevitable

accidents.

"Ita vita est hominum quasi cum ludas tesseris,

Si illud quod est maxime opus jactu non cadit,

Illud quod cecidit forte, id arte ut corrigas;"

If thou canst not fling what thou wouldst, play thy cast as well as

thou canst. Everything, saith Epictetus, hath two handles, the one

to be held by, the other not: 'tis in our choice to take and leave

whether we will (all which Simplicius's Commentator hath illustrated

by many examples), and 'tis in our power, as they say, to make or

mar ourselves. Conform thyself then to thy present fortune, and cut

thy coat according to thy cloth, Ut quimus (quod aiunt) quando quod

volumus non licet, "Be contented with thy loss, state, and calling,

whatsoever it is, and rest as well satisfied with thy present

condition in this life:"

"Este quod es; quod sunt alii, sine quamlibet esse;

Quod non es, nolis; quod potus esse, velis."

"Be as thou art; and as they are, so let

Others be still; what is and may be covert."

And as he that is invited to a feast eats what is set before him,

and looks for no other, enjoy that thou hast, and ask no more of God

than what he thinks fit to bestow upon thee. Non cuivis contingit

adire Corinthum, we may not be all gentlemen, all Catos, or Laelii,

as Tully telleth us, all honourable, illustrious, and serene, all

rich; but because mortal men want many things, "therefore," saith

Theodoret, "hath God diversely distributed his gifts, wealth to one,

skill to another, that rich men might encourage and set poor men at

work, poor men might learn several trades to the common good." As a

piece of arras is composed of several parcels, some wrought of silk,

some of gold, silver, crewel of diverse colours, all to serve for

the exornation of the whole: music is made of diverse discords and

keys, a total sum of many small numbers, so is a commonwealth of

several unequal trades and callings. If all should be Croesi and

Darii, all idle, all in fortunes equal, who should till the land? As

Menenius Agrippa well satisfied the tumultuous rout of Rome, in his

elegant apologue of the belly and the rest of the members. Who

should build houses, make our several stuffs for raiments? We should

all be starved for company, as Poverty declared at large in

Aristophanes' Plutus, and sue at last to be as we were at first. And

therefore God hath appointed this inequality of states, orders, and

degrees, a subordination, as in all other things. The earth yields

nourishment to vegetables, sensible creatures feed on vegetables,

both are substitutes to reasonable souls, and men are subject

amongst themselves, and all to higher powers, so God would have it.

All things then being rightly examined and duly considered as they

ought, there is no such cause of so general discontent, 'tis not in

the matter itself, but in our mind, as we moderate our passions and

esteem of things. Nihil aliud necessarium ut sis miser (saith

Cardan) quam ut te miserum credas, let thy fortune be what it will,

'tis thy mind alone that makes thee poor or rich, miserable or

happy. Vidi ego (saith divine Seneca) in villa hilari et amaena

maestos, et media solitudine occupatos; non locus, sed animus facit

ad tranquillitatem. I have seen men miserably dejected in a pleasant

village, and some again well occupied and at good ease in a solitary

desert. 'Tis the mind not the place causeth tranquillity, and that

gives true content. I will yet add a word or two for a corollary.

Many rich men, I dare boldly say it, that lie on down beds, with

delicacies pampered every day, in their well-furnished houses, live

at less heart's ease, with more anguish, more bodily pain, and

through their intemperance, more bitter hours, than many a prisoner

or galley-slave; Maecenas in pluma aeque vigilat ac Regulus in dolio:

those poor starved Hollanders, whom Bartison their captain left in

Nova Zembla, anno 1596, or those eight miserable Englishmen that

were lately left behind, to winter in a stove in Greenland, in 77

deg. of lat., 1630, so pitifully forsaken, and forced to shift for

themselves in a vast, dark, and desert place, to strive and struggle

with hunger, cold, desperation, and death itself. 'Tis a patient and

quiet mind (I say it again and again) gives true peace and content.

So for all other things, they are, as old Chremes told us, as we use

them.

"Parentes, patriam, amicos, genus, cognates, divitias,

Haec perinde sunt ac illius animus qui ea possidet;

Qui uti scit, ei bona; qui utitur non recte, mala."

"Parents, friends, fortunes, country, birth, alliance, &c., ebb and

flow with our conceit; please or displease, as we accept and

construe them, or apply them to ourselves." Faber quisque fortunae

suae, and in some sort I may truly say, prosperity and adversity are

in our own hands. Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso, and which Seneca

confirms out of his judgment and experience. "Every man's mind is

stronger than fortune, and leads him to what side he will; a cause

to himself each one is of his good or bad life." But will we, or

nill we, make the worst of it, and suppose a man in the greatest

extremity, 'tis a fortune which some indefinitely prefer before

prosperity; of two extremes it is the best. Luxuriant animi rebus

plerumque secundis, men in prosperity forget God and themselves,

they are besotted with their wealth, as birds with henbane:

miserable if fortune forsake them, but more miserable if she tarry

and overwhelm them: for when they come to be in great place, rich,

they that were most temperate, sober, and discreet in their private

fortunes, as Nero, Otho, Vitellius, Heliogabalus (optimi imperatores

nisi imperassent) degenerate on a sudden into brute beasts, so

prodigious in lust, such tyrannical oppressors, &c., they cannot

moderate themselves, they become monsters, odious, harpies, what

not? Cum triumphos, opes, honores adepti sunt, ad voluptatem et

otium deinceps se convertunt: 'twas Cato's note, "they cannot

contain." For that cause belike

"Eutrapilus cuicunque nocere volebat,

Vestimenta dabat pretiosa: beatus enim jam,

Cum pulchris tunicis sumet nova consilia et spes,

Dormiet in lucem scorto, postponet honestum Officium"------

"Eutrapilus when he would hurt a knave,

Gave him gay clothes and wealth to make him brave:

Because now rich he would quite change his mind,

Keep whores, fly out, set honesty behind."

On the other side, in adversity many mutter and repine, despair,

&c., both bad, I confess,

------"ut calceus olim

Si pede major erit, subvertet: si minor, uret."

"As a shoe too big or too little, one pincheth, the other sets the

foot awry," sed e malis minimum. If adversity hath killed his

thousand, prosperity hath killed his ten thousand: therefore

adversity is to be preferred; haec froeno indiget, illa solatio: illa

fallit, haec instruit: the one deceives, the other instructs; the one

miserably happy, the other happily miserable; and therefore many

philosophers have voluntarily sought adversity, and so much commend

it in their precepts. Demetrius, in Seneca, esteemed it a great

infelicity, that in his lifetime he had no misfortune, miserum cui

nihil unquam accidisset, adversi. Adversity then is not so heavily

to be taken, and we ought not in such cases so much to macerate

ourselves: there is no such odds in poverty and riches. To conclude

in Hierom's words, "I will ask our magnificoes that build with

marble, and bestow a whole manor on a thread, what difference

between them and Paul the Eremite, that bare old man? They drink in

jewels, he in his hand: he is poor and goes to heaven, they are rich

and go to hell."

MEMB. IV.

Against Servitude, Loss of Liberty, Imprisonment, Banishment.

Servitude, loss of liberty, imprisonment, are no such miseries

as they are held to be: we are slaves and servants the best of us

all: as we do reverence our masters, so do our masters their

superiors: gentlemen serve nobles, and nobles subordinate to kings,

omne sub regno graviore regnum, princes themselves are God's

servants, reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis. They are subject to

their own laws, and as the kings of China endure more than slavish

imprisonment, to maintain their state and greatness, they never come

abroad. Alexander was a slave to fear, Caesar of pride, Vespasian to

his money (nihil enim refert, rerum sis servus an hominum) ("It

matters little whether we are enslaved by men or things.") ,

Heliogabalus to his gut, and so of the rest. Lovers are slaves to

their mistresses, rich men to their gold, courtiers generally to

lust and ambition, and all slaves to our affections, as Evangelus

well discourseth in Macrobius, and Seneca the philosopher, assiduam

servitutem extremam et ineluctabilem he calls it, a continual

slavery, to be so captivated by vices; and who is free? Why then

dost thou repine? Satis est potens, Hierom saith, qui servire non

cogitur. Thou carriest no burdens, thou art no prisoner, no drudge,

and thousands want that liberty, those pleasures which thou hast.

Thou art not sick, and what wouldst thou have? But nitimur in

vetitum, we must all eat of the forbidden fruit. Were we enjoined to

go to such and such places, we would not willingly go: but being

barred of our liberty, this alone torments our wandering soul that

we may not go. A citizen of ours, saith Cardan, was sixty years of

age, and had never been forth of the walls of the city of Milan; the

prince hearing of it, commanded him not to stir out: being now

forbidden that which all his life he had neglected, he earnestly

desired, and being denied, dolore confectus mortem, obiit, he died

for grief.

What I have said of servitude, I again say of imprisonment, we

are all prisoners. What is our life but a prison? We are all

imprisoned in an island. The world itself to some men is a prison,

our narrow seas as so many ditches, and when they have compassed the

globe of the earth, they would fain go see what is done in the moon.

In Muscovy and many other northern parts, all over Scandia, they are

imprisoned half the year in stoves, they dare not peep out for cold.

At Aden in Arabia they are penned in all day long with that other

extreme of heat, and keep their markets in the night. What is a ship

but a prison? And so many cities are but as so many hives of bees,

anthills; but that which thou abhorrest, many seek: women keep in

all winter, and most part of summer, to preserve their beauties;

some for love of study: Demosthenes shaved his beard because he

would cut off all occasions from going abroad: how many monks and

friars, anchorites, abandon the world. Monachus in urbe, piscis in

arido. Art in prison? Make right use of it, and mortify thyself;

"Where may a man contemplate better than in solitariness," or study

more than in quietness? Many worthy men have been imprisoned all

their lives, and it hath been occasion of great honour and glory to

them, much public good by their excellent meditation. Ptolomeus king

of Egypt, cum viribus attenuatis infirma valetudine laboraret, miro

descendi studio affectus, &c. now being taken with a grievous

infirmity of body that he could not stir abroad, became Strato's

scholar, fell hard to his book, and gave himself wholly to

contemplation, and upon that occasion (as mine author adds),

pulcherrimum regiae opulentiae monumentum, &c., to his great honour

built that renowned library at Alexandria, wherein were 40,000

volumes. Severinus Boethius never writ so elegantly as in prison,

Paul so devoutly, for most of his epistles were dictated in his

bands: "Joseph," saith Austin, "got more credit in prison, than when

he distributed corn, and was lord of Pharaoh's house." It brings

many a lewd, riotous fellow home, many wandering rogues it settles,

that would otherwise have been like raving tigers, ruined themselves

and others.

Banishment is no grievance at all, Omne solum forti patria,

&c. et patria est ubicunque bene est, that's a man's country where

he is well at ease. Many travel for pleasure to that city, saith

Seneca, to which thou art banished, and what a part of the citizens

are strangers born in other places? Incolentibus patria, 'tis their

country that are born in it, and they would think themselves

banished to go to the place which thou leavest, and from which thou

art so loath to depart. 'Tis no disparagement to be a stranger, or

so irksome to be an exile. "The rain is a stranger to the earth,

rivers to the sea, Jupiter in Egypt, the sun to us all. The soul is

an alien to the body, a nightingale to the air, a swallow in a

house, and Ganymede in heaven, an elephant at Rome, a Phoenix in

India;" and such things commonly please us best, which are most

strange and come the farthest off. Those old Hebrews esteemed the

whole world Gentiles; the Greeks held all barbarians but themselves;

our modern Italians account of us as dull Transalpines by way of

reproach, they scorn thee and thy country which thou so much

admirest. 'Tis a childish humour to hone after home, to be

discontent at that which others seek; to prefer, as base islanders

and Norwegians do, their own ragged island before Italy or Greece,

the gardens of the world. There is a base nation in the north, saith

Pliny, called Chauci, that live amongst rocks and sands by the

seaside, feed on fish, drink water: and yet these base people

account themselves slaves in respect, when they come to Rome. Ita

est profecto (as he concludes) multis fortuna parcit in poenam, so it

is, fortune favours some to live at home, to their further

punishment: 'tis want of judgment. All places are distant from

heaven alike, the sun shines happily as warm in one city as in

another, and to a wise man there is no difference of climes; friends

are everywhere to him that behaves himself well, and a prophet is

not esteemed in his own country. Alexander, Caesar, Trajan, Adrian,

were as so many land-leapers, now in the east, now in the west,

little at home; and Polus Venetus, Lod. Vertomannus, Pinzonus,

Cadamustus, Columbus, Americus Vespucius, Vascus Gama, Drake,

Candish, Oliver Anort, Schoutien, got all their honour by voluntary

expeditions. But you say such men's travel is voluntary; we are

compelled, and as malefactors must depart; yet know this of Plato to

be true, ultori Deo summa cura peregrinus est, God hath an especial

care of strangers, "and when he wants friends and allies, he shall

deserve better and find more favour with God and men." Besides the

pleasure of peregrination, variety of objects will make amends; and

so many nobles, Tully, Aristides, Themistocles, Theseus, Codrus, &c.

as have been banished, will give sufficient credit unto it. Read

Pet. Alcionius his two books of this subject.

MEMB. V.

Against Sorrow for Death of Friends or otherwise, vain Fear, &c.

Death and departure of friends are things generally grievous,

Omnium quae in humana vita contingunt, luctus atque mors sunt

acerbissima, the most austere and bitter accidents that can happen

to a man in this life, in aeternum valedicere, to part for ever, to

forsake the world and all our friends, 'tis ultimum terribilium, the

last and the greatest terror, most irksome and troublesome unto us,

Homo toties moritur, quoties amittit suos. And though we hope for a

better life, eternal happiness, after these painful and miserable

days, yet we cannot compose ourselves willingly to die; the

remembrance of it is most grievous unto us, especially to such who

are fortunate and rich: they start at the name of death, as a horse

at a rotten post. Say what you can of that other world, Montezuma

that Indian prince, Bonum est esse hic, they had rather be here. Nay

many generous spirits, and grave staid men otherwise, are so tender

in this, that at the loss of a dear friend they will cry out, roar,

and tear their hair, lamenting some months after, howling "O Hone,"

as those Irish women and Greeks at their graves, commit many

indecent actions, and almost go beside themselves. My dear father,

my sweet husband, mine only brother's dead, to whom shall I make my

moan? O me miserum! Quis dabit in lachrymas fontem, &c. What shall I

do?

"Sed totum hoc studium luctu fraterna mihi mors

Abstulit, hei misero frater adempte mihi?"

"My brother's death my study hath undone,

Woe's me, alas my brother he is gone."

Mezentius would not live after his son:

"Nunc vivo, nec adhuc homines lucemque relinquo,

Sed linquam"------

(Virgil. "I live now, nor as yet relinquish society and life,

but I shall resign them.")

And Pompey's wife cried out at the news of her husband's death,

"Turpe mori post te solo non posse dolore,

Violenta luctu et nescia tolerandi,"

(Lucan. "Overcome by grief, and unable to endure it, she

exclaimed, 'Not to be able to die through sorrow for thee were

base.'")

as Tacitus of Agrippina, not able to moderate her passions. So when

she heard her son was slain, she abruptly broke off her work,

changed countenance and colour, tore her hair, and fell a roaring

downright.

------"subitus miserae color ossa reliquit,

Excussi manibus radii, revolutaque pensa:

Evolat infelix et foemineo ululatu

Scissa comam"------

"The colour suddenly fled her cheek, the distaff forsook her

hand, the reel revolved, and with dishevelled locks she broke

away, wailing as a woman."

Another would needs run upon the sword's point after Euryalus'

departure,

"Figite me, si qua est pietas, in me omnia tela

Conjicite o Rutili;"------

Virg. Aen. 10. "Transfix me, O Rutuli, if you have any piety:

pierce me with your thousand arrows."

O let me die, some good man or other make an end of me. How did

Achilles take on for Patroclus' departure? A black cloud of sorrows

overshadowed him, saith Homer. Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth

about his loins, sorrowed for his son a long season, and could not

be comforted, but would needs go down into the grave unto his son,

Gen. xxxvii. 37. Many years after, the remembrance of such friends,

of such accidents, is most grievous unto us, to see or hear of it,

though it concern not ourselves but others. Scaliger saith of

himself, that he never read Socrates' death, in Plato's Phaedon, but

he wept: Austin shed tears when he read the destruction of Troy. But

howsoever this passion of sorrow be violent, bitter, and seizeth

familiarly on wise, valiant, discreet men, yet it may surely be

withstood, it may be diverted. For what is there in this life, that

it should be so dear unto us? or that we should so much deplore the

departure of a friend? The greatest pleasures are common society, to

enjoy one another's presence, feasting, hawking, hunting, brooks,

woods, hills, music, dancing, &c. all this is but vanity and loss of

time, as I have sufficiently declared.

------"dum bibimus, dum serta, unguenta, puellas

Poscimus, obrepit non intellecta senectus."

"Whilst we drink, prank ourselves, with wenches dally,

Old age upon's at unawares doth sally."

As alchemists spend that small modicum they have to get gold,

and never find it, we lose and neglect eternity, for a little

momentary pleasure which we cannot enjoy, nor shall ever attain to

in this life. We abhor death, pain, and grief, all, yet we will do

nothing of that which should vindicate us from, but rather

voluntarily thrust ourselves upon it. "The lascivious prefers his

whore before his life, or good estate; an angry man his revenge: a

parasite his gut; ambitious, honours; covetous, wealth; a thief his

booty; a soldier his spoil; we abhor diseases, and yet we pull them

upon us." We are never better or freer from cares than when we

sleep, and yet, which we so much avoid and lament, death is but a

perpetual sleep; and why should it, as Epicurus argues, so much

affright us? "When we are, death is not: but when death is, then we

are not:" our life is tedious and troublesome unto him that lives

best; "'tis a misery to be born, a pain to live, a trouble to die:"

death makes an end of our miseries, and yet we cannot consider of

it; a little before Socrates drank his portion of cicuta, he bid the

citizens of Athens cheerfully farewell, and concluded his speech

with this short sentence; "My time is now come to be gone, I to my

death, you to live on; but which of these is best, God alone knows."

For there is no pleasure here but sorrow is annexed to it,

repentance follows it. "If I feed liberally, I am likely sick or

surfeit: if I live sparingly my hunger and thirst is not allayed; I

am well neither full nor fasting; if I live honest, I burn in lust;"

if I take my pleasure, I tire and starve myself, and do injury to my

body and soul. "Of so small a quantity of mirth, how much sorrow?

after so little pleasure, how great misery?" 'Tis both ways

troublesome to me, to rise and go to bed, to eat and provide my

meat; cares and contentions attend me all day long, fears and

suspicions all my life. I am discontented, and why should I desire

so much to live? But a happy death will make an end of all our woes

and miseries; omnibus una meis certa medela malis; why shouldst not

thou then say with old Simeon since thou art so well affected, "Lord

now let thy servant depart in peace:" or with Paul, "I desire to be

dissolved, and to be with Christ"? Beata mors quae ad beatam vitam

aditum aperit, 'tis a blessed hour that leads us to a blessed life,

and blessed are they that die in the Lord. But life is sweet, and

death is not so terrible in itself as the concomitants of it, a

loathsome disease, pain, horror, &c. and many times the manner of

it, to be hanged, to be broken on the wheel, to be burned alive.

Servetus the heretic, that suffered in Geneva, when he was brought

to the stake, and saw the executioner come with fire in his hand,

homo viso igne tam horrendum exclamavit, ut universum populum

perterrefecerit, roared so loud, that he terrified the people. An

old stoic would have scorned this. It troubles some to be unburied,

or so:

------"non te optima mater

Condet humi, patriove onerabit membra sepulchro;

Alitibus linguere feris, et gurgite mersum

Unda feret, piscesque impasti vulnera lambent."

"Thy gentle parents shall not bury thee,

Amongst thine ancestors entomb'd to be,

But feral fowl thy carcass shall devour,

Or drowned corps hungry fish maws shall scour."

As Socrates told Crito, it concerns me not what is done with me when

I am dead; Facilis jactura sepulchri: I care not so long as I feel

it not; let them set mine head on the pike of Tenerife, and my

quarters in the four parts of the world,--pascam licet in cruce

corvos, let wolves or bears devour me;-- Caelo tegitur qui non habet

urnam, the canopy of heaven covers him that hath no tomb. So

likewise for our friends, why should their departure so much trouble

us? They are better as we hope, and for what then dost thou lament,

as those do whom Paul taxed in his time, 1 Thes. iv. 13. "that have

no hope"? 'Tis fit there should be some solemnity.

"Sed sepelire decet defunctum, pectore forti,

Constantes, unumque diem fletui indulgentes."

(Il. 9 Homer. "It is proper that, having indulged in becoming

grief for one whole day, you should commit the dead to the

sepulchre.")

Job's friends said not a word to him the first seven days, but let

sorrow and discontent take their course, themselves sitting sad and

silent by him. When Jupiter himself wept for Sarpedon, what else did

the poet insinuate, but that some sorrow is good

"Quis matrem nisi mentis inops in funere nati

Flere vetat?"------

who can blame a tender mother if she weep for her children? Beside,

as Plutarch holds, 'tis not in our power not to lament, Indolentia

non cuivis contingit, it takes away mercy and pity, not to be sad;

'tis a natural passion to weep for our friends, an irresistible

passion to lament and grieve. "I know not how" (saith Seneca) "but

sometimes 'tis good to be miserable in misery: and for the most part

all grief evacuates itself by tears,"

------"est quaedam flere voluptas,

Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor:"

"yet after a day's mourning or two, comfort thyself for thy

heaviness," Eccles. xxxviii. 17. Non decet defunctum ignavo quaestu

prosequi; 'twas Germanicus' advice of old, that we should not dwell

too long upon our passions, to be desperately sad, immoderate

grievers, to let them tyrannise, there's indolentiae, ars, a medium

to be kept: we do not (saith Austin) forbid men to grieve, but to

grieve overmuch. "I forbid not a man to be angry, but I ask for what

cause he is so? Not to be sad, but why is he sad? Not to fear, but

wherefore is he afraid?" I require a moderation as well as a just

reason. The Romans and most civil commonwealths have set a time to

such solemnities, they must not mourn after a set day, "or if in a

family a child be born, a daughter or son married, some state or

honour be conferred, a brother be redeemed from his bands, a friend

from his enemies," or the like, they must lament no more. And 'tis

fit it should be so; to what end is all their funeral pomp,

complaints, and tears? When Socrates was dying, his friends

Apollodorus and Crito, with some others, were weeping by him, which

he perceiving, asked them what they meant: "for that very cause he

put all the women out of the room, upon which words of his they were

abashed, and ceased from their tears." Lodovicus Cortesius, a rich

lawyer of Padua (as Bernardinus Scardeonius relates) commanded by

his last will, and a great mulct if otherwise to his heir, that no

funeral should be kept for him, no man should lament: but as at a

wedding, music and minstrels to be provided; and instead of black

mourners, he took order, "that twelve virgins clad in green should

carry him to the church." His will and testament was accordingly

performed, and he buried in St. Sophia's church. Tully was much

grieved for his daughter Tulliola's death at first, until such time

that he had confirmed his mind with some philosophical precepts,

"then he began to triumph over fortune and grief, and for her

reception into heaven to be much more joyed than before he was

troubled for her loss." If a heathen man could so fortify himself

from philosophy, what shall a Christian from divinity? Why dost thou

so macerate thyself? 'Tis an inevitable chance, the first statute in

Magna Charta, an everlasting Act of Parliament, all must die.

"Constat aeterna positumque lege est,

Ut constet genitum nihil."

It cannot be revoked, we are all mortal, and these all commanding

gods and princes "die like men:" -- involvit humile pariter et

celsum caput, aquatque summis infima. "O weak condition of human

estate," Sylvius exclaims: Ladislaus, king of Bohemia, eighteen

years of age, in the flower of his youth, so potent, rich, fortunate

and happy, in the midst of all his friends, amongst so many

physicians, now ready to be married, in thirty-six hours sickened

and died. We must so be gone sooner or later all, and as Calliopeius

in the comedy took his leave of his spectators and auditors, Vos

valete et plaudite, Calliopeius recensui, must we bid the world

farewell (Exit Calliopeius), and having now played our parts, for

ever be gone. Tombs and monuments have the like fate, data sunt

ipsis quoque fata sepulchris, kingdoms, provinces, towns, and cities

have their periods, and are consumed. In those flourishing times of

Troy, Mycenae was the fairest city in Greece, Graeciae cunctae

imperitabat, but it, alas, and that "Assyrian Nineveh are quite

overthrown:" the like fate hath that Egyptian and Boeotian Thebes,

Delos, commune Graeciae, conciliabulum, the common council-house of

Greece, and Babylon, the greatest city that ever the sun shone on,

hath now nothing but walls and rubbish left. Quid Pandioniae restat

nisi nomen Athenae? (Ovid. "What of ancient Athens but the name

remains?") Thus Pausanias complained in his times. And where is Troy

itself now, Persepolis, Carthage, Cizicum, Sparta, Argos, and all

those Grecian cities? Syracuse and Agrigentum, the fairest towns in

Sicily, which had sometimes 700,000 inhabitants, are now decayed:

the names of Hieron, Empedocles, &c., of those mighty numbers of

people, only left. One Anacharsis is remembered amongst the

Scythians; the world itself must have an end; and every part of it.

Caeterae igitur urbes sunt mortales, as Peter Gillius concludes of

Constantinople, haec sane quamdiu erunt homines, futura mihi videtur

immortalis; but 'tis not so: nor site, nor strength, nor sea nor

land, can vindicate a city, but it and all must vanish at last. And

as to a traveller great mountains seem plains afar off, at last are

not discerned at all; cities, men, monuments decay,--nec solidis

prodest sua machina terris, the names are only left, those at length

forgotten, and are involved in perpetual night.

"Returning out of Asia, when I sailed from Aegina toward

Megara, I began" (saith Servius Sulpicius, in a consolatory epistle

of his to Tully) "to view the country round about. Aegina was behind

me, Megara before, Piraeus on the right hand, Corinth on the left,

what flourishing towns heretofore, now prostrate and overwhelmed

before mine eyes? I began to think with myself, alas, why are we men

so much disquieted with the departure of a friend, whose life is

much shorter? When so many goodly cities lie buried before us.

Remember, O Servius, thou art a man; and with that I was much

confirmed, and corrected myself." Correct then likewise, and comfort

thyself in this, that we must necessarily die, and all die, that we

shall rise again: as Tully held; Jucundiorque multo congressus

noster futurus, quam insuavis et acerbus digressus, our second

meeting shall be much more pleasant than our departure was grievous.

Aye, but he was my most dear and loving friend, my sole

friend,

"Quis deciderio sit pudor aut modus

Tam chari capitis?"------

"And who can blame my woe?"

Thou mayst be ashamed, I say with Seneca, to confess it, "in such a

tempest as this to have but one anchor," go seek another: and for

his part thou dost him great injury to desire his longer life. "Wilt

thou have him crazed and sickly still," like a tired traveller that

comes weary to his inn, begin his journey afresh, "or to be freed

from his miseries; thou hast more need rejoice that he is gone."

Another complains of a most sweet wife, a young wife, Nondum

sustulerat flavum Proserpina crinem, such a wife as no mortal man

ever had, so good a wife, but she is now dead and gone, laethaeoque

jacet condita sarcophago. I reply to him in Seneca's words, if such

a woman at least ever was to be had, "He did either so find or make

her; if he found her, he may as happily find another;" if he made

her, as Critobulus in Xenophon did by his, he may as good cheap

inform another, et bona tam sequitur, quam bona prima fuit; he need

not despair, so long as the same master is to be had. But was she

good? Had she been so tried peradventure as that Ephesian widow in

Petronius, by some swaggering soldier, she might not have held out.

Many a man would have been willingly rid of his: before thou wast

bound, now thou art free; "and 'tis but a folly to love thy fetters

though they be of gold." Come into a third place, you shall have an

aged father sighing for a son, a pretty child;

"Impube pectus quale vel impia

Molliret Thracum pectora."

------"He now lies asleep,

Would make an impious Thracian weep."

Or some fine daughter that died young, Nondum experta novi gaudia

prima tori. Or a forlorn son for his deceased father. But why? Prior

exiit, prior intravit, he came first, and he must go first. Tu

frustra pius, heu, &c. What, wouldst thou have the laws of nature

altered, and him to live always? Julius Caesar, Augustus,

Alcibiades, Galen, Aristotle, lost their fathers young. And why on

the other side shouldst thou so heavily take the death of thy little

son?

"Num quia nec fato, merita nec morte peribat,

Sed miser ante diem"------

he died before his time, perhaps, not yet come to the solstice of

his age, yet was he not mortal? Hear that divine Epictetus, "If thou

covet thy wife, friends, children should live always, thou art a

fool." He was a fine child indeed, dignus Apollineis lachrymis, a

sweet, a loving, a fair, a witty child, of great hope, another

Eteoneus, whom Pindarus the poet and Aristides the rhetorician so

much lament; but who can tell whether he would have been an honest

man? He might have proved a thief, a rogue, a spendthrift, a

disobedient son, vexed and galled thee more than all the world

beside, he might have wrangled with thee and disagreed, or with his

brothers, as Eteocles and Polynices, and broke thy heart; he is now

gone to eternity, as another Ganymede, in the flower of his youth,

"as if he had risen," saith Plutarch, "from the midst of a feast"

before he was drunk, "the longer he had lived, the worse he would

have been," et quo vita longior, (Ambrose thinks) culpa numerosior,

more sinful, more to answer he would have had. If he was naught,

thou mayst be glad he is gone; if good, be glad thou hadst such a

son. Or art thou sure he was good? It may be he was an hypocrite, as

many are, and howsoever he spake thee fair, peradventure he prayed,

amongst the rest that Icaro Menippus heard at Jupiter's whispering

place in Lucian, for his father's death, because he now kept him

short, he was to inherit much goods, and many fair manors after his

decease. Or put case he was very good, suppose the best, may not thy

dead son expostulate with thee, as he did in the same Lucian, "why

dost thou lament my death, or call me miserable that am much more

happy than thyself? what misfortune is befallen me? Is it because I

am not so bald, crooked, old, rotten, as thou art? What have I lost,

some of your good cheer, gay clothes, music, singing, dancing,

kissing, merry-meetings, thalami lubentias, &c., is that it? Is it

not much better not to hunger at all than to eat: not to thirst than

to drink to satisfy thirst: not to be cold than to put on clothes to

drive away cold? You had more need rejoice that I am freed from

diseases, agues, cares, anxieties, livor, love, covetousness,

hatred, envy, malice, that I fear no more thieves, tyrants, enemies,

as you do." Ad cinerem et manes credis curare sepultos? "Do they

concern us at all, think you, when we are once dead?" Condole not

others then overmuch, "wish not or fear thy death." Summum nec

optes diem nec metuas; 'tis to no purpose.

"Excessi e vitae aerumnis facilisque lubensque

Ne perjora ipsa morte dehinc videam."

"I left this irksome life with all mine heart,

Lest worse than death should happen to my part."

Cardinal Brundusinus caused this epitaph in Rome to be

inscribed on his tomb, to show his willingness to die, and tax those

that were so both to depart. Weep and howl no more then, 'tis to

small purpose; and as Tully adviseth us in the like case, Non quos

amisimus, sed quantum lugere par sit cogitemus: think what we do,

not whom we have lost. So David did, 2 Sam. xxii., "While the child

was yet alive, I fasted and wept; but being now dead, why should I

fast? Can I bring him again? I shall go to him, but he cannot return

to me." He that doth otherwise is an intemperate, a weak, a silly,

and indiscreet man. Though Aristotle deny any part of intemperance

to be conversant about sorrow, I am of Seneca's mind, "he that is

wise is temperate, and he that is temperate is constant, free from

passion, and he that is such a one, is without sorrow," as all wise

men should be. The Thracians wept still when a child was born,

feasted and made mirth when any man was buried: and so should we

rather be glad for such as die well, that they are so happily freed

from the miseries of this life. When Eteoneus, that noble young

Greek, was so generally lamented by his friends, Pindarus the poet

feigns some god saying, Silete homines, non enim miser est, &c. be

quiet good folks, this young man is not so miserable as you think;

he is neither gone to Styx nor Acheron, sed gloriosus et senii

expers heros, he lives for ever in the Elysian fields. He now enjoys

that happiness which your great kings so earnestly seek, and wears

that garland for which ye contend. If our present weakness is such,

we cannot moderate our passions in this behalf, we must divert them

by all means, by doing something else, thinking of another subject.

The Italians most part sleep away care and grief, if it unseasonably

seize upon them, Danes, Dutchmen, Polanders and Bohemians drink it

down, our countrymen go to plays: do something or other, let it not

transpose thee, or by "premeditation make such accidents familiar,"

as Ulysses that wept for his dog, but not for his wife, quod paratus

esset animo obfirmato, (Plut. de anim. tranq.) "accustom thyself,

and harden beforehand by seeing other men's calamities, and applying

them to thy present estate;" Praevisum est levius quod fuit ante

malum. I will conclude with Epictetus, "If thou lovest a pot,

remember 'tis but a, pot thou lovest, and thou wilt not be troubled

when 'tis broken: if thou lovest a son or wife, remember they were

mortal, and thou wilt not be so impatient." And for false fears and

all other fortuitous inconveniences, mischances, calamities, to

resist and prepare ourselves, not to faint is best: Stultum est

timere quod vitari non potest, 'tis a folly to fear that which

cannot be avoided, or to be discouraged at all.

"Nam quisquis trepidus pavet vel optat,

Objecit clypeum, locoque motus

Nectit qua valeat trahi catenam."

"For he that so faints or fears, and yields to his passion,

flings away his own weapons, makes a cord to bind himself, and

pulls a beam upon his own head."

MEMB. VI.

Against Envy, Livor, Emulation, Hatred, Ambition, Self-love, and all

other Affections.

Against those other passions and affections, there is no

better remedy than as mariners when they go to sea, provide all

things necessary to resist a tempest: to furnish ourselves with

philosophical and Divine precepts, other men's examples, Periculum

ex aliis facere, sibi quod ex usu siet: To balance our hearts with

love, charity, meekness, patience, and counterpoise those irregular

motions of envy, livor, spleen, hatred, with their opposite virtues,

as we bend a crooked staff another way, to oppose "sufferance to

labour, patience to reproach," bounty to covetousness, fortitude to

pusillanimity, meekness to anger, humility to pride, to examine

ourselves for what cause we are so much disquieted, on what ground,

what occasion, is it just or feigned? And then either to pacify

ourselves by reason, to divert by some other object, contrary

passion, or premeditation. Meditari secum oportet quo pacto adversam

aerumnam ferat, Paricla, damna, exilia peregre rediens semper

cogitet, aut filii peccatum, aut uxoris mortem, aut morbum filiae,

communia esse haec: fieri posse, ut ne quid animo sit novum. To make

them familiar, even all kind of calamities, that when they happen

they may be less troublesome unto us. In secundis meditare, quo

pacto feras adversa: or out of mature judgment to avoid the effect,

or disannul the cause, as they do that are troubled with toothache,

pull them quite out.

"Ut vivat castor, sibi testes amputat ipse;

Tu quoque siqua nocent, abjice, tutus eris."

"The beaver bites off's stones to save the rest:

Do thou the like with that thou art opprest."

Or as they that play at wasters, exercise themselves by a few

cudgels how to avoid an enemy's blows: let us arm ourselves against

all such violent incursions, which may invade our minds. A little

experience and practice will inure us to it; vetula vulpes, as the

proverb saith, laqueo haud capitur, an old fox is not so easily

taken in a snare; an old soldier in the world methinks should not be

disquieted, but ready to receive all fortunes, encounters, and with

that resolute captain, come what may come, to make answer,

------"non ulla laborum

O virgo nova mi facies inopinaque surgit,

Omnia percepi atque animo mecum ante peregi."

"No labour comes at unawares to me,

For I have long before cast what may be."

------"non hoc primum mea pectora vulnus

Senserunt, graviora tuli"------

"My breast was not conscious of this first wound, for I have

endured still greater."

The commonwealth of Venice in their armoury have this inscription,

"Happy is that city which in time of peace thinks of war," a fit

motto for every man's private house; happy is the man that provides

for a future assault. But many times we complain, repine and mutter

without a cause, we give way to passions we may resist, and will

not. Socrates was bad by nature, envious, as he confessed to Zophius

the physiognomer, accusing him of it, froward and lascivious: but as

he was Socrates, he did correct and amend himself. Thou art

malicious, envious, covetous, impatient, no doubt, and lascivious,

yet as thou art a Christian, correct and moderate thyself. 'Tis

something, I confess, and able to move any man, to see himself

contemned, obscure, neglected, disgraced, undervalued, "left

behind;" some cannot endure it, no not constant Lipsius, a man

discreet otherwise, yet too weak and passionate in this, as his

words express, collegas olim, quos ego sine fremitu non intueor,

nuper terrae filios, nunc Maecenates et Agrippas habeo,-- summo jam

monte potitos. But he was much to blame for it: to a wise staid man

this is nothing, we cannot all be honoured and rich, all Caesars; if

we will be content, our present state is good, and in some men's

opinion to be preferred. Let them go on, get wealth, offices,

titles, honours, preferments, and what they will themselves, by

chance, fraud, imposture, simony, and indirect means, as too many

do, by bribery, flattery, and parasitical insinuation, by impudence

and time-serving, let them climb up to advancement in despite of

virtue, let them "go before, cross me on every side," me non

offendunt modo non in, oculos incurrant, as he said, correcting his

former error, they do not offend me, so long as they run not into

mine eyes. I am inglorious and poor, composita paupertate, but I

live secure and quiet: they are dignified, have great means, pomp,

and state, they are glorious; but what have they with it? "Envy,

trouble, anxiety, as much labour to maintain their place with

credit, as to get it at first." I am contented with my fortunes,

spectator e longinquo, and love Neptunum procul a terra spectare

furentem: he is ambitious, and not satisfied with his: "but what

gets he by it? to have all his life laid open, his reproaches seen:

not one of a thousand but he hath done more worthy of dispraise and

animadversion than commendation; no better means to help this than

to be private." Let them run, ride, strive as so many fishes for a

crumb, scrape, climb, catch, snatch, cozen, collogue, temporise and

fleer, take all amongst them, wealth, honour, and get what they can,

it offends me not:

-----"me mea tellus

Lare secreto tutoque tegat,"

"I am well pleased with my fortunes," Vivo et regno simul ista

relinquens. (Hor. "I live like a king without any of these

acquisitions.")

I have learned "in what state soever I am, therewith to be

contented," Philip, iv 11. Come what can come, I am prepared. Nave

ferar magna an parva, ferar unus et idem. I am the same. I was once

so mad to bustle abroad, and seek about for preferment, tire myself,

and trouble all my friends, sed nihil labor tantus profecit nam dum

alios amicorum mors avocat, aliis ignotus sum, his invisus, alii

large promittunt, intercedunt illi mecum soliciti, hi vana spe

lactant; dum alios ambio, hos capto, illis innotesco, aetas perit,

anni defluunt, amici fatigantur, ego deferor, et jam, mundi taesus,

humanaeque satur infidelitatis acquiesco. ("But all my labour was

unprofitable; for while death took off some of my friends, to others

I remain unknown, or little liked, and these deceive me with false

promises. Whilst I am canvassing one party, captivating another,

making myself known to a third, my age increases, years glide away,

I am put off, and now tired of the world, and surfeited with human

worthlessness. I rest content.") And so I say still; although I may

not deny, but that I have had some bountiful patrons, and noble

benefactors, ne sim interim ingratus, and I do thankfully

acknowledge it, I have received some kindness, quod Deus illis

beneficium rependat, si non pro votis, fortasse pro meritis, more

peradventure than I deserve, though not to my desire, more of them

than I did expect, yet not of others to my desert; neither am I

ambitious or covetous, for this while, or a Suffenus to myself; what

I have said, without prejudice or alteration shall stand. And now as

a mired horse that struggles at first with all his might and main to

get out, but when he sees no remedy, that his beating will not

serve, lies still, I have laboured in vain, rest satisfied, and if I

may usurp that of Prudentius,

"Inveni portum; spes et fortuna valete,

Nil mihi vobiscum, ludite nunc alios."

"Mine haven's found, fortune and hope adieu,

Mock others now, for I have done with you."

MEMB. VII.

Against Repulse, Abuses, Injuries, Contempts, Disgraces,

Contumelies, Slanders, Scoffs, &c.

I may not yet conclude, think to appease passions, or quiet

the mind, till such time as I have likewise removed some other of

their more eminent and ordinary causes, which produce so grievous

tortures and discontents: to divert all, I cannot hope; to point

alone at some few of the chiefest, is that which I aim at.

Repulse.] Repulse and disgrace are two main causes of

discontent, but to an understanding man not so hardly to be taken.

Caesar himself hath been denied, and when two stand equal in

fortune, birth, and all other qualities alike, one of necessity must

lose. Why shouldst thou take it so grievously? It hath a familiar

thing for thee thyself to deny others. If every man might have what

he would, we should all be deified, emperors, kings, princes; if

whatsoever vain hope suggests, insatiable appetite affects, our

preposterous judgment thinks fit were granted, we should have

another chaos in an instant, a mere confusion. It is some

satisfaction to him that is repelled, that dignities, honours,

offices, are not always given by desert or worth, but for love,

affinity, friendship, affection, great men's letters, or as commonly

they are bought and sold. "Honours in court are bestowed not

according to men's virtues and good conditions" (as an old courtier

observes), "but as every man hath means, or more potent friends, so

he is preferred." With us in France ( for so their own countryman

relates) "most part the matter is carried by favour and grace; he

that can get a great man to be his mediator, runs away with all the

preferment." Indignissimus plerumque praefertur, Vatinius Catoni,

illaudatus laudatissimo;

------"servi dominantur; aselli

Ornantur phaleris, dephalerantur equi."

"Slaves govern; asses are decked with trappings; horses are

deprived of them."

An illiterate fool sits in a man's seat, and the common people

hold him learned, grave and wise. "One professeth" ( Cardan well

notes) "for a thousand crowns, but he deserves not ten, when as he

that deserves a thousand cannot get ten." Solarium non dat multis

salem. As good horses draw in carts, as coaches. And oftentimes,

which Machiavel seconds, Principes non sunt qui ob insignem

virtutem principatu digni sunt, he that is most worthy wants

employment; he that hath skill to be a pilot wants a ship, and he

that could govern a commonwealth, a world itself, a king in conceit,

wants means to exercise his worth, hath not a poor office to manage,

and yet all this while he is a better man that is fit to reign, etsi

careat regno, though he want a kingdom, "than he that hath one, and

knows not how to rule it:" a lion serves not always his keeper, but

oftentimes the keeper the lion, and as Polydore Virgil hath it,

multi reges ut pupilli ob inscitiam non regunt sed reguntur. Hieron

of Syracuse was a brave king, but wanted a kingdom; Perseus of

Macedon had nothing of a king, but the bare name and title, for he

could not govern it: so great places are often ill bestowed, worthy

persons unrespected. Many times, too, the servants have more means

than the masters whom they serve, which Epictetus counts an eyesore

and inconvenient. But who can help it? It is an ordinary thing in

these days to see a base impudent ass, illiterate, unworthy,

insufficient, to be preferred before his betters, because he can put

himself forward, because he looks big, can bustle in the world, hath

a fair outside, can temporise, collogue, insinuate, or hath good

store of friends and money, whereas a more discreet, modest, and

better-deserving man shall lie hid or have a repulse. 'Twas so of

old, and ever will be, and which Tiresias advised Ulysses in the

poet,-- Accipe qua ratione queas ditescere, &c., is still in use;

lie, flatter, and dissemble: if not, as he concludes,-- Ergo pauper

eris, then go like a beggar as thou art. Erasmus, Melancthon,

Lipsius, Budaeus, Cardan, lived and died poor. Gesner was a silly

old man, baculo innixus, amongst all those huffing cardinals,

swelling bishops that flourished in his time, and rode on foot-

clothes. It is not honesty, learning, worth, wisdom, that prefers

men, "The race is not to the swift, nor the battle to the strong,"

but as the wise man said, Chance, and sometimes a ridiculous chance.

Casus plerumque ridiculus multos elevavit. 'Tis fortune's doings, as

they say, which made Brutus now dying exclaim, O misera virtus, ergo

nihil quam verba eras, atqui ego te tanquam rem exercebam, sed tu

serviebas fortunae. ("O wretched virtue! you are therefore nothing

but words, and I have all this time been looking upon you as a

reality, while you are yourself the slave of fortune.") Believe it

hereafter, O my friends! virtue serves fortune. Yet be not

discouraged (O my well deserving spirits) with this which I have

said, it may be otherwise, though seldom I confess, yet sometimes it

is. But to your farther content, I'll tell you a tale. In Maronia

pia, or Maronia felix, I know not whether, nor how long since, nor

in what cathedral church, a fat prebend fell void. The carcass

scarce cold, many suitors were up in an instant. The first had rich

friends, a good purse, and he was resolved to outbid any man before

he would lose it, every man supposed he should carry it. The second

was my lord Bishop's chaplain (in whose gift it was), and he thought

it his due to have it. The third was nobly born, and he meant to get

it by his great parents, patrons, and allies. The fourth stood upon

his worth, he had newly found out strange mysteries in chemistry,

and other rare inventions, which he would detect to the public good.

The fifth was a painful preacher, and he was commended by the whole

parish where he dwelt, he had all their hands to his certificate.

The sixth was the prebendary's son lately deceased, his father died

in debt (for it, as they say), left a wife and many poor children.

The seventh stood upon fair promises, which to him and his noble

friends had been formerly made for the next place in his lordship's

gift. The eighth pretended great losses, and what he had suffered

for the church, what pains he had taken at home and abroad, and

besides he brought noblemen's letters. The ninth had married a

kinswoman, and he sent his wife to sue for him. The tenth was a

foreign doctor, a late convert, and wanted means. The eleventh would

exchange for another, he did not like the former's site, could not

agree with his neighbours and fellows upon any terms, he would be

gone. The twelfth and last was (a suitor in conceit) a right honest,

civil, sober man, an excellent scholar, and such a one as lived

private in the university, but he had neither means nor money to

compass it; besides he hated all such courses, he could not speak

for himself, neither had he any friends to solicit his cause, and

therefore made no suit, could not expect, neither did he hope for,

or look after it. The good bishop amongst a jury of competitors thus

perplexed, and not yet resolved what to do, or on whom to bestow it,

at the last, of his own accord, mere motion, and bountiful nature,

gave it freely to the university student, altogether unknown to him

but by fame; and to be brief, the academical scholar had the prebend

sent him for a present. The news was no sooner published abroad, but

all good students rejoiced, and were much cheered up with it, though

some would not believe it; others, as men amazed, said it was a

miracle; but one amongst the rest thanked God for it, and said, Nunc

juvat tandem studiosum esse, et Deo integro corde servire. You have

heard my tale: but alas it is but a tale, a mere fiction, 'twas

never so, never like to be, and so let it rest. Well, be it so then,

they have wealth and honour, fortune and preferment, every man

(there's no remedy) must scramble as he may, and shift as he can;

yet Cardan comforted himself with this, "the star Fomahant would

make him immortal," and that after his decease his books should be

found in ladies' studies: Dignum laude virum Musa vetat mori. (Hor.

"The muse forbids the praiseworthy man to die.") But why shouldst

thou take thy neglect, thy canvas so to heart? It may be thou art

not fit; but a child that puts on his father's shoes, hat,

headpiece, breastplate, breeches, or holds his spear, but is neither

able to wield the one, or wear the other; so wouldst thou do by such

an office, place, or magistracy: thou art unfit: "And what is

dignity to an unworthy man, but (as Salvianus holds) a gold ring in

a swine's snout?" Thou art a brute. Like a bad actor (so Plutarch

compares such men in a tragedy, diadema fert, at vox non auditur:

Thou wouldst play a king's part, but actest a clown, speakest like

an ass. Magna petis Phaeton et quae non viribus istis, &c., as James

and John, the sons of Zebedee, did ask they knew not what: nescis

temerarie nescis; thou dost, as another Suffenus, overween thyself;

thou art wise in thine own conceit, but in other more mature

judgment altogether unfit to manage such a business. Or be it thou

art more deserving than any of thy rank, God in his providence hath

reserved thee for some other fortunes, sic superis visum. Thou art

humble as thou art, it may be; hadst thou been preferred, thou

wouldst have forgotten God and thyself, insulted over others,

contemned thy friends, been a block, a tyrant, or a demigod,

sequiturque superbia formam: "Therefore," saith Chrysostom, "good

men do not always find grace and favour, lest they should be puffed

up with turgent titles, grow insolent and proud."

Injuries, abuses, are very offensive, and so much the more in

that they think veterem ferendo invitant novam, "by taking one they

provoke another:" but it is an erroneous opinion, for if that were

true, there would be no end of abusing each other; lis litem

generat; 'tis much better with patience to bear, or quietly to put

it up. If an ass kick me, saith Socrates, shall I strike him again?

And when his wife Xantippe struck and misused him, to some friends

that would have had him strike her again, he replied, that he would

not make them sport, or that they should stand by and say, Eia

Socrates, eia Xantippe, as we do when dogs fight, animate them the

more by clapping of hands. Many men spend themselves, their goods,

friends, fortunes, upon small quarrels, and sometimes at other men's

procurements, with much vexation of spirit and anguish of mind, all

which with good advice, or mediation of friends, might have been

happily composed, or if patience had taken place. Patience in such

cases is a most sovereign remedy, to put up, conceal, or dissemble

it, to forget and forgive, "not seven, but seventy-seven times, as

often as he repents forgive him;" Luke xvii. 3. as our Saviour

enjoins us, stricken, "to turn the other side:" as our Apostle

persuades us, "to recompense no man evil for evil, but as much as is

possible to have peace with all men: not to avenge ourselves, and we

shall heap burning coals upon our adversary's head." "For if you put

up wrong" (as Chrysostom comments), "you get the victory; he that

loseth his money, loseth not the conquest in this our philosophy."

If he contend with thee, submit thyself unto him first, yield to

him. Durum et durum non faciunt murum, as the diverb is, two

refractory spirits will never agree, the only means to overcome is

to relent, obsequio vinces. Euclid in Plutarch, when his brother had

angered him, swore he would be revenged; but he gently replied, "Let

me not live if I do not make thee to love me again," upon which meek

answer he was pacified.

"Flectitur obsequio curvatus ab arbore ramus,

Frangis si vires experire tuas."

"A branch if easily bended yields to thee,

Pull hard it breaks: the difference you see."

The noble family of the Colonni in Rome, when they were

expelled the city by that furious Alexander the Sixth, gave the

bending branch therefore as an impress, with this motto, Flecti

potest, frangi non potest, to signify that he might break them by

force, but so never make them stoop, for they fled in the midst of

their hard usage to the kingdom of Naples, and were honourably

entertained by Frederick the king, according to their callings.

Gentleness in this case might have done much more, and let thine

adversary be never so perverse, it may be by that means thou mayst

win him; favore et benevolentia etiam immanis animus mansuescit,

soft words pacify wrath, and the fiercest spirits are so soonest

overcome; a generous lion will not hurt a beast that lies prostrate,

nor an elephant an innocuous creature, but is infestus infestis, a

terror and scourge alone to such as are stubborn, and make

resistance. It was the symbol of Emanuel Philibert, Duke of Savoy,

and he was not mistaken in it, for

"Quo quisque est major, magis est placabilis irae,

Et faciles motus mens generosa capit."

"A greater man is soonest pacified,

A noble spirit quickly satisfied."

It is reported by Gualter Mapes, an old historiographer of

ours (who lived 400 years since), that King Edward senior, and

Llewellyn prince of Wales, being at an interview near Aust upon

Severn, in Gloucestershire, and the prince sent for, refused to come

to the king; he would needs go over to him; which Llewellyn

perceiving, "went up to the arms in water, and embracing his boat,

would have carried him out upon his shoulders, adding that his

humility and wisdom had triumphed over his pride and folly," and

thereupon he was reconciled unto him and did his homage. If thou

canst not so win him, put it up, if thou beest a true Christian, a

good divine, an imitator of Christ, ("for he was reviled and put it

up, whipped and sought no revenge,") thou wilt pray for thine

enemies, "and bless them that persecute thee;" be patient, meek,

humble, &c. An honest man will not offer thee injury, probus non

vult; if he were a brangling knave, 'tis his fashion so to do; where

is least heart is most tongue; quo quisque stultior, eo magis

insolescit, the more sottish he is, still the more insolent: "Do not

answer a fool according to his folly." If he be thy superior, bear

it by all means, grieve not at it, let him take his course; Anitus

and Melitus "may kill me, they cannot hurt me;" as that generous

Socrates made answer in like case. Mens immota manet, though the

body be torn in pieces with wild horses, broken on the wheel,

pinched with fiery tongs, the soul cannot be distracted. 'Tis an

ordinary thing for great men to vilify and insult, oppress, injure,

tyrannise, to take what liberty they list, and who dare speak

against? Miserum est ab eo laedi, a quo non possis queri, a miserable

thing 'tis to be injured of him, from whom is no appeal: and not

safe to write against him that can proscribe and punish a man at his

pleasure, which Asinius Pollio was aware of, when Octavianus

provoked him. 'Tis hard I confess to be so injured: one of Chilo's

three difficult things: "To keep counsel; spend his time well; put

up injuries:" but be thou patient, and leave revenge unto the Lord.

"Vengeance is mine and I will repay, saith the Lord"--"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."

"Iterum ille rem judicatam judicat,

Majoreque mulcta mulctat."

Arcturus in Plaut. "He adjudicates judgment again, and

punishes with a still greater penalty."

If there be any religion, any God, and that God be just, it shall be

so; if thou believest the one, believe the other: Erit, erit, it

shall be so. Nemesis comes after, sero sed serio, stay but a little

and thou shalt see God's just judgment overtake him.

"Raro antecedentem scelestum

Deseruit pede poena claudo."

"Yet with sure steps, though lame and slow,

Vengeance o'ertakes the trembling villain's speed."

Thou shalt perceive that verified of Samuel to Agag, 1 Sam.

xv. 33. "Thy sword hath made many women childless, so shall thy

mother be childless amongst other women." It shall be done to them

as they have done to others. Conradinus, that brave Suevian prince,

came with a well-prepared army into the kingdom of Naples, was taken

prisoner by king Charles, and put to death in the flower of his

youth; a little after (ultionem Conradini mortis, Pandulphus

Collinutius Hist. Neap. lib. 5. calls it), King Charles's own son,

with two hundred nobles, was so taken prisoner, and beheaded in like

sort. Not in this only, but in all other offences, quo quisque

peccat in eo punietur, they shall be punished in the same kind, in

the same part, like nature, eye with or in the eye, head with or in

the head, persecution with persecution, lust with effects of lust;

let them march on with ensigns displayed, let drums beat on,

trumpets sound taratantarra, let them sack cities, take the spoil of

countries, murder infants, deflower virgins, destroy, burn,

persecute, and tyrannise, they shall be fully rewarded at last in

the same measure, they and theirs, and that to their desert.

"Ad generum Cereris sine caede et sanguine pauci

Descendunt reges et sicca morte tyranni."

"Few tyrants in their beds do die,

But stabb'd or maim'd to hell they hie."

Oftentimes too a base contemptible fellow is the instrument of

God's justice to punish, to torture, and vex them, as an ichneumon

doth a crocodile. They shall be recompensed according to the works

of their hands, as Haman was hanged on the gallows he provided for

Mordecai; "They shall have sorrow of heart, and be destroyed from

under the heaven," Thre. iii. 64, 65, 66. Only be thou patient:

vincit qui patitur: and in the end thou shalt be crowned. Yea, but

'tis a hard matter to do this, flesh and blood may not abide it;

'tis grave, grave! no (Chrysostom replies) non est grave, o homo!

'tis not so grievous, "neither had God commanded it, if it had been

so difficult." But how shall it be done? "Easily," as he follows it,

"if thou shalt look to heaven, behold the beauty of it, and what God

hath promised to such as put up injuries." But if thou resist and go

about vim vi repellere, as the custom of the world is, to right

thyself, or hast given just cause of offence, 'tis no injury then

but a condign punishment; thou hast deserved as much: A te

principium, in te recredit crimen quod a te fuit; peccasti, quiesce,

as Ambrose expostulates with Cain, lib. 3. de Abel et Cain.

Dionysius of Syracuse, in his exile, was made to stand without door,

patienter ferendum, fortasse nos tale quid fecimus, quum in honore

essemus, he wisely put it up, and laid the fault where it was, on

his own pride and scorn, which in his prosperity he had formerly

showed others. 'Tis Tully's axiom, ferre ea molestissime homines

non debent, quae ipsorum culpa contracta sunt, self do, self have, as

the saying is, they may thank themselves. For he that doth wrong

must look to be wronged again; habet et musca splenem, et formicae

sua bills inest. The least fly hath a spleen, and a little bee a

sting. An ass overwhelmed a thistlewarp's nest, the little bird

pecked his galled back in revenge; and the humble-bee in the fable

flung down the eagle's eggs out of Jupiter's lap. Bracides, in

Plutarch, put his hand into a mouse's nest and hurt her young ones,

she bit him by the finger: 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 buffeted for

you faults, ye take it patiently? But if when you do well, ye suffer

wrong, and take it patiently, there is thanks with God; for hereunto

verily we are called." Qui mala non fert, ipse sibi testis est per

impatientiam quod bonus non est, "he that cannot bear injuries,

witnesseth against himself that he is no good man," as Gregory

holds. "'Tis the nature of wicked men to do injuries, as it is the

property of all honest men patiently to bear them." Improbitas nullo

flectitur obsequio. The wolf in the 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 fidus Achates, and as a lackey follows him wheresoever

he goes. Besides, misera est fortuna quae caret inimico, he is in a

miserable estate that wants enemies: it is a thing not to be

avoided, and therefore with more patience to be endured. Cato

Censorius, that upright Cato of whom Paterculus gives that

honourable eulogium, bene fecit quod aliter facere non potuit, was

fifty times indicted and accused by his fellow citizens, and as

Ammianus well hath it, Quis erit innocens si clam vel palam

accusasse sufficiat? if it be sufficient to accuse a man openly or

in private, who shall be free? If there were no other respect than

that of Christianity, religion and the like, to induce men to be

long-suffering and patient, yet methinks the nature of injury itself

is sufficient to keep them quiet, the tumults, uproars, miseries,

discontents, anguish, loss, dangers that attend upon it might

restrain the calamities of contention: for as it is with ordinary

gamesters, the gains go to the box, so falls it out to such as

contend; the lawyers get all; and therefore if they would consider

of it, aliena pericula cantos, other men's misfortunes in this kind,

and common experience might detain them. 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,

contention; the more they strive, the more they may: and as

Praxiteles did by his glass, when he saw a scurvy face in it, brake

it in pieces: but for that one he saw many more as bad in a moment:

for one injury done they provoke another cum foenore, and twenty

enemies for one. Noli irritare crabrones, oppose not thyself to a

multitude: but if thou hast received a wrong, wisely consider of it,

and if thou canst possibly, compose thyself with patience to bear

it. This is the safest course, and thou shalt find greatest ease to

be quiet.

I say the same of scoffs, slanders, contumelies, obloquies,

defamations, detractions, pasquilling libels, and the like, which

may tend any way to our disgrace: 'tis but opinion; if we could

neglect, contemn, or with patience digest them, they would reflect

on them that offered them at first. A wise citizen, I know not

whence, had a scold to his wife: when she brawled, he played on his

drum, and by that means madded her more, because she saw that he

would not be moved. Diogenes in a crowd when one called him back,

and told him how the boys laughed him to scorn, Ego, inquit, non

rideor, took no notice of it. Socrates was brought upon the stage by

Aristophanes, and misused to his face, but he laughed as if it

concerned him not: and as Aelian relates of him, whatsoever good or

bad accident or fortune befel him going in or coming out, Socrates

still kept the same countenance; even so should a Christian do, as

Hierom describes him, per infamiam et bonam famam grassari ad

immortalitatem, march on through good and bad reports to

immortality, not to be moved: for honesty is a sufficient reward,

probitas sibi, praemium; and in our times the sole recompense to do

well, is, to do well: but naughtiness will punish itself at last,

Improbis ipsa nequitia supplicium. As the diverb is,

"Qui bene fecerunt, illi sua facta sequentur;

Qui male fecerunt, facta sequentur eos:"

"They that do well, shall have reward at last:

But they that ill, shall suffer for that's past."

Yea, but I am ashamed, disgraced, dishonoured, degraded,

exploded: my notorious crimes and villainies are come to light

(deprendi miserum est), my filthy lust, abominable oppression and

avarice lies open, my good name's lost, my fortune's gone, I have

been stigmatised, whipped at post, arraigned and condemned, I am a

common obloquy, I have lost my ears, odious, execrable, abhorred of

God and men. Be content, 'tis but a nine days' wonder, and as one

sorrow drives out another, one passion another, one cloud another,

one rumour is expelled by another; every day almost, come new news

unto our ears, as how the sun was eclipsed, meteors seen in the air,

monsters born, prodigies, how the Turks were overthrown in Persia,

an earthquake in Helvetia, Calabria, Japan, or China, an inundation

in Holland, a great plague in Constantinople, a fire at Prague, a

dearth in Germany, such a man is made a lord, a bishop, another

hanged, deposed, pressed to death, for some murder, treason, rape,

theft, oppression, all which we do hear at first with a kind of

admiration, detestation, consternation, but by and by they are

buried in silence: thy father's dead, thy brother robbed, wife runs

mad, neighbour hath killed himself; 'tis heavy, ghastly, fearful

news at first, in every man's mouth, table talk; but after a while

who speaks or thinks of it? It will be so with thee and thine

offence, it will be forgotten in an instant, be it theft, rape,

sodomy, murder, incest, treason, &c., thou art not the first

offender, nor shalt not be the last, 'tis no wonder, every hour such

malefactors are called in question, nothing so common, Quocunque in

populo, quocunque sub axe (Amongst people in every climate). Comfort

thyself, thou art not the sole man. If he that were guiltless

himself should fling the first stone at thee, and he alone should

accuse thee that were faultless, how many executioners, how many

accusers wouldst thou have? If every man's sins were written in his

forehead, and secret faults known, how many thousands would

parallel, if not exceed thine offence? It may be the judge that gave

sentence, the jury that condemned thee, the spectators that gazed on

thee, deserved much more, and were far more guilty than thou

thyself. But it is thine infelicity to be taken, to be made a public

example of justice, to be a terror to the rest; yet should every man

have his desert, thou wouldst peradventure be a saint in comparison;

vexat censura columbas, poor souls are punished; the great ones do

twenty thousand times worse, and are not so much as spoken of.

"Non rete accipitri tenditur neque milvio,

Qui male faciunt nobis; illis qui nil faciunt tenditur."

"The net's not laid for kites or birds of prey,

But for the harmless still our gins we lay."

Be not dismayed then, humanum est errare, we are all sinners,

daily and hourly subject to temptations, the best of us is a

hypocrite, a grievous offender in God's sight, Noah, Lot, David,

Peter, &c., how many mortal sins do we commit? Shall I say, be

penitent, ask forgiveness, and make amends by the sequel of thy

life, for that foul offence thou hast committed? recover thy credit

by some noble exploit, as Themistocles did, for he was a most

debauched and vicious youth, sed juventae maculas praeclaris factis

delevit, but made the world amends by brave exploits; at last become

a new man, and seek to be reformed. He that runs away in a battle,

as Demosthenes said, may fight again; and he that hath a fall may

stand as upright as ever he did before. Nemo desperet meliora

lapsus, a wicked liver may be reclaimed, and prove an honest man; he

that is odious in present, hissed out, an exile, may be received

again with all men's favours, and singular applause; so Tully was in

Rome, Alcibiades in Athens. Let thy disgrace then be what it will,

quod fit, infectum non potest esse, that which is past cannot be

recalled; trouble not thyself, vex and grieve thyself no more, be it

obloquy, disgrace, &c. No better way, than to neglect, contemn, or

seem not to regard it, to make no reckoning of it, Deesse robur

arguit dicacitas: if thou be guiltless it concerns thee not:

"Irrita vaniloquae quid curas spicula linguae,

Latrantem curatne alta Diana canem?"

(Camerar. emb. 61. cent. 3. "Why should you regard the

harmless shafts of a vain-speaking tongue--does the exalted

Diana care for the barking of a dog?")

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 illis solo contemptu, I lie still and sleep, vindicate

myself by contempt alone. Expers terroris Achilles armatus: as a

tortoise 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.

"Integritas virtusque suo munimine tuta,

Non patet adversae morsibus invidiae:"

"Virtue and integrity are their own fence,

Care not for envy or what comes from thence."

Let them rail then, scoff, and slander, sapiens contumelia non

afficitur, a wise man, Seneca thinks, is not moved, because he

knows, contra Sycophantae morsum non est remedium, there is no remedy

for it: kings and princes, wise, grave, prudent, holy, good men,

divine, are all so served alike. O Jane a tergo quem nulla ciconia

pinsit, Antevorta and Postvorta, Jupiter's guardians, may not help

in this case, they cannot protect; Moses had a Dathan, a Corath,

David a Shimei, God himself is blasphemed: nondum felix es si te

nondum turba deridet. It is an ordinary thing so to be misused.

Regium est cum bene faceris male audire, the chiefest men and most

understanding are so vilified; let him take his course. And as that

lusty courser in Aesop, that contemned the poor ass, came by and by

after with his bowels burst, a pack on his back, and was derided of

the same ass: contemnentur ab iis quos ipsi prius contempsere, et

irridebuntur ab iis quos ipsi prius irrisere, they shall be

contemned and laughed to scorn of those whom they have formerly

derided. Let them contemn, defame, or undervalue, insult, oppress,

scoff, slander, abuse, wrong, curse and swear, feign and lie, do

thou comfort thyself with a good conscience, in sinu gaudeas, when

they have all done, "a good conscience is a continual feast,"

innocency will vindicate itself: and which the poet gave out of

Hercules, diis fruitur iratis, enjoy thyself, though all the world

be set against thee, contemn and say with him, Elogium mihi prae,

foribus, my posy is, "not to be moved, that my palladium, my

breastplate, my buckler, with which I ward all injuries, offences,

lies, slanders; I lean upon that stake of modesty, so receive and

break asunder all that foolish force of liver and spleen." And

whosoever he is that shall observe these short instructions, without

all question he shall much ease and benefit himself.

In fine, if princes would do justice, judges be upright,

clergymen truly devout, and so live as they teach, if great men

would not be so insolent, if soldiers would quietly defend us, the

poor would be patient, rich men would be liberal and humble,

citizens honest, magistrates meek, superiors would give good

example, subjects peaceable, young men would stand in awe: if

parents would be kind to their children, and they again obedient to

their parents, brethren agree amongst themselves, enemies be

reconciled, servants trusty to their masters, virgins chaste, wives

modest, husbands would be loving and less jealous: if we could

imitate Christ and his apostles, live after God's laws, these

mischiefs would not so frequently happen amongst us; but being most

part so irreconcilable as we are, perverse, proud, insolent,

factious, and malicious, prone to contention, anger and revenge, of

such fiery spirits, so captious, impious, irreligious, so opposite

to virtue, void of grace, how should it otherwise be? Many men are

very testy by nature, apt to mistake, apt to quarrel, apt to provoke

and misinterpret to the worst, everything that is said or done, and

thereupon heap unto themselves a great deal of trouble, and

disquietness to others, smatterers in other men's matters, tale-

bearers, whisperers, liars, they cannot speak in season, or hold

their tongues when they should, Et suam partem itidem tacere cum

aliena est oratio: they will speak more than comes to their shares,

in all companies, and by those bad courses accumulate much evil to

their own souls (qui contendit, sibi convicium facit) their life is

a perpetual brawl, they snarl like so many dogs, with their wives,

children, servants, neighbours, and all the rest of their friends,

they can agree with nobody. But to such as are judicious, meek,

submissive, and quiet, these matters are easily remedied: they will

forbear upon all such occasions, neglect, contemn, or take no notice

of them, dissemble, or wisely turn it off. If it be a natural

impediment, as a red nose, squint eyes, crooked legs, or any such

imperfection, infirmity, disgrace, reproach, the best way is to

speak of it first thyself, and so thou shalt surely take away all

occasions from others to jest at, or contemn, that they may perceive

thee to be careless of it. Vatinius was wont to scoff at his own

deformed feet, to prevent his enemies' obloquies and sarcasms in

that kind; or else by prevention, as Cotys, king of Thrace, that

brake a company of fine glasses presented to him, with his own

hands, lest he should be overmuch moved when they were broken by

chance. And sometimes again, so that it be discreetly and moderately

done, it shall not be amiss to make resistance, to take down such a

saucy companion, no better means to vindicate himself to purchase

final peace: for he that suffers himself to be ridden, or through

pusillanimity or sottishness will let every man baffle him, shall be

a common laughing stock to flout at. As a cur that goes through a

village, if he clap his tail between his legs, and run away, every

cur will insult over him: but if he bristle up himself, and stand to

it, give but a counter-snarl, there's not a dog dares meddle with

him: much is in a man's courage and discreet carriage of himself.

Many other grievances there are, which happen to mortals in

this life, from friends, wives, children, servants, masters,

companions, neighbours, our own defaults, ignorance, errors,

intemperance, indiscretion, infirmities, &c., and many good remedies

to mitigate and oppose them, many divine precepts to counterpoise

our hearts, special antidotes both in Scriptures and human authors,

which, whoso will observe, shall purchase much ease and quietness

unto himself: I will point out a few. Those prophetical, apostolical

admonitions are well known to all; what Solomon, Siracides, our

Saviour Christ himself hath said tending to this purpose, as "fear

God: obey the prince: be sober and watch: pray continually: be angry

but sin not: remember thy last: fashion not yourselves to this

world, &c., apply yourselves to the times: strive not with a mighty

man: recompense good for evil, let nothing be done through

contention or vainglory, but with meekness of mind, every man

esteeming of others better than himself: love one another;" or that

epitome of the law and the prophets, which our Saviour inculcates,

"love God above all, thy neighbour as thyself:" and "whatsoever you

would that men should do unto you, so do unto them," which Alexander

Severus writ in letters of gold, and used as a motto, Hierom

commends to Celantia as an excellent way, amongst so many

enticements and worldly provocations, to rectify her life. Out of

human authors take these few cautions, "know thyself. Be contented

with thy lot. Trust not wealth, beauty, nor parasites, they will

bring thee to destruction. Have peace with all men, war with vice.

Be not idle. Look before you leap. Beware of 'had I wist.' Honour

thy parents, speak well of friends. Be temperate in four things,

lingua, locis, oculis, et poculis. Watch thine eye. Moderate thine

expenses. Hear much, speak little, sustine et abstine. If thou seest

ought amiss in another, mend it in thyself. Keep thine own counsel,

reveal not thy secrets, be silent in thine intentions. Give not ear

to tale-tellers, babblers, be not scurrilous in conversation: jest

without bitterness: give no man cause of offence: set thine house in

order: take heed of suretyship. Fide et diffide, as a fox on the

ice, take heed whom you trust. Live not beyond thy means. Give

cheerfully. Pay thy dues willingly. Be not a slave to thy money;

omit not occasion, embrace opportunity, lose no time. Be humble to

thy superiors, respective to thine equals, affable to all, but not

familiar. Flatter no 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 no wagers, make no

comparisons. Find no faults, meddle not with other men's matters.

Admire not thyself. Be not proud or popular. Insult not. Fortunam

reverentur habe. 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 not off an old friend, take heed

of a reconciled enemy. If thou come as a guest stay not too long. Be

not unthankful. Be meek, merciful, and patient. Do good to all. Be

not fond of fair words. 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 thyself. Ama tanquam osurus. Amicus tardo fias. Provide for

a tempest. Noli irritare crabrones. Do not prostitute thy soul for

gain. Make not a fool of thyself to make others merry. Marry not an

old crony or a fool for money. Be not over solicitous or curious.

Seek that which may be found. Seem not greater than thou art. Take

thy pleasure soberly. Ocymum ne terito. 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 other keeper," &c. Look for more in

Isocrates, Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus, &c., and for defect, consult

with cheese-trenchers and painted cloths.

MEMB. VIII.

Against Melancholy itself.

"Every man," saith Seneca, "thinks his own burthen the

heaviest," and a melancholy man above all others complains most;

weariness of life, abhorring all company and light, fear, sorrow,

suspicion, anguish of mind, bashfulness, and those other dread

symptoms of body and mind, must needs aggravate this misery; yet

compared to other maladies, they are not so heinous as they be

taken. For first this disease is either in habit or disposition,

curable or incurable. If new and in disposition, 'tis commonly

pleasant, and it may be helped. If inveterate, or a habit, yet they

have lucida intervalla, sometimes well, and sometimes ill; or if

more continuate, as the Vejentes were to the Romans, 'tis hostis

magis assiduus quam gravis, a more durable enemy than dangerous: and

amongst many inconveniences, some comforts are annexed to it. First

it is not catching, and as Erasmus comforted himself, when he was

grievously sick of the stone, though it was most troublesome, and an

intolerable pain to him, yet it was no whit offensive to others, not

loathsome to the spectators, ghastly, fulsome, terrible, as plagues,

apoplexies, leprosies, wounds, sores, tetters, pox, pestilent agues

are, which either admit of no company, terrify or offend those that

are present. In this malady, that which is, is wholly to themselves:

and those symptoms not so dreadful, if they be compared to the

opposite extremes. They are most part bashful, suspicious, solitary,

&c., therefore no such ambitious, impudent intruders as some are, no

sharkers, no cony-catchers, no prowlers, no smell-feasts, praters,

panders, parasites, bawds, drunkards, whoremasters; necessity and

defect compel them to be honest; as Mitio told Demea in the comedy,

"Haec si neque ego neque tu fecimus,

Non sinit egestas facere nos."

"If we be honest 'twas poverty made us so:"

if we melancholy men be not as bad as he that is worst, 'tis our

dame melancholy kept us so: Non deerat voluntas sed facultas.

("'Twas not the will but the way that was wanting.")

Besides they are freed in this from many other infirmities,

solitariness makes them more apt to contemplate, suspicion wary,

which is a necessary humour in these times, Nam pol que maxime

cavet, is saepe cautor captus est, "he that takes most heed, is often

circumvented, and overtaken." Fear and sorrow keep them temperate

and sober, and free them from any dissolute acts, which jollity and

boldness thrust men upon: they are therefore no sicarii, roaring

boys, thieves or assassins. As they are soon dejected, so they are

as soon, by soft words and good persuasions, reared. Wearisomeness

of life makes them they are not so besotted on the transitory vain

pleasures of the world. If they dote in one thing, they are wise and

well understanding in most other. If it be inveterate, they are

insensati, most part doting, or quite mad, insensible of any wrongs,

ridiculous to others, but most happy and secure to themselves.

Dotage is a state which many much magnify and commend: so is

simplicity, and folly, as he said, sic hic furor o superi, sit mihi

perpetuus. Some think fools and dizzards live the merriest lives, as

Ajax in Sophocles, Nihil scire vita jucundissima, "'tis the

pleasantest life to know nothing;" iners malorum remedium

ignorantia, "ignorance is a downright remedy of evils." These

curious arts and laborious sciences, Galen's, Tully's, Aristotle's,

Justinian's, do but trouble the world some think; we might live

better with that illiterate Virginian simplicity, and gross

ignorance; entire idiots do best, they are not macerated with cares,

tormented with fears, and anxiety, as other wise men are: for as 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, quam sapere et

ringi, to be wise and still vexed; better to be miserable than

happy: of two extremes it is the best.

SECT. IV. MEMB. I.

SUBSECT. I.--Of Physic which cureth with Medicines.

After a long and tedious discourse of these six non-natural

things and their several rectifications, all which are comprehended

in diet, I am come now at last to Pharmaceutice, or that kind of

physic which cureth by medicines, which apothecaries most part make,

mingle, or sell in their shops. Many cavil at this kind of physic,

and hold it unnecessary, unprofitable to this or any other disease,

because those countries which use it least, live longest, and are

best in health, as Hector Boethius relates of the isles of Orcades,

the people are still sound of body and mind, without any use of

physic, they live commonly 120 years, and Ortelius in his itinerary

of the inhabitants of the Forest of Arden, "they are very painful,

long-lived, sound," &c. Martianus Capella, speaking of the Indians

of his time, saith, they were (much like our western Indians now)

"bigger than ordinary men, bred coarsely, very long-lived, insomuch,

that he that died at a hundred years of age, went before his time,"

&c. Damianus A-Goes, Saxo Grammaticus, Aubanus Bohemus, say the like

of them that live in Norway, Lapland, Finmark, Biarmia, Corelia, all

over Scandia, and those northern countries, they are most healthful,

and very long-lived, in which places there is no use at all of

physic, the name of it is not once heard. Dithmarus Bleskenius in

his accurate description of Iceland, 1607, makes mention, amongst

other matters, of the inhabitants, and their manner of living,

"which is dried fish instead of bread, butter, cheese, and salt

meats, most part they drink water and whey, and yet without physic

or physician, they live many of them 250 years." I find the same

relation by Lerius, and some other writers, of Indians in America.

Paulus Jovius in his description of Britain, and Levinus Lemnius,

observe as much of this our island, that there was of old no use of

physic amongst us, and but little at this day, except it be for a

few nice idle citizens, surfeiting courtiers, and stall-fed

gentlemen lubbers. The country people use kitchen physic, and common

experience tells vis, that they live freest from all manner of

infirmities, that make least use of apothecaries' physic. Many are

overthrown by preposterous use of it, and thereby get their bane,

that might otherwise have escaped: some think physicians kill as

many as they save, and who can tell, Quot Themison aegros autumno

occiderit uno? "How many murders they make in a year," quibus impune

licet hominem occidere, "that may freely kill folks," and have a

reward for it, and according to the Dutch proverb, a new physician

must have a new churchyard; and who daily observes it not? Many that

did ill under physicians' hands, have happily escaped, when they

have been given over by them, left to God and nature, and

themselves; 'twas Pliny's dilemma of old, "every disease is either

curable or incurable, a man recovers of it or is killed by it; both

ways physic is to be rejected. If it be deadly, it cannot be cured;

if it may be helped, it requires no physician, nature will expel it

of itself." Plato made it a great sign of an intemperate and corrupt

commonwealth, where lawyers and physicians did abound; and the

Romans distasted them so much that they were often banished out of

their city, as Pliny and Celsus relate, for 600 years not admitted.

It is no art at all, as some hold, no not worthy the name of a

liberal science (nor law neither), as Pet. And. Canonherius a

patrician of Rome and a great doctor himself, "one of their own

tribe," proves by sixteen arguments, because it is mercenary as now

used, base, and as fiddlers play for a reward. Juridicis, medicis,

fisco, fas vivere rapto, 'tis a corrupt trade, no science, art, no

profession; the beginning, practice, and progress of it, all is

naught, full of imposture, uncertainty, and doth generally more harm

than good. The devil himself was the first inventor of it: Inventum

est medicina meum, said Apollo, and what was Apollo, but the devil?

The Greeks first made an art of it, and they were all deluded by

Apollo's sons, priests, oracles. If we may believe Varro, Pliny,

Columella, most of their best medicines were derived from his

oracles. Aesculapius his son had his temples erected to his deity,

and did many famous cures; but, as Lactantius holds, he was a

magician, a mere impostor, and as his successors, Phaon, Podalirius,

Melampius, Menecrates, (another God), by charms, spells, and

ministry of bad spirits, performed most of their cures. The first

that ever wrote in physic to any purpose, was Hippocrates, and his

disciple and commentator Galen, whom Scaliger calls Fimbriam

Hippocratis; but as Cardan censures them, both immethodical and

obscure, as all those old ones are, their precepts confused, their

medicines obsolete, and now most part rejected. Those cures which

they did, Paracelsus holds, were rather done out of their patients'

confidence, and good opinion they had of them, than out of any skill

of theirs, which was very small, he saith, they themselves idiots

and infants, as are all their academical followers. The Arabians

received it from the Greeks, and so the Latins, adding new precepts

and medicines of their own, but so imperfect still, that through

ignorance of professors, impostors, mountebanks, empirics,

disagreeing of sectaries, (which are as many almost as there be

diseases) envy, covetousness, and the like, they do much harm

amongst us. They are so different in their consultations,

prescriptions, mistaking many times the parties' constitution,

disease, and causes of it, they give quite contrary physic; "one

saith this, another that," out of singularity or opposition, as he

said of Adrian, multitudo medicorum principem interfecit, "a

multitude of physicians hath killed the emperor;" plus a medico quam

a morbo periculi, "more danger there is from the physician, than

from the disease." Besides, there is much imposture and malice

amongst them. "All arts" (saith Cardan) "admit of cozening, physic,

amongst the rest, doth appropriate it to herself;" and tells a story

of one Curtius, a physician in Venice: because he was a stranger,

and practised amongst them, the rest of the physicians did still

cross him in all his precepts. If he prescribed hot medicines they

would prescribe cold, miscentes pro calidis frigida, pro frigidis

humida, pro purgantibus astringentia, binders for purgatives, omnia

perturbabant. If the party miscarried, Curtium damnabant, Curtius

killed him, that disagreed from them: if he recovered, then they

cured him themselves. Much emulation, imposture, malice, there is

amongst them: if they be honest and mean well, yet a knave

apothecary that administers the physic, and makes the medicine, may

do infinite harm, by his old obsolete doses, adulterine drugs, bad

mixtures, quid pro quo, &c. See Fuchsius lib. 1. sect. 1. cap. 8.

Cordus' Dispensatory, and Brassivola's Examen simpl., &c. But it is

their ignorance that doth more harm than rashness, their art is

wholly conjectural, if it be an art, uncertain, imperfect, and got

by killing of men, they are a kind of butchers, leeches, men-

slayers; chirurgeons and apothecaries especially, that are indeed

the physicians' hangman, carnifices, and common executioners; though

to say truth, physicians themselves come not far behind; for

according to that facete epigram of Maximilianus Urentius, what's

the difference?

"Chirurgicus medico quo differt? scilicet isto,

Enecat hic succis, enecat ille manu:

Carnifice hoc ambo tantum differre videntur,

Tardius hi faciunt, quod facit ille cito."

("How does the surgeon differ from the doctor? In this

respect: one kills by drugs, the other by the hand; both only

differ from the hangman in this way, they do slowly what he

does in an instant.")

But I return to their skill; many diseases they cannot cure at

all, as apoplexy, epilepsy, stone, strangury, gout, Tollere nodosam

nescit medicina Podagram; ("Medicine cannot cure the knotty gout.")

quartan agues, a common ague sometimes stumbles them all, they

cannot so much as ease, they know not how to judge of it. If by

pulses, that doctrine, some hold, is wholly superstitious, and I

dare boldly say with Andrew Dudeth, "that variety of pulses

described by Galen, is neither observed nor understood of any." And

for urine, that is meretrix medicorum, the most deceitful thing of

all, as Forestus and some other physicians have proved at large: I

say nothing of critic days, errors in indications, &c. The most

rational of them, and skilful, are so often deceived, that as

Tholosanus infers, "I had rather believe and commit myself to a mere

empiric, than to a mere doctor, and I cannot sufficiently commend

that custom of the Babylonians, that have no professed physicians,

but bring all their patients to the market to be cured:" which

Herodotus relates of the Egyptians: Strabo, Sardus, and Aubanus

Bohemus of many other nations. And those that prescribed physic,

amongst them, did not so arrogantly take upon them to cure all

diseases, as our professors do, but some one, some another, as their

skill and experience did serve; "One cured the eyes, a second the

teeth, a third the head, another the lower parts," &c., not for

gain, but in charity, to do good, they made neither art, profession,

nor trade of it, which in other places was accustomed: and therefore

Cambyses in Xenophon told Cyrus, that to his thinking, physicians

"were like tailors and cobblers, the one mended our sick bodies, as

the other did our clothes." But I will urge these cavilling and

contumelious arguments no farther, lest some physician should

mistake me, and deny me physic when I am sick: for my part, I am

well persuaded of physic: I can distinguish the abuse from the use,

in this and many other arts and sciences: Alliud vinum, aliud

ebrietas, wine and drunkenness are two distinct things. I

acknowledge it a most noble and divine science, in so much that

Apollo, Aesculapius, and the first founders of it, merito pro diis

habiti, were worthily counted gods by succeeding ages, for the

excellency of their invention. And whereas Apollo at Delos, Venus at

Cyprus, Diana at Ephesus, and those other gods were confined and

adored alone in some peculiar places: Aesculapius and his temple and

altars everywhere, in Corinth, Lacedaemon, Athens, Thebes,

Epidaurus, &c. Pausanius records, for the latitude of his art,

deity, worth, and necessity. With all virtuous and wise men

therefore I honour the name and calling, as I am enjoined "to honour

the physician for necessity's sake. The knowledge of the physician

lifteth up his head, and in the sight of great men he shall be

admired. The Lord hath created medicines of the earth, and he that

is wise will not abhor them," Eccles. lviii 1. But of this noble

subject, how many panegyrics are worthily written? For my part, as

Sallust said of Carthage, praestat silere, quam pauca dicere; I have

said, yet one thing I will add, that this kind of physic is very

moderately and advisedly to be used, upon good occasion, when the

former of diet will not take place. And 'tis no other which I say,

than that which Arnoldus prescribes in his 8. Aphoris. "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 to 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 debilitate 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 cacochymia," 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 cordials no man doubts, be they simples or

compounds. I will amongst that infinite variety of medicines, which

I find in every pharmacopoeia, every physician, herbalist, &c.,

single out some of the chiefest.

SUBSECT. II.-- Simples proper to Melancholy, against Exotic Simples.

Medicines properly applied to melancholy, are either simple or

compound. Simples are alterative or purgative. Alteratives are such

as correct, strengthen nature, alter, any way hinder or resist the

disease; and they be herbs, stones, minerals, &c. all proper to this

humour. For as there be diverse distinct infirmities continually

vexing us,

"???s?? d'a????p??s? ef ?µe?? ?d' ep? ???t?

??t?µat?? f??t?s? ?a?a ???t??s? fe???sa?

S???, epe? f???? e?e??et? µ?t?eta ?e??."

"[Noysoi d' anthropoisi eph emere ed' epi nykti

Aytomatoi phoitosi kaka thnaetoisi pheroysai

Sige, epei phonen exeileto metieta Zeus.]"

"Diseases steal both day and night on men,

For Jupiter hath taken voice from them."

So there be several remedies, as he saith, "each disease a

medicine, for every humour;" and as some hold, every clime, every

country, and more than that, every private place hath his proper

remedies growing in it, peculiar almost to the domineering and most

frequent maladies of it, As one discourseth, "wormwood grows

sparingly in Italy, because most part there they be misaffected with

hot diseases: but henbane, poppy, and such cold herbs: with us in

Germany and Poland, great store of it in every waste." Baracellus

Horto geniali, and Baptista Porta Physiognomicae, lib. 6. cap. 23,

give many instances and examples of it, and bring many other proofs.

For that cause belike that learned Fuchsius of Nuremberg, "when he

came into a village, considered always what herbs did grow most

frequently about it, and those he distilled in a silver alembic,

making use of others amongst them as occasion served." I know that

many are of opinion, our northern simples are weak, imperfect, not

so well concocted, of such force, as those in the southern parts,

not so fit to be used in physic, and will therefore fetch their

drugs afar off: senna, cassia out of Egypt, rhubarb from Barbary,

aloes from Socotra; turbith, agaric, mirabolanes, hermodactils, from

the East Indies, tobacco from the west, and some as far as China,

hellebore from the Anticyrae, or that of Austria which bears the

purple flower, which Mathiolus so much approves, and so of the rest.

In the kingdom of Valencia, in Spain, Maginus commends two

mountains, Mariola and Renagolosa, famous for simples; Leander

Albertus, Baldus a mountain near the Lake Benacus in the territory

of Verona, to which all the herbalists in the country continually

flock; Ortelius one in Apulia, Munster Mons major in Istria; others

Montpelier in France; Prosper Altinus prefers Egyptian simples,

Garcias ab Horto Indian before the rest, another those of Italy,

Crete, &c. Many times they are over- curious in this kind, whom

Fuchsius taxeth, Instit. l. 1. sec. 1. cap. 1. "that think they do

nothing, except they rake all over India, Arabia, Ethiopia for

remedies, and fetch their physic from the three quarters of the

world, and from beyond the Garamantes. Many an old wife or country

woman doth often more good with a few known and common garden herbs,

than our bombast physicians, with all their prodigious, sumptuous,

far-fetched, rare, conjectural medicines:" without all question if

we have not these rare exotic simples, we hold that at home, which

is in virtue equivalent unto them, ours will serve as well as

theirs, if they be taken in proportionable quantity, fitted and

qualified aright, if not much better, and more proper to our

constitutions. But so 'tis for the most part, as Pliny writes to

Gallus, "We are careless of that which is near us, and follow that

which is afar off, to know which we will travel and sail beyond the

seas, wholly neglecting that which is under our eyes." Opium in

Turkey doth scarce offend, with us in a small quantity it stupefies;

cicuta or hemlock is a strong poison in Greece, but with us it hath

no such violent effects: I conclude with I. Voschius, who as he much

inveighs against those exotic medicines, so he promiseth by our

European, a full cure and absolute of all diseases; a capite ad

calcem, nostrae regionis herbae nostris corporibus magis conducunt,

our own simples agree best with us. It was a thing that Fernelius

much laboured in his French practice, to reduce all his cure to our

proper and domestic physic; so did Janus Cornarius, and Martin

Rulandus in Germany. T. B. with us, as appeareth by a treatise of

his divulged in our tongue 1615, to prove the sufficiency of English

medicines, to the cure of all manner of diseases. If our simples be

not altogether of such force, or so apposite, it may be, if like

industry were used, those far fetched drugs would prosper as well

with us, as in those countries whence now we have them, as well as

cherries, artichokes, tobacco, and many such. There have been

diverse worthy physicians, which have tried excellent conclusions in

this kind, and many diligent, painful apothecaries, as Gesner,

Besler, Gerard, &c., but amongst the rest those famous public

gardens of Padua in Italy, Nuremberg in Germany, Leyden in Holland,

Montpelier in France, (and ours in Oxford now in fieri, at the cost

and charges for the Right Honourable the Lord Danvers Earl of Danby)

are much to be commended, wherein all exotic plants almost are to be

seen, and liberal allowance yearly made for their better

maintenance, that young students may be the sooner informed in the

knowledge of them: which as Fuchsius holds, "is most necessary for

that exquisite manner of curing," and as great a shame for a

physician not to observe them, as for a workman not to know his axe,

saw, square, or any other tool which he must of necessity use.

SUBSECT. III.-- Alteratives, Herbs, other Vegetables, &c.

Amongst these 800 simples, which Galeottus reckons up, lib. 3.

de promisc. doctor. cap. 3, and many exquisite herbalists have

written of, these few following alone I find appropriated to this

humour: of which some be alteratives; "which by a secret force,"

saith Renodeus, "and special quality expel future diseases,

perfectly cure those which are, and many such incurable effects."

This is as well observed in other plants, stones, minerals, and

creatures, as in herbs, in other maladies as in this. How many

things are related of a man's skull? What several virtues of corns

in a horse-leg, of a wolf's liver, &c. Of diverse excrements of

beasts, all good against several diseases? What extraordinary

virtues are ascribed unto plants? Satyrium et eruca penem erigunt,

vitex et nymphea semen extinguunt, some herbs provoke lust, some

again, as agnus castus, water-lily, quite extinguisheth seed; poppy

causeth sleep, cabbage resisteth drunkenness, &c., and that which is

more to be admired, that such and such plants should have a peculiar

virtue to such particular parts, as to the head aniseeds, foalfoot,

betony, calamint, eye-bright, lavender, bays, roses, rue, sage,

marjoram, peony, &c. For the lungs calamint, liquorice, ennula

campana, hyssop, horehound, water germander, &c. For the heart,

borage, bugloss, saffron, balm, basil, rosemary, violet, roses, &c.

For the stomach, wormwood, mints, betony, balm, centaury, sorrel,

purslain. For the liver, darthspine or camaepitis, germander,

agrimony, fennel, endive, succory, liverwort, barberries. For the

spleen, maidenhair, finger-fern, dodder of thyme, hop, the rind of

ash, betony. For the kidneys, grumel, parsley, saxifrage, plaintain,

mallow. For the womb, mugwort, pennyroyal, fetherfew, savine, &c.

For the joints, camomile, St. John's wort, organ, rue, cowslips,

centaury the less, &c. And so to peculiar diseases. To this of

melancholy you shall find a catalogue of herbs proper, and that in

every part. See more in Wecker, Renodeus, Heurnius lib. 2. cap. 19.

&c. I will briefly speak of them, as first of alteratives, which

Galen, in his third book of diseased parts, prefers before

diminutives, and Trallianus brags, that he hath done more cures on

melancholy men by moistening, than by purging of them.

Borage.] In this catalogue, borage and bugloss may challenge

the chiefest place, whether in substance, juice, roots, seeds,

flowers, leaves, decoctions, distilled waters, extracts, oils, &c.,

for such kind of herbs be diversely varied. Bugloss is hot and

moist, and therefore worthily reckoned up amongst those herbs which

expel melancholy, and exhilarate the heart, Galen, lib. 6. cap. 80.

de simpl. med. Dioscorides, lib. 4. cap. 123. Pliny much magnifies

this plant. It may be diversely used; as in broth, in wine, in

conserves, syrups, &c. It is an excellent cordial, and against this

malady most frequently prescribed; a herb indeed of such

sovereignty, that as Diodorus, lib. 7. bibl. Plinius, lib. 25. cap.

2. et lib. 21. cap. 22. Plutarch, sympos. lib. 1. cap. 1.

Dioscorides, lib. 5. cap. 40. Caelius, lib. 19. c. 3. suppose it was

that famous Nepenthes of Homer, which Polydaenna, Thonis's wife

(then king of Thebes in Egypt), sent Helena for a token, of such

rare virtue, "that if taken steeped in wine, if wife and children,

father and mother, brother and sister, and all thy dearest friends

should die before thy face, thou couldst not grieve or shed a tear

for them."

"Qui semel id patera mistum Nepenthes Iaccho

Hauserit, hic lachrymam, non si suavissima proles,

Si germanus ei charus, materque paterque

Oppetat, ante oculos ferro confossus atroci."

Helena's commended bowl to exhilarate the heart, had no other

ingredient, as most of our critics conjecture, than this of borage.

Balm.] Melissa balm hath an admirable virtue to alter

melancholy, be it steeped in our ordinary drink, extracted, or

otherwise taken. Cardan, lib. 8. much admires this herb. It heats

and dries, saith Heurnius, in the second degree, with a wonderful

virtue comforts the heart, and purgeth all melancholy vapours from

the spirits, Matthiol. in lib. 3. cap. 10. in Dioscoridem. Besides

they ascribe other virtues to it, "as to help concoction, to cleanse

the brain, expel all careful thoughts, and anxious imaginations:"

the same words in effect are in Avicenna, Pliny, Simon Sethi,

Fuchsius, Leobel, Delacampius, and every herbalist. Nothing better

for him that is melancholy than to steep this and borage in his

ordinary drink.

Mathiolus, in his fifth book of Medicinal Epistles, reckons up

scorzonera, "not against poison only, falling sickness, and such as

are vertiginous, but to this malady; the root of it taken by itself

expels sorrow, causeth mirth and lightness of heart."

Antonius Musa, that renowned physician to Caesar Augustus, in

his book which he writ of the virtues of betony, cap. 6. wonderfully

commends that herb, animas hominum et corpora custodit, securas de

metu reddit, it preserves both body and mind, from fears, cares,

griefs; cures falling sickness, this and many other diseases, to

whom Galen subscribes, lib. 7. simp. med. Dioscorides, lib. 4. cap.

1. &c.

Marigold is much approved against melancholy, and often used

therefore in our ordinary broth, as good against this and many other

diseases.

Hop.] Lupulus, hop, is a sovereign remedy; Fuchsius, cap. 58.

Plant. hist. much extols it; "it purgeth all choler, and purifies

the blood." Matthiol. cap. 140. in 4. Dioscor. wonders the

physicians of his time made no more use of it, because it rarefies

and cleanseth: we use it to this purpose in our ordinary beer, which

before was thick and fulsome.

Wormwood, centaury, pennyroyal, are likewise magnified and

much prescribed (as I shall after show), especially in hypochondriac

melancholy, daily to be used, sod in whey: and as Ruffus Ephesias,

Areteus relate, by breaking wind, helping concoction, many

melancholy men have been cured with the frequent use of them alone.

And because the spleen and blood are often misaffected in

melancholy, I may not omit endive, succory, dandelion, fumitory,

&c., which cleanse the blood, Scolopendria, cuscuta, ceterache,

mugwort, liverwort, ash, tamarisk, genist, maidenhair, &c., which

must help and ease the spleen.

To these I may add roses, violets, capers, featherfew,

scordium, staechas, rosemary, ros solis, saffron, ochyme, sweet

apples, wine, tobacco, sanders, &c. That Peruvian chamico, monstrosa

facultate &c., Linshcosteus Datura; and to such as are cold, the

decoction of guiacum, China sarsaparilla, sassafras, the flowers of

carduus benedictus, which I find much used by Montanus in his

Consultations, Julius Alexandrinus, Lelius, Egubinus, and others.

Bernardus Penottus prefers his herba solis, or Dutch sindaw, before

all the rest in this disease, "and will admit of no herb upon the

earth to be comparable to it." It excels Homer's moly, cures this,

falling sickness, and almost all other infirmities. The same

Penottus speaks of an excellent balm out of Aponensis, which, taken

to the quantity of three drops in a cup of wine, "will cause a

sudden alteration, drive away dumps, and cheer up the heart." Ant.

Guianerius, in his Antidotary, hath many such. Jacobus de Dondis the

aggregator, repeats ambergris, nutmegs, and allspice amongst the

rest. But that cannot be general. Amber and spice will make a hot

brain mad, good for cold and moist. Garcias ab Horto hath many

Indian plants, whose virtues he much magnifies in this disease.

Lemnius, instit. cap. 58. admires rue, and commends it to have

excellent virtue, "to expel vain imaginations, devils, and to ease

afflicted souls." Other things are much magnified by writers, as an

old cock, a ram's head, a wolf's heart borne or eaten, which

Mercurialis approves; Prosper Altinus the water of Nilus; Gomesius

all seawater, and at seasonable times to be seasick: goat's milk,

whey, &c.

SUBSECT. IV.-- Precious Stones, Metals, Minerals, Alteratives.

Precious stones are diversely censured; many explode the use

of them or any minerals in physic, of whom Thomas Erastus is the

chief, in his tract against Paracelsus, and in an epistle of his to

Peter Monavius, "That stones can work any wonders, let them believe

that list, no man shall persuade me; for my part, I have found by

experience there is no virtue in them." But Matthiolus, in his

comment upon Dioscorides, is as profuse on the other side, in their

commendation; so is Cardan, Renodeus, Alardus, Rueus, Encelius,

Marbodeus, &c. Matthiolus specifies in coral: and Oswaldus Crollius,

Basil. Chym. prefers the salt of coral. Christoph. Encelius, lib. 3.

cap. 131. will have them to be as so many several medicines against

melancholy, sorrow, fear, dullness, and the like; Renodeus admires

them, "besides they adorn kings' crowns, grace the fingers, enrich

our household stuff, defend us from enchantments, preserve health,

cure diseases, they drive away grief, cares, and exhilarate the

mind." The particulars be these.

Granatus, a precious stone so called, because it is like the

kernels of a pomegranate, an imperfect kind of ruby, it comes from

Calecut; "if hung about the neck, or taken in drink, it much

resisteth sorrow, and recreates the heart." The same properties I

find ascribed to the hyacinth and topaz. They allay anger, grief,

diminish madness, much delight and exhilarate the mind. "If it be

either carried about, or taken in a potion, it will increase

wisdom," saith Cardan, "expel fear; he brags that he hath cured many

madmen with it, which, when they laid by the stone, were as mad

again as ever they were at first." Petrus Bayerus, lib. 2. cap. 13.

veni mecum, Fran. Rueus, cap. 19. de geminis, say as much of the

chrysolite, a friend of wisdom, an enemy to folly. Pliny, lib. 37.

Solinus, cap. 52. Albertus de Lapid. Cardan. Encelius, lib. 3. cap.

66. highly magnifies the virtue of the beryl, "it much avails to a

good understanding, represseth vain conceits, evil thoughts, causeth

mirth," &c. In the belly of a swallow there is a stone found called

chelidonius, "which if it be lapped in a fair cloth, and tied to the

right arm, will cure lunatics, madmen, make them amiable and merry."

There is a kind of onyx called a chalcedony, which hath the

same qualities, "avails much against fantastic illusions which

proceed from melancholy," preserves the vigour and good estate of

the whole body.

The Eban stone, which goldsmiths use to sleeken their gold

with, borne about or given to drink, hath the same properties, or

not much unlike.

Levinus Lemnius, Institui. ad vit. cap. 58. amongst other

jewels, makes mention of two more notable; carbuncle and coral,

"which drive away childish fears, devils, overcome sorrow, and hung

about the neck repress troublesome dreams," which properties almost

Cardan gives to that green-coloured emmetris if it be carried about,

or worn in a ring; Rueus to the diamond.

Nicholas Cabeus, a Jesuit of Ferrara, in the first book of his

Magnetical Philosophy, cap. 3. speaking of the virtues of a

loadstone, recites many several opinions; some say that if it be

taken in parcels inward, si quis per frustra voret, juventutem

restituet, it will, like viper's wine, restore one to his youth; and

yet if carried about them, others will have it to cause melancholy;

let experience determine.

Mercurialis admires the emerald for its virtues in pacifying

all affections of the mind; others the sapphire, which is "the

fairest of all precious stones, of sky colour, and a great enemy to

black choler, frees the mind, mends manners," &c. Jacobus de Dondis,

in his catalogue of simples, hath ambergris, os in corde cervi, the

bone in a stag's heart, a monocerot's horn, bezoar's stone (of which

elsewhere), it is found in the belly of a little beast in the East

Indies, brought into Europe by Hollanders, and our countrymen

merchants. Renodeus, cap. 22. lib. 3. de ment. med. saith he saw two

of these beasts alive, in the castle of the Lord of Vitry at

Coubert.

Lapis lazuli and armenus, because they purge, shall be

mentioned in their place.

Of the rest in brief thus much I will add out of Cardan,

Renodeus, cap. 23. lib. 3. Rondoletius, lib. 1. de Testat. c. 15.

&c. "That almost all jewels and precious stones have excellent

virtues" to pacify the affections of the mind, for which cause rich

men so much covet to have them: "and those smaller unions which are

found in shells amongst the Persians and Indians, by the consent of

all writers, are very cordial, and most part avail to the

exhilaration of the heart."

Minerals.] Most men say as much of gold and some other

minerals, as these have done of precious stones. Erastus still

maintains the opposite part. Disput. in Paracelsum. cap. 4. fol.

196. he confesseth of gold, "that it makes the heart merry, but in

no other sense but as it is in a miser's chest:" at mihi plaudo

simul ac nummos contemplor in arca, as he said in the poet, it so

revives the spirits, and is an excellent recipe against melancholy,

For gold in physic is a cordial,

Therefore he loved gold in special.

Aurum potabile, he discommends and inveighs against it, by

reason of the corrosive waters which are used in it: which argument

our Dr. Guin urgeth against D. Antonius. Erastus concludes their

philosophical stones and potable gold, &c. "to be no better than

poison," a mere imposture, a non ens; dug out of that broody hill

belike this golden stone is, ubi nascetur ridiculus mus. Paracelsus

and his chemistical followers, as so many Promethei, will fetch fire

from heaven, will cure all manner of diseases with minerals,

accounting them the only physic on the other side. Paracelsus calls

Galen, Hippocrates, and all their adherents, infants, idiots,

sophisters, &c. Apagesis istos qui Vulcanias istas metamorphoses

sugillant, inscitiae soboles, supinae pertinaciae alumnos, &c., not

worthy the name of physicians, for want of these remedies: and brags

that by them he can make a man live 160 years, or to the world's

end, with their Alexipharmacums, Panaceas, Mummias, unguentum

Armarium, and such magnetical cures, Lampas vitae et mortis, Balneum

Dianae, Balsamum, Electrum Magico-physicum, Amuleta Martialia, &c.

What will not he and his followers effect? He brags, moreover, that

he was primus medicorum, and did more famous cures than all the

physicians in Europe besides, "a drop of his preparations should go

farther than a dram, or ounce of theirs," those loathsome and

fulsome filthy potions, heteroclitical pills (so he calls them),

horse medicines, ad quoram aspectum Cyclops Polyphemus

exhorresceret. And though some condemn their skill and magnetical

cures as tending to magical superstition, witchery, charms, &c., yet

they admire, stiffly vindicate nevertheless, and infinitely prefer

them. But these are both in extremes, the middle sort approve of

minerals, though not in so high a degree. Lemnius lib. 3. cap. 6. de

occult. nat. mir. commends gold inwardly and outwardly used, as in

rings, excellent good in medicines; and such mixtures as are made

for melancholy men, saith Wecker, antid. spec. lib. 1. to whom

Renodeus subscribes, lib. 2. cap. 2. Ficinus, lib. 2. cap. 19.

Fernel. meth. med. lib. 5. cap. 21. de Cardiacis. Daniel Sennertus,

lib. 1. part. 2. cap. 9. Audernacus, Libavius, Quercetanus, Oswaldus

Crollius, Euvonymus, Rubeus, and Matthiolus in the fourth book of

his Epistles, Andreas a Blawen epist. ad Matthiolum, as commended

and formerly used by Avicenna, Arnoldus, and many others: Matthiolus

in the same place approves of potable gold, mercury, with many such

chemical confections, and goes so far in approbation of them, that

he holds "no man can be an excellent physician that hath not some

skill in chemistical distillations, and that chronic diseases can

hardly be cured without mineral medicines:" look for antimony among

purgers.

SUBSECT. V.-- Compound Alteratives; censure of Compounds, and mixed

Physic.

Pliny, lib. 24. c. 1, bitterly taxeth all compound medicines,

"Men's knavery, imposture, and captious wits, have invented those

shops, in which every man's life is set to sale: and by and by came

in those compositions and inexplicable mixtures, far-fetched out of

India and Arabia; a medicine for a botch must be had as far as the

Red Sea." And 'tis not without cause which he saith; for out of

question they are much to blame in their compositions, whilst they

make infinite variety of mixtures, as Fuchsius notes. "They think

they get themselves great credit, excel others, and to be more

learned than the rest, because they make many variations; but he

accounts them fools, and whilst they brag of their skill, and think

to get themselves a name, they become ridiculous, betray their

ignorance and error." A few simples well prepared and understood,

are better than such a heap of nonsense, confused compounds, which

are in apothecaries' shops ordinarily sold. "In which many vain,

superfluous, corrupt, exolete, things out of date are to be had"

(saith Cornarius); "a company of barbarous names given to syrups,

juleps, an unnecessary company of mixed medicines;" rudis

indigestaque moles. Many times (as Agrippa taxeth) there is by this

means "more danger from the medicine than from the disease," when

they put together they know not what, or leave it to an illiterate

apothecary to be made, they cause death and horror for health. Those

old physicians had no such mixtures; a simple potion of hellebore in

Hippocrates' time was the ordinary purge; and at this day, saith

Mat. Riccius, in that flourishing commonwealth of China, "their

physicians give precepts quite opposite to ours, not unhappy in

their physic; they use altogether roots, herbs, and simples in their

medicines, and all their physic in a manner is comprehended in a

herbal: no science, no school, no art, no degree, but like a trade,

every man in private is instructed of his master." Cardan cracks

that he can cure all diseases with water alone, as Hippocrates of

old did most infirmities with one medicine. Let the best of our

rational physicians demonstrate and give a sufficient reason for

those intricate mixtures, why just so many simples in mithridate or

treacle, why such and such quantity; may they not be reduced to half

or a quarter? Frustra fit per plura (as the saying is) quod fieri

potest per pauciora; 300 simples in a julep, potion, or a little

pill, to what end or purpose? I know not what Alkindus, Capivaccius,

Montagna, and Simon Eitover, the best of them all and most rational,

have said in this kind; but neither he, they, nor any one of them,

gives his reader, to my judgment, that satisfaction which he ought;

why such, so many simples? Rog. Bacon hath taxed many errors in his

tract de graduationibus, explained some things, but not cleared.

Mercurialis in his book de composit. medicin. gives instance in

Hamech, and Philonium Romanum, which Hamech an Arabian, and

Philonius a Roman, long since composed, but crasse as the rest. If

they be so exact, as by him it seems they were, and those mixtures

so perfect, why doth Fernelius alter the one, and why is the other

obsolete? Cardan taxeth Galen for presuming out of his ambition to

correct Theriachum Andromachi, and we as justly may carp at all the

rest. Galen's medicines are now exploded and rejected; what Nicholas

Meripsa, Mesue, Celsus, Scribanius, Actuarius, &c. writ of old, are

most part contemned. Mellichius, Cordus, Wecker, Quercetan,

Renodeus, the Venetian, Florentine states have their several

receipts, and magistrals: they of Nuremberg have theirs, and

Augustana Pharmacopoeia, peculiar medicines to the meridian of the

city: London hers, every city, town, almost every private man hath

his own mixtures, compositions, receipts, magistrals, precepts, as

if he scorned antiquity, and all others in respect of himself. But

each man must correct and alter to show his skill, every

opinionative fellow must maintain his own paradox, be it what it

will; Delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi: they dote, and in the

meantime the poor patients pay for their new experiments, the

commonalty rue it.

Thus others object, thus I may conceive out of the weakness of

my apprehension; but to say truth, there is no such fault, no such

ambition, no novelty, or ostentation, as some suppose; but as one

answers, this of compound medicines, "is a most noble and profitable

invention found out, and brought into physic with great judgment,

wisdom, counsel and discretion." Mixed diseases must have mixed

remedies, and such simples are commonly mixed as have reference to

the part affected, some to qualify, the rest to comfort, some one

part, some another. Cardan and Brassavola both hold that Nullum

simplex medicamentum sine noxa, no simple medicine is without hurt

or offence; and although Hippocrates, Erasistratus, Diocles of old,

in the infancy of this art, were content with ordinary simples: yet

now, saith Aetius, "necessity compelleth to seek for new remedies,

and to make compounds of simples, as well to correct their harms if

cold, dry, hot, thick, thin, insipid, noisome to smell, to make them

savoury to the palate, pleasant to taste and take, and to preserve

them for continuance, by admixtion of sugar, honey, to make them

last months and years for several uses." In such cases, compound

medicines may be approved, and Arnoldus in his 18. aphorism, doth

allow of it. "If simples cannot, necessity compels us to use

compounds;" so for receipts and magistrals, dies diem docet, one day

teacheth another, and they are as so many words or phrases, Que nunc

sunt in honore vocabula si volet usus, ebb and flow with the season,

and as wits vary, so they may be infinitely varied. Quisque suum

placitum quo capiatur habet. "Every man as he likes, so many men so

many minds," and yet all tending to good purpose, though not the

same way. As arts and sciences, so physic is still perfected amongst

the rest; Horae musarum nutrices, and experience teacheth us every

day many things which our predecessors knew not of. Nature is not

effete, as he saith, or so lavish, to bestow all her gifts upon an

age, but hath reserved some for posterity, to show her power, that

she is still the same, and not old or consumed. Birds and beasts can

cure themselves by nature, naturae usu ea plerumque cognoscunt quae

homines vix longo labore et doctrina assequuntur, but "men must use

much labour and industry to find it out." But I digress.

Compound medicines are inwardly taken, or outwardly applied.

Inwardly taken, be either liquid or solid: liquid, are fluid or

consisting. Fluid, as wines and syrups. The wines ordinarily used to

this disease are wormwood wine, tamarisk, and buglossatum, wine made

of borage and bugloss, the composition of which is specified in

Arnoldus Villanovanus, lib. de vinis, of borage, balm, bugloss,

cinnamon, &c. and highly commended for its virtues: "it drives away

leprosy, scabs, clears the blood, recreates the spirits, exhilarates

the mind, purgeth the brain of those anxious black melancholy fumes,

and cleanseth the whole body of that black humour by urine. To which

I add," saith Villanovanus, "that it will bring madmen, and such

raging bedlamites as are tied in chains, to the use of their reason

again. My conscience bears me witness, that I do not lie, I saw a

grave matron helped by this means; she was so choleric, and so

furious sometimes, that she was almost mad, and beside herself; she

said, and did she knew not what, scolded, beat her maids, and was

now ready to be bound till she drank of this borage wine, and by

this excellent remedy was cured, which a poor foreigner, a silly

beggar, taught her by chance, that came to crave an alms from door

to door." The juice of borage, if it be clarified, and drunk in

wine, will do as much, the roots sliced and steeped, &c. saith Ant.

Mizaldus, art. med. who cities this story verbatim out of

Villanovanus, and so doth Magninus a physician of Milan, in his

regimen of health. Such another excellent compound water I find in

Rubeus de distill. sect. 3. which he highly magnifies out of

Savanarola, "for such as are solitary, dull, heavy or sad without a

cause, or be troubled with trembling of heart." Other excellent

compound waters for melancholy, he cites in the same place. "If

their melancholy be not inflamed, or their temperature over-hot."

Evonimus hath a precious aquavitae to this purpose, for such as are

cold. But he and most commend aurum potabile, and every writer

prescribes clarified whey, with borage, bugloss, endive, succory,

&c. of goat's milk especially, some indefinitely at all times, some

thirty days together in the spring, every morning fasting, a good

draught. Syrups are very good, and often used to digest this humour

in the heart, spleen, liver, &c. As syrup of borage (there is a

famous syrup of borage highly commended by Laurentius to this

purpose in his tract of melancholy), de pomis of king Sabor, now

obsolete, of thyme and epithyme, hops, scolopendria, fumitory,

maidenhair, bizantine, &c. These are most used for preparatives to

other physic, mixed with distilled waters of like nature, or in

juleps otherwise.

Consisting, are conserves or confections; conserves of borage,

bugloss, balm, fumitory, succory, maidenhair, violets, roses,

wormwood, &c. Confections, treacle, mithridate, eclegms, or

linctures, &c. Solid, as aromatical confections: hot, diambra,

diamargaritum calidum, dianthus, diamoschum dulce, electuarium de

gemmis, laetificans Galeni et Rhasis, diagalanga, diaciminum,

dianisum, diatrion piperion, diazinziber, diacapers, diacinnamonum:

Cold, as diamargaritum frigidum, diacorolli, diarrhodon abbatis,

diacodion, &c. as every pharmacopoeia will show you, with their

tables or losings that are made out of them: with condites and the

like.

Outwardly used as occasion serves, as amulets, oils hot and

cold, as of camomile, staechados, violets, roses, almonds, poppy,

nymphea, mandrake, &c. to be used after bathing, or to procure

sleep.

Ointments composed of the said species, oils and wax, &c., as

Alablastritum Populeum, some hot, some cold, to moisten, procure

sleep, and correct other accidents.

Liniments are made of the same matter to the like purpose:

emplasters of herbs, flowers, roots, &c., with oils, and other

liquors mixed and boiled together.

Cataplasms, salves, or poultices made of green herbs, pounded,

or sod in water till they be soft, which are applied to the

hypochondries, and other parts, when the body is empty.

Cerotes are applied to several parts and frontals, to take

away pain, grief, heat, procure sleep. Fomentations or sponges, wet

in some decoctions, &c., epithemata, or those moist medicines, laid

on linen, to bathe and cool several parts misaffected.

Sacculi, or little bags of herbs, flowers, seeds, roots, and

the like, applied to the head, heart, stomach, &c., odoraments,

balls, perfumes, posies to smell to, all which have their several

uses in melancholy, as shall be shown, when I treat of the cure of

the distinct species by themselves.

MEMB. II.

SUBSECT. I.-- Purging Simples upward.

Melanagoga, or melancholy purging medicines, are either simple

or compound, and that gently, or violently, purging upward or

downward. These following purge upward. Asarum, or Asrabecca, which,

as Mesue saith, is hot in the second degree, and dry in the third,

"it is commonly taken in wine, whey," or as with us, the juice of

two or three leaves or more sometimes, pounded in posset drink

qualified with a little liquorice, or aniseed, to avoid the

fulsomeness of the taste, or as Diaserum Fernelii. Brassivola in

Catart. reckons it up amongst those simples that only purge

melancholy, and Ruellius confirms as much out of his experience,

that it purgeth black choler, like hellebore itself. Galen, lib. G.

simplic. and Matthiolus ascribe other virtues to it, and will have

it purge other humours as well as this.

Laurel, by Heurnius's method, ad prax. lib. 2. cap. 24. is put

amongst the strong purgers of melancholy; it is hot and dry in the

fourth degree. Dioscorides, lib. 11. cap. 114. adds other effects to

it. Pliny sets down fifteen berries in drink for a sufficient

potion: it is commonly corrected with his opposites, cold and moist,

as juice of endive, purslane, and is taken in a potion to seven

grains and a half. But this and asrabecca, every gentlewoman in the

country knows how to give, they are two common vomits.

Scilla, or sea-onion, is hot and dry in the third degree.

Brassivola in Catart. out of Mesue, others, and his own experience,

will have this simple to purge melancholy alone. It is an ordinary

vomit, vinum scilliticum mixed with rubel in a little white wine.

White hellebore, which some call sneezing-powder, a strong

purger upward, which many reject, as being too violent: Mesue and

Averroes will not admit of it, "by reason of danger of suffocation,"

"great pain and trouble it puts the poor patient to," saith

Dodonaeus. Yet Galen, lib. 6. simpl. med. and Dioscorides, cap. 145.

allow of it. It was indeed "terrible in former times," as Pliny

notes, but now familiar, insomuch that many took it in those days,

"that were students, to quicken their wits," which Persius Sat. 1.

objects to Accius the poet, Illas Acci ebria veratro. "It helps

melancholy, the falling sickness, madness, gout, &c., but not to be

taken of old men, youths, such as are weaklings, nice, or

effeminate, troubled with headache, high-coloured, or fear

strangling," saith Dioscorides. Oribasius, an old physician, hath

written very copiously, and approves of it, "in such affections

which can otherwise hardly be cured." Hernius, lib. 2. prax. med. de

vomitoriis, will not have it used "but with great caution, by reason

of its strength, and then when antimony will do no good," which

caused Hermophilus to compare it to a stout captain (as Codroneus

observes cap. 7. comment. de Helleb.) that will see all his soldiers

go before him and come post principia, like the bragging soldier,

last himself; when other helps fail in inveterate melancholy, in a

desperate case, this vomit is to be taken. And yet for all this, if

it be well prepared, it may be securely given at first. Matthiolus

brags, that he hath often, to the good of many, made use of it, and

Heurnius, "that he hath happily used it, prepared after his own

prescript," and with good success. Christophorus a Vega, lib. 3. c.

41, is of the same opinion, that it may be lawfully given; and our

country gentlewomen find it by their common practice, that there is

no such great danger in it. Dr. Turner, speaking of this plant in

his Herbal, telleth us, that in his time it was an ordinary receipt

among good wives, to give hellebore in powder to ii.d. weight, and

he is not much against it. But they do commonly exceed, for who so

bold as blind Bayard, and prescribe it by pennyworths, and such

irrational ways, as I have heard myself market folks ask for it in

an apothecary's shop: but with what success God knows; they smart

often for their rash boldness and folly, break a vein, make their

eyes ready to start out of their heads, or kill themselves. So that

the fault is not in the physic, but in the rude and indiscreet

handling of it. He that will know, therefore, when to use, how to

prepare it aright, and in what dose, let him read Heurnius lib. 2.

prax. med. Brassivola de Catart. Godefridus Stegius the emperor

Rudolphus' physician, cap. 16. Matthiolus in Dioscor. and that

excellent commentary of Baptista Codroncus, which is instar omnium

de Helleb. alb. where we shall find great diversity of examples and

receipts.

Antimony or stibium, which our chemists so much magnify, is

either taken in substance or infusion, &c., and frequently

prescribed in this disease. "It helps all infirmities," saith

Matthiolus, "which proceed from black choler, falling sickness, and

hypochondriacal passions;" and for farther proof of his assertion,

he gives several instances of such as have been freed with it: one

of Andrew Gallus, a physician of Trent, that after many other

essays, "imputes the recovery of his health, next after God, to this

remedy alone." Another of George Handshius, that in like sort, when

other medicines failed, "was by this restored to his former health,

and which of his knowledge others have likewise tried, and by the

help of this admirable medicine, been recovered." A third of a

parish priest at Prague in Bohemia, "that was so far gone with

melancholy, that he doted, and spake he knew not what; but after he

had taken twelve grains of stibium, (as I myself saw, and can

witness, for I was called to see this miraculous accident) he was

purged of a deal of black choler, like little gobbets of flesh, and

all his excrements were as black blood (a medicine fitter for a

horse than a man), yet it did him so much good, that the next day he

was perfectly cured." This very story of the Bohemian priest,

Sckenkius relates verbatim, Exoter. experiment. ad. var. morb. cent.

6. observ. 6. with great approbation of it. Hercules de Saxonia

calls it a profitable medicine, if it be taken after meat to six or

eight grains, of such as are apt to vomit. Rodericus a Fonseca the

Spaniard, and late professor of Padua in Italy, extols it to this

disease, Tom. 2. consul. 85. so doth Lod. Mercatus de inter. morb.

cur. lib. 1. cap. 17. with many others. Jacobus Gervinus a French

physician, on the other side, lib. 2. de venemis confut. explodes

all this, and saith he took three grains only upon Matthiolus and

some others' commendation, but it almost killed him, whereupon he

concludes, "antimony is rather poison than a medicine." Th. Erastus

concurs with him in his opinion, and so doth Aelian Montaltus cap. 30

de melan. But what do I talk? 'tis the subject of whole books; I

might cite a century of authors pro and con. I will conclude with

Zuinger, antimony is like Scanderbeg's sword, which is either good

or bad, strong or weak, as the party is that prescribes, or useth

it: "a worthy medicine if it be rightly applied to a strong man,

otherwise poison." For the preparing of it, look in Evonimi

thesaurus, Quercetan, Oswaldus Crollius, Basil. Chim. Basil.

Valentius, &c.

Tobacco, divine, rare, superexcellent tobacco, which goes far

beyond all the panaceas, potable gold, and philosopher's stones, a

sovereign remedy to all diseases. A good vomit, I confess, a

virtuous herb, if it be well qualified, opportunely taken, and

medicinally used; but as it is commonly abused by most men, which

take it as tinkers do ale, 'tis a plague, a mischief, a violent

purger of goods, lands, health, hellish, devilish and damned

tobacco, the ruin and overthrow of body and soul.

SUBSECT. II.-- Simples purging Melancholy downward.

Polypody and epithyme are, without all exceptions, gentle

purgers of melancholy. Dioscorides will have them void phlegm; but

Brassivola out of his experience averreth, that they purge this

humour; they are used in decoction, infusion, &c. simple, mixed, &c.

Mirabolanes, all five kinds, are happily prescribed against

melancholy and quartan agues; Brassivola speaks out "of a thousand"

experiences, he gave them in pills, decoctions, &c., look for

peculiar receipts in him.

Staechas, fumitory, dodder, herb mercury, roots of capers,

genista or broom, pennyroyal and half-boiled cabbage, I find in this

catalogue of purgers of black choler, origan, featherfew, ammoniac

salt, saltpetre. But these are very gentle; alyppus, dragon root,

centaury, ditany, colutea, which Fuchsius cap. 168 and others take

for senna, but most distinguish. Senna is in the middle of violent

and gentle purgers downward, hot in the second degree, dry in the

first. Brassivola calls it "a wonderful herb against melancholy, it

scours the blood, lightens the spirits, shakes off sorrow, a most

profitable medicine," as Dodonaeus terms it, invented by the

Arabians, and not heard of before. It is taken diverse ways, in

powder, infusion, but most commonly in the infusion, with ginger, or

some cordial flowers added to correct it. Actuarius commends it

sodden in broth, with an old cock, or in whey, which is the common

conveyor of all such things as purge black choler; or steeped in

wine, which Heurnius accounts sufficient, without any farther

correction.

Aloes by most is said to purge choler, but Aurelianus lib. 2.

c. 6. de morb. chron. Arculanus cap. 6. in 9. Rhasis Julius

Alexandrinus, consil. 185. Scoltz. Crato consil 189. Scoltz.

prescribe it to this disease; as good for the stomach and to open

the haemorrhoids, out of Mesue, Rhasis, Serapio, Avicenna: Menardus

ep. lib. 1. epist. 1. opposeth it, aloes "doth not open the veins,"

or move the haemorrhoids, which Leonhartus Fuchsius paradox. lib. 1.

likewise affirms; but Brassivola and Dodonaeus defend Mesue out of

their experience; let Valesius end the controversy.

Lapis armenus and lazuli are much magnified by Alexander lib.

1. cap. 16. Avicenna, Aetius, and Actuarius, if they be well washed,

that the water be no more coloured, fifty times some say. "That good

Alexander" (saith Guianerus) "puts such confidence in this one

medicine, that he thought all melancholy passions might be cured by

it; and I for my part have oftentimes happily used it, and was never

deceived in the operation of it." The like may be said of lapis

lazuli, though it be somewhat weaker than the other. Garcias ab

Horto, hist. lib. 1. cap. 65. relates, that the physicians of the

Moors familiarly prescribe it to all melancholy passions, and

Matthiolus ep. lib. 3. brags of that happy success which he still

had in the administration of it. Nicholas Meripsa puts it amongst

the best remedies, sect. 1. cap. 12. in Antidotis; "and if this will

not serve" (saith Rhasis) "then there remains nothing but lapis

armenus and hellebore itself." Valescus and Jason Pratensis much

commend pulvis hali, which is made of it. James Damascen. 2. cap.

12. Hercules de Saxonia, &c., speaks well of it. Crato will not

approve this; it and both hellebores, he saith, are no better than

poison. Victor Trincavelius, lib. 2. cap. 14, found it in his

experience, "to be very noisome, to trouble the stomach, and hurt

their bodies that take it overmuch."

Black hellebore, that most renowned plant, and famous purger

of melancholy, which all antiquity so much used and admired, was

first found out by Melanpodius a shepherd, as Pliny records, lib.

25. cap. 5. who, seeing it to purge his goats when they raved,

practised it upon Elige and Calene, King Praetus' daughters, that

ruled in Arcadia, near the fountain Clitorius, and restored them to

their former health. In Hippocrates's time it was in only request,

insomuch that he writ a book of it, a fragment of which remains yet.

Theophrastus, Galen, Pliny, Caelius Aurelianus, as ancient as Galen,

lib. 1, cap. 6. Aretus lib. 1. cap. 5. Oribasius lib. 7. collect. a

famous Greek, Aetius ser. 3. cap. 112 & 113 p. Aegineta, Galen's Ape,

lib. 7. cap. 4. Actuarius, Trallianus lib. 5. cap. 15. Cornelius

Celsus only remaining of the old Latins, lib. 3. cap. 23, extol and

admire this excellent plant; and it was generally so much esteemed

of the ancients for this disease amongst the rest, that they sent

all such as were crazed, or that doted, to the Anticyrae, or to

Phocis in Achaia, to be purged, where this plant was in abundance to

be had. In Strabo's time it was an ordinary voyage, Naviget

Anticyras; a common proverb among the Greeks and Latins, to bid a

dizzard or a mad man go take hellebore; as in Lucian, Menippus to

Tantalus, Tantale desipis, helleboro epoto tibi opus est, eoque sane

meraco, thou art out of thy little wit, O Tantalus, and must needs

drink hellebore, and that without mixture. Aristophanes in Vespis,

drink hellebore, &c. and Harpax in the Comedian, told Simo and

Ballio, two doting fellows, that they had need to be purged with

this plant. When that proud Menacrates ? ???? [O Zeus], had writ an

arrogant letter to Philip of Macedon, he sent back no other answer

but this, Consulo tibi ut ad Anticyram te conferas, noting thereby

that he was crazed, atque ellebore indigere, had much need of a good

purge. Lilius Geraldus saith, that Hercules, after all his mad

pranks upon his wife and children, was perfectly cured by a purge of

hellebore, which an Anticyrian administered unto him. They that were

sound commonly took it to quicken their wits, (as Ennis of old, Qui

non nisi potus ad arma--prosiluit dicenda, and as our poets drink

sack to improve their inventions (I find it so registered by

Agellius lib. 17. cap. 15.) Cameades the academic, when he was to

write against Zeno the stoic, purged himself with hellebore first,

which 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 l.

1. de plant. c. 3. said, henbane and hellebore were poison; and

Alexander Aphrodiseus, in the preface of his problems, gave out,

that (speaking of hellebore) "Quails fed on that which was poison to

men." Galen. l. 6. Epid. com. 5. Text. 35. confirms as much:

Constantine the emperor in his Geoponicks, attributes no other

virtue to it, than to kill mice and rats, flies and mouldwarps, and

so Mizaldus, Nicander of old, Gervinus, Sckenkius, and some other

Neoterics that have written of poisons, speak of hellebore in a

chief place. 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 helleb.

Fallopius lib. de med. purg. simpl. cap. 69. et consil. 15.

Trincavelii, Montanus 239. Frisemelica consil. 14. Hercules de

Saxonia, so that it be opportunely given. Jacobus de Dondis, Agg.

Amatus, Lucet. cent. 66. Godef. Stegius cap. 13. Hollerius, and all

our herbalists subscribe. Fernelius meth. med. lib. 5. cap. 16.

"confesseth it to be a terrible purge and hard to take, yet well

given to strong men, and such as have able bodies." P. Forestus and

Capivaccius forbid it to be taken in substance, but allow it in

decoction or infusion, both which ways P. Monavius approves above

all others, Epist. 231. Scoltzii, Jacchinus in 9. Rhasis, commends a

receipt of his own preparing; Penottus another of his chemically

prepared, Evonimus another. Hildesheim spicel. 2. de mel. hath many

examples how it should be used, with diversity of receipts. Heurnius

lib. 7. prax. med. cap. 14. "calls it an 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

substance: 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 sweet medicine, an easy, that may be securely given

to women, children, and weaklings. Baracellus, horto geniali, terms

it maximae praestantiae medicamentum, a medicine of great worth and

note. Quercetan in his Spagir. Phar. and many others, tell wonders

of the extract. Paracelsus, above all the rest, is the greatest

admirer of this plant; and especially the extract, he calls it

Theriacum, terrestre Balsamum, another treacle, a terrestrial balm,

instar omnium, "all in all, the sole and last refuge to cure this

malady, the gout, epilepsy, leprosy," &c. If this will not help, no

physic in the world can but mineral, it is the upshot of all.

Matthiolus laughs at those that except against it, and though some

abhor it out of the authority of Mesue, and dare not adventure to

prescribe it, "yet I" (saith he) "have happily used it six hundred

times without offence, and communicated it to divers worthy

physicians, who have given me great thanks for it." Look for

receipts, dose, preparation, and other cautions concerning this

simple, in him, Brassivola, Baracelsus, Codronchus, and the rest.

SUBSECT. III.-- Compound Purgers.

Compound medicines which purge melancholy, are either taken in

the superior or inferior parts: superior at mouth or nostrils. At

the mouth swallowed or not swallowed: If swallowed liquid or solid:

liquid, as compound wine of hellebore, scilla or sea-onion, senna,

Vinum Scilliticum, Helleboratum, which Quercetan so much applauds

"for melancholy and madness, either inwardly taken, or outwardly

applied to the head, with little pieces of linen dipped warm in it."

Oxymel. Scilliticum, Syrupus Helleboratus major and minor in

Quercetan, and Syrupus Genistae for hypochondriacal melancholy in the

same author, compound syrup of succory, of fumitory, polypody, &c.

Heurnius his purging cock-broth. Some except against these syrups,

as appears by Udalrinus Leonoras his epistle to Matthiolus, as most

pernicious, and that out of Hippocrates, cocta movere, et medicari,

non cruda, no raw things to be used in physic; but this in the

following epistle is exploded and soundly confuted by Matthiolus:

many juleps, potions, receipts, are composed of these, as you shall

find in Hildesheim spicel. 2. Heurnius lib. 2. cap. 14. George

Sckenkius Ital. med. prax. &c.

Solid purges are confections, electuaries, pills by

themselves, or compound with others, as de lapide lazulo, armeno,

pil. indae, of fumitory, &c. Confection of Hamech, which though most

approve, Solenander sec. 5. consil. 22. bitterly inveighs against,

so doth Rondoletius Pharmacop. officina, Fernelius and others;

diasena, diapolypodium, diacassia, diacatholicon, Wecker's electuary

de Epithymo, Ptolemy's hierologadium, of which divers receipts are

daily made.

Aetius 22. 23. commends Hieram Ruffi. Trincavelius consil. 12.

lib. 4. approves of hiera; non, inquit, invenio melius medicamentum,

I find no better medicine, he saith. Heurnius adds pil. aggregat.

pills de Epithymo. pil. Ind. Mesue describes in the Florentine

Antidotary, Pilulae sine quibus esse nolo, Pilulae, Cochics, cum

Helleboro, Pil. Arabicae, Faetida, de quinque generibus mirabolanorum,

&c. More proper to melancholy, not excluding in the meantime,

turbith, manna, rhubarb, agaric, elescophe, &c. which are not so

proper to this humour. For, as Montaltus holds cap. 30. and Montanus

cholera etiam purganda, quod atrae, sit pabulum, choler is to be

purged because it feeds the other: and some are of an opinion, as

Erasistratus and Asclepiades maintained of old, against whom Galen

disputes, "that no physic doth purge one humour alone, but all alike

or what is next." Most therefore in their receipts and magistrals

which are coined here, make a mixture of several simples and

compounds to purge all humours in general as well as this. Some

rather use potions than pills to purge this humour, because that as

Heurnius and Crato observe, hic succus a sicco remedio agre

trahitur, this juice is not so easily drawn by dry remedies, and as

Montanus adviseth 25 cons. "All drying medicines are to be repelled,

as aloe, hiera," and all pills whatsoever, because the disease is

dry of itself.

I might here insert many receipts of prescribed potions,

boles, &c. The doses of these, but that they are common in every

good physician, and that I am loath to incur the censure of

Forestus, lib. 3. cap. 6. de urinis, "against those that divulge and

publish medicines in their mother-tongue," and lest I should give

occasion thereby to some ignorant reader to practise on himself,

without the consent of a good physician.

Such as are not swallowed, but only kept in the mouth, are

gargarisms used commonly after a purge, when the body is soluble and

loose. Or apophlegmatisms, masticatories, to be held and chewed in

the mouth, which are gentle, as hyssop, origan, pennyroyal, thyme,

mustard; strong, as pellitory, pepper, ginger, &c.

Such as are taken into the nostrils, errhina are liquid or

dry, juice of pimpernel, onions, &c., castor, pepper, white

hellebore, &c. To these you may add odoraments, perfumes, and

suffumigations, &c.

Taken into the inferior parts are clysters strong or weak,

suppositories of Castilian soap, honey boiled to a consistence; or

stronger of scammony, hellebore, &c.

These are all used, and prescribed to this malady upon several

occasions, as shall be shown in its place.

MEMB. III.

Chirurgical Remedies.

In letting of blood three main circumstances are to be

considered, "Who, how much, when." That is, that it be done to such

a one as may endure it, or to whom it may belong, that he be of a

competent age, not too young, nor too old, overweak, fat, or lean,

sore laboured, but to such as have need, are full of bad blood,

noxious humours, and may be eased by it.

The quantity depends upon the party's habit of body, as he is

strong or weak, full or empty, may spare more or less.

In the morning is the fittest time: some doubt whether it be

best fasting, or full, whether the moon's motion or aspect of

planets be to be observed; some affirm, some deny, some grant in

acute, but not in chronic diseases, whether before or after physic.

'Tis Heurnius' aphorism a phlebotomia auspicandum esse curiationem,

non a pharmacia, you must begin with bloodletting and not physic;

some except this peculiar malady. But what do I? Horatius Augenius,

a physician of Padua, hath lately writ 17 books of this subject,

Jobertus, &c.

Particular kinds of bloodletting in use are three, first is

that opening a vein in the arm with a sharp knife, or in the head,

knees, or any other parts, as shall be thought fit.

Cupping-glasses with or without scarification, ocyssime

compescunt, saith Fernelius, they work presently, and are applied to

several parts, to divert humours, aches, winds, &c.

Horse-leeches are much used in melancholy, applied especially

to the haemorrhoids. Horatius Augenius, lib. 10. cap. 10. Platerus

de mentis alienat. cap. 3. Altomarus, Piso, and many others, prefer

them before any evacuations in this kind.

Cauteries, or searing with hot irons, combustions, borings,

lancings, which, because they are terrible, Dropax and Sinapismus

are invented by plasters to raise blisters, and eating medicines of

pitch, mustard-seed, and the like.

Issues still to be kept open, made as the former, and applied

in and to several parts, have their use here on divers occasions, as

shall be shown.

SECT. V. MEMB. I.

SUBSECT. I.-- Particular Cure of the three several Kinds; of Head-

Melancholy.

The general cures thus briefly examined and discussed, it

remains now to apply these medicines to the three particular species

or kinds, that, according to the several parts affected, each man

may tell in some sort how to help or ease himself. I will treat of

head-melancholy first, in which, as in all other good cures, we must

begin with diet, as a matter of most moment, able oftentimes of

itself to work this effect. I have read, saith Laurentius, cap. 8.

de Melanch. that in old diseases which have gotten the upper hand or

a habit, the manner of living is to more purpose, than whatsoever

can be drawn out of the most precious boxes of the apothecaries.

This diet, as I have said, is not only in choice of meat and drink,

but of all those other non-natural things. Let air be clear and

moist most part: diet moistening, of good juice, easy of digestion,

and not windy: drink clear, and well brewed, not too strong, nor too

small. "Make a melancholy man fat," as 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 Fernelius enjoins his patient, consil. 44, above

the rest, to avoid all passions and perturbations of the mind. Let

him not be alone or idle (in any kind of melancholy), but still

accompanied with such friends and familiars he most affects, neatly

dressed, washed, and combed, according to his ability at least, in

clean sweet linen, spruce, handsome, decent, and good apparel; for

nothing sooner dejects a man than want, squalor, and nastiness,

foul, or old clothes out of fashion. Concerning the medicinal part,

he that will satisfy himself at large (in this precedent of diet)

and see all at once the whole cure and manner of it in every

distinct species, let him consult with Gordonius, Valescus, with

Prosper Calenius, lib. de atra bile ad Card. Caesium, Laurentius,

cap. 8. et 9. de mela. Aelian Montaltus, de mel. cap. 26. 27. 28. 29.

30. Donat. ab Altomari, cap. 7. artis med. Hercules de Saxonia, in

Panth. cap. 7. et Tract. ejus peculiar. de melan. per Bolzetam,

edit. Venetiis 1620. cap. 17. 18. 19. Savanarola, Rub. 82. Tract. 8.

cap. 1. Sckenkius, in prax. curat. Ital. med. Heurnius, cap. 12. de

morb. Victorius Faventius, pract. Magn. et Empir. Hildesheim,

Spicel. 2. de man. et mel. Fel. Plater, Stockerus, Bruel. P.

Baverus, Forestus, Fuchsius, Capivaccius, Rondoletius, Jason

Pratensis, Sullust. Salvian. de remed. lib. 2. cap. 1. Jacchinus, in

9. Rhasis, Lod. Mercatus, de Inter. morb. cur. lib. 1. cap. 17.

Alexan. Messaria, pract. med. lib. 1. cap. 21. de mel. Piso.

Hollerius, &c. that have culled out of those old Greeks, Arabians,

and Latins, whatsoever is observable or fit to be used. Or let him

read those counsels and consultations of Hugo Senensis, consil. 13.

et 14. Reinerus Solenander, consil. 6. sec. 1. et consil. 3. sec. 3.

Crato, consil. 16. lib. 1. Montanus 20. 22. and his following

counsels, Laelius a Fonte Egubinus, consult. 44. 69. 77. 125. 129.

142. Fernelius, consil. 44. 45. 46. Jul. Caesar Claudinus,

Mercurialis, Frambesarius, Sennertus, &c. Wherein he shall find

particular receipts, the whole method, preparatives, purgers,

correctors, averters, cordials in great variety and abundance: out

of which, because every man cannot attend to read or peruse them, I

will collect for the benefit of the reader, some few more notable

medicines.

SUBSECT. II.-- Bloodletting.

Phlebotomy is promiscuously used before and after physic,

commonly before, and upon occasion is often reiterated, if there be

any need at least of it. For Galen, and many others, make a doubt of

bleeding at all in this kind of head-melancholy. If the malady,

saith Piso, cap. 23. and Altomarus, cap. 7. Fuchsius, cap. 33.

"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-

leeches on the head, and in all melancholy diseases, whether

essential or accidental, they cause the haemorrhoids to be opened,

having the eleventh aphorism of the sixth book of Hippocrates for

their ground and warrant, which saith, "That in melancholy and mad

men, the varicose tumour or haemorrhoids appearing doth heal the

same." Valescus prescribes bloodletting in all three kinds, whom

Sallust. Salvian follows. "If the blood abound, which is discerned

by the fullness of the veins, his precedent diet, the party's

laughter, age, &c., begin with the median or middle vein of the arm;

if the blood be ruddy and clear, stop it, but if black in the spring

time, or a good season, or thick, let it run, according to the

party's strength: and some eight or twelve days after, open the head

vein, and the veins in the forehead, or provoke it out of the

nostrils, or cupping-glasses," &c. Trallianus allows of this, "If

there have been any suppression or stopping of blood at nose, or

haemorrhoids, or women's months, then to open a vein in the head or

about the ankles." Yet he doth hardly approve of this course, if

melancholy be situated in the head alone, or in any other dotage,

"except it primarily proceed from blood, or that the malady be

increased by it; for bloodletting refrigerates and dries up, except

the body be very full of blood, and a kind of ruddiness in the

face." Therefore I conclude with Areteus, "before you let blood,

deliberate of it," and well consider all circumstances belonging to

it.

SUBSECT. III.-- Preparatives and Purgers.

After bloodletting we must proceed to other medicines; first

prepare, and then purge, Augeae stabulum purgare, make the body clean

before we hope to do any good. Walter Bruel would have a

practitioner begin first with a clyster of his, which he prescribes

before bloodletting: the common sort, as Mercurialis, Montaltus cap.

30. &c. proceed from lenitives to preparatives, and so to purgers.

Lenitives are well known, electuarium lenitivum, diaphenicum,

diacatholicon, &c. Preparatives are usually syrups of borage,

bugloss, apples, fumitory, thyme and epithyme, with double as much

of the same decoction or distilled water, or of the waters of

bugloss, balm, hops, endive, scolopendry, fumitory, &c. or these

sodden in whey, which must be reiterated and used for many days

together. Purges come last, "which must not be used at all, if the

malady may be otherwise helped," because they weaken nature and dry

so much, and in giving of them, "we must begin with the gentlest

first." Some forbid all hot medicines, as Alexander, and Salvianus,

&c. Ne insaniores inde fiant, hot medicines increase the disease "by

drying too much." Purge downward rather than upward, use potions

rather than pills, and when you begin physic, persevere and continue

in a course; for as one observes, movere et non educere in omnibus

malum est; to stir up the humour (as one purge commonly doth) and

not to prosecute, doth more harm than good. They must continue in a

course of physic, yet not so that they tire and oppress nature,

danda quies naturae, they must now and then remit, and let nature

have some rest. The most gentle purges to begin with, are senna,

cassia, epithyme, myrabolanea, catholicon: if these prevail not, we

may proceed to stronger, as the confection of hamech, pil. Indae,

fumitoriae, de assaieret, of lapis armenus and lazuli, diasena. Or

if pills be too dry; some prescribe both hellebores in the last

place, amongst the rest Aretus, "because this disease will resist a

gentle medicine." Laurentius and Hercules de Saxonia would have

antimony tried last, "if the party be strong, and it warily given."

Trincavelius prefers hierologodium, to whom Francis Alexander in his

Apol. rad. 5. subscribes, a very good medicine they account it. But

Crato in a counsel of his, for the duke of Bavaria's chancellor,

wholly rejects it.

I find a vast chaos of medicines, a confusion of receipts and

magistrals, amongst writers, appropriated to this disease; some of

the chiefest I will rehearse. To be seasick first is very good at

seasonable times. Helleborismus Matthioli, with which he vaunts and

boasts he did so many several cures, "I never gave it" (saith he),

"but after once or twice, by the help of God, they were happily

cured." The manner of making it he sets down at large in his third

book of Epist. to George Hankshius a physician. Walter Bruel, and

Heurnius, make mention of it with great approbation; so doth

Sckenkius in his memorable cures, and experimental medicines, cen.

6. obser. 37. That famous Helleborisme of Montanus, which he so

often repeats in his consultations and counsels, as 28. pro. melan.

sacerdote, et consil. 148. pro hypochondriaco, and cracks, "to be a

most sovereign remedy for all melancholy persons, which he hath

often given without offence, and found by long experience and

observations to be such."

Quercetan prefers a syrup of hellebore in his Spagirica

Pharmac. and Hellebore's extract cap. 5. of his invention likewise

("a most safe medicine and not unfit to be given children") before

all remedies whatsoever.

Paracelsus, in his book of black hellebore, admits this

medicine, but as it is prepared by him. "It is most certain" (saith

he) "that the virtue of this herb is great, and admirable in effect,

and little differing from balm itself; and he that knows well how to

make use of it, hath more art than all their books contain, or all

the doctors in Germany can show."

Aelianus Montaltus in his exquisite work de morb. capitis, cap.

31. de mel. sets a special receipt of his own, which, in his

practice "he fortunately used; because it is but short I will set it

down."

"Rx. Syrupe de pomis ounces ij, aquae borag. ounces iiij.

Ellebori nigri per noctem infusi in ligatura 6 vel 8 gr. mane

facta collatura exhibe."

Other receipts of the same to this purpose you shall find in

him. Valescus admires pulvis Hali, and Jason Pratensis after him:

the confection of which our new London Pharmacopoeia hath lately

revived. "Put case" (saith he) "all other medicines fail, by the

help of God this alone shall do it, and 'tis a crowned medicine

which must be kept in secret."

"Rx.. Epithymi semunc., lapidis lazuli, agarici ana ounces ij.

Scammnonii. drachms j, Chariophillorum numero 20

pulverisentur Omnia, et ipsius pulveris scrup. 4. singulis

septimanis assumat."

To these I may add Arnoldi vinum Buglossalum, or borage wine

before mentioned, which Mizaldus calls vinum mirabile, a wonderful

wine, and Stockerus vouchsafes to repeat verbatim amongst other

receipts. Rubeus his compound water out of Savanarola; Pinetus his

balm; Cardan's Pulvis Hyacinthi, with which, in his book de curis

admirandis, he boasts that he had cured many melancholy persons in

eight days, which Sckenkius puts amongst his observable medicines;

Altomarus his syrup, with which he calls God so solemnly to witness,

he hath in his kind done many excellent cures, and which Sckenkius

cent. 7. observ. 80. mentioneth, Daniel Sennertus lib. 1. part. 2.

cap. 12. so much commends; Rulandus' admirable water for melancholy,

which cent. 2. cap. 96. he names Spiritum vitae aureum, Panaceam,

what not, and his absolute medicine of 50 eggs, curat. Empir. cent.

1. cur. 5. to be taken three in a morning, with a powder of his.

Faventinus prac. Emper. doubles this number of eggs, and will have

101 to be taken by three and three in like sort, which Sallust

Salvian approves de red. med. lib. 2. c. 1. with some of the same

powder, till all be spent, a most excellent remedy for all

melancholy and mad men.

"Rx.. Epithymi, thymi, ana drachmas duas, sacchari albi unciam

unam, croci grana tria, Cinamomi drachmam unam; misce, fiat

pulvis."

All these yet are nothing to those chemical preparatives of

Aqua Chalidonia, quintessence of hellebore, salts, extracts,

distillations, oils, Aurum potabile, &c. Dr. Anthony in his book de

auro potab. edit. 1600. is all in all for it. "And though all the

schools of Galenists, with a wicked and unthankful pride and scorn,

detest it in their practice, yet in more grievous diseases, when

their vegetals will do no good," they are compelled to seek the help

of minerals, though they "use them rashly, unprofitably, slackly,

and to no purpose." Rhenanus, a Dutch chemist, in his book de Sale e

puteo emergente, takes upon him to apologise for Anthony, and sets

light by all that speak against him. But what do I meddle with this

great controversy, which is the subject of many volumes? Let

Paracelsus, Quercetan, Crollius, and the brethren of the rosy cross,

defend themselves as they may. Crato, Erastus, and the Galenists

oppugn Paracelsus, he brags on the other side, he did more famous

cures by this means, than all the Galenists in Europe, and calls

himself a monarch; Galen, Hippocrates, infants, illiterate, &c. As

Thessalus of old railed against those ancient Asclepiadean writers,

"he condemns others, insults, triumphs, overcomes all antiquity"

(saith Galen as if he spake to him) "declares himself a conqueror,

and crowns his own doings. One drop of their chemical preparatives

shall do more good than all their fulsome potions." Erastus, and the

rest of the Galenists vilify them on the other side, as heretics in

physic; "Paracelsus did that in physic, which Luther in Divinity. A

drunken rogue he was, a base fellow, a magician, he had the devil

for his master, devils his familiar companions, and what he did, was

done by the help of the devil." Thus they contend and rail, and

every mart write books pro and con, et adhuc sub judice lis est: let

them agree as they will, I proceed.

SUBSECT. IV.-- Averters.

Averters and purgers must go together, as tending all to the

same purpose, to divert this rebellious humour, and turn it another

way. In this range, clysters and suppositories challenge a chief

place, to draw this humour from the brain and heart, to the more

ignoble parts. Some would have them still used a few days between,

and those to be made with the boiled seeds of anise, fennel, and

bastard saffron, hops, thyme, epithyme, mallows, fumitory, bugloss,

polypody, senna, diasene, hamech, cassia, diacatholicon,

hierologodium, oil of violets, sweet almonds, &c. For without

question, a clyster opportunely used, cannot choose in this, as most

other maladies, but to do very much good; Clysteres nutriunt,

sometimes clysters nourish, as they may be prepared, as I was

informed not long since by a learned lecture of our natural

philosophy reader, which he handled by way of discourse, out of some

other noted physicians. Such things as provoke urine most commend,

but not sweat. Trincavellius consil. 16. cap. 1. in head-melancholy

forbids it. P. Byarus and others approve frictions of the outward

parts, and to bathe them with warm water. Instead of ordinary

frictions, Cardan prescribes rubbing with nettles till they blister

the skin, which likewise Basardus Visontinus so much magnifies.

Sneezing, masticatories, and nasals are generally received.

Montaltus c. 34. Hildesheim spicel. 3. fol. 136 and 238. give

several receipts of all three. Hercules de Saxonia relates of an

empiric in Venice "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 with

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 issues in the left thigh." Aretus lib. 7. cap.

5. Paulus Regolinus, Sylvius will have them without scarification,

"applied to the shoulders and back, thighs and feet:" Montaltus cap.

34. "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 the 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 three places," for that it much avails to the

exhalation of the vapours; "I saw" (saith he) "a melancholy man at

Rome, that by no remedies could be healed, but when by chance he was

wounded in the head, and the skull broken, he was excellently

cured." Another, to the admiration of the beholders, "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 brainpan

broken; so long as the wound was open he was well, but when his

wound was healed, his dotage returned again." But Alexander Messaria

a professor in Padua, lib. 1. pract. med. cap. 21. de melanchol.

will allow no cauteries at all, 'tis too stiff a humour and too

thick as he holds, to be so evaporated.

Guianerius c. 8. Tract. 15. cured a nobleman in Savoy, by

boring alone, "leaving the hole open a month together," by means of

which, after two years' melancholy and madness, he was delivered.

All approve of this remedy in the suture of the crown; but Arculanus

would have the cautery to be made with gold. In many other parts,

these cauteries are prescribed for melancholy men, as in the thighs,

(Mercurialis consil. 86.) arms, legs. Idem consil. 6. & 19. & 25.

Montanus 86. Rodericus a Fonseca tom. 2. cousult. 84. pro hypochond.

coxa dextra, &c., but most in the head, "if other physic will do no

good."

SUBSECT. V.-- Alteratives and Cordials, corroborating, resolving the

Reliques, and mending the Temperament.

Because this humour is so malign of itself, and so hard to be

removed, the reliques are to be cleansed, by alteratives, cordials,

and such means: the temper is to be altered and amended, with such

things as fortify and strengthen the heart and brain, "which are

commonly both affected in this malady, and do mutually misaffect one

another:" which are still to be given every other day, or some few

days inserted after a purge, or like physic, as occasion serves, and

are of such force, that many times they help alone, and as Arnoldus

holds in his Aphorisms, are to be "preferred before all other

medicines, in what kind soever."

Amongst this number of cordials and alteratives, I do not find

a more present remedy, than a cup of wine or strong drink, if it be

soberly and opportunely used. It makes a man bold, hardy,

courageous, "whetteth the wit," if moderately taken, (and as

Plutarch saith, Symp. 7. quaest. 12.) "it makes those which are

otherwise dull, to exhale and evaporate like frankincense, or

quicken" (Xenophon adds) as oil doth fire. "A famous cordial"

Matthiolus in Dioscoridum calls it, "an excellent nutriment to

refresh the body, it makes a good colour, a flourishing age, helps

concoction, fortifies the stomach, takes away obstructions, provokes

urine, drives out excrements, procures sleep, clears the blood,

expels wind and cold poisons, attenuates, concocts, dissipates all

thick vapours, and fuliginous humours." And that which is all in all

to my purpose, it takes away fear and sorrow. Curas edaces dissipat

Evius. "It glads the heart of man," Psal. civ. 15. hilaritatis dulce

seminarium. Helena's bowl, the sole nectar of the gods, or that true

nepenthes in Homer, which puts away care and grief, as Oribasius 5.

Collect, cap. 7. and some others will, was nought else but a cup of

good wine. "It makes the mind of the king and of the fatherless both

one, of the bond and freeman, poor and rich; it turneth all his

thoughts to joy and mirth, makes him remember no sorrow or debt, but

enricheth his heart, and makes him speak by talents," Esdras iii.

19, 20, 21. It gives life itself, spirits, wit, &c. For which cause

the ancients called Bacchus, Liber pater a liberando, and sacrificed

to Bacchus and Pallas still upon an altar. "Wine measurably drunk,

and in time, brings gladness and cheerfulness of mind, it cheereth

God and men," Judges ix. 13. laetitiae Bacchus dator, it makes an old

wife dance, and such as are in misery to forget evil, and be merry.

"Bacchus et afflictis requiem mortalibus affert,

Crura licet duro compede vincta forent."

"Wine makes a troubled soul to rest,

Though feet with fetters be opprest."

Demetrius in Plutarch, when he fell into Seleucus's hands, and

was prisoner in Syria, "spent his time with dice and drink that he

might so ease his discontented mind, and avoid those continual

cogitations of his present condition wherewith he was tormented."

Therefore Solomon, Prov. xxxi. 6, bids "wine be given to him that is

ready to perish, and to him that hath grief of heart, let him drink

that he forget his poverty, and remember his misery no more."

Sollicitis animis onus eximit, it easeth a burdened soul, nothing

speedier, nothing better; which the prophet Zachariah perceived,

when he said, "that in the time of Messias, they of Ephraim should

be glad, and their heart should rejoice as through wine." All which

makes me very well approve of that pretty description of a feast in

Bartholomeus Anglicus, when grace was said, their hands washed, and

the guests sufficiently exhilarated, with good discourse, sweet

music, dainty fare, exhilarationis gratia, pocula iterum atque

iterum offeruntur, as a corollary to conclude the feast, and

continue their mirth, a grace cup came in to cheer their hearts, and

they drank healths to one another again and again. Which as I.

Fredericus Matenesius, Crit. Christ. lib. 2. cap. 5, 6, & 7, was an

old custom in all ages in every commonwealth, so as they be not

enforced, bibere per violentiam, but as in that royal feast of

Ahasuerus, which lasted 180 days, "without compulsion they drank by

order in golden vessels," when and what they would themselves. This

of drink is a most easy and parable remedy, a common, a cheap, still

ready against fear, sorrow, and such troublesome thoughts, that

molest the mind; as brimstone with fire, the spirits on a sudden are

enlightened by it. "No better physic" (saith Rhasis) "for a

melancholy man: and he that can keep company, and carouse, needs no

other medicines," 'tis enough. His countryman Avicenna, 31. doc. 2.

cap. 8. proceeds farther yet, and will have him that is troubled in

mind, or melancholy, not to drink only, but now and then to be

drunk: excellent good physic it is for this and many other diseases.

Magninus Reg. san. part. 3. c. 31. will have them to be so once a

month at least, and gives his reasons for it, "because it scours the

body by vomit, urine, sweat, of all manner of superfluities, and

keeps it clean." Of the same mind is Seneca the philosopher, in his

book de tranquil. lib. 1. c. 15. nonnunquam ut in aliis morbis ad

ebrietatem usque veniendum; Curas deprimit, tristitiae medetur, it is

good sometimes to be drunk, it helps sorrow, depresseth cares, and

so concludes this tract with a cup of wine: Habes, Serene

charissime, quae ad, tranquillitatem animae, pertinent. But these are

epicureal tenets, tending to looseness of life, luxury and atheism,

maintained alone by some heathens, dissolute Arabians, profane

Christians, and are exploded by Rabbi Moses, tract. 4. Guliel,

Placentius, lib. 1. cap. 8. Valescus de Taranta, and most accurately

ventilated by Jo. Sylvaticus, a late writer and physician of Milan,

med. cont. cap. 14. where you shall find this tenet copiously

confuted.

Howsoever you say, if this be true, that wine and strong drink

have such virtue to expel fear and sorrow, and to exhilarate the

mind, ever hereafter let's drink and be merry.

"Prome reconditum, Lyde strenua, caecubum,

Capaciores puer huc affer Scyphos,

Et Chia vina aut Lesbia."

"Come, lusty Lyda, fill's a cup of sack,

And, sirrah drawer, bigger pots we lack,

And Scio wines that have so good a smack."

I say with him in A. Gellius, "let us maintain the vigour of

our souls with a moderate cup of wine," Natis in usum laetitiae

scyphis, "and drink to refresh our mind; if there be any cold sorrow

in it, or torpid bashfulness, let's wash it all away."-- Nunc vino

pellite curas; so saith Horace, so saith Anacreon,

?e????ta ?a? µe ?e?s?a?

???? ??e?ss?? ? ?a???ta.

"[Methyonta gar me keisthai

Poly kreisson e thanonta.]"

Let's drive down care with a cup of wine: and so say I too,

(though I drink none myself) for all this may be done, so that it be

modestly, soberly, opportunely used: so that "they be not drunk with

wine, wherein is excess," which our Apostle forewarns; for as

Chrysostom well comments on that place, ad laetitiam datum est vinum,

non ad ebrietatem, 'tis for mirth wine, but not for madness: and

will you know where, when, and how that is to be understood? Vis

discere ubi bonum sit vinum? Audi quid dicat Scriptura, hear the

Scriptures, "Give wine to them that are in sorrow," or as Paul bid

Timothy drink wine for his stomach's sake, for concoction, health,

or some such honest occasion. Otherwise, as Pliny telleth us; if

singular moderation be not had, "nothing so pernicious, 'tis mere

vinegar, blandus daemon, poison itself." But hear a more fearful

doom, Habac. ii. 15. and 16. "Woe be to him that makes his neighbour

drunk, shameful spewing shall be upon his glory." Let not good

fellows triumph therefore (saith Matthiolus) that I have so much

commended wine, if it be immoderately taken, "instead of making

glad, it confounds both body and soul, it makes a giddy head, a

sorrowful heart." And 'twas well said of the poet of old, "Vine

causeth mirth and grief," nothing so good for some, so bad for

others, especially as one observes, qui a causa calida male habent,

that are hot or inflamed. And so of spices, they alone, as I have

showed, cause head-melancholy themselves, they must not use wine as

an ordinary drink, or in their diet. But to determine with

Laurentius, c. 8. de melan. wine is bad for madmen, and such as are

troubled with heat in their inner parts or brains; but to

melancholy, which is cold (as most is), wine, soberly used, may be

very good.

I may say the same of the decoction of China roots, sassafras,

sarsaparilla, guaiacum: China, saith Manardus, makes a good colour

in the face, takes away melancholy, and all infirmities proceeding

from cold, even so sarsaparilla provokes sweat mightily, guaiacum

dries, Claudinus, consult. 89. & 46. Montanus, Capivaccius, consult.

188. Scoltzii, make frequent and good use of guaiacum and China, "so

that the liver be not incensed," good for such as are cold, as most

melancholy men are, but by no means to be mentioned in hot.

The Turks have a drink called coffee (for they use no wine),

so named of a berry as black as soot, and as bitter, (like that

black drink which was in use amongst the Lacedaemonians, and perhaps

the same,) which they sip still of, and sup as warm as they can

suffer; they spend much time in those coffeehouses, which are

somewhat like our alehouses or taverns, and there they sit chatting

and drinking to drive away the time, and to be merry together,

because they find by experience that kind of drink, so used, helpeth

digestion, and procureth alacrity. Some of them take opium to this

purpose.

Borage, balm, saffron, gold, I have spoken of; Montaltus, c.

23. commends scorzonera roots condite. Garcius ab Horto, plant.

hist. lib. 2. cap. 25. makes mention of an herb called datura,

"which, if it be eaten for twenty-four hours following, takes away

all sense of grief, makes them incline to laughter and mirth:" and

another called bauge, like in effect to opium, "which puts them for

a time into a kind of ecstasy," and makes them gently to laugh. One

of the Roman emperors had a seed, which he did ordinarily eat to

exhilarate himself. Christophorus Ayrerus prefers bezoar stone, and

the confection of alkermes, before other cordials, and amber in some

cases. "Alkermes comforts the inner parts;" and bezoar stone hath an

especial virtue against all melancholy affections, "it refresheth

the heart, and corroborates the whole body." Amber provokes urine,

helps the body, breaks wind, &c. After a purge, 3 or 4 grains of

bezoar stone, and 3 grains of ambergris, drunk or taken in borage or

bugloss water, in which gold hot hath been quenched, will do much

good, and the purge shall diminish less (the heart so refreshed) of

the strength and substance of the body.

"Rx.. confect. Alkermes ounces one-half lap. Bezor. scruples

j. Succini albi subtiliss. pulverisat. scruples jj. cum Syrup,

de cort. citri; fiat electuarium."

To bezoar stone most subscribe, Manardus, and many others; "it

takes away sadness, and makes him merry that useth it; I have seen

some that have been much diseased with faintness, swooning, and

melancholy, that taking the weight of three grains of this stone, in

the water of oxtongue, have been cured." Garcias ab Horto brags how

many desperate cures he hath done upon melancholy men by this alone,

when all physicians had forsaken them. But alkermes many except

against; in some cases it may help, if it be good and of the best,

such as that of Montpelier in France, which Iodocus Sincerus,

Itinerario Galliae, so much magnifies, and would have no traveller

omit to see it made. But it is not so general a medicine as the

other. Fernelius, consil. 49, suspects alkermes, by reason of its

heat, "nothing" (saith he) "sooner exasperates this disease, than

the use of hot working meats and medicines, and would have them for

that cause warily taken." I conclude, therefore, of this and all

other medicines, as Thucydides of the plague at Athens, no remedy

could be prescribed for it, Nam quod uni profuit, hoc aliis erat

exitio: there is no catholic medicine to be had: that which helps

one, is pernicious to another.

Diamargaritum frigidum, diambra, diaboraginatum, electuarium

laetificans Galeni et Rhasis, de gemmis, dianthos, diamoscum dulce et

amarum, electuarium conciliatoris, syrup. Cidoniorum de pomis,

conserves of roses, violets, fumitory, enula campana, satyrion,

lemons, orange-pills, condite, &c., have their good use.

"Rx.. Diamoschi dulcis et amari ana drachms jj.

Diabuglossati, Diaboraginati, sacchari violacei ana j. misce

cum syrupo de pomis."

Every physician is full of such receipts: one only I will add

for the rareness of it, which I find recorded by many learned

authors, as an approved medicine against dotage, head-melancholy,

and such diseases of the brain. Take a ram's head that never meddled

with an ewe, cut off at a blow, and the horns only take away, boil

it well, skin and wool together; after it is well sod, take out the

brains, and put these spices to it, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace,

cloves, ana ounces one-half, mingle the powder of these spices with

it, and heat them in a platter upon a chafing-dish of coals

together, stirring them well, that they do not burn; take heed it be

not overmuch dried, or drier than a calf's brains ready to be eaten.

Keep it so prepared, and for three days give it the patient fasting,

so that he fast two hours after it. It may be eaten with bread in an

egg or broth, or any way, so it be taken. For fourteen days let him

use this diet, drink no wine, &c. Gesner, hist. animal. lib. 1. pag.

917. Caricterius, pract. 13. in Nich. de metri. pag. 129. Iatro:

Wittenberg. edit. Tubing. pag. 62, mention this medicine, though

with some variation; he that list may try it, and many such.

Odoraments to smell to, of rosewater, violet flowers, balm,

rose- cakes, vinegar, &c., do much recreate the brains and spirits,

according to Solomon. Prov. xxvii. 9. "They rejoice the heart," and

as some say, nourish; 'tis a question commonly controverted in our

schools, an odores nutriant; let Ficinus, lib. 2. cap. 18. decide

it; many arguments he brings to prove it; as of Democritus, that

lived by the smell of bread alone, applied to his nostrils, for some

few days, when for old age he could eat no meat. Ferrerius, lib. 2.

meth. speaks of an excellent confection of his making, of wine,

saffron, &c., which he prescribed to dull, weak, feeble, and dying

men to smell to, and by it to have done very much good, aeque fere

profuisse olfactu, et potu, as if he had given them drink. Our noble

and learned Lord Verulam, in his book de vita et morte, commends,

therefore, all such cold smells as any way serve to refrigerate the

spirits. Montanus, consil. 31, prescribes a form which he would have

his melancholy patient never to have out of his hands. If you will

have them spagirically prepared, look in Oswaldus Crollius, basil.

Chymica.

Irrigations of the head shaven, "of the flowers of water

lilies, lettuce, violets, camomile, wild mallows, wether's-head,

&c.," must be used many mornings together. Montan. consil. 31, would

have the head so washed once a week. Laelius a Fonte Eugubinus

consult. 44, for an Italian count, troubled with head- melancholy,

repeats many medicines which he tried, "but two alone which did the

cure; use of whey made of goat's milk, with the extract of

hellebore, and irrigations of the head with water lilies, lettuce,

violets, camomile, &c., upon the suture of the crown." Piso commends

a ram's lungs applied hot to the fore part of the head, or a young

lamb divided in the back, exenterated, &c.; all acknowledge the

chief cure in moistening throughout. Some, saith Laurentius, use

powders and caps to the brain; but forasmuch as such aromatical

things are hot and dry, they must be sparingly administered.

Unto the heart we may do well to apply bags, epithems,

ointments, of which Laurentius, c. 9. de melan. gives examples.

Bruel prescribes an epithem for the heart, of bugloss, borage,

water-lily, violet waters, sweet-wine, balm leaves, nutmegs, cloves,

&c.

For the belly, make a fomentation of oil, in which the seeds

of cumin, rue, carrots, dill, have been boiled.

Baths are of wonderful great force in this malady, much

admired by Galen, Aetius, Rhasis, &c., of sweet water, in which is

boiled the leaves of mallows, roses, violets, water-lilies,

wether's- head, flowers of bugloss, camomile, melilot, &c. Guianer,

cap. 8. tract. 15, would have them used twice a day, and when they

came forth of the baths, their back bones to be anointed with oil of

almonds, violets, nymphea, fresh capon grease, &c.

Amulets and things to be borne about, I find prescribed, taxed

by some, approved by Renodeus, Platerus, (amuleta inquit non

negligenda) and others; look for them in Mizaldus, Porta, Albertus,

&c. Bassardus Viscontinus, ant. philos. commends hypericon, or St.

John's wort gathered on a Friday in the hour of "Jupiter, when it

comes to his effectual operation (that is about the full moon in

July); so gathered and borne, or hung about the neck, it mightily

helps this affection, and drives away all fantastical spirits."

Philes, a Greek author that flourished in the time of Michael

Paleologus, writes that a sheep or kid's skin, whom a wolf worried,

Haedus inhumani raptus ab ore lupi, ought not at all to be worn about

a man, "because it causeth palpitation of the heart," not for any

fear, but a secret virtue which amulets have. A ring made of the

hoof of an ass's right fore foot carried about, &c. I say with

Renodeus, they are not altogether to be rejected. Paeony doth cure

epilepsy; precious stones most diseases; a wolf's dung borne with

one helps the colic, a spider an ague, &c. Being in the country in

the vacation time not many years since, at Lindley in

Leicestershire, my father's house, I first observed this amulet of a

spider in a nut-shell lapped in silk, &c., so applied for an ague by

my mother; whom, although I knew to have excellent skill in

chirurgery, sore eyes, aches, &c., and such experimental medicines,

as all the country where she dwelt can witness, to have done many

famous and good cures upon diverse poor folks, that were otherwise

destitute of help: yet among all other experiments, this methought

was most absurd and ridiculous, I could see no warrant for it. Quid

aranea cum febre? For what antipathy? till at length rambling

amongst authors (as often I do) I found this very medicine in

Dioscorides, approved by Matthiolus, repeated by Alderovandus, cap.

de Aranea, lib. de insectis, I began to have a better opinion of it,

and to give more credit to amulets, when I saw it in some parties

answer to experience. Some medicines are to be exploded, that

consist of words, characters, spells, and charms, which can do no

good at all, but out of a strong conceit, as Pomponatius proves; or

the devil's policy, who is the first founder and teacher of them.

SUBSECT. VI.-- Correctors of Accidents to procure Sleep. Against

fearful Dreams, Redness, &c.

When you have used all good means and helps of alteratives,

averters, diminutives, yet there will be still certain accidents to

be corrected and amended, as waking, fearful dreams, flushing in the

face to some ruddiness, &c.

Waking, by reason of their continual cares, fears, sorrows,

dry brains, is a symptom that much crucifies melancholy men, and

must therefore be speedily helped, and sleep by all means procured,

which sometimes is a sufficient remedy of itself without any other

physic. Sckenkius, in his observations, hath an example of a woman

that was so cured. The means to procure it, are inward or outward.

Inwardly taken, are simples, or compounds; simples, as poppy,

nymphea, violets, roses, lettuce, mandrake, henbane, nightshade or

solanum, saffron, hemp-seed, nutmegs, willows, with their seeds,

juice, decoctions, distilled waters, &c. Compounds are syrups, or

opiates, syrup of poppy, violets, verbasco, which are commonly taken

with distilled waters.

"Rx. diacodii ounces j. diascordii drachms one-half aquae

lactucae ounces iij & one-half mista fiat potio ad horam somni

sumenda."

Requies Nicholai, Philonium Romanum, Triphera magna, pilulae,

de Cynoglossa, Dioscordium, Laudanum Paracelsi, Opium, are in use,

&c. Country folks commonly make a posset of hemp-seed, which

Fuchsius in his herbal so much discommends; yet I have seen the good

effect, and it may be used where better medicines are not to be had.

Laudanum Paracelsi is prescribed in two or three grains, with

a dram of Diascordium, which Oswald. Crollius commends. Opium itself

is most part used outwardly, to smell to in a ball, though commonly

so taken by the Turks to the same quantity for a cordial, and at Goa

in, the Indies; the dose 40 or 50 grains.

Rulandus calls Requiem Nicholai ultimum refugium, the last

refuge; but of this and the rest look for peculiar receipts in

Victorius Faventinus, cap. de phrensi. Heurnius cap. de mania.

Hildesheim spicel. 4. de somno et vigil. &c. Outwardly used, as oil

of nutmegs by extraction, or expression with rosewater to anoint the

temples, oils of poppy, nenuphar, mandrake, purslain, violets, all

to the same purpose.

Montan. consil. 24 & 25. much commends odoraments of opium,

vinegar, and rosewater. Laurentius cap. 9. prescribes pomanders and

nodules; see the receipts in him; Codronchus wormwood to smell to.

Unguentum Alabastritum, populeum are used to anoint the

temples, nostrils, or if they be too weak, they mix saffron and

opium. Take a grain or two of opium, and dissolve it with three or

four drops of rosewater in a spoon, and after mingle with it as much

Unguentum populeum as a nut, use it as before: or else take half a

dram of opium, Unguentum populeum, oil of nenuphar, rosewater, rose-

vinegar, of each half an ounce, with as much virgin wax as a nut,

anoint your temples with some of it, ad horam somni.

Sacks of wormwood, mandrake, henbane, roses made like pillows

and laid under the patient's head, are mentioned by Cardan and

Mizaldus, "to anoint the soles of the feet with the fat of a

dormouse, the teeth with ear wax of a dog, swine's gall, hare's

ears:" charms, &c.

Frontlets are well known to every good wife, rosewater and

vinegar, with a little woman's milk, and nutmegs grated upon a rose-

cake applied to both temples.

For an emplaster, take of castorium a dram and a half, of

opium half a scruple, mixed both together with a little water of

life, make two small plasters thereof, and apply them to the

temples.

Rulandus cent. 1. cur. 17. cent. 3. cur. 94. prescribes

epithemes and lotions of the head, with the decoction of flowers of

nymphea, violet-leaves, mandrake roots, henbane, white poppy. Herc.

de Saxonia, stillicidia, or droppings, &c. Lotions of the feet do

much avail of the said herbs: by these means, saith Laurentius, I

think you may procure sleep to the most melancholy man in the world.

Some use horse-leeches behind the ears, and apply opium to the

place.

Bayerus lib. 2. c. 13. sets down some remedies against

fearful dreams, and such as walk and talk in their sleep. Baptista

Porta Mag. nat. l. 2. c. 6. to procure pleasant dreams and quiet

rest, would have you take hippoglossa, or the herb horsetongue,

balm, to use them or their distilled waters after supper, &c. Such

men must not eat beans, peas, garlic, onions, cabbage, venison,

hare, use black wines, or any meat hard of digestion at supper, or

lie on their backs, &c.

Rusticus pudor, bashfulness, flushing in the face, high

colour, ruddiness, are common grievances, which much torture many

melancholy men, when they meet a man, or come in company of their

betters, strangers, after a meal, or if they drink a cup of wine or

strong drink, they are as red and flet, and sweat as if they had

been at a mayor's feast, praesertim si metus accesserit, it exceeds,

they think every man observes, takes notice of it: and fear alone

will effect it, suspicion without any other cause. Sckenkius observ.

med. lib. 1. speaks of a waiting gentlewoman in the Duke of Savoy's

court, that was so much offended with it, that she kneeled down to

him, and offered Biarus, a physician, all that she had to be cured

of it. And 'tis most true, that Antony Ludovicus saith in his book

de Pudore, "bashfulness either hurts or helps," such men I am sure

it hurts. If it proceed from suspicion or fear, Felix Plater

prescribes no other remedy but to reject and contemn it: Id populus

curat scilicet, as a worthy physician in our town said to a friend

of mine in like case, complaining without a cause, suppose one look

red, what matter is it, make light of it, who observes it?

If it trouble at or after meals, (as Jobertus observes med.

pract. l. 1. c. 7.) after a little exercise or stirring, for many

are then hot and red in the face, or if they do nothing at all,

especially women; he would have them let blood in both arms, first

one, then another, two or three days between, if blood abound; to

use frictions of the other parts, feet especially, and washing of

them, because of that consent which is between the head and the

feet. And withal to refrigerate the face, by washing it often with

rose, violet, nenuphar, lettuce, lovage waters, and the like: but

the best of all is that lac virginale, or strained liquor of

litargy: it is diversely prepared; by Jobertus thus; Rx. lithar.

argent. unc. j cerussae candidissimae, drachms jjj. caphurae, scruples

jj. dissolvantur aquarum solani, lactucae, et nenupharis ana unc.

jjj. aceti vini albi. unc. jj. aliquot horas resideat, deinde

transmittatur per philt. aqua servetur in vase vitreo, ac ea bis

terve facies quotidie irroretur. Quercetan spagir. phar. cap. 6.

commends the water of frog's spawn for ruddiness in the face. Crato

consil. 283. Scoltzii would fain have them use all summer the

condite flowers of succory, strawberry water, roses (cupping-glasses

are good for the time), consil. 285. et 286. and to defecate impure

blood with the infusion of senna, savory, balm water. Hollerius knew

one cured alone with the use of succory boiled, and drunk for five

months, every morning in the summer. It is good overnight to anoint

the face with hare's blood, and in the morning to wash it with

strawberry and cowslip water, the juice of distilled lemons, juice

of cucumbers, or to use the seeds of melons, or kernels of peaches

beaten small, or the roots of Aron, and mixed with wheat bran to

bake it in an oven, and to crumble it in strawberry water, or to

put fresh cheese curds to a red face.

If it trouble them at meal times that flushing, as oft it

doth, with sweating or the like, they must avoid all violent

passions and actions, as laughing, &c., strong drink, and drink very

little, one draught, saith Crato, and that about the midst of their

meal; avoid at all times indurate salt, and especially spice and

windy meat.

Crato prescribes the condite fruit of wild rose, to a

nobleman his patient, to be taken before dinner or supper, to the

quantity of a chestnut. It is made of sugar, as that of quinces. The

decoction of the roots of sowthistle before meat, by the same author

is much approved. To eat of a baked apple some advice, or of a

preserved quince, cumin-seed prepared with meat instead of salt, to

keep down fumes: not to study or to be intentive after meals.

"Rx. Nucleorum persic. seminis melonum ana unc. scruples one-

half aquae fragrorum l. ij. misce, utatur mane."

To apply cupping glasses to the shoulders is very good. For

the other kind of ruddiness which is settled in the face with

pimples, &c., because it pertains not to my subject, I will not

meddle with it. I refer you to Crato's counsels, Arnoldus lib. 1.

breviar. cap. 39. 1. Rulande, Peter Forestus de Fuco, lib. 31.

obser. 2. To Platerus, Mercurialis, Ulmus, Rondoletius, Heurnius,

Menadous, and others that have written largely of it.

Those other grievances and symptoms of headache, palpitation

of heart, Vertigo deliquium, &c., which trouble many melancholy men,

because they are copiously handled apart in every physician, I do

voluntarily omit.

MEMB. II.

Cure of Melancholy over all the Body.

Where the melancholy blood possesseth the whole body with the

brain, it is best to begin with bloodletting. The Greeks prescribe

the median or middle vein to be opened, and so much blood to be

taken away as the patient may well spare, and the cut that is made

must be wide enough. The Arabians hold it fittest to be taken from

that arm on which side there is more pain and heaviness in the head:

if black blood issue forth, bleed on; if it be clear and good, let

it be instantly suppressed, "because the malice of melancholy is

much corrected by the goodness of the blood." If the party's

strength will not admit much evacuation in this kind at once, it

must be assayed again and again: if it may not be conveniently taken

from the arm, it must be taken from the knees and ankles, especially

to such men or women whose haemorrhoids or months have been stopped.

If the malady continue, it is not amiss to evacuate in a part in the

forehead, and to virgins in the ankles, who are melancholy for love

matters; so to widows that are much grieved and troubled with sorrow

and cares: for bad blood flows in the heart, and so crucifies the

mind. The haemorrhoids are to be opened with an instrument or horse-

leeches, &c. See more in Montaltus, cap. 29. Sckenkius hath an

example of one that was cured by an accidental wound in his thigh,

much bleeding freed him from melancholy. Diet, diminutives,

alteratives, cordials, correctors as before, intermixed as occasion

serves, "all their study must be to make a melancholy man fat, and

then the cure is ended." Diuretics, or medicines to procure urine,

are prescribed by some in this kind, hot and cold: hot where the

heat of the liver doth not forbid; cold where the heat of the liver

is very great: amongst hot are parsley roots, lovage, fennel, &c.:

cold, melon seeds, &c., with whey of goat's milk, which is the

common conveyer.

To purge and purify the blood, use sowthistle, succory, senna,

endive, carduus benedictus, dandelion, hop, maidenhair, fumitory,

bugloss, borage, &c., with their juice, decoctions, distilled

waters, syrups, &c.

Oswaldus, Crollius, basil Chym. much admires salt of corals in

this case, and Aetius, tetrabib. ser. 2. cap. 114. Hieram Archigenis,

which is an excellent medicine to purify the blood, "for all

melancholy affections, falling sickness, none to be compared to it."

MEMB. III.

SUBSECT. I.-- Cure of Hypochondriacal Melancholy.

In this cure, as in the rest, is especially required the

rectification of those six non-natural things above all, as good

diet, which Montanus, consil. 27. enjoins a French nobleman, "to

have an especial care of it, without which all other remedies are in

vain." Bloodletting is not to be used, except the patient's body be

very full of blood, and that it be derived from the liver and spleen

to the stomach and his vessels, then to draw it back, to cut the

inner vein of either arm, some say the salvatella, and if the malady

be continuate, to open a vein in the forehead.

Preparatives and alteratives may be used as before, saving

that there must be respect had as well to the liver, spleen,

stomach, hypochondries, as to the heart and brain. To comfort the

stomach and inner parts against wind and obstructions, by Areteus,

Galen, Aetius, Aurelianus, &c., and many latter writers, are still

prescribed the decoctions of wormwood, centaury, pennyroyal, betony

sodden in whey, and daily drunk: many have been cured by this

medicine alone.

Prosper Altinus and some others as much magnify the water of

Nile against this malady, an especial good remedy for windy

melancholy. For which reason belike Ptolemeus Philadelphus, when he

married his daughter Berenice to the king of Assyria (as Celsus,

lib. 2. records), magnis impensis Nili aquam afferri jussit, to his

great charge caused the water of Nile to be carried with her, and

gave command, that during her life she should use no other drink. I

find those that commend use of apples, in splenetic and this kind of

melancholy (lamb's-wool some call it), which howsoever approved,

must certainly be corrected of cold rawness and wind.

Codronchus in his book de sale absyn. magnifies the oil and

salt of wormwood above all other remedies, "which works better and

speedier than any simple whatsoever, and much to be preferred before

all those fulsome decoctions and infusions, which must offend by

reason of their quantity; this alone in a small measure taken,

expels wind, and that most forcibly, moves urine, cleanseth the

stomach of all gross humours, crudities, helps appetite," &c.

Arnoldus hath a wormwood wine which he would have used, which every

pharmacopoeia speaks of.

Diminutives and purges may be taken as before, of hiera,

manna, cassia, which Montanus consil. 230. for an Italian abbot, in

this kind prefers before all other simples, "And these must be often

used, still abstaining from those which are more violent, lest they

do exasperate the stomach, &c., and the mischief by that means be

increased." Though in some physicians I find very strong purgers,

hellebore itself prescribed in this affection. If it long continue,

vomits may be taken after meat, or otherwise gently procured with

warm water, oxymel, &c., now and then. Fuchsius cap. 33. prescribes

hellebore; but still take heed in this malady, which I have often

warned, of hot medicines, "because" (as Salvianus adds) "drought

follows heat, which increaseth the disease:" and yet Baptista

Sylvaticus controv. 32. forbids cold medicines, "because they

increase obstructions and other bad symptoms." But this varies as

the parties do, and 'tis not easy to determine which to use. "The

stomach most part in this infirmity is cold, the liver hot; scarce

therefore" (which Montanus insinuates consil. 229. for the Earl of

Manfort) "can you help the one and not hurt the other:" much

discretion must be used; take no physic at all he concludes without

great need. Laelius Aegubinus consil. for an hypochondriacal German

prince, used many medicines; "but it was after signified to him in

letters, that the decoction of China and sassafras, and salt of

sassafras wrought him an incredible good." In his 108 consult, he

used as happily the same remedies; this to a third might have been

poison, by overheating his liver and blood.

For the other parts look for remedies in Savanarola,

Gordonius, Massaria, Mercatus, Johnson, &c. One for the spleen,

amongst many other, I will not omit, cited by Hildesheim, spicel. 2,

prescribed by Mat. Flaccus, and out of the authority of Benevenius.

Antony Benevenius in a hypochondriacal passion, "cured an exceeding

great swelling of the spleen with capers alone, a meat befitting

that infirmity, and frequent use of the water of a smith's forge; by

this physic he helped a sick man, whom all other physicians had

forsaken, that for seven years had been splenetic." And of such

force is this water, "that those creatures as drink of it, have

commonly little or no spleen." See more excellent medicines for the

spleen in him and Lod. Mercatus, who is a great magnifier of this

medicine. This Chalybs praeparatus, or steel-drink, is much likewise

commended to this disease by Daniel Sennertus l. 1. part. 2. cap.

12. and admired by J. Caesar Claudinus Respons. 29. he calls steel

the proper alexipharmacum of this malady, and much magnifies it;

look for receipts in them. Averters must be used to the liver and

spleen, and to scour the mesaraic veins: and they are either too

open or provoke urine. You can open no place better than the

haemorrhoids, "which if by horse-leeches they be made to flow, there

may be again such an excellent remedy," as Plater holds. Sallust.

Salvian will admit no other phlebotomy but this; and by his

experience in an hospital which he kept, he found all mad and

melancholy men worse for other bloodletting. Laurentius cap. 15.

calls this of horse-leeches a sure remedy to empty the spleen and

mesaraic membrane. Only Montanus consil. 241. is against it; "to

other men" (saith he) "this opening of the haemorrhoids seems to be

a profitable remedy; for my part I do not approve of it, because it

draws away the thinnest blood, and leaves the thickest behind."

Aetius, Vidus Vidius, Mercurialis, Fuchsius, recommend

diuretics, or such things as provoke urine, as aniseeds, dill,

fennel, germander, ground pine, sodden in water, or drunk in powder:

and yet P. Bayerus is against them: and so is Hollerius; "All

melancholy men" (saith he) "must avoid such things as provoke urine,

because by them the subtile or thinnest is evacuated, the thicker

matter remains."

Clysters are in good request. Trincavelius lib. 3. cap. 38.

for a young nobleman, esteems of them in the first place, and

Hercules de Saxonia Panth. lib. 1. cap. 16. is a great approver of

them. "I have found (saith he) by experience, that many

hypochondriacal melancholy men have been cured by the sole use of

clysters," receipts are to be had in him.

Besides those fomentations, irrigations, inunctions,

odoraments, prescribed for the head, there must be the like used for

the liver, spleen, stomach, hypochondries, &c. "In crudity" (saith

Piso) "'tis good to bind the stomach hard" to hinder wind, and to

help concoction.

Of inward medicines I need not speak; use the same cordials as

before. In this kind of melancholy, some prescribe treacle in

winter, especially before or after purges, or in the spring, as

Avicenna, Trincavellius mithridate, Montaltus paeony seed,

unicorn's horn; os de corde cervi, &c.

Amongst topics or outward medicines, none are more precious

than baths, but of them I have spoken. Fomentations to the

hypochondries are very good, of wine and water in which are sodden

southernwood, melilot, epithyme, mugwort, senna, polypody, as also

cerotes, plaisters, liniments, ointments for the spleen, liver, and

hypochondries, of which look for examples in Laurentius, Jobertus

lib. 3. c. pra. med. Montanus consil. 231. Montaltus cap. 33.

Hercules de Saxonia, Faventinus. And so of epithems, digestive

powders, bags, oils, Octavius Horatianus lib. 2. c. 5. prescribes

calastic cataplasms, or dry purging medicines; Piso dropaces of

pitch, and oil of rue, applied at certain times to the stomach, to

the metaphrene, or part of the back which is over against the heart,

Aetius sinapisms; Montaltus cap. 35. would have the thighs to be

cauterised, Mercurialis prescribes beneath the knees; Laelius

Aegubinus consil. 77. for a hypochondriacal Dutchman, will have the

cautery made in the right thigh, and so Montanus consil. 55. The

same Montanus consil. 34. approves of issues in the arms or hinder

part of the head. Bernardus Paternus in Hildesheim spicel 2. would

have issues made in both the thighs; Lod. Mercatus prescribes them

near the spleen, aut prope ventriculi regimen, or in either of the

thighs. Ligatures, frictions, and cupping-glasses above or about the

belly, without scarification, which Felix Platerus so much approves,

may be used as before.

SUBSECT. II.-- Correctors to expel Wind. Against Costiveness, &c.

In this kind of melancholy one of the most offensive symptoms

is wind, which, as in the other species, so in this, hath great need

to be corrected and expelled.

The medicines to expel it are either inwardly taken, or

outwardly. Inwardly to expel wind, are simples or compounds: simples

are herbs, roots, &c., as galanga, gentian, angelica, enula, calamus

aromaticus, valerian, zeodoti, iris, condite ginger, aristolochy,

cicliminus, China, dittander, pennyroyal, rue, calamint, bay-

berries, and bay-leaves, betony, rosemary, hyssop, sabine, centaury,

mint, camomile, staechas, agnus castus, broom-flowers, origan,

orange-pills, &c.; spices, as saffron, cinnamon, bezoar stone,

myrrh, mace, nutmegs, pepper, cloves, ginger, seeds of annis,

fennel, amni, cari, nettle, rue, &c., juniper berries, grana

paradisi; compounds, dianisum, diagalanga, diaciminum, diacalaminth,

electuarium de baccis lauri, benedicta laxativa, pulvis ad status.

antid. florent. pulvis carminativus, aromaticum rosatum, treacle,

mithridate &c. This one caution of Gualter Bruell is to be observed

in the administering of these hot medicines and dry, "that whilst

they covet to expel wind, they do not inflame the blood, and

increase the disease; sometimes" (as he saith) "medicines must more

decline to heat, sometimes more to cold, as the circumstances

require, and as the parties are inclined to heat or cold."

Outwardly taken to expel winds, are oils, as of camomile, rue,

bays, &c.; fomentations of the hypochondries, with the decoctions of

dill, pennyroyal, rue, bay leaves, cumin, &c., bags of camomile

flowers, aniseed, cumin, bays, rue, wormwood, ointments of the oil

of spikenard, wormwood, rue, &c. Areteus prescribes cataplasms of

camomile flowers, fennel, aniseeds, cumin, rosemary, wormwood-

leaves, &c.

Cupping-glasses applied to the hypochondries, without

scarification, do wonderfully resolve wind. Fernelius consil. 43.

much approves of them at the lower end of the belly; Lod. Mercatus

calls them a powerful remedy, and testifies moreover out of his own

knowledge, how many he hath seen suddenly eased by them. Julius

Caesar Claudinus respons. med. resp. 33. admires these cupping-

glasses, which he calls out of Galen, "a kind of enchantment, they

cause such present help."

Empirics have a myriad of medicines, as to swallow a bullet of

lead, &c., which I voluntarily omit. Amatus Lusitanus, cent. 4.

curat. 54. for a hypochondriacal person, that was extremely

tormented with wind, prescribes a strange remedy. Put a pair of

bellows end into a clyster pipe, and applying it into the fundament,

open the bowels, so draw forth the wind, natura non admittit vacuum.

He vaunts he was the first invented this remedy, and by means of it

speedily eased a melancholy man. Of the cure of this flatuous

melancholy, read more in Fienus de Flatibus, cap. 26. et passim

alias.

Against headache, vertigo, vapours which ascend forth of the

stomach to molest the head, read Hercules de Saxonia, and others.

If costiveness offend in this, or any other of the three

species, it is to be corrected with suppositories, clysters or

lenitives, powder of senna, condite prunes, &c. Rx. Elect. lenit, e

succo rosar. ana ounces j. misce. Take as much as a nutmeg at a

time, half an hour before dinner or supper, or pil. mastichin.

ounces j. in six pills, a pill or two at a time. See more in

Montan. consil. 229. Hildesheim spicel. 2. P. Cnemander, and

Montanus commend "Cyprian turpentine, which they would have

familiarly taken, to the quantity of a small nut, two or three hours

before dinner and supper, twice or thrice a week if need be; for

besides that it keeps the belly soluble, it clears the stomach,

opens obstructions, cleanseth the liver, provokes urine."

These in brief are the ordinary medicines which belong to the

cure of melancholy, which if they be used aright, no doubt may do

much good; Si non levando saltem leniendo valent, peculiaria bene

selecta, saith Bessardus, a good choice of particular receipts must

needs ease, if not quite cure, not one, but all or most, as occasion

serves. Et quae non prosunt singula, multa juvant.

GLOSSARY

Of obsolete words, or words used in an obsolete sense

Abraham Man: A wandering beggar, originally a crippled or

insane person supported by a monastery who was turned out at

the Dissolution.

Absterge: To wipe clean

Adust: Dried up or thicker than normal

Alablastritum: A valuable ointment (of the kind usually kept

in an alabaster box, hence the name)

Alexipharmacum: An antidote

Alkermes: An insect containing a red dye, related to cochineal

Alterative: A medicine which improves the digestion

Alyppus: An unidentified analgesic plant

Ammi: Bishop-weed

Antevorta & Postvorta: Two goddesses in Roman mythology;

Antevorta (The one turned forward) saw all future things but

knew nothing of the past; Postvorta (the one turned behind)

knew all past things

Apologue: An allegorical fable

Apophlemgatism: A medicine which clears phlegm form the head

Aristolochy: Birthwort

Asarum: Wild ginger

Asrabecca: Wild ginger

Bangle Away: Fritter away, squander

Barley-breaks: A game of chasing played by couples

Benedicta laxativa: A mild laxative medicine

Bezoar: A stone or hard mass found in the stomachs of certain

ruminant animals

Bole: A large pill

Brach: A hound

Bradiopepsia: Slowness of digestion

Brangling: Quarrelsome

Brownbastard: A sweet Spanish wine

Bulk: A bench or trestle outside a shop, where goods are

displayed during the day, but often used as a sleeping-place

by beggars etc. at night.

Cachexia: A disease in which all the bodily parts are corrupt

or deprived of nourishment

Cacochymia: Corruption of bodily humours

Calamus aromaticus: Sweet rush

Calastic: Laxative

Calenture: A delirious fever or sunstroke

Cantharides: Spanish fly

Carcase: The framework of a building

Cardiaca: Heartburn or angina

Cark (N.): Anxiety, trouble

Carle (V.): To snarl or growl

Carniola: Slovenia

Carpet Knight: A knight whose accomplishments are more in the

boudoir than the battle-field

Cary: Caraway

Castorium: A strong-smelling substance extracted from the anal

glands of the beaver

Castril: A kestrel

Cataplasm: A plaster or poultice

Cates: Dainty foods

Catoptrics: The optical science of reflection

Cerote: An ointment of a very stiff consistency, based on

beeswax

Ceruse: White lead

Ceterach(e): Scale-fern or Miltwaste

Chamico : Chamiso (Adenostoma fasciculatum)

Cheese-trencher: A cheese platter

Chelidony: A stone supposed to be found in the belly of a

swallow

Chersonesi: Peninsulas

China root: Sarsaparilla

Choler: Bile

Chuff (N): A boor

Chylus, Chilus: Digested food, as passed from the stomach to

the gut

Cicuta: Hemlock

Circumforanean: Wandering, vagabond

Civilian: A lawyer specialising in civil cases

Clancular: Secret, underhand

Clyster: An enema

Cock-Boat: A small rowing-boat

Cocker (V.): To indulge or pamper

Colure: One of two great circles which divide the ecliptic

into four equal parts at the equinox and solstice points

Colutea: Bladder-senna

Combust: (Of the moon or a planet) Invisible because near the

sun in the sky

Compellations: Words addressed to someone

Concoction: Digestion of food; generation and development of

the humours(q.v)

Condites: Preserves or pickles

Constringed: Compressed or condensed

Constuprate: To rape

Contemn: To despise

Cony-catcher: A swindler

Corath: One of the leaders of a rebellion against Moses's

rule. See Numbers Ch. 16

Corography, Chorography: An account of a particular country or

district

Corrivate: Two channel two streams into one, or vice versa.

Corroborative: A strengthening or invigorating medicine

Coulstaff: A pole used to carry heavy objects, which were

slung from it, and the coulstaff supported on the shoulders of

two men

Crudity: Imperfect concoction (q.v) of the humours (q.v.)

Cubbed Up: Cooped up

Cullion: A ballocks (in both senses)

Currier: A tanner or leather-dresser

Cushion dance: A dance in which the women and men alternately

knelt on a cushion to be kissed.

Dathan: One of the leaders of a rebellion against Moses's

rule. See Numbers Ch. 16

Datura: Strammony or thorn-apple

Daucus: Wild carrot

Defecate: To cleanse of filth

Dehort: Dissuade

Deliquium: A fainting fit

Dia- : Prefix meaning a medicine whose principal ingredient is

the following part of the word, which is the Latin or Greek

name of the substance

Diacalaminthes: A medicine whose principal ingredient is

calamint

Diacassia: A medicine whose principal ingredient is cassia

Diacatholicon: A medicine compounded of senna, cassia,

tamarinds, roots of male fern, rhubarb, liquorice, aniseed,

sweet fennel, and sugar.

Diaciminum: A medicine whose principal ingredient is cumin

Diacodium, diacodion: A medicine whose principal ingredient is

poppies (i.e. opium)

Diacorolli: A medicine whose principal ingredient is coral

Diacydonium: A medicine whose principal ingredient is quinces

Diagalanga: A medicine whose principal ingredient is galingale

Diamargaritum calidum: A hot medicine whose principal

ingredient is pearl

Diamargaritum frigidum: A cold medicine whose principal

ingredient is pearl

Diambra: A medicine whose principal ingredient is ambergris

Diamoscum Dulce: A medicine whose principal ingredient is

sweet musk

Dianisum: A medicine whose principal ingredient is aniseed

Diaphenicum: A medicine whose principal ingredient is dates

Diapolypodion: A medicine whose principal ingredient is

polypody fern

Diarrhodon: A medicine whose principal ingredient is roses

Diatrion piperion: A medicine compounded form three kinds of

Distemperature: A disordered condition or ailment of the body

Diverb: A proverb in two contrasting parts

Dodecotemories: The signs of the Zodiac

Dragon root: The root of dragonwort, (Dracunculus vulgaris)

Dram, Drachm: 60 grains, or one-eighth of an ounce (3.6 grams

approx)

Dropax (pl.) Dropaces: A plaster made from pitch

Dummerer: A beggar who pretends to be dumb

Eben Stone: A very hard black stone

Eclegm: A medicine of a thick consistency, which has to be

licked off the spoon

Electuarium de baccis lauri: A compound of bayleaves and honey

Electuarium de gemmis: A compound of powdered gems and honey

Emmet: An ant

Emmetris: Emerald

Empiric (N.): A quack doctor

Emulgent (Blood Vessels): The blood vessels of the kidneys

Enula: Elecampane

Epitheme, (pl.) Epithemata: A moist plaster or poultice

Epithyme: Dodder

Errhine, (pl) Errhina : A plug of lint soaked in medicine, for

insertion into the nose

Etesian wind: A North-Western wind which blows in the

Mediterranean regions during the Summer

Eupatory: Hemp Agrimony

Euripi: Sea channels with turbulent and unpredictable currents

Evirate: Castrate

Exenterated: Dismebowelled

Exolete: Faded, worn out, out-of-date

Facete: Amusing

Feculent: Filthy, polluted

Fieldon: Tillage land

Flaggy: Flabby, limp

Fleer: To grimace

Flet: Flushed

Foalfoot: Either coltsfoot or wild ginger

Frications: Massage

Frontal, frontlet: A plaster applied to the forehead

Fuliginous: Sooty

Fumados : Smoked pilchards

Funge: A soft-headed person

Furfurs: Dandruff or scurf

Fusled: Confused, muddled

Gargarise: To gargle

Gargarism: A gargle

Genethliacal: Astrological

Genist: Broom

Geniture: Horoscope

Gloze: To flatter, explain away, "spin"

Glycypicron: Something both sweet and bitter

Goosecap: A fool

Grain: One-480th of an ounce (60 milligrams approx)

Grana paradisi: "Grains of Paradise" -- the seeds of amomum or

bastard cardamom

Gripe (N.): A miser

Grumel: Gromwell

Gryphe: A griffin or a vulture

Gull: A gullible person

Gymnics: Gymnastics

Haberdine : Salt cod

Hamech: A very powerful laxative made from colocynth

Hermodactil: Colchicum.

Heteroclitical: Irregular; deviating from the standard or norm

Homocentrics: The heavenly spheres

Hone: To whine or moan

Humour: One of the four fluids of the body governing health

etc: Blood, Bile, Phlegm, Black bile

Hypochondries: The upper abdomen, between the breast-bone and

navel

Iatromathematical: Concerned with the mathematics of medicine

Ichneumon: An African mongoose, noted for raiding crocodile

nests and eating the eggs

Imbonity: Unkindness

Incondite: (of speech) Sudden cries without meaning, as "Oh!"

"Ah!" "Grr!" etc.

Incult: Barren, uncultivated

Indurate: Hardened

Ingeminate: To repeat

Insuavity: Surliness

Intempestive: Inappropriate

Irrefragable: Undeniable

Ister: The river Danube

Jument: A beast of burden

Keelpins: Skittles

Kell: A caul

Laetificans Galeni et Rhasis: "Galen and Rhasis' euphoriant

medecine"

Landleaper: A vagabond or fugitive

Lapis Armenus: Armenian stone, a blue carbonate of copper

Lapithae: A people of Thessaly

Laplolly: Gruel or broth

Lee: A soapy or alkaline solution used fro washing

Lenitive: A soothing or gently laxative medicine

Linctures: A linctus, medicine of a thick consistency, which

has to be licked off the spoon

Livor: A bruise or similar discoloration of the skin; also,

malice or spite

Luculent: Brilliant, shining

Lusorious: Used in a game

Magistral: A medicine recommended by an authority which is not

in the official pharmacopoeia

Malificated: Evil-intentioned

Manamotapa: An ancient African kingdom in what is now Zimbabwe

Maragnan: Maranhão, an island near the coast of Brazil

Masticatory: A medicine meant to be chewed but not swallowed

Mastupration: Masturbation

Mediately: Through an intermediary

Merry-Thought: A wishbone

Meseraical, Mesaraic: Of the mesentery, the membranes of the

abdomen.

Metoposcopy: Telling a person's fortune or character by the

appearance of his forehead, or face generally

Mewed up: Imprisoned

Minim: One-480th of a fluid ounce i.e. the fluid equivalent of

a grain (60 microlitres approx)

Mithridate: A mixture of various ingredients, believed to be a

universal antidote to poisons

Moabar: Malabar, in India

Mogor: Mogul, or Mughal; the emperor of India

Monocerot: A Rhinoceros

Monomachy: Duel, single combat

Morphew: An ailment which causes scaling of the skin

Mouldwarp: A mole (the burrowing animal)

Mulct: A fine or financial penalty

Myrache, Mirach: The abdomen, esp. the part around the stomach

Naumachy: A mock sea-battle presented as a public spectacle

Nenuphar: Water-lily

Nepenthes: An unidentified drug, said to banish grief and

sorrow

Nodule: A small bag filled with aromatic herbs, spices etc.

Noremberga: Nuremberg, Gramany

Nova Albion: An unidentified place on the West coast of North

America visited by Sir Francis Drake in 1579.

Nymphea: Water-lily

Obnubilate: Cloud over

Opiparous: Sumptuous

Oppilations: Obstructions

Oppugner: An adversary

Orbity: Bereavement

Organ: Pennyroyal

Oxymel: Vinegar and honey mixed

Painful: Painstaking

Pairmain: A variety of apple

Palladium: A thing which protects against harm (originally the

statue of the goddess Pallas in Troy, which was believed to

protect the city from all dangers)

Parable (A.): Accessible, Easily obtained,

Paraenetical: Containing advice or exhortations

Parietines: Ruins

Pasquil: A lampoon. It was the custom in Rome to affix

lampoons to the statue of Pasquil St. Mark's Day.

Peckled: Spotted, speckled

Perioeci: People who live at the same parallel of latitude

Perstringe: To criticise or find fault.

Philosophastic: Of or relating to a philosophaster, a shallow

or pseudo-philosopher

Pistick nuts: Pistachios

Pituita: Phlegm

Poke (Bavarian): Goitre

Polyanthean: (a.) Relating to an anthology; (n.) the compiler

or user of one

Pomander: A ball of aromatic herbs etc.

Populeum: An ointment made of the buds of the Black Poplar.

Precipitium: A precipice

Pugil: A three-finger pinch

Purley: Purlieu, land around the edges of a forest

Quean: A slut or prostitute

Quevira: A mythical city believed to be in what is now the US

state of Kansas

Ramsheads: Some medicinal plant (OED says chick-peas, but I

can find no reference to medicinal use of these)

Roaring-meg: A very large cannon

Rose-cake: A cake of compressed rose-petals

Ruck: The roc, a mythical giant bird

Rumney: A sweet wine believed to be from Romania (actually

Greece)

Sabine: Juniper

Sackbut: A kind of trombone

Salvatella: A vein in the back of the hand

Sanders: Sandalwood

Satyrion: Orchid

Scammony: The resin of the plant Convolvulus Scammonia

Scolopendria: Hart's-tongue Fern

Scordium: Water germander

Scrub (N.): An insignificant or contemptible person

Scruple: 20 grains, or one-third of a dram. (1.2 grams approx)

Semiustulation: Half-burning

Serves: The fruit of the service-tree (Sorbus)

Sharker: A swindler

Shimei: A relative of King Saul, who cursed David and threw

stones at him. See II Samuel, Ch. 16

Sinapismus: A mustard plaster

Sindaw: Sundew

Six Non-Natural Things: Diet; retention and evacuation; air;

exercise; sleeping and waking; perturbations of the mind (See

Part. 1 Sec. 2 Memb 1. Subsect 1.)

Smaragdes: Emeralds

Smell-feast: A gatecrasher or sponger

Sod, Sodden: Boiled

Sophy: The Shah of Persia

Spagirically: Alchemically

Spectrum: A ghost

Spruce: Prussia

Staechas, staechados: French Lavender

Stick Free: (A person) immune to injury by a weapon

Stramineous: Made of straw, worthless

Strangury: Retention of urine

Struma: Scrofula or goitre

Stupend: Extraordinary

Stut: Stutter

Suffite: A perfume burned or smoked as a medicinal remedy

Suffumigation: Perfuming a room with herbs etc. whose aroma is

medicinal

Superficies: Surface

Table: A tablet

Tetric: Bitter, morose

Tetter: A running sore or skin disease

Theologastic: Of or relating to a theologaster, a shallow or

pseudo-theologian

Thistlewarp: A goldfinch

Trencher Chaplain: A chaplain who is one of a rich man's

household servants

Trinoctium: A festival lasting for three nights

Tully: Cicero

Turbith: Jalap

Turgent: Swollen with pride

Typmany: A swelling or tumour

Union: A large pearl

Vastity: Desolation

Venditate: To display for sale, or as if for sale

Venery: Sex or the pursuit of it; hunting in general

Verbasco: Mullein

Wasters: Stick-fencing

Weele: An eddy or whirlpool

Wourts: Worts, i.e. plants, vegetables

Zeilan: Ceylon, Sri Lanka

Zur, Del Zur: The Pacific Ocean