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forgotten  quite 

JUl former  scenes  of  dear  delist, 

Connubial  loTe  -parental  joy  _ 
"No  HympathiPR  Hke  tkese  "his  soul  employ, 

But  all  ia  dark  ■within. 

Fenrose 


FKONTISPIKCE     TO    thp:    ORIGINAL    EDITION 


THE 


OATOMY  or  MELANCHOLY, 

WHAT  IT  IS, 

WITH 

ALL  THE  KINDS.  CAUSES,  SYMPTOMS,  PROGNOSTICS,  AND  SEVERAL  CURES  OF  IT 

IN  THREE  PARTITIONS. 

WITH   THEIR    SEVERAL 


SECTIONS,  MEMBERS,  AND  SUBSECTIONS,  PHILOSOPHICALLY,  MEDICALLY, 
HISTORICALLY  OPENED  AND  CUT  UP- 


BY  DEMOCHITUS  JUNIOR. 

WITH 

A.  SATIRICAL  PREFACE,  CONDUCING  TO  THE  FOLLOWING  DISCOURSE 


^$i|ttr^tliii^m 


CORRECTED,  AND  ENRICHED  BY  TRANSLATIONS  OF  THE  NUMEROUS  CLASSICAL  EXTRACTS, 

By   DEMOCRITUS  MINOR. 

TO  WHICH  IS  PREFIXED  AN  ACCOUNT  OF  THE  AUTHOR. 


Omne  tulit  punctum,  qui  miscuit  utile  dulci. 

He  that  joins  instruction  with  delight, 
Profit  with  pleasure,  carries  all  the  votes. 


PHILADELPHIA: 
E.    CLAXTON    &    COMPANY, 

930    Market    Street. 
1883. 


■^■^ 


HONORATISSIMO    DOMINO,  > 

NGN    MINVS    VIRTUTE   Sul,  QUAM    GENKRIS   SPLENDORS 
ILLVSTRISSIMO, 

GEORGIO  BERKLEIO, 

MILIT7    DE    BALNEO,  BAHONI    DE    BERKLEY,  MOUBREY,  SEGRAVE, 

D.    DE    BRUSE, 

DOMINO    SUO    MULTIS    NOMINIBUS    OBSERVANDO, 

HANC    SUHM 

MELANCHOLIA    ANATOMEN, 

JAM   SEXTO   REVISAM,    D.  D. 

DEMOCRITUS  JUNIOR. 


riv) 
ADVERTISEMENT 

TO   THE   LAST  LONDON    EDITION. 


The  work  now  restored  to  public  notice  has  had  an  extraordinary  fate.  At  the 
time  of  its  original  publication  it  obtained  a  great  celebrity,  which  continued  more 
than  half  a  century.  During  that  period  few  books  were  more  read,  or  more  de- 
servedly applauded.  It  was  th"  delight  of  the  learned,  the  solace  of  the  indolent, 
and  the  refuge  of  the  uninformed.  It  passed  through  at  least  eight  editions,  by  which 
the  bookseller,  as  Wood  records,  got  an  estate ;  and,  notwithstanding  the  objection 
sometimes  opposed  against  it,  of  a  quaint  style,  and  too  great  an  accumulation  of 
authorities,  the  fascination  of  its  wit,  fancy,  and  sterling  sense,  have  borne  down  all 
censures,  and  extorted  praise  from  the  first  writers  in  the  Englisli  language.  The 
grave  Johnson  has  praised  it  in  the  warmest  terms,  and  the  ludicrous  Sterne  has 
interwoven  many  parts  of  it  into  his  own  popular  performance.  Milton  did  not  dis- 
dain to  build  two  of  his  finest  poems  on  it ;  and  a  host  of  inferior  writers  have  em 
bellished  their  works  with  beauties  not  their  own,  culled  from  a  performance  which 
they  had  not  the  justice  even  to  mention.  Change  of  times,  ana  the  frivolity  of 
fashion,  suspended,  in  some  degree,  that  fame  which  had  lasted  near  a  century ;  and 
the  succeeding  generation  afiected  indifference  towards  an  author,  who  at  length  was 
only  looked  into  by  the  plunderers  of  literature,  the  poachers  in  obscure  volumes. 
The  plagiaiisms  of  Tristram  Shandy,  so  successfully  brought  to  light  by  Dr.  Fer- 
RiAR,  at  length  drew  the  attention  of  the  public  towards  a  writer,  who,  though  then 
little  knowii,  might,  without  impeachment  of  modesty,  lay  claim  to  every  mark  of 
respect;  and  inquiry  proved,  beyond  a  doubt,  that  the  rails  of  justice  had  been  little 
attended  to  by  others,  as  well  as  the  facetious  Yorick.  Wood  observed,  more  thar, 
a  century  ago,  that  several  authors  had  unmercifully  stolen  matter  from  Burton 
without  any  acknowledgment.  The  time,  however,  at  ien«jth  arrived,  when  ihe 
merits  of  the  Jinatomy  of  Melancholy  were  to  receive  their  due  praise.  The  book 
was  again  sought  for  and  read,  and  again  it  became  an  applauded  performance.  Its 
excellencies  once  more  stood  confessed,  in  the  increased  price  which  every  copy 
offered  for  sale  produced ;  and  the  increased  demand  pointed  out  the  necessity  of  a 
new  edition.  This  is  now  presented  to  the  public  in  a  manner  not  disgraceful  to 
the  memory  of  the  author ;  and  the  publisher  relies  with  confidence,  that  so  valuable 
a  lepository  of  amusement  and  information  will  continue  to  hold  the  rank  to  which 
it  has  been  restored,  firmly  supported  by  its  own  merit,  and  safe  from  the  influence 
and  blight  of  any  future  caprices  of  fashion.  To  open  its  valuable  mysteries  to 
those  who  have  not  had  the  advantage  of  a  classical  education,  translations  of  the 
countless  quotations  from  ancient  writers  which  occur  in  the  work,  are  now  for  the 
first  time  given,  and  obsolete  orthography  is  in  all  instances  modernized. 


(V) 


ACCOUNT   OF  THE  AUTHOR. 


JloBERT  Burton  was  the  son  of  Ralph  Burton,  of  an  ancient  and  genteel 
Umily  at  Lindley,  in  Leicestershire,  and  was  born  there  on  the  8th  of  Februarv 
1576.*  He  received  the  first  rudiments  of  learning  at  the  free  school  of  Sutton 
Coldfield,  in  Warwickshire,t  from  whence  he  was,  at  the  age  of  seventeen,  in  the 
.ong  vacation,  l/>93,  sent  to  Brazen  Nose  College,  in  the  condition  of  a  com- 
moner, where  he  made  considerable  progress  in  logic  and  philosophy.  In  I  )9t) 
ne  was  elected  student  of  Christ  Church,  and,  for  form's  sake,  was  put  under  the 
ttiition  of  Dr.  John  Bancroft,  afterwards  Bishop  of  Oxford.  In  1614  he  wafl 
admitted  to  the  reading  of  the  Sentences,  and  on  the  29th  of  November,  1616, 
had  the  vicarage  of  St.  Thomas,  in  the  west  suburb  of  Oxford,  conferred  on  him 
by  the  dean  and  canons  of  Christ  Church,  which,  with  the  rectory  of  Segrave,  ir 
Leicestershire,  given  to  him  in  the  year  1636,  by  George,  Lord  Berkeley,  he  kept 
to  use  the  words  of  the  Oxford  antiquary,  with  much  ado  to  his  dying  day.  1I< 
seems  to  have  been  first  beneficed  at  Walsby,  in  Lincolnshire,  through  the  muni 
ficence  of  his  noble  patroness,  Frances,  Countess  Dowager  of  Exeter,  but  resigned 
the  same,  as  he  tells  us,  for  some  special  reasons.  At  his  vicarage  he  is  remarked 
to  have  always  given  the  sacrament  in  wafers.  Wood's  character  of  him  is,  that 
'  he  was  an  exact  mathematician,  a  curious  calculator  of  nativities,  a  general  read 
scholar,  a  thorough-paced  philologist,  and  one  that  understood  the  surveying  of 
lands  well.  As  he  was  by  many  accounted  a  severe  student,  a  devourer  of  authors, 
a  melancholy  and  humorous  person ;  so  by  others,  who  knew  him  well,  a  person 
of  great  honesty,  plain  dealing  and  charity.  I  have  heard  some  of  the  ancients  of 
Christ  Church  often  say,  that  his  company  was  very  merry,  facete,  and  juvenile; 

*  His  elder  brother  was  William  Burton,  the  Leicestershire  antiquary,  born  24th  August,  I.'iT.'J,  eilucated  at 
Sutton  Coldfield,  admitted  commoner,  or  jrentleman  commoner,  of  Brazen  Nose  College,  f59]  ;  at  the  Innft 
Temple,  20lh  May,  1593;  B.  A.  2-2d  June,  1594 ;  and  afterwards  a  barrister  and. reporter  in  the  Court  of  Cotninoii 
Pleas.  "But  his  natural  genius,"  says  Wood,  "leading  him  to  the  studies  of  heraldry,  genealogies,  and  anti- 
quities,  he  became  excellent  in  those  obscure  and  intricate  matters;  and  look  upon  him  as  a  gentleman,  was 
accounted,  by  all  that  knew  him,  to  be  the  best  of  his  time  for  those  studies,  as  may  appear  by  his  '  Oescription 
of  Leicestershire.'"  His  weak  constitution  not  permitting  him  to  follow  business,  he  retired  into  the  country. 
and  his  greatest  work,  "  The  Description  of  Leicestershire,"  was  published  in  folio,  1622.  He  died  at  FaUle. 
»fler  suffering  much  in  the  civil  war,  6th  April,  1645,  and  was  buried  in  the  parish  church  belonging  th^■reto. 
called  Hanbury. 

1  Th'.s  is  Wood's  account.  His  will  says,  Nuneaton;  but  a  passage  in  this  work  fsee  fol.  304  \  mention* 
Sutton  ')o  -I.ield :  piobablv  he  may  have  been  at  both  schools. 

A  /w 


vi  Account  of  the  Author 

and  no  man  in  his  lime  did  surpass  him  for  his  ready  and  dexterous  interlarding 
his  common  discourses  among  them  with  verses  from  the  poets,  or  sentences  from 
classic  auth')rs;  which  being  then  ail  the  fashion  in  the  University,  made  Ins 
compai;  y  the  more  acceptable."  He  appears  to  have  been  a  universal  reader  of 
all  kinds  of  books,  and  availed  himself  of  his  multifarious  studies  in  a  very  extra- 
ordinary manner.  From  the  information  of  Hearne,  we  learn  that  John  Rouse, 
the  Bodleian  librarian,  furnished  him  with  choice  books  for  the  prosecution  of  his 
work.  The  subject  of  his  labour  and  amusement,  seems  to  have  been  adopted 
from  the  infirmities  of  his  own  habit  and  constitution.  Mr.  Granger  says,  "  He 
composed  this  book  with  a  view  of  relieving  his  own  melancholy,  but  increased  it' 
to  such  a  degree,  that  nothing  could  make  him  laugh,  but  going  to  the  bridge-foot 
and  hearing  the  ribaldry  of  the  bargemen,  which  rarely  failed  to  throw  him  into  a 
violent  fit  of  laughter.  Before  he  was  overcome  with  this  horrid  disorder,  he,  ir 
the  intervals  of  his  vapours,  was  esteemed  one  of  the  most  facetious  companions  ir 
the  University." 

His  residence  was  chiefly  at  Oxford ;  where,  in  his  chamber  in  Christ  Churcl 
College,  he  departed  this  life,  at  or  very  near  the  time  which  he  had  some  years 
before  foretold,  from  the  calculation  of  his  own  nativity,  and  which,  says  Wood, 
"  being  exact,  several  of  the  students  did  not  forbear  to  whisper  among  themselves, 
that  rather  than  there  should  be  a  mistake  in  the  calculation,  he  sent  up  his  soul 
to  heaven  through  a  slip  about  his  neck."  Whether  this  suggestion  is  founded  m 
truth,  we  have  no  other  evidence  than  an  obscure  hint  in  the  epitaph  hei'eafter 
inserted,  which  was  written  by  the  author  himself,  a  short  time  before  his  death. 
His  body,  with  due  solemnity,  was  buried  near  that  of  Dr.  Robert  Weston,  m  the 
north  aisle  which  joins  next  to  the  choir  of  the  cathedral  of  Christ  Church,  on  the 
27th  of  January  1639-40.  Over  his  grave  was  soon  after  erected  a  comely  monu- 
nrient,  on  the  upper  pillar  of  the  said  aisle,  with  his  bust,  painted  to  the  life.  On 
the  right  hand  is  the  following  calculation  of  his  nativity  : 


1 


discount  of  the  Author.  ^^i 

and  under  the  bust,  this  inscription  of  his  own  composition  : — 

Paucis  notus,  paucioribus  ignotus, 

Hie  jacet  Democritus  junior 

Cui  vitatn  dodit  et  mortem 
Melancholia 
Ob.  8  Id.  Jan.     A.  C.  mdcxxxix. 

*rms- — Azure  on  a  bend  O.  between  three  dogs'  heads  O.  a  crescent  G. 

A  few  months  before  his  death,  he  made  his  will,  of  which  the  following  is  a 
copy: 

Extracted  from  the  Registry  of  the  Prerogative  Court  of  Canterbuht. 

In  nomine  Dei  Amen.  August  15th  One  thousand  six  hundred  thirty  nine  because  there  be  so 
many  casualties  to  which  our  life  is  subject  besides  quarrelling  and  contention  which  happen  to 
our  Successors  after  our  Death  by  reason  of  unsettled  Estates  I  Robert  Burton  Student  of  Christ- 
church  Oxon.  though  my  means  be  but  small  have  thought  good  by  this  my  last  Will  and  Testa- 
ment to  dispose  of  that  little  which  I  have  and  being  at  this  present  I  thank  God  in  perfect  health 
of  Bodie  and  Mind  and  if  this  Testament  be  not  so  formal  according  to  the  nice  and  strict  terms 
T)f  Law  and  other  Circumstances  peradventure  required  of  which  I  am  ignorant  I  desire  howsoever 
this  my  Will  may  be  accepted  and  stand  good  according  to  my  true  Intent  and  meaning  First  I 
bequeath  Animam  Deo  Corpus  Terrae  whensoever  it  shall  please  God  to  call  me  I  give  my  Land 
in  Higham  which  my  good  Father  Ralphe  Burton  of  Lindly  in  the  County  of  Leicester  Esquire 
gave  me  by  Deed  of  Gift  and. that  which  I  have  annexed  to  that  Farm  by  purchase  since,  now 
leased  for  thirty  eight  pounds  per  Ann.  to  mine  Elder  Brother  William  Burton  of  Lindly  Esquire 
during  his  life  and  after  him  to  his  Reirs  I  make  my  said  Brother  William  likewise  mine  Executor 
as  well  as  paying  such  Annuities  and  Legacies  out  of  my  Lands  and  Goods  as  are  hereafter 
specified  I  give  to  my  nephew  Cassibilan  Burton  twenty  pounds  Annuity  per  Ann.  out  of  my 
Land  in  Higham  during  his  life  to  be  paid  at  two  equall  payments  at  our  Lady  Day  in  Lent  and 
Michaelmas  or  if  he  be  not  paid  within  fourteen  Days  after  the  said  Feasts  to  distrain  on  any  part 
of  the  Ground  or  on  any  of  my  Lands  of  Inheritance  Item  I  give  to  my  Sister  Katherine  Jackson 
during  her  life  eight  pounds  per  Ann.  Annuity  to  be  paid  at  the  two  Feasts  equally  as  above  said 
or  else  to  distrain  on  the  Ground  if  she  be  not  paid  after  fourteen  days  at  Lindly  as  the  other  some 
is  out  of  the  said  Land  Item  I  give  to  my  Servant  John  Upton  the  Annuity  of  Forty  Shillings  out 
of  my  said  Farme  during  his  life  (if  till  then  my  Servant)  to  be  paid  on  Michaelmas  day  in  Lind- 
ley  each  year  or  else  after  fourteen  days  to  distrain  Now  for  my  goods  I  thus  dispose  them  First  I 
give  an  Cth  pounds  to  Christ  Church  in  Oxford  where  I  have  so  long  lived  to  buy  five  pounds 
Lands  per  Ann.  to  be  Yearly  bestowed  on  Books  for  the  Library  Item  I  give  an  hundredth  pound 
to  the  University  Library  of  Oxford  to  be  bestowed  to  purchase  five  piound  Land  per  Ann.  to  be 
paid  out  Yearly  on  Books  as  Mrs.  Brooks  formerly  gave  an  hundred  pounds  to  buy  Land  to  the 
same  purpose  and  the  Rent  to  the  same  use  I  give  to  my  Brother  George  Burton  twenty  pounds 
and  my  watch  I  give  to  my  Brother  Ralph  Burton  five  pounds  Item  I  give  to  the  Parish  of  Sea. 
grave  in  Leicestershire  where  I  am  now  Rector  ten  pounds  to  be  given  to  a  certain  Feoffees  to  the 
perpetual  good  of  the  said  Parish  Oxon*  Item  I  give  to  my  Niece  Eugenia  Burton  One  hundredth 
pounds  Item  I  give  to  my  Nephew  Richard  Burton  now  Prisoner  in  London  an  hundredth  pound 
to  redeem  him  Item  I  give  to  the  Poor  of  Higham  Forty  Shillings  where  my  Land  is  to  the  poor 
of  Nuneaton  where  I  was  once  a  Grammar  Scholar  three  pound  to  my  Cousin  Purfey  of  Wadlake 
[Wadley]  my  Cousin  Purfey  of  Calcott  my  Cousin  Hales  of  Coventry  my  Nephew  Bradshaw  of 
Orton  twenty  shillings  a  piece  for  a  small  remembrance  to  Mr.  Whitehall  Rector  of  Cherkby  rnyne 
own  Chamber  Fellow  twenty  shillings  I  desire  my  Brother  George  and  my^Cosen  Purfey  of  Cal- 
cott to  be  the  Overseers  of  this  part  of  my  Will  I  give  moreover  five  pounds  to  make  a  small 
Monument  for  my  Mother  where  she  is  buried  in  London  to  my  Brother  Jackson  forty  shillings  to 
mv  Servant  John  Upton  forty  shillings  besides  his  former  Annuity  if  he  be  my  Servant  till  I  die 
ifhe  be  till  then  my  Servantf—ROBERT  BURTON— Charles  Russell  Witness — John  Peppe» 
Witness. 

•  So  in  the  Register  tSo  in  the  Register. 


viii  „lccount  of  the  Author. 

An  Apjiendix  v.i  this  my  Will  if  I  die  in  Oxford  or  whilst  I  am  of  Christ  Chu  "h  tmi 
with  good  Mr.  f  aynes  August  the  Fifteenth  1639. 

I  give  to  Mr.  Doctor  Fell  Dean  of  Christ  Church  Forty  Shillings  to  the  Eight  Cauoi  t  t  sf^Wy 
Shillings  a  piece  as  a  small  remembrance  to  the  poor  of  St.  Thomas  Parish  'J'wenly  Shii.«ngi  t<! 
Brasenose  Library  five  pounds  to  Mr.  Rowse  of  Oriell  Colledge  twenty  Shillings  to  Mr.  Heywooii 
xxs,  to  Dr.  Metcalfe  xxf:  to  Mr.  Sherley  xxs.  If  I  have  any  Books  the  University  Library  hath 
not,  let  them  take  them  If  I  have  any  Books  our  own  Library  halh  not,  let  them  take  them  I  give 
to  Mrs.  Fell  all   my  English   Books  of  Husbandry  one  excepted  to 

her  Daughter  Mrs.  Katberiiie  Fell  my  Six  Pieces  of  Silver  Plate  and  six  Silver  spoons  to  Mrs.  lies 
my  Gerards  Herbail  To  Mrs.  Morris  my  Country  Farme  Translated  out  of  French  4.  and  all  my 
English  Physick  Books  to  Mr.  Whistler  the  Recorder  of  Oxford  I  give  twenty  shillings  to  all  my 
fellow  Students  Mrs  of  Arts  a  Book  in  fol.  or  two  a  piece  as  Master  Morris  Treasurer  or  Mr.  Dean 
shall  appoint  whom  I  request  to  be  the  Overseer  of  this  Appendix  and  give  him  for  his  pains  Atlas 
Geografer  and  Ortelius  'J'heatrum  Mond'  I  give  to  John  Fell  the  Dean's  Son  Student  my  Mathe- 
matical Instruments  except  my  two  Crosse  Staves  which  I  give  to  my  Lord  of  Donnol  if  he  be 
then  of  the  House  To  'I'homas  lies  Doctor  lies  his  Son  Student  Saluntch  on  Paurrhelia  and 
Lucian's  Works  in  4  Tomes  If  any  books  be  left  let  my  Executors  dispose  of  them  with  all  such 
Books  as  are  written  with  my  own  hands  and  half  my  Melancholy  Copy  for  Crips  hath  the  other 
half  To  Mr.  Jones  Chaplin  and  Chanter  my  Surveying  Books  and  Instruments  To  the  Servants 
of  the  House  Forty  Shillings  ROB.  BURTON— Charles  Russell  Witness — John  Pepper  Witness 
— This  Will  was  shewed  to  me  by  the  Testator  and  acknowledged  by  him  some  few  days  before 
his  death  to  be  his  last  Will  Ita  Testor  John  Morris  S  Th  D.  Prebendari'  Eccl  Chri'  Oxon 
Feb.  3,  1639. 

Probatum  fuit  Testamentum  suprascriptum,  &c.  11°  1640  Juramento  Willmi  Burton  Fris' 
et  Executoris  cui  &c.  de  bene  et  fideliter  administrand.  &c.  coram  Mag'ris  Nalhanacle 
Stephens  Rectore  Eccl.  de  Drayton,  et  Edwardo  Farmer,  Clericis,  vigore  conimis. 
sionis,  &c.  * 


The  only  work  our  author  executed  was  that  now  reprinted,  which  probably 
was  the  principal  employment  of  his  life.  Dr.  Ferriar  says,  it  was  originally 
published  in  the  year  1617;  but  this  is  evidently  a  mistake;*  the  first  edition  was 
that  printed  in  4to,  1621,  a  copy  of  which  is  at  present  in  the  collection  of  John 
Nichols,  Esq.,  the  indefatigable  illustrator  of  the  Histoiy  of  Leicrstershire ;  to 
whom,  and  to  Isaac  Reed,  Esq.,  of  Staple  Inn,  this  account  is  greatly  indebted 
for  its  accuracy.  The  other  impressions  of  it  were  in  1624,  1628,  1632,  l*'3s', 
1651-2,  1660,  and  1676,  which  last,  in  the  titlepage,  is  called  the  eighth  editu  n. 

The  copy  from  which  the  present  is  re-printed,  is  that  of  1651-2:  at  the  con- 
clusion of  which  is  the  following  address  : 

"TO    THE    READER. 

"  BE  pleased  to  know  (Courteous  Reader)  that  since  the  last  Impression  of  this  Book,  the 
ingenuous  Author  of  it  is  deceased,  leaving  a  Copy  of  it  exactly  corrected,  with  several  consider- 
able Additions  by  his  own  hand  ;  this  Copy  he  committed  to  my  care  and  custody,  with  directions 
to  have  those  Additions  inserted  in  the  next  Edition  ;  which  in  order  to  his  command,  and  the 
Publicke  Good,  is  faithfully  performed  in  this  last  Impression." 

H.  C.    (;".  e.  HEN.  CRIFFS.) 

•Originating,  perhaps,  in  a  note,  p.  448,  6th  edit.  (p.  455  of  the  present),  in  which  a  book  is  quoted  a?  having 
oeen  "  printed  at  Paris  I'B24,  seven  years  after  Burton's  first  edition."  As,  however,  the  editions  after  that  of 
1621,  are  regularly  marked  in  succession  to  the  eighth,  printed  in  1676,  there  seems  very  little  reason  n  dr)uhi 
that,  in  the  note  ahnve  alluded  to,  either  1624  has  been  a  misprint  for  1628,  or  seven  yewrs  for  thrtt  yeaii  ''"be 
lumcrous  typographical  errata  in  other  parts  of  the  work  strongly  aid  this  latter  supposition. 


Account  of  the  Author.  \x 

The  following  testimonies  of  various  authors  will  serve  to  show  the  estimation 
ill  which  this  work  has  been  held  : — 

"The  Anatomy  of  Mklancholt,  wherein  the  author  hath  piled  up  variety  of  much  exceller 
learning.  Scarce  any  booli  of  philology  in  our  land  hath,  in  so  short  a  time,  passed  so  many 
editions." — Fuller^ s  Worthies,  fol.  16. 

"  'Tis  a  book  so  full  of  variety  of  reading,  that  gentlemen  who  have  lost  their  time,  and  are  put 
to  a  push  for  invention,  may  furnish  themselves  with  matter  for  common  or  scholastical  discourse 
and  writing." — Wood's  Atheiias  Oxoiiiensis,  vol.  i.  p.  028.  2d  edit. 

"If  you  never  saw  Butitox  upox  Melancholt,  printed  167(5,  I  pray  look  into  it,  and  read 
the  ninth  page  of  his  Preface,  •  Democritus  to  the  Reader.'  There  is  something  there  which 
touches  the  point  we  are  upon  ;  but  I  mention  the  author  to  you,  as  the  pleasantest,  the  most 
learned,  and  the  most  full  of  sterling  sense.  The  wits  of  Queen  Anne's  reign,  and  the  beginning 
of  George  the  First,  were  not  a  little  beholden  to  him." — Archbishop  Herring's  Letters,  12mo 
1777.  p.  149. 

•'Bdhtox's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy,  he  (Dr.  Johnson)  said,  was  the  only  book  that  ever 
took  him  out  of  bed  two  hours  sooner  than  he  wished  to  rise." — Bosivell's  Life  of  Johnson,  vol.  i. 
p.  580.  8vo.  edit. 

«  Buhton's  Anatomy  of  Melancholy  is  a  valuable  book,"  said  Dr.  Johnson.  "  It  is,  pe-- 
haps,  overloaded  with  quotation.  But  there  is  great  spirit  and  great  power  in  what  Burton  says 
when  he  writes  from  his  own  mind." — Ibid,  vol,  ii.  p.  325. 

"It  will  be  no  detraction  from  the  powers  of  Milton's  original  genius  and  invention,  to  remark, 
that  he  seems  to  have  borrowed  the  subject  of  L' Allegro  and  //  Penserosn,  together  with  sonje 
particular  thoughts,  expressions,  and  rhymes,  more  especially  the  idea  of  a  contrast  between  thefee 
two  dispositions,  from  a  forgotten  poem  prefixed  to  the  first  edition  of  Burton's  Anatomy  of 
Melancholy,  entitled,  'The  Author's  Abstract  of  Melancholy;  or,  A  Dialogue  between  Pleasure 
and  Pain.'  Here  pain  is  melancholy.  It  was  written,  as  I  conjecture,  about  the  year  1600.  I 
will  make  no  apology  for  abstracting  and  citing  as  much  of  this  poem  as  will  be  sufficient  to 
prove,  to  a  discerning  reader,  how  far  it  had  taken  possession  of  Milton's  mind.  The  measure 
will  appear  to  be  the  same  ;  and  that  our  author  was  at  least  an  attentive  reader  of  Burton's  bo  ik, 
may  be  already  concluded  from  the  traces  of  resemblance  which  I  have  incidentally  noticed  in 
passing  through  the  L' Allegro  and  II  Penseroso." — After  extracting  the  lines,  Mr.  Warton  adds, 
"  as  to  the  very  elaborate  work  to  which  these  visionary  verses  are  no  unsuitable  introduction,  the 
writer's  variety  of  learning,  his  quotations  from  scarce  and  curious  books,  his  pedantry  sparkling 
with  rude  wit  and  shapeless  elegance,  miscellaneous  matter,  intermixture  of  agreeable  tnles  and 
illustiations,  and,  perhaps,  above  all,  the  singularities  of  his  feelings,  clothed  in  an  uncommon 
quaintness  of  style,  have  contributed  to  render  it,  even  to  modern  readers,  a  valuable  I'ipository  of 
amusement  and  information." —  Warto7i's  Milton,  2d  edit.  p.  94. 

"  The  Anatomy  or  Melancholy  is  a  book  whicti  has  been  univprsany  read  ai  d  admired. 
This  work  is,  for  the  most  part,  what  the  autnor  hin.self  styles  it,  'a  cento;  L.-j.  it  is  a  verv 
ingenious  onr  ,  His  quotations,  which  abound  in  every  page,  are  pertinent ;  cut  if  h«  had  made 
more  use  of  his  invention  and  less  of  his  commonplace-book,  his  work  would  pe;haps  have  been 
more  valuable  than  it  is.  He  is  generally  free  from  the  affected  language  and  ridicuiou  metaphors 
which  disgrace  most  of  the  books  of  his  time." — Granger's  Biographical  History. 

"Burton's  Anatomy  or  Melancholy,  a  book  once  the  favourite  of  the  learned  and  the 
witty,  and  a  source  of  surreptitious  learning,  though  written  on  a  regular  plan,  cons)?*-,  chiefly 
af  quotations:  the  author  has  honestly  termed  it  a  cento.  He  collects,  under  every  divih\n,  the 
^p^nions  of  a  multitude  of  writers,  without  regard  to  chronological  order,  and  has  too  oIjh  the 
modesty  to  decline  the  interposition  of  his  own  sentiments.  Indeed  the  bulk  of  his  m  xfe/ials 
generally  overwhelms  him.  In  the  course  of  his  folio  he  has  contrived  to  treat  a  great  va-i'^ty 
of  topics,  that  seem  very  loosely  connected  with  the  general  subject:  and,  like  Bayle,  when  lie 
starts  a  favourite  train  of  quotations,  he  does  not  scruple  to  let  the  digression  outrun  the  princ'pfl 
question.  Thus,  from  the  doctrines  of  religion  to  military  discipline,  from  inland  navigation  to 
the  morality  of  dancing-schools,  every  thing  is  discussed  and  determined." — Ferriar's  Illustraiicnt 
of  Sterne,  p.  58. 
2 


X  Account  of  the  Author. 

'  The  archness  which  Bdhtox  displays  occasionally,  and  his  indulgence  of  playful  digression* 
from  the  most  serious  discussions,  often  give  his  style  an  air  of  familiar  conversation,  notwith- 
standing the  labonous  collections  which  supply  his  text.  He  was  capable  of  writing  excelleni 
poetry,  but  he  seems  to  have  cultivated  this  talent  loo  little.  The  English  verses  prefixed  to  his 
book,  which  possess  beautiful  imagery,  and  great  sweetness  of  versification,  have  been  frequently 
published.  His  Latin  elegiac  verses  addressed  to  his  book,  shew  a  very  agreeable  turn  for 
raillery." — Ibid.  p.  58. 

"  When  the  force  of  the  subject  opens  his  own  vein  of  prose,  we"  discover  valuable  sense  and 
brilliant  expression.  Such  is  his  account  of  the  first  feelings  of  melancholy  persons,  written, 
probably,  from  his  own  experience."     [See  p.  1.54,  of  the  present  edition.] — Ibid.  p.  60. 

"During  a  pedantic  age,  like  that  in  which  BanTorr's  production  appeared,  it  must  have  been 
emrnently  serviceable  to  writers  of  many  descriptions.  Hence  the  unlearned  might  furnish  them- 
eelves  with  ajipropriate  scraps  of  Greek  and  Latin,  whilst  men  of  letters  would  find  their  emiuiries 
shortened,  by  knowing  where  they  might  look  for  what  both  ancients  and  moderns  had  advaneco 
on  the  subject  of  human  passions.  I  confess  my  inability  to  point  out  any  other  English  authoi 
who  has  so  largely  dealt  in  apt  and  original  quotation." — Mnmiscript  note  of  the  lute  Geurgt 
Sieevene,  E}'/.,  in  his  copy  of  The  Amtomy  of  Melancholt. 


(xU 


])EMOCRITUS  JUNIOR  AD  LIBRUM  SUUM. 


Vade  libur,  qualis,  non  ausim  dicere,  fcelix, 

Te  nisi  ioeiicem  fecerit  Alma  dies. 
Vade  tamen  quocunque  lubet,  quascunque  per 
oras, 

Et  Genium  Domini  fac  imitere  tui. 
\  blandas  inter  Charites,  mystamque  saluta 

Musarum  quemvis,  si  tibi  lector  erit. 
Rura  colas,  urbem,  subeasve  palatia  regum, 

Submisse,  placide,  te  sine  dente  geras. 
Nobilis,  aut  si  quis  te  forte  inspexerit  heros, 

Da  te  morigerum,  perlegat  usque  lubet. 
Est  quod  Nobilitas,  est  quod  desideret  heros, 

Gratior  haec  forsan  charta  placere  potest. 
Si  quis  morosus  Cato,  tetricusque  Senator, 

Hunc  etiam  librum  forte  videre  velit, 
Sive  magistratus,  turn  te  reverenter  habeto  ; 

Sed  nuUus;  muscas  non  capiunt  Aquilae. 
Non    vacat    his    tempus    fugitivum    impendere 
nugis. 

Nee  tales  cupio  ;  par  mihi  lector  erit. 
Si  matrona  gravis  casu  diverterit  istuc, 

Illustris  domina,  aut  te  Comitissa  legal : 
Est  quod  displiceat,  placeat  quod  forsitan  illis, 

Ingerere  his  noli  te  modo,  pande  tamen. 
At  si  virgo  tuas  dignabitur  inclyta  chartas 

Tangere,  sive  schedis  haereat  ilia  tuis: 
Da  modo  te  facilem,  et  qusedam  folia  esse  me- 
mento 

Conveniant  oculis  quae  magis  apta  suis. 
Si  generosa  ancilla  tuos  aut  alma  puella 

Visura  est  ludos,  annue,  pande  lubena. 
Die  utinam  nunc  ipse  mens*  (nam  diligit  istas) 

In  praesens  esset  conspiciendus  herus. 
Ignotus  notusve  mihi  de  gente  togata 

Sive  aget  in  ludis,  pulpita  sive  colet, 
Sive  in  Lycoeo,  et  nugas  evolverit  istas. 

Si  quasdam  mendas  viderit  inspiciens, 
Da  veniam  Authori,  dices  ;  nam  plurima  vellet 

Expungi,  quae  jam  displicuisse  sciat. 
Sive     Melancholicus    quisquam,    seu    blandus 
Amator, 

Aulicus  aut  Civis,  seu  bene  comptus  Eques 
Hue  appellat,  age  et  tuto  te  crede  legenti, 

Multa  istic  forsan  non  male  nata  leget. 
Quod    fugiat,    caveat,    quodque    amplexabitur, 
ista 

Pagina  fortassis  promere  multa  potest. 
At  si  quis  Medicus  coram  te  sistet,  amice 

Fac  circumspecte,  et  te  sine  labe  geras: 


Inveniot   namque    ipse    meis   quoque    plunmi 
scriptis, 

Non  leve  subsidium  quae  sibi  forsan  erunt. 
Si  quis  Causidicus  chartas  impingat  in  istas, 

Nil  mihi  vobiscum,  pessima  turba  vale  ; 
Sit  nisi  vir  bonus,  et  juris  sine  fraude  peritus, 

Turn  legat,  et  forsan  doctior  inde  siet. 
Si  quis  cordatus,  facilis,  lectorque  benignus 

Hue  oculos  vertat,  quae  velit  ipse  legat ; 
Candidus  ignoscet,  metuas  nil,  pande  libenter, 

OfJ'ensus  mendis  non  erit  iile  tuis, 
Laudabit  nonnuUa.     Venit  si  Rhetor  ineptus, 

Limata  et  tersa,  et  qui  benn  cocta  petit, 
Claude  citus  librum ;  nulla  hie  nisi  ferrea  verba, 

Ofi'endent  stomachum  quae  minus  apta  suum. 
At  si  quis  non  eximius  de  plebe  poeta, 

Annue  ;  namque  istic  plurima  licta  leget. 
Nos  sumus  e  numero,  nuUus  mihi  spirat  Apollo, 

Grandiloquus  Vates  quilibet  esse  nequit. 
Si  Criticus  Lector,  tumidus  Censorque  molestus, 

Zoilus  et  Momus,  si  rabiosa  cohors : 
Ringe,  freme,  et  noli  turn  pandere,  turba  ma- 
lignis 

Si  occurrat  sannis  invidiosa  suis : 
Fac  fugias  ;  si  nulla  tibi  sit  copia  eundi, 

Contemnes,  tacite  scommata  quaeque  feres. 
Frendeat,  allatret,  vacuas  gannitibus  auras  . 

Impleat,  haud  cures  ;  his  placuisse  nefas. 
Verum  age  si  forsan  divertat  purior  hospes, 

Cuique  sales,  ludi,  displiceantque  joci, 
Objiciatque  tibi  sordes,  lascivaque  :  dices, 

Lasciva  est  Domino  et  Musa  jocosa  tuo. 
Nee  lasciva  tamen,  si  pensitet  omne  ;  sed  esto  ; 

Sit  lasciva  licet  pagina,  vita  proba  est. 
Barbarus,  indoctiisque  rudis  spectator  in  istam 

Si  messem  intrudat,  fuste  fugabis  eum, 
Fungum  pelle  procul   (jubeo)  nam  quid  mihi 
fungo  ? 

Conveniunt  stomacho  non  minus  ista  suo. 
Sed  nee  pelle  tamen ;  laeto  omnes  accipe  vultn, 

Quos,  quas,  vel  quales,  inde  vel  unde  viros. 
Gratus  erit  quicunque  venit,  gratissimus  hospeii 

Quisquis  erit,  facilis  difficilisque  mihi. 
Nam  si  culparit,  quaedam  culpasse  juvabit, 

Culpando  faciet  me  meliora  sequi. 
Sed  si  laudarit,  neque  laudibus  efferar  ullis, 

Sit  satis  hisce  mails  opposuisse  bonum. 
Haec  sunt  quae  nostro  placuit  mandare  libello, 

Et  quce  dimittens  dicere  jussit  Hems. 


*  Hsc  comics  dicta  ci^ve  ne  malA  capias. 


(xii) 


DEMOCRITUS  JUNIOR  TO  HIS  BOOK. 


PARAPHRASTIC  METRICAL  TRANSLATION. 


»o  forth  my  book  mio  the  open  day ; 

Happy,  if  made  so  by  its  garish  eye. 
D'er  earth's  wide  surface  taiic  thy  vagrant  way, 

To  imitate  thy  master's  genius  try. 
The  Graces  three,  the  Muses  nine  salute, 

Should  those  who  love  them  try  to  con  thy  lore. 
The  country,  city  seek,  grand  thrones  to  boot, 

With  gentle  courtesy  humbly  bow  before. 
Should  nobles  gallant,  soldiers  frank  and  brave 

Seek  thy  acquaintance,  hail  their  first  advance  : 
From  twitch  of  care  thy  pleasant  vein  may  save, 

May  laughter  cause  or  wisdom  give  perchance. 
Some  surly  Cato,  Senator  austere. 

Haply  may  wish  to  peep  into  thy  book: 
Seem  very  nothing — tremble  and  revere  : 

No  forceful  eagles,  butterflies  e'er  look. 
rhey  love  not  thee :  of  them  then  little  seek, 

And  wish  for  readers  triflers  like  thyself. 
Of  ludeful  matron  watchful  catch  the  beck. 

Or  gorgeous  countess  full  of  pride  and  pelf. 
They  may  say  "  pish !"  and  frown,  and  yet  read 
jn : 

Cry  odd,  and  silly,  coarse,  and  yet  amusing, 
uld  dainty  damsels  seek  thy  page  to  con, 

Sp-ead  thy  best  stores:  to  them  be  ne'er  re- 
•    fusing : 
Say,  fair  one,  master  loves  thee  dear  as  life ; 

Would  he  were  here  to  gaze  on  thy  sweet  look. 
Should  known  or  unknown  student,  freed  from 
strife 

Of  logic  and  the  schools,  explore  my  book  : 
Cry  mercy  critic,  and  thy  book  withhold: 

Be  some  few  errors  pardon' d  though  observ'd : 
An  humble  auth.or  to  implore  makes  bold. 

Thy  kind  indulgence,  even  undeserv'd. 
Should  melancholy  wight  or  pensive  lover. 

Courtier,  snug  cit,  or  carpet  knight  so  trim 
Our  blossoms  cull,  he'll  find  himself  in  clover. 

Gain  sense  from  precept,  laughter  from  our 
whim. 
Should  learned  leech  with  solemn  air  unfold 

Thy  leaves,  beware,  be  civil,  and  be  wise: 
Thy  volume  many  precepts  sage  may  hold. 

His  well  fraught  head  may  find  no  trifling  prize. 
'Should  crafty  lawyer  trespass  on  our  ground. 

Caitiffs  avaunt !  disturbing  tribe  away  ! 
L'^nless  (white  crow)  an  honest  one  be  found ; 

He'll  better,  wiser  go  for  what  we  say. 
''hould  some  ripe  scholar,  gentle  and  benign, 

With  candour,  care,  and  judgment  thee  peruse: 


Thy  faults  to  kind  oblivion  he'll  consign  ; 

Nor  to  thy  merit  will  his  praise  refuse. 
Thou  may'st  be  searched  for  polish' d  words  and 
verse 

By  flippant  spouter,  emptiest  of  praters  : 
Tell  him  to  seek  them  in  some  mawkish  verse : 

My  periods  all  are  rough  as  nutmeg  graters. 
The  doggerel  poet,  wishing  thee  to  read. 

Reject  not ;  let  him  glean  thy  jests  and  stories. 
His  brother  I,  of  lowly  sembling  breed  : 

Apollo  grants  to  few  Parnassian  glories. 
Menac'd  by  critic  with  sour  furrowed  brow, 

Momus  or  Troilus  or  Scotch  reviewer: 
Ruffle  your  heckle,  grin  and  growl  and  vow : 

Ill-natured  foes  you  thus  will  find  the  fewer. 
When  foul-mouth'd  senseless  railers  cry  thee 
down. 

Reply  not :  fly,  and  show  the  rogues  thy  stern : 
They  are  not  worthy  even  of  a  frown : 

Good  taste  or  breeding  they  can  ne'^er  learn; 
Or  let  them  clamour,  turn  a  callous  ear. 

As  though  in  dread  of  some  harsh  donkey's 
bray. 
If  chid  by  censor,  friendly  though  severe. 

To  such  explain  and  turn  thee  not  away. 
Thy  vein,  says  he  perchance,  is  all  too  free ; 

Thy  smutty  language  suits  not  learned  pen  : 
Reply,  Good  Sir,  throughout,  the  context  see  ; 

Thought  chastens  thought ;  so  prithee  judge 
again. 
Besides,  although  my  master's  pen  may  wander 

Through  devious  paths,  by  which  it  ought  not 
stray. 
His  life  is  pure,  beyond  the  breath  of  slander  : 

So  pardon  grant ;  'tis  merely  but  his  way. 
Some  rugged  ruffian  makes  a  hideous  rout — 

Brandish  thy  cudgel,  threaten  him  to  baste  ; 
The  filthy  fungus  far  from  thee  cast  out ; 

Such  noxious  banquets  never  suit  my  taste. 
Yet,  calm  and  cautious  moderate  thy  ire, 

Be  ever  courteous  should  the  case  allow — 
Sweet  malt  is  ever  made  by  gentle  fire  : 

Warm  to  thy  friends,  give  all  a  civil  bow. 
Even  censure  sometimes  teaches  to  improve, 

Slight  frosts  have  often  cured  too  rank  a  crop, 
So,  candid  blame  my  spleen  shall  never  move. 

For  skilful  gard'ners  wayward  branches  lop. 
Go  then,  my  book,  and  bear  my  words  in  mind 
Guides  safe  at  once,  and  pleasant  thein  you'll 
find. 


Ixiii) 


THE  ARGUMENT  OF  THE  FRONTISPIECE. 


Ten  distinct  Squares  here  seen  apart, 
Are  joined  in  one  by  Cutter's  art. 


Old  Democritus  under  a  tree, 
Sits  on  a  stone  with  booii  on  knee; 
About  him  hang  there  many  features, 
Of  Cats,  Dogs  and  such  like  creatures, 
Of  which  he  makes  anatomy. 
The  seat  of  black  choler  to  see. 
Over  his  head  appears  the  sky. 
And  Saturn  Lord  of  melancholy. 


To  the  left  a  landscape  of  Jealousy, 
Presents  itself  unto  thine  eye. 
A  Kingfisher,  a  Swan,  an  Hern, 
Two  fighting-cocks  you  may  discern, 
Two  roaring  Bulls  each  other  hie, 
To  assault  concerning  venery. 
Symbols  are  these  ;  I  say  no  more, 
Conceive  the  rest  by  that's  afore. 


The  next  of  solitariness, 

A  portraiture  doth  well  express. 

By  sleeping  dog,  cat :  Buck  and  Doe, 

Hares,  Conies  in  the  desert  go  : 

Bats,  Owls  the  shady  bowers  over. 

In  melancholy  darkness  hover. 

Mark  well :  If 't  be  not  as  't  should  be, 

Blame  the  bad  Cutter,  and  not  me. 


I'th'  under  column  there  doth  stand 

Inamorato  with  folded  hand; 

Down  hangs  his  head,  terse  and  polite, 

Some  ditty  sure  he  doth  indite. 

His  lute  and  books  about  him  lie, 

As  symptoms  of  his  vanity. 

If  this  do  not  enough  disclose. 

To  paint  him,  take  thyself  by  th'  nose. 


Hypocondriacus  leans  on  his  arm. 
Wind  in  his  side  doth  him  much  harm, 
And  troubles  him  full  sore,  God  knows. 
Much  ^ain  h?  hath  and  many  woes. 
About  him  pots  and  glasses  lie. 
Newly  brought  from's  Apothecary. 
This  Saturn's  aspects  signify. 
You  see  them  portray'd  in  the  sky. 


Beneath  them  kneeling  on  his  knee 
A  superstitious  man  you  see  : 
He  fasts,  prays,  on  his  Idol  fixt. 
Tormented  hope  and  fear  betwixt : 
For  Hell  perhaps  he  takes  more  pain, 
Than  thou  dost  Heaven  hself  to  gain 
Alas  poor  soul,  I  pity  thee. 
What  stars  incline  thee  so  to  be  ? 


But  see  the  madman  rage  downright 
With  furious  looks,  a  ghastly  sight. 
Naked  in  chains  bound  doth  he  lie. 
And  roars  amain  he  knows  not  why ' 
Observe  him  ;  for  as  in  a  glass. 
Thine  angry  portraiture  it  was. 
His  picture  keeps  still  in  thy  presence; 
'Twixt  him  and  thee,  there's  no  differencs 

VlII,    IX. 

Borage  and  Hellebor  fill  two  scenes,         ^^,; 
Sovereign  plants  to  purge  the  veins 
Of  melancholy,  and  cheer  the  heart. 
Of  those  black  fumes  which  make  it  smart 
To  clear  the  brain  of  misty  fogs. 
Which  dull  our  senses,  and  Soul  clogs. 
The  best  medicine  that  e'er  God  made 
For  this  malady,  if  well  assay'd. 


Now  last  of  all  to  fill  a  place. 
Presented  is  the  Author's  iace  ( 
And  in  that  habit  which  he  wears. 
His  image  to  the  world  appears. 
His  mind  no  art  can  well  express. 
That  by  his  writings  you  may  guess. 
It  was  not  pride,  nor  yet  vain  glory, 
(Though  others  do  it  commonly) 
Made  him  do  this  :  if  you  must  know 
The  Printer  would  needs  have  it  so. 
Then  do  not  frown  or  scoff  at  it, 
Deride  not,  or  detract  a  whit. 
For  surely  as  thou  dost  by  him, 
He  will  do  the  same  again. 
Then  look  upon't,  behold  and  see, 
As  thou  lik'st  it,  so  it  likes  thee. 
And  I  for  it  will  stand  in  view. 
Thine  to  command.  Reader,  adieu. 


(xiv) 


THE  AUTHOR'S  ABSTRACT  OF  MELANCHOLY,  A.«xo>i;«. 


CWhen  I  go  musing  all  alone 
Thinking  of  divers  things  fore-known. 
When  I  build  castles  in  the  air, 
Void  of  sorrow  and  void  of  fear, 
Pleasing  myself  with  phantasms  sweet, 
Methinks  the  time  runs  very  fleet. 
All  my  joys  to  this  are  folly. 
Naught  so  sweet  as  melancholy. 
When  I  lie  waking  all  alone. 
Recounting  what  I  have  ill  done, 
My  thoughts  on  me  then  tyrannise, 
Fear  and  sorrow  me  surprise, 
Whether  I  tarry  still  or  go, 
Methinks  the  time  moves  very  slow. 
All  my  griefs  to  this  are  jolly. 
Naught  so  mad  as  melancholy. 
When  to  myself  I  act  and  smile. 
With  pleasing  thoughts  the  time  beguile. 
By  a  brook  side  or  wood  so  green, 
Unheard,  unsought  for,  or  unseen, 
A  thousand  pleasures  do  me  bless. 
And  crown  my  soul  with  happiness. 
All  my  joys  besides  are  folly, 
None  so  sweet  as  melancholy. 
When  I  lie,  sit,  or  walk  alone, 
I  sigh,  I  grieve,  making  great  mone. 
In  a  dark  grove,  or  irksome  den, 
With  discontents  and.  Furies  then, 
A  thousand  miseries  at  once 
Mine  heavy  heart  and  soul  ensonce. 
All  my  griefs  to  this  are  jolly, 
None  so  sour  as  melancholy. 
Methinks  I  hear,  methinks  I  see, 
Sweet  music,  wondrous  melody, 
Tqiwns,  palaces,  and  cities  fine; 
Here  now,  then  there  ;  the  world  is  mine. 
Rare  beauties,  gallant  ladies  shine, 
Whate'er  is  lovely  or  divine. 
All  other  joys  to  this  are  folly. 
None  so  sweet  as  melancholy. 
Methinks  I  hear,  methinks  I  see 
Ghosts,  goblins,  fiends  ;  my  phantasy 
Presents  a  thousand  ugly  shapes, 
[leadless  bears,  black  men,  and  apes. 
Doleful  outcries,  and  fearful  sights, 
My  sad  and  dismal  soul  aflrights. 
All  my  griefs  to  this  are  jolly. 
None  30  damn'd  as  melancholy. 


Methinks  I  court,  methinks  I  kiss, 
Methinks  I  now  embrace  my  mistress. 

0  blessed  days,  O  sweet  content. 
In  Paradise  my  time  is  spent. 

Such  thoughts  may  still  my  fancy  move; 
So  may  I  ever  be  in  love. 
All  my  joys  to  this  are  folly. 
Naught  so  sweet  as  melancholy. 
When  I  recount  love's  many  frights. 
My  sighs  and  tears,  my  waking  nights, 
My  jealous  fits  ;  O  mine  hard  fate 

1  now  repent,  but  'tis  too  late. 
No  torment  is  so  bad  as  love. 
So  bitter  to  my  soul  can  prove. 

All  my  griefs  to  this  are  jolly, 
Naught  so  harsh  as  melancholy. 
Friends  and  companions  get  you  gone. 
'Tis  my  desire  to  be  alone  ; 
Ne'er  well  but  when  my  thoughts  and  1 
Do  domineer  in  privacy. 
No  Gem,  no  treasure  like  to  this, 
'Tis  my  delight,  my  crown,  my  bliss. 
All  my  joys  to  this  are  folly. 
Naught  so  sweet  as  melancholy. 
'Tis  my  sole  plague  to  be  alone, 
I  am  a  beast,  a  monster  grown, 
I  will  no  light  nor  company, 
I  find  it  now  my  misery. 
The  scene  is  turn'd,  my  joys  are  gone. 
Fear,  discontent,  and  sorrows  come. 
All  my  griefs  to  this  are  jolly. 
Naught  so  fierce  as  melancholy. 
I'll  not  change  life  with  any  king, 
I  ravisht  am:  can  the  world  bring 
More  joy,  than  still  to  laugh  and  smile, 
In  pleasant  toys  time  to  beguile  ? 
Do  not,  O  do  not  trouble  me. 
So  sweet  content  I  feel  and  see. 
All  my  joys  to  this  are  folly. 
None  so  divine  as  melancholy. 
I'll  change  my  state  with  any  wretch, 
Thou  canst  from  gaol  or  dunghill  fetch  • 
My  pain's  past  cure,  another  hell, 
I  may  not  in  this  torment  dwell ! 
Now  desperate  I  hate  my  life, 
^end  me  a  halter  or  a  knife  ; 
All  my  griefs  to  this  are  jolly. 
Naught  so  damn'd  as  melancholy. 


(IS) 

DEMOCRITUS  JUNIOR 

TO  THE  READER. 


(^  ENTLE  reader.  I  presume  thou  wilt  be  very  inquisitive  to  know  what  antic  or 
1  personate  actor  this  is,  that  so  insolently  intrudes  upon  this  common  theatre,  to 
the  world's  view,  arrogating  another  man's  name;  whence  he  is,  why  he  doth  it,  and 
what  he  hath  to  say;  altliough,  as  'he  said,  Primum  si  noluero,  non  rcspondebo^  quis 
coact.unis  est?  I  am  a  free  man  born,  and  may  choose  whether  I  will  tell;  who  can 
compel  me?  If  I  be  urged,  1  will  as  readily  reply  as  that  Egyptian  in  ^Plutarch,  when 
a  curious  fellow  would  needs  know  what  he  had  in  his  basket,  Quum  vides  velatam, 
quid  inquiris  in  rem  abscondlfam?  It  was  therefore  covered,  because  he  should  not 
know  what  was  in  it.  Seek  not  after  that  which  is  hid;  if  the  contents  please  thee, 
^and  be  for  thy  use,  suppose  the  Man  in  the  Moon,  or  whom  thou  wilt  to  be  the 
Author;"  1  would  not  willingly  be  known.  Yet  in  some  sort  to  give  thee  satisfac- 
tion, which  is  more  than  I  need,  1  will  show  a  reason,  both  of  tliis  usurped  name, 
title,  and  subject.  And  first  of  the  name  of  Democritus;  lest  any  man,  by  reason  of 
it,  should  be  deceived,  expecting  a  pasquil,  a  satire,  some  ridiculous  treatise  (as  I 
myself  should  have  done),  some  prodigious  tenet,  or  paradox  of  the  earth's  motion, 
of  infinite  worlds,  in  infinito  vacuo,  ex  fortuita  atomorum  collisione,  in  an  infinite 
waste,  so  caused  by  an  accidental  collision  of  motes  in  the  sun,  all  which  Democritus 
held,  Epicurus  and  their  master  Lucippus  of  old  maintained,  and  are  lately  revived 
by  Copernicus,  Brunus,  and  some  others.  Besides,  it  hath  been  always  an  ordinary 
custom,  as  ^Gellius  observes,  "for  later  writers  and  impostors,  to  broach  many  absurd 
and  insolent  fictions,  under  the  name  of  so  noble  a  philosopher  as  Democritus,  to 
get  themselves  credit,  and  by  that  means  the  more  to  be  respected,"  as  artificers 
usually  do,  JYovo  qui  marmori  ascrihunt  Praxatilem  suo.     'Tis  not  so  with  me. 

*  Non  liic  Centaurus,  non  Gorgonas,  Harpyasque       I         No  Centaurs  here,  or  Gorgons  look  to  find, 
Inveniea,  hominem  pagina  no.stra  sapit.  |         My  subject  is  of  man  and  human  kind. 

Thou  thyself  art  the  subject  of  my  discourse. 

"  Quicquid  agunt  homines,  votum,  timor,  ira,  voluptas,  I    Whate'er  men  do,  vows,  fears,  in  ire,  in  sport, 
Gaudia,  discursus,  nostri  farrago  libelli.  |    Joys,  wand'rings,  are  the  sum  of  my  report. 

My  intent  is  no  otherwise  to  use  his  name,  than  Mercurius  Gallobelgicus,  Mercu- 
rius  Britannicus,  use  the  name  of  Mercury,  'Democritus  Christianus,  &c.;  although 
there  be  some  other  circumstances  for  which  I  have  masked  myself  under  this  vizard, 
and  some  peculiar  respect  which  I  cannot  so  well  express,  until  I  have  set  down  a 
brief  character  of  this  our  Democritus,  what  he  was,  with  an  Epitome  of  his  life. 

\pemocritus,  as  he  is  described  by  *  Hippocrates  and  ^Laertius,  was  a  little  wearish 
old  man,  very  melancholy  by  nature,  averse  from  company  in  his  latter  days,'"  and 
much  given  to  solitariness,  a  famous  philosopher  in  his  ;age,  ^^co(zvus  with  Socrates, 
wholly  addicted  to  his  studies  at  the  last,  and  to  a  private  life :  wrote  many  excellent 
works,  a  great  divine,  according  to  the  divinity  of  those  times,  an  expert  physician, 
a  politician,  an  excellent  mathematician,  as  '^Diacosmus  and  the  rest  of  his  works 
do  witness.  He  was  much  delighted  with  the  studies  of  husbandry,  saith  '*  Columella, 
and  often  I  find  him  cited  by  '^  Constantinus  and  others  treating  of  that  subject.  He 
knew  the  natures,  differences  of  all  beasts,  plants,  fishes,  birds ;  and,  as  some  say, 
could  '"  understand  the  tunes  and  voices  of  them.  In  a  word,  he  was  omnifariam 
doctus,  a  general  scholar,  a  great  student ;  and  to  the  intent  he  might  better  contem- 

!  Seneca    in    ludo    in    mortem     Claudii     Ciesaris.     8  iijp.  Epist.  Dameget.  9  Laert.  lib  9.  '"  Hor- 

'  L'b.  de  Curiositate.  s  Mod6  hsc  tibi  usui  sint,    tulo  sibi  celtulam  seligens,  ibique  seipsnm  includens, 

quemvis  auotorem  fingito.     Wecker.  ^  Lib.  10,  c.    vixit  solitarius.  "  Floruit  Olympiade  HO;  700  annis 

12     Multa  a  male  feriatis  in  Democriti  nomine  com-    poslTroiam.        "  Diacos.  quod  cunctisoperibus  facil* 
aienta  data,  nobilitatis,  acictoriiaiisque  ejus  perfugio  j  excellit.  La«!rt.  "  Col.  lib.  1.  c  1.  '^  Const,  lib. 

iitcntibus.  6  Martialis, lib.  10,  epigr.  14.         e  Juv.    de  agric.  passim.  '»  Volucrnm  voces  el  lingual 

*M.  1  '  Auth.   Pet.  Besseo  edit.  Colonie,  U'6.  |  intelligere  se  dicit  Abderitans  Ep.  Hip 


16  Democruus  to  the  Reader. 

f>late,  '"  I  find  it  related  by  some,  that  he  put  out  liis  eyes,  and  was  in  his  old  ag** 
voluntarily  blind,  yet  saw  more  than  all  Greece  besides,  and  "writ  of  every  subject, 
.Vt/u7  in  tota  opificio  naturce.,  de  quo  mm  scripsit.^^  A  man  of  an  excellent  wit,  pro- 
found conceit^  and  to  attain  knowledge  tlie  better  in  his  younger  years,  he  travelled 
to  Egypt  and  '"Atiiens,  to  confer  with  learned  men,  -""admired  of  some,  despised  of 
others."  After  a  wandering  life,  he  settled  at  Abdera,  a  town  in  Thrace,  and  was 
sent  for  thither  to  be  their  law-maker,  Recorder,  or  town-clerk,  as  some  will ;  or  as 
others,  he  was  there  bred  and  born.  Howsoever  it  was,  there  he  lived  at  last  in  a 
garden  in  the  suburbs,  wholly  betaking  liimself  to  his  studies  and  a  private  life, 
iti' saving  that  sometimes  he  would  walk  down  to  the  haven,  ^^and  laugh  heartily  at 
\such  variety  of  ridiculous  objects,  which  there  he  saw."  Such  a  one  was  Democritus. 
But  in  the  mean  tiiue,  how  doth  tliis  concern  me,  or  upon  what  reference  do  I 
usurp  liis  habit }  I  confess,  indeed,  that  to  compare  myself  unto  him  for  aught  1 
have  yet  said,  were  botli  impudency  and  arrogancy.  I  do  not  presume  to  make  any 
parallel,  Antistaf  mihi  milllhus  trccentis.,  ^parvus  sum,  nuUiis  sum,  altum  nee  spiro, 
nee  spero.  Yet  thus  much  I  will  say  of  myself,  and  tliat  I  hope  without  all  suspi- 
cion of  pride,  or  self-conceit,  I  have  lived  a  silent,  sedentary,  solitary,  private  life,' 
mihi  et  musis  in  the  University,  as  long  almost  as  Xenocrates  in  Athens,  ad  senecfam 
fere  to  learn  wisdom  as  he  did,  penned  up  most  part  in  my  study.  For  I  have  been 
brought  up  a  student  in  the  most  liourisliing  college  of  Europe,'^^  augustisshno  collegio, 
and  can  brag  with  ^^Jovius,  almost,  in  ed  luce  domicilii  Vacicani,  tofius  orbis  cele- 
herrimi,  per  37  annos  multa  opportunaque  didici;''''  for  thirty  years  I  have  continued 
(having  the  use  of  as  good  ^^  libraries  as  ever  he  had)  a  scholar,  and  would  be  there- 
fore lotli,  either  by  living  as  a  drone,  to  be  an  unprofitable  or  unworthy  member  of 
so  learned  and  noble  a  society,  or  to  write  that  which  should  be  any  way  dishonour- 
able to  such  a  royal  and  ample  foundation.  Something  I  have  done,  though  by  my 
profession  a  divine,  yet  turbine  rapfus  ingenii,  as  '^'he  said,  out  of  a  running  wit,  an 
unconstant,  unsettled  mind,  I  had  a  great  desire  (not  able  tp  attain  to  a  superficial 
skill  in  any)  to  have  some  smattering  in  all,  to  be  aliquis  in  omnibus,  nullus  in  sin- 
guUs,'^'^  which  ^^ Plato  commends,  out  of  him  ^''Lipsius  approves  and  furthers,  "as  fit 
to  be  imprinted  in  all  curious  wits,  not  to  be  a  slave  of  one  science,  or  dwell  alto- 
gether in  one  subject,  as  most  do,  but  to  rove  abroad,  centum  puer  artium,  to  have 
an  oar  in  every  man's  boat,  to  "'  taste  of  every  dish,  and  sip  of  every  cup,"  which, 
saith  ^^  Montaigne,  was  well  performed  by  Aristotle,  and  his  learned  countryman 
Adrian  Turnebus.  This  roving  humour  (though  not  with  like  success)  I  have  ever 
had,  and  like  a  ranging  spaniel,  that  barks  at  every  bird  he  sees,  leaving  his  game,  I 
have  followed  all,  saving  that  which  I  should,  and  may  justly  complain,  and  truly, 
qui  uhique  est,  nusqucan  est,^^  whicli  ^'Gesner  did  in  modesty,  that  I  have  read  many 
books,  but  to  little  purpose,  for  want  of  good  method  •,  I  have  confusedly  tumbled 
over  divers  authors  in  our  libraries,  with  small  profit,  for  want  of  art,  order,  memory, 
judgment.  I  never  travelled  but  in  map  or  card,  in  which  my  unconfined  thoughts 
have  freely  expatiated,  as  having  ever  been  especially  delighted  with  the  study  of 
Cosmography.  *^ Saturn  was  lord  of  my  geniture,  culminating,  &c,,  and  Mars  prin- 
cipal signifioator  of  manners,  in  partile  conjunction  with  my  ascendant;  both  fortunate 
in  their  houses,  &c.  I  am  not  poor,  I  am  not  rich ;  nihil  est,  nihil  deest,  I  have 
little,  I  want  nothing  :  all  my  treasure  is  in  Minerva's  tower.  Greater  preferment  as  I 
could  never  get,  so  am  I  not  in  debt  for  it,  I  have  a  competence  [laus  Deo)  from  my 
noble  and  munificent  patrons,  though  1  live  still  a  collegiate  student,  as  Democritus 
in  his  garden,  and  lea-d  a  monastic  life,  ipse  mihi  theatrum,  sequestered  from  those  tu- 
mults and  troubles  of  the  world,  Et  tanquam  in  specula  positus,  f^as  he  said)  in  some 

'«  Sabelliciisexempl,  lih.  10.  Oculis  se  privavit,  ut  me-  Hist.  '^Keeper  of  our  college  library,  lately  re- 
ilii..  coiuemplationi  operam  daret,  siiblinii  vir  ingeiiio,  vived  by  Ollio  Nicolson,  Esquire.  *' Scaliger. 
profundae  cogitationis,  &c.  "  Natiiralia,  moralia,  ^  Somebody  in  everything,  nobody  in  each  thing, 
mathematica,  liberales  disciplinas,  artiunique  om-  29  in  Theat.  so  phil.  Stoic,  li.  diff.  8.  Dogma  cu- 
niiim  periliam  callebat.  '"  Nolhini;  in  nature's  pidis  et  curiosis  ingenii.s  imprimendum,  ut  sit  talis  qui 
p;iwer  to  contrive  of  which  he  has  not  written,  nulli  rei  servial,  ant  exacte  ununi  aliquid  elaboret,  alia 
>'  Veni  Athcnas,  et  nemo  me  novit.  '^'>  Idem  con-  nepliaens,  ul  artifices,  &c.  si  Delibare  gralum  de 
temptui  et  aiimi.'-ationi  habitus.  '"  T^olebal  ad  qnocnnque  cibo,  et  pittisare  de  quocunque  dolio  ju- 
portam  amhulare.  et  inde,  &(;.  Hip,  Fp  Dameg.  cundnm.  '  Fssays,  lib.  3.  ■'•<  lie  thai  ia 
•  I'eruptuori.su  pulmonem  agitare  soleb:it  Democritiis.  everywhere  is  nowhere.  '<  Priefat.  hililioihef. 
J»  V.  Sal.  7.  -  Nofi  sum  diL-nus  praistare  matePa.  =*  Amtx)  fortes  et  forlunati.  Mars  idem  magisterii  do- 
Mi  rl           '■'<  Christ  Church  ill  (J  vford.            -  I'refat.  minus  Juztu  primani  Leoviiii  reguiam.  <"  Hensiu* 


Democrifus  to  the  Header.  17 

high  place  above  you  all,  like  Stoicus  Sapiens,  omnia  scecula.,  prccterita  presentidquc 
vidciis,  uno  velut  intuitu.,  I  hear  and  see  what  is  done  abroad,  how  others  ^'run,  ride, 
turmoil,  and  macerate  themselves  in  court  and  country,  far  from  those  wrangling 
lawsuits,  aulcB  vanitatem.,  fori  ambitionem.,  ridere  mecum.  soleo  :  I  laugh  at  all,  ''^onlj 
secure,  lest  my  suit  go  amiss,  my  ships  perish,  corn  and  cattle  miscarry,  trade  decay, 
I  have  no  wife  nor  cliildren  good  or  bad  to  provide  for.  (A  mere  spectator  of  other 
men's  fortunes  and  adventures,  and  how  they  act  their  parts,  which  methinks  are 
diversely  presented  unto  me,  as  from  a  common  theatre  or  scene.  I  hear  new  news 
e\'ery  day,  and  those  ordinary  rumours  of  war,  plagues,  fires,  inundations,  thefts, 
murders,  massacres,  meteors,  comets,  speclrums,  prodigies,  apparitions,  of  towns 
taken,  cities  besieged  in  France,  Germany,  Turkey,  Persia,  Poland,  &.c.,  daily  musters 
and  preparations,  and  such  like,  which  these  tempestuous  times  atlbrd,  battles  fought, 
«»o  many  men  slain,  raonomachies.  shipwrecks,  piracies  and  sea-fights  ;  peace,  leagues, 
(Stratagems,  and  fresh  alarms.  A  vast  confusion  of  vows,  wishes,  actions,  edicts, 
oetitions,  lawsuits,  pleas,  laws,  proclamations,  complaints,  grievances  are  daily 
brouglit  to  our  ears.  New  books  every  day,  pamphlets,  currantoes,  stories,  whole 
catalogues  of  volumes  of  all  sorts,  new  paradoxes,  opinions,  schisms,  heresies,  con- 
troversies in  philosophy,  religion,  &c.  Now  come  tidings  of  weddings,  maskings, 
mummeries,  entertainments,  jubilees,  embassies,  tilts  and  tournaments,  ^trophies, 
triumphs,  revels,  sports,  plays :  then  again,  as  in  a  new  shifted  scene,  treasons, 
cheating  tricks,  robberies,  enormous  villanies  in  all  kinds,  funerals,  burials,  deaths 
of  princes,  new  discoveries,  expeditions,  now  comical,  then  tragical  matters.  To-day 
we  hear  of  new  lords  and  officers  created,  to-morrow  of  some  great  men  deposed, 
and  then  again  of  fresh  honours  conferred ;  one  is  let  loose,  another  imprisoned ; 
jne  purchaseth,  another  breaketh :  he  thrives,  his  neighbour  turns  bankrupt ;  now 
plenty,  then  again  dearth  and  famine ;  one  runs,  another  rides,  wrangles,  laughs, 
weeps,  &.C.  Thus  I  daily  hear,  and  such  like,  both  private  and  public  news,  amidst 
the  gallantry  and  misery  of  the  world  ;  jollity,  pride,  perplexities  and  cares,  simplicity 
and  villany ;  subtlety,  knavery,  candour  and  integrity,  mutually  mixed  and  offering 
tliemselves ;  I  lub  on  privus  privatus ;  as  I  have  still  lived,  so  I  now  continue,  statu 
quo  priusy  left  to  a  solitary  life,  and  mine  own  domestic  discontents :  saving  that 
sometimes,  ne  quid  vientiarj  as  Diogenes  went  into  the  city,  and  Democritus  to  the 
haven  to  see  fashions,  I  did  for  my  recreation  now  and  then  walk  abroad,  look  into 
the  world,  and  could  not  choose  but  make  some  little  observation,  nan  tarn  sagax 
observator.,  ac  simplex  recitaior^^  not  as  they  did,  to  scoff  or  laugh  at  all,  but  with  a 
mixed  passion. 

■"o  Bilem  saspd,  jociim  vestri  mov^re  tumnltus. 
Ye  wretched  mimics,  ujioso  fond  heats  have  been. 
How  oft!  the  objects  of  my  luirtli  and  spleen. 

I  did  somethne  laugh  and  scoff  with  Lucian,  and  satirically  tax  with  Menippus, 
lament  with  Heraclitus,  sometimes  again  I  was  ^^petulanti  splene  chachinno,  and  then 
Mgain,  ^^urere  bilis  jecur,  I  was  much  moved  to  see  that  abuse  which  I  could  not 
mend.  In  which  passion  howsoever  I  may  sympathize  with  him  or  them,  'tis  for 
losuch  respect  1  shroud  myself  under  his  name;  but  either  in  an  unknown  habit  i» 
assume  a  little  more  liberty  and  freedom  of  speech,  or  if  you  will  needs  know,  for 
that  reason  and  only  respect  which  Hippocrates  relates  at  large  in  his  Epistle  to 
Damegetus,  w^herein  he  doth  express,  how  coming  to  visit  him  one  day,  he  found 
j^  Democritus  in  his  garden  at  Abdera,  in  the  suburbs,  ''hmder  a  shady  bower,  '"with 
•la  book  on  his  knees,  busy  at  his  study,  sometimes  writing,  sometimes  walking. 
The  subject  of  his  book  was  melancholy  and  madness;  about  him  lay  the  carf'ases 
of  many  several  beasts,  newly  by  iiim  cut  up  and  anatomised ;  not  that  he  did  con- 
temn God's  creatures,  as  he  told  Hippocrates,  but  to  find  out  tlie  seat  of  this  atra 
^iUs^  or  melancholy,  whence  it  proceeds,  and  how  it  was  engendered  in  men's  bodies, 
to  the  intent  he  might  better  cure  it  in  himself,  and  by  his  wiitings  and  observation 

s'Calideamhientes,  policilelitigantes,  aut  misere  ex-  i  "  flor.  lib.  1,  sat.  9.  <=  Secundum  mcenia  locus  erat 
cidenies,  voces,  .stiepitum  conieiilionef=,&c.  ^^  Cyp.  i  frondnsis  populis  opacus,  vitibusque  sponle  natis, 
ad  Jonat.  Unice  seciiriis,  ne  excidani  in  foro,  aiit  in  j  tenuis?  prope  aqua  defluebal,  placide  murmurans,  ubi 
man  Indico  bonis  eli-a,  de  dote  lilis.  patrimonio  filii     sedile  et  donius  Uemocriti  conspiciebatiir.  ■»••  Ipse 

nor.  sum  siilicilu.s.  aj  Noi  so  sagacious  an  ob-     composite  considebat,  siipe.   fienua  volumen  haben«, 

'^'^  on''^  '''nip'c  a  narrate,  ■'■' Hor.  Ep.  lib.  1.     et  utrinqiie  alia  patentia  parata,  dissectaque  animaiis 

'«.,20.  *'  Per.  Alaughter  witha  >otulantspleen.  '  cumulatini  mrata,  quorum  viscera  rimabatur. 

3  b2 


18  Democrifus  to  the  ReaaeT. 

*  teach  others  how  to  prevent  and  avoid  it.  Which  good  intent  of  his,  Hippocidiea 
highly  commended :  Democritus  Junior  is  therefore  bold  to  imitate,  and  because  ht 
left  it  imperfect,  and  it  is  now  lost,  quasi  mcccnturiator  Democrili,  to  revive  again, 
prosecute,  and  fnush  in  this  treatise. 

You  have  had  a  reason  of  the  name.  If  the  title  and  inscription  offend  your 
gravity,  were  it  a  sufficient  justification  to  accuse  others,  I  could  produce  many  sober 
treatises,  even  sermons  themselves,  which  in  their  fronts  carry  more  fantastical 
names.  (Howsoever,  it  is  a  kind  of  policy  in  these  days,  to  prefix  a  fantastical  title 
lo  a  book  which  is  to  be  sold ;  for,  as  larks  come  down  to  a  day-net,  many  vain 
readers  will  tarry  and  stand  gazing  like  silly  passengers  at  an  antic  picture  in  a 
painter's  shop,  that  will  not  look  at  a  judicious  piece.  And,  indeed,  as  ''^Scaliger 
observes,  "  nothing  more  invites  a  reader  than  an  argument  unlocked  for,  unthought 
of,  and  sells  better  than  a  scurrile  pamphlet,"  twn  maxime  cum  novitas  excUat  *' pa- 
latum. "  Many  men,"  saith  Gellius,  ^  are  very  conceited  in  their  inscriptions," 
"  and  able  (as  ''*' Pliny  quotes  out  of  Seneca)  to  make  him  loiter  by  the  way  that  went 
in  haste  to  fetch  a  midwife  for  his  daughter,  now  ready  to  lie  down."  For  my  part. 
I  have  honourable  ^^ precedents  for  this  which  I  have  done :  I  will  cite  one  for  all. 
Anthony  Zara,  Pap.  Epis.,  his  Anatomy  of  Wit,  in  four  sections,  members,  subsec- 
tions, &c.,  to  be  read  in  our  libraries. 

If  any  man  except  against  the  matter  or  manner  of  treating  of  this  my  subject,  and 
will  demand  a  reason  of  it,  I  can  allege  more  than  one ;  I  Avrite  of  melanclioly,  by 
being  busy  to  avoid  melancholy.  There  is  no  greater  cause  of  melancholy  than 
idleness,  "no  better  cure  than  business,"  as  ^"Rhasis  holds  :  and  howbeit,  stultus  labor 
est  ineptiarum,  to  be  busy  in  toys  is  to  small  purpose,  yet  hear  that  divine  Seneca, 
aliud  agcre  quum  luhil.,  better  do  to  no  end,  than  nothing.  I  wrote  therefore,  and 
busied  myself  in  tliis  playing  labour,  o/iosa^ ;  diligenlld  ut  vitarem  torporem  fer'umdi 
with  Vectius  in  Macrobius,  atq  ;  otium  in  utile  verterem  negotium. 

SI  Simul  et  jucunda  et  idonea  dicere  vitiB, 
Lectorem  deloctando  simiil  alque  iiionendo. 
Poets  would  profit  or  delight  mankin-i. 

And  with  the  pleasing  have  th'  insvructive  joined.  v 

Profit  and  pleasure,  then,  to  mix  with  art, 
T'  inform  the  judgment,  nor  offend  the  heart, 
Shall  gain  all  votes. 

To  this  end  I  write,  like  them,  saith  Lucian,  that  "recite  to  trees,  and  declaim  to 
pillars  for  want  of  auditors : "  as  "  Paulus  .^Egineta  ingenuously  confesseth,  "  not  that 
anything  was  unknown  or  omitted,  but  to  exercise  myself,"  which  course  if  some 
took,  I  think  it  would  be  good  for  their  bodies,  and  much  better  for  their  souls ;  oi 
peradventure  as  others  do,  for  fame,  to  show  myself  (  Scire  tuum  nihil  es/,  nisi  te 
scire  hoc  sciat  alter).  I  might  be  of  Thucydides'  opinion,  ^^"to  know  a  thing  and 
not  to  express  it,  is  all  one  as  if  he  knew  it  not."  When  I  first  took  this  task  in 
hand,  et  quod  ait  ^ille^  impellente  genio  negotium  susccpi,  this  I  aimed  at;  ^'"vel  ul 
lenirem  animum  scribendo^  to  ease  my  mind  by  writing ;  for  I  had  gravidum  cor, 
foelum  caput.)  a  kind  of  imposthume  in  my  head,  which  I  was  very  desirous  to  be 
unladen  of,  and  could  imagine  no  fitter  evacuation  than  this.  Besides,  I  might  not 
well  refrain,  for  ubi  dolor.,  ibi  digitus,  one  must  needs  scratch  where  it  itches.  I  was 
not  a  little  offended  with  this  malady,  shall  I  say  my  mistress  "melancholy,"  my 
.^geria,  or  my  malus  genius  ?  and  for  that  cause,  as  he  that  is  stung  with  a  scorpion, 
I  would  expel  clavum  clavo,  ^^  comfort  one  sorrow  with  another,  idleness  with  idle- 
ness, ut  ex  viperd  Theriacum,  make  an  antidote  out  of  that  which  was  the  prime 
cause  of  my  disease.  Or  as  he  did,  of  whom  "Felix  Plater  speaks,  that  thought  he 
had  some  of  Aristophanes'  frogs  in  his  belly,  still  crying  Breec,  ckex,  coax,  coax, 
oop,  oop,  and  for  that  cause  studied  physic  seven  years,  and  travelled  over  most  part 


*>  Cum  mundus  extra  se  sit,  et  mente  captus  sit,  et  1  Antimony,  &c.  ^ocont.  1.   4.  c.  9.      Non    est 

nesciat  se  languere,  ut  medelani  adhibeat.  *'^  Sea-     cura  m«lior  qn&m  labor.  s'  Hor.  De  Arte  Poset. 

liger,  Ep.  ad  I'atisonem.  Nihil  magis  lectorem  invitat  ^a  jV(,n  quod  di-  novo  quid  addere,  aut  4  veteribus  prae- 
quam  in  opinatumargumentum,  neque  vendibilior  merx  lermissum,  sed  propri=e  exercitationiscausa.  "'  Qui 
est  quirn  petulans  liber.  "  Lib.  xx.  c.  11.     Miras  !  novit,  neque  id  quod  senlit  exprlmil,  perirde  est  ac  si 

(equuntur  inseriptionum  festivilates.  "i"  PrEefat.  [  ne?citet.  '<  Jovius  Pripf.  Hist.  '-Erasmus. 

Nat  Ilist.  Patri  obstetriceni  parturicnii  filijeaocersenti  j  ^   )tiumotio  dolorem  dolore  sum  pvlatus.  ^'  Ob- 

noram  injicere  possiint.  **  Anatomy  of  Popery,    sei  vat.  1.  1. 

Inatomy  uf  immorlality,  Angelus  salas.  Anatomy  of 


Democritus  to  the  Reader. 


19 


oi  Europe  to  ease  himself.  To  do  myself  good  I  turned  over  such  physicians  as 
our  libraries  would  afford,  or  my  ^^ private  friends  iaspart,  and  have  taken  this  jtains. 
And  why  not  ?  Cardan  professeth  he  wrote  his  book,  '^De  Consolatione"  after  Jiis 
son's  death,  to  comfort  himself;  so  did  Tally  write  of  the  same  subject  with  like 
intent  after  his  daughter's  departure,  if  it  be  his  at  least,  or  some  impostor's  put  out 
in  his  name,  which  Lipsius  probably  suspects.  Concerning  myself,  1  can  peradven- 
ture  atlirm  with  Marius  in  Sallust,  ^^^  that  which  others  hear  or  read  of,  I  felt  and 
practised  myself;  they  get  their  knowledge  by  books,  I  mine  by  melancholising." 
Experto  crede  Roberto.  Something  I  can  speak  out  of  experience,  cerumnabilis  expe- 
rientia  me  docuit ;  and  with  her  in  the  poet,  ^°Haud  ignara  inali  miseris  succurrete 
disco;  I  would  help  others  out  of  a  fellow-feeling ;  and,  as  that  virtuous  lady  did 
of  o).',  ""  being  a  leper  herself,  bestow  all  her  portion  to  build  an  hospital  for  lepers," 
/I  wdl  spend  my  time  and  knowledge,  which  are  my  greatest  fortunes,  for  the  common 
^good  of  all. 

Yea,  but  you  will  infer  that  this  is  ^"^ actum  agere,  an  unnecessary  work,  cramben 
bis  coctam  apponnere.,  the  same  again  and  again  in  other  words.  To  what  purpose  i 
"^^  Nothing  is  omitted  that  may  well  be  said,"  so  thought  Lucian  in  the  like  theme. 
How  many  excellent  physicians  have  written  just  volumes  and  elaborate  tracts  of 
this  subject?  No  news  here;  that  which  I  have  is  stolen  from  others,  "i>ici/^Me 
mild  mea  pagina  fur  es.  If  that  severe  doom  of  ^''Synesius  be  true,  "  it  is  a  greater 
offence  to  steal  dead  men's  labours,  than  their  clothes,"  what  shall  become  of  most 
writers  ?  I  liold  up  my  hand  at  the  bar  among  others,  and  am  guilty  of  felony  in 
this  kind,  ha.bes  conjifenlcm  reum.,  I  am  content  to  be  pressed  with  the  rest.  'Tis 
most  true,  tenet  insanabile  multos  scribendi  cacoetJies,  and  ®®" 'there  is  no  end  of 
writing  of  books,"  as  the  Wise-man  found  of  old.  in  this  ^'  scribbling  age,  especially 
wherein  *^"  the  number  of  books  is  without  number,  (^as  a  worthy  man  saith,)  presses 
be  oppressed,"  and  out  of  an  itching  humour  that  every  man  hath  to  show  himself, 
"'desirous  of  fame  and  honour  (^scribimus  indocti  doctique  — • — )  he  will  write  no 
matter  what,  and  scrape  together  it  boots  not  whence.  '""Bewitched  with  this 
desire  of  fame,  etiam  mediis  in  morbis,  to  the  disparagement  of  their  health,  and 
scarce  able  to  hold  a  pen,  they  must  say  something,  "'"and  get  themselves  a  name," 
saith  Scaliger,  "  though  it  be  to  the  downfall  and  ruin  of  many  others."  To  be 
counted  writers,  scriptorcs  ut  salutentur.,  to  be  thought  and  held  Polumathes  and 
Polyhistors,  apud  imperitum  vulgus  ob  ventosce  nomen  artis^  to  get  a  paper-kingdom : 
mdla  spe  quoistus  sed  aviplu  famcB.,  in  this  precipitate,  ambitious  age,  nunc  ut  est 
scBculiun,  inter  immaturam  eruditioncm.,  ambitiosum  et  prceceps  ('tis  ''^  Scaliger's  cen- 
sure) ;  and  they  that  are  scarce  auditors,  vix  auditores,  must  be  masters  and  teachefs 
before  they  be  capable  and  fit  hearers.  They  will  rush  into  all  learning,  togatam 
armatam.)  divine,  human  authors,  rake  over  all  indexes  and  pamphlets  for  notes,  as 
our  merchants  do  strange  havens  for  traffic,  write  great  tomes,  Cum  non  sint  re  verc 
doctiores,  sed  loquaciores.,  whereas  they  are  not  thereby  better  scholars,  but  greater 
praters.  They  commonly  pretend  public  good,  but  as  "Gesner  observes,  'tis  pride 
and  vanity  that  eggs  them  on ;  no  news  or  aught  worthy  of  note,  but  the  same  in 
other  terms.  JYe  feriarentur  fortasse  typographi.,  vel  idea  scribendum  est  aliquid  ut 
se  vixisse  testentur.  As  apothecaries  we  make  new  mixtures  every  day,  pour  out 
of  one  vessel  into  another ;  and  as  those  old  Romans  robbed  all  the  cities  of  the 
world,  to  set  out  their  bad-sited  Rome,  we  skim  off  tlie  cream  of  other  men's  wits, 
oick  the  choice  flowers  of  their  tilled  gardens  to  set  out  our  own  sterile  plots. 
^astrant  alios  ut  li.bros  suos  per  se  graciles  alieno  adipe  sujfarciant  (so  "Jovius 
iuveighs.)  They  lard  their  lean  books  with  the  fat  of  others'  works.  Ineruditi 
fures,  &c.     A  fault  that  every  writer  finds,  as  I  do  now,  and  yet  faulty  themselves, 


»8  M.  Joh.  Rous,  our  Protobib.  Oxon.  M.  Hopper,  M. 
Guthridge,  &c.  ^a  Qu^e  illi  audire  et  legere  solent, 

«oruin  partim  vidi  egomet,  alia  gessi,  quae  illi  literis, 
ego  militando  didici,  nunc  vos  existiinale  facta  an 
dicta  pluris  sint.  '^I'Dido  Virg.    "Taught  by  that 

Power  that  pities  me,  I  learn  to  pity  them."  •"  Cam- 
den, Ipsa  elephantiasi  correpta  elephantiasis  hospicium 
construxit.  "'-Iliada  post  Hoinerum.  «3  Nihil 

pretermissum  quod  k  quovis  dici  possit.  64  Mar- 

tialis.  65  Magis  inipium  mortuorum  lucubrationes, 

qblUEi  vcnes  fura>  «  EccI  ult.  <'  Libroi 


Eunuchi  gignunt,  steriles  pariunt.  '*  D.  King 

priefat.  lect.  Jonas,  the  late  right  reverend  Lord  It. 
of  London.  m  Homines  famelici  gloriR  ad  osten- 

tationem  eriiditionis  undique  congerunt.  Buchananus. 
™  Effacinati  etiam  laudis  amore,  &c.  Justus  Baronius. 
''>  Ex  ruinisaliena*  exist imationis  sibigradum  adfamam 
struunt.  «  Exercit.288.  "  Omnessibifamam 

quserunt  et  quovis  modo  in  orbem  spargi  contendunt, 
uc  novs  alicujus  rei  habeantur  auctores.  PrKf.  bibli. 
oth.  1*  Praefat.  hist. 


20  Democritus  to  the  Reader. 

"^  Trium  Uterarum  homines,  dX\  thieves;  they  pilfer  out  of  old  writers  to  stuff  up  their 
new  comments,  scrape  Emiius  dung-hills,  and  out  of  '^Democritus'  pit,  as  I  hare 
Jone.  By  which  means  it  comes  to  pass,  "'•'  that  not  only  libraries  and  shops  are 
lull  of  our  putrid  papers,  but  every  close-stool  and  jakes,  Scribunt  carmina  qua 
legunt  cacantes ;  they  serve  to  put  under  pies,  to  "*lap  spice  in,  and  keep  roast-meaf 
from  burning.  "With  us  in  France."  saith '"  Scaliger,  "  every  man  hath  liberty  t' 
write,  but  few  ability.  ^"Heretofore  learning  was  graced  by  judicious  scholars,  but 
now  noble  sciences  are  vilified  by  base  and  illiterate  scribblers,"  that  either  write 
for  vain-glory,  need,  to  get  money,  or  as  Parasites  to  flatter  and  collogue  with  some 
great  men,  they  put  out  ^' hurras,  quisquUUisque  ineptiasque.  ^^  Amongst  so  many 
thousand  authors  you  shall  scarce  find  one,  by  reading  of  whom  you  shall  be  an} 
whit  better,  but  rather  much  worse,  quibus  inficllur  potius,  qudm  perJicUur,  b)'  which 
he  is  rather  infected  than  any  way  perfected. 

-Qui  talia  legit, 


Quid  diilicit  tandem,  quid  scit  nisi  soinnia,  nugasi 

So  that  oftentimes  it  falls  out  (which  Callimachus  taxed  of  old)  a  great  book  is  a 
great  mischief.  ^'^ Cardan  finds  fault  with  Frenclimen  and  Germans,  for  their  scrib- 
bling to  no  purpose,  no7i  inquit  ah  edendo  detcrreo,  modo  novum  aliquid  inveniant, 
he  doth  not  bar  them  to  write,  so  that  it  be  some  new  invention  of  their  own ;  but 
we  weave  the  same  web  still,  twist  the  same  rope  again  and  again ;  or  if  it  be  a  new 
invention,  'tis  but  some  bauble  or  toy  which  idle  fellows  write,  for  as  idle  fellows  to 
read,  and  who  so  cannot  invent  ?  *^"  He  must  have  a  barren  wit,  that  in  this  scrib- 
bling age  can  forge  nothing.  *^  Princes  show  their  armies,  rich  men  vaunt  their  build- 
ings, soldiers  their  manhood,  and  scholars  vent  their  toys ;"  they  must  read,  they 
must  hear  whether  they  will  or  no. 

w  Et  quodcunque  semel  cliartis  iUeverit,  omnes        1      ^^^,  ^^^^  j^  ^^jj  ^„j  ^^^j^   g,,  „g„  ^^^j  ,^ 
Gestiet  a  furno  redeiinteg  scire  lacuque,  o,j  ^^j^g^  ^^j  children  as  they  come  and  go. 

Et  pueros  et  anus | 

"  What  a  company  of  poets  hath  this  year  brought  out,"  as  Pliny  complains  to 
Sossius  Sinesius.  ^'^"•This  April  every  day  some  or  other  have  recited."  What  a 
catalogue  of  new  books  all  this  year,  all  this  age  (I  say),  have  our  Frankfort  Marts, 
our  domestic  Marts  brouglit  out  ?  Twice  a  year,  ^^"  Proferunt  se  noim  ingenia  et 
ostentant,  we  stretch  our  wits  out,  and  set  them  to  sale,  magno  conatu  nihil  agimiis. 
So  that  which  ^"Gesner  "much  desires,  if  a  speedy  reformation  be  not  had,  by  some 
Prince's  Edicts  and  grave  Supervisors,  to  restrain  this  liberty,  it  will  run  on  in  infi- 
nitum. Quis  tarn  avidus  llbrorum  helluo,  who  can  read  them  ?  As  already,  we 
.shall  have  a  vast  Chaos  and  confusion  of  books,  we  are  *'  oppressed  with  them,  ^'oui 
eyes  ache  with  reading,  our  fingers  with  turning.  For  my  part  I  am  one  of  the 
number,  nos  numerus  sumus,  (we  are  mere  cyphers) :  I  do  not  deny  it,  I  have  only 
this  of  Macrobius  to  say  for  myself,  Omne  mewn,  nihil  meum,  'tis  all  mine,  and  none 
mine.  As  a  good  housewife  out  of  divers  fleeces  weaves  one  piece  of  cloth,  a  bee 
gathers  wax  and  honey  out  of  many  flowers,  and  makes  a  new  bundle  of  all,  Flori- 
feris  ut  apes  in  saltibus  omnia  libant,  I  have  laboriously  ®^  collected  this  Cento  out  of 
divers  writers,  and  that  sine  injuria,  I  have  wronged  no  authors,  but  given  every 
man  his  own  ;  which  ^^Hierom  so  much  commends  in  Nepotian  ;  he  stole  not  whole 
verses,  pages,  tracts,  as  some  do  now-a-days,  concealing  their  authors'  names,  but 
still  said  this  was  Cyprian's,  that  Lactantius,  that  Hilarius,  so  said  Minutius  Felix, 
so  Victorinus,  thus  far  Arnobiiift  :  I  cite  and  quote  mine  authors  (which,  howsoever 
some  illiterate  scribblers  account  pedantical,  as  a  cloak  of  ignorance,  and  opposite 


'spiautus.  '6  E  Democriti   puteo.  "Non  '  mense  Aprili  nullus  fere  dies  quo  non  aliquis  recitavit. 

lam  refertE  hibliother.iE  quani  cloaca;.  '"  Et  quic-  ,  !"•  Idem.  >»  Principibus  et  docloribus  deliberandum 

quid  cariis  aniicitur  ineptis.  ^'Epist.  ad    I'etas.  i  relinquo,  ut  arguantur  auctoruni  furta  et  milies  repe- 

in  regno  Francia;  omnibus  scribendi  dalur  libertas,  !  lita  tollantur,  et  temere  scribendi  libido  coerceatur, 
paucis   facultas.  >*Olim    literie   ob   homines    m    aliter  in  infinitum  prngressura.  si  Onerabuntur 

precio,  nunc  sordent  ob   homines.  *"  Ans.   pac.  I  ingenia,  nemo  legendissufficit.  92  Librisobruimur, 

"tnte,  tot  niille  volumina  vix  unus  a  cujus  lectione  oculi  legondo,  inanus  volilando  dolent.  Fam.  Strad9 
^luis  melior  evadat,  irnmo  potius  non  pejnr.       "   Palin-    Momo.  Lucretius.  "<  Quicquid  ubiqiie  bene  dictum 

genius.  What  does  ai;y  one,  who  reads  such  works,  '  facio  nit-uni,  et  illud  nunc  nieis  ad  compendium,  nunc 
learn  or  know  but  dreams  and  trifling  things.  "-i  Lib.  I  ad  fidem  et  auctoriiatem  alienis  e.ipriino  verbi.s,  omnee 
5.  de  Sap.  ^s  Sterile  oporlel  esse  ingenium  quod  |  auctores  meos  clientes  esse  ofbitror,  &c.     Sarisburi- 

in  hoc  scripturientum  pruritus,  &c.  "e  Cardan,  l  ensis  ad  Polycral.  prol.  »<  In  Epitaph.  Nep.  i''..a' 

prip     ad  Consol.  <^  Hor.  lib.  1,  sat.  4.  an  Epist.  I  Cyp.  hoc  Lact.  illud  Hilar.  e§t,  ita  Victorii\«s,  in  !.unt 

lib.  1.    Magnum  poetarum  proventum  annus  hie  attulit,  j  modum  loquutua  est  Arnobius,  &c 


Democnt'is  to  the  Reader.  21 

i'o  their  affeLied  fine  style,  I  must  and  will  use)  sumpsi,^  non  suripui,  and  what  Varro, 
lib.  6.  de  re  rust,  speaks  of  bees,  minime  malcjicce.  nullius  opus  veUicantes  faciunl 
deter ms^  I  can  say  of  myself,  Whom  have  I  injured  ?  The  matter  is  theirs  raos* 
part,  and  yet  mine,  apparel  unde  sumptum  sit  (which  Seneca  approves),  aliud  tamen 
qunm  unde  sumptum  sit  apparet,  which  nature  doth  with  the  aliment  of  our  bodies 
incorporate,  digest,  assimilate,  I  do  toncoquere  quod  kausi.,  dispose  of  what  I  take. 
I  make  them  pay  tribute,  to  set  out  this  my  Maceronicon,  the  method  only  is  mine 
own,  I  must  usurp  that  of  ''^  Weckcr  e  Tcr.  nihil  dicium  quod  non  dicturi  prius, 
methodus  sola  artijicem  ostendit.^  we  can  say  nothing  but  what  hath  been  said,  the 
composition  and  method  is  ours  only,  and  shows  a  scholar.  Oribasius,  iEsius,  Avi- 
cenna,  have  all  out  of  Galen,  but  to  their  own  method,  diverso  stilo,  non  divtrsa  fide. 
Our  poets  steal  from  Homer  ;  he  spews,  saith  iElian,  they  lick  it  up.  Pivines  use 
Austin's  words  verbatim  still,  and  our  story-dressers  do  as  much  \  he  that  comes  last 
is  commonly  best, 

donee  quid  grandius  setas 

Postera  sorsque  ferat  inelior. 98 

Though  there  were  many  giants  of  old  in  Physic  and  Philosophy,  yet  I  say  with 
^'Didacus  Stella,  "  A  dwarf  standing  on  the  shoulders  of  a  giant  may  see  farther  than 
a  giant  himself;"  I  may  likely  add,  alter,  and  see  farther  tlian  my  predecessors ;  and 
it  is  no  greater  prejudice  for  me  to  indite  after  others,  than  for  iElianus  Montaltus, 
that  famous  physician,  to  write  de  morhis  capitis  after  Jason  Pratensis,  Heurnius, 
Hildesheim,  Slc,  many  horses  to  run  in  a  race,  one  logician,  one  rhetorician,  after 
another.     Oppose  then  what  thou  wilt, 

Allatres  licet  usque  nos  et  usque 
Be  gaunitibus  iiiiprobis  lacessas. 

I  solve  it  thus.  And  for  those  other  faults  of  barbarism,  ^  Doric  dialect,  extempora- 
nean  style,  tautologies,  apish  imitation,  a  rhapsody  of  rags  gathered  together  from 
several  dung-hills,  excrements  of  authors,  toys  and  fopperies  confusedly  tumbled  out, 
without  art,  invention,  judgment,  wit,  learning,  harsh,  raw,  rude,  fantastical,  absurd, 
insolent,  indiscreet,  ill-composed,  indigested,  vain,  scurrile,  idle,  dull,  and  dry ;  1 
confess  all  ('tis_  partly  affected),  thou  canst  not  think  worse  of  me  than  I  do  of 
myself.  'Tis  not  worth  the  reading,  1  yield  it,  I  desire  thee  not  to  lose  time  in 
perusing  so  vain  a  subject,  I  should  be  perad venture  loth  myself  to  read  him  or  thee 
so  writing;  'tis  not  opercz  pretium.  All  1  say  is  this,  that  J  have  ^^ precedents  for  it, 
which  Isocrates  calls  perfugium  iis  qui  peccant,  others  as  absurd,  vain,  idle,  illiterate, 
&.C.  jVonnulli  alii  idem  Jecerunt ;  others  have  done  as  much,  it  may  be  more,  and 
perhaps  thou  thyself,  JVoviimis  et  qui  ie,  Slc.  We  have  all  our  faults ;  scimus,  et 
hanc,  veniam,  &c.;  '""thou  censurest  me,  so  have  1  done  others,  and  may  do  thee, 
Cedimus  inque  vicem,  &c.,  'tis  lex  talionis,  quid  pro  quo.  Go  now,  censure,  criti- 
cise, scofl^  and  rail. 

»  Nasutus  ris  usque  licer,  sis  denique  nasus:         I  ^ert  thou  all  scoffs  and  flouts,  a  very  Momus, 
Aon  poles  in  nugas  dicere  plura  iiieas,  .^-^^.^^  .^g  ourselves,  thou  canst  not  say  worse  of  us. 

Ipse  ego  quiin  dixi,  &.c.  |  ' 

Thus,  as  when  women  scold,  have  I  cried  whore  first,  and  in  some  men's  censures 
I  am  afraid  I  have  overshot  myself,  Laudare  se  vani,  vituperare  stulii,  as  J  do  not 
arrogate,  1  will  not  derogate.  Primus  vestrum  non  sum.,  nee  imus,  I  am  none  of  the 
best,  1  am  none  of  the  meanest  of  you.  As  I  am  an  inch,  or  so  many  feet,  so  many 
parasangs,  after  him  or  him,  I  may  be'peradventure  an  ace  before  thee.  Be  it  there- 
fore as  it  is,  well  or  ill,  I  have  essayed,  put  myself  upon  the  stage ;  I  must  abide  the 
censure,  I  may  not  escape  it.  It  is  most  true,  stylus  virum  arguU,,  our  style  bewrays 
us,  and  as  ^hunters  find  their  game  by  the  trace,  so  is  a  man's  genius  descried  by 
his  works,  Multb  melius  ex  sermone  quam  lineamentisy  de  moribus  hominum  judi- 
'•amus;  it  was  old  Cato's  rule.     I  have  laid  myself  open  (I  know  it)  in  this  treatise, 

•ned  mine  inside  outward  :  I  shall  be  censured,  I  doubt  not ;  for,  to  say  truth  with 
v/asmus,  nihil  morosius  hominum  judiciis,  there  is  nought  so  peevish  as  men's  judg- 

85 Prffif.  ad  Syntax,  med.  si" Until  a  later  age  and  I  apes.     Lipsius  adversus  dialogist.  'supoabsurdo 

•  happier  lot   produce  something  more   truly  grand.  I  dato  niille  sequunlur.  >»'>  Non  duhito  multos  lec- 

»'In  Luc.   10.  toin.  2.        Tigmei  Gigantuni  huniens  '  tores   hie  fore  stultos.  '  Martial,  13,  2.  '.i  lit 

iniposili  plusqiiani  ipsi  Gigantes  vident.  ""  Nee  j  venatores  feram  ft  vestigio  impresso,  virum  Bcriptiuu- 

aranearum  textus  ideo  melior  quia  ex  se  fila  gignuntur,    culi     Lips, 
nee   noster   idjo  vilior,  quia  ex  alienis  libamus   ut ' 


22  Democriius  to  the  Reader. 

nieuts ;  ye'  this  is  some  comfort,  ut  palata,  sic  judicia.,  our  censures  are  as  varlou# 
as  OU7  palates. 

» n  ...  J.         .■  J     .  I  Three  Biiests  1  have,  (lissRntine  at  my  feast, 

•  Ires  mihi  convivre  prope  dissenlire  videntur,  Oonnirin,,  on^i,  i«  „,-,ii»-„  i>io  ..Li„     J'  "=     i 

n  .  1.1-  1    .      o  I  Kentiirins  each  lo  ^ratiiy  nis  tasle 

Poscenles  vario  muUum  diversa  palato,  &c.  |  ^Vjih  different  food. 

(Our  writings  are  as  so  many  dishes,  our  readers  guests,  our  books  like  beauty, 
hat  which  one  admires  another  rejects ;  so  are  we  approved  as  men's  fancies  are 
mclined.  Pro  captu  Iccl.oris  habent  sua  fata  libellL  Tliat  which  is  most  pleasing 
to  one  is  amaracum  sui,  most  harsh  to  another.  Quot  homines,  tot  sentenlice,  so 
many  men,  so  many  minds  :  that  which  thou  condemnest  he  commends.  "*  Qiwa 
petis,  id  sane  est  invisum  acidumque  duohus.  He  respects  matter,  thou  art  wholly 
for  words ;  he  loves  a  loose  and  free  style,  thou  art  all  for  neat  composition,  strong 
lines,  hyperboles,  allegories ;  he  desires  a  fine  frontispiece,  enticing  pictures,  such  as 
^  Hieron.  Natali  the  Jesuit  hath  cut  to  the  Dominicals,  to  draw  on  the  reader's  atten- 
tion, which  thou  rejectest;  that  which  one  admires,  another  explodes  as  most  absurd 
and  ridiculous.  If  it  be  not  pointblank  to  his  humour,  his  method,  his  conceit,  ^ si 
quid  forsan  omissum,  quod  is  animo  conceperit,  si  quce  diclio,  &c.  If  aught  be  omit- 
ted, or  added,  which  he  likes,  or  dislikes,  thou  art  mancipium  paucce  lectionis,  an 
idiot,  an  ass,  nullus  es,  or  plagiarius,  a  trifler,  a  trivant,  thou  art  an  idle  fellow ;  or 
else  it  is  a  thing  of  mere  industry,  a  collection  without  wit  or  invention,  a  very  toy. 
'  Facilia  sic  putant  omnes  qucB  jam  facta,  ncc  de  salebris  cogitant,  ubi  via  strata  ;  so 
men  are  valued,  their  labours  vilified  by  fellows  of  no  worth  themselves,  as  things 
of  nought,  who  could  not  have  done  as  much.  Unusquisque  abundat  sensu  suo, 
every  man  abounds  in  his  own  sense  ;  and  whilst  each  particular  party  is  so  affected, 
how  should  one  please  all .-' 

SQuiddemI     quidnondemi     Reiiuis  tu  quod  jubet  ille. 

What  courses  must  I  chuse  1 

What  noti     What  both  would  order  you  refuse. 

How  shall  I  hope  to  express  myself  to  each  man's  humour  and  ®  conceit,  or  to  give 
satisfaction  to  all :  Some  understand  too  little,  some  too  much,  qui  similiter  in 
legendos  libros,  atque  in  salutandos  homines  irruunt,  non  cogitantes  quales,  sed  quibus 
vestibus  induti  sint,  as  '"Austin  observes,  not  regarding  what,  but  who  write,  "  orexin 
habet  auctores  celebritas,  not  valuing  the  metal,  but  stamp  that  is  upon  it,  Cantharum 
aspiciunt,  non  quid  in  eo.  If  he  be  not  rich,  in  great  place,  polite  and  brave,  a  great 
doctor,  or  full  fraught  with  grand  titles,  though  never  so  well  qualified,  he  is  a  dunce  ; 
but,  as  '^Baronius  hath  it  of  Cardinal  Carafla's  works,  he  is  a  mere  hog  that  rejects 
any  man  for  his  poverty.  Some  are  too  partial,  as  friends  to  overween,  others  come 
with  a  prejudice  to  carp,  vilify,  detract,  and  scoff;  (qui  de  me  forsan,  quicquid  est, 
omni  contemptu  conlemptius  judicant)  some  as  bees  for  honey,  some  as  spiders  to 
gather  poison.  What  shall  I  do  in  this  case  .''  As  a  Dutch  host,  if  you  come  to  an 
inn  in  Germany,  and  dislike  your  fare,  diet,  lodging,  &c.,  replies  in  a  surly  tone, 
""  aliud  tibi  quceras  diver sorium,''''  if  you  like  not  this,  get  you  to  another  inn  :  1 
resolve,  if  you  like  not  my  writing,  go  read  something  else.  I  do  not  much  esteem 
thy  censure,  take  thy  course,  it  is  not  as  thou  wilt,  nor  as  I  will,  but  when  we  have 
both  done,  that  of  '^  Plinius  Secundus  to  Trajan  will  prove  true,  "  Every  man's  v/itty 
labour  takes  not,  except  the  matter,  subject,  occasion,  and  some  commending  favour 
ite  happen  to  it."  If  I  be  taxed,  exploded  by  thee  and  some  such,  I  shall  haply  be 
approved  and  commended  by  others,  and  so  have  been  (Expertus  loquor),  and  may 
truly  say  with  '^  Jovius  in  like  case,  (absit  verho  jactantia)  herown  quorundam,  pon 
tificum,  et  virorum  nobiUum  familiar itatcm  et  amicitiam,  gratasque  graHas,  et  multO' 
rum  '^  bene  laudatorum  laudcs  sum  hide  promerilus,  as  I  have  been  honoured  by 
some  worthy  men,  so  have  I  been  vilified  by  others,  and  shall  be.  At  the  first  pub 
lishing  of  this  book,  (which  "Probus  of  Persius  satires),  editum  librum  continuo 
mirari  homines,  atque  avide  deripere  coeperunt,  I  may  in  some  sort  apply  to  this  m^ 
vii  vrk.  The  first,  second,  and  third  edition  were  suddoily  gone,  eagerly  read,  an 
as  I  have  said,  not  so  much  approved  by  some,  as  scornfully  rejectetl  by  otheiy 

"  Hor.         <  Hor.         '  Antwerp,  fol.  1607.         6  Mu-  I  dotem   ex  amplitudine   redituum   sordide  deineCitur 
retus.  '  Lipj-ius.  *■  Hor.  "  Fieri  non  po-     '3  Erasni.   dial.  »<  Episi    lib.  6.     Cujusque  iiige  ■ 

test,  ut  quod  quist,ue  cogitat,  dicat  unus.     Murelus.     niiim  non  statiin  emergi*.  risi  niateriie  fauior,  occasio, 
■'•Lib.  1.  de  ord.,  cap.  11.  "  Erasmus.  '-An-     conimendatorque  contingat.        'o  Prsf.  hist.        '^i.au. 

Dal.  Tom.  3.  ad  annum  360.     Est  porcus  ille  qui  socer-  |  dari  it  laudato  laua  e»t.  •''  Vii.  Peraii. 


Democritus  to  the  Reader.  23 

5b<  it  was  Democritus  his  fortune,  Idem  admirationi  et  "  irridoni  habitus.  'Twas 
3f>rtcca's  fate,  that  superintendent  of  wit,  learning,  judgment,  '®  ad  stuporem  doctus, 
the  best  of  Greek  and  Latin  writers,  in  Plutarch's  opinion ;  that  renowned  correc- 
toi  of  vice,"  as  ^°Fabius  terms  him,  "and  painfu'  omniscious  philosopher,  that  writ 
so  excellently  and  admirably  well,"  could  not  please  all  parties,  or  escape  censure. 
Ht»w  is  he  vilified  by  ^'  Caligula,  Agellius,  Fabius,  and  Lispsius  himself,  his  chief 
ptupugner  ?  In  eo  pleraque  pernitiosa,  saith  the  same  Fabius,  many  childish  tracts 
anti  sentences  he  hath,  ser7no  illahoratus^  too  negligent  often  and  remiss,  as  Agellius 
observes,  oratio  vulgaris  et  protrita,  dicaces  et  ineptce,  sent  entice.,  eruditio  pleheia, 
an  homely  shallow  writer  as  he  is.  In  partibus  spinas  etfastidia  habet,  saith  ^^Lip- 
sius  ;  and,  as  in  all  his  other  works,  so  especially  in  his  epistles,  alicB  in  argufiis  et 
ineptiis  occupontur.,  intricaUis  alicubi^  et  parum  compositus.,  sine  copid  rerum  hoc 
fecit.,  he  jumbles  up  many  things  together  immethodically,  after  the  Stoics'  fashion, 
parum  ordinavit.,  multa  accumulavit..,  kc.  If  Seneca  be  thus  lashed,  and  many  famous 
men  that  I  could  name,  what  shall  I  expect  ?  How  shall  1  that  am  vix  umbra  tanti 
philosophi.,  hope  to  please  ?  "  No  man  so  absolute  (^  Erasmus  holds)  to  satisfy  all, 
except  antiquity,  prescription,  &c.,  set  a  bar."  But  as  I  have  proved  in  Seneca,  this 
will  not  always  take  place,  how  shall  I  evade  }  'Tis  the  common  doom  of  all  writers, 
I  must  (I  say)  abide  it;  I  seek  not  applause;  ''"* jYon  ego  ventosce.  venor  sujfragia 
pleb'is  :  again,  non  sum  adeo  informis.,  I  would  not  be  ^  vilified. 

26 laudatus  abiinde, 

Non  fastiilitus  si  libi,  lector,  ero. 

I  fear  good  mtn's  censures,  and  to  their  favourable  acceptance  1  submit  my  labours, 

2' et  linguas  mancipiorum 

Conteiniio. 

As  the  barking  of  a  dog,  I  securely  contemn  those  malicious  and  scurnle  obloquies, 
flouts,  calumnies  of  railers  and  detractors  ;  I  scorn  the  rest.  What  therefore  I  have 
said,  pro  tenuitate  meci,,  I  have  ■'aid. 

One  or  two  things  yet  I  was  u*^sirous  to  have  amended  if  I  could,  concerning  the 
nmnner  of  handling  this  my  subject,  for  which  I  must  apologise,  deprecari.,  and 
upon  better  advice  give  the  friendly  resder  notice  :  it  was  not  mine  intent  to  prosti- 
tute my  muse  in  English,  or  to  divulge  recreta  Minerva:,  but  to  have  exposed  this 
more  contract  in  Latin,  if  I  could  have  gr>t  it  printed.  Any  scurrile  pamphlet  is 
welcome,  to  our  mei<cenary  stationers  in  English  ;  they  print  all, 

cuduiitque  lihellos 

In  quorum  foliis  vix  siiiiia  nuda  cacaret ; 

But  in  Latin  they  will  not  deal ;  which  is  one  of  the  reasons  ^  Nicholas  Car,  in  his 
oration  of  the  paucity  of  English  writers,  gives,  that  so  many  flourishing  wits  are 
smothered  in  oblivion,  lie  dead  and  buried  in  this  our  nation.  Another  main  fault 
is,  that  I  have  not  revised  the  copy,  and  amended  the  style,  v/hich  now  flows  remissly, 
as  it  was  first  conceived  ;  but  my  leisure  would  not  permit ;  Feci  nee  quod  polui,  nee 
quod  volui,  I  confess  it  is  neither  as  I  would,  nor  as  it  should  be. 

^^Ctlni  relego  scripsisse  pudet,  quia  pluriina  cerno     I  When  I  peruse  ibis  tract  which  I  have  writ, 

Me  quoque  quee  fuerant  judice  digna  lini.  |  I  am  abash' d,  and  much  I  hold  unfit. 

Et  quod  gravissimum.,  in  the  matter  itself,  many  tilings  I  disallow  at  this  present, 
which  when  I  writ,  ^"JVon  eadem  est  cBtas.,  non  mens ;  I  would  willingly  retract  much, 
&.C.,  but  'tis  too  late,  I  can  only  crave  pardon  now  for  what  is  amiss. 

I  might  indeed,  (had  I  wisely  done)  observed  that  precept  of  the  poet, nonum- 

que  prematur  in  annum.,  and  have  taken  more  care  :  or,  as  Alexander  the  physician 
would  have  done  by  lapis  lazuli,  fifty  times  washed  before  it  be  used,  I  should  have 
revised,  corrected  and  amended  this  tract ;  but  I  had  not  (as  I  said)  that  happy  leisure, 
no  amanuenses  or  assistants.  Pancrates  in  ^'  Lucian,  wanting  a  servant  as  he  went 
from  Memphis  to  Coptus  in  Egypt,  took  a  door  bar,  and  after  some  superstitious 

'*  Minuit  prsesentia  famara.  is  Lipsius  .ludic.  de     lurpe  frigide  laudari  ac  insectanter  vituperari.     Pha- 

Seneca.  -"Lib.   10.     Plurimnm   studii,    multam    vorinus  A.  Gel.  lib.  19,  cap.  2.  -"^  Ovid,  trist.   11 

rerum  cognitionem,  omnem  studiorum  niateriam,  &c.     eleg.  6.  ^Tjuven.  sat.  5.  ''"Aut  srtis  inscii 


multa  in  eo  probanda,  multa  admiranda.  '■"  Suet 

Arena  sine  calce.  '-'•' Introduct.  ad  Sen.  23  ju- 

die.  de  Sen.     Vix  aliquis  tam  absoliitus,  ut  alteri  per 

omnia  satisfaciat,  nisi  longa  lemporis  prsescriptio,  se- 

mota  judicandi  libertate,   religione  quadam   animos  '  aquam  liauriret,  urnam  pararet,  ice. 

eccupaijl.  "Hor.  Ep.    1,   lib.   19.  s^^aue  , 


aut  qusestui  magis  quam  Uteris  student,  hab.  Cantab 
et  Lond.  Excus    1976.  '■'aOvid.  de  pout.  Eleg.  1.6 

^oHor.  sixoni.  3.     Philopseud.  accepto   pessjlo 

quum  carmen  quoddam  dixisset,  effeci:  u*.  a«i.hul»re' 


21  Democritus  to  the  Render. 

words  pronounced  ;^Eucrates  the  relator  was  then  present)  made  it  stand  up  like  n 
serving-man,  fetch  Ivini  water,  turn  the  spit,  serve  in  supper,  and  what  work  he  would 
besides  ;  and  when  lie  iiud  done  that  service  he  desired,  turned  his  man  to  a  stick 
again.  I  have  no  such  skill  to  make  new  men  at  my  pleasure,  or  means  to  hire 
them ;  no  whistle  to  call  like  the  master  of  a  ship,  and  bid  them  run,  &c.  I  have 
no  such  authority,  no  such  benefactors,  as  that  noble  "■'Ambrosius  was  to  Origen, 
allowing  him  six  or  seven  amanuenses  to  write  out  his  dictates  ;  I  must  for  that  cause 
do  my  business  myself,  and  was  therefore  enforced,  as  a  bear  doth  her  whelps,  to 
bring  forth  this  confused  lump ;  I  had  not  time  to  lick  it  into  f'^rm,  as  she  doth  her 
young  ones,  but  even  so  to  publish  it,  as  it  was  first  wiitten  qutsquid  in  buccam,  oe- 
nit,  in  an  extemporean  style,  as  ^^I  do  commonly  all  other  exercises,  effudi  quicquid 
diclavit  genius  7neus,  out  of  a  confused  company  of  notes,  and  writ  with  as  small 
deliberation  as  I  do  ordinarily  speak,  without  all  afiectation  of  big  words,  fustian 
phrases,  jingling  terms,  tropes,  strong  lines,  that  like  *' Acesta's  arrows  caught  fire  as 
they  llew,  strains  of  wit,  brave  heats,  elogies,  hyperbolical  exornations,  elegancies. 
&c.,  which  many  so  much  affect.  I  am  ^^  aqua,  potor,  drink  no  wine  at  all,  which 
so  much  improves  our  modern  wits,  a  loose,  plain,  rude  writer,  jicum,  voco  ficum  et 
ligonem  Ugonem,  and  as  free,  as  loose,  idem  calavio  quod  in  menle,  ^  I  call  a  spade  a 
spade,  animis  hcec  scribo,  nan  auribus,  I  respect  matter  not  words ;  remembering  that 
of  Cardan,  verba  propter  res,  non  res  propter  verba  :  and  seeking  with  Seneca,  quid 
scribam^nonqucmadihodum,  xdiihex  what  than  how  to  write  :  for  as  Philo  thinks,^'  "  He 
that  is  conversant  about  matter,  neglect*  words,  and  those  that  excel  in  this  art  of 
speaking,  have  no  profound  learning, 

^  Verba  iijlent  plialeris,  at  nullus  verbti  inedullaa 
Iiilus  Inibcru 

Besides,  it  was  the  observation  of  that  wise  Seneca,  ''^"  when  you  see  a  fellow  careful 
about  his  words,  and  neat  in  his  speech,  know  this  for  a  certainty,  that  man's  mind 
is  busied  about  toys,  there's  no  solidity  in  him.  JS'on  est  ornanienluvi  virile  concin- 
nitas:  as  he  said  of  a  nightingale,  vox  es,  prceterea  nihil,  &.c.  I  am  therefore  in  this 
point  a  professed  disciple  of  ■*"  ApoUonius  a  scholar  of  Socrates,  I  neglect  phrases, 
and  labour  wholly  to  inform  my  reader's  understanding,  not  to  please  his  ear ;  'tis 
not  my  study  or  intent  to  compose  neatly,  which  an  orator  requires,  but  to  express 
mjself  readily  and  plainly  as  it  happens.  So  that  as  a  river  runs  sometimes  precipi- 
tate and  swift,  then  dull  and  slow ;  now  direct,  then  per  ambages ;  now  deep,  then 
shallow  •,  now  muddy,  then  clear  ;  now  broad,  then  narrow ;  doth  my  style  flow  : 
now  serious,  then  light  •,  now  comical,  then  satirical ;  now  more  elaborate,  then 
remiss,  as  the  present  subject  required,  or  as  at  that  time  I  was  affected.  And  if 
thou  vouchsafe  to  read  this  treatise,  it  shall  seem  no  otherwise  to  thee,  than  the 
'way  to  an  ordinary  traveller,  sometimes  fair,  sometimes  foul;  here  champaign,  there 
inclosed ;  barren  in  one  place,  better  soil  in  another :  by  woods,  groves,  hills,  dales, 
plains,  &c.  1  shall  lead  thee  per  ardua  mo7ilium,  et  lubrica  vallium,  et  roscida 
cespitum,  et  '^'  glebosa  camporunu  through  variety  of  objects,  that  which  thou  shah 
like  and  surely  dislike. 

For  the  matter  itself  or  method,  if  if  be  faulty,  consider  I  pray  you  that  of  Colu- 
mella, JYihil  perfeclum,  aut  a  singtilari  consummatum  industrid,  no  man  can  observe 
all,  much  is  defective  no  doubt,  may  be  justly  taxed,  altered,  and  avoided  in  Galen, 
Aristotle,  those  great  masters.  Boni  vcnatoris  (''^one  holds)  plures /eras  capere,  non 
omnes ;  he  is  a  good  huntsman  can  catch  some,  not  all :  I  have  done  my  endeavour. 
Besides,  I  dwell  not  in  this  study,  JWm  hie  sulcos  ducimus,  non  hoc  puhere  desudamus. 
I  am  but  a  smatterer,  I  confess,  a  stranger,  ''^here  and  there  I  pull  a  flower;  I  do 
easily  grant,,  if  a  rigid  censurer  should  criticise  on  this  which  I  have  writ,  he  should 
not  find  three  sole  faults,  as  Scaliger  in  Terence,  but  three  hundred.     So  many  as 

»-  Eiisphins,  ecdes.  hist.  lib.  6.  3:i  Stans  pede  in     Epist.   lib.  1.  21.  <"  Philostratiis,  lib.  8.  vlt.  Apoi 

lino,  as  he  iiiaile  verses.  ^'i  Virg.  ^-'ISon  eadein     Ne^'li^'ebat  oraloriam  facullatein,  et  peiiiliis  asperiia- 


ft  siiiiitiio  expecles,  miniinnqiie   poeta.  "'  .Siyliis 

nic  iiiilliis,   pi>Eier   parrhesiam  3' Qui   rebus  se 

exercet,  verba    tieuliait,  et  qui   callet  arteui  dicetuli, 
iiullam  disciplinam  hahet  recopiiitam.  :*  I'alin- 

geuius.     Words  may  he  resplendent  with  ornament, 


liatur  ejus  professores,  quod  liti^juani  duiitaxal,  non 
autem  mentem  redderent  erudiliorem.  •"  llic  enim, 
quod  Seneca  de  I'nnio,  bos  herbam,  ciconia  larisam, 
canis  leporem,  virgo  flurem  legal.  <-'  Pel.  Nanniu.i 
not.  in  Hor.  '•'  Non  bic  colonus  domicilium  habeo, 


l)ul  they  contain  no  marrow  within.  "Cnjuscun-  1  sed  lopiarii  in  tnorem,  hinc  inde  floreir  vellico,  ui  ca 

que  orationem  vides  politani  e*  sollicilam,  sciio  ani-  '  niB  Niluni  lambeni. 
mum  in  |iu«ilis  occupatuni,  in   ecriptis  nil   sulidiim.  I 


Dcmocntus  to  the  Reader.  25 

he  hath  done  in  Cardan's  subleties,  as  many  notable  errors  as  *"  Gul  Laurenibergius.  a 
late  professor  of  Rostocke,  discovers  in  that  anatomy  of  Laurentius,  or  Barocius  the 
Venetian  in  Sacro  boscus.  And  although  this  be  a  sixth  edition,  in  which  I  should 
have  been  more  accurate,  corrected  a[l  those  former  escapes,  yet  it  was  magni  lahoris 
xpus^i  so  difficu.lt  and  tedious,  that  as  carpenter*  do  find  out  of  experience,  'tis  much 
better  build  a  new  sometimes,  than  repair  an  old  house  ;  I  could  as  soon  write  as 
much  more,  as  alter  ihat  which  is  written.  If  aught  therefore  be  amiss  (as  1  grant 
mere  is),  I  require  a  friendly  admonition,  no  bitter  invective,  ^^Slnt  musis  socii  Chariie^^ 
turia  omnis  ubesfOy  otherwise,  as  in  ordinary  controversies,  yimem  co«/en/<07ifcs  necta- 
mus.,  sed  cut  bono?  We  may  contend,  and  likely  m.isuse  each  othei,  but  to  what 
purpose  ?     We  are  both  scholars,  say, 

40 Arcades  amho  I  Both  youns  Arcadians,  b  »th  alike  inspir'd 

Et  Cantare  pares,  el  respondere  parati.  |  To  sing  and  answer  as  the  song  requlr'd. 

If  we  ^o  wrangle,  what  shall  M^e  get  by  it  ?  Trouble  and  wronsf  ourselves,  make 
sport  to  others.  If  I  be  convict  of  an  error,  I  will  yield,  I  will  amend.  Si  quid 
bonis  moribus.,  si  quid  veritati  dissent ancum.,  in  sacris  vel  humanis  Uteris  a  vie  dictum 
sit,  id  nee  dictum  esto.  In  the  mean  time  I  require  a  favourable  censure  of  all  faults 
omitted,  harsh  compositions,  pleonasms  of  words,  tautological  repetitions  (though 
Seneca  bear  me  out,  nunquam  nimis  dicitur.  quod  nunquam  satis  dicitur)  perturbations 
of  tenses,  numbers,  printers'  faults,  &c.  My  translations  are  sometimes  ratlier  para- 
phrases than  interpretations,  non  ad  vcrbuvi,  but  as  an  author,  I  use  more  liberty, 
and  that's  only  taken  which  was  to  my  purpose.  Quotations  are  often  inserted  in 
the  text,  which  makes  the  style  more  harsh,  or  in  the  margin  as  it  happened.  Greek 
authors,  Plato,  Plutarch,  Athenaeus,  &c.,  I  have  cited  out  of  their  interpreters,  because 
the  original  was  not  so  ready.  I  have  mingled  sacra  propha.nis,  but  I  hope  not  pro- 
pliancd,  and  in  repetition  of  authors'  names,  ranked  thein  per  accidcns,  not  according 
to  chronology ;  sometimes  Neotericks  before  Ancients,  as  my  memory  suggested. 
Some  things  are  here  altered,  expunged  in  this  sixth  edition,  others  amended,  much 
added,  because  many  good  ''^authors  in  all  kinds  are  come  to  my  hands  since,  and 
'tis  no  prejudice,  no  such  indecorum,  or  oversight. 

^*  Nunquam  ita  quicquam  bene  subductd  ratione  ad  vitam  fuil, 
Quin  res,  <Ttas,  usus,  sonipor  aliquid  appnrlenl  novi, 
Aliquid  mniieant,  ut  ill;i  qua  scire  !e  credas,  nescias, 
Et  qua  tibi  putdris  prima,  in  exercendo  ul  repudias. 
N^'er  was  ought  yet  at  first  contriv'd  so  fit, 
But  use,  age,  or  something  would  alter  it; 
Advise  Ihee  better,  and,  upon  peruse. 
Make  thee  not  say,  and  what  thou  tak'st  refuse 

But  I  am  now  resolved  never  to  put  this  treatise  out  again,  JVe  quid  nimis,  I  will  not 
hereafter  add,  alter,  or  retract ;  I  have  done.  The  last  and  greatest  exception  is,  that 
I,  being  a  divine,  have  meddled  with  physic, 

*^  Taniurnne  est  ah  re  tuk  otii  tibi, 
Aliena  ut  cures,  eaque  nihil  quae  ad  te  attinent. 

Which  Menedemus  objected  to  Chremes ;  have  I  so  much  leisure,  or  little  business 
of  mine  own,  as  to  look  after  other  men's  matters  which  concern  me  not  ?  What 
have  I  to  do  with  physic  }  Quod  medicorum  est  promittant  medici.  The  ^"Lacede- 
monians were  once  in  counsel  about  state-matters,  a  debauched  fellow  spake  excellent 
well,  and  to  the  purpose,  his  speech  was  generally  approved  :  a  grave  senator  steps 
up,  and  by  all  means  would  have  it  repealed,  though  good,  because  dehonestabafur 
fjessimo  auctore,  it  had  no  better  an  author;  let  some  good  man  relate  the  same,  and 
then  it  should  pass.  This  counsel  was  embraced,  factum  est,  and  it  was  registered 
forthwith,  Et  sic  bona  sententia  mansit,  mains  auctor  mutatus  est.  Thou  say(3st  as 
much  of  me,  stomachosus  as  thou  art,  and  grantest,  peradventure,  this  which  I  have 
written  in  physic,  not  to  be  amiss,  had  another  done  it,  a  professed  physician,  or  so, 
but  why  should  1  meddle  with  this  tract .''  Hear  me  speak.  There  be  many  othei 
subjects,  I  do  easily  grant,  both  in  humanity  and  divinity,  fit  to  be  treated  of,  of 
ivhich  had  I  written  ad  ostentationem  only,  to  show  myself,  I  should  have  rather 
chosen,  and  in  which  I  have  been  more  conversant,  I  could  have  more  willingly 

«  Hupra  bis  mille  notabiles  errores  Laurentii  de- I  Adelph.  ^^Heaul.  Act  1.  seen.  I.  'o  Gelliut 

■  onstravi,  &.C.  ■'^  Thilo  de  Con.  ■">  Virg.     lib.  18,  cap.  3. 

'  Frainhesa'ius,  Sennertus,  Ferandus,  &.C  <*  Ter.  I 


«6 


Democntns  to  the  Reader. 


iuxuriaied,  and  better  satisfied  myself  and  others ;  but  that  at  this  tinv*  I  was  fatally 
driven  upon  this  rock  of  melancholy,  and  carried  away  by  this  by-stream,  which,  as  a 
rillet,  is  deducted  from  the  main  channel  of  my  studies,  in  which  I  have  pleased  and 
busied  myself  at  idle  hours,  as  a  subject  most  necessary  and  commodious.  Not  that 
I  prefer  it  before  divinity,  which  I  do  acknowledge  to  be  the  queen  of  professions, 
and  to  which  all  the  rest  are  as  handmaids,  but  that  in  divinity  1  saw  no  such  great 
need.  For  had  I  written  positively,  there  be  so  many  books  in  that  kind,  so  many 
commentators,  treatises,  pamphlets,  expositions,  sermons,  that  whole  teams  of  oxen 
cannot  draw  them  ;  and  had  I  been  as  forward  and  ambitious  as  some  others,  I  might 
have  haply  printed  a  sermoi\  at  Paul's  Cross,  a  sermon  in  St.  Marie's  Oxon,  a  sermon 
in  Christ-Church,  or  a  sermon  before  the  right  honourable,  right  reverend,  a  sermon 
before  the  riglit  worshipful,  a  sermon  in  Latin,  in  English,  a  sermon  with  a  name, 
a  sermon  witliout,  a  sermon,  a  sermon,  &c.  But  I  have  been  ever  as  desitous  u. 
suppress  my  labours  in  this  kind,  as  others  have  been  to  press  and  publish  theirs 
To  have  written  in  controversy  had  been  to  cut  off  an  hydra's  head,  ^'Zis  litem 
generate  one  begets  another,  so  many  (kiplications,  triplications,  and  swarms  of  ques- 
tions. In  sacro  hello  hoc  quod  still  mucrone  agifur.,  that  having  once  begun,  I  should 
never  make  an  end.  One  had  much  better,  as  ^^  Alexander,  tlie  sixth  pope,  long  since 
observed,  provoke  a  great  prince  than  a  begging  friar,  a  Jesuit,  or  a  semhiary  priest, 
I  will  add,  for  incxpugnabile  genus  hoc  hominum.,  they  are  an  irrefragable  society, 
they  must  and  will  have  the  last  word ;  and  that  with  such  eagerness,  impudence, 
abominable  lying,  falsifying,  and  bitterness  in  their  questions  they  proceed,  that  as 
he  *' said, /urome  coicus^  an  rapit  vis  acrior^  an  culpa.,  responsum  date  ?  Blind  fury, 
or  error,  or  rashness,  or  what  it  is  that  eggs  them,  1  know  not,  I  am  sure  many  times, 
which  *^  Austin  perceived  long  since,  tempestate  content ionis.,  sercnitas  charitatis 
ohnubilatur,  with  this  tempest  of  contention,  the  serenity  of  charity  is  overclouded, 
and  there  be  too  many  spirits  conjured  up  already  in  th.is  kind  in  all  sciences,  and 
more  than  we  can  tell  how  to  lay,  which  do  so  furiously  rage,  and  keep  such  a 
racket,  that  as  '^^Fabius  said,  '^  It  had  been  much  better  for  some  of  them  to  have 
been  born  dumb,  and  altogether  illiterate,  than  so  far  to  dote  to  their  own  destruction. 


tr 


At  melius  fiierat  non  scribere,  namque  tacere^ 
Tuliini  semper  erit, 

_  is  a  general  fault,  so  Severinus  the  Dane  complains  "in  physic,  "unhappy  men  as 
we  are,  we  spend  our  days  in  unprofitable  questions  and  disputations,"  intricate 
subtleties,  de  lani  caprina  about  moonshine  in  the  water, "  leaving  in  the  mean  time 
those  chiefest  treasures  of  nature  untouched,  wherein  the  best  medicines  for  all 
manner  of  diseases  are  to  be  found,  and  do  not  only  neglect  them  ourselves,  but 
hinder,  condemn,  forbid,  and  scoff  at  others,  that  are  willing  to  inquire  after  them. 
These  motives  at  this  present  have  induced  me  to  make  choice  of  this  medicinal 
subject. 

If  any  physician  in  the  mean  time  shall  infer,  JV*e  sutor  ultra  crepidam.,  and  find 
himself  grieved  that  I  have  intruded  into  his  profession,  I  will  tell  him  in  brief,  I  do 
not  otherwise  by  them,  than  tliey  do  by  us.  If  it  be  for  their  advantage,  I  know 
many  of  their  sect  which  have  taken  orders,  in  hope  of  a  benefice,  'tis  a  common 
transition,  and  why  may  not  a  melancholy  divine,  tliat  can  get  nothing  but  by 
simony,  profess  physic  ?  Drusianus  an  Italian  (Crusianus,  but  corruptly,  Trithemius 
calls  him)  ■'^^"  because  he  was  not  fortunate  in  his  practice,  forsook  his  profession, 
and  writ  afterwards  in  divinity."  Marcilius  Ficinus  was  scmel  et  si7nul ;  a  priest 
and  a  physician  at  once,  and  ^^T.  Linacer  in  his  old  age  took  orders.  The  Jesuits, 
profess  both  at  this  time,  divers  of  them  permissu  superiorum,  chirurgeons,  panders, 
bawds,  and  midwives,  &.c.  (Many  poor  country-vicars,  for  want  of  other  means,  are 
driven  to  their  shifts;   to  turn  mountebanks,  quacksalvers,  empirics,  and   if  our 


SI  nt  inrte  catena  qusedam  fit.  quae  hseredes  etiam 
•igat.  Car<lan.  Ileiisius.  ''■■'  Malle  se  bellum  cum 

mairiio  priucipe   L'erere,  qiiam   cum  unn   ex   fratriiin 
mendicaniium  ordine.  ''^  Hor.  epod.  lib.  od.  7. 

M  Epist.  86,  ad  Casulam  presb.  ^  Lib.  12,  cap.  1. 

Mutos  nasci,  et  nmni   scienlia  egere  satius  fuis!-et, 
]U&in  sic  in  propriam  perniciem  iiisanire.  ^  But 

.t  would  be  better  not  to  write,  for  silence  is  the  safer 
vouran  ''  InfpliY  mnrtalitas  inutilihus  aucstion- 


ibus  ac  disceptationibiis  vitam  traducimuB,  naturte 
principes  thesauros,  in  qiiilius  gravissinicE  morboniiu 
mediciniB  collocalK  sunt,  interim  intactos  relinquimus. 
Nee  Ipsi  solum  relinquimus,  sed  et  alios  proliibem'je, 
impedimus,  condeninanius,  ludibriisque  alficiniiu. 
^  Quod  in  praxi  niinime  fortnnaius  esset.  medirinara 
relimiit,et  ordinibus  initiatus  in  Tlieologia  postinoduro 
scripsit.    Gesner  Bibliotbeca.  '''  P.  Jovius. 


Democritus  to  the  Reader- 


27 


gre«idy  patrons  hold  us  to  such  hard  conditions,  as  commonly  they  do,  they  -wil 
ma^e  most  of  us  work  at  some  trade,  as  Paul  did,  at  last  turn  laskers-  malt 
steis,  costermongers,  graziers,  sell  ale  as  some  have  done,  or  worse.  Howsoevei 
in  undertaking  this  task,  I  hope  1  shall  commit  no  great  prror  or  indecorum,  if  all  be 
considered  aright,  I  can  vindicate  myself  with  Georgius  Braunus,  and  Hieronymus 
Hemingius,  those  two  learned  divines ;  who  (to  borrow  a  line  or  two  of  mine  ^°  elder 
brother)  drawn  by  a  "  natural  love,  the  one  of  pictures  and  maps,  prospectives  and 
corographical  delights,  writ  that  ample  theatre  of  cities ;  the  other  to  the  study  ot 
genealogies,  penned  thcatrum  genealogicumP  Or  else  1  can  excuse  my  studies  with 
*'Lessius  the  Jesuit  in  like  case.  It  is  a  disease  of  the  soul  on  which  I  am  to  treat 
and  as  much  appertaining  to  a  divine  as  to  a  physician,  and  who  knows  not  whai 
an  agreement  there  is  betwixt  these  two  professions  i  A  good  divine  either  is  ox 
ought  to  be  a  good  physician,  a  spiritual  physician  at  least,  as  our  Saviour  calls 
himself,  and  was  indeed,  Mat.  iv.  23  ;  Luke,  v.  18  ;  Luke,  vii.  8.  They  differ  but  in 
object,  the  one  of  the  body,  the  other  of  the  soul,  and  use  divers  medicines  to  cure; 
one  amends  animam  per  corpus^  the  other  corjms  per  animam,  as  ^''our  Regius  Pro- 
fessor of  physic  well  informed  us  in  a  learned  lecture  of  his  not  long  since.  One 
helps  the  vices  and  passions  of  the  soul,  anger,  lust,  desperation,  pride,  presumption, 
&c.  by  applying  that  spiritual  physic ;  as  the  other  uses  proper  remedies  in  bodily 
diseases.  Now  this  being  a  common  infirmity  of  body  and  soul,  and  such  a  one 
that  hath  as  much  need  of  spiritual  as  a  corporal  cure,  I  could  not  find  a  fitter  task 
to  busy  myself  about,  a  more  apposite  theme,  so  necessary,  so  commodious,  and 
generally  concerning  all  sorts  of  men,  that  should  so'  equally  participate  of  both,  and 
require  a  whole  physician.  A  divine  in  this  compound  mixed  malady  can  do  little 
alone,  a  physician  in  some  kinds  of  melancholy  much  less,  both  make  an  absolute 


s^Alterius  sic  altera  poscit  opem. 


-when  in  friendship  joined 


I  A  mutual  succour  in  eEith  other  find. 

And  'tis  proper  to  them  both,  and  I  hope  not  unbeseeming  me,  who  am  by  my  pro- 
fession a  divine,  and  by  mine  inclination  a  physician.  I  had  Jupiter  in  my  sixth 
house ;  I  say  with  "  Beroaldus,  non  sum  medicus,  nee  medicincp  prorsus  expers.,  in 
the  theory  of  physic  I  have  taken  some  pains,  not  witli  an  intent  to  practice,  ^but  to 
satisfy  myself,  which  was  a  cause  likewise  of  the  first  undertaking  of  this  subject. 

If  these  reasons  do  not  satisfy  thee,  good  reader,  as  Alexander  Munificus  that 
bountiful  prelate,  sometimes  bishop  of  Lincoln,  when  he  had  built  six  castles,  ad 
invidiam  operis  eluendam,  saith  ^'Mr.  Camden,  to  take  away  the  envy  of  his  work 
(which  very  words  Nubrigensis  hath  of  Roger  the  rich  bishop  of  Salisbury,  who  in 
king  Stephen's  time  built  Shirburn  castle,  and  that  of  Devises),  to  divert  the  scandal 
or  imputation,  which  might  be  thence  inferred,  built  so  many  religious  houses.  If 
this  my  discourse  be  over-medicinal,  or  savour  too  much  of  humanity,  I  promise 
thee  that  I  will  hereafter  make  thee  amends  in  some  treatise  of  divinity.  But  this  I 
hope  shall  suffice,  when  you  have  more  fully  considered  of  the  matter  of  this  my 
subject,  rem  suhslratam,  melancholy,  madness,  and  of  the  reasons  following,  which 
were  my  chief  motives :  the  generality  of  the  disease,  the  necessity  of  the  cure,  and 
the  commodity  or  common  good  that  will  arise  to  all  men  by  the  knowledge  of  it, 
as  shall  at  large  appear  in  the  ensuing  preface.  And  I  doubt  not  but  that  in  the  ciid 
you  will  say  with  me,  that  to  anatomise  this  humour  aright,  through  all  the  members 
of  this  our  Microcosmus,  is  as  great  a  task,  as  to  reconcile  those  chronological  errors 
in  the  Assyrian  monarchy,  find  out  the  quadrature  of  a  circle,  the  creeks  and  sounds 
of  the  north-east,  or  north-west  passages,  and  all  out  as  good  a  discovery  as  tliat 
hungry  ***  Spaniard's  of  Terra  Australis  Incognita,  as  great  trouble  as  to  perfect  the 
motion  of  Mars  and  Mercury,  which  so  crucifies  our  astronomers,  or  to  rectify  the 
Gregorian  Kalender.     I  am  so  affected  for  my  part,  and  hope  as  ^'  Theopnrastus  did 


•^n  M.  W.  Burton,  preface  to  his  description  of  Leices- 
tershire, printed  at  London  by  W.  Jaggard,  for  J. 
White,  1C22.  "i  In   Hygiasticon,  neqne  enim  hsec 

Iractatio  aliena  videri  debet  4  theologo,  &c.  agitur  de 
morbo   aninie.  <«  D.   Clayton  in   comitiis,  anno 

1621.  raHor.  »' Lib.  de  pestil.  66 ]„  Newark 
'n  Nottinghamshire.  Cum  duo  edificasset  castella,  ad 
olUodam  structionis  invidiam,  et  expiandam  niacu- 


1am,  duo  instituit  coenobia,  et  collegis  religiosis  imple- 
vit.  '*  Ferdinando  de  Quir.  anno  1612.     Anister- 

dami  impress.  '"  Prtefat.  ad  Characteres  :  Spero 

enim  (O  Policies)  libros  nostros  melioresinde  futuros, 
quod  istiusniodi  memoriae  mandata  reliquerimus,  es 
preceptis  et  'jxemplis  nostris  ad  vitam  accomniodatia, 
nt  se  iiide  ci  rrigant. 


28  htinocritus  to  the  Reader. 

by  his  characters,  "  That  ou  r  posterity,  O  friend  Policies,  sliall  be  the  better  for  thi» 
which  we  have  written,  by  correcting  and  rectifying  what  is  amiss  in  themselves  by 
our  examples,  and  applying  our  precepts  and  cautions  to  their  own  use."  And  as  that 
great  captain  Zisca  would  have  a  drum  made  of  his  slvin  when  he  was  dead,  because  he 
thought  the  very  noise  of  it  would  put  his  enemies  to  flight,  1  doubt  not  but  that  these 
following  lines,  when  they  shall  be  recited,  or  hereafter  read,  will  drive  away  melan- 
choly (though  1  be  gone)  as  much  as  Zisca-s  drum  could  terrify  his  foes.  Yet  one 
caution  let  me  give  by  the  way  to  my  present,  or  my  future  reader,  who  is  actually 
melancholy,  that  he  read  not  the  ''*  symptoms  or  prognostics  in  this  following  tract, 
lest  by  applying  that  which  he  reads  to  himself,  aggravating,  appropriating  things 
generally  spoken,  to  his  own  person  (as  melancholy  men  for  the  most  part  do)  he 
trouble  or  hurt  himself,  and  get  in  conclusion  more  harm  than  good.  I  advise  them 
therefore  warily  to  peruse  that  tract,  Lapides  loquitur  (so  said  ^®  Agrippa  de  occ.  Phil.) 
et  caveant  leclorcs  ne  cerebrum  iis  excutiat.  The  rest  I  doubt  not  they  may  securely 
read,  and  to  their  benefit.     But  I  am  over-tedious,  I  proceed. 

(jOf  the  necessity  and  generality  of  this  which  I  have  said,  if  any  man  doubt,  I  shall 
desire  him  to  make  a  brief  survey  of  the  w^rld,  as  ™  Cyprian  adviseth  Donat,  "sup- 
posing himself  to  be  transported  to  the  top  of  some  high  mountain,  and  thence  to  be- 
hold the  tumults  and  chances  of  tliis  wavering  workl,  he  cannot  chuse  but  either 
laugh  at,  or  pity  it."  S.  Ilierom  out  of  a  strong  imagination,  being  in  the  wilder- 
ness, conceived  with  himself,  that  he  then  saw  them  dancing  in  Rome ;  and  if  thou 
shalt  either  conceive,  or  climb  to  see,  thou  shalt  soon  perceive  that  all  the  world  is 
mad,  that  it  is  melancholy,  dotes  ;  that  it  is  (which  Epichthonius  Cosmopolites  ex- 
pressed not  many  years  since  in  a  map)  made  like  a  fool's  head  (with  that  motto.  Ca- 
put helleboro  dignuin)  a  crazed  head,  cavea  stultorum.i  a  fool's  paradise,  or  as  Apol- 
lonius,  a  common  prison  of  gulls,  cheaters,  flatterers,  &c.  and  needs  to  be  reformed. 
Strabo  in  the  ninth  book  of  his  geography,  compares  Greece  to  the  picture  of  a  man, 
which  comparison  of  his,  Nic.  Gerbelius  in  his  exposition  of  Sophianus'  map,  ap- 
proves ;  the  breast  lies  open  from  those  Acroceraunian  hills  in  Epirus,  to  tlie  Sunian 
promontory  in  Attica ;  Pagae  and  Magaera  are  the  two  shoulders ;  that  Isthmus  ot 
Corinth  the  neck ;  and  Peloponnesus  the  head.  If  this  allusion  hold,  'tis  sure  a 
mad  head ;  Morea  may  be  Moria ;  and  to  speak  what  I  think,  the  inhabitants  of 
modern  Greece  swerve  as  much  from  reason  and  true  religion  at  this  day,  as  that 
Morea  doth  from  the  picture  of  a  man.  Examine  the  rest  in  like  sort,  and  you  shall 
find  ihat  kingdoms  and  provinces  are  melancholy,  cities  and  families,  all  creatures, 
vegetal,  sensible,  and  rational,  that  all  sorts,  sects,  ages,  conditions,  are  out  of  tune, 
as  in  Cebes'  table,  omnes  errorem  blbuiit,  before  they  come  into  the  world,  they  are 
intoxicated  by  error's  cup,  from  the  highest  to  the  lowest  have  need  of  physic,  and 
those  particular  actions  in  "'Seneca,  where  father  and  son  prove  one  another  mad, 
may  be  general ;  Porcius  Latro  shall  plead  against  us  all.  For  indeed  who  is  not  a 
fool,  melancholy,  mad  ? — "  Qui  nil  luoUtur  incpte,  who  is  not  brain-sick  }  Folly, 
melancholy,  madness,  are  but  one  disease,  Delirium  is  a  common  name  to  all.  Alex- 
ander, Gordonius,  Jason  Pratensis,  Savanarola,  Guianerius,  Montaltus,  conlbund  them 
as  differing  secundum  magis  et  niiiius  ;  so  doth  David,  Psal.  xxxvii.  5.  "  J  said 
unto  the  fools,  deal  not  so  madly,"  and  'twas  an  old  Stoical  paradox,  omnes  stultos 
iTisanire,  "^all  fools  are  mad,  tliough  some  madder  than  others.  And  who  is  not  a 
fool,  who  is  free  from  melancholy  ?  Who  is  not  touched  more  or  less  in  habit  or 
disposition  ?  If  in  disposition,  "  ill  dispositions  beget  habits,  if  they  persevere,"  saith 
"^Plutarch,  habits  either  are,  or  turn  to  diseases.  'Tis  the  same  which  Tally  main- 
tains in  the  second  of  his  Tusculans,  ojnnium  insipicntum  animi  in  morbo  sunt,  et  per- 
turbatorumi,  fools  are  sick,  and  all  that  are  troubled  in  mind :  for  what  is  sickness, 
but  as  '"Gregory  Tholosanus  defines  it,  "A  dissolution  or  perturbation  of  the  bodily 
league,  which  health  combines  :"  and  who  is  not  sick,  or  ill-disposed  ?  in  whom  doth 

6' Part  1.  sect.  3.  "sPrasf.  lectori.  'o  Ep.  2.  Satyra  3.     Damasippus  Stoicus  probat  omnes  sluitos 

I.  2.  ad  Oonatuiii.     Paulisper  te  crcde  suhduci  in  ardui  insanire.  "Tom.  2.  sympos.  lib.  5.  c.  6.     Aniiir 

monlis  verticem  ctlsiotem,  speciilare  iride  reriim  ja-  affectiones,  si  diutius  inhaereaiit,  pravos  geiierant  lia- 

centium  faries,  et  oculis  in  diversa  porrectis,  fliictii-  hitiis.  ">  Lib. '28,  cap.  1.  Synt.  art.  mir.     Morbus 

amis  miindi  turbines  intuere,  jam  siiniil  ant   ridebis  niliil  est  aliud  quam  dissolntio  qusdam  ac  perlurbalio 

«ut  misereberis,  &c.  "  Controv.  1.  2.  cont.  7.  et  fccderis  in  corpore  existenlis,  sicul  et  sanitag  est  coa- 

.  6.  cont.  7.iHoratius.  "Idem,   Hor.  1.  2.  I  seutientis  bene  corporis  consummatio  qusdaio. 


A 


Dtmocriliis  to  tha  Reader.  29 

not  passion,  anger,  envy,  disconlont,  fear  and  soitow  reign  ?  Who  labours  not  cf  this 
disease  ?  Give  me  but  a  littlo  leave,  and  you  shall  see  by  what  testimonies,  con- 
fessions, arguments,  I  will  evince  it,  that  most  men  are  mad,  that  they  had  as  much 
need  to  go  a  pilgrimage  to  the  Anticyree  (as  in  ""Strabo's  time  they  did)  as  in  our 
days  they  run  to  Compostella,  our  Lady  of  Sichem,  or  Lauretta,  to  seek  for  help ; 
that  it  is  like  to  be  as  prosperous  a  voyage  as  that  of  Guiana,  and  that  there  is  much 
more  need  of  hellebore  than  of  tobacco. 

That  men  are  so  misaflected,  melancholy,  mad,  giddy-headed,  hear  the  testimou} 
of  Solomon,  Eccl.  ii.  12.  "  And  I  turned  to  behold  wisdom,  madness  and  folly,' 
&c.  And  ver.  23  :  "  All  his  days  are  sorrow,  his  travel  grief,  and  his  heart  taketb 
no  rest  in  the  night."  So  that  take  melancholy  in  what  sense  you  will,  properlj 
or  improperly,  in  disposition  or  habit,  for  pleasure  or  for  pain,  dotage,  discontent, 
fear,  sorrow,  madness,  for  part,  or  all,  truly,  or  metaphorically,  'tis  all  one.  Laugh- 
ter itself  is  madness  according  to  Solomon,  and  as  St.  Paul  nath  it,  "  Worldly  sorrow 
brings  death."  "  The  hearts  of  the  sons  of  men  are  evil,  and  madness  is  in  theii 
hearts  while  they  live,"  Eccl.  ix.  3.  "  Wise  men  themselves  are  no  better."  Eccl.  i. 
18.  "  In  the  multitude  of  wisdom  is  much  grief,  and  he  that  increaseth  wisdom 
increaseth  sorrow,"  chap.  ii.  17.  He  hated  life  itself,  nothing  pleased  him  :  he  hated 
his  labour,  all,  as  ''  he  concludes,  is  "  sorrow,  grief,  vanity,  vexation  of  spirit."  Ana 
though  he  were  the  wisest  man  in  the  world,  sanctuarium  sapientice^  and  had  wisdom 
in  abundance,  he  will  not  vindicate  himself,  or  justify  his  own  actions.  "  Surely  J 
am  more  foolish  than  any  man,  and  have  not  the  understanding  of  a  man  in  me," 
Prov.  XXX.  2.  Be  they  Solomon's  words,  or  the  words  of  Agur,  the  son  of  Jakeh, 
they  are  canonical.  David,  a  man  after  God's  own  heart,  confesseth  as  much  of 
himself,  Psal.  xxxvii.  2 1 ,  22.  "  So  foolish  was  I  and  ignorant,  I  was  even  as  a  beast  be- 
fore thee."  And  condemns  all  for  fools,  Psal.  xciii. ;  xxxii.  9  ;  xlix.  20.  He  com- 
pares them  to  "beasts,  horses,  and  mules,  in  which  there  is  no  imderstanding."  The 
apostle  Paul  accuseth  himself  in  like  sort,  2  Cor.  ix.  21.  "I  would  you  would  suifer 
a  little  my  foolishness,  I  speak  foolishly."  '•'  The  whole  head  is  sick,"  saith  Esay, 
*'  and  the  heart  is  heavy,"  cap.  i.  5.  And  makes  lighter  of  them  than  of  oxen  and 
asses,  "  the  ox  knows  his  owner,"  &c.  :  read  Deut.  xxxii.  6  ;  Jer.  iv. ;  Amos,  iii.  1  ; 
Ephes.  v.  6.  "  Be  not  mad,  be  not  deceived,  foolish  Galatians,  who  hath  bewitched 
you  r"  How  often  are  they  branded  with  this  epithet  of  madness  and  folly }  No 
word  so  frequent  amongst  the  fathers  of  the  Church  and  divines  ;  you  may  see  what 
an  opinion  they  had  of  the  world,  and  how  they  valued  men's  actions. 
J  I  know  that  we  think  far  otlierwise,  and  hold  them  most  part  wise  men  that  are 
in  authority,  princes,  magistrates,  '^  rich  men,  they  are  wise  men  born,  all  politicians 
and  statesmen  must  needs  be  so,  for  who  dare  speak  against  them .?  And  on  the 
other,  so  corrupt  is  our  judgment,  we  esteem  wise  and  honest  men  fools.  Which 
Democritus  well  signified  in  an  epistle  of  his  to  Hippocrates  :  "^  the  "  Abderites 
account  virtue  madness,"  and  so  do  most  men  living.  Shall  I  tell  you  the  reason  of 
it .''  ''"'  Fortune  and  Virtue,  Wisdom  and  Folly,  their  seconds,  upon  a  time  contended 
in  the  Olympics  ;  every  man  thought  that  Fortune  and  Folly  would  have  the  worst, 
and  pitied  their  cases  •,  but  it  fell  out  otherwise.  Fortune  was  blind  and  cared  not 
where  she  stroke,  nor  whom,  without  laws,  Audahatarum  instar.,  &c.  Folly,  rash 
and  inconsiderate,  esteemed  as  little  what  she  said  or  did.  Virtue  and  Wisdom  gave 
•*'  place,  were  hissed  out,  and  exploded  by  the  common  people ;  Folly  and  Fortune 
admired,  and  so  are  all  their  followers  ever  since  :  knaves  and  fools  commonly  fare 
and  deserve  best  in  worldlings'  eyes  and  opinions.  Many  good  men  have  no  better 
fate  in  their  ages  :  Achish,  1  Sam.  xxi.  1 4,  held  David  for  a  madman.  ^^  Elisha  and 
the  rest  were  no  otherwise  esteemed.  David  was  derided  of  the  common  people, 
Ps.  ix.  7, "  I  am  become  a  monster  to  many."  And  generally  we  are  accounted  fools 
for  Christ,  I  Cor.  xiv.  "  We  fools  thought  his  life  madness,  and  his  end  without 
honour,"  Wisd.  v.  4.   ,  Christ  and  his  Apostles  were  censured  in  like  sort,  John  x. ; 


"« I.ib.  9.  Geogr.  Phires  olim  gentes  navigabant  illuc 
siiriitatis  causa.  ■"  Ecclei.  i.  24.  '^  Jure  hsBredi- 
t.ario  papere  jubentur.  Euphnrmio  Satyr.  '"Apud 
•juiig  virtus,  insania  et  furor  esse  dicitur.  "o  Cal- 

eagiiinua  Apol.  omnes  mirabaiitur,  putantes  illisain  iri 


c  2 


stultitiain.  Sed  praeter  expectationem  res  evemt,  Au- 
dax  stultitia  in  earn  irruit,  &c.  ilia  cedit  irrisa,  et 
plures  hinc  habet  sectatores  stultitia.  <"  Noii  est 

respondendum  stulto  secundum  stultitiam.  >« 

Reg.  7. 


30 


Democritus  to  tlic  Reader. 


Maik  lii. ;  Acts  xxvi.  And  so  were  all  Christians  in  *' Pliny's  ixme^fuerunt  el  alu 
sinulis  dementicp^  &c.  And  called  not  long  after, "  Fes«n/<2  scclatores^  eversores  homi' 
num.,  polluti  nouatorcs^  fanatici.,  canes.,  malcfici^  vewfici^  Galilce.i  homunciones^  &.c. 
Tis  an  ordinary  thing  with  us,  to  account  honest,  devout,  orthodox,  divine,  religious, 
plain-dealing  men,  idiots,  asses,  that  cannot,  or  will  not  lie  and  dissemble,  shift,  flatter, 
accommodare  se  ad  eum  locum  uhi  natl  sunt^  make  good  bargains,  supplant,  thrive, 
palronis  inservire  ;  solennes  ascendcndi  modos  apprchcndere.,  leges,  mores,  consuetu- 
dincs  recte  ohservare,  candide  laudare,  forliter  defcndere,  sententias  amplecti,  duhi- 
tare  de  nuUus,  credere  omnia,  accipere  omnia,  nihil  reprehendere,  cceleraque  quce 
promotionem  ferimt  et  securitatcm,  qua:  sine  amhage  foilicem,  rcddunt  hominem,  et 
vere  sapientem  apud  nos ;  that  cannot  temporise  as  other  men  do,  **^  hand  and  take 
bribes,  &c.  but  fear  God,  and  make  a  conscience  of  their  doings.  But  the  Holy 
Ghost  that  knows  better  how  to  judge,  he  calls  them  fools.  "  The  fool  hath  said 
in  his  heart,"  Psal.  liii.  \f  "  And  their  ways  utter  their  folly,"  Psal.  xlix.  14.  "  **  For 
what  can  be  more  mad,  than  for  a  little  worldly  pleasure  to  procure  unto  ihemselves 
eternal  punishment .''"  As  Gregory  and  others  inculcate  imto  us. 
/-J  Yea  even  all  those  great  philosophers  the  world  hath  ever  had  in  admiration,  whose 
works  we  do  so  much  esteem,  that  gave  precepts  of  wisdom  to  others,  inventors  of 
Arts  and  Sciences,  Socrates  the  wisest  man  of  his  time  by  the  Oracle  of  Apollo, 
whom  his  two  scholars,  "Plato  and  ''^Xenophon,  so  much  extol  and  magnify  with 
those  honourable  titles,  "  best  and  wisest  of  all  mortal  men,  the  happiest,  and 
most  just ;"  and  as  *^  Alcibiades  incomparably  commends  him ;  Achilles  was  a 
worthy  man,  but  Bracides  and  others  were  as  worthy  as  himself;  Antenor  and  Nes- 
tor were  as  good  as  Pericles,  and  so  of  the  rest ;  but  none  present,  before,  or  after 
Socrates,  nemo  veteritm  ncque  eorum  qui  nunc  sunt,  were  ever  such,  will  match,  or 
come  near  him.  Those  seven  wise  men  of  Greece,  those  Britain  Druids,  Indian 
Brachmanni,  J^thiopian  Gymnosophist,  Magi  of  the  Persians,  ApoUonius,  of  whom 
Philostratus,  Aon  doctus,  sed  natus  sapiens,  wise  from  his  cradle,  Eoicurus  so  much 
admired  by  his  scholar  Lucretius  : 

(im  genus  humanum  ingenio  superavit,  et  omnea 
Perslrinxit  Stellas  exortus  ut  a;tlierius  sol. 

Or  that  so  much  renowned  Empedocles, 

8"  Ut  vix  luimana  videatur  stirpe  creatus. 

All  those  of  v.'hom  we  read  such  ^'  hyperbolical  eulogiums,  as  of  Arigtotle,  that  he 
was  wisdom  itself  in  the  abstract,  ®'a  miracle  of  nature,  breathing  libraries,  as  Euna- 
pius  of  Longinus,  lights  of  nature,  giants  for  wit,  quintessence  of  wit,  divine  spirits, 
eagles  in  the  clouds,  fallen  from  heaven,  gods,  spirits,  lamps  of  the  world,  dictators, 
.Yulla  ferant  talem  sccla  futura  viriim  :  monarchs,  miracles,  superintendents  of  wit 
and  learning,  oceanus,  phcenix,  atlas,  monstrum,  portentum  hominis,  orbis  universi 
mnsoium,  ullimus  humana,  nalurie  «onatus,  natures  maritus, 

tiieril6  ciii  (Inctior  orliis 

Subinissis  defert  fascihtis  iiiiperium. 

As  /Elian  writ  of  Protagoras  and  Gorgias,  we  may  say  of  them  all,  tanfiim  a  sapierdibns 
abfuerunt,  quantum  a  viris  pueri,  they  were  children  in  respect,  infants,  not  eagles, 
but  kites ;  novices,  illiterate,  Eunuchi  sapientice.  And  although  they  were  the 
wisest,  and  most  admired  in  their  age,  as  he  censured  '\lexander,  1  do  them,  there 
were  10,000  in  his  army  as  worthy  captains  (had  they  been  in  place  of  command)  as 
valiant  as  himself ;  there  were  myriads  of  men  wiser  in  those  days,  and  yet  all  short 
of  what  they  ought  to  be.  ^^Lactantius,  in  his  book  of  wisdom,  proves  them  to  be 
dizards,  fools,  asses,  madmen,  so  full  of  absurd  and  ridiculous  tenets,  and  brain-sick 
positions,  that  to  his  thinking  never  any  old  woman  or  sick  person  doted  worse. 
'■' Democritus  took  all  from  Leucippus,  and  left,  saith  he, "  the  inheritance  of  his  folly 


Whose  wU  excell'd  the  wits  of  men  as  far. 
As  the  sun  rising  doih  obscure  a  star, 


S3  Lib.  10.  ep.  97.  8^  Aug.  ep.  178.  ss  Qujg 

lllsi  mentis  innps,  &c.  *"'  Quid  insanius  qiiani  pro 

Oiomentanea  fcelioitate  teternis  te  mancipare  siippliciis'! 
""  In  fine  Phwdonis.  Hie  finis  fuit  aniici  nostri  6  En- 
crates,  nostro  quidem  judicio  omnium  quos  experti 
eumus  optimi  et  apprime  sapif..iiis!<imi,  et  justissimi. 
*s  Xonop.  I.  4.  (le  dictis  Socralis  ad  finem.  talis  fuit 
Socrates  quo.n  omnium  optimum  et  fdicissimuiu  sta- 
iuam.  «9  Lib.  25.  I'latonis  Convivio.  *  Lu- 

'^tius.  *■  Anaxaguras  olim  mens  dictus  ab  anti- 


quis.  92  Regula  nafurie,  natursE  miraculum,  ijea 

erudilio  dEPmoiiiuin  hominis,  sol  scientiarum.  mare, 
sophia,  antistes  literarum  et  sapientiiE,  ut  Scioppiug 
oli...  ..e  Seal,  et  Heinsius.  Aquila  In  nubihus,  In.pe- 
riitor  liieratorum,  columen  iitenerum,  aliyssus  erudi- 
tionis,  ocellus  Europa-,  Scaliper.  "^  Lib.  3.  de  sap 

c.  IT.  et  20.  omnes  Philosophi.  aut  stulti,  aut  insaai; 
nulla  anus  nullus  n-ger  ineptiiis  deliravit.  '*  De- 

mocritus &  Leucippo  doctus,  ha^reditatem  8t«lt<ti«i 
reliquil  Epic. 


Democritus  to  the  Reader.  3  k 

to  Epicurus,"  ^^insanicnti  dum  sapientia>.i  &c.  The  like  he  holds  ot  Plato,  Aristippus, 
And  the  rest,  making  no  difference  '*"  betwixt  them  and  beasts,  saving  that  they  could 
speak."  ^'Theodoret  in  his  tract,  De  cur.  grec.  a  feet,  manifestly  evinces  as  much 
of  Socrates,  whom  though  that  Oracle  of  Apollo  confirmed  to  be  the  wisest  man 
then  living,  and  saved  him  from  plague,  whom  2000  years  have  admired,  of  v,  honi 
some  will  as  soon  speak  evil  as  of  Christ,  yet  re  vera,  he  was  an  illiterate  idiot,  aa 
'*  Aristophanes  calls  him,  irriscor  et  ambitiosus^  as  his  master  Aristotle  terms  him, 
scurra  Alticus^  as  Zeno,  an  ^* enemy  to  all  arts  and  sciences,  as  Athaeneus,  to  philoso- 
phers and  travellers,  an  opiniative  ass,  a  caviller,  a  kind  of  pedant ;  for  his  manners, 
as  Theod.  Cyrensis  describes  him,  a  ^^  sodomite,  an  atheist,  (so  convict  by  Anytus) 
iracundus  et  ebrius^  dicax,  &c.  a  pot-companion,  by  '"Plato's  own  confession,  a 
sturdy  drinker ;  and  that  of  all  others  he  was  most  sottish,  a  very  madman  in  his 
actions  and  opinions.  Pythagoras  was  part  philosopher,  part  magician,  or  part  witch. 
If  you  desire  to  hear  more  of  Apollonius,  a  great  wise  man,  sometime  paralleled  by 
Julian  the  apostate  to  Christ,  I  refer  you  to  that  learned  tract  of  Eusebius  against 
Hierocles,  and  for  them  all  to  Lucian's  Piscator^  Icaromenippus^  JYecyomantia :  their 
actions,  opinions  in  general  were  so  prodigious,  absurd,  ridiculous,  Avhich  they 
broached  and  maintained,  their  books  and  elaborate  treatises  were  full  of  dotage, 
which  TuUy  ad  Atticum  long  since  observed,  deliranl  plerumq ,  scriptores  in  llhris 
suis^  their  lives  being  opposite  to  their  words,  they  commended  poverty  to  others, 
and  were  most  covetous  themselves,  extolled  love  and  peace,  and  yet  persecuted  one 
another  with  virulent  hate  and  malice.  They  could  give  precepts  for  verse  and 
prose,  but  not  a  man  of  them  (as  '  Seneca  tells  them  home)  could  moderate  his  affec- 
tions. Their  music  did  show  us  Jlebiles  viodos.,  Stc.  how  to  rise  and  fall,  but  they 
could  not  so  contain  themselves  as  in  adversity  not  to  make  a  lamentable  tone. 
They  will  measure  ground  by  geometry,  set  down  limits,  divide  and  subdivide,  but 
cannot  yet  prescribe  quantum  hom'mi  satis.,  or  keep  within  compass  of  reason  ana 
discretion.  They  can  square  circles,  but  understand  not  the  state  of  their  own  souls, 
describe  right  lines  and  crooked,  &.c.  but  know  not  what  is  right  in  this  life,  quid  in 
vita  rectum  sit.,  ignorant ;  so  t,  at  as  he  said,  JVescio  an  Jlnticyram  ratio  illis  destinet 
omncm.  I  think  all  the  Anticyrai  will  not  restore  them  to  their  wits,  ^  if  these  men 
now,  that  held  ^Xenodotus  heart.  Crates  liver,  Epictetus  lanthorn,  were  so  sottish, 
and  had  no  more  brains  than  so  many  beetles,  what  shall  we  think  of  the  com- 
monalty ?  Vi  hat  of  the  rest .''  X 

Qf  ea,  but  you  will  infer,  that  is  true  of  heathens,  if  they  be  conferred  with  Chris- 
tians, 1  Cor.  iii.  19.  "The  wisdom  of  this  world  is  foolishness  with  God,  earthly 
and  devilish,"  as  James  calls  it,  iii.  15.  "  They  were  vain  in  their  imaginations,  and 
their  foolish  heart  was  full  of  darkness,"  Rom.  i.  21,  22.  "When  they  professed 
themselves  wise,  became  fools."  Their  witty  works  are  admired  here  on  earth, 
whilst  their  souls  are  tonnented  in  hell  fire,  hi  some  sense,  Christiani  Crassiani., 
Christians  are  Crassians,  and  if  compared  to  that  wisdom,  no  better  than  fools.  Qtds 
est  sapiens?  Solus  Deus.,  ''Pythagoras  replies,  "God  is  only  wise,"  Rom.  xvi.  Paul 
determines  "  only  good,"  as  Austin  well  contends,  "  and  no  man  living  can  be 
justified  in  his  sight."  ''•  God  looked  down  from  heaven  upon  the  children  ot 
men,  to  see  if  any  did  understand,"  Psalm  liii.  2,  3,  but  all  are  corrupt,  err.  Rom. 
iii.  12,  "None  doeth  good,  no,  not  one."  Job  aggravates  this,  iv.  18,  "Behold  he 
found  no  stedfastness  in  his  servants,  and  laid  folly  upon  his  angels,"  19.  "How 
much  more  on  them  that  dwell  in  houses  of  clay .-'"  In  this  sense  we  are  all  fools, 
and  the  °  Scripture  alone  is  arx  Minervce,  we  and  our  writings  are  shallow  and 
imperfect.  But  I  do  not  so  mean ;  even  in  our  ordinary  dealings  we  are  no  bette: 
than  fools.  "All  our  actions,"  as  ^  Pliny  told  Trajan,  "  upbraid  us  of  folly,"  oui 
whole  course  oi"  life  is  but  matter  of  laughter :  we  are  not  soberly  wise ,  and  the 
world  itself,  which  ought  at  least  to  be  wise  by  reason  of  his  antiquity,  as  'Hugo  de 


*  Hor.  car.  lib.  1.  od.  34.   1.  epicur.  9"  Nihil 

interest  inter  hos  et  bestias  nisi  quod  loquantur.  de 
ba.  1.  2ti.  c.  8.  9'  Cap    de  virt.  9"  Neb.  et 

Ranis.  sfJ  Omnium  disciplinarum  ignarus.  "i»  Pul- 
throruni  adolescenttim  uiusd  freqnentur  gymnasium, 
abibnt    &c.  i  Seneca.  Seis  rotunda  metiri,  sod 


tati  csBcutire  non  possunt.  3  Cor  Xenodoti  et 

jecur  Cratetis.  ■•  Lib.  de  nat.  boni.  5  Hie 

profundissimsE  Sopliiie  fodins.  c  Panegyr.    7ra- 

jano  omnes  actiones  exprobrare  Btultitiam  videntiir 
'  Ser.  4  in  domi  Pal.  Mundus  qui  ob  antiqiiitatcm  de- 
beret  e.s3e  sapiens,  semper  stultizat,  et  nullis  flacellit 


Qon  tuum  aniiDum.  '  Ab  uberibus  sapientia  lac-  •  aiieratur,  sed  ut  puer  vult  rosis  f.t  floribus  coronari 


32  JJemocntus  to  the  Render. 

Prato  Fiorido  will  have  it,  semper  stuUizaU  is  every  day  more  foolish  than  other 
the  more  it  is  whipped,  the  worse  it  is,  and  as  a  child  will  still  be  crowned  witl 
roses  and  flowers."  We  are  apish  in  it,  asini  bipcdcs^  and  every  place  is  full  inver- 
sormn  Apuleiornm.,  of  metamorphosed  ;«ul  two-legged  asses,  inver sorum  Silenorum^ 
childish,  pueri  inslar  himuli^  trevmla  palris  dormientis  in  ulna.  Jovianus  Pon- 
tanus,  Antonio  Dial,  briiags  in  some  laughing  at  an  old  man,  that  by  reason 
of  his  age  was  a  little  fond,  but  as  he  admonisheth  there,  JVe  v\ireris  mi  hospes 
tie  hoc  scne,  marvel  not  at  him  only,  for  iota  hcec  civitas  delirium,  a\\  our  town  dotes 
in  like  sort,  ^we  are  a  company  of  fools.  Ask  not  with  him  in  the  poet,  ^  Larva 
hunc  intempericB  insania:que  agitant  senem  ?  What  madness  ghosts  this  old  man. 
but  what  madness  ghosts  us  all  ?  For  we  are  ad  unum  omnes,  all  mad,  seinel  insani- 
vimus  omnes,  not  once,  but  alway  so,  et  semel,  ct  simul,  et  semper,  ever  and  altogether 
AS  bad  as  he;  and  not  senex  bis  pucr,  delira  arvus.,  but  say  it  of  us  all,  scinper  pueri, 
young  and  old,  all  dote,  as  Lactantius  proves  out  of  Seneca ;  and  no  difference  betwixt 
us  and  children,  saving  that,  majora  ludimus,  et  grandioribus  pupis,  they  play  with 
babies  of  clouts  and  such  toys,  we  sport  with  greater  baubles.  We  cannot  accuse 
or  condemn  one  another,  being  faulty  ourselves,  deliramenta  loqueris,  you  talk  idly, 
or  as  '"Mitio  upbraided  Demea,  insanis,  auferte,  for  we  are  as  mad  our  ownselves, 
and  it  is  hard  to  say  which  is  the  worst.  Nay,  'tis  universally  so,  'Ti/am  regit 
fortuna,  nan  sapicntia. 

When  '^Socrates  had  taken  great  pains  to  find  out  a  wise  man,  and  to  that  purpose 
had  consulted  with  philosophers,  poets,  artificers,  he  concludes  all  men  were  fools ; 
and  though  it  procured  him  both  anger  and  much  envy,  yet  in  all  companies  he 
would  openly  profess  it.  When  '^Supputius  in  Pontanus  had  travelled  all  over 
Europe  to  confer  with  a  wise  man,  he  returned  at  last  without  his  errand,  and  could 
find  none.  "Cardan  concurs  with  him,  "Few  there  are  (for  auglit  1  can  perceive) 
well  in  their  wits."  So  doth  '^Tully,  "  1  see  everything  to  be  done  foolishly  and 
unadvisedly." 

nie  sinislrorsuin,  hie  dextrorsum,  iinus  utrique        I         One  reels  to  this,  another  to  that  wall, 
Errnr,  sed  variis  illudit  partihvis  omnes.  |         'Tis  the  same  error  lliat  deludes  tlieiii  all. 

'^Thp.y  dote  all,  but  not  alike,  Maw'a  yap  Ttdrjiv  u^ota,  not  in  the  same  kind,  "  One  is 
covetous,  a  .^econd  lascivious,  ^  third  ambitious,  a  fourth  envious,  &.c."  as  Dama- 
sippus  t'he  Stoic  hath  well  illustrated  in  the  poet, 

n  Uesipiunt  omnes  Kque  ac  tu.  I         And  Ihey  who  call  you  fool,  with  equal  claim 

I         May  plead  an  ample  title  to  the  name. 

'Tis  an  inbred  malady  in  every  one  of  us,  there  is  seminarium  slultitice,  a  seminary 
of  folly,  "  which  if  it  be  stirred  up,  or  get  a-head,  will  run  in  infinittim,  and  infinitely 
varies,  as  we  ourselves  are  severally  addicted,"  saith  '*  Balthazar  Castillo  :  and  cannot 
so  easily  be  rooted  out,  it  takes  such  fast  hold,  as  Tully  holds,  altce  radices  stuUili,T,, 
'^so  we  are  bred,  and  so  we  continue.  Some  say  there  be  two  main  defects  of  wit, 
error  and  ignorance,  to  which  all  others  are  reduced ;  by  ignorance  we  know  not 
things  necessary,  by  error  we  know  them  falsely.  Ignorance  is  a  privation,  error  a 
positive  act.  From  ignorance  comes  vice,  from  error  heresy,  &c.  But  make  how 
many  kinds  you  will,  divide  and  subdivide,  few  men  arc  free,  or  that  do  not  impinge 
on  some  one  kind  or  other.  ^°  Sic  plerumque  agifat  stultos  inscitia,  as  he  that 
.examines  his  own  and  other  men's  actions  shall  find. 

_^1' Charon  in  Lucian,  as  he  wittily  feigns,  Avas  conducted  by  Mercury  to  such  a 
place,  where  he  might  see  all  the  world  at  once ;  after  he  had  sufficiently  viewed, 
and  looked  about.  Mercury  would  needs  know  of  him  what  he  had  observed :  He 
told  him  that  he  saw  a  vast  multitude  and  a  promiscuous,  their  habitations  like 
•nolehills,  the  men  as  emmets,  "  he  could  discern  cities  like  so  many  hives  of  bees, 
wherein  every  bee  had  a  sting,  and  they  did  nought  else  but  sting  one  another,  some 
domineering  like  hornets  bigger  than  the  rest,  some  like  filching  wasps,  others  as 


"  Insanum  te  omnes  pueri,  clamantqiie  puelliB.    Hor.    alius  alio  morho  laboret,  hie  libidinis,  ille  avaritiee, 
'Plautus   Aubular.  '»  Adelph.  act.  5.  seen.  8.     ambitionis,  invidis.  "  Hor.  1.  2.  sat.  3.         '«  Lib. 

•'Tally  Tusc.  5.   fortune,  not   wisdom,  governs  our     l.deaiilico        Est  in  unoquoq  ;  nostrum  seminarium 
lives.  '2  Plato   Apologia   Socratis.  '^  Ant.     aliqiiod  stultitiao,  quod  si  quaiidoexcitetur,  in  infinitum 

Dial.  "  Lib.  3.  de  sap.  paiici  ut  video  sanJE  mentis    fa<:ile   exere.scit.  '^  Priiiiaqiie   lux  vitae   prima 

sunt.  16  stulte  et   incaiite   omni-a   agi   video,  j  jiiroris  erat.  ^c  Tibullns,  siiilii  pr;plereunt  dies, 

'*  Insania  non  omnibus  eadem,   Erasm.  chil.  3.  cent.  '  their  wits  are  a  wool-gathering.     So  fools  comnioniv 
10.  nemo  mortalium  qui  non  aliqua  in  re  desipit,  licet    dote.  ^i  Dial,  conteniplantes,  Tom.  2 


Democritus  to  the  Reader.  33 

drones."  sOver  their  heads  were  hoverhig-  a  confused  company  of  perturbations, 
hope,  fear,  anger,  avarice,  ignorance,  &c.,  and  a  multitude  of  diseases  hanging,  which 
they  still  pulled  on  their  pates.  '  Some  were  brawling,  some  lighting,  riding,  running, 
ftnllicite  amhicntes,  cnllide  lUiganies^  for  toys  and  triiles,  and  such  momentary  things, 

(Their  towns  and  provinces  mere  factions,  rich  against  pltor,  poor  against  rich,  nobles 
against  artificers,  they  against  nobles,  and  so  the  rest,  hi  conclusion,  he  condemned 
them  all  for  madmen,  fools,  idiots,  asses,  O  sfuUi,  qiiccnam  licRC  est  amentia  ?  O 
fools,  O  madmen,  he  exclaims,  insana  stiidia,  insani  laborcs,  &c.  Mad  endeavours, 
mad  actions,  mad,  mad,  mad,  ^^O  scclum  insijnens  ct  infacctnm^  a  giddy-headed  age. 

JHeraclitus  the  philosopher,  out  of  a  serious  meditation  of  men's  lives,  fell  a  weeping, 
and  with  continual  tears  bewailed  their  misery,  madness,  and  folly.  Democritus  on 
the  oilier  side,  burst  out  a  laughing,  their  whole  life  seemed  to  him  so  ridiculous,  and 
he  was  so  far  carried  with  this  ironical  passion,  that  the  citiso^.o  of  /vouera  luon.  him 
to  be  mad,  and  sent  therefore  ambassadors  to  Hippocrates,  the  pnysician,  that  he  would 
exercise  his  skill  upon  him.  But  the  story  is  set  down  at  large  by  Hippocrates,  in 
his  epistle  to  Damogetus,  which  because  it  is  not  impertinent  to  this  discourse,  1  will 
insert  verbatim  almost  as  it  is  delivered  by  Hippocrates  himself,  with  all  the  circum- 
stances belonging  unto  it. 

(when  Hippocrates  was  now  come  to  Abdera,  the  people  of  the  city  came  flocking 
about  him,  some  weeping,  some  intreating  of  him,  that  he  would  do  his  best.  After 
some  little  repast,  he  went  to  see  Democritus,  the  people' following  him,  whom  he 
found  (as  before)  in  his  garden  in  the  suburbs  all  alone,  ^^"  sitting  upon  a  stone  under 
a  plane  tree,  without  hose  or  shoes,  with  a  book  on  his  knees,  cutting  up  several 
beasts,  and  busy  at  his  study."  The  multitude  stood  gazi4ig  round  about  to  see  the 
congress.  Hippocrates,  after  a  little  pause,  saluted  him  by  his  name,  whom  he 
resaluted,  ashamed  almost  that  he  could  not  call  him  likewise  by  his,  or  that  he  had 
forgot  it.  Hippocrates  demanded  of  him  what  he  was  doing :  he  told  him  that  he 
was  ^■'"  busy  in  cutting  up  several  beasts,  to  find  out  the  cause  of  madness  and 
melancholy."    Hippocrates  commended  his  work,  admiring  his  happiness  and  leisure. 

(And  why,  quoth  Democritus,  have  not  you  that  leisure  f)  Because,  replied  Hip- 
pocrates, domestic  affairs  hinder,  necessary  to  be  done  ^or  ourselves,  neighbours, 
friends ;  expenses,  diseases,  frailties  and  mortalities  which  happen ;  wife,  children, 
servants,  and  such  business  which  deprive  us  of  our  time.'^'i^At  this  speech  Demo- 
critus profusely  laughed  (his  friends  and  the  people  standing  by,  weeping  in  the 
mean  time,  and  lamenting  his  madness).  ^Hippocrates  asked  the  reason  why  he 
laughed.  He  told  him,  at  the  vanities  and  the  fopperies  of  the  time,  to  see  men  so 
empty  of  all  virtuous  actions,  to  hunt  so  far  after  gold,  having  no  end  of  ambition ; 
to  take  such  infinite  pains  for  a  little  glory,  and  to  be  favoured  of  men  •,  to  make 
such  deep  mines  into  the  earth  for  gold,  and  many  times  to  find  nothing,  with  loss 
of  their  lives  and  fortunes.  >  Some  to  love  dogs,  others  horses,  some  to  desire  to  be 
obeyed  in  many  provinces,^^  and  yet  themselves  will  know  no  obediencel  ^^ome 
to  love  their  wives  dearly  at  first,  and  after  a  while  to  forsake  and  hate  tliem ; 
begetting  children,  with  much  care  and  cost  for  their  education,  yet  when  they  grow 
to  man's  estate,  ^'^  to  despise,  neglect,  and  leave  them  naked  to  the  world's  mercy^ 
^'Do  not  these  behaviours  express  their  intolerable  folly  ?  When  men  live  in  peace, 
they  covet  war,  detesting  quietness,  ^^  deposing  kings,  and  advancing  others  in  their 
stead,  murdering  some  men  to  beget  children  of  their  wives?)  How  many  strange 
humours  are  in  men !  When  they  are  poor  and  needy,  they  seek  riches,  and  when 
they  have  them,  they  do  not  enjoy  them,  but  hide  them  under  ground,  or  else 
wastefuUy  spend  them.  O  wise  Hippocrates,  I  laugh  at  such  things  being  done,  but 
much  more  when  no  good  comes  of  them,  and  when  they  are  done  to  so  ill  purpose. 

^here  is  no  truth  or  justice  found  amongst  them,  for  they  daily  plead  one  against 
another,  ''"the  son  against  the  father  and  the  mother,  brother  against  brother,  kindred 

w  CatullMs.             23  Suh  ramosa  platano  sedentem,  bilisq  ;  natdram  disquirens.             m  Aust.  1.  1.  in  Gen. 

solum,  dis:alceatum.  super  lapidein,  valde  pallidum  Juiiienti  &  servi  tiii  obsequium  ripide  postulas,  et  tn 

BC  maciler.tuni,  prumissa  barba,  librum  super  geiiihus  nullum    priEslas   aliis,   ner,   ipsi   Deo.              -»>  C  xorn« 

babeiilem.           -*  I)e  furore,  mania  melancholia  srribo,  ducunt,  mox  foras  ejiciunt.          2'  Pueros  amant.  mox 

ut  sciam  quo  pacto  in  hnniinibus  giirnatur,  fiat,  crescat,  fistidiunt.         -'"  Qi'id  hoc  ab  insania  deesi  ■•         »  R«- 

citmulelur,  minuatur  ;  hsec  inquit  animalia  quae  vides  ges  eligunt,  depon  jut.           :™  Contra  parentes,  fratmn, 

oropierea  seco,   non   Dei  opera   perosus,  sed    fellis  cives,  perpetuo  rixantur.  et  initnintias  agunt. 


34  Dtmocritus  to  the  Reader. 

and  friends  of  the  same  quality ;  and  all  this  for  riches,  whereof  after  death  they 
cannot  '»e  possessors. j  And  yet  notwithstanding  they  Avill  defame  and  kill  onV 
another,  commit  all  unlawful  actions,  contemning  God  and  men,  friends  and  countrv 
/They  make  great  account  of  many  senseless  things,  esteeming  them  as  a  great  pa)  i 
of  tlieir  treasure,  statues,  pictures,  and  such  like  movables,  dear  bouglit,  and  so  cun- 
ningly wrought,  as  nothing  but  speech  wanteth  in  them,  ^'and  yet  they  hate  li'/ing 
persons  speaking  to  theni^  Others  affect  difficult  things ;  if  they  dwell  on  finn 
land  they  will  remove  to  an  island,  and  thence  to  land  again,  being  no  way  constant 
to  their  desires,  i  They  conunend  courage  and  strength  in  wars,  and  let  tliemselves 
be  conquered  by  lust  and  avarice ;  tliey  are,  in  brief,  as  disordered  in  their  minds,  as 
Tlicrsites  was  in  his  body,  j  And  now,  methinks,  O  most  worthy  Hippocrates,  you 
should  not  reprehend  my  laughing,  perceiving  so  many  fooleries  in  men";  \^^  for  no 
man  will  mock  his  own  folly,  but  that  which  he  seeth  in  a  second,  and  so  they 
justly  mock  one  another.)  The  drunkard  calls  him  a  glutton  whom  he  knows  to  be 
sober.)  Many  men  love  the  sea,  others  husbandry ;  briefly,  they  cannot  agree  in 
their  own  trades  and  professions,  much  loss  in  their  lives  and  actions. 

When  Hippocrates  heard  these  words  so  readily  uttered,  without  premeditation, 
to  declare  the  world's  vanity,  full  of  ridiculous  contrariety,  lie  made  answer,  That 
necessity  compelled  men  to  many  such  actions,  and  divers  wills  ensuing  from  divine 
permission,  that  we  might  not  be  idle,  being  nothing  is  so  odious  to  them  as  sloth 
and  negligence.  Besides,  men  cannot  foresee  future  events,  m  this  uncertainty  ol 
human  aflairs ;  they  would  not  so  marry,  if  they  could  foretel  the  causes  of  "their 
dislike  and  separation ;  or  parents,  if  they  knew  the  hour  of  their  children's  death. 
so  tenderly  provide  for  thein ;  or  an  husbandman- sow,  if  he  thought  there  would  be 
no  increase  ;  or  a  merchant  adventure  to  sea,  if  he  foresaw  shipwreck ;  or  be  a  magis- 
trate, if  presently  to  be  deposed.  Alas,  worthy  Democritus,  every  man  hopes  the 
best,  and  to  that  end  he  doth  it,  and  therefore  no  such  cause,  or  ridiculous  occasion 
of  laucrhter. 

(Democritus  hearing  this  poor  excuse,  laughed  again  aloud,  perceiving  he  wholly 
mistook  him,  and  did  not  well  understand  what  he  had  said  concerning  perturbations 
and  tranquillity  of  the  mind.  Insomuch,  that  if  men  would  govern  their  actions  by 
discretion  and  providence,  they  would  not  declare  themselves  fools  as  now  they  do. 
and  he  should  have  no  cause  of  laughter;  but  (quoth  he)  they  swell  in  this  life  as 
if  they  were  immortal,  and  demigods,  for  want  of  understanding.  It  were  enough  to 
make  them  wise,  if  they  would  hut  consider  the  mutability  of  this  world,  and  ho«' 
it  wheels  about,- nothing  being-  firm  and  sure.  He  that  is  now  above,  to-morrow  is 
beneath ;  he  that  sate  on  this  side  to-day,  to-morrow  is  hurled  on  tlie  other :  and 
not  considering  these  matters,  they  fall  into  many  inconveniences  and  troubles, 
coveting  things  of  no  profit,  and  thirsting  after  them,  tumbling  headlong  into  many 
■calamities.':  \So  that  if  men  would  attempt  no  more  than  what  they  can  bear,  they 
should  lead  contented  lives,  and  learning  to  know  themselves,  would  limit  their 
ambition,  ^''they  would  perceive  then  that  nature  hath  enough  without  seeking  such 
superfluities,  and  unprofitable  things,  which  bring  nothing  with  them  but  grief 
and  molestation.^  As  a  fat  body  is  more  subject  to  diseases,  so  are  rich  men  to 
absurdities  and  fooleries,  to  many  casualties  and  cross  inconveniences.  Tliere  are 
many  that  take  no  heed  what  happeneth  to  others  by  bad  conversation,  and  there- 
fore overthrow  themselves  in  the  same  manner  through  their  own  fault,  not  foreseeing 
dangers  manifest?!  These  are  things  (O  more  than  mad,  quoth  he)  that  give  me 
matter  of  laughter,  by  suffering  the  pains  of  your  impieties,  as  your  avarice,  envy, 
malice,  enormous  villanies,  mutinies,  unsatiable  desires,  conspiracies,  and  othei 
inciiL-able  vices ;  besides  your  ^'dissimulation  and  hypocrisy,  bearing  deadly  hatred 
one  to  the  other,  and  yet  shadowing  it  with  a  good  face,  flying  out  into  all  filthy 
lusts,  and  transgressions  of  all  laws,  both  of  nature  and  civility.  Many  things  which 
they  have  left  off,  after  a  while,  they  fall  to  again,  husbandry,  navigation ;  and  leave 

"  Idola  inanimata  amant,  aiiimata  odio  habent,  sic  I  et  finire  laborem  incipias,  partis  quod  avebas,  iiterc 
pnnlificii.  3J  Credo  equidem  vivos  ducent  ft  mar-      Ilr.r.  ■'•''  Astiitam  vapido  serv.it  sub  pectoie  viilpern 

more  viiltus.  s  8iiain  stiiltitiam  perspicit  nemo,  I  Et  cum  vulpo  positus  pariter  viilpinarifi      Cretisae 

»ed  alter  allerum  deridet.  3'  I)etii(|ue  sil  finis  que-  I  diiui  cum  Crete. 

Mndi,  cuiiique  habere  plus,  paupurieiii  meluus  miuua,  | 


Vemocntus  to  the  Reader.  35 

again,  nr kle  and  inconstant  as  they  are."  When  liiey  are  young,  they  wonld  be  old  _ 
and  old,  young.  ^*^Pnnces  commend  a  private  life  ;  private  men  itch  after  honour  ; 
a  magistrate  commends  a  quiet  life;  a  quiet  man  \vould  be  in  his  oflice,  and  obeyed 
as  he  is  :  and  what  is  the  cause  of  all  this,  but  that  they  know  not  themselves  ? 
Some  delight  to  destroy,  ^~  one  to  build,  another  to  spoil  one  country  to  enrich 
another  and  himself  ^'*In  all  these  things  they  are  like  children,  in  whom  is  no 
judgment  or  counsel  and  resemble  beasts,  saving  that  beasts  are  better  than  they,  as 
being  contented  with  nature.  -  ^^  When  shall  you  see  a  lion  hide  gold  in  the  ground,  or  a 
bull  conrend  for  better  pasture  ?  When  a  boar  is  thirsty,  he  drinks  what  will  sei-ve 
him,  and  no  more ;  and  when  his  belly  is  full,  ceaseth  to  eat :  but  men  are  immoderate 
in  both,  as  in  lust — they  covet  carnal  copulation  at  set  times  •,  men  always,  ruinating 
thereby  the  health  of  their  bodies^  And  doth  it  not  deserve  laughter  to  see  an  amor- 
ous fool  torment  himself  for  a  wench ;  weep,  howl  for  a  mis-shapen  slut,  a  dowdy 
sometimes,  that  might  have  his  choice  of  the  finest  beauties  ?  Is  there  any  remedy 
for  this  in  physic  h  I  do  anatomise  and  cut  up  these  poor  beasts,  ''"to  see  these  dis- 
tempers, vanities,  and  follies,  yet  such  proof  were  better  made  on  man's  body,  if  my 
kind  nature  would  endure  it :  '''(who  from  the  hour  of  his  birth  is  most  miserable 
weak,  and  sickly  \  when  he  sucks  he  is  guided  by  others,  when  he  is  grown  great 
practisetli  unhappiness  ''^and  is  sturdy,  and  when  old,  a  child  again,  and  repenteth 
him  of  his  life  past.  '■  And  here  being  interrupted  by  one  that  brouglit  books,  he  fell 
to  it  again,  that  all  were  mad,  careless,  stupid.  To  prove  my  former  speeches,  look 
into  courts,  or  private  houses. '  "'Judges  give  judgment  according  to  their  own 
advantage,  doing  manifest  wrong  to  poor  innocents  to  please  others.  Notaries  altei 
sentences,  and  for  monty  lose  their  deeds.  Some  make  false  monies ;  others  coun- 
terfeit false  weights.  Some  abuse  their  parents,  yea  corrupt  their  own  sisters  ;  others 
make  long  libels  and  pasquils,  defaming  men  of  good  life,  and  extol  such  as  are  lewd 
and  vicious.  Some  rob  one,  some  another :  ''^magistrates  make  laws  against  thieves, 
and  are  the  veriest  thieves  themselves.  Some  kill  themselves,  others  despair,  not 
obtaining  their  desires..  Some  dance,  sing,  laugh,  feast  and  banquet,  whilst  others 
sigh,  languish,  mourn  and  lament,  having  neither  meat,  drink,  nor  clothes.  '"^Some 
prank  up  their  bodies,  and  have  their  minds  full  of  execrable  vices.  Some  trot  about 
^''to  bear  false  witness,  and  say  anything  for  money,  and  though  judges  know  of  it, 
yet  for  a  bribe  they  wink  at  it,  and  suHer  false  contracts  to  prevail  against  equity 
Women  are  all  day  a  dressing*  to  pleasure  other  men  abroad,  and  go  like  sluts  at 
home,jnot  caring  to  please  their  own  husbands  whom  they  should.,  Seeing  men  are 
so  fickle,  ^o  sottish,,^o  intemperate,  why  should  not  1  laugh  at  those  to  whom  ''''folly 
seems  wisdom,  will  not  be  cured,  and  perceive  it  not  }■ 

It  grew  late  :  Hippocrates  left  him  ;  and  no  sooner  was  he  come  away,  but  all  the 
citizens  came  about  flocking,  So  know  how  he  liked  him.  (He  told  them  in  brief, 
that  notwithstanding  those  small  neglects  of  his  attire,  body, ""diet,  ''*the  world  had 
not  a  wiser,  a  more  learned,  a  more  honest  man,  and  they  were  much  deceived  to 
say  that  he  was  mad?) 

Thus  Democritus  esteemed  of  the  world  in  his  time,  and  .this  was  the  cause  of  his 
laughter :  and  good  cause  he  had. 


*3  Olim  jure  quidem,  nunc  plus  Deniocrite  ride ; 
Quill  rides?  vita  haec  nunc  niag6  ridicula  est. 


Democritus  did  well  to  langh  of  old, 
Good  cause  lie  had,  Init  iicvv  much  more  ; 

This  life  of  ours  is  more  ridiculous 
Than  that  of  liis,  or  long  before. 


:'  Never  so  much  cause  of  laughter  as  now,  never  so  many  fools  and  madmen.     Tis 
1  rot  one  *"  Democritus  will  serve  turn  to  laugh  in  these  days  ;  we  have  now  need  of  a 

3«Qui  fit  MecEPnas  ut  nemo  quam  sibi  sortem.  Seu  Damnat  foras  judex,  quod  intus  operatur,   Cyprian 

ratio  dederit,  sen  sors  objecerit,  ill^  conlentus  vivat,  '"Vultus   magna   cura,    magna   animi    incuria.     Am. 

4tc.  Hor.        =<"  Diruit,  EBuificat,  mutat  quadrata  rotun-  Marcel.            ^n  Ilorretida  res  est,  vix  duo  verba  sine 

Jis.    Trajanus  ponlen  struxit  super  Danubium,  quern  niendacio  proferunliir  :  et  qiiamvis  solenniter  lioniines 

successor  ejus  Adrianus  st.itim  demolitus.          ^^  Qui  ad  veritatem  dicenduin  invitentur,  pejerare  tanien  non 

vid  in  re  ah  infantibus  differunt,  quih\is  mens  et  sen-  duhitant,  ut  ex  decem  testihus  vix  uuus  veruni  dicat. 

Btla  sine  ratioTie  incst,  quicquid  sese  his  offert  volupe  Calv.  in  8  John,  Serni  1.            4' SapiCTiliam  insaniam 

est.            3«Idem  Plut.            ■><'Ut  insania;  causam  dis-  esse  dicunt.            ■S'^  Siquidem  sapientiie  sua;  adniira- 

quiram  bruta  macto  et  seco,  cum  hoc  potius  in  honii-  tione  me   complevit,  offerdi   sapieniissimum   virum, 

nibus  inve.<tigandum  esset.            ■'i  Totns  a.  nativitate  qui  salvos  potest  omnes  homines  reddere.           *'' E 

ftioibusest.            *^  In  vigore  furibundus,  quum  decre-  Graec.  epig.            M  phires  Democriti  nunc  non  siiffi. 

Kcii   insanahilis.            <^  Cyprian,  ad   Uonalnm.     Qui  ciunt,  opus  Democrito  qui  Democtitum  rideal.  Eraa 

§edet   criniiria  judicaturus,  &c.             -nTu   pessimus  ,  Moria. 

^v.nium  Ih!t3  es,  at  a  thief  told  Alexander  in  Curtius  ' 


36  Democrilus  to  the  Reader. 

**  Democritus  to  laugh  at  Democritus ;"  one  jester  to  flout  at  another,  one  fool  tt 
flear  at  another :  a  great  stentorian  Deniocritus,  as  big  as  that  Rhodian  Colossus 
For  now,  as  *'  Salisburiensis  said  in  his  time,  toliis  miindus  histrionem  agit^  the  whole 
world  plays  the  fool ;  we  have  a  new  theatre,  a  new  scene,  a  new  comedy  of  errors, 
a  new  company  of  personate  actors,  volupice  sacra  (as  Calcagninus  willingly  feigns 
in  his  Apologues)  are  celebrated  all  the  world  over."  where  all  the  actors  were  mad- 
men and  fools,  and  every  hour  changed  habits,  or  took  that  which  came  next.  He 
that  was  a  mariner  to-day,  is  an  apothecary  to-morrow  ;  a  smith  one  while,  a  philoso- 
her  another,  in  his  volupice.  ludis  ;  a  king  now  with,  his  crown,  robes,  sceptre,  attend- 
ants, by  and  by  drove  a  loaded  ass  before  him  like  a  carter,  Slc.  If  Democritus 
were  alive  now,  he  sliould  see  strange  alterations,  a  new  company  of  counterfeit 
vizards,  wliifflers,  Cumane  asses,  maskers,  mummers,  painted  puppets,  outsides,  fon- 
tastic  shadows,  gulls,  monsters,  giddy-headsy,butterflies.  And  so  many  of  them  are 
indeed  (^^if  all  he  true  that  I  have  read).  -)For  when  Jupiter  and  Juno's  wedding 
was  solemnised  of  old,  the  gods  were  all  invited  to  the  feast,  and  many  noble  men 
besides  :  Amongst  the  rest  came  Crysalus,  a  Persian  prince,  bravely  attended,  rich 
in  golden  attires,  in  gay  robes,  with  a  majestical  presence,  but  otherwise  an  ass. 
The  gods  seeing  him  come  in  such  pomp  and  state,  rose  up  to  give  him  place,  ex  hahita 
homincm  mctientes ;  "  but  Jupiter  perceiving  what  he  was,  a  light,  fantastic,  idle  fel- 
low, turned  him  and  .his  proud  followers  into  butterflies :  and  so  they  continue  still 
(for  aught  I  know  to  the  contrary)  roving  about  in  pied  coats,  and  are  called  clirysa- 
Udes  by  the  wiser  sort  of  men :  that  is,  gx)lden  outsides,  drones,  and  flies,  and  things 
»f  no  worth.     Multitudes  of  such,  &.c. 

" ubique  invenies 

.        Slultos  avaros,  sycopliantas  prodigos."  ss 

Many  additions,  much  increase  of  madness,  folly,  vanity,  should  Democritus  observe, 
were  he  now  to  travel,  or  could  get  leave  of  Pluto  to  come  see  fashions,  as  Ciiaron 
did  in  Lucian  to  visit  our  cities  of  Moronia  Pia,  and  Moronia  Fcelix :  sure  I  think 
he  would  break  the  rim  of  his  belly  with  laughing.  ^^  Siforet  in  lerris  rider ct  De- 
mocrilas.1  seu^  &c. 

A  satirical  Roman  in  his  time,  thought  all  vice,  folly,  and  madness  were  all  at  full 
sea,  "  Omne  in  prcrxipiti  vitium  sfetit. 

^osephus  the  historian  taxeth  his  countrymen  Jews  for  bragging  of  their  vices, 
publishing  their  follies,  and  that  they  did  contend  amongst  tliemselves  who  should 
be  most  notorious  in  villanies ;  but  we  flow  higher  in  madness,  far  beyond  them, 

.„ -,       ,         .  ....  ,,  I        And  yet  with  crimes  to  us  unknown, 

69  Mox  daturi  progeniem  v.t.osiorem,'  j        ^ur  sons  shall  marli  th^coming  age  their  own, 

and  the  latter  end  (you  know  whose  oracle  it  is)  is  like  to  be  worse.  'Tis  not  to 
be  denied,  the  world  alters  every  day,  Rtmnt.  iirhcs,  regna  transferimtur,  &c.  variavn 
tur  habitus.,  leges  innovantiir,  as  ^\Petrarch  observes,  we  change  language,  habits, 
laws,  customs,  manners,  but  not  v.ices,  not  diseases,  not  the  symptoms  of  folly  and 
madness,  they  are  still  the  same.  And  as  a  river,  we  see,  keeps  the  like  name  and 
place,  but  not  water,  and  yet  ever  runs,  ''' Lahitur  et  labcfur  in  omne  volahilis  aivnm  ; 
our  times  and  persons  alter,  vices  are  the  same,  and  ever  will  be ;  look  how  night- 
ingales sang  of  old,  cocks  crowed,  kine  lowed,  sheep  bleated,  sparrows  chirpt^d, 
dogs  barked,  so  they  do  still :  we  keep  our  madness  still,  play  the  fools  still,  nee 
dumjinitus  Orestes;  we  are  of  the  same  humours  and  inclinations  as  our  predeces- 
sors were ;  you  shall  find  us  all  alike,  much  at  one,  we  and  our  sons,  et  nati  nato- 
nim,  et  qui  nascuntur  ab  illis.  And  so  shall  our  posterity  continue  to  the  last.  But 
to  speak  of  times  present. 

"  If  Democritus  were  alive  now,  and  should  but  see  the  superstition  of  our  age,  oui 
^/^religious  madness,  as  ^^Meteran  calls  it,  Religiosam  insaniam.,  so  many  professed 

"  Polycrat.  lib.  3.  cap.  8.  6  Petron.  ''■- Ubi  omnes  protinusq  ;  vestis  ilia  manicata  in  alas  versa  est,  ei 
Aslirabain,  omnes  insani,  &c.  hodie  nauta,  eras  philo-  mortales  inde  Chrysalides  vocant  hujusmodi  homines, 
■ophus  ;  hodie  faher,  eras  pharniacopola  ;   hie   mndo     '^You  will   meet  covetous  fools  and   prodigal  syco- 


regem  agebat  multo  saitellitio,  tiara,  et  seepiro  orna- 
tus,  nunc  vili  amicfus  centiculo,  asinum  elite llarium 
impellit.  s:i  Calcagninus  Apol.  Crysalus  6  ceteris 

auro  dives,  manicato  pepio  et  tiara  conspicuus,  levis 
alioquin  et  nullius  consilii,  &c.  niagnn  fastu  ingredi- 
ent! asaurgunt  dii,  &c.  "  Sed  hnniinis  levitatem 
lupiter  pergpiciens,  at  tu  (in.quit)  esto  bonibilio,  &c. 


phants   everywhere.  "'Juven.  '''Juven. 

^  De  bello  Jud.  1.  8.  c.  11.  Iniquitates  vestrse  nemi- 
nem  latent,  inque  dies  singulos  certamen  habetis  qui» 
pe.ior  sit.         so  Hor.         •«J  Lib.  5.  Epiet.  8.  «' Hor. 

•*■- Superntilio  est   insanus  error.  '^Lib.  8.  hi«t 

Bel". 


Vemocntus  to  the  Reader.  37 

t'liiistians,^e^so  few  imitators  of  Christ ;  so  much  talk  of  religion,  so  much  science 
go  littje  conscience ;  so  much  knowledge,  so  many  preachers,  so  little  practice ;  such 

variety  of  sects,  such  have  and  hold  of  all  sides,  ''* olvin  signis  Signa.,  Sec,  such 

absurd  and  ridiculous  traditions  and  ceremonies  :*lf  he  should  meet  a  ''^  Capuchin, 
a  Franciscan,  a  Pharisaical  Jesuit,  a  man-serpent,  a  shave-crowned  Monk  in  his  robes, 
a  begging  Friar,  or  see  their  three-crowned  Sovereign  Lord  the  Pope,  poor  Peter's 
successor,  servus  servorum  Dei.,  to  depose  kings  with  his  foot,  to  tread  on  emperors' 
necks,  make  them  stand  bare-foot  and  bare-legged  at  his  gates,  hold  his  bridle  and 
«lirrup,  &c.  (O  that  Peter  and  Paul  were  alive  to  see  this  !)  If  he  should  observe 
a  ^^  Prince  creep  so  devoutly  to  kiss  his  toe,  and  those  Red-cap  Cardinals,  poor  parish 
priests  of  old,  now  Princes'  companions  ;  what  would  he  say  ?  Ccelum  ipsum  peti- 
fur  stuUitia.  Had  he  met  some  of  our  devout  pilgrims  going  bare-foot  to  Jerusa- 
lem, our  lady  of  Lauretto,  Rome,  S.  lago,  S.  Thomas'  Shrine,  to  creep  to  those 
counterfeit  and  maggot-eaten  reliques ;  had  he  been  present  at  a  mass,  and  seen  such 
kissing  of  Paxes,  crucifixes,  cringes,  duckings,  their  several  attires  and  ceremonies, 
pictures  of  saints,  ^'  indulgences,  pardons,  vigils,  fasting,  feasts,  crossing,  knocking, 

kneeling  at  Ave-Marias,  bells,  with  many  such; jucunda  rudi .spectacula  plebi,'-^ 

praying  in  gibberish,  and  mumbling  of  beads.  Had  he  heard  an  old  woman  say  her 
prayers  in  Latin,  their  sprinkling  of  holy  water,  and  going  a  procession, 

«3 '•  incediint  monachorum  agmina  inille  ; 

Quid  moiiierein  vexilla,  cruces,  idolaque  culta,  &;c." 

rTheir  breviaries,  bulls,  hallowed  beans,  exorcisms,  pictures,  curious  crosses,  fables,  and 
oaubles."';  Had  he  read  the  Golden  Legend,  the  Turks'  Alcoran,  or  Jews'  Talnmd, 
the  Rabbins'  Comments,  what  would  he  have  thought  ?  '  How  dost  thou  think  he 
might  have  been  affected  ?  Had  he  more  particularly  e:$amined  a  Jesuit's  life  amongst 
the  rest,  he  should  have  seen  an  hypocrite  profess  poverty,  ™and  yet  possess  more 
goods  and  lands  than  many  prhices,  to  have  infinite  treasures  and  revenues  ;  teach 
others  to  fast,  and  play  the  gluttons  themselves  ;  like  watermen  that  row  one  way 
and  look  another.  "Vow  virginity,  talk  of  holiness,  and  yet  indeed  a  notorious 
bawd,  and  famous  fornicator,  lascivum  pccus.,,a  very  goat.';  Monks  by  profession,'' 
such  as  give  over  the  world,  and  the  vanities  of  it,  and  yet  a  Machiavelian  rout 
'^  interested  in  all  manner  of  state :  holy  men,  peace-makers,  and  yet  composed  of  envy, 
lust,  ambition,  hatred,  and  malice  ;  fire-brands,  aduUa  patrice  pestis,  traitors,  assassi 
nats,  hdc  itur  ad  astra.,  and  this  is  to  supererogate,  and  merit  heaven  for  themselves 
and  others.  Had  he  seen  on  the  adverse  side,  some  of  our  nice  and  curious  schis- 
matics in  another  extreme,  ablior  all  ceremonies,  and  rather  lose  their  lives  and  livings, 
than  dp  or  admit  anything  Papists  have  formerly  used,  though  in  things  indiflerejit 
(they  alone  are  the  true  Church,  sal  terrce^  cum  sint  omnium  insulsissiml).  (^Formal- 
ists, out  of  fear  and  base  flattery,  like  so  many  weather-cocks  turn  round,  a  rout  of 
temporisers,  ready  to  embrace  and  maintain  all  that  is  or  shall  be  proposed  in  hope 
of  preferment :  another  Epicurean  company,  lying  at  lurch  as  so  many  vultures, 
watching  for  a  prey  of  Church  goods,  and  ready  to  rise  by  the  downfall  of  any  :  as 
'^  Lucian  said  in  like  case,  what  dost  thou  think  Democritus  would  have  done,  had 
he  been  spectator  of  these  things  .'' 

(Or  had  he  but  observed  the  common  people  follow  like  so  many  sheep  one  of 
tneir  fellows  drawn  by  the  horns  over  a  gap,  some  for  zeal,  some  for  fear,  quo  se 
cunqiie  rapit  tempestas.,  to  credit  all,  examine  nothing,  and  yet  ready  to  die  before 
they  will  adjure  any  of  those  ceremonies  to  which  they  have  been  accustomed , 
others  out  of  hypocrisy  frequent  sermons,  knock  their  breasts,  turn  up  their  eyes, 
pretend  zeal,  desire  reformation,  and  yet  professed  usurers,  gripers,  moasters  of  men 
harpies,  devils  in  their  lives,  to  express  nothing  less. '; 


6<  Lucan.         es  Father  Angelo,  the  Duke  of  Joyeux, 
goiiift  bare-foot  over  the  Alps  to  Rome,  &c.  «'  Si 

cui  intueri  vacet  qute  patiuntur  superstitiosi,  iiivenies 
tain  indecora  honestis,  tam  indigna  liberis,  tam  dissi- 
milia  sanis,  iit  nemo  fuerit  dubitaturus  furere  eos,  si 
cum  paucioribus  fiierent.    Senec.  ^  Quid  dicam 

de  eoruiii  indiilgeiitiis,  oblationibiis,  votis,  solutioiiibus, 
jejuniis,  ctenobiis,  soiiiiiiis,  horis,  organis,  cantilenis, 
eainpanis,  simulachris,  missis,  purgaloriis,  initris,  bre- 
viariis,  bullis,  lustralibus,  aquis,  rasiiris,  uiictinnibus, 
tandt'lis,  calicibus,  crucibus,  mappis,  cereis,  thuribulis, 
'atvKiil&tioiubus.  exorcisniis,  sputis,  legendis.  &.c-    Ba 

J) 


lens  de  actis  Rom.  Pont.  ^  Pleasing  spectaclet 

to  the  ignorant  poor.  ^^  Th.  Neageor.  '"  Dun* 

simulant  spernere,  acquisiverunt  sibi  30  annorutn 
spatio  bis  centena  niillia  librarum  annua.  Arnold 
"  Et  quum  interdiu  de  virtute  loquuti  sunt,  sero  in 
latibulis  dunes  agitant  labore  nocturno,  Agryppa. 
'■-^  1  Tim.  iii.  13.  But  they  shall  prevail  no  longer, 
their  madness  shall  be  known  to  all  men.  '3  Benig- 
nitalis  sinus  solebat  esse,  nunc  liiium  officina  curia 
Romana  Buda;us.  "  Quid  tibi  videtur  facturut 

Democritus,  si  borum  apectator  contigicietl 


38  Democritus  to  the  Reader. 

^What  would  he  have  said  to  see,  hear,  and  read  so  many  bloody  battles,  so  many 
thoi  sands  slain  at  once,  such  streams  of  blood  able  to  turn  mills :  un'ius  oh  noxam 
fKruisqiir,  or  to  make  sport  for  princes,  without  any  just  cause,  ""  for  vain  titles 
(saith  Austin),  precedency,  some  wench,  or  such  like  toy,  or  out  of  desire  of  domi- 
neering, vainglory,  malice,  revenge,  folly,  madness,"  (goodly  causes  all,  ob  qitas 
unniersus  orhis  bnUis  et  ccBclibus  misceatiir^)  whilst  statesmen  themselves  in  the  mean 
time  are  secure  at  home,  pampered  with  all  deliglits  and  pleasures,  take  their  ease, 
and  follow  their  lusts,  not  considering  what  intolerable  misery  poor  soldiers  endure, 
their  otlen  wounds,  hunger,  thirst,  &c.,  the  lamentable  cares,  torments,  calamities, 
and  oppressions  that  accompany  such  proceedings,  they  feel  not,  take  no  notice  of' 
it.  "^o  wars  are  begun,  by  tlie  persuasion  of  a  few  debauched,  hair-brain,  poor, 
dissolute,  hungry  captains,  parasitical  fawners,  unquiet  hotspurs,  restless  innovators, 
green  heads,  to  satisfy  one  man's  private  spleen,  lust,  ambition,  avarice,  Stc. ;  tales 
rapiunt  scelerala  in  prcelia  caiisce.  Flos  hominum^  proper  men,  well  proportioned, 
carefully  brought  up,  able  both  in  body  and  mind,  sound,  led  like  so  many  "''beasts 
lo  the  slaugliter  in  the  flower  of  their  years,  pride,  and  full  strength,  without  all 
remorse  and  pity,  sacrificed  to  Pluto,  killed  up  as  so  many  sheep,  for  devils'  food, 
40,000  at  once.  At  once,  said  I,  that  were  toleral^le,  but  these  wars  last  always,  and 
for  many  ages ;  nothing  so  familiar  as  this  hacking  and  hewing,  massacres,  murders, 

desolations ignoto  ccelnm  clangore  rc7nugil.,  they  care  not  what  mischief  they 

procure,  so  that  they  may  enrich  themselves  for  the  present ;  they  will  so  long  blow 
the  coals  of  contention,  till  all  the  world  be  consumed  with  firei^  The  ^" siege  of 
Troy  lasted  ten  years,  eight  m.onths,  there  died  870,000  Grecians,  670,000  Trojans, 
at  the  taking  of  tlie  city,  and  after  were  slain  276,000  men,  women,  and  children  of 
all  sorts.  Caesar  killed  a  million, '^Mahomet  the  second  Turk,  300,000  persons; 
Sicinius  Dentatus  fought  in  a  hundred  battles,  eight  times  in  single  combat  he  over- 
came, had  forty  wounds  before,  was  rewarded  with  140  crowns,  triumphed  nine 
times  for  his  good  service^  M.  Sergius  had  32  wounds;  Scaeva,  the  Centurion,  I 
know  not  how  many ;  every  nation  had  their  Hectors,  Scipios,  Caesars,  and  Alex- 
anders!  \Our  ™ Edward  the  Fourth  was  in  26  battles  afoot:  and  as  they  do  all,  lie 
glories  in  it,  'tis  related  to  his  honour.  At  the  siege  of  Hierusalem,  1,100,000  died 
with  sword  and  famine.  At  the  battle  of  Cannas,  70,000  men  were  slain,  as  '^"Poly- 
bius  records,  and  as  many  at  Battle  Abbey  with  us ;  and  'tis  no  news  to  fight  from 
sun  to  sun,  as' they  did,  as  Constantine  and  Licinius,  &c.  At  the  siege  of  Ostend 
(the  devil's  academy)  a  poor  town  in  respect,  a  small  fort,  but  a  great  grave,  120,000 
men  lost  their  lives,  besides  whole  towns,  dorpes,  and  hospitals,  full  of  maimed 
soldiers ;  there  were  engines,  fire-works,  and  whatsoever  the  devil  could  invent  to 
do  mischief  with  2,500,000  iron  bullets  shot  of  40  pounds  weight,  three  or  four 
millions  of  gold  consumed.  ®'"  Who  (saith  mine  author)  can  be  sufiiciently  amazed 
at  their  flinty  hearts,  obstinacy,  fury,  blindness,  who  without  any  likelihood  of  good 
success,  hazard  poor  soldiers,  and  lead  them  without  pity  to  the  slaughter,  which 
may  justly  be  called  the  rage  of  furious  beasts,  that  run  without  reason  upon  their 
own  deaths  :"  '^-(piis  mains  genius.^  qucc  fitria  qucE  ])esfis^  &.c. ;  what  plague,  what 
-fury  brought  so  devilish,  so  brutish  a  thing  as  war  first  into  men's  minds  .''  Who 
made  so  soft  and  peaceable  a  creature,  born  to  love,  mercy,  meekness,  so  to  rave,  rage 
like  beasts,  and  run  on  to  their  own  destruction  .''  how  may  Nature  expostulate  with 
mankind.  Ego  te  divinum  a7iimal  finxi,  &c. .''  1  made  thee  an  harmless,  quiet,  a  divine 
creature  :  how  may  God  expostulate,  and  all  good  men  ?  yet,  korum  facta  (as  ^*one 
condoles)  tantum  admiranturj  et  heroiim  mmuro  habent  :  these  are  the  brave  spirits, 
the  gallants  of  the  world,  these  admired  alone,  triumph  alone,  have  statues,  crowns, 
pyramids,  obelisks  to  tlieir  eternal  fame,  that  immortal  genius  attends  on  them,  hdc 
itur  ad  aslra.  When  Rliodes  was  besieged,  '^fosses  urbis  cadaverlbus  rcpletcE  simt^ 
the  ditches  were  full  of  dead  carcases :  and  as  when  the  said  Solyman,  great  Turk, 
beleaguered  Vienna,  they  lay  level  with  the  top  of  the  walls.     This  they  make  a 


'5  Ob  inanes  ditifinum  tituing,  oh  prereptum  locum, 
obinleicep'.am  iniilierculani,  vel  qtiod  6  stiiliitia  natiiin, 
vel  6  malitia,  quod  cupido  doriiiiiandi,  libido  uoceiidi, 
<kc.  '6  Bellum  rem  plane  bRllui  nam  vocat  Mori'j. 

Jtop.  lib.  2.  '"  Muiister.     Cosmog.  I.  5,  c,  3    E. 

D.rt.  CiRteni  ''«  Joviua  vit.  ejus.        "  Comineus 


M  Lib.  3.  SI  Hist,  of  the  siege  of  Ostend.  fol.  2j. 

^-Erasmus  de  bello.  Ut  plaridiim  illud  animal  br  ne- 
volenliie  nalum  tam  ferina  vecordi4  in  muf  >atii  rii  ,ri>t 
perniciem.  "'■^  Rich.  Uinoth.  prsfut.  belli  civilis 

Gal.  ai  Jovius. 


Dcmocritus  to  the  Reader.  39 

".port  of,  and  wil!  do  it  to  their  friends  and  confederates,  against  oaths,  voavs,  pro- 
mises, by  treachery  or  otherwise;  ^^ dqlas  an  virtus?   quis  in  haste  requiratf 

leagues  and  laws  of  arms,  {^^ silent  leges  inter  arma^)  for  their  adva'^tage,  omnia  mra, 
divina,  hiimana,  proculcata  plerintique  sunt  ,•  God's  and  men's  laws  are  trampled 
under  foot,  the  sword  alone  determines  all ;  to  satisfy  their  lust  and  spleen,  they  care 
not  what  thfsy  attempt,  say,  or  do,  ^Rara  fides,  probitasque  viris  qui  castra  sequuntur. 
■  Nothing  so  common  as  to  have  *""  father  tight  against  the  son,  brother  against 
i  brother,  kinsman  against  kinsman,  kingdom  against  kingdom,  province  against  pro- 
evince,  Christians  against  Christians  :"  a  quibus  nee  unquam  cogitatione  fuerunt  Ichsi^ 
o(  whom  they  never  had  offence  in  thought,  word,  or  deed,  hifinite  treasures  con- 
bUiued,  towns  burned,  flourishing  cities  sacked  and  ruinated,  quodque  animus  memi- 
nisse  'lorret,  goodly  countries  depopulated  and  left  desolate,  old  inhabitants  expelled, 
trade  and  trafHc  decayed,  maids  deflowered,"  Virgines  nondum  thalamis  jugatcB,  et 
comis  nondum  posUis  cphcBbl ;  chaste  matrons  cry  out  with  Andromache,  ^**  Concu  • 
hitum  niox  cogar  pati  ejus,  qui  interemit  Hectorem,  they  shall  be  compelled  perad- 
venture  to  lie  with  them  that  erst  killed  their  husbands  :  to  see  rich,  poor,  sick, 
sound,  lords,  servants,  eodem  omnes  incommodo  macti,  consumed  all  or  maimed,  &c. 
Et  quicquid  gaudcns  scelere  animus  audet,  et  perversa  mens,  saith  Cyprian,  and 
whatsoever  torment,  misery,  mischief,  hell  itself,  the  devil,  ^^  fury  and  rage  can  invent 
to  their  own  ruin  and  destruction  ;  so  abominable  a  thing  is  ■'"war,  as  Gerbelius  Con- 
cludes, adeo  fceda  et  abominanda  res  est  bellum,  ex  quo  hominum  ccedes,  vastationeSy 
&c.,  the  scourge  of  God,  cause,  eflect,  fruit  and  punishment  of  sin,  and  not  lonsura 
liumani  generis  as  TertuUian  calls  it,  but  ruina.  /-Had  Democritus  been  present  at 

the  late  civil  wars  in  France,  those  abominable  wars bellaque  matribus  detestata, 

^' "  where  in  less  than  ten  years,  ten  thousand  men  were  consumed,  saith  CoUignius, 
twenty  thousand  churches  overthrown ;  nay,  the  whole  kingdom  subverted  (as 
''"Richard  Dinoth  adds).VSo  many  myriads  of  the  commons  were  l)iitchered  up, 
with  sword,  famine,  war,  tanto  odio  utrinque  ut  barbari  ad  abhorrendam  lanienam 
ohsfupcscerrnt,  with  such  feral  hatred,  the  world  was  amazed  at  it :  or  at  our  late 
Pharsalian  fields  m  the  time  of  Henry  the  Sixth,  betwixt  the  houses  of  Lancaster  and 
York,  a  hundred  thousand  men  slain,  ^^one  writes;  ^"'another,  ten  thousand  families 
were  rooted  out,  Y  That  no  man  can  but  marvel,  saith  Comineus,  at  that  barbarous 
immariity,  feral  madness,  committed  betwixt  men  of  the  same  nation,  language,  and 
religion."  ^^  Quis  furor,  O  cives?  "Why  do  the  Gentiles  so  furiously  rage,"  saith 
the  Prophet  David,  Psal.  ii.  I.  But  we  may  ask,  why  do  the  Christians  so  furiously 
rage  ?  ^^Arma  volunt,  quare  poscunt,  rapiuntque  juventus  ?  Unfit  for  Gentiles, 
nmch  less  for  us  so  to  tyrannize,  as  the  Spaniard  in  the  West  Indies,  that  killed  up  in 
42  years  (if  we  may  believe  ^'Bartholomseus  a  Casa,  their  own  bishop)  12  millions 
of  men,  with  stupend  and  exquisite  torments ;  neither  should  F  lie  (said  he)  if  I  said 
50  millions.  I  omit  those  French  massacres,  Sicilian  evensongs,  ^Hhe  Duke  of 
Alva's   tyrannies,  our  gunpowder  machinations,  and   that  fourth  fury,  as  ^^one  calls 

it,  the  Spanish  inquisition,  which  quite  obscures  those  ten  persecutions,  "^ S(2vil 

toto  Mars  impius  orbe.  Js  not  this  '  mundus  furiosus,  a  mad  world,  as  he  term.s  it, 
insanum  beUum  ?  are  not  these  mad  men,  as  ^Scaliger  concludes,  qui  in  prceJio  acerbd 
morte,  i7isaniai  suce  memoriam  pro  perpetuo  teste  relinquunl  posterifati ;  which  leave 
so  frequent  battles,  as  perpetual  memorials  of  their  madness  to  all  succeeding  ages  r 
/Would  this,  think  you,  have  enforced  our  Democritus  to  laughter,  or  rather  made 
him  turn  his  tune,  alter  his  I  .le,  and  weep  with  ^Heraclitus,  or  rather  howl,  ""roar, 
and  tear  his  hair  in  commiseration,  stand  amazed ;  or  as  the  poets  feign,  that  Niobe 
• 

"••  Dolus,  asperitas,  in  jiistilia  propria  belloruni  ne-  gladio,  bello,  fame  miserabiliter  periertint.        ^^  Pont, 

gotta.   T«;rtiil.  "^  Tully.  "' Liicaii,  «  Paler  lluterus.         '■'■' Comineus.    lit  iiulliis  noii  execrelur  et 

ill  filiiini    affinis  in   affineiii,  amicus   in   amicuni,  &c.  adniiretur  crudelitalem,  et   barbaram  insairium,  qua^ 

Regin  aiiin  regione,  resnuni  regno  colliditur.    l'op\ilus  inter  homines  eodem  sub  coslo  natos,  ejusdem  lineu<e, 

populo  in   mntuam  pern'iciem,  belluarum  instar  pan-  sanguinis,  religionis,  exerreltatur.  l.ucan 

guinolente  ruentium.  *  Lihanii  declam.  ''s  Ira  i''  Virg.  ^'  Bishop   of  Cnseo,    an    eye-vvitnes.s 

enim  et  furor  Bellona!Consullores,  &c.  dementessacer-  ""Read  Meteran  of  his  slupend  cruelties.  ■■•  lien 

dotes  sunt  ™  Helium  quasi  bellua  et  ad  omnia  sius  Auslriaco.  '""  Virg.  Georg.  "impious  wa' 

«celera  furor  immissns.  "i  Gallornm  decies  centum  rages  throughout  the  whole  world."  .lanseniiii 

•>ii!ia  ceciderunt.  Ecclelfiaris  20   niillia   fundanientis  Gallobelgicus  159fi.  Mundus  furiosns,  inscriptio  Jjbri. 

excisa  »-  Belli  civilis  Gal.  1.  1.  hoc  ferali  bello  et  2   Exercitat.  250.  serm   4.  Fitat  ileraclitiis  aa 

ce.*Mbu=  omnia  repleverunt,  et  regnum  ampli.ssimum  &  i  rideat  Democritus.  <  Cure  levss  lo<juuntur,  iti- 

'V'tiameutia  peiie   everterunt,   plebis    tot    niyriades  i  gentes  stupent. 


40  Democntus  to  the  Reader.  ' 

was  fo)  grici  quite  stupified,  and  turned  to  a  stone  ?  I  have  not  yet  saiO  the  worst, 
iliat  which  is  more  absurd  and  ^mad,  in  their  tumults,  seditions,  civil  and  unjust 
wars,  ^quod  stulle  sucipilur,  hnpie  gcr'dur.,  mlsere  finltur.  Such  wars  1  mean ;  fdi 
all  are  not  to  be  condemned,  as  those  fantastical  anabaptists  vainly  conceive.  Ouj 
Ciiristian  tactics  are  all  out  as  necessary  as  the  Roman  acies,  or  Grecian  phalanx , 
to  be  a  soldier  is  a  most  noble  and  honourable  profession  (as  the  world  is),  not  to 
be  spared,  they  are  our  best  walls  and  bulwarks,  and  I  do  therefore  acknowledo-p 
that  ol  "Tully  to  be  most  true,  ''•  All  our  civil  aflairs,  all  our  studies,  all  our  pleading 
mdustry,  and  commendation  lies  under  the  protection  of  warlike  virtues,  and  when- 
•^oever  there  is  any  suspicion  of  tumult,  all  our  arts  cease  ;"  wars  are  most  behovefui, 
"J,  bellatorcs  agricoUs  civUali.  sunt  utiUores.,  as  ^Tyrius  defends:  and  valour  is  much 
to  be  commended  in  a  wise  uian ;  but  they  mistake  most  part,  auferre.,  trucidare^ 
rapere^  falsls  nomlnibus  virtutcm  votant,  &.c.  ('Twas  Galgacus"'  observation  iii 
Tacitus)  they  term  theft,  murder,  and  rapine,  virtue,  by  a  wrong  name,  rapes 
slaugliters,  massacres,  &c.  joais  et  ludtis.,  are  pretty  pastimes,  as  Ludovicus  Vives 
notes.  ^"They  commonly  call  the  most  hair-brain  blood-suckers,  strongest  thieves, 
the  most  desperate  villains,  treacherous  rogues,  inhuman  murderers,  rash,  cruel  and 
dissolute  cartilfs,  courageous  and  generous  spirits,  heroical  and  worthy  captains, 
'"brave  men  at  arms,  valiant  and  renowned  soldiers,  possessed  with  a  brute  persuasion 
of  false  honour,"  as  Pontus  Iluter  in  his  Burgundian  history  complains.  -(By  means 
of  which  it  comes  to  pass  that  daily  so  many  voluntaries  offer  themselves,  leaving 
their  sweet  wives,  children,  friends,  for  sixpence  (if  they  can  get  it)  a  day,  prostitute 
their  lives  and  limbs,  desire  to  enter  upon  breaches,  lie  sentinel,  perdue,  give  the  first 
onset,  stand  in  the  fore  front  of  the  battle,  marching  bravely  on,  with  a  cheerful 
noise  of  drums  and  trumpets,  such  vigour  and  alacrity,  so  many  banners  streaming 
in  the  air,  glittering  armours,  motions  of  plumes,  woods  of  pikes,  and  swords,  variety 
of  colours,  cost  and  magnificence,  as  if  they  went  in  triumph,  now  victors  to  the 
Capitol,  and  \vith  such  pomp,  as  when  Darius'  army  marched  to  meet  Alexander  at 
IssLis.  "\Void  of  all  fear  they  run  into  imminent  dangers,  cannon's  mouth,  Stc,  «/ 
vidnTihls  mis  ferruni  hnslium  hcbctcnt.,  saith  "Barletius,  to  get  a  name  of  valour, 
honour  and  applause,  wliich  lasts  not  either,  for  it  is  but  a  mere  flash  this  fame,  and 
like  a  rose,  inira  diem  uniim  cxlinguitur.i  'tis  gone  in  an  instant,  v  Of  15,000  prole- 
taries slain  in  a  battle,  scarce^lifteea  are  recorded  in  history,  or  one  alone,  the  General 
perhaps,  and  after  a  while  his  and  their  names  are  likewise  blotted  out,  the  whole 
battle  itself  is  forgotten.  \  Those  Grecian  orators,  sumtna  vi  ingenii  et  cloqiieiUio'^  set 
out  the  renowned  overtlirows  at  Thcrinopylcp..,  Salamis.,  Maratkon.i  Micah\  Man- 
tinea.,  Cheronoia.,  Platcea.  The  Romans  record  their  battle  at  Cannas,  and  Pharsa- 
lian  fields,  but  they  do  but  record,  and  we  scarce  hear  of  them.  And  yet  this 
supposed  honour,  popular  applause,  desire  of  immortality  by  this  means,  pride  auTl 
vain-glory  spur  tliein  on  many  times  raslily  and  unadvisedly,  to  make  away  them- 
selves and  multitudes  of  others.  Alexander  was  sorry,  because  there  were  no  more 
worlds  for  him  to  conquer,  he  is  admired  by  some  for  it,  anbuosa  vox  videtur.,  et 
regia,  'twas  spoken  like  a  Prince;  but  as  wise  '^Seneca  censures  him,  'twas  vox 
mqiiissima  et  stiiltissima..,  'twas  spoken  like  a  Bedlam  fool ;  and  that  sentence  which 
the  same  '^Seneca  appropriates  to  his  father  Philip  and  him,  I  apply  to  them  all,  JVow 
minores  fuere  pesles  mortalium  qiidm  inundatio.,  qudm  conflagratio.,  quibus,  Sec.  they 
did  as  much  mischief  to  mortal  men  as  fire  and  water,  those  merciless  elements  when 
they  rage.  "Which  is  yet  more  to  be  lamented,  they  persuade  them  this  hellish 
course  of  life  is  holy,  they  promise  heaven  to  such  as  venture  tlieir  lives  hello  sacro. 
and  tliat  by  these  bloody  wars,  as  Persians,  Greeks,  and  Romans  of  old,  as  modern 
Turks  do  now  their  commons,  to  encourage  them  to  fight,  ut  cadant  infeliciter 


s  Arma    amens   capio,   nee  sat   rationis   in    armis. 
»  IDriismus.  '•  Pro  Miirena.     Oinnes  urbanee   res, 

o.iiiiia  sludia,  nmnis  fnrensis  laiis  «i  industria  latet  in 
IuihI;i  el  praecidio  belliCM  virtulis.  el  giniiil  atqiie  in- 
rrepiiil  suspicio  turniillus,  arles  illicn  nnstrm  cnnllces- 
Cllni.  "  Ser.  13  ^  Criidelissinins    sa'vissi- 

nidsqiie  latrones,  fnrtj?sinios  halieri  propiignatores, 
fidissinios  duces  halient.  hriila  persiiiisiorie  dmiali. 
'"  Kohaiiiis  Hessus.     Qiiihus  nmnis  in  a.nii".  vita  pla- 


vitam,  qute  non  assueverit  arniis.  "  Lib.  10.  vit. 

Scanperbeg.  '•'Nulli  bealioies  hahiti,  qiiini  qui 

in  prcBliis  cecidissenl.  Brisonins  de  rep.  Persaruni.  1 
3.  fol.  3.  44.  Idem  Laclanlius  de  Rnmanis  et  (Iraicis 
Idem  Animianus,  lib.  23.  de  Pariliis.  Jiiriic.itiir  i» 
solus  beams  apud  eos  qui  In  proDlio  fnderit  aniniam 
UeBenef.  lib.  2   c.  1.  i- Nal.  qiuesl.  lib.  3.  Bo- 

lerns  Anipliltrldion.  Busbeqiiiiis  Til'*'  hisl.  Percaede* 
et  i^anyuinem   parare   hnnilnlbns  asrensum  in  ccelum 


eel,  non  ulla  juvat  nisi  nurte,  nee  ullain  esse  puiant  |  piitant,  Lactan.  de  falsa  relig.  I.  {.  cap.  8. 


Democrilus  to  the  Reader.  41 

/^It  they  die  in  flie  field,  they  go  directly  to  heaven,  and  shall  be  canonized  for  saintsi*' 
(()  diabolical  invention  !)  put  in  the  Chronicles,  iri  perpctuam  rci  memoriam,  to  theji 
eternal  memory  :  when  as  in  truth,  as  "^  some  hold,  it  were  much  better  (since  wars 
nre  the  scourge  of  God  for  sin,  by  which  he  punisheth  mortal  men's  peevishness  and 
folly)  such  brutish  stories  were  suppressed,  because  ad  morum  InstUutionem  nihil 
habent.,  they  conduce  not  at  all  to  manners,  or  good  life.  But  they  will  have  it  thus 
nevertheless,  and  so  they  put  note  of  '^  '•'  divinity  upon  the  most  cruel  and  pernicious 
plague  of  human  kind,"  adore  such  men  with  grand  titles,  degrees,  statues,  images, 
''  honour,  applaud,  and  highly  reward  them  for  their  good  service,  no  greater  glory 
than  to^die  in  the  field.  So  Africanus  is  extolled  by  Ennius  :  Mars,  and  "*  Hercules, 
and  I  know  not  how  many  besides  of  old,  were  deified  •  went  this  way  to  heaven, 
that  were  indeed  bloody  butchers,  wicked  destroyers,  and  troublers  of  the  world, 
prodigious  inonsters„hell-hounds,  feral  plagues,  devourers,  conmion  executioners  of 
human  kind,  as  Lactantius  truly  proves,  and  Cyprian  to  Donat,  such  as  were  despe- 
rate in  wars,  and  precipitately  made  away  themselves,  (like  those  Celtes  in  Dania- 
scen,  with  ridiculous  valour,  ut  dedecorosum  putarent  muro  rucntl  se  subducerCj  a 
disgrace  to  run  away  for  a  rotten  wall,  now  ready  to  fall  on  their  heads,)  such  as 
will  not  rush  on  a  sword's  point,  or  seek  to  shun  a  cannon's  shot,  are  base  cowards, 
and  no  valiant  men.  By  which  means,  Madct  or  bis  mutuo  sanguine^  the  earth  wal- 
lows in  her  own  blood,  '^  Savit  amor  fcrri  et  scelerati  insania  belli ;  and  for  that, 
which  if  it  be  done  in  private,  a  man  shall  be  rigorously  executed,  ^""and  which  is 
no  less  than  murder  itself;  if  the  same  fact  be  done  in  public  in  wars,  it  is  called 

manhood,  and  the  party  is  honoured  for  it." ^^Prosperum  ct  foilix  scelus,  virtus 

vocatur. 

^^yVe  measure  all  as  Turks  do,  by  the  event,  and  most  part,  as  Cyprian  notes,  in  all 
ages,  countries,  places,  sceo/7/«  viagniiudo  impuniiatcm  sccleris  '^t :.qidrit.,  the  foulness 
of  the  fact  vindicates  the  offender.  ■^^One  is  crowned  for  that  which  another  is  tor- 
mented :  lUe  cracem  sccleris  prccium  tulit^  hie  diudema  ;  made  a  knight,  a  lord,  an 
earl,  a  great  duke,  (as  '^^Agrippa  notes)  for  that  which  another  should  have  hung  in 
gibbets,  as  a  terror  to  the  rest,  • 

2^ "et  tamen  alter, 


Si  fecisset  irtein,  caderet  sub  judice  morum." 

rJA  poor  sheep-stealer  is  hanged  for  stealing  of  victuals,  compelled  peradventurr  jy 

necessity  of  that  intolerable  cold,  hunger,  and  thirst,  to  save  himself  from  staring: 

but  a  ^ great  man  in  ofiice  may  securely  rob  whole  provinces,  undo  thousands,  pill 

and  poll,  oppress  ad  libitum,  fiea,  grind,  tyrannise,  enrich  himself  by  spoils  of  the^ 

.commons,  be  uncontrolable  in  his  actions,  and  after  all,  be  recomjiensed  with  tur- 

,  gent  titles,  honoured  for  his  good  service,  and  no  man  dare  find  fault,  or  ^"^  mutter 

,  at  it. 

How  would  our  Democritus  have  been  affected  to  see  a  wicked  caitiff,  or  ^'"fool. 
a  very  idiot,  a  lunge,  a  golden  ass,  a  monster  of  men,  to  have  many  good  men,  wise, 
men,  learned  men  to  attend  upon  him  with  all  submission,  as  an  appendix  to  his  riches, 
for  that  respect  alone,  because  he  hath  more  wealth  and  money,  ^*and  to  honour  hiir 
with  divine  titles,  and  bombast  epithets,"  to  smother  him  with  fumes  and  eulogies 
whom  they  know  to  be  a  dizard,  a  fool,  a  covetous  wretch,  a  beast,  &.c.  "  because 
he  is  rich  ?"  To  see  sub  exuviis  leon'is  onagrum,  a  filtliy  loathesome  carcass,  a  Gor 
gon's  head  puffed  up  by  parasites,  assume  this  unto  hiniself,  glorious  titles,  in  worth 
an  iiilant,  a  Cuman  ass,  a  painted  sepulchre,  an  Egyptian  temple  .''  To  see  a  wither- 
ed face,  a  diseased,  deformed,  cankered  complexion,  a  rotten  carcass,  a  viperous  mind, 
and  Epicurean  soul  set  out  with  orient  pearls,  jewels,  diadems,  perfumes,  curious 


'6Qu(iniaii!  bella  aeerhissima  del  flapella  sunt  qtiibus 
bominutn  pertinaciam  punit,  ea  perpelua  ol)livione 
sepelienOa  poiius  quam  memoricB  niaiulanda  pleriqiie 
judicant.     Kich.  Dinolli.  prasf  tiist.  Oall.  "Cru- 

entam  liumaui  generis  pestem,  et  perniciem  divinita- 
lis  tiotS,  insigniunt.  '''  Et  quod  dolendum,  applau- 

«iim  habent  et  occursum   viri  tales.  '"Ilercull 

eadem  porta  ad  ctelum  patuit,  qui  magnam  generis 
hun.ani    partem    perdidit.  '"Virg.    jEneid.   7. 

20  Homicidlum  quum  committunt  singuli,  crimen  est, 
quum  public^  geritur,  virtus  vocatur.  Cyprianus. 
"Seneca.     Successful  vice  is  called  virtue.  -  Ju- 

»fe.  '-"'Devauit.  scienl.  de  rt'"cip-  nobililatis. 

6  I) 


2' Juven.  Sat.  4.  ^6  pansa  rapit,  quod  Natta  reli 

quit.  Tu  pessimus  omnium  latro  es,  as  Demetrius 
the  Pirate  told  Alexander  in  Ciirtius.  ■*'>  Non  aus; 

niutire,  &c.     JEfiop.  ''Imfirobum  et  stultum,  s 

divitem  multos  lionos  viros  in  servitutem  habentem, 
ob  id  dunlaxat  quod  ei  contiugat  aureorum  numis- 
matun)  cumulus,  ut  appendices,  et  addilamenta  nu- 
mismatum.     Morus   Utopia.  -''Eorumq;    detes- 

taritur  Utoplenses  insaniam,  qui  divinos  honores  iis 
impendunt,  quos  sordidos  et  avaros  agnoscunt;  non 
alio  respeciu  honorantes,  quam  quod  diles  £iDt. 
Idem.  lib.  2. 


42  Democritus  to  the  Reader. 

elab>,fa(.e  works,  as  proiul  of  his  clothes  as  a  chikl  of  his  new  toals  ;  and  a  goodiy 
person,  of  an  angel-like  divine  countenance,  a  saint,  an  humble  mind,  a  meet  spirit 
clotlied  in  rags,  beg,  and  now  ready  to  be  starved  ?  To  see  a  silly  contemptible 
sloven  in  apparel,  ragged  in  his  coat,  polite  in  speecli,  of  a  divine  spirit,  wise  ?  another 
neat  in  dotlies,  spruce,  full  of  courtesy,  empty  of  grace,  wit,  talk  nonsense?/ 
■^To  see  so  many  lawyers,  advocates,  so  many  tribunals,  so  little  justice  ;  so  many 
magistrates,  so  little  care  of  common  good  ;  so  many  laws,  yet  nevermore  disorders  ; 
Tribunal  lUium  scgctcm.,  the  Tribunal  a  labyrinth,  so  many  thousand  suits  in  one 
cjurt  sometimes,  so  violently  followed?  To  see  injuslissimum  scppe  juri  prcesklen- 
/em,  impium  rcUgioni.,  imperil issijnum  eruditioni,  olioslssi/mim  labori,  moTtslrosum 
Immanilaii?  to  see  a  lamb  ^^  executed,  a  wolf  pronounce  sentence,  latro  arraigned, 
and  fur  sit  on  the  bench,  tlie  judge  severely  punish  others,  and  do  worse  himself, 
^° emidem  furtum  facere  et  punire.,  '^Wapinam  plectere.,  quum  sii  ipse  raptor?  Laws 
altered,  misconstrued,  interpreted  pro  and  con^  as  the  ^^ Judge  is  made  by  friends, 
bribed,  or  otherwise  affected  as  a  nose  of  wax,  good  to-day,  none  to-morrow ;  or 
firm  in  his  opinion,  cast  in  his  ?  Sentence  prolonged,  changed,  ad  arbitrium  judicis., 
still  the  same  case, '^ "  one  thrust  out  of  his  inheritance,  another  falsely  put  in  by 
favour,  false  forged  deeds  or  wills."  InciscB  leges  ncgliguntur.,  laws  are  made  and 
lot  kept  •,  or  if  put  in  execution,  '^^  tliey  be  some  silly  ones  that  are  punislaed.  As, 
put  case  it  be  fornication,  the  father  will  disinherit  or  abdicate  his  chikl,  quite  cashiei 
him  (out,  villain,  be  gone,  come  no  more  in  my  sight) ;  a  poor  man  is  miserably 
tormented  willi  loss  of  his  estate  p^rliaps,  goods,  fortunes,  good  name,  for 'ever  dis- 
graced, forsaken,  and  must  do  penance  to  the  utmost ;  a  mortal  sin,  and  yet  make 
the  worst  of  it,  nunquid  aliud  fecit.,  saiih  Tranio  in  the  ^'poct,  nisi  quod  faciunt  sum- 
mis  nali  gencribus?  he  liath  done  no  more  than  what  gentlemen  usually  do.  "^JYe- 
que  novum.,  neque  mirum.,  ncque  secus  quam  alii  solent.  For  in  a  great  person,  right 
worshipful  Sir,  a  right  honourable  Grandy,  'tis  not  a  venial  sin,  no,  not  a  peccadillo.^ 
'tis  no  offence  at  all,  a  common  and  ordinary  thing,  no  man  takes  notice  of  it ;  he 
justifies  it  in  public,  aiul  peradventure  brags  of  it, 

3'  "  Natii  (jiiod  turpe  bonis,  Titio',  Seioque,  deceliat 

Crispin  mil" 

r  For  wliat  would  be  base  in  good  men,  Titius,  and  Seius,  became  Crnpinus. 

^^Many  poor  men,  younger  brothers.  Sec.  by  reason  of  bad  policy  and  idle  education 
(for  they  are  likely  brouglit  up  in  no  calling),  are  compelled  to  beg  or  steal,  and 
then  hanged  for  theft ;  than  which,  what  can  be  more  ignominious,  non  minus  enim 
turpe  principi  mult  a  supplicia.,  quam  medico  multa  funera.,  'tis  the  governor's  fault. 
Libentius  verberant  quam  doccnt,  as  sclioolmasters  do  rather  correct  th^ir  pupils,  than 
teach  them  when  they  do  amiss.  ^^"i-Tliey  had  more  need  provide  ther*?  should  be  no 
more  thieves  and  beggars,  as  they  ought  with  good  policy,  and  take  away  the  occa- 
sions, than  let  them  run  on,  as  they  do  to  their  own  destruction  :  root  out  likewise 
those  causes  of  wrangling,  a  multitude  of  lawyers,  and  compose  contioversies,  lites 
lustralcs  et  seculares^  by  some  more  compendious  means.". ;  Whereas  uowfoisevery 
to}^  and  trifle  they  go  to  law,  '^"Mugit  litibus  insanum  forum^  et  scsvit  invirem  di&cor- 
dantium  rabies.,  they  are  ready  to  pull  out  one  another's  throats  ;  and  for  mmmodity 
"to  squeeze  blood,"  saith  Hierom,  "  out  of  their  brother's  heart,"  defamo  lie,  dis- 
grace, backbite,  rail,  bear  false  witness,  swear,  forswear,  fight  and  wrani'"'e-  spend 
their  goods,  lives,  fortunes,  friends,  undo  one  another,  to  enrich  an  harp}'  advocate^ 
that  preys  upon  them  both,  and  cries  Eia  Socrates,  Eia  Xantippe ;  or  soi^e  corrupt 
Judge,  that  like  the  ''^Kite  in  Jilsop,  while  the  mouse  and  frog  fought,  cauied  both 
away.  Generally  they  prey  one  upon  another  as  so  many  ravenous  birds,  brute 
beasts,  devouring  fishes,  no  medium,  ■'^o?Hnes  hie  aut  capdanlur  aid  captant ;  autcada- 
vera  quce'lacerantur,  aut  corvi  qui  lacerant,  either  deceive  or  be  deceived ;  tear  others 

'^sCyp.  2.  ad  Donat.  ep.  Ut  reus  innoceiis  pereat,  i  tratinim  culpa  fit,  qui  malos  iinitantir  prteceptore* , 
sit  nocens.  Judex  damnat  foras,  quod  intus  operatiir.  qui  diseipiilos  libentius  verbeca-^v  •\.iain  docunl.  Mo 
'"Sidonius   Apo  si  galvianiis  1.3.   de   orovMeu.  i  riis,  Ulnp.  lib.  1.  ^a  Uecemuotur  \uri  frravia  el 

(n  i.A •    .  .1-     .      _       .    ;t    ■. .?.!.._  .        I    .__._-_  J, I-     ;_       „., .: i    I.    ..  J I.I 


**  Krgo  judicium  nihil  est  nisi  publica  merces.  letro- 
nius.  Quid  faciaiit  leges  ubi  sola  pecunia  regiiaf? 
Idem.  33|lic   arcentur    hareditatibus    liberi,    hrc 

donatiir  bonis  alienls,  falsuni  consulit,  alter  testaiiien- 
tii.Ti  corrumpit,  &;c.    Idem.  "i  Vexat  censura  co- 

liicahas.         ^- IMaut.  niDstel.         so  idem.  ■'"Jiiven. 

Bat.  4.  *^Quod  lot  sint  I'ures  et  uiendici,  inagis- 


horrenda  supplicia,  quum  potius  iioviilenduiii  miiUJ. 
fofet  lie  fures  sint,  ne  cuiquaiii  tn»(i'a  furandi  aul 
pereundi  sit  necessitas     Idem.  ■'o 'i.^tenis  de  aug- 

ment, urb.  lib.  3.  cap.  3  ''  F  f  A*     po  cordc  sau- 

guineni    eliciunt.  ■*■-' Milvus    .11"   «c    deglubit 

"  Petronius  de  C.'otone  civil. 


Democritus  to  the  Reader. 


43 


:  r  be  torn  in  pieces  themselves ;  like  so  many  buckets  in  a  well,  as  on':  riseth 
another  falleth,  one's  empty,  another's  full;  his  ruin  is  a  ladder  to  the  third;  such 
are  our  ordinary  proceedings,  f  What's  the  market  ?  A  place,  according  to  ''■*  Ana- 
charsis,  wherein  they  cozen  one  another,  a  trap;  nay,  what's  the  world  itself? 
'^A  vast  chaos,  a  confusion  of  manners,  as  tickle  as  the  air,  domicilium  insanoruniy 
a  turbulent  troop  full  of  impurities,  a  mart  of  walking  spirits,  goblins,  the  theatre  of 
hypocrisy,  a  shop  of  knavery,  flattery,  a  nursery  of  villany,  tlie  scene  of  babbling, 
the  school  of  giddiness,  the  academy  of  vice  ;  a  warfare,  ubi  ?  ells  noils  pvgnamlum 
aut  vijicas  aut  sucamibas,  in  which  kill  or  be  killed ;  wherein  every  man  is  for  him' 
self,  his  private  ends,  and  stands  upon  his  own  guard*  No  charity, '*'' love,  friendship, 
fear  of  God,  alliance,  affinity,  consanguinity,  Christianity,  can  contain  them,  but  if 
they  be  any  ways  offended,  or  tliat  string  of  commodity  be  touched,  they  fall  foul. 
Old  friends  become  bitter  enemies  on  a  suddeif  for  toys  and  small  offences,  and  they 
that  erst  were  willing  to  do  all  mutual  offices  of  love  and  kindness,  now  revile  and  ^ 
persecute  one  another  to  death,  with  more  than  Vatinian  hatred,  and  will  not  be 
reconciled.  So  long  as  they  are  behoveful,  they  love,  or  may  bestead  each  other, 
but  when  there  is  no  more  good  to  be  expected,  as  they  do  by  an  old  dog,  hang 
him  up  or  cashier  him  :  which  ""'Cato  counts  a  great  indecorum,  to  use  men  like  old 
shoes  or  broken  glasses,  which  are  flung  to  the  dunghill ;  he  could  not  find  in  his 
heart  to  sell  an  old  ox,  much  less  to  turn  away  an  old  servant :  but  they  instead  of 
recompense,  revile  him,  and  when  they  have  made  him  an  instrument  of  their  villany, 
as  ■'^Bajazet  the  second  Emperor  of  the  Turks  did  by  Acomethes  Bassa,  make  him 
away,  or  instead  of ''^reward,  hate  him  to  death,  as  Sdius  was  served  by  Tiberius. 
In  a  word,  every  man  for  his  own  ends.  Our  summuvi  honwn  is  commodity,  and  the 
goddess  we  adore  Dca  monetdj  Queen  money,  to  whom  we  daily  offer  sacrifice, 
which  steers  our  hearts,  hands,  ^"affections,  all :  that  most  powerful  goddess,  by 
whom  we  are  reared,  depressed,  elevated,  *' esteemed  the  sole  commandress  of  our 
actions,  for  which  we  pray,  run,  ride,  go,  come,  labour,  and  contend  as  fishes  do  for 
a  crvmib  that  falleth  into  the  water.  It's  not  worth,  virtue,  (that's  homim  theatrale^) 
wisdom,  valour,  learning,  honesty,  religion,  or  any  sufficiency  for  which  we  are 
respected,  but  ^^ money,  greatness,  office,  lionour,  authority  ;  honesty  is  accounted  fol- 
ly ;  knavery,  policy  ;  *^men  admired  out  «)f  opinion,  not  as  they  are,  but  as  they  seem 
to  be  :  such  shifting,  lying,  cogging,  plotting,  counterplotting,  temporizing,  ffattering, 
cozening,  dissembling,  ^■'"  that  of  necessity  one  must  highly  offend  God  if  he  be  con- 
formable to  the  world,"  Crctlzare  cvm  Cretc^'"'-  or  else  live  in  contempt,  disgrace  and 
misery."  One  takes  upon  him  temperance,  holiness,  another  austerity,  a  third  an 
affected  kind  of  simplicity,  when  as  indeed,  he,  and  he,  and  he,  and  the  rest  are 
*""  hypocrites,  ambidexters,"  out-sides,  so  many  turning  pictures,  a  lion  on  the  one 
side,  a  lamb  on  the  other.*^  How  would  Democritus  have  been  affected  to  see  these 
things ! 

"  To  see  a  man  turn  himself  into  all  shapes  like  a  camelion,  or  as  Proteus,  omnia 
transformans  sese  in  miracula  rcrum.,  to  act  twenty  parts  and  persons  at  once,  for 
his  advantage,  to  temporize  and  vary  like  Mercury  the  Planet,  good  with  good ;  bad 
with  bad  ;  having  a  several  face,  garb,  and  character  for  every  one  he  meets ;  of  all 
religions,  humours,  inclinations  ;  to  fawn  like  a  spaniel,  mcntitls  et  mlmicls  obscquis, 
rage  like  a  lion,  bark  like  a  cur,  fight  like  a  dragon,  sting  like  a  serpent,  as  meek  as 
a  lamb,  and  yet  again  grin  like  a  tiger,  weep  like  a  crocodile,  insult  over  some,  and 
yet  others  domineer  over  him,  here  command*  there  crouch,  tyrannize  in  one  place, 
be  baffled  in  another,  a  wise  man  at  home,  a  fool  abroad  to  make  others  merry. 
Jo  s'ee  so  much  difference  betwixt  words  and  deeds,  so  many  parasangs  betwixt 


''■'Qnid  forum  1  locus  quo  alius  aliuni  circumvenit. 
<^Vaslum  chaos,  larvarum  emporium,  tlipatriim  hypo- 
crisios,  &c.  '"'Nemo  cosliim,  nemo  jusjurandum, 

nemo  Jovem  pliiris  facit,  sed  omnes  apertis  oculis 
bona   sua   computant.    Petron.  '"Plutarch,   vit. 

ejus.  Indecorum  animatis  ui  viiiceis  uti  aut  vitris, 
qu£e  ubI  fracta  ahjicimus,  nam  ut  de  nieipso  dicam, 
nee  bovem  senem  vendideram,  neduni  honiinem  natu 
giandem  laboris  socium.  ■'fjovius.     Cum  innu- 

mera  illius  beneticia  rependere  non  posset  aliter,  in- 
lerfici  jussit.  ^^  Bcneficia  eo  usque  lata  sunt  duni 

videnlur  solvi  posse,  ubi  niultum  antevenere  pro  gra- 


tia odium  redditur.   Tac.  'oPaucis  charior   est 

fides  quani  pecunia.  Salust.  °  Prima  fere  vota  et 

cuiietis,  &c.  5'-Et  genus  et  formam  regina  pecu- 

nia donat.  Quantum  quisque  sua  nunimorum  servat 
in  area,  tanluni  habet  et  fidei,  ^  Non  t  periti^  sed 

ab  ornatu  et  vulgi  vocibus  habemur  excellentes.  Car- 
dan. 1.  2.  de  cons.  ^^  Perjurata  suo  postponit  nu- 
mina  lucro,  Mercator.  Ut  netessarium  sit  vcl  Deo 
displicere,  vel  ab  hominibus  contemni,  vexari,  neg- 
llgi.  'SQui  Curios  simulant  et  Bacchanalia  vivunt. 
°'' Tragelapho  similes  vel  centauris,  sursum  bumineai 
deorsum  equi. 


44  Democntus  to  the  Reader. 

• 

tongae  and  neart,  men  like  stage-players  act  variety  of  parts,  ^'give  good  precepts  to 
others,  soar  aloft,  whilst  they  themselves  grovel  on  the  ground.  .^ 
^To  see  a  man  protest  friendship,  kiss  his  hand,  ''^ quern  mallet  truncatum  videre% 
'^ smile  with  an.  intent  to  do  mischief,  or  cozen  him  whom  he  salutes,  ^"magnify  his 
friend  unworthy  with  hyperbolical  eulogiums  ;  his  enemy  albeit  a  good  man,  tc 
vilify  and  disgrace  him,  yea  all  his  actions,  with  the  utmost  that  livor  and  malice 
can  invent. 

.^^  To  see  a  "  servant  able  to  buy  out  his  master,  him  that  canies  the  mace  more 
worth  than  the  magistrate,  which  Plato,  lib.  11,  de  leg.,  absolutely  forbids,  Epictetus 
abhors.  A  horse  that  tills  the  f^  land  fed  with  chaff,  an  idle  jade  have  provender  in 
abundance ;  him  that  makes  shoes  go  barefoot  himself,  him  that  sells  meat  almost 
pined ;.  a  toiling  drudge  starve,  a  drone  flourish. 

To  see  men  Lviy  smoke  for  wares,  castles  built  with  fools'  heads,  men  like  apes 
follow  the  fashions  in  tires,  gestures,  actions  :  if  the  king  laugh,  all  laugh ; 

S3  "Rides'?  majore  chachinno 

Conciititiir,  flet  si  laclirymas  conspexit  amici." 

"Alexander  stooped,  so  %1  his  courtiers  ;  Alphonsus  turned  his  head,  and  so  did  his 
parasites.  ^^  Sabina  Popjjea,  Nero's  wife,  wore  amber-coloured  hair,  so  did  all  the 
Roman  ladies  in  an  instant,  her  fashion  was  theirs. 

\  To  see  men  wholly  led  by  affection,  admired  and  censured  out  of  opinion  with- 
out judgment :  an  inconsiderate  multitude,  like  so  many  dogs  in  a  village,  if  one 
bark  all  bark  without  a  cause :  as  fortune's  fan  turns,  if  a  man  be  in  favour,  or  com- 
manded by  some  great  one,  all  the  world  applauds  him  \  ^  if  in  disgrace,  in  an  instant 
all  hate  him,  and  as  at  the  sun  when  he  is  eclipsed,  that  erst  took  no  notice,  now 
gaze  and  stare  upon  him. 

To  see  a  man  ^'  wear  his  brains  in  his  belly,  his  guts  in  his  head,  an  hundred  oaks 
on  his  back,  to  devour  a  hundred  oxen  at  a  meal,  nay  more,  to  devour  houses  and 
towns,  or  as  those  Antliropophagi,  ®^to  eat  one  another. 

To  see  a  man  roll  himself  up  like  a  snowball,  from  base  beggary  to  right  worship- 
ful and  right  honourable  titles,  unjustly  to  screw  himself  into  honours  and  offices; 
another  to  starve  his  genius,  damn  liis  soul  to  gather  wealth,  which  he  shall  not  en- 
joy, which  his  prodigal  son  melts  and  consumes  in  an  instant."^ 

To  see  the  xa,xo(,7fKMv  of  our  times,  a  man  bend  all  his  forces,  means,  time,  fortunes, 
to  be  a  favorite's  favorite's  favorite,  Stc,  a  parasite's  parasite's  parasite,  that  may 
scorn  the  servile  world  as  having  enough  already. 

To  see  an  hirsute  beggar's  brat,  that  lately  fed  on  scraps,  crept  and  whined,  crying 
to  all,  and  for  an  old  jerkin  ran  of  errands,  now  ruffle  in  silk  and  satin,  bravely 
mounted,  jovial  and  polite,  now  scorn  his  old  friends  and  familiars,  neglect  his  kin- 
dred, insult  over  his  betters,  domineer  over  all. 

.  To  see  a  scholar  crouch  and  creep  to  an  illiterate  peasant  for  a  meal's  meat ; 
a  scrivener  better  paid  for  an  obligation ;  a  falconer  receive  greater  wages  than  a 
student :  a  lawyer  get  more  in  a  day  than  a  philosopher  in  a  year,  better  reward  for  an 
hour,  than  a  scholar  for  a  twelvemonth's  study  ;  him  that  can  '"paint  Thais,  play  on 
a  fiddle,  curl  hair,  &c.,  sooner  get  preferment  than  a  philologer  or  a  poet." 

To  see  a  fond  mother,  like  Assop's  ape,  hug  her  child  to  death,  a  "wittol  wink  at 
his  wife's  honesty,  and  too  perspicuous  in  all  other  aflairs ;  one  stumble  at  a  straw, 
and  leap  over  a  block ;  rob  Peter,  and  pay  Paul ;  scrape  unjust  sums  with  one  hand, 
purchase  great  manors  by  corruption,* fraud  and  cozenage,  and  liberally  to  distribuce 
to  the  poor  with  the  other,  give  a  remnant  to  pious  uses,  &c.  Penny  wise,  pound 
foolish;  blind  men  judge  of  colours;  wise  men  silent,  fools  talk;  "find  fault  with 

'"Praeceptis  siiis   coeluin    promittunt,   ipsi    interim     nius  1.37.  cap.  3.   capillos  liabuit  succineos,  exinde 
pulveris   terieni  vilia   uiancipia.  ■^''jEneas  Sily.     factum  ut  omnes  piiellK  RomaiicE  colorem  ilium  affee- 

"lArridere    lininines  ut   sreviant,  blandiri    ut  fallaiit.     tareut.  •^e  Odit  damnatos.     Juv.  ^-.Agrippa 

Cyp.  ad  Doiiatuin.  ""Love  and  hate  are  like  the     ep.  28.  1.  7.     Quorum  cerelirum  est  in  ventre,  ingenU 

'wo  ends  of  a  perspective  glass,  the  one  nuilliplies,     uni  in  patinis.  '^"Psal.     They  eat   up  my  people 

the  other  makes  less.  "i  Ministri  locupletiores  iis    as  bread.  ^i^Absumil  hsres  ciecuba  iignior  ser- 

quihus  ministratnr,  servus  majnres  opes  habens  qusm  vata  centum  clavibiis,  et  mero  distinguet  paviinentis 
patroiius.  li-Qniterram  colunt  equi  paleis  pas-     siiperbo,   pontificum    potiore  coenis.    Hor.  '"Q-ii 

cuntur,  qui  ntiantiir  cahalli  aveii4  saainantur,  discal-.  Thaideiri  pinsere,  inflare  libiam,  crispare  crines 
ceatus  discurrit  qui  calces  aliis  facit.  ''^Juven.     "  Doctus  spoctare  lacunar.  '■'Tullius.    Est  .eniin 

Do  you  laugh  1  he  is  shaken  by  still  greater  laughter  l  ;  proprium  slultitite  aliorum  cernere  vitia,  oblicisci  su- 
70  weeps  also  when  he  has  beheld  the  tears  of  liis  j  orum.  Idem  Aristippus  Charidemo  apud  Lucianui;. 
%iend.         "Bodin,  lib.  4.  de  repub.  cap.  6.  espij.  |  Umnino  stultitise  cujusdam  esse  puto,  &c 


Dtmocritus  to  the  Reader.  45 

others,  and  do  worse  themselves;  '^denounce  that  in  public  which  he  doth  in  secret, 
and  which  Aurelius  Victor  gives  out  of  Augustus,  severely  censure  that  in  a  third, 
of  which  he  is  most  guilty  himself. 

^:\  To  see  a  poor  fellow,  or  an  hired  servant  venture  his  life  for  his  new  master  that 
will  scarce  give  him  his  wages  at  year's  end ;  A  country;  colone  toil  and  moil,  till 
and  drudge  for  a  prodigal  idle  drone,  that  devours  all  the  gain,  or  lasciviously  con- 
sumes with  phantastical  expences  •,  A  noble  man  in  a  bravado  to  encounter  death 
and  for  a  small  flash  of  honour  tc^cast  away  himself;  A  worldling  tremble  at  an  ex 
ecutor,  and  yet  not  fear  hell-fire ;  To  wish  and  hope  for  immortality,  desire  to  b( 
happy,  and  yet  by  all'  means  avoid  death,  a  necessary  passage  to  bring  him  to  it. 

To  see  a  fool-hardy  fellow  like  those  old  Danes,  qui  dccollari  malunt  quam 
verbcrari,  die  rather  than  be  punished,  in  a  sottish  humour  embrace  death  with 
alacrity,  yet  "''scorn  to  lament  his  own  sins  and  miseries,  or  his  dearest  friends' 
departures. 

To  see  wise  men  degraded,  fools  preferred,  one  govern  toMms  and  cities,  and  yet 
a  silly  woman  overrules  him  at  home ;  '^  Command  a  province,  and  yet  his  own  ser- 
vants or  children  prescribe  laws  to  him,  as  Themistocles'  son  did  in  Greece ; 
v6a\vhat  I  will  (said  he)  my  mother  will,  and  what  my  mother  will,  my  father 
doth."  To  see  horses  ride  in  a  coach,  men  draw  it ;  dogs  devour  their  masters ; 
towers  build  masons;  children  rule;  old  men  go  to  school;  women  wear  the 
breeches ;  ''  sheep  demolish  towns,  devour  men,  &c.  And  in  a  word,  the  world 
turned  upside  downward.     O  viveret  Democritus. 

'^To  insist  in  every  particular  were  one  of  Hercules'  labours,  there's  so  many 
ridiculous  instances,  as  motes  in  the  sun.  Quantum  est  in  rebus  inane  ?  (How 
much  vanity  there  is  in  things  !)  And  who  can  speak  of  all  ?  Crimine  ab  uno  disce 
omnes,  take  this  for  a  taste. 

But  these  are  obvious  to  sense,  trivial  and  well  known,  easy  to  be  discerned.  How 
would  Democritus  have  been  moved,  had  he  seen  ™  the  secrets  of  their  hearts  ?  If 
every  man  had  a  window  in  his  breast,  which  Momus  would  have  had  in  Vulcan's 
man,  or  that  which  TuUy  so  much  wislied  it  were  written  in  every  man's  forehead, 
Quid  quisque  de  rcpublicd  senliret^  what  he  thought ;  or  that  it  could  be  effected  in 
an  instant,  which  Mercury  did  by  Charon  in  Lucian,  by  touching  of  his  eyes,  to  make 
him  discern  semel  et  simul  rumores  et  susurros. 

"  Spes  hnniiniim  ctccas,  mnibos,  votutnque  labores,    I    "Blind  hopes  and  wishes,  their  thoughts  and  affairs, 
Et  passim  toto  volitantes  iethere  curas."  |       Whispers  and  rumours,  and  those  flying  cares." 

That  he  could  cubiculorum  obductas  foras  recludere  et  secreta  cordium  penetrare^ 
which  *°  Cyprian  desired,  open  doors  and  locks,  shoot  bolts,  as  Lucian's  Gallus  did 
with  a  feather  of  his  tail  :  or  Gyges'  invisible  ring,  or  some  rare  perspective  glass,  or 
Otacousticon,  which  would  so  multiply  species,  that  a  man  might  hear  and  see  all  at 
once  (as  *'  Martianus  Capella's  Jupiter  did  in  a  spear  which  he  held  in  his  hand, 
which  did  present  unto  him  all  that  was  daily  done  upon  the  face  of  the  earth), 
observe  cuckolds'  horns,  forgeries  of  alchemists,  the  philosopher's  stone,  new  pro- 
jectors, &c.,  and  all  those  works  of  darkness,  foolish  vows,  hopes,  fears  and  wishes, 
what  a  deal  of  laughter  would  it  have  afforded  ?  He  should  have  seen  windmills  in 
one  man's  head,  an  hornet's  nest  in  another.  Or  had  he  been  present  with  Icarome- 
nippus  in  Lucian  at  Jupiter's  whispering  place,  ^^  and  heard  one  pray  for  rain,  an- 
other for  fair  weather ;  one  for  his  wife's,  another  for  his  father's  death,  &c  ;  "  to  ask 
tha-t  at  God's  hand  which  they  are  abashed  any.  man  should  hear :"  How  would  he 
have  been  confounded .?  Would  he,  think  you,  or  any  man  else,  say  that  these 
men  were  well  in  their  wits  ?     Hcec  sani  esse  hominis  quis  sanus  juret   Orestes  ? 

'SExecrari  publice  quod  occulta  agat.  Salvianus  |  ep.  praed.  Hos.  dejerantes  et  potantes  deprehendet 
lib.  de  pro.  acres  ulciscendis  vitiis  quibus  ipsi  vehe-  |  hos  vomentes,  illos  litigantes,  insidias  molientes,  siif- 


inenter  indulgent.  '^  Adamus  eccl.  hist.  cap.  212. 

Si(]uis  damnatus  fuerit,  laetus  esse  gloria  est';  nam 
lachrymas  et  planctum  csteraqiie  coinpunctionum 
genera  qus  nos  salubria  censemus,  ita  abominantur 
Da-i,  ut  nee  pro  peccatis  nee  pro  defunctis  amicis  ullt 
flcie  liceat.  ''•Orbi  dat  leges  foras,  vix  famulum 


fragantes,  venena  niiscentes,  in  amicoruni  accusalio- 
nem  subscribentes,  hos  gloria,  illos  ambitione,  ciipidi- 
tate,  mente  captos,  &c.  '->  Ad  Doiiat.  ep.  2.  I.  1.  O 
si  posses  in  specula  sublimi  cnnslilulus,  &c.  "'  Lib. 
1.  de  nup  Philol.  in  qua  quid  singuli  nationum  popull 
quotidianis  niotibus  agitarent.  relutebat.  *- O  Ju- 


rogit  sine  strepitu  domi.  'i^Quicquid  esro  volo  hoc    piter  contiiigat  mihi  aurum  h<ereditas,  &c.  Multo?  da 

'''lit  mater  niea,  et  quod  mater  vult,  facit  pater.  Jupiter  annos.  Dementia  quanta  est  hominum,  tur 
"  Oves,  olim  mite  pecus,  nunc  tarn  Indomitum  et  edax  pissima  vota  diis  insusurrant,  si  quis  admoverit  aurem, 
■It  homines  devorent,  &c.  Morus.  Utop.  lib.  1 .  ''•  Ui-  conticescunt ;  et  quod  scire  homines  nolunt,  Deo  nar- 
»Br803  variis  tribuit  natura  furores.  ''^Democrit-  '  rant.  Seneo.  ep   10.  1.  1. 


46  Democritus  to  tht  Reader. 

Can  all  the  hellebore  in  the  Anticyrae  cure  these  men  ?     No,  sure,  ^^ "  an  acre  of 
hellebore  will  not  do  it." 

^.  That  which  is  more  to  be  lamented,  they  are  mad  like  Seneca's  blind  woman, 
and  will  not  acknowledge,  or  *' seek  for  any  cure  of  it,  for  paiici  vidcnt  mnrbum 
suum^  omncs  umant.  If  our  leg  or  arm  offend  us,  we  covet  by  all  means  possible  to 
redress  it;  '^and  if  we  labour  of  a  bodily  disease,  Ave  send  for  a  physician;  but  for 
the  diseases  of  the  mind  we  take  no  notice  of  them:  ''^Lust  harrows  us  on  the  one 
side ;  envy,  anger,  ambition  on  the  other.  We  efre  torn  in  pieces  by  our  passions, 
as  so  many  wild  horses,  one  in  disposition,  another  in  habit  3  one  is  melancholy, 
another  mad  ;  '''and  which  of  us  all  seeks  for  help,  doth  acknowledge  his  error,  or 
knows  he  is  sick  }  As  that  stupid  fellow  put  out  the  candle  because  the  biting  fleas 
should  not  find  him ;  he  shrouds  himself  in  an  unknown  habit,  borrowed  titles,  be- 
cause nobody  should  discern  him.  Every  man  thinks  with  himself,  Egomet  videor 
miki  sanus^i  I  am  well,  I  am  wise,  and  laughs  at  others.  And  'tis  a  general  fault 
amongst  them  all,  that  ***  wliich  our  forefathers  have  approved,  diet,  apparel,  opinions, 
humours,  customs,  manners,  we  deride  and  reject  in  our  time  as  absurd.     Old  men 

account  juniors  all  fools,  when  they  are  mere  dizards ;  and  as  to  sailors, terrce- 

quc  urbesque  reccdunt they  move,  the  land  stands  still,  the  world  hath  much 

more  wit,  they  dote  themselves.  Turks  deride  us,  we  them ;  Italians  Frenchmen, 
accounting  them  light  headed  fellows,  the  French  scoff  again  at  Italians,  and  at  their 
several  customs;  Greeks  have  condemned  all  the  world  but  themselves  of  barbarism, 
the  world  as  much  vilifies  them  now  ;  we  account  Germans  heavy,  dull  fellows,  explode 
many  of  their  fashions  ;  they  as  contemptibly  think  of  us  ;  Spaniards  laugh  at  all,  and 
all  again  at  them.  So  are  we  fools  and  ridiculous,  absurd  in  our  actions,  carriages, 
diet,  apparel,  customs,  and  consultations;  we  ^^  scoff  and  point  one  at  another,  when 
as  in  conclusion  all  are  fools,  '"''•'  and  they  the  veriest  asses  that  hide  their  ears  most. 
A  private  man  if  he  be  resolved  with  himself,  or  set  on  an   opinion,  accounts  ail 

idiots  and  asses  that  are  not  affected  as  he  is, ■  ^'  nil  rectum.,  nisi  quod  placuil 

sihi.,  ducifj  that  are  not  so  minded,  ^^(quodque  volunt  homines  se  bene  vcllc  ■pulant.,) 
all  fools  that  think  not  as  he  doth  :  he  will  not  say  with  Atticus,  Suam  quisque 
sponsam.1  mild  meam.,  let  every  man  enjoy  his  own  spouse ;  but  his  alone  is  fair, 
suus  amor.,  &c.,  and  scorns  all  in  respect  of  himself,  ®^  will  imitate  none,  hear  none 
*''but  himself,  as  Pliny  said,  a  law  and  example  to  himself.  And  that  which  Hippo- 
crates, in  his  epistle  to  Dionysius,  reprehended  of  old,  is  veriiied  in  our  times,  Quis- 
que  in  alio  siiperjluum  esse  ccjiset^  ipse  quod  non  habet  nee  curat.,  that  which  he  hath 
not  himself  or  doth  not  esteem,  he  accounts  superfluity,  an  idle  quality,  a  mere  fop- 
pery in  another :  like  -^Esop's  fox,  when  he  had  lost  his  tail,  would  have  all  his  fel- 
low foxes  cut  off  theirs.  The  Chinese  say,  that  we  Europeans  have  one  eye,  they 
themselves  two,  all  the  world  else  is  blind  :  (though  ^^  Scaliger  accounts  them  brutes 
too,  merum  pecus.,)  so  thou  and  thy  sectaries  are  only  wise,  others  indiflerent,  the 
rest  beside  themselves,  mere  idiots  and  asses.  Thus  not  acknowledging  our  own 
errors  and  imperfections,  we  securely  deride  others,  as  if  we  alone  were  free,  and 
spectators  of  the  rest,  accounting  it  an  excellent  thing,  as  indeed  it  is,  Jlliend  opti- 

■  mum  frui  insanid.,  to  make  ourselves  merry  with  other  men's  obliquities,  when  an 
he  himself  is  more  faulty  than  the  rest,  mutato  nomine.,  de  te  fahula  narralur,  he  may 
take  himself  by  the  nose  for  a  fool ;  and  which  one  calls  maximum  stultitia;  specimen^ 
to  be  ridiculous  to  others,  and  not  to  perceive  or  take  notice  of  it,  as  Marsyas  was 
when  he  contended  with  Apollo,  non  intelligens  se  deridiculo  hahcri.,  saith  ^  Apu- 
leius ;  'tis  his  own  cause,  he  is  a  convicted  madman,  as  ^'Austin  well  infers  "  in  the 
eyes  of  wise  men  and  angels  he  seems  like  one,  that  to  our  thinking  walks  with  his 

P3  Plaiitiis  Menech.  non  potest  haec  res  Flfllebnri  jii-     priscis  exprohrat.  Bud.de  affec.  lib.  5.  **Sene» 

gere  obtinerier.  *>' Eoque  gravior  morbus  quo  if;-     pro  stiillis  babent  juvenes.  B;ilth.  Cast.  MClodiiii 

notior  peiitlitanti.  f^'QufB  Isediint  ociilos,  fcstiiias     aciusat  nifechos.  «>  Omniiiiii  stultissimi  qui  auri- 

deiiiere  ;  si  quid  est  aniiiiuu),  differs  curandi  teuipiis  culas  sIudios6  tegurt.  Sal.  Meiiip.  9i  Hor.  Epist.  2. 
in  aniiiini.  Hor.  ^^  Si  caput,  crus  dolet,  bracliiuni,     "-Prosper.  >*■' Statitn  sapiunt,  statirn  sciunt,  nemi- 

&c.  Medicuni  acrersiuius,  recte  et  honeste,  si  par  nem  reverentiir,  nemineni  iinituntur,  ipsi  sibi  exem- 
etiam  iiidustria  ill  animi  morbis  poueretur.     Job.  Pe-     plo.     I'lin.   Epist.  lib.  8.  S'lNulli   alteri    sa|x.r« 

tenus  .lesuita.  lib.  2.  de  liuiu.  affec.  inorborumque  cura.  i  concedit,  ne  desipere  videatur.    A»rip.  ""OninU 

•"  Et  quoli'squisque  tamen  est  qui  contra  tot   pestes  I  orbis  persecbio  a  persis  ad  Lusitaniam.  ssS  Florid, 

mediciiin  ."(juiral  vel  icgrotare  se  agnoscat?  ebullit  b?  August.  Qiialis  in  ociilis  honiinum  qui  invfrsi*  «« di- 
Ira,  &c.  Et  nos  tamen  ffigms  esse  tiegamus.  Inco-  j  bus  anibulat,  talis  in  ociilis  sapipniuni  et  »:ige>t»a» 
unies   medicum  recusant.     Prresens   stag   stultitiam  i  qui  sibi  placet,  aut  cui  passiones  dominantur. 


Ifemocntus  to  the  Reader.  47 

/teels  upwards."  So  thou  laughest  at  me,  and  I  at  thee,  both  at  a  third  ;  and  he  ro- 
turns  that  of  the  poet  upon  us  again.  ^^Hei  mild,,  insanire  me  aiiinf,  qnum  ipsi  ultra 
insan'iant.  We  accuse  others  of  madness,  of  folly,  and  are  the  veriest  dizards  our- 
selves. For  it  is  a  great  sign  and  property  of  a  fool  (which  Eccl.  x.  3,  points  at) 
out  of  pride  and  self-conceit  to  insult,  vilify,  condemn,  censure,  and  call  other  mer. 
fools  (JVon  vidcmus  manticcs  quod  a  tergo  est)  to  tax  that  in  others  of  which  we  are 
most  faulty;  teach  that  which  we  follow  not  ourselves  :  For  an  inconstant  man  lo 
write  of  constancy,  a  profane  liver  prescribe  rules  of  sanctity  and  piety,  a  dizard 
liimself  make  a  treatise  of  wisdom,  or  with  Sallust  to  rail  downright  at  spoilers  of 
countries,  and  yet  in  ^^  office  to  be  a  most  grievous  poler  himself.  Tiiis  argues 
weakness,  and  is  an  evident  sign  of  such  parties'  indiscretion.  ^°°Peccnt  uter  nostrum 
cruce  dignius  ?  "  Who  is  the  fool  now  .?"  Or  else  peradventure  in  some  places  we 
are  all  mad  for  company,  and  so  'tis  not  seen,  Satiefas  erroris  et  dementice.,  pariter 
absurditatcm  et  admirationem  tollit.  'Tis  with  us,  as  it  was  of  old  (in  '  TuUy's  cen- 
sure at  least)  with  C.  Fimbria  in  Rome,  a  bold,  hair-brain,  mad  fellow,  and  so  es- 
teemed of  all,  such  only  excepted,  that  were  as  mad  as  himself:  now  in  such  a  case 
there  is  ^  no  notice  taken  of  it. 

"  Nimiium  insanus  paucis  videatur  ;  et)  quod  I     "  When  all  are  mad,  where  all  are  like  opprest 

Maxima  pars  hnminum  morbo  jactalur  eodem."  [        Who  can  discern  one  mad  man  from  the  resf!" 

But  put  case  they  do  perceive  it,  and  some  one  be  manifestly  convicted  of  madness 
'  he  now  takes  notice  of  his  folly,  be  it  in  action,  gesture,  speech,  a  vain  humour  he 
hath  in  building,  br  gging,  jangling,  spending,  gaming,  courting,  scribbling,  prating, 
for  which  he  is  rid->  ulous  to  others,  ^  on  which  he  dotes,  he  dotli  acknowledge  as 
much :  yet  with  all  the  rhetoric  thou  hast,  thou  canst  not  so  recall  him,  out  to  the 
contrary  notwithstanding,  he  will  persevere  in  his  dotage.  'Tis  amahilis  insania,i  et 
mcniis  gratissimus  error,,  so  pleasing,  so  delicious,  that  he  *  cannot  leave  it.  He 
knows  his  error,  but  will  not  seek  to  decline  it,  tell  him  what  the  event  will  be, 
beggary,  sorrow,  sickness,  disgrace,  shame,  loss,  madness,  yet  ^"'an  angry  man  will 
prefer  vengeanpe,  a  lascivious  his  whore,  a  thief  his  booty,  a  glutton  his  belly,  before 
his  welfare."  (  Tell  an  epicure,  a  covetous  man,  an  ambitious  man  of  his  irregular 
course,  wean  him  from  it  a  little,  pol  me  occidlslls  amici,  he  cries  anon,  you  have 
undone  him,  and  as  'a  "dog  to  his  vomit,"  he  returns  to  it  again;  no  persuasion 
will  take  place,  no  counsel,  say  what  thou  canst, 

"  Clames  licet  et  mare  coelo 
Coiifundas,  surdo  narras,"^ 

demonstrate  as  Ulysses  did  to  ^Elpenor  and  Gryllus,  and  the  rest  of  his  companions 
''those  swinish  men,"  he  is  irrefragable  in  his  humour,  he  will  be  a  hog  still;  bray 
him  in  a  mortar,  he  will  be  the  same.  If  he  be  in  an  heresy,  or  some  perverse  opi- 
nion, settled  as  some  of  our  ignorant  Papists  are,  convince  his  understanding,  show 
him  the  several  follies  and  absurd  fopperies  of  that  sect,  force  him  to  say,  veris  vin- 
cor,,  make  it  as  clear  as  the  sun,  '"he  will  err  still,  peevish  and  obstinate  as  he  is ; 
and  as  he  said  "  si  in  hoc  erro,,  Uhcnter  erro,,  nee  hunc  error  em  aufcrri  mihi  volo  ;  1 
will  do  as  T  have  done,  as  my  predecessors  have  done,  '^and  as  my  friends  now  do : 
I  will  dote  for  company.  Say  now,  are  these  men  '^  mad  or  no,  '^Heus  age  responde  ? 
are  they  ridiculous  .?  cedo  qucmvis  arbitrum,  are  they  sanm  mentis,,  sober,  wise,  and 

discreet .?  have  they  common  sense  ? ■  '^  uter  est  insanior  horum  f     I  am  of  De- 

mocritus'  opinion  for  my  part,  I  hold  them  worthy  to  be  laughed  at ;  a  company  of 
brain-sick  dizards,  as  mad  as  '''Orestes  and  Athamas,  that  they  may  go  "ride  tht 
iss,"  and  all  sail  along  to  the  Anticyrae,  in  the  "  ship  of  fools"  for  company  together. 
I  need  not  much  labour  to  prove  this  which  I  say  otherwise  than  thus,  make  any 

98  Piautus  Menechmi.  '"Governor  of  Asnich  by    honores,  avariis  opes,  &c.  odimus  hiec  et  accercimus. 

C8Bsar"s  appointment.  i™  Nunc  satiitatis  patroci-     Cardan.  I.  2.  de  conso.  '  I'rov.  xxvi.  11.  »  Al- 

nium  est  insanienlinm  turba.    Sen.  i  Pro  Rnseio  ;  thnu-jh  you  call  out,  and  confound  the  sea  and  sky, 

Amerino,  et  quod   inter  omnes  constat  insanissimus,  ;  yon  still  address  a  deaf  man.  '■>  Plutarch.  Gryllo. 

nisi  inter  cos.  qui  ipsi  quoque  insaiiiunt.*         '-i  Ne-  j  snilli  linmines  sic  Clem.  Alex.  vo.  '"Non    per- 

cesse  est  cum  iiisanientihus  furere,  nisi  solus  relin-  j  suadebis,  etiamsi  persuaseris.  nTully.  '•^Malo 

queris.     Pelronius.  3  Q,io,|jn,i,   ^on   est   genus  !  cum    illis    insanire,   quam    cum    aliis   bene    sentire. 

unum  stuliitisB  qua  me  insanire  putas.  <  Stultum  '  I'Qui  inter  hos  enurriuntur,  non  magissai)ere  possunt, 

me  fatenr,  liceat  coiicedcre  verum,  Alque  etiam  insa-     qn4m  qui  in  culind  bene  olere.     Patron.  '^  Per- 

num.     Hor.  '  Odi  ner  possum  cupiens  nee  esse    sins.  i6Uor.2.  ser.  which   of  these  is  the  more 

quod  odi.  Ovid.     Ermre  prato  libenter  omnes  insani-    mad.  i^Vesanum   exagitant   fueri,   innuptaequ) 

myy"  "  Amator  s( ortnm  viias  prieponit,  iracundns     puellte. 

»ir.ili(  tam  :  fir  Ufatdam.  narasitus  iulam,  ambitiosiis 


48  Democritus  to  tlie  Reader. 

sofemn  protestation,  or  swear,  I  think  yoii  will  believe  me  without  an  oath ;  say  at 
a  woril.  are  they  fools  ?  I  refer  it  to  you,  though  you  be  likewise  fools  and  madmen 
yourselves,  and  I  as  mad  to  ask  the  question ;  for  what  said  our  comical  Mercury  r 

"  "  Justuin  ab  injustis  petere  insipientia  est."        |      I'll  stand  to  your  censure  yet,  what  think  you  •? 

^But  forasmucli  as  1  undertook  at  first,  that  kingdoms,  provinces,  families,  were 
melancholy  as  well  as  private  men,  I  will  examine  them  in  particular,  and  that  which 
I  have  hitherto  dilated  at  random,  in  more  general  terms,  I  will  particularly  insis* 
in,  prove  with  more  special  and  evident  arguments,  testimonies,  illustrations,  and 
that  in  brief.  ^^JVunc  accipe  quare  desipi.ant  omnes  ceque  ac  tu.  My  first  argument 
is  borrowed  from  Solomon,  an  arrow  drawn  OMt  of  his  sententious  quiver.  Pro.  iii.  7, 
"  Be  not  wise  in  thine  own  eyes.'"  And  xxv  12,  "  Seest  thou  a  man  wise  in  his 
own  conceit .''  more  hope  is  of  a  fool  than  of  him."  Isaiah  pronounceth  a  woe 
against  such  men,  cap.  v.  21, "  that  are  wise  in  their  own  eyes,  and  prudent  in  thei' 
own  sight."  For  hence  we  may  gather,  that  it  is  a  great  offence,  and  men  are  much 
deceived  that  think  too  well  of  themselves,  an  especial  argument  to  convince  them 
of  folly.  Many  men  (saito '^Seneca)  "  had  been  without  question  wise,  had  they 
not  had  an  opinion  that  they  had  attained  to  perfection  of  knowledge  already,  even 
before  they  had  gone  half  wa /,"  too  forward,  too  ripe,  prcBpropcri,  too  quick  ai^d 
'leady,  ^"citd  prudentes.,  cito  ph.,  citd  marili,  cilo  patres^  clIo  sacerdotes.,  cito  07miis 
officii  capaces  et  curiosi,  they  had  too  good  a  conceit  of  themselves,  And  that  marred 
all ;  of  their  worth,  valour,  skill,  art,  learning,  judgment,  eloquence,  their  good  parts  ; 
all  their  geese  are  swans,  and  that  manifestly  proves  them  to  be  no  better  than  fools. 
In  foi-mer  times  they  had  but  seven  wise  men,  now  you  can  scarce  find  so  many 
fools.  Thales  sent  the  golden  Tripos,  which  the  fishermen  found,  and  the  oracle 
commanded  to  be  ^' "  given  to  the  wisest,  to  Bias,  Bias  to  Solon,"  &c.  If  such  a 
thing  were  now  found,  we  should  all  fight  for  it,  as  the  three  goddesses  did  for  the 
golden  apple,  we  are  so  wise  :  Ave  have  woirien  politicians,  children  metaphysicians  ; 
every  silly  fellow  can  square  a  circle,  make  perpetual  motions,  find  the  philosopher'* 
stone,  interpret  Apocalypses,  make  new  Theories,  a  new  system  of  the  world,  new 
Logic,  new  Philosophy,  &c.  JYostra  utique  rcgio,  saith  ^^Petronius,  "our  country 
is  so  full  of  deified  spirits,  divine  souls,  that  you  may  sooner  find  a  God  than  a  man 
amongst  us,"  we  think  so  well  of  ourselves,  and  that  is  an  ^mple  testimony  of  much 
folly. 

My  second  argument  is  grounded  upon  the  like  place  of  Scripture,  which  though 
before  mentioned  in  effect,  yet  for  some  reasons  is  to  be  repeated  (and  by  Plato's  good 
leave,  I  may  do  it,  ^^6ii  to  xaxbv  p-i^eev  ov6ev  ^■KuTttci)  "•  Fools  (saith  David)  by  reason 
of  their  transgressions."  &,c.  Psal.  cvii.  17.  Hence  Musculus  infers  all  transgressors 
must  needs  be  fools.  So  we  read  Rom.  ii.,  "  Tribulation  and  anguish  on  the  soul 
of  every  man  that  doeth  evil;"  but  all  do  evil.  And  Isaiah,  Ixv.  14,  "My  servant 
shall  sing  for  joy,  and  ^^ye  shall  cry  for  sorrow  of  heart,  and  vexation  of  mind." 
'TIS  ratified  by  the  common  consent  of  -all  philosophers.  "  Dishonesty  (saith 
Cardan)  is  nothing  else  but  folly  and  madness.  ^  Probus  quis  nohiscum  vivif.? 
Show  me  an  honest  man,  J^emo  malus  qui  non  sfidhis.,  'tis  Fabius'  apliorism  to  the 
same  end.  If  none  honest,  none  wise,  then  all  fools.  And  well  may  they  be  so 
accounted  :  for  who  will  account  him  otherwise,  •Q(/i  iter  adorned  in  nccidentcm^ 
quum  properaret  in  oricnfcm  ?  that  goes  backwarc^  all  his  life,  westward,  when  he  is 
bound  to  the  east .''  or  hold  him  a  wise  man  (saith  ^''Musculus)  "  that  prefers  momen- 
tary pleasures  to  eternity,  that  spends  his  master's  goods  in  his  absence,  forthwith 
to  be  condemned  for  it  ?"  JYeqiiicquam  sapit  qui  sibi  non  sapif^  who  M'ill  say  that 
a  sick  man  is  wise,  that  eats  and  drinks  to  overthrow  the  temperature  of  his  body  ? 
(Can  you  account  him  wise  or  discreet  that  would  willingly  have  his  health,  and  yet 
will  do  nothing  that  should  procure  or  continue  it.''  ^'Theodoret,  out  of  Plotinus 
the  Platonist,  "  holds  it  a  ridiculous  thing  for  a  man^  to  live  after  his  own  laws,  to  do 

"  Plaulus.  '«  Hor.  1.  2.  sat.  2.  Superbam  stulti-  I  =«  Malefactors.  a^who  can  find  a  faitbful  mani 

tiam  Plinius  vocat.  7.  epist.  21.  quod  semel  dixi,ti.\um  '  Prov.  xx.  6.  ''^ii,  Psiil.  xlix.  Qui  moitientanea 

ratumque  sit.  '^  Multisapientes  proculdn^io  fuis-    sempilernis,  qui  delapidat  heri  ahsenlis  bona,  iriox  in 

sent,  si  se  non  putassent  ad  sapientiae  snmmum  per-  I  jus  vocandiis  et  datniiandus.  '-''  Perquain  ridi- 

venisse.  -"Idem.  '^' Plutarchus    Solone.     culuin  est  homines  ex  animi  sententia  vivere,  el  qu<c 

IJetur   sapientiori  '"Tarn   prepsentibus    plena     Uiis   incrata  sunt  exequi,  et  tameii  i  solis  Diis  vella 

est  nui^inibus,  ut  facilius  possis  DoMin  quam  hominem     solvos  tien,  quum  propriie   saluiis  curam   abjecerinl 
inveiiire.  .      '•'^  Pulchrum   bis   dicere   non   nocut.  ,  Theod.  c.  6.  de  provid.  lib.  de  curat,  griec.  affect 


Democrifus  to  titc  Reader.  4y 

that  which  is  offensive  to  God,  and  yet  to  hope  that  lie  should  save  him  :  and  wiien 
he  voluntarily  neglects  his  own  safety,  and  contemns  the  means,  to  think  to  be  deliver- 
ed by  another :  who  will  say  these  men  are  Avise  ? 

^  A  third  argument  may  be  derived  from  the  precedent,  ^'all  men  are  carried  away 
with  passion,  discontent,  lust,  pleasures,  &c.,  they  generallj'  hate  those  virtues  they 
should  love,  and  love  such  vices  they  should  hate'.  Therefore  more  than  melancholy, 
unite  mad,  brute  beasts,  and  void  of  reason,  so  Chrysostom  contends;  "  or  rather 
dead  and  buried  alive,"  as  ^^Philo  Judeus  concludes  it  for  a  certainty,  "  of  all  such 
that  are  carried  away  with  passions,  or  labour  of  any  disease  of  the  mind.  Where 
is  fear  and  sorrow,"  there  ™Lactantius  stiffly  maintains,  "wisdom  cannot  dwell. 

'qui  ciipiet,  metuet  quoque  pi)ir6. 

Qui  Mietuens  vivit,  liber  inilii  non  erit  unquam.'  "  3i 

Seneca  and  the  rest  of  the  stoics  are  of  opinion,  that  where  is  any  the  least  perturba- 
tion, wisdom  may  not  be  found.  "What  more  ridiculous,"  as  ^^Lactantius  urges, 
"  than  to  hear  how  Xerxes  whipped  the  Hellespont,  threatened  the  Mountain  Athos, 
and  the  like.  To  speak  ad  rem.,  who  is  free  from  passion.?  ^^Mor talis  neino  est. 
qiicni  non  attingat  dolor.,  morhusve.,  as  *^Tully  determines  out  of  an  old  poem,  no 
mortal  men  can  avoid  sorrow  and  sickness,  and  sorrow  is  an  inseparable  companion 
from  melancholy.  ''^Chrysostom  pleads  farther  yet.  that  they  are  more  than  mad, 
very  beasts,  stupified  and  void  of  common  sense-  >*  For  how  <'saith  he)  shall  I  know 

^thee  to  be  a  man,  when  thou  kickest  iike  an  ass.  neighest  like  a  horse  after  women, 

jravest  in  lust  like  a  bull,  ravenest  Ifke  a  bear,  stingest  like  a  scorpion,  rakest  like  a 

wolf,  as   subtle  as  a  fox,  as  impudent  as  a  dog.?     Shall  I  say  thou  art  a  man,  that 

'hast  all  the  symptoms  of  a  beast .?     How  shall  I  know  thee  to  be  a  man  ?  by  thy 

'  shape  .?     That  affi-ights  me  more,  when  I  see  a  beast  in  likeness  of  a  man. 

^Seneca  calls  that  of  Epicurus,  magnijicam  rocem,  an  heroical  speech,  "A  fool  still 
begins  to  live,"  and  accounts  it  a  filthy  lightness  in  men,  every  day  to  lay  new 
foundations  of  their  life,  but  who  doth  otherwise  .?  One  travels,  another  builds  ;  one 
for  this,  another  for  that  business,  and  old  folks  are  as  far  out  as  the  rest ;  O  demen- 
tem  senectutcm,  Tully  exclaims.  Therefore  young,  old,  middle  age,  are  all  stupid, 
and  dote. 

?^iEneas  Sylvius,  amongst  many  other,  sets  down  three  special  ways  to  find  a  fool 
hf.  He  is  a  fool  that  seeks  that  he  cannot  find  :  he  is  a  fool  that  seeks  that,  which 
neing  found  will  do  him  more  harm  than  good :  he  is  a  fool,  that  having  variety  of 
ways  to  bring  him  to  his  journey's  end,  takes  that  which  is  worst.  If  so,  methinks 
most  men  are  fools  ;  examine  their  courses,  and  you  shall  soon  perceive  what  dizards 
and  mad  men  the  major  part  are. 

J,  Beroaldus  will  have  drunkards,  afternoon  men,  and  such  as  more  than  ordinarily 
delight  in  drink,  to  be  mad.  The  first  pot  quencheth  thirst,  so  Panyasis  the  poet 
determines  in  Jithencpus,  sccunda  gratiis,  horis  et  Dyonisio  :  the  second  makes  merry, 
the  third  for  pleasure,  quarta  ad  insaniam,  the  fourth  makes  them  mad.  If  this  posi- 
tion be  true,  what  a  catalogue  of  mad  men  shall  we  have  .?  what  shall  they  be  that 
drink  four  times  four  ?  JYomie  supra  oinnejn  furorem,  supra  omnem  insanian  red- 
dunt  insanissimos  ?  I  am  of  his  opinion,  they  are  more  than  mad,  much  worse  than 
mad. 

wThe  ''"Abderites  condemned  Democritus  for  a  mad  man,  because  he  was  sometimes 
sad,  and  sometimes  again  profusely  merry.  Hac  Patria  (saith  Hippocrates)  ob  risvm 
furere  et  insanire  dicunt,  his  countrymen  hold  him  mad  because  he  laughs;  ^^and 
therefore  "  he  desires  him  to  advise  all  his  friends  at  Rhodes,  that  they  do  not  laugh 
too  much,  or  be  over  sad."     Had  those  Abderites  been  conversant  with  us,  and  but 


28  Sapiens  sibi  qui  imperiosus,  &c.  Hor.  2.  ser.  7. 
^''Conclus.  lib.  de  vie.  offer,  certuin  est  aninii  morbis 
laboranles  pro  mortuis  coiisemios.  3"  Lib.  de  sap. 

llbi  timor  aiest,  sapientia  ade.-<se  iiequit.  si  He  who 
is  desirous  is  also  fearful,  and  he  who  lives  in  fear 
never  can  be  free.  ^-Qiiid  insanius  Xerxe  Helles- 
ponturn  verberante,  &c.  '•<■  Eccl.  xxi.  12.     Where 

IS  bii'^rn'-ss.  there  is  no  understanding.  Prov.  xii. 
6.  An  angrj'  man  is  a  fool.  3' 3  Tusc.  Injuria  in 
japientem  non  cadit.        3-^  Horn.  6.  In  2  Epist.  ad  Cor. 


mulieres,  ut  ursns  ventri  indulgeas,  qnum  rapias  lit 
lupus,  &;c.  at  inquis  fnrniain  hominis  habeo.  Id  magia 
terret,  quum  feram  humana  specie  videre  me  putem. 
36  Epist.  lib.  2.  13.  Stultus  semper  incipit  vivere, 
foeda  homiiium  levitas,  nova  quolidie  fiindainenta  vitie 
ponere,   novas    spes,   &c.  "t  Ue    curial.   miser. 

Stullus,  qui  qurerit  quod  nequit  invenire,  slultiis  qui 
qiia;rit  qund  nocet  inventiim,  stullus  qui  cum  plures 
hahet  calles,  deteriorem  deligit.  Mihi  videntur  omnea 
deliri,  amentes,  fee.         *  i.;p    Demagele.        as  Amicis 


lominem  te  agnoscere  neqneo,  cum  tanquam  asinus     nnstris  Rhodi  dicilo,  ne  nimium  rideant,  aut  niitiit- 
eralcitres,  lascivias  ut  taurus,  hinnias  ut  equus  post    tristes  aint 

*»  E 


50 


Democritus  to  the  Reader. 


seen   what  ^fleering  and  grinning  there  is  in  this  age,  they  would  certainly  have 
concluded,  we  had  been  all  out  of  our  wits. 

^Aristotle  in  liis  eth/cs  holds  fccllx  idemque  sapiens^  to  be  Avise  and  happy,  are 
leciprocal  terms,  bonus  idemque  sapiens  honeslus.  'Tis  ■"  Tully's  paradox,  "-wise 
men  are  free,  but  fools  are  slaves,"  liberty  is  a  power  to  live  according  to  his  own 
laws,  as  we  will  ourselves  :  who  hath  this  liberty  ?  who  is  free  ? 


-"sapiens  slhiqiie  iiiiperiosus, 


Queni  Deque  pauperis,  iieque  mors,  neque  vincula  | 

terrent,  I 

Respons:ire  cupi(lin!l)us,  contemncre  honores  i 

Forlis,  et  in  seii)so  Knus  teres  atque  rotundus."  I 


'He  is  wise  that  can  command  his  own  will. 
Valiant  and  constant  to  himself  still, 
Wlinni  poverty  nor  ieath,  nor  bands  can  fright. 
Checks  his  desires,  scorns  Honours,  jusi  ana  rigni. 


(iut  where  shall  such  a  man  be  found  ?  If  no  where,  then  e  diametro,  we  are  all 
slaves,  senseless,  or  worse.     JVemo  malus  fcjcILv.     But  no  man  is  happy  in  this  life, 

none  good,  therefore  no  man  wise.      ''•^Rari  quippe  hon'i For  one  virtue  you  shall 

find  ten  vices  in  tlif  same  party  ;  panel  Promelhei.,  multi  EpimethcL  We  may  per- 
adventure  usurp  ttie  name,  or  attribute  it  to  others  for  favour,  as  Carolus  Sapiens, 
Philippus  Bonus,  Lodovicus  Pius,  &c.,  and  describe  the  properties  of  a  wise  man, 
as  Tully  doth  an  orator,  Xenophon  Cyrus,  Castillo  a  courtier,  Galen  temperament, 
an  aristocracy  is  described  by  politicians.     But  where  shall  such  a  man  be  found  .'' 


"  Vir  bonus  et  sapienl;,  qualem  vix  repperit  ununi 
Minibus  6  niullis  huniinuni  consullus  Apollo." 


"  A  wise,  a  good  man  in  a  million, 
Apollo  consulted  could  scarce  find  one." 


A  man  is  a  miracle  of  himself,  but  Trismegistus  adds.  Maximum  mlraculum  homo 
sapiens^  a  wise  man  is  a  wonder :  multl  Thlrslgi^rl^  panel  Baeehl. 

Alexander  when  he  was  presented  with  that  ricli  and  costly  casket  of  king  Darius, 
and  every  man  advised  him  what  to  put  in  it,  he  reserved  it  to  keep  Romero's  works, 
as  the  most  precious  jewel  of  human  wit,  and  yet '"  Scaliger  upbraids  Homer's  muse, 
JVulrlcem  InsancE  saplcntlce^  a  nursery  of  madness,  '*'  impudent  as  a  court  lady,  that 
bluslies  at  notliing.  Jacobus  Mycillus,  Gilbertus  Cogiiatus,  Erasmus,  and  almost  all 
posterity  admire  Lucian's  luxuriant  wit,  yet  Scaliger  rejects  him  in  his  censure,  and 
calls  him  the  Cerberus  of  the  muses.  Socrates,  whom  all  the  world  so  much  mag- 
nified, is  by  Lactantius  and  Theodoret  condemned  for  a  fool.  Plutarch  extols  Sene- 
ca's wit  beyond  all  the  Greeks,  nulll  secundus,  yet  '"'Seneca  saith  of  himself,  "when 
I  would  solace  myself  with  a  fool,  I  reflect  upon  myself,  and  there  I  have  him.'>\ 
Cardan,  in  his  Sixteenth  Book  of  Subtilties,  reckons  up  twelve  super-eminent,  acute 
philosophers,  for  worth,  subtlety,  and  wisdom:  Archimedes,  Galen,  Vitruvius,  Ar- 
chitas  Tarentinus,  Euclid,  Geber,  that  first  inventor  of  Algebra,  Alkindus  the  Mathe- 
matician, both  Arabians,  with  others.  But  his  triumviri  terrarum  far  beyond  the 
rest,  are  PtoloniiEus,  Plotinus,  .Hippocrates.  Scaliger  exereltat.' 224,  scofk  at  this 
censure  of  his,  calls  some  of  them  carpenters  and  mechanicians,  he  makes  Galen 
fimhrlam  Hippocralis,  a  skirt  of  Hippocrates  :  and  the  said  ■*'' Cardan  himself  else- 
where condemns  botli  Galen  and  Hippocrates  for  tediousncss,  obscurity,  confusion. 
Paracelsus  will  have  them  both  mere  idiots,  infants  in  physic  and  philosophy.  Sca- 
liger and  Cardan  admire  Suisset  the  Calculator,  qui  pene  modum  excessll  humani  in- 
genll,  and  yet  '"'Lod.  Vives  calls  them  nugas  Suisset  lens  :  and  Cardan,  opposite  to 
himself  in  another  place,  contemns  those  ancients  in  respect  of  times  present,  ''^Ma- 
jorcsque  nostras  ad  presentes  collatos  juste  pueros  appellari.  In  conclusion,  the 
said  '^"Cardan  and  Saint  Bernard  will  admit  none  into  this  catalogue  of  wise  men, 
^'  but  only  prophets  and  apostles ;  how  they  esteem  themselves,  you  have  heard 
before.  We  are  worldly-wise,  admire  ourselves,  and  s(;ek  for  applause :  but  heai 
Saint  ^^  Bernard,  quant o  magis  foras  es  sapiens,  tanfo  rruigis  intus  stultus  efficerls,  &c. 
in  omnibus  es  prudens,  circa  teipsum  Inslplcns  :  the  more  wise  thou  art  to  others, 
the  more  fool  to  thyself.  I  may  not  deny  but  that  there  is  some  folly  approved,  a 
divine  fury,  a  holy  madness,  even  a  spiritual  drunkenness  in  the  saints  of  God  them- 
selves;  sanctum  Insanlum  Bernard  calls  it  (though  not  as  blaspheming  ^^Vorstius, 
would  infer  it  as  a  passion  incident  to  God  himself,  but)  familiar  to  good  men,  as 


■loPer  multum   risnm   poteris   cognoscere    stultum. 
Offic  3.  c.  9  ^'Sapientes  liheii,  sttiiti  servi,  li- 

berlas  est  potestas,  &c.         •'-Hor.  2.  ser.  7.  ■'■'Ju- 

ven.    "Good  people   are   scarce."  •wilypocrit. 

">Ut  niulier  aiilica  nullius  pudens.  ■•''Epist    33. 

Quanito  fatuo  delertari  volo,  iion  e.ii  Innge  quaerendus, 
BtH  video.  *"  Primo  conlradicenti'im.  '"Lib. 


de  causis  corrupt,  artium.  ■'^  Actions  ad  subtil,  in 

Seal.  fol.  12'26.  ^oLih.  1.  de  sap.  ^i  Vide  miser 

homo,  quia  totum  est  vanitas,  tntum  gtultitia.  totuin 
(Ifmentia,  quic(iuid  facis  in  hoc  iiiurjilo,  pra;ter  hoc  so- 
lum quod  propter  Deum  facis.  Ser.  de  miser,  hom. 
^  In  2  Pl.itiiiiis  dial.  I    de  justo  ^iDm,,  iram  CI 

udiuiu  in  Deo  revera  ponit. 


Democntus  to  the  Reader. 


51 


•lat  of  Paul,  2  Cor.  "  he  was  a  fool,"  &c.  and  Rom.  ix.  he  wisheth  himself  to  he 
anathematized  for  them.  Such  is  that  drunkenness  which  Ficinus  speaks  of,  when 
the  soul  is  elevated  and  ravished  with  a  divine  taste  of  that  heavenly  nectar,  wnich 
poets  deciphered  by  the  sacrifice  of  Dionysius,  and  in  this  sense  with  the  poet, 
'^insanire  lubet,  as  Austin  exhorts  us,  ad  ehrietatem  se  quisque  paret.,  let's  all  be  mad 
and  ^'^  drunk.  But  we  commonly  mistake,  and  go  beyond  our  commission,  we  reel 
to  the  opposite  part,  ^  we  are  not  capable  of  it,  "'and  as  he  said  of  the  Greeks,  Vos 
Grcpci  semper  pueri^  vos  Britanni,  Galli,  Germanic  Itali,  &.c.  you  are  a  company 

.of  fools. 

i^' Proceed  now  a  parfibus  ad  totwn^  or  from  the  whole  to  parts,  and  you  shall  find 
no  other  issue,  the  parts  shall  be  sufliciently  dilated  in  this  following  Preface.  The 
whole  must  needs  follow  by  a  sorites  or  induction.  Every  multitude  is  mad, 
'^  bcllua  multorum  capitum^  (a  many-headed  beast),  precipitate  and  rash  without 
judgment,  stultum  animal.,  a  roaring  rout.  *^  Roger  Bacon  proves  it  out  of  Aristotle, 
Viilgus  dividi  in  oppositum  cordra  sapicnlcs.,  quod  vulgo  vidclur  vcrum.,  falswn  est  • 
that  which  the  commonalty  accounts  true,  is  most  part  false,  they  are  still  opposite 
to  wise  men,  but  all  the  world  is  of  this  humour  (vnlgus)^  and  thou  thyself  art  de 
vulgo.,  one  of  the  commonalty;  and  he,  and  he,  and  so  are  all  the  rest;  and  there- 
fore, as  Phocion  concludes,  to  be  approved  in  nought  you  say  or  do,  mere  idiots 
and  asses.  Begin  then  where  you  will,  go  backward  or  forward,  choose  out  of  the 
whole  pack,  wink  and  choose,  you  shall  find  them  all  alike,  "•  never  a  barrel  better 
herring." 

X-  Copernicus,  Atlas  his  successor,  is  of  opinion,  the  earth  is  a  planet,  moves  and 
'^^shines  to  others,  as  the  moon  doth  to  us.  Digges,  Gilbert,  Keplerus,  Origanus,  and 
others,  defend  this  hypothesis  of  his  in  sober  sadness,  and  that  the  moon  is  inhabi- 
ted :  if  itir  be  so  that  ^he  earth  is  a  moon,  then  are  we  also  giddy,  vertigenous  and 
lunatic  within  this  sublunary  maze. 

I  could  produce  such  arguments  till  dark  night :  if  you  should  hear  the  rest. 


'Ante  diem  clauso  component  vesper  Oliinpo: 


"  Tliroi|o;li  such  a  train  of  words  if  I  should  run, 
The  day  would  sooner  Ihan  the  tale  be  done  :' 


but  according  to  my  promise,  I  will  descend  to  particulars.  This  melancholy  extends 
itself  not  to  men  only,  but  even  to  vegetals  and  sensibles.  I  speak  not  of  those 
creatures  which  are  saturnine,  melancholy  by  nature,  as  lead,  and  such  like  mine- 
rals, or  those  plants,  rue,  cypress,  &.c.  and  hellebore  itself,  of  which  '^"Agrippa  treats, 
fishes,  birds,  and  beasts,  hares,  conies,  dormice,  &c.,  owls,  bats,  nightbirds,  but  that 
artificial,  which  is  perceived  in  them  all.  Remove  a  plant,  it  will  pine  away,  which 
is  especially  perceived  in  date  trees,  as  you  may  read  at  large  in  Constantine's  hus- 
bandry, that  antipathy  betwixt  the  vine  and  the  cabbage,  vine  and  oil.  Put  a  bird 
in  a  cage,  he  will  die  for  suUenness,  or  a  beast  in  a  pen,  or  take  his  young  ones  or 
companions  from  him,  and  see  what  effect  it  will  cause.  But  who  perceives  not 
these  common  passions  of  sensible  creatures,  fear,  sorrow,  &c.  Of  all  other,  dogs  are 
most  subject  to  this  malady,  insomuch  some  hold  they  dream  as  men  do,  and  through' 
violence  of  melancholy  run  mad  ;  I  could  relate  many  stories  of  dogs  that  have  died ' 
for  grief,  and  pined  away  for  loss  of  their  masters,  but  they  are  common  in  every 
^'  author. 

Kingdoms,  provinces,  and  politic  bodies  are  likewise  sensible  and  subject  to  this 
disease,  as  "^^Boterus  in  his  politics  hath  proved  at  large.  "■As  in  human  bodies 
(saith  he)  there  be  divers  alterations  proceeding  from  humours,  so  be  there  many  dis- 
eases 111  a  commonwealth,  which  do  as  diversely  happen  from  several  distempers," 
as  you  may  easily  percieve  by  their  particular  symptoms.  For  where  you  shall  see 
the  people  civil,  obedient  to  God  and  princes,  judicious,  peaceable  and  quiet,  rich, 
fortunate, '^^ and  flourish,  to  live  in  peace,  in  unity  and  concord,  a  country  well  tilled, 
many  fair  built  and  populous  cities,  ubi  incolce  nitcnt  as  old  ® '  Cato  said,  the  peo})le 
are  neat,  polite  and  terse,  ubi  bene.,  beateque  vivunt,  which  our  politicians  make  the 


"  Vir^.  1.  Eccl.  3.  66  ps.  inebriahuntur  ab  uber- 

tate  doiniis.  "■  In  Psal.  civ.  Austin.  '"  In  Pla- 

•  tonis  Tim.  sacerdos  .Slgyplius.  '«  Hor.  t  jigis  iii- 

«anum  w  Palet  ea  diviso  probabilis,  &c.  cy.  Ar^at. 

Top.  ib.  1.  c.  8.  Rog.  Bac.  Epist.  de  secret.  <.rt.  et  nat. 
c.  8.  non  est  judicium  in  vulgo.  eojje  occult.  Pbi- 


losop.  1.  1.  c.  25  et  19.  ejusd.  1.  Lib.  10.  cap.  4.        s'  See 
Lipeius  epist.  "-De  politai  illustrium  lib.  1.  cap.  4. 

ut  in   hunianis  coporibus  varia'  accidunt   mutationes 
corporis,  aniniique,  sic  in   republica,  &:c.  oa  ujjj 

reges  pliiiosophantur,  Plato.  "Lib.  de  re  rust. 


52  Democntus  to  the  Reader. 

chief  end  of  a  commonwealth;  and  which  ^"^  Jiristotle  PoUt.  lib.  3.,  cap.  4  calls  Cam.' 
mune  boniim.,  Polyhius  lib.  6,  optabilem  et  sclcclum  stalum,  that  country  is  free  from ' 
melancholy ;  as  it  was  in  Italy  in  the  time  of  Augustus,  now  in  China,  now  in  many 
other  flourisliing  kingdoms  of  Europe.  But  whereas  you  shall  see  many  discontents, 
common  grievances,  complaints,  poverty,  barbarism,  beggary,  plagues,  wars,  rebel- 
lions, seditions,  mutinies,  contentions,  idleness,  riot,  epicurism,  the  land  lie  untilled, 
waste,  full  of  bogs,  fens,  deserts,  &c.,  cities  decayed,  base  and  poor  towns,  villages 
depopulated,  the  people  squalid,  ugly,  uncivil ;  that  kingdom,  that  country,  must 
needs  be.  discontent,  melancholy,  hath  a  sick  body,  and  had  need  to  be  reformed. 

Now  that  cannot  well  be  effected,  till  tlie  causes  of  these  maladies  be  first  removed, 
which  commonly  proceed  from  their  own  default,  or  some  accidental  inconvenience  • 
as  to  be  situated  in  a  bad  clime,  too  far  north,  sterile,  in  a  barren  place,  as  the  desert 
of  Lybia,  deserts  of  Arabia,  places  void  of  waters,  as  those  of  Lop  and  Belgian  in 
Asia,  or  in  a  bad  air,  as  at  Mexandretta.,  Bantam.^  Pisa,  Durrazzo,  S.  John  de  Ulloa, 
Stc,  or  in  danger  of  tlie  sea's  continual  inundations,  as  in  many  places  of  the  Low 
Countries  and  elsewhere,  or  near  some  bad  neighbours,  as  Hungarians  to  Turks, 
Podolians  to  Tartars,  or  almost  any  bordering  countries,  they  live  in  fear  still, 
and  by  reason  of  hostile  incursions  are  oftentimes  left  desolate.  So  are  cities  by 
reason  *®of  wars,  fires,  plagues,  inundations,  "'wild  beasts,  decay  of  trades,  barred 
havens,  the  sea's  violence,  as  Antwerp  may  witness  of  late,  Syracuse  of  old,  Brundu- 
sium  in  Italy,  Rye  and  Dover  with  us,  and  many  tliat  at  this  day  suspect  the  sea''s 
fury  and  rage,  and  labour  against  it  as  tlie  Venetians  to  their  inestimable  charge. 
But  the  most  frequent  maladies  are  such  as  proceed  from  themselves,  as  first  when 
religion  and  God's  service  is  neglected,  innovated  or  altered,  where  they  do  not  fear 
God,  obey  their  prince,  where  atheism,  epicurism,  sacrilege,  simony,  &.C.,  and  all 
such  impieties  are  freely  committed,  that  country  cannot  prosper.  WheiiiAbraham 
came  to  Gerar,  and  saw  a  bad  land,  he  said,  sure  the  fear  of  God  was  not  in  that 
place.  ''^  Cyprian  Echovius,  a  Spanish  chorographer,  above  all  other  cities  of  Spain, 
commends  ''  Borcino,  in  wliich  there  was  no  beggar,  no  man  poor.  Sec,  but  all  rich, 
and  in  good  estate,  and  he  gives  the  reason,  because  they  were  more  religious  tlian 
their  neighbours  :"  why  was  Israel  so  often  spoiled  by  their  enemies,  led  into  capti- 
vity, Slc,  but  for  their  idolatry,  neglect  of  God's  word,  for  sacrilege,  even  for  one 
Achau's  fault }  And  what  sliall  we  except  that  have  such  multitudes  of  Achans, 
church  robbers,  simoniacal  patrons,  &.C.,  how  can  they  hope  to  flourish,  that  neglect 
divine  duties,  that  live  most  part  lilce  Epicures  .? 

Other  common  grievances  are  generally  noxious  to  a  body  politic  •,  alteration  of 
laws  and  customs,  breaking  privileges,  general  oppressions,  seditions,  &c.,  observed 
by  '^^Aristotle,  Bodin,  Boterus,  Junius,  Arnisc.us,  &c.  I  will  only  point  at  some  of 
chiefest.  ""^Impofenlia  giibernandi.,  afaxia.,  confusion,  ill  oovernment,  which  proceeds 
from  unskilfid,  slothful,  griping,  covetous,  unjust,  ras,i,  or  tyrannizing  magistrates, 
when  they  are  fools,  idiots,  children,  proud,  wilful,  partial,  indiscreet,  oppressors, 
giddy  heads,  tyrants,  not  able  or  unfit  to  manage  such  offices  :  '"  many  nobic  cities 
and  flourishing  kingdoms  by  that  means  are  desolate,  the  whole  body  groans  under 
such  heads,  and  all  the  members  must  needs  be  disaffected,  as  at  this  day  those 
goodly  provinces  in  Asia  Minor,  &c.  groan  under  the  burthen  of  a  Turkish  govern- 
ment;  and  those  vast  kingdoms  of  Muscovia,  Russia,  "'^  under  a  tyrannizing  duke. 
Who  ever  heard  of  more  civil  and  rich  populous  countries  than  those  of  "  Greece, 
Asia  Minor,  abounding  with  all  "wealth,  multitudes  of  inhabitants,  force,  power, 
splendour  and  magnificence  .''"  and  that  miracle  of  countries,  '■*  the  Holy  Land,  that 
in  so  small  a  compass  of  ground  could  maintain  so  many  towns,  cities,  produce  so 
many  fighting  men  ?  Egypt  another  paradise,  now  barbarous  and  desert,  and  almost 
waste,  by  the  despotical  government  of  an  imperious  Turk,  intolerabili  servitutis 


^5  Vel  publicam  utilitatem:  salus  piiblica  supreiiia 
ex  esto.  Beata  civilas  noii  iihi  paiici  bcati,  sed  lota 
civitas  beata.     Plato  qiiarlo  de  republica.  "Maii- 

vua  VEE  iiiisera;  nimiiim  vicjna  Crenionae.  6'lnter- 

dum  a  feris,  lit   olim   Mauritania,  &c.  esDeliciig 

Hisparias  anno  1604.     Nemo  mains,  nemo  pauper,  op- 
tiniiis  quisque  atqiie  ditissimus.    Pie,  sancteque  vive. 


5.  c.  3.  '0  Boterus  Polit.  lib.  1.  c.  1.     Cum  nempe 

princeps  rerum  perendarum  imperitus,  segiii.s,  osci- 
tans,  snique  miineris  irnniemor,  ant  faluus  est. 
"  Non  viget  respublica  cujus  caput  infirniatur.  Sa- 
lisburiensis.  c.  22.  '.*  See  Dr.    Fletcher's  rela- 

tion, and  Alexander  Gairninus'  history.  '^  Abiin-* 

dans  nmni  diviiiarum  affluentia  incolarnm  mullitudina 


bant  sumniaqiie  cum  venoratione,  et  timore  divino    spleridnre  ac  poientia.  "Not  above  200  niiles  ii' 

eijJtui,  eacrisque  rebus   inr.umbebant.  ™  Polit.  i.     letisth.  60  in  breadth,  accordine  to  Adricomii'a 


Dcmocritus  to  the  Reader.  53 

jngo  premitnr  ('^one  saith)  not  «,»n)y  fire  and  water,  goods  or  lands,  sed  ipse  spirituh 
ah  insoJcnlissimi  victorls  vendct  nutUj  siich  is  tb.eir  slavery,  their  lives  and  souls 
depend  upon  his  insolent  v>all  and  command.  A  tyrant  that  spoils  all  wheresoever  he 
comes,  insomuch  that  an  '^historian  complains,  "  if  an  old  inhabitant  should  now  see 
them,  he  would  not  know  them,  if  a  traveller,  or  stranger,  it  would  grieve  his  heart  to 
behold  them."  Whereas  '''Aristotle  notes,  JVods;  exactiones.,  nova  onera  itnposita,  new 
burdens  and  exactiojis  daily  come  upon  them,  like  those  of  which  Zosimus,  lib.  2,  so 
grievous,  ut  viri  uxores.,  patrcs  fdios  prostituerent  ut  exadorihus  e  quesl.u.^  &.C.,  they 
must  needs  be  discontent,  June  civitatum  gemitus  et  ploratus,  as  ''^TuUy  holds, 
hence  come  those  complaints  and  tears  of  cities,  "  poor,  miserable,  rebellious,  and 
desperate  subjects,  as  '^Hippolitus  adds;  and  ""as  a  judicious  countryman  of  ours 
observed  not  long  since,  in  a  survey  of  that  great  Duchy  of  Tuscany,  the  people 
lived  much  grieved  and  discontent,  as  appeared  by  their  manifold  and  manifest  com- 
plainings in  that  kind.  "XThat  the  state  was  like  a  sick  body  which  had  lately  taken 
physic,  whose  humours  are  not  yet  well  settled,  and  weakened  so  much  by  purging, 
that  nothing  was  left  but  melancholy." 

'  Whereas  the  princes  and  potentates  are  immoderate  in  lUst,  hypocrites,  epicures, 
of  no  religion,  but  in  show  :  Quid  hi/pocrisl  fragUius  f  wliat  so  brittle  and  unsure  '. 
what  sooner  subverts  their  estates  than  wandering  and  raging  lusts,  on  their  subjects' 
wives,  daughters  .?  to  say  no  worse.  That  they  should  faecm  pripferre.,  lead  the 
way  to  all  virtuous  actions,  are  the  ringleaders  oftentimes  of  all  mischief  and  disso- 
lute courses,  and  by  that  means  their  countries  are  plagued,  ^'  '•'  and  they  themselves 
often  ruined,  banished,  or  murdered  by  conspiracy  of  their  subjects,  as  Sardanapalus 
was,  Diouysius,  junior,  Heliogabalus,  Periander,  Pisistratus,  Tarquinius,  Timocrates, 
Childericus,  Appius  Claudius,  Andronicus,  Galeacius  Sforsia,  Alexander  Medices,"  &.c. 
Whereas  the  princes  or  great  men  are  malicious,  envious,  factious,  ambitious, 
emulators,  they  tear  a  commonwealth  asunder,  as  so  many  Guelfs  and  Gibelines 
disturb  the  quietness  of  it,  ^and  with  mutual  murders  let  it  bleed  to  death;  our  his- 
tories are  too  full  of  such  barbarous  inhumanities,  and  the  miseries  that  issue  from 
them.  • 

^^hereas  they  be  like  so  many  horse-leeches,  hungry,  griping,  corrupt,  ^^  covetous. 
avariticE  mancipia.,  ravenous  as  wolves,  for  as  TuUy  writes :  qui  prcecst  prodest,  et 
qui  pccudihus  prceest,  debet  eorum  utiUtati  inservire  :  or  such  as  prefer  their  private 
before  the  public  good.  For  as  ^^he  said  long  since,  res  privatoi  publicis  semper 
officere.  Or  whereas  they  be  illiterate,  ignorant,  empirics  in  policy,  nbi  deest  facul- 
las,  ^virtus  (^Jlristot.  pot.  5,  cap.  8.,)  et  scientia.,  wise  only  by  inheriiance,  and  ir 
authority  by  birth-right,  favour,  or  for  their  wealth  and  titles ;  there  must  needs  be 
a  fault,  ^^  a  great  defect :  because  as  an  "  old  pliilosopher  affirms,  such  men  are  noi 
always  fit.  "  Of  an  infinite  number,  few  alone  are  senators,  and  of  those  few,  fewer 
good,  and  of  that  small  number  of  honest,  good,  and  noble  men,  few  that  are  learned, 
wise,  discreet  and  sufficient,  able  to  discharge  such  places,  it  must  needs  turn  to  the 
confusion  of  a  state." 

For  as  the  **\Princes  are,  so  are  the  people ;  Qiialis  Rex.,  talis  grex  :  and  which 
^Antigonus  right  well  said  of  old,  qui  Macedonixz  rcgcm  erudil^  omnes  etiani  subditos 
erudit,,  he  that  teacheth  the  king  of  Macedon,  teacheth  all  his  subjects,  is  a  true 
saying  still. 

"For  Princes  are  the  stass,  the  school,  the  hook,          I      f,                       rT           "  Velocius  et  cilius  iios 
Where  subjects'  eyes  do  learn,  do  read,  do  look."          Corn.mpnni  v.iion.m  exemp la  domesfca,  n.agn.3 
•'  •'  '  '  I      Cum  subeant  aminos  auctoribus." ^d 

Their  examples  are  soonest  followed,  vices  entertained,  if  they  be  profane,  irreli- 


"  Romulus  Ainascus.  '^Sabellicus.   Si  quis  in-  '  plant  and  overthrow  their  adversaries,  enrich  thcnrio 

cola  vefiis,  non  agnosceret,  si  qiiis  pcregrinus  in?e- |  selves,  get  honours,  dissemble  ;  but  whit  is  this  to  the 
niisceret.  '' Polit.  1.  5.  c.  6.  Crudelitas  p\incipum,  bene  esse,  or  preservation  of  a  Coiiimonwe.Tttlil 
impunitas  scelerum,  violatio  leguni,  peculates  pc^uniee    f^Iinperiiim  suapte  sponte  ccrruit.  ^■^  Apul.  I'rim. 

publicEB,  etc.  '6  Epist.  '"  De  increm.  urb.  cap.  |  Flor.    Ex   innumerabiUbus,   pauci   Senatores  genere 

i20.  snbditi   niiseri,  i.;belles,  riesperali,  &c.  ''  R.  i  nobiles,  6  consularibus  pauci  boni,  6  bonis  adhuc  pauci 

D.irlington.   151)6.  conclusio  libri.  •"  Botcrus  !.  9.    eruditi.  ^^  Non  solum  viiia  coni'ipi-int  ipsi  princi- 

c.  4.  Polit.  Quo  fit  ut  aut  rebus  desperatis  exulenc,  I  pes,  sed  eliam  infundunt  in  civitatem,  plusque  e.-em;jlo 
aut  conjuratione  subditorum  crudclissime  tandem  Iru-  [  quam  peccato  nocetit.    Cic.  1.  de  legibus.  Ifpist. 

cidentur.  »- Mutuis  odiis  et  ca=dihus  exhausti,  &c.  ;  aj  Zen.  Juvcn.  .Sat.  4.     Paupertas  se^litionem  gi^nit 

"  63  Lucra  ex  malis,  scelerastisqne  cavisis.  .«' Salust.    et  maleficium.   Arist.  Pol. '2.  c.  7.  s*  Vicioijs,  c*i 

•■  For  nio?f  part  we  mistake  the   name  of  Politicians,    inesiic  examples  opc.Tttc  more  quickly"  upon  us  wb  f 
accounting  such  as  read  Machiavcl  and  1  acitus,  great    Buggepted  to  our  minds  by  high  authorities. 
><atosmen,  that  can  dispute  of  nrJitical  precpots,  sup- 

E  2 


54 


Democntits  to  the  Reader. 


gious,  lascivious,  riotous,  epicures,  factious,  covetous,  ambitious,  illiterate,  so  will  the 
commons  most  part  be,  idle,  unthrifts,  prone  to  lust,  drunkards,  and  therefore  poor 
and  needy  {h  rtevux.  ordatv  f^rtout  xal  jcaxovpyi-'ai',  for  poverty  begets  sedition  and  villany) 
upon  all  occasions  ready  to  mutiny  and  rebel,  discontent  still,  complaining,  mur- 
muring, grudging,  apt  to  all  outrages,  thefts,  treasons,  murders,  innovations,  in  debt, 
shifters,  cozeners,  outlaws,  Profligatce.  famce  ac  vita:.  It  was  an  old  ^'  politician's 
aphorism,  'hThey  that  are  poor  and  bad  envy  rich,  hate  good  men,  abhor  the  present 
government,  wish  for  a  new,  and  would  have  all  turned  topsy  turvy."  /.When  Cati- 
line rebelled  in  Rome,  he  got  a  company  of  such  debauched  rogues  together,  they 
were  his  familiars  and  coadjutors,  and  such  have  been  your  rebels  most  part  in  all 
ages,  Jack  Cade,  Tom  Straw,  Kette,  and  his  companions. 

Where  they  be  generally  riotous  and  contentious,  where  there  be  many  discords, 
many  laws,  many  lawsuits,  many  lawyers  and  many  physicians,  it  is  a  manifest  sign 
of  a  distempered^  melancholy  state,  as  ''^  Plato  long  since  maintained:  for  where  such 
kind  of  men  swarm,  they  will  make  more  work  for  themselves,  and  that  body  politic 
diseased,  which  was  otherwise  sound.  A  general  mischief  in  these  our  times,  an 
insensible  plague,  and  never  so  many  of  them:  "which  are  now  multiplied  (saith 
Mat.  Geraldus,  ^'^  a  lawyer  himself,)  as  so  many  locusts,  not  the  parents,  but  the 
plagues  of  the  country,  and  for  the  most  part  a  supercilious,  bad,  covetous,  litigious 
generation  of  men,  ^  Crumenimulga  natio,  &c.  A  purse-milking  nation,  a  clamor- 
ous company,  gowned  vultures,  ^'^qui  ex  injuria  vivcn>  et  sanguine  civinm,  thieves 
and  seminaries  of  discord ;  worse  than  any  polers  by  the  highway  side,  auri  accipi- 
tres,  auri  extercbronides,  pecuniarum  hamiolce^  quadruplatores^  curice  harpagones, 
fori  tinlinahula.1  monstra  hominum,  mangoncs,  &.c.  tliat  take  upon  them_  to  make 
peace,  but  are  indeed  the  very  disturbers  of  our  peace,  a  company  of  irreligious  har- 
pies, scraping,  griping  catchpoles,  (I  mean  our  common  hungry  pettifoggers,  ^  rabu- 
las  forenses^  love  and  honour  in  the  meantime  all  good  laws,  and  worthy  lawyers, 
that  are  so  many  ^'''oracles  and  pilots  of  a  well-governed  coiumonwealth).  Without 
art,  without  judgment,  that  do  more  harm,  as  ^**Livy  said,  quam  hella  externa,,  fa?nes, 
morbive.,  than  sickness,  wars,  hunger,  diseases  •,  "•  and  cause  a  most  incredible  de- 
struction of  a  commonwealth,"  saith  ®^  Sesellius,  a  famous  civilian  sometimes  in  Paris, 
as  ivy  doth  by  an  oak,  embrace  it  so  long,  until  it  hath  got  the  heart  out  of  it,  so  do 
they  by  such  places  they  inhabit;  no  counsel  at  all, no  justice,  no  speech  to  be  had, 
nisi  cum  premulscris,  he  must  be  fed  still,  or  else  he  is  as  mute  as  a  fish,  better  open 
an  oyster  without  a  knife.  Experto  crede  (saith  '^  Salisburiensis)  in  manus  eorum 
millies  incidi,  et  Charon  immitis  qui  nulli  pepcrcit  unquam,  his  longe  clementior  est ; 
"  1  speak  out  of  experience,  I  have  been  a  thousand  times  amongst  them,  and  Charon 
himself  is  more  gentle  tlian  they ;  '  he  is  contented  with  his  single  pay,  but  they 
multiply  still,  they  are  never  satisfied,"  besides  they  liave  damnijicas  linguas^  as  he 
terms  it,  nisi  funibus  argenteis  vincias,  they  must  be  fed  to  say  nothing,  and  '^  get 
more  to  hold  their  peace  than  we  can  to  say  our  best.  They  will  speak  their  clients 
fair,  and  invite  them  to  their  tables,  but  as  he  follows  it,  '' "  of  all  injustice  there  is 
none  so  pernicious  as  that  of  theirs,  which  when  they  deceive  most,  will  seem  to 
be  honest  men."  They  take  upon  them  to  be  peacemakers,  et  fovere  cansas  humi- 
hum,  to  help  them  to  their  right.,  patrocina7itur  afflictis,  *  hut  aW  is  for  their  own 
good,  lit  loculos  plenioro/n  exhauriant,  they  plead  for  poor  men  gratis,  but  they  are 
but  as  a  stale  to  catch  others.  If  there  be  no  jar,  ''they  can  make  a  jar,  out  of  the 
law  itself  find  still  some  quirk  or  other,  to  set  them  at  odds,  and  continue  causes  so 
long,  lustra  aliquot.,  I  know  not  how  many  years  before  the  cause  is  heard,  and 
when  'tis  judged  and  determined  by  reason  of  some  tricks  and  errors,  it  is  as  fresh 
to  begin,  after  twice  seven  years  sometimes,  as  it  was  at  first ;  and  so  they  prolong 


91  Salust.  Semper  in  civitate  quibus  opes  nulls  sunt 
bonis  invident,  vctera  oderfi,  nova  exoptant,  odio  su- 
aruni  renini  mutari  omnia  petunt.  ^  De  lesiibus. 

profligatffi  in  repiib.  dir.ciplinffi  est  indicium  jurisperi- 
toriim  nnmeriis,  ot  medii;orum  copia.  "•<  In  pra;f. 

stud,  juris.  Mulliplicantur  nunc  in  tcrris  m  locustee 
non  pairife  parentes,  sed  pestes,  pessinii  homines,  ma- 
jore  ex  parta  snperciliosi  contentiosi,  &c.  licit uni 
latrociiiium   exerrent.  "'  Dousa   epid     loquieleia 

lurba,  vultures  logati,  96  Bare.  Argen.  --li  Juris 

xiDBulti  doiuus  orariilum  civuatis.   Tully.        ^  Lib.  3. 


w  Lib.  3.  !»Lib.  1.  de  rep.  Gallorum,  incredibilem 

reipub.  porniciom  afferunt.  »«  Polycrat.  lib.  'Is 
stipo  contentus.  et  hi  asses  integros  sibi  niiiltiplicari^ 
jubent.  '^  Plus  accipiunt  tacore,  quam  nos  loqui.' 

■'  Totiu.s  inj\tstitiiB  nulla  capitalior,  qiiAm  eorum  qui 
cum  ma.i;ime  decipiunt,  id  asunt.  ut  boni  viri  esse  vi- 
deanlur.  *  Nam  quocunque  mndo  causa  procedat, 

hoc  semper  agitur,  ut  loculi  impleantur,  etsi  avarii  a 
nrqiiit  saiiari.  ^  Camdei-  in  Norfolk  ;  qui  si  niliU 

sit  litiiim  £  juris  apicibus  litob  tamen  serere  callenl. 


Democritus  to  the  Reader.  i>5 

time,  delay  suit*  till  they  have  enriched  themselves,  and  beggared  their  clients.  And, 
as  ''Cato  inveighed  against  Isocrates'  scholars,  we  may  justly  tax  our  wrangling  law 
yers,  they  do  consenescere  in  litibus,  are  so  litigious  and  busy  here  on  earth,  that  I 
"  think  they  will  plead  their  client's  causes  hereafter,  some  of  them  in  hell.  'Sinilerus 
complains  amongst  the  Snisseres  of  the  advocates  in  his  time,  tliat  when  they  should 
make  an  end,  they  began  controversies,  and  "  protract  their  causes  many  years,  ner- 
suading  them  their  title  is  good,  till  their  patrimonies  be  consumed,  and  tliat  they 
have  spent  more  in  seeking  than  the  thing  is  worth,  or  they  shall  get  by  the  recovery.' 
So  that  he  that  goes  to  law,  as  the  proverb  is,  **  holds  a  wolf  by  the  ears,  or  as  a 
sheep  in  a  storm  runs  for  shelter  to  a  brier,  if  he  prosecute  his  cause  he  is  consumed, 
if  he  surcease  his  suit  he  loseth  all;  ^what  difference  .''  They  had  wont  heretofore, 
saith  Austin,  to  end  matters,  per  communes  arbitros ;  and  so  in  Switzerland  (we  are 
informed  by  '"Simlerus),  "they  had  some  common  arbitrators  or  daysmen  in  every 
town,  that  made  a  friendly  composition  betwixt  man  and  man,  and  he  much  wonders 
at  their  honest  simplicity,  that  could  keep  peace  so  well,  and  end  such  great  causes 
by  that  means.  At  "Fez  in  Africa,  they  have  neither  lawyers  nor  advocates;  but 
if  there  be  any  controversies  amongst  them,  both  parties  plaintiff  and  defendant  come 
to  their  Alfakins  or  chief  judge,  '■'•  and  at  once  without  any  farther  appeals  or  pitiful 
delays,  the  cause  is  heard  and  ended."  Our  forefathers,  as  '^a  worthy  chorographer 
of  ours  observes,  had  wont  paucuUs  crucuUs  cmreis^  with  a  few  golden  crosses,  and 
lines  in  verse,  make  all  conveyances,  assurances.  '\And  such  was  the  candour  and 
integrity  of  succeeding  ages,  that  a  deed  (as  I  have  oft  seen)  to  convey  a  whole 
manor,  was  impllcite  contained  in  some  twenty  lines  or  thereabouts  ;  like  that  scede 
or  Sytala  Laconica,  so  much  renowned  of  old  in  all  contracts,  which  '"TuUy  so 
earnestly  commends  to  Atticus,  Plutarch  in  his  Lysander,  Arisioile  polity :  Tlmcy- 
dides.,  Uh.  1,  '^Diodorus  and  Suidus  approve  and  magnify,  for  that  laconic  brevity 
in  this  kind;  and  well  they  might,  for,  according  to  '^TertuUian,  certa  sunt  paucis^ 
there  is  much  more  certainty  in  fewer  words.  And  so  was  it  of  old  throughout ; 
but  now  many  skins  of  parchment  will  scarce  serve  turn;  he  that  buys  and  sells 
a  house,  must  have  a  house  full  of  writings,  there  be  so  many  circumstances,  so 
many  words,  such  tautological  repetitions  of  all  particulars  (to  avoid  cavillation  they 
say) ;  but  we  find  by  our  woful  experience,  that  to  subtle  wits  it  is  a  cause  of  much 
more  contention  and  variance,  and  scarce  any  conveyance  so  accurately  penned  by 
one,  which  another  will  not  find  a  crack  in,  or  cavil  at ;  if  any  one  word  be  mis- 
placed, any  little  error,  all  is  disannulled.  ;  That  which  is  a  law  to-day,  is  none  to- 
morrow ;  that  which  is  sound  in  one  man's  opinion,  is  most  faulty  to  another ;  that 
in  conclusion,  here  is  nothing  amongst  us  but  contention  and  confusion,  we  bandy 
one  against  another.  .And  that  which  long  since  "^ Plutarch  complained  of  them  in 
Asia,  may  be  verified  in  our  times.  "  These  men  here  assembled,  come  not  to  sacri- 
fice to  their  gods,  to  offer  Jupiter  their  first-fruits,  or  merriments  to  Bacchus  ;  but  an 
yearly  disease  exasperating  Asia  hath  brought  them  hither,  to  make  an  end  of  their 
controversies  and  lawsuits."  'Tis  multitudo  perdentiimi  et  percuntlum,.,  a  destructive 
rout  that  seek  one  another's  ruin.  Such  most  part  are  our  ordinary  suitors,  termers- 
clients,  new  stirs  every  day,  mistakes,  errors,  cavils,  and  at  this  present,  as  I  have 
heard  in  some  one  court,  I  know  not  how  many  thousand  causes  :  no  person  free, 
no  title  almost  good,  with  such  bitterness  in  following,  so  many  slights,  procrastina- 
tions, delays,  forgery,  such  cost  (for  infinite  sums  are  inconsiderately  spent),  violence 
and  malice,  I  know  not  by  whose  fault,  lawyers,  clients,  laws,  both  or  all :  but  as 
Paul  reprehended  the  ''Corinthians  long  since,  I  may  more  positively  infer  now  : 
'7, "There  is  a  fault  amongst  you,  and  I  speak  it  to  your  shame.  Is  there  not  a  '^wise 
/  man  amongst  you,  to  judge  between  his  brethren  .''  but  that  a  brother  goes  to  law 

»  Plutarch,  vit.  Cat.  causas  apud   inferos  quas  in  "  Clenard.  1.  1.  ep.  Si  quae  controversiae  utraqne  pam 

•uam   fidem    receperunt,   patrocinio    suo   tuebiintiir.  judicem  adit,  is  seniul  et  siiiiul  rem  transiirit,  audit : 

"    '  Lib.  2.  de  llelvet.  repub.  iion  explicandis,  sed  nioli-  nee  quid  sit  appelliitio,  lachrymosceque  morjE  noscunt 

endis  cinlroversiis  operam  dant,  ita  utliies  in  niultos  '*  Camden.  '3  Lib.  10.  epist.  ad  Attiruni,  epist.  II. 

annns  extrahantur  siimnia   cum   molesti^   utrisque  ;  i'' Biblioth.  1.  3.  '■''Lib.  de  Aniui.  '"Lib.  major 

partis    el     dum     interea     palrimotjia     e.\liaiiriaiitur,  iiiorb.  corp.  an  animi.    Hi  non  conveniunt  ut  diis  nior« 

"  Lupuni   auribus   leneiit.  "  Hor.  '"Lib.  de  majnrum  sacra  faciant,  non  ut  Jnvi  primitras  offerarit, 

Helvet.  repub.  Judices  quocunque  pago  constiluunt  aut  Baccho  commessaliones,  sed  anniversariiis  nior- 

qui  amica  aliqua  Iransactione  «■  fieri  po.qsit,  lites  tol-  bus  exasperans  Asiaui  hue  eo.s  coegit,  ut  coiitentione* 

lant.    Ego  majorum  nosirorum   siniplicitatein  adiui-  hie  peragant.         "  1  Cor.  vi.  5,  6.         '"cstulti  quands 

rur,  qui  ei:    lausas   gravissimas  composueiint,  Sec.  deniutn  sapietis  1     Fs.  xlix.8. 


.')0  Democritus  to  the  Reader. 

with  a  broiher."     And  "Christ's  counsel  concerning  lawsuits,  was  never  so'fit  to  be 
incu  cated  as  in  this  age  :  ^^  Agree  with  thine  adversary  <iuickly,"  &.c.  Matth.  v.  25. 

1  could  repeat  many  sucli  particular  grievances,  which  must  disturb  a  body  politic. 
To  shut  up  all  in  brief,  where  good  government  is,  prudent  and  wise  princes,  there 
all  things  thrive  and  prosper,  peace  and  happiness  is  in  that  land  :  where  it  is  other- 
wise, all  things  are  ugly  to  behold,  incult,  barbarous,  uncivil,  a  paradise  is  turned  to 
a  wilderness.  This  island  amongst  the  rest,  our  next  neighbours  the  French  and 
Germans,  may  be  a  sufficient  witness,  that  in  a  short  time  by  lliat  prudent  policy  of 
the  Romans,  was  brought  from  barbarism;  see  but  what  Ciesar  reports  of  us,  and 
Tacitus  of  those  old  Germans,  they  were  once  as  uncivil  as  they  in  Virginia,  yet  by 
planting  of  colonies  and  good  laws,  they  became  from -barbarous  outlaws,  ^' to  be  fidl 
of  rich  and  populous  cities,  as  now  they  are,  and  most  flourishing  kingdoms.  Even 
so  might  Virgmia,  and  those  wdd  Irish  have  been  civilized  long  since,  if  that  order 
had  been  heretofore  taken,  which  now  begins,  of  planting  colonies,  &c.  I  have  read 
a  "^^  discourse,  printed  anno  1612.  "Discovering  the  true  causes  why  Ireland  was 
never  entirely  subdued,  or  brought  under  obedience  to  the  crown  of  England,  until 
the  beginning  of  his  Majesty's  happy  reign."  Yet  if  his  reasons  were  thoroughly 
scanned  by  a  judicious  politician,  I  am  afraid  he  would  not  altogether  be  approved, 
but  that  it  would  turn  to  the  dishonour  of  our  nation,  to  suffer  it  to  lie  so  long  waste. 
Yea,  and  if  some  travellers  should  see  (to  come  nearer  home)  those  rich,  united  pro- 
vinces of  Holland,  Zealand,  &c.,  over  against  us ;  those  neat  cities  and  populous 
towns,  full  of  most  industrious  artificers,  ^^  so  much  land  recovered  from  the  sea,  and 
so  painfully  preserved  by  those  artificial  inventions,  so  wonderfully  approved,  as  that 
of  Bemster  in  Holland,  ?i/  nihil  hide  par  aid  simile  invenias  in  toto  orbe^  saitli  Bertius 
the  geographer,  all  the  world  cannot  match  it,  ^^so  many  navigable  channels  from 
place  to  place,  made  by  men's  hands,  &c.  and  on  the  other  side  so  many  thousand 
acres  of  our  fens  lie  drowned,  our  cities  thin,  and  those  vile,  poor,  and  ugly  to  behold 
in  respect  of  theirs,  our  trades  decayed,  our  still  running  rivers  stopped,  and  that  bene- 
ficial use  of  transportation,  wholly  neglected,  so  many  havens  void  of  ships  and 
towns,  so  many  parks  and  forests  for  pleasure,  barren  lieaths,  so  many  villages 
depopulated.  Sec.  I  think  sure  he  would  find  some  fault. 

I  may  not  deny  bui  that  this  nation  of  ours,  doth  bene  audire  apud  exteros,  is  a 
most  noble,  a  most  flourishing  kingdom,  by  common  consent  of  all  '^geographers, 
historians,  politicians,  'tis  unica  velttl  arj\'*'  and  which  Quintius  in  Livy  said  of  the 
inhabitants  of  Peloponnesus,  may  be  well  applied  to  us,  we  are  tcsludincs  testa  sua 
inc/iisi^  like  so  many  tortoises  in  our  shells,  safely  defended  by  an  angry  sea,  as  a 
wall  on  all  sides.  Our  island  hath  many  such  honourable  eulogiums ;  and  as  a 
loarned  countryman  of  ours  right  well  hath  it,  ^'"-  Ever  since  the  Normans  first  coming 
into  England,  this  country  both  for  military  matters,  and  all  other  of  civility,  hath 
been  paralleled  with  the  m  )st  flourishing  kingdoms  of  Europe  and  our  Christian 
world,"  a  blessed,  a  rich  c  )untry,  and  one  of  the  fortunate  isles  :  and  for  some 
things  ^*  preferred  before  oth  n-  countries,  for  expert  seamen,  our  laborious  discover- 
ies, art  of  navigation,  true  mjrcbants,  they  carry  tlie  bell  away  from  all  other  nations, 
even  the  Portugals  and  Hollanders  themselves;  ^^"  without  all  fear,"  saith  Boterus, 
'/'furrowing  the  ocean  winter  and  summer,  and  Uvo  of  their  captains,  with  no  less 
''valour  tiian  fortune,  have  sailed  round  about  the  world."  ^"We  iiave  besides  many 
particular  blessings,  whicli  our  neighbours  want,  the  Gospel  truly  preached,  church 
discipline  established,  long  peace  and  quietness  free  from  exactions,  foreign  fears, 
invasions,  domestical  seditions,  well  manured,  "'fortified  by  art,  aim  nature,  and  now 
most  happy  in  that  fortunate  union  of  England  and  Scotland,  which  our  forefathers 
have  laboured  to  effect,  and  desired  to  see.     But  in  which  we  excel  all  others,  a 


'"  So  intituled,  and  preaclied  by  oiir  Repius  Profes- 
sor, D.  Prideaux  ;  printed  at  London  hy  Fojlix  Kinjj;- 
BKm,  10-21.  -oOf  wliitli  Text  lead   two   learned 

Ki!!noiis.  "  Sa'pins  Ixina  materia  cessat  sine  ar- 

litite.     Saliellicus  de  CJennania.     Si  qiiis  videret  Ger 


del  par  excellence."  ''Jam  inde  non  belli  gloria 

qiiitm  hiinianitatis  rultii  intei'  florontis-siina^  orbis 
(lirisliani  uentes  imprimis  floruit.  Camden  Brit,  de 
Normamiis.  •"' Geors.  Keeker.  '■'■'Tani  iileme 

qnim  testate  inlrepide  snicant  Oceaniim.  et  duo  illo- 


nianiain  iirliiliiis  liodie  exciilt.un.  non  diceret  ut  ollin  rum  duces  non   minore  aiidacifl.  (inam   fnrtiinft   totiui 

Iristem  cultii,  asperam  cop!.",,  terram  informem.        '.*- Hy  orl)etii  terra?  circmiinavipiriint.     Amphitlieatro  liote- 

his  Majesty's  Attorney 'Jeiier.il  tlieie.  '.^SAsZeip-  riis.  *i  a  fertile  soil,  good  air,  ice.     Tin,    Lead 

land,  Hems'.i'r  in  Unlland.  &c  -<  From  0:iiipit  to  Wool.  Saffron,  &.C.  !"  Tola  Britannia  unica  veliu 

^luce,  from  Unifies  to  the   Sea,  &c.  -  Ortelins,  arz  Buter. 

Iloterus,  Mcrcalor.  iMeteraiius,  &.c.  2(i"Tlie  cilu-  ' 


Democrilus  to  the  Reader.  57 

vise,  learned^ligious  king,  another  Numa,  a  second  Augustiis,  a  true  Josiah ;  niosi    )/^>l' 
worthy  senators,  a  learned  clergy,  an  obedient  commonalty,  Stc      Yet  amongst  many 
roses,  some  thistles  gi'ow,  some  bad  weeds  and  enormities,  which  much  disturb  the 
leace  of  this  body  politic,  eclipse  the  honour  and  glory  of  it,  iit  to  be  rooted  ou.. 
find  with  all  speed  to  be  reformed. 

N,The  first  is  idleness,  by  reason  of  wliich  we  have  many  swarms  of  roguei;,  anc" 
oeggars,  thieves,  drunkards,  and  discontented  persons  (M-hom  Lycurgus  in  Plutarch 
calls  morbos  reipublicce,  the  boils  of  the  commonwealth),  many  poor  people  in  all 
our  towns.  Civitates  ignobiles,  as  ^^Polydore  calls  them,  base-built  cities,  inglorious, 
ooor,  small,  rare  in  sight,  ruinous,  and  thin  of  inhabitants.  Our  land  is  fertile  we  may 
not  deny,  full  of  all  good  things,  and  why  doth  it  not  then  abound  with  cities,  as  well 
as  Italy,  France,  Germany,  the  Low  Countries  ?  because  their  policy  hath  been  other- 
wise, and  we'  are  not  so  thrifty,  circumspect,  industrious.  Idleness  is  the  malus 
genius  of  our  nation.  For  as  ''*  Boterus  justly  argues,  fertility  of  a  country  is  not 
enough,  except  art  and  industry  be  joined  unto  it,  according  to  Aristotle,  riches  are 
either  natural  or  artificial ;  natural  are  good  land,  fair  mines,  &c.  artificial,  are  manu- 
factures, coins,  &c.  Many  kingdoms  are  fertile,  but  thin  of  inhabitants,  as  that 
Duchy  of  Piedmont  in  Italy,  which  Leander  Albertus  so  much  magnifies  for  corn, 
wine,  fruits,  &.c.,  yet  nothing  near  so  populous  as  those  which  are  more  barren. 
^"^  England,"  saith  he,  "  London  only  excepted,  hath  never  a  populous  city,  and  yet 
a  fruitlul  country.  I  find  46  cities  and  walled  towns  in  Alsatia,  a  small  province  i<a 
Germany,  50  castles,  an  infinite  number  of  villages,  no  ground  idle,  no  not  rock) 
places,  or  tops  of  hills  are  unfilled,  as  ''^Munster  informeth  us.  In  '"^Greichgea,  a 
a  small  territory  on  the  Necker,  24  Italian  miles  over,  I  read  of  20  walled  towns, 
innumerable  villages,  each  one  containhig  150  houses  most  part,  besides  castles  and 
noblemen's  palaces.  I  observe  in  ^'Turinge  in  Dutchland  (twelve  miles  over  by 
their  scale)  12  counties,  and  in  them  144  cities,  20U0  villages,  144  towns,  250  cas- 
tles. In  ^*' Bavaria  34  cities,  46  towns,  &c.  ^PorliigaUiu  intcramnis^  a  small  plot  . 
of  ground,  hath  1460  parishes,  130  monasteries,  200  bridges.  Malta,  a  barren  island, 
yields  20,000  inhabitants.  But  of  all  the  rest,  I  admire  Lues  Guicciardine's  relations  of 
the  Low  Countries.  Holland  hath  26  cities,  400  great  villages.  Zealand  J  0  cities,  102 
parishes.  Brabant  26  cities,  102  parishes.  Flanders  28  cities,  90  towns,  1 154  villages, 
besides  abbeys,  castles,  &.c.  The  Low  Countries  generally  have  three  cities  at  least 
for  one  of  ours,  and  those  far  more  populous  and  rich  :  and  what  is  the  cause,  but  tlieii 
mdustry  and  excellency  in  all  manner  of  trades }  Their  connnerce,  which  is  main- 
tained by  a  multitude  of  tradesmen,  so  many  excellent  channels  made  by  art  and  oppor- 
tune havens,  to  which  they  build  their  cities  ;  all  which  we  have  in  like  measure,  or 
at  least  may  have.  But  their  chiefest  loadstone  which  draws  all  manner  of  commerce 
and  merchandise,  which  maintains  their  present  estate,  is  not  fertility  of  soil,  but 
industry  that  enricheth  them,  the  gold  mines  of  Peru,  or  Nova  Hispania  may  not 
compare  with  lliem.  They  have  neither  gold  nor  silvr-  oC  iheir  own,  wine  nor  oil, 
or  scarce  any  corn  growing  in  those  iinWr.'  jj-rovmces,  little  or  no  wood,  tin,  lead, 
iron,  silk,  wool,  any  stufi"  a'm. -•:;■,,  or  metal ;  and  yet  Hungary,  Transylvania,  that 
orag  of  their  mi nr^,  fciuie  England  cannot  compare  with  them.  I  dare  boldly  say, 
thpt  '"'Tl.iier  France,  Tarentum,  Apulia,  Lombardy,  or  any  part  of  Italy,  Valentia  in 
.Spain,  or  that  pleasant  Andalusia,  with  their  excellent  fruits,  wine  and  oil,  two  har- 
vests, no  not  any  part  of  Europe  is  so  flourishing,  so  rich,  so  populous,  so  full  of 
good  ships,  of  well-built  cities,  so  abounding  with  all  things  necessary  for  the  use  -M' 
.nan.  'I'is  our  Indies,  an  epitome  of  China,  and  all  by  reason  of  their  industry,  g^od 
Oolicy,  and  commerce.  Industry  is  a  load-stone  to  draw  all  good  things ;  that  alone 
aiakes  countries  flourish,  cities  populous,  ''°  and  will  enforce  by  reason  of  much  ma- 
lure,  which  necessarily  follows,  a  barren  soil  to  be  fertile  and  good,  as  sheep,  sailh 

Dion,  mend  a  bad  pasture. 

\Tell  me  politicians,  why  is  that  fruitful  Palestina,  noble  Greece,  Egypt,  Asu 

s^Lib.    1.    hi^t.  3s  Increment,    iirb.    I.    1.   c.   9.     si^Ortelius  6  Vaseo  et  Pet.  de  Medina.  soAnliun- 

Anglite,  excepto  Londino,  nulla  eat  civitas  memora-     dred  families  in  each.  wPopuli  multjtiido  dilj- 

bllis,  !icel   ra   natio   return   onini\im    copia  aliundel.     geiite    ciiltiira    fcBcundat    solum.      Boter.    1.  «.   c.  i 

sCosmng.  Lib.  3.  cop.  119.     Villarum  non  est  niinie-    -"Orat.  35.     Terra  ubi  oves  stabulantur  ODlinia  agri- 

rns,  iiullus  loctisotiosus  auv  mcultus.  ^echytreus  i  colis  ob  stercus. 

Ofat.   edit.     Fiancot.    1563.  « Maginus    Geog.  i 


58  Democritus  to  the  Reader. 

Minor,  so  much  decayed,  and  (mere  carcases  now)  fallen  from  that  thty  were  The 
Jround  is  the  same,  but  the  government  is  altered,  the  people  are  grown  siothfui, 
idle,  their  good  husbandry,  policy,  and  industry  is  decayed.  JYon  faligata  aut  ejfcet.a 
humus^  as  ''^Columella  well  informs  Sylvinus,  sed  noslrci  fit  inertia^  Sj.c.  May  a  man 
believe  that  which  Ari='.otle  in  his  politics,  Pausanias,  Stephanus,  Sophianus,  Gerbe- 
lius  relate  of  old  Greerc  ?  ''^l  find  heretofore  70  cities  in  Epirus  overthrown  by  Paulas 
jEniilius,  a  goodly  pro\nice  in  times  past,  "^now  left  desolate  of  good  towns  and  al- 
most inhabitants.  Six*v-lwo  cities  in  Macedonia  in  Strabo's  time.  I  find  30  in  Laconia, 
but  now  scarce  so  man^  villages,  saith  Gerbelius.  If  any  man  from  Mount  Taygetus 
should  view  the  couniry  round  about,  and  see  tot  dellcias^  tot  urbes  per  Pelopone- 
sura  dtspersasj  so  many  delicate  and  brave  built  cities  with  such  cost  and  exquisite 
cunning,  so  neatly  set  out  in  Peloponnesus,  ''^he  should  perceive  them  now  ruinous 
and  overthrown,  burnt,  waste,  desolate,  and  laid  level  with  the  ground.'  Incrcdibik 
dictii,  &c.  And  as  he  laments,  Quis  taliafando  Te?nperet  a  lachrymis?  Quis  tam 
durus  aid  fcrreus^  (so  he  prosecutes  it).''^  Who  is  he  that  can  sufficiently  condole 
and  commiserate  these  ruins?  Where  are  those  4000  cities  of  Egypt,  those  100 
cities  in  Crete  ?  Are  they  now  come  to  two  ?  Wiiat  saith  Pliny  and  ^lian  of  old 
Italy  ?  There  were  in  former  ages  1 106  cities  :  Blondus  and  Machiavel,  both  grant 
them  now  nothing  near  so  populous,  and  full  of  good  towns  as  in  the  time  of  Au- 
gustus (for  now  Leander  Albertus  can  find  but  300  at  most),  and  if  we  may  give 
credit  to  "'"Livy,  not  then  so  strong  and  puissant  as  of  old:  '-'They  mustered  70 
Legions  in  former  times,  which  now  the  known  world  will  scarce  yield.  Alexander 
built  7'3  cities  in  a  short  space  for  his  part,  our  Saltans  and  Turks  demolish  twice 
as  mau}^,  and  leave  al.  desolate.  Many  will  not  believe  but  that  our  island  of  Great 
Britain  is  now  more  populous  than  ever  it  was ;  yet  let  them  read  Bede,  Leland  and 
others,  they  shall  find  it  most  flourished  in  the  Saxon  Heptarchy,  and  in  the  Con- 
queror's time  was  far  better  inhabited,  than  at  this  present..  See  that  Doomsday 
Book,  and  show  me  those  thousands  of  parishes,  which  are  now  decayed,  cities 
ruined,  villages  depopulated,  &c.  ■  The  lesser  the  territory  is,  commonly,  the  richer 
it  is.  Parvus  sed  bene  cultus  ager.  As  those  Athenian,  Lacedeemonian,  Arcadian, 
Aelian,  Sycionian,  Messenian,  &c.  commonwealths  of  Greece  make  ample  proof,  as 
those  imperial  cities  and  free  states  of  Germany  may  witness,  those  Cantons  of  Swit- 
zers,  Rheti,  Grisons,  Walloons,  Territories  of  Tuscany,  Luke  and  Senes  of  old,  Pied- 
mont, Mantua,  Venice  in  Italy,  Ragusa,  &c. 

That  prince  therefore  as,  ^'Boterus  adviseth,  that  will  have  a  rich  country,  and 
fair  cities,  let  him  get  good  trades,  privileges,  painful  inhabitants,  artificers,  and  suffer 
no  rude  matter  unvvrought,  as  tin,  iron,  wool,  lead,  Sj-c,  to  be  transported  out  of  his 
country, — ^^a  thing  in  part  seriously  attempted  amongst  us,  but  not  effected.  And 
because  industry  of  men,  and  multitude  of  trade  so  much  avails  to  the  ornament  and 
enriching  of  a  kingdom  ;  those  ancient  ''^Massilians  would  admit  no  man  into  their 
city  that  had  not  some  trade.  Selym  the  first  Turkish  emperer  procured  a  thousand 
good  artificers  to  bp  b"oughtfrom  Tauris  to  Constantinople.  The  Polanders  indented 
with  Henry  Duke  of  Anjou,  their  new  chosen  king,  to  bring  with  him  an  hundred 
families  of  artificers  into  Poland.  James  the  first  in  Scotland  (as  '^"Buchanan  writes) 
sent  for  the  best  artificers  he  could  get  in  Europe,  and  gave  them  great  rewards  to 
teach  his  subjects  their  several  trades.  Edward  the  Third,  our  most  renowned 
king,  to  his  eternal  memory,  brought  clothing  first  into  this  island,  transporting 
some  families  of  artificers  from  Gaunt  hither.  How  many  goodly  cities  could  I 
reckon  up,  that  thrive  wholly  by  trade,  where  thousands  of  inhabitants  live  singular 
well  by  their  fingers'  ends  :  As  Florence  in  Italy  by  making  cloth  of  gold  ;  great 
Milan  by  silk,  and  all  curious  works  ;  Arras  in  Artois  by  those  fair  hangings ;  many 
cities  in  Spain,  mar-  in  France,  Germany,  have  none  other  maintenance,  especially 
those  within  the  land.     ^' Mecca,  in  Arabia  Petraea,  stands  in  a  most  unfruitful  coun- 


^'Dr  re  rust.  1.  2.  cap.  ».     The  soil  is  not  tired  or  |  ■'^Lib.  7.     Septuaginta  oliin  lesiones  scriploB  diciintiii  ; 
exhausted,  hut  htis  b'-co"*"  barren  through  our  sloth.  \  quas  vires  hodie,  <fec.  J'  Polit.  1.  3.  c.  8.  i^l'iir 

«  Hodie  urbibus  doouiatur,  ct  magna  ex  parte  incoUs    dyeing  of  cloths,  and  dressing,  &;c.  «  Valer   1.  i. 

dest.tuitur.     Gerbelius  desc.  Griecias,  lib.  6.  «  Vi-     c.    1.  ^u  Hist.    Scot.   Lib.   U).     Magnis  proDOSitij 

<lebit  eas  fere   oiunes  aut  ever«a<,  aut  solo  tequatas,     prsmii.?,  ut   Scoti  ab   iis  edncerentur.  ^'  Munst. 

aut  in  ruflera  fa-dissiine  dejecta^;  Gerbelius.  cosin    1.  5.  c.  74     Agro  omnium  rerum  infoBCUndissiii.f 

«Not  even  the  liardpst  of  our  fons  could  hear,  '  aqua  indisente  inter  saxeta,  urbs  tamen  elpgantisfi 

Nor  stern  Ulysses  lell  witliout  a  tear.  >  ma,  ob  OrienliB  negotiationes  et  Occidentis 


Democritus  to  the  Reader.  59 

try,  that  wants  water,  amongst  the  rocks  (as  Vertomanus  describes  it),  and  yet  it  is 
a  most  elegant  and  pleasant  city,  by  reason  of  the  traftic  of  the  east  and  west. 
Ormus  in  Persia  is  a  most  famous  mart-town,  hath  nought  else  but  the  opportunity 
of  the  haven  to  make  it  flourish.  Corinth,  a  noble  city  (Lumen  Grecioe,  Tully  calls 
it)  the  Eye  of  Greece,  by  reason  of  Cenchreas  and  Lecheus,  those  excellent  ports, 
drew  all  that  traffic  of  the  Ionian  and  ^Egean  seas  to  it ;  and  yet  the  country  about 
it  was  curva  et  superciliosa^  as  ^^Strabo  terms  it,  rugged  and  harsh.  We  may  say 
the  same  of  Athens,  Actium,  Thebes,  Sparta,  and  most  of  those  toviiis  in  Greece. 
(Nuremberg  in  Germany  is  sited  in  a  most  barren  soil,  yet  a  noble  imperial  city  by 
tKe"  sole  industry  of  artificers,  and  cunning  trades,  they  draw  the  riches  of  most  coun- 
tries to  them,  so  expert  in  manufactures,  that  as  Sallust  long  since  gave  out  of  the  like, 
Scdem  anbncK  in  extremis  digltls  habent,  their  soul,  or  intelkctus  agcns,  was  placed  in 
their  fingers'  end ;  and  so  we  may  say  of  Basil,  Spire,  Cambray,  Frankfort,  &c.  It  is 
almost  incredible  to  speak  wliat  some  write  of  Mexico  and  the  cities  adjoining  to  it, 
no  place  in  the  world  at  their  first  discovery  more  populous,  "^  Mat.  Riccius,  the 
Jesuit,  and  some  others,  relate  of  the  industry  of  the  Chinese  most  populous  coun- 
tries, not  a  beggar  or  an  idle  person  to  be  seen,  and  how  by  that  means  they  prosper 
and  flourish.  We  have  the  same  means,  able  bodies,  pliant  wits,  matter  of  ali  sorts, 
wool,  flax,  iron,  tin,  lead,  wood,  Slc.^  many  excf;llent  subjects  to  work  upon,  only 
industry  is  wanting.  We  send  our  best  commodities  beyond  the  seas,  which  they 
make  good  use  of  to  their  necessities,  set  themselves  a  work  about,  and  severally 
improve,  sending  the  same  to  us  back  at  dear  rates,  or  else  make  toys  and  baubles 
of  the  tails  of  them,  which  they  sell  to  us  again,  at  as  great  a  reckoning  as  the 
whole."  ,  In  most  of  our  cities,  some  few  excepted,  like  ^^  Spanish  loiterers,  we  live 
wholly  by  tippling-inns  and  ale-houses.  Malting  are  their  best  ploughs,  their  great- 
est trafhc  to  sell  ale.  ^^Meteran  and  some  others  object  to  us,  that  we  are  no  whit 
so  industrious  as  the  Hollanders :  "  Manual  trades  (saith  he)  which  are  more  cu- 
rious or  troublesome,  are  wholly  exercised  by  strangers  :  they  dwell  in  a  sea  full  of 
fish,  but  they  are  so  idle,  they  will  not  catch  so  much  as  shall  serve  their  own  turns, 
but  buy  it  of  their  neighbours."  Tush^**  Mare  Uberum,  they  fish  under  our  noses, 
and  sell  it  to  us  when  they  have  done,  at  their  own  prices. 

■  Pudet  hsec  opprobria  nobis 


Et  dici  potuisse,  et  iion  potiiisse  refelli." 

,  I  am  ashamed  to  hear  this  objected  by  strangers,  and  know  not  how  to  answer  it 
Amongst  our  towns,  there  is  only  "London  that  bears  the  face  of  a  city,  ^^  Epitome 
Britannicg^  a  famous  emporium.,  second  to  none  beyond  seas,  a  noble  mart :  but  sola 
crescit^  decrescentibus  aliis ;  and  yet,  in  my  slender  judgment,  defective  in  many 
things.  The  rest  C^"  some  few  excepted)  are  in  mean  estate,  ruinous  most  part,  poor, 
and  full  of  beggars,  by  reason  of  their  decayed  trades,  neglected  or  bad  policy,  idle- 
ness of  their  inhabitants,  riot,  which  had  rather  beg  or  loiter,  and  be  ready  to  starve, 
than  work. 

I  cannot  deny  but  that  something  may  be  said  in  defence  of  our  cities,  *"  that  they 
are  not  so  fair  built,  (for  the  sole  magnificence  of  this  kingdom  (concerning  build- 
ings) hath  been  of  old  in  those  Norman  castles  and  religious  houses,)  so  rich,  thick 
sited,  populous,  as  in  some  other  countries  ;  besides  the  reasons  Cardan  gives,  Subtil. 
Lib.  H.  we  want  wine  and  oil,  their  two  harvests,  we  dwell  in  a  colder  air,  and  for 
tliat  cause  must  a  little  more  liberally  ^'  feed  of  flesh,  as  all  northern  countries  do  : 
our  provisions  will  not  therefore  extend  to  the  maintenance  of  so  many  ;  yet  notwith- 
standing we  have  matter  of  all  sorts,  an  open  sea  for  traffic,  as  well  as  the  rest, 
goodly  havens.     And  how  can  we  excuse  our  negligence,  our  riot,  drunkenness,  &c., 

5-I,ib    8.  Genrgr  .    ob  asperiini  situm.  m  Lib.  |  ^s  Camden,     so  York,  Bristow,  Norwich, Worcester, &c. 

Edit,  a  Nic  Tre^'ant.  Bel".  A.  1(516.  expedit.  in  Sinag.  fo  M.  Gainsford'.,;  Argument :  Because  sentlenien  dwell 
s-i  Ubi  nobiles  probi  loco  habent  artem  aliqnam  profi-  with  ua  in  the  country  villajres,  our  cities  are  less,  is 
teri.     Cleonard.  cf..     1.   1.  6=Mb.   13.   Belg.    Hist,  i  nothing  to  the  purpose:  put  three   hundred  or  four 

non  tarn  laboriosi  ut  Belgac,  sed  ut  Hispani  otiatores  hundred  villages  in  a  shire,  and  every  village  yield  a 
vitam  ut  plnrinuim  otiosam  auentes  :  artes  manuarise  gentleman,  what  is  four  hundred  families  to  increase 
>)\i!P  plurimum  liahent  in  so  laboris  et  dillicultatis,  ma-  one  of  our  cities,  or  to  contend  with  theirs,  which 
joremq  ;  requirunt  industriam.  a  peregrinis  et  exteris  stand  thicker?  And  whereas  ours  usually  consist  of 
exercentnr;  habitant  in  piscosissimo  mari,  interea  seven  thousand,  theirs  consist  of  forty  thousand  inha- 
•  antuni  non  pi?caniur  quantum  insulie  suffecetit  sed  4    bitants.  6'  Maxima  pars  victus  i;i  came  coi  sisti; 

vicinif  eniere  coL'unti'r.        £' Grotii  t^iber.         STXjtba     Polyd.  Lib.  1.  (list, 
aniniis  nuineroque  potens,  e<.  roDure  gentis.    Sraliger  ' 


60  Uemocritus  to  the  Reader. 

and  such  enormities  that  follow  it  ?  We  have  excellent  laws  enacted,  you  will  say, 
severe  statutes,  houses  of  correction,  &c.,  to  "jinall  purpose  it  seems;  it  is  not  houses 
will  serve,  but  cities  of  correction  ;  "our  trades  generally  ought  to  be  reformed,  wants 
supplied.  In  other  countries  they  have  the  same  grievances,  I  confess,  but  that  doth 
not  excuse  us,  '"^  wants,  defects,  enormities,  idle  drones,  tumults,  discords,  contention, 
law-suits,  many  laws  made  against  them  to  repress  those  innumerable  brawls  and 
law-suits,  excess  in  apparel,  diet,  decay  of  tillage,  depopulations, ''^especially  against 
rogues,  beggars,  Egyptiau  vagabonds  (so  termed  at  least)  which  have  "swarmed  all 
over  Germany,  France,  Italy,  Poland,  as  you  may  read  in  '^'^Munster,  Cranzius,  and 
Aventinus  ;  as  those  Tartars  and  Arabians  at  this  day  do  in  the  eastern  countries  : 
yet  such  has  been  the  iniquity  of  all  ages,  as  it  seems  to  small  purpose.  JVe7no  m 
nostra  cloifate  mendicus  eslo,^''  saith  Plato :  he  will  have  tliem  purged  from  a  ^'^ com- 
monwealth, "^^"as  a  bad  humour  from  the  body,"  that  are  like  so  many  ulcers  and 
boils,  and  must  be  cured  before  the  melancholy  body  can  be  eased. 

What  Carolus  Magnus,  the  Chinese',  the  Spaniards,  the  duke  of  Saxony  and  many 
other  states  have  decreed  in  this  case,  read  ^rniseus,  cap.  19  ;  Botenis^  libra  8,  cap.  2  ; 
Osorius  de  Riibus  gest.  Einan.  lib.  11.  When  a  country  is  overstocked  with  people, 
as  a  pasture  is  oft  overlaid  with  cattle,  they  had  wont  in  former  times  to  disburden 
themselves,  by  sending  out  colonies,  or  by  wars,  as  those  old  Romans ;  or  by  em- 
ploying them  at  home  about  some  public  buildings,  as  bridges,  road-ways,  for  wliich 
those  Romans  were  famous  in  this  island ;  as  Augustus  Caesar  did  in  Rome,  the 
Spaniards  in  their  Indian  mines,  as  at  Potosi  in  Peru,  where  some  30,000  men  are 
still  at  work,  6000  furnaces  ever  boiling,  &c.  '"aqueducts,  bridges,  havens,  those 
stupend  works  of  Trajan,  Claudius, at  ''Ostium,  Dioclesiani  Therma,  Fucinus  Lacus, 
that  Piraeum  in  Athens,  made  by  Themistocles,  ampitheatrums  of  curious  marble, 
as  at  Verona,  Ci vitas  Philippi,  and  Heraclea  in  Thrace,  those  Appian  and  Fla- 
minian  ways,  prodigious  works  all  may  witness  ;  and  rather  than  they  should  be 
'^idle,  as  those  "Egyptian  Pharaohs,  Maris,  and  Sesostris  did,  to  task  their  subjects 
to  build  unnecessary  pyramids,  obelisks,  labyrinths,  channels,  lakes,  gigantic  works 
all,  to  divert  them  from  rebellion,  riot,  drunkenness,  '^  Quo  scilicet  alaniur  et  ne 
vagando  laborare  desuescant. 

Another  eye-sore  is  that  want  of  conduct  and  navigable  rivers,  a  great  blemish  as 
''Boterus,  ''^Hippolitus  a  Collibus,  and  other  politicians  hold,  if  it  be  neglected  in  a 
commonwealth.  Admirable  cost  and  charge  is  bestowed  in  the  Low  Countries  on 
this  behalf,  in  the  dutchy  of  Milan,  territory  of  Padua,  in  "  France,  Italy,  China, 
and  so  likewise  about  corrivations  of  water  to  moisten  and  refresh  barren  grounds, 
to  drain  fens,  bogs,  and  moors.  Massinissa  made  many  inward  parts  of  Barbary 
and  Numidia  in  Africa,  before  his  time  incult  and  horrid,  fruitful  and  bartable  by  this 
means.  Great  industry  is  generally  used  all  over  the  eastern  countries  in  this  kind, 
especially  in  Egypt,  about  Babylon  and  Damascus,  as  Vertomannus  and  '^Gotardus 
Arthus  relate  ;  about  Barcelona,  Segovia,  Murcia,  and  many  other  places  of  Spain, 
Milan  in  Italy  ;  by  reason  of  which,  their  soil  is  much  impoverished,  and  inhnite 
commodities  arise  to  the  inhabitants. 

.X^The  Turks  of  late  attempted  to  cut  that  Isthmus  betwixt  Africa  and  Asia,  which 
'^Sesostris  and  Darius,  and  some  Pharaohs  of  Egypt  had  formerly  undertaken,  but 
with  ill  success,  as  *°Diodorus  Siculus  records,  and  Pliny,  for  that  Red-sea  being 
three  ^'  cubits  higher  than  Egypt,  would  have  drowned  all  the  country,  ccBpto  des- 


'•^  Refrsnate  monopolii  licentiam,  pauciores  alantiir 
otio,  redinlegretur  agricolatio,  liinificiuiii  instauretiir, 
ut  sil  hiiiiestiiiii  iie^ntiiiiii  quo  se  exerceat  otiosa  ilia 
tiirha.  Nisi  his  malis  medentiir,  friistraexercent  jiis- 
tiliain      Mor.  Ltop.  Lib.  1.  ''■' Mancipiis   lociiples 

eget  a^ris  Cappadncum  ri'X.     Hnr.  ^^  Regis  diiini- 

tatis  nop  est  exercere  imperiuin  in  mendicos  sed  in 
opulentos.  Non  est  reuni  decus,  sed  carceris  esse 
custos.     Idem.  '■'' Ccdiiivies  liotriinum   mirahiles 


ciirratur,   opificia  condlscantur,   tenues   subleventur. 
Biidin.  I.  6.  c.  2.  num.  6,7.  "  Amasis  ^sypti  rex 

legem  prniniilgavit.  ut  omnes  subdili  quntannis  ratio- 
hem  redderent  unde  viverent.  '■>  Buscnidus  dis- 
cursii  polit.  cap.  2.  "whereby  they  are  supported,  and 
do  not  become  vagrants  by  being  less  accustomed  to 
labour."  is  Lib.  1.  de  increm.  tJrb.  cap.  6.  'eCap. 
5.  de  increm.  urb  Qiias  fliimen,  larus,  aut  mare  alluit 
Incredihilem  conimoditalem,  vectur^  mercir.m  Ires 


excocti  solo,  immundi  vestes  fiedi  visu,  furti  imprimis  Ifliivii  navigabiles,  &c.     Koterus  de  Galli4.  '"He- 

acres,  &c.  «''Cosmog.  lili.  3.  cap.  5.  ti' "Let  j  rodotus.  ■"Und.  Orient,  cap.  2.     Rotam  in   medio 

~ia  one  in  our  city  be  a  heugar."  es  Seneca.  Ilaud  Iflumirie  conslituunt,  cui  ex  pellibus  animaliiim  >onsu 

minus  turpia  principi  niulta  supplicia,  qua.m  medico  !  tos  uteres  appendunt,  hi  duin  rota   movetur,  aquam 
multa  funera.  ''«  Ac   pituitam   el  bilem  a  corpore     per  canales,  &c.  no  Centum  pedes  lata  fossa  30 

(J  J.  de  leg  )  omnes  vult  exterminari.  ™See  Lip-    alta.  "i  Ciiiitrary  to   that   of  Archimedes^  wh« 

iiUS  Adniiranda.  ""  De  quo  Suet,  in  Claudio,  et    holds  the  superficies  of  all  waters  even, 

riinius,  c.  36.  "Ut  egestati  simul  et  ignaviae  oc-  i 


Democritus  to  the  Reader.  <»1 

tlterayit.  they  left  off;  yet  as  the  same  ^^Diodorus  writes,  Ptolemy  renewed   the 
work  many  years  after,  and  absolved  in  it  a  more  opportune  place. 

That  Isthmus  of  Corinth  was  likewise  undertaken  to  be  made  navigable  by  Deme- 
trius, by  Julius  Caesar,  Nero,  Domitian,  Herodes  Atticus,  to  make  a  speedy  ^^  passage, 
and  less  dangerous,  from  the  Ionian  and  iEgean  seas  ;  but  because  it  could  not  be 
so  well  effected,  the  Peloponnesians  built  a  wall  like  our  Picts'  wall  about  Schfe- 
nute,  where  Neptune's  temple  stood,  and  in  the  shortest  cut  over  the  Isthmus,  of 
which  Diodorus,  lib.  1 1 .  Herodotus,  lib.  8.  Vran.  Our  latter  writers  call  it  Hexa- 
milium,  which  Amurath  the  Turk  demolished,  the  Venetians,  anno  145:?,  repaired 
in  15  days  with  30,000  men.  Some,  saith  Acosta,  would  have  a  passage  cut  from 
Panama  to  Nombre  de  Dios  in  America  ;  but  Thuanus  and  Serres  the  French  his- 
torians speak  of  a  famous  aqueduct  in  France,  intended  in  Flenry  the  Fourth's  time, 
from  the  Loire  to  the  Seine,  and  from  Rhodanus  to  the  Loire.  The  like  to  which 
was  formerly  assayed  by  Domitian  the  emperor,  ^M'i'om  Arar  to  Moselle,  which 
Cornelius  Tacitus  speaks  of  in  the  13  of  his  annals,  after  by  Charles  the  Great  and 
others.  Much  cost  hath  in  former  times  been  bestowed  in  either  new  making  or 
mending  channels  of  rivers,  and  their  passages,  (as  Aurelianus  did  by  Tiber  to  make 
it  navigable  to  Rome,  to  convey  corn  from  Egypt  to  the  city,  vadiim  olvei  tumcn/is 
effodit  saith  Vopiscus,  et  Tiheris  ripas  extruxit  he  cut  fords,  made  banks,  &c.) 
decayed  havens,  which  Claudius  the  emperor  with  infinite  pains  and  charges  attempted 
at  Ostia,  as  I  have  said,  the  Venetians  at  this  day  to  preserve  their  city  ;  many  ex- 
cellent means  to  enrich  their  territories,  have  been  fostered,  invented  in  most  provin- 
ces of  Euprope,  as  planting  some  Indian  plants  amongst  us,  silk-worms,  ^*^  the  very 
mulberry  leaves  in  the  plains  of  Granada  yield  30,000  crowns  per  annum  to  the 
king  of  Spain's  coflers,  besides  those  many  trades  and  artificers  that  are  busied  about 
them  in  the  kingdom  of  Granada,  Murcia,  and  all  over  Spain.  In  France  a  great 
benefit  is  raised  by  salt,  &.C.,  whether  these  things  might  not  be  as  happily  attempted 
with  us,  and  with  like  success,  it  may  be  controverted,  silk-worms  (1  mean)  vines, 
fir  trees,  &c.  Cardan  exhorts  Edward  the  Sixth  to  plant  olives,  and  is  fully  per- 
suaded they  would  prosper  in  this  island.  With  us,  navigable  rivers  are  most  part 
neglected ;  our  streams  are  not  great,  I  confess,  by  reason  of  the  narrowness  of  the 
island,  yet  tliey  run  smoothly  and  even,  not  headlong,  swift,  or  amongst  rocks  and 
shelves,  as  foaming  Rhodanus  and  Loire  in  France,  Tigris  in  Mesopotamia,  violent 
Durius  in  Sj)ain,  with  cataracts  and  whirlpools,  as  jhe  Rhine,  and  Danubius,  about 
Shaffausen,  Lausenburgh,  Linz,  and  Cremmes,  to  endanger  navigators  ;  or  broad 
shalloAV,  as  Neckar  in  the  Palatinate,  Tibris  in  ItaiV  ;  but  calm  and  fair  as  Arar  in 
France,  Hobrus  in  Macedonia,  Eurotas  in  Laconia,  they  gently  glide  along,  and  might 
as  well  be  repaired  many  of  them  (I  mean  Wye,  Trent,  Ouse,  Thamisfs  at  Oxford, 
the  defect  of  which  we  feel  in  the  mean  time)  as  the  river  of  Lee  from  Ware  to 
London.  B.  Atwater  of  old,  or  as  some  will  Henry  I.  ^^made  a  channel  from  Trent 
to  Lincoln,  navigable  ;  which  now,  saith  Mr.  Camden,  is  decayed,  and  much  men- 
tion is  made  of  anchors,  and  such  like  monuments  found  about  old  *'  Verulamium, 
ffood  ships  have  formerly  come  to  Exeter,  and  many  such  places,  whose  channels, 
liavens,  ports  are  now  barred  and  rejected.  We  contemn  this  benefit  of  carriage  by 
waters,  and  are  therefore  compelled  in  the  inner  parts  of  this  island,  because  por- 
tage is  so  dear,  to  eat  up  our  commodities  ourselves,  and  live  like  so  many  boars  in 
a  sty,  for  want  of  vent  and  utterance. 

,^- i  We  have  many  excellent  havens,  royal  havens,  Falmouth,  Portsmouth,  Milford,  &c. 
equivalent  if  not  to  be  preferred  to  that  Indian  Havanna,  old  Brundusium  in  Italy,  Aulia 
in  (ireece,  Ambracia  in  Acarnia,  Suda  in  Crete,  which  liave  tew  ships  in  them,  little  or 
no  traffic  or  trade,  which  have  scarce  a  village  on  them,  able  to  bear  great  cities,  sed  vi- 
derint  pnlilici.  !  could  here  justly  tax  many  other  neglects,  abuses,  errors,  defects 
among  us,  and  in  other  countries,  depopulations,  riot,  drunkenness,  &c.  and  many  such, 
qucp  nunc  in^aurem  susurrare  non  libet.    But  I  must  take  heed,  nc  quid  gravius  dicam, 


^  Lib.  1.  cap.  3.  raiHon.  Paiisanias,  et  Nic.  Ger- 

heliiis.  Munster.  Cosm.  Lib.  4.  cap.  36.  Ut  brevinr 
foret  navigatin  el  minus  periciilosa.  "■•  Charles  the 

grea'.^fint  about  tn  make  a  channe'  from  the  Rhine 
to  the  I  iiiube.  Bil.  Pirkimerus  descript.  Ger.  the 
ruins  ai'  Tet  seen  about  VVessenburg  from  Rednich  to 


Altimul.     lit  navigabilia  inter  se  Occidentis  et  Sep- 
tentrionis  littora  fierent.  ''■'  Maginiis  Georpr.  Siiti- 

leriis  de  rep.     Helvet.  lib.  1.  describit.  *  Cariiden 

in  Lintolrishire,   Fopsedike.  "  Near  St.  Albiiiii. 

'•  which  must  not  now  be  whispered  in  the  ear  " 


62  DemocrUus  to  the  Reader. 

that  I  do  not  overshoot  myself,  Sus  Mincrvam.,  I  am  forth  of  my  element,  as  you  perad- 
t'eiuure  suppose;  and  sometimes  Veritas  odium  parit.,  as  he  said,  "verjuice  and  oat- 
meal IS  good  for  a  parrot."  For  as  Lucian  said  of  an  historian,  I  say  of  a  politician. 
'He  tliat  will  freely  speak  and  write,  must  be  for  ever  no  subject,  under  no  prince  or 
■  law,  but  lay  out  the  matter  truly  as  it  is,  not  caring  what  any  can,  wdl,  like  or  dislike. 
We  have  good  laws,  I  deny  not,  to  rectify  such  enormities,  and  so  in  all  other 
countries,  but  it  seems  not  always  to  good  purpose.  We  had  need  of  some  general 
visitor  in  our  age,  that  sliould  reform  what  is  amiss;  a  just  army  of  Rosie-crosse 
men,  for  they  will  amend  all  matters  (they  say)  religion,  policy,  manners,  with  arts, 
sciences,  &.C.  Another  Attila,  Tamerlane,  Hercules,  to  strive  with  Achelous,  Jiugea 
stabnluin  piirgare^i  to  sub(hie  tyrants,  as  *""  he  did  Diomedes  and  Busirisvto  expel 
thieves,  as  he  did  Cacus  and  Lacinius  :  to  vindicate  poor  captives,  as  he  did  Hesione 
to  pass  the  torrid  zone,  the  deserts  of  Lybia,  and  purge  the  world  of  monsters  and 
Centaurs  :  or  another  Theban  Crates  to  reform  our  manners,  to  compose  quarrels 
and  controversies,  as  in  his  time  he  did,  and  was  therefore  adored  for  a  god  in  Alliens 
'^As  Hercules  ''^purged  the  world  of  monsters,  and  subdued  them,  so  did  he  light 
against  envy,  lust,  anger,  avarice,  &c.  and  all  tliose  feral  vices  and  monsters  of  tlie 
mind."  It  were  to  be  wished  we  had  some  such  visitor,  or  if  Avishing  would  serve, 
'one  had  such  a  ring  or  rings,  as  Timolaus  desired  in '"Lucian,  by  virtue  of  which  he 
"should  be  as  strong  as  10,000  men,  or  an  army  of  giants,  go  invisible,  open  gates  and 
castle  doors,  have  what  treasure  he  would,  transport  himself  in  an  instant  to  Avhat  place 
he  desired,  alter  afi'ections,  cure  all  manner  of  diseases,  tliat  he  might  range  over  the 
world,  and  reform  all  distressed  states  and  persons,  as  lie  would  himself  -.He  might 
reduce  tliose  wandering  Tartars  in  order,  that  infest  China  on  the  one  side,  Muscovy, 
Poland,  on  the  otlier ;  and  tame  the  vagabond  Arabians  that  rob  and  spoil  those  east- 
•  crn  countries,  that  they  sliould  never  use  more  caravans,  or  janizaries  to  conduct 
them.  He  might  root  out  barbarism  out  of  America,,  and  fully  discover  Terra  Jlus- 
tralis  Incngnila,  find  out  the  nortli-east  and  north-west  passages,  drain  those  mighty 
Mitotian  fens,  cut  down  those  vast  Hircinian  woods,  Irrigate  those  barren  Arabian 
deserts,  &c.  cure  us  of  our  epidemical  diseases,  scorhulum^  plica^  morbus  JYeapolita- 
nus^i  &.C.  end  all  our  idle  controversies,  cut  off  our  tumultuous  desires,  inordinate 
lusts,  root  out  atheism,  impiety,  heresy,  schism  and  superstition,  which  now  so  cru- 
cify the  world,  catechise  gross  ignorance,  purge  Italy  of  luxury  and  riot,  Spain  of 
superstition  and  jealousy,  Germany  of  drunkenness,  all  our  northern  country  of  glut- 
tony antl  intemperance,  castigate  our  hard-hearted  parents,  masters,  tutors ;  laeh 
disobedient  children,  negligent  servants,  correct  these  spendthrifts  and  prodigal  sons, 
enforce  idle  persons  to  work,  drive  drunkards  off  the  alehouse,  repress  thieves,  visit 
corrupt  and  tyrannizing  magistrates,  Sec.  But  as  L.  Licinius  taxed  Timolaus,  you 
may  us.  Tiiese  are  vain,  absurd  and  ridiculous  wishes  not  to  be  hoped  :  all  must 
be  as  it  is,  ^'Bocchalinus  may  cite  commonwealths  to  come  before  Apollo,  and  seek 
to  reform  the  world  itself  by  commissioners,  but  there  is  no  remedy,  it  may  not  be 
redressed,  desinent  homines  twn  demum  slullescere  quando  esse  desinc7it,  so  long  as 
they  can  wag  their  beards,  they  will  play  the  knaves  and  fools. 

Because,  therefore,  it  is  a  thing  so  difficult,  impossible,  and  far  beyond  Hercules 
labours  to  be  performed ;  let  them  be  rude,  stupid,  ignorant,  incult,  lapis  super  lapi- 
dem  sedeat^  and  as  tlie  '■'^apologist  will,  resp.  /«ss/,  et  graveolentia  laboret,  mundus 
vdio^  let  them  be  barbarous  as  they  are,  let  them  ®* tyrannize,  epicurize,  oppress, 
luxuriate,  consume  themselves  with  factions,  superetitions,  lawsuits,  wars  and  con- 
tentions, live  in  riot,  poverty,  want,  misery ;  rebel,  wallow  as  so  many  swine  in  their 
own  dung,  with  Ulysses'  companions,  stultos  jubeo  esse  lihenter.  I  will  yet,  to  satisfy 
and  please  myself,  make  an  Utopia  of  mine  own,  a  new  Atlantis,  a  poetical  common- 
wealth of  mine  own,  in  which  I  will  freely  domineer,  build  cities,*  make  laws,  sta- 
tutes, as  I  list  myself     And   why  may  I  not  .^ ^^Pictoribus  atque  poetis,  &c. 

You  know  what  liberty  poets   ever  had,  and  besides,  my  predecessor  Democritus 

ssLisiiis  Girald.  Nat.  comes.  b^  Apuleius,  lib.  4.  I  monstra  philosopluis  iste  Hercules  fuit.     Pestes  ea» 

Flor.  I.ar.  fainiliaris  inter  linmines  retaiis   sure  ciiltus     nifiitihus    e^egil    oinnes,   &c.  w  Votis    navig. 

est,  liliuin  oiiiiiiiiin  et  jiirgionmi  inter  propinquns  ar-     "  Racmialios,  part  2,  cap.  2,  et  part  3,  c.  17.  '^'  Ve- 

bitrer  et  discepiatcir.    A(iver«us  iracundiam,  invidiam,     lent.  Andrea?  A|)nlo<».  manip.  (i04.  s-* Qui  sottlidu* 

4v^r<liani,  lihidineui.  reteraq  ;  aiiiiui  bugiani  vitia  et  |  est,  eordescat  adUuc.  ^-  Hor. 


Dcmocritus  to  the  Reader.  63 

icas  a  politician,  a  recorder  of  Abdera,  a  law  maker  as  some  say  ;  and  why  may  not 
I  presume  so  much  as  he  did  ?  Howsoever  I  will  adventure.  For  the  site,  if  you 
will  needs  urge  me  to  it,  I  am  not  fully  resolved,  it  may  be  in  Terra  Auslrali  In- 
cognita^ there  is  room  enough  (tbi*  of  my  knowledge  neither  that  hungry  Spaniard,^^ 
nor  Mercurius  Britannicus,  have  yet  discovered  half  of  it)  or  else  one  of  these  doat- 
ing  islands  in  Maro  del  Zur,  which  like  the  Cyanian  isles  in  the  Euxine  sea,  alter 
their  place,  and  are  accessible  only  at  set  times,  and  to  some  few  persons  ;  or  oiie 
of  the  fortunate  isles,  for  who  knows  yet  where,  or  which  they  are  ?  there  is  room 
enough  in  the  inner  parts  of  America,  and  northern  coasts  of  Asia.  But  I  will  choose 
a  site,  whose  latitude  shall  be  45  degrees  (I  respect  not  minutes)  in  the  midst  of  the 
temperate  zone,  or  perhaps  under  the  equator,  that  ^''paradise  of  the  world,  uh'i  sem- 
per vircns  laurus.,  &c.  where  is  a  perpetual  spring  :  the  longitude  for  some  reasons 
I  will  conceal.  Yet  "be  it  known  to  all  men  by  these  presents,"  that  if  any  honest 
gentleman  will  send  in  so  much  money,  as  Cardan  allows  an  astrologer  for  casting  a 
nativity,  he  shall  be  a  sharer,  I  will  acquaint  him  with  my  project,  or  if  any  worthy 
man  will  stand  for  any  temporal  or  spiritual  office  or  dignity,  (for  as  he  said  of  his 
archbishopric  of  Utopia,  'tis  sanctus  ambitus.,  and  not  amiss  to  be  sought  after,)  it 
shall  be  freely  given  without  all  intercessions,  bribes,  letters,  Stc.  his  own  worth  shall 
be  the  best  spokesman  \  and  because  we  shall  admit  of  no  deputies  or  advowsons 
if  he  be  sufficiently  qualified,  and  as  able  as  willing  to  execute  the  place  himself,  he 
shall  have  present  possession.  It  shall  be  divided  into  12  or  13  provinces,  and  those 
by  hills,  rivers,  road-ways,  or  some  more  eminent  limits  exactly  bounded.  Each  pro- 
vince shall  have  a  metropolis,  which  shall  be  so  placed  as  a  centre  almost  in  a  cir- 
cumference, and  the  rest  at  equal  distances,  some  12  Italian  miles  asunder,  or  there- 
about, and  in  them  shall  be  sold  all  things  necessary  for  the  use  of  man  ;  statis  horis 
et  diebus^  no  market  towns,  markets  or  fairs,  for  they  do  but  beggar  cities  (no  village 
shall  stand  above  6,  7,  or  8  miles  from  a  city)  except  those  emporiums  which  are  by 
the  sea  side,  general  staples,  marts,  as  Antwerp,  Venice,  Bergen  of  old,  London,  &.c. 
cities  most  part  shall  be  situated  upon  navigable  rivers  or  lakes,  creeks,  havens ;  and 
for  their  form,  regular,  round,  square,  or  long  square,  ®^with  fair,  broad,  and  straight 
'*  streets,  houses  uniform,  built  of  brick  and  stone,  like  Bruges,  Brussels,  Rhegium 
Lepidi,  Berne  in  Switzerland,  Milan,  Mantua,  Crema,  CambalG  in  Tartary,  described 
by  M.  Folus,  or  that  Venetian  palma.  I  will  admit  very  few  or  no  suburbs,  anrl 
those  of  baser  building,  walls  only  to  keep  out  man  and  horse,  except  it  be  in  some 
frontier  towns,  or  by  the  sea  side,  and  those  to  be  fortified  ^^after  the  latest  manner 
of  fortification,  and  situated  upon  convenient  havens,  or  opportune  places.  In 
every  so  built  city,  I  will  have  convenient  churches,  and  separate  places  to  bury  the 
dead  in,  not  in  churchyards  ;  a  citadclla  (in  some,  not  all)  to  command  it,  prisons 
for  ofl^enders,  opportune  market  places  of  all  sorts,  for  corn,  meat,  cattle,  fuel,  fish, 
commodious  courts  of  justice,  public  halls  for  all  societies,  bourses,  meeting  places, 
armouries,  '"in  whicli  shall  be  kept  engines  for  quenching  of  fire,  artillery  gardens, 
public  walks,  theatres,  and  spacious  fields  allotted  for  all  gymnastic  sports,  and 
honest  recreations,  hospitals  of  all  kinds,  for  children,  orphans,  old  folks,  sick  men, 
mad  men,  soldiers,  pest-houses,  &c.  not  built  precarid,  or  by  gouty  benefactors, 
who,  wlien  by  fraud  and  rapine  they  have  extorted  all  their  lives,  oppressed  whole 
provinces,  societies,  &.C.  give  something  to  pious  uses,  build  a  satisfactory  alms-house, 
school  or  bridge,  &.c.  at  their  last  end,  or  before  perhaps,  which  is  no  otherwise  than 
to  steal  a  goose,  and  stick  down  a  feather,  rob  a  thousand  to  relieve  ten ;  and  those 
hospitals  so  built  and  maintained,  not  by  collections,  benevolences,  donaries,  for  a 
set  number,  (as  in  ours,)  just  so  many  and  no  more  at  such  a  rate,  but  for  all  those 
who  stand  in  need,  be  they  more  or  less,  and  that  ex  publico  cprario.,  and  so  still 
maintained,  nan  nobis  solum  nati  su7nus,  &c.  I  will  have  conduits  of  sweet  and  good 
water,  aptly  disposed  in  each  town,  connnon  'granaries,  as  at  Dresden  in  Misnia,  Ste- 
tein  in  Pomerland,  Noremberg,  Stc.  Colleges  of  mathematicians,  musicians,  and  actors, 
as  of  old  at  Labedum  in  Ionia,  ^alchymists,  physicians,  artists,  and  philosophers  :  that 

a^-Ferdinando  Uiiir.  1612.  «  Vide  Acostaet  Laiet.  1  ">0Ve  his  Plin.  epist.  42.  lib.  2.  et  Tacit.  Annal.  13.  lib. 
""Vide  patritinni,  lib  8.  lit.  10.  de  Instit.  Reipcib.  |  i  Vide  ISiisdniiiiii  de  regno  Perse  lib.  3.  de  his  et  Ve 
*  Si(,  ohni    Hlppodanms   Milesins  Aris.    pnlit.  cap.  11.     getiimi,  lib   2.  cap.  3.  de  Annona.  2  Not  to  nialti« 

«  v;tri)viu:.  I.  I.-  nit  ™  With  walls  of  earth,  &c.  |  Ruld,  but  for  niatteis  of  phvsic. 


04  Democritus  to  the  Reader 

i^'W  arts  and  sciences  may  sooner  be  perfected  and  better  learned  ;  and  public  hi?  - 
loriographer?,  as  amongst  those  ancient  ^Persians,  <77/i  m  comment arios  refcrel)an. 
quce  memoralu  digna  gercbanlur^  informed  and  appointed  by  the  state  to  register  all 
tanious  acts,  and  not  by  each  insnfficient  scriliblers,  partial  or  parasitical  pedant,  as  in 
our  times.  I  will  provide  public  schools  of  all  kinds,  singing,  dancing,  fencing,  Stc 
especially  of  grammar  and  languages,  not  to  be  tauglit  by  thosp  tedious  precepts  ordi- 
narily used,  but  by  use,  example,  conversation,''  as  travellers  learn  abroad,  and  nurses 
teach  their  children  :  as  1  will  liave  all  such  places,  so  will  I  ordain  *  public  govern- 
ors, fit  odicers  to  each  place,  treasurers,  .ediles,  cpiestors,  overseers  of  pupils,  widows' 
goods,  and  all  public  houses,  Stc.  and  tliose  once  a  year  to  make  strict  accounts  of  all 
receipts,  expenses,  to  avoid  confusion,  e/  sicfiet  ut  7wn  absinnant  {as  Pliny  to  Trajan,) 
quad  pudeat  dicere.  They  shall  be  subordinate  to  tliose  higher  officers  and  govern- 
ors of  each  city,  which  shall  not  be  poor  tradesmen,  and  mean  artificers,  but  noble- 
men and  gentlemen,  which  sliall  be  tied  to  residence  in  those  towns  they  dwell 
next,  at  such  set  times  and  seasons:  for  I  see  no  reason  (which  "  Ilippolitus  com- 
plains of)  "  that  it  should  be  more  dishonourable  for  noblemen  to  govern  the  city 
than  the  country,  or  unseendy  to  dwell  there  now,  than  of  old.  ,  ^I  will  have  no 
bogs,  fens,  marshes,  vast  woods,  deserts,  heaths,  commons,  but  all  inclosed ;  (yet 
not  depopulated,  and  therefore  take  heed  you  ndstake  me  not)  for  that  which  is 
common,  and  every  man's,  is  no  man's ;  the  richest  countries  are  still  inclosed,  as 
Essex,  Kent,  with  us,  &c.  Spain,  Italy ;  and  where  inclosures  are  least  in  quantity, 
they  are  best  *  husbanded,  as  about  I'lorence  in  Italy,  Damascus  in  Syria,  Stc  which 
are  liker  gardens  than  fields.  ^^  I  will  not  have  a  barren  acre  in  all  my  territories,  not 
so  much  as  the  tops  of  mountains :  where  nature  fails,  it  s-hall  be  supplied  by  art : 
^  lakes  and  rivers  shall  not  be  left  desolate.  All  common  Jiighways,  bridges,  banks, 
corrivations  of  waters,  aqueducts,  channels,  public  works,  buildings,  &.c.  out  of  a 
'"common  stock,  curiously  maintained  and  kept  in  repair;  no  depopulations,  engross- 
ings,  alterations  of  wood,  arable,  but  by  the  consent  of  some  supervisors  that  shall 
be  appointed  for  that  purpose,  to  see  what  reformation  ought  to  be  had  in  all'places 
what  is  amiss,  how  to  help  it,  et  quid  qucsque  ferat  regio.  el  quid  qucsque  rrci/set 
what  ground  is  aptest  for  wood,  what  for  corn,  what  for  cattle,  gardens,  orchards, 
fishponds,  &c.  with  a  charitable  division  in  every  village,  (not  one  domineering 
house  greedily  to  SM'allow  up  all,  which  is  too  common  with  us)  what  for  lords, 
"  what  for  tenants;  and  because  they  shall  be  better  encouraged  to  improve  such 
lands  they  hold,  manure,  plant  trees,  drain,  fence,  &c.  they  shall  have  long  leases,  a 
known  rent,  and  known  fine  to  free  them  from  those  intolerable  exactions  of  tyran- 
nizing landlords.  Tliese  supervisors  shall  likewise  appoint  what  quantity  of  land  in 
each  manor  is  fit  for  the  lord's  demesnes,  '^  what  for  liokhng  of  tenants,  how  it  ought 
to  be  husbanded,  ut  ^' magnetis  equis, Minyce gens  cngnita  rcmis.how  to  be  manured, 
tilled,  rectified,  'Vt/'c  segetes  vcniimt,  illic  foelicius  wee,  arhorci  foetus  alihi,  atque 
injussa  virescunt  Gramina,  and  what  proportion  is  fit  for  all  callings,  because  privatjL 
professors  are  many  times  idiots,  ill  husbands,  oppressors,  covetous,  and  know  not 
how  to  improve  their  own,  or  else  wholly  respect  their  own,  and  not  public  good. 

Utopian  parity  is  a  kind  of  government,  to  be  wished  for,  '* rather  than  effected, 
Respuh.  Christianopolilana,  Campanellas  city  of  the  Sun,  and  that  new  Atlantis, 
viritty  fictions, but  mere  chimeras;  and  Plato's  community  in  many  things  is  impious 


3  Bresonins  Josephns,  lib.  9,1.  antiqiiit.  Jiid.  cap.  6. 
Herod,  lib.  3.  ■<  So  I,od.  Vives  thinks  best,  Coiti- 

mineiis,   and   others.  ■■  I'lato  3.   de   le^.  .EdilHS 

creari  vult,  qui  fora.  fontes,  vias,  portiis,  plateas,  et  id 
genus  alia  procurent.  Vide  Isaacuin  I'ontanum  de 
civ.  Ainstel.  hajc  omnia,  &c.  Rotarduni  et  alios, 
•i  De  Increni.  urb.  cap.  13.  Ingen>i6  faleor  ine  non  in- 
telligere  cur  tgnobilius  sit  urbes  bene  niunitas  colere 
nunc  quiin  olim.  aut  casie  rusticse  pra;sse  quiin  nrbi. 
Idem  Ubertus  Foliot,  de  Neapoli.  '  Ne  lantillum 

quidem  soli  incullum  relinquitur,  ut  verum  sit  ne  pol- 
licetn  quidein  asrri  in  his  reginnibus  slerilem  aut  infoe- 
cundum  reperiri.  Marcus  riemltiKias  Augustanus  de 
regno  CliiiuB,  I.  1.  c.  3.         «"  M.  Carew,  in  his  survey- 


but  since  inclosure,  they  live  decently,  and  have  inonej 
to  spend  (fol.  23);  when  their  fields  were  coniinnn, 
their  wool  was  coarse,  Cornish  hair;  but  since  inclo- 
sure, it  is  almost  as  good  as  (,'olswol,  and  Ibeir  soil 
much  mended.  Tusser.  cap.  52.  of  his  husbandry,  is 
of  his  opinion,  one  acre  inclosed,  is  worth  three.com- 
inon.  The  country  inclosed  I  praise;  the  other  de- 
liKhleth  not  me,  for  nothing  of  wealth  it  doth  raise,  &c. 
"  Incredibilis  navi^ioruiu  copia,  niliilo  paiiciores  in 
aqiiis,  quilni  in  continent!  commoi-anlur  M.  Ricceu» 
e.\nedit.  in   Sinas,  !.  1.  c.  3.  "'To  this    purpise, 

Arist.  |)olit.  2.  c.  6.  allows  a  third  part  of  their  reve- 
nues, Ilippodamus  half.  nita  lex  Agraria  olim 
Roiriie.              '-  Hie  segetes,  illic  veniunt  fa-licius  nvw. 


of  Cornwall,  saith  that  before   that  country  was  in-  I  Arborei  fa-tus  alibi,  atq  ;  injussa  virescunt  Gramina 
:!ospd.  the  husbandmen  drnnk  water,  did  eat  little  or  j  Virg.    1.   Georg.  i-'Lucanus,    1.   6.  •<  if_j, 

'uead,  fol.  f)6,  lib.  1.  their  apparel  was  coarse,  they  |  i5Joh.  Valent   Andreas,  Lord  Verulam 

It  bare  legged,  their  dwelling  was  correspondent ; 


Deniocr'dus  to  the  Reader.  65 

absurd  and  ridici.lous,  it  takes  away  all  splendour  and  magnificence.  I  will  have 
seveial  ortlers,  degrees  of  nobility,  and  those  hereditary,  not  rejecting  younger  bro- 
thers in  the  mean  time,  for  they  shall  be  sufficiently  provided  for  by  pensions,  or  so 
qualified,  brought  up  in  some  honest  calling,  they  shall  be  able  to  live  of  themsclvef< 
I  will  have  such  a  proportion  of  ground  belonging  to  every  barony,  he  that  buys 
the  land  shall,  buy  the  barony,  he  that  by  riot  consumes  his  patrimony,  and  ancient 
demesnes,  shall  forfeit  his  honours.'^  As  some  dignities  shall  be  hereditary,  so  some 
again  by  election,  or  by  gift  (besides  free  ofiicers,  pensions,  annuities,)  like  oui 
bishoprics,  prebends,  the  Bassa's  palaces  in  Turkey,  the  '^procurator's  houses  and 
offices  in  Venice,  which,  like  tlie  golden  apple,  shall  be  given  to  the  worthiest,  and 
best  deserving  botli  in  war  and  peace,  as  a  reward  of  their  worth  and  good  service,  as 
so  many  goals  for  all  to  aim  at,  [Itotios  edit  artes)  and  encouragements  to  others 
Tor  I  hate  these  severe,  unnatural,  harsh,  German,  French,  and  Venetian  decrees, 
which  exclude  plebeians  from  lionours,  be  they  never  so  wise,  rich,  virtuous,  valiant, 
and  well  qualified,  they  must  not  be  patricians,  but  keep  their  own  rank,  this  is  naiu- 
rce  helium  inferre.,  odious  to  God  and  men,  I  abhor  it.  My  form  of  government 
«hall  be  monarciiical. 


■  "  nunquaiii  libertas  gralior  extat, 


Quaiii  sub  Re!;e  pio,"  Ate. 

Few  laws,  but  those  severely  kept,  plainly  put  down,  and  in  the  mother  tongue, 
that  every  man  may  understand.  Every  city  shall  have  a  peculiar  trade  or  privilege, 
by  which  it  shall  be  chiefly  maintained  :  '^and  parents  shall  teach  their  children  one 
of  three  at  least,  bring  up  aiul  instruct  them  in  the  mysteries  of  their  own  trade.  Jn 
each  town  these  several  tradesmen  shall  be  so  aptly  disposed,  as  they  shall  free  the 
rest  froiu  danger  or  oflence  :  fire-trades,  as  smiths,  forge-men,  brewers,  bakers,  metal- 
men,  &c.,  shall  dwell  aj)art  by  themselves  :  dyers,  tanners,  felmongers,  and  such  as 
use  water  in  convenient  places  by  themselves  :  noisome  or  fulsome  for  bad  smells,  as 
butchers' slaughter-houses,  chandlers,  curriers,  in  remotv<5  places,  and  some  back  lanes. 
Fraternities  aiul  companies,  I  approve  of,  as  merchants'  bourses,  colleges  of  drug- 
gists, physicians,  nuisicians,  Stc,  but  all  trades  to  be  rated  in  the  sale  of  wares,  as 
our  clerks  of  the  luarket  do  bakers  and  brewers ;  corn  itself,  what  scarcity  soever 
shall  come,  not  to  exteml  such  a  price.  Of  such  wares  as  are  transported  or  brought 
in,  ™if  they  be  necessary,  commodious,  and  such  as  nearly  concern  man's  life,  as  corn, 
wood,  coal,  &c.,  and  such  provision  we  cannot  want,  I  will  have  little  or  no  custom 
j)aid,  no  taxes  ;  but  for  such  things  as  are  for  pleasure,  delight,  or  ornament,  as 
wme,  spice,  tobacco,  silk,  velvet,  cloth  of  gold,  lace,  jewels,  &.c.,  a  greater  impost. 
I  will  have  certain  ships  sent  out  for  new  discoveries  every  year,  ^'and  some  dis- 
creet men  appointed  to  travel  into  all  neighbouring  kingdoms  by  land,  which  shall 
observe  what  artificial  inventions  and  good  laws  are  in  other  countries,  customs, 
alterations,  or  aught  else,  concerning  war  or  peace,  which  may  tend  to  the  common 
good.  Ecclesiastical  discipline,  'penes  Episcopos,  subordinate  as  the  other.  No 
impropriations,  no  lay  patrons  of  church  livings,  or  one  private  man,  but  common 
societies,  corporations,  &.C.,  and  those  rectors  of  benefices  to  be  chosen  out  of  the 
Universities,  examined  and  approved,  as  the  Uterali  in  China.  No  parish  to  con- 
tain above  a  thousand  auditors.  If  it  were  possible,  I  would  have  such  priest  as 
should  imitate  Christ,  charitable  lawyers  should  love  their  neighbours  as  themselves, 
temperate  and  modest  physicians,  politicians  contemn  the  world,  pliilosoj/hers  should 
know  themselves,  noblemen  live  honestly,  tradesmen  leave  lying  and  cozoiing. 
magistrates  corruption,  &c.,  but  this  is  impossible,  I  must  get  such  as  I  may.  I  will 
therefore  have  ^^of  lawyers,  judges,  advocates,  physicians,  chirurgeons,  &c.,  a  set 
number,  ^'^and  every  man,  if  it  be  possible,  to  plead  his  own  cause,  to  tell  that  tale 


'8  So  is  it  in  the  kinpdom  of  Naples  and  France. 
"  See  Contarenus  and  Osorius  de  rebus  gestis  Enui- 
nuelis.  If  Claudian  1.  7.     '•  I.iberly  never  is  more 

gratifying  than  under  a  pious  king."  '^  Herodotus 

Erato  lib.  6.  Cum  jEgyptiis  I.acedemonii  in  lioc  coii- 
gruunt,  quod  eoruni  pra-cnnes,  tibiciiu-s,  coqui,  et  re- 
iqui  artifices,  in  pnterno  artificio  succedunt,et  coquus 
A  coquo  gigniliir,  et  patcrno  opere  perseverat.  Idem 
Marcus  polus  de  Quinzay.  Idem  Osorius  de  Emanuele 
"cge    Lusitano.     Riccius   de    Sinis.  'onippnl.    & 

c.oliibus  (Ic  iiicrem.  urb.  c.  20.  Plato  idem  7.  de  legi- 
t'ls,  quae  ad  vitam  necessaria,  et  quibus  carere  non 


Q  f2 


imssumus,  nullum  dependi  vectigal,  &c  21  piato 

12.  de  legibus,  40.  aiinos  natos  vult,  ut  si  quid  memo- 
rabile  viderent  apud  e.xleros,  hoc  ipsum  in  rempuh 
recipiatur.  ■■^- 8iui!erus  in  Helvetia.  -   IJlo- 

pieuses  causidicos  exchidunt,  qui  causas  callide  el 
val're  tractent  et  dispntent.  Iniquissimimi  censens 
hominem  ullis  obligaii  legibus,  qua;  aut  nnmerosioic' 
sunt,  quam  ut  perlegi  queant,  aut  obscurinres  qu&ni 
ut  a  quovis  possint  intelligi.  Voluiit  ut  siiam  qu-sq  ; 
causam  agat,  eamij  ;  referal  .ludici  quaui  narraturua 
fueral  patrono,  sic  minus  eril  ambagum,  el  Veritas 
facilius  elicielur.     Mor.  Utop.  I.  2. 


66  Democritwi  to  the  Reader. 

to  ihc  judge  v^liich  he  Joth  to  his  advocate,  as  at  Fez  in  Africa,  Bantam,  Aleppi>, 
Kao-usa,  suam  qiiisq  ;  causam  dicere  tcnetur.  Those  advocates,  chirurgeons,  and 
"physicians,  which  are  allowed  to  be  maintained  out  of  the  ^'conniion  treasury,  n<. 
fees  to  be  given  or  taken  upon  pain  of  losing  their  places ;  or  if  they  do,  very  small 
fees,  and  when  the  ^"^ cause  is  fully  ended.  /^He  that  sues  any  man  shall  put  in  a 
pledge,  which  if  it  be  proved  he  hath  wrongfully  sued  his  advcrsqj-y,  rashly  or 
maliciously,  he  shall  forfeit,  and  lose.  Or  else  before  any  suit  begin,  the  plaintiff 
shall  have  his  complaint  approved  by  a  set  delegacy  to  that  purpose ;  if  it  be  of 
moment  he  shall  be  suffered  as  before,  to  proceed,  if  otherwise  they  shall  determine 
It.  All  causes  shall  be  pleaded  suppresso  nomine.^  the  parties'  names  concealed,  if 
some  circumstances  do  not  otherwise  require.  Judges  and  otlier  officers  shall  be 
aptly  disposed  in  each  province,  villages,  cities,  as  common  arbitrators  to  hear  causes, 
and  end  all  controversies,  and  those  not  single,  but  three  at  least  on  the  bench  at  once, 
to  determine  or  give  sentence,  and  those  again  to  sit  by  turns  or  lots,  and  not  to 
continue  still  in  the  same  office.  No  controversy  to  depend  above  a  year,  but  without 
all  delays  and  further  appeals  to  be  speedily  despatched,  and  finally  concluded  in 
that  time  allotted.^  These  and  all  other  inferior  magistrates  to  be  chosen  ^*as  the 
literati,  in  Ciiina,  or  by  those  exact  suffrages  of  the  ^'^  Venetians,  and  such  again  not  to 
be  eligible,  or  capable  of  magistracies,  honours,  offices,  except  they  be  sufficiently 
'"qualified  for  learning,  manners,  and  that  by  the  strict  approbation  of  deputed  ex- 
aminers :  ^' first  scholars  to  take  place,  then  soldiers  ;  for  1  am  of  Vigetius  his  opin- 
ion, a  scholar  deserves  better  than  a  soldier,  because  Unius  cBtatis  sunt  quce  fortiter 
fiunt^  qucB  vera  pro  utilitate  Reipub.  scrihuntur.,  cpterna  :  a  soldier's  work  lasts  for  an 
age,  a  scholar's  for  ever.  If  they ''^misbehave  themselves,  they  shall  be  deposed,  and 
accordingly  punished,  and  whether  their  offices  be  annual  '^or  otherwise,  once  a  year 
they  shall  be  called  in  question,  and  give  an  account ;  for  men  are  partial  and  pas- 
sionate, merciless,  covetous,  corrupt,  subject  to  love,  hate,  fear,  favour,  &.c.,  omne 
sub  regno  graviore  regniim  :  like  Solon's  Areopagites,  or  those  Roman  Censors, 
some  shall  visit  others,  and  *^  be  visited  inviccm  themselves,  ^Hhey  shall  oversee  that 
no  prowling  officer,  under  colour  of  authority,  shall  insult  over  his  inferiors,  as  so 
many  wild  beasts,  oppress,  domineer,  flea,  grind,  or  trample  on,  be  partial  or  corrupt, 
but  that  there  be  cEquabile  jus,  justice  equally  done,  live  as  friends  and  brethren 
together ;  and  which  ^"^  Sesellius  would  have  and  so  much  desires  in  his  kingdom  of 
France,  "•  a  diapason  an-d  sweet  harmony  of  kings,  princes,  nobles,  and  plebeians  so 
mutually  tied  and  involved  in  love,  as  well  as  laws  and  authority,  as  that  they  never 
disagree,  insult,  or  encroach  one  upon  another."  If  any  man  deserve  well  in  his 
office  he  shall  be  rewarded. 

"  quis  etiiiri  virlulein  amplectitur  ipsam, 

Proemia  si  tollas  V "' 

He  that  invents  anything  for  public  good  in  any  art  or  science,  writes  a  treatise,  ^^or 
performs  any  noble  exploit,  at  home  or  abroad,  ^^ shall  be  accordingly  enriched, 
^"honoured,  and  preferred.  !  say  with  Hannibal  in  Ennius,  Hostem  quiferiet  erit  milii 
Carthaginensis,  let  him  be  of  what  condition  he  will,  in  all  offices,  actions,  he  that 
deserves  best  shall  have  best. 

Tilianus  in  Philonius,  out  of  a  charitable  mind  no  doubt,  wished  all  his  books 
were  gold  and  silver,  jewels  and   precious  stones,  ^'  to  redeem  captives,  set  free 


'"  iMedici  ex  publico  victum  siimunt.  Boter.  1.  1.  c.  5. 
de  ^siyptiis.  '^Da  his  leiie   I'alrit.  1.  3.  lit.  8.  (ie 

reip.  Instit.  ''''  Nihil  i  clieiitibiis  palroni  accipiant, 

priusquatn  lis  finila  est.  Barcl.  Arfjen.  lib.  3.  '^' It 

is  so  ill  most  fiee  cities  in  Germany.  '-^Mat.  Ric- 

rius  exped.  in  Sinas,  1.  1.  c.  ."J.  de  examinatione  elec- 
tionum  copios*  a!»it,  &c.  -^iContar.  de  repub.  Ve- 

net.  !.  1.  suOsor.  1.  11.  de  reb.  gest.   Eman.     Qui 

iti  lileri.'i  maximos  proaressus  fecerint  inaximis  hono- 
.'ilins  afficiunlur,  secundus   honoris  gradus  mililibus 


years,  Arist.  polit.  5.  c.8.  3<Narn  quis  custodiet 

ipsos  rustodes  ■?  35  Cylreus  in  Greisjeia.    Qui  non 

ex  sublimi  despiciant  inferiores,  nee  ut  bestias  concul- 
cent  sibi  gubdilos  auctorilatis  nomini,  coiifisi,  &c. 
36  Sesellius  de  rep.  Gallorum,  lib.  1  &  2.  '■  "  For 

who  would  cultivate  virtue  itself,  if  you  were  to  take 
away  the  reward  1"  ^i"  Si  quisegiegium  rut  be'lo 

aut  pace  perfecerit.     Sesel.  I.  1.  s^  Ad  regendam 

rempub.  soli  literati  admittuntur,  nee  ad  earn  rem 
gratia  magistraiuum  aut  regis  indigent,  omnia  explo- 


aasignatur,  poslremi  ordinis  nieclianicis,  doctoruui  |  rata  cujusq  ;  scientia  et  virtute  pendent.  Riccius  lib. 
hominum  jiidiciis  in  altiorern  locum  quisq  ;  prsesertur,     1.  cap  5.  ■">  In  defuncti  locum  eum  jussit  siihro- 

et  qui  a  piuriinis  apprnbatur,  ampliores  in  rep.  digni-  gari,  qui  inter  majores  Tirtute  reliquis  pra'irel  ;  non 
tales  consequilur.  Qui  in  hoc  examine  primas  habet,  '  fuit  apud  mortales  ullum  excellentius  cert.uneii,  aut 
insigni  per  totamvitam  dignitate  insianitur,  marchioni  cujus  victoria  magis  esset  expetenda,  non  eiiim  inter 
eimilis,  aut  duci  apud  nos.  3i  Cedant  arma  toese.     celpres,celerrimo,  non  inter  robustos  robuslissimo,  &c. 

=«  As  in   I'erne,  Lucerne.  Friburge  in   Switzerland,  a     <'  Nullum  videres  vol  in  hac  vel  in  vicinis  regionibu* 
vicious  liver  is  uncapable  of  any  ofRce  ;  if  a  Senator,     paupereiii,  nullum  oba;raluin,  &c. 
instantly  deposed.     Siui'erus.  aa  Not  above  three  . 


Democritus  to  the  Reader.  67 

prisoners,  and  relieve  all  poor  distressed  souls  that  wanted  niPins ;  religiously  done. 
f  deny  not,  but  to  what  purpose  ?  Suppose  this  were  so  well  done,  within  a  little 
after,  though  a  man  had  Croesus'  wealth  to  bestow,  there  would  be  as  many  more 
Wherefore  I  will  suffer  no  "'^beggars,  rogues,  vagabonds,  or  idle  persons  at  all,  that 
cannot  give  an  account  of  their  lives  how  they  ''^maintain  themselves.  If  they  be  im- 
potent, lame,  blind,  and  single,  they  shall  be  sufficiently  maintained  in  several  boss- 
pilals,  built  for  that  purpose ;  if  married  and  infirm,  past  work,  or  by  inevitable  loss. 
or  some  such  like  misfortune  cast  behind,  by  distribution  of  "corn,  house-rent  free, 
annual  pensions  or  money,  they  shall  be  relieved,  and  highly  rewarded  for  their  good 
service  they  have  formerly  done;  if  able,  they  shall  be  enforced  to  work.  ^^"•For  1 
see  no  reason  (as  ''^he  said)  why  an  epicure  or  idle  drone,  a  rich  glutton,  a  usurer, 
shouW  live  at  ease,  and  do  nothing,  live  in  honour,  in  all  manner  of  pleasures,  and 
oppress  others,  when  as  in  the  meantime  a  poor  labourer,  a  smith,  a  carpenter,  an 
husbandman  that  hath  spent,  his  time  in  continual  labour,  as  an  ass  to  carry  burdens, 
to  do  the  commonwealth  good,  and  without  whom  we  cannot  live,  shall  be  left  in 
his  old  age  to  beg  or  starve,  and  lead  a  miserable  life  worse  than  a  jument."  As 
"all  conditions  shall  be  tied  to  their  task,  so  none  shall  be  overtired,  but  have  theii 
set  times  of  recreations  and  holidays,  indulgere  genio.,  feasts  and  merry  meetings,  even 
to  the  meanest  artificer,  or  basest  servant,  once  a  week  to  sing  or  dance,  (though  not 
all  at  once)  or  do  whatsoever  he  shall  please;  like  ''^that  Saccarum  festmn  amongst 
the  Persians,  those  Saturnals  in  Rome,  as  well  as  his  master.  ''^  If  any  be  drunk,  he 
shall  drink  no  more  wine  or  strong  drink  in  a  twelvemonth  after.  A  bankrupt  shall 
be  '°  Caladoniatus  in  JlmphUheatro,  publicly  shamed,  and  he  that  cannot  pay  his 
debts,  if  by  riot  or  negligence  he  have  been  impoverished,  shall  be  for  a  twelve- 
month imprisoned,  if  in  that  space  his  creditors  be  not  satisfied,  ^'he  shall  be  hanged. 
He  ^^that  commits  sacrilege  shall  lose  his  bauds  ;  he  th&t  bears  false  witness,  or  is 
of  perjury  convicted,  shall  have  his  tongue  cut  out,  excep*,  he  redeem  it  with  his 
head.  Murder,  ^^ adultery,  shall  be  punished  by  death,  ^''but  not  theft,  except  it  be 
some  more  grievous  offence,  or  notorious  offenders :  otherwise  they  shall  be  con- 
demned to  the  galleys,  mines,  be  his  slaves  whom  they  have  ofl^ended,  during  their 
lives.  I  hate  all  hereditary  slaves,  and  that  duram  Persarnm  legen^  as  ^^Brisonius 
calls  it;  or  as  "^ Jlmviianvs^  iiripcndio  formidatas  et  abominandas  leges,  per  quas  oh 
noxam  nnius,  07nni-'i  vrojnv.qniius  peril  hard  law  that  wife  and  children,  friends  and 
allies,  should  suff^er  for  the  father's  offence. 

No  man  shall  marry  until  he  ^'bo  25,  no  woman  till  she  be  20,  ^^nisi  alitur  dis- 
pensatum  fuerit.  If  one  ^^die,  the  other  party  shall  not  marry  till  six  months  after ; 
and  because  many  families  are  compelled  to  live  niggardly,  exhaust  and  undone 
by  great  dowers,  *°none  shall  be  given  at  all,  or  very  little,  and  that  by  supervisors 
rated,  they  that  are  foul  shall  have  a  greater  portion  ;  if  fair,  none  at  all,  or  very 
little:  ^'howsoever  not  to  exceed  such  a  rate  as  those  supervisors  shall  think  fit. 
And  when  once  they  come  to  those  years,  poverty  shall  hinder  no  man  from 
marriage,  or  any  olher  respect,  ^^but  all  shall  be  rather  enforced   than  hindered, 


«  Nullus  mendicus  apiid  Sinas,  nemini  sano  quam-  i  septennis  puer.    Paiilus  Heuzner  Itiner.  ■'s  Atl  e- 

vis  oculis  turbatus  sit  mendicare  perinittiliir,  nmnes     iiasus,   I.    12.  ^  Simlerus    de    repub.     Helvet. 

pro  viiibiis  laborare,  cogiinlur,  CKci  molis  ttusalilibus  ,  M  Spartian.  olim  Rome  sic.  i*' He  that  provide* 


versaiidis  addiciintur,  soli  hospitiis  gaudent,  qui  ad 
labores  sunt  iiiepti.  Osor.  1.  11.  de  reb.  gest.  Enian. 
Heniins  de  reg.  Chin.  I.  I.  c.  3.  Go'tard.  Arth.  Orient. 
Ind.  descr.  "  Alex,  ab  Alex.  3.  c.  12.  "Sic 

dim  Romae  Isaac.  Pontan.  de  his  optime.  Amstol. 
1.  2.  c.  9.  ■'"Idem   Arislot.  pol.  5.  c.  8.     Vitiosutn 

quuui  soli  pauperum  liberi  educantnr  ad  labores,  no- 


nol  for  his  family,  is  worse  than  a  tliief.  Paul. 
'^Alfrerii  lex.  iitraq  ;  manus  et  lingua  pra-cidatur,  nisi 
earn  capite  redemerit.  ^s  gj  quis  nuptam  stuprJl- 

fit,  virga  virilis  ei  prasciditur  ;  si  mulier,  nasus  et  au- 
ricula prfficidatur.  Alfredi  lex.  En  leges  ipsi  Veneri 
Martiq  ;  timendas.  '■^  Pauperes  non  peccant,  quum 
extrenia  necessitate  coacti  rem  alienam  capiunt.  MaU 


biliutn  et  divitum  in  voluptatibus  etdeliciis.  «Qu!B  '  donat.  summula  quaist.  8.  art.  3.  Egocnm  illis  sentio 
ha;c  injusiitia  ut  nobilis  quispiam,  aut  fosnerator  qui  qui  licere  putant  i  divite  clam  accipere,  qui  tenetui 
nihil  agat,  lautam  et  spleiididam  vitam  agat,  otio  et  '  pauperi  subvenire.  Emmanuel  Sa  Aphor.  confess. 
delitiis,quum  interim  auriga.faber.agricola,  quo  res-  ^c  Lib.  2.  de  Reg.  Persaruni.  »>  £,ib.  24.  ^7  Alitei 
pub.  carere  non  potest,  vitam  adeo  miseram  ducat,  ut  Aristoteles,  a  man  at  25,  a  woman  at  20.  polit. 
pejor  quam  jumentonim  sit  ejus  conditio  1      Iniqua     ^Lex  olim  Licurgi,  hodie  Chinensiuni  ;  vide  Plutarch- 

um,  Riccium,  Hemmingium,  Arniseum,  Nevisanum, 
et  alios  de  hac  quaestione.  '■'■' Alfredus.  ™  ^pujj 
Lacones  olim  virgines  fine  dote  nubebant.  Boter.  1.  3. 
c.  3.  61  Lege  cautum  non  ita  pridem  apud  Venetos, 
ne  quis  Patrilius  doteni  excederet  ISOOcoron.  c-  Bux 
Synag.  Jud.  Sic  .ludffii.  Leo  Afer  Africs  descript.  n« 
sint  aliter  inconlitientes  ob  reipub.  bonum.  Ut  Kn- 
gasC.   Cxsar.  orat.  ad  cielibes  Ronianos  olim  edocuit. 


resp.  qnai  dat  parasitis,  adulatoribus,  inanium  volup 
latum  artificibus  generosis  et  otiosis  tanta  munera 
prodigit,  at  contri  agricolis,  carbonariis,  aurigis,  fa- 
bris,  &c.  nihil  prospicit,  sed  eorum  abusa  labore  flo- 
rentis  ffitatis  fame  penset  et  serumnis,  Mor.  Utop.  I.  2. 
<'ln  Segovia  nemo  otiosus,  nemo  mendicus  nisi  per 
etatem  aut  morbum  opus  facere  non  potest  :  nulli 
deest  unde  victum  quaerat,  aut  quo  se  exerceat.  Cypr. 
Echovius  Delit.  Hispan.  NuIIus  Genevee  otiosus,  ne 


68  Democritus  to  the  Reader. 

"except  they  be  ^dismembered,  or  grievously  deformed,  infirm,  or  visited  with  some 
snorinous  hereditary  disease,  in  body  or  mind ;  in  such  cases  upon  a  great  pain, 
■)T  mulct,  ^^man  or  woman  shall  not  marry,  other  order  shall  be  taken  for  them  to 
their  content.  .1  If  people  overabound,  they  shall  be  eased  by  "^"^  colonies. 

^'No  man  shall  wear  weapons  in  any  city.  The  same  attire  shall  be  kept,  and 
that  proper  to  several  callings,  by  which  they  shall  be  distinguished.  ^^ Ltixus  funC' 
rum  shall  be  taken  away,  that  intempestive  expense  moderated,  and  many  others. 
Brokers,  takers  of  pawns,  biting  usurers,  I  will  not  admit ;  yet  because  hie  cum 
hominibus  non  cum  diis  ogitur.,  we  converse  here  with  men,  not  with  gods,  and  for 
the  hardness  of  men's  hearts  I  will  tolerate  some  kind  of  usury .^^  If  we  were  honest, 
I  confess,  si  probi  essemns,  we  should  have  no  use  of  it,  but  being  as  it  is,  we  must 
necessarily  admit  it.  Howsoever  most  divines  contradict  it,  dicimus  injicias^  sed  vox 
ea  sola  reperta  est.,  it  must  be  winked  at  by  politicians.  And  yet  some  great  d;ictors 
approve  of  it,  Calvin,  Bucer,  Zanchius,  P.  Martyr,  because  by  so  many  grand  law- 
yers, decrees  of  emperors,  princes'  statutes,  customs  of  commonwealths,  churches' 
approbations  it  is  permitted,  &c.  J  will  therefore  allow  it.  But  to  no  private  persons, 
nor  to  every  man  that  will,  to  orphans  only,  maids,  widows,  or  such  as  by  reason 
of  their  age,  sex,  education,  ignorance  of  trading,  know  not  otherwise  how  to  em- 
ploy it;  and  those  so  approved,  not  to  let  it  out  apart,  but  to  bring  their  money  to  a 
'"common  bank  which  shall  be  allowed  in  every  city,  as  in  Genoa,  Geneva,  Nurem- 
berg, Venice,  at  "  5,  6,  7,  not  above  8  per  centum,  as  the  supervisors,  or  cerarii  prcb- 
fecti  shall  think  fit.  '^And  as  it  shall  not  be  lawful  for  each  man  to  be  an  usurer 
that  will,  so  shall  it  not  be  lawful  for  all  to  take  up  money  at  use,  not  to  prodigals 
and  spendthrifts,  but  to  merchants,  young  tradesmen,  such  as  stand  in  need,  or  know 
honestly  how  to  employ  it,  whose  necessity,  cause  and  condition  the  said  super- 
visors shall  approve  of. 

J  I  will  have  no  private  monopolies,  to  enrich  one  man,  and  beggar  a  multitude, 
'^''multiplicity  of  offices,  of  supplying  by  deputies,  weights  and  measures,  the  same 
throughout,  and  those  rectified  by  the  Primmn  mobile.,  and  sun's  motion,  three- 
score miles  to  a  degree  according  to  observation,  1000  geometrical  paces  to  a  mile, 
five  foot  to  a  pace,  twelve  inches  to  a  foot,  &.c.  and  from  measures  known  it  is  an 
easy  matter  to  rectify  weights,  &.c.  to  cast  up  all,  and  resolve  bodies  by  algebra, 
stereometry.  I  hate  wars  if  they  be  not  ad  popnli  sahdem,  upon  urgent  occasion, 
'"'■'•  odimus  accipifrim,  quia  semper  vivit  in  armis.,''''  "offensive  wars,  except  the  cause 
be  very  just,  I  will  not  allow  of  For  I  do  highly  magnify  that  saying  of  Hannibal 
to  Scipio,  in  "^Livy,  "  It  had  been  a  blessed  thing  for  you  and  us,  if  God  had  given 
that  mind  to  our  predecessors,  that  you  had  been  content  with  Italy,  we  with  Africa. 
For  neither  Sicily  nor  Sardinia  are  worth  such  cost  and,  pains,  so  many  fleets  and 
armies,  or  so  many  famous  Captains'  lives."  Omnia  prius  tentanda^  fair  means  shall 
first  be  tried.  '•'' Peragit  tranquilla  poteslas..  Quod  violenla  nequit.  I  will  have  them 
proceed  with  all  moderation :  but  hear  you,  Fabius  my  general,  not  Minutius,  nam 
''^qui  Consilio  nititur  plus  hostibus  nocet.,  quam  qui  sini  animi  ratione.,  viribus  : 
And  in  such  wars  to  obstain  as  much  as  is  possible  from  '^depopulations,  burning  of 
towns,  raassacreing  of  infants,  &c.  For  defensive  wars,  I  will  have  forces  still  ready 
at  a  small  warning,  by  land  and  sea,  a  prepared  navy,  soldiers  in  procinctu.,  et  quam 
^Bonjinius  apud  Hungaros  suos  vult.,  virgam  ferream.,  and  money,  which  is  nerves 

MM-orbo  lahorans,  qui  in  prolem  fticile  diffunditiir,  dearer,  and   better   improved,  as   he   hath  jiidicia'ly 

ne  genus  huinanuni  foeda  confagione  hfdalur,  juven-  proved  in  his  tract  of  usury,  exhibited  to  the  Parlia- 

tute  castratur,  niulieres  tales  prociiiaconsorliovi.ro-  inent  anno  1621.            ''^  Hoc  fere   Zanchius  com.  in  4 

rum  ablesantur,  &c.     Hector  Boethius  hist.  lib.  1.  de  cap.  ad  Ephes.  aequissimam  vocaJ  usuram,  et  charitati 

vet.  Scotorum  moribus.            "■•  Speciosissimi  juvenes  Christianie  consentaneani,  inodo  non  exigant,  &;c.  nee 

libtris  dabunt  operam.     Plato  5.  de  iegUius.         "^The  omnes  dent  ad  foenus,  sed  ii  qui  in  pecuniis  bona  lia- 

Saxons  exclude  dutub,  blind,  leprous,  and  such  like  bent,  et  ob  a;talem,  sexum,  ariis  alicujus  ignorantiam, 

persons  from  all  iiibc'ritatuc,  as  we  do  fools.          '"'Ut  nnn  possunt  uti.     Nee  omnibus,  sed  mercatoribus  et 

dim  Komani,  nispani  hodie,  &c.          "Rjccius  lib.  11.  iis  qiiihoneste  impendent,  &c.            "' Idem  apud  Per- 

cap.  5.  de  8inarum.  expedit.  sic  Hispani  couunt  Mau-  sas  olim,  lege  Brisonium.           '< "  We  hale  the  hawk, 

ros  arma  deponere.     So  it  is  in  most  Italian  cities,  because  he  always  lives  in  battle."           '■'•  Idem  Plato 

6"  Idem  Plato  12.  de  legibus,  it  hath  ever  been  immode- j  de  legibus.  ""Lib,   30.    Optimum  qiiidem   fuerat 

rate,  vide  Guil.  Stuckium  antiq.  convival.  lib.  1.  cap.  26.  '  eain  patribus  nostris  mentem  a  diis  datam  esse,  ut  vos 

'*  Plato  9.  de  legibus.        "' As  those  Lombards  beyond  Italim,  nos  Africae  imperio  contenti  essemus.     Neque 

^eas,  though  with  some  reformation,  inons  ptetatis,  or  enini  Sicilia  aut  Sardinia  satis  digna  precio  sunt  pro 

bank   of  charity,  as  Malines  terms  if,  cap.  33.     Lax  tot  classibus,  &c.          "  Claudian.           '"Inucid'des. 

mertat.  part  2.  that  lend  money  upon  easy  pawns,  or  '^A   depopulatione,   asrorum  incendiia,   ei   ejiis'nodi 

take  money  upon  adventure  for  men's  lives.        "That  factis   iiiimanibus.      Piato.               "'Hungar.   dec    i< 

nroportion   will    make    merchandise    increase,    land  lib  9 


Democritus  to  t/ie  Reader. 


69 


belli,  sti:l  in  a  readiness,  and  a  sufficient  revenue,  a  third  part  as  in  old  ^'Rome  and 
Egypt,  reserved  for  tlie  commonwealth  ;  to  avoid  those  heavy  taxes  and  impositions 
as  well  to  defray  this  charge  of  wars,  as  also  all  other  public  defalcations,  expenses 
foes,  pensions,  reparations,  chaste  sports,  feasts,  donaries,  rewards,  and  entertainments 
^11  tilings  in  this  nature  especially  1  will  have  maturely  done,  and  with  great  **^ deli- 
beration :  tiP  quid  *^  Icmere,  ne  quid  remisse  ac  limide  fiat ;  Sed  quo  feror  hospes  ? 
To  prosecute  the  rest  would  require  a  volume.  Manii.m  de  tabellcti  J  have  been 
over  tedious  in  this  subject ;  I  could  have  here  willingly  ranged,  but  these  straits 
wherein  I  am  included  will  not  permit. 
^  From  commonwealths  and  cities,  I  will  descend  to  families,  which  have  as  many 
corslves  and  molestations,  as  frequent  discontents  as  the  rest.  Great  affinity  there 
's  beUvixt  a  political  and  economical  body;  they  differ  only  in  magnitude  and  pro- 
portion of  business  (so  Scaliger^''  writes)  as  they  have  both  likely  the  same  period,  as 
^Bodin  and  "'^Peucer  hold,  out  of  Plato,  six  or  seven  hundred  years,  so  many  times 
they  have  the  same  means  of  their  vexation  and  overthrows ;  as  namely,  riot,  a  com- 
mon ruin  of  both,  riot  in  building,  riot  in  profuse  spending,  riot  in  apparel,  &c.  be 
it  in  what  kind  soever,  it  produceth  the  same  effects.  A  **' corographer  of  ours 
speaking  obiter  of  ancient  families,  why  they  are  so  frequent  in  the  north,  continue 
so  long,  are  so  soon  extinguished  in  the  south,  and  so  few,  gives  no  other  reason 
but  this,  luxus  ovinia  dissipuvii.^  riot  hath  consumed  all,  fine  clothes  and  curious 
buildings  came  into  this  island,  as  he  notes  in  his  annals,  not  so  many  years  since ; 
nonsine  dispendin  hospitalifatis,  to  the  decay  of  hospitality.  Howbeit  many  times 
that  word  is  mistaken,  and  under  the  name  of  bounty  and  hospitality,  is  shrowded 
riot  and  prodigality,  and  that  which  is  eommendable  in  itself  well  used,  hath  been 
mistaken  heretofore,  is  become  by  his  abus?,  thd  bane  and  utter  ruin  of  many  a  noble 
family.  ;  For  some  men  live  like  the  rich  glutton,  consuming  themselves  and  their 
substance  by  continual  feasting  and  invitations,  with  ^^Axilon  in  Homer,  keep  open 
house  for  all  comers,  giving  entertainment  to  such  as  visit  them,  ""^  keeping  a  table 
beyond  their  means,  and  a  company  of  idle  servants  (though  not  so  frequent  as  of 
old)  are  blown  up  on  a  sudden ;  and  as  Acta^on  was  by  his  hounds,  devoured  by 
their  kinsmen,  friends,  and  multitude  of  followers.  ^"It  is  a  wonder  that  Faulus 
Jovius  relates  of  our  norihsni  countries,  what  an  infinite  deal  of  meat  we  consume 
on  our  tables  ;  that  I  nfi.-.y  truly  say,  'tis  not  bounty,  not  hospitality,  as  it  is  often 
abused,  but  riot  and  excess,  gluttony  and  prodigality,  a  mere  vice;  it  brings  in  debt, 
want,  and  beggary,  herediUuy  diseases,  consumes  their  fortunes,  and  overthrows  the 
good  temperature  of  their  bodies.  To  this  I  might  here  well  add  their  inordinate 
expense  in  building,  those  fantastical  houses,  turrets,  walks,  parks,  Stc.  gaming,  excess 
of  pleasure,  and  that  prodigious  riot  in  apparel,  by  which  means  they  are  compelled 
to  break  up  house,  and  creep  into  holes.  SeselliMs  in  his  commonwealth  of '"France, 
gives  three  reasons  why  the  French  nobility  were  so  frequently  bankrupts  :  "  First, 
because  they  had  so  many  law-suits  and  contentions  one  upon  another,  which  were 
tedious  and  costly ;  by  which  means  it  came  to  pass,  that  commonly  lawyers  bought 
them  out  of  their  possessions  A  second  cause  was  their  riot,  they  lived  beyond 
their  means,  and  were  therefore  swallowed  up  by  merchants."  (La  Nove,  a  French 
writer,  yields  five  reasons  of  his  countrymen's  poverty,  to  the  same  effect  almost,  and 
thinks  verily  if  the  gentry  of  France  were  divided  into  ten  parts,  eight  of  them  would 
be  found  much  impaired,  by  saJes,  mortgages,  and  debts,  or  wholly  sunk  in  their 
estates.)  "-The  last  was  immodtrate  excess  in  apparel,  which  consumed  their  reve- 
nues." How  this  concerns  and  agrees  with  our  present  state,  look  you.  But  of  this 
elsewhere.  As  it  is  in  a  man's  body,  if  either  head,  heart,  stomach,  liver,  spleen,  or  any 
one  part  be  misaftected,  all  the  rest  suffer  with  it :  so  is  it  with  this  economical  body 


*'  Seselliiis,  lib.  2.  de  repiib.  Gal.  valde  enim  est  in- 
decorum, ubi  quod  praeter  opiriionem  accidit  dicere, 
Non  putaram,  presertim  si  res  preecaveri  potuerit. 
Livius,  lib.  1.  Dion.  lib.  2.  Diodorus  Siculus,  lib.  2. — 
'•  Peragit  tranqiiilla  potestas.  Quod  violenta  nequit. — 
t^laudian.  '^■'  Belluin  nee  tiniendum  nee  provocan- 

dum.     Plir..  Tanegyr.  Trajano.  "^Lib.   3.  poet, 

cap.  19.  66 Lib.  4.  de  repub.  cap.  2.  sepeuier. 

lib.  1.  de  divinat.       •■' Camden  in  Cheshire.       ""Iliad. 
6.  lib.         S9  Vide  Puteaiii  Comum,  Gocletiium  de  por- 


tentosis  cosnis  nostrorum  teinporum.  soMirabile 

diet!!  est,  quantum  opsoniorum  una  domiis  singulii 
diehus  absumat,  slernuntur  iiiens<e  in  oniiies  pene 
lioras  calentibus  semper  eduliis.  Uescrip.  Britan. 
J' Lib.  1.  de  rep.  Gallorum;  quod  tot  lites  et  lauss 
forensps,  alia;  ferantur  ex  aliis,  iu  immensnm  produ- 
eanlur,  et  masrnos  sumptus  requirant  unde  fit  iil  juri.i 
administri  plerumque  iioliiljum  possessiones  adciul- 
rant,  turn  quod  sumptuosft  vivani,  et  4  niercaloribu* 
absorbentur  et  splendissimd  vestiantur.  Sec. 


70  Democntus  to  the  Reader. 

If  the  liead  be  naught,  a  spendthrift,  a  drunkard,  a  whoremaster,  a  gamester,  how 
shall  the  family  live  at  ease  ?  ^^Ipsa  si  c^qnat  salus  servarc^  prorsus,  non  potest  hanc 
famillam^  as  Demea  said  in  the  comedy.  Safety  herself  cannot  save  it.  A  good,  hon- 
est, painful  man  many  times  hath  a  shrew  to  his  wife,  a  sickly,  dishonest,  slothful, 
foolish,  careless  woman  to  his  mate,  a  proud,  peevish  flirt,  a  liquorish,  prodigal  quean, 
and  by  that  means  all  goes  to  ruin  :  or  if  they  difier  in  nature,  he  is  tlirifty,  she 
spends  all,  he  wise,  slie  sottish  and  soft ;  what  agreement  can  there  be  ?  what  friend- 
ship ?  Like  that  of  the  thrush  and  swallow  in  ^sop,  instead  of  mutual  love,  kind 
compellations,  whore  and  thief  is  heard,  they  fling  stools  at  one  another's  heads. 
^QucR  intemperies  vexed  hanc  famiUarn?  All  enforced  marriages  commonly  pro- 
duce such  effects,  or  if  on  their  behalfs  it  be  well,  as  to  live  and  agree  lovingly 
together,  they  may  have  disobedient  and  unruly  children,  that  take  ill  courses  to 
disquiet  tliem,^'  "•  their  son  is  a  thief,  a  spendthrift,  their  daughter  a  wliore ;"  a  step 
"^mother,  or  a  daughter-in-law  distempers  all  ;^^  or  else  for  want  of  means,  many 
torturers  arise,  debts,  dues,  fees,  dowries,  jointures,  legacies  to  be  paid,  annuities 
issuing  out,  by  means  of  which,  they  have  not  wherewithal  to  maintain  themselves 
in  that  pomp  as  their  predecessors  have  done,  bring  up  or  bestow  their  children  to 
their  callings,  to  their  birth  and  quality,^'  and  will  not  descend  to  their  present  for- 
tunes. Oftentimes,  too,  to  aggravate  the  rest,  concur  many  other  inconveniences, 
unthankful  friends,  decayed  friends,  bad  neighbours,  negligent  servants  ^^servi  fu- 
races^i  Versipelles,  callidi^  occlusa  sibi  mille  clavUms  rcscrant^  fiirlimque ;  raptant^ 
consumunt.,  liguriunt ;  casualties,  taxes,  mulcts,  chargeable  offices,  vain  expenses, 
entertainments,  loss  of  stock,  enmities,  emulations,  frequent  invitations,  losses,  surety- 
ship, sickness,  death  of  friends,  and  that  which  is  the  gulf  of  all,  improvidence,  ill 
husbandry,  disorder  and  confusion,  by  which  means  they  are  drenched  on  a  sudden 
in  their  estates,  and  at  unawares  precipitated  insensibly  into  an  inextricable  labyrinth 
of  debts,  cares,  woes,  Avant,  grief,  discontent  and  melancholy  itself. 

I  have  done  with  faradies,  and  will  now  briefly  run  over  some  few  sorts  and  con- 
ditions of  men.     The  most  secure,  happy,  jovial,  and  merry  in  the  world's  esteem 
are  princes  and  great  men,  free  from  melancholy  :  but  for  their  cares,  miseries,  sus- 
picions, jealousies,  discontents,  folly  and  madness,  I  refer  you  to  Xenophon's  Tyran-\ 
nus,  where  king  Hieron  discourseth  at  large  with  Simonides  the  poet,  of  this  subject.' 
Of  all  others  tliey  are  most  troubled  with  perpetual  fears,  anxieties,  insomuch,  that  . 
as  he  said  in  '■'^Valerius,  if  thou  knewest  with  what  cares  and  miseries  this  robe  were  . 
stuffed,  tliou  wouldst  not  stoop  to  take  it  up.     Or  put  case  they  be  secure  and  free  I 
from  fears  and  discontents,  yet  they  are  void  "^of  reason  too  oft,  and  precipitate  in' 
their  actions,  read  all  our  histories,  quos  de  stultis  prodidere  stulti,  Iliades,  jEneides. 
Annales,  and  what  is  the  subject .? 

»  Stultorum  regnm,  et  |.opulorum  continet  sestus."     I  J,^"",  ^'"^'^V  tumults  aud  the  foolish  rage 

1  Of  kings  and  people. 

How  mad  they  are,  how  furious,  and  upon  small  occasions,  rash  and  inconsiderate 
in  their  proceedings,  how  they  doat,  every  page  almost  wUl  witness, 

"delirant  reges,  plectuntur  Achivi."      I      W^e"  d"ting  monarchs  urge 

I      Unsound  resolves,  their  subjects  feel  the  scourge. 

^  Next  in  place,  next  in  miseries  and  discontents,  in  all  manner  of  hair-brain  actions, 
are  great  men,  procul  a  Jove^  procul  a  fnhnine,  the  nearer  the  worse.  If  they  live 
in  court,  they  are  up  and  down,  ebb  and  flow  with  their  princes'  favours.  Ingcnium 
vullu  stalque  cadiJque  sua,  now  aloft,  to-morrow  down,  as  'Polybius  describes  them, 
'*•  like  so  many  casting  counters,  now  of  gold,  to-morrow  of  silver,  that  vary  in 
worth  as  the  computant  will ;  now  they  stand  for  units,  to-morrow  for  thousands 
now  before  all,  and  anon  behind.''  Beside,  they  torment  one  another  with  mutua. 
factions,  emulations  :  one  is  ambitio\is,  another  enamoured,  a  third  in  debt,  a  prodigal, 
overruns  his  fortunes,  a  fourth  solicitous  with  cares,  gets  nothing,  &c.  But  for  these 
men's  discontents,  anxieties,  I  refer  you  to  Lucian's  Tract,  de  mercede  conductis, 

92Ter.  83  Amphit.  Plaut.  »' Paling.  Filius  wpiautus  Aulular.  ^^ Lib.  7.  cap.  6.  wPe) 

aut  fur.  ofiCatus  cum    mure,  duo  galli  simul  in  litur  in  bellis  sapientia,  vigeritur  res.     Vetus  ^rover- 

aede,     Et    glotes     bins    nunquam    vivunt    sine    lite,  i  bium,  aut  regem  aut  faluum  nasci  oportere.  '  Lib 

*'  Rea  angusta  domi.  ^'  When  pride  and  beggary  1.  hist.  Rom.  similes  a.  bacculorum  calculis,  serundliin 

meet  in  a  family,  they  roar  and  h(  wl,  and   cause  ag  computantis  arhilriiim,  mod6  aerei  sunt,  nindi)  aurei ; 

ni my  flashes  of  di.-icontenis,  as  fire  ind  'valer,  when  ad  nutum  regis  nunc  beat!  sunt  nunc  niiseri. 
Hjey    concu"-,     make     thunder-claj  ^    in    the    skied. 


Deviocntus  to  the  Reader. 


71 


Mneas  Sylvius  (libidinis  et  stultitice  servos.)  he  calls  them),  A^ippa,  and  many 
otJiers. 

Of  philosophers  and  scholars  priscce  sapienticB  dictatores,  I  have  already  spoken  in 
general  terms,  those  superintendents  of  wit  and  learning,  men  above  men,  those  refined 
men,  minions  of  the  muses, 

3 "mentemque  habere  qiifiis  bonam 

Et  esse  *  corculis  daiuin  est." 

'v 'These  acute  and  subtile  sophisters,  so  much  honoured,  have  as  much  need  of 

hellebore  as  others.     ^O  medici   mcdiam  pertundite  venam.     Read    Lucian's 

Viscator,  and  tell  how  he  esteemed  them  ;  Agrippa's  Tract  of  the  vanity  of  Sciences ; 
nay  read  their  own  works,  their  absurd  tenets,  prodigious  paradoxes,  et  risum  tenea- 
fis  amicif  You  shall  find  that  of  Aristotle  true,  nuUmu  magnum  ingenlvm  sine 
vdxtura  dementia;.,  they  have  a  worm  as  well  as  others;  you  shall  find  a  fantastical 
strain,  a  liistian,  a  bombast,  a  vain-glorious  humour,  an  affected  style.  Sic,  like  a 
prominent  thread  in  an  uneven  woven  cloth,  run  parallel  throughout  their  works.  And' 
they  that  teach  wisdom,  patience,  meekness,  are  the  veriest  dizards,  hairbrains,  and  ' 
most  discontent.  '''"  In  the  multitude  of  wisdom  is  grief,  and  he  that  increaseth  wis- 
dom, Uicreaseth  sorrow."  I  need  not  quote  mine  author;  they  that  laugli  and  contenm 
others,  condemn  the  world  of  folly,  deserve  to  be  mocked,  are  as  giddy-headed,  and 
lie  as  open  as  any  other.  *  Democritus,  that  common  fiouter  of  folly,  was  ridiculous 
himself,  barking  Menippus,  scoffing  Lucian,  satirical  Lucilius,  Petronius,  Varro,  Per- 
sius,  &c.,  may  be  censured  with  the  rest,  Loripede7n  rectus  derideot,  JEtkiopem  al- 
bus.  Bale,  Erasmus,  Hospinian,  Vives,  Kemnisiiis,  explode  as  a  vast  ocean  of  obs 
and  sols,  school  divinity.  ®A  labyrinth  of  intricable  questions,  unprofitable  conten- 
tions, incredibilem  delirationcm.,  one  calls  it.  If  school  divinity  be  so  censured,  sub- 
tilis  '"(Sco/ms  lima  veritatis.,  Occam  irrefragabilis.,  cujus  ingenium  vetera  omnia 
ingenia  subvertit,  &c.  Baconthrope,  Dr.  Resolutus,  and  Corcnlum  Theolgice.,  Thomas 
himself,  Doctor  "  Seraphicus,  cui  dictavit  tftngelus.,  &c.  What  shall  become  of  hu- 
manity ?  Jlrs  stulta.,  what  can  she  plead  }  what  can  her  followers  say  for  themselves  ^ 
Much  learning,  '^  cere-diminuit-brum,  hath  cracked  their  sconce,  and  taken  such  root, 
that  tribus  Anticyris  caput  insanabile.,  hellebore  itself  can  do  no  good,  nor  that  re- 
nowned '^lanthorn  of  Epictetus,  by  which  if  any  man  studied,  he  should  be  as  wise 
as  he  was.  But  all  will  not  serve ;  rhetoricians,  in  oslentationem  loquacitatis  multa 
agilant.,  out  of  their  volubility  of  tongue,  will  talk  much  to  no  purpose,  orators 
can  persuade  other  men  what  they  will,  q7io  voluntj  unde  volunf.,  move,  pacify,  Stc, 
but  cannot  settle  their  own  brains,  what  saith  Tully  ?  Malo  indisertam  prudentiam^ 
quam  loquaccm  stuUitiam ;  and  as  '''Seneca  seconds  him,  a  wise  man's  oration  should 
not  be  polite  or  solicitous.  '^Fabius  esteems  no  better  of  most  of  them,  either  in 
speech,  action,  gesture,  than  as  men  beside  themselves,  insanos  dcclamatores ;  so 
doth  Gregory,  JYon  mihi  sapit  qui  sermone,  sed  qui  factis  sapit.  Make  the  best  of 
him,  a  good  orator  is  a  turncoat,  an  evil  man,  bonus  orator  pessimus  vir^  his  tongue 
is  set  to  sale,  he  is  a  mere  voice,  as  "^  he  said  of  a  nightingale,  dat  sine  mrnte  sonum., 
an  hyperbolical  liar,  a  flatterer,  a  parasite,  and  as  "Ammianus  Marcellinus  will,  a 
corrupting  cozener,  one  that  doth  more  mischief  by  his  fair  speeches,  tlian  he  that 
bribes  by  money  ;  for  a  man  may  with  more  facility  avoid  him  that  circumvents  by 
money,  than  him  that  deceives  with  glozing  terms;  which  made  '*' Socrates  so  much 
abhor  and  explode  them.  '^Fracastorius,  a  famous  poet,  freely  grants  all  poets  to  be 
mad ;  so  doth  ^Scaliger ;  and  who  doth  not  ?  Atit  insanit  Jiomo^  aut  versus  facit  (He's 
mad  or  making  verses),  Hor.  Sat.  vii.  1.  2.  Insanire  luhet.,  i.  versus  componere.  Virg 
3  Eel. ;  so  Servius  interprets  it,  all  poets  are  mad,  a  company  of  bitter  satirists, 
detractors,  or  else  parasitical  applauders  :  and  what  is  poetry  itself,  but  as  Austin 
holds,  Vinum  err  oris  ab  ebriis  doctoribus  propinatum  ?  '  You  may  give  that  censure 


*  ^rumnosiqiie  Solones  in  Sa.  3.   De  miser,  curia- 
lium.  3  F.  Ooiisse  Epid.  lib.   1.  c.   13.  ■•  Hoc 

cognoniento  colionestati  Ronirc,  qui  caeterns  mortales 
saiilentiit  prasstareiit,  testis  Plin.  lib.  7.  cap.  34.  6  ]„. 
sanire  paiant  certa  ratinne  inodoqiie  mad  by  the  book 
lliey,  &c.  s  Juvenal.     "O  Physicians!  open  the 

middle  vein."  '  Solomon.  »  Communis  irri- 

sor  slujtitias.  »  Wit  whither  wiil>  '"Scaliger 

exerriiat.  3"^l.         "  Vii.  ejus.  i'-^  Enni' s.         '■' Lu- 

cian     'I'ei  mille  drachmis  dim  empta  ;  atudens  iniie 


sapientiam  adipiscetur.  '■i  Epist.  21.  1.  lib.     Non 

oportet  oratioiiem  snpientis  esse  politam  aut  solicitam. 
"Lib.  3.  cap.  13.  miilto  anhelitu  jactalione  furentes 
pectus,  frontem  csdentes,  &c.  '*  Lipsius,  voces 

sunt,  priEterea  nihil.  '''  Lib.  30.  plus  mali  facere 

videtur  qui  oratione  quim  qui  pra?tio  quemvis  cor- 
rumpit:  nam,&c.  "^  In  Gorg.   Platonis.  '"In 

nauoerio.  -»  Si  furor  sit  Lyseus,  &c.  quoties  furiv 

furit,  furit,  amana,  bibens,  et  f'oeta.  &;c. 


72  JJemocritus  to  the  Reader. 

of  them  in  general,  which  Sir  Thomas  More  once  did  of  Germanub  Brixius'  poems 
in  particular. 

-^ "  vehiintur 

In  rate  stultitise  sylvam  habitant  Furise-"^'  , 

Budseus,  in  an  epistle  of  his  to  Lupsetiis,  will  liave  civil  law  vO  ©e  l»ie  towei  of 
wisdom  ;  another  honours  physic,  the  quintessence  of  nature  ;  a  tnird  tumbles  them 
both  down,  and  sets  up  the  flag  of  his  own  peculiar  science.  Your  supercilious 
critics,  grammatical  tritlers,  note-makers,  curious  antiquaries,  find  out  all  the  ruins 
of  wit,  incptiarum  delicias^i  amongst  the  rubbish  of  old  writers  •,  ^^Pro  stultis  habeni 
nisi  ahqiiid  siijjiciant  invcnire.,  quod  in  aliorum  scrijjiis  vertant  vitio.,  all  fools  witli 
them  that  cannot  find  fault;  they  correct  others,  and  are  hot  in  a  cold  cause,  puzzle 
themselves  to  find  out  how  many  streets  in  Kome,  houses,  gates,  towers.  Homer's 
country,  ^Eneas's  mother,  Niobe's  daughters,  an  Sappho puhlica  fuerit  ?  ovum  ■^''jjrius 
exlUerit  an  gall'ma!  &c.  et  alia  qucB  dediscenda  esscnt  scire,,  si  scires.,  as  ''^Seneca 
holds.  What  clothes  the  senators  did  wear  in  Rome,  what  shoes,  how  they  sat, 
where  they  went  to  the  closestool,  how  many  dishes  in  a  mess,  what  sauce,  which 
for  the  present  for  an  historian  to  relate,  "according  to  Lodovic.  Vives,  is  very 
ridiculous,  is  to  them  most  precious  elaborate  stufl^,  they  admired  for  it,  and  as  proud, 
as  triumphant  in  the  meantime  for  this  discovery,  as  if  they  had  won  a  city,  or  con- 
quered a  province  ;  as  rich  as  if  they  had  found  a  mine  of  gold  ore.  Quosvis  aucto- 
res  absurdis  commcntis  suis  percacant  et  slercorant,  one  saith,  they  bewray  and  daub 
a  company  of  books  and  good  authors,  with  their  absurd  comments,  correctorum  ster- 
quilinia  "^^Scaliger  calls  them,  and  show  their  wit  in  censuring  others,  a  company  of 
foolish  note-makers,  humble-bees,  dors,  or  beedles,  inter  siercora  ulplurinunn  versan- 
tur,  they  rake  over  all  those  rubbish  and  dunghills,  and  prefer  a  manuscript  many 
times  before  the  Gospel  itself,  ^'//iesa^^rM7rt  crit.icum^  before  any  treasure,  and  with  their 
deleaturs.,  alii  legunt  sic,  mens  codex  sic  habct.,  with  their  postremce  editiones.,  anno- 
tations, castigations,  &c.  make  books  dear,  themselves  ridiculous,  and  do  nobody 
good,  yet  if  any  man  dare  oppose  or  contradict,  they  are  mad,  up  in  anns  on  a  sud- 
den, how  many  sheets  are  written  in  defence,  how  bitter  invectives,  what  apologies  ? 
'^Epiph.illcdes  hce  sunt  ut  merce  niigce.  But  I  dare  say  no  more  of,  for,  with,  or 
against  them,  because  I  am  liable  to  their  lash  as  well  as  others.  Of  these  and  the 
rest  of  our  artists  and  philosophers,  1  will  generally  conclude  they  are  a  kind  of 
madmen,  as  ^^  Seneca  esteems  of  them,  to  make  doubts  and  scruples,  how  to  read 
them  truly,  to  mend  old  authors,  but  will  not  mend  their  own  lives,  or  teach  us  ingevia 
sanare^  mcmoriam  ojjiciorum  ingerere^  ac  ftdem  in  rebus  humanis  retincre,  to  keep 
our  wits  in  order,  or  rectify  our  manners.  JYumquid  tibi  demens  videtur^  si  islis 
operam  impenderit  f  Is  not  he  mad  that  draws  lines  with  Archimedes,  whilst  his 
house  is  ransacked,  and  his  city  besieged,  when  the  whole  world  is  in  combustion, 
or  we  whilst  our  souls  are  in  danger,  {mors  sequitur,  viiafugit)  to  spend  our  time 
in  toys,  idle  questions,  and  things  of  no  worth  } 

That  ^"loveis  are  mad,  I  think  no  man  will  deny,  Jlmare  simul  et  sapere,  ipsi  Jovi 
non  datur^  Jupiter  himself  cannot  intend  both  at  once. 

SI "  Non  ben6  cnnveniiitit,  nee  in  unA  sede  morantur 

Majestas  et  amor." 

Tully,  when  he  was  invited  to  a  second  marriage,  replied,  he  could  not  simul  amare 
et  sopere  be  wise  and  love  both  together.  ^^Est  orcus  ille^  vis  est  immedicabiUs^  est 
"abies  insana.,  love  is  madness,  a  hell,  an  incurable  disease ;  inpotentem  et  insanam 
Hbidinem  ^'Seneca  calls  it,  an  impotent  and  raging  lust.  I  shall  dilate  this  sub- 
ject apart ;  in  the  meantime  let  lovers  sigh  out  the  rest. 

"^  Nevisanus  the  lawyer  holds  it  for  an  axiom,  "  most  women  are  fools,"  ^^  consilium 
fceminis  invalidum  ;  Seneca,  men,  be  they  young  or  old  ;  who  doubts  it,  youth  is 
mad  as  Elius  in  Tidly,  Stvlli  adolescenluli.,  old  age  little  better,  deliri  senes,  &c. 
Theoplirastes.  in  the  107th  year  of  his  age,  ''^said  he  then  began  to  be  to  wise,  turn 

II  "They  are  borne  in  the  bark  of  folly,  and  dwell  I  ^i  Ovid.  Met.  "  Majesty  and  Love  do  not  apree  well, 
tn  the  grove  of  madness."  •'- Morns  tJtop.  lib.  11.     nor  dwell  toaether."  ^'-Plutarch.     Amatorio  est 

^^Macrob.   Satiir.  7.   16.  ^lEpist.  16.  W'Lib.  lamnr   insaniis.  w  Epjgt.  39.  3<  Sylvan   niiptl- 

de  caiisis  corrup.  artiiim.  21;  j.it,.  2.  in  Ausonium,     alls,   1.    1.   num.   11.     Onines   nuilieres    ul    pliiiiniinn 

cap.    19  et  32.  '-'Edit.  7.  volnm.  .lario  CJutero.     stiiUie  3-' Aristotle.  ^cDoigre  se  dixit  quod 

**  \ristophanis    Ranis.  ^aj.jti     ^e    bereficiis.     tuni  vila  egredereiur. 

'•Pclirus    et    amen?   dicatur    mer'-       Hor.     Seneca. 


Democritus  to  the  Reader.  73 

sapere  coppit,  and  therefore  lamented  his  departure.  If  wisdom  come  so  late,  where 
shall  we  iind  a  wise  man  ?  Our  old  ones  doat  at  threescore-and-ten.  I  would  cite 
more  proofs,  and  a  better  author,  but  for  the  present,  let  one  fool  point  at  another 
"Nevisanus  hath  as  hard  an  opinion  of  '^^rich  men,  "wealth  and  wisdom  canno* 
(^dwell  together,"  stuliltiam  patiuntur  opes,  ^^and  they  do  commonly  '^°  infutuarc  cor 
hominls,  besot  men  ;  and  as  we  see  it,  "  fools  have  fortune  :"  '^' Sapient ia  non  inve 
nilur  in  terra  suavitcr  viventium.  For  beside  a  natural  contempt  of  learning,  which 
accompanies  such  kind  of  men,  innate  idleness  (for  they  will  take  no  pains),  ami 
which  ^^  Aristotle  observes,  uhi  mens  plurima,  ihi  minima  fortuna,  uhi  plurima  for- 
tuna^ihi  mens  pcrea;(^?ifl,  great  wealth  and  little  wit  go  commonly  together  :  they  have 
as  much  brains  some  of  them  in  their  heads  as  in  their  heels  ;  besides  this  inbred 
neglect  of  liberal  sciences,  and  all  arts,  which  should  excolere  mentcm,  polish  the 
mind,  they  have  most  part  some  gullish  humour  or  other,  by  which  they  are  led ; 
one  is  an  Epicure,  an  Atheist,  a  second  a  gamester,  a  third  a  whore-master  (fit  sub- 
jects all  for  a  satirist  to  work  upon) ; 

«  "  Hie  nuptarum  insanit  amoribus,  hie  puerorum."    I         ^ne  burns  to  madness  for  the  wedded  dame  ; 
•^  1         Unnatural  lusts  another's  heart  inflame. 

*''  one  is  mad  of  hawking,  hunting,  cocking ;  another  of  carousing,  horse-riding, 
spending ;  a  fourth  of  building,  fighting,  &c.,  Insanit  veteres  statuas  Damasippus 
emcndo,  Damasippus  hath  an  humour  of  his  own,  to  be  talked  of:  ""^ Heliodorus  the 
Carthaginian  another.  In  a  word,  as  Scaliger  concludes  of  them  all,  they  are  Sta- 
tute erectcs  stultitiie,  the  very  statutes  or  pillars  of  folly.  Choose  out  of  all  stories 
lim  that  hath  been  most  admired,  you  shall  still  find,  mitlla  ad  laudem,  muUa  ad 
lituperationem  magnifica,  as  ""^Berosus  of  Semiramis  ;  omnes  mor tales  militia  trium- 
phis,  divitiis.,  &c.,  turn  et  luxu,  ccede,  cceterisque  vitiis  antecessit,  as  she  had  some 
good,  so  had  she  many  bad  parts. 

^  Alexander,  a  worthy  man,  but  furious  in  his  anger,  overtaken  in  drink :  Caesar  and 
Scipio  valiant  and  wise,  but  vain-glorious,  ambitious  :  Vespasian  a  worthy  prince, 
but  covetous  :  ^''Hannibal,  as  he  had  mighty  virtues,  so  had  he  many  vices  ;  unam 
virtutem  mille  vitia  comitanfur^  as  Machiavel  of  Cosmo  de  Medici,  he  had  two  dis- 
tinct persons  in  him.SJ  will  determine  of  them  all,  they  are  like  these  double  or 
turning  pictures ;  stand  before  which  you  see  a  fair  maid,  on  the  one  side  an  ape, 
on  the  other  an  owl ;  look  upon  them  at  the  first  sight,  all  is  well,  but  farther  ex- 
amine, you  shall  find  them  wise  on  the  one  side,  and  fools  on  the  other ;  in  some 
few  things  praiseworthy,  in  the  rest  incomparably  faulty:-  I  will  say  nothing  of 
meir  diseases,  emulations,  discontents,  wants,  and  such  miseries  :  let  poverty  plead 
the  rest  in  Aristophanes'  Plutus.  \ 

^  Covetous  men,  amongst  others,  are  most  mad, ''Hhey  have  all  the  symptoms  of 
melancholy,  fear,  sadness,  suspicion.  See,  as  shall  be  proved  in  its  proper  place, 

I  Misers  make  Anticvra  their  own  ; 

"  Danda  est  Hellebori  multo  pars  maxima  avaris.      |  jjg  hellebore  reserved  for  them  alone. 

And  yet  methinks  prodigals  are  much  madder  than  they,  be  of  what  condition 
they  will,  that  bear  a  public  or  private  purse  ;  as  a  ''^  Dutch  writer  censured  Richard 
the  rich  duke  of  Cornwall,  suing  to  be  emperor,  for  his  profuse  spending,  qui  effudxi 
pecuniam  ante  pedes  principium  Electorum  sicut  aquam,  that  scattered  money  like 
water ;  I  do  censure  them,  Stulta  Anglia  (saith  he)  quce  tot  denariis  sponte  est  pri- 
vatum stulti  principes  Memanice^  qui  nobile  jus  suum  pro  pecunid  vendiderunt ;  spend- 
thrifts, bribers,  and  bribe-takers  are  fools,  and  so  are  °°all  they  that  cannot  keep,  dis- 
burse, or  spend  their  moneys  well. 

1  might  say  the  like  of  angry,  peevish,  envious,  ambitious ;  ^^Jlnticyras  melior 
aorbere  meracas ;  Epicures,  Atheists,  Schismatics,  Heretics ;  hi  omnes  hahcnt  imagina- 

3' Lib.  1.  num.  11.  sapientia  et  divitiae  vix  simul  pos-  '  hie  jussi  condier,  et  ut  viderem  an  quis  insanior  ad  me 
«ideri  possunt.  "'They  get  their  wisdom  by  eat-  j  visendum  usque  ad  hKc  loca  penetraret.    Ortelius  in 

ing  pie-crust  some.        ^*>o«y<iT!t  ;c7c  S'ixtoJ'c  yivira)  I  Gad.  ^''If  it  be  his  worii,  which  Gasper  Veretus 


tt^fiOTuyii.  Opes  quidemmortalibus  sunt  amentia.  The- 

ognis.  ''"Fori una  nimium  quein  fovet,  stultum 

facit.  <'Joh.2a  <•  Mag.  moral,  lib.  2  et  lib.  1 

nat.  4.  *^  Hor.  lib.  1.  sat.  4.  ■>■'  Insana  giila,  in- 

san.'E  obstructiones,  insanum  venandi  stiidiuni  discor- 

dia  demens.    Virs.  JEn.  *  Heliodorus  (^arthagi- ,      ^ 

DensiB  ad  extremuni  orbis  Karcophago  teslamento  me    auuax   iiavigel   Anticyras 

10  G 


suspects.  ■<"  Livy,  Ingentes  viitutes  ingentia  vitia. 

^^Hor.  Quisquis  ainbitione  mala  aut  argenti  pallet 
amore,  Quisquis  lu.Nuria,  tristique  superstitione.  Per. 
■isiCronica  .Slavonica  ad  annum  1257.  de  cujns  pecun'.a 
jam  incredibilia  dixerunt.  "A  fool  and  his  money 

are  soon  parted.  Oral,  de  iniag.  ambitiosua  el 


74  Democritus  to  the  Reader. 

lionem  Icesam  (saith  Nymannus)  "  and  their  madness  shall  be  evident,"  2  Tim.  iii.  9, 
'Tabatus,  an  Italian,  holds  seafaring  men  all  mad;  "the  ship  is  mad,  for  it  never 
stands  still ;  the  mariners  are  mad,  to  expose  themselves  to  such  imminent  dangers : 
the  waters  are  raging  mad,  in  perpetual  motion :  the  winds  are  as  mad  as  the  rest, 
they  know  not  whence  they  come,  whither  they  would  go :  and  those  men  are 
maddest  of  all  that  go  to  sea;  for  one  fool  at  home,  they  find  forty  abroad."  He 
was  a  madman  that  said  it,  and  thoii  peradventure  as  mad  to  read  it.  ^^Faelix  Platerus 
is  of  opinion  all  alchemists  are  mad,  out  of  their  wits ;  ^""Atheneus  saith  as  much  of 
fiddlers,  et  musarum  luscinias^,  ^^  Musicians,  omnes  tibicines  insaniunf^  tiM  semel  ejjfanf. 
avolat  Ulico  mens.,  in  comes  music  at  one  ear,  out  goes  wit  at  another.  Proud  and 
vain-glorious  persons  are  certainly  mad ;  and  so  are  °®  lascivious ;  1  can  feel  theii 
pulses  beat  hither;  horn-mad  some  of  them,  to  let  others  lie  with  their  wives,  and 
wink  at  it. 

To  insist"  in  all  particulars,  Avere  an  Herculean  task,  to  ^^  reckon  up  ^^insanas 
subsfrucfiones,  insanos  labores.,  insanum  hixum,  mad  labours,  mad  books,  endeavours 
carriages,  gross  ignorance,  ridiculous  actions,  absurd  gestures  ;  insanam  gulam.,  insa- 
nlam  villarum.,  insana  jurgiuj  as  Tully  terms  them,  madness  of  villages,  stupend 
structures ;  as  those  ^Egyptian  Pyramids,  Labyrinths  and  Spliinxes,  which  a  com- 
pany of  crowned  asses,  ad  ostentationem  oputn.,  vainly  built,  when  neither  the  archi- 
tect nor  king  that  made  them,  or  to  what  use  and  purpose,  are  yet  known  :  to  insist 
in  their  hypocrisy,  inconstancy,  blindness,  rashness,  dementcm  temeritatcm.,  fraud, 
cozenage,  malice,  anger,  impudence,  ingratitude,  ambition,  gross  superstition,  ^^tem- 
pora  infecta  et  adulalione  sordida^  as  in  Tiberius'  times,  such  base  flattery,  stupend, 
parisitical  fawning  and  colloguing,  &c.  brawls,  conflicts,  desires,  contentions,  it  would 
ask  an  expert  Vesalius  to  anatomise  every  member.  Shall  I  say  ?  Jupiter  himself, 
Apollo,  Mars,  &c.  doated  ;  and  monster-conquering  Hercules  that  subdued  the  world, 
and  helped  others,  could  not  relieve  himself  in  this,  but  mad  he  was  at  last.  And  where 
shall  a  man  walk,  converse  with  whom,  in  Avhat  province,  city,  and  not  meet  with 
Signior  Deliro,  or  Hercules  Furens,  Ma^nades,  and  Corybantes  ?  Tlieir  speeches  say 
no  less.  ''^Efungis  nati  homines^  or  else  they  fetched  their  pedigree  from  those  that 
were  struck  by  Samson  with  the  jaw-bone  of  an  ass.  Or  from  Deucalion  and  Pyrrha's 
stones,  for  durum  genus  su7nus^  ^^marmorei  sumns^  we  are  stony-hearted,  and  savour 
too  much  of  the  stock,  as  if  they  had  all  heard  that  enchanted  horn  of  Astolpho,  thai 
English  duke  in  Ariosto,  which  never  sounded  but  all  his  auditors  were  mad,  and  for 
fear  ready  to  make  away  with  themselves ;  ^^  or  landed  in  the  mad  haven  in  the 
Euxine  sea  of  Daphnis  insana.,  which  had  a  secret  quality  to  dementate ;  they  are  a 
company  of  giddy-heads,  afternoon  men,  it  is  ]\Iidsummer  moon  still,  and  the  dog- 
days  last  all  the  year  long,  they  are  all  mad.  Whom  shall  I  then  except  ?  Ulricus 
Huttenus  ^^nemo.,  nam.,  nemo  omnibus  horis  sapit,  JVemo  nascitur  sine  vitiis^  Crimine 
JVcmo  caret,  JYemo  sorte  sua  vivit  confentus,  JYemo  in  amore  sajni.,  JS'em.o  bonus., 
JS'erao  sapiens.,  JVemo,  est  ex  omni  parti  beatus,  &c.  ®^  and  therefore  Nicholas  Nemo, 
or  Monsieur  No-body  shall  go  free,  Quid  valeat  nemo,  JYemo  referre  potest?  But 
whom  shall  I  except  in  the  second  place }  such  as  are  silent,  vir  sapit  qui  pauca 
loquitur ;  ^^  no  better  way  to  avoid  folly  and  madness,  than  by  taciturnity.  Whom 
in  a  third  .''  all  senators,  magistrates ;  for  all  fortunate  men  are  wise,  and  conquerors 
valiant,  and  so  are  all  great  men,  non  est  bonum  ludere  cum  diis,  they  are  wise  by 
authority,  good  by  their  office  and  place,  his  licet  impune  pessimos  esse,  (some  say) 
we  must  not  speak  of  them,  neither  is  it  fit ;  per  me  sint  omnia  protinus  alba,  1  will 
not  think  amiss  of  them.    Whom  next  ?    Stoics  .?     Sapiens  Stoicus,  and  he  alone  is 

'^Navis  stulla,  quap  continuo  movetiir  nautsB  stulti  [  lidi  et  fatui  fungis  nati  dicebantur,  idem   et   alibi 
qui  se  periculis  exponunt,  aqua  insana  qna;  sic  fre-  |  dicag.  i^^Famian.  Slrade  de  bajulis,  de  imrinore 


mil,  cfec.  aer  jactatur,  &c.  qui  inari  se  comniiltit  stoli- 
dum  ununi  terra  fiigiens,  40.  inari  invenit.  Caspar 
Ens.  Moros.  i^sCap.  de  alien,  mentis.  ^Dip. 

nosopliist.  lib.  8.  'sxibiclnes  mente  Capti.  Erasm. 

Chi.  14.  cer.  7.  ^eprov.  30.  Insana  libido,  Hie  rogo 
non  furor  est,  non  est  h»c  mentula  demens.  Mart, 
ep.  74.  I.  3.  "  Mille  puellarum  el  puerorum  mille 

jiirorrs.  MUter  est  insanior  horuni.    Hor.  Ovid. 

Virg.  Plin.  69  pn,,.  lii,.  36.  w Tacitus  3.  An- 

nal.  6'  Ovid.  7.  met.  E.  fungis  nati  homines  ut 

•liiu   Corinllii   prmisvi  illius   loci   accolae,   quia   sto  - 


semisculpti.  ii^Arianus  periplo  maris  Euxiiii  pnr- 

tus  ejus  meminit,  et  Gilliiis,  1.  3.  de  Bosphe, .  Thra- 
cio  et  laurus  insana  qus  allafa  in  coiiviviuni  convivas 
omnes  insania  affecit.  Guliel.  Stucchius  comment,  &c 
''■'Lepidum  poema  sic  inscriptnm.  s-'"  No  one  is 

wise  at  all  hours, — no  one  born  without  faults, — nd 
one  free  from  crime,— no  one  content  witl  nis  lot,- 
no  one  in  love  wise, — no  good,  or  wise  man  perfectly 
liappy."  <>i>  Stultitiain  simulare  non   potes    ni> 

tacitiirnitate. 


Dcmocritus  to  the  Reader. 


75 


Bubject  to  no  perturbations,  as  ^''Plutarch  scoffs  at  him,  "he  is  not  vexed  with  tor« 
ments,  or  burnt  with  fire,  foiled  by  his  adversary,  sold  of  his  enemy :  though  he  be 
wrinkleG,  sana-olind,  toothless,  and  deformed ;  yet  he  is  most  beautiful,  and  like  a 
god,  a  king  in  conceit,  though  not  worth  a  groat.  He  never  doats,  never  mad,  never 
sad,  drunk,  because  virtue  cannot  be  taken  away,"  as  ^^Zeno  holds,  "by  reason  of 
strong  apprehension,"  but  he  was  mad  to  say  so.  ^^JlnlicyrcB  ccelo  huic  est  opus  aut 
dolabrd,  he  had  need  to  be  bored,  and  so  had  all  his  fellows,  as  wise  as  they  would 
seem  to  be.  Chrysippus  himself  liberally  grants  them  to  be  fools  as  Avell  as  others, 
at  certain  times,  upon  some  occasions,  amitti  virtuiem  ait  per  ehriefatem,  aut  atrihi- 
larium  morhuvi^  it  may  be  lost  by  drunkenness  or  melancholy,  he  may  be  sometimes 
crazed  as  well  as  the  rest :  ''^ad  suramum  sapiens  nisi  quum  piiuita  molesf.a.  I  should 
here  except  some  Cynics,  Menippus,  Diogenes,  that  Theban  Crates ;  or  to  descend 
to  these  times,  that  omniscious,  only  wise  fraternity  ""  of  the  Rosicrucians,  those 
great  theologues,  politicians,  philosophers,  physicians,  philologers,  artists,  &c.  of 
whom  S.  Bridget,  Albas  Joacchimus,  Leicenbergius,  and  such  divine  spirits  have  pro- 
phesied, and  made  promise  to  the  world,  if  at  least  there  be  any  such  (Hen.  '^  Neu- 
husius  makes  a  doubt  of  it, '''' Valentinus  Andreas  and  others)  or  an  Elias  artifex  their 
Theophrastian  master;  whom  though  Libavius  and  many  deride  and  carp  at,  yet 
some  Avill  have  to  be  "  the  "  renewer  of  all  arts  and  sciences,"  reformer  of  the  world, 
and  now  living,  for  so  Johannes  Montanus  Strigoniensis,  that  great  patron  of  Para- 
celsus, contends,  and  certainly  avers  '^"  a  most  divine  man,"  and  the  quintessence  of 
wisdom  wheresoever  he  is  ;  for  he,  his  fraternity,  friends,  &c.  are  all '® "  betrothed  to 
wisdom,"  if  we  may  believe  their  disciples  and  followers.  I  must  needs  except 
Lipsius  and  the  Pope,  and  expunge  their  name  out  of  the  catalogue  of  fools.  For 
besides  that  parasitical  testimony  of  Dousa, 

"A  Sole  exoriente  Mieotidas  usque  paludes, 
Nemo  est  qui  jiisto  se  sequiparare  queat."  " 

Lipsius  saith  of  himself,  that  he  was  ''^Immani  generis  quidem  pcedagogus  voce  et  stylo^ 
a  grand  signior,  a  master,  a  tutor  of  us  all,  and  for  thirteen  years  he  brags  how  he 
sowed  wisdom  in  the  Low  Countries,  as  Ammonius  the  philosopher  sometimes  did 
in  Alexandria,  ™c'fm  Immanltate  literas  et  sapientiam  cum  prudentia  :  antistes  sapien- 
ticB^he  shall  be  Sapient  urn  Octavus.  The  Pope  is  more  than  a  man,  as  ^"his  parats 
often  make  him,  a  demi-god,  and  besides  his  holiness  cannot  err,  in  Cathedra  belike: 
and  yet  some  of  them  have  been  magicians.  Heretics,  Atheists,  children,  and  as  Pla- 
tina  saith  of  John  22,  Et  si  vir  Uteratus^  multa  stoUditatem  et  Icevitatem  prcE  se 
fereniia  egit,  stolidi  et  socordis  vir  ingenii^  a  scholar  sufficient,  yet  many  things  he 
did  foolishly,  lightly.  I  can  say  no  more  than  in  particular,  but  in  general  terms  to 
the  rest,  they  are  all  mad,  their  wits  are  evaporated,  and,  as  Ariosto  feigns,  1.  34,  kept 
in  jars  above  the  moon. 

"Some  lose  their  wits  with  love,  some  with  ambition. 
Some  following  »i  Lordu  and  men  of  high  condition. 
Some  in  fair  jewels  rich  and  costly  set, 
Others  in  Poetry  their  wits  forget. 
Another  thinks  to  be  an   Alchemist, 
Till  all  be  spent,  and  that  his  number's  mist." 

Convicted  fools  they  are,  madmen  upon  record  •,  and  I  am  afraid  past  cure  many  of 
them,  ^'crepunt  inguina,  the  symptoms  are  manifest,  they  are  all  of  Gotam  parish  : 

^3"  Quum  furor  hnud  dubius,  quum  sit  manifesta  plirenesis," 
Since  madness  is  indisputable,  since  frenzy  is  obvious. 

what  remains  then  ^  but  to  send  forvLorarios,  those  officers  to  carry  them  all  together 
for  company  to  Bedlam,  and  set  Rabelais  to  be  their  physician. 

If  any  man  shall  ask  in  the  meantime,  who  I  am  that  so  boldly  censure  others, 


*'Extortus  non  cruciatur,  ambustus  non  laeditnr, 
prostratiis  in  lucla,  non  vincitur;  non  fit  captiviis  ab 
hnsle  veniindatus.  Et  si  rugosus,  senex  edentnlus, 
luscus,  deformis,  formostis  tamen,  et  deo  similis,  felix, 
dives,  rex  nullius  egens,  et  si  denario  non  sit  dignus. 
*"  Ilium  contendunt  non  injuria  aftici,  non  insania,  non 
inebriari,  quia  virtus  non  eripitu-  -•:  constanles  com- 
prehensiones.  Lips.  phvs.  Stoic,  lib,  3.  diffi.  IS. 
"STarreus  Hebus  epig.  102.  1.  8.  ™  Hor.  ''  Fra- 

ires  sanrt.    RoseiB  crucis.  '^  An  sint,  quales  sint, 

unde   nomen   illud  asciverint.  '^Turri    Babel. 

■•  Omnium  artium  et  scientia  rum  instaurator.        's  oj. 


vinus  ille  vir  auctor  notarum.  in  epist.  Rog  Bacon, 
ed.    Ilambur.    1608.  ™  Sapieiitioe    desponsati, 

''"From  the  Rising  Sun  to  the  Mseotid  Lake,  there 
was  not  one  that  could  fairly  be  put  in  comparison 
with  them."  "^  Solus  hie  est  sapiens  alii  volitant 

velut   umliriB.  '^In    ep.    ad    Balthas.   Morftum. 

^o  Rejectiunculaj  ad  Patavum.  Felinus  cum  rel-quia, 
*'  Magnum  virum  sequi  est  sapere,  son^e  think  ;  c  ihers 
desipere.  Catul.  i^"  Plant.  Menec.  »■<  In  Sat.  14. 
S'lOr  to  send  for  a  cook  to  the  AniicyriE  to  make  Hel 
lebore  pottage,  settle-brain  pottage. 


•0  Democritus  to  tfie  Reader. 

til  rvuilane  Tiabes  vitiaf  have  I  no  faults  ?  *^  Yes,  more  than  thou  nast,  whatsoever 
Uiou  art.    JYos  numcrus  sumus^  I  confess  it  again,  I  am  as  foolish,  as  mad  as  any  one 

'>6"Insainis  vol)is  videor,  run  deprecor  ipse, 
Quo  iiiiims  insanus,"' 

I  do  not  deny  it,  dcmens  de  populo  demalnr.  My  comfort  is,  I  have  more  fellows, 
and  tno^^e  of  excellent  note.  And  though  I  be  not  so  right  or  so  discreet  as  I  should 
be,  yet  not  so  mad,  so  bad  neither,  as  thou  perhaps  takest  me  to  be. 

To  conclude,  this  being  granted,  that  all  the  world  is  melancholy,  or  mad,  doats, 
and  every  member  of  it,  I  have  ended  my  task,  and  sufliciently  illustrated  that  which 
I  took  upon  me  to  demonstrate  at  first.  At  this  present  I  have  no  more  to  say ;  His 
sanam  menfem  DctnocrUuSf  I  can  but  wish  myself  and  them  a  good  physician,  and 
all  of  us  a  better  mind. 

And  although  for  the  abovenamed  reasons,  I  had  a  just  cause  to  undertake  this 
subject,  to  point  at  these  particular  species  of  dotage,  that  so  men  might  acknow- 
ledge their  imperfections,  and  seek  to  reform  what  is  amiss ;  yet  I  have  a  more 
serious  intent  at  this  time;  and  to  omit  all  impertinent  digressions,  to  say  no  more  of 
such  as  are  improperly  melancholy,  or  metaphorically  mad,  lightly  mad,  or  in  dispo- 
sition, as  stupid,  angry,  drunken,  silly,  sottish,  sullen,  proud,  vain-glorious,  ridicu- 
lous, beastly,  peevisli,  obstinate,  impudent,  extravagant,  dry,  doating,  dull,  desperate, 
harebrain,  &c.  mad,  frantic,  foolish,  heteroclites,  which  no  new  ^'hospital  can  hold, 
no  physic  help ;  my  purpose  and  endeavour  is,  in  the  following  discourse  to  anato- 
mize this  humour  of  melancholy,  through  all  its  parts  and  species,  as  it  is  an  habit, 
or  an  ordinary  disease,  and  that  philosophically,  medicinally,  to  show  the  causes, 
symptoms,  and  several  cures  of  it,  that  it  may  be  the  better  avoider"  Moved  there- 
unto for  the  generality  of  it,  and  to  do  good,  it  being  a  disease  so  frequent,  as 
**Mercurialis  observes,  "  in  these  our  days ;  so  often  happening,"  saith  ^^Laurentius, 
"  in  our  miserable  times,"  as  few  there  are  that  feel  not  the  smart  of  it.  Of  the  same 
mind  is  jElian  Montalius,  ^°  Melancthon,  and  others  ;  ^'Julius  Caesar  Claudinus  calls  it 
the  "fountain  of  all  other  diseases,  and  so  common  in  this  crazed  age  of  ours,  that 
scarce  one  of  a  thousand  is  free  from  it ; "  and  that  splenetic  hypochondriacal  wind 
especially,  which  proceeds  from  the  spleen  and  short  ribs.  Being  then  a  disease  so 
grievous,  so  common,  I  know  not  wherein  to  do  a  more  general  service,  and  spend  my 
time  better,  than  to  prescribe  means  how  to  prevent  and  cure  so  universal  a  malady, 
an  epidemical  disease,  that  so  often,  so  much  crucifies  the  body  and  mind. 

If  I  have  overshot  myself  in  this  which  hath  been  hitherto  said,  or  that  it  is,  which 
I  am  sure  some  will  object,  too  fantastical,  "  too  liglit  and  comical  for  a  Divine, 
too  satirical  for  one  of  my  profession,  I  will  presume  to  answer  with  °^  Erasmus,  in 
like  case,  'tis  not  I,  but  Democritus,  Democritus  divit :  yon  must  consider  what  it 
is  to  speak  in  one's  own  or  another's  person,  an  assumed  habit  and  name;  a  difler- 
ence  betwixt  him  that  affects  or  acts  a  prince's,  a  philosopher's,  a  magistrate's,  a 
fool's  part,  and  him  that  is  so  indeed  ;  and  what  liberty  those  old  satirists  have  had : 
it  is  a  cento  collected  from  others  ;  not  I,  but  they  that  say  it. 

^  "  Dixero  si  quid  fnrt^  jocogiuj,  hoc  mihi  juris       I  Yet  some  indulgence  I  nfiay  justly  claim, 

Cum  veniil  dal)is" |  If  too  familiar  with  another's  fame. 

Take  heed  you  mistake  me  not.  If  I  do  a  little  forget  myself,  I  hope  you  will  par- 
don it.    And  to  say  truth,  why  should  any  man  be  oflended,  or  take  exceptions  at  it.' 

"Licuit,  setnperqiie  licebit,  I  It  lawful  was  of  old,  and  still  will  he, 

Parcere  personis,  dicere  de  vitiis."  |  To  speak  of  vice,  but  let  the  name  go  free. 

I  hate  their  vices,  not  their  persons.  If  any  be  displeased,  or  take  aught  unto  him- 
self, let  him  not  expostulate  or  cavil  with  him  that  said  it  (so  did  ®^  Erasmus  excuse 
tiimself  to  Dorpius,  si  pariui  licei  componere  magnis)  and  so  do  I ;  "  but  let  him 
be  angry  with  himself,  that  so  betrayed  and  opened  his  own  faults  in  applying  it 
to  himself:  ^*if  he  be  guilty  and  deserve  it,  let  him  amend,  whoever  he  is,  and  not 

M  AliqnantuUim  tamen   inde  me  solabor,  quod  uni     borum  occasio  existat.  9^  Mor.  Encom  si  quis  ca- 

tum  multis  et  sapientibns  et  celeberriniis  viris  ipse  lumnietur  levins  esse  quam  decet  Theolopum,  aul 
hnsipiens  sim,  quod  se   Menippus  I.uciani  in  Necyo-     mordacius  quam  deceat  Christianum.  s- Hor.  Sat. 

mantia.  i'"  Pelronius  in   Caialect.  ""That   I     4.1.1.  '•"  Epi.  ad  Dorpium  de  Moria.  si  quispiam 

mean  of  Andr.  Vale.  Apoloi;.  Manip  1.  1  et  26.  Apol.  I  offendatur  et  sibi  vindicel,  non  habet  qund  expostulet 
w  H«PC  affeftio  nostris  temporibus  frequentissima.  |  cum  eo  qui  scripsit,  ipse  si  volet,  secuni  agat  injuriain, 
*•  (  ap.  15  de  Mel.  '-i"  De  anima.  Nostro  hoc  sa-ciilo  ntpote  sui  proditor.  qui  derlaravit  hoc  ad  se  [iroprie 
morbus    frequentissimus.  9' Consult.    98,    adeo     pertincre.  ="' Si  quis  sr  la;suni  clamabit,  aul  ron- 

nostris  temiiorilins  f'requeiitpr  insruit  ut  nulliis  fere  sciciiiiam  prodit  suam,  aul  ~erte  metuni,  Phffidr  lib 
lb  ej'is  labe  ininiunis  reperiaiut  ot  omnium  fere  mor-     3.  i£sop.  Fab. 


Democrilus  to  the  Reader.  77 

be  angry  ''  He  that  hateth  correction  is  a  fool,"  Prov.  xii.  1  '  ff  he  be  not  guilty, 
it  concerns  him  not  ;\  it  is  not  my  freeness  of  speech,  but  a  guilty  conscience,  a 
galled  back  of  his  own  that  makes  him  wince. 

"Siispicione  si  quis  eirrabit  su^, 
Et  riipiet  ad  se,  quod  erit  coiniiiiine  omnium, 
StuU6  luidabjt  animi  coiiscienliam."^'' 

I  deny  not  this  which  I  have  said  savours  a  little  of  Democritus ;  ^Quamvis  ridev- 
tem  dlcere  veriim  quid  vetat ;  one  may  speak  in  jest,  and  yet  speak  truth.  It  is 
somewhat  tart,  I  grant  it;  acriora  orexim  excitant  embainmata^  as  he  said,  sharp 
sauces  increase  appetite,  ^'^nec  cihus  ipse  jiivat  morsu  fraudatus  aceli.  Object  then 
and  cavil  what  thou  wilt,  I  ward  all  v/ith  ^^Democritus's  buckler,  his  medicine  shall 
salve  it ;  strike  where  tliou  wilt,  and  when  :  Democrilus  dixit,  Democritus  will 
answer  it.  It  was  written  by  an  idle  fellow,  at  idle  times,  about  our  Saturnalian  or 
Dyonisian  feasts,  when  as  he  said,  nullum  liberlati  periculum  est,  servants  in  old 
Rome  had  liberty  to  say  and  do  what  them  list  Wlien  our  countrymen  sacrificed 
to  their  goddess  '°°Vacuna,  and  sat  tippling  by  their  Vacunal  fires.  I  writ  this,  and 
published  this  oiitij  Ixsysv,  it  is  neminis  riihil.  The  time,  place,  persons,  and  all 
Circumstances  apologise  for  me,  and  why  may  not  I  then  be  idle  with  others  .''  speak 
my  mind  freely  ?  If  you  deny  me  this  liberty,  upon  these  presumptions  I  will  take 
it :  I  say  again,  I  will  take  it. 

'  "Si  quis  est  qui  dictum  in  se  inclenientius 
Existiniavit  esse,  sic  existiniet." 

If  any  man  take  exceptions,  let  him  turn  the  buckle  of  his  girdle,  I  care  not.     I  owe 
thee  nothing  (Reader),  I  look  for  no  favour  at  thy  hands,  I  am  independent,  I  fear  not. 
No,  I  recant,  I  will  not,  I  care,  I  fear,  I  confess  my  fault,  acknowledge  a  great 
offence, 

" motos  prmstat  componere  fluctus."  |         let's  first  assuage  the  troubled  wavt, 

I  have  overshot  myself,  1  have  spoken  foolish!  Vs  rashly,  unadvisedly,  absurdly,  I  nave 
anatomized  mine  own  folly.  And  now  melhmks  upon  a  sudden  I  am  awaked  as  it 
were  out  of  a  dream  ;  I  have  had  a  raving  fit,  a  fantastical  fit,  ranged  up  aiwl  down, 
in  and  out,  I  have  insulted  over  the  most  kind  of  men,  abused  some,  ofl^ended  others, 
wronged  myself;  and  now  being  recovered,  and  perceiving  mine  error,  cry  with 
'Orlando,  Sohite  me,  pardon  (o  boni)  that  which  is  past,  and  I  will  make  you  amends 
in  that  which  is  to  come  ;  I  promise  you  a  more  sober  discourse  in  my  following 
treatise. 

If  through  weakness,  folly,  passion,  ^discontent,  ignorance,  I  have  said  amiss,  let 
it  be  forgotten  and  forgiven.  I  acknowledge  that  of  ''Tacitus  to  be  true,  Jisperas 
faceticB  ubi  nimis  ex  vero  traxere,  acrem  sui  memoriam  relinquunt,  a  bitter  jest  leaves 
a  sting  behind  it :  and  as  an  honourable  man  observes,  ^"  They  fear  a  satirist's  wit, 
he  their  memories."  I  may  justly  suspect  the  worst;  and  though  I  hope  I  have 
wronged  no  man,  yet  in  Medea's  words  I  will  crave  pardon, 

-—-  "  Ulud  jam  voce  extrema  peto,  I  ^nd  in  my  last  words  this  I  do  desire, 

Ne  SI  qua  noster  dubius  effudit  dolor,  -p„^j  ^^,,/j  ;„  -^^^  ,  ^^^^^  ^^j,,   „/; 

Maneant  Ml  annuo  verba   sedmeliortibi  May  be  forgotten,  and  a  better  mind 

Mnmoria  nostri   subeat,  hiee  irs  data  g^  |,^d  ^^  „^     hereafter  as  you  find. 

Obliterentur I  ■' 

f  earnestly  request  every  private  man,  as  Scaliger  did  Cardan,  not  to  take  offencb 
f  will  conclude  in  his  lines,  SI  me  cognitum  haberes,  non  solum  donares  nobis  has 
facetias  nostras,  sed  eliam  indignum  duceres,  tarn  humanum  aninum,  lene  ingenium, 
t)i'  minimam  suspicionem  deprecari  oportere.  If  thou  knewest  my*  modesty  and 
simplicity,  thou  wouldst  easily  pardon  and  forgive  what  is  here  amiss,  or  by  thee 
misconceived.  If  hereafter  anatomizing  this  surly  humour,  my  hand  slip,  as  an 
unskilful  'prentice  I  lance  too  deep,  and  cut  through  skin  and  all  at  unawares,  make 
It  smart,  or  cut  awry,  ''pardon  a  rude  hand,  an  unskilful  knife,  'tis  a  most  dif- 


s"  If  any  one  shall  err  through  his  own  suspicion, 
and  shall  apply  to  himself  what  is  common  to  all, 
he  will  foolishly  betray  a  consciousness  of  guilt. 
»!Hor.  as  Mart.  1.  7.  22.  tia  Ut   lubet    feriat, 

abstergant  hos  ictus  Democriti  pharniacos.         ""•  Rus- 
ticorum  dea   preesse  vacaiitibus  et  oliosis  putabatur, 


Rosinus.  >  Ter.  prol.  Eunuch.  ^  Ariost.  I.  39 

Staf.  58.  3  Ut  enim  ex  siudiis  gaudium  sic  studia 

ex   hilaritate   proveniunt.     Plinius  Maximo  suo,  ep. 
lib.  8.  ■!  Annal.  15.  ^  Sir  Francis  Bacon  in 

his  Essays,   now   Viscount   St.  Albans.  s  Quod 

Probus  Persii /?/oT-pajoc  virginali  verecundi4  Persium 


cui  post  labores  agricola  sacrificabat.     Plin.  1.  3.  c  12.  ,  fuisse  dicit,  ego,  &c.  '  Quas  aut  iricuria  fudit, 

Ovid.  I.  6.  Fast.     Jam  quoque  cum  fiunt  antique;  sacra  1  aut  hurnana  parum  cavit  natura.     Uor. 
Vaciins,  ante  Vacunales  stantque  sedentque  focos.  { 

g2 


78  Democritus  to  the  Reader. 

ficult  thing  to  keep  an  even  tone,  a  perpetual  tenor,  and  not  sometimes  to  lash  out , 
dlffic'^e.  est  Salyrum  non  scribere,  there  be  so  many  objects  to  divert,  inward  pertur- 
bations to  molest,  and  the  very  best  may  sometimes  err ;  aliquando  bonus  dormitat 
Homerus  (some  times  that  excellent  Homer  takes  a  nap),  it  is  impossible  not  in  so 

much  to  overshoot ; opere  in  longo  fas  est  obrepere  sumnum.     But  what  needs 

all  this  ?  I  hope  there  will  no  such  cause  of  ofl'ence  be  given  ;  if  there  be,  ^JS'cmo 
aUquid  recognoscat,  nos  mcniimur  omnia.  Til  deny  all  (my  last  refuge),  recant  all, 
rftnounce  all  I  have  said,  if  any  man  except,  and  with  as  much  facility  excuse,  as  he 
ran  ar;cuse ;  but  I  presume  of  thy  good  favour,  and  gracious  acceptance  (gentle  rea- 
ilcir,.     Out  of  an  assured  hope  and  confidence  thereof,  I  will  begin. 

•  PtoI  <F<ipr   Plaut.    "Let  not  anyone  ta>-e  these  tilings  to  himself,  they  are  all  but  Qctiona." 


I  79  \ 


LECTORI  MALE  FERL\TO. 


Tt  vero  cavesis  edico  quisquis  es,  ne  temere  sugilles  Auctorem  hujusce  operis,  aut 
cavillator  irrideas.  Imo  ne  vel  ex  aliorum  censura  tacite  obloquaris  (vis  dicam  ver- 
bo)  nequid  nasutulus  inepte  improbes,  aut  falso  fingas.  Nam  si  \&\is  revera  sit,  qua- 
lem  praj  se  fert  Junior  Democritus,  seniori  DemocrUo  saltern  affinis,  aut  ejus  Genium 
vel  tantillum  sapiat ;  actum  de  te,  censorem  aeque  ac  delatorem  '  agret  poontra  (petu- 
lardi  splene  cuTn  stt)  sufflabit  te  in  jocos,  commirmet  in  sales,  addo  p'.iuin  ci  deo  risui 
te  sacrificabit. 

Iterum  moneo,  ne  quid  cavillere,  ne  dum  Democritum  Juniorem  conviciis  infames, 
ut  ignominiose  vituperes,  de  te  non  male  sentientem,  tu  idem  audias  ab  amico  cor- 
date, quod  olim  vulgus  Abderltanum  ab  ^Hippocrate,  concivem  bene  meritum  et  po- 
pularem  suum  Democritum,  pro  insano  habens.     JYe  tu  Democrile  sapis,  stulti  aulem 
et  insani  Abderitce. 

3  "  Abderitanae  pectora  plebis  habes." 

Haec  te  paucis  admonitum  volo  (male  feriate  Lector)  abi. 


TO  THE  READER  AT  LEISURE. 

Whoever  you  may  be,  I  caution  you  against  rashly  defaming  the  author  of  this 
work,  or  cavilling  Jn  jest  against  him.  Nay,  do  not  silently  reproach  him  in  con- 
sequence of  others'  censure,  nor  employ  your  wit  in  foolish  disapproval,  or  false 
accusation.  For,  should  Democritus  Junior  prove  to  be  what  he  professes,  even  a 
kinsman  of  his  elder  namesake,  or  be  ever  so  little  of  the  same  kidney,  it  is  all  over 
with  you  :  he  will  become  both  accuser  and  judge  of  you  in  your  spleen,  will  dissi- 
pate you  in  jests,  pulverise  you  into  salt,  and  sacrifice  you,  I  can  promise  you,  to 
the  God  of  Mirth. 

I  further  advise  you,  not  to  asperse,  or  calumniate,  or  slander,  Democritus  Junior, 
who  possibly  does  not  think  ill  of  you,  lest  you  may  hear  from  some  discreet  friend, 
the  same  remark  the  people  of  Abdera  did  from  Hippocrates,  of  their  meritorious  and 
popular  fellow-citizen,  whom  tney  hud  looked  on  as  a  madman ;  "  It  is  not  that  you, 
Democritus,  that  art  wise,  but  that  the  people  of  Abdera  are  fools  and  madmen.'' 
"You  have  yourself  an  Abderitian  soul;"  and  having  just  given  you,  gentle  reader, 
these  few  words  of  admonition,  farewell. 


'  Si  me  commdrit,  melius  non  tangere  clamo.  Hot.  I  omnium  receptaculum  deprehentll,  ejusque  in<;enium 
'  Hippoc.  epist.  Daniageto,  accercitus  sum  ut  Demo-  demiratus  sum.  Ahderitanos  vero  tanquam  non  sanos 
crituni  tanquam  insanum  curarem,sed  postquamcon-  accusavi,  veralri  potione  ipsos  potiua  eguisse  dicen*. 
Teni,  non  per  Jovem  desipientiee  negotium,  sed  rerum       "'art. 


ISO) 


HllACLiTE  fleas,  misero  sic  convenit  aevo, 

Nil  nisi  turpe  vides,  nil  nisi  triste  vides. 
Ride  etiam,  quantumque  lubet,  Democrite  ride 

Non  nisi  vana  vides,  non  nisi  stulta  vides. 
Is  fletu,  his  risu  modo  gaudeat,  uniis  utrique 

Sit  licet  usque  labor,  sit  licet  usque  dolor. 
Nunc  opes  est  (nam  totus  eheu  jam  desipit  orbis) 

Mille  Heraclitis,  milleque  Democritis. 
Nunc  opus  est  (tanta  est  insania)  transeat  omnis 

Mundus  in  Anticyras,  gramen  in  Helleborum. 


Weep,  O  Heraclitus,  it  suits  the  age, 

Unless  you  see  nothing  base,  nothing  sad. 
Laugh,  O  Democritus,  as  much  as  you  please, 

Unless  you  see  nothing  either  vain  or  foolish. 
Let  one  rejoice  in  smiles,  tlie  other  in  tears ; 

Let  the  same  labour  or  pain  be  the  office  of  both. 
Now  (for  alas !  how  foolish  the  world  has  become), 

A  thousand  Heraclitus',  a  thousand  Democritus'  are  required. 
Now  (so  much  does  madness  prevail),  all  the  world  must  oe 

Sent  to  Anticyra,  to  graze  on  Hellebore. 


(81) 


THE 


SYNOPSIS  OF  THE  FIRST  PARTITION. 


CM? 

Melancholy 
in  which 
(onsider 


f  Their 
Causes, 
Subs.  1. 


Impulsive  ;  <  Sin,  concupiscence,  &c. 

Instrumental ;     J  Intemperance,  all  second  causes,  Ace. 


In   diseases, 
consider  | 

Sect.  1.  < 

Memb   1. 


Or 


Definition, 
Member, 
Division. 
Subs.  2. 


Of  the  body 
300,  which  are 


Or 


Of  the  head 
or  mind. 
Subs.  3. 


{Epidemical,  as  Plague,  Plica,  &c. 
or 
Particular,  as  Gout,  Dropsy,  &c. 
fin  disposition  ;  as  all  perturbations,  evil  «Hec 
tion,  &c. 


Or 


Habits,  as 
Subs.  4. 


("Dotage 

Frenzy. 

Madness. 

Ecstasy. 

Lycanthropia. 
j  Chorus  sancti  Viti. 
I  Hydrophol)ia. 
I  Possession    or    obsession 

Devils. 
[  Melancholy.     See  T. 


fits  Equivocations,  in  Disposition,  Improper,  &c.     Subsect.  5. 


Memb.  2. 
To  its  ex- 
plication, a 
digression 
of  anatomy, 
in  which 
observe 
parts  of 
Subs.  1. 


r  Body 
hath 
parts 
Subs.  2. 


r       ...         fHun^ours,  4.     Blood,  Phlegm,  &-c 
contanied    as  J  „   .  ..         ...        .       ,        .      , 

I  Spirits  ;   vital,   natural,  animal. 

r Similar;  spermatical,  or  flesh, 

bones,  nerves,  &c.     Subs.  3. 

Dissimilar;    brain,    heart,    liver, 

Subs.  4. 


containing 


&c 


I  Soul  and   its  faculties,  as 


L 

r  Vegetal.  Subs.  5. 

I  Sensible.  Subs.  6,  7,  8. 

(.Rational.  Subsect.  9,  10,  11. 


Memb.  3. 

Its  definition,  name,  difference,  Subs.  1. 

The  part  and  parties  aB'ected,  affection,  &c.   Subs,  2. 

The  matter  of  melancholy,  natural,  <Sr,c.  Subs.  4. 


r 


Species,  or 
kinds, 
which  are 


Proper  to 
parts,  as 

Or 

Indefinite  ; 
tition. 


f  Of  the  head  alone.    Hypo-  f  with     their     several 
J   chondriacal,  or  windy   me-  j   causes,    symptoms, 
I   lancholy.       Of    the    whole  ]  prognostics,  cures 
L  body.  t 


as    Love-melancholy     the    subject    of  the    third    Par- 


11 


Its  Causes  in  general.     Seel.  2.  A. 
Its  Symptoms  or  signs.     Sect.  3.  B. 
Its  Prognostics  or  indications.     Sect.  4.  4. 
[Its  Cures  ;  the  subject  of  the  second  Partitioa 


82 


A 

Sect.  2 
Causes  of 
Melancholy 
kre  either 


n 

Particular 
causes. 
Sect.  2. 
Uemb.  5 


Super- 
natural. 


Synoj)sis  of  the  First  Partition. 

("As  from  God  immediately,  or  by  second  causes,     duos.  I. 

J  Or  from  the  devil  immediately,  with  a  digression  ol  the  nalura 

1       of  spirits  and  devils.     Subs.  2. 

I-  Or  mediately,  by  magicians,  witches.     Subs.  3. 

r Primary,   as   stars,   proved    by   aphorisms,   signs    from    physio- 
gnomy, metoposcopy,  chiromancy.     Subs.  4. 


Or 


rCongenite, 
I  inward 
I  from 


^   f 


[Natural 


Or 


Or 


Outward 
or  adven- 
titious, 
which  are 


Old  age,  temperament.  Subs.  5. 
Parents,    it    being    an    hereditary    disease, 
I       Sub.  6 

fNecessary,  see  ^. 

("Nurses,  Subs.  1. 
Education,  Subs.  2. 
Terrors,  afl'rights, 
Subs.  3. 

Evident,  ^     Scofls,  calumnies,  hitter 

outward,  <(  ^         jests,  Subs.  4. 

remote,  ad-        „  ,  Loss    of    liberty,    servi- 
ventitious,  "   |       tude,    imprisonment. 

Subs.  .5. 
Poverty  and  want, 

Subs.  6. 
A  heap   of  other  acci- 
dents, death  of  friends, 
Or  l^   I.      loss,  &c.  Subs.  7. 

In  which  the  body  works 
on   the  mind,  and    this 
malady    is     caused     by 
Contingent,  precedent  diseases  ;    as 

inward,  an-  agues,     pox,     &c.,    c 

tecedent,  temperature    innate, 

nearest.  ]       Subs.  1. 

Mernb.  5.  Or  by  particular  parts  dib- 

l.  Sect.  2.  temperfcu,  as  brain,  heart, 

spleen,  liver,  mesentery, 
pylorus,  stomach.  &c. 
Subs.  2. 


[  Particular  to  the  three  species.     See  II. 


Of  head 
Melancholy 
are  Subs.  3. 


J  Of  hypo- 
chondriacal, 
or  windy 
melancholy 
are. 


Over   all  the 
body  are. 
Subs.  5. 


r  Innate  humour,  or  from  distemperature  adust. 

I  A  hot  brain,  corrupted  blood  in  the  brain. 
'^Inward  ■(  Excess  of  venery,  or  defect. 

I  I  Agues,  or  some  j)recedent  disease. 

[Fumes  arising  from  the  stomach,  &c. 

or  [Heat  of  the  sun  immoderate. 

A  blow  on  the  head. 
I  Overmuch   use  of  hot  wines,  spices,  gTirlick;  onions, 
■J       hot  halhs,  overmuch  waking,  &c. 
Outward  j  Idleness,  solitariness,  or  overmuch  study,  vehement 

labour,  &c. 
I  Passions,  perturbations,  &c 

fDefault  of  spleen,  belly,  bowels,  stomacn,  mesentery 
I       "iiiseraic  veins,  liver,  &c. 

1  Months  or  hemorrhoids  stopped,  or  any  other  ordi- 
nary  evacuation. 
Those  six  non-natural  things  abused. 

Jljiver  distempered,  stopped,  over-hot,  apt  to  engender 
[      melancholy,  temperature  innate. 
fBad  diet,  su|)pression  of  hemorrhoids.  &c.  and   such 
(.Outward.         <.       eviicuutions,    passiotis,  caref    <Src   thi>se  s  \.   noii- 
liH'nral  things  abused. 


f  Inward 


Outward 


f  Inward 


Synopsis  of  the  First  Partition. 


83 


Diet 
offend- 
ing in 
Subs.X 


Bread  ;   coarse  and  black,  &c. 
Drink  ;  thick,  thin,  sour,  &c. 

Water  unclean,  milk,  oil,  vinegar,  wine,  spices,  &c. 
-gylj.  fParts;   heads,  feef,  entrails,  fat,  bacon,  blood,  &c. 

stance     ^  Flesh      <  rr-    i      JBeef,  pork,  venison,  hares,  goats,  pigeons,  pea- 
'  [  1       cocks,  fen-fowl,  &c. 

]  Herbs,     [Of  fish  ;   all  shell-fish,  hard  and  slimy  fish,  &c. 

I  Fish,       i  Of  herbs  ;   pulse,  cabbage,  melons,  garlick,  onions,  &c. 

l&c.  [All  roots,  raw  fruits,  hard  and  windy  meats. 

Preparing,  dressing,  sharp  sauces,  salt  meats,  indurate,  soused,  fried, 
broiled,  or  made-dishes,  &c. 

Disorder  in  eating,  immoderate  eating,  or  at  unseasonabh'  times,  &c. 

Siibs.  2. 
[Custom;  delight,  appetite,  altered,  &c.     <S'«6s.  3. 

Retention  and  eva- JCostiveness,  hot  baths,  sweating,  issues  stopped,  Venus  n,  excess,  or 
cuation.  Subs.  4.   [      in  defect,  phlebotomy,  purging,  &c. 
Air;  hot,  cold,  tempestuous,  dark,  thick,  foggy,  moorish,  &c.     Subs.  5. 
Exercise,)  Unseasonable,  excessive,  or  defective,  of  body  or  mind,  solitariness,  idleness, 

Sub.  G.  \      a  life  out  of  action,  &c. 
Sleep  and  waking,  unseasonable,  inordinate,  overmuch,  overlittle,  &c.     Subs.  7. 

f  Sorrow,  cause  and  symptom.  Subs.  4.  Fear,  cause 
and  symptom.  Subs.  5.  Shame,  repulse,  disgrace 
I  &c.  Subs.  6.  Envy  and  malice.  Subs.  7.  Emula- 
tion, hatred,  faction,  desire  of  revenge,  iSufo.  8.  Anger 
a  cause.  Subs.  9.  Discontents,  cares,  miseries,  &c. 
Subs.  10. 


Quali- 
ty, as  in 

Quan- 
tity 


Memb.  3.  Sect.  2. 

Passions  and 

perturbations  of 

the  mind, 

Subs.  2.     With 

a  digression  of 

the  force  of 

imagination. 

Subs.  2.  and  divi- 
I  sion  of  passions 
l^into  Subs.  3. 


Irascible 


concupis- 
cible. 


Vehement  desires,  ambition.  Subs.  11.  Covetousness, 
fOMpyvpcav,  Subs.  12.  Love  of  pleasures,  gaming  in 
excess,  &c.  Subs.  13.  Desire  of  praise,  pride,  vain- 
glory, &c.  Subs.  14.  Love  of  learning,  study  in 
excess,  with  a  digression,  of  the  misery  of  scholars, 
and  why  the  Muses  are  melancholy,  Subs.  15. 

Body,  as  ill  digestion,  crudity,  wind,  dry  brains,  hard  belly,  thick  blood,  much 
waking,  heaviness,  and  palpitation  of  heart,  leaping  in  many  places,  «Stc.,  Subs.  1. 
rCommon     fFear  and  sorrow  without  a  just  cause,  suspicion,  jealousy,  discon- 

to    all    or   i      tent,    solitariness,    irksomeness,    continual    cogitations,    restless 

most.  [      thoughts,  vain  imaginations,  &c.     Subs.  2, 

r  Celestial  influences,  as  h  %  i^,  &c.  parts  of  the  body,  heart,  brain, 
liver,  spleen,  stomach,  &c. 

f  Sanguine  are  merry  still,  laughing,  pleasant,  meditating 
on  plays,  women,  music,  &c. 
Or,  ^j__  I  Phlegmatic,  slothful,  dull,  heavy,  &c. 

\  Choleric,    furious,    impatient,    subject    to  hear   and    see 
■(  strange  apparitions,  &c. 

Black,  solitary,  sad;  they  think  they  are  bewitched, 
dead,  &c. 

Or  mixed  of   these   four   humours   adust,  or  not  adust,  infinitely 
•    varied, 
■i  Their  several   f  Ambitious,   thinks    himself    a    king,    a    lord  ;    co- 


^i 


Particu- 
lar to 
private 
persons, 
according 
to  Subs. 
3.4. 


customs, con-  vetous,  runs  on  his  money;    lascivious   on    his 

dilions,  inch-  ■{        mistress ;  religious,  hath  revelations,  visions,  is 

nations,  dis-    I        a  prophet,  or  troubled  in  mind  ;  a  scholar  on  his 

i  "*  "  cipline,  &c.      j^       book,  &c. 

I   Pleasant  at  first,  hardly  discerned;  afterwards  harsh 

and  intolerable,  if  inveterate. 

„  ,     {\.  Falsa  cositatio. 

)   Hence  some  make  I  „    ^     -j  j     i 
S       .,  ,  s  "•  Cogttata  looui. 

three  degrees,      i  r,    r.  ■  /  j 

°  (.3.  hxequi  Inquutum. 

I   By  fits,  or  continuale,  as  the  object  varies,  pleasnig, 

L       or  di.spleasing. 

Simple,  or  as  it  is  mixed  with  other  diseases,  apoplexies,  gout,  caninus  app^  itus,  &c.  so 

the  symptoms  are  various. 


Continu- 
ance of  time 
as  the  hu- 
mour is  in- 
tended or  re- 
mitted, <&c. 


84 


Synopsis  of  Ike  First  Partition. 


Particular 
symptoms  to 
the  three  dis- 
tinct species. 
Sect.  3. 
lUemb.  2. 


C. 

f  rogn<5stics 
»f  melancholy 
Sect.  4. 


Head  me- 
lancholy. 
Subs.  1. 


Hypo- 

chondria- 
I  cal,  or 

windy 
.  melan- 
!  choly. 
^  Subs.  2. 


Over  all 
the  body. 
Suhs.  3. 


In  body 


Or 


In  mind. 


In  body 


Or 


In  mina. 


Headach,   binding  and  heaviness,  vertigo,  lightncsb, 
singing   of   the  ears,  much   waking,    fixed    eyes 
'      high  colour,  red  eyes,  hard   belly,  dry   bouy  ;   n«i 
great  sign  of  melancholy  in  the  other  parts. 

r  Continual  fear,  sorrow,  suspicion,  discontent,  super* 
fluous  cares,  solicitude,  anxiety,  perpetual  cogita- 
tion of  such  toys  they  are  possessed  with,  thought! 
like  dreams,  &.c. 

Wind,  rumbling  in  the  guts,  belly-ach,  heat  in 
the  bowels,  convulsions,  crudities,  short  wind, 
sour  and  sharp  heichings,  cold  sweat,  pain  in 
the  left  side,  suffocation,  palpitation,  heaviness  of 
the  heart,  singing  in  the  ears,  much  spittle,  and 
moist,  &c. 


Fearful,  sad,  suspicious,  discontent,  anxiety,  &c. 
Lascivious  by  reason  of  much  wind,  troublesome 
dreams,  affected  by  fits,  &c. 


r  Black,  most  part  lean,  broad  veins,  gross,  thick  blood, 
in     o  y      <       their  hemorrhoids  commonly  stopped,  &c. 
Or 

Fearful,  sad,  solitary,  hate  light,  averse   from  com- 
pany, fearful  dreams,  &c. 


In  mind. 


Symptoms  of  nuns,  maids,  and  widows  melancholy,  in  body  and  mind,  &c. 


A  reason 
of  these 
symp- 
toms. 
Mernb.  3. 


Tending  to  good,  as 


!  Tending  to  evil,  as 


("Why  they  are    so    fearful,   sad,   suspicious  without   a   cause,  why 
solitary,  why  melancholy  men  are  witty,  why  they  suppose  they 
I      hear  and  see  strange  voices,  visions,  apparitions. 

Why  they  prophesy,  and  speak  strange  languages;  whence  cornea 
their  crudity,  rumbling,  convulsions,  cold  sweat,  heaviness  of 
heart,  palpitation,  cardiaca,  fearful  dreams,  much  waking,  pro- 
digious fantasies. 

TMorphew,  scabs,  itch,  breaking  out,  &c. 

Black  jaundice. 
I  If  the  hemorrhoids  voluntarily  open. 

If  varices  appear. 

Leanness,  dryness,  hollow-eyed,  &c. 

Inveterate  meliinchoiy  is  incurable, 
•i  If  cold,  it  degenerates  often  into  epilepsy,  apoplexy, 

dotage,  or  into  blindness. 
(.If  hot,  into  madness,  despair,  and  violent  death. 

The  grievousness  of  this  above  all  other  diseases. 
The  diseases  of  the  mind   are   more   grievous   than 

those  of  the  body. 
Whether  it  be  lawful,  in  this  case  of  melancholy,  f(Jt 

a  man  to  offer  violence  to  himself.      Neg. 
How  a  melancholy  or  mad  man  offering  violence  to 

himself,  is  to  be  censured. 


Corollaries  and  questions.  < 


(86> 


THE  FIRST  PARTITION. 


THE  FIRST  SECTION,  MEMBER,  SUBSECTION. 


Man's  Excellency^  Fall,  Miseries.,  Infirmities;   The  causes  of  them. 

jlf    ■)    P  ,    jj         1     ]\/r AN,  the  most  excellent  and  noble  creature  of  the  workl, 
'^^  *     '^  ^^■-'     ^^■'-  '*■  tlie  principal  and  mighty  work  of  God,  wonder  oi 

N'ature,"  as  Zoroaster  calls  him;  audncis  naturcB  miraculum,  "the  'marvel  of  mar- 
vels," as  Plato-,  "the  ^abridgment  and  epitome  of  the  world,"  as  Pliny,  Microcos- 
mus,  a  little  world,  a  model  of  the  world,  ^  sovereign  lord  of  the  earth,  viceroy  ot  the 
world,  sole  commander  and  governor  of  all  the  creatures  in  it ;  to  whose  empire  they 
are  subject  in  particular,  and  yield  obedience;  far  surpassing  all  the  rest,  not  in  body 
only,  but  in  soul;  ^Imaginis  Imago,  ^created  to  God's  own  "^'image,  to  that  immortal 
and  incorporeal  substance,  with  all  the  faculties  and  powers  belonging  unto  it ;  was 
at  first  pure,  divine,  perfect,  happy,  ^^  created  after  God  in  true  holiness  and  right- 
eousness ;"  Deo  congruens,  free  from  all  manner  of  infirmities,  and  put  in  Paradise, 
to  know  God,  to  praise  and  glorify  him,  to  do  his  will,  Ut  diis  consimiles  parturiat 
deos  (as  an  old  poet  saith)  to  propagate  the  church. 

Man''s  Fall  and  Misery.]  But  this  most  noble  creature,  Heu  tristis,  et  lachry- 
mosa  commutatio  (^  one  exclaims)  O  pitiful  change !  is  fallen  from  that  he  was,  and 
forfeited  his  estate,  become  miserabitis  homuncio,  a  cast-away,  a  caitiff",  one  of  the 
most  miserable  creatures  of  the  world,  if  he  be  considered  in  his  own  nature,  an 
unregenerate  man,  and  so  much  obscured  by  his  fall  that  (some  few  reliques  excepted) 
he  is  inferior  to  a  beast,  ® "  Man  in  honour  that  understandeth  not,  is  like  unto  beasts 
that  perish,"  so  David  esteems  him  :  a  monster  by  stupend  metamorphoses,  '°a  fox, 
a  dog,  a  hog,  what  not  ?  Quantum  mutatus  ab  illo?  How  much  altered  from  that  he 
was;  before  blessed  and  happy,  now  miserable  and  accursed  ;  "  "  He  must  eat  his  meat 
in  sorrow,"  subject  to  death  and  all  manner  of  infirmities,  all  kind  of  calamities. 

Jl  Descripiion  of  Melancholy.]  '^^  Great  travail  is  created  for  all  men,  and  aui 
heavy  yoke  on  the  sons  of  Adam,  from  the  day  that  they  go  out  of  their  motlier's"' 
womb,  unto  that  day  they  return  to  the  mother  of  all  things.  Namely,  their  thoughts,' 
and  fear  of  their  hearts,  and  their  imagination  of  things  they  wait  for,  and  the  day 
of  death.  From  him  that  sitteth  in  the  glorious  throne,  to  him  that  sitteth  beneath 
in  the  earth  and  aslies ;  from  him  that  is  clothed  in  blue  silk  and  weareth  a  crown, 
to  him  that  is  clothed  in  simple  linen.  Wrath,  envy,  trouble,  and  unquietness,  and 
fear  of  death,  and  rigour,  and  strife,  and  such  things  come  to  both  man  and  beast,' 
but  sevenfold  to  the  ungodly."  All  this  befalls  him  in  this  life,  and  peradventurc 
eternal  misery  in  the  life  to  come. 

Impulsive  Cause  of  Man^s  Misery  and  Infirmities?^  The  impulsive  cause  of  these 
miseries  in  man,  this  privation  or  destruction  of  God's  image,  the  cause  of  death  and 

'Magnum   miraculum.  ^Mundi   epitome,   na- I  est  in  imagine  parva.  '  Eph.  iv.  24.  epaian 

luta;  deliciEB.  3  Finis  rerum  omnium,  cui  sublu-    terius.  "Psal.  xlix.  90.  'oLascivi^  superal 

iiaria  serviunt.  ScaliK.  exercit  365.  sec.  3.  Vales,  de  '  equum,  impudentia  canera,  a  :tu  vulpein,  furore  leo- 
sacr.  Phil.  c.  5.  ■'Ul  in  niiir..smate  Ca>saris  imago,  |  nem.  Chrys.  23.  Gen.  v  Gen.  iii.  13.  '^  Ec- 

<ic  in  homine  Dei.  'Gen.  1.  oimago  mundi    clus.  iv.  1,  2,  3,  4,  5,  8 

n  corpore,  Dei  in  anima.     Exemplumque  dei  quisque  I 

H 


B6  Diseases  in  General.  [Part.  1.  Sect.  1. 

diseases,  of  all  temporal  and  eternal  punishments,  was  the  sin  of  our  first  parent 
Adam,  "in  eating  of  the  forbidden  fruit,  by  tlie  devil's  instigation  and  allurement. 
His  disobedience,  pride,  ambition,  intemperance,  incredulity,  curiosity,  from  whence 
proceeded  original  sin,  and  tliat  general  corruption  of  mankind,  as  from  a  fountain 
flowed  all  bad  inclinations  and  actual  transgressions  which  cause  our  several  calami- 
ties inflicted  upon  us  for  our  sins.  And  this  belike  is  that  which  our  fabulous  poets 
have  shadowed  unto  us  in  the  tale  of  '■'Pandora's  box,  which  being  opened  ihrougli 
her  curiosity,  filled  the  world  full  of  all  manner  of  diseases.  It  is  not  curiosity 
alone,  but  those  other  crying  sins  of  ours,  which  pull  these  sevei-al  plagues  and 
miseries  upon  our  heads.  For  Ubi  peccatum^  ibi.  procclla,  as  '^>  Jhrysostom  well 
observes.  "'  '■'•  Fools  by  reason  of  their  transgression,  and  because  of  their  iniquities, 
are  afflicted."  "  •■'  Fear  cometh  like  sudden  desolation,  and  destruction  like  a  whirl- 
wind, afliiction  and  anguish,"  because  they  did  not  fear  God.  '^"  Are  you  shaken 
with  wars  .?"  as  Cyprian  well  urgeth  to  Demetrius,  "  are  you  molested  with  deartli  and 
famine  ?  is  your  health  crushed  with  raging  diseases  }  is  mankind  generally  tormented 
with  epidemical  maladies?  'tis  all  for  your  sins,"  Hag.  i.  9,  10;  Amos  i. ;  Jer.  vii 
God  is  angry,  punisheth  and  threateneth,  because  of  their  obstinacy  and  stubborn- 
ness, they  will  not  turn  unto  him.  '^'^If  the  earth  be  barren  then  for  want  of  rain, 
if  dry  and  squalid,  it  yield  no  fruit,  if  your  fountains  be  dried  up,  your  wine,  corn, 
and  oil  blasted,  if  the  air  be  corrupted,  and  men  troubled  with  diseases,  'tis  by  rea- 
son of  their  sins :"  which  like  the  blood  of  Abel  cry  loud  to  heaven  for  vengeance. 
Lam.  V.  15.  "  That  we  have  sinned,  therefore  our  hearts  are  heavy,"  Isa.  lix.  11,  12. 
"  We  roar  like  bears,  and  mourn  like  doves,  and  want  health,  &.c.  for  our  sins  and 
trespasses."  But  this  we  cannot  endure  to  hear  or  to  take  notice  of,  Jer.  ii.  30. 
"  We  are  smitten  in  vain  and  receive  no  correction ; "  and  cap.  v.  3.  "•  Thou  hast 
stricken  them,  but  they  have  not  sorrowed;  they  have  refused  to  receive  correction f 
they  have  not  returned.  Pestilence  he  hath  sent,  but  they  have  not  turned  to  him," 
Amos  iv.  ^°  Herod  could  not  abide  John  Baptist,  nor  ^'  Domitian  endure  ApoUonius 
to  tell  the  causes  of  the  plague  atEphesus,  his  injustice,  incest,  adultery,  and  the  like 
To  punish  therefore  this  blindness  and  obstinacy  of  ours  as  a  concomitant  cause 
and  principal  agent,  is  God's  just  judgment  in  bringing  these  calamities  upon  us,  to 
cliastise  us,  I  say,  for  our  sins,  and  to  satisfy  God's  wrath.  For  the  law  requires 
obedience  or  punishment,  as  you  may  read  at  large,  Deut.  xxviii.  1 5.  "  If  they  will 
not  obey  the  Lord,  and  keep  his  commandments  and  ordinances,  then  all  these  curses 
shall  come  upon  them."  ^^"  Cursed  in  the  town  and  in  the  field,  &c."  ^^"  Cursed  in 
the  fruit  of  the  body,  &c."  ^^ "  The  Lord  shall  send  thee  trouble  anu  shame,  because 
of  thy  wickedness."  And  a  little  after,  ^*"  The  Lord  shall  smite  thee  with  the  botch 
of  Egypt,  and  with  emrods,  and  scab,  and  itch,  and  thou  canst  not  be  healed  ;  "Svith 
madness,  blindness,  and  astonishing  of  heart."  This  Paul  seconds,  Kom.  ii.  9.  "  Tri- 
bulation and  anguish  on  the  soul  of  every  man  that  doeth  evil."  Oi  else  these  chas- 
tisements are  inflicted  upon  us  for  our  humiliation,  to  exercise  and  try  our  patience 
here  in  this  life  to  bring  us  home,  to  make  us  to  know  God  ourselves,  to  inform  and 
leach  us  wisdom.  ^''"Therefore  is  my  people  gone  into  captivity,  because  they  had 
no  knowledge ;  therefore  is  the  wi;^th  of  the  Lord  kindled  against  his  people,  and 
he  hath  stretched  out  his  hand  upon  them."  He  is  desirous  of  our  salvaiion. 
^^JYosircs  saUiiiS  avidus,  saith  Lemnius,  and  for  that  cause  pulls  us  by  the  ear  miny 
times,  to  put  us  in  mind  of  our  duties :  ''  That  they  which  erred  might  have  under- 
standing, (as  Isaiah  speaks  xxix.  24)  and  so  to  be  reformed."  ^^  "  1  am  afflicted,  and 
at  the  point  of  death,"  so  David  confesseth  of  himself,  Psal.  Ixxxvih.  v.  1 5,  v.  9, 
"  Mine  eyes  are  sorrowful  through  mine  affliction  :"  and  that  made  hhn  turn  unto 
God.    Great  Alexander  in  the  midst  of  all  his  prosperity,  by  a  company  of  parasites 


•3 Gen.  iii.  17.  '■'Ilia   cadens   tegnien   manibus  gleba  producat,  si  turbo  viiieam  debilitet,  &c.  Cypr. 

decussit,  et  uni  perniciem  iinniisit  miseris  mortalibua  -"Mat.  xiv.  3.         '^i  Philoslratiis.  lib.  8.  vit.  Apollonii. 

atram.  Hesiod.  1.  oper.  '^Honi.  5.  ad  pop.  An-  Injustitiam  ejus,  et  sceleralas  nuptias,  et  ctetera  quas 

.tioch.  ">  Psal.  cvii.  17.         "Pro.  i.  27.  i^Qiidd  praMer  rationem  fecerat,  morboriim  cansas  dixit.   *- 16. 

autem   crebrius    bella   concutiant,  quod  sterilitas  et  --'18.  ••'•20.  ■-'■■>  Verse  17.  -"iaS   Deos  qnog 

lames  snlicitudineni  cumulent,  qii6d  sievieiitibiis  mnr-  diligit,  castigat.  ^^  Tsa.  v.  13.  Verse  15.  -'«iNos- 

bis  valitudofrangitur,  qii6d1)uiiianiini  genus  luis  pnpu-  tree  saluiis  avidiis  continenter  aures  vellicat,  ac  cala- 

latione  vastatur  ;  ob  peccatnni  omnia.  Cypr.  '•'Si  mitate  subinde  nos  exercet.    Levinus  Lemn.  1.  2.  c.  29. 

raro  desuper  pluvia  descendat,  si  terra  situ  pulveris  i  de  occult,  nat.  inir.  2«Vexatio  dat  intellectum 

^qualleat,  si  vix  jejunas  el   pallidal   herbas  sterilia  Isa   xxviii.  19. 


*Iem.  1.  ^uTo.  i.J 


Diseases  in  General. 


87 


deified,  and  now  made  a  god,  when  he  saw  one  of  his  wounds  bleed,  remembered 
that  he  was  but  a  man,  and  remitted  of  his  pride.  In  morho  recolligit  se  animus,'* 
as  ^'  Pliny  well  perceived  ;  "  In  sickness  the  mind  reflects  upon  itself,  with  judgment 
surveys  itself,  and  abhors  its  former  courses ;"  insomuch  that  he  concludes  to  his 
friend  Marius,  '^^"that  it  were  the  period  of  all  philosophy,  if  we  could  so  continue 
sound,  or  perform  but  a  part  of  that  which  we  promised  to  do,  being  sick.  Whoso 
is  wise  then,  will  consider  these  things,"  as  David  did  {^Psal.  cxliv.,  verse  last);  and 
whatsoever  fortune  befall  him,  make  use  of  it.  "  If  he  be  in  sorrow,  need,  sickness, 
or  any  other  adversity,  seriously  to  recount  with  himself,  why  this  or  that  malady, 
misery,  this  or  that  incurable  disease  is  inflicted  upon  him ;  it  may  be  for  his  good, 
'^  sic  expedite  as  Peter  said  of  his  daughter's  ague.  Bodily  sickness  is  for  his  soul's, 
heaud,  periisset  nisi  periissef,  had  he  not  been  visited,  he  had  utterly  perished  ;  for 
** "  the  Lord  correcteth  him  whom  he  loveth,  even  as  a  father  doth  his  child  in  whom 
he  delighteth."  If  he  be  safe  and  sound  on  the  other  side,  and  free  from  all  mannei 
ofinflrinity;  ^'etcui 


"Gralia,  forma,  valetudo  contiiigat  abuiidS 
Et  iiiuiidiis  victus,  noil  deficieiile  cruiiieni." 


"And  that  he  have  grace,  beauty,  favour,  health, 
A  cleanly  diet,  and  abound  in  wealth." 


Yet  in  the  midst  of  his  prosperity,  let  him  remember  that  caveat  of  Moses,  ^®"  Beware 
that  he  do  not  forget  the  Lord  his  God ;"  that  he  be  not  pufled  up,  but  acknowledge , 
them  to  be  his  good  gifts  and  benefits,  and  ^' "  the  more  he  hath,  to  be  more  thank  - 
ful,"  (as  Agapetianus  adviseth)  and  use  them  aright. 

Instrumental  Causes  of  our  Infirmities?\  Now  the  instrumental  causes  of  these 
our  infirmities,  are  as  diverse  as  the  infirmities  themselves ;  stars,  heavens,  ele- 
ments, &c.  And  all  those  creatures  which  God  hath  made,  are  armed  against  sin- 
ners. They  were  indeed  once  good  in  themselves,  and  that  they  are  now  many  of 
them  pernicious  unto  us,  is  not  in  their  nature,  but  our  corruption,  which  hath  caused 
it.  For  from  the  fall  of  our  first  parent  Adam,  they  have  been  changed,  the  earth 
accursed,  the  influence  of  stars  altered,  the  four  elements,  beasts,  birds,  plants,  are 
now  ready  to  oflend  us.  "  The  principal  things  for  the  use  of  man,  are  water,  fire, 
iron,  salt,  meal,  wheat,  honey,  milk,  oil,  wine,  clothing,  good  to  the  godly,  to  the 
sinners  turned  to  evil,''  Ecclus.  xxxix.  26.  "  Fire,  and  hail,  and  famine,  and  dearth, 
all  these  are  created  for  vengeance,"  Ecclus.  xxxix.  29.  The  heavens  threaten  us 
with  their  comets,  stars,  planets,  with  their  great  conjunctions,  eclipses,  oppositions, 
quartdes,  and  such  unfriendly  aspects.  The  air  with  his  meteors,  thunder  and 
lightning,  intemperate  heat  and  cold,  mighty  winds,  tempests,  unseasonable  weather; 
from  which  proceed  dearth,  famine,  plague,  and  all  sorts  of  epidemical  diseases,  con- 
suming infinite  myriads  of  men.  At  Cairo  in  Egypt,  every  third  year,  (as  it  is  re- 
lated by  ^^Boterus,  and  others)  300,000  die  of  the  plague;  and  200,000,  in  Con- 
stantinople, every  fifth  or  seventh  at  the  utmost.  How  doth  the  earth  terrify  and 
oppress  us  with  terrible  earthquakes,  which  are  most  frequent  in  '^'^  China,  Japan,  and 
those  eastern  climes,  swallowing  up  sometimes  six  cities  at  once .?  IIow  doth  the 
water  rage  with  his  inundations,  irruptions,  flinging  down  towns,  cities,  villages, 
bridges,  &c.  besides  shipwrecks  ;  whole  islands  are  sometimes  suddenly  overwhelmed 
with  all  their  inhabitants  in  ''"Zealand,  Holland,  and  many  parts  of  the  continent 
drowned,  as  the  ""  lake  Erne  in  Ireland  ?  '^^JYihilque  prceter  arcium  cadavera  patenti 
cernimus  freto.  In  the  fens  of  Friesland  1230,  by  reason  of  tempests,  "^  the  sea 
drowned  7Jiulta  hominum  millia,  etjumenta  sine  numero,  all  the  country  almost,  men 
and  cattle  in  it.  How  doth  the  fire  rage,  that  merciless  element,  consuming  in  an 
instant  whole  cities  .''  What  town  of  any  antiquity  or  note  hath  not  been  once,  again 
and  again,  by  the  fury  of  this  merciless  element,  defaced,  ruinated,  and  left  desolate  ? 
In  a  word, 


""Ignis  pepercit,  unda  mergit,  agris 

Vis  peslilentis  fequori  ereptiira  necat, 
Bello  superstes,  tabidus  inorbo  peril." 


"  Whom  fire  spares,  sea  doth  drown  ;  whom  sea. 
Pestilent  air  doth  send  to  clay  ; 
Whom  war  'scapes,  sickness  takes  away." 


"oin  sickness  the  mind  recollects  itself.  "  Lib.  7. 
Cum  judicio,  mores  et  facta  recognoscit  et  se  intuetur. 
l)um  fero  languorein,  fero  religionis  amorem.  Expers 
languoris  non  sum  memor  hujus  amoris.  ^-Sum- 

mum  esse  totius  philosophis,  ut  tales  esse  persevere- 
miis,  quales  nos  futures  esse  infiriiii  profiteinur. 
»»  Petrarch  »i  Prov.  iii.  12.  3**  Ilor.  Epis.  lib. 

1.4  '~Deu'   vi'"    U.  Qui  stat  videat  ne  nadat. 


s'Quanto  majoribiis  beneliciis  a  Deo  cumulatur,  lanto 
obligatiorein   se   debitorem  fateri.  •'"Boteriis  de 

Inst,  urbium.  ^JJ^ege  hist,  relationem  I.od.  Froli 

de  rebus  Japoricis  ad  annum  1596.  ■'"Guicciard. 

descript.  Belg.  anno  1421.  •"  Giraldus  Cambrens. 

■•-Janus  Dousa,  ep.  lib  1.  car.  10.  And  we  perceive  n«- 
thing,  except  the  dead  bodies  of  cities  in  I  lie  open  sea 
"Munsler.  I.  3.  Cos.  cap.  462.       *»  Builiaiian.  BaptL§t 


B8  Diseases  in  General.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  1 

To  descend  to  more  particulars,  how  many  creatures  are  at  deadly  feud  with  men  ? 
Lions,  wolves,  bears,  &.c.  Some  with  hoofs,  horns,  tusks,  teeth,  nails  :  How  many 
noxious  serpents  and  venemous  creatures,  ready  to  offend  us  with  stings,  breath, 
sight,  or  quite  kill  us  ?  How  many  pernicious  fishes,  y)lants,  gums,  fruits,  seeds, 
flowers,  &c.  could  I  reckon  up  on  a  sudden,  which  by  their  very  smell  many  of 
them,  touch,  taste,  cause  some  grievous  malady,  if  not  death  itself?  Some  make 
mention  of  a  thousand  several  poisons :  but  these  are  but  trifles  in  respect.  The 
greatest  enemy  to  man,  is  man,  who  by  the  devil's  instigation  is  still  ready  to  do 
mischief,  his  own  executioner,  a  wolf,  a  devil  to  himself,  and  others.  ""^  We  are  all 
brethren  in  Christ,  or  at  least' should  be,  members  of  one  body,  servants  of  one  Lord, 
and  yet  no  fiend  can  so  torment,  insult  over,  tyrannize,  vex,  as  one  man  doth  another. 
Let  me  not  fall  tlierefore  (saith  David,  when  wars,  plague,  famine  were  offered)  into 
the  hands  of  mf  ',  merciless  and  wicked  men : 

<^ "  Vix  sunt  homines  hoc  nomine  digni, 

Quimque  hipi,  sjevje  plus  ftritatis  habenl." 

We  can  most  part  foresee  these  epidemical  diseases,  and  likely  avoid  them; 
Dearths,  tempests,  plagues,  our  astrologers  fortel  us;  Earthquakes,  inundations, 
ruins  of  houses,  consuming  fires,  come  by  little  and  little,  or  make  some  noise  be- 
forehand ;  but  the  knaveries,  impostures,  injuries  and  villanies  of  men  no  art  can 
avoid.  We  can  keep  our  professed  enemies  from  our  cities,  by  gates,  walls  and 
towers,  defend  oui-selves  from  thieves  and  robbers  by  watchfulness  and  weapons ; 
but  this  malice  of  men,  and  their  pernicious  endeavours,  no  caution  can  divert, 
no  vigilancy  foresee,  we  have  so  many  secret  plots  and  devices  to  mischief  one 
another. 

Sometimes  by  the  devil's  help  as  magicians,  "witches :  sometimes  by  impostures, 
mixtures,  poisons,  stratagems,  single  combats,  wars,  we  liack  and  hew,  as  if  we  were 
ad  hiternccionem  nafi,  like  Cadmus'  soldiers  born  to  consume  one  another.  'Tis  an 
ordinary  tiling  to  read  of  a  hundred  and  two  hundred  thousand  men  slain  in  a  battle. 
Besides  all  manner  of  tortures,  brazen  bulls,  racks,  wheels,  strappadoes,  guns,  en- 
gines, &c.  '^^Jld  uni/m  corpus  humanum  siipplicia  plura^  quam  membra :  We  have 
invented  more  torturing  instruments,  than  there  be  several  members  in  a  man's  body, 
as  Cyprian  well  observes.  .  To  come  nearer  yet,  our  own  parents  by  their  offences, 
indiscretion  and  intemperance,  are  our  mortal  enemies.  ''®"The  fathers  have  eaten 
sour  grapes,  and  the  children's  teeth  an-e  set  on  edge."  They  cause  our  grief  many 
times,  and  put  upon^us  hereditary  diseases,  inevitable  infirmities:  they  torment  us, 
and  we  are  ready  to  injure  our  posterity ; 

60 "moxdaturiprogeniemvitiosiorem."  I    "And  yet  with  crimes  to  us  unknown, 

I       Our  sons  shall  mark  the  coming  age  their  own ; 

and  the  latter  end  of  the  world,  as  ^'Paul  foretold,  is  still  like  to  be  the  worst.  We 
are  thus  bad  by  nature,  bad  by  kind,  but  far  worse  by  art,  every  man  the  greatest 
enemy  unto  himself.  We  study  many  times  to  undo  ourselves,  abusing  those  good 
gifts  which  God  hath  bestowed  upon  us,  health,  wealth,  strength,  wit,  learning,  art, 
memory  to  our  own  destruction,  ^^Perdit'io  tua  ex  te.  As  ^'^ Judas  Maccabeus  killed 
Apollonius  with  his  own  weapons,  we  arm  ourselves  to  our  own  overthrows ;  and 
use  reason,  art,  judgment,  all  that  should  help  us,  as  so  many  instruments  to  undo 
us.  Hector  gave  Ajax  a  sword,  which  so  long  as  he  fought  against  enemies,  served 
for  his  help  and  defence ;  but  after  he  began  to  hurt  harmless  creatures  with  it,  turn- 
ed to  his  own  hurtless  bowels.  Those  excellent  means  God  hath  bestowed  on 
us,  well  employed,  cannot  but  much  avail  us;  but  if  otherwise  perverted,  they  ruin 
and  confound  us  :  and  so  by  reason  of  our  indiscretion  and  weakness  they  com- 
monly do,  we  have  too  many  instances.  This  St.  Austin  acknowledgeth  of  hi>a- 
solf  in  his  humble  confessions,  "promptness  of  wit,  memory,  eloquen<"e,  they  were 
God's  good  gifts,  but  he  did  not  use  them  to  his  glory."  If  you  will  particularly 
know  how,  and  by  what  means,  consult  physicians,  and  they  will  tell  you,  that  it  is 
jji  ofl'ending  in  some  of  those  six  non-natural  things,  of  which  I  shall  ^'' dilate  more 
at  large  ;  they  are  the  causes  of  our  infirmities,  our  surfeiting,  and  drunkenness,  oiu 

'^Horno     homini     lunus,     homo     homini     daemon.  I  xviii   2.  '^Hor.  I.  3.  Od.  6.  s' 2  Tim    iii.  i 

•■'♦tvid   de  Trist.  I.  5.  lileg.  8.  <■  Mifcent  acoiiita     ■■•  Eze.   iviii.  31.     Thy   desiriiciion   is   from   thvselt 

novrtr.x.        -^Lib.  2.  Epist.2.  ad  Doiiatum.        *"  Kz«.  |  «  iJI  Alacc.  iii.  12.  '  •'•<  I'art.  i   Sec.  2.  Menib.  2 


Mem.  1.  Subs,  2.]  Def.  JYum.  Div.  of  Diseases.  99 

Immoderate  insatiable  lust,  and  prodigious  riot.  Plures  crapula,  quam  gladius^i  is  a 
true  saying,  the  board  consumes  more  than  the  sword.  Our  intemperance  it  is,  thai 
pulls  so  many  several  incurable  diseases  upon  our  heads,  that  hastens  **old  age,  per- 
verts our  temperature,  and  brings  upon  us  sudden  death.  And  last  of  all,  that  wliich 
crucifies  us  most,  is  our  own  folly,  madness  [quos  Jupiter  perdit.,  dement  at ;  by  su1)trac- 
tion  of  his  assisting  grace  God  permits  it)  weakness,  want  of  government,  our  facility 
and  proneness  in  yielding  to  several  lusts,  in  giving  way  to  every  passion  and  pertur- 
bation of  the  mind  :  by  which  means  we  metamorphose  ourselves  and  degenerate  into 
beasts.  All  whicli  that  prince  of  ^'^  poets  observed  of  Agamemnon,  that  when  he  was 
well  pleased,  and  could  moderate  his  passion,  he  was — os  ocuhsque  Jovi  j^ar  :  like 
Jupiter  in  feature.  Mars  in  valour,  Pallas  in  wisdom,  another  god  ;  but  when  he  be- 
came angry,  he  was  a  lion,  a  tiger,  a  dog,  &c.,  there  appeared  no  sign  or  likeness  oi 
Jupiter  in  him ;  so  we,  as  long  as  we  are  ruled  by  reason,  correct  our  inordinate  ap 
petite,  and  conform  ourselves  to  God's  v.'ord,  are  as  so  many  saints  :  but  if  we  givf 
reins  to  lust,  anger,  ambition,  pride,  and  follow  our  own  ways,  we  degenerate  into 
beasts,  transform  ourselves,  overthrow  our  constitutions,  ^^  provoke  God  to  anger 
and  heap  upon  us  this  of  melancholy,  and  all  kinds  of  incurable  diseases,  as  a  jusi 
and  deserved  punishment  of  our  sins. 

Sub  SEC.  II. —  The  Definition^  JYumher,  Division  of  Diseases. 

What  a  disease  is,  almost  every  physician  defines.  '^^  Fernelius  calleth  it  an 
"  Affection  of  the  body  contrary  to  nature."  °^  Fuschius  and  Crato,  "  an  hinderance, 
hurt,  or  alteration  of  any  action  of  the  body,  or  part  of  it."  ™  Tholosanus,  "  a  dis- 
solution of  that  league  which  is  between  body  and  soul,  and  a  perturbation  of  it ;  as 
health  the  perfection,  and  makes  to  the  preservation  of  it."  ^'  Labeo  in  Agellius,  "  an 
ill  habit  of  the  body,  opposite  to  nature,  hindering  the  use  of  it."  Others  otherwise, 
all  to  this  effect. 

JYumber  of  Diseases.]  How  many  diseases  there  are,  is  a  question  not  yet  deter- 
mined;  *' Pliny  reckons  up  300  from  the  crown  of  the  head  to  the  sole  of  the  foo  : 
elsewhere  he  saith,  morhorum  infmita  multittido,  their  number  is  infinite.  Hows  )- 
ever  it  was  in  those  times,  it  boots  not ;  in  our  days  I  am  sure  the  number  is  much 
ausfmented : 

^3 "macies,  et  nova  febrium 

Terris  incubit  cohors." 

For  besides  many  epidemical  diseases  unheard  of,  and  altogether  unknown  to  Galen 
and  Hippocrates,  as  scorbutum,  small-pox,  plica,  sweating  sickness,  morbus  Gallicus, 
&c.,  we  have  many  proper  and  peculiar  almost  to  every  part. 

JVo  man  free  from  some'  Disease  or  otheri\  /;'No  man  amongst  us  so  sound,  of  so 
good  a  constitution,  that  hath  not  some  impediment  of  body  or  mind.^\  Quisque  suos 
patimi/r  manes.,  we  have  all  our  infirmities,  first  or  last,  more  or  less.  There  will 
be  peradventure  in  an  age,  or  one  of  a  thousand,  like  Zenophilus  the  musician  in 
*^  Pliny,  that  may  happily  live  105  years  without  any  manner  of  impediment ;  a  Pol- 
lio  Romulus,  that  can  preserve  himself  ^^"with  wine  and  oil;"  a  man  as  fortunate 
as  Q.  Metellus,  of  whom  Valerius  so  much  brags;  a  man  as  healthy  as  Otto  Ilerwar- 
dus,  a  senator  of  Augsburg  in  Germany,  whom  ^''  Leovitius  the  astrologer  brings  in 
for  an  example  and  instance  of  certainty  in  his  art;  who  because  he  had  the  sign' 
ficators  in  his  geniture  fortunate,  and  free  from  the  hostile  aspects  of  Saturn  and  Mars, 
being  a  very  cold  man,  ^" "  could  not  remember  that  ever  he  was  sick."  ^^  Paracel- 
sus may  brag  that  he  could  make  a  man  live  400  years  or  more,  if  he  might  bring 
him  up  from  his  infancy,  and  diet  him  as  he  list ;  and  some  physicians  hold,  that 
Iheir  is  no  certain  period  of  man's  life ;  but  it  may  still  by  temperance  and  physic 

"Nequitia    est   qiiEe    te    non    sinet     esse     senem.  i  «^  Cap.  11.  lib.  7.  es  ijorat.  '  b.   1.  ode  3.     "Etui- 


iHoiner.  Iliad.  s"  Intemperaritia.  luxus,  itiglu 

vios,  et  infiiiita  liiijusiiiodi  flagitia,  qiite  divinas  poeiias 
nerentur.    Crato.  '*Ferii.   Path.  I.  1.  c  1.    Mor- 

bus est  affertus  contra,  naturain  corpori  insides. 
'^Fusch.  Instit.  I.  3.  sect.  1.  c.  3.  k  quo  priinuin  vitia- 
tur  actio.  i"  Dissolutio  foederis  in  corpore,  ut  sa- 

nitas  est  consuminaiio.  <>'  Lib.  4.  cap.  2.  Morbus 

Ml    habitue    contra    naturam,  qui    usiiin    ejus,  &c. 

12  h2 


ciation,  and  a  new  cohort  of  ffers  broods  o\er  th« 
earth."  ^'Cap    ^0.   lib.  7.     Cetituni  et  qiiipque 

vixit  annos  sine  ullo  inconimodo  eii  Jumg  ,|,,iiso 

foras  oleo.  Bi^Exemplis  genitur.  pra^fixis  Epheiner 

cap.  de  intirmitat.  ''■  Qui,  quoad  pueiilia;  ullinian 

inemoriam  recordari  potest  non  memiiiit  se  ieyrotun 
dw.ubuisse.  '''"  Lib.  de  vita  longa 


90 


Div.  of  the  Diseases  of  the  Head. 


[Part.  l.Sect.  1 


be  \)i  Aonged.     We  find  in  the  meantime,  by  common  experience,  that  no  man  can 
escaf  e,  but  that  of  "''  Hesiod  is  true  ; 


"Th'  earth's  full  of  maladies,  ami  full  the  sea, 
Which  set  upon  us  both  by  night  and  day." 


Division  of  Diseases.]  If  you  require  a  more  exact  division  of  these  ordinary 
diseases  which  are  incident  to  men,  1  refer  you  to  physicians  ;™  they  will  tell  you 
of  acute  and  chronic,  first  and  secondary,  lethales,  salutares,  errant,  fixed,  simple, 
compound,  connexed,  or  consequent,  belonging  to  parts  or  the  whole,  in  habit,  or 
in  disposition,  &c.  iVIy  division  at  this  time  (as  most  befitting  my  purpose)  shall 
be  into  those  of  the  body  and  mind.  For  them  of  the  body,  a  brief  catalogue  of 
which  Fuschius  hath  made,  Institut.  lib.  3,  sect.  1,  cap.  11.  I -refer  you  to  the  vo- 
luminous tomes  of  Galen,  Areteus,  Rhasis,  Avicenna,  Alexander,  Paulus  ^Etius,  Gor- 
(^onerius  :  and  those  exact  Neoterics,  Savanarola,  Ca'^ivaccius,  Donatus  Altomarus, 
Hercules  de  Saxonia,  Mercurialis,  Victorius  F?  /entinus.  Wecker,  Piso,  &.C.,  that  have 
methodically  and  elaborately  written  of  them  all.  Those  of  the  mind  and  head  I 
will  briefly  handle,  and  apart. 

SuBSECT.  III. — Division  of  the  Diseases  of  the  Head. 

These  diseases  of  the  mind,  forasmuch  as  they  have  their  chief  seat  and  organs 
in  the  head,  which  are  commonly  repeated  amongst  the  diseases  of  the  head  which 
are  divers,  and  vary  much  according  to  their  site.  For  in  the  head,  as  there  be 
several  parts,  so  there  be  divers  grievances,  which  according  to  that  division  of 
'Heurnius,  (which  he  takes  out  of  Arculanus,)  are  inward  or  outward  (to  omit  all 
others  which  pertain  to  eyes  and  ears,  nostrils,  gums,  teeth,  mouth,  palate, 
tongue,  wesel,  chops,  face,  &c.)  belonging  properly  to  the  brain,  as  baldi^ess,  falling 
of  hair,  furfaire,  lice,  Stc.  '^Inward  belonging  to  the  skins  next  to  the  brain,  called 
dura  and  pia  mater.,  as  all  head-aches,  &c.,  or  to  the  ventricles,  caules,  kels,  tunicles, 
creeks,  and  parts  of  it,  and  their  passions,  as  caro,  vertigo,  incubus,  apoplexy,  falling 
sickness.  The  diseases  of  the  nerves,  cramps,  stupor,  convulsion,  tremor,  palsy : 
or  belonging  to  the  excrements  of  the  brain,  catarrhs,  sneezing,  rheums,  distillations  : 
or  else  those  that  pertain  to  the  substance  of  the  brain  itself,  in  which  are  conceived 
phrensy,  lethargy,  melancholy,  madness,  weak  memory,  sopor,  or  Coma  VigiJ.ia  el 
vigil  Coma.  Out  of  these  again  1  will  single  such  as  properly  belong  to  the  phan- 
tasy, or  imagination,  or  reason  itself,  which  "Laurentius  calls  the  disease  of  the 
mind ;  and  Hildesheim,  morhos  imaginationis.,  aut  rationis  IcEsce,  (diseases  of  the 
imagination,  or  of  injured  reason,)  which  are  three  or  four  in  number,  phrensy, 
madness,  melancholy,  dotage,  and  their  kinds  :  as  hydrophobia,  lycanthropia.  Chorus 
sancti  viti^  morhi  damoniaci.,  (St.  Vitus's  dance,  possession  of  devils,)  which  I  will 
briefly  touch  and  point  at,  insisting  especially  in  this  of  melancholy,  as  n^ore  eminent 
than  the  rest,  and  that  through  all  his  kinds,  causes,  symptoms,  prognostics,  cures 
as  Lonicerus  hath  done  dc  apoplexid.,  and  many  other  of  such  particular  diseases 
Not  that  I  find  fault  with  those  which  have  written  of  this  subject;  before,  as  Jason 
Pratensis,  Laurentius,  Montaltus,  T.  Bright,  &c.,  they  have  done  very  well  in  their 
several  kinds  and  methods ;  yet  that  which  one  omits,  another  may  haply  see ;  thai 
which  one  contracts,  another  may  enlarge.  To  conclude  with  ^''Scrihanius,  "  that 
which  they  had  neglected,  or  profunctorily  handled,  we  may  more  thoroughly  ex- 
amine; that  which  is  obscurely  delivered  in  them,  may  be  perspicuously  dilated  and 
amplified  by  us  :"  and  so  made  more  familiar  and  easy  for  every  man's  capacity,  and 
the  common  good,  which  is  the  chief  end  of  my  discourse. 

St'BSECT.  IV. — Dotage.,  Phrensy.,  Madness.,  Hydrophobia^  Lycanthropia.,  Chorvs 

sancti  Viti.,  Extasis. 

Delirium.,  Dotage.]  Dotage,  fatuity,  or  folly,  is  a  common  name  to  all  the  fol 
iowing  species,  as  some  will  have  it.     "^Laurentius  and  ''* Altomarus  comprehended 


esQper.  et  dies.  '"See  Fenielius  Path.  lib.  1. 

cap.  9,10,  11,  12.     Fuschi\is  Instil.  1.  3.  sect.  1.  c.  7. 
Wecker.  Synt.  ''  Priefat.  de  inorbis  capitis.     In 

capile  ut  varise  ^aI)itant  paries,  ila  varia'  querelae  ibi 
•"leuiunt.  '-Of  which  read  Heurnius,   Montal- 


tus, Hildesheim,  Quercetan,  Jason  Praten-^is,  &c 
'3  Cap.  2.  de  nielanchol.  '^  Cap.  2.  de  Phisiologia 

sagarum  :  Quod  alii,  minus  recte  fortasse  dixerint, 
nos  examinare,  melius  dijudicare,  coriigere  studea 
nius.  's  Cap.  4.  de  mol.  '^Arl.  Med.  7. 


Mem.  1.  Subs  4.]  Diseases  of  the  Mind.  91 

madness,  melancholy,  and  tlie  rest  under  this  name,  and  call  it  the  t,ummum  genus 
of  ihem  all.  If  it  be  distinguished  from  them,  it  is  natural  or  ingenite,  which  cornea 
by  some  defect  of  the  organs,  and  over-much  brain,  as  we  see  in  our  common  fools; 
and  is  for  the  most  part  intended  or  remitted  in  particular  men,  and  thereupon  some 
are  wiser  than  others  :  or  else  it  is  acquisite,  an  appendix  or  sympton.  of  some  other 
disease,  which  comes  or  goes ;  or  if  it  continue,  a  sign  of  melancholy  itself. 

Prensy?[  '  Phrrn'tis.,  which  the  Greeks  derive  from  the  word  tp*/";  is  a  disease  of 
the  mind,  with  a  continual  madness  or  dotage,  which  hath  an  acute  fever  annexed, 
or  else  an  inflammation  of  the  brain,  or  the  membranes  or  kels  of  it,  with  an  acute 
fever,  which  causeth  madness  and  dotage.  It  diflers  from  melancholy  and  madness, 
because  their  dotage  is  without  an  ague :  this  continual,  with  waking,  or  memory 
decayed,  &c.  Melancholy  is  most  part  silent,  this  clamorous ;  and  many  such  like 
differences  are  assigned  by  physicians. 

Madness.]  Madness,  phrensy,  and  melancholy  are  confounded  by  Celsus,  and 
many  writers  ;  others  leave  out  phrensy,  and  make  madness  and  melancholy  but  one 
disease,  which  "Jason  Pratensis  especially  labours,  and  that  they  ditfer  only  secun- 
dam  majus  or  minus.,  in  quantity  alone,  the  one  being  a  degree  to  the  other,  and  both 
proceeding  from  one  cause.  They  differ  intenso  et  remisso  gradu^  saith  "^Gordonius, 
as  the  humour  is  intended  or  remitted.  Of  the  same  mind  is  '^Areteus,  Alexander 
Tertullianus,  Guianerius,  Savanarola,  Heiirnius ;  and  Galen  himself  writes  promis- 
cuously of  tliem  both  -by  reason  of  their  aflinity :  but  most  of  our  neoterics  do 
handle  them  apart,  whom  I  will  follow  in  this  treatise.  Madness  is  therefore  defined 
to  be  a  vehement  dotage ;  or  raving  without  a  fever,  far  more  violent  than  melan- 
choly, full  of  anger  and  clamour,  horrible  looks,  actions,  gestures,  troubling  the 
patients  with  far  greater  vehemency  both  of  body  and  mind,  without  all  fear  and 
sorrow,  with  such  impetuous  force  and  boldness,  that  sometimes  three  or  four  men 
cannot  hold  them.  Differing  only  in  this  from  phrensy,  that  it  is  without  a  fever, 
and  their  memory  is  most  part  better.  It  hath  the  same  causes  as  the  other,  as  choler 
adust,  and  blood  Incensed,  brains  inflamed,  &c.  ^^ Fracastorius  adds,  "a  due  time, 
and  full  age  to  this  definition,  to  distinguish  it  from  children,  and  will  have  it  con- 
firmed impotency,  to  separate  it  from  such  as  accidentally  come  and  go  again,  as  by 
taking  henbane,  nightshade,  wine,  &c.  Of  this  fury  there  be  divers  kinds ;  *'  ecstasy, 
which  is  familiar  with  some  persons,  as  Cardan  saith  of  himself,  he  could  be  in  one 
when  he  list;,  in  which  the  Indian  priests  deliver  their  oracles,  and  the  witches  in 
Lapland,  as  Olaus  Magnus  writeth,  1.  3,  cap.  18.  Extasi  omnia  prccdiccre.,  answer 
ail  questions  in  an  extasis  you  will  ask ;  what  your  friends  do,  where  they  are,  how 
they  fare,  &c.  The  other  species  of  this  fury  are  e'ntluisiasms,  revelations,  and 
visions,  so  often  mentioned  by  Gregory  and  Becla  in  their  Vr'orks-,  obsession  or  pos- 
session of  devils,  sibylline  prophets,  and  poetical  furies  •,  such  as  come  by  eating 
noxious  herbs,  tarantulas  stinging,  &c.,  which  some  reduce  to  this.  The  most  known 
9re  these,  lycanthropia,  hydrophobia,  chorus  sancti  viti. 

Lycanlhropia.]  Lycanthropia,  which  Avicenna  calls  Cucubuth,  others  Lupinam 
fisaniam,  or  Wolf-madness,  when  men  run  howling  about  graves  and  fields  in  the 
night,  and  will  not  be  persuaded  but  that  they  are  wolves,  or  some  such  beasts. 
*'^Jiitius  and  ^^Paulus  call  it  a  kind  of  melancholy,  but  I  should  rather  refer  it  to 
madness,  as  most  do.  Some  make  a  doubt  of  it  whether  there  be  any  such  disease 
^''Donat  ab  Altomari  saith,  that  he  saw  two  of  them  in  his  time:  ''^Wierus  tells  a 
story  of  such  a  one  at  Padua  1541,  that  would  not  believe  to  the  contrary,  but  that 
he  was  a  wolf.  He  hath  another  instance  of  a  Spaniard,  who  thought  himself  a 
bear-,  ^Torrestus  confirms  as  much  by  many  examples;  one  amongst  the  rest  of 
which  he  was  an  eye-witness,  at  Alcmaer  in  Holland,  a  poor  husbandman  that  still 
hunted  about  graves,  and  kept  in  churchyards,  of  a  pale,  black,  ugly,  and  fearful 
Ic^k      Such  belike,  or  little    better,  were  king  Prstus'  *' daughters,  that  thought 

'' I'leriqne  medici  uiio  complexii  perstringunt  hos  firmatatn  habet  impotentiam  bene  operandi  circa  in- 
duos  iiiorbos,  quod  ex  eadem  causa  nriantiir,  quodque  tellectum.  lib.  2.  de  inlelleclioiie.  "'Of  which  leai' 
inagnitudine  et  rnodo  solilin  distent,  et  alter  {.'radiis  ad     Fflslix  Plater,  cap.  3.  de  mentis  alienatione.  "-Lib 

altoriini   e.xistat.   Jasnii    I'ratens.  '"Lib.    Med-  ,  6.  cap.  11.  "a  Lib.  3.  cap    16.  "^  Cap.  9.  An 

"Pars   mania;  milii  videtnr.  ''"Insanus  est,  qui  j  med.  «■  De  .  prEestic.    Djemonum,   1    3.  cap.  'it 

date  debits,  et  tempore  debito  per  se,  non  momenta-  |  »o  Observat.  "ib.  10.  je  morbis  cerebri,  cap.  15.  v  Ilij' 
neb  n  et  fiigacem,  iit  vini,  solani,  llyoscyami,  sedcon-  I  pocrates  lib.  dc  insania. 


92  Diseases  of  the  Mini.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  1 

themselves  kine.  And  Nebuchadnezzar  in  Daniel,  as  some  interpreters  hold,  was 
only  troubled  with  this  kind  of  madness.  This  disease  perhaps  gave  occasion  to 
that  bold  assertion  of  ^**  Pliny,  '^  some  men  were  turned  into  wolves  in  his  time,  anc 
from  wolves  to  men  again  :"  and  to  that  ("able  of  Pausanias,  of  a  man  that  was  ten 
years  a  wolf,  and  afterwards  turned  to  his  former  shape  :  to  *'' Ovid's  tale  of  Lycaon, 
&c.  He  that  is  desirous  to  hear  of  this  disease,  or  more  examples,  let  him  read 
Austin  in  his  18th  book  de  Civitate  Dei,  cap.  5.  Mizaldus,  cent.  a.  77.*  Sckenkius^ 
lib.  1.  Hildesheim,  spicel.  2.  de  Mania.  Forreslus  lib.  IQ.de  morbis  cerebri.  Olaus 
Magnus,  Vincentius''  Bellavlcensis,  spec.  met.  lib.  31.  c.  122.  Pierius,  Bodine, 
Zuinger,  Zeilger,  Peucer,  Wierus,  Spranger,  &c.  This  malady,  saith  Avicenna,  trou- 
bletli  men  most  in  February,  and  is  now-a-days  frequent  in  Bohemia  and  Hungary, 
according  to  ^"Heurnius.  Schernitzius  will  have  it  common  in  Livonia.  They  lie 
hid  most  part  all  day,  and  go  abroad  in  the  night,  barking,  howling,  at  graves  and 
deserts ;  ^' ''  they  have  usually  hollow  eyes,  scabbed  legs  and  thighs,  very  dry  and 
pale,"  ^^  saith  Altomarus ;  he  gives  a  reason  there  of  all  the  symptoms,  and  sets 
down  a  brief  cure  of  them. 

Hi/drophobia  is  a  kind  of  madness,  well  known  in  every  village,  which  comes  by 
the  biting  of  a  mad  dog,  or  scratching,  saith  ^^Aurelianus ;  touching,  or  smelling 
alone  sometimes  as  ^^Sckenkius  proves,  and  is  incident  to  many  other  creatures  as 
well  as  men :  so  called  because  the  parties  affected  cannot  endure  the  sight  of  water, 
or  any  liquor,  supposing  still  they  see  a  mad  dog  in  it.  And»which  is  more  wonder- 
ful ;  though  they  be  very  dry,  (as  in  this  malady  they  are)  tliey  will  rather  die  than 
drink  :  ^^Caelius  Aurelianus,  an  ancient  writer,  makes  a  doubt  whether  this  Hydro- 
phobia be  a  passion  of  the  body  or  the  mind.  The  part  affected  is  the  brain  :  the 
cause,  poison  that  comes  from  the  mad  dog,  which  is  so  hot  and  dry,  that  it  con- 
sumes all  the  moisture  in  the  body.  ^''Hildesheim  relates  of  some  that  died  so  mad  ; 
and  being  cut  up,  had  no  water,  scarce  blood,  or  any  moisture  left  in  them.  To 
such  as  are  so  aflected,  the  fear  of  water  begins  at  fourteen  days  after  they  are  bitten, 
to  some  again  not  till  forty  or  sixty  days  after :  commonly  saith  Heurnius,  they 
begin  to  rave,  fly  water  and  glasses,  to  look  red,  and  swell  in  the  face,  about  twenty 
days  after  (if  some  remedy  be  not  taken  in  the  meantime)  to  lie  awake,  to  be  pen- 
sive, sad,  to  see  strange  visions,  to  bark  and  howl,  to  fall  into  a  swoon,  and  often- 
times tits  of  the  falling  sickness.  ^"Some  say,  little  things  like  whelps  will  be  seen 
in  their  urine.  If  any  of  these  signs  appear,  they  are  past  recovery.  Many  times 
these  symptoms  will  not  appear  till  six  or  seven  months  after,  saith  ^^Codronchus ; 
and  sometimes  not  till  seven  or  eight  years,  as  Guianerius  ;  twelve  as  Albertus ;  six 
or  eiglit  months  after,  as  Gafen  holds.  Baldus  the  great  lawyer  died  of  it :  an  Au- 
gustine friar,  and  a  woman  in  Delft,  that  were  ^Torrestus  patients,  were  miserably 
consumed  with  it.  The  common  cure  in  the  country  (for  such  at  least  as  dwell 
near  the  sea-side)  is  to  duck  them  over  iiead  and  ears  in  sea  water  •,  some  use  charms  : 
every  good  wife  can  prescribe  medicines.  But  the  best  cure  to  be  had  in  such  cases, 
is  from  the  most  approved  physicians;  they  that  will  read  of  them,  may  consult 
with  Dioscorides,  lib.  6.  c.  37,  Heurnius,  Hildesheim,  Capivaccius,  Forrestus,  Scken- 
kius,  and  before  all  others  Codronchus  an  Italian,  who  hath  lately  written  two  ex- 
quisite books  on  the  subject. 

Chorus  sancti  Viti,  or  St.  Vitus'' s  dance  ;  the  lascivious  dance,  '°°  Paracelsus  calls  it, 
because  they  that  are  taken  from  it,  can  do  nothing  but  dance  till  they  be  dead,  or 
cured.  It  is  so  called,  for  that  the  parties  so  troubled  were  wont  to  go  to  St.  Vitus 
for  help,  and  after  they  had  danced  there  awhile,  they  were  'certainly  freed.  'Tis 
strange  to  hear  how  long  they  will  dance,  and  in  what  manner,  over  stools,  forms, 
tables ;  even  great  bellied  women  sometimes  (and  yet  never  hurt  their  children)  will 
dance  so  long  that  they  can  stir  neither  hand  nor  foot,  but  seem  to  be  quite  deaa. 
One  in  red  clothes  they  cannot  abide.  Music  above  all  things  they  love,  and  there- 
fore magistrates  in  Germany  will  hire  musicians  to  play  to  them,  and  some  lusty 
sturdy  companions  to  dance  with  them.     This  disease  hath  been  very  common  in 

*  Lib.  8.  cap.  22.  Homines  interdiim  liipos  feri;  el  13.  de  morbis  aculis.  "cgpicel.  2.  »' Sckenki'ie, 
con«ra.  >^Met.lih.  1.  ""  Cap.  de  Man.  >*' III- ,  7  lib.  de  Veiieni.s.  se  l^ji,.  de  Hydrophobia.  B»Cyb- 
eerata  «ruii,  silis  ipsis  adest  iriimodica,  pallidi,  lingua  I  serval.  lib.  10.25.  '""Lascivam  (  hoream.  To   4. 

sicca.  'ifJap.  9.  art.  Hydrophobia.  "''Lib   3.     de  iiiorhi..'  anienti\im.  Tract.  1.  •  Eventu  ut  D.u- 

'ap   9  »■'  Lih.  7.  de  \enenis.  "'•Lib.  3.  cap  |  rlinuni  rem  ipsam  coniprobante. 


Mem.  1.  Subs.  5.J 


Melancholy  in  Disposition. 


9.? 


Germai  y,  as  appears  by  those  relations  of  ^  Sckenkius,  and  Paracelsus  in  his  book 
of  Madness,  who  bra^s  how  many  several  persons  he  hath  cured  of  it.  Fchx 
Plateras  de  mentis  allenat.  cap.  3,  reports  of  a  woman  in  Basil  whom  he  saw,  thai 
ianced  a  whole  month  together.  The  Arabians  call  it  a  kind  of  palsy;  Bodine  in 
nis  5th  book  de  Repub.  cap.  1,  speaks  of  this  infirmity  ;  Monavius  in  his  last  epistU 
£o  Scoltizius,  and  in  another  to  Dudithus,  where  you  may  read  more  of  it. 

The  last  kind  of  madness  or  melancholy,  is  that  demonaical  (if  I  may  so  call  it) 
obsession  or  possession  of  devils,  which  Platerus  and  others  would  have  to  be  pre- 
rernatural :  stupend  things  are  said  of  them,  their  actions,  gestures,  contortions, 
lasting,  prophesying,  speaking  languages  they  were  never  taught,  &c.  Many  strange 
stories  are  related  of  them,  which  because  some  will  not  allow,  (for  Deacon  and 
Darrel  have  written  large  volumes  on  this  subject  pro  and  con.)  I  voluntarily  omit. 

^Fuschius,  Institut.  lib.  'S.  sec.  1.  cap.  11,  Felix  Plater,  " Laurentius,  add  to  these 
inother  fury  that  proceeds  from  love,  and  another  from  study,  another  divine  or  ry 
/igious  fury  ;  but  these  more  properly  belong  to  melancholy  •,  of  all  which  I  will 
speak  ^  apart,  intending  to  write  a  whole  book  of  them. 

SuBSECT.  V. — Melancholy  in  Disposition,  improperly  so  called.,  Equivocations. 

tbC^  Melancholy,  the  subject  of  our  present  discourse,  is  eithpr  in  disposition  or 
habit.  In  disposition,  is  that  transitory  melancholy  which  goes  and  comes  upon 
every  small  occasion  of  sorrow,  need,  sickness,  trouble,  fear,  grief,  passion,  or  per- 
turbation of  the  mind,  any  manner  of  care,  discontent,  or  thought,  which  causeth 
anguish,  dulness,  heaviness  and  vexation  of  spirit,  any  ways  opposite  to  pleasure, 
mirth,  joy,  delight,  causing  frowardness  in  us,  or  a  dislike.  In  which  equivocal  and 
improper  sense,  we  call  him  melancholy  that  is  dull,  sad,  sour,  lumpish,  ill  disposed, 
solitary,  any  way  moved,  or  displeased.  And  from  these  melancholy  dispositions, 
'  no  man  living  is  free,  no  stoic,  none  so  wise,  none  so  happy,  none  so  patient,  so 
generous,  so  godly,  so  divine,  that  can  vindicate  himself;  so  well  composed,  but 
more  or  less,  some  time  or  other  he  feels  the  smart  of  it.  Melancholy  in  this  sense 
is  the  character  of  mortality.  '"Man  that  is  born  of  a  woman,  is  of  short  con- 
tinuance, and  full  of  trouble."  Zeno,  Cato,  Socrates  himself,  whom  ^^lian  so  highly 
commends  for  a  moderate  temper,  that  "  nothing  could  disturb  him,  but  going  out, 
and  coming  in,  still  Socrates  kept  the  same  serenity  of  countenance,  what  misery 
soever  befel  him,"  (if  we  may  believe  Plato  his  disciple)  was  much  tormented  with 
it.  Q.  Metellus,  in  whom  ®  Valerius  gives  instance  of  all  happiness,  "  the  most  for- 
tunate man  then  living,  born  in  tliat  most  flourishing  city  of  Rome,  of  noble  parentage, 
a  proper  man  of  person,  well  qualified,  healthful,  rich,  honourable,  a  senator,  a  con- 
sul, happy  in  his  wife,  happy  in  his  children,"  Stc.  yet  this  man  was  not  void  of 
melancholy,  he  had  his  share  of  sorrow.  '"Polycrates  Samius,  that  flung  his  ring 
into  the  sea,  because  he  would  participate  of  discontent  with  others,  and  had  il 
miraculously  restored  to  him  again  shortly  after,  by  a  fish  taken  as  he  angled,  was 
not  free  from  melancholy  dispositions.  No  man  can  cure  himself;  the  very  gods 
had  bitter  pangs,  and  frequent  passions,  as  their  own  "poets  put  upon  them.  In 
general,  '^'\as  the  heaven,  so  is  our  life,  sometimes  fair,  sometimes  overcast,  tem- 
pestuous, and  serene;;  as  in  a  rose,  flowers  and  prickles;  in  the  year  itself,  a  tempe- 
rate summer  sometimes,  a  hard  winter,  a  drought,  and  then  again  pleasant  showers  : 
so  is  our  life  intermixed  with  joys,  hopes,  fears,  sorrows,  calumnies  :  Invicem  cedur^ 
dolor  et  voluptas,  there  is  a  succession  of  pleasure  and  pain. 

13 "  medio  de  foiite  lepfirum 

Siirgit  amari  aliquid,  in  ip^is  floribus  angat." 

'\^Even  ii\  the  midst  of  laughing  there  is  sorrow,"  (as  ^  Solomon  holds) :  even  in  the 


"Lib.  1.  v,ap.  de  Mania.  sCap.  3.  de  mentis 

alienat.  <  Cap.   4.   de  mel.  &  PART.  3. 

*  Ue  quo  homine  securitas,  de  quo  certum  gaiidlnm  ■? 
qtiocunqiie  se  convertit,  in  terrenis  rebus  amaritudi- 
nem  aniiiii  inveniel.  Aug.  in  Psal.  viii.  5.  '  Job.  i. 
14.  "Omni  tempore  Sorrateni  eodeni  vultu  videri, 

sive  domum  rediret,  sive  domo  egrederetur.  si.ib. 
7.  cap.  I.  Natus  in  florentissima  totius  orbis  civitate, 
nohilLssimis  parentibus,  corpores  vires  habuit  et  raris- 
kunas    animi    dotes,   uxorein  conspicuain,  pudicam, 


fa;lices  liberos,  consulare  decus,  sequentes  triiimphois, 
&c.  lOjElian.  .        "  Homer.  Iliad.  '^Lipsius, 

cent.  3.  ep.  45,  ut  cesium,  sic  nos  boin'nes  sumus  :  illud 
ex  intervallo  nubibus  obducitur  et  nbscuratur  In 
rosario  flores  spinis  intfrtnixti.  Vita  similis  aeri, 
udum  modo,  suduni,  tempestas,  serenitas :  ita  vices 
rerum  sunt,  prffmia  gaudiis,  et  sequaces  curie.  i3  Lu- 
cretius, 1.  4.  1124.  "Prov.  xiv.  13.  Extremua 
gaudii  luctas  occiipat. 


94  Melancholy  in  Disposaion.  I^Part.  1 .  Sec.  1 

midst  of  all  our  feasting  and  jollity,  as  '^Austin  infers  in  his  Com  on  the  41st  Psalm, 
there  is  grief  and  discontent.  Inter  dcUcias  semper  aUquid  scevi  nos  strangtdat,  for 
a  pint  of  honey  thou  shalt  here  likely  find  a  gallon  of  gall,  for  a  dram  of  pleasure  a 
pound  of  pain,  for  an  inch  of  mirth  an  ell  of  moan ;  as  ivy  doth  an  oak,  these  mise- 
ries encompass  our  life.  '  And  it  is  most  absurd  and  ridiculous  for  any  mortal  man 
to  look  for  a  perpetual  tenure  of  happiness  in  his  life.\  Nothing  so  prosperous  and 
pleasant,  but  it  hath  '*  some  bitterness  in  it,  some  complaining,  some  grudging ;  it  is 
all  yXxixvTtLxpov,  a  mixed  passion,  and  like  a  chequer  table  black  and  white  :  men,  fami- 
lies, cities,  have  their  falls  and  wanes ;  now  trines,  sextiles,  then  quartiles  and  oppo- 
sitions. We  are  not  here  as  those  angels,  celestial  powers  and  bodies,  sun  and  moon, 
to  finish  our  course  without  all  offence,  with  such  constancy,  to  continue  for  so  many 
ages  :\  but  subject  to  infirmities,  miseries,  interrupted,  tossed  and  tumbled  up  and 
down,  carried  about  with  every  small  blast,  often  molested  and  disquieted  upon  each 
slender  occasion,  "  uncertain,  brittle,  and  so  is  all  that  we  trust  unto.  '*"  And  he 
that  knows  not  this  is  not  armed  to  endure  it,  is  not  fit  to  live  in  this  world  (as  one 
condoles  our  time),  he  knows  not  the  condition  of  it,  where  with  a  reciprocalty, 
pleasure  and  pain  are  still  united,  and  succeed  one  another  in  a  ring.*'  Exi  e  mundo, 
get  thee  gone  hence  if  thou  canst  not  brook  it;  there  is  no  way  to  avoid  it,  but  to 
arm  thyself  with  patience,  with  magnanimit^y,  to  '^oppose  thyself  unto  it,  to  suffer 
aflliclion  as  a  good  soldier  of  Christ ;  as  '^°  Paul  adviseth  constantly  to  bear  it.  But 
forasmuch  as  so  few  can  embrace  this  good  council  of  his,  or  use  it  aright,  but 
rathei  as  so  many  brute  beasts  give  away  to  their  passion,  voluntary  subject  and 
precipitate  themselves  iuto  a  labyrinth  of  cares,  woes,  miseries,  and  suffer  their  souls 
to  be  overcome  by  them,  cannot  arm  themselves  with  that  patience  as  they  ought  to 
do,  ii  falleth  out  oftentimes  that  these  dispositions  become  habits,  and  "  many  affects 
contemned  (as  ^'Seneca  notes)  make  a  disease.  Even  as  one  distillation,  not  yet 
grown  to  custom,  makes  a  cough ;  but  continual  and  inveterate  causeth  a  consump- 
tion of  the  lungs;"  so  do  these  our  melancholy  provocations :  and  according .^s  thn 
humour  itself  is  intended,  or  remitted  in  men,  as  their  temperature  of  body,  or  ra- 
tion.^! soul  is  better  able  to  make  resistance ;  so  are  they  more  or  less  affected.  [For 
lliat  which  is  but  a  ffea-biting  to  one,  causeth  insufferable  torment  to  another);  and 
whiM  one  by  his  singular  moderation,  and  well-composed  carriage  can  happily  over- 
come, a  second  is  no  whit  able  to  sustain,  but  upon  every  small  occasion  of  miscon- 
ceived abuse,  injury,  grief,  disgrace,  loss,  cross,  humour,  &c.  (if  solitary,  or  idle) 
yiei  is  so  far  to  passion,  that  his  complexion  is  altered,  his  digestion  hindered,  his 
sleeo  gone,  his  spirits  obscured,  and  his  heart  heavy,  his  hypochondries  misaffected  ; 
win  d,  crudity,  on  a  sudden  overtake  him,  and  he  himself  overcome  with  melancholy. 
As  It  is  witli  a  man  imprisoned  for  debt,  if  once  in  the  gaol,  every  creditor  will 
bring  his  action  against  him,  and  there  likely  hold  him.  If  any  discontent  seize 
upon  a  patient,  in  an  instant  all  other  perturbations  (for — qua  data  porta  ruunt)  will 
set  upon  him,  and  then  like  a  lame  dog  or  broken-winged  goose  he  droops  and  pines 
aW'iy,  and  is  brought  at  last  to  that  ill  habit  or  malady  of  melancholy  itself.  So  that 
as  the  philosophers  make  ^^  eight  degrees  of  heat  and  cold,  we  may  make  eiglity- 
eight  of  melancholy,  as  the  parts  affected  are  diversely  seized  with  it,  or  have  been 
plunged  more  or  less  into  this  infernal  gulf,  or  waded  deeper  into  it.  But  all  these 
mdancholy  fits,  howsoever  pleasing  at  first,  or  displeasing,  violent  and  tyrannizing 
over  those  whom  they  seize  on  for  the  time;  yet  these  fits  I  say,  or  men  affected, 
are  but  improperly  so  called,  because  they  continue  not,  but  come  and  go,  as  by 
some  objects  tliey  are  moved.  This  melancholy  of  which  we  are  to  treat,  is  a  habit, 
mosbus  sonticus,  or  chronicus,  a  chronic  or  continuate  disease,  a  settled  humour,  as 


isNatalitia  inqiiit  celebrantnr,  niipliae  hie  sunt ;  at    deslitiitris  in  prnfundn  iniseriarum  valle  miserabiliter 
ibi  quid  celebratiir  quod  iion  dolet.  qiKid  non  transit  i    iminerguiit.      Valerius,  lib.   6.  cap.   11.  's  Huic 

'8  Apuleius  4.  florid.     Nihil  quicqiiid  hoiiiini  !am  pros-  ,  seculo  parum  aptus  es,  ant  potius  omnium  nostrorum 
perum  divinitus  datuin,  quiii  ei  admixtiim  sit  aliqnid  1  conriitionem  ignoras,  quibus  reciproco  quodani  nexu. 


difficultatis  ut  eliam  atnplissima  quaqua  Istitid,  subsit 
quiP[)iani  vel  parva  querimonia  conjusatione  quadaui 
mellis,  et  ftellis.  "  Caduca  nimirum  et  frngilia,  et 

puerilihiis  ronsentanea  crepnndiis  sunt  ista  qure  vires 
et  opes  huinanse  vncantur,  affluunt  snbilb,  repente  de- 
Inbuiitur,  nullo  in  loco,  nulla  in  persona,  Ptaliilil)ns 
nixa  radicibus  consistunt,  sed  incertissimo  flalu  for- 
uns  quos  in  sublime  exlulerunt  nnproviso  recursu 


&c.  Lorchanus  Gollobelsicus,  lib.  3.  ad  annum  1598. 
"Horsum  omnia  studia  diriui  debent>  ut  humana  for- 
tiler  feramus.  '-0  2  Tim.  ii.  3.  J' Epist.  96.  lib.  10. 
AfFeclus  frequentes  contemptiqiie  morbuni  faciunt, 
Uistillatio  una  ner,  adtiuc  in  morem  adaucta,  lussin. 
facit,  assidna  et  violenta  pihisim.  ^-  Calidum  ad 

octo :  frigidum  ad  octo.  Una  hirundo  non  facit 
cestatem. 


Mem.  2.  Subs.  2.]  Digression  of  Anatomy.  95 

"Aurelianiis  and  ^*  others  call  it,  not  errant,  but  fixed ;  and  as  it  was  long  increasing 
ISO  now  being  (pleasant,  or  painful)  grown  to  an  habit,  it  will  hardly  be  removed. 


SECT.  I.    MEMB.  II. 

Sub  SECT.  I. — Digression  of  Anatomy. 


Before  I  proceed  to  define  the  disease  of  melancholy,  what  it  is,  or  to  discourse 
farthc  of  It,  I  hold  it  not  impertinent  to  make  a  brief  digression  of  the  anatomy  of 
the  body  and  faculties  of  the  soul,  for  the  better  understanding  of  that  which  is  to 
follow ;  because  many  hard  words  will  often  occur,  as  myrache,  hypocondries, 
emrods,  &c.,  imagination,  reason,  humours,  spirits,  vital,  natural,  animal,  nerves, 
veins,  arteries,  chylus,  pituita;  which  by  the  vulgar  will  not  so  easily  be  perceived, 
what  they  are,  how  cited,  and  to  what  end  they  serve.  And  besides,  it  may  perad- 
venture  give  occasion  to  some  men  to  examine  more  accurately,  search  further  into 
this  most  excellent  subject,  and  thereupon  with  that  royal  ^^ prophet  to  praise  God, 
("  for  a  man  is  fearfully  and  wonderfully  made,  and  curiously  wrought")  that  have 
time  and  leisure  enough,  and  are  sufliciently  informed  in  all  other  worldly  businesses, 
as  to  make  a  good  bargain,  buy  and  sell,  to  keep  and  make  choice  of  a  fair  hawk, 
hound,  horse,  &c.  But  for  such  matters  as  concern  the  knowledge  of  themselves, 
they  are  wholly  ignorant  and  careless ;  they  know  not  what  tliis  body  and  soul  are, 
how  combined,  of  what  parts  and  faculties  they  consist,  or  how  a  man  difiers  from  a 
dog.  'And  what  can  be  more  ignominious  and  filthy  (as  ^'^Melancthon  well  inveighs) 
'•'  tlian  for  a  man  not  to  know  the  structure  and  composition  of  his  own  body,  espe- 
cially since  the  knowledge  of  it^tends  so  much  to  the  preservation  of  his  health,  and 
information  of  his  manners  ?"'' To  stir  them  up  therefore  to  this  study,  to  peruse 
those  elaborate  works  of  "^' Galen,  Bauhines,  Plater,  Vesalius,  Falopius,  Laurentius, 
Remelinus,  Stc,  which  have  written  copiously  in  Latin;  or  that  which  some  of  our 
industrious  countrymen  have  done  in  our  mother  tongue,  not  long  since,  as  that 
translation  of  ^** Columbus  and  ^^Microcosmograjihia,  in  thirteen  books,  I  have  made 
this  brief  digression.  Also  because  ^"Wecker,  "QVIelancthon,  "'Fernelius,  ^^Fuschius, 
and  those  tedirms  Tracts  cle  Animct  (which  have  more  compendiously  liandled  and 
written  of  this  matter,)  are  not  at  all  times  ready  to  be  had,  to  give  them  some  small 
taste,  or  notice  of  the  rest,  let  this  epitome  suffice. 

SuBSECT.  II. — Division  of  the  Body,  Humours,  Spirits. 

Of  the  pans  of  the  body  there  may  be  many  divisions :  the  most  approved  is  that 
of  ^*  Laurentius,  out  of  Hippocrates :  which  is,  into  parts  contained,  or  containing. 
Contained,  are  either  humours  or  spirits. 

Hiunonrs.]  A  humour  is  a  liquid  or  fluent  part  of  the  body,  comprehended  m 
it,  for  the  preservation  of  it ;  and  is  either  innate  or  born  with  us,  or  adventitious 
and  acquisite.  The  radical  or  innate,  is  daily  supplied  by  nourishment,  which 
some  call  cambium,  and  make  those  secondary  humours  of  ros  and  gluten  to  main- 
tain it :  or  acquisite,  to  maintain  these  four  first  primary  humours,  coming  and  pro- 
ceeding from  the  first  concoction  in  the  liver,  by  whioh  means  chylus  is  excluded. 
Some  cuvide  them  into  profitable  and  excrementitious.  But  ^^Crato  out  of  Hippo- 
crates will  have  all  four  to  be  juice,  and  not  excrements,  Avithout  which  no  living 
creature  can  be  sustained  :  which  four,  though  they  be  comprehended  in  the  mass 
of  blood,  yet  they  have  their  several  affections,  by  which  they  are  distinguished 
fi  om  one  another,  and  from  those  adventitious,  peccant,  or  ^^  diseased  humours,  a« 
iilelancihon  calls  them. 

Blood.]  Blood  is  a  hot,  sweet,  temperate,  red  humour,  prepared  in  the  miseraic 
veins,  and  made  of  the  most  temperate  parts  of  the  chylus  in  the  liver,  whose  offi»;e 

i^Lib.  1.  c.  6.  2<Fuschius,  «.  3.  sec.  1.  cap.  7.  1  usu  part.  ^History  of  man.  s^D.  Cioofce. 

Hildesheirn,  fol.  130.  '^Psal.  xxxix.  13.  -''De  h" In  Syntax!.  ^' De  Aninia.  s^instit.  lib.  1. 

Anima.  Tiirpe  enim  est  honiini  ifrnnrare  sui  corporis     33  physiol.  I.  1,2.  a-tAnat.  1.  1.  c.  18.  3^  In 

(ut   ta  dicaiii)  Eedificiiiin,  prsesertim  cum  ad  valeiudi-  |  Micro,  succos,  sine  quibus  animal  sustenlari  non  pc 
kern  et  mores  bKccugnitio  plurimum  conducat.      ^  l)e  |  test.  ^u  ]^Iorboso3  humored. 


90  Similar  Parts.  ^Part.  i.  Sec. 

IS  to  nourish  the  whole  body,  to  give  it  strength  and  colour,  being  dispersed  by  the 
veins  through  every  part  of  it.  And  from  it  spirits  are  first  begotten  in  the  heart, 
wriich  afterwards  by  the  arteries  are  communirated  to  the  other  parts. 

Pituita,  or  phlegm,  is  a  cold  and  moist  humour,  beguuen  of  the  colder  part  ol 
the  chylus  (or  white  juice  coming  out  of  the  meat  digested  in  the  stomach,)  in  the 
liver;  his  office  is  to  nourish  and  moisten  the  members  of  the  body,  which  as  the 
tongue  are  moved,  that  they  be  not  over  dry. 

Choler,  is  hot  and  dry,  bitter,  begotten  of  the  hotter  parts  of  the  chylus,  and 
gathered  to  the  gall :  it  helps  the  natural  heat  and  senses,  and  serves  to  the  expelling 
of  excrenicnts. 

Melancholy.]  Melancholy,  cold  and  dry,  thick,  black,  and  sour,  begotten  of  the 
^lore  feculent  part  of  nourisliment,  and  purged  from  the  spleen,  is  a  bridle  to  the 
other  two  hot  humours,  blood  and  choler,  preserving  them  in  the  blood,  and  nourish- 
ing the  bones.  These  four  humours  have  some  analogy  with  the  four  elements,  and 
to  the  four  ages  in  man. 

SeniM^i  Siveaf,  Tears.]  To  these  humours  you  may  add  serum,  which  is  the 
matter  of  urine,  and  those  excrementitious  humours  of  the  third  concoction,  sweat 
and  tears. 

Spirits.]  Spirit  is  a  most  subtile  lapeur,  which  is  expressed  from  the  blood,  and 
the  instrument  of  the  soul,  to  peri-Ji-m  all  his  actions ;  a  common  tie  or  medium 
between  the  body  and  the  soul,  as  some  will  have  it ;  or  as  ^'  Paracelsus,  a  fourth 
soul  of  itself.  Melancthon  holds  the  fountain  of  those  spirits  to  be  the  heart,  be- 
gotten there ;  and  afterward  conveyed  to  tlie  brain,  they  take  another  nature  to 
them.  Of  these  spirits  there  be  three  kinds,  according  to  the  three  principal  parts, 
brain,  heart,  liver ;  natural,  vital,  animal.  The  natural  are  begotten  in  the  liver,  and 
thence  dispersed  through  the  veins,  to  perform  those  natural  actions.  The  vital 
spirits  are  made  in  the  heart  of  the  natural,  which  by  the  arteries  are  transported  to 
all  the  other  parts :  if  the  spirits  cease,  then  life  ceaseth,  as  in  a  syncope  or  swoon- 
ing. The  animal  spirits  formed  of  the  vital,  brought  up  to  the  brain,  and  diflused  by 
the  nerves,  to  the  subordinate  members,  give  sense  and  motion  to  them  all. 

Sub  SECT.  III. — Similar  Parts. 

Similar  Parts.]  Containing  parts,  by  reason  of  their  more  solid  substance,  are 
either  homogeneal  or  heterogeneal,  similar  oi  dissimilar;  so  Aristotle  divides  them, 
lib.  1,  cap.  1,  de  Hist.  Jlnimdl. ;  Laurcntius.,  cap.  20,  lib.  1.  Similar,  or  homogeneal, 
are  such  as,  if  they  be  divided,  are  still  severed  into  parts  of  the  same  nature,  as 
water  into  water.  Of  these  some  be  spermatical,  some  fleshy  or  carnal.  ^^  Spermati- 
cal  are  such  as  are  immediately  begotten  of  the  seed,  which  are  bones,  gristles,  liga- 
ments, membranes,  nerves,  arteries,  veins,  skins,  fibres  or  strings,  fat. 

Bones.]  The  bones  are  dry  and  hard,  begotten  of  the  thickest  of  the  seed,  to 
strengthen  and  sustain  other  parts:  some  say  there  be  304,  some  307,  or  313  in 
man's  body.     They  have  no  nerves  in  them,  and  are  therefore  without  sense. 

A  gristle  is  a  substance  softer  than  bone,  and  harder  than  the  rest,  flexible,  and 
serves  to  maintain  the  parts  of  motion. 

Ligaments  are  they  that  tie  the  bones  together,  and  other  parts  to  the  bones,  with 
their  subserving  tendons :  membranes'  ofiice  is  to  cover  the  rest. 

Nerves,  or  sinews,  are  membranes  without,  and  full  of  marrow  within ;  they  pro- 
ceed from  the  brain,  and  carry  the  animal  spirits  for  sense  and  motion.  Of  these 
some  be  liarder,  some  softer;  the  softer  serve  the  senses,  and  there  be  seven  pair  of 
'.hem.  The  first  be  the  optic  nerves,  by  which  we  see ;  the  second  move  the  eyes ; 
ihe  third  pair  serve  for  the  tongue  to  taste ;  the  fourth  pair  for  the  taste  in  the 
[^'ate ;  the  fifth  belong  to  the  ears ;  the  sixth  pair  is  most  ample,  and  runs  almost 
over  cl\  the  bowels ;  the  seventh  pair  moves  the  tongue.  The  harder  sinews  serve 
for  the  motion  of  the  inner  parts,  proceeding  from  the  marrow  in  the  back,  of  whom 
there  be  thirty  combinations,  seven  of  the  neck,  twelve  of  the  breast,  &.c. 
-f-\Mrleries.]  Arteries  are  long  and  hollow,  with  a  double  skin  to  convey  the  vital 
spirit ;  to  discern  which  the  better,  they  say  that  Vesalius  the  anatomist  was  wont 

S'Spirilalis  anima.  ^Laurentius,  cap.  30,  lib.  1-  Anat. 


Mem  2.  Subs.  4.]  Dissimilar  Parts.  97 

lo  cut  up  men  alive.  '^They  arise  in  the  left  side  of  the  heart,  and  are  princr  <Jly 
two,  from  which  the  rest  are  derived,  aorta  and  venosa :  aorta  is  the  root  of  &►>-  the 
other,  which  serve  the  whole  body  ;  the  other  goes  to  the  lungs,  to  fetch  ••r  to 
refrigerate  the  heart. 

Veins.]  Veins  are  hollow  and  round,  like  pipes,  arising  from  the  liver,  cam'ing 
blood  and  natural  spirits  ;  they  feed  all  the  parts.  Of  tliese  there  be  two  chief,  ^ena 
porta  and  Vena  coffl,  from  which  the  rest  are  corrivated.  That  Vena  porta  is  a  vRm 
coming  from  the  concave  of  the  liver,  and  receiving  those  meseraical  veins,  by  WMom 
he  takes  the  chylus  from  the  stomach  and  guts,  and  conveys  it  lo  the  liver,  i'he 
other  derives  blood  from  the  liver  to  nourish  all  the  other  dispersed  members,  f'^ie 
branches  of  that  Vena  porta  are  the  meseraical  and  liaemorrhoides.  The  branches 
of  the  cava  are  inward  or  outward.  Inward,  seminal  or  emulgent.  Outward,  in  the 
head,  arms,  feet,  Sec,  and  have  several  names. 

Fibrcp,  Fat,  Flesh.]  Fibrre  are  strings,  white  and  solid,  dispersed  through  "hi; 
whole  member,  and  right,  oblique,  transverse,  all  which  have  their  several  v  ps. 
Fat  is  a  similar  part,  moist,  without  blood,  composed  of  the  most  thick  and  v»  'c- 
tious  matter  of  the  b'ood.  The  ^°skiu  covers  the  rest,  and  hath  cMlicuhim,  or  ah  'Ift 
skin  under  it.     Flesh  is  soft  and  ruddy,  composed  of  the  congealing  of  blood,  &.( 

SuBSECT.  IV. — Dissimilar  Parts. 

Dissimilar  parts  are  those  which  we  call  organical,  or  instrumental,  and  they  be 
inward  or  outward.  Tiie  chiefest  outv/ard  parts  are  situate  forward  or  backward  — 
fi  fward,  the  crown  and  foretop  of  the  head,  skull,  face,  foreliead,  temples,  chin,  eyes, 
ears,  nose,  &c.,  neck,  breast,  chest,  upper  and  lower  part  of  the  belly,  hypocondries. 
navel,  groin,  flan'k,  &c. ;  backward,  the  hinder  part  of  the  head,  back,  shoulders,  sides, 
loins,  hipbones,  os  sacrum.,  buttocks,  &c.  Or  joints,  arms,  hands,  feet,  legs,  thighs, 
knees,  &c.  Or  common  to  both,  which,  because  they  are  obvious  and  well  known, 
I  have  carelessly  repeated,  eaque  prcecipua  el  grandiora  tantiim  ;  quod  reliquum  ex 
Hhris  de  anima  qui  volet,  accipiat. 

Inward  organical  parts,  which  cannot  be  seen,  are  divers  in  number,  and  have 
several  names,  functions,  and  divisions;  but  that  of '*'Laurentius  is  most  notable,  into 
noble  or  ignoble  parts.  Of  tlie  noble  there  be  three  principal  parts,  to  which  all  the 
rest  belong,  and  whom  they  serve — brain,  heart,  liver  ;  according  to  whose  site,  three 
regions,  or  a  threefold  division,  is  made  of  the  whole  body.  As  first  of  the  head,  in 
wliich  the  animal  organs  are  contained,  and  brain  itself,  which  by  his  nerves  give 
sense  and  motion  to  the  rest,  and  is,  as  it  were,  a  privy  counsellor  and  chancellor 
to  the  heart.  The  second  region  is  the  chest,  or  middle  belly,  in  which  the  heart 
as  king  keeps  his  court,  and  by  his  arteries  communicates  life  lo  the  whole  body. 
The  third  region  is  the  lower  belly,  in  which  the  liver  resides  as  a  Legat  a  latere., 
with  the  rest  of  those  natural  organs,  serving  for  concoction,  nourishment,  expelUng 
of  excrements.  This  lower  region  is  distinguished  from  the  upper  by  the  midriff,  or 
diaphragma,  and  is  subdivided  again  by  ""^some  into  three  concavities  or  regions, 
upper,  middle,  and  lower.  The  upper  of  the  hypocondries,  in  whose  right  side  is 
the  liver,  the  left  the  spleen ;  from  which  is  denominated  hypochondriacal  melan- 
choly. The  second  of  the  navel  and  flanks,  divided  from  the  first  by  the  rim.  The 
last  of  the  water  course,  which  is  again  subdivided  into  three  other  parts.  The  Ara- 
bians inake  two  parts  of  this  region.  Epigastrium  and  'Hi/pogastriu?n,  upper  or  lower 
Epigastrium  they  call  Miracli,  from  whence  comes  Mirachialis  Melancholia,  some- 
times mentioned  of  them.  Of  these  several  regions  I  Avill  treat  in  brief  apart ;  and 
first  of  the  third  region,  in  which  tlie  natural  organs  are  contained. 

De  Jinima. —  The  Loioer  Region,  JYalural  Organs.]     But  you  that  are  readers  in - 
tie  meantime,  "Suppose  you  were  now  brought  into  some  sacred  temple,  or  majes-  ^ 
tical  palace  (as  "^  Melancthon  saith),  to  behold  not  the  matter  only,  but  the  singular 
art,  workmanship,  and  counsel  of  this  our  great  Creator.     And  it  is  a  pleasant  and 
profitable  speculation,  if  it  be  considered  aright.''     The  parts  of  this  region,  which 


™  In  tliesi!  they  observe  the  beating  of  the  puUe. 
"oCiijiis  est  pars  sininlaris  a  vi  cutifica  iit  inlenora 
niuniat.   Capivac.    Anat.  pag.  252.  ■"  Anat.  lib.  1. 

«•    19.     Celebris  est  et  pervulgata  partiiim  divisio  in 

13  I 


principes  et  ijrnohjles  partes.  <-  D.  Crool<e  out  .if 

Galen  and  others.  43  Vos  vero  velnti  in  laninli'"< 

ac  sacrariiini  qiioddani  vos  dtici  puteiis,  Hcc-     Miivik 
et  ulilis  cognilio. 


ys  Anatomy  of  the  Body  [Part.  1 .  Sec.  I 

present  tlumselvo'S  to  your  consideration  and  view,  are  such  as  serve  to  nutrition  or 
generation.  Those  of  nutrition  serve  to  the  first  or  second  concoction ;  as  the 
oesophagus  or  gullet,  which  brings  meat  and  drink  into  the  stomach.  The  ventri- 
cle or  stomach,  which  is  seated  in  the  midst  of  that  par^  of  the  belly  beneath  vhe 
midriff,  tJie  kitchen,  as  it  were,  of  the  first  concoction,  and  which  turns  our  me..it 
into  chylus.  It  hath  two  mouths,  one  above,  another  beneath.  Tlie  upper  is  some- 
times taken  for  the  stomach  itself;  the  lower  and  nether  door  (as  Wecker  calls  it)  is 
named  Pylorus.  This  stomach  is  sustained  by  a  large  kell  or  kaull,  called  omentum  ; 
which  some  will  have  the  same  with  peritoneum,  or  rim  of  the  belly.  From  the 
stomach  to  the  very  fundament  are  produced  the  guts,  or  intestina,  which  serve  a  little 
to  alter  and  distribute  tlie  chylus,  and  convey  away  the  excrements.  They  are  di- 
vided into  small  and  great,  by  reason  of  their  site  and  substance,  slender  or  thicker  : 
the  slender  is  duodenum,  or  whole  gut,  which  is  next  to  the  stomach,  some  twelve 
inches  long,  saith  '"Fuschius.  Jejunum,  or  empty  gut,  continuate  to  the  other,  which 
hath  many  meseraic  veins  annexed  to  it,  which  take  part  of  the  chylus  to  the  liver 
from  it.  llion  the  third,  which  consists  of  many  crinkles,  which  serves  with  the  rest 
■to  receive,  keep,  and  distribute  the  chylus  from  the  stomach.  The  thick  guts  are 
three,  the  blind  gut,  colon,  and  right  gut.  The  blind  is  a  thick  and  short  gut,  having 
one  mouth,  in  which  the  ilion  and  colon  meet :  it  receives  the  excrements,  and  con- 
veys them  to  the  colon.  This  colon  hath  many  windings,  that  tlie  excrements  pass 
not  away  too  fast :  the  right  gut  is  straight,  and  conveys  the  excrements  to  the  funda- 
ment, whose  lower  part  is  bound  up  witli  certain  muscles  called  sphioctcs,  that  the 
vexcrements  mav  be  the  better  contained,  until  such  time  as  a  man  be  willing  to  go  to 
the  stool.  In  tlie  midst  of  these  guts  is  situated  the  mesenterium  or  midriff",  composed 
■of  many  veins,  arteries,  and  much  fat,  serving  chiefly  to  sustain  the  guts.  All  these 
parts  serve  the  first  concoction.  To  the  second,  which  is  busied  either  in  refining  the 
good  nourishment  or  expelling  the  bad,  is  chiefly  belonging  the  liver,  like  in  colour 
to  congealed  blood,  the  shop  of  blood,  situate  in  the  right  hypercondry,  in  figure 
like  to  a  half-moon — Gcnerosum  memhriim  Melancthon  styles  it,  a  generous  part.;  it 
sen'es  to  turn  the  chylus  to  blood,  for  the  nourishment  of  the  body.  The  excre- 
ments of  it  are  either  choleric  or  watery,  which  the  other  subordinate  parts  convey. 
The  gall  placed  in  the  concave  of  the  liver,  extracts  clioler  to  it :  the  spleen,  melan- 
choly ;  which  is  situate  on  the  left  side,  over  against  the  liver,  a  spungy  matter,  that 
draws  this  black  choler  to  it  by  a  secret  virtue,  and  feeds  upon  it,  conveying  the 
test  to  the  bottom  of  the  stomach,  to  stir  up  appetite,  or  else  to  the  guts  as  an  ex- 
cremenL  That  watery  matter  the  two  kidneys  expurgate  by  those  emulgent  veins 
and  ureters.  The  emulgent  draw  this  superfluous  moisture  from  the  blood;  the  two 
ureters  convey  it  to  the  bladder,  which,  by  reason  of  his  site  in  the  lower  belly,  is 
apt  to  receive  it,  having  two  parts,  neck  and  bottom  :  the  bottom  holds  the  water, 
the  neck  is  constringed  with  a  muscle,  which,  as  a  porter,  keeps  the  water  from  run- 
ning out  against  our  will. 

Members  of  generation  are  common  to  both  sexes,  or  peculiar  to  one ;  which, 
because  they  are  impertinent  to  my  purpose,  I  do  voluntarily  omit. 

Middle  Region.]  Next  in  order  is  the  middle  region,  or  chest,  which  compre- 
hends tlie  vital  faculties  and  parts ;  which  (as  I  have  said)  is  separated  from  the 
lower  belly  by  the  diaphragma  or  inidrifl",  which  is  a  skin  consisting  of  many  nerves, 
membranes  ;  ami  amongst  other  uses  it  hath,  is  the  instrument  of  laughing.  There  is 
also  a  certain  thin  membrane,  full  of  sinews,  which  covereth  the  whole  chest  within, 
and  is  called  pleura,  the  seat  of  the  disease  called  pleurisy,  when  it  is  inflamed  ;  some 
add  a  third  skin,  which  is  termed  Mediaslinus,  which  divides  the  chest  into  two 
parts,  right  and  left;  of  this  region  the  principal  part  is  the  heart,  which  is  the  seat 
and  fountain  of  life,  of  heat,  of  spirits,  of  pulse  and  respiration — the  sun  of  our 
body,  the  king  and  sole  commander  of  it — the  seat  and  organ  of  all  passions  and 
affections.  Primnm  vivcns,  ullimum  moricns,  it  lives  first,  dies  last  in  all  creatures- 
Of  a  pyramidical  form,  and  not  much  unlike  to  a  pine-apple;  a  part  worthy  of  ^*ad- 
miration,  thai  can  yield  such  variety  of  aftections,  by  whose  motion  it  is  dilated  or 
coiUracted,  to  stir  and  command  the  humours  in  the  body.     As  in  sorrow,  melan- 

■i-i  J.ili.  1.  c.ip.  !?.  s«ct.  5.  ■"■■  HiPC  res  est  pripci-  I  cieliir  cor,  quod  oiiiiics  retristes  et  lajte  etatim  cord? 

tutdigua.  admiri '.ioue,  quod  tanta  affectutii-'  -^rietate  I  I'eriinl  et  movent 


Vlern.  2.  Subs.  5.]  Anatomy  of  the  Soul.  99 

choly  ;  in  anger,  choler ;  in  joy,  to  send  the  blood  outwardly  ;  in  sorfw,  t(»  call  it 
m ;  moving  the  humours,  as  horses  do  a  chariot.  This  heart,  though  it  be  one  sole 
aiember,  yet  it  may  be  divided  into  two  creeks  right  and  left.  The  right  is  like  the 
.noon  increasing,  bigger  than  the  other  part,  and  receives  blood  from  Vc-n,a  cava., 
distributing  some  of  it  to  the  lungs  to  nourish  them ;  the  rest  to  the  left  side,  to 
engender  spirits.  The  left  creek  hath  the  form  of  a  cone,  and  is  the  seat  of  life, 
which,  as  a  torch  doth  oil,  draws  blood  unto  it,  begetting  of  it  spirits  and  fire ;  and 
as  fire  in  a  torch,  so  are  spirits  in  the  blood  ;  and  by  that  great  artery  called  aorta,  it 
sends  vital  spirits  over  the  body,  and  takes  air  from  the  lungs  by  that  artery  which 
is  called  venosa ;  so  that  both  creeks  have  their  vessels,  the  right  two  veins,  the  left 
two  arteries,  besides  those  two  common  and  fractuous  ears,  which  serve  them  both ; 
the  one  to  hold  blood,  the  other  air,  for  several  uses.  The  lungs  is  a  thin  spungy 
part,  like  an  ox  hoof,  (saith  ''Ternelius)  the  town-clerk  or  crier,  ('"one  terms  it)  the 
instrument  of  voice,  as  an  orator  to  a  king;  annexed  to  the  heart,  to  express  their 
thoughts  by  voice.  That  it  is  the  instrument  of  voice,  is  manifest,  in  that  no  crea- 
ture can  speak,  or  utter  any  voice,  which  wanteth  these  lights.  It  is,  besides,  the 
instrument  of  respiration,  or  breathing;  and  its  office  is  to  cool  the  heart,  by  sending 
air  unto  it,  by  the  venosal  artery,  which  vem  comes  to  the  lungs  by  tliat  aspcrn 
arteria.,  which  consists  of  many  gristles,  membranes,  nerves,  taking  in  air  at  the 
nose  and  mouth,  and  by  it  likewise  exhales  the  fumes  of  the  heart. 

In  the  upper  region  serving  the  animal  faculties,  the  chief  organ  is  the  brain,  whicfi 
is  a  soft,  marrowish,  and  white  substance,  eng&adered  of  the  purest  part  of  seed  and 
spirits,  included  by  many  skins,  and  seated  witliin  the  skull  or  brain  pan ;  and  it  is 
the  most  noble  organ  under  heaven,  the  dwelling-house  and  seat  of  the  soul,  the 
habitation  of  wisdom,  memory,  judgment,  reason,  and  in  which  man  is  most  like 
unto  God  •,  and  therefore  nature  hath  covered  it  with  a  skull  of  hard  bone,  and  two 
skins  or  msmbraaes,  whereof  the  one  is  called  dura  mater,  or  meninx,  the  other  ;jm 
mater.  The  dura  mater  is  next  to  the  skull,  above  the  other,  which  includes  and 
protects  the  brain.  When  this  is  taken  away,  the  pia  mater  is  to  be  seen,  a  thin 
membrane,  the  next  and  immediate  cover  of  the  brain,  and  not  covering  only,  but 
entering  into  it.  The  brain  itself  is  divided  into  two  parts,  the  fore  and  hinder  part; 
the  fore  part  is  much  bigger  than  the  other,  which  is  called  the  little  brain  in  respect 
of  it.  This  fore  part  hath  many  concavities  distinguished  by  certain  ventricles, 
which  are  the  receptacles  of  the  spirits,  brought  hither  by  the  arteries  from  the 
heart,  and  are  there  refined  to  a  more  heavenly  nature,  to  perform  the  actions  of  the 
soul.  Of  these  ventricles  there  are  three — right,  left,  and  middle.  The  right  and 
left  answer  to  their  site,  and  beget  animal  spirits ;  if  they  be  any  way  hurt,  sense 
and  motion  ceaseth.  These  ventricles,  moreover,  are  held  to  be  the  seat  of  the 
common  sense.  The  middle  ventricle  is  a  common  concourse  and  cavity  of  them 
both,  and  hath  two  pas  -iges — 'the  one  to  receive  pituita,  and  the  other  extends  itself 
to  the  fourth  creek ;  in  this  they  place  imagination  and  cogitation,  and  so  the  three 
ventricles  of  the  fore  part  of  the  brain  are  used.  The  fourth  creek  behind  the  head 
is  common  to  the  cerebel  or  little  brain,  and  marrow  of  the  back-bone,  the  last  and 
most  solid  of  all  tlie  rest,  which  receives  the  animal  spirits  from  the  other  ventricles, 
and  conveys  them  to  the  marrow  in  the  back,  and  is  the  place  where  they  say  the 
memory  is  seated. 

SuBSECT.  V. —  Of  the  Soul  and  her  Faculties. 

According  to  "^Aristotle,  the  soul  is  defined  to  be  ivts%szfM,  pcrfectio  el  actus 
primus  corporis  organici,  vitam  habcntis  in  potentia :  the  perfection  or  first  act  of  an 
organical  body,  having  power  of  life,  which  most  *^  philosophers  approve.  But  many 
doubts  arise  about  the  essence,  subject,  seat,  distinction,  and  subordinate  faculties  of 
it.  For  the  essence  and  particular  knowledge,  of  all  other  things  it  is  most  hard  (be 
it  of  man  or  beast)  to  discern,  as  ^Aristotle  himself,  ^'Tidly,  =^Picus  Mirandula, 
*Tolet,  and  other  Neoteric  philosophers  confess  : — **"  We  can  understand  all  things 

^  Ptiysio.  I.  1.  c.  8.  "  Ut  orator  rejji :  sic  piilino  I  si  Tusciil.  qiiacsl.  ^"  Lib.  6.  Doct.  Va.  ,"!en".il.  -.  13 

»ocis  iiistruiiientum  annectilur  cordi,  &c.   Mel.uicth.  |  pag.  1-216.  ^Aristot.  "i  Aiiiiiia  (iiisque  in 

♦f  De  anini.  c.  1.  <J  Scalig.  exerc.  307.  Told,  in     lelligiiiius,  et   tamen   quae    sit    ipsa    intelligere   non 

.it),  de  aniina.  cap.  1.  &c.  ^1.  Ve  annua,  cap.  1.  |  valeiiius. 


100  Anatomy  of  the  Soul.  [Part  1.  Sec,  1 

by  her,  but  what  she  is  we  cannot  apprehend."  Some  therefore  make  one  soul, 
divided  into  three  principal  facukies ;  others,  three  distinct  souls.  Wliich  question 
of  late  hath  been  much  controverted  by  Picolomineus  and  Zabarel.  ^^  Paracelsus  will 
have  four  souls,  adding  to  tlie  three  grand  faculties  a  spiritual  soul :  which  opinion  of 
his,  Campanella,  in  his  book  de  sensu  rerum,''''  much  labours  to  demonstrate  and 
prove,  because  cax'casses  bleed  at  the  sight  of  the  murderer;  with  many  such  argu- 
ments: And  "some  again,  one  soul  of  all  creatures  whatsoever,  dillering  only  in 
organs ;  and  that  beasts  have  reason  as  well  as  men,  though,  for  some  defect  of 
organs,  not  in  such  measure.  Others  make  a  doubt  whether  it  be  all  in  all,  and  all 
in  every  part;  which  is  amply  discussed  in  Zabarel  amongst  the  rest.  The  ^*'com- 
moir  division  of  the  soul  is  into  three  principal  faculties — vegetal,  sensitive,  and 
rational,  which  make  three  distinct  kinds  of  living  creatures — vegetal  plants,  s.ensi- 
ble  beasts,  rational  men.  How  these  three  principal  faculties  are  distinguished  and 
connected,  Hinnano  ingenio  inaccessiwividetur.,  is  beyond  human  capacity,  as  ''^Tau- 
rellus,  Phdip,  Flavins,  and  others  suppose.  The  inferior  may  be  alone,  but  the 
superior  cannot  subsist  without  the  other;  so  sensible  includes  vegetal,  rational 
both  -  which  are  contained  in  it  (saith  Aristotle)  ul  Irigonus  in  telragono,  as  a  tri- 
angle in  a  quadrangle. 

Vegetal  Soul.]  Vegetal,  the  first  of  the  three  distinct  faculties,  is  defined  to  be  "■  a 
substantial  act  of  an  organical  body,  by  which  it  is  nourished,  augmented,  and  begets 
another  like  unto  itself."  In  which  definition,  three  several  operations  are  specified  — 
altrix,  auctrix,  procreatrix  ;  the  first  is  ^"nutrition,  whose  object  is  nourishment,  meat, 
drink,  and  the  like;  his  organ  the  liver  in  sensible  creatures;  in  plants,  the  root  or 
sap.  His  office  is  to  turn  the  nutriment  into  the  substance  of  the  body  nourishtd, 
which  he  performs  by  natural  heat.  This  nutritive  operation  hath  four  other  subor- 
dinate functions  or  powers  belonging  to  it — attraction,  retention,  digestion,  expulsion. 

Attraction.]  ^'Attraction  is  a  ministering  faculty,  which,  as  a  loadstone  doth  iron^ 
draws  meat  into  the  stomach,  or  as  a  lamp  doth  oil ;  and  this  attractive  power  is 
very  necessary  in  plants,  which  suck  up  moisture  by  the  root,  as  another  mouth, 
into  the  sap,  as  a  like  stomacli. 

Retenlio7i.]  Retention  keeps  it,  being  attracted  unto  the  stomach,  until  such  time 
it  be  concocted ;  for  if  it  should  pass  away  straight,  the  body  could  not  be  nourished. 

Digestion.]  Digestion  is  performed  by  natural  heat ;  for  as  the  flame  of  a  torch 
consumes  oil,  wax,  tallow,  so  doth  it  alter  and  digest  the  nutritive  matter,  hidiges- 
tion  is  opposite  unto  it.,  for  want  of  natural  heat.  Of  this  digestion  there  be  three 
differences — maturation,  elixation,  assation. 

Maturation.]  Maturation  is  especially  observed  in  the  fruits  of  trees  ;  wliich  are 
then  said  to  be  ripe,  when  the  seeds  are  fit  to  be  sown  again.  Crudity  is  opposed 
to  it,  which  gluttons,  epicures,  and  idle  persons  are  most  subject  unto,  that  use  no 
exercise  to  stir  natural  heat,  or  else  choke  it,  as  too  much  wood  puts  out  a  fire. 

Elixation.]  Elixation  is  the  seething  of  meat  in  the  stomach,  by  tlie  said  natural 
heat,  as  meat  is  boiled  in  a  pot ;  to  which  corruption  or  putrefaction  is  opposite. 

Assation.]  Assation  is  a  concoction  of  the  inward  moisture  by  heat ;  his  opposite 
is  semiustulation. 

Order  of  Concoctiori  four-fold.]  Besides  these  three  several  operations  of  diges- 
tion, there  is  a  four-fold  order  of  concoction: — mastication,  or  chewing  in  the  mouth; 
chilification  of  tliis  so  chewed  meat  in  the  stomach ;  the  tliird  is  in  the  liver,  to  turn 
this  chylus  mto  blood,  called  sanguification  ;  the  last  is  assimulation,  which  is  in 
every  part. 

Expulsion.]  Expulsion  is  a  power  of  nutrition,  by  which  it  expels  all  superfluous 
excrements,  and  reliques  of  meat  and  drink,  by  the  guts,  bladder,  pores ;  as  by  purg- 
ing, vomiting,  spitting,  sweating,  urine,  hairs,  nails,  &.c. 

Augmentation.]  As  this  nutritive  faculty  serves  to  nourish  the  body,  so  doth  tli" 
augmenting  faculty  (the  second  operation  <jr  power  of  the  vegetal  faculy)  to  the  in- 

65  Spiritiialem  aniinam  a  reliqiiis  distinrtam  tuetur.  i  lip.  de  Anima.  ca.'l.  Coelius,  20.  aniiq.  cap.  3.  Pl^lta^c^ 
etiam  in  cadavere  irihaerentem  post  mortem  per  aliquot    de  placil.  philos.  ^  De  vit.  et  mort.  part.  2.  c.  3 

rnenses.  ■'  Lib.  3.  cap.  31.  •'•  CcEliiis,  lib.  2.     prop.  1.  de  vit.  et  mort.  2.  c.  22.  eoNmritio  eel 

•■.  31.  Plutarch,  in  Grillo  Lips.  Can.  1.  ep.  50.  jossius  I  alimfinti  transmutatio,  viro  naturalis.  Seal,  exerc.  101 
de  Rjfiu  el  Flelii,  Averroes,  Campanella,  &;c.        •"  Phi-    Bee.  17.        o^  See  more  of  Attraction  in  Seal.  exer.  34? 


Mem.  2    Subs.  6.]  Anatomy  of  the  Soul.  101 

rreasing  of  it  in  quantity,  accorduig  to  all  dimensions,  long,  broad,  thick,  and  to 
•nake  it  grow  till  it  come  lo  his  due  proportion  and  perfect  shape ;  which  hath  his 
period  of  augmentation,  as  of  consumption ;  and  that  most  certain,  as  the  poe* 
observes  : — 

■'  "Stat  sua  ciiique  dies,  breve  et.  irreparabile  tenipus    I         "  A  term  of  life  is  set  to  every  man, 
jinnibus  est  vi'ffi." —  I  Wliicli  is  but  short,  and  pass  it  no  one  can." 

Generation.]  The  last  of  these  vegetal  faculties  is  generation,  which  begets  another 
ty  means  of  seed,  like  unto  itself,  to  the  perpetual  preservation  of  the  species.  To  this 
faculty  they  ascribe  three  subordinate  operations : — the  first  to  turn  nourishment  into 
seed,  &c. 

Life  and  Death  concomitants  of  the  Vegetal  Faculties.]  Necessary  concomitants 
or  affections  of  this  vegetal  faculty  are  life  and  his  privation,  death.  To  the  preser- 
vation of  life  the  natural  heat  is  most  requisite,  though  siccity  and  humidity,  and 
those  first  qualities,  be  not  excluded.  This  heat  is  likewise  in  plants,  as  appears  by 
their  increasing,  fructifying.  Stc,  though  not  so  easily  perceived.  In  all  bodies  it  must 
have  radical  ^^moisture  to  preserve  it,  that  it  be  not  consumed;  to  which  preservation 
our  clime,  country,  temperature,  and  the  good  or  bad  use  of  those  six  non-natural 
things  avail  much.  For  as  this  natural  heat  and  moisture  decays,  so  doth  our  life 
itself;  and  if  not  prevented  before  by  some  violent  accident,  or  interrupted  through 
our  own  default,  is  in  the  end  dried  up  by  old  age,  and  extinguished  by  death  for 
want  of  matter,  as  a  lamp  for  defect  of  oil  to  maintain  it. 

SuBSECT.  VI. —  Of  the  sensible  Soul. 

Next  in  order  is  the  sensible  faculty,  which  is  as  far  beyond  the  other  in  dignity, 
as  a  beast  is  preferred  to  a  plant,  having  those  vegetal  powers  included  in  it.  'Tis 
defined  an  "  Act  of  an  organical  body  by  which  it  lives,  hath  sense,  appetite,  judg- 
ment, breath,  and  motion."  His  object  in  general  is  a  sensible  or  passible  quality, 
because  the  sense  is  aflected  with  it.  The  general  organ  is  the  brain,  from  which 
principally  the  sensible  operations  are  derived.  This  sensible  soul  is  divided  into 
two  parts,  apprehending  or  moving.  By  the  apprehensive  power  we  perceive  the 
species  of  sensible  things  present,  or  absent,  and  retain  them  as  wax  doth  the  print 
of  a  seal.  By  the  moving,  the  body  is  outwardly  carried  from  one  place  to  another ; 
or  inwardly  moved  by  spirits  and  pulse.  The  apprehensive  faculty  is  subdivided 
into  two  parts,  inward  or  outward.  Outward,  as  the  five  senses,  of  touching,  hear- 
ing, seeing,  smelling,  tasting,  to  which  you  may  add  Scaliger's  sixth  sense  of  titilla- 
tion,  if  you  please ;  or  that  of  speech,  which  is  the  sixth  external  sense,  according 
to  Lullius.  Inward  are  three — common  sense,  phantasy,  memory.  Those  five  out- 
ward senses  have  their  object  in  outward  things  only,  and  such  as  are  present,  as  the 
eye  sees  no  colour  except  it  be  at  hand,  the  ear  sound.  Three  of  these  senses  are 
of  commodity,  hearing,  sight,  and  smell ;  two  of  necessity,  touch,  and  taste,  without 
which  we  cannot  live.  Besides,  the  sensitive  power  is  active  or  passive.  Active  in 
sight,  the  eye  sees  the  colour;  passive  when  it  is  hurt  by  his  object,  as  the  eye  by 
the  sun-beams.  According  to  that  axiom,  Visibile  forte  destruit  scnsmn.^^  Or  if  the 
object  be  not  pleasing,  as  a  bad  sound  to  the  ear,  a  stinking  smell  to  the  nose,  Stc. 

Sight.]  Of  these  five  senses,  sight  is  held  to  be  most  precious,  and  the  best,  and 
that  by  reason  of  his  object,  it  sees  the  whole  body  at  once.  By  it  v/e  learn,  and 
discern  all  things,  a  sense  most  excellent  for  use  :  to  the  sight  three  things  are  re- 
quired;  the  object,  the  organ,  and  the  medium.  The  object  in  general  is  visible,  or 
that  wbich  is  to  be  seen,  as  colours,  and  all  shining  bodies.  The  medium  is  the 
illumination  of  the  air,  which  comes  from  ^Might,  commonly  called  diaphanum ;  for 
in  dark  we  cannot  see.  The  organ  is  the  eye,  and  chiefly  the  apple  of  it,  which  by 
those  optic  nerves,  concurring  both  in  one,  conveys  the  sight  to  the  common  sense. 
Between  the  organ  and  object  a  true  distance  is  required,  that  it  be  not  too  near,  or 
ioo  far  off.  Many  excellent  questions  appertain  to  this  sense,  discussed  by  philoso- 
phers :  as  whether  this  sight  be  caused  intra  mittendo,  vel  extra  mittendo.,  &.c.,  by 
receiving  in  the  visible  species,  or  sending  of  them  out,  which  ^' Plato,  ®'' Plutarch, 

82  Vita  consistit  in  calido  et   humido.  63  "Too  I  actus  perspicui.    Lumen  4  luce  provenit,  lux   est  in 

Drisllt  an  object  destroys  the  organ.  "  Lumen  est  |  corpore  lucido.         «*Satur.  7.  c.  14,         ^"1^  PhffidoB 

I  2 


102  Anatomy  of  the  Soul.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  I 

*'Macrobius,  ^^Lactantius  and  others  dispute.  And,  besides,  it  is  the  subject  of  the 
perspectives,  of  which  Alliazen  the  Arabian,  ViteUio,  Roger  Bacon,  Baplista  PorLi, 
Guidus  Ubaldus,  Aquilonius,  &c.,  have  written  whole  volumes. 

Hearing.]  Hearing,  a  most  excellent  outward  sense,  "•  by  which  we  learn  and  get 
knowledge."  His  object  is  sound,  or  that  which  is  heard;  the  medium,  air;  organ, 
the  ear.  To  the  sound,  which  is  a  collision  of  the  air,  three  things  are  required ;  a 
body  to  btrike,  as  the  hand  of  a  musician ;  tlie  body  struck,  which  must  be  solid 
and  able  to  resist;  as  a  bv-^U,  liite-string,  not  wool,  or  sponge;  the  medium,  the  air; 
which  is  inward,  or  outward ;  the  outward  being  struck  or  collided  by  a  solid  body, 
still  strikes  the  next  air,  until  it  come  to  that  inward  natural  air,  which  as  an  exqui- 
site organ  is  contained  in  a  little  skin  formed  like  a  drum-head,  and  struck  upon  by 
certain  small  instruments  like  drum-sticks,  conveys  the  sound  by  a  pair  of  nerves, 
approjKiated  to  that  use,  to  the  common  sense,  as  to  a  judge  of  sounds.  There  is 
great  variety  and  much  delight  in  them;  for  the  knowledge  of  which,  consult  with 
Boethius  and  other  musicians. 

SmelUng.]  Smelling  is  an  "  outward  sense,  which  apprehends  by  the  nostril.=» 
drawing  in  air ;"  and  of  all  the  rest  it  is  the  weakest  sense  in  men.  The  organ  in 
the  nose,  or  two  small  hollow  pieces  of  flesh  a  little  above  it :  the  medium  the  air 
to  men,  as  water  to  fish :  the  object,  smell,  arising  from  a  mixed  body  resolved, 
which,  whether  it  be  a  quality,  fume,  vapour,  or  exhalation,  I  will  not  now  dispute, 
or  of  their  differences,  and  how  they  are  caused.  This  sense  is  an  organ  of  health, 
as  sight  and  hearing,  sailh  '^^Agellius,  are  of  discipline ;  and  that  by  avoiding  bad 
smells,  as  by  choosing  good,  which  do  as  much  alter  and  affect  the  body  many 
times,  as  diet  itself. 

Taslc]  Taste,  a  necessary  sense,  "  which  perceives  all  savours  by  the  tongue  and 
palate,  and  that  by  means  of  a  thin  spittle,  or  watery  juice."  His  organ  is  the  tongue 
with  his  tasting  nerves ;  the  medium,  a  watery  juice ;  the  object,  taste,  or  savour, 
which  is  a  quality  in  the  juice,  arising  from  the  mixture  of  things  tasted.  Some 
make  eight  species  or  kinds  of  savour,  bitter,  sweet,  sharp,  salt,  &c.,  all  which  sick 
men  (as  in  an  ague)  cannot  discern,  by  reason  of  their  organs  misafiected. 

Touching.]  Touch,  the  last  of  the  senses,  and  most  ignoble,  yet  of  as  great  neces- 
sity as  the  other,  and  of  as  much  pleasure.  This  sense  is  exquisite  in  men,  and  by 
his  nerves  dispersed  all  over  the  body,  perceives  any  tactile  quality.  His  organ  the 
nerves ;  his  object  those  first  qualities,  hot,  dry,  moist,  cold ;  and  those  that  follow 
them,  hard,  soft,  thick,  thin,  &.c.  Many  delightsome  questions  are  moved  by  philo- 
sophers about  these  five  senses ;  their  organs,  objects,  mediums,  which  for  brevity  I 
omit 

SuBSECT.  Vn. —  Of  the  Inward  Senses. 

Common  Sense.]  Inner  senses  are  three  in  number,  so  called,  because  they  bo 
within  the  brain-pan,  as  common  sense,  phantasy,  men^cry.  Their  objects  are  not 
only  things  present,  but  they  perceive  the  sensible  species  of  things  to  come,  past, 
absent,  such  as  were  before  in  the  sense.  This  common  sense  is  tlie  judge  or  mode- 
rator of  tlie  rest,  by  whom  we  discern  all  ilifierences  of  objects;  for  by  mine  eye  J 
do  not  know  that  I  see,  or  by  mine  ear  that  I  hear,  but  by  my  common  sense,  who 
judgeth  of  sounds  and  colours :  they  are  but  the  organs  to  bring  the  species  to  be 
censured ;  so  that  all  their  objects  are  his,  and  all  their  offices  are  his.  TJie  fore 
part  of  the  brain  is  his  organ  or  seat. 

Phantasy.]  Phantasy,  or  imagination,  wliich  some  call  estimative,  or  cogitative, 
confirmed,  saith  "°Fernelius,  by  frequent  meditation,)  is  an  inner  sense  which  doth 
more  fully  examine  the  species  perceived  by  common  sense,  of  things  present  Ox 
absent,  and  keeps  them  longer,  recalling  them  to  mind  again,  or  making  new  ol'  his 
own.  In  time  of  sleep  this  faculty  is  free,  and  many  times  conceive  strange,  stu- 
pend,  absurd  shapes,  as  in  sick  men  we  commonly  observe.  His  organ  is  the  mid- 
dle cell  of  the  brain;  his  objects  all  the  species  communicated  to  him  by  the  com- 
mon sense,  by  comparison  of  which  he  feigns  infinite  other  unto  himself.  In  melan- 
choly men  this  faculty  is  most  powerful  and  strong,  and  often  huris,  producing  many 

"  De  pract.  PK;.09   4.  esLac.  cap.  8.  de  opif.  D«i,  1.  «>  Lib.  19.  cap.  2.  '  Phis.  1.  5.  c.  8 


Mem.  2.  Subs.  8.j  Jinalomy  of  the  Soul.  103 

monstrous  and  prodigious  things,  especially  if  it  be  stirred  up  by  some  terrible 
object,  presented  to  it  irom  common  sense  or  memory.  In  poets  and  painters  ima- 
gination forcibly  works,  as  appears  by  their  several  fictions,  antics,  images  :  as 
Ovid's  house  of  sleep.  Psyche's  palace  in  Apuleius,  &c.  In  men  it  is  subject  and 
governed  by  reason,  or  at  least  should  be ;  but  in  brutes  it  hath  no  superior,  and  is 
alio  bruLorwn.1  all  the  reason  they  have. 

McTHory.]  Memory  lays  up  all  the  species  which  the  senses  have  brought  in,  and 
records  them  as  a  good  register,  that  they  may  be  forthcoming  when  they  are  called 
for  by  phantasy  and  reason.  His  object  is  the  same  with  phantasy,  his  seat  and 
<brgan  tlie  back  part  of  the  brain. 

Jiff  eel  ions  of  the  Senses^  sleep  and  waking.]  The  affections  of  these  senses  are 
sleep  and  waking,  common  to  all  sensible  creatures.  "  Sleep  is  a  rest  or  binding  of 
ihe  outward  senses,  and  of  the  common  sense,  for  the  preservation  of  body  and 
soul"  (as  "Scaliger  defines  it);  for  when  the  common  sense  resteth,  the  outward 
senses  rest  also.  Tlie  phantasy  alone  is  free,  and  his  commander  reason :  as  appears 
by  those  imaginary  dreams,  which  are  of  divers  kinds,  natural,  divine,  demoniacal,  &.C., 
which  vary  according  to  humours,  diet,  actions,  objects,  Stc,  of  which  Artemidorus, 
Cardanus,  and  Sambucus,  with  their  several  interpretators,  have  written  great  volumes. 
This  litigation  of  senses  proceeds  from  an  inhibition  of  spirits,  the  way  being  stopped 
by  which  they  should  come ;  this  stopping  is  caused  of  vapours  arising  out  of  the 
stomach,  filli;ig  the  nerves,  by  which  the  spirits  should  be  conveyed.  When  these 
vapours  are  spent,  the  passage  is  open,  and  the  spirits  perform  their  accustomed 
duties  :  so  that  "  waking  is  the  action  and  motion  of  the  senses,  which  the  spiiiis 
uispersed  over  all  parts  cause." 

SuBSECT.  VIII. —  Of  the  Moving  Faculty. 

Appetite.]  This  moving  faculty  is  the  other  power  of  the  sensitive  soul,  which 
causeth  all  tliose  inward  and  outward  animal  motions  in  the  body.  It  is  divided 
nto  two  faculties,  tlie  power  of  appetite,  and  of  moving  from  place  to  place.  This 
of  appetite  is  threefold,  so  some  will  have  it;  natural,  as  it  signifies  any  such  incli- 
nation, as  of  a  stone  to  fall  downward,  and  such  actions  as  retention,  expulsion, 
which  depend  not  on  sense,  but  are  vegetal,  as  the  appetite  of  meat  and  drink ;  hun- 
ger and  thirst.  Sensitive  is  common  to  men  and  brutes.  Voluntary,  the  third,  or 
intellective,  which  commands  the  other  two  in  men,  and  is  a  curb  unto  them,  or  at 
least  should  be,  but  for  the  most  part  is  captivated  and  overruled  by  them;  and  men 
are  led  like  beasts  by  sense,  giving  reins  to  their  concupiscence  and  several  lusts. 
For  by  this  appetite  the  soul  is  led  or  inclined  to  follow  that  good  which  the  senses 
shall  approve,  or  avoid  that  which  they  hold  evil :  his  object  being  good  or  evil,  the 
one  he  embraceth,  the  other  he  rejecteth ;  according  to  that  aphorism.  Omnia  appe- 
tunt  bonum^  all  things  seek  their  own  good,  or  at  least  seeming  good.  This  power 
is  inseparable  from  sense,  for  where  sense  is,  there  are  likewise  pleasure  and  pain. 
His  organ  is  the  same  with  the  common  sense,  and  is  divided  into  two  powers,  or 
inclinations,  concupiscible  or  irascible:  or  (as  '^one  translates  it)  coveting,  anger 
invading,  or  impugning.  Concupiscible  covets  always  pleasant  and  delightsome 
things,  and  abhors  that  which  is  distasteful,  harsh,  and  unpleasant.  Irascibk.,  '''^qiiasi 
aversans  per  iram  et  odium.,  as  avoiding  it  with  anger  and  indignation.  All  affections 
and  perturbations  arise  out  of  these  two  fountains,  which,  although  the  stoics  make 
light  of,  we  hold  natural,  and  not  to  be  resisted.  The  good  afiections  are  caused  by 
some  object  of  the  same  nature ;  and  if  present,  they  procure  joy,  which  dilates  the 
heart,  and  preserves  the  body :  if  absent,  they  cause  hope,  love,  desire,  and  concu- 
piscence. The  bad  are  simple  or  mixed  :  simple  for  some  bad  object  present,  as 
sorrow^  which  contracts  the  heart,  macerates  the  soul,  subverts  the  good  estate  oi' 
the  boay,  hindering  all  the  operations  of  it,  causing  melancholy,  and  many  times 
death  itself;  or  future,  as  fear.  Out  of  these  two  arise  those  mixed  afi^ections  and 
passions  of  anger,  which  is  a  desire  of  revenge ;  hatred,  which  is  inveterate  angc,- : 
zeal,  which  is  offended  with  him  who  hurts  that  he  loves ;  and  cnLxat,f>exaxoa,  a  coir 

^  E.Tercit.  280.  "T.  W.  Jefluite,  in  hia  Passions  of  tlie  Minde.  "  Vekurio. 


104  Anatomy  of  the  Soul.  [Part.  1.  Sec   1 

pound  aflcction  of  joy  and  hate,  when  we  rejoice  at  other  men's  mischief,  and  are 
grieved  at  their  prosperity,  pride,  self-love,  emulation,  envy,  shame,  &.C.,  of  wliieh 
elsew  here. 

Mooing  from  place  to  place,  is  a  faculty  necessarily  following  the  other.  For  in 
vain  were  it  otherwise  to  desire  and  to  abhor,  if  we  had  not  likewise  power  to  pro- 
secute or  eschew,  by  moving  the  body  from  place  to  place :  by  this  faculty  therefore 
we  locally  move  the  body,  or  any  part  of  it,  and  go  from  one  place  to  another.  To 
the  better  performance  of  which,  three  things  are  requisite  :  that  which  moves ;  by 
what  it  moves ;  that  which  is  moved.  That  which  moves,  is  either  the  elficieni 
cause,  or  end.  The  end  is  the  object,  which  is  desired  or  eschewed ;  as  in  a  dog  to 
catch  a  hare,  &c.  The  efficient  cause  in  man  is  reason,  or  his  subordinate  phantasy, 
which  apprehends  good  or  bad  objects  :  in  brutes  imagination  alone,  which  moves 
the  appetite,  the  appetite  this  faculty,  which  by  an  admirable  league  of  nature,  and 
by  meditation  of  the  spirit,  commands  the  ort^an  by  which  it  moves :  and  that  con- 
sists of  nerves,  muscles,  cords,  dispersed  throagli  iiib  whole  body,  contracted  and 
relaxed  as  the  spirits  will,  which  move  the  muscles,  or  ''''nerves  in  the  midst  of  them, 
and  draw  the  cord,  and  so  per  consequens  the  joint,  to  the  place  intended.^  Thai 
which  is  moved,  is  the  body  or  some  member  apt  to  move.  The  motion  of  the 
body  is  divers,  as  going,  running,  leaping,  dancing,  sitting,  and  such  like,  referred  to 
the  predicam.ent  of  situs.  Worms  creep,  birds  fly,  iishes  swim ;  and  so  of  parts,  the 
chief  of  which  is  respiration  or  breathing,  and  is  thus  performed.  The  outward  air 
is  drawn  in  by  the  vocal  artery,  and  sent  by  mediation  of  the  midriff  to  the  lungs, 
which,  dilating  themselves  as  a  pair  of  bellows,  reciprocally  fetch  it  in,  and  send  it 
out  to  the  heart  to  cool  it ;  and  from  thence  now  being  hot,  convey  it  again,  still 
talking  in  fresh.  Such  a  like  motion  is  that  of  the  pulse,  of  which,  because  manv 
have  written  whole  books,  I  will  say  nothing. 

SuBSECT.  IX. —  Of  the  Rational  Soul. 

:/  In  the  precedent  subsections  I  have  anatomized  those  inferior  faculties  of  the  soul; 
the  rational  remaineth,  "a  pleasant,  but  a  doubtful  subject"  (as  ^^one  terms  it),  and 
with  the  like  brevity  to  be  discussed.  Many  erroneous  opinions  are  about  the 
essence  and  original  of  it ;  whether  it  be  fire,  as  Zeno  held ;  harmony,  as  Aristoxe- 
nus ;  number,  as  Xenocrates;  whether  it  be  organical,  or  inorganical;  seated  in  the 
brain,  heart  or  blood;  mortal  or  immortal;  how  it  comes  into  the  body.  Some 
hold  that  it  is  ex  traduce.,  as  Fhtl.  1.  de  Jlnimd.,  TcrtuUian.,  Lactantius  de  opific.  Dei, 
cap.  19.  Hugo,  lib.  de  Spiritu  et  Anam't,  Vinccntius  Bellavic.  spec,  natural,  lib.  23. 
cap.  2.  e/  1 1.  Hippocrates,  Avicenna,  and  many  '*^late  writers;  that  one  man  begets 
another,  body  and  soul;  or  as  a  candle  from  a  candle,  to  be  produced  from  the 
seed :  otherwise,  say  tlrey,  a  man  begets  but  half  a  man,  and  is  worse  than  a  beast 
that  begets  both  matter  and  form ;  and,  besides,  the  tlires  faculties  of  the  soul  must 
be  together  infused,  which  is  most  absurd  as  they  hold,  because  in  beasts  they  are 
begot,  the  two  inferior  I  mean,  and  may  not  be  well  separated  in  men.  "Galen  sup- 
poseth  the  soul  crasin  esse,  to  be  the  temperature  itself;  Trismegistus,  Musaeus, 
Orpheus,  Homer,  Pindarus,  Phserecides  Syrus,  Epictetus,  with  the  Chaldees  and 
Egyptians,  affirmed  the  soul  to  be  immortal,  as  did  those  British  '*  Druids  of  old. 
The  '^  Pythagoreans  defend  Metempsychosis ;  and  Palingenesia,  that  souls  go  from 
ine  body  to  another,  epotd  prius  Lethes  undci,  as  men  into  wolves,  bears,  dogs,  hogs, 
as  they  were  inclined  in  their  lives,  or  participated  in  conditions : 

*o "inque  ferinas 

Possumus  ire  donms,  pecudumque  in  corpora  condi." 

*'Lucian's  cock  was  first  Euphorbxis,  a  captain: 

"Ille  eso  (nam  meniini)  Trojani  tempore  belli, 
Panllioides  Euphorbus  eram. 

A  horse,  a  man,  a  sponge.     ^Uulian  the  Apostate  thought  AlexanoBr  s  soul  was 
lescended  into  his  body:  Plato  in  Timseo,  and  in  his  Phaedon,  (for  aught  1  can  per- 

"  Nervi  a.  spirit!!  moventiir,  spiritiis  ab  anima.  Me-  !  sequantur,  &c.  'sCasar.  6.  coin.  ''Read 

•anct.  'i  Velciirio.  .luciindum  et  anceps  suhjec-     jEneas  Gazeus  dial,  of  the  immortality  of  the  Soul, 

mill.  "Goclenius  in   'irvj/iK    paj.  302.   Bright   in     »"OviiI.  Mel.  15.  "  We,  who  may  take  up  our  abode  in 

Phys.  i=!rrih.  1.  1.  Divid  Crusius,  Melancthon,  Hipoius  wild  beae'.s.  or  be  lodged  iii  the  breasts  of  cattle." 
Ueruiug,  Uvinus  Leminus.  &..  "  Lib.  an  mores  i  »'  In  Gall      Idem.         «^  Nicephorus.  hist   fib.  10.  c  35. 


Mom.  2.  Subs.  9.]  Anatomy  of  the  Soul.  lOP 

ceive,)  dillers  not  much  from  this  opinion,  that  it  was  from  God  at  first,  and  knew 
dll,  but  being  inclosed  in  the  body,  it  forgets,  and  learns  anew,  which  he  calls  remi 
liisceniia,  or  recalling,  and  that  it  was  put  into  the  body  for  a  punisliment ;  and 
dience  it  goes  into  a  beast's,  or  man's,  as  appears  by  his  pleasant  fiction  de  sortitione 
animariim,  lib.  10.  de  rep.  and  after  ^ten  thousand  years  is  to  return  into  the  fomier 
body  again, 

S4 "post  varios  annos,  jier  inille  fisuras, 

Rursus  ad  liumaiiiE  fertur  primordia  vila;." 

Others  deny  the  immortality  of  it,  which  Pomponatus  of  Padua  decided  out  of  Aris 
totle  not  long  since,  Plinias  Avunculus,  cap.  1 .  lib.  2,  et  lib.  7.  cap.  55 ;  Seneca.,  lib.  7 
epist.  ad  Lucilium.,  epist.  55;  Dicearchus  in  Tull.  Tusc.  Epicurus.,  Aratus.,  Hippocra- 
tes, Galen,  Lucretius,  lib.  1. 

"  (PrEEterei  gigiii  pariter  cum  corpore.  et  uni 
Cresere  sentimus,  pariterque  senescere  iiientem.)"  "^^ 

Averroes,  and  I  know  not  how  many  Neoterics.  ^^"This  question  of  the  mmor- 
tality  of  the  soul,  is  diversly  and  wonderfully  impugned  and  disputed,  especially 
among  the  Italians  of  late,"  saith  Jab.  Colerus,  lib.  de  vmnort.  aniincB,  cap.  1.  The 
popes  themselves  have  doubted  of  it :  Leo  Decimus,  that  Epicurean  pope,  as  ^'some 
Tecord  of  liini,  caused  this  question  to  be  discussed  pro  and  con  before  him,  and  con- 
cluded at  last,  as  a  profane  and  atheistical  moderator,  with  that  verse  of  Cornelius 
Gallus,  Et  red  it  in  nihilum,  quod  f nit  ante  nihil.  It  began  of  nothing,  and  in  nothing 
it  ends.  Zeno  and  his  Stoics,  as  '^'*Aastin  quotes  him,  supposed  the  soul  so  long  to 
continue,  till  the  body  was  fully  putrilied,  and  resolved  into  materia  prima  :  but  after 
that,  m  fumos  evanescere,  to  be  extinguished  and  vanished;  and  in  the  meantime, 
whilst  the  body  was  consuming,  it  wandered  all  abroad,  et  e  longinqi/o  mult  a  annun- 
ciare,  and  (as  that  Clazomenian  Hermotimus  averred)  saw  pretty  visions,  and  suffered 
I  know  not  what.  ^^Errant  exangues  sine  corpore  et  ossihiis  umbra.  Others  grant  the 
immortality  thereof,  but  they  make  many  fabulous  fictions  in  the  meantime  of  it, 
after  the  departure  from  the  body:  like  Plato's  Elysian  fields,  and  that  Turkey  para- 
dise. The  souls  of  good  men  they  deified;  the  bad  (saith  ''"Austin)  became  devils,  as 
they  supposed;  with  many  such  absurd  tenets,  which  he  hath  confuted.  Hierome, 
Austin,  and  other  Fathers  of  the  church,  hold  that  the  soul  is  immortal,  created  of 
nothing,  and  so  infused  into  the  child  or  embryo  in  his  mother's  womb,  six  months 
after  the  ^'conception;  not  as  those  of  brutes,  which  are  ex  traduce,  and  dying  with 
them  vanish  into  nothing.  To  whose  divine  treatises,  and  to  the  Scriptures  them- 
selves, I  rejourn  all  such  atheistical  spirits,  as  Tully  did  Atticus,  doubting  of  this 
point,  to  Plato's  Phaidon.  Or  if  they  desire  philosophical  proofs  and  demonstra- 
tions, I  refer  them  to  Niphus,  Nic.  Faventinus'  tracts  of  this  subject.  To  Fran,  and 
fohn  Picus  in  digress  :  sup.  3.  de  Anima,  Tholosanus,  Eugubinus,  To.  Soto,  Canas, 
Thomas,  Peresius,  Dandinus,  Colerus,  to  that  elaborate  tract  in  Zanchius,  to  Tolet's 
Sixty  Reasons,  and  Lessius'  Twenty-two  Arguments,  to  prove  the  immortality  of  the 
soul.  Campanella,  lib.  de  scnsu  rerimi,  is  large  in  the  same  discourse,  Albertinus  the 
Schoolman,  Jacob.  Naclantus,  tom.  2.  op.  handleth  it  in  four  questions,  Antony  Bru- 
nus,  Aonius  Palearius,  Marinus  Marcennus,  with  many  others.  This  reasonable  soul, 
which  Austin  calls  a  spiritual  substance  moving  itself,  is  defined  bv  philosophers  to 
be  "  the  first  substantial  act  of  a  natural,  humane,  organical  body,  by  \\hich  a  man 
lives,  perceives,  and  underbcands,  freely  doing  all  things,  and  with  election."  Out  of 
which  definition  we  may  gather,  that  this  rational  soul  includes  the  powers,  and  per- 
forms the  duties  of  the  two  other,  which  are  contained  in  it,  and  all  three  facilties 
make  one  soul,  which  is  inorganical  of  itself,  although  it  be  in  all  parts,  and  incor- 
poreal, using  their  organs,  and  working  by  them.  It  is  divided  into  two  chief  parts, 
differing  in  oflice  only,  not  in  essence.  The  understanding,  which  is  the  rational 
power  apprehending ;  the  will,  which  is  the  rational  power  moving :  to  which  two, 
all  the  other  rational  powers  are  subject  and  reduced. 

'^Phffdo.  i*^  Cla;<dian,  lib.  1.  de  rap.  Proserp.  I  cap.  16.  en Ovid.  4.  Met.   "The  bloodless  shades 

**     Besides,  we  observe  lliat  the  mind  is  born  with     without  either  body  or  bones  watider."  so  Bono- 

the  bodj,  prows  with  it,  and  decays  with  it."  »"' H»c  rum  lares,  malorum  ver6  larvas  et  lemures.  »'  Som« 
questio  multos  psr  annos  varie,  ac  miral  iliter  impug-  say  at  three  days,  some  six  weelis,  others  other- 
Data,  to.  *' Colerus,  ibid.  i*- Do  eccles.  dog.  I  wise. 

14 


106  Anatomy  of  the  SoiiL  [Pan   1.  Sec.  i 

SuBSECT.  X. —  Of  the  Understanding. 

*'  Understanding  is  a  power  of  the  soul,  ^-by  wliich  we  perceive,  know,  remem- 
ber, and  judge  as  well  singulars,  as  universals,  having  certain  innate  notices  or  begin- 
ings  of  arts,  a  reflecting  action,  by  which  it  judgeth  of  liis  own  doings,  and  examines 
them."  Out  of  this  definition  (besides  his  chief  office,  which  is  to  apprehend,  judge 
all  that  he  performs,  without  the  help  of  any  instruments  or  organs)  three  diherences 
appear  betwixt  a  man  and  a  beast.  As  first,  the  sense  only  comprehends  singulari- 
ties, the  understanding  universalities.  Secondly,  the  sense  hath  no  innate  notions. 
Thirdly,  brutes  cannot  reflect  upon  themselves.  Bees  indeed  make  neat  and  curious 
works,  and  many  other  creatures  besides ;  but  when  they  have  done,  they'  cannot 

judge  of  them.  His  object  is  God,  Ens^  all  nature,  and  whatsoever  is  to  be  under- 
stood: which  successively  it  apprehends.  The  object  first  moving  the  understanding, 
is  some  sensible  thing;  after  by  discoursing,  the  mind  finds  out  the  corporeal  sub- 
stance, and  from  thence  the  spiritual.  His  actions  (some  say)  are  apprehension, 
composition,  division,  discoursing,  reasoning,  memory,  which  some  include  in  inven- 
tion, and  judgment.  The  common  divisions  are  of  the  understanding,  agent,  and 
patient ;  speculative,  and  practical ;  in  habit,  or  in  act ;  simple,  or  compound.  Tlie 
agent  is  that  which  is  called  the  wit  of  man,  acumen  or  subtility,  sharpness  of  in- 
vention, when  he  doth  invent  of  himself  witliout  a  teacher,  or  learns  anew,  which 
abstracts  those  intelligible  species  from  the  phantasy,  and  transfers  them  to  the  pas- 
sive understanding,  "^''because  there  is  nothing  in  the  understanding,  which  was  not 
first  in  tlie  sense."  That  which  the  imagination  hath  taken  from  the  sense,  this 
agent  judgeth  of,  whether  it  be  true  or  false;  and  being  so  judged  he  commits  it  to 
the  passible  to  be  kept.  The  agent  is  a  doctor  or  teacher,  the  passive  a  scholar ; 
and  his  oflice  is  to  keep  and  further  judge  of  such  tilings  as  are  committed  to  his 
charge ;  as  a  bare  and  rased  table  at  first,  capable  of  all  forms  and  notions.  Now 
these  notions  are  two-fold,  actions  or  habits  :  actions,  by  which  we  take  notions  of, 
and  perceive  things ;  habits,  wliich  are  durable  lights  and  notions,  which  we  may 
use  when  we  will.  Some  reckon  up  eight  kinds  of  them,  sense,  experience,  intelli- 
gence, faith,  suspicion,  error,  opinion,  science ;  to  which  are  added  art,  prudency, 
wisdom :  as  also  ^^  synteresis,  dictamcn  rafionis,  conscience ;  so  that  in  all  there  be 
fourteen  species  of  the  understanding,  of  which  some  are  innate,  as  the  three  last 
mentioned ;  the  other  are  gotten  by  doctrine,  learning,  and  use.  Plato  will  have  all 
to  be  innate  :  Aristotle  reckons  up  but  five  intellectual  habits ;  two  practical,  as  pru- 
dency, whose  end  is  to  practise ;  to  fabricate ;  wisdom  to  comprehend  the  use  and 
experiments  of  all  notions  and  habits  whatsoever.  Which  division  of  Aristotle  (if  it 
be  considered  aright)  is  all  one  with  the  precedent;  for  three  being  innate,  and  five 
acquisite,  the  rest  are  improper,  imperfect,  and  in  a  more  strict  examination  excluded. 
Of  all  these  I  should  more  amply  dilate,  but  my  subject  will  not  permit.  Three  of 
them  I  will  only  point  at,  as  more  necessary  to  my  following  discourse. 

Synteresis,  or  the  purer  part  of  the  conscience,  is  an  innate  habit,  and  doth  signify 

'  a  conversation  of  the  knowledge  of  the  law  of  God  and  Nature,  to  know  good  or 
evil."  And  (as  our  divines  hold)  it  is  rar.her  in  the  understanding  than  in  the  will. 
This  makes  tlie  major  proposition  in  a  practical  syllogism.  The  dictamcn  ralioms 
is  that  which  doth  admonish  us  to  do  good  or  evil,  and  is  the  nimor  in  the  syllogism. 
The  conscience  is  that  which  approves  good  or  evil,  justifying  or  condemning  our 
actions,  and  is  the  conclusion  of  the  syllogism :  as  in  that  familiar  exan\ple  of  Regu- 
lus  the  Roman,  taken  prisoner  by  the  Carthaginians,  and  suflered  to  go  to  Rome,  on 
that  condition  he  should  return  again,  or  pay  so  much  for  his  ransom.  The  synte- 
resis proposeth  the  question ;  his  word,  oath,  promise,  is  to  be  religiously  kept, 
although  to  his  enemy,  and  that  by  the  law  of  nature.  ^^  Do  not  that  to  another 
which  thou  wouldest  not  have  done  to  thyself"  Dictamen  applies  it  to  him,  and 
dictates  this  or  the  like :  Regulus,  thou  wouldst  not  another  man  should  falsify  his 
oath,  or  break  promise  with  thee :  conscience  concludes,  therefore,  Regulus,  thou 

"^Melancthon.  s'Nihil  in  intellectu,  quod  non  I  of  the  conscience.  9"Quo(i  tibi  fteri  n»n  Vis.  al- 

9V'\%  fuerat  in  sensu.  Velcurio.  wxhe  pure  part  |  teri  ne  feceris. 


Mem.  2.  Subs.  11. J  Anatomy  of  the  Soui  107 

(losi  well  to  perform  thy  promise,  and  oughtest  to  keep  thiae  oath.  More  of  this  in 
Religious  Melancholy. 

SuBSECT.  XI.— 0///je  Will. 

Will  is  the  other  power  of  the  rational  soul,  ^''"wliich  covets  or  avoids  such 
things  as  have  been  before  judged  and  apprehended  by  the  understanding."  If  good, 
it  approves ;  if  evil,  it  abhors  it :  so  that  his  object  is  either  good  or  evil.  Aris- 
totle calls  this  our  rational  appetite ;  for  as,  in  the  sensitive,  we  are  moved  to  good 
or  bad  by  our  appetite,  ruled  and  directed  by  sense ;  so  in  this  we  are  carried  by 
reason.  Besides,  the  sensitive  appetite  hath  a  particular  object,  good  or  bad ;  this 
an  universal,  immaterial :  that  respects  only  things  delectable  and  pleasant ;  this 
honest.  Again,  they  differ  in  liberty.  The  sensual  appetite  seeing  an  object,  if  it 
be  a  convenient  good,  cannot  but  desire  it;  if  evil,  avoid  it:  but  this  is  free  in  his 
essence,  ^''Miiuch  now  depraved,  obscured,  and  fallen  from  his  first  perfection;  yet  in 
some  of  his  operations  still  free,"  as  to  go,  walk,  move  at  his  pleasure,  and  to  choose 
whether  it  will  do  or  not  do,  steal  or  not  steal.  Otherwise,  in  vain  were  laws,  de- 
liberations, exhortations,  counsels,  precepts,  rewards,  promises,  threats  and  punish- 
ments :,and  God  should  be  the  author  of  sin.  But  in  ®* spiritual  things  we  will  nc 
good,  prone  to  evil  (except  we  be  regenerate,  and  led  by  the  Spirit),  we  are  egged  on 
by  our  natural  concupiscence,  and  there  is  ataxia,  a  confusion  in  our  powers,  "''"our 
whole  will  is  averse  from  God  and  his  law,"  not  in  natural  things  oidy,  as  to  eat 
and  drink,  lust,  to  which  we  are  led  headlong  by  our  temperature  and  inordinate 
appetite, 

looi'jver  ros  obniti  contra,  nee  tendere  tantum 
Sufficinius, " 

we  cannot  resist,  our  concupiscence  is  originally  bad,  our  heart  evil,  the  seat  of  oui 
affections  captivates  and  enforceth  our  will.  So  that  in  voluntary  things  we  are 
averse  from  God  and  goodness,  bad  by  nature,  by  'ignorance  worse,  by  art,  discipline, 
custom,  we  get  many  bad  habits  :  suffering  them  to  domineer  and  tyrannise  over  us; 
and  the  devil  is  still  ready  at  hand  with  his  evil  suggestions,  to  tempt  our  depraved 
will  to  some  ill-disposed  action,  to  precipitate  us  to  destruction,  except  our  will  be 
swayed  and  counterpoised  again  with  some  divine  precepts,  and  good  motions  of  the 
spirit,  which  many  times  restram,  hinder  and  check  us,  when  we  are  in  the  full  career 
of  our  dissolute  courses.  So  David  corrected  himself,  when  he  had  Saul  at  a  vantage. 
Revenge  and  malice  were  as  two  violent  oppugners  on  the  one  side  ;  but  honesty, 
relifirion,  fear  of  God,  withheld  him  on  the  other. 

The  actions  of  the  will  are  velle  and  nolle,  to  will  and  nill :  which  two  words 
comprehend  all,  and  they  are  good  or  bad,  accordingly  as  they  are  directed,  and  some 
of  them  freely  performed  by  hnnself ;  although  tlie  stoics  absolutely  deny  it,  and 
will  have  all  things  inevitably  done  by  destiny,  imposing  a  fatal  necessity  upon  us, 
which  we  may  not  resist ;  yet  we  say  that  our  will  is  free  in  respect  of  us,  and  things 
contingent,  howsoever  in  respect  of  God's  determinate  counsel,  they  are  inevitable 
\^id  necessary.  Some  other  actions  of  the  will  are  performed  by  the  inferior  powers, 
which  obey  him,  as  the  sensitive  and  moving  appetite ;  as  to  open  our  eyes,  to  go 
hither  and  thither,  not  to  toiich  a  book,  to  speak  fair  or  foul :  but  this  appetite  is 
many  times  rebellious  in  us,  and  will  not  be  contained  within  the  lists  of  sobriety 
and  temperance.  It  was  (as  I  said)  once  well  agreeing  with  reason,  and  there  was 
an  excellent  consent  and  harmony  between  them,  but  that  is  now  dissolved,  they 
often  jar,  reason  is  overborne  by  passion :  Feriur  equis  aiiriga,  nee  audit  currui 
hahcnas,  as  so  many  wild  horses  run  away  with  a  chariot,  and  will  not  be  curbed. 
We  know  many  times  what  is  good,  but  will  not  do  it,  as  she  said, 

^"Trahit  invilum  nova  vis,  aliudque  cupido, 
Mens  aliud  siiadet, " 

Lust  counsels  one  thing,  reason  another,  there  is  a  new  reluctancy  in  men.  ^OfZi, 
nee  possum,  cujnens  non  esse,  quod  odi.     We  cannot  resist,  but  as  Phsedra  confessed 


'^  Res  ab  intellectii  monstratas  recipit,  vel  rejicit; 
approbat,  vel  iniprnbat,  Philip.  Ignoti  nulla  cupido. 
"1  Melancthon,  Operationes  plerumque  lera;,  etsllibera 
sil  ilia  in  essentia  sua.  si"  In  civilibus  libera,  sed 

uon  in  spirilualibiis  Osiander.  s^  Tola  voluntas 

Bversa   i  Peo.   Omnis  homo  mendax.  '**  Virg. 


"  We  are  neither  able  to  contend  against  them,  noi 
only  to  make  way."  '  Vel  propter  ignorantium 

quod  bonis  studiis  non  sit  inslructa  mens  lit  debuit 
aut   divinis   praeceplis  exculla.  ^  Med.      Ovid 

■'  Ovid. 


4   * 


108  Definition  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  1 

^tD  her  nurse,  *qucb  loquer^'i^  vera  sunt,  sod  furor  suggerit  aequi  pejora  :  she  said  well 
and  true,  she  did  ackn  wledg-e  it,  but  headstrong  passion  and  fury  made  her  to  do 
that  whicli  was  opposite.  So  David  knew  the  filthiness  of  his  fact,  what  a  loathsome, 
foul,  crving  sin  achdtery  was,  yet  notwithstanding  he  would  commit  murder,  and  takp 
away  another  man's  wife,  enforced  against  reason,  religion,  to  follow  his  appetite. 

Those  natural  and  vegetal  powers  are  not  commanded  by  will  at  all ;  for  "  who 
can  add  one  cubit  to  his  stature  .'"'  These  other  may,  but  are  not :  and  thence  come 
all  those  headstrong  passions,  violent  perturbations  of  the  mind ;  and  many  times 
vicious  habits,  customs,  feral  diseases ;  because  we  give  so  much  way  to  our  appetite, 
and  follow  our  inclination,  like  so  many  beasts.  The  principal  habits  are  two  in 
number,  virtue  and  vice,  whose  peculiar  definitions,  descriptions,  differences,  and 
kinds,  are  hand'od  at  large  in  the  ethics,  and  are,  indeed,  the  subject  of  moral  phi- 
losophy. 


MEMB.  III. 

Sub  SECT.  I. — Definition  of  Melancholy,  JVame,  Difference. 

Having  thus  briefly  anatomized  the  body  and  soul  of  man,  as  a  preparative  to 
the  rest ;  I  may  now  freely  proceed  to  treat  of  my  intended  object,  to  most  men's 
capacity;  and  after  many  ambages,  perspicuously  define  what  this  melancholy  is, 
show  his  name  and  differences.  The  name  is  imposed  from  the  matter,  and  disease 
denominated  from  the  material  cause :  as  Bruel  observes,  MiUivxoT^a.  quasi  MeXawaxo'Xr,, 
from  black  choler.  And  whether  it  be  a  cause  or  an  effect,  a  disease  or  symptom, 
let  Donatus  Altomarus  and  Salvianus  decide ;  I  will  not  contend  about  it.  It  hath 
several  descriptions,  notations,  and  definitions.  ^Fracastorius,  in  his  second  book 
of  intellect,  calls  those  melancholy,  "  whom  abundance  of  that  same  depraved  humour 
of  black  choler  hath  so  misaffected,  that  they  become  mad  thence,  and  dote  in  most 
things,  or  in  all,  belonging  to  election,  will,  or  other  manifest  operations  of  the  un- 
derstanding." ^Melanelius  out  of  Galen,  Ruffus,  ^Etius,  describe  it  to  be  "a  bad 
and  peevish  disease,  which  makes  men  degenerate  into  beasts  :"  Galen,  "  a  privation 
or  infection  of  the  middle  cell  of  the  head,  &,c."  defining  it  from  the  part  affected, 
which  'Hercules  de  Saxonia  approves,  lib.  1.  caj).  1  fi.  calling  it  ''a  depravation  of  the 
principal  function:"  Fuschius,  lib.  1.  cap.  23.  Arnoldus  Breviar.  lib.  Leap.  18, 
Guianerius,  and  others :  "  By  reason  of  black  choler,"  Paulus  adds.  Halyabbas 
simply  calls  it  a  "commotion  of  the  mind."  Aretajus,  ^"•a  perpetual  anguish  of  thi; 
soul,  fastened  on  one  thing,  without  an  ague ;  which  definition  of  his,  Mcrcurialis 
de  affect,  cap.  lib.  1.  cap.  10.  taxeth :  but  jElianus  Montaltus  defends,  lib.  de  morh. 
cap.  1.  de  Melan.  for  sufficient  and  good.  The  common  sort  define  it  to  be  "-a  kind 
of  dotage  without  a  fever,  having  for  his  ordinary  companions,  fear  and  sadness, 
without  any  apparent  occasion.  So  doth  Laurentius,  cap.  4.  Piso.  lib.  1.  cap.  43. 
Donatus  y\ltomarus,  cap.  7.  art.  medic.  Jacchinus,  in  com.  in  lib.  9.  Rhasis  ad  Al- 
mansor,  cap.  15.  Valesius,  exerc.  17.  Fuschius,  institut.  3.  sec.  I.e.  11.  &c.  which 
common  definition,  howsoever  approved  by  most,  ^Hercules  de  Saxonia  will  not 
allow  of,  nor  David  Crucius,  Tlieat.  morb.  Herm.  lib.  2.  cap.  6.  he  holds  it  insuffi- 
cient :  as  '°  rather  showing  what  it  is  not,  than  what  it  is :"  as  omitting  the  specific 
difference,  the  phantasy  and  brain  :  but  I  descend  to  particulars.  The  summum  genus 
is  "•  dotage,  or  anguish  of  the  mind,"  saith  Aretaeus ;  "  of  the  principal  parts,"  Her- 
cules de  Saxonia  adds,  to  distinguish  it  from  cramp  and  palsy,  and  such  diseases  as 
belong  to  the  outward  sense  and  motions  [depraved]  "  to  distinguish  it  from  folly 
and  madness  (which  Montaltus  makes  angor  animi,  to  separate)  in  which  those 
functions  are  not  depraved,  but  rather  abolished ;  [without  an  ague]  is  added  by  all, 
to  sever  it  from  phrensy,  and  that  melancholy  which  is  in  a  pestilent  fever.     (Fear 


*  Seneca,  Hipp.  ^  Melancholicos  vocamus,  qiins  [  animi    in    una    contentione    defixus,    absque    febre. 

exiiperaiitia  vel  pravitas  Melantholiae  ita  male  liabet,  1  "  Cap.  16.  1.  !.  i"  Eor\iin  defiiiitio  morbus  quid  non 

ut  iiide  insaniaiit  vel  in  omnibus,  vel  in  pluribiis  iisque  I  sit  potiiis  quam  quid  sit,  ex|ilicat.  "  Animre  fiinc- 

manifeslis  sive  ad  rectam  rationem,  volunlat6  perti-  |  tioiies  imminuHiitur  in  fatuitate,  tolluntur  in  mania, 
nent,    vel    electionem,    vel    intellectus    operationes.    depravantur  solum    in    melancliolia.     Here,  de  Sax 
'  Pessimura  et  pertinacissimum  morbuni  qui  homines    cap.  1.  tract,  de  Melan'''*. 
'.nbrutadegenerarecogit.       '  Panth.  Med.       ^  Angor 


Mem.  3.  Subs.  2.]  OJ  the  Paris  affected^  S^c.  109 

and  sorrow)  make  it  differ  from  madness :  [without  a  cause]  is  lastly  inserted,  to 
specify  it  from  all  other  ordinary  passions  of  [fear  and  sorrow.]  We  properly  call 
that  dotage,  as  '-Laurentius  interprets  it,  "when  some  one  piincipal  faculty  of  the 
mind,  as  imagination,  or  reason,  is  corrupted,  as  all  melancholy  persons  have."  It 
is  Avithout  a  fever,  because  the  humour  is  most  part  cold  and  dry,  contrary  to  putre- 
faction. Fear  and  sorrow  are  the  true  characters  and  inseparable  companions  of  most 
melancholy,  not  all,  as  Her.  de  Saxonia,  Tract,  de  posthiniw  de  Melancholia,  cap.  2. 
well  excepts ;  for  to  some  it  is  most  pleasant,  as  to  such  as  laugh  most  part ;  some 
are  bold  again,  and  free  from  all  manner  of  fear  and  griet",  as  hereafter  shall  be 
declared. 

,        SuBSECT.  II. —  Of  tire  part  affected.     Affection.     Parties  affected. 

Some  difference  I  find  amongst  writers,  about  the  principal  part  affected  in  this 
disease,  whellier  it  be  the  brain,  or  heart,  or  some  other  member.  Most  are  of 
opinion  that  it  is  the  brain  :  for  being  a  kind  of  dotage,  it  cannot  otherwise  be  but 
that  the  brain  must  be  affected,  as  a  similar  part,  be  it  by  '^  consent  or  essence,  not 
in  his  ventricles,  or  any  obstructions  in  them,  for  then  it  would  be  an  apoplexy,  or 
epilepsy,  as  '^Laurentius  well  observes,  but  in  a  cold,  dry  distemperature  of  it  in  his 
substance,  which  is  corrupt  and  become  too  cold,  or  too  dry,  or  else  too  hot.  as  in 
madmen,  and  such  as  are  inclined  to  it:  and  this  '^Hippocrates  confirms,  Galen,  the 
Arabians,  and  most  of  our  new  writers.  Marcus  de  Oddis  (in  a  consultation  of  his, 
luoted  by  '^Hildesheim)  and  five  others  there  cited  are  of  the  contrary  part;  be- 
cause fear  and  sorrow,  which  are  passions,  be  seated  in  the  heart.  But  this  objec- 
tion is  suflicientlv  answered  by  '"Montaltus,  who  doth  not  deny  that  the  heart  is 
affected  (as  "*Melanelius  proves  out  of  Galen)  by  reason  of  his  vicinity,  and  so  is 
the  midriff  and  many  other  parts.  They  do  compati.,  and  have  a  fellow  feeling  by 
the  law  of  nature  :  but  forasmuch  as  this  malady  is  caused  by  precedent  imagination, 
widi  the  appetite,  to  whom  spirits  obey,  and  are  subject  to  those  principal  parts,  th< 
brain  must  neetls  ])rimarily  be  misaffected,  as  the  seat  of  reason ;  and  then  the  hearty 
as  the  seat  of  afi'ection.  '^  Cappivaccius  and  Mercurialis  have  copiously  discussed 
this  question,  and  both  conclude  the  subject  is  the  inner  brain,  and  from  thence  it  is 
communicated  to  tlie  heart  and  other  inferior  parts,  which  sympathize  and  are  n)uch 
troubled,  especiallv  when  it  comes  by  consent,  and  is  caused  by  reason  of  the 
stomach,  or  myrach,  as  tiie  Arabians  term  it,  whole  body,  liver,  or  ^spleen,  which 
are  seldom  free,  pvlorus,  meseraic  veins.  Sic.  For  our  body  is  like  a  clock,  if  one 
wheel  be  amiss,  all  the  rest  are  disordered  ;  the  whole  fabric  suffers  :  with  such  ad- 
mirable art  and  liaiinonv  is  a  man  composed,  sucli  excellent  proportion,  as  Ludt>- 
vicus  Vives  in  his  Fable  of  Man  hath  elegantly  declared.  \ 

-As  many  doubts  almost  arise  about  the  -'affection,  whether  it  be  imagination  or 
reason  alone,  or  both,  Hercules  de  Saxonia  proves  it  out  of  Galen,  iEtius,  and 
Altomarus,  that  tlie  sole  fault  is  in  "imagination.  Bruel  is  of  the  same  mind  :  Mon- 
taltus in  his  2  cap.  of  Melancholy  confutes  this  tenet  of  theirs,  and  illustrates  tlie 
contrary  by  many  examples  :  as  of  him  that  thought  himself  a  shell-fish,  of  a  nun, 
and  of  a  desperate  monk  that  would  not  be  persuaded  but  that  he  was  danmed  ; 
reason  was  in  fault  as  well  as  imagination,  which  did  not  correct  this  error :  they 
make  away  themselves  oftentimes,  and  suppose  many  absurd  and  ridiculous  things. 
Why  doth  not  reason  detect  the  fallacy,  settle  and  persuade,  if  she  be  free  ?  ^Avi- 
cenna  therefore  holds  both  corrupt,  to  whom  most  Arabians  subscribe.  The  same 
is  maintained  by  -^Areteus, -'Gorgonius.  Guianerius,  &.c.  To  end  llie  controversy,  no 
man  doubts  of  imagination,  but  tliat  it  is  hurt  and  misaffected  here ;  tor  the  other  1 
determine  with  ^^  Albertinus  Bottonus,  a  doctor  of  Padua,  that  it  is  first  in  '^  imagi- 


"Cnp.   4.  de  iiiel.  "Per  consensum  sive  per  ]  «>  Rarii   qiiisqiiani    liimorpin   effugit   lienis,  qui    hoc 

essentinin.  '^  oa^..  f .  de  iiiel.  '»Sef.  7.  de     niorho  alticilur.  Piso.  Qiiis  affHcliis.  '-'  .^e«'  Dmiat 

mor.   vuljrar.  lib.   6.  I'Spicel.  de   melaiiclinlia.  i  ab  Altniiiar.        -•  Facultas  iiiiapinaiidi,  noii  cogitaiidi, 

'•  Cv*p.  3  de  met.    Pars  a^'^c  a  cerebrum  sive  per  con-    nee  iiiemorandi  la;sa  hie.  -•  Lib.  3.  Fen.  1.  Trad. 

senSiiMi,  sive   per    crrt:nrnni   contiiisjat,  et    proceriim    4.  cap.  8.  -^  Lib.  S.  cap.  5.  "Lib.  Med.  cap. 

a»;ctoritale  el   ratioiie  slabilitiir.  '8  Lib.  de  niel.     19.  pari.  2.  Tract.  15.  cap. '2.  ■«  Hildesheini,  spicel 

C>  I   vero    viciiiitatis  ratione  uni  nfficilur,  atcepluni  i  2  de  Melanc.  fol.  207,  el  fol.  127.     Quaiidoque  etiam 
tran.^vers  ini   ac   sumiachus   cum   dorsali  spina,  &;r.    rationalis  .u  aflectus  inveieratu.s  sit 
w  Lib.  I    cap.  10.     Sutijectuni  est  cerebrum  inierius.  | 


no  Matter  of  Melanchoty.  [Part.  1   Sec   . 

■latioii,  and  afterwards  in  reason ;  if  the  disease  be  inveterate,  or  as  it  is  more  or 
less  of  continuance  ;"  but  by  accident,  as  '■^'  Here,  de  Saxonia  adds  ;  *■'  faith,  opinion, 
discourse,  ratiocination,  are  all  accidentally  depraved  by  the  default  of  imagination." 
Parties  affected.]  To  the  part  affected,  I  may  here  add  the  parties,  which  shall  be 
more  opportunely  spoken  of  elsewhere,  now  only  signified.  Such  as  have  the 
moon,  Saturn,  Mercury  misaffected  in  their  genilures,  such  as  live  in  over  cold  or 
over  hot  climes  :  such  as  are  born  of  melanclioly  parents ;  as  offend  in  those  six 
non-natural  things,  are  black,  or  of  a  high  sanguine  complexion,  '^^  that  have  little 
heads,  that  have  a  hot  heart,  moist  brain,  hot  liver  and  cold  stomach,  have  been  long 
sick  :  such  as  are  solitary  by  nature,  great  students,  given  to  much  contemplation, 
lead  a  life  out  of  action,  are  most  subject  to  melancholy.  Of  sexes  both,  but  men 
more  often;  yet  ''^  women  misaffected  are  far  more  violent,  and  grievously  troubled. 
Of  seasons  of  the  year,  the  autumn  is  most  melancholy.  Of  peculiar  times :  old 
age,  from  which  natural  melancholy  is  almost  an  inseparable  accident ;  but  tliis  arti- 
ficial malady  is  more  frequent  in  such  as  are  of  a  ^°  middle  age.  Some  assign  40 
years,  Gariopontus  30.  Jubertus  excepts  neither  young  nor  old  from  this  adventi- 
tious. Daniel  Sennertus  involves  all  of  all  sorts,  out  of  common  experience,  ^'  in 
omnihus  omnino  corporibus  cujuscunque  conslilutionis  dominatar.  ^tius  and  Aretius^ 
ascribe  into  the  number  "  not  only  ^^discontented,  passionate,  and  miserable  persons, 
swartiiy,  black;  but  such  as  are  most  merry  and  pleasant,  scoffers,  and  high  colour- 
ed." "  Generally,"  saitli  Rhasis,  ^' "  the  finest  wits  and  most  generous  spirits,  are 
before  other  obnoxious  to  it ;"  I  cannot  except  any  complexion,  any  condition,  sex, 
or  age,  but  ^^  fools  and  stoics,  which,  according  to  ^'^  Synesius,  are  never  troubled 
with  any  manner  of  passion,  but  as  Anacreon's  cicada,  sine  sanguine  et  dolore  ; 
sinulcs  fere  diis  sunt.  Erasmus  vindicates  fools  from  this  melancholy  catalogue, 
because  they  have  most  part  moist  brains  and  light  hearts ;  ''^  they  are  free  iVom  am- 
bition, envy,  shame  and  fear ;  they  are  neither  troubled  in  conscience,  nor  macerated 
with  cares,  to  which  our  whole  life  is  most  subject. 

SuBSECT.  III. —  Of  the  Matter  of  Melancholy. 

Of  the  matter  of  melancholy,  there  is  much  question  betwixt  Avicen  and  Galen 
as  you  may  read  in  '^Cardan's  Contradictions,  '''' Valesius'  Controversies,  Montanus, 
Prosper  Calenus,  Capivaccius,  ""^  Bright,  ■"  Ficinus,  that  have  written  either  whole 
tracts,  or  copiously  of  it,  in  their  several  treatises  of  this  subject.  ''^'•'' What  this 
humour  is,  or  whence  it  proceeds,  how  it  is  engendered  in  the  body,  neither  Galen, 
nor  any  old  writer  hath  sufficiently  discussed,"  as  Jacchinus  thinks  :  the  Neoterics 
cannot  agree.  Montanus,  in  his  Consultations,  holds  melancholy  to  be  material  or 
immaterial :  and  so  doth  Arculanus  :  the  material  is  one  of  the  four  humours  before 
mentioned,  and  natural.  The  immaterial  or  adventitous,  acquisite,  redundant,  unna- 
tural, artificial;  which  '''Hercules  de  Saxonia  will  have  reside  in  the  spirits  alone, 
and  to  proceed  from  a  "  hot,  cold,  dry,  moist  distemperature,  which,  without  matter, 
alter  the  brain  and  functions  of  it."  Paracelsus  -wholly  rejects  and  derides  this  divi- 
sion of  four  humours  and  complexions,  but  our  Galenists  generally  approve  of  it, 
subscribing  to  this  opinion  of  Montanus. 

Tliis  material  melancholy  is  either  simple  or  mixed;  offending  in  quantity  or 
quality,  varying  according  to  his  place,  where  it  settleth,  as  brain,  sjaleen,  meseraic 
veins,  heart,  womb,  and  stomach ;  or  differing  according  to  the  mixture  of  those 
natural  humours  amongst  themselves,  or  four  unnatural  adust  humours,  ts  uhey  are 
diversely  tempered  and  mingled.     If  natural  melancholy  abound  in  the  body,  which 

'T/ih.  pnsthnmo  de  Mebinc.  edit.  1620.     Deprivatiir  land,   calvit.  "?  Vacant   cnnscientiK  carniflcina, 

fides,  disciirsiis,  opinio,  &c.  per  viiiiim  linagiiuitiories,  nee  piideliiint.  nee  verentnr,  nee  riilacerantur  niillibiig 

ex   Acciilenti.  *  Qui  parvum  caput  liahent,  in-  ciiraniin,  quilius  tola  vita  olinoxia  est.  3^IJ().  i 

sensati     pleriqne     .'iinl.       Arist.     in     pliysio2;iioniia.  tract.  3.  contradic.  18.       '''Lib.  I.cont.  21.      « Hrisht, 

''■' Aretciis,  lih.  3.  cap,  5.  ™Qni  prop6  statuni  sunt.  ca.  Ifi.       ■"  Lib.  1.  cap.  6.  de  saiiit.  tnenda.      '•'-Qiiisve 

Aret.      Mediis   cnnvenit   setatibiis,    Piso.  ^' l)e  ant  qiialis  sit  liiunor  ant  qua;  istins  differentia,  et  quo- 

quartano.  3- Lib.  1.  part.  2.  cap.  11.  Mpfjmus  modo  cisnantur  in  corpore,  &crutandnrn,  liSc  eniin  r* 

art   Melancholiatn    iion   tain    inoBstus   sed   et   hilares,  inulli  veleruni   laboravernnt,  nee  fieile  aci  ipere  et 

jocosi,   cachinnantes,   irrisores,    et,    qui    plerunique  Galeno   sententiam    ob    loqnendi    varietatein.    Leon, 

praerubri  .sunt.  ^jQuj  sunt   subtilis   inpenii,  et  Jaccli.  com.  in  9.   Rhasis,  cap  15.  cap.  16.  in  9.  Rhasis. 

mullte  perspicacitatis  de  facili  incidiint  in  Melancho-  ■'•'Lib.  postnin.  de  Melan.  edit.   Venetiis,  1620.  c.i\p.  1 

liain,  lib.  1   cont.  tract.  9.  ^Nnnquam  sanitate  et  8.     Ab  inteniperie  calid^,  humida,  &c. 

mentis  excidit  aut  dulore  capitur.  Erasm.  ^1d 


Wein.  3.  Subs.  4.J 


Species  of  Melancholy. 


IP: 


js  cokl  and  dry,  "  so  that  it  be  more  ''^  than  the  body  is  well  able  to  bear,  it  must 
needs  be  distempered,"  saith  Faventius,  "  and  diseased ;"  and  so  the  other,  if  it  be 
depraved,  whether  it  arise  from  that  other  melancholy  of  choler  adust,  or  from 
blood,  produceth  the  like  effects,  and  is,  as  Montaltus  contends,  if  it  come  by  adus- 
tion  of  humours,  most  part  hot  and  dry.  Some  difference  I  find,  whether  this  me- 
lancholy matter  may  be  engendered  of  all  four  humours,  about  the  colour  and 
temper  of  it.  Galen  holds  it  may  be  engendered  of  three  alone,  excluding  phlegm, 
or  pituiia,  whose  true  assertion  ''^  Valesius  and  Menardus  stiffly  maintain,  and  so  doth 
""Fuschius,  Montaltus,  "Montanus.  How  (say  they)  can  white  become  black? 
But  Hercules  de  Saxonia,  lih.  post,  de  mel.a.  c.  8,  and  ■** Cardan  are  of  the  opposite 
part  (it  may  be  engendered  of  phlegm,  etsi  rarb  confingat.,  though  it  seldom  come  it, 
pass),  so  is  ""^Guianerius  and  Laurentius,  c.  I.  with  Melanct.  in  his  book  de  Anima,  and 
Chap,  of  Humours ;  he  calls  it  Asininam,  dull,  swinish  melancholy,  and  saith  that 
he  was  an  eye-witness  of  it:  so  is  ^"Wecker.  From  melancholy  adust  ariseth  one 
kind ;  from  choler  another,  which  is  most  brutish ;  another  from  phlegm,  which  is 
dull ;  and  the  last  from  blood,  which  is  best.  Of  these  some  are  cold  and  dry, 
others  hot  and  dry,  ^'  varying  according  to  their  mixtures,  as  they  are  intended,  an-d 
remitted.  And  indeed  as  Kodericus  a  Fons.  cons.  12.  1.  determines,  ichors,  and 
those  serous  matters  being  thickened  become  phlegm,  and  phlegm  degenerates  into 
choler,  choler  adust  becomes  cBruginosa  mchmchoUa.,  as  vinegar  out  of  purest  wine 
putrified  or  by  exhalation  of  purer  spirits  is  so  matLe,  and  becomes  sour  and  sharp; 
and  from  the  sharpness  of  this  bumour  proceeds  much  waking,  troublesome  thoughts 
and  dreams,  &c.  so  tliat  I  conclude  as  before.  If  the  humour  be  cold,  it  is,  saith 
^^Faventinus,  "a  cause  of  dotage,  and  produceth  milder  symptoms  :  if  hot,  they  are 
rash,  raving  mad,  or  inclining  to  it."  If  the  brain  be  hot,  the  animal  spirits  are  hot; 
much  madness  follows,  with  violent  actions  :  if  cold,  fatuity  and  sottishness,  ^^Capi- 
vaccius.  ^^"The  colour  of  this  mixture  varies  likewise  according  to  the  mixture, 
be  it  hot  or  cold  ;  'tis  sometimes  black,  sometimes  not,  Altomarus.  The  same 
"^ Melanelius  proves  out  of  Galen;  and  Hippocrates  in  his  Book  of  Melancholy  (if 
at  least  it  be  his),  giving  instance  in  a  burning  coal,  "  which  when  it  is  hot,  shines ; 
w  hen  it  is  cold,  looks  black  ;  and  so  doth  the  humour."  This  diversity  of  melan- 
choly matter  produceth  diversity  of  effects.  If  it  be  within  the  ^^body,  and  not 
putrified,  it  causeth  black  jaundice ;  if  putrified,  a  quartan  ague ;  if  it  break  out  to 
tJie  skin,  leprosy ;  if  to  parts,  several  maladies,  as  scurvy^  &c.  If  it  trouble  the 
mind ;  as  it  is  diversly  mixed,  it  produceth  several  kinds  of  madness  and  dotage  • 
of  which  in  their  place. 

SuBSEOT.  IV. —  Of  the  species  or  kinds  of  Melancholy. 

When  the  matter  is  divers  and  confused,  how  should  it  otherwise  be,  but  that  the 
species  should  be  divers  and  confused  .''  Many  new  and  old  writers  have  spoken  con- 
fusedly of  it,  confounding  melancholy  and  madness,  as  ^'Heurnius,  Guianerius,  Gor- 
donius,  Salustius,  Salvianus,  .Jason  Pratensis,  Savanarola,  that  will  have  madness  no 
other  than  melancholy  in  extent,  differing  (as  I  have  said)  in  degrees.  Some  make  two 
distinct  species,  as  Ruffus  Ephesius,  an  old  writer,  Constantinus  Africanus,  Aretasus, 
'^Aurelianus,  ^^Paulus  ^gineta  :  others  acknowledge  a  multitude  of  kinds,  and  leave 
them  indefinite,  as  iEtius  in  his  Tetrabiblos,  ^"Avicenna,  Uh.  3.  Fen.  1.  Tract.  4.  cap 
18.  Arculanus,  cap.  10.  in  'J.  Rasis.  Montanus,  med.  part.  1.  *'"If  natural  me- 
lancholy be  adust,  it  maketh  one  kind;  if  blood,  another;  if  choler,  a  third,  differ- 
ing from  the  first ;  and  so  many  several  opinions  there  are  about  the  kinds,  as  there 


"  Secundum  niagis  ant  mintis  si  in  corpnrp  fuerit, 
ad  intcrnpeiiem  |iliisqiiaiii  turpiis  saluhritiT  ferre 
potpril  :   imie  corpus  niorbosiiiii  effitnr.  -"'Lih.  1. 

cmitinvrrs.    cap.   21.  -"Lih.    I.   ?ect.  4.   cap.   4. 

«C(incil.  26.  Jf  Mb.  2.  contradic.cap.  II.  J"  De 

feb.  tract.  (iilT.  2.  cap.  r.  Nnii  est  iiegaiidum  exhac  fieri 
Melanclinlicos.  n  In  Syntax.         ^' Varie  adnriliir, 

et  niiscetur.  nude  varia*  amentiiim  «pecies.  Melanct. 
O' Humor  frigidns  delirii  causa,  furoris  calidus,  &c. 
K'LiI:.  I.  cap    10.  de  affect,  cap.  64Njg,escit  flic 

hun)or,  aliquando  superralefactns,  aliqando  super 
fiigefiicius.  ca.  7.  ■'■  Humor  hie  nisfir  aliquando 


prEEter  modiim  calefactus,  et  alias  refriireratus  evadit 
nam  recentihus  carbonibus  ei  quid  simile  accidit,  quy 
duriinte  flHmnia  pellucidissinie  candent,  ed  extincU 
prtirsus  nigrescunt.   Hippocrates  ■' Guianerius, 

ditr  2.  cap.  7.  6' Non  est  mania,  nisi  exten.sa  me- 

lancholia. 58  Cap.  tj.  lib.  1.  -"2  Ser.  2.  cap 

9.  Morbus  hie  est  omnifarius.  ™  Species  indefinitw 
sunt.  i"  Si  aduratiir  naturalis  nielancliolia,  aliE 

fit  species,  si  sanguis,  alia,  si  flavibilis  alia,  diversa  I 
primis  :  mn.xima  est  inter  has  differentia,  et  tot  Dut 
torum  sententise,  quot  ipsi  numero  sunt. 


1 12  Species  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  1. 

be  men  lliemselves."  ^'Hercules  de  Saxonia  sets  down  two  kinds,  "material  and 
iinmalerial ;  one  from  spirits  alone,  the  other  from  humours  and  spirits."  Savana- 
rola,  Ruh.  11.  Tract.  6.  cap.  1.  le  cegrilud.  capitis^  will  have  the  kinds  to  be  infi- 
nite, one  from  the  myracn,  called  myrachialis  of  tlie  Arabians;  anotlier  stomachalis, 
irom  the  stomach ;  another  from  the  liver,  heart,  womb,  hemrods,  ''^'•'  one  beginning, 
inotiier  consummate."  Melancthon  seconds  him,  ''^"■as  the  humour  is  diversly 
adust  and  mixed,  so  are  tlie  species  divers ;"  but  what  these  men  speak  of  species  J 
think  ought  to  be  understood  of  symptoms,  and  so  doth  "^'Arculanus  interpret  him- 
self: infinite  species,  id  esl^  symptoms  ;  and  in  that  sense,  as  Jo.  Gorrheus  acknow- 
ledgeth  in  his  medicinal  definitions,  the  species  are  infinite,  but  they  may  be  reduced 
to  three  kinds  by  reason  of  their  seat;  head,  body,  and  hypochrondries.  This 
threefold  division  is  approved  by  Hippocrates  in  his  Book  of  Melancholy,  (if  it  be 
his,  which  some  suspect)  by  Galen,  lib.  3.  de  loc.  ajfectis^  cap.  6.  by  Alexander,  lib. 
1.  cap.  16.  Rasis,  lib.  1.  Continent .  Tract.  9.  lib.  1.  cap.  16.  Avicenna  and  most  of 
our  new  Avriters.  Th.  Eraslus  makes  two  kinds ;  one  perpetual,  which  is  head  me- 
lancholy ;  the  other  interrupt,  which  comes  and  goes  by  fits,  which  he  subdivides 
into  the  other  two  kinds,  so  that  all  comes  to  the  same  pass.  Some  again  make 
four  or  five  kinds,  with  Rodericus  a  Castro,  de  morbis  mulier.  lib.  2.  cap.  3.  and 
Lod.  Mercatus,  who  in  his  second  book  de  mulier.  affect,  cap.  4.  will  have  tliat  me- 
lancholy of  nuns,  widows,  and  more  ancient  maids,  to  be  a  peculiar  species  of 
melancholy  differing  from  the  rest :  some  will  reduce  enthusiasts,  extatical  and  de- 
moniacal persons  to  this  rank,  adding  "^"love  melancholy  to  the  first,  and  lycanlhro- 
pia.  The  most  received  division  is  into  three  kinds.  The  first  proceeds  from  the 
sole  fault  of  the  brainy  and  is  called  head  melancholy ;  tlie  second  sympathetically 
proceeds  from  the  whole  body,  when  the  whole  temperature  is  melancholy  :  the 
■third  ariselh  from  the  bowels,  liver,  spleen,  or  membrane,  called  inesenterium,  named 
hypochondriacal  or  windy  melancholy,  which  "  Laurentius  subdivides  into  three 
parts,  from  those  three  members,  hepatic,  splenetic,  meseraic.  Love  melancholy, 
which  Avicenna  calls  liisha :  and  Lycanthropia,  which  he  calls  cucubuthe,  are  com- 
monly included  in  head  melancholy ;  but  of  this  last,  which  Gerardus  de  Solo  calls 
amoreus,  and  most  knight  melancholy,  with  that  of  religious  melancholy,  virgimm 
et  viduarum.,  maintained  by  Rod.  a  Castro  and  Mercatus,  and  the  other  kinds  ol"  lovfc 
melancholy,  I  will  speak  of  apart  by  themselves  in  my  third  partition.  The  three 
precedent  species  are  the  subject  of  my  present  discourse,  which  I  will  analoinize 
and  treat  of  through  all  their  causes,  symptoms,  cures,  together  and  apart;  that 
every  man  that  is  in  any  measure  affected  with  this  malady,  may  know  how  to  ex- 
amine it  in  himself,  and  apply  remedies  unto  it. 

]t  is  a  hard  matter,  I  confess,  to  distinguish  these  three  species  one  from  the  other, 
to  express  their  several  causes,  symptoms,  cures,  being  that  they  are  so  often  con- 
founded amongst  themselves,  having  such  affinity,  that  they  can  scarce  be  discerned 
by  the  most  accurate  physicians ;  and  so  often  intermixed  witii  other  diseases,  that 
the  best  experienced  have  been  plunged.  Montanus  consil.  26,  names  a  patient  that 
had  this  disease  of  melancholy  and  caninus  appetitus  both  together;  and  consil.  23, 
with  vertigo,  ^Mulius  Caesar  Claudinus  with  stone,  gout,  jaundice.  Tiincavellius 
with  an  ague,  jaundice,  caninus  appetitus,  &c.  '^^'Paulus  Regoline,  a  great  doctor  in 
his  time,  consulted  in  this  case,  was  so  confounded  with  a  confusion  of  symptoms, 
that  he  knew  not  to  what  kind  of  melancholy  to  refer  it.  '"Trincavellius,  Fallopius, 
and  Francanzanus,  famous  doctors  in  Italy,  all  three  conferred  with  about  one  party, 
at  the  same  time,  gave  three  difl'erent  opinions.  And  in  another  place,  Trincavellius 
being  demanded  what  he  thought  of  a  melancholy  young  man  to  whom  he  was 
sent  for,  ingenuously  confessed  that  he  was  indeed  melancholy,  but  he  knew  not 
to  Avhat  kind  to  reduce  it.  In  his  seventeenth  consultation  there  is  the  like  dis- 
agreement about  a  melancholy  monk.  Those  symptoms,  which  others  ascribe  to 
misaffected  parts  and  humours,  "  Here,  de  Saxonia  attributes  wholly  to  distempered 
spirits,  and  tlwse  immaterial,  as  I  have  said.     Sometimes  they  cannot  well  discern 


«'^ Tract,  de  met.  cap.  7.  "Quiedam  incipiens  i  Rasis.         «"  Laurentius,  cnp.  4.  de  mel.         "TCap.  13 

quiedam  consummala.  "Cap.  de  humnr.llb.de     «'480.  et   116.  consult,  consil.  12.  «"  lllldesheiin 

anima.   Varle  aduritur  et  miscetur  ipsa  melancholia,     spicil   2.  fol.  166.  "o Trincavellius,  torn.  2.  consil 

Jnde  varitB  amentium  species.  e."  Cap.  16.  in  9.  |  15  et    16.  ''Cap.   13.  tract,   posth.de  nielan. 


Mem.  3.  Subs.  4.] 


Causes  of  Mclanchnly. 


113 


iliis  disease  from  others.  In  Reinerus  Solinander's  counsels,  (^Seci  consil.  5,)  he 
and  Dr.  Brande  both  agreed,  that  the  patient's  disease  was  hypocondriacal  melancholy. 
Dr.  Matholdus  said  it  was  asthma,  and  nothinsf  else.  '^Solinander  ana  Giiarionius, 
lately  sent  for  to  the  melancholy  Duke  of  Cleve,  with  others,  could  not  define  what 
species  it  was,  or  agree  amongst  themselves.  The  species  are  so  confounded,  as  in 
Caesar  Claudinus  his  forty-fourth  consultation  for  a  Polonian  Count,  in  his  judgment 
""  he  laboured  of  head  melancholy,  and  that  which  proceeds  from  the  whole  tem- 
perature both  at  once."  I  could  give  instance  of  some  that  have  had  all  three  kinds 
semel  el  simul^  and  some  successively.  So  that  I  conclude  of  our  melancholy  spe- 
cies, as  '■'many  politicians  do  of  their  pure  forms  of  commonwealths,  monarchies, 
aristocracies,  democracies,  are  most  famous  in  contemplation,  but  in  practice  they 
are  temperate  and  usually  mixed,  (so  "Polybius  informeth  us)  as  the  Lac(idaemonian, 
the  Roman  of  old,  German  now,  and  many  others.  What  physicians  say  of  distinct 
species  in  their  books  it  much  matters  not,  since  that  in  their  patients'  bodies  they 
are  commonly  mixed.  In  such  obscurity,  therefore,  variety  and  confused  mixture 
of  symptoms,  causes,  how  diflicult  a  thing  is  it  to  treat  of  several  kinds  apart;  to 
make  any  certainty  or  distinction  among  so  many  casualties,  (hstractions,  when 
seldom  two  men  shall  be  like  effected  per  ovinia?  'Tis  hard,  I  confess,  yet  never- 
theless I  will  adventure  througli  the  midst  of  these  perplexities,  and,  led  by  the  clue 
or  thread  of  the  best  writers,  extricate  myself  out  of  a  labyrinth  of  doubts  and 
errors,  and  so  proceed  to  the  causes. 


SECT.  II.    MEMB.  I. 

Sub  SECT.  I. — Causes  of  Melancholy.     God  a  cause. 

"  It  is  in  vain  to  speak  of  cures,  or  think  of  remedies,  until  such  time  as  we  have 
considered  of  the  causes,"  so  '''Galen  prescribes  Glauco  :  and  the  common  expe- 
rience of  others  confirms  that  those  cures  must  be  imperfect,  lame,  and  to  no  pur- 
pose, wherein  the  causes  have  not  first  been  searched,  as  '^Prosper  Calenius  well 
observes  in  his  tract  de  atra  bile  to  Cardinal  CiTesius.  Insomuch  that  "*"•  Fernelius 
puts  a  kind  of  necessity  in  the  knowledge  of  the  causes,  and  without  which  it  is 
impossible  to  cure  or  prevent  any  manner  of  disease."  Empirics  may  ease,  and 
sometimes  help,  but  not  thoroughly  root  out ;  suhlata  causa  tollllur  effeclus^  as  the 
saying  is,  if  the  cause  be  removed,  the  effect  is  likewise  vanquished.  It  is  a  most 
difficult  thing  (I  confess)  to  be  able  to  discern  these  causes  whence  they  are,  and  in 
such  '''variety  to  say  what  the  beginning  was.  *^°He  is  happy  that  can  perform  it 
aright.  I  will  adventure  to  guess  as  near  as  I  can,  and  rip  them  all  up,  from  the 
first  to  the  last,  general  and  particular,  to  every  species,  that  so  they  may  the  better 
be  described. 

General  causes,  are  either  supernatural,  or  natural.  "  Supernatural  are  from  God 
and  hi?  angels,  or  by  God's  permission  from  the  devil"  and  his  ministers.  That  God 
himself  is  a  cause  for  the  punishment  of  sin,  and  satisfaction  of  his  justice,  many 
examples  and  testimonies  of  holy  Scriptures  make  evident  unto  us,  Ps.  cvii.  17. 
"  Foolish  men  are  plagued  for  their  offence,  and  by  reason  of  their  wickedness." 
Gehazi  was  strucken  with  leprosy,  2  Reg.  v.  27.  Jehoram  with  dysentery  and  fluxi 
and  great  diseases  of  the  bowels,  2  Chron.  xxi.  1.5.  David  plagued  for  numbering 
his  people,  1  Par.  21.  Sodom  and  Gomorrah  swallowed  up.  And  this  disease  if 
peculiarly  specified.  Psalm  cxxvii.  12.  "He  brought  down  their  heart  through 
heaviness."  Deut.  xxviii.  28.  "  He  struck  them  with  madness,  blindness,  and  as- 
t<mishment  of  heart."      ^'"An  evil  spirit  was  sent  by  the  Lord  upon  Saul,  to  vex 


"  Ouarion.  cons.  med.  2.  '3  Laboravit  per  essen- 
tiani  et  a  toto  corpore.  '^Machi.ivel,  &c.  Smithiis 
de  rep.  Angl.  cap.  8.  Mb.  1.  Biiscoldus,  disriir.  polit. 
••iscurs.  5.  cap.  7.  Arist.  I.  3.  polit.  cap.  iilt.  Keckerm. 
a<ii,  &c.  'i^Lib.  6.  '6  pi-jmo  artis  curitivie. 

*•  Nostri  primum  sit  propositi  affVctioniim  c>>usas  in- 
dagare  ;  ris  ipsa  hortari  videtur,  nam  alioqui  eariim 
cu.atio,  mhnca  et  inutilis  esaet.  '"Path.  lib.  1. 


cap.  11.  Rerup^.  cognoscere  cansas,  mcdicis  imprimit 
necessariuir.,  sine  qua  nee  morbiim  curare,  nee  pre- 
cavere   licet.  '"Tanta  enini   morlii  varietas  ac 

differentia  ut  non  lacile  dignosc.alur,  unde  initiiiig 
morbus  surnpserit.     Melanelius  6  Galeoo  MF4oij^ 

qui  potuit  reruin  cognusccre  causas  *'  1  8a>u 

xvi.  14. 


15 


k2 


il4  Causes  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec  2. 

him."  ^Nebuchadnezzar  did  eat  grass  like  an  ox,  anc?  his  "heart  was  made  like 
the  beasts  of  tlie  field.''  Heathen  stories  are  full  of  such  punisluuents.  Lycurgus, 
because  he  cut  down  the  vines  in  the  country,  was  by  Bacchus  driven  into  madness  ; 
so  was  Pentheus  and  his  mother  Agave  for  neglecting  their  sacrifice.  "Censor  Fi.l- 
vius  ran  mad  for  untiling  Juno's  temple,  to  cover  a  new  one  of  his  own,  which  lie 
had  dedicated  to  Fortune,  """and  was  confounded  to  death  with  grief  and  sorrow  of 
heart."  When  Xerxes  would  have  spoiled  ^'Apollo's  temple  at  Delphos  of  those 
infinite  riches  it  posse.ssed,  a  terrible  thunder  came  from  heaven  and  struck  four 
thousand  men  dead,  the  rest  ran  mad.  ^^A  little  after,  the  like  happened  to  Breiuius, 
lightning,  thunder,  earthquakes,  upon  such  a  sacrilegious  occasion.  If  we  may  be- 
lieve our  pontifical  writers,  they  will  relate  unto  us  many  strange  and  prodigious 
punishments  in  this  kind,  inflicted  by  their  saints.  How  ^'Clodoveus,  sometime 
king  of  France,  tlie  son  of  Dagobert,  lost  his  wits  for  uncovering  the  body  of  St. 
Denis  :  and  how  a  ''*' sacrilegious  Frenchman,  that  would  have  stolen  a  silver  image 
of  St.  John,  at  Birgburge,  became  IVautic  on  a  sudden,  raging,  and  tyrannising  over  his 
own  flesh:  of  a  ^^''Lord  of  Rhadnor,  that  coming  from  hunting  late  at  night,  put  his 
dogs  into  St.  Avan's  church,  (Llan  Avan  they  called  it)  and  rising  betimes  next 
morning,  as  hunters  use  to  do,  found  all  his  dogs  mad,  himself  being  suddenly 
stricken  blind.  Of  Tyridates  an  ^"Armenian  king,  for  violating  some  iioly  nuns, 
that  was  punished  in  like  sort,  with  loss  of  his  wits.  But  poets  and  papists  may  go 
together  for  fabulous  tales;  let  them  free  their  own  credits:  howsoever  they  feign 
of  their  Nemesis,  and  of  their  saints,  or  by  the  devil's  means  may  be  deluded ;  we 
find  it  true,  that  ultor  a  tergo  Deus^  '""He  is  God  the  avenger,"  as  David  styles 
him  ;  and  that  it  is  our  crying  sins  that  pull  this  and  many  other  maladies  on  our 
own  lieads.  That  lie  can  by  his  angels,  which  are  his  ministers,  strilce  and  heal 
(saith  ^^Dionysius)  whom  he  will;  that  he  can  plague  us  by  his  creatures,  sun, 
moon,  and  stars,  which  he  useth  as  his  instruments,  as  a  husbandman  (saith  Zan- 
chius)  doth  a  hatchet :  hail,  snow,  winds,  &c.  ^^^  Ei  conjurati  veniunt  in  classica 
vend ;"  as  in  Joshua's  time,  as  in  Pharaoh's  reign  in  Egypt ;  they  are  but  as  so 
many  executioners  of  his  justice.  He  can  make  the  proudest  spirits  stoop,  and  cry 
out  with  Julian  the  Apostate,  Vicisti  GalUo'c  :  or  with  Apollo's  priest  in  ^^Chrysos- 
tom,  O  ccehim !  6  terra!  undo  hostis  hie?  What  an  enemy  is  this  ?  And  pray  with 
David,  acknowledging  his  power,  "  1  am  weakened  and  sore  broken,  I  roar  for  the 
grief  of  mine  heart,  mine  heart  panteth,  Sj.c."  Psalm  xxxviii.  8.  "  O  Lord,  rebuke, 
me  not  in  thine  anger,  neither  chastise  me  iu  thy  wrath,"  Psalm  xxxviii.  1.  |''- Make 
me  to  hear  joy  and  gladness,  that  the  bones  which  thou  hast  broken,  may  rejoice," 
Psalm  li.  8.  and  verse  12.  *•' Resto?;e  to  me  the  joy  of  thy  salvation,  and  stablish 
me  with  thy  free  spirit."  For  these  causes  belike  ^^Hippocrates  would  have  a  phy- 
sician take  special  notice  whether  the  disease  come  not  from  a  divine  supernatural 
cause,  or  whetlier  it  follow  the  course  of  nature.  But  this  is  farther  discussed  by 
Fran.  Valesius,  de  sacr.  philos.  cap.  8.  ^^Fernelius,  and  ^'J.  Coesar  Claudinus,  to 
whom  I  refer  you,  how  this  place  of  Hippocrates  is  to  be  understood.  Paracelsus 
is  of  opinion,  that  such  spiritual  diseases  (for  so  he  calls  them)  are  spiritually  to  be 
cured,  and  not  otherwise.  Ordinary  means  in  sucli  cases  will  not  avail :  JYun  est 
reluctandum  euni  Deo  (we  must  not  struggle  with  God.)  When  that  monster-taming 
Hercules  overcame  all  in  the  Olympics,  Jupiter  at  last  in  an  unknown  shape  wrestled 
with  him ;  the  victory  was  uncertain,  till  at  length  Jupiter  descried  himself,  and  Her- 
cules yielded.  No  striving  with  supreme  powers.  Nil  jiwat  immensos  Cratero 
proniiUere  rnontes,  physicians  and  physic  can  do  no  good,  ^'*-'-  we  must  submit  our- 
selves unto  the  miglity  hand  of  God,  acknowledge  our  oflTences,  call  to  him  for 
mercy.  If  he  strike  us  una  eademque  manus  vulnus  opetnque  ferel^  as  it  is  with 
them  that  are  wounded  with  the  spear  of  Achilles,  he  alone  must  help ;  otherwise 
our  diseases  are  incurable,  and  we  not  to  be  relieved. 

82Dan.  V.  21.  MLactant.  irislit.  lib.  2.  cap.  8.     versat,  nee  mora  sacritegus  mentis   inops,  atque   ir 

■*•  Meiiie  captus,  et  sumino  aniiiii  moerore  consuiiiptiis.  !  semet  insaiiieiis  in  proprios  artiis  ilesajvlt.  ^'i  Gi- 

*"  Mu.iSler  cosniog.  lil).  4.  cap.  43.  Ue  coelo  sul)sienie-  1  raldiis  Canilirensis,  lili  1.  c.  1.  llinerar.  Canihrii* 
■lantii:-,  tanqtiain    ins:ini    de    sa.xis    priecipilati,   &c.  I  "n  Delrio,  toiii.  ,S.  lili.   0.  sect.  3.  qiwsl    3.  ■'   Psal 

"•■Livliis  lib.  38.         "■  Gafjuin.  I.  3.  c.  4.  Quod  Dionysii     .\lvl.  1.  J   l,ib.  8.  cap.  de  Ilierar.  'J^  Claudian 

corpus  discooperiierat,  in  iiisanani  iiicidit.  ^~  Idt-iii  "' De  liabili  Martyre.  ^  Lib.  cap.  5,  ,.ro«[.  *■  Lib 
lib.  9- sub.  Carol.  6.  Sacroruni  coiitenipt(U,  tenipli  fori-     1.  de  Abditis  reruni  i  iusis.  "  Ri  <;ions.  med   19 

bus  eU  actis,  diini  D  Johannis  .iru'enteiini  siniulacriim    resp.  ^'1  i'el.  v   t> 

rapere  contendit,  siiiiiilac.riiiii  aversu  facie  dorsum  fi 


Mem.  1.  Subs.  2.1 


JVature  of  Devils. 


IIA 


SiBSECT.  II. — A  Digression  of  Ike  nature  of  Spirits.,  had  Angels.,  or  Devils.,  and 
how  they  cause  Melancholy. 

How  far  llie  power  of  spirits  and  devils  doth  extend,  and  whether  they  can  cause 
/,  this,  or  any  other  disease,  is  a  serious  question,  and  worthy  to  be  consulered  :  for  the 
belter  understanding  of  which,  I  will  make  a  brief  digression  of  the  nature  of  spirits. 
And  altliough  tlie  question  be  very  obscure,  according  to  ^"Postellus,  "full  of  contro- 
versy and  ambiguity,"  beyond  the  reach  of  human  capacity,  yrt/eor  excedcre  vires 
inlcnlionis  mece.,  saith  '""Austin,  I  confess  I  am  not  able  to  understand  \\.,finilum  de 
infinilo  nan  jmlest  stalucre.,  we  can  sooner  determine  witb  Tully,  de  nat.  denrunu  quid 
nan  sin/.,  quam  quid  sint.,  our  subtle  schoolmen.  Cardans,  Scaligers,  profound  Tliom- 
ists.  Fracastoriana  and  Ferneliana  acies.,  are  weak,  dry,  obscure,  defective  in  these 
mysteries,  and  all  our  quickest  wits,  as  an  owl's  eyes  at  the  sun's  light,  wax  dull, 
and  are  not  sufficient  to  appreliend  tliem ;  yet,  as  in  the  rest,  I  will  adventure  to  say 
something  to  this  point.  In  former  times,  as  we  read.  Acts  xxiii.,  the  Sadducees  de- 
nied that  there  were  any  such  spirits,  devils,  or  angels.  So  did  Galen  the  physician, 
the  Peripatetics,  even  Aristotle  himself,  as  Pomponatius  stoutly  maintains,  and  Scali 
ger  in  some  sort  grants.  Though  Dandinus  the  Jesuit,  com.  in  lib.  2.  de  animc. 
stiffly  denies  it;  subslanlice  separatee  and  intelligences,  are  the  same  wliicli  Chris- 
tians call  angels,  and  Platonists  devils,  for  they  name  all  the  spirits,  da^mnncs.,  be 
they  good  or  bad  angels,  as  Julius  Pollux  Onomasticon,  lib.  1.  cap.  1.  observes.  Epi- 
cures and  atheists  are  of  the  same  mind  in  general,  because  they  never  saw  tliem. 
Plato,  Plotinus,  Porpliyrius,  Jamblichus,  Proclus,  insisting  in  tlie  steps  of  Trisme- 
gistus,  Pythagoras  and  Socrates,  make  no  doubt  of  it :  nor  Stoics,  but  tliat  there  are 
such  spirits,  though  much  erring  from  tlie  truth.  Concerning  the  first  beginning  of 
them,  the  'Talmudists  say  tliat  Adam  had  a  wife  called  Lilis,  before  he  married  Eve, 
and  of  her  he  begat  nothing  but  devils.  The  Turks'  ^Alcoran  is  altogether  as  absurd 
and  ridiculous  in  this  point :  but  the  Scripture  informs  us  Christians,  how  Luciler, 
the  chief  of  them,  with  his  associates,  ^fell  from  heaven  for  his  pride  and  ambition  ; 
created  of  God,  placed  in  heaven,  and  sometimes  an  angel  of  light,  now  cast  down 
into  the  lower  aerial  sublunary  parts,  or  into  hell,  "•  and  delivered  into  chains  of 
darkness  (2  Pet.  ii.  4.)  to  be  kept  unto  damnation." 

JVature  of  Devils.]  There  is  a  foolish  opinion  which  some  hold,  that  they  are 
the  souls  of  men  departed,  good  and  more  noI)le  were  deified,  tlie  baser  grovelled  on 
the  ground,  or  in  the  lower  parts,  and  were  devils,  the  which  with  Tertullian,  Por- 
phyrins the  philosopher,  M.  Tyrius,  ser.  27  maintains.  "These  spirits,"  he  ^ saith, 
"  which  we  call  angels  and  devils,  are  nought  but  souls  of  men  departed,  which 
either  through  love  and  pity  of  their  friends  yet  living,  help  and  assist  them,  or  else 
persecute  their  enemies,  whom  they  hated,"  as  Dido  threatened  to  persecute  ^neas : 

"Oninil)us  uinl)ra  locis  adero  :  dahis  iniprobe  pcEiias." 
"  My  aiijiry  glinst  arising  fruin  tlie  deep, 
Sliall  liaiint  tliee  waliiiij;,  ami  disturl)  thy  sleep; 
At  least  Tiiy  sliade  thy  piiiiisluiient  shall  know. 
And  Fame  shall  siiiead  Uie  l)leasing  news  below." 

They  are  (as  others  suppose)  appointed  by  those  higher  powers  to  keep  men  from 
their  nativity,  and  to  protect  or  punisli  them  as  they  see  cause  :  and  are  called  honi 
et  mall  Genii  by  the  Romans.  Heroes,  lares,  if  good,lemures  or  larv^e  if  bad,  by 
the  stoics,  governors  of  countries,  men,  cities,  saith  ^Apuleius,  Deos  appellant  qui 
ex  hominum  numero  iuste  ac  prudenter  vita  curricula  gulyernato.,  pro  nvmine.,  postea 
ab  hominibus  prcediti  fanis  et  ceremoniis  vulgo  admittuntur.,  ut  in  jEgypto  Osyris,  &.C. 
Pro'stites.,  Capella  calls  them,  "  which  protected  particular  men  as  well  as  princes,'' 
Socrates  had  his  Dcemonium  Saturninum  et  ignium.,  which  of  all  spirits  is  best,  ad 
sublimes  cogitationes  animum  erigentem.,  as  the  Platonists  supposed ;  Plotinus  his, 


9' Lib.  1.  c  7.  de  orbis  contordia.  In  nulla  re  major 
fiiit  altercatio,  major  obsciiritas,  minor  opitiionum  con- 
tordia, quini  de  dtemonibus  et  siibstantiis  separatis. 
'"'Lib.  3.  de  Trinit.  cap.  1.  '  Pererius  in  Genesin. 

lib.  4.  in  cap.  3.  v.  23.  =See  Strozzuis  Cicogna 

omnifarise.   Mag.  lib.  2.  c.  15.  Jo.  Anbanns,  Hredenba- 
ehiiig  sAngeliis  per  superhiatn  separalns  &  Ueo, 

lai  in  veritate  nor.  stetit.    Austin.  <Nihilaliud 


sunt  Dismones  quam  nnd.-e  animtE  quffi  corpore  depo- 
sito  priorein  miserati  vilain,  cognatis  siiccurrnnt  coni- 
moti  misericordia,  &c.  ^  De  Deo  Socratis.    All 

those  mortals  are  called  Gods,  who,  the  conrse  of  life 
being  prudently  guided  and  governed,  are  honoured 
by  men  with  temples  and  sacrifices,  as  ()siri«  \m 
jtgypt,  &c. 


J16 


jyature  of  Devils. 


[Part.  1.  Sec.  2 


and  we  christians  our  assistinsr  angel,  as  Andreas  Victorellus,  a  copious  writer  of 
this  subject,  Lodovicus  de  La-Cerda,  the  Jesuit,  in  his  vohuninous  tract  de  Jlngch 
Custode,  Zanchius,  and  some  divines  think.  But  this  absurd  tenet  of  Tyreus,  Pro- 
clus  confutes  at  large  in  his  book  de  Jinimn  et  dccmone. 

f  "Psellus,  a  christian,  and  sometimes  tutor  (saith  Cuspinian)  to  Michael  Parapina- 
tius.  Emperor  of  Greece,  a  great  observer  of  the  nature  of  devils,  holds  they  are 
^corpereal,  and  have  ''•aerial  bodies,  that  they  are  mortal,  live  and  die,"  (which 
Marlianus  Capella  likewise  maintains,  but  our  christian  philosophers  explode)  '■'•  that 
*they  are  nourished  and  have  excrements,  they  feel  pain  if  they  be  hurt  (which  Car- 
dan confirms,  and  Scaliger  justly  laughs  him  to  scorn  for;  Si  pascantur  acre.,  cur 
non  pugnnnt  ob  puriorcm  aera  f  &.c.)  or  stroken  :"  and  if  their  bodies  be  cut,  with 
admirable  celerity  they  come  together  again.  Austin,  in  Gen.  lib.  iii.  lib.  arbit., 
approves  as  much,  mutata  casu  corpora  in  deteriorem  qualitatem  aeris  spissioris,  so 
doth  Hierome.  Comment,  in  epist.  ad  Ephes.  cap.  3,  Origen,  Tertullian,  Lactantius, 
and  many  ancient  Fathers  of  the  Church  :  that  in  their  fall  their  bodies  were  changed 
into  a  more  aerial  and  gross  substance.  Bodine,  lib.  4,  Theatri  Naturae  and  David 
Crusius,  Hermetic^  Philosophia?,  lib.  i.  cap.  4,  by  several  arguments  proves  angels 
and  spirits  to  be  corporeal ;  quicquid  continetur  in  loco  Corporeum  est ;  Jit  spiritus 
continetur  in  loco.,  ergo.^  Si  spiritus  sunt  quanti^  erunt  Corporei :  Jit  sunt  quunii., 
ergo.  Sunt  ftniti,  ergo  quanti.,  See.  '"Bodine  goes  farther  yet,  and  will  have  these, 
Animoi  separata',  genii.,  spirits,  angels,  devils,  and  so  likewise  souls  of  men  departed, 
if  corporeal  (which  he  most  eagerly  contends)  to  be  of  some  shape,  and  tliat  abso- 
lutely round,  like  Sun  and  Moon,  because  that  is  the  most  perfect  form,  qmp.  nihil 
habet  asperitatis.,  nihil  angulis  incisum.,  nihil  anfractihus  invGlutem.,  nihil  emincns., 
sed  inter  corpora  perfecia  est  perfectissimum  ;  ''  therefore  all  spirits  are  corporeal 
he  concludes,  and  in  their  proper  shapes  round.  That  they  can  assume  other  aerial 
bodies,  all  manner  of  shapes  at  their  pleasures,  appear  in  what  likeness  they  will 
themselves,  that  they  are  most  swift  in  motion,  can  pass  many  miles  in  an  instant, 
and  so  likewise  '''transform  bodies  of  others  into  what  shape  they  please,  and  witli 
admirable  celerity  remove  them  from  place  to  place ;  (as  the  Angel  did  Habakkuk  to 
Daniel,  and  as  Philip  the  deacon  was  carried  away  by  the  Spirit,  when  he  had  bap- 
tised the  eunuch ;  so  did  Pythagoras  and  Apollonius  remove  themselves  and  others, 
with  many  such  feats)  that  they  can  represent  castles  in  the  air,  palaces,  armies, 
spectrums,  progidies,  and  such  strange  objects  to  mortal  men's  eyes,  '^ cause  smells, 
savours,  &c.,  deceive  all  the  senses ;  most  writers  of  this  subject  credibly  believe ; 
and  that  they  can  foretel  future  events,  and  do  many  strange  miracles.  Juno's  image 
spake  to  Camillus,  and  Fortune's  statue  to  the  Roman  matrons,  with  many  such. 
Zanchius,  Bodine,  Spondanus,  and  others,  are  of  opinion  that  they  cause  a  true  me- 
tamorphosis, as  Nebuchadnezzar  was  really  translated  into  a  beast.  Lot's  wife  into 
a  pillar  of  salt ;  Ulysses'  companions  into  hogs  and  dogs,  by  Circe's  charms ;  turn 
themselves  and  others,  as  they  do  witches  into  cats,  dogs,  hares,  crows,  &c.  Stroz- 
zius  Cicogna  hath  many  examples,  lib.  iii.  omnif.  mag.  cap.  4  and  5,  whicli  he  there 
confutes,  as  Austin  likewise  doth,  de  civ.  Dei  lib.  xviii.  That  they  can  be  seen  when 
and  in  what  shape,  and  to  whom  they  will,  saith  Psellus,  Tametsi  nil  tale  viderim, 
nee  optem  videre.,  though  he  himself  never  saw  them  nor  desired  it ;  and  use  sonie- 
times  carnal  copulation  (as  elsewhere  1  shall  '''prove  more  at  large)  with  women  and^ 
men.  Many  will  not  believe  they  can  be  seen,  and  if  any  man  shall  say,  swear,  and 
stiffly  maintain,  though  he  be  discreet  and  wise,  judicious  and  learned,  that  he  hath 
seen  them,  they  account  him  a  timorous  fool,  a  melancholy  dizard,  a  weak  fellow, 
a  dreamer,  a  sick  or  a  mad  man,  they  contemn  him,  laugh  him  to  scorn,  and  yet 
Marcus  of  his  credit  told  Psellus  that  he  had  often  seen  them.  And  Leo  Suavius,  a 
Frenchman,  c.  8,  in  Commentar.  1.  1.  Paracelsi  de  vita  longa.  out  of  some  Plato- 


«  He  lived  500  years  since.  '  Apiileiiis  :  spiritus 

animalia  sunt  aniinn  pasgibilia,  menle  ratinnulia,  cnr- 
pore  aeria,  tempore  senipiterna.  *  Nuiriuntur,  et 

excrementa  liabent,  quod  pulsata  dnieant  solido  per- 
cussa   corpore.  "  Whatever   occupies   space   is 

corporeal : — spirit  occupies  space,  therefore,  &.c.  &c. 
'»4  1ih.  4.    Tlieol.  nat.   fol.  535.  "  Wliich  lias   no 

toughness,  anirles,  fractures,  prominences,  but  is  the 
■lost  perfect  ainunjjst  perfect  b(>riii>«  ''^Ovorianua 


in  Epist.  monies  etiam  et  animalia  fransferri  possunts 
as  the  devil  did  Christ  to  the  top  of  the  pinnacle;  and 
witches  are  often  translated.  See  more  in  Strozzius 
Cicogna,  lib.  3.  rap.  4.  omnif.  mag.  Per  aera  subdu- 
cere  et  in  sublime  corpora  ferre  possunt,  Biarmanua. 
Percussi  dolent  et  uruntur  in  conspicuos  cineres, 
Agrippa,  lib.  3.  cap.  de  occiil.  I'hilos.  '^  Agrsppa, 

de  occult.  Philos.  lib.  3.  cap.  18.  "i  Part.  3.  Sect  1 
Mem.  1.  Subs    1.  J.ove  Melancholy. 


Mem.  1 .  Subs.  2  .  Nature  of  Devils.  1 17 

aisls,  will  have  the  air  to  be  as  full  of  them  as  snow  falling  in  the  skies,  and  that  thev 
may  be  seen,  and  withal  sets  down  the  means  how  men  may  see  them ;  Si  irrever 
bcratus  ocuUs  sole  splcndente  versus  caelum  continuaverint.  oblutus,  &c.,'*  and  saith 
moreover  he  tried  it,  prcEmissnrum  feci  experi7nenfum^  and  it  was  true,  that  the  Pla- 
tonists  said.  Paracelsus  confesseth  that  he  saw  them  divers  times,  and  conferred 
with  them,  and  so  doth  Alexander  ab  "'Alexandro,  "  that  he  so  found  it  by  expe- 
rience, when  as  before  he  doubted  of  it."  Many  deny  it,  saith  Lavater,  de  spectris, 
lart  i.  c.  2,  and  part  ii.  c.  11,  "-because  they  never  saw  them  themselves;"  but  as  he 
•eports  at  large  all  over  his  book,  especially  c.  19.  part  1,  they  are  often  seen  and 
heard,  and  familiarly  converse  with  men,  as  Lod.  Vives  assureth  us,  innumerable 
records,  histories,  and  testimonies  evince  in  all  ages,  times,  places,  and  "all  travel- 
lers besides  ;  in  the  West  Indies  and  our  northern  climes,  J\'ihil  faviiliarius  quam 
in  agris  ct  urbibus  spiritus  videre,  midire  qui  vetent,  jtiheanl,  &.c.  Hieronimus  vita 
Pauli,  Basil  ser.  40,  Nicephorus,  Eusebius,  Socrates,  Sozomenus,  '* Jacobus  Boissar- 
dus  in  his  tract  de  spirituum  ajipari.lionihus.,  Petrus  Loyerus  1.  de  spectris,  Wierus 
1.  1.  have  infinite  variety  of  such  examples  of  apparitions  of  spirits,  for  him  to  read 
that  farther  doubts,  to  his  ample  satisfaction.  /'  One  alone  I  will  briefly  insert.  A 
nobleman  in  Germany  was  sent  ambassador  to  the  King  of  Sweden  (for  his  name, 
the  time,  and  such  circumstances,  I  refer  you  to  Boissardus,  mine  '^Author).  After 
be  had  done  his  business,  he  sailed  to  Livonia,  on  set  purpose  to  see  those  familiar 
spirits,  \vhich  are  there  said  to  be  conversant  with  men,  and  do  their  drudgery  works. 
Amongst  other  matters,  one  of  tliem  told  him  where  his  wife  was,  in  what  room,  in 
what  clothes,  what  doing,  and  brought  him  a  ring  from  her,  wiiich  at  his  return,  ?/on 
sine  omniiwi  admiratioiK'.,  he  found  to  be  true ;  and  so  believed  that  ever  after,  which 
before  he  doubted  of  Cardan,  1.  19.  de  subtil,  relates  of  his  father,  Facius  Cardan, 
that  after  the  accustomed  solemnities.  An.  1491,  13  August,  he  conjured  up  seven 
devils,  in  Greek  apparel,  about  forty  years  of  age,  some  ruddy  of  complexion,  and 
some  pale,  as  he  thought ;  he  asked  them  many  questions,  and  they  made  ready 
answer,  that  they  were  aerial  devils,  that  ihey  lived  and  died  as  men  did,  save  that 
they  were  far  longer  lived  (700  or  800  ^''years);  they  did  as  much  excel  men  in 
dignity  as  we  do  juments,  and  were  as  far  excelled  again  of  those  that  were  above 
them  ;  our  ^'  governors  and  keepers  they  are  moreover,  which  ^^  Plato  in  Critias  de- 
livered of  old,  and  subordinate  to  one  another,  Ut  enim  homo  homini,  sic  dcemon 
dcemoni  dominatur,  they  rule  themselves  as  well  as  us,  and  the  spirits  of  the  meaner 
sort  had  commonly  such  offices,  as  we  make  horse-keepers,  neat-herds,  and  the 
basest  of  us,  overseers  of  our  cattle ;  and  that  we  can  no  more  apprehend  their  na- 
tures and  functions,  than  a  horse  a  man''s.  They  knew  all  things,  but  might  not 
reveal  them  to  men  ;  and  ruled  and  domineered  over  us,  as  we  do  over  our  horses ; 
the  best  kings  amongst  us,  and  the  most  generous  spirits,  were  not  comparable  to 
the  basest  of  them.  Sometimes  they  did  instruct  men,  and  communicate  their  skill, 
reward  and  cherish,  and  sometimes,  again,  terrify  and  punish,  to  keep  them  in  awe, 
as  they  thought  fit,  JVihil  magis  cupicntes  (saith  Lysius,  Phis.  Stoicorum)  quam  ado- 
rationem  hominumP  The  same  Author,  Cardan,  m  his  Hyperchen,  out  of  the  doc- 
trine of  Stoics,  will  have  some  of  these  Genii  (for  so  he  calls  them)  to  be  ^'  desirous 
of  men's  company,  very  affable  and  familiar  with  them,  as  dogs  are ;  others,  again^ 
to  abhor  as  serpents,  and  care  not  for  them.  The  same  belike  Tritemius  calls  Ignios 
et  sublunares,  qui  nunquam  demergunt  ad  inferiora^  aut  vix  ullum  habcnt  in  terris 
commercium  :  ''^Generally  they  far  excel  men  in  worth,  as  a  man  the  meanest  worm  ; 
though  some  of  them  are  inferior  to  those  of  their  own  rank  in  worth,  as  the  black- 
guard in  a  prince's  court,  and  to  men  again,  as  some  degenerate,  base,  rational  crea- 
tures, are  excelled  of  brute  beasts." 

That  the}  are  mortal,  besides  these  testimonies  of  Cardan,  Martianus,  &c.,  many 


16 "By  gazing  steadfastly  on  the   sun  illuminated 
with  his  brightest  rays."  leQenial.  dierum.     na 

Blbi  visum  et  compertum  quum  prius  an  essent  ambi- 
geret  Fidera  suam  liberel.  "  Lib.  I.  de  verit.  Fidei. 
Benzo,  &c.  "^Lib.   de   Divinatiotie   et  magia. 

'"Cap.   8.    Transportavit  in  Llvoniani  cupiditate   vi- 


hominibus,  quanto  hi  brutis  animantibus.  22  Prse- 

sides  Pastores,  Guhernatorcs  hominiim,  et  illi  anima- 
lium.  23 "Coveting  nothing  more  than  the  admi- 

ration of  mankind."         '•'•'Natura  familiares  ut  cane* 
hominibus  miilti  aversantiir  el  abhorrent.  '''Ab 

honiinc  plus  distant  quam  homo  ab  ignobilissimo  ver- 


Jendi,  &c.  -"Sic   Hesiodus   de  Nymphis  vivere    ne,  et  tanien  quidam  ex  hts  ab  hominibus  superantur 

Jii'it.   10.  aetates  phaenicum  vel.  9.  7.  20.  21  cus-  j  ut  homines  &  ieris,  &c. 

UMlcK  hominum  et  provii  ciarum,  &.C.  tanto  meliores  I 


1 18  JS'alure  of  Spirits.  [Pait.  1.  Sec,  2 

ither  divines  and  philosophers  hold,  post  prolixum  tempiis  viorluntur  omnes ;  The 
'^Platonists,  and  some  Rabbins,  Porphyrins  and  Plutarch,  as  appears  by  that  relation 
of  Tliainus  :  -'"  The  great  God  Pan  is  dead  ;  Apollo  Pythius  ceased;  and  so  the 
rest.  St.  Hierome,  in  the  life  of  Paul  the  Hermit,  tells  a  story  how  one  of  them  ap- 
peared lo  St.  Anthony  in  the  wdderness,  and  told  him  as  much.  ^^  Paracelsus  of 
our  late  writers  stiffly  maintains  that  they  are  mortal,  live  and  die  as  otlier  creatures 
Jo.  Zozimus,  1.  2,  farther  adds,  that  religion  and  policy  dies  and  alters  with  them. 
The  ^^Gentiles'  gods,  he  saith,  were  expelled  by  Constantine, and  together  with  them. 
Imperii  Romani  mojestas,  ct  fortuna  interiit,  et  proftigata  est ;  The  fortune  and  ma- 
jesty of  the  Roman  Empire  decayed  and  vanished,  as  that  heathen  in  ^''Minutius  for- 
merly bragged,  wlien  the  Jews  were  overcome  by  the  R(  mans,  the  Jew's  God  was 
likewise  captivated  by  that  of  Rome  ;  and  Rabsakeh  to  the  Israelites,  no  God  should 
deliver  them  out  of  the  hands  of  the  Assyrians.  But  these  paradoxes  of  their  power, 
corporeity,  mortality,  taking  of  shapes,  transposing  bodies,  and  carnal  copulations, 
are  sufficiently  confuted  by  Zanch.  c.  10,  1.4.  Pererius  in  his  comment,  and  Tos- 
tatus  questions  on  the  6th  of  Gen.  Th.  Aquin.,  St.  Austin,  Wierus,  Th.  Erastus, 
Delrio,  tom.  2,  1.  2,  qu.Bst.  29 ;  Sebastian  Michaelis,  c.  2,  de  spiritibus,  D.  Reinolds 
Lect.  47.  They  may  deceive  the  eyes  of  men,  yet  not  lake  true  bodies,  or  make  a 
real  metamorphosis;  but  as  Cicogna  proves  at  large,  they  are  ^^lUusorioe.  et  prasti- 
giatrices  transfor  mat  lone  s^  omnif.  mag.  lib.  4,  cap.  4,  mere  illusions  and  cozenings, 
like  that  tale  of  Pasetis  obulus  in  Suidas,  or  that  of  Autolicus,  Mercury's  son,  that 
dwelt  in  Parnassus,  who  got  so  much  treasure  by  cozenage  and  stealth.  His  fatlier 
Mercury,  because  he  could  leave  him  no  wealth,  tauglit  him  many  fine  tricks  to  get 
means,  ^^for  he  could  drive  away  men's  catile,  and  if  any  pursued  him,  turn  them 
into  what  shapes  he  would,  and  so  did  mightily  enrich  himself,  hoc  astu  maximam 
pra>dam  est  adsccuius.  This,  no  doubt,  is  as  true  as  the  rest ;  yet  thus  much  in 
general.  Thomas,  Durand,  and  others,  grant  that  they  hsve  understanding  far  be- 
yond men,  can  probably  conjecture  and  ^^foretel  many  things;  they  can  cause  and 
cure  most  diseases,  deceive  our  senses.;  they  have  excellent  skill  in  all  Arts  and 
Sciences ;  and  that  the  most  illiterate  devil  is  Quovis  Iwvdne  scientior  (more  know- 
ing than  any  man),  as  ^''Cicogna  maintains  out  of  others.  They  know  the  virtues 
of  herbs,  plants,  stones,  minerals,  &c. ;  of  all  creatures,  birds,  beasts,  the  four  ele- 
ments, stars,  planets,  can  aptly  apply  and  make  use  of  them  as  tliey  see  good ;  per- 
ceiving the  causes  of  all  meteors,  and  the  like  :  Dant  se  colorihus  (as  ''^Austin  hath 
it)  accommodant  sejigiiris,  adhcerent  sonis.,  subjiciunt  se  odoribus,  infundunt  se  sapo- 
Hbus,  omnes  sensus  etiam  ipsam  intelligentiam  dcRmoncs  fallunt^i  tliey  deceive  all  our 
senses,  even  our  understanding  itself  at  once.  ''^They  can  produce  miraculous  alter- 
ations in  the  air,  and  most  wonderful  effects,  conquer  armies,  give  victories,  help, 
"urther,  hurt,  cross  and  alter  human  attempts  and  projects  [Dei  pennissu)  as  they  see 
good  themselves.  '^'When  Charles  the  Great  intended  to  make  a  channel  betwixt 
the  Rhine  and  the  Danube,  look  what  his  workmen  did  in  the  day,  these  spirits 
flung  down  in  the  night,  Ut  conatu  Rex  desisteret^  pervicere.  Such  feats  can  they 
do.  But  tliat  which  Bodine,  1.  4,  Theat.  nat.  thinks  (following  Tyrius  belike,  and 
the  Platonists,)  they  can  tell  the  secrets  of  a  man's  heart,  aut  cogitationes  Jiominum, 
is  most  false  ;  his  reasons  are  weak,  and  sufficiently  confuted  by  Zanch.  lib.  4,  cap.  9, 
Hierom.  lib.  2,  com.  in  Mat.  ad  cap.  15,  Athanasius  qua^st.  27,  ad  Antiochum  Prin- 
cipem,  and  others. 

Orders.]  As  for  those  orders  of  good  and  bad  devils,  which  the  Platonists  hold, 
is  altogether  erroneous,  and  those  Ethnics  boni  et  mail  Genii.,  are  to  be  exploded  : 
these  heathen  writers  agree  not  in  this  point  among  themselves,  as  Dandinus  notes, 

"  Cib )  et  pom  uti  et  venere  cum  hominibus  ac  tan-  cap.  17.  Partim  quia  snhtilioris  sensus  aciimine,  par- 
den'  niori,  Cicoiina.  1.  part.  lib.  2.  c  3.  -'  Plutarch,  tiiri  scientia  calidiore  vigent  et  experientia  propter 
de  defect,  oraculorum.  ■"'Lib.  de  Zilphis  et  Pig-  j  inaRnam   longitudineni  vitoe,   partim   ab   Angelis   dis- 

meis.  '^^  Dii  sentium  a  Constantio  prostigati  sunt,    cunt,  &c.         '■  1  ib   3.  omnif.  mag.  cap.  3.         '^^h   18. 

&c.  -"Octovian.  dial.  JudiRorum   deum   fuisse    quest.         ^e  Qumn  tanti  sit  et  tarn  profunda  opiritum 

Romanorum  numinibus  una  cum  gente  captivum.  scientia,  mirum  non  est  tot  tantJsque  res  visu  admi- 
■'  Omnia  spiritiiius  olena,  et  ex  eorum  concordia  et  I  raliiles  ab  ipsis  patrari,  et  quidem  rerun)  ^laturaliuin 
discordia  omnes  boni  et  mali  effectus  pronianant.  om-  ope  quas  multo  melius  intellisunt,  multcqHe  pcritius 
nia  humana  reguntur:  paradoxa  veterum  de  quft  Ci-  suis  locis  et  temporibus  applicaii.  norunt,  quain  homo, 
cogna.  omnif.  mag.  1.  2.  c.  3.  -ijOves  quas  abac-  ,  Cicogna.  3'  Aventinus,  quicquid  interdiu  exhau- 

tur-:<t  era.  in  quascunque  formas  verlebat  Pausanias,  riebatur,  ncctu  explebatur.  Inde  pavefucti  lura 
!lvi;inua  ^^Auitin  in  1.  2.  de  Gen.  ad  liteiam    tores,  &.c. 


Mem   1.  Subs.  2.1  JVature  of  Spirits.  119 

.9n  siiit  ^mali  non  comveniunf,  some  will  have  all  spirits  good  or  bad  to  us  by  a 
mistake,  as  if  an  Ox  or  Horse  could  discourse,  he  would  say  the  Butcher  was  his 
enemy  because  he  killed  him,  the  Grazier  his  friend  because  he  fed  him ;  a  Hunter 
preserves  and  yet  kills  his  game,  and  is  hated  nevertheless  of  his  game ;  nee  pisca- 
torem  piscis  a7tiare  potest^  Slc.  But  .lamblichus,  Psellus,  Plutarch,  and  most  Plato- 
nists  acknowledge  bad,  et  ab  eorum  malcficiis  cavendum,  and  we  should  beware  of 
their  wickedness,  for  they  are  enemies  of  mankind,  and  this  Plato  learned  in  Egypt, 
that  they  quarj-elled  with  Jupiter,  and  were  driven  by  him  down  to  hell.^^  That 
which  ^Apuleius,  Xenophon,  and  Plato  contend  of  Socrates  Daemonium,  is  most 
absurd  :  That  which  Plotinus  of  his,  that  he  had  likewise  Beiim  pro  Dccmonio  ;  and 
that  which  Porphyry  concludes  of  them  all  in  general,  if  they  be  neglected  in  their 
sacrifice  they  are  angry ;  nay  more,^s  Cardan  in  his  Hipperchen  will,  they  feed  on 
men's  souls,  Elnncnla  sunt  plantis  elemcntum.,  animaUbus  plantce.,  Iwminibiis  anima- 
lia^  erunt  et  homines  aliis,  non  autcm  diis,  nimis  enim  remota  est  eorum  natura  a 
nostra^  quapropter  dcemonibus  :  and  so  belike  that  we  have  so  many  battles  fought 
in  all  ages,  countries,  is  to  make  them  a  feast,  and  their  sole  delight :  but  to  return 
to  that  I  said  before,  if  displeased  they  fret  and  chafe,  (for  they  feed  belike  on  the 
souls  of  beasts,  as  we  do  on  their  bodies)  and  send  many  plagues  amongst  us  ;  but 
if  pleased,  then  they  do  much  good ;  is  as  vain  as  the  rest  and  confuted  by  Austin, 
1.  9.  c.  8.  de  Civ.  Dei.  Euseb.  1.  4.  prajpar.  Evang.  c.  6.  and  others.  Yet  thus  much 
I  find,  that  our  School-men  and  other  '"  Divines  make  nine  kinds  of  bad  Spirits,  as 
Dionysius  hath  done  of  Angels.  In  the  first  rank  are  those  false  gods  of  the  Gen- 
tiles, which  were  adored  heretofore  in  several  Idols,  and  gave  Oracles  at  Delphos, 
and  elsewhere ;  whose  Prince  is  Beelzebub.  The  second  rank  is  of  Liars  and 
iEquivocators,  as  Apollo,  Pythius,  and  the  like.  The  third  are  those  vessels  of 
anger,  inventors  of  all  mischief;  as  that  Theutus  in  Plato ;  Esay  calls  them  ''^vessels 
of  fury ;  their  Prince  is  Belial.  The  fourth  are  malicious  revenging  Devils ;  and 
their  Prince  is  Asmodseus.  The  fifth  kind  are  cozeners,  such  as  belong  to  Magicians 
and  Witches  ;  their  Prince  is  Satan.  The  sixth  are  those  aerial  devils  that  ""^  corrupt 
the  air  and  cause  plagues,  thunders,  fires,  &c. ;  spoken  of  in  the  Apocalypse,  and 
Paul  to  the  Ephesians  names  them  the  Princes  of  the  air ;  Meresin  is  their  Prince. 
The  seventh  is  a  destroyer,  Captain  of  the  Furies,  causing  wars,  tumults,  combus- 
tions, uproars,  mentioned  in  the  Apocalypse ;  and  called  Abaddon.  Tlie  eighth  is 
that  accusing  or  calumniating  Devil,  whom  the  Greeks  call  At,tt/3oxo5,  tliat  drives  men 
to  despair.  The  ninth  are  those  tempters  in  several  kinds,  and  their  Prince  is  Mam- 
mon. Psellus  makes  six  kinds,  yet  none  above  the  Moon  :  Wierus  in  his  Pseudo- 
monarchia  Dasmonis,  out  of  an  old  book,  makes  many  more  divisions  ••>.nd  subordi- 
nations, with  their  several  names,  numbers,  ofiices,  &c.,  but  Gazaeus  cited  by  ''^Lip- 
sius  will  have  all  places  full  of  Angels,  Spirits,  and  Devils,  above  and  beneath  the 
Moon,^^  aetherial  and  aerial,  which  Austin  cites  out  of  Varro  1.  vii.  de  Civ.  Dei,  c.  6. 
•'  The  celestial  Devils  above,  and  aerial  beneath,"  or,  as  some  will,  g-ods  above,  Se- 
midei  or  half  gods  beneath.  Lares,  Heroes,  Genii,  which  climb  higher,  if  they  live^l 
well,  as  the  Stoics  held ;  but  grovel  on  the  ground  as  they  were  baser  in  their  lives, 
nearer  to  the  earth  :  and  are  Manes,  Lemures,  Lamia?,  Stc.  ""^  They  will  have  no  place 
but  all  full  of  Spirits,  Devils,  or  some  other  inhabitants ;  Plenum  Ccelum^  aer,  aqua 
terra^  et  omnia  sub  ierrct^  saith  '''Gazaeus;  though  Anthony  Rusca  in  his  book  de 
Inferno,  lib.  v.  cap.  7.  would  confine  them  to  the  middle  Region,  yet  they  will  have 
them  everywhere.  "  Not  so  much  as  a  hair-breadth  empty  in  heaven,  earth,  or 
waters,  above  or  under  the  earth."  The  air  is  not  so  full  of  flies  in  summer,  as  it 
is  at  all  times  of  invisible  devils  :  this  ***  Paracelsus  stiffly  maintains,  and  that  they 
.ave  every  one  their  several  Chaos,  others  will  have  infinite  worlds,  and  each  world 
his  peculiar  Spirits,  Gods,  Angels,  and  Devils  to  govern  and  punish  it. 

"  Singula  *'>  nonnulli  crediint  quoqiie  sidera  posse      I      "  Some  persons  believe  each  star  to  he  a  world,  an£ 
Dici  orbes,  terramque  appellant  sidus  opacum,  this  earth  an  opaque  star,  over  which  the  least  of  the 

Cui  minimus  divuni  prtesit." |  gods  presides." 

*■  In  lib.  2.  de  Anima  text  29.     Homerus  discrimina-  '  "  Vasa  irte.  c.  13.         ■'^  Quibus  datum  cr-i  ru.tere  t.:tra 
am  ou-.nes  spiritus  da;mone3  vocat.  •>'  A  Jove  ad  '  et  niari,  &c.  ^*  Physiol.  Stoicorum  6  Senec.  l.o.  1. 

tnferos  pulsi,  &c.  ■"' De  Deo  Socratis  adesl   mihi     cap.  28.  ^^Usque  ad  luniun  animas  esse  Kthereas 

divina  sorte  Dipmonium  qnodd.im  i  prima  pueritia  me     vocarique  heroas,  lares,  genios.  ^"  Marl.  Capella 

gfeculum,  R»Epp  dissuadet,  imi)ellit  nonniinquam  instar     <' Nihil  vacuum  ab   his  uhi  vel  capillum  in  aere  vel 
ovis,  Plato.  ^'  Aarippa  lib.  3.  de  occul.  ph.  c.  18.     aqua  jaceas.  *»  Lib.  de  Zilp.  *"  Palingeniua. 

/.^nch.     Pirtorus,     Perer'us    Ciuogna.   I.   3     cap.    1. 


V40 


Digression  of  Spirits. 


Tart.  1.  Sect.  2 


""Gregorius  Tholsanus  makes  seven  kinds  of  aetherial  Spiri^  or  Angels,  according 
to  the  number  of  the  seven  Planets,  Saturnine,  Jovial,  Martial,  of  which  Cardan  dis.- 
courseth  lib.  xx.  de  subtil,  he  calls  them  suhslanlias  pritnas.,  Olpnpicos  dcemonts 
IVilemliis,  qui  prcEmnt  Zodiaco,  &c.,  and  will  have  them  to  be  good  Angels  above. 
Devils  beneath  the  Moon,  their  several  names  and  ofHces  he  there  sets  down,  and 
which  Dionysius  of  Angels,  will  have  several  spirits  for  several  countries,  men, 
offices,  &.C.,  which  live  about  them,  and  as  so  many  assisting  powers  cause  their 
operations,  will  have  in  a  word,  innumerable,  as  many  of  them  as  there  be  Stars  in 
the  Skies.  ^'  Marcilius  Ficinus  seems  to  second  this  opinion,  out  of  Plato,  or  from 
himself,  I  know  not,  (still  ruling  their  inferiors,  as  they  do  those  under  them  again, 
all  subordinate,  and  the  nearest  to  the  earth  rule  us,  whom  we  subdivide  into  good 
and  bad  angels,  call  Gods  or  Devils,  as  they  h«lp  or  hurt  us,  and  so  adore,  love  or 
hate)  but  it  is  most  likely  from  Plato,  for  he  relying  wholly  on  Socrates,  qucm  mori 
potius  quam  menliri  voluisse  scribit,  whom  he  says  would  rather  die  than  tell  a  false- 
hood, out  of  Socrates'  authority  alone,  made  nine  kinds  of  them  :  which  opinion  be- 
like Socrates  took  from  Pythagoras,  and  he  from  Trismegistus,  he  from  Zoroastes, 
first  God,  second  idea,  3.  Intelligences,  4.  Arch-Angels,  5.  Angels,  6.  Devils,  7.  He- 
roes, 8.  Principalities,  9.  Princes  :  of  which  some  were  absolutely  good,  as  Gods, 
some  bad,  some  indifferent  inter  deos  el  hominrs.,  as  heroes  and  daemons,  which  ruled 
men,  and  were  called  genii,  or  as  ^^  Proclus  and  Jamblichus  will,  the  middle  betwixt 
(Jxod  and  men.  Principalities  and  Princes,  which  commanded  and  swayed  Kings  and 
countries ;  and  had  several  places  in  the  Spheres  pei-haps,  for  as  every  sphere  is 
higher,  so  hath  it  more  excellent  inhabitants  :  which  belike  is  that  GaliliEus  a  Gali- 
leo and  Kepler  aims  at  in  his  nuncio  Syderio,  when  he  will  have  ''^Saturnine  and 
Jovial  inhabitants  :  and  which  Tycho  Brahe  doth  in  some  sort  touch  or  insinuate 
in  one  of  his  Epistles:  but  these  things  ^'Zanchius  justly  explodes,  cap.  3.  lib.  4. 
P.  Martyr,  in  4,  Sam.  28. 

So  that  according  to  these  men  the  number  of  aetherial  spirits  must  needs  be  infi- 
nite :  for  if  that  be  true  that  some  of  our  mathematicians  say  :  if  a  stone  could  fall 
from  the  starry  heaven,  or  eighth  sphere,  and  should  pass  every  hour  an  hundred 
miles,  it  would  be  65  years,  or  more,  before  it  would  come  to  ground,  by  reason  of 
the  great  distance  of  heaven  from  earth,  which  contains  as  some  say  170  millions 
800  miles,  besides  those  other  heavens,  whether  they  be  crystalline  or  watery  which 
Maginus  adds,  which  peradventure  holds  as  much  more,  how  many  such  spirits  may 
It  contain  ?  And  yet  for  all  this  ^^  Thomas  Albertus,  and  most  hold  that  there  be  far 
more  angels  than  devils. 

Sublunary  drvils^  and  their  Iii7ids.\  But  be  thev  more  or  less.  Quod  supra  nos 
nihil  ad  nos  i^what  is  beyond  our  comprehension  does  not  concern  us).  Howsoever 
as  Marlianns  foolislily  supposeth,  Miherii  Dcpmones  non  curant  res  humanas^  they 
care  not  for  us,  do  not  attend  our  actions,  or  look  for  us,  tVioeo  getherial  spirits  have 
other  worlds  to  reign  in  belike  or  business  to  foiiow.  We  are  only  now  to  speak 
m  brief  of  these  sublunary  spirits  or  devus :  for  the  rest,  our  divines  determine  that 
the  Devil  had  no  power  over  stars,  or  heavens  ;  ''^  Car  minibus  cailo  possunt  deducere 
htnam,  &c.,  (by  their  charms  (verses)  they  can  seduce  the  moon  from  the  heavens). 
Those  are  poetical  fictions,  and  that  they  can  ^"^  sister  e  aqua?7ijluviis,  et  vert  ere  sidcra 
ret.roy  &c.,  (stop  rivers  and  turn  the  stars  backward  in  their  courses)  as  Canadia  in 
Horace,  'tis  all  false.  "They  are  confined  until  the  day  of  judgment  to  this  sublu- 
nary world,  and  can  work  no  farther  than  the  four  elements,  and  as  God  permits 
them.  Wherefore  of  these  sublunary  devils,  though  others  divide  them  otherwise 
according  to  their  several  places  and  offices,  Psellus  makes  six  kinds,  fiery,  aerial, 
terrestrial,  watery,  and  subterranean  devils,  besides  thofe  fairies,  satyrs,  nymphs,  &.c. 

Fiery  spirits  or  devils  are  such  as  commonly  wort  by  blazing  stars,  fire-drakes, 


•*  r.ib  7.  cap.  34  et  5.  Syntax,  art.  niirab.  s' Com- 
mmil  in  dial.  Plat,  de  aiiiore,  cap.  5.  Ut  sphara  qiiae- 
libet  super  nns,  ita  praestaiitiores  habent  habitatores 
suae  sphieriE  cniisortes,  ut  habet  nostra.  ^''  Lib   de 

Arnica,  et  da?iiiotie  nie  \.  inter  deos  et  homines,  dica  ad 
nos  el  iiosira  lequalitei  id  deos  ferunt.  °a^ai„rni. 

na«  ot  Jovialns  accolas.  '^  ]n  Inr.a  detrnsi  snnt 

lufia  t.-slestes  orbes  in  aerem  scilicet  el  infra  ubi  Ju- 


dicio    geneiali   reservantur.  ""^q.   36    art.    9. 

66  Vir>r.  8.  Eg.  ^' JEn.  i.  w  Austin  :  hoc  dixi, 

ne  quis  existiniet  habiiare  ibi  inala  dEEinonia  ubi  Solem 
et  Lunam  et  Stellas  Deus  ordinavit,  et  alibi  nenio  ar- 
bitraretur  Dienionem  coelis  habitare  cum  Angelis  suis 
unde  lapsiim  credinius  Idem.  Zanch.  1.  4.  c.  3.  d«i 
Angel,  nialis.  Pererius  in  fien.  cap.  6.  lib-  8.  in  v<»r  9 


\ltiii    .   ouDs.  2.]  Digression  af  Spirus.  12 J 

or  ignes  fat.ui ;  which  lead  men  often  in  Jlnmina  aut  prcBcipUia,  saith  Bodino,  lib.  2. 
Theat.  Naturae,  fell.  221.      Quos  inquit  arccre  si  volunt  viatorcs^  clara  once  Deum 
appellarer  aid  pronam  facie  terram  contingente  adorare  oportct,  et  hoc  amuletu7n  ma- 
joribus  nostris  acceplum  ferre  dehcmus^  &c.,  (whom  if  travellers  wish  to  keep  off 
they  must  pronounce  the  name  of  God  with  a  clear  voice,  or  adore  him  with  their 
faces  in  contact  with  the  ground,  &c.) ;  likewise  they  counterfeit  suns  and  moons, 
stars  oftentimes,  and  sit  on  ship  masts  :  In  navigiorum  summilatibus  visuntnr ;  and 
are  called  dioscuri,  as  Eusebius  1.  contra  Philosophos,  c.  xlviii.  informeth  us,  out  of 
tile  authority  of  Zeno-phanes  ;  or  little  clouds,  ud  niotuin  nescio  quern  volantes  ;  which 
never  appear,  saith  Cardan,  but  they  signify  some  mischief  or  other  to  come  .into 
men,  though  some  again  will  have  them  to  pretend  good,  and  victory  to  that  side 
they  come  towards  in  sea  fights,  St.  Elmo's  fires  they  commonly  call  them,  and  they 
do  likely  appear  after  a  sea  storm ;  Radzivilius,  the  JPolonian  duke,  calls  this  appari- 
tion, Sancli  Gcrmani  sidus ;  and  saith  moreover  that  lie  saw  the  same  after  in  a 
storm,  as  he  was  sailing,  1582,  from  Alexandria  to  Rhodes.^''     Our  stories  are  full 
of  such  apparitions  in  all  kinds.    Some  tliink  they  keep  their  residence  in  that  Hecla, 
a  mountain   in   Iceland,  Ji^tna  in   Sicily,  Lipari,  Vesuvius,  &c.     These  devils  were 
worshipped  heretofore  by  that  superstitious  rivpo/xavTita^"  and  the  like. 
-  Aerial  spirits  or  devils,  are  such  as  keep  quarter  most  part  in  the  *^'  air,  cause  many 
/tempests,  thunder,  and  liglitnings,  tear  oaks,  fire  steeples,  houses,  strike  men  and 
beasts,  make  it  rain  stones,  as  in  Livy's  time,  wool,  frogs,  &c.    Counterfeit  armies  in 
tiie  air,  strange  noises,  swords,  &c.,  as  at  Vienna  before  the  coming  of  the  Turks, 
and  many  times  in  Rome,  as  Scheretzius  1.  de  spect.  c.  1.  part  1.     Lavater  de  spect. 
part.  i.  c.  17.     Julius  Obsequens,  an  old  Roman,  in  his  book  of  prodigies,  ab  urb. 
cond.  505.     ^^  Machiavel  hath  illustrated  by  many  examples,  and  Josephus,  in  his 
book  de  bello  Judaico,  before  the  destruction  of  Jerusalem.     All  whicli  Guil.  Postel- 
lus,  in  his  first  book,  c.  7,  de  orbis  concordia,  useth  as  an  eflectual  argument  (as  in- 
deed it  is)  to  persuade  them  that  Avill  not  believe  there  be  spirits  or  devils.     They 
cause  whirlwinds  on  a  sudden,  and  tempestuous  storms  ;  which  though  our  meteoro- 
logists generally  refer  to  natural  causes,  yet  I  am  of  Bodine's  mind,  Theat.  Nat.  1.  2. 
they  are  more  ot\en  caused  by  those  aerial  devils,  in  their  several  quarters ;  for  Tem- 
vestatibus  se  moenm^,  saith ''^ Rich.  Argentine;  as  when  a  despeiate  man  makes  awav 
with  himself,  which  by  hanging  or  drowning  they  frequently  do,  as  Kornmanns  ob- 
serves, de  mirac.  mort.  part.  7,  c.  76.  tripudium  ageyifes,  dancing  and  rejoicing  at  the 
death  of  a  sinner.     These  can  corrupt  the  air,  and  cause  plagues,  sickness,  storms, 
shipwrecks,  fires,  inundations.     At  Mons  Draconis  in  Italy,  there  is  a  most  memor- 
able example  in  "Jovianus  Pontanus  :  and  nothing  so  familiar  (if  we  may  believe 
those   relations   of  Saxo  Grammaticns,  Olaus   Majjnus,  Damianus   A.  Goes)  as  for 
witches  and  sorcerers,  in  Lapland,  Litluiania,  and  all  over  Scandia,  to  sell  winds  to 
mariners,  and  cause  tempests,  which  Marcus  Paulus  the  Venetian  relates  likewise  of 
the  Tartars.    These  kind  of  devils  are  much  ^Melighted  in  sacrifices  (saith  Porphyry), 
held  all  the  world  in  awe,  and  had  several  names,  idols,  sacrifices,  in  Rome,  Greece, 
Egypt,  and  at  this  day  tyrannise  over,  and  deceive  those  Ethnics  and   hidians,  being 
adored  and  worshipped  for  ^°gods.     For  the  Gentiles'  gods  were  devils  (as  "Trisnic- 
gistus  confesseth  in  his  Asclepius),  and  he  himself  could  make  them  come  to  their 
images  by  magic  spells  :  and   are  now  as  much  "  respected  by  our  papists  (saUh 
**Pictorius)  under  tlie  name  of  saints."    These  are  they  which  Cardan  thinks  desire 
so  much  carnal  copulation  with  witches  (/nczi^i  and  Swcc//i/),  transform  bodies,  and 
jre  so  very  cold,  if  they  be  touched ;  and  that  serve  magicians.     His  father  had  one 
of  them  (as  he  is  not  ashamed  to  relate), '^^  an  aerial  devil,  bound  to  him  for  twenty 
and  eight  years.     As  Agrippa's  dog  had  a  devil  tied  to  his  collar;  some  think  that 
Paracelsus  (or  else  Erastus  belies   him)  had  one   confined  to  his  sword  pummel ; 
others  wear  them  in  rings,  &c.     Jannes  and  Jambres  did  many  things  of  old  by 
their  help ;  Simon  Magus,  Cinops,  ApoUonius  Tianeus,  Jamblichus,  and  Tritemius 

«9Perigram.  Jlierosol.  ""Fire  worship,  or  divl-  I  bello  Neapniitano,  lib.  5.  «Suffitibus  gaiident. 

nation  by  fire.         <>'  Domus  Diruunt,  niurns  dejitiimt.     Idem  .lust.  Mart.    Apol.  pro  Christiaiiis.  ''■In  Dei 

immisceiit  se  turbinibus  et  procellis  et  pulvereiii  instar  |  imitationem,  saith  Eusebius.         <^'  Dii  gentium  Da-iiio- 
eolumns  evehunt.     L'icogna  1.  5.  c.  5.  e- Quest,     iiia,  &c.  e?o  ii\  eorum  statuas  pellexi.  ''Tt  nunc 

in  Liv.  ''^  De  prfestigiis  ds-monum.  c.  16.     Con-     snb  divoruin  nimiine  coluntur  i  I'ontiflciis.  •^'' Lib 

velli  culmina  videmus,  prostenii  sata,  &c.  "'  De  I  11.  de  rerum  ver. 

16  L 


122  Digression  of  Spiruy.  [Part.  1   Sec  2 

of  late,  that  sliowed  Maximilian  the  emperor  his  wife,  after  she  was  dead ;  Et  ver- 
rucam  in  collo  ejus  (saith  ™Godolman)  so  much  as  the  wart  in  her  neck.  Delric. 
lib.  ii.  hath  divers  examples  of  their  feats  :  Cicogna,  lib.  iii.  cap.  3.  and  Wierus  in 
his  book  de  prccsllg.  dcEmonum.     Bolssardus  de  magis  et  vcncficis. 

Water-devils  are  those  JVaiads  or  water  nymphs  wiiich  have  been  heretofore  con- 
veisant  about  waters  and  rivers.  The  water  (^as  Paracelsus  thinks)  is  their  chaos, 
wherein  they  live ;  some  call  them  fairies,  and  say  that  Ilabundia  is  their  queen  ; 
these  cause  inundations,  many  times  shipwrecks,  and  deceive  men  diveis  ways,  as 
Succuba,  or  otherwise,  appearing  most  part  (saith  Tritemius)  in  women's  shapes. 
"'  Paracelsus  hath  several  stories  of  them  that  have  lived  and  been  married  to  mortal 
men,  and  so  continued  for  certain  years  with  them,  and  after,  upon  some  dislike, 
have  forsaken  Lhem.  Such  a  one  as  ^geria,  wilii  whom  Numa  was  so  familiar, 
Diana,  Ceres,  &c.  "Olaus  Magnus  hath  a  long  narration  of  one  Hotherus,  a  king 
of  Sweden,  that  having  lost  his  company,  as  he  was  hunting  one  day,  met  with 
these  v/ater  nymphs  or  fairies,  and  was  feasted  by  them ;  and  Hector  Boethius,  or 
Macbelii,  and  Banquo,  two  Scottish  lords,  that  as  they  were  wandering  in  the  woods, 
had  tlieir  fortunes  told  them  by  three  strange  women.  To  these,  heretofore,  they 
did  use  to  sacrifice,  by  that  vbpoixavriM,  or  divination  by  waters. 

Terrestrial  devils  are  those  "Lares,  Genii,  Fauns,  Satyrs,  "^Wood-nymphs,  Foliots, 
Fairies,  Robin  Goodfellows,  TruUi,  Sic,  which  as  they  are  most  conversant  with 
men,  so  they  do  them  most  harm.  Some  think  it  was  they  alone  that  kept  the 
heathen  people  in  awe  of  old,  and  had  so  many  idols  and  temples  erected  to  them. 
Of  this  range  was  Dagon  amongst  the  Philistines,  Bel  amongst  the  Babylonians, 
Astartes  amongst  the  Sidonians,  Baal  amongst  the  Samaritans,  Isis  and  Osiris  amongst 
the  Egyptians,  Slc.  ;  some  put  our  "^faries  into  this  rank,  which  have  been  in  formei 
times  adored  with  much  superstition,  with  sweeping  their  houses,  and  setting  of  a 
pail  of  clean  water,  good  victuals,  and  the  like,  and  then  they  should  not  be  pinched, 
but  find  money  in  their  shoes,  and  be  fortunate  in  their  enterprises.  These  are  they 
that  dance  on  heaths  and  greens,  as  ''^Lavater  thinks  with  Tritemius,  and  as  "Olaus 
Magnus  adds,  leave  that  green  circle,  which  we  commonly  find  in  plain  fields,  which 
others  hold  to  proceed  from  a  meteor  falling,  or  some  accidental  rankness  of  the 
ground,  so  nature  sports  herself;  they  are  sometimes  seen  by  old  women  and  chil- 
dren. Hierom.  Pauli,  in  his  description  of  tlie  city  of  Bercino  in  Spain  relates  how 
they  have  been  familiarly  seen  near  that  town,  about  fountains  and  hilis  ;  JVonnun- 
qtiam  (saith  Tritemius)  in  sua  latihula  montium  simpliciorcs  homines  ducunt^  stu- 
penda  miranlibiis  ostentes  miracula,  nolnrum  sonUus,  spectacula^  &c."  Giraldus 
Cambrensis  gives  instance  in  a  monk  of  Wales  that  was  so  deluded.  '^Paracelsus 
reckons  up  many  places  in  Germany,  where  they  do  usually  walk  in  little  coats', 
some  two  feet  long.  A  bigger  kind  there  is  of  them  called  with  us  hobgoblins,  and 
Robin  Goodfellows,  that  would  in  those  superstitious  times  grind  corn  for  a  mess  of 
ailk,  cut  wood,  or  do  any  manner  of  drudgery  work.  They  would  mend  old  irons 
in  those  Jilolian  isles  of  Lipari,  in  former  ages,  and  have  been  often  seen  and  heard. 
'"'Tholosanus  calls  them  TruUos  and  Getulos,  and  saith,  that  in  his  days  they  were 
common  in  many  places  of  France.  Dithmarus  Bleskenius,  in  his  description  of 
Iceland,  reports  for  a  certainty,  that  almost  in  every  family  they  have  yet  some  such 
familiar  spirits  ;  and  Foelix  Malleolus,  in  his  book  de  crudel.  dcemon.  affirms  as  much, 
that  these  Trolli  or  Telchines  are  very  common  in  Norway, '' and  *'seen  to  do 
drudgery  work;"  to  draw  water,  saith  Wierus,  lib.  1.  cap.  22,  dress  meat,  or  any 
such  thing.  Another  sort  of  these  there  are,  \\  hich  frequent  forlorn  *^  houses,  which 
the  Italians  call  foliots,  most  part  innoxous,  ^"^ Cardan  holds;  "  They  will  make 
strange  noises  in  the  night,  howl  sometimes  pitifully,  and  then  laugh  again,  cause 
great  fiame  and  sudden  lights,  fling  stones,  rattle  cliains,  shave  men,  open  doors  and 

"Lib.  3.  cap.  3.  De  magis etveneficis,  &c.  Nereides.  1  treats,  where  they  exhibit  wonderful  sisrhts  to  their 
■"Lib.  de   Zilphis.  ''^Lib.  3.  '^  Pro  salute     marvelling  eyes,  and  astonish  their  ears  by  the  soiin  J 

honiinuin  e.\cul)are  se  simulant,  sed  in  eorum  periii-  l  of  bells,  See.  '''Lib.  de  Zil|ih.  et  Pisnisus  Olaiis 

cicm  omnia  moliuiitur.  Aust.         "■'  Dryades,  Oriades,     lib.  3.  m  Lib.  7.  cap.  14.  Qui  et  in  famulitio  viri« 


Hamadryades.  '"Elvas   Glaus   voc.   at   lib.   3 

"^  Part   r.  cap.   19.  ''Lib.   3.  cap.   11.     Elvarum 

choreas  OIlmir  lib.  3.  vocat  sallum  adeo   profundi  in 
terras  iinpriiriunl,  ut  locus  iiisigni  deinceps  virore  or- 
bicularis sit, et  gramen  non  pereat.  "Sometimes    committed.  "Lib.  16.  de  rerum  varietal 
tbey  Reduce  too  simple  men  into  their  moantaiii  re- 


el fa;minis  inserviunt,  conclavia  scopis  purgant,  pati- 
nas muiidant,  ligna  portant,  equos  ciirant,  &c.  "'  Ad 
minisleria  utuntur.  '■-  Where  ireasure  is  .1  d  (ai» 

some  think)   or  some   murder,  or  such   like   v  ..an) 


Mem.  1.  Subs.  2.]  Digression  of  Spirits.  \2ii 

«hut  them,  fling  down  platters^  stools,  chests,  sometimes  appear  in  the  likeness  of 
/larc  s,  crows,  black  dogs,  &c."  of  which  read  *^  Pet  ThyraGus  the  Jesuit,  in  his 
Tra-*t.  de  locis  infestis^  part.  1.  et  cap.  4,  who  will  have  them  to  be  devils  or  the 
souls  of  damned  men  that  seek  revenge,  or  else  souls  out  of  purgatory  that  seek 
ease;  for  such  examples  peruse  ^Sigismundus  Scheretzius,  lib.  de  spectris,  part  1. 
c.  1.  which  he  saith  lie  took  out  of  Luther  most  part;  there  be  many  instances.  *®Pli- 
nius  Secundus  remembers  such  a  house  at  Athens,  which  Athenodoius  the  philoso 
pher  hired,  which  no  man  durst  inhabit  for  fear  of  devils.  Austin,  dc  Civ.  Dei.  lib. 
22,  cap.  1.  relates  as  much  of  Hesperius  the  Tribune's  house,  at  Zubeda,  near  their 
city  of  Hippos,  vexed  with  evil  spirits,  to  his  great  hindrance,  Cum  afflictione  anima- 
lium  et  servorum  suorum.  Many  such  instances  are  to  be  read  in  Niderius  Formicar, 
lih.  5.  cap.  xii.  3.  &c.  Whether  I  may  call  these  Zim  and  Ochim,  which  Isaiah,  cap. 
xiii.  21.  speaks  of,  I  make  a  doubt.  See  more  of  these  in  the  said  Scheretz.  lib.  1. 
de  spect.  cap.  4.  he  is  full  of  examples.  These  kind  of  devds  many  times  appear  to 
men,  and  aflright  them  out  of  their  wits,  sometimes  walking  at  **' noon-day,  some- 
times at  nights,  counterfeiting  dead  men's  ghosts,  as  that  of  Caligula,  which  (saith 
Suetonius)  was  seen  to  walk  in  Lavinia's  garden,  where  his  body  was  buried,  spirits 
haunted,  and  the  house  where  he  died,  ^^JYulla  nox  sine  lerrore  transacta,  donee  in- 
cendio  consiimpta ;  every  night  this  happened,  there  was  no  quietness,  till  the  house 
W9S  burned.  About  Hecla,  in  Iceland,  gliosis  commonly  walk,  animas  mortuorum 
simulunles.,  saith  Job.  Anan,  lih.  .3.  de  nat.  deem.  Olaiis.  lib.  2.  cap.  2.  JYatal  Tal- 
lopid.  lib.  de  apparil.  spir.  Kornmannus  de  mirac.  mort.  part.  1.  cap.  44.  such  sight.<5 
are  frequently  seen  circa  sepulchra  et  monasteria.,  saith  Lavat.  lib.  1.  cap.  19.  in 
monasteries  and  about  churchyards,  loca  pahidinosa.,  ampla  cexlijicia.,  solitaria^  e: 
ccede  hominum  notata,  Stc.  (marshes,  great  buildings,  solitary  places,  or  remarkable 
as  the  scene  of  some  murder.)  Thyreus  adds,  ubi  gravius  pcccatum  est  commissum^ 
impii,  pauperum  oppressores  et  nequiter  insignes  habitant  (where  some  very  henious 
crime  was  committed,  there  the  impious  and  infamous  generally  dwell).  These  spirits 
often  foretel  men's  deaths  by  several  signs,  as  knocking,  groanings,  &c.  ^Hhougli  Rich. 
Argentine,  c.  18.  de  prcEstigiis  damonum.,  will  ascribe  these  predictions  to  good  angels, 
out  of  the  authority  of  Ficinus  and  others  ;  prodigia  in  obitu  principnm  scepius  con- 
tingunf.,  &c.  (prodigies  frequently  occur  at  the  deaths  of  illustrious  men),  as  in  the 
Lateran  church  in  ^"Rouje,  the  popes'  deaths  are  foretold  by  Sylvester's  tomb.  Near 
Rupes  Nova  in  Finland,  in  the  kingdom  of  Sweden,  there  is  a  lake,  in  which,  before 
the  governor  of  the  castle  dies,  a  spectrum,  in  the  habit  of  Arion  with  his  harp,  appears, 
and  makes  excellent  music,  like  those  blocks  in  Cheshire,  which  (they  say)  presage 
death  to  the  master  of  the  family;  or  that  ^'  oak  in  Lanthadran  park  in  Cornwall,  which 
foreshows  as  much.  Many  families  in  Europe  are  so  put  in  mind  of  their  last  by  such 
predictions,  and  many  men  are  forewarned  (if  we  may  believe  Paracelsus)  by  familiar 
spirits  in  divers  shapes,  as  cocks,  crows,  owls,  which  often  hover  about  sick  men's 
chambers,  vel  quia  morientium  fceditatem  sentiunt,  as  '-^^  Baracellus  conjectures,  et  idea 
super  ledum  injirmorum  crocitant^  because  they  smell  a  corse;  or  for  that  (as  ^'^Ber- 
nardinus  de  Bustis  thinketh)  God  permits  the  devil  to  appear  in  the  form  of  crows,  and 
such  like  creatures,  to  scare  such  as  live  wickedly  here  on  earth.  A  little  before  Tully's 
death  (saith  Plutarch)  the  crows  made  a  mighty  noise  about  him,  tumulluose  perstre- 
"pcntes.,  they  pulled  the  pillow  from  under  his  head.  Rob.  Gaguinus,  hist.  Franc,  lib 
8,  telleth  such  another  wonderful  story  at  ihe  death  of  Johannes  de  Monteforti,  a 
French  lord,  anno  1345,  tanta  corvorrim  multiludo  cedibus  morientis  inscdit^  quantam 
esse  in  Gallia  nemo  judicasset  (a  multitude  of  crows  alighted  on  the  house  of  the 
dying  man,  such  as  no  one  ii^iagined  existed  in  France).  Such  prodigies  are  very 
frequent  in  authors.  See  more  of  these  in  the  said  Lavater,  Thyreus  de  locis  infestis 
part  3,  cap.  58.  Pictorius,  Delrio,  Cicogna,  lib.  3,  cap.  9.  Necromancers  take 
upon  them  to  raise  and  lay  them  at  their  pleasures  :  and  so  likewise,  those  which 
Mizaldus  calls  Ambulones,  that  walk  about  midnight  on  great  heaths  and  desert 


!«  Vel  spiritus  sunt  hujnsmodi  datniiatorutn,  vel  6 
jiurgatorio,  vel  ipsi  dsemoiies,  c.  4.  I'-Quidarn  le- 

Inuros  doniesticis  instrumeniis  noctii  liidiint  :  putinas, 
^lla^■,  caiilharas,  et   alia   vasa   dejii;iunt,  et  qiiidam 


s'Meridionales  Dtemones  Cicngna calls  them,  or  Alas- 
tores,  1.  3.  cap.  9.  «'Sueton.  c.  69.  in  Caligula. 
b"  Strozzius  Cicogna.  lih.  3.  tiiag.  cap.  5  sn  idem.  c.  18. 
91  M.  Carew.    Survey   of  Cornwall,   lib.  2    folio    140 


»oceB  emitiunt,  ejulant,  risuin  emittuut,  &c.  ut  canes    S'JHortoGeniali,  folio  137.        ^'  Part  I.e.  19.  AhducunI 
«igri<  feles    variis  formis,  &c.  «sEp;st.  lib.  7.    eos  &  recta  via,  et  viain  iUr  fatientibus  inter  cludi"* 


124  Digression  of  Spirits.  Part.  1.  Sect.  2 

places,  which  (saith  ^''Luvater)  "draw  men  out  of  the  way,  and  lead  them  all  night 
a  bye-way,  or  quite  bar  them  of  their  way ;"  these  have  several  names  in  several 
places ;  vve  commonly  call  them  Pucks.  In  the  deserts  of  Lop,  in  Asia,  such 
illusions  of  walking  spirits  are  often  perceived,  as  you  may  read  in  M.  Paulus 
the  Venetian  his  travels ;  if  one  lose  his  company  by  chance,  these  devils  will 
call  him  by  his  name,  and  counterfeit  voices  of  his  companions  to  seduce  him. 
Hieronym.  Pauli,  in  his  book  of  the  hills  of  Spain,  relates  of  a  great  ^^  mount  in 
.Cantabria,  where  such  spectrums  are  to  be  seen ;  Lavater  and  Cicogna  have  variety 
of  examples  of  spirits  and  walking  devils  in  this  kind.  Sometimes  they  sit  by  the 
highway  side,  to  give  men  falls,  and  make  their  horses  stumble  and  start  as  they  ride 
(if  you  will  believe  the  relation  of  that  holy  man  Ketellus  in  ^Nubrigensis),  that  had 
an  especial  grace  to  see  devils,  Gratiam  divinitus  collat am,  and  talk  with  them,  Et  im- 
pavidus  cum  spiritihus  sermonevi  miscere,  without  offence,  and  if  a  man  curse  or  spur 
his  horse  for  stumbling,  they  do  heartily  rejoice  at  it;  with  many  such  pretty  feats. 

Subterranean  devils  are  as  common  as  the  rest,  and  do  as  much  harm.  Olaus 
Magnus,  lib.  (5,  cap.  19,  make  six  kinds  of  them;  some  bigger,  some  less.  These 
(saith  "'Munster)  are  commonly  seen  about  mines  of  metals,  and  are  some  of  them 
noxious ;  some  again  do  no  harm.  The  metal-men  in  many  places  account  it  good 
luck,  a  sign  of  treasure  and  rich  ore  when  they  see  them.  Georgius  Agricola,  in  his 
book  de  sahterraneis  animantibus.  cap.  37,  reckons  two  more  notable  kinds  of  them, 
which  he  calls  ''^Getuli  and  Cobali,  both  '■''  are  clothed  after  the  manner  of  metal-men, 
and  will  many  times  imitate  their  works."  Their  office,  as  Pictorius  and  Paracelsus 
think,  is  to  keep  treasure  in  the  earth,  that  it  be  not  all  at  once  revealed;  and  be- 
sides, ^^ Cicogna  avers  that  they  are  the  frequent  causes  of  those  horrible  earthquakes 
"which  often  swallow  up,  not  only  houses,  but  whole  islands  and  cities;"  in  his 
third  book,  cap.  11,  lie  gives  many  instances. 

The  last  are  conversant  about  the  centre  of  the  earth  to  torture  the  souls  of 
damned  men  to  the  day  of  judgment;  their  egress  and  regress  some  suppose  to  be 
about  Ji^tna,  Lipari,  Mons  Hecla  in  Iceland,  Vesuvius,  Terra  del  Fuego,  Si-c.,  because 
many  shrieks  and  fearful  cries  are  continually  heard  thereabouts,  and  familiar  appa- 
ritions of  dead  men,  ghosts  and  goblins. 

Their  Offices.,  Operations.,  Study.]  Tiius  the  devil  reigns,  and  in  a  thousand 
several  shapes,  "  as  a  roaring  lion  still  seeks  whom  he  may  devour,"  1  Pet.  v.,  by 
sea,  land,  air,  as  yet  unconfined,  though  '*"  some  will  have  his  proper  place  tlie  air ; 
all  that  space  between  us  and  the  moon  for  them  that  transgressed  least,  and  hell  for 
the  wickedest  of  them.  Hie  velut  in  carcere  ad  Jincm  mundi,  tunc  in  locum  funestio- 
rum  trudendi,  as  Austin  holds  de  Civit  Dei.,  c.  22,  lib.  14,  cap.  3  et  23;  but  be 
where  he  will,  he  rageth  while  he  may  to  comfort  himself,  as  '  Lactantius  thinks, 
with  other  men's  falls,  he  labours  all  he  can  to  bring  them  into  the  same  pit  of  per- 
dition with  him.  "Foremen's  miseries,  calamities,  and  ruins  are  the  devil's  ban- 
queting dishes.  By  many  temptations  and  several  engines,  he  seeks  to  captivate  our 
souls.  The  Lord  of  Lies,  saith  ''Austin,  "  as  he  was  deceived  himself,  he  seeks  to 
deceive  others,  the  ringleader  to  all  naughtiness,  as  he  did  by  Eve  and  Cain,  Sodom 
and  Gomorrah,  so  would  he  do  by  all  the  world.  Sometimes  he  tempts  by  covet- 
ousness,  drunkenness,  pleasure,  pride,  &c.,  errs,  dejects,  saves,  kills,  protects,  and 

rides  some  men,  as  they  do  their  horses.     He  studies  our  overthrow,  and  generally 
___ ., 

*<  Lib.  1.  cap.  44.  Dffimonum  cernunliir  et  audiuntiir  I  dis  honiinihiis  operantur.  ^^  Mnrtalium  calami- 

ibi  frequentes  illii^ioiies,  nude  viatoribus  caveiidum  |  tales  epula;  sunt  maloruni  da^iiinnuiii,  Synesius. 
ne   ce  dissocietil,  aiit    &   tergo   inaneaiit,  voces  enim    ^  Daminus  inendacii  cl  seipso  deceptus,  alios  decipere 


fingiint  socioriiiii,  ut  i  recto  ilinere  abducanl,  &c, 
"•^  Mons  sterilis  et  nivosus,  iibi  inteiiipesla  iiocte  urii- 
bree  apparent.  "''Lib.  2.  cap.  21,    Offendicula  fa- 

ciiint  transeunlibus  in  viaet  petulanter  ridet  cum  vel 
liotniiieni  7el  jmnentuni  ejus  pedes  attprere  faciant, 
et  maxima  si  homo  nialedictus  et  calcaiibiis  sa^vint. 
'>*  In    Cosinogr.  ""Vesliii   more   metallicorum, 


ciipit,  adversarius  hiimani  generis.  Inventor  mortis, 
superbite  instiiutor,  radix  maliliiE,  scelerum  caput, 
princeps  omnium  viliorum,  fuit  inde  in  Dei  contunie- 
iiam,  homiiuim  perniciem  :  de  liorum  conatibus  el 
operaiionibus  lege  Epiphaniutn.  2.  Tom.  lib.  2.  Dio- 
nysiiun.  c.  4.  Amhros.  Epistol.  lib.  10.  ep.  et  84.  Au- 
gust, de  civ.  Dei  lib.  5.  c.  9.  lib.  8.  cap.  22.  lib.  9.  18. 


gestus  et  opera  eorum   imitanlur.  "'■'  Immisso  in  i  lib.  10.  21.  Theophil.  in  12.  Mat.  Pasil.  ep.  141.  Leonem 

terra;  carceres  vento  norribiles  terrae  molus  efRciunt,  Ser.  Theodoret.  in  11.  Cnr.  ep.  22.  Chrys.  hom.  53.  in 
quibus  s!Epe  non  domiis  modo  et  turres,  sed  civitates  12.  Gen.  Greg,  in  1.  c.  John.  Uarlhol.  de  prop.  1.  2.  c. 
iTitegriB  et  insulse  haustse  sunt.  '""Hierom.  in  3.     20.  Zancli.  1.  4.  de  malis  angelis.  I'erer.  in  Gen.  I.  8. 

Ephes.  Idem  Michaelis.  c.  4.  de  spiritibus.  Idem  in  c.  6.  2.  Origen.  saepe  prasliis  intersunt,  itinera  el 
Thyreus   de  locis    iiifeslis.  'Lactantius  2.   de  I  negotia  nostra  qufecumqiie  dirigunt,  clandestinis  sob- 

Uigitie  error'"  cap.  15.  lii  nialigni  spiritns  per  oinnem  '  sidils  optatos  sjepe  prasbent  succisaus,  Pet.  yar.  in 
.erram  vagantur.  et  solatium  perditionifi  sua:  perden-  i  iiam.  &c.  Ruscam  de  Infcno. 


Mem.  1.  Subs.  2.]  Digression  of  Spirits.  125 

.seeks  our  destruction ;  and  although  he  pretend  many  times  numan  good,  anu  vin- 
dicate himself  for  a  god  by  curing  of  several  diseases,  agris  sanit.atem^  et  ccecis 
himinis  usum  restiluendo,  as  Austin  declares,  lib.  10,  de  civit  Dei.,  cap.  6,  as  Apollo 
.-Esculapius,  Isis,  of  old  have  done ;  divert  plagues,  assist  them  in  wars,  pretenc? 
then-  happiness,  yet  nihil  his  hnpurius.,  scelestiiis,  nihil  humano  gencri  infestiiis, 
nothing  so  impure,  nothing  so  pernicious,  as  may  well  appear  by  their  tyrannical 
uid  bloody  sacrifices  of  men  to  Saturn  and  Moloch,  which  are  still  in  use  among 
those  barbarous  Indians,  their  several  deceits  and  cozenings  to  keep  men  in  obe- 
dience, their  false  oracles,  sacrifices,  their  superstitious  impositions  of  fasts,  penury, 
&.C.  Heresies,  superstitious  observations  of  meats,  times,  &c.,  by  which  they  ""cru 
cify  the  souls  of  mortal  men,  as  shall  be  showed  in  our  Treatise  of  Religious  Me- 
lancholy. Modi  CO  adhuc  tempore  sinitur  malignari,  as  ^Bernard  expresseth  it,  by 
God's  permission  he  rageth  a  while,  hereafter  to  be  confined  to  hell  and  darkness, 
"  M'hich  is  prepared  for  him  and  his  angels,"  Mat.  xxv. 

How  far  their  power  doth  extend  it  is  hard  to  determine ;  what  the  ancients  held 
of  their  effects,  force  and  operations,  I  will  briefly  show  you :  Plato  in  Critias,  and 
after  him  his  followers,  gave  out  that  these  spirits  or  devils,  "  were  men's  governors 
and  keepers,  our  lords  and  masters,  as  we  are  of  our  cattle."  ^''They  govern  pro- 
vinces and  kingdoms  by  oracles,  auguries,"  dreams,  rewards  and  punishments,  pro- 
phecies, inspirations,  sacrifices,  and  religious  superstitions,  varied  in  as  many  forms 
as  there  be  diversity  of  spirits ;  they  send  wars,  plagues,  peace,  sickness,  health, 
dearth,  plenty,  ''Adstanfes  hie  jam  nobis,  spectanfes,  et  arbitrantes.,  &c.  as  appears  by 
those  histories  of  Thucydides,  Livius,  Dionysius  Halicarnassus,  with  many  others 
that  are  full  of  their  wonderful  stratagems,  and  were  therefore  by  those  Roman  and 
Greek  commonwealths  adored  and  worshipped  for  gods  with  prayers  and  sacrifices, 
&c.  'In  a  word,  JVUiil  magis  qucErunt  quam  mctum  et  admirationem  hominum  ;  ®and 
as  another  hath  it,  Did  non  potest,,  quam  impotenti  ard.ore  in  homines  dominium^  et 
Divinos  cultus  mnligni  spiritus  offectent.^°  Tritemius  in  his  book  de  septem  secun- 
dis,  assigns  names  to  such  angels  as  are  governors  of  particular  provinces,  by  what 
authority  I  know  not,  and  gives  them  several  jurisdictions.  Asclepiades  a  Grecian, 
Rabbi  Achiba  the  Jew,  Abraham  Avenezra,  and  Rabbi  Azariel,  Arabians,  (as  1  find 
them  cited  by  "Cicogna)  farther  add,  that  they  are  not  our  governors  only,  Sfd  ex 
eoriim  concordid  et  discordia,  boni  et  mali  affectus  promanant,  but  as  they  agree,  so 
do  we  and  our  princes,  or  disagree  ;  stand  or  fall.  Juno  was  a  bitter  enemy  to  Troy, 
Apollo  a  good  friend,  Jupiter  incUfferent,  jilqua  Venus  Tcucris.,  Pallas  iniquafnii  . 
some  are  for  us  still,  some  against  us,  Prtmente  Deo,  fcrt  Deus  alter  opcm.  Reli- 
gion, policy,  public  and  private  quarrels,  wars  are  procured  by  them,  and  they  are 
'^delighted  perhaps  to  see  men  fight,  as  men  are  with  cocks,  bulls  and  dogs,  bears, 
&cc.,  plagues,  dearths  depend  on  them,  our  bene  and  male  esse,  and  almost  all  o"r 
other  peculiar  actions,  (for  as  Anthony  Rusea  contends,  lib.  5,  cap.  18,  every  ma;? 
hath  a  good  and  a  bad  angel  attending  on  him  in  particular,  all  his  life  long,  which 
Jamblichus  calls  dcemnnem,)  preferments,  losses,  weddings,  deaths,  rewards  and 
ptmishments,  and  as  '^  Proclus  will,  all  offices  whatsoever,  alii  gcnetricem,  alii 
op'/icem  potesiatem  habent,  &c.  and  several  names  they  give  them  according  to  their 
offices,  as  Lares,  Indegites,  Preestites,  &c.  When  the  Arcades  in  that  battle  at  Che- 
rona;,  which  was  fought  against  King  Phdip  for  the  liberty  of  Greece,  had  deceitfully 
carried  themselves,  long  after,  in  the  very  same  place,  Diis  Grcscia;  ultoribus  (saith 
mine  author)  they  were  miserably  slain  by  Metellus  the  Roman  :  so  likewise,  in 
smaller  matters,  they  will  have  things  fall  out,  as  these  boni  and  mali  genii  favour 
or  dislike  us  :  Saturni  non  conveniunt  Jovialibus,  &c.  He  that  is  Saturninus  shall 
never  likely  be  preferred.  '''That  base  fellows  are  often  advanced,  undeserving 
Gnathoes,  and  vicious  parasites,  whereas  discreet,  wise,  virtuous  and  worthy  men 

4  Et  veliit  mancipia  circumfert  Psellus.  s  i,ib.  de  ttiehnnour  of  being  divinely  worshipped."  "  Oinnif 
trans,  milt.  Malar,,  pp.  "  Ciistodes  sunt  hominiiiii,     mag.  lib.  2.  cap.  2."!.  '-Liidus  deorum   sumus. 

et  eonim,  ut  nos  animaliuni :  turn  et  prnvinciis  prEepo-     '-'Lib.  de  aniina  et   deemono-  n  Quoties   fit,  iil 

Bili  regiint  aui!uriis,  soniniis,  nraciilis,  pramiis,  &;c.  Principes  novitiiim  aiilicuni  divitiis  et  dijiiitatibus 
■>  Lipsius,  Physiol.  Stoic,  lib.   1.  cap.   19.  "  Leo     pene  obriiant,  et  iniiltoriim  aiinoniiTi  niinistriiiii.  qui 

Suavis   idem  et  Trileiiiitis.  »  "  They  seek  nothing     non  semel  pro  hern  peticiilum  siiblit,  ne  lernntio  (lo- 

inore  earnestly  than  the  fear  and  admiration  of  men."  ,  nent,  &c.  Idem.  Quod  I'hilosophi  non  remunerentur 
'""It  is  scarcely  possible  to  describe  the  impotent  '  cum  scurra  et  ineplus  oh  insulsumjocuia  saepe  pne- 
ferduur  with  which  these  malignant  spirits  aspire  to     mmm  reportet,  inde  fit,  &.c. 

1.2 


126  Digression  of  Spirits.  ,  Part.  1.  3eC.  1 

are  neglected  and  unrewarded ;  they  refer  to  those  domineering  spirits,  or  suhordi- 
nate  Genii;  as  they  are  inclined,  or  favour  men,  so  they  tlirive,  are  ruled  an(hover- 
conie ;  for  as  '^Libanius  supposeth  in  our  ordinary  conflicts  and  contentions.  Genius 
Genio  cedU  et  oblcmperat,  one  genius  yields  and  is  overcome  by  another.  All  par- 
ticular events  almost  they  refer  to  these  private  spirits ;  and  (as  Paracelsus  acids) 
they  direct,  teach,  inspire,  and  instruct  men.  Never  was  any  man  extraoniinary 
famous  in  any  art,  action,  or  great  commander,  that  had  not  famillarcm  dcumonerr 
to  inform  him,  as  Nnma,  Socrates,  and  many  such,  as  Cardan  illustrates,  cap.  128. 
Arcanis  prudentice  civilis,  ^^Spe.c'iall  siquidmi  gratia,  se  a  Deo  donari  asserunt  magi, 
a  Gcniis  ccelestibus  instrui,  ab  lis  doceri.  But  these  are  most  erroneous  paradoxes. 
incptcE  et  fabulosce  nugcp,,  rejected  by  our  divines  and  Christian  churches.  'Tis  tiue 
they  have,  by  God's  permission,  power  over  us,  and  we  find  by  experience,  that 
they  can  'Miurt  not  our  fields  only,  cattle,  goods,  but  our  bodies  and  minds.  At 
Hammel  in  Saxony,  Jin.  1484.  20  Junii,  the  devil,  in  likeness  of  a  pied  piper,  carried 
away  130  children  that  were  never  after  seen.  Many  times  men  are  '^  affrighted  out 
of  tiici"  wits,  carried  away  quite,  as  Scheretzius  illustrates,  lib.  1,  c.  iv.,  and  seve- 
rally molested  by  his  means,  Plotinus  the  Platonist,  lib.  14,  advers.  Gnos.  laughs 
them  to  scorn,  that  hold  the  devil  or  spirits  can  cause  any  such  diseases.  Many 
think  he  can  work  upon  the  body,  but  not  upon  the  mind.  But  experience  pro- 
nounceth  otherwise,  that  he  can  work  both  upon  body  and  mind.  Tertullian  is 
of  this  opinion,  c.  22.  '^"  That  he  can  cause  both  sickness  and  health,"  and  that 
secretly.  '^°  Taurellus  adds  "  by  clancuiar  poisons  he  can  infect  the  bodies,  and  hinder 
the  operations  of  the  bowels,  though  we  perceive  it  not,  closely  creeping  into 
them,"  saith  ^'  Lipsius,  and  so  crucify  our  souls  :  El  nociva  melancholia  furiosos 
ejficil.  For  being  a  spiritual  body,  he  struggles  with  our  spirits,  saith  Rogers,  and 
suggests  (according  to  ^^  Cardan,  verba  sine  voce,  species  sine  visu,  envy,  lust,  anger 
&.C.)  as  he  sees  men  inclined. 

The  manner  how  he  performs  it,  Biarmannus  in  his  Oration  against  Bodine,  suffi- 
ciently declares.  ^^"  He  begins  first  with  the  phantasy,  and  moves  that  so  strongly, 
that  no  reason  is  able  to  resist.  Now  the  phantasy  he  moves  by  mediation  of  hu- 
mours ;  although  many  physicians  are  of  opinion,  that  the  devil  can  alter  the  mind, 
and  produce  this  disease  of  himself.  Quibusdam  medicorum  visum,  saith  ^^Avicenna, 
quod  Melancholia  contingat  a  dcemonio.  Of  the  same  mind  is  Fsellus  and  Rhasis 
the  Arab.  lib.  1.  Tract.  9.  Cont.  ^^"That  this  disease  proceeds  especially  from  the 
devil,  and  from  him  alone."  Arculanus,  cap.  6.  in  9.  Rhasis,  JTilianus  Montaltus,  in 
his  9.  cap.  Daniel  Sennertus,  lib.  1.  part.  2.  cap.  11.  confirm  as  much,  that  the  devil 
can  cause  this  disease ;  by  reason  many  times  that  the  parlies  affected  prophesy, 
speak  strange  language,  but  non  sine  intcrventu  humoris,  not  without  the  humour,  as 
he  interprets  himself;  no  more  doth  Avicenna,  si  contingat  a  dcsmonio,  sujjicit  nobis 
ut  convertat  complexionem  ad  choleram  nigram,  et  sit  causa  ejus  propinqua  cholera 
nigra;  the  immediate  cause  is  choler  adust,  which  ^^Pomponatius  likewise  labours 
to  make  good  :  Galgerandus  of  Mantua,  a  famous  Physician,  so  cured  a  dajmoniacal 
woman  in  his  time,  that  spake  all  languages,  by  purging  black  choler,  and  thereupon 
belike  this  humour  of  Melancholy  is  called  Balneum  Diaboli,  the  Devil's  Bath;  the 
devil  spying  his  opportunity  of  such  humours  drives  them  many  times  to  despair, 
fury,  rage,  Stc,  mingling  himself  among  these  humours.  This  is  that  which  Tertul- 
lian avers,  Corporibus  infligunt  acerbos  casus,  animceque  repenlinos,  membra  distor- 
qiient,  occulte  repentes,  &c.  and  which  Lemnius  goes  about  to  prove,  Immiscent  se. 
mali  Genii  pr avis  humoribus,  atque  atrce  bili,  &c.     And  "Jason  Pratensis,  "  that  the 

i^I/ib.  de  cruelt.  Cadaver.  "i  Boissardus,  c.  6   i  neqiiit,  primum  movit  phantasiam,  et  ita  obfirmat  va- 

ma;;ia.  »■  Godelmanus,  cap.  3.   lib.   1.  de  Masjis.  '  nis  conceptibus  aut  ut  ne  quern  faciiltati  jEstimativK 

Jem  Zanchius,  lib.  4.  cap.  10  et  11.  de  nialis  anjielis.  •  rationi  locum  relinquat.  Spiritus  inalus  invadit  ani- 
"■  Nociva  Melancholia  furiosos  efficit,  el  quaiul6que  i  mam,  turbat  sen.=!us,  in  furorem  conjicit.  Austin,  de 
penitus   interficit.    G.  Picolominens  Idemque   Zanch.     vit.  Beat.  '^■' Lib.  3  Fen.  1.  Tract.  4.  c.  18.  --"'A 

cap.  10.    ib.  4.  si  Deus  permittat,  corpora  nostra  mo-     Usemone  maxime   proficisci,  et  SEepe  solo.  -lo  Lib. 

vere  possunt,  alterare,  quovis  morboruin  et  malorum     de  incant.  -■  Ca^p.  de  mania  lib.  de  morbis  cere- 

genere  afficere,  imo  et  in  ipsa  penetrare  et  sfRvire.  hri ;  Dajinones,  quurn  sint  tenues  et  incomprehensi- 
'*  Inducere  potest  morbos  et  sanitates.  -o  Visce-     biles  spiritus,  se  insinuare  corporibus  hunianis  pos- 

rum  actiones  potest  inhibere  latenter,  et  venenis  no-  sunt,  et  occulte  in  visceribus  operti,  valeiudinem  vi- 
bis  isnotis  corpus  inficere.  'i  jfrepentes  corporibus  tiare,  somniis  aiiimas  terrcre  et  mentes  fiiroribus 
occult6  morbos  flngunt,  mentes  terrent,  membra  dis-  quatere.  Insinuant  se  melancholicorum  penetralibu>, 
lorquent.  Lips.  I'tiil.  Stoic.  1.  1.  c.  19.  ''-  De  reriim  intus  ibiqiie  coiisidiiiit  et  deliciantur  tanquam  in  regi- 
rar.  1.  16.  c   93  ■'^  Quum  mens  immediate  decipi    one  clarissimnruui  sideriini,  coguntque  afmum  furij\«. 


Mem.  1.  Subs.  2.]  JYature  of  Spirits.  127 

^evil,  being  a  slender  incomprehensible  spirit,  can  easily  insinuate  and  wind  himself 
into  human  bodies,  and  cunningly  couched  in  our  bowels  vitiate  our  healths,  terrify 
our  souls  with  fearful  dreams,  and  shake  our  minds  with  furies."     And  in  anotiier 
place,  ''  These  unclean  spirits  settled  in  our  bodies,  and  now  mixed  with  our  melan- 
clioly  humours,  do  triumph  as  it  were,  and  sport  themselves  as  m  another  heaven." 
Thus  he  argues,  and  that  they  go  in  and  out  of  our  bodies,  as  bees  do  in  a  hive, 
and  so  provoke  and  tempt  us  as  they  percefve  our  temperature  inclined  of  itself  and 
most  apt;  to  be  deluded.     ^^Agrippa  and  ^Lavater  are  persuaded,  that  this  humour 
invites  the  devil  to  it,  wheresoever  it  is  in  extremity,  and  of  all  other,  melancholy 
persons  are  most  subject  to  diabolical  temptations  and  illusions,  and  most  apt  to  en- 
tertain them,  and  the  Devil  best  able  to  work  upon  them.    But  whether  by  obsession, 
or  possession,  or  otherwise,  I  will  not  determine ;  'tis  a  difficult  question.     Delrio 
the  Jesuit,  Tom.  3.  lib.  6.  Springer  and  his  colleague,  mall,  malef.  Pet.  Thyreus  the 
Jesuit,  lib.  de  damoniacis,  de  locis  infestis,  dc  Terrificationibus  nocturnis.,  Kieroni- 
mus  Mengus  Flagel.  dam.  and  others  of  that  rank  of  pontifical  writers,  it  seems,  by 
their  exorcisms  and  conjurations  approve  of  it,  having  forged  many  stories  to  that 
purpose.     A  nun  did  eat  a  lettuce  ''"without  grace,  or  signing  it  with  the  sign  of  the 
cross,  and  was  instantly  possessed.     Durand.  lib.  6.  Rational!,  c.  8G.  numb.  8.  relates 
that  he  saw  a  wench  possessed  in  Bononia  with  two  devils,  by  eating  an  unhallowed 
pomegranate,  as  she  did  afterwards  confess,  when  she  was  cured  by  exorcisms.     And 
therefore  our  Papists  do  sign  themselves  so  often  with  the  sign  of  the  cross,  JVe  dce- 
mon  ingredi  ausif.,  and  exorcise  all  manner  of  meats,  as  being  unclean  or  accursed 
otherwise,  as  Bellarmine  defends.     Many  such  stories  I  find  amongst  pontifical  writ- 
ers, to  prove  their  assertions,  let  them  free  their  own  credits  ;  some  few  1  will  recite 
in  this  kind  out  of  most  approved  physicians.     Cornelius  Gemma,  lib.  2.  de  nat.  mi- 
rac.  c.  4.  relates  of  a  young  maid,  called  Katherine  Gualter,  a  cooper's  daughter,  ./Sn. 
1571.  that  had  such  strange  passions  and  convulsions,  three  men  could  not  some- 
times hold  her;  she  purged  a  live  eel,  which  he  saw,  a  foot  and  a  half  long,  and 
touched  it  himself;  but  the  eel  afterwards  vanished;  she  vomited  some  twenty-four 
pounds  of  fulsome  stuff"  of  all  colours,  twice  a  day  for  fourteen  days;  and  after  that 
she  voided  great  balls  of  hair,  peices  of  wood,  pigeon's  dung,  parchment,  goose  dung, 
coals ;  and  after  them  two  pounds  of  pure  blood,  and  then  again  coals  and  stones,  of 
which  some  had  inscriptions  bigger  than  a  walnut,  some  of  them  pieces  of  glass, 
brass,  &c.  besides  paroxysms  of  laughing,  weeping  and  ecstasies,  &.c.    Et  hoc  {inquit) 
cum  horore  indi.,  this  [  saw  with  horror.     They  could  do  no  good  on  her  by  physic, 
but  left  her  to  the  clergy.     Marcellus  Donatus,  lib.  2.  c.  I.  de  med.  mirab.  hath  such 
another  story  of  a  country  fellow,  that  had  four  l^'nives  in  his  belly,  Instar  serrce  den- 
tatos,  indented  like  a  saw,  every  one  a  span  long,  and  a  wreath  of  hair  like  a  globe, 
with  much  baggage  of  like  sort,  wonderful  to  behold  :  how  it  should  come  into  his 
guts,  he  concludes,  Ccrfe  nan  alio  qua7n  dofmonis  astuiia  et  dolo,  (could  assuredly 
only  have  been  through  the  artifice  of  the  devil).     Langius,  Epist.  med.  lib.  1.  Epist. 
38.  hath  many  relations  to  this  effect,  and  so  hath  Christopherus  a  Vega  :  Wierus, 
Skenkius,  Scribonius,  all  agree  that  they  are  done  by  the  subtilty  and  illusion  of  the 
devil.     If  you  shall  ask  a  reason  of  this,  'tis  to  exercise  our  patience;  for  as  ^'Ter- 
tullian  holds.  Virtus  non  est  virtus.,  nisi  comparem  habet  aliquein.,  in  quo  superando 
vhn  suam  osicndat  'tis  to  try  us  and  our  faith,  'tis  for  our  offences,  and  for  the  pun- 
ishment of  our  sins,  by  God's  permission  they  do  it,  Carnifices  vindictcB  jusicc  Dei 
as  ^^Tolasanus  styles  them, Executioners  of  his  will ;  or  rather  as  David,  Ps.  78.  ver.49. 
'\He  cast  upon  them  the  fierceness  of  his  anger,  indignation,  wrath,  and  vexation, 
by  s^enclinw  out  of  evil  angels  :  so  did  he  afflict  Job,  Saul,  the  Lunatics  and  da?moniacal 
persons  whom  Christ  cured.  Mat.  iv.  8.  Luke  iv.  11.  Luke  xiii.  Mark  ix.  Tobit.  viii.  3 
&c.    This,  I  say,  happeneth  for  a  punishment  of  sin,  for  their  want  of  faith,  incredu 
lity,  weakness,  distrust,  &c. 

28Lib    1.  cap.  C.  occult.  Philos.  part  1.  cap.  1.  de  j  demone  obsessa.  dial.  soGrea;.  pag.  c.  9.         3i  p«. 

•pectris  ^'i  Sine   cruce   et  sanctificatione   sic  ft  |  null,  de  pnific.  Dei.  ^Lib.  2S.  caj).  26.  torn.  U. 


128  J^ature  of  Devils.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  2. 

SuBSECT.  III. —  Of  Witches  and  Magicians,  how  they  cause  Melanchclv. 

You  have  heard  what  the  devil  can  do  of  himself,  now^  you  shall  liear  what  he  can 
perform  by  liis  instruments,  who  are  many  times  worse  (if  it  be  possible)  than  he 
himself,  and  to  satisfy  their  revenge  and  lust  cause  more  mischief,  Malta  en\m  mala 
non  egisset  dcBtnon,  nisi  provocatus  a  sagis,  as  ^^Erastus  thinlis ;  much  harm  had 
never  been  done,  had  he  not  been  provoked  by  witches  to  it.  He  had  not  appeared 
in  Samuel's  shape,  if  the  Witch  of  Endor  had  let  him  alone ;  or  represented  those 
serpents  in  Pharaoh's  presence,  had  not  the  magicians  urged  him  unto  it ;  JYec  morbos 
vel  hominibus.,  vel  brutis  infigeret  (Erastus  maintains)  si  saga:  quiesccrcnt ;  men  and 
cattle  might  go  free,  if  the  witches  would  let  him  alone.  Many  deny  witches  at  all, 
or  if  there  be  any  they  can  do  no  harm  ;  of  this  opinion  is  Wierus,  lib.  3.  cap.  53.  de 
prcEStig.  daim.  Austin  Lerchemer  a  Dutch  wiiter,  Biarmanus,  Ewichius,  E.uwaldus, 
our  countryman  Scot ;  with  him  in  Horace, 

•  Somnia,  terrores  Macicos,  miractila,  nagas,  I         ^.^7'  '=''."  y""  """^'i.  in'li?nant  at  the  schemes 
Noclurnos  l.emures,  portentaque  Thessala  risu  L'»  "'■'g'"  '"'■"'■^;  visionary  dreams, 

ir.„   ;.,;,..>.  >>  Portentous  wonilers.  wilcliin;;  iinps  of  llell, 

h'xci piuiit. n^.        ■   ,  .,         I,  .         ,       .  11-1 

'  I  1  he  iiij;ntly  gohlm,  anil  enihanting  spein 

Fhey  laugh  at  all  sucli  stories ;  but  on  the  contrary  are  most  lawyers,  divines,  phy- 
sicians, philosophers,  Austin,  Hemingius,  Danseus,  Chyti-aeus,  Zanchius,  Aretius,- 
&c.  Delrio,  Springer,  ''^Niderius,  lib.  .?.  Fornicar.  Guiatius,  Bartolus,  consil.  6.  torn.  1. 
Bodine.,  dcRmoniant.  lib  2.  cap.  8.  Godelman,  Damhoderius,  &c.  Paracelsus,  Erastus, 
Scribanius,  Camerarius,  &c.  The  parties  by  whom  the  devil  deals,  may  be  retkiced 
to  these  two,  such  as  command  him  in  show  at  least,  as  conjurors,  and  magicians, 
whose  detestable  and  horrid  mysteries  are  contained  in  their  book  called  '^Arbatell; 
diemonis  enim  advocati  prcesto  sunt.,  seque  exorcismis  et  conjurationibas  quasi  cogi 
patiuniur.1  ut  miscrum  magorum  genvs,  in  impictate  detincant.  Or  such  as  are  com- 
manded, as  witches,  that  deal  ex  parte  implicite.,  or  cxplicite.,  as  the  ^'^king  hath  well 
defined  ;  many  subdivisions  there  are,  and  many  several  species  of  sorcerers,  witches, 
enchanters,  charmers,  &c.  They  have  been  tolerated  lieretofore  some  of  them ;  and 
magic  hath  been  publicly  professed  in  former  times,  i-n  ^'Salamanca,  ^* Cracow,  and 
other  places,  though  after  censured  by  several  ^°  Universities,  and  now  generally  con- 
tradicted, though  practised  by  some  still,  maintained  and  excused,  Tanquam  res  se- 
crcta  qu,cB  nnn  nisi  viris  magnis  et  peculiari  bencficio  de  Coelo  instructis  communicatnr 
(I  use  '"'BtEsartus  his  words)  and  so  far  approved  by  some  princes,  Ut  nihil  ausi  ag- 
gredi  in  poUlicis.,  in  sacris,  in  consiliis.,  sine  eonmi  arbilrio ;  they  consult  still  with 
them,  and  dare  indeed  do  nothing  without  their  advice.  Nero  and  Heliogabalus, 
Maxentius,  a-nd  Julianus  Apostata,  were  never  so  much  addicted  to  majjic  of  old,  as 
some  of  our  modern  princes  and  popes  themselves  are  now-a-days.  Erricus,  King 
of  Sweden,  had  an  '"  enchanted  cap,  by  virtue  of  which,  and  some  magical  mur- 
mur or  whispering  terms,  he  could  command  spirits,  trouble  the  air,  and  make  the 
wind  stand  which  way  he  would,  insomuch  that  when  there  was  any  great  wind  oi 
storm,  the  common  people  were  wont  to  say,  the  king  now  had  on  his  conjuring  cap 
But  such  examples  are  mfinite.  That  which  they  can  do,  is  as  much  almost  as  the 
devil  himself,  who  is  still  ready  to  satisfy  their  desires,  to  oblige  them  the  more  untc 
him.  They  can  cause  tempests,  storms,  which  is  familiarly  practised  by  witches  »n 
Norway,  Iceland,  as  1  liave  proved.  They  can  make  friends  enemies,  and  enemies 
friends  by  philters;  *' Tnrpes  amores  conciliaix.,  enforpe  love,  tell  any  nian  where  his 
friends  are,  about  what  employed,  though  in  llie  most  remote  places  ]  and  if  they 
will,  '"'"bring  their  sweethearts  to  them  by  niglit,  upon  a  goat's  back  flying  in  the 
air.'?  Sigismund  Scheretzius,  part.  1.  cap.  9.  de  spect.  reports  confidently,  that  hr 
conferred  with  sundry  such,  that  had  been  so  carried  many  miles,  and  that  he  heard 
witches  themselves  confess  as  much ;  hurt  and  infect  men  and  beasts,  vines,  corr 
cattle,  plants,  make  women  abortive,  not  to  conceive.  **  barren,  men  and  women  un- 


53  De  Lamiis.  '•"  El  quomodo  \etiefici  tiant  enar- 

rat.  3^De  quo  phira  legas  in  Bnissardo,  lib.  1.  de 

prsstig.  sSRox   .lacohus,    naemonnl.   1.   1.   c.   3. 

"An  university  in  Spain  in  old    Castile.  '*The 

chief  town  in   Poland.  ■'•'Oxford  and    Paris,  see 

«nem  P.  Lombardi.  •"'  Prefat    de  magis  et  vene- 


ficis.  '"  Rotatum    Pileum   habebat,   quo   ventox 

violentos  cieret,  aerein  tutbaret,  el  in  qiiam  partem 
&c.  <'^  Kraslus.  <»  Minjsterio   hirci   nocliirni 

^'  Steriles  nnptos  el  inhabiles,  vide  Petrum  de  Palliide 
lib.  4.  distinct.  M.  Paiilum  Guiclanduin 


d^em   1.  Subs.  3/  Causes  of  Melancholy.  129 

apt  and  unable,  married  and  unmarried,  fifty  several  ways,  saith  Bodine,  lib.  2.  c.  2. 
fl)  in  the  air,  meet  when  and  where  they  will,  as  Cicogna  proves,  and  Lavat.  de  spec, 
part.  2.  c.  17.  "steal  young  children  out  of  their  cradles,  ministerio  dcBmonum.,  and 
put  deformed  in  their  rooms,  which  we  call  changelings,"  saith  ""^Scheretzius,  part.  1. 
c.  (5.  make  men  victorious,  fortunate,  eloquent;  and  therefore  in  those  ancient  mono 
machies  and  combats  they  were  searched  of  old,  *Hhey  had  no  magical  charms ;  they 
can  make  ^^  stick  frees,  such  as  shall  endure  a  rapier's  point,  musket  shot,  and  never 
be  wounded  :  of  which  read  more  in  Boissardus,  cap.  6.  de  Magid^  the  manner  of 
the  adjuration,  and  by  whom  'tis  made,  where  and  how  to  be  used  in  expeditionihus 
bellicis,  prceliis.,  due.lUs.,  &c.,  with  many  peculiar  instances  an'<  examples  ;  they  can 
walk  in  fiery  furnaces,  make  men  feel  no  pain  on  the  rackjrt'',/  alias  torlur as  senlire ; 
they  can  stanch  blood,  ''^represent  dead  men's  shapes,  alter  and  turn  themselves  and 
others  into  several  forms,  at  their  pleasures.  ''^Agaberta,  a  famous  witch  in  Lapland, 
would  do  as  much  publicly  to  all  spectators,  Modb  Pusilla,  modo  anus,  modb  procera 
lit  qitciLUS,  modo  vacca,  avis,  cohiier,  Sec.  Now  young,  now  old,  high,  low,  like  a 
cow,  like  a  bird,  a  snake,  and  what  not  ?  She  could  represent  tc  others  what  forms 
they  most  desired  to  see,  sliow  them  friends  absent,  reveal  secrets,  maxinid  omnium 
admiratione,  &c.  And  yet  for  all  this  sublilty  of  theirs,  as  Lipsius  well  observes, 
Physiolog.  Stoicor.  lib.  1.  cap.  17.  neither  these  magicians  nor  devils  themselves  can 
take  away  gold  or  letters  out  of  mine  or  Crassus'  chest,  et  Clientelis  suis  largiri,  for 
they  are  base,  poor,  contemptible  fellows  most  part;  as  ^° Bodine  notes,  they  can 
do  nothing  inJudicum  decreta  aut  poenas,  in  regum  concilia  vcl  arcana,  nihil  in  rem 
nummariam  aut  thesauros,  they  cannot  give  money  to  their  clients,  alter  judges'"  de- 
crees, or  councils  of  kings,  these  niinuti  Genii  cannot  do  it,  altiores  Genii  hoc  sibi 
adscrvarunt,  the  higher  powers  reserve  these  things  to  themselves.  Now  and  then 
peradventure  there  may  be  some  more  famous  magicians  like  Simon  Magns,  ^'Apol- 
lonius  Tyaneus,  Pasetes,  Jamblicus,  ^^Odo  de  Stellis,  that  for  a  time  can  build  castles 
in  the  air,  represent  armies,  &c.,  as  they  are  ^*said  to  have  done,  command  wealth 
and  treasure,  feed  thousands  with  all  variety  of  meats  upon  a  sudden,  protect  them- 
selves and  their  followers  from  all  princes'  persecutions,  by  removing  from  place  to 
place  in  an  instant,  reveal  secrets,  future  events,  tell  what  is  done  in  far  countries, 
make  them  appear  that  died  long  since,  and  do  many  such  miracles,  to  the  world's 
terror,  admiration  and  opinion  of  deity  to  themselves,  yet  the  devil  forsakes  them  at 
last,  they  come  to  wicked  ends,  and  rarb  aut  nunquam  such  impostors  are  to  be 
found.  The  vulgar  sort  of  them  can  work  no  such  feats.  But  to  my  purpose,  they 
can,  last  of  all,  cure  and  cause  most  diseases  to  such  as  they  love  or  hate,  and  this 
of  **  melancholy  amongst  the  rest.  Paracelsus,  Tom.  4.  de  morbis  amentium.  Tract.  1. 
in  express  words  affirms ;  MuUi  fascinantur  in  melancholiam,  many  are  bewitched 
into  melancholy,  out  of  his  experience.  The  same  saith  Danaeus,  lib.  3.  de  sortiariis. 
Vidi,  inquit,  qui  Melancholicos  morbos  gravissimos  induxerunt  :  I  have  seen  those 
that  have  caused  melancholy  in  the  most  grievous  manner,  ^^ dried  up  women's  paps, 
cured  gout,  palsy ;  this  and  apoplexy,  falling  sickness,  which  no  physic  could  help, 
solu  tactu,  by  touch  alone.  Ruland  in  his  3  Cent.  Cura  91.  gives  an  instance  of  one 
David  Helde,  a  young  man,  who  by  eating  cakes  which  a  witch  gave  him,  mox  deli- 
rare  caepit,  began  to  dote  on  a  sudden,  and  was  instantly  mad :  F.  H.  D.  in  ^''Hildes- 
heim,  consulted  about  a  melancholy  man,  thought  his  disease  was  partly  magical,  and 
partly  natural,  because  he  vomited  pieces  of  iron  and  lead,  and  spake  such  languages 
as  he  had  never  been  taught;  but  such  examples  are  common  in  Scribanius,  Hercules 
de  Saxonia,  and  others.  The  means  by  which  they  work  are  usually  charms,  images, 
as  that  in  Hector  Bcethius  of  King  DufTe ;  characters  stamped  of  sundry  metals,  and 
at  such  and  such  constellations,  knots,  amulets,  words,  pliilters,  &c.,  which  generally 
make  the  parties  affected,  melancholy ;  as  "Monavius  discourseth  at  large  in  an  epistle 


^Infantes  matribus  suffurantur,  aliis  suppositivis 
n  locum  veroriim  conjectis.  ■'^Milles.  ■"  D. 

I.iithpr,  in  primuin  prseceptniti,  et  Leon.  Varius,  \\h.  1. 
4e  Fascino.  ■'*' Lavat- Cicog.  ■'^  Boissardus  de 

Vlaeis.  ^oDa-mon.  lib.  3.  rap.  3.  divide  Hhi- 

mstratuin,  vita  ejus  ;  Boissarduin  de  Magis.  ^'^Nu- 
hrigeiises  lef;e  lib.  1.  c.  19.  Vide  .Suidam  de  Paset. 
De  Cruent.  Cadaver.  ™  Erastus.    Adolphus  Scri- 

»a-'ins.  w  Virg,  JEneii.  4,    Incantatricein  descr> 

17 


bens:  Hrec  se  r.arminibug  promittit  solvere  mentes. 
Qiias  velit,  ast  aliis  liuras  immitlere  curaa.  s=Go- 

delniannus,  cap.  7.  lib.  1.  Nutricum  mammas  praesic- 
caiit.  solo  tactu  pndagram,  Apoplexiam,  Paralysin,  el 
alios  morbos,  quos  mediciiia  curare  non  poterat. 
^Factiis  inde  Maniacus,  spic.  2.  fol.  147.  w  Om- 

nia philtra  etsi  inter  se  difFerant,  hoc  habent  commune, 
quod  hominem  elliciant  melancholicum.  epist  33L 
Scholtzii. 


130  Catises  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  2 

of  his  to  AcoImus,  j^iving  instance  in  a  Bohemian  baron  that  was  so  troubled  by  a 
philter  taken.  Not  that  there  is  any  power  at  all  in  those  spells,  charms,  characters, 
anil  barbarous  words ;  but  that  the  devil  doth  use  such  means  to  delude  them.  TJt 
fidelcs  inde  magos  (saith  '^^Libanius)  in  officio  retineat.,  turn  in  consortium  malef ado- 
rum  vocel.. 

SuBSECT.  IV. —  Stars  a  cause.     Signs  from  Physiognomy.,  Metoposcopy.)  Chiromancy 

Natural  causes  are  either  primary  and  universal,  or  secondary  and  more  particu- 
lar. Primary  causes  are  the  heavens,  planets,  stars,  &c.,  by  their  influence  (as  our 
astroloifers  hold)  producing  this  and  such  like  effects.  I  will  not  here  stand  to  dis- 
cuss obiter.,  whetber  stars  be  causes,  or  signs;  or  to  apologise  for  judical  astrology. 
If  either  Sextus  Empericus,  Picus  Mirandula,  Sextus  ab  Heminga,  Pererius,  Erastus, 
Chambers,  &c.,  have  so  far  prevailed  with  any  man,  that  he  will  attribute  no  virtue 
at  ail  to  the  heavens,  or  to  sun,  or  moon,  more  than  he  doth  to  their  signs  at  an  inn- 
keeper's post,  or  tradesman's  shop,  or  generally  condemn  all  such  astrological  apho- 
risms approved  by  experience  :  I  refer  him  to  Bellantius,  Pirovanus,  Marascallerus, 
Gocienius,  Sir  Christopher  Heidon,  &c.  If  thou  shall  ask  me  what  I  think,  I  must 
answer,  nam  ct  doctis  hisce  erroribus  versatus  sum.,  (for  I  am  conversant  with  these 
learned  errors,)  they  do  incline,  but  not  compel ;  no  necessity  at  all :  ^°agunt  nan 
cogant :  and  so  gently  incline,  that  a  wise  man  may  resist  them  ;  sapiens  domlnabilur 
astris  :  they  ride  us,  but  God  rules  them.  All  this  (methinks)  ^"Joh.  de  hidagine 
hath  comprised  in  brief,  Quceris  a  me  quantum  in  nobis  operantiir  asira  ?  &c.  "■  Wilt 
thou  know  how  far  the  stars  work  upon  us  ?  I  say  they  do  but  incline,  and  that  S( 
gently,  that  if  we  will  be  ruled  by  reason,  they  have  no  power  over  us  ;  but  if  wi* 
follow  our  own  nature,  and  be  led  by  sense,  they  do  as  much  in  us  as  in  brute  beasts, 
and  we  are  no  better."  So  that,  I  hope,  I  may  justly  conclude  with  ®'  Cajetan,  Cae- 
lum est  vehiculam  divincB  virtutis,  &c.,  that  the  heaven  is  God's  instrument,  by  me- 
diation of  which  he  governs  and  disposeth  these  elementary  bodies  ;  or  a  great  book, 
whose  letters  are  the  stars,  (as  one  calls  it,)  wherein  are  written  many  strange  things 
for  such  as  can  read,  "  '•'■  or  an  excellent  harp,  made  by  an  eminent  workman,  on 
which,  he  that  can  but  play,  will  make  most  admirable  music."    But  to  the  purpose. 

®^  Paracelsus  is  of  opinion,  "  that  a  physician  without  the  knowledge  of  stars  can 
neither  understand  the  cause  or  cure  of  any  disease,  either  of  this  or  gout,  not  so 
much  as  toothache ;  except  he  see  the  peculiar  geniture  and  scheme  of  the  party  ef- 
fected." And  for  this  proper  malady,  he  will  have  the  principal  and  primary  cause 
of  it  proceed  from  the  heaven,  ascribing  more  to  stars  than  humours,  ®^"and  that  the 
constellation  alone  many  times  produceth  melancholy,  all  other  causes  set  apart." 
He  gives  instance  in  lunatic  persons,  that  are  deprived  of  their  wits  by  the  moon's 
motion ;  and  in  another  place  refers  all  to  tlie  ascendant,  and  will  have  the  true  and 
chief  cause  of  it  to  be  sought  from  the  stars.  Neither  is  it  his  opinion  only,  but  of 
many  Galenists  and  philosophers,  though  they  do  not  so  peremptorily  maintain  as 
much.  "  This  variety  of  melancholy  symptoms  proceeds  from  the  stars,"  saith 
**Melancthon  :  the  most  generous  melancholy,  as  that  of  Augustus,  comes  from  the 
conjunction  of  Saturn  and  Jupiter  in  Libra  :  the  bad,  as  that  of  Catiline's,  from  tht 
meeting  of  Saturn  and  the  moon  in  Scorpio.  Jovianus  Pontanus,  in  his  tentii  book, 
and  thirteenth  chapter  de  rebus  coelestibus,  discourseth  to  tliis  purpose  at  large,  Ex 
atra  bile  varii  generantnr  morbi.,  &c.,  ''^"•many  diseases  proceed  from  black  choler, 
as  it  shall  be  hot  or  cold  ;  and  though  it  be  cold  in  its  own  nature,  yet  it  is  apt  to  he 
heated,  as  water  may  be  made  to  boil,  and  burn  as  bad  as  fire ;  or  made  cold  as  ice : 


68  De  cruent.     Cadaver.  ^^  Astra  regiint  homi- 

nes, et  rnuit  astra  Deus.  s"  ChirDin.  HI).  Qusris  4 

me  qiianliitn  operantiir  astra  ?  dico,  in  nos  nihil  asIra 
argere,  sed  aninios  prteclivea  trahere  :  qui  sic  tanien 
liberi  sunt,  ut  si  ducein  sequantur  ralionem,  nihil  ef- 
ficiant.  sin  vero  naturam,  id  agere  quod  in  brutis  fere. 
61  Ctelum  vehiculum  divins  virtutis,  cujus  mediante 
motu,  lumine  et  iiiflupntia,  Deus  I  eleinentaria  corpora 
ordinal  et  disponit  Th.de  Vio.  Cajetanus  in  Psa.  104. 
«'  Mnndug  isle  quasi  lyra  ab  excellentissimo  quodain 
artiflre  concinnata,  queni  qui  norit  mirahiles  eliciet 
barnionias.  J.  Dee.  Apiiorisino  11.  "3  Medicus  sine 

eiBli  peritia  nihil  est,  &.c.   nisi  genesiin  sciverit,  ne 


tantillum  poterit.  lib.  de  podaa;.  ^  Constellatio  it 

causa  est;  et  influentia  cceli  inorhum  hunc  movet,  in- 
terdum  omnibus  aliis  auiotis.  Et  alibi.  Origo  eju.s  4 
CobIo  petenda  est.     Tr.  de  niorbis  amentium.  '^'^Lib. 

daanima,  cap.  de  huinorib.  Ea  varietas  in  Melancho- 
lia, habet  cailestes  causas  (f  f^  et  Tj.  in  Q  (5  r?'  et  (J 
in  Vy.  66  Ex  atra  bile  varii  p-eiierantur  morbi  pe. 

rii.de  ut  ipse  inultum  calidi  aut  frigidi  in  se  liabueril 
quum  utrique  siiscipiendo  quam  aptissinia  sit,  tamelij 
suapte  nalura  frigida  sit.  Annon  aqua  sic  afficitur  a 
calore  ut  ardeat  ;  et  a  frigore.  ut  in  glaciein  concres- 
ca  1  et  ha;c  varietas  distinctionum,  alii  flent,  rideni 
Slc 


Mem.  1.  Subs,  4.]  Causes  of  Melancholy.  131 

and  thence  proceed  such  variety  of  symptoms,  some  mad,  some  solitary,  some  ia»ign, 
some  rage,"  &c.  The  cause  of  all  whicli  intemperance  he  will  have  chiefly  and  pri- 
marily proceed  from  the  heavens,'^''"'  from  the  position  of  Mars,  Saturn,  and  Mercury." 
Bis  aphorisms  be  these,  ''**'•'•  Mercury  in  any  geniture,  if  he  sliall  be  found  in  Virgo,  or 
Pisces  his  opposite  sign,  and  that  in  the  horoscope,  irradiaieu  by  those  quartile  aspects 
of  Saturn  or  Mars,  the  child  shall  be  mad  or  melancholy."  Again,  ^^"•He  that  shall 
have  Saturn  and  Mars,  the  one  culminating,  tlie  other  in  the  fourth  house,  when  he 
shall  be  born,  shall  be  melancholy,  of  which  he  shall  be  cured  in  time,  if  Mercury 
behold  them.  ™  If  tlie  moon  be  in  conjunction  or  opposition  at  the  birth  time  v.'ith 
the  sun,  Saturn  or  Mars,  or  in  a  quartile  aspect  with  them,  (e  7naJo  cueli  Zoco,  Leovitnis 
adds,)  many  diseases  are  signified,  especially  the  head  and  brain  is  like  to  be  misaf- 
fected  with  pernicious  humours,  to  be  melancholy,  lunatic,  or  mad,"  Cardan  adds, 
quarto,  lima  natos,  eclipses,  eartliquakes.  Garcfeus  and  Leovitius  will  have  tlie  chief 
judgment  to  be  taken  from  the  lord  of  the  geniture,  or  where  there  is  an  aspect  be- 
tween the  moon  and  Mercury,  and  neither  behold  the  horoscope,  or  Saturn  and  Mars 
shall  be  lord  of  the  present  conjunction  or  opposition  in  Sagittarius  or  Pisces,  of  the 
sun  or  moon,  such  persons  are  commonly  epileptic,  dote,  da^moniacal,  melancholy  ; 
but  see  more  of  tliese  aphorisms  in  the  above-named  Pontanus.  Garcaeus,  cap.  23. 
de  Jud.  genitiir.  Schoner.  lib.  1.  cap.  8,  which  he  hath  gathered  out  of  "Ptolemy, 
Albubater,  and  some  other  Arabians,  Junctine,  Ranzovius,  Lindhout,  Origen,  &.c.  But 
these  men  you  will  reject  peradventure,  as  astrologers,  and  therefore  partial  judges; 
then  hear  the  testimony  of  physicians,  Gaienists  themselves.  ^^Carto  confesseth  the 
influence  of  stars  to  have  a  great  hand  to  this  peculiar  disease,  so  doth  Jason  Praten- 
sis,  Lonicerius  prccfat.  de  Apoplcxid.i  Ficinus,  Fernelius,  &c.  ''^P.  Cnemander  ac- 
knowledgeth  the  stars  an  universal  cause,  the  particular  from  parents,  and  the  use  of 
the  six  non-natural  things.  Baptista  Port.  jnag.  I.  I.e.  10,  12,  15,  will  have  them 
causes  to  every  particular  individi.um.  Instances  and  examples,  to  evince  the  truth  of 
those  aphorisms,  are  common  amongst  those  astrologian  treatises.  Cardan,  in  his  thirty- 
seventh  geniture,  gives  instance  in  Alatth.  Bolognius.  Camerar.  hor.  natalit.  ccntur.  7. 
genit.  6.  ef  7.  of  Daniel  Gare,  and  others ;  but  see  Garcaeus,  cap.  3.3.  Luc.  Gauricus, 
Tract.  6.  de  Jlzemenis.,  &.c.  The  time  of  this  melancholy  is,  when  the  significators 
of  any  geniture  are  directed  according  to  art,  as  the  hor :  moon,  hylech,  &c.  to 
the  hostile  beams  or  terms  of  ^  and  o*  especially,  or  any  fixed  star  of  their  nature, 
or  if  k  by  his  revolution  or  transitus,  shall  ofiend  any  of  those  radical  promissora 
in  the  geniture. 

Otlier  signs  there  are  taken  from  physiognomy,  metoposcopy,  chiromancy,  which 
because  Joh.  de  ludagine,  and  Rotman,  the  landgrave  of  Hesse  his  mathematician, 
not  long  since  in  his  Chiromancy  ^  Baptista  Porta,  in  his  celestial  Physiognomy, 
have  proved  to  hold  great  affinity  with  astrology,  to  satisfy  the  curious,  1  am  the 
more  willing  to  insert. 

The  general  notions  ^"^  physiognomers  give,  be  these  ;  "  black  colour  argues  natural 
melancholy,  so  doth  leanness,  hirsuteness,  broad  veins,  much  hair  on  the  brows," 
saith  '^Gratanarolus,  cap.  7,  and  a  little  head,  out  of  Aristotle,  high  sanguine,  red 
colour,  shows  head  melancholy ;  they  that  stutter  and  are  bald,  will  be  soonest  me- 
lancholy, (as  Avicenna  supposeth,)  by  reason  of  the  dryness  of  their  brains ;  but  he 
that  will  know  more  of  the  several  signs  of  humour  and  wits  out  of  physiognomy, 
let  him  consult  with  old  Adamantus  and  Polemus,  that  comment,  or  rather  para- 
phrase upon  Aristotle's  Physiognomy,  Baptista  Porta's  four  pleasant  books,  Michael 
Scot  de  secretis  naturce,  John  de  Indagine,  Montaltus,  Antony  Zara.  anat.  ingeniorum, 
sect.  1.  memb.  13.  et  lib.i. 

Chiromancy  hath  these  aphorisms  to  foretel  melancholy.     Tasneir.  lib.  5.  cap.  2, 

«' Hanc   ad  iiitemperantiam    gigripndam    plurimum  iiiiim  melancholicorum  symptoma  siderum  infliientis. 

confert  rT  et  I7  positus,  &c.  ^^  ^  Qiiolies  aliciijus  '^^rte   Medica.  accediint   ad   hiis   causas  affeclionei 

genitura  in  1t\  et  J^  adverso  signn  posiliis,  horosco-  siderum.     Plurimum  iucitant  et  provocant  iiifluentis 

pum  partiliter  tenneret  atque  etiam  a  i^  vel  T^  H  ra-  ca>lestes.     Velciirio,  lib.  4.  cap.  15.  '^  Hildesheim, 

din    percussus    fuerit.   natus    ab    insania   vexahitur.  spicel.   2.   de   mel.  '^  Joh.    de    Indag.   cap.   9 

<"  Qui  )->  et  rf  habet,  alterum  in  culrnine,  allerum  imo  Montaltus,  cap.  22.  "  Caput  parrum  qui  habeni 

cobIo,  cum  in  lucem  venerit.  melancholicus  erit,  i.  qua  cerebrum  et  spirilus  plerumque   insuslos,  facile  inci- 

eanebitur,   si    ^   illos  irradiarit.  'o  Hac   cnnfigu-  dent  in  Melancholiam  rubicund].    iEtius.  Idem  Men- 

ratione    natus,    Aut    Lunaticus,   aut    mente    captus.  taltus,  c.  21.  6  Galeno. 
"  PtoloniaiUA  centiloquio,  et  quadripartito  tribuit  om-  1 


132  Causes  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  2. 

who  liath  comprehended  the  sum  of  John  de  Indagine  :  Tvi^assus,  Corvinus,  and 
others  in  his  book,  thus  hath  it ;  '^ "  The  Saturnine  line  going  from  the  rascetta 
through  the  hand,  to  Saturn's  mount,  and  there  intersected  by  certain  Httle  lines, 
argues  melancholy;  so  if  the  vital  and  natural  make  an  acute  angle.  Aphorism  100. 
The  saturnine,  epatic,  and  natural  lines,  making  a  gross  triangle  in  the  hand,  argue 
as  much  ;"  which  Goclenius,  cap.  5.  Chiros.  repeats  verbatim  out  of  him.  In  general 
they  conclude  all,  that  if  Saturn's  mount  be  full  of  many  small  lines  and  intersec- 
tions, ""such  men  are  most  part  melancholy,  miserable  and  full  of  disquietness, 
care  and  trouble,  continually  vexed  with  anxious  and  bitter  thoughts,  always  sor- 
rowful, feaiful,  suspicious;  they  delight  in  husbandry,  buildings,  pools,  marshes, 
springs,  woods,  walks,"  &c.  ThaddiEus  Haggesius,  in  his  Metoposcopia,  hath  cer- 
tain aphorisms  derived  from  Saturn's  lines  in  the  forehead,  by  which  he  collects  a 
melancholy  disposition  ;  and  ''*  Baptista  Porta  makes  observations  from  those  other 
parts  of  the  body,  as  if  a  spot  be  over  the  spleen  ;  '^'^  or  in  tlie  nails ;  if  it  appear 
black,  it  signilieth  much  care,  grief,  contention,  and  melancholy ;"  the  reason  he 
refers  to  the  humours,  and  gives  instance  in  himself,  that  for  seven  years  space  he 
had  such  black  spots  in  his  nails,  and  all  that  while  was  in  perpetual  law-suits,  con- 
troversies for  his  inheritance,  fear,  loss  of  honour,  banishment,  grief,  care,  &c.  and 
when  his  miseries  ended,  the  black  spots  vanished.  Cardan,  in  his  book  de  Ubris 
proj)riis,  tells  such  a  story  of  his  own  person,  that  a  little  before  his  son''s  death,  he 
had  a  black  spot,  which  appeared  in  one  of  his  nails ;  and  dilated  itself  as  he  came 
nearer  to  his  end.  But  I  am  over  tedious  in  these  toys,  which  howsoever,  in  some 
iiVcn's  too  severe  censures,  they  may  be  held  absurd  and  ridiculous,  I  am  the  bolder 
to  insert,  as  not  borrowed  from  circumforanean  rogues  and  gipsies,  but  out  of  the 
writings  of  worthy  philosophers  and  physicians,  yet  living  some  of  them,  and  reli- 
gious professors  in  famous  universities,  who  are  able  to  patronize  that  which  they 
have  said,  and  vindicate  themselves  from  all  cavillers  and  ignorant  persons. 

Sub  SECT.  V. —  Old  age  a  cause. 

Secondary  peculiar  causes  efficient,  so  called  in  respect  of  the  other  precedent, 
are  either  congenitcR.1  internee.,  innata..,  as  they  term  them,  inward,  innate,  inbred ;  or 
else  outward  and  adventitious,  which  happen  to  us  after  we  are  born  :  congenite  or 
born  with  us,  are  either  natural,  as  old  age,  or  prater  naturam  (as  ^Fernelius  calls 
it)  that  distemperature,  Avhich  we  have  from  our  parent's  seed,  it  being  an  hereditary 
disease.  The  first  of  these,  which  is  natural  to  all,  and  which  no  man  living  can 
avoid,  is  ^'old  age,  which  being  cold  and  dry,  and  of  the  same  quality  as  melancholy 
is,  must  needs  cause  it,  by  diminution  of  spirits  and  substance,  and  increasing  of 
adust  humours  ;  therefore  **^Melancthon  avers  out  of  Aristotle,  as  an  undoubted  truth, 
Srnes  plerunqjie  delirasse  in  senect/t.,  that  old  men  familiarly  dote,  oh  atram  bilem. 
for  black  choler,  which  is  then  superabundant  in  them  :  and  Rliasis,  that  Arabian 
physician,  in  his  Cont.  lib.  1.  cap.  9,  calls  it  ^^"  a  necessary  and  inseparable  accident," 
to  all  old  and  decrepit  persons.  After  seventy  years  (as  the  Psalmist  saith)  ^^"  all  is 
trouble  and  sorrow,"  and  common  experience  confirms  the  truth  of  it  in  weak  and 
old  persons,  especially  such  as  have  lived  in  action  all  their  lives,  had  great  employ- 
ment, much  business,  much  command,  and  many  servants  to  oversee,  and  leave  oil 
ex  abrupto ;  as  ^fcharles  the  Fifth  did  to  King  Philip,  resign  up  all  on  a  sudden  ;  they 
are  overcome  with  melancholy  in  an  instant :  or  if  they  do  continue  in  such  courses, 
they  dote  at  last,  [senex  bis  puer.,)  and  are  not  able  to  manage  their  estates  through 
common  infirmities  incident  in  their  age  ;  full  of  ache,  sorro\v  and  grief,  children  again. 
dizzards,  they  carle  many  times  as  they  sit,  and  talk  to  themselves,  they  are  angry, 
waspish,  displeased  with  every  thing,  "  suspicious  of  all,  wayward,  covetous,  hard 

'sSaturniiia  b.  Rascetta  per  mediam  maiium  decur-  Idem  macula;  in  ungulis  nisjrfe,  lites,  rixas,  melancho- 
rens,  usque  ad  radicem  montis  Saturiii,  &  parvis  I  liam  significant,  ab  humnre  in  corde  tali.  ">  Lib.  I 
lineis  inteiaecta,  arguit  melancliolicos.     Aplioris.  78.     Path.  cap.    II.  "'  Venit  enini  properata  ma'iis 

"  Agitanlur  miseriis,  rontinuis  inquietudinihus,  neqiie  |  innpina  senectus  :  et  dolor  tetatem  jussit  inesse  meam 
■inquam  isolitudine  liberi  sunt,  anxie  affigunturama-  I  Boethius,  met.  1.  de  consol.   Philos.  "'^  Cap.  de 

rissimis  intra  cogitationibus,  semper  tristes,  suspitiosi,  1  humoribus,  lib.  de  Aniuia.  ""^  Necessarium  acrl 

meticulosi:    coiiitaliones   sunt,  velle   afrriim   colere,    den.-<  decrepilis,  et  inseparabile.  "<  Psal.  xc.  1# 

•tagna  amant  et  paliides,  &c.     Jo.  de  Indagine,  lib.  1.    >^Meteran.  Belg.  hist.  lib.  1. 
« Caeleslid  Physiognom.  lib.  10.  '"Cap.  14.  lib.  5.  I 


i»irim.  1.  Subs.  6.1  Causes  of  Melancholy.  133 

jsaith  Tully,)  self-willed,  superstitious,  self-conceited,  braggers  and  admirers  of  them- 
selves," as  ^''Balthasar  Castalio  hath  truly  noted  of  them.*'.  This  natural  infirmity  is 
most  eminent  in  old  women,,  and  such  as  are  poor,  solitary,  live  in  most  base  esteem 
and  beggary,  or  such  as  are  witches ;  insomuch  that  Wierus,  Baptista  Porta,  Ulncu 
Molitor,  Edwicus,  do  refer  all  that  witches  are  said  to  do,  to  imagination  alone,  ant 
tliis  humour  of  melancholy.  And  wliereas  it  is  controverted,  whether  they  can  be- 
witch cattle  to  death,  ride  in  the  air  upon  a  coulstaff  out  of  a  chimney-top,  trans- 
form themselves  into  cats,  dogs,  &c.,  translate  bodies  from  place  to  place,  meet  in 
companies,  and  dance,  as  they  do,  or  have  carnal  copulation  with  the  devil,  they 
ascribe  all  to  this  redundant  melancholy,  which  domineers  in  them,  to  ^^somnilerous 
potions,  and  natural  causes,  the  devil's  policy.  JYon  Icedunt  omnind  (saith  Wierus) 
aut.  quid  mirum  facAunt^  i^de  LamiiSj  lib.  3.  cap.  36),  ut  pjifatur,  solum  viliatam  habent 
phantasiam  ;  they  do  no  such  wonders  at  all,  only  tlieir  ^^brahis  are  crazed.  """•They 
think  they  are  witches,  and  can  do  hurt,  but  do  not."  But  this  opinion  Bodine, 
Erastus,  Danaeus,  Scribanius,  Sebastian  Michaelis,  Campanella  de  Sensu  rerum.,  lib.  4. 
cap.  9.  ^'Dandinus  the  Jesuit,  lib.  2.  de  Anima  explode  ;  ^^Cicogna  confutes  at  large. 
Tliat  witches  are  melancholy,  they  deny  not,  but  not  out  of  corrupt  phantasy  alone, 
so  to  delude  themselves  and  others,  or  to  produce  such  effects. 

SuBSECT.  VI. — Parents  a  cause  hy  Propagation. 

That  other  inward  inbred  cause  of  Melancholy  is  our  temperature,  in  whole  or 
part,  whicli  we  receive  from  our  parents,  whicli  ^Ternelius  calls  Pro'ter  naturam^ 
or  unnatural,  it  being  an  hereditary  disease;  for  as  he  justifies  ^* Quale  parentum 
maxime  patris  semen  obtigeritj  tales  evadunt  similares  spermatic (e que  partes.,  quocun- 
que  etiam  morbo  Pater  quimi  generat  tenelur.,  cum  semine  transfert  in  Prolcm ;  such 
as  the  temperature  of  the  father  is,  such  is  the  son's,  and  look  wnAt  disease  the 
father  had  when  he  begot  him,  his  son  will  have  after  him;  ^'"and  is  as  well  inhe- 
ritor of  his  infirmities,  as  of  his  lands.  And  where  the  complexion  and  constitution 
of  the  father  is  corrupt,  there  (^°  saith  Roger  Bacon)  the  complexion  and  constitution 
of  the  son  must  needs  be  corrupt,  and  so  the  corruption  is  derived  from  the  father 
to  the  son."  '.Now  this  doth  not  so  much  appear  in  the  composition  of  the  body 
according  to  that  of  Hippocrates,  ^''"  in  habit,  proportion,  scars,  and  other  lineaments  ; 
but  in  manners  and  conditions  of  the  mind,  Et  patrum  in  natos  abeunt  cum  semine 
mores. 

Seleucus  had  an  anchor  on  his  thigh,  so  had  his  posterity,  as  Trogus  records 
1.  15.  Lepidiis,  in  Pliny  1.  7.  c.  17,  was  purblind,  so  was  his  son.  That  famous  family 
of  .lEnobarbi  were  known  of  old,  and  so  surnamed  from  their  red  beards ;  the  Aus- 
trian lip,  and  those  Indian  flat  noses  are  propagated,  the  Bavarian  chin,  and  goggle 
eyes  amongst  the  Jews,  as  ®**  Buxtorfius  observes  ;  their  voice,  pace,  gesture,  looks,  are 
likewise  derived  with  all  the  rest  of  their  conditions  and  infirmities ;  such  a  m.other 
such  a  daugliter;  their  very  ^^ affections  Lemnius  contends  "  to  follow  their  seed,  and 
the  malice  and  bad  conditions  of  children  are  many  times  wholly  to  be  imputed  to 
tlieir  parents;"  I  need  not  therefore  make  any  doubt  of  Melancholy,  but  that  it  is 
an  hereditary  disease.  '°°  Paracelsus  in  express  words  affirms  it,  lib.  de  morb.  amen- 
tium  to.  4.  tr.  1  ;  so  doth  '  Crato  in  an  Epistle  of  his  to  Monavius.  So  doth  Bruno 
Seidelius  in  his  book  de  morbo  incurab.  Montaltus  proves,  cap.  11,  out  of  Hippo- 
crates and  Plutarch,  that  such  hereditary  dispositions  are  frequent,  et  hanc  {Jnquit) 
Jieri  rear  ob  participatam  melancholicam  intemperantiam  (speaking  of  a  patient)  I 


"s  Sunt  morosi  anxii,  et  iracundi  et  difliciles  senes, 
Bi  qiiieriiiius,  etiam  avari,  Tull.  de  senectute.  "'  Lib. 
2.  de  Aulico.  Senes  avari,  morosi,  jaclabundi,  plii- 
lauii,  deliri,  superstitiosi,  suspiciosi,  &c.  Lib.  3.  de 
Laniiis,  cap.  17.  et  18.  >■»  Solanum,  opium  lupiadeps, 
lacr.  asmi,  &c  sanjiuis  infantum,  &c.  ""J  Cornipla 

est  iisal)  huinire  Melancliolico  phantasia.  Nymanus. 
*oPulanl  se  liedere  quando  non  ladunt.  "Qui  1i:ec 
in  imagiiiationis  vim  referre  conaii  sunt,  atrae  bilis, 
inanem  proisus  laborem  susceperunt.  "'Lib.  3. 

cap.  4.  omnif.  mafr.        "^  Lib.  1,  cap.  11.  path.        ^^^Ut 


corrupt!  sunt,  generant  filios  corruptae  complex iotiis, 
et  compositionis,  et  filii  eorum  eadem  de  causa  se 
corrumpunt,  et  sic  derivatur  cnrruplio  a  pairibus  ad 
filios.  "^  Non  tarn  (inquit  Hippocrates)  j;ii)hos  el 

cicatrices  oris  et  corporis  liabitum  agiioscis  ex  iis,  sed 
verun;  incessum  gestns,  mores,  morbos,  &.c.  ""  Sy  ■ 
nagog.  Jud.  ""Aflectus  parentum  in  t'oetus  tran- 

seunt,  et  puerorum  malicia  parenlibus  impuianda,  lib 
4.  cap.  3.  de  occult,  nat.  niirac.  '""Ex  pituiiosis 

pituitosi,  ex  biliosis  biliosi,  ex  lienosis  et  melancho- 
iicis  melancholici.        '  Epist.  174.  in  Scoltz.    Nascitur 


arlbritici  Epilep.  &c.  ssut  fjiji  non  tam  posses-  j  nobiscum  ilia  aliturque  et  una.  cum  parentibus  liabe 

sionum  quam  morborum  tietedes  sint.         ""^  Epist.  de     mus  malum  hunc  assem.     Jo.  Pelesius,  lib.  2.  de  cur* 
•cretifi  artis  et  nature,  c.  7.  Nam  in  hoc  quod  patres  I  humanorum  affectuuni. 

M 


Idi  Causes  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec 

think  he  became  so  by  participation  of  Melancholy.  Daniel  Sennertus,  lib.  I  part 
2  cap.  9,  will  have  his  melancholy  constitution  derived  not  only  from  the  father  to 
the  son,  but  to  the  whole  family  sometimes ;  Quandoqiie  tolls  favuUls  hereditati' 
vam^  '■' Forestus,  in  his  medicinal  observations,  illustrates  this  point,  with  an  ■example 
of  a  merchant,  his  patient,  that  had  this  inhrmity  by  inheritance ;  so  doth  Rodericus 
a  Fonseca,  torn.  1.  consid.  (59,  by  an  instance  of  a  young  man  tliat  was  so  affected 
ex  maire  melajicholica^  had  a  melancholy  mother,  el  victu  melanchoUco.  and  bad  diet 
together.  Ludovicus  Mercatus,  a  Spanish  physician,  in  that  excellent  Tract  which 
he  hath  lately  written  of  hereditary  diseases,  tom.  2.  oper.  lib.  5,  reckons  np  leprosy, 
as  those  ''Galbots  in  Gascony,  hereditary  lepers,  pox,  stone,  gout,  epilepsy,  &c. 
Amongst  the  rest,  this  and  madness  after  a  set  time  comes  to  many,  which  he  calls 
a  miraculous  thing  in  nature,  and  sticks  for  ever  to  them  as  an  incurable  habit.  And 
that  which  is  more  to  be  wondered  at,  it  skips  in  some  families  the  fatlier,  and  goes 
to  the  son,  ''"or  takes  every  other,  and  sometimes  every  third  in  a  lineal  descent, 
and  doth  not  always  produce  the  same,  but  some  like,  and  a  symbolizing  disease." 
These  secondary  causes  hence  derived,  are  commonly  so  powerful,  that  (as  '^Wol- 
phius  holds)  sccpe  mutant  decreta  siderum^  they  do  often  alter  the  primary  causes, 
and  decrees  of  the  heavens.  For  these  reasons,  belike,  the  Church  and  common- 
wealth, human  and  Divine  laws,  have  conspired  to  avoid  hereditary  diseases,  forbid- 
ding such  marriages  as  are  any  whit  allied  ;  and  as  Mercatus  adviseth  all  families  to 
take  such,  si  fieri,  possit  quce  maxime  distant  natura,  and  to  make  choice  of  those 
that  are  most  differing  in  complexion  from  them  ;  if  they  love  their  own,  and  respect 
the  common  good.  And  sure,  I  think,  it  hath  been  ordered  by  God's  especial  pro- 
vidence, that  in  all  ages  there  should  be  (as  usually  there  is)  once  in  ^600  years,  a 
transmigration  of  nations,  to  amend  and  purify  their  blood,  as  we  alter  seed  upon 
our  land,  and  that  there  should  be  as  it  were  an  inundation  of  those  northern  Goths 
and  Vandals,  and  many  such  like  people  which  came  out  of  that  continent  of  Scan- 
dia  and  Sarmatia  (as  some  suppose)  and  over-ran,  as  a  deluge,  most  part  of  Europe 
and  Africa,  to  alter  for  our  good,  our  complexions,  which  were  much  defaced  with 
hereditary  infirmities,  which  by  our  lust  and  intemperance  we  had  contracted.  A 
sound  generation  of  strong  and  able  men  were  sent  amongst  us,  as  those  northern 
men  usually  are,  innocuous,  free  from  riot,  and  free  from  diseases ;  to  qualify  and 
make  us  as  those  poor  naked  Indians  a:?  generally  at  this  day ;  and  those  about 
Brazil  (as  a  late  ''writer  observes),  in  the  Isle  of  Maragnan,  free  from  all  hereditary 
diseases,  or  other  contagion,  whereas  without  help  of  physic  they  live  commonly 
120  years  or  more,  as  in  the  Orcades  and  many  other  places.  Such  are  the  commoi) 
effects  of  temperance  and  intemperance,  but  I  will  descend  to  particular,  and  show 
by  what  means,  and  by  whom  especially,  this  infirmity  is  derived  unto  us. 

Filii  ex  senibus  nnti.,  rarb  sunt  firmi  temperamcnti^  old  men's  children  are  seldom 
of  a  good  temperament,  as  Scoltzius  supposeth,  consult.  177,  and  therefore  most  apt 
to  this  disease;  and  as  ^Levinus  Lemnius  farther  adds,  old  men  beget  most  part 
wayward,  peevish,  sad,  melancholy  sons,  and  seldom  merry.  He  that  begets  a  child 
on  a  full  stomach,  will  either  have  a  sick  child,  or  a  crazed  son  (as  "Cardan  thinks), 
'.ontradict.  med.  lib.  1.  contradict.  18,  or  if  the  parents  be  sick,  or  have  any  great 
^>ain  of  the  head,  or  megrim,  headache,  (Hieronimus  Wolfius  '"doth  instance  in  a 
child  of  Sebastian  Castalio's)  •,  if  a  drunken  man  get  a  child,  it  will  never  likely  have 
a  good  brain,  as  Gellius  argues,  lib.  12.  cap.  1.  Ebrii  gigniint  Ebrios.,  one  drunkard 
begets  another,  saith  "Plutarch,  si/mp.  lib.  I.  quest.  5,  whose  sentence  '^Lemnius 
approves,  1.  I.e.  4.  Alsarius  Crutius,  Gen.  de  qui  sit  med.  cent.  3.  fol.  182.  Ma- 
crobius,  lib.  1.  Avicenna,  lib.  3.  Fen.  21.  Tract  1.  cap.  8,  and  Aristotle  himself, 
sect.  2.  prob.  4,  foolish,  drunken,  or  hair-brain  women,  most  part  bring  forth  children 
like  unto  themselves,  morosos  et  langaidos,  and  so  likewise  he  that  lies  with  n  men- 


"  Lib.  10.  obs^?rvat.  15.  s  Maginus  Geog.  -i  StEpe 
non  euiuleni,  sed  similem  producit  affectum,  et  illteso 
parente  transit,  in  nepotem.  ^  Dial.  pia;fix.  gen 


Damianus  i  Goes  de  Seandia.  s  Lib.  4,  c.  U.  de 

occult,  nat.  niir.  Tetricos  plenimque  filios  senes  pro. 
generant  et  Iristes,  rarios  exhilara.os.  ^  Coitus 


tuns  I.eovitii.       "  Bodin.  de  rep.  cap.  de  periodis  reip.     super  repletioiiem  pessimus,  et  fill,  -jui  turn  gignuntur, 
'  Claudius  Abaville,  Capuchion,  in  his  voyage  to  Ma-  \  ant   inorbosi   sunt,  aut  stolidi  lODial.  prifis 

ragnan.  1614.  cap.  45.  Nfuio  fere  Kirrotus.  sano  ontines  |  Leovito.  >'  L   de  ed.  Iilieri.v  ''^De  -.cciit.  nat. 

»t  robusto  corpore,  vivunt  annos.  120,  110.  sine  Medi-  :  mir.  temiilentse  et  Ktolids  niul-»re»  li  leros  ».'eM>niqu< 
tina.    Idem  Hector   Boethius  de  insulis  Orchad.  et  |  producunt  aibi  similes. 


Mem.  1.  Subs.  6.]  Causes  of  Melancholy.  135 

«truous  woman.  Intemperanfia  veneris^  quam  in  nautis  prcEsertim  insectutur  '^  Lem- 
iiiiis,  qui  uxores  ineunt^  nulla  menstrui  decursus  ratione  hahita  nee  observato  inter- 
lunio^  prcBcipua  causa  cst^  noxia,  pernitiosa^  concuhi Itun  hunc  cxitialem  ideo,  et  pes- 
tiferum  vocat.  '"' Rodoriciis  a  Castro  Lucitanus,  dclrstanlur  ad  vnum  omnes  med.ci^ 
turn  et  quartd  bind  conccpti^  infcelices  pleriiinque  et  amcn/cs,  deliri,  stolidly  morbosi, 
impuri,,  invalidi,  tetra  lue  sordldi  minime  v  it  ales,  omnibus  bonis  corporis  at  que  animi 
(iestifuti  :  ad  laborem  nati,  si  seniores,  inquit  Eustathius,  iit  Hercules,  et  alii.  '"Judcei 
maxime  insectantur  foediim  hunc,  et  iinmundum  apiid  Christianos  Concubilum,  tit 
illicitum  abhorrent,  ct  apud  suos  prohibent ;  et  quod  Christian!  totics  leprosi,  avienles, 
tot  morbili,  impetigincs,  alphi,  psora.,  cutis  et  faciei  de color ati ones,  tarn  multi  morbi 
epidemici,  acerbi,  et  venciiosi  sint,  in  hunc  immundum  co7icubitum  rejici.unt,  et  cru- 
deles  in  pignora  vocant,  qui  quartd  lund  profluentc  hdc  mensium  illuvie  concubitum 
hunc  non  perhorrescunt.  Damnavit  olim  divina  Lex  et  morte  mulctavit  hujusinodi 
homines,  Lev.  18,  20,  et  inde  nafi,  si  qui  dcformes  aut  mutiVu  pater  dilapidatus,  quod 
non  contineret  ab  '^  immundd  muliere.  Gregorius  Magnus,  petcnti  Augustino  nunquid 
ajjud  '^  Britannos  hujusmodi  concubitum  toleraret,  severe  prohibuit  viris  suis  turn 
misceri  foeminas  in  consuetis  suis  menstruis,  Sic.  I  spare  to  English  this  which  1 
have  said.  Another  cause  some  give,  inordinate  diet,  as  if  a  man  eat  garlic,  onions, 
last  overmuch,  study  too  hard,  be  over-sorrowful,  dull,  heavy,  dejected  in  mind, 
perplexed  in  his  thoughts,  fearful.  Sec,  "  their  children  (saith  '^Cardan  subtil,  lib.  18) 
will  be  much  subject  to  madness  and  melancholy ;  for  if  the  spirits  of  the  brain  b" 
fusled,  or  misaffected  by  such  means,  at  such  a  time,  their  children  will  be  fusled  i" 
the  brain :  they  will  be  dull,  heavy,  timorous,  discontented  all  their  lives."  Some 
are  of  opinion,  and  maintain  that  paradox  or  problem,  that  wisg  men  beget  com- 
monly fools ;  Suidas  gives  instance  in  Aristarchus  the  Grammarian,  duos  reliquii 
filios  Jlristarchum  et  Aristachorum,  ambos  stultos ;  and  which  '"  Erasmus  urgeth  in 
his  Moria,  fools  beget  wise  men.  Card.  subi.  I.  12,  gives  this  cause,  Qiioniam  spi- 
ritus  sapienium  ob  studium  resolvuntur,  et  in  cerebrum  fenintur  a  cordc  :  because 
their  natural  spirits  are  resolved  by  study,  and  turned  into  animal ;  drawn  from  tk" 
heart,  and  those  other  parts  to  the  brain.  Lemnius  subscribes  to  that  of  Cardan,  an. 
assigns  this  reason,  Quod  persolvant  debitum  languide,  et  obscitanter,  unde  fa^lus  <i 
parentum  generositate  desciscit  :  they  pay  their  debt  (as  Paul  calls  it)  to  their  wivf^> 
remissly,  by  which  means  their  children  are  weaklings,  and  many  times  idiots  and 
fools. 

Some  other  causes  are  given,  which  properly  pertain,  and  do  proceed  from  the 
mother :  if  she  be  over-dull,  heavy,  angry,  peevish,  discontented,  and  melancholy, 
not  only  at  the  time  of  conception,  but  even  all  the  while  she  carries  the  child  in 
her  womb  (saith  Fernelius,  path.  1.  1,  11)  her  son  will  be  so  likewise  affected,  and 
worse,  as  ^Lemnius  adds,  1.  4.  c.  7,  if  she  grieve  overmuch,  be  disquieted,  or  by 
any  casualty  be  affrighted  and  terrified  by  some  fearful  object,  heard  or  seen,  she  en- 
dangers her  child,  and  spoils  the  temperature  of  it ;  for  the  strange  imagination  of  a 
woman  works  effectually  upon  her  infant,  that  as  Baptista  Porta  proves,  Physiog. 
ccelestis  1.  5.  c.  2,  she  leaves  a  mark  upon  it,  which  is  most  especially  seen  in  such 
as  prodigiously  long  for  such  and  such  meats,  the  child  will  love  those  meats,  saith 
Fernelius,  and  be  addicted  to  like  humours  :  ^'"  if  a  great-bellied  woman  see  a  hare, 
her  child  will  often  have  a  hare-lip,"  as  we  call  it.  Garccpus,  de  Judiciis  gemfura- 
rum,  cap.  33,  hath  a  memorable  example  of  one  Thomas  Nickell,  born  in  the  city 
of  Brandebnrg,  1551,  ^^"  that  went  reeling  and  staggering  all  the  days  of  his  life,  a?, 
if  he  would  fall  to  the  ground,  because  his  mother  being  great  with  child  saw  a 
drunken  man  reeling  in  -the  street.  Such  another  1  find  in  Martin  Wenrichius,  com. 
de  ortu  monstrorum,  c.  17,  I  saw  (saith  he)  at  Wittenberg,  in  Germany,  a  citizen  that 
locked  like  a. carcass;  I  asked  him  the  cause,  he  replied,^  "His  mother,  when  she 


"Lib.  2.  c.  8.  de  occult,  nat.  mir.     Good   Master 
Schoolmaster  do  not  English  this.  '4  De  nat.  mul. 

lib.  3.  cap.  4.  '^  Buxdornhiiis,  c.  31.    Synag.  .Iiid. 

Ezek.  18.         16  Drusius  obs.  lib.  3.  cap.  20.         "  Beda. 
Eccl.  hist.  lib.  1.  c.  27.  respons.  10.         i*^  Nam  spiritus 


129.  mer.  Socrates'  children  were  fools.  Sabel. 
™  De  occiil.  nat  mir.  Pica  morbus  muliernm  '■'•  Bap- 
tista Porta,  loco  praed.  Ex  leporiiin  intuiln  plerique 
infaiiles  edunt  bifido  snperiore  labello.  -  Quasi 

mox  in  terram  collapsiirus,  per  oiiiiie  vitam  incedebal 


cerebri   si   turn  male  afficiantur.  ta.- ^s  procreant.  et  j  cum  mater  gravia  ebrlum  honiinem  sic  incedenteni 
quale-i  fiierm'    affecUis,  tales   6  lonim  ;    tx   tristil)us  I  viderat.  '.^Civem  facie  cadaverosa.  qui  dixit,  fcc 

•"Istes.  PT  fucundis  jucundi  nascuntur  fee.         'spol.  I 


136  Causes  of  Mdancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  1. 

bore  him  in  her  womb,  saw  a  carcass  by  chance,  and  was  so  sore  affrighted  with  it, 
that  ex  eo  foetus  ei  assimilatus^  from  a  ghastly  impression  the  child  was  like  it." 

So  many  several  ways  are  we  plagued  and  punished  for  our  faLher''s  defaults;  in 
somueh  that  as  Fernelius  truly  saith,  ^^'^  It  is  the  greatest  part  of  our  felicity  to  be 
well  born,  and  it  were  happy  for  human  kind,  if  only  such  parents  as  are  sound  oj 
body  and  mind  should  be  suffered  to  marry."  An  husbandman  will  sow  none  but 
the  best  and  choicest  seed  upon  his  land,  he  will  not  rear  a  bull  or  a  horse,  except 
he  be  right  shapen  in  all  parts,  or  permit  him  to  cover  a  mare,  except  he  be  well 
assured  of  his  breed ;  we  make  clioice  of  the  best  rams  for  our  sheep,  rear  the 
neatest  kine,  and  keep  the  best  dogs,  Quanto  id  diligentms  in  procreandis  liheris 
observandum  f  And  how  careful  then  should  we  be  in  begetting  of  our  children  ?  In 
former  times  some  ''^  countries  have  been  so  chary  in  this  behalf,  so  stern,  that  if  a  child 
were  crooked  or  deformed  in  body  or  mind,  they  made  him  away  ;  so  did  tlie  Indians 
of  old  by  the  relation  of  Curtius,  and  many  other  well-governed  commonwealths, 
according  to  the  discipline  of  those  times.  Heretofore  in  Scotland,  saith  ■^''Hect. 
Boethius,  '■•  if  any  were  visited  with  the  falling  sickness,  madness,  gout,  leprosy,  or 
any  such  dangerous  disease,  which  was  likely  to  be  propagated  from  the  father  to 
the  son,  he  was  instantly  gelded ;  a  woman  kept  from  all  company  of  men ;  and  if 
by  chance  having  some  such  disease,  she  were  found  to  be  with  child,  she  with  her 
brood  were  buried  alive  :  and  this  was  done  for  the  common  good,  lest  the  whole 
nation  should  be  injured  or  corrupted.  A  severe  doom  you  will  say,  and  not  to  be 
used  amongst  Christians,  yet  more  to  be  looked  into  than  it  is.  For  now  by  our 
too  much  facility  in  this  kind,  in  giving  way  for  all  to  marry  that  will,  too  much 
liberty  and  indulg'ence  in  tolerating  all  sorts,  there  is  a  vast  confusion  of  hereditary 
diseases,  no  family  secure,  no  man  almost  free  from  some  griev^ous  infirmity  or  other 
wlien  no  choice  is  had,  but  still  the  eldest  must  marry,  as  so  many  stallions  of  the 
race ;  or  if  rich,  be  they  fools  or  dizzards,  lame  or  maimed,  unable,  intemperate, 
dissolute,  exhaust  through  riot,  as  he  said,  ^^jura  h(jeredltario  sapere  jubenlur ;  they 
must  be  wise  and  able  by  inheritance :  it  comes  to  pass  that  our  generation  is  cor- 
rupt, we  have  many  weak  persons,  both  in  body  and  mind,  many  feral  diseases"^ 
raging  amongst  us,  crazed  families,  parentes^  peremptores ;  our  fathers  bad,  and  we 
are  like  to  be  worse., 


MEMB.  II. 

SuBSECT.  I. — Bad  Diet  a  cause.     Substance.     Quality  of  Meats. 

AccoRDiivG  to  my  proposed  method,  having  opened  hitherto  these  secondary 
causes,  which  are  inbred  with  us,  I  must  now  proceed  to  the  outward  and  adventi- 
tious, which  happen  unto  us  after  we  are  born.  And  those  are  either  evident,  re- 
mote, or  inward,  antecedent,  and  the  nearest :  continent  causes  some  call  them. 
These  outward,  remote,  precedent  causes  are  subdivided  again  into  necessary  and  not 
necessary.  Necessary  (because  we  cannot  avoid  them,  but  they  will  alter  us,  as 
they  are  used,  or  abused)  are  tliose  six  non-natural  things,  so  much  spoken  of 
amongst  physicians,  which  are  principal  causes  of  this  disease.  For  almost  in  every 
consultation,  whereas  they  sliall  come  to  speak  of  the  causes,  the  fault  is  found,  and 
this  most  part  objected  to  the  patient;  Peccavit  circa  res  sex  non  nalurules :  he  hath 
still  oflended  in  one  of  those  six.  Montanus,  consil.  22,  consulted  about  a  melan- 
choly Jew,  gives  that  sentence,  so  did  Frisemelica  in  the  same  place ;  and  in  his  244 
counsel,  censuring  a  melancholy  soldier,  assigns  that  reason  of  his  malady,  ^^"lie 

>t  Optimum   bene    nasci,  maxima    para    fa;licitatis  in  prolem  transmittitnr,  laborantes  inter  eos,  ingenti 

tiostriE    bene    nasci  ;    qiiamobrem    pra!clere    hiimano  j  facta   indagiiie,  inventos,   ne    {jens    foeda   contaui'me 

generi   consulliini    videretur,  si   solis    parentis    bene  '  leederetiir,  ex  iis  nata,  castraveriint,  mulieres  hiijAis 

liabiti  et  sani,  liberis  operani  darenl.  '■'^  Infantes  modi  procul  a  viroriim  cnnsnrtio  abiegarunl,  quofl  »i 

.DArmi  praecipilio  necati.   Bohemus,  lib.  3.  c.  3.     Apiid  liarum    aliqua   concepisse    inveniebatur,   simnl    cum 

Lacnnes    olini.    Lipsius,  episl.    85.   cent,    ad  Helgas,  foBtii  nnndum  edito,  det'odiebatiir  viva.  ''■  Eiiphoi 

Dionysio   Villerio,  si  qnns  aliqiia  membrorum  parte  mio  Satyr.  '^  Fecil  omnia  delicla  qure  fieri  pos 

■nutiles  notaverint,  necnri  jubent.  -tii  ib.  1.   De  sunt  circa  res  sex  non  natiirales,  et  eas  fnerunt  causa 

7ettiruin   Scotorum   moiibus.     Morbo   corn  ."ali,   de-  extrinsecs,  ex  quibus  postea  orltt  sunt  obstructione* 
Mentia,  mania,  lepra.  &c.  aut  siniila  labt-      /v  facil<' 


Mem.  2   Subs.  1.  Causes  of  Melancholy.  137 

tjffended  in  all  those  six  non-natural  things,  which  were  the  outward  caus      from 
which  came  those  inward  obstructions ;  and  so  in  the  rest. 

These  six  uon- natural  tilings  are  diet,  retention  and  evacuation,  which  are  more 
material  than  the  other  because  they  make  new  matter,  or  else  are  conversant  in 
keeping  or  expelling  of  it.  The  other  four  are  air,  exercise,  sleeping,  waking,  anc 
perturbations  of  the  mind,  which  only  alter  the  matter.  The  first  of  these  is  diet, 
which  consists  in  meat  and  drink,  and  causeth  melancholy,  as  it  offends  in  substance, 
or  accidents,  that  is,  quantity,  quality,  or  the  like.  And  well  it  may  be  called  a  ma« 
lerial  cause,  since  that,  as  ^^  Fernelius  holds,  "it  hath  such  a  power  in  begetting  ot 
diseases,  and  yields  the  matter  and  sustenance  of  them ;  for  neither  air,  nor  pertur- 
bations, nor  any  of  those  ot'ner  evident  causes  take  place,  or  work  this  eftect,  except 
the  constitution  of  body,  and  preparation  of  humours,  do  concur.  That  a  man  may  say 
this  diet  is  the  mother  of  diseases,  let  the  father  be  what  he  will,  and  from  this  alone 
melancholy  and  frequent  other  maladies  arise."  Many  physicians.  I  confess,  have 
written  copious  volumes  of  this  one  subject,  of  the  nature  and  qualities  of  all  mannei 
of  meats ;  as  namely,  Galen,  Isaac  the  Jew,  Halyabbas,  Avicenna,  Mesne,  also  fouT 
Arabians,  Gordonius,  Villanovanus,  Wecker,  Johannes  Bruerinus,  sitologia  de  Esculen- 
tis  et  Pocukntis,  Michael  Savanarola,  Tract  2.  c.  8,  Anthony  Fumanellus,  lib.  de  rcgi- 
mine  senum..  Curio  in  his  comment  on  Schola  Salerna,  Godefridus  Steckius  arte  mcd.. 
Marcilius  Cognatus,  Ficinus,  Ranzovius,  Fonseca,  Lessius,  Magninus,  regim.  sanitatis, 
Frietagius,  Hugo  Fridevallius,  &c.,  besides  many  other  in  *"  English,  and  almost  every 
peculiar  physician,  discourseth  at  large  of  all  peculiar  meats  in  his  chapter  of  melan- 
choly :  yet  because  these  books  are  not  at  liand  to  every  man,  I  will  briefly  touch 
what  kind  of  meats  engender  this  humour,  through  their  several  species,  and  which 
are  to  be  avoided.  How  they  alter  and  cliange  the  matter,  spirits  first,  and  after  hu- 
mours, by  which  we  are  preserved,  and  the  constitution  of  our  body,  Fernelius  and 
others  will  show  you.  I  hasten  to  the  thing  itself:  and  first  of  such  diet  as  offends 
in  substance. 

Beef.]  Beef,  a  strong  and  hearty  meat  (cold  in  the  first  degree,  dry  in  the  second, 
saith  Gal.  I.  3.  c.  1.  de  alim.fac.)  is  condemned  by  him  and  all  succeeding  Authors 
to  breed  gross  melancholy  blood :  good  for  such  as  are  sound,  and  of  a  strong  con 
stitution,  for  labouring  men  if  ordered  aright,  corned,  young,  of  an  ox  (for  all  geldeJ 
meats  in  every  species  are  held  best),  or  if  old,  ^'  such  as  have  been  tired  out  wi  h 
labour,  are  preferred.  Aubanus  and  Sabellicus  commend  Portugal  beef  to  be  the  nir/st 
savoury,  best  and  easiest  of  digestion ;  we  conmiend  ours :  but  all  is  rejected,  f  ,nd 
unfit  for  such  as  lead  a  resty  life,  any  ways  inclined  to  Melancholy,  or  dry  of  com- 
plexion :    Talcs  (Galen  thinks)  de  facile  melancholicis  cegritudinibus  capiuntur. 

Pork.]  Pork,  of  all  meats,  is  most  nutritive  in  his  own  nature,  ^^but  altogi.'ther 
unfit  for  such  as  live  at  ease,  are  any  ways  unsound  of  body  or  mind  :  too  moist, 
full  of  humours,  and  therefore  noxia  delicatis.,  saith  Savanarola,  ex  earum  usu  ul 
dubitetur  an  febris  quartana  generetii.r  :  naught  for  queasy  stomachs,  insomuch  that 
frequent  use  of  it  may  breed  a  quartan  ague. 

Goat.]  Savanarola  discommends  goat's  flesh,  and  so  doth  ^Bruerinus,  /.  13.  c.  lii, 
calling  it  a  filthy  beast,  and  rammish  :  and  therefore  supposeth  it  will  breed  rank  and 
filthy  substance ;  yet  kid,  such  as  are  young  and  tender,  Isaac  accepts,  Bruerinus  and 
Galen,  I.  I.  c.  I.  de  alimerdorum  facullatibus. 

Hart.]  Hart  and  red  deer  ^■'  hath  an  evil  name :  it  yields  gross  nutriment :  a  strong 
and  great  grained  meat,  next  unto  a  horse.  Which  although  some  countries  eat,  as 
Tartars,  and  they  of  China;  yet  ''^Galen  condemns.  Young  foals  are  as  commonly 
eaten  in -Spain  as  red  deer,  and  to  furnish  their  navies,  about  Malaga  especially,  often 
used  ;  but  such  meats  ask  long  baking,  or  seething,  to  qualify  them,  and  yet  all  will 
not  serve. 

Venison.)  Falloio  Deer.]     All  venison  is  melancholy,  and  begets  bad  blood ;  a 


58  Path.  I.  1.  c.  2.  Maximam  in  gignendis  morbis  vim 
obtinet,  pabulum,  malerianique  tiiorbi  sugaerens  :  nam 
ncc  ab  aere,  nee  i  perturhationibus,  vel  aliis  evidenli- 
bus  causis  morbi  sunt,  nisj  consentiat  corporis  prspa- 
ratio,  et  hiimorum  constilulio.  Ut  seme!  dicam,  una 
fula  est  omnium  morborum  mater,  etiamsi  alius  est 
genitor.    Ab   hac  morbi  eponte  sspd  eniauant,  nulla 


alia   cogente  causa.  soCogan,   Eliot,  Vauhan, 

Vener.  ^i  prjetagius.  sjjgaag,  a -Non 

laudatur  quia  melaiicholicnm  praebet  alimentuni. 
3' Male  a!il  cerrina  (inquit  Fiietagius)  crassissimuni 
et  atribi'arium  suppeditat  alimentum.  ^''I.ib.  d« 

snbtiliss.  dieia.  Kquina  care  etasinina  equinis  dand& 
est  hominibus  el  asininis. 


1ft  M  2 


138 


Causes  of  Melancholy. 


[Part.  I.  Sect  2 


pleasaiil  meal  :  in  great  esteem  with  us  (for  we  liave  more  parks  in  England  than 
there  are  in  all  Europe  besides)  in  our  solemn  feasts.  'Tis  somewhat  better  hunted 
than  otherwise,  and  well  prepared  by  cookery ;  but  generally  bad,  and  seldom  to  be 
used. 

Hare.]  Hare,  a  black  meat,  melancholy,  and  hard  of  digestion,  it  breeds  incuhis., 
often  eaten,  and  causetli  fearful  dreams,  so  doth  all  venison,  and  is  condemned  by  a 
jury  of  physicians.  Mizaldus  and  some  otliers  say,  that  hare  is  a  merry  meat,  and 
hat  it  will  make  one  fair,  as  Martial's  Epigram  testiries  to  Gellia;  but  this  is  per  r/c- 
:«VZcM<J,  because  of  the  good  sport  it  makes,  merry  company  and  good  discourse  that 
is  commonly  at  the  eating  of  it,  and  not  otherwise  to  be  understood. 

Conies. \  ^''Conies  are  of  the  nature  of  hares.  Magninus  '"ompares  them  to  beef, 
pig,  and  goat,  Reg.  sanit.  part.  3.  o.  17  ;  yet  young  rabbits  by  all  men  are  approved 
to  be  good. 

Generally,  all  such  meats  as  are  hard  of  digestion  breed  melancholy.  Areteus, 
lib.  7.  cap.  5,  reckons  up  lieads  and  feet,  "'bowels,  brains,  entrails,  marrow,  fat,  blood, 
skins,  and  tliose  inward  parts,  as  heart,  lungs,  liver,  spleen,  &c.  They  are  rejected 
by  Isaac,  lib.  2.  part.  3,  Magninus,  part.  3.  cap.  17,  Bruerinus,  lib.  12,  Savanarola, 
Rub.  32.  Tract.  2. 

Milk.]  Milk,  and  all  tliat  comes  of  milk,  as  butter  and  cheese,  curds,  Sec,  increase 
melancholy  (wliey  only  excepted,  wiiich  is  most  wholesome):  ^^some  except  asses' 
milk.  The  rest,  to  such  as  are  sound,  is  nutritive  and  good,  especially  for  young 
children,  but  because  soon  turned  to  corruption,  ''^not  good  for  those  that  have  un- 
clean stomachs,  are  subject  to  headache,  or  have  green  wounds,  stone,  &c.  Of  all 
cheeses,  I  take  lliat  kind  wliich  we  call  Banbury  cheese  to  be  the  best,  ex  veluslis 
pessi7nus,  the  older,  stronger,  and  harder,  the  worst,  as  Langius  discourseth  in  his 
Epistle  to  Melanclhon,  cited  by  Mizaldus,  Isaac,  ^?.  5.  Gal.  3.  de  cibis  boni  sncci.,  &.c. 

Fowl.]  Amongst  fowl,  '*°  peacocks  and  pigeons,  all  fenny  fowl  are  forbidden,  as 
ducks,  geese,  swans,  herons,  cranes,  coots,  didappers,  waterliens,  with  all  those  teals, 
curs,  sheldrakes,  and  peckled  fowls,  that  come  hither  in  winter  out  of  ScancHa,  Mus- 
covy, Greenland,  Friezlaiul,  wliich  half  the  year  are  covered  all  over  witli  snow,  and 
frozen  up.  Though  these  be  fair  in  fealiiers,  pleasant  in  taste,  and  liave  a  good  out- 
side, like  hypocrites,  white  in  plumes,  and  soft,  their  flesh  is  hard,  black,  unwhole- 
some, dangerous,  melancholy  meat ;  Gravant  et  j^ulrrfaciant  sloraacluim.,  saith  Isaac^ 
fart.  5.  de  vol.,  their  young  ones  are  more  tolerable,  but  young  pigeons  he  quite  dis- 
approves. 

Fishcf.]  Khasis  and  ■"  Magninus  discommend  all  fisli,  and  say,  they  breed  visco- 
sities, slimy  nutriment,  little  and  luimourous  nourisliment.  Savanarola  adds,  cold, 
moist :  and  phlegmatic,  Isaac  ;  and  therefore  unwliolesome  for  all  cold  and  melan- 
choly complexions  :  others  make  a  difference,  rejecting  only  amongst  fresh-water 
fish,  eel,  tencli,  lamprey,  crawfish  (which  Bright  approves,  cap.  G),  and  such  as  are 
bred  in  muddy  and  standing  waters,  and  have  a  taste  of  mud,  as  Franciscus  Boiisue- 
tus  poetically  defines,  Lib.  de  aquatilibus. 

"  Nam  pisces  oiiines,  qui  sinsiim,  laciisqiie  frequentaiil,  I  "  All  fish,  that  stanilin;;  pools,  and  lakes  frequent, 
Semper  phis  succi  ileterioris  lialienl."  |     Do  ever  yield  had  juice  and  nourishment." 

Lampreys,  Paulus  .Jovius,  c.  34.  de  piscibus  fluvial.,  higlily  magnifies,  and  saith, 
None  speak  against  them,  but  inrpli  et  scrupulosi,  some  scrujnilous  persons ;  but 
^^eels,  c.  33,  "  he  abhorrelh  in  all  places,  at  all  times,  all  physicians  detest  tliem,  es- 
pecially about  the  solstice."  Gomesius,  Jib.  1.  c.  22,  de  sale,  doth  immoderately  extol 
sea-fish,  which  others  as  much  vilify,  and  above  tlie  rest,  dried,  soused,  iiuhirate  fish, 
as  ling,  fumados,  red-herrings,  sprats,  stock-fish,  liaberdine,  poor-john,  all  ^nell-fish. 
"Tim.  Bright  excepts  lobster  and  crab.  Messarius  commends  salmon,  which  Brue- 
rinus contradicts,  lib.  22.  c.  17.  Magninus  rejects  conger,  sturgeon,  turbot,  mackarel, 
skate. 

Carp  is  a  fish  of  Avhich   I  know  not  what  to  determine.      Franciscus  Bonsuetus 


'oParuin  ohsunt  h  natura  Leporiim.  Bruerinus, 
.  13.  cap.  25.  pulloruni  tenera  et  optima.  '■>'•  Ulanda- 
oilis  succi  nauseam  provncant.  '•'*>  Piso.  Allouiar. 

'J  Curio.  Frieta^'ius,  Mafiiiinus,  part.  3.  cap.  17.  Mercu- 
"ialis,  de  affect,  lih  1.  c.  lU.  excepts  all  milk  meats  in 
Hypochondriacal  Melancholy.  ■'"  Wecker,  Syntax. 


theor.   p.  2.     Isaac,    Uriier.  lib.   15.  cap    30.  et  31. 

■•'  Cap.  18.  part.  3.  <'^Omni  loco  et  omni  temprre 

medici   detestantur   anjiuillas  pursertiiii  cjr-a  solft;. 
tium.  Daniuaiitur  turn  sanis  tuiii  Kgri.'>  ~<  C:if  6 

in  liis  Tract  of  Melancholy. 


MeMi.  2.  Subs.  1.]  Causes  of  Melancholy.  l3iS 

accounts  it  a  muddy  fish.  Hippolitus  Salvianus,  in  liis  Book  de  Pischim  naiura  el 
pra'parailone.,  whicli  was  printed  at  Rome  in  folio,  1S54,  with  most  elegant  pictures, 
esteems  carp  no  better  than  a  slimy  watery  meat.  Paulus  Joviiis  on  the  other  side 
disallowing  tench,  approves  of  it;  so  doth  Dubravius  in  his  Books  of  Fish-ponds. 
Freitagius  ''^extols  it  for  an  excellent  wholesome  meat,  and  puts  it  amongst  the  tishes 
of  the  best  rank ;  and  so  do  most  of  our  country  gentlemen,  that  store  their  ponds 
almost  )vith  no  other  fish.  But  this  controversy  is  easily  decided,  in  my  judgment, 
by  Bruerinus,  /.  22.  c.  13.  The  diilerence  riseth  from  the  site  and  nature  of  pool^^^,^ 
■■^ sonietnnes  muddy,  sometimes  sweet;  they  are  in  taste  as  the  place  is  from  whence 
they  be  taken.  In  like  manner  almost  we  may  conclude  of  other  fresh  fish.  But 
see  more  in  Rondoletius,  Bellonius,  Oribasius,  llh.  7.  caj).  22,  Isaac,  /.  1,  especially 
Hippolitus  Salvianus,  who  is  instar  omnium  solus.,  &c.  Howsoever  they  may  be 
wholesome  and  approved,  mucli  use  of  them  is  not  good ;  P.  Forestus,  in  his  medi- 
cinal observations,  ''^  relates,  tliat  Carthiisirin  friars,  whose  living  is  most  part  fish, 
arp  more  subject  to  melancholy  than  any  other  order,  and  that  he  found  by  experi- 
ence, being  sometimes  their  physician  ordinary  at  Delft,  in  Holland.  He  exemplifies 
It  with  an  instance  of  one  Buscodnese,  a  Carthusian  of  a  ruddy  colour,  and  well 
-king,  tiiat  by  solitary  living,  and  fish-eating,  became  so  misaflected. 

Herbs.]  Amongst  herbs  to  be  eaten  1  find  gourds,  cucumbers,  coleworts,  melons, 
disallowed,  but  especially  cabbage.  It  causelh  troublesome  dreams,  and  sends  up 
bl.ick  vapours  to  tlie  brain.  Galen,  loc.  ajfect.  I.  3.  c.  6,  of  all  herbs  condemns  cab- 
bage;  and  Isaac,  lib.  2.  c.  1.  AnivuE  gravilatem  facll.i  it  brings  heaviness  to  the  soul. 
Some  are  of  opinion  that  all  raw  herbs  and  salads  breed  melancholy  blood,  except 
bugloss  and  lettuce.  Crato,  consil.  21.  lib.  2,  speaks  against  all  herbs  and  worts, 
except  borage,  bugloss,  fennel,  parsley,  dill,  balm,  succory.  Maguinus,  regim.  sanl- 
tads.,  pari.  8.  caj).  31.  Omnes  her  bee  sinipliciler  mahe.,  via  cihi ;  all  herbs  are  simplj' 
evil  to  feed  on  (as  he  thinks).     So  did  that  scoffing  cook  in  "Plautus  hold : 

"  Non  eso  ctEiiiim  condio  ut  alii  coqui  snient,  I       "  L'ke  other  cooks  I  do  not  su|M'er  dress. 
Qui  iiiilii  condita  prata  in  palinis  profyriint,  .  ^''^'  '""  ^^''"''^  meadows  into  a  plattor, 

Boves  qui  convivas  faciunt,  lierl.asque  aggertint."  ^"i' "!^  '•^  ""  '"^"^  °'  "'•''''  "'"^f^  "'i'"  '^«''^es, 

"^  I  Willi  herbs  and  grass  to  feed  them  latter." 

Our  Italians  and  Spaniards  do  make  a  whole  dinner  of  herbs  and  salads  (which 
our  said  Plautus  calls  ccenas  terreslras^  Horace,  ccenas  sine  sanguine),  by  which 
means,  as  he  follows  it, 

*"  "  Hie  homines  tani  breveni  vitam  colunt I  "  Tlieir  lives,  that  eat  such  lierbs,  must  needs  be  short, 

Qui  herbas  hujusmodi  in  alvum  snum  congerunt,  |     And  'lis  a  fearful  thing  for  to  report, 

Formidolnsnm  dictu,  non  esu  mod6,  I      That  men  shoiilij  feed  on  such  a  kind  of  meat, 

Qnas  herhas  jiecudes  nnn  edunt,  homines  edunt."  |      Which  very  jiiments  would  refuse  to  eat." 

••^They  are  windy,  and  not  fit  therefore  to  be  eaten  of  all  men  raw,  though  quali- 
fied with  oil,  but  in  broths,  or  otherwise.     See  more  of  these  in  every  ^"husbandman     . 
and  herbalist. 

Roots.]  Roots,  Eisi  qxiorundam  gentium  opes  sint,  saith  Bruerinus,  the  wealth  of 
some  countries,  and  sole  food,  are  windy  and  bad,  or  troublesome  to  the  head  :  as 
onions,  garlic,  scallions,  turnips,  carrots,  radishes,  parsnips  :  Crato,  lib.  2.  consil.  1'., 
disallows  all  roots,  tliough  ''some  approve  of  parsnips  and  potatoes.  "Magninus  ^ 
of  Crato's  opinion,  ^^'•'' They  trouble  the  mind,  sending  gross  fumes  to  the  brain, 
make  men  mad,  especially  garlic,  onions,  if  a  man  liberally  feed  on  them  a  year  to- 
gether. Guianerius,  trad.  15.  cap.  2,  complains  of  all  manner  of  roots,  and  so  doth 
^  Bruerinus,  even  parsnips  themselves,  which  are  the  best.  Lib.  9.  cap.  14. 

Fruits.]  Paslinacarum  usus  succos  gignit  improbos.  Crato,  consil.  21.  lib.  1,  ut 
terly  forbids  all  manner  of  fruits,  as  pears,  apples,  plums,  cherries,  strawberries,  nuts, 
medlars,  serves,  &c.  Sanguinem  inficiunt.,  saith  Villanovanus,  they  infect  the  blood, 
and  putrefy  it,  Magninus  holds,  and  must  not  therefore  be  taken  via  cibi,  aut  quan- 
tilale  magnA,  not  to  make  a  meal  of,  or  in  any  great  quantity.     ^Cardan  makes  tha* 


« Optima  rmtrit  omnium  judicio  inter  prims  notse 
pisces  giistu  prtestanli.  ■'SNon  est  duhium,  quin 

pro  variorum  situ,  ac  natiira,  magnas  aliiiienlorum 
Bortiantur  differentias,  alibi  suaviores,  alibi  lutulen- 
tlores.  -icGbservat.  10.  lib.  10.  -i;  Psendoliis 


^^  In  Mizaldo  de  Ilorto,  P.  Crescer.t.  Herhastein,  &c 
fi' Cap.  13.  part.  3.  Bricht,  in  his  Tract  of  Mel. 
^■^Intellectum  turbant,  producunt  insaniani.  f-'Au- 

divi  (inquit  Magnin.)  quod  si  quis  ex  iis  per  annum 
continue  coinedat,  in  insaniani  caderet.  cap.  13.     Ini- 


act.  3.  seen.  2.  ■<*<  Plautus,  ibid.  ''<' Qnare  rec-     probi   succi   sunt.  cap.   12.  ^^  De   reruni   varietal. 

tius  valedutini  su!C  quisque  consulet,  qui  lapsus  prio-     In  Fessa  plerumque  morbosi,  quod  fruclus  comei'uiil 
rum    parentum  memor,   eas  plane   vel    oniisent   vel     ter  in  die. 
parce  desustari'.    Kersleius,  cap.  4,  de  vero  usu  n^jd.  I 


140  Causes  of  Melancholy.  (Part.  1.  Sec  2 

B  rai.se  of  their  continual  sickness  at  Fessa  in  Africa,  "  because  liiey  live  so  much  on 
fruits,  eating  them  tiirice  a  day."  Laurentius  approves  of  many  fruits,  in  his  Tract 
of  Melancholy,  which  others  disallow,  and  amongst  the  rest  apples,  which  some 
likewise  connnend,  sweetings,  pairmains,  pippins,  as  good  against  melancholy;  but 
to  him  that  is  any  way  inclined  to,  or  touched  with  this  malady,  ^'^ Nicholas  Piso  in 
his  Practics,  forbids  all  fruits,  as  windy,  or  to  be  sparingly  eaten  at  least,  and  not 
raw.  Amongst  otlier  fruits,  ^''Bruerinus,  out  of  Galen,  excepts  grapes  and  figs,  but  I 
find  them  likewise  rejected. 

Pulse.]  All  pulse  are  naught,  beans,  peas,  vetches.  Sec,  they  fill  the  brain  (saith 
Isaac)  with  gross  fumes,  breed  black  thick  blood,  and  cause  troublesome  dreams. 
And  therefore,  that  which  Pythagoras  said  to  his  scholars  of  old,  may  be  for  ever  ap- 
plied to  melancholy  men,  A  fabis  abstinete,  eat  no  peas,  nor  beans ;  yet  to  such  as 
will  needs  eat  them,  I  would  give  this  counsel,  to  prepare  them  according  to  those 
rules  that  Arnoldus  Villanovanus,  and  Frietagius  prescribe,  for  eating,  and  dressing, 
fruits,  herbs,  roots,  pulse,  &c. 

Spices.]  Spices  cause  hot  and  head  melancholy,  and  are  for  that  cause  forbidden 
Vy  ;-ur  physicians  to  such  men  as  are  inclined  to  this  malady,  as  pepper,  ginger,  cin- 
namo.j,  cloves,  mace,  dates,  &c.  honey  and  sugar.  "Some  except  honey;  to  those 
that  are  cold,  it  may  be  tolerable,  but  ^^Dulcia  se  in  bileni  vertunf.,  (sweets  turn  into 
bile,)  they  are  obstructive.  Crato  therefore  forbids  all  spice,  in  a  consultation  of  his, 
for  a  melancholy  schoolmaster.  Omnia  aromatica  ct  quicquid  sanguineyn  adurit :  so 
doth  Fernelius,  consil.  45.  Guianerius,  tract  15.  cup.  i.  Mercurialis,  cons.  189.  To 
these  I  may  add  all  sharp  and  sour  things,  luscious  and  over-sweet,  or  fat,  as  oil, 
vinegar,  verjuice,  mustard,  salt;  as  sweet  things  are  obstructive,  so  these  are  cor- 
rosive. Gomesius,  in  his  books,  de  sale.,  I.  1.  c.  21,  highly  commends  salt ;  so  doth 
Codronchus  in  his  tract,  de  sale  Msjinthii.,  Lenm.  I.  3.  c.  9.  de  occult,  nat.  mir.  yet 
common  experience  finds  salt,  and  salt-meats,  to  be  great  procurers  of  this  disease. 
And  for  that  cause  belike  those  Egyptian  priests  abstained  from  salt,  even  so  much, 
as  in  their  bread,  ut  sine  pcrturbatione  anima  esset,  saith  mine  author,  that  their  souls 
might  be  free  from  perturbations. 

Bread.]  Bread  that  is  made  of  baser  grain,  as  peas,  beans,  oats,  rye,  or  *^over-hard 
baked,  crusty,  and  black,  is  often  spoken  against,  as  causing  melancholy  juice  and 
wind.  Joh.  Mayor,  in  the  first  book  of  his  History  of  Scotland,  contends  much  for 
the  wholesomeness  of  oaten  bread  :  it  was  objected  to  him  then  living  at  Paris  in 
France,  that  his  countrymen  fed  on  oats,  and  base  grain,  as  a  disgrace ;  but  he  doth 
ingenuously  confess,  Scotland,  Wales,  and  a  third  part  of  England,  did  most  part  use 
that  kind  of  bread,  that  it  was  as  wliolesome  as  any  grain,  and  yielded  as  good  nou- 
rishment. And  yet  Wecker  out  of  Galen  calls  it  horse-meat,  and  fitter  for  juments 
than  men  to  feed  on.  But  read  Galen  himselt".  Lib.  1.  De  cibls  boni  et  mall  succi^ 
more  largely  discoursing  of  corn  and  bread. 

Wine^  All  black  wines,  over-hot,  compound,  strong  thick  drinks,  as  Muscadine, 
Malmsey,  ^licant,  Rumney,  Brownbastard,  Metheglen,  and  the  like,  of  which  they 
have  thirty  several  kinds  in  Muscovy,  all  such  made  drinks  are  hurtful  in  this  case, 
to  such  as  are  hot,  or  of  a  sanguine  choleric  complexion,  young,  or  inclined  to  head- 
melancholy.  For  many  times  the  drinking  of  wine  alone  causeth  it.  Arculanus, 
c.  it),  in  d.Rhasis,  puts  in  ''"wine  for  a  great  cause,  especially  if  it  be  immoderately 
used.  Guianerius,  tract.  15.  c.  2,  tells  a  story  of  two  Dutchmen,  to  whom  he  gave 
entertainment  in  his  house,  "  that  '^'  in  one  month's  space  were  both  melancholy  by  ' 
drinking  of  wine,  one  did  nought  but  sing,  the  other  sigh.  Galen,  I.  de  causis  morb. 
:.  3.  Matthiolus  on  Dioscorides,  and  above  all  other  Andreas  Bachius,  I.  3.  18,  19, 
20,  have  reckoned  upon  those  inconveniences  that  come  by  wine  :  yet  notwithstand- 
ing all  this,  to  such  as  are  cold,  or.sluggish  melancholy,  a  cup  of  wine  is  good  physic, 
and  so  doth  Mercurialis  grant,  consil.  25,  in  that  case,  if  the  temperature  be  cold,  as 
to  most  melancholy  men  it  is,  wine  is  much  commended,  if  it  be  moderately  used,  i/ 

Cider.,  Perry.]  Cider  and  perry  are  both  cold  and  windy  drinks,  and  for  that 
cause  to  be  neglected,  and  so  are  all  those  hot  spiced  strong  drinks. 

» Cap.  de  Mel.  "Lib.  11.  c.  3.  »' Bright,  I  quia  gignit  adustatn.    Scliol.  Sa..  «>  vimitn  liirbi- 

«.  6.   excepts   honey.  »*  Hor.   apiid   Scoltziiim,     dum.  ei  Ex  vini  parentis  bibitinne,  duo  Alefliai> 

'Oiif'il.    186  6a  Ne  comedas  crustam,   chuleraiu  |  in  uno  mense  inelaiichulici  facti  sunt. 


Mem.  2.  Subs.  1.1 


Causes  of  Melancholy. 


141 


Beer.]  Beer,  if  it  be  over-new  or  over-stale,  over-stiong,  or  not  socklen,  smell  of 
the  cask,  sliarp,  or  sour,  is  most  unwholesome,  frets,  and  galls,  &c.  Henrirus  Ayre- 
rus,  in  a  ^^consultation  of  his,  for  one  that  laboured  of  hypochondriacal  melancholy, 
diicommends  beer.  So  doth  ''^  Crato  in  that  excellent  counsel  of  his.  Lib.  2.  coras/Z.  21, 
as  too  windy,  because  of  the  hop.  But  he  means  belike  that  thick  black  Bohemian 
boer  used  in  some  other  parts  of  ^''Germany. 


"  nil  spissiue'  ilia 

Diiiii  hibitur,  nil  chirius  esl  duin  niingitur,  unde 
Constat,  quOd  multas  faeces  in  coipore  linquat." 


'  Nnthinj;  comes  in  so  thick, 
Nothing  goes  out  so  thin. 
It  must  needs  follow  then 
The  dregs  are  left  within." 


As  that  ^^  old  poet  scoffed,  calling  it  Slygice  monstrum  conforme  paludi,  a  monstrous 
drink,  like  the  river  Styx.  But  let  them  say  as  they  list,  to  such  as  are  accustomed 
unto  it,  "  'tis  a  most  wholesome  (so  ^Tolydor  Virgil  calleth  it)  and  a  pleasant  drink," 
it  is  more  subtile  and  better,  for  the  hop  that  rarefies  it,  hath  an  especial  virtue 
against  melancholy,  as  our  herbalists  confess,  Fuchsius  approves,  Lib.  2.  sec.  2.  instit. 
cap.  11,  and  many  others. 

Waters.]  Standing  waters,  thick  and  ill-coloured,  such  as  como  forth  of  pools, 
and  moats,  where  hemp  hath  been  steeped,  or  slimy  fishes  live,  are  most  unwhole- 
some, putrefied,  and  full  of  mites,  creepers,  slimy,  muddy,  unclean,  corrupt,  impure, 
by  reason  of  the  sun's  heat,  and  still-standing';  they  cause  foul  distemperatures  in  the 
body  and  mind  of  man,  are  unfit  to  make  drink  oi',  to  dress  meat  with,  or  to  be  ^' used 
about  men  inwardly  or  outwardly.  They  are  good  for  many  domestic  uses,  to  wash 
horses,  water  cattle,  Slc,  or  in  time  of  necessity,  but  not  otherwise.  Some  are  of  opi- 
nion, that  such  fat  standing  waters  make  the  best  beer,  and  that  seething  doth  defecate 
it,  as  ^^ Cardan  holds.  Lib.  1 3.  subtil.  "  It  mends  the  substance,  and  savour  of  it,"  but 
it  is  a  paradox.  Such  beer  may  be  stronger,  but  not  so  wholesome  as  the  other,  as 
"^Jobertus  truly  justifieth  out  of  Galen,  Paradox,  dec.  1.  Paradox  5,  that  the  seething 
of  such  impure  waters  doth  not  purge  or  purify  them,  Pliny,  lib.  31.  c.  3,  is  of  the 
same  tenet,  and  P.  Crescentius,  agricult.  lib.  1.  et  lib.  4.  c.  l\.  et  c.  45.  Pamphilius 
Herilachus,  I.  4.  de  nat.  aquarum,  such  waters  are  naught,  not  to  be  used,  and  by  the 
testimony  of  ""Galen,  '■'  breed  agues,  dropsies,  pleurisies,  splenetic  and  melancholy  pas- 
sions, hurt  the  eyes,  cause  a  bad  temperature,  and  ill  disposition  of  the  whole  body, 
with  bad  colour."  This  Jobertus  stiffly  maintains,  Paradox,  lib.  1.  part.  5,  that  it 
causeth  blear  eyes,  bad  colour,  and  many  loathsome  diseases  to  such  as  use  it:  this 
which  they  say,  stands  with,  good  reason;  for  as  geographers  relate,  the  water  of 
Astracan  breeds  worms  in  such  as  drink  it.  "Axius,  or  as  now  called  Verduri,  the 
fairest  river  in  Macedonia,  makes  all  cattle  black  that  taste  of  it.  Aleacman  now 
Peleca,  another  stream  in  Thessaly,  turns  cattle  most  part  white,  si  potui  ducas, 
L.  Aubanus  Rohemus  refers  that  "^  struma  or  poke  of  the  Bavarians  and  Styrians  to  the 
nature  of  their  waters,  as  "Munster  doth  that  of  Valesians  in  the  Alps,  and  "'' Bodine 
supposeth  the  stuttering  of  some  families  in  Aquitania,  about  Labden,  to  proceed 
from  the  same  cause,  "  and  that  the  filth  is  derived  from  the  water  to  their  bodies." 
So  that  they  that  use  filthy,  standing,  ill-coloured,  thick,  muddy  water,  must  needs 
have  muddy,  ill-coloured,  impure,  and  infirm  bodies.  And  because  the  body  works 
upon  the  mind,  they  shall  have  grosser  understandings,  dull,  foggy,  melancholy  spi- 
rits, and  be  really  subject  to  all  manner  of  infirmities. 

To  these  noxious  simples,  we  raav  reduce  an  infinite  number  of  compound,  artifi 
cial,  made  dishes,  of  which  our  cooks  afford  us  a  great  variety,  as  tailors  do  fashions 
in  our  apparel.  Si  :;h  are  '^puddings  stuffed  with  blood,  or  otherwise  composed; 
baked,  meats,  soused  indurate  meats,  fried  and' broiled  buttered  meats  ;  condite,  pow- 
dered, and  over-dried,  '^all  cakes,  simnels,  buns,  cracknels  made  with  butter,  spice, 
Stc,  fritters,  pancakes,  pies,  sausages,  and  those  several  sauces,  sharp,  or  over-sweet, 


"^Hildesheim,  spicel.  fol.  273.  ^^Crassum  gene- 

ral sanKuinen..  64^^1,0111  Datitzic  in  Spruce,  Haiii- 

our;;h,  Leips'''  ^Henricus  Abrincensis.  ej  po- 

tiis  turn  salii'--=s  turn  jucundns,  1.  1.  "■  Galen,  1.  1. 

de  san.  tuend  Cavendae  sunt  aquas  qiife  ex  stagnis 
Ifjiuriuntur,  et  qua;  turbidae  and  mal6  olentes,  &c. 
•"Innoxiuin  reddit  et  bene  olentum.  '!<  Contendit 

hfec  vitia  coctione  noii  eniendari.  ™Lib.  de  honi- 

tale  aqutp,  hydropem  auget,  fehres  pulridas,  spleneni, 
<ii8ses,  nocet  oculis,  malum  hatiitum  corporis  et  tolo- 


rem.  "  Mag.  Nigritatem  inducit  si  pecora  bibe- 

rint.  ■'^AquEee.x  nivibus  coacla;  sinimosos  faciunt. 

'3  Cosmog.  1.  3.  cap.  36.  ''Method,  hist,  cap    5 

Balbutiuiit  Lalidoni  in  Aquitania  ob  aquas,  atqiie  hi 
morbi  ab  acquis  in  corpora  derivantnr.  '"Ednlia 

ux  sanguine  et  sulfocato  paria.  Hildesheim.  ''Cu 

pedia  vero,  placentae,  beliaria,  c(unnientaqne  alia  cu- 
riosa  pistoruineet  coquorun),  gu.^iui  servienliuin  conci- 
liant  inorbos  turn  corpori  tuin  aiiimo  insanibiles  Phil* 
Judteus,  lib.  de  victimis.  P.  Jov.  vita  ejug. 


142  Causes  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  2 

of  v\  Inch  scienlla  popince.,  as  Seneca  calls  it,  hath  served  those  "Apician  tricks,  and 
perfumed  dishes,  wliich  Adrian  the  sixtli  Pope  so  much  admired  in  the  accounts  of 
his  predecessor  Leo  dccimus ;  and  which  prodigious  riot  and  prodigality  have  in- 
vented in  this  age.  These  do  generally  engender  gross  humours,  fill  the  stomach 
with  cnulities,  and  all  those  inward  parts  witii  obstructions.  Montanus,  consil.  22. 
gives  instance,  in  a  melancholy  Jew,  that  by  eating  such  tart  sauces,  made  dishes, 
and  salt  meats,  with  which  he  was  overnmch  delighted,  became  melancholy,  and  was 
evil  affected.     Such  examples  are  familiar  and  common. 

SuBSECT.  IJ. —  Quantity  of  Diet  a  Cause. 

There  is  not  so  much  harm  proceeding  from  the  substance  itself  of  meat,  and 
5uality  of  it,  in  ill-dressing  and  preparing,  as  there  is  from  the  quantity,  disorder  of 
ime  and  place,  unseasonable  use  of  it,  '"intemperance,  overmuch,  or  overlittle  taking 
of  it.  A  true  saying  it  is,  Pltires  crapula  quavi  gladiits.  This  gluttony  kills  more 
llian  the  sword,  this  omnivorantia  ct  honvcida  gula.,  this  all-devouring  and  murdering 
gut.  And  that  of  ™ Pliny  is  truer,  "  Simple  diet  is  the  best;  heaping  up  of  several 
meats  is  pernicious,  and  sauces  worse  ;  many  dishes  bring  many  diseases."  ^"Avicen 
cries  out,  "That  nothing  4s  worse  than  to  feed  on  many  dishes,  or  to  protract  the 
time  of  meats  longer  than  ordinary ;  from  thence  proceed  our  infirmities,  and  'tis  the 
fountain  of  all  diseases,  wdiich  arise  out  of  the  repugnancy  of  gross  humours." 
Thence,  sailh  ^'  Fernelius,  come  crudities,  wind,  oppilations,  cacochymia.  plethora, 
cachexia,  bradiopepsia,  ^^Hinc  siihitoi  mortes,  atque  inlestata  sencctus^  sudden  death. 
&c.,  and  what  not. 

As  a  lamp  is  choked  with  a  multitude  of  oil,  or  a  little  fire  with  overmuch  wood 
quite  extinguished,  so  is  the  natural  heat  with  immoderate  eating,  strangled  in  the 
body.  Pernltiosa  sentina  est  abdomen  insaturahile  :  one  saith.  An  insatiable  paunch 
is  a  pernicious  sink,  and  the  fountain  of  all  diseases,  both  of  body  and  mind.  *^Mer- 
curialis  will  have  it  a  peculiar  cause  of  this  private  disease ;  Solenander,  consil.  5. 
sect.  3,  illustrates  this  of  Mercurial  is,  with  an  example  of  one  so  melancholy,  ah 
intempestivis  commessationibus^  unseasonable  feasting.  "''Crato  confirms  as  much,  in 
that  often  cited  Counsel,  21.  lib.  2,  putting  superfluous  eating  for  a  main  cause.  But 
what  need  I  seek  farther  for  proofs  ?  Hear  **  Hippocrates  himself,  Lib.  2.  Aphor.  10. 
"  Impure  bodies  the  more  they  are  nourished,  the  more  they  are  hurt,  for  the  nourish- 
ment is  putrefied  with  vicious  humours." 

And  yet  for  all  this  harm,  which  apparently  follows  surfeiting  and  drunkenness, 
see  how  we  luxuriate  and  rage  in  this  kind;  read  what  Johannes  Stuckius  hath 
written  lately  of  this  subject,  in  his  great  volume  J)e  J3ntiquorum  Conviviis.,  and  of 
our  present  age;  Qudm  ^''^portcntosce  cccn*^,  prodigious  suppers,  " Q/<i  dwm  invUant 
ad  coenam  ejferunt  ad  sepuJchnim.,  what  Fagos,  Epicures,  Apetios,  Heliogables,  our 
times  afibrd  ?  Lucullus'  ghost  walks  still,  and  every  man  desires  to  sup  in  Apollo ;  ~ 
iEsop's  costly  dish  is  ordinarily  served  up.  ^^Magis  ilia  juvant,  qua  pluris  emun- 
tur.  The  dearest  cates  are  best,  and  'tis  an  ordinary  thing  to  bestow  twenty  or 
thirty  pounds  on  a  dish,  some  thousand  crowns  upon  a  dinner  :  *^^Mully-Hamet,  king 
of  Fez  and  Morocco,  spent  three  pounds  on  the  sauce  of  a  capon  :  it  is  nothing  in 
our  times,  we  scorn  all  that  is  cheap.  "We  loathe  the  very  ^"light  (some  of  us,  aa 
Seneca  notes)  because  it  comes  free,  and  we  are  offended  with  the  sun's  heat,  and 
those  cool  blasts,  because  we  buy  them  not."  This  air  we  breathe  is  so  common, 
we  care  not  for  it;  nothing  pleaseth  but  what  is  dear.  And  if  we  be  ^' witty  in  any- 
thing,  it  is  ad  gtilam  :  If  we  study  at  all,  it  is  erudito  luxu,  to  please  the  palate,  and 

"  As  lettuce  steeped  in  wine,  birds  fed  with  fennel  1  titas  nimia.  ssimpiira  corpora   quanto   tnagi» 

nnd  sugar,  as  a    Pope's  concubine  used  in  Avignon.  |  niitris,  tanto  magis  Isdis  :  piitrefaL-it  eniin  alimentuir. 
.St  'ptian.  '"Aiinnse  negotiutn  ilia  face.ssit,  et  de     viliosus  humor.  oo  vid.  Goclen.  de  porlentosif 

te /ipio  Dii  immundum  stabuhim  facit.  Pelellus.  10.  c.  I  coenis,  &c.  puteani  Com.  "' Amb.  lib.  de  Jeju. 

'0  Lib.  11.  c.  52.  Homini  cibus  utilissiinus  simplex,  acer-  cap.  14.  "  They  who  invite  us  to  a  supper,  only  con- 
valio  cirborum    pestifera,  et  condimenta   perriiciosa,     duct  us  to  our  tonih."  »» Juvenal.  "The  highest- 

multos  inorbos  mulla  fercula  ferunt.  '■"31.  Dec.     priced     dishes     afford    the    greatest    gratilicaiion.* 

2.  c.     Nihil    delerius  quam   si   teinpus  justo  longius     '-^  Guiccardin.  "i  Na.  qua-st.  4.  ca.  ult.  faslidio  es. 

comedendo  firotrahalur,  et  varia  cihorum  genera  con-  lumen  gratuitnm,  dolet  quod  sole,  quod  spiriruti. 
jungantur  :  inde  morborum  scaiurigo,  quie  ex  repug-  emere  non  possimus,  qu6d  hie  a6r  non  cnipfiis  e\ 
naniia  humorum  oritur.  *"  Path.  I.  1.  c.  14.  '''Ouv.  facili,  &c.  adeo  nihil  placet,  nisi  quod  caruin  e.sl 
9a?..  5.  "iVJKija  reii!eli()  cib.-irum  facit  mclan.'Jio-    S'lngeniosi  ad  Gulain. 

icum  M  Coniestio  sup-irflua  ci  >i,  et  polus  quan-  i 


Mem.  2.  Subs.  2.]  Diet^  a  Cause.  143 

U)  satisfy  the  gut.  "  A  cook  of  old  was  a  base  knave  (as  ^Livy  complains),  but  now 
0  great  man  in  request ;  cookery  is  become  an  art,  a  noble  science :  cooks  are  gen- 
tlemen :"  Venter  Deus  :  They  wear  "  their  brains  in  their  bellies,  and  their  guts  in 
their  heads,"  as  ^^Agrippa  taxed  some  parasites  of  his  time,  rushing  on  their  own 
lestruction,  as  if  a  man  should  run  upon  the  point  of  a  sword,  usque  clum  rwnjpantur 
cnmcdunt,  ''  They  eat  till  they  burst  ■.■"  "^All  day,  all  night,  let  the  physician  say 
what  he  will,  imminent  danger,  and  feral  diseases  are  now  ready  to  seize  u})on  them 
that  will  eat  till  they  vomit,  Edunt  ut  vomanf^  vomut  ul  edayif^  saith  Seneca;  which 
Dion  relates  of  Vitellius,  SoJo  transitu  cihorum  nutriri  judicatus  :  His  meat  did 
pass  through  and  away,  or  till  they  burst  again.  ^^Strage  animantluni  ventrcm  one 
rant^am]  rake  over  all  the  world,  as  so  many  °®  slaves,  belly-gods,  and  land-serpents, 
Ef  totus  orhis  ventri  nirnis  angustus.)  the  whole  world  cannot  satisfy  their  appetite. 
^"  Sea,  land,  rivers,  lakes,  &.C.,  may  not  give  content  to  their  raging  guts."  ^To 
make  up  the  mess,  what  immoderate  drinking  in  every  place?  Senem  potumpotu 
trahebat  anus.,  how  they  flock  to  the  tavern  :  as  if  they  were  fruges  consumere  nati, 
born  to  no  other  end  but  to  eat  and  drink,  like  Ofiellius  Bibulus,  tliat  famous  Roman 
parasite,  Qui  dum  vixit,  aut  hibit  aut  minxit  ;  as  so  many  casks  to  hold  wine,  yea 
worse  than  a  cask,  that  mars  wine,  and  itself  is  not  marred  by  it,  yet  these  are  brave 
men,  Silenus  Ebrius  was  no  braver.  Et  quce  fuerunt  vitia.,  mores  sunt :  'tis  now  the 
fashion  of  our  times,  an  honour :  JVunc  verb  res  ista  eo  rediit  (as  Chrysost.  serm. 
30.  in  V.  Ephes.  comments)  Ut  effeminatcB  ridendcEque  ignavice  loco  habeutur.,  nolle 
inebriari ;  'tis  now  come  to  that  pass  that  he  is  no  gentleman,  a  very  milk-sop,  a 
clown,  of  no  bringing  up,  that  will  not  drink ;  fit  for  no  company ;  he  is  your  only 
gallant  that  plays  it  off  finest,  no  disparagement  now  to  stagger  in  the  streets,  reel, 
rave,  &c.,  but  much  to  his  fame  and  renown  ;  as  in  like  case  Epidicus  told  Thesprio 
his  fellow-servant,  in  the  ^^Poet.  jEdipol  f acinus  improbum,  one  urged,  the  other 
replied.  Jit  jam  alii  fccere  idem.,  erit  illi  ilia  res  honori.,  'tis  now  no  fault,  there  be  so 
many  brave  examples  to  bear  one  out ;  'tis  a  credit  to  have  a  strong  brain,  and  carry 
his  liquor  well ;  the  sole  contention  who  can  drink  most,  and  fox  his  fellow  the 
soonest.  'Tis  the  summum  bonum  of  our  tradesmen,  their  felicity,  life,  and  soul, 
Tanta  dulcedine  afectant.,  saith  Pliny,  lib.  14.  cap.  12.  Ut  magna  pars  nan  aliud 
vitce  proimium  intelligat.,  their  chief  comfort,  to  be  merry  together  in  an  alehouse  or 
lavern,  as  our  modern  Muscovites  do  in  their  mede-inns,  and  Turks  in  their  coffee- 
houses, which  much  resemble  our  taverns ;  they  will  labour  hard  all  day  long  to  be 
drunk  at  night,  and  spend  totius  anni  labores.,  as  St.  Ambrose  adds,  in  a  tippling 
feast;  convert  day  into  night,  as  Seneca  taxes  some  in  his  times,  Perveriunt  officia 
anoctis  et  lucis ;  when  we  rise,  they  commonly  go  to  bed,  like  our  antipodes, 

"  Nosque  ubi  primus  equis  oriens  afflavit  anhelis, 
lllis  sera  rubens  ascendit  luinina  vesper." 

So  did  Petronius  in  Tacitus,  Heliogabalus  in  Lampridius. 

89 "Noctes  vieilibat  ad  ipsum  I "He  drank  the  nicht  away 

Mane,  diem  totum  stertebat." |         Till  rising  dawn,  then  snored  out  all  the  day." 

Snymdiris  the  Sybarite  never  saw  the  sun  rise  or  set  so  much  as  once  in  twenty 
years.  Verres,  against  whom  Tidly  so  much  inveighs,  in  winter  he  never  was  extra 
tectum  vix  extra  lectum,  never  almost  out  of  bed,  '""still  wenching  and  drinking;  so 
did  he  spend  his  time,  and  so  do  myriads  in  our  days.  They  have  gipnnasia  bibo- 
num.,  schools  and  rendezvous ;  these  centaurs  and  lapitha?  toss  pots  and  bowls  as  so 
many  balls ;  invent  new  tricks,  as  sausages,  anchovies,  tobacco,  caviare,  pickled 
oysters,  herrings,  fumadoes,  &.c. :  innumerable  salt  meats  to  increase  their  appetite.^ 
and  study  how  to  hurt  themselves  by  taking  antidotes  '"to  carry  their  drink  the 
better;  ^and  when  nought  else  serves,  they  will  go  forth,  or  be  conveyed  out,  to 
empty  their  gorge,  that  they  may  retm-n  to  drink  afresh."  They  make  laws,  insanas 
leges,  contra  bibendi  fallacias,  and  ^  brag  of  it  when  they  have  done,  crowning  that 

"Olim  vile  mantipium,  nunc  in  omni  lestimatione,  '  de  miser,  curial.  sepiautus.  m  fjor.  lib.  1. 

/luncarshaberica-pta.  &c.      "3  Epist.  28,  I.  7.  Quorum  Sat.  3.  looDiei  brevitas  conviviis,  noctis  longi- 

in  ventre  ingenium,  in  patinis,  &c.  s^  In  lucem  tudo  stupris  conterebratur.  '  Et  quo  plus  capiant, 

coenat.    Strtorius.  9ss<e„eca.  9"  Mancipia  irritanienta  excogitantur.  2  Fores  pnrlai;tur  ut  ad 

guije,    dapcs   non    sapore    sed    sumptu    ifstinianteB.  cnnvivinm  reportentuc.  replaii  ut  exhaurianl.  el  ex- 

Seneca,  consol.  ad  Helvidium.       "■  Sevieiitia  guttura  hnuriri  ut  bibant.    Anibros.  ^  ing^ntia  vasa  velul 

latiare  non  pogeunl  fluvii  et  miria,  Mneat  Sylvius,  ad  ostentationem,  &.c. 


144  Diet^  a  Cause.  'Part.  1   Sect.  2. 

man  that  is  soonest  gone,  as   their  drunken  predecessors  have  done, *quid  ego 

video  ?  Ps.     Cum  corona  Pseudnlum  ebrinm  iuum .     And  when  tliey  are  dead, 

will  have  a  can  of  wine  with  ^Maron's  old  woman  to  be  engraven  on  their  tombs. 
5o  tiiey  triumph  in  villany,  and  justify  tlieir  wickedness ;  with  Rabelais,  that  French  " 
Lucian,  drunkenness  is  better  for  the  body  than  physic,  because  there  be  more  old 
drunkards  than  old  physicians.  Many  such  frothy  arguments  they  have,  ^inviting 
and  encouraging  others  to  do  as  they  do,  and  love  them  dearly  for  it  (no  glue  like 
to  that  of  good  fellowship).  So  did  Alcibiades  in  Greece ;  Nero,  Ronosus,  Helio- 
gabalus  in  Rome,  or  Ale^abalus  rather,  as  he  was  styled  of  old  (as  ''  Ignatius  proves 
out  of  some  old  coins).  So  do  many  great  men  still,  as  ®  Hereshachius  observes. 
When  a  prince  drinks  till  his  eyes  stare,  like  Ritias  in  the  Poet, 


"a  thirsty  soiii ; 

He  took  chaiienge  and  emiirac'd  the  bowl : 
Spumantem  vino  paterani.")  I      Wiih  pleasure  swill'd  the  ^'old,  nor  ceased  to  draw 

I      Till  he  the  hotlom  of  the  brininier  saw." 

and  comes  off  clearly,  sound  trumpets,  fife  and  drums,  the  spectators  will  applaud 
him,  "the  '"bishop  himself  (if  r.v  _  "''■'  **»«»nfi  not)  with  his  chaplain  will  stand  by 
and  do  as  much,"  O  dignum  principe  hausnirn^  'twas  done  like  a  prince.  "  Our 
iJutchmen  invite  all  comers  with  a  pail  and  a  dish,"  Velut.  infundihida  iniegras  ohhas 
exhaiiriunf^  et  in  monslrosis  pocuUs^  ipsi  monstrosi  monsfrosius  cpolantf  "  making 
barrels  of  their  bellies."  Incredihih  dictu,  as  "one  of  their  own  coimtrymen  com- 
plains :  ^^  Quantum  liquoris  immodestissima  gens  capiat^  &c.  "  How  they  love  a  man 
that  will  be  drunk,  crown  him  and  honour  him  for  it,"  hate  him  that  will  not  pledge 
hirp,  stab  him,  kill  him  :  a  most  intolerable  offence,  and  not  to  be  forgiven.  ""  He 
is  a  mortal  enemy  that  will  not  drink  with  him,"  as  Munster  relates  of  the  Saxons. 
So  in  Poland,  he  is  the  best  servitor,  and  the  honestest  fellow,  saith  Alexander  Ga- 
guinup,  ''*"that  drinketh  most  healths  to  the  honour  of  his  master,  he  shall  be 
rewarded  as  a  good  servant,  and  held  the  bravest  fellow  that  carries  his  liquor  best," 
when  a  brewer's  horse  will  bear  much  more  than  any  sturdy  drinker,  yet  for  his 
noble  exploits  in  this  kind,  he  shall  be  accounted  a  most  valiant  man,  for  '^  Ta7n  infer 
epulas  forlis  vir  esse  potest,  ac  in  bello,  as  much  valour  is  to  be  found  in  feasting  as 
in  fighting,  iind  some  of  our  city  captains,  and  carpet  knights  will  make  this  good,  and 
prove  it.  Thus  they  many  times  wilfully  pervert  the  good  temperature  of  their 
bodies,  stifle  their  wits,  strangle  nature,  and  degenerate  into  beasts.) 

Sf)me  again  are  in  the  otlier  extreme,  and  draw  this  mischief  6n  their  heads  by 
too  ceremonious  and  sti'ict  diet,  being  over-precise,  cockney-like,  and  curious  in  their 
observation  of  meats,  times,  as  that  Medlcina  stat.ica  prescribes,  just  so  many  ounces 
at  dinner,  which  Lessius  enjoins,  so  much  at  supper,  not  a  little  more,  nor  a  little 
less,  of  such  meal,  and  at  such  hours,  a  diet-drink  in  the  morning,  cock-broth,  China- 
broth,  at  dinner,  plum-broth,  a  chicken,  a  rabbit,  rib  of  a  rack  of  mutton,  wing  of  a 
capon,  the  merry-thought  of  a  hen,  &,c. ;  to  sounder  bodies  this  is  too  nice  and  most 
absurd.  Others  offend  in  over-much  fasting:  pining  adays,  saith  '^Guianerius,  and 
waking  anights,  as  many  Moors  and  Turks  in  these  our  times  do.  "  Anchorites, 
monks,  and  the  rest  of  that  superstitious  rank  (as  the  same  Guianerius  witnesseth, 
that  he  hath  often  seen  to  have  happened  in  his  time)  through  immoderate  fasting, 
have  been  frequently  mad."  Of  such  men  belike  Hippocrates  speaks,  1  Aphor.  5, 
when  as  he  saith,  '''"they  more  offend  in  too  sparing  diet,  and  are  worse  damnified, 
than  they  that  feed  liberally,  and  are  ready  to  surfeit. 


4  Plaiitus.  6  Lib.3.  Anthol.c.20.  «  Gratiam  |  contra  qui   non   vult,  et   csede   et   fiistibiis    expiant. 

conciliarit  polando.       '  Notis  ad  Ciesares.       «  LjJ).  de  i  "^Qiii  potare  recusat,  hostis  habetnr,  et  rsede  nunniin- 


educandis  principiim  liberis.  "  Vir^.  jE.  1.  '"Idem 
Rtreniii  potatnris  Episcopi  Sacellaniis,  cum  ingentern 
pateram  exhaurit  princeps.  "  Bohenius  in  Saxonia. 
Adeo  in)moderate  el  immodeste  ab  ipsis  bibitur,  ut  in 


quani  res  expiatur  HQui  melius  bibii  pro  salute 

domini,  melior  habetnr  ministfr.  'oGrscc.  Poeta 

apud  StobEBum,  ser.  18.  "'■  (l\u  de  die  jejunant,  et 

nocte  vigilant,  facile  cadunt  in  nielancholiam  ;  et  qui 


conipotationibus  suis  no!i  cyathis  solum  et  caiithari.s  i  naturie  modum  excedunt,  c.  5.  tract.  15.  c.  2.    Long_ 
■at  iufundere  posf<int,  sed  impletum  mulctrale  appo-  I  famis  tolerantia,  ut  iis  ssepe  accidit    qui  tanto  cum 


nant,  et  scutella  iiijerta  hortanturquemlibet  ad  libitum 

Sotare.  '- Uictu   increilibile,  quantum   hujusce 

quorice  iramodesta  gens  capiat,  plus  potanteni  ami- 
KiMimum  habent,  at  eerto  coronant,  ininjicissimum  6 


fi-rvore  Deo  servire  cupittnt  per  Jejunium,  quod  ma- 
niaci  efficiaiitur,  ipse  vidi  saipe.  I'ln  tenui  ViclM 

legri  delinquunt,  ex  quo  fit  ut  majori  afficiantur  detrl 
iDento,  majorque  til  error  tenui  quam  pleniore  victu 


em.  2.  Subs.  3.]  Causes  of  Melancholy.  148 

Sub  SECT.  III. —  Custom  of  Diet,  Delight.,  Ajppetite,  JVecessity,  how  they  cause  a. 

hinder. 

No  rule  is  so  general,  which  admits  not  some  exception  ;  to  this,  theretore,  whict- 
hath  been  hitherto  said,  (for  I  shall  otherwise  put  most  men  out  of  conmions,)  and 
those  inconveniences  wliich  proceed  from  the  substance  of  meats,  an  intemperate  or 
unseasonable  use  of  them,  custom  somewhat  detracts  and  qualities,  accordmo-  to  that 
of  Hippocrates,  2  Aphoris.  50.  "^^  Such  things  as  we  have  been  long  accustomed  to, 
though  they  be  evil  in  their  own  nature,  yet  they  are  less  offensive."  Otherwise  it 
might  well  be  objected  that  it  were  a  mere  'tyranny  to  live  after  those  strict  rules 
of  physic;  for  custom  ^°doth  alter  nature  itself,  and  to  such  as  are  used  to  them  it 
makes  bad  meats  wholesome,  and  unseasonable  times  to  cause  no  disorder.  Cider 
and  perry  are  windy  drinks,  so  are  all  fruits  windy  in  themselves,  cold  most  part, 
yet  in  some  shires  of  **' England,  Normandy  in  France,  Guipuscoa  in  Spain,  'tis  their 
'•ommon  drink,  and  they  are  no  whit  offended  with  it.  In  Spain,  haly,  and  Africa, 
they  live  most  on  roots,  raw  herbs,  camel's  ^^milk,  and  it  agrees  well  with  them  : 
which  to  a  stranger  will  cause  much  grievance.  h\  Wales,  lactir.iniis  vescuntvr.  as 
Humphrey  Llwyd  confesseth,  a  Cambro-Briton  liimself,  in  his  elegant  epistle  to 
.  braham  Ortelius,  they  live  most  on  white  meats  :  in  Holland  on  fish,  roots,  ^^ butter*, 
and  so  at  this  day  in  Greece,  as  ^^Bellonius  observes,  they  had  much  rather  feed  on 
fish  than  flesh.  With  us.  Maxima  pars  victus  in  carne  consistit.,  we  feed  on  flesh 
most  part,  saith  ^^Polydor  Virgil,  as  all  northern  countries  do;  and  it  would  be  very 
ofTensive  to  us  to  live  after  their  diet,  or  they  to  live  after  ours.  We  drink  beer,  they 
wine*;  they  use  oil,  we  butter ;  we  in  the  north  are  ^®  great  eaters ;  they  most  sparing 
in  those  hotter  countries ;  and  yet  they  and  we  following  our  own  customs  are  well 
pleased.  An  Ethiopian  of  old  seeing  an  European  eat  bread,  wondered,  quomodo 
stercoribus  vescentes  viverimus,  how  we  could  eat  such  kind  of  meats  :  so  much 
differed  his  countrymen  from  ours  in  diet,  that  as  mine  "author  infers,  si  quis  illorum 
vicium  apud  nos  cemulari  vellet ;  if  any  man  should  so  feed  with  us,  it  would  be  all 
one  to  nourish,  as  Cicuta,  Aconitum,  or  Hellebore  itself.  At  this  day  in  China  the 
common  people  live  in  a  manner  altogether  on  roots  and  herbs,  and  to  the  wealthiest, 
horse,  ass,  mule,  dogs,  cat-flesh,  is  as  delightsome  as  the  rest,  so  ^'^  Mat.  Riccius  the 
Jesuit  relates,  who  lived  many  years  amongst  them.  The  Tartars  eat  raw  meat, 
and  most  commonly  ^®  horse-flesh,  drink  milk  and  blood,  as  the  Nomades  of  old.  Et 
lac  concrefum  cum  sanguine  potat  equina.  {They  scoff  at  our  Europeans  for  eating 
bread,  which  they  call  tops  of  weeds,  and  horse  meat,  not  fit  for  men  ;  and  yet  Sca- 
liger  accounts  them  a  sound  and  witty  nation,  living  a  hundred  years ;  even  in  the 
civilest  country  of  them  they  do  thus,  as  Benedict  the  Jesuit  observed  in  his  travel's, 
from  the  great  Mogul's  Court  by  land  to  Pekin,  wliich  Riccius  contends  to  be  tl.3 
same  with  Cambulu  in  Cataia.  In  Scandia  their  bread  is  usually  dried  fish,  and  so 
likewise  in  the  Shetland  Isles;  and  their  other  fare,  as  in  Iceland,  saith  ''^ Dithmarus 
Bleskenius,  butter,  cheese,  and  fish ;  their  drink  water,  their  lodging  on  the  ground. 
In  America  in  many  places  their  bread  is  roots,  their  meat  palmitos,  pinas,  potatoes. 
&c.,  and  such  fruits.  There  be  of  them  too  that  familiarly  drink  ^'salt  sea-water  all 
their  lives,  eat  ^^raw  meat,  grass,  and  that  with  delight.  With  some,  fish,  serpents, 
spiders:  and  in  divers  places  they  ^eat  man's  flesh,  raw  and  roasted,  even  the  Em- 
peror ^^  Montezuma  himself.     In  some  coasts,  again,  ^^  one  tree  yields  them  cocoa- 


's Quteiongo  tempore  consueta  sunt,  etiamsi  dete- 
riora,  minus  in  assuetis  molestare  snlent.  ''•>  Qui 

iriedice  vivit,  miserfe  vivit.  -o  Consuetudo  altera 

naliira.  '•''  Herefordshire,  Gloucestershire,  Wor- 

cestershire. 2'-I,eo  Afer.  1.   1.  solo  c.ainelorum 

lacte  contenti,  nil  prmterea  deliciaruni  anibiiint. 
wpiandri  viniim  butyro  dilutum  bihuiit  (nauseo  refe- 
'ens)  uliique  butyruni  inter  omnia  fercula  et  bellaria 
Tcum  ohtinet.  Sleph.  prsefat.  Herod.  24  Delec- 

.iintur  GrEEci  piscibus  niagis  quam  carnibus.  25  Lib. 
I.  hist.  Atig.  '^fi  P.  Jnvius  descript.  Britonum.  They 
nit,  eat  and  drink  all  day  at  dinner  in  Ireland,  Mus- 
covy, and  those  nortliern  parts.  27  Snidas,  vict. 
Herod,  nihilo  cum  eo  melius  quam  si  quis  Cicutam, 
Aconiti.in,  &c.  ''»  Expedlt.  in  Sinas,  lib.  1.  c.  3. 
^or'TO'uni  herbarum  et  olerum,  apud  Sinas  quam 

19  K 


apud  nos  longe  frequentior  usus,  complures  qiiippe  de 
vulgo  reperias  nulla  alia  re  vel  tenuitatis,  vel  reli- 
pionis  causa  vescentes.  Equus,  Mulus,  Asellus,  &c. 
jequS  fer6  vescuntur  ac  pahula  omnia.  Mat.  Riccius, 
lib.  5.  cap.  12  '^"Tartari  mulis.  eqiiis  vescuntur 

et  crudis  carnibus,  et  fruges  contemnunt,  dicentes, 
hoc  jumentorum  pabulum  et  boniim,  non  hominum. 
s^IslandijE  descri|itione  victus  corum  butyro,  lacte, 
caseo  consistit :  pIsces  loco  panis  habent,  potus  aqua, 
atit  serum,  sic  viviint  sine  medicina  multa  ad  aniioii 
200.  a' Laet.  Occident.  Ind.  descrip.  lib.  11.  cap.  10 
Aquam  marinam  bibere  sueti  absque  nox&.  sa  Dg. 
vies  2.  voyage.  ^a  paiagones.  ^4  Henzo  et 

Fer.  Corteslus,  lib.  novus  orbis  inscrip  seizing. 

cnTten,  c.  56.  Palme  instar  tolius  orbis  arboribui 
longe  piEstantior. 


l4fi  Retention  and  Evacuation,  Causes.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  2 

nuts,  meat  and  drink,  fire,  fuel,  apparel ;  with  his  leaves,  oil,  vinegar,  cover  foi 
houses,  &.C.,  and  yet  these  men  going  naked,  feeding  coarse,  live  commonly  a  hun 
dred  years,  are  seldom  or  never  sick  ;  all  which  diet  our  physicians  forbid.  In  West- 
phalia they  feed  most  part  on  fat  meats  and  vvourts,  knuckle  deep,  and  call  it  ''^cerr- 
hrum  lovis  :  in  tlie  Low  Countries  with  roots,  in  Italy  frogs  and  snails  are  used.  Tlie 
Turks,  saith  Busbequius,  delight  most  in  fried  meats.  In  Muscovy,  garlic  and  onions 
are  ordinary  meat  and  sauce,  which  would  be  pernicious  to  such  as  are  unaccustomed 
to  them,  delightsome  to  others;  and  all  is  ^'because  they  liave  been  brought  up  unto 
•t.  Husbandmen,  and  such  as  labour,  can  eat  fat  bacon,  salt  gross  meat,  hard  cheese, 
&.C.,  (O  dura  messorum  ilia).,  coarse  bread  at  all  times,  go  to  bed  and  labour  upon  a 
full  stomach,  which  to  some  idle  persons  would  be  present  death,  and  is  against  the 
rules  of  physic,  so  that  custom  is  all  in  all.  Our  travellers  find  this  by  common  ex- 
perience wlien  they  come  in  far  countvies,  and  use  their  diet,  they  are  suddenly 
offended,^*  as  our  Hollanders  and  Englishmen  when  they  touch  upon  the  coasts  of 
Africa,  those  Indian  capes  and  islands,  are  commonly  molested  with  calentures, 
fluxes,  and  much  distempered  by  reason  of  their  fruits,  ^^Peregrina.,  etsi  suavia, 
Solent  vescentibus  per turba Hones  insignes  adferre,  strange  meats,  though  pleasant, 
cause  notable  alterations  and  distempers.  On  the  other  side,  use  or  custom  miti- 
gates or  makes  all  good  again.  Mithridates  by  often  use,  which  Pliny  wonders  at, 
was  able  to  drink  poison;  and  a  maid,  as  Curtius  records,  sent  to  Alexander  from 
K.  Porus,  was  brought  up  with  poison  from  her  infancy.  The  Turks,  saith  Bello- 
nius,  lib.  3.  c.  15,  eat  opium  familiarly,  a  drachm  at  once,  which  we  dare  not  take  in 
grains.  '"'Garcius  ab  Horto  writes  of  one  whom  he  saw  at  Goa  in  the  East  Indies, 
that  took  ten  drachms  of  opium  in  three  days ;  and  yet  consultb  loquebalur^  spake 
understandingly,  so  much  can  custom  do.  ■"  Theophrastus  speaks  of  a  shepherd 
that  could  eat  hellebore  in  substance.  And  therefore  Cardan  concludes  out  of  Galen. 
Consuetudinem  ulcunqne  fcrendam,  nisi  valde  malum.  Custom  is  howsoever  to  be 
kept,  except  it  be  extremely  bad  :  he  adviseth  all  men  to  keep  their  old  customs,  and 
that  by  the  authority  of  '''* Hippocrates  himself,  Dandum  aliquid  tempori.,  cElati,  re- 
gioni.)  consuetudini,  and  therefore  to  ''^continue  as  they  began,  be  it  diet,  bath,  exer- 
cise, &c.,  or  whatsoever  else. 

Another  exception  is  delight,  or  appetite,  to  such  and  such  meats :  though  they 
be  hard  of  digestion,  melancholy  ;  yet  as  Fuchsius  excepts,  cap.  6.  lib.  2.  Instit.  sect.  2. 
*^"The  stomach  doth  readily  digest,  and  willingly  entertain  such  meats  we  love 
most,  and  are  pleasing  to  us,  abhors  on  the  other  side  such  as  we  distaste."  Which 
Hippocrates  confirms,  Aphoris.  2.  38.  Some  cannot  endure  clieese,  out  of  a  secret 
antipathy ;  or  to  see  a  roasted  duck,  which  to  others  is  a  *^  delightsome  meat. 

The  last  exception  is  necessity,  poverty,  want,  hunger,  which  drives  men  many 
times  to  do  that  which  otherwise  they  are  loth,  cannot  endure,  and  thankfully  to 
accept  of  it :  as  beverage  in  ships,  and  in  sieges  of  great  cities,  to  feed  on  dogs,  cats, 
rats,  and  men  themselves.  Three  outlaws  in  '"^Hector  Boethius,  being  driven  to  their 
shifts,  did  eat  raw  flesh,  and  flesh  of  such  fowl  as  they  could  catch,  in  one  of  the 
Hebrides  for  some  few  months.  These  things  do  mitigate  or  disannul  that  which 
hath  been  said  of  melancholy  meats,  and  make  it  more  tolerable ;  but  to  such  as  are 
wealthy,  live  plenteously,  at  ease,  may  take  their  choice,  and  refrain  if  they  will, 
these  viands  are  to  be  forborne,  if  they  be  inclined  to,  or  suspect  melancholy,  as 
they  tender  their  healths :  Otherwise  if  they  be  intemperate,  or  disordered  in  theii 
diet,  at  their  peril  be  it.      Qui  monet  amat,  .Ave  et  cave. 

He  who  advises  is  your  friend 
Farewell,  and  to  your  health  attend. 

SuBSEcr.  IV. — Retention  and  Evacuation  a  cause.,  and  how. 

Of  retention  and  evacuation,  there  be  divers  kinds,  which  are  either  concomitant, 
assisting,  or  sole  causes  many  times  of  melancholy.  '"Galen  reduceth  defect  and 
abundance  to  this  head ;  others  ■**"  All  that  is  separated,  or  remains.". 


Lips,  epist.  sixeneris  apsuescere  multum. 

•SRepentinse  mutationes  nnxam  pariunt.    Hippocrat. 
Aphorism.  21.  Epist.  6.  set..  3.  Brueriiius,  lit).  1. 

cap.  23.  Sinipl.  iiied.  c.  4.  1.  I.  ■"•  Heurnius. 

/.  3.  e.  19.  prax.  ined.  ■•'  .\phiiris.  17.  In 

dubiis  coneuetudinem  sequatur  adolescene,  et  inceptis 


perseveret.  <■•  Qui  cum  voluptate  assumuntur  cihi 
ventriciihis  avidlus  rnmplectitur,  expeditiusqiie  con 
coquit,  et  quiP  displicent  aversatur.  ■">  Noth:n| 

asrainsi  ;i  good  stomaoh.  as  'he  sayinf?  is.  *'  ^ib 

Hist.  Scot.  <■•  30.  artis.  '  ■"Qua  .ixcerniintur  au 
subgiciuiit. 


Mem.  2.  Subs.  4.]  Retention  and  Evacuation,  Causes.  47 

Cosfiveness.]  In  the  first  rank  of  tliese,  I  may  well  reckon  up  costivene.%  lind 
keeping  in  of  onr  ordinary  excrements,  which  as  it  often  causeth  other  diseases,  so  this 
of  melancholy  in  particular.  ''^Celsus,  hb.  1.  cap.  3,  saith,  "  It  produceth  inflamma- 
tion of  the  head,  dulness,  cloufliness,  headache,"  &c.  Prosper  Calenus,  lib.  de  aird 
bile,  will  have  it  distemper  not  the  organ  only,  ^°"  but  the  mind  itself  by  troubling 
of  it  :*'  and  sometimes  it  is  a  sole  cause  of  madness,  as  you  may  read  in  the  first 
book  of  ^'Skenkius's  Medicinal  Observations.  A  young  merchant  going  to  Nordeling 
fair  ill  Germany,  for  ten  days'  space  never  went  to  stool ;  at  his  return  he  was 
^^grievously  melancholy,  thinking  that  he  was  robbed,  and  would  not  be  persuaded 
but  that  all  his  money  was  gone ;  his  friends  thought  he  had  some  philtrum  given 
him,  but  Cnelius,  a  physician,  being  sent  for,  found  his  ^^  costiveness  alone  to  be  the 
cause,  and  thereupon  gave  him  a  clyster,  by  which  he  was  speedily  recovered. 
Trincavellius,  consult.  35.  lib.  1,  saith  as  much  of  a  melancholy  lawyer,  to  whom 
he  administered  physic,  and  Rodericus  a  Fonseca,  consult.  85.  torn.  2,  ^^of  a  patient 
of  his,  that  for  eight  days  was  bound,  and  therefore  melancholy  affected.  Other 
retentions  and  evacuations  there  are,  not  simply  necessary,  but  at  some  times ;  as 
Fernelius  accounts  them.  Path.  lib.  1.  cap.  15,  as  suppression  of  haemorrhoids, 
monthly  issues  in  women,  bleeding  at  nose,  immoderate  or  no  use  at  all  of  Venus : 
or  any  other  ordinary  issues. 

^'Detention  of  h.nemorrhoids,  or  monthly  issues,  Villanovanus  Breviar.  lib.  1.  cap 
18.  Arculanus,  cap.  16.  in  9.  Rhasis,  Vittorius  Faventinus,  pract.  mag.  Tract.  2.  cap. 
15.  Bruel,  Slc.  put  for  ordinary  causes.  Fuchsius,  1.  2.  sect.  5.  c.  30,  goes  farther, 
and  saith, ''^'•' That  many  men  unseasonably  cured  of  the  haemorrhoids  have  been 
corrupted  with  melancholy,  seeking  to  avoid  Scylla,  they  fall  into  Charybdis.  Galen, 
/.  de  hum.  commrn.  3.  ad  text.  2(),  ilUistrates  this  by  an  example  of  Lucius  Martius, 
whom  he  cured  of  madness,  contracted  by  this  means:  And  ^'Skenkius  hath  two 
other  instances  of  two  melancholy  and  mad  women,  so  caused  from  the  suppression 
of  their  months.  The  same  may  be  said  of  bleeding  at  the  nose,  if  it  be  suddenly 
stopped,  and  have  been  formerly  used,  as  ^^Villanovanus  urgeth  :  And  ^^  Fuchsius, 
lib.  2.  sect.  5.  cap.  33,  stilHy  maintains,  ''  That  without  great  danger,  such  an  issue 
may  not  be  stayed." 

Venus  omitted  produceth  like  effects.  Mathiolus,  epist.  5.  /.  penult.,  °°"avoucheth 
of  his  knowledge,  that  some  through  bashfulness  abstained  from  venery,  and  there- 
upon became  very  heavy  and  didl ;  and  some  others  that  were  very  timorous,  me 
lancholy,  and  beyond  all  measure  sad."  Oribasius,  med.  collect.  I.  6.  c.  37,  speaks 
of  some,  *' "  That  if  they  do  not  use  carnal  copulation,  are  continually  troubled 
with  heaviness  and  headache ;  and  some  in  the  same  case  by  intermission  of  it." 
Not  use  of  it  hurts  many,  Arculanus,  c.  6.  in  9.  Rhasis,  et  Magninus,  part.  3.  cap.  5, 
think,  because  it  ^^"  sends  up  poisoned  vapours  to  the  brain  and  heart."  And  so 
doth  Galen  himself  hold,  "  That  if  this  natural  seed  be  over-long  kept  (in  some 
parties)  it  turns  to  poison."  HieronymusMercurialis,  in  his  chapter  of  Melancholy, 
cites  it  for  an  especial  cause  of  this  malach,  ^^Priapismus,  Satyriasis,  &c.  Haliabbas, 
5.  Theor.  c.  36,  reckons  up  this  and  many  other  diseases.  Villanovanus  Breviar.  I.  1. 
c.  18,  saith,  "  He  knew  ®^many  monks  and  widows  grievously  troubled  with  melan- 
choly, and  that  from  this  sole  cause.  ^^Ludovicus  Mercatus,  I.  2.  de  muliemm  ajject. 
cap.  4,  and  Rodericus  a,  Castro,  de  morbis  mulier.  I.  2.  c.  3,  treat  largely  of  this  sub- 
ject, and  will  have  it  produce  a  peculiar  kind  of  melancholy  in  stale  maids,  nuns, 
and  widows,  Ob  suppressionem  mensiiim  et  venerem  omissam,  timidcE,  mcestce,  anxicc.^ 
vcrecundce,  suspiciosce,  languentes,  consilii  inopes,  cum  sumnia  vitcp  et  rervm  melio- 
rum  desperatione,  &c.,  they  are  melancholy  in  the  highest  degree,  and  all  for  want 

^'Ex  ventre  suppresso,  inflammationes,  capitis  do-,  coitu  abstinentes,  turpidog,  pigrooque  factos  ;  nonnuU 
lores,   calieines  crescunt.  '"  ExcreiTienta   retenta  j  los  etiam  nielancholicos,  prfeter  modiim  nioestos,  limi- 

.nentis  agitationem  parere  snient.  ^'  Cap.  de  Mel.  '  dosqiie.  '''  Nfmnulli    nisi   cr<!aiit   assidu6   capitis 


^  Tani  delirus,  ut  vix  se  liomiiieiii  agnoseeret.        ^  Al- 
viis  astrictus  causa.  54  per  octo  dies  alvum  siccuni 

habet,  et  nihil  reddit.  ^6  Sive  per  nares,  sive  liae- 

a:'>"hoidPS.  ">  Mniti  inteinpestiv6  ab  hn-niorrhoidi- 

bus  cjrati,  melai/cholia  corrupt!  sunt.   Incidit  in  Scyl- 
lain,  &c.  57  i,ib.  1.  de  Mania.  sb  Breviar.  1.7. 

c.  18.  69  IS' on  sine  niagno  incommodo  ejus,  cui 

languis  &  naribus  promanat,  noxii  sanguinis  vacuatio 
wpiidiri  potest.  '"Novi  quosdam  prae  pudote  & 


gravitate  infestantur.  Dicit  se  novisse  quosdam  tristes 
el  ita  factos  ex  inlermissione  Veneris.  6.  Vapores 

venenatos  niiltit  dperina  a(l  cor  fit  cerebrum,  tlperma 
plus  diu  relenturn,  transit  in  venenum.  ^^Craveg 

producit  corporis  et  aninii  Eegritudintrs.  ^  Ex  sper- 
mate  supra  modum  retento  nionachos  et  vidua?  ine- 
lancholicos  sie^e  fieri  vidi.  ^  Melancholia  urta  A 

vasis  seniinarilis  in  utero. 


148  Retention  and  Evar.uation,  Causes.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  2 

of  husbands^"^  ^lianus  Montaltiis,  cap.  37.  de  melanchol..,  confirms  as  much  out  of 
Galen;  so  cloth  Wierus,  Chrrsloferus  a  Vega  de  art.  med.  lih.  3.  c.  14,  relates  many 
such  examples  of  men  and  women,  that  he  had  seen  so  melancholy.  Ftelix  Plater 
in  the  first  book  of  his  Observations,  ^^"  tells  a  story  of  an  ancient  gentleman  in 
Alsatia,  that  married  a  young  wife,  and  was  not  able  to  pay  his  debts  in  lliat  kind 
for  a  long  time  together,  by  reason  of  his  several  infirmities  :  but  she,  because  of  this 
inhibition  of  Venus,  fell  into  a  horrible  fury,  and  desired  every  one  that  came  to  see 
her,  by  words,  looks,  and  gestures,  to  have  to  do  with  her,  Stc."-  "Bernardus  Pater- 
nus,  a  physician,  saith,  •'  lie  knew  a  good  honest  godly  priest,  that  because  he  would 
neither  willingly  marry,  nor  make  use  of  the  stews,  fell  into  grievous  melancholy 
fits."  Hddesheira,  spicel.  2,  hath  such  another  example  of  an  Italian  melancholy 
priest,  in  a  consultation  had  ^/iwo  1580.  Jason  Pratensis  gives  instance  in  a  married 
man,  that  from  his  wife's  death  abstaining,  ^'"  after  marriage,  became  exceedingly  me- 
lancholy," Rodericus  a  Fonseca  in  a  young  man  so  misaffected,  Tom.  2.  consult.  85. 
To  these  you  may  add,  if  you  please,  that  conceited  tale  of  a  Jew,  so  visited  in  like 
sort,  and  so  cured,  out  of  Poggius  Florentinus. 

Intemperate  Verms  is  all  but  as  bad  in  the  other  extreme.  Galen,  I.  6.  de  morhis  popu- 
lar, sect.  5.  text.  26,  reckons  up  melancholy  amongst  those  diseases  wliich  are  ^®''  ex- 
asperated by  venery :"  so  doth  Avicenna,  2,  3,  c.  II.  Oribasius,  loc.  cltat.  Ficinus, 
lib.  2.  de  sanitate  tuendf'i.  Marsilius  Cognatns,  Montaltus,  cap.  27.  Guianerius, 
Tract.  3.  cap.  2.  Magninus,  cap.  5.  part.  3,  '"gives  the  reason,  because  ''"it  infri- 
gidates  and  dries  up  the  body,  consumes  the  spirits ;  and  would  therefore  have  all 
such  as  are  cold  and  dry  to  take  heed  of  and  to  avoid  it  as  a  mortal  enemy."  Jac- 
chinus  m  9  Rhasis.,  cap.  15,  ascribes  the  same  cause,  and  instanceth  in  a  patient  of 
his,  that  married  a  young  wife  in  a  hot  summer,  '^'•'  and  so  dried  himself  with  cham- 
ber-work, that  he  became  in  short  space  from  melancholy,  mad  :"  he  cured  him  by 
moistening  remedies.  The  like  example  I  find  in  La;lius  a  Fonte  Eugubinus,  consult. 
129,  of  a  gentleman  of  Venice,  that  upon  tlie  same  occasion  was  first  melancholy, 
afterwards  mad.     Read  in  him  the  story  at  large. 

Any  other  evacuation  stopped  will  cause  it,  as  well  as  these  above  named,  bn  i\ 
bile,  "ulcer,  issue,  &c.  Hercules  de  Saxonia,  lib.  1.  c.  16,  and  Gordonius,  vfi.t'y 
this  out  of  their  experience.  They  saw  one  wounded  in  the  head  who  as  long  as 
the  sore  was  open,  Lucida  habuit  mentis,  inlervalla,  was  well ;  but  when  it  wai* 
stopped,  Rediit  melancholia.^  his  melancholy  fit  seized  on  him  again. 

Artificial  evacuations  are  much  like  in  efl^ect,  as  hot  houses,  baths,  blood-letting 
purging,  unseasonably  and  immoderately  used.  '''Baths  dry  too  much,  if  used  in  es 
cess,  be  they  natural  or  artificial,  and  ofl^end  extreme  hot,  or  cold  ;  ''"  one  dries,  the 
other  refrigerates  overmuch.  Montanus,  consil.  137,  saith,  they  over-heat  the  liver. 
Joh.  Struthius,  Sligmat.  artis.  I.  4.  c.  9,  contends,  ■'^"•that  if  one  stay  longer  than  or- 
dinary at  the  bath,  go  in  too  oft,  or  at  unseasonable  times,  he  putrefies  the  humours 
in  his  body."  To  this  purpose  writes  Magninus,  I.  3.  c.  5.  Guianerius,  Tract.  15. 
c.  21,  utterly  disallows  all  hot  baihs  in  melanclioly  adust.  ""I  saw  (saith  he)  a  man 
that  laboured  of  the  gout,  who  to  be  freed  of  this  malady  came  to  the  bath,  and  was 
instantly  cured  of  his  disease,  but  got  another  worse,  and  that  was  madness."  But 
this  judgment  varies  as  the  humour  doth,  in  hot  or  cold  :  baths  may  be  good  for  one 
melancholy  man,  bad  for  another ;  that  which  will  cure  it  in  this  party,  may  cause 
it  ui  a  second. 

Phlebotomy.]  Phlebotomy,  many  times  neglected,  may  do  much  harm  to  the  body, 
when  there  is  a  manifest  redundance  of  bad  humours,  and  melancholy  blood ;  and 
when  these  humours  heat  and  boil,  if  this  be  not  used  in  time,  the  parties  affected, 

•'•'Nohilia  senex  Alsatiis  jiivenem  iixorem  duxit,  at  (corpus,  spiritvis  cnnsumit,  &c.  caveant  ab  hoc  sicci,  ve- 
Hie  colico  dolore,  et  iiniltis  inorbis  correptus,  non  po-  I  liit  iiiiniico  iriortaU.  '-i  Ita  exsiccatiis  ut  6  melancho- 
tuit  priEstare  officimn  iiiariti,  vix  itiiio  niatrimonio  j  lico  statim  fiieril  insaniis,  ab  hiiinectanlibus  curatus 
ej.rotiis.     Ula  in   horrfiiidiim  fiiroriim  inciilil,  ob  Ve-     '-'Ex  cauterio  et  ulcere  exsiccato.  '•  Gord.  c.  10 

nerem  cohibitam   ut   oiniiimn  earn  invisenlium  con-  i  lib.  1.     Uiscoinnieiids  cold  baths  as  noxious.         '-'Sic- 
gressum,  voce,  vultu,   gestii  expeteret,  et  qiuim  non     cum  reddunt  corpus.  '''Siquis  loncius  moretuf 

onsentirent,  molossos  Anylicanos  inagno  expeiiil  cla-  I  in    iis,  aut    niuiis  frequenter,   aut    iuiportunft  utatur, 
more.  e?  vidi  sacerdotern  optimum  et  pium,  qui     humores  putrefacit.  "t  E20  anno  superiore,  qunn. 

quod  nollet  uti  Venere,  in  inelaucholica  symptoinata    dam  euttosuni  vidi  adiistum,  qui  ut  liberareiur  de  gut- 
incidit.  <i»Ob  abstinentiam  ii  concubitu  iiicidit  in    ta,  ad  balnea  accessit,  et  de  giitta  '.iberatus,  maniactu 

nie'anr.holiarn.  ''"Quk    d.  coitii   exacerbantur.     factus  eat 

^feuperstuuiu  I  oituiTi  causam  ponunl.  '"  Cx8ircat 


(VIem.  2.  Subs.  5.] 


Bad  Air,  a  Cause. 


149 


so  inflamed,  are  in  great  danger  to  be  mad ;  but  if  it  be  unadvisedly,  impo.-tunely 
immoderately  used,  it  dotli  as  much  harm  by  refrigeratinof  the  body,  dulling  the 
spirits,  and  consuming  them:  as  Job.  '**  Curio  in  his  10th  chapter  well  reprehends,  such 
kind  of  letting  blood  doth  more  hurt  than  good:  ™"The  humours  rage  much  more 
than  they  did  before,  and  is  so  far  from  avoiding  melanclioly,  that  it  increaseth  it,  and 
weakeneth  the  sight."  *' Prosper  Calenus  ol)serves  as  much  of  all  phlebotomy,  except 
they  keep  a  very  good  diet  after  it ;  yea,  and  as  *'  Leonartis  Jacchinus  speaks  out  of 
his  own  experience,  ^^^  The  blood  is  much  blacker  to  many  men  after  their  letting 
of  blood  than  it  was  at  first."  For  this  cause  belike  Salust.  Salvinianus,  I.  2.  c.  1, 
will  admit  or  hear  of  no  blood-letting  at  all  in  this  disease,  except  it  be  manifest  it 
proceed  t'rom  blood  :  he  was  (it  appears)  by  his  own  words  in  that  place,  master  of 
an  hospital  of  mad  men,  ^'"'and  found  by  long  experience,  that  this  kind  of  evacua- 
tion, either  in  head,  arm,  or  any  other  part,  did  more  harm  than  good."  To  this, 
opinion  of  his,  ^^Fcelix  Plater  is  quite  opposite,  •■'  though  some  wink  at,  disallow  and 
quite  contradict  all  phlebotomy  in  melancholy,  yet  by  long  experience  I  have  found 
innumerable  so  saved,  after  tliey  had  been  twenty,  nay,  sixty  times  let  blood,  and  to 
live  happily  after  it.  It  was  an  ordinary  thing  of  old,  in  Galen's  time,  to  take  at  once 
from  such  men  six  pounds  of  blood,  which  now  we  dare  scarce  take  in  ounces  :  $ed 
viderint  ?ncdici,  ;"  great  books  are  written  of  this  subject. 

Purging  upward  and  downward,  in  abundance  of  bad  humours  omitted,  may  oo 
for  the  worst ;  so  likewise  as  in  the  precedent,  if  overmuch,  too  frequent  or  violent, 
it  ^weakeneth  tlieir  strength,  saith  Fuchsius,  I.  2.  sect.  2  c.  17,  or  if  they  be  strong 
or  able  to  endure  pliysic,  yet  it  brings  them  to  an  ill  habit,  they  make  their  bodies 
no  better  than  apotliecaries'  shops,  this  and  such  like  infirmities  must  needs  follow 

SuBSECT.  V. — Bad  Jlir,  a  cause  of  Melancholy. 

Air  is  a  cause  of  great  moment,  in  producing  this,  or  any  other  disease,  being  thai 
it  is  still  taken  into  our  bodies  by  respiration,  and  our  more  inner  parts.  ^®"  If  i(  be 
impure  and  foggy,  it  dejects  the  spirits,  and  causeth  diseases  by  infection  of  the 
heart.'"  as  Paulus  hath  it,  lib.  1.  c.  49.  Avicenna,  lih.  1.  Gal.  de  san.  ttiendd.  Mer- 
curialis,  Montaltus,  &c.  "Fernelius  saith,  "A  thick  air  thickeneth  the  blood  and  hu- 
mours." **^Lemnius  reckons  up  two  main  things  most  profitable,  and  most  pernicious 
to  our  bodies ;  air  and  diet  :  and  this  peculiar  disease,  nothing  sooner  causeth  *^^(Jo- 
bertus  holds')  "  than  the  air  wherein  we  breathe  and  live."  ^°Such  as  is  the  air,  such 
be  our  spirits ;  and  as  our  spirits,  such  are  our  Inunours.  It  offends  commonly  if  it 
be  too  ^'  hot  and  dry,  thick,  fuliginous,  cloudy,  blustering,  or  a  tempestuous  air. 
Bodine  in  his  fifth  Book,  i}e  repub.  cap.  1,  5,  of  his  Method  of  History,  proves  that 
hot  countries  are  most  troubled  witli  melancholy,  and  that  there  are  therefore  in 
Spain,  Africa,  and  Asia  Minor,  great  numbers  of  mad  men,  insomuch  that  they  are 
compelled  in  all  cities  of  note,  to  build  peculiar  hospitals  for  them.  Leo  ^^Afer,  lib.  3. 
de  Fessa  urbe.,  Ortelius  and  Zuinger,  confirm  as  much  :  they  are  ordinarily  so  choleric 
in  their  speeches,  that  scarce  two  words  pass  without  railing  or  chiding  in  commor 
talk,  and  often  quarrelling  in  their  streets.  ^^Gordonius  will  have  every  man  take 
notice  of  it :  "  Note  this  (saith  he)  that  in  hot  countries  it  is  far  more  familiar  than 
in  cold."  Altliough  this  we  have  now  said  be  not  continually  so,  for  as  ^^Acosta 
truly  saith,  under  tlie  Equator  itself,  is  a  most  temperate  habitation,  wholesome  air, 
a  paradise  of  pleasure :  the  leaves  ever  green,  cooling  showers.  But  it  holds  in  such 
as  are  intemperately  hot,  as  ^^Johannes  a  Meggen  found  in  Cyprus,  others  in  Malta, 


TsOn  Schola  Salernitana.  "Calefactio  el  ebiil- 

Jitin  |)er  venre  incisionein,  magis  sjepe  incitatur  et 
aiiv:elur,  majore  impetu  liuniores  per  corpus  disctir- 
iiiiit.  *■"  Ljb.  de  flatiileiita  Melancholia.   Fri'qiiens 

saiifiuinis  missio  corpus  exlenuat.  "i  In  9  Rliasis, 

airam  bilern  parit,  et  visum  debilitat.  "-Multo 

igrior  spectatur  sanguis  post  dies  quosdam,  quCtm 
(uit  ab  initio.  '•3  Non  laudo  eos  qui  in  desipientia 

inceiit  secandam  esse  venam  frontis,  quia  spiriius  de- 
bililatur  inde,  et  ei;o  ionga  experientia  oliservavi  in 
proprio  Xeiiodochio,  quf)d  desipieiites  ex  phlehotouiia 
magis  teduntur,  et  nia^is  disipiunt,  et  inelanctiolici 
fffipe   fiunt   inde   pejores  *^Ve    mentis   alienat. 

cap.  3.  ctsi  multos  h'^c  improb&ssn  sciam,  innumeros 

N 


hac  ratione  sanatos  Ionga  observatione  cognovi,  qui 
vigesies,  sexagies  venas  tnndendo,  &c.  "*  Vires 

debilitat.  "^Impurus  a6r  spiritus  dej'icit,  infecto 

corde   gignit  morbos.  ^'Sanguineni   densal,   et 

humores,  P.  1.  c.  13.  se  LUi.  3.  cap.  3.  »?Lib. 

de  quartana.  Ex  aSre  anihiente  conlrahitur  humor 
melancholicns.  ""Qualis   aer,  talis   spirit\is!   et 

ciijusinodi  spiritus,  humores  ^'  jElianns  Montal- 

tus, c.  11.  calldus  et  siccus,  frigidus  et  siccus,  paludj^- 
nosus,  crassus.  "-'Mulla  hie  in  Xenodocliiis  fana^ 

ticorum  niillia  quae  striciissini6  catenata  servantur 
"J  I,ib.  med.  part.  2.  c.  19.  Intelliae,  quod  in  ralidii 
regionibus,  frequenter  accidit  n)ania,  in  frigidis  au- 
tem  tarde.  *«  Lib.  2.  "sHodopericon,  cap.  7 


150 


Causes  of  Mdanchoty. 


[Part.  1.  Sec 


Aupi  Ua,  and  the  ^  Holy  Land,  where  at  some  seasons  of  the  year  is  nothnig  but  dust, 
their  rivers  dried  up,  tlie  air  scorching  hot,  and  earth  inflamed;  insomuch  that  many 
pilgrins  going  barefoot  for  devotion  salve,  from  Joppa  to  Jerusalem  upon  the  hoi 
sands,  often  run  mad,  or  else  quite  overwhehned  with  sand,  profiindis  arenis^  as  in 
many  .parts  of  Africa,  Arabia  Deserta,  Bactriana,  now  Cliarassan,  when  the  west  wind 
blows  '■''Inuoluli  arenis  Iranspunles  necanlur.  "^  Hercules  de  Saxonia,  a  professor  in 
Venice,  gives  this  cause  wliy  so  many  Venetian  women  are  melancholy.  Quod  diu 
sub  sole  degant^  they  tarry  too  long  in  the  sun.  Montanus,  consil.  21,  amongst  other 
causes  assigns  this  ;  Wliy  that  Jew  his  patient  was  mad,  Qiiod  iam  mulhun  expusuit  se 
calori  et  frigori  :  he  exposed  himself  so  much  to  heat  and  cold,  and  for  that  reason  in 
Venice,  there  is  little  stirring  in  those  brick  paved  streets  in  summer  about  noon,  tbey 
are  most  part  tlien  asleep  :  as  they  are  likewise  in  the  great  Mogol's  countries,  and  all 
over  the  East  hidies.  At  Aden  in  Arabia,  as  ^^  Lodovicus  Vertomannus  relates  in  his  tra- 
vels, they  keep  their  markets  hi  the  night,  to  avoid  extremity  of  iieat ;  and  in  Ormus, 
like  cattle  in  a  pasture,  people  of  all  sorts  lie  up  to  the  chin  in  water  all  daylong.  At 
Bragain  Portugal  •,  Burgos  in  Castile;  Messina  in  Sicily,  all  over  Spain  and  Italy,  their 
streets  are  most  part  narrow,  to  avoid  the  sunbeams.  The  Turks  wear  great  turbans 
adfugandos  soils  radios^  to  refract  the  sunbeams  ;  and  much  inconvenience  that  hot 
air  of  Bantam  in  Java  yields  to  our  men,  tliat  sojourn  there  for  traffic ;  where  it  is 
so  hot,  ""''•'•  that  they  that  are  sick  of  the  pox,  lie  commonly  bleaching  in  the  sun,  to 
dry  up  their  sores."  Such  a  complaint  I  read  of  those  isles  of  Cape  Verde,  fourteen  de- 
grees from  the  Equator,  they  do  male  audire  :  'One  calls  them  the  nnhealthiest  clime 
of  the  world,  for  fluxes,  fevers,  frenzies,  calentures,  which  commonly  seize  on  seafar- 
ing men  that  touch  at  them,  and  all  by  reason  of  a  hot  distemperalure  of  the  air.  The 
hardiest  men  are  oflended  with  this  heat,  and  stiflfest  clowns  cannot  resist  it,  as  Con- 
stantine  aflirms,  Agricull.  I.  2.  c.  45.  They  that  are  naturally  born  in  such  air,  may 
not  ^endure  it,  as  Niger  records  of  some  part  of  Mesopotamia,  now  called  Diarbecha 
Quilmsdam  in  locis  scc.rienti  cestui  adeo  suhjecta  es/,  ut.  pleraque  animalia  fcrvore  solis 
et  cceli  extinguantur,  'tis  so  hot  there  in  some  places,  that  men  of  the  country  and 
cattle  are  killed  with  it ;  and  ^Adricomius  of  Arabia  Felix,  by  reason  of  myrrh,  frank- 
incense, and  hot  spices  there  growing,  the  air  is  so  obnoxious  to  their  brains,  tliat 
the  very  inhabitants  at  some  times  cannot  abide  it,  much  less  weaklings  and  strangers. 
■•Amatus  Lusitauus,  cent.  1.  curat.  45,  reports  of  a  young  maid,  that  was  one  Vincent 
a  currier's  daughter,  some  thirteen  years  of  age,  that  would  wash  her  hair  in  the  heat 
of  the  day  (in  July)  aud  so  let  it  dry  in  the  sun,  ^"to  make  it  yellow,  but  by  that 
means  tarrying  too  long  in  the  heat,  she  inflamed  her  head,  and  made  herself  mad." 
Cold  air  in  the  other  extreme  is  almost  as  bad  as  hot,  and  so  doth  Monlaltus  esteem 
of  it,  c.  1 1,  if  it  be  dry  withal.  In  those  northern  countries,  the  people  are  therefore 
generally  dull,  heavy,  and  many  witches,  which  (as  I  have  before  quoted)  Saxo  Gram- 
maticus,  Olaus,  Baptista  Porta  ascribe  to  melancholy.  But  these  cold  climes  are 
more  subject  to  natural  melancholy  (not  this  artificial)  which  is  cold  and  dry  :  for 
which  cause  ^Mercurius  Britannicus  belike  puts  melancholy  men  to  inhabit  just  un- 
der the  Pole.  The  worst  of  the  three  is  a  'thick,  cloudy,  misty,  hg^y  air,  or  such 
as  come  from  iens,  moorish  grounds,  lakes,  muckhills,  draughts,  sinks,  where  any 
carcasses,  or  carrion  lies,  or  from  whence  any  stinking  fulsome  smell  comes  :  Galen, 
Avicenna,  Mercurialis,  new  and  old  physicians,  hold  that  such  air  is  unwholesome, 
and  engenders  melancholy,  plagues,  and  what  not  ?  ^\lexandretta,  an  haven-town  in 
the  Mediterranean  Sea,  Saint  John  de  Ulloa,  an  haven  in  Nova-Hispauia,  are  much 
condemned  for  a  bad  air,  so  are  Durazzo  in  Albania,  Lithuania,  Ditmarsh,  Pomptinae 
Paludes  in  Italy,  the  territories  about  Pisa,  Ferrara,  &c.  Komney  Marsh  with  us ;  the. 
Hundreds  in  Essex,  the  fens  in  Lincolnshire.  Cardan,  (Ze  rerwn  varietate.,  I.  17,  c.  96, 
finds  fault  with  the  sight  of  those  rich,  and  most  populous  cities  in  the  Low  Coun 


"Apulia  sEstivo  calnre   maximd  fervet,  ita  ul  ante 
finem  Mali  pene  exiisla  sit.  i>'"Tliey  perish  in' 

clouds  of  sand."     Mafjiiiiis  I'ers.  n»  Pantheo  sen 

Piact.  med.  I.  1.  tap.  16.  Venetjc  mulieres  quis  diu 
8ub  sole  vivunt,  aliquando  u)el:incho!lr!e  evadunt. 
""Navig.  lib.  2  cap.  4.  commercia  nocte,  liorasecuiida 
'>b  nimios,  qui  .sa-viunt  intRrdiu  n?stU9  exerceiit. 
^Jo  Morbo  Gallico  laboraiites,  exponunt  ad  solem  ut 
vnrbus  exsiccent.  >  Sir  Richard  Hawkins  in  hi* 


Observations,  sect.  13.  ^  Hippocrates,  3.  Aphoris- 

uiorum   idem   ait.  3  Idem    Maniniis   in    Persia 

^  Descrip.  Ter.  sanctae.  s^tiuuui  ad  solis  radioK 

in  leoiie  loiipam  inoram  tralieret,  ul  capillos  slavoi 
redderet,   in  inaiiiani  incidit.  6  (lundus  alter  el 

idem,   sen   Terra  Australis  inc^^nits  '  Crassm 

ettuipidus  aer,  tristem  elficit  animam.  'Cow- 

tnon'.y  called  Scandaroon  in  Asia  Miaor. 


Mem.  2  Subs,  6.]  Bad  Air,  a  Cause.  HI 

tries,  as  Bruges,  Ghent,  Amstertlam,  Leyden,  Utrecht,  &c.  the  air  is  bad ;  anu  so  at 
Stockliohn  in  Sweden;  Kegiuni  iu  lialy,  Salisbury  with  us,  Hull  and  Lynn:  they 
may  be  commodious  for  navigation,  this  new  kind  of  fortification,  and  many  other 
good  necessary  uses ;  but  are  they  so  wliolesome  ?  Old  Rome  hath  descended  from 
the  hills  to  the  valley,  'tis  the  site  of  most  of  our  new  cities,  and  held  best  to  build 
in  plains,  to  take  the  opportunity  of  rivers.  Leander  Albertus  pleads  hard  for  the  air 
and  site  of  Venice,  though  the  black  moorish  lands  appear  at  every  low  water :  the 
sea,  fire,  and  smoke  (as  he  thinks)  qualify  the  air;  and  ''some  suppose,  that  a  thick 
foggy  air  helps  the  memory,  as  in  them  of  Pisa  in  Italy ;  and  our  Camden,  out  of 
Plato,  commends  the  site  of  Cambridge,  because  it  is  so  near  the  fens.  But  let  the 
site  of  such  places  be  as  it  may,  how  can  tiiey  be  excused  that  have  a  delicious  seat, 
a  pleasant  air,  and  all  that  nature  can  afford,  and  yet  through  their  own  nastiness, 
and  sluttishness,  immund  and  sordid  manner  of  life,  suffer  tlieir  air  to  putrefy,  and 
themselves  to  be  chocked  up .'  Many  cities  in  Turkey  do  male  aiulire  in  this  kind . 
Constantinople  itself,  where  commonly  carrion  lies  in  the  street.  Some  find  the  same 
fault  in  Spain,  even  in  Madrid,  tiie  king's  seat,  a  most  excellent  air,  a  pleasant  site; 
but  the  inhabitants  are  slovens,  and  the  streets  uncleanly  kept. 

A  troublesome  tem])cstuuus  air  is  a?  bad  as  impure,  rough  and  foul  weather,  im- 
petuous winds,  cloudy  dark  uays,  as  it  is  commonly  with  us,  Ccelutu  visu  /(jcdum, 
'"Polydore  calls  it  a  filthy  sky,  et  in  quo  facile  generanlur  nubes  ;  as  TuUy's  brother 
Quintus  wrote  to  him  in  Rome,  being  then  Quaestor  in  Britain.  "•  In  a  thick  and 
cloudy  air  (saith  Lemnius)  men  are  tetric,  sad,  and  peevish  :  And  if  the  western 
winds  blow,  and  thai  there  be  a  calm,  or  a  fair  sunshine  day,  there  is  a  kind  of 
alacrity  in  men's  minds  ;  it  cheers  up  men  and  beasts  :  but  if  it  be  a  turbulent,  rough, 
cloudy,  stormy  weather,  men  are  sad,  lumpish,  and  much  dejected,  angry,  waspish, 
dull,  and  melancholy."     This  was  "Virgil's  experiment  of  old, 

Verum  iibi  lempestas,  et  coeli  tnobilis  hiiinor  I  "But  wlien  the  face  of  Heaven  changed  U 

Mulavere  vices,  et  Ju|)iler  hiiniidiis  Austro,  |  To  tempests,  rain,  from  season  fair  . 

Vertuntiir  species  anirnoruni,  el  pectore  motus  |  Our  minds  are  altered,  and  in  our  hreasis 

Coticipiunt  alios" |  Forthwitli  some  new  conceits  appear." 

And  who  is  not  weather-wise  against  such  and 'such  conjunctions  of  planets,  moved 
ni  fonl  weather,  dull  and  heavy  in  such  tempestuous  seasons  .''  ^^Gelidum  contristal 
Jlquarius  annum  :  the  time  requires,  and  the  autumn  breeds  it;  winter  is  like  unto 
it,  ugly,  foul,  squalid,  the  air  works  on  all  men,  more  or  less,  but  especially  on  such 
as  are  melancholy,  or  inclined  to  it,  as  Lemnius  holds,  '^"-They  are  most  moved 
with  it,  and  those  which  are  already  mail,  rave  downright,  either  in,  or  against  a 
tempest.  Besides,  the  devil  many  times  takes  his  opportunity  of  such  storms,  and 
when  the  humours  by  the  air  be  stirred;  he  goes  in  with  them,  exagitates  our  spirits, 
and  vexeth  our  souls;  as  the  sea  waves,  so  are  the  spirits  and  humours  in  our  bodies 
tossed  with  tempestuous  winds  and  storms."  To  such  as  are  melancholy  therefore, 
Montanus,  consil.  24,  will  have  tempestuous  and  rough  air  to  be  avoided,  and  consil. 
27,  all  niglit  air,  and  would  not  have  them  to  walk  abroad,  but  in  a  pleasant  day. 
Lemnius,  l.  3.  c.  3,  discommends  the  south  and  eastern  winds,  commends  the  north. 
Montanus,  consil.  31.  '''"Will  not  any  windows  to  be  opened  in  the  night."  Consil. 
229.  et  consil.  230,  he  discommends  especially  the  south  wind,  and  nocturnal  air : 
So  doth  '^Plutarch.  The  night  and  darkness  makes  men  sad,  the  like  do  all  sub- 
terranean vaults,  dark  houses  in  caves  and  rocks,  desert  places  cause  melancholy  iu 
an  instant,  especially  such  as  have  not  been  used  to  it,  or  otherwise  accustomed. 
Read  more  of  air  in  Hippocrates,  yE//?/s,  I.  3.  a  c.  171.  ad  175.  Oribasius,  del. 
ad  21.     Avicen,  /.  1.  can.  Fen.  2.  doc.  2.  Fen.  1.  C.-123  to  the  12,  &c. 

SuBSECT.  VI. — Immoderate  Exercise  a  cause.,  andhoio.     Solitariness,  Idleness. 

'Nothing  so  good  but  it  may  be  abused  :  nothing  better  than  exercise  (if  oppor- 
tunely used)  for  the  preservation  of  the  body :  nothing  so  bad  if  it  be  unseasonable, 

'  Atlas  gpo<;raphicus  memoria,  valent  Pisani,  quod  I  afire  cito  offenduiitur,  et  niulti  insani  apud  Belgas  ante 
crassiore  fruanturaere.  '"Lib.  1  hist.  lib.  2.  cap.  41.  tempestales  sa-viunt,  aliter  quieti.  Spiritus  quoqiie 
Aura  deiisa  ac  caligiiiosa  .etrici  homines  exislunt,  et  ;  afris  et  niali  penii  aliqiiando  se  tempestatibus  inge- 
subsiristes,  et  cap.  3.  stante  siibsolano  et  Zepliyro,  j  runt,  et  meiiti  liuniana'  se  bitenter  insinuant,  eainqiie 


maxima  in  mentibus  honiinum  alarritas  existit,  men 
Itsqiie  erectio  uhi  teUim  solis  splendore  nitescit.  Ma- 
xima dejectio  microrqiie  si  quando  aura  caliginosa  est. 
"Gcor.  "Hor.  >''Mens  quibus  vacillai,  ab 


vexaiit,  exagitant,  et  ul  ductus  marini,  humanuni  cor- 
pus ventis  agitatur.  '•'  Aer  iioctu  densalur,  et  cogil 
mcestitiam.            ''Lib.  de  Iside  et  Osyride. 


152  Causes  of  Melancholy.  Part.  1.  Sec.  2 

violent,  ov  overmuch.  Fernelius  out  of  Galen,  Pa//t.  lib.  I.e.  16,  saith,  '^''Tliai 
much  exercise  and  weariness  consumes  the  spirits  and  substance,  refrigerates  the 
body;  and  such  humours  which  Nature  wouUI  have  otherwise  concocted  and  ex- 
pelled, it  stirs  up  and  makes  them  rage  :  whicli  being  so  enraged,  diversely  affect  and 
trouble  the  body  and  mind."  So  doth  it,  if  it  be  unseasonably  used,  upon  a  full 
stomach,  or  when  tlie  body  is  full  of  crutiities,  which  Fuchsius  so  mucii  inveighs 
against,  lib.  2.  ijislil.  sec.  2.  c.  4,  giving  that  for  a  cause,  why  school-boys  in  Ger- 
many are  so  often  scabbed,  because  they  use  exercise  presently  after  meats.  "  Bayerus 
puts  in  a  caveat  against  such  exercise,  because  "  it  '*  corrupts  the  meat  in  the  stomach, 
and  carries  the  same  juice  raw,  and  as  yet  undigested,  into  the  veins  (saith  Lemnius), 
which  there  putrefies  and  confounds  the  animal  spirits."  Crato,  consil.  21.  I.  2, 
'"  protests  against  all  such  exercise  after  meal,  as  being  the  greatest  enemy  to  con- 
coction that  may  be,  and  cause  of  corruption  of  humours,  which  produce  this,  and 
many  other  diseases.  Not  without  good  reason  then  doth  Salust.  Salvianus,  /.  2.  c.  1, 
and  Leonartus  Jacchinus,  in  9.  Rhasis.,  Mercurialis,  Arcubanus,  and  many  other,  set 
down  '^"immoderate  exercise  as  a  most  forcible  cause  of  melancholy. 

t ^Opposite  to  exercise  is  idleness  (the  badge  of  gentry)  or  watit  of  exercise,  the 
ane  of  body  and  mind,  the  nurse  of  naughtiness,  stepmother  of  discipline,  the  chief 
author  of  all  mischief,  one  of  the  seven  deadly  sins,  and  a  sole  cause  of  this  and 
many  other  maladies,  the  devil's  cushion^  as  ^'Gualter  calls  it,  his  pillow  and  chief 
reposal.  ''  For  the  mind  can  never  rest,  but  still  meditates  on  one  thing  or  other, 
except  it  be  occupied  about  some  honest  business,  of  his  own  accord  it  rusheUi  into 
melancholy.  ^^As  too  much  and  violent  exercise  offends  on  the  one  side,  so  doth  an 
idle  life  on  the  other  (saith  Crato),  it  fills  the  body  full  of  phlegm,  gross  humours, 
and  all  manner  of  obstructions,  rheums,  catarrhs,"  8t.c.  Rhasis,  cont.  lib.  1.  tract.  9, 
accounts  of  it  as  the  greatest  cause  of  melancholy.  '■^^"I  have  often  seen  (saith  he) 
that  idleness  begets  tliis  humour  more  than  anything  else."  Montaltus,  c.  1,  seconds 
him  out  of  his  experience,  ^'^  '•'  They  that  are  idle  are  far  more  subject  to  melancholy 
tlian  such  as  are  conversant  or  employed  about  any  oflice  or  business."  ^^ Plutarch 
reckons  up  idleness  for  a  sole  cause"  of  the  sickness  of  the  soul :  "•  There  are  they 
(saith  he)  troubled  in  mind,  that  have  no  other  cause  but  this."  Homer,  Iliad.  1, 
brings  in  Achilles  eating  of  his  own  heart  in  his  idleness,  because  he  might  not  fight. 
Mercurialis,  consil.  86,  for  a  melancholy  young  man  urgeth,  ^'^it  as  a  cliief  cause  ;  why 
was  he  melancholy .?  because  idle.  Nothing  begets  it  sooner,  increaseth  and  conti- 
rmeth  it  oftener  than  idleness.'^'  A  disease  familiar  to  all  idle  persons,  an  inseparable 
companion  to  such  as  live  at  ease,  Pingui  otio  desidiose  agcntes.,  a  life  out  of  action, 
and  have  no  calling  or  ordinary  employment  to  busy  themselves  about,  that  have  small 
occasions  ;  and  though  they  have,  such  is  their  laziness,  dulness,  they  will  not  compose 
themselves  to  do  aught;  they  cannot  abide  work,  though  it  be  necessary;  easy  as  to 
dress  themselves,  write  a  letter,  or  the  like;  yet  as  he  that  is  benumbed  with  cold 
sits  still  shaking,  that  might  relieve  himself  with  a  little  exercise  or  stirring,  do  they 
complain,  but  will  not  use  the  facile  and  ready  means  to  do  themselves  good  ;  and 
so  are  still  tormented  with  melancholy.  Especially  if  they  have  been  formerly 
brought  up  to  business,  or  to  keep  much  company,  and  upon  a  sudden  come  to  lead 
a  sedentary  life  ;  it  crucifies  their  souls,  and  seizeth  on  them  in  an  instant ;  for  whilst 
they  are  any  ways  employed,  in  action,  discourse,  about  any  business,  sport  or  re- 
creation, or  in  company  to  their  liking,  they  are  very  well ;  but  if  alone  ^r  idle, 
tormented  instantly  again ;  one  day's  solitariness,  one  hour's  sometimes,  doth  them 

'^Multa  defalieatio,  spiritus,  virininque  substantiam  I  poris  exercitatio  iiocet  cnrporihiis,  ita  vita  deses,  e' 
pxhiuirit,  Ht  corpus  refii^erat.   Hiiiiiores  corriiptos  qui  !  otiosa  :    otiUMi,   aiiiuial    pituitosum    reddit,   visceium 
aliii'i  d.  ii.ilura  loncDqui  et  douiari  poss-int,  et  demuin  '  obstrncliones  et  crebras  fluxiones.  et  morhos  concital 
lilaiidg  exi  ludi,  iriilat,  et  (piasi    in   furorem  asjit,  qui  !  •»  Et  vide  quod  una  do  rebus  quae  inagis  general  nie 
poslea  iiiota  camcrina,  tetro  vapore  corpus  vari6  la-  ,  lancholiam,  est  otiosilas.  -'-i  Reponitur  olium  at 

cessuiit,  animurii((ue.  "  hi  VenI  iiiecuin  :  I-ibro  sic  j  aliis  causa,  et  hoc  h  nobis  observaluin  eos  liuic  male 
u.3cri|)to.  '"Inslit.  ad  vit.  Christ,  cap.  44.  cibos     maeis  obnoxjos  qui   plane  otiosi   sunt,  quam  eos  qu' 

crudos  111   vena.^  rapit,  qui  pntrescenles  illic  spiritus  I  aliquo  munere  versanlur  exequendo.  ^^'DeTran- 

ttninialis  inticiunt.  ■•'  Crudi  liicc  hiinioris  copia  per  !  quil.  anima;.     Sunt  qua  ipsum  otium  in  animi  conjici\ 

»enas  aggredilur,  iinde  morbi  innlliplices.  'Olni-  i  ffigritiidinein.  ■'■•Nihil  est  quod  seqiie  nielancholi- 

modicuiTi  exerclliuni.  -' Hoin.    31.    in   1    Cor.    vi.     am  alat  ac  auseat,  ac  otiuni  el  abstinenlia  4  corporii 

Nam  qua  mens  honiiiiis  qiiiscere  nnn  possil,  sed  con-     et  animi  exercitalionihus.  -  Nihil  magis  exctecal 

linuo  circa  varias  cogitutiones  discurrat,  nisi  honesto     intelleclum.  quam  olium.   Gordonius  de  observat.  Vll 
aliqiin    iiegotio   occnpelur.   nd    melancholiani    spoiile     hum.  lib.  1. 
d«labilur.  '-^Crato.  consil.  21.     Ul  iinmodica  cot.  I 


Mtm.  2,  Subs.  6.]  Idleness  a  Cause.  153 

more  harm,  than  a  week's  physu.  labour,  and  company  can  do  good.  Melar.choly 
scizeih  on  them  forthwith  being  ah^ne,  and  is  such  a  torture,  that  as  wise  Seneca 
well  saith,  Malo  mild  male  quam  moH'iler  esse,  I  had  rather  be  sick  tlian  idle.  This 
idleness  is  either  of  body  or  mind.  That  of  body  is  nothing  but  a  kind  of  benumb- 
ing laziness,  mtermitting  exercise,  whicli,  if  we  may  believe  '^^  Fernelius,  "  causeth 
cradities,  obstructions,  excremental  humours,  quencheth  the  natural  heat,  dulls  the 
•■■pirits,  and  makes  them  unapt  to  do  any  thing  whatsoever." 

.,„,..,     ,     ..  ,     „,.     .  ..  .    ,,  I       "  for,  a  neglected  field 

-i"'  Neglectis  urenda  fil.x  innascitur  agris."  j      g,,^,,  f,„  j^g  g^^'^g  ^t,,^^,,,  ^„j  j^j^^jg^  ^(^1^  „ 

As  fern  grows  in  untilled  grounds,  and  all  manner  of  weeds,  so  do  gross  humours  in 
an  idle  body,  Ignavum  corriimpunt  otia  corpus.  A  horse  in  a  stable  that  never  tra- 
vels, a  hawk  in  a  mew  that  seldom  flies,  are  both  subject  to  diseases  ;  which  left  unto 
tliemselves,  are  most  free  from  any  such  incumbrances.  An  idle  dog  will  be  mangy, 
and  how  shall  an  idle  person  think  to  escape  ?  Idleness  of  the  mind  is  much  worse 
than  this  of  the  body ;  wit  without  employment  is  a  disease  ''^JErugo  animi,  rubigo 
ingenii:  the  rust  of  the  soul,  '"a  plague,  a  liell  itself.  Maximum  animi  nocumcntum, 
Galen  calls  it.  ^^"  As  in  a  standing  pool,  worms  and  filthy  creepers  increase,  [el  vi- 
tium  capivnl  ni  movecmtiir  aqvcB,  the  water  itself  putrefies,  and  air  likewise,  if  it  be  not 
continually  stirred  by  the  wind)  so  do  evil  and  corrupt  thoughts  in  an  idle  person," 
the  soul  is  contaminated.  In  a  connnonwealth,  where  is  no  public  enemy,  there  is 
likely  civil  wars,  and  they  rage  upon  themselves:  this  body  of  ours,  when  it  is  idle, 
and  knows  not  how  to  bestow  itself,  macerates  and  vexeth  itself  with  cares,  griefs, 
false  fears,  discontents,  and  suspicions ;  it  tortures  and  preys  upon  his  own  bowels, 
and  is  never  at  rest.  Thus  much  I  dare  boldly  say,  '•'  He  or  she  that  is  idle,  be  they 
of  what  condition  they  will,  never  so  rich,  so  well  allied,  fortunate,  happv,  let  them 
have  all  things  in  abundance  and  felicity  that  heart  can  wish  and  desire,  all  content- 
ment, so  long  as  he  or  she  or  they  are  idle,  they  shall  never  be  pleased,  never  well 
in  body  and  mind,  but  weary  still,  sickly  still,  vexed  still,  loathing  still,  weeping,  sigh- 
ing, grieving,  suspecting,  offended  with  the  world,  with  every  object,  wishing  them- 
selves gone  or  dead,  or  else  carried  away  with  some  foolish  phantasy  or  other.  And 
this  is  the  true  cause  that  so  many  great  men,  ladies,  and  gentlewomen,  labour  of 
this  disease  in  country  and  city;  for  idleness  is  an  appendix  to  nobility;  they  count 
it  a  disgrace  to  work,  and  spend  all  their  days  in  sports,  recreations,  and  pastimes, 
and  will  therefore  take  no  pains ;  be  of  no  vocation  :  they  feed  liberally,  fare  well, 
want  exercise,  action,  employment,  (for  to  work,  I  say,  they  may  not  abide,)  and 
company  to  their  desires,  and  thence  their  bodies  become  full  of  gross  humours, 
wind,  crudities;  their  minds  disquieted,  dull,  heavy,  &.c.  care,  jealonsy,  fear  of  some 
diseases,  sullen  fits,  weeping  fits  seize  too  ^^  familiarly  on  them.  For  what  will  not  feai 
and  phantasy  work  in  an  idle  body  ?  what  distempers  will  they  not  cause  ?  when  the 
children  of  ^^  Israel  murmured  against  Pharoah  in  Egypt,  he  commanded  his  officers 
to  double  their  task,  and  let  them  get  straw  themselves,  and  yet  make  their  full  num- 
ber of  bricks ;  for  the  sole  cause  why  they  mutiny,  and  are  evil  at  ease,  is,  "  they 
are  idle."  When  you  shall  hear  and  see  so  many  discontented  persons  in  all  places 
where  you  come,  so  many  several  grievances,  unnecessary  complaints,  fears,  suspi- 
cions, ''"  the  best  means  to  redress  it  is  to  set  them  awork,  so  to  busy  their  minds  ;  for 
for  the  truth  is,  they  are  idle.  Well  diey  may  build  castles  in  the  air  for  a  time,  and 
soodi  up  themselves  with  phantastical  and  pleasant  humours,  but  in  the  end  they  will 
prove  as  bitter  as  gall,  they  shall  be  still  I  say  discontent,  suspicious,  ^^  fearful,  jealous, 
sad,  fretting  and  vexing  of  themselves;  so  long  as  they  be  idle,  it  is  impossible  to  please 
them.  Olio  qui  nescil  uti,  phis  habel  negotii  quam  qui  negolium  in  ncgotio,  as  that 
''Agellius  could  observe:  He  that  knows  not  how  to  spend  his  time,  hath  more  busi- 
ness, care,  grief,  anguish  of  mind,  than  he  that  is  most  busy  in  the  midst  of  all  his 
business      Oliosus  animus  nescit  quid  volet:  An  idle  person  (as  he  follows  it)  knows 

''^Patli.  lib.   1,  cap.  17.   exercitationis   intermissio,  |  Sen.  sspjow  this  leg,  now  that  arm,  now  theU 

inertem  calorerii,  languidos  spiritus,  et  ignavos,  et  ad  ,  head,  heart,  &t,.  ^j  gxod.  v.  ^- (For  they  canno' 
omiies  actinnes  sejiiiinres  reddil,  rriiditates,  obsructio-  <  well  tell  what  aileth  them,  or  what  they  would  have 
lies,  et  excrenientoriiin   proventus  facit.  ^^  Hor.  |  themselves)  my  heart,  my  head,  my  husband,  my  son, 

Ser.  1.  Sat.  3.  sogeneca.  3' Moerorem  animi,  I  &.C.        ^e  prov.  xviii.     IMgriim  dejiciet  timor.     Heau< 

et  maciem,  Plutarch  calls  it.  '-  Sicut  in  stagno  {  tonlimorumenon.  s?  Ljb.  19.  c.  10. 

generaiitur  verme  ^,  sic  et  otioso  lualx   cogitationes  | 

20  ; 


154  Causes  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec. '4 

not  vviien  ht  is  well,  what  he  would  have,  or  whither  he  would  go,  Quum  illut 
ventum  cst^  illinc  lubct^  he  is  tired  out  with  everytliing,  displeased  with  all,  weary  of 
his  life  -.  JYcc  bene  domi^  nee  milUice,  neither  at  home  nor  abroad,  errat,  et  prceter  vi- 
tain  vittilur,  he  wanders  and  lives  besides  himself.  In  a  word.  What  the  mischievous 
effects  of  laziness  and  idleness  are,  1  do  not  find  any  where  more  accurately  expres- 
sed, than  in  these  verses  of  Pliilolaches  in  the  ^"Comical  I  oet,  which  for  their 
elegancy  I  will  in  part  insert. 


'Nn^ariim  ieciium  esse  arbitror  similem  ego  hominem, 
Qiiaiiilo  hie  iiiitiis  est  :  Ei  rei  arjiumenia  dicam. 
iKdos  ijiiaiulo  sum  ad  anuissiiii  ex|)iililx>, 
Qiiisqiie  liiiidat  fahniiii,  atque  exeinpliim  expetit,  &c. 
At  ul)i  illC)  ii)i?;rat  iiequatii  homo  iiidiligensque,  &c. 
'I'l/iniH'stas  venit,  conlringit  tegulas,  iinbricesqiie, 
I'ulrit'arit  aer  operam  fabri,  &.c. 
Dicaiii  lit  homines  similes  esse  ajdiuni  arbitremini, 


Fabri  parentes  fuiidanieiitum  substriiunt  liberorum, 
Expoliiitit,  doceiil  literas,  nee  parcuiit  siimptui, 
1'j!.'o  aiitem  sub  fabroruin  potestate  frugi  fui, 
Postqiiani  autem  inigravi  in  inf,'enium  meum, 
Perdidi  operani  fabroruin  illicC)  oppidi), 
Venil  ignavia,  ea  niihi  tempestas  fiiit, 
Adventuqne  siio  grandineni  et  imbrem  attulit, 
Ilia  mihi  virtnteni  deturbavit,  &c. 


^•>A  young  man  is  like  a  fair  new  house,  the  carpenter  leaves  it  well  built,  in  good 
repair,  of  solid  stuff;  but  a  bad  tenant  lets  it  rain  in,  and  for  want  of  reparation,  fall 
to  decay,  &c.  Our  parents,  tutors,  friends,  spare  no  cost  to  bring  us  up  in  our  youth, 
in  all  manner  of  virtuous  education  ;  but  when  we  are  left  to  ourselves,  idleness  as  a 
tempest  drives  all  virtuous  motions  out  of  our  minds,  et  nihili  sumus.,  on  a  sudden, 
by  sloth  and  such  bad  ways,  we  come  to  nought." 

Cousin  german  to  idleness,  and  a  concomitant  cause,  which  goes  hand  in  hand 
with  it,  is  '^'^nimia  soUludo,  too  much  solitariness,  by  the  testimony  of  all  physicians, 
cause  and  symptom  botli ;  but  as  it  is  here  put  for  a  cause,  it  is  either  coact,  en- 
forced, or  else  voluntary.  Enforced  solitariness  is  commonly  seen  in  students, 
monks,  friars,  anchorites,  that  by  their  order  and  course  of  life  must  abandon  all 
company,  society  of  other  men,  and  betake  themselves  to  a  private  cell :  Otio  super- 
sLilioso  seclusi,  as  Bale  and  Hospinian  well  term  it,  such  as  are  the  Carthusians  of 
our  time,  that  eat  no  flesh  (by  their  order),  keep  perpetual  silence,  never  go  abroad. 
Such  as  live  in  prison,  or  some  desert  place,  ?.iid  cannot  have  company,  as  many  of 
our  country  gentlemen  do  in  solitary  houses,  they  must  eitlier  be  alone  without 
companions,  or  live  beyond  tlieir  means,  and  entertain  all  comers  as  so  many  hosts, 
or  else  converse  with  their  servants  and  hinds,  such  as  are  unequal,  inferior  to  them, 
and  of  a  contrary  disposition  :  or  else  as  some  do,  to  avoid  solitariness,  spend  their 
time  with  lewd  fellows  in  taverns,  and  in  alehouses,  and  thence  addict  themselves  to 
some  unlawful  disports,  or  dissolute  courses.  Divers  again  are  cast  upon  this  rock 
of  solitariness  lor  want  of  means,  or  out  of  a  strong  apprehension  of  some  infirmity, 
disgrace,  or  through  bashfulness,  rudeness,  simplicity,  they  cannot  apply  themselves 
to  others'  company.  JYullum  solum  infellci  gratius  soUtudlne^  uhl  millns  sit  qui 
miseriam  exprobret ;  this  enforced  solitariness  takes  place,  and  produceth  his  effect 
soonest  in  such  as  have  spent  their  time  jovially,  peradventure  in  all  honest  recrea- 
tions, in  good  company,  in  some  great  family  or  populous  city,  and  are  upon  a  sud- 
den confined  to  a  desert  country  cottage  far  off,  restrained  of  their  liberty,  and  barred 
from  their  ordinary  associates ;  solitariness  is  very  irksome  to  such,  most  tedious, 
and  a  sudden  cause  of  great  inconvenience. 

Voluntary  solitariness  is  that  which  is  familiar  with  melancholy,  and  gently  brings 
on  like  a  syren,  a  shoeiiig-horn,  or  some  sphynx  to  this  irrevocable  gulf, ''"a  primary 
cause,  Piso  calls  it;  most  pleasant  it  is  at  first,  to  such  as  are  melancholy  given,  to 
lie  in  bed  whole  days,  and  keep  their  chambers,  to  walk  alone  in  some  solitary  grove, 
betwixt  wood  and  water,  by  a  brook  side,  to  meditate  upon  some  delightsome  and 
pleasant  subject,  which  shall  affect  them  most;  a7nabiUs  insania,  el  mentis  gratissi- 
mus  error:  a  most  incomparable  delight  it  is  so  to  melancholize,  and  build  castles  in 
the  air,  to  go  smiling  to  themselves,  acting  an  i  jfinite  variety  of  parts,  which  they  sup- 
pose and  strongly  imagine  they  represent,  or  that  they  see  acted  or  done :  Blandcs 
quidem  ah  initio.,  saith  Lemnius,  to  conceive  and  meditate  of  such  pleasant  things, 
sometimes,  ■""  present,  past,  or  to  come,"  as  Rhasis  speaks.  So  delightsome  these 
toys  are  at  first,  they  could  spend  whole  days  and  nights  without  sleep,  even  'vhole 
years  alone  in  such  contemplations,  and  fantastical  meditations,  which  are  like  un  lo 
dreams,  and  they  will  hardly  be  drav.'n  from  them,  or  willingly  interrupt,  so  pleasant 

'"Plantus,  Prol.  Mostel.  3^  Piso,  Montaltus,  Mer- j  causa,  occasionem  nactiim  est.  «  Jucunda  reruin 
eurialis,  &c.  ^  Aquibus  malum,  veliit  A  primaria  |  prsRsentiuni,  pra:terilarum,  et  futurarum  nieditatio. 


Mem.  2.  Subs.  6.]  Idleness,  a  Came.  !55 

tneir  vain  conceits  are,  that  they  hinder  their  ordinary  tasks  and  necessary  ousniess, 
iney  cannot  address  themselves  to  them,  or  almost  to  any  study  or  employment, 
these  fantastical  and  bewitching  thoughts  so  covertly,  so  feelingly,  so  urgently,  so 
continually  set  upon,  creep  in,  insinuate,  possess,  overcome,  distract,  and  detain  tliem, 
they  cannot,  I  say,  go  about  their  more  necessary  business,  stave  off  or  extricate 
themselves,  but  are  ever  musing,  melancholizing,  and  carried  along,  as  he  (they  say 
that  is  led  round  about  a  heath  with  a  Puck  in  the  night,  they  run  earnestly  on  in 
this  labyrinth  of  anxious  and  solicitous  melancholy  meditations,  and  cannot  well  or 
willingly  refrain,  or  easily  leave  off,  winding  and  unwinding  themselves,  as  so  n^any 
clocks,  and  still  pleasing  their  humours,  until  at  last  the  scene  is  turned  upon  a  sud- 
den, by  some  bad  object,  and  they  being  now  habituated  to  such  vain  meditations 
and  solitary  places,  can  endure  no  company,  can  ruminate  of  nothing  but  harsh  and 
distasteful  subjects.  Fear,  sorrow,  suspicion,  subruslicus  piidor,  discontent,  cares, 
and  weariness  of  life  surprise  them  in  a  moment,  and  they  can  think  of  nothing  else, 
continually  suspecting,  no  sooner  are  their  eyes  open,  but  this  infernal  plao-ue  oi 
melancholy  seizelh  on  them,  and  terrifies  their  souls,  representing  some  dismal  ob- 
ject to  their  minds,  whicli  now  by  no  means,  no  labour,  no  persuasions  they  can 
avoid,  hceref  latcri  Icthalis  aric§do,  (the  arrow  of  death  still  remains  in  the  side),  they 
may  not  be  rid  of  it,  ''^they  cannot  resist.  I  may  not  deny  but  that  there  is  some 
profitable  meditation,  contemplation,  and  kind  of  solitariness  to  be  embraced,  which 
the  fathers  so  highly  commended,  ''^Ilierom,  Chrysostom,  Cyprian,  Austin,  in 
whole  tracts,  which  Petrarch,  Erasmus,  Stella,  and  others,  so  much  magnify  in  their 
books ;  a  paradise,  a  heaven  on  earth,  if  it  be  used  aright,  good  for  the  body,  and 
better  for  the  soul :  as  many  of  those  old  monks  used  it,  to  divine  contemplations, 
as  Simulus,  a  courtier  in  Adrian's  time,  Dioclesian  the  emperor,  retired  themselves, 
&.C.,  in  that  sense,  Vatia  solus  scit  vivere,  Vatia  lives  alone,  which  the  Romans  were 
wont  to  say,  when  they  commended  a  country  life.  Or  to  the  bettering  of  their 
knowledge,  as  Demccritus,  Cleanthes,  and  those  excellent  philosophers  have  ever 
done,  to  sequester  themselves  from  the  tumultuous  world,  or  as  in  Pliny's  villa  Lau- 
rentana,  Tully's  Tusculan,  Jovius'  study,  that  they  might  better  vacare  studiiset  Deo, 
serve  God,  and  follow  their  studies.  Methinks,  therefore,  our  too  zealous  innovators 
were  not  so  well  advised  in  that  general  subversion  of  abbeys  and  religious  houses, 
promiscuously  to  fling  down  all ;  they  might  have  taken  away  those  gross  abuses 
crept  in  amongst  them,  rectified  such  inconveniences,  and  not  so  far  to  have  raved 
and  raged  against  ttose  fair  buildings,  and  everlasting  monuments  of  our  forefathers' 
devotion,  consecrated  to  pious  uses ;  some  monasteries  and  collegiate  cells  might 
have  been  well  spared,  and  their  revenues  otherwise  employed,  here  and  there  one, 
in  good  towns  or  cities  at  least,  for  men  and  women  of  all  sorts  and  conditions  to 
live  in,  to  sequester  themselves  from  the  cares  and  tumults  of  the  world,  that  were 
not  desirous,  or  fit  to  marry ;  or  otherwise  willing  to  be  troubled  with  common 
aflairs,  and  know  not  well  where  to  bestow  themselves,  to  live  apart  in,  for  more  con- 
veniency,  good  education,  better  company  sake,  to  follow  their  studies  (I  say),  to  the 
perfection  of  arts  and  sciences,  common  good,  and  as  some  truly  devoted  monks  of 
old  had  done,  freely  and  truly  to  serve  God.  For  these  men  are  neither  solitary 
nor  idle,  as  the  poet  made  answer  to  the  husbandman  in  iEsop,  that  objected  idle- 
ness to  him ;  he  was  never  so  idle  as  in  his  company ;  or  that  Scipio  Africanus  in 
"Tuily,  JYunquam  minus  solus,  quam  cum  solus;  nunquam  minus  otiosus,  quam  quum 
essci  otiosus;  never  less  solitary,  than  when  he  was  alone,  never  more  busy,  than 
when  he  seemed  to  be  most  idle.  It  is  reported  by  Plato  in  his  dialogue  de  Amore, 
m  that  prodigious  commendation  of  Socrates,  how  a  deep  meditation  coming  into 
Socrates'  mind  by  chance,  he  stood  still  musing,  eodem  vestigia  cogitahundus,  frons 
morning  to  noon,  and  when  as  then  he  had  not  yet  finished  his  meditation,  perstabai 
cogitans.,  he  so  continued  till  the  evening,  the  soldiers  (for  he  then  followed  th« 
camp)  observed  him  with  admiration,  and  on  set  purpose  watched  all  night,  but  he 
persevered  immoveable  ad  exhoriim  solis,  till  the  sun  rose  in  the  morning,  and  then 

"Facilis  descensus  Averni:  Sed  revocarp  gradum,  I  solum  scorpionibus  infectnm,  sacco  amictiis,  humi 
siiperasque  evadere  ad  auras,  Hie  labor,  hot  opus  est.  |  Cubans,  aqua  et  herbis  viclitans,  Ronianis  pra;iulil 
Virg.  ■•sHieronimus,  ep.  72.  dixit  oppida  et  urbes    deliciis.  *'Offic.  3. 

irlderi   sibi  tetroB   carceres,  soIsMidineni   Paradisum  •    I 


loo  Causes  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec  2 

salufing  the  sun,  Avent  his  ways.  In  what  humuur  constant  Socrates  did  thus,  I 
unow  not,  or  how  he  might  be  affected,  but  tins  would  be  pernicious  to  another 
man;  what  intricate  business  might  so  really  possess  him,  I  cannot  easily  guess;  but 
this  is  oliosum  oliiuh,  it  is  far  otherwise  with  these  men,  j>  .cording  to  Seneca,  Omnia 
nobis  mala  solitiulo  persuade!.;  this  solitude  undoeth  us, piignat  cum  vild  sociali;  'tis 
a  destructive  solitariness.  Tliese  men  are  devils  alone,  as  the  saying  is,  Horn)  solus 
aui  Deus,  aut  DiBinon:  a  man  alone,  is  either  a  saint  or  a  devil,  ?nens  ejus  aut  Ian 
guescit,  aut  tumescit ;  and  '*^V(b  soli  in  this  sense,  woe  be  to  him  that  is  so  alone. 
These  wretches  do  frequently  degenerate  from  men,  and  of  sociable  creatures  be-' 
come  beasts,  monsters,  inhumane,  ugly  to  behold,  Misanthrnpi;  they  do  even  loathe 
themselves,  and  luite  the  company  of  men,  as  so  many  Timons,  Nebuchadnezzars, 
by  too  much  indulging  to  these  pleasii\g  humours,  and  through  their  own  default. 
So  that  which  Mercurialis,  consil.  11,  sometimes  expostulated  with  his  melancholy 
patient,  may  be  justly  applied  to  every  solitary  and  idle  person  in  particular.  '"'JVa- 
tura  de  te  videtur  conqueri  posse,  &c.  "Nature  may  justly  complain  of  thee,  that 
whereas  she  gave  thee  a  good  wholesome  temperature,  a  sound  body,  and  God  hath 
given  thee  so  divine  and  excellent  a  soul,  so  many  good  parts,  and  profitable  gifts, 
thou  hast  not  only  contemned  and  rejected,  but  hast  corrupted  them,  polluted  them, 
overthrown  their  temperature,  and  perverted  those  gifts  with  riot,  idleness,  solitari- 
ness, and  many  other  ways,  thou  art  a  traitor  to  God  and  nature,  an,  enemy  to  thy- 
self and  to  the  world."  Perditio  tiia  ex  te;  thou  hast  lost  thyself  wilfully,  cast 
away  thyself,"  thou  thyself  ait  the  efficient  cause  of  thine  own  misery,  by  not  resist- 
ing such  vain  cogitations,  but  giving  way  unto  them." 


'^i 


SuBSECT.  VII. — Sleeping  and  Waking,  Causes. 


^HAT  I  have  formerly  said  of  exercise,  I  may  now  repeat  of  sleep.  Nothing  better 
than  moderate  sleep,  nothing  worse  than  it,  if  it  be  in  extremes,  or  unseasonably 
used.  It  is  a  received  opinion,  that  a  melancholy  man  cannot  sleep  overmuch; 
Somnus  supra  modum  prodesf,  as  an  only  antidote,  and  nothing  offends  them  more, 
or  causeth  this  malady  sooner,  than  waking,  yet  in  some  cases  sleep  may  do  more 
harm  than  good,  in  that  phlegmatic,  swinish,  cold,  and  sluggish  melancholy  which 
Melancthon  speaks  of,  that  thinks  of  waters,  sighing  most  part,  &,c.  "It  dulls  the 
spirits,  if  overmuch,  and  senses;  fills  the  head  full  of  gross  humours;  causeth  dis- 
tillations, rheums,  great  store  of  excrements  in  the  brain,  and  all  the  other  parts,  as 
*^Fuchsius  speaks  of  them,  that  sleep  like  so  many  dormice.  OF  if  it  be  used  in  the 
day-time,  upon  a  full  stomach,  the  body  ill-composed  to  rest,  or  after  hard  meats,  it 
increaseth  fearful  dreams,  incubus,  night  walking,  crying  out,  and  much  unquietness; 
such  sleep  prepares  the  body,  as  ^^one  observes,  "  to  many  >erilous  diseases."  Pur. 
as  I  have  said,  waking  overmuch,  is  both  a  symptom,  and  an  ordinary  cause.  It 
causeth  dryness  of  the  brain,  frenzy,  dotage,  and  makes  the  body  dry,  lean,  hard, 
and  ugly  to  behold,"  as  ^"Lemnius  hath  it.  "The  temperature  of  the  brain  is  cor- 
rupted by  it,  the  humours  adust,  the  eyes  made  to  sink  into  the  head,  clioler  in- 
creased, and  the  whole  body  inflamed :"  and,  as  may  be  added  out  of  Galen,  3.  de 
sanitate  tiiendo,  Avicenna  3.  1.  ^'"It  overthrows  the  natural  heat,  it  causeth  crudi- 
ties, hurts  concoction,"  and  what  not  ?  Not  without  good  cause  therefore  Crato, 
consil.  21.  lib.2\  Hildesheim,  spicel.  2.  de  delir.  et  JV/an/a,  Jacchinus,  Arculanus  on 
Rhasis,  Guianerius  and  Mercurialis,  reckon  up  this  overmuch  waking  as  a  principal 
cause. 


*■''  Eccl.  4.  ^^Natiira  de  te  videtur  conqueri  posse,  parat  corpus  talis  somnus  ad  multas  perir.ulosas  scgri- 

^uod  cum  ab  ea  teinperatissiiiiiim  corpus  adeptiis  sis,  tudiiies.  ^' Instit.  ad  vitam  optimani,  cap.  26.  tere- 

'.aiii   pra-clariini  4  Deo  ac  utilelioiuiin,  non  contenip-  bro   siccitatem  adferl,  phrenesin  et  delirium,  corpus 

sisli   iiiodo,  verum  corrupisti,  sedasti,  prodidisti.  opti-  aridiim    facit,  sqiialidnm,  slrigosum,  huniores  adurit, 

mam  temperaturam  otio,  crapiila,  el  allis  vita;  errnri-  temperamentuiii  cerebri  corrunifiit,  macieni  inducit* 

bus,   &c.  ■"  Path.  lib.  cap.    17.  Fernel.   corpus  exsiccat  corpus,  bilem  accendit,  profundos  reddit  ocu- 

i'lfri^idat,  omnes  sensus,  meiilisque  vires  torpore  de-  los,  calorem  augit.  ^'  Natiiralem  calorem  dissiptt 

jilitat.  ■"' Lib.  9.  sect.  2.  cap   4.  Magnain  excre-  \atsn.  concoctiotie  cruditates   facit.     Altenuant  ywa 

mentorum   vim   cerebro  et  aliis   partibus  coiiservat.  num  vigilatse  corpora  noctes. 
»Jo.  Rcizius,  lib.  de  rebus  C  iion  naluralibus.    Pise- 


Mom.  3.  Subs.  1.]  Perturbations  of  the  Mind.  IW 

MEMB.  III. 

SvRSECT,  I. — Passions  and  Perturbations  of  the  Mind,  how  they  cause  Melancholy 

As  that  gymnosopnist  in  YPl"tarch  made  answer  to  Alexander  (demanding  which 
spake  best),  Every  one  of  hiVfellows  did  speak  better  than  the  other :  so  may  I  say 
of  these  causes  ;  to  him  that  shall  require  which  is  the  greatest,  every  one  is  more 
previous  than  other,  and  this  of  passion  the  greatest  of  all.  A  most  frequent  and 
ordinary  cause  of  melancholy,  ^fiilmen  pertiirbationum  (Piccolomineus  calls  it)  this 
thunder  and  lightning  of  perturbation,  which  causeth  such  violent  and  speedy  altera- 
tions in  this  our  microcosm,  and  many  times  subverts  the  good  estate  and  tempera- 
ture of  it.  For  as  the  body  works  upon  the  mind  by  his  bad  humours,  troubling 
the  spirits,  sending  gross  fumes  into  the  brain,  and  so  per  consequens  disturbing  the 
soul,  and  all  the  faculties  of  it, 


'  Corpus  onustuiii, 


Heslernis  vitiis  aiiiinuin  quoque  praegravat  una," 

with  fear,  sorrow.  Sec,  which  are  ordinary  symptoms  of  this  disease  :  so  on  the  other 
side,  the  mind  most  effectually  works  upon  the  body,  producing  by  his  passions  and 
perturbations  miraculous  alterations,  as  melancholy,  despair,  cruel  diseases,  and 
sometimes  death  itself  Insomuch  that  it  is  most  true  which  Plato  saith  in  his 
Charmides,  omnia  corporis  mala  ab  anima  procedere  ;  all  the  "^mischiefs  of  the  body 
proceed  from  the  soul :  and  Democritus  in  ^^Plutarch  nrgeth,  Dmnnatam  iri  animam 
a  corpore,  if  the  body  should  in  this  behalf  bring  an  action  against  the  soul,  surely 
the  soul  would  be  cast  and  convicted,  that  by  her  supine  negligence  had  caused  such 
inconveniences,  having  authority  over  the  body,  and  using  it  for  an  instrument,  as  a 
smith  doth  his  hammer  (saith  ^'Cyprian),  imputing  all  tl>ose  vices  and  maladies  to  the 
mind.  Even  so  doth  ^'^Philostratus,  won  coinquinatur  corpus^  nisi  consensuawmcE  ; 
the  body  is  not  corrupted,  but  by  the  soul.  Lodovicus  Vives  will  have  such  turbu- 
lent commotions  proceed  from  ignorance  and  indiscretion.^^  All  philosophers  im- 
ute  the  miseries  of  the  body  to  the  soul,  that  should  have  governed  it  better,  by 
jommand  of  reason,  and  hath  not  done  it.  The  Stoics  ?ire  altogether  of  opinion  (as 
^Lipsius  and  ^'  Piccolomineus  record),  that  a  wise  man  should  be  aTraSjj?,  without  all 
manner  of  passions  and  perturbations  whatsoever,  as  ^^  Seneca  reports  of  Cato,  the 
''''Greeks  of  Socrates,  and  "lo.  Aubanus  of  a  nation  in  Africa,  so  free  from  passion, 
or  ratlier  so  stupid,  that  if  they  be  wounded  with  a  sword,  they  will  only  look  back 
"' Lactantius,  2  inslif.,  will  exclude  "  fear  from  a  wise  man  :"  others  except  all,  somt 
the  greatest  passions.  But  let  them  dispute  how  they  will,  set  down  in  Thesi,  give 
precepts  to  the  contrary;  we  find  that  of  ^^Lemnius  true  by  common  experience 
"  No  mortal  man  is  free  from  these  perturbations  :  or  if  he  be  so,  sure  he  is  either 
god,  or  a  block.  They  are  born  and  bred  with  us,  we  have  them  from  our  parents 
by  inheritance.  Jl  parentibus  habemiis  malum  hiinc  assem^  saith  '''Pelezius,  JYascitur 
una  nobiscum,  alilurque,  'tis  propagated  from  Adam,  Cain  was  melancholy,  ^^'as 
Austin  hath  it,  and  who  is  not.''  Good  discipline,  education,  philosophy,  divinity  (I 
iTannot  deny),  may  mitigate  and  restrain  these  passions  in  some  few  men  at  somie 
times,  but  most  part  they  domineer,  and  are  so  violent,  *^  that  as  a  torrent  {iorrens  velut 
aggere  rupto)  bears  down  all  before,  and  overflows  his  banks,  sternit  agrns,  sternii 
sata,  (lays  waste  the  fields,  prostrates  the  crops,)  they  overwhelm  reason,  judgment, 
and  pervert,  the  temperature  of  the  body ;  Fertur  '°equis  anriga,  nee  audit  currua 
habenas.  /Now  such  a  man  (saith  '"Austin)  "  that  is  so  led,  in  a  wise  man's  eye,  is 
no  better  man  he  that  stands  upon  his  head.  It  is  doubted  by  some,  Gravioresne 
morbi  a  perturbationibus,  an  ab  humoribus,  whether  humours  or  perturbations  cause 


5'^  Vita  Alexan.  ssGrad.   1.  c.   14.  "Hor. 

"Ine   body  oppressed  by  yesterday's  vires  weighs 
down   thi-  spirit  also."  ;>■■  Perlurbationes  clavi 

sunt,  qiiibus   corpnri   animus   seu    palibulo   a(fif;itur. 
Jainh.  de  mist.  '**'Lih.  de  sanitat.  tuend.         '^  Pro- 

log  Ac.  virtute  Christi ;  Quce  utiiur  corpore,  ut  fabcr 
luulleo  »  Vila  Apolionij,  Ub.4.  "'-Tib.  de 

anim.  ab  inconsiderantia,  at  iunoranlia  omnes  animi 
motiis.  so  De  phvsiol.  Stoic.  ei  Grad.  1.  t,.  3'2. 

•«EDi8l.  104  ea^lianus.  <«  I.ih.  1.  cap.  6.  si 


quis  ense  percusserit  eos,  f antum  respiciunt.  *^  Ter- 
ror in  sapiente  e.'se  mm  debfi.  "•  De  occult  nat. 
mir.  1.  1.  c.  16.  Nemo  niortalium  qui  affectibus  non 
ducatur  :  qui  noii  movetur,  ant  saxum,  aut  Deus  est. 
"  Instit.  I.  2.  de  linmanorum  afTect.  morbornmque 
curat.  '*Epist.  10.5.  I'-'CJranaieiisis.  'O  Vir;,' 
"  De  civit.  Dei.  I.  14.  c  9.  (irsili?  in  oc\ilis  homiiium 
qui  in  vers  is  pedibus  ambiilit,  i  alls  in  oculissapientum, 
cui  passiones  doipi»a>itur. 


() 


158  Causes  oj  Melancholy.  [Pail.  i.  5ect.  2. 

.he  more  grievous  maladies.  But  we  find  that  of  our  Saviour,  Mat.  xxvi.  4  1,  most 
true,  "-The  spirit  is  willing,  the  ilesh  is  weak,"  we  cannot  resist;  and  this  of  "Philo 
Judreus,  "  Perturbations  often  offend  the  body,  and  are  most  frequent  causes  of 
melancholy,  turnino:  it  out  of  the  hinges  of  his  health.'?  Vives  compares  them  to 
"'■'Winds  upon  the  sea,  some  only  move  as  those  great  gales,  but  others  turbulent 
quite  overturn  the  ship.  Those  which  are  light,  easy,  and  more  seldom,  to  our 
thinking,  do  us  little  harm,  and  are  therefore  contemned  of  us :  yet  if  they  be  re- 
iterated, '^"as  the  rain  (saith  Austin)  doth  a  stone,  so  do  these  perturbations  pene- 
trate the  mind  :  '^and  (as  one  observes)  '^produce  a  habit  of  melancholy  at  the  last, 
which  having  gotten  the  mastery  in  our  souls,  may  'vell  be  called  diseases. 

How  these  passions  produce  this  effect,  '"^Agrippa  ^'ath  handled  at  large,  Occult. 
Philos.  I.  11.  c.  63.  Cardan,  I.  14.  subfil.  Lemnius,  I.  1.  c.  12,  de  occult,  nat.  niir.  et 
lib.  1.  cap.  16.  Siiarez,  McL  disput.  18.  sect.  1.  art.  25.  T.  Bright,  cap.  12,  of  his 
Melancholy  Treatise.  Wright  the  Jesuit,  in  his  Book  of  the  Passions  of  tlie  Mind^ 
&.C.  Thus  in  brief,  to  our  imagination  cometh  by  the  outward  sense  or  memory, 
some  object  to  be  known  (residing  in  the  foremost  part  of  the  brain),  which  he  mis- 
conceiving or  amplifying  presently  communicates  to  tlie  heart,  the  seat  of  all  affec- 
tions. The  pure  spirits  forthwith  flock  from  tlie  brain  to  the  heart,  by  certain  secret 
channels,  and  signify  what  good  or  bad  object  was  presented;  "which  immediately 
bends  itself  to  prosecute,  or  avoid  it;  and  withal,  draweth  with  it  other  humours  to 
help  it :  so  in  pleasure,  concur  great  store  of  purer  spirits ;  in  sadness,  much  melan- 
choly blood  ;  in  ire,  choler.  If  the  imagination  be  very  apprehensive,  intent,  and 
violent,  it  sends  great  store  of  spirits  to,  or  from  the  heart,  and  makes  a  deeper  im- 
pression, and  greater  tumult,  as  the  humours  in  the  body  be  likewise  prepared,  and 
the  temperature  itself  ill  or  well  disposed,  the  passions  are  longer  and  stronger;  so 
that  the  first  step  and  fountain  of  all  our  grievances  in  this  kind,  is  '''Iccsa  maginatio, 
which  misinforming  the  heart,  causeth  all  these  distemperatures,  alteration  and  confu- 
sion of  spirits  and  humours.  By  means  of  which,  so  disturbed,  concoction  is 
hindered,  and  the  principal  parts  are  much  debilitated  ;  as  "Dr.  Navarra  well  declared, 
being  consulted  by  Montanus  about  a  melancholy  Jew.  The  spirits  so  confounded, 
the  nourishment  must  needs  be  abated,  bad  humours  increased,  crudities  and  thick 
spirits  engendered  with  melancholy  blood.  The  other  parts  cannot  perform  their 
functions,  having  the  spirits  drawn  from  them  by  vehement  passion,  but  fail  in  sense 
and  motion ;  so  we  look  upon  a  thing,  and  see  it  not ;  hear,  and  observe  not ;  which 
otherwise  would  much  affect  us,  had  we  been  free.  I  may  therefore  conclude  with 
^Arnoldus,  Maxima  vis  est  phantasies.,  et  hide  uni  fere^  nan  out  em  corporis  intem- 
periei^  omnis  melancholice  causa  est  ascribenda  :  "  Great  is  the  force  of  imagination, 
and  much  more  ought  the  cause  of  melancholy  to  be  ascribed  to  this  alone,  tlian  to 
the  distemperature  of  the  body."  Of  which  imagination,  because  it  hath  so  great 
a  stroke  in  producing  this  malady,  and  is  so  powerful  of  itself,  it  will  not  be  im- 
proper to  my  discourse,  to  make  a  brief  digression,  and  speak  of  the  force  of  it,  and 
how  it  causeth  this  alteration.  Which  manner  of  digression,  howsoever  some  dis- 
like, as  frivolous  and  impertinent,  yet  I  am  of  ^'Beroaldus's  opinion,  "•Such  digres- 
sions do  mightily  deliglit  and  refresh  a  weary  reader,  they  are  like  sauce  to  a  bad 
stomach,  and  I  do  therefore  most  willingly  use  them." 

SuBSECT.  II. —  Of  the  Force  of  Imagination. 

.  What  imagination  is,  I  have  sufficiently  declared  in  my  digression  of  the  anatomy 
of  the  soul.     I  will  only  now  point  at  the  wonderful  effects  and  power  of  it ;  which. 


'^Lib.  de  Decal.  passiones  inaxime  corpus  offendiint 
et  animain,  et  freqiientissiiiiie  causs  melancliolue. 
dimnventes  ab  ingeiiio  et  simitaie  pristitiii,  1,  3.  de 
aniiiia.  '-iFrienaet  siimiili  aniiiii,  veliit  in  mari 

quKdam  aurse  leves,  qiuedaiii  placidse,  qusdam  tiir- 
buler.j;t>  :  sic  in  corpore  iiuiBdam  affectiones  excitant 
tantuin,  quaedain  ita  movent,  ut  de  statu  jiidicli  depel- 
lant.  '<  Ut  gulta  lapideni,  sic  paiilatim   hs  pene- 


Ihe  countenance  to  good  or  evil,  and  distraction  o 
the  mind  causeth  distemperature  of  the  body.* 
isSpiritus  etsanijiiis  i  l*sa  Imaginatione  containinan- 
tnr,  humores  enim  niutati  actiones  aninii  iinmulanl, 
Piso.  '^Miintani,  consil.  22.     Ua;  vero  qiinmodo 

canseiit  melancholiani,  ciariim  ;  et  quod  conco'tionem 
impediant,  et  membra  principaliadebililent  'oBre- 
viar.  1.  1.  cap.  18.         "'  Solent  liujusmodi  egressiones 


trant  animum.  '^  llsii  valentes  recte  morbi  animi    favorabiliter   oblectare.  et  lectorem  la.ssum  jiiciinde 

vocanlur.  '^Imaginatio  movet  corpus,  ad  cujus     refovere,  stoinaehuinque  nauseantem,  qundam  quanl 

aiotum  excitantur  humores,  et  spiritus  vltales,  qnibus    condimento  reficere,  et  ego  libenter  excurro. 
Altei'itur  "  Eccles.  xiii.  26.    "The  heart  altera  i 


AT:Tn.  3.  Subs.  2.]  Of  the  Force  of  ImaginaiiOK.  159 

as  it  is  eminent  in  all,  so  most  especially  it  rageth  in  melancholy  persons,  in  keep- 
ing the  species  of  objects  so  long,  mistaking,  amplifying  them  by  continual  and 
"^strong  meditation,  until  at  length  it  producetli  in  some  parties  real  effects,  causeth 
this,  and  many  other  maladies.  And  although  this  pliantasy  of  ours  be  a  subordinate 
faculty  to  reason,  and  should  be  ruled  by  it,  yet  in  many  men,  through  inward  or 
'>ut\vard  distemperatures.  defect  of  organs,  which  are  unapt,  or  otherwise  contami- 
nated, it  is  likewise  unapv,  or  hindered,  and  hurt.  This  we  see  verified  in  sleepers, 
which  by  reason  of  humours  and  concourse  of  vapours  troubling  the  phantasy,  ima 
gine  many  times  absurd  and  prodigious  things,  and  in  such  as  are  troubled  with 
incubus,  or  witch-ridden  (as  we  call  it),  if  they  lie  on  their  backs,  they  suppose  an 
old  woman  rides,  and  sits  so  hard  upon  them,  that  they  are  almost  stifled  for  want  of 
breath;  when  there  is  nothing  offends,  but  a  concourse  of  bad  humours,  wliich 
trouble  the  phantasy.  This  is  likewise  evident  in  such  as  walk  in  the  niglit  in  their 
sleep,  and  do  strange  feats  :  ^^  these  vapours  move  the  phantasy,  the  phantasy  the  appe- 
tite, which  moving  the  animal  spirits  causeth  tlie  body  to  walk  up  and  down  as  ii 
they  were  awake.  Fracast.  I.  3.  de  intellect,  refers  all  ecstasies  to  this  force  of  imagi- 
nation, such  as  lie  whole  days  together  in  a  trance  :  as  that  priest  whom  ^^Celsus 
speaks  of,  that  could  separate  himself  from  his  senses  when  he  list,  and  lie  like 
a  dead  man,  void  of  life  and  sense.  Cardan  brags  of  himself,  that  he  could  do 
as  much,  and  that  "when  he  list.  Many  times  such  men  when  they  come  to  thera- 
selvies,  tell  strange  tilings  of  heaven  and  hell,  what  visions  they  have  seen ;  as  that 
St.  Owen,  in  Matthew  Paris,  that  went  into  St.  Patrick's  purgatory,  and  the  monk  o*" 
Evesham  in  the  same  author.  Those  common  apparitions  in  Bede  and  Gregory, 
Saint  Bridget's  revelations,  Wier.  I.  3.  de  lamiis,  c.  11.  Caesar  Vanninus,  in  his  Dia- 
logues, &c.  reduceth  (as  I  have  formerly  said),  with  all  those  tales  of  witches' 
progresses,  dancing,  riding,  transformations,  operations,_  &c.  to  the  force  of  ^^imagi- 
nation, and  the  *'' devil's  illusions.  The  like  effects  almost  are  to  be  seen  in  such  as 
are  awake :  how  many  chima;ras,  antics,  golden  mountains  and  castles  in  the  air  do 
they  build  unto  themselves }  I  appeal  to  painters,  mechanicians,  mathematicians. 
Some  ascribe  all  vices  to  a  false  and  corrupt  imagination,  anger,  revenge,  lust,  am- 
bition, covetousness,  which  prefers  falsehood  before  that  which  is  right  and  good, 
deluding  the  soul  with  false  shows  and  suppositions.  ^'Bernardus  Penottus  will 
have  heresy  and  superstition  to  proceed  from  this  fountain ;  as  he  falsely  imagineth, 
so  he  believeth  ;  and  as  he  conceiveth  of  it,  so  it  must  be,  and  it  shall  be,  contra 
gentes^  he  will  have  it  so.  But  most  especially  in  passions  and  affections,  it  shows 
strange  and  evident  effects  :  what  will  not  a  fearful  man  conceive  in  the  dark  ?  What 
strange  forms  of  bugbears,  devils,  witches,  goblins  ?  Lavater  imputes  the  greatest 
cause  of  spectrums,  and  the  like  apparitions,  to  fear,  which  above  all  other  passions 
begets  the  strongest  imagination  (saith  ^^Wierus),  and  so  likewise  love,  sorrow,  joy, 
&c.  Some  die  suddenly,  as  she  that  saw  her  son  come  from  the  battle  at  Cannae,  &c. 
Jacob  the  patriarch,  by  force  of  imagination,  made  speckled  lambs,  laying  speckled 
rods  before  his  sheep.  Persina,  that  Ji^thiopian  queen  in  Heliodorus,  by  seeing  the 
picture  of  Persius  and  Andromeda,  instead  of  a  blackamoor,  was  brought  to  bed  of  a 
fair  white  child.  In  imitation  of  whom  belike,  a  hard-favoured  fellow  in  Greece,  be- 
cause he  and  his  wife  were  both  deformed,  to  get  a  good  brood  of  children,  Elcgan- 
tissimas  Imagines  inthalamo  collocavit,  &c.  hung  the  fairest  pictures  he  could  buy  for 
money  in  his  chamber,  "•  That  his  wife  by  frequent  sight  of  them,  might  conceive  and 
bear  such  children."  And  if  we  may  believe  Bale,  one  of  Pope  Nicholas  the  Third's 
concubines  by  seeing  of  ^^a  bear  was  brought  to  bed  of  a  monster.  "If  a  woman 
(saith  ''"Lemnius),  at  the  time  of  her  conception  think  of  another  man  present  v.i  c.b- 
eent,  the  child  will  be  like  him."  Great-bellied  women,  when  they  long,  yield  us 
prodigious  examples  in  this  kind,  as  moles,  warts,  scars,  harelips,  monsters,  especially 

*2Ah  imaainatione  oriuiitiir  affeotiones,  quihiis  ani-  vero  eariim  sine  sensn  permanent,  qute  iimbia  coope- 

ma  conipinritiir,  aut  turbata  deturbatiir,  .lo.  Sarisbur.  rit  diabolus,  ut  niilli  sint  coiispicua,  et  post,   unibui 

Matolog.  lib.  4.  c.  10.         «* Scalig.  exercit.  "Qui  sublata,  propriis  corporibus   eas  restituit,  1.  3.  c.  11. 

qiir.tis  volebat,  iiiortuo  similis  jacehat  auferens  se  ft  Wier.  f' Denario   luedico.  **•  Solet   tinior, 

iensibus,   et   quiirr   pungerelur   dolorem   non   sensit.  prie  omnibus  affectibus,  fortes  imaginationes  gignrie, 

«*  Idem  Nymannus  orat.   de   Imaginat.  ee  Verbis  post   amor,  &c.  1.  3.  c.  8.  taEx  viso  urso,  tai-'oi 

et   linctionibus   se  conserrant   deenioni   pcssima;    mu-  penerit.  ''"Lib.   1.  cap.  4.  de  octnlt.  nat.  'nir.  ^i 

ieres  qui  iis  ad  opus  snum  iititiir,  et  earuni  phantasi-  i.      r  amplexns  et  siiavia  cogilet  de  iino,  aut  aiio  \'i- 

tw;  jegil,  aucitqiie  ad  loca  ab  ipsis  desiderata,  corpora  sew"  ejus  effigies  solet  in  futu  eluoere. 


160  Causes  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1.  Sec.  2 

wiused  in  their  children  by  force  of  a  depraved  phantasy  in  them  :  fysam  speciem  quam 
ammo  e[figlat.,  firJul  inducit  :  Slie  imprints  that  s'amp  upon  her  child  which  she  *■  cot- 
reives  unto  herself.  And  therefore  Lodovicus  Vives,  Uh.  2.  de  Christ,  fcem..,  gives  a 
special  caution  to  great-bellied  women,  ®^That  they  do  not  admit  such  absurd  con- 
ceits and  cogitations,  but  by  all  means  avoid  those  horrible  objects,  heard  or  seen, 
or  filthy  spectacles."  Some  will  laugh,  weep,  sigh,  groan,  blush,  tremble,  sweat,  at 
such  tilings  as  are  suggested  unto  tliem  by  their  imagination.  Avicenna  speaks  of 
one  that  could  cast  himself  into  a  palsy  when  he  list;  and  some  can  imitate  the  tunes 
of  birds  and  beasts  that  they  can  hardly  be  discerned  :  Dagebertus'  and  Saint  Francis' 
scars  and  wounds,  like  those  of  Christ's  (if  at  the  least  any  such  were),  ^^Agrippa 
supposeth  to  have  happened  by  force  of  imagination  :  that  some  are  turned  to  wolves, 
from  men  to  women,  and  women  again  to  men  (which  is  constantly  believed)  to  the 
same  imagination ;  or  from  men  to  asses,  dogs,  or  any  other  shapes.  ^*  Wierus  as- 
cribes all  those  famous  transformations  to  imagination  ;  that  in  hydrophobia  they 
seem  to  see  the  picture  of  a  dog,  still  in  their  water,  '^^that  melancholy  men  and  sick 
men  conceive  so  many  phantastical  visions,  apparitions  to  themselves,  and  have  such 
absurd  apparitions,  as  that  they  are  kings,  lords,  cocks,  bears,  apes,  owls ;  that  they 
are  heavy,  light,  transparent,  great  and  little,  senseless  and  dead  (as  shall  be  showed 
more  at  large,  in  our  ""sections  of  symptoms),  can  be  imputed  to  nought  else,  but  to 
corrupt,  false,  and  violent  imagination.  It  works  not  in  sick  and  melancholy  jnen 
only,  but  even  most  forcibly  sometimes  in  such  as  are  sound :  it  makes  them  sud- 
denly sick,  and  '''alters  their  temperature  in  an  instant.  And  sometimes  a  strong 
conceit  or  apprehension,  as  ^^Valesius  proves,  will  take  away  diseases  :  in  both  kinds 
it  will  produce  real  effects.  Men,  if  they  see  but  another  man  tremble,  giddy  or  sick 
of  some  fearful  disease,  their  apprehension  and  fear  is  so  strong  in  this  Jcind,  that  they 
will  have  the  same  disease..  Or  if  by  some  soothsayer,  wiseman,  fortune-teller,  or 
physician,  they  be  told  they  shall  have  such  a  disease,  they  will  so  seriously  appre- 
hend it,  that  they  will  instantly  labour  of  it.  A  thing  familiar  in  China  (sailh  Ric- 
cius  the  Jesuit),  ^^'^  If  it  be  told  them  they  shall  be  sick  on  such  a  day,  when  that 
day  comes  they  will  surely  be  sick,  and  will  be  so  terribly  afflicted,  that  somethnes 
they  die  upon  it.  Dr.  Cotta  in  his  discovery  of  ignorant  practitioners  of  physic, 
cap.  8,  hath  two  strange  stories  to  this  purpose,  what  fancy  is  able  to  do.  The  one 
of  a  parson's  wife  in  Northamptonshire,  .^n.  1607,  that  coming  to  a  physician,  and 
told  by  him  that  she  was  troubled  with  the  sciatica,  as  he  conjectured  (a  disease  she 
was  free  from),  the  same  night  after  her  return,  upon  his  words,  fell  into  a  grievous 
fit  of  a  sciatica :  and  such  another  example  he  hath  of  another  good  wife,  that  was 
so  troubled  with  the  cramp,  after  the  same  manner  she  came  by  it,  because  hej^^hy- 
siciandid  but  name  it.  Sometimes  death  itself  is  caused  by  force  of  phantasy.  '4^ have 
heard  of  one  that  coming  by  chance  in  company  of  him  that  v/as  thought  to  be  sick 
of  the  plague  (which  was  not  so)  fell  down  suddenly  dead.  Another  was  sick  of 
the  plague  with  conceit.  One  seeing  his  fellow  let  blood  fails  down  in  a  swoon 
Another  (saith  '""Cardan  out  of  Aristotle),  fell  down  dead  (which  is  familiar  to  wo- 
men at  any  ghastly  sight),  seeing  but  a  man  hanged.  A  Jew  in  France  (saith  '  Lo- 
dovicus Vives),  came  by  chance  over  a  dangerous  passage  or  plank,  that  lay  over  a 
brook  in  the  dark,  without  harm,  the  next  day  perceiving  what  danger  he  was  in. 
fell  down  dead.  Many  will  not  believe  such  stories  to  be  true,  but  laugh  commonly, 
and  deride  when  they  hear  of  them ;  but  let  these  men  consider  with  themselves,  as- 
^  Peter  Byarus  illustrates  it,  If  they  were  set  to  walk  upon  a  plank  on  high,  they 
would  be  giddy,  upon  which  they  dare  securely  walk  upon  the  ground.  Many 
(saith  Agrippa),  ^"  strong-hearted  men  otherwise,  tremble  at  such  sights,  dazzle,  and 

«' Qiiidnon  fffitui  adhuc  matri  unito,  suhitaspiritiium  I  s^Fr.  Vales.  I.  5.  cont.  6.  nonnnnqiiam  etiam  morbl 
vibratioiiH  per  iiervos,  qiiiluis  matrix  cerebro  con-  diuturiiicnnsequuntur,  qiiandoque  curantiir.  »>»  Ex- 
juncta  est,  iiiipriiuit  inipresnatie  imaKinalio  ■>  ul  si  pfdit.  in  Sinas,  1.  1.  c.  9.  tantiim  porro  inuiti  prsedicto- 
imaginetnr  malum  eranaluiii,  illins  notas  secum  pro-  ribiis  hisce  trihuunt  ut  ipse  metns  fidem  facial :  nam 
ferel  fretus  :  Si  jeporem,  inCans  edilur  supremo  labello  si  priedicinm  iis  fuerit  tali  die  eos  morbo  corripiend(»a, 
hilido,  et  dis.^eclo  :  Vehemeiis  coj;ilatio  niovet  renim  ii  nbi  dies  advenerit,  in  mnrbum  incidiint,  et  vi  metiis 
upecies.     Wier.  lib.  3.  cap.  8.  'J- Ne  diim  iiternm  i  afflitti,  cum    sgritudine,  aliquando  etiam  cum  morle 

gestent,  admittant  absurdas  cogitationes,  sail  et  visu,  I  colhutantur.  i""  Subtil.  18.  '  Lib.  3.  rie  anima. 

audituque  fa^da   et  horrenda  devitent.  WQccult.  '  cap.  de  mcl.  ^i^ib.  de  Peste.  3  Lib.  1,  cap.  6.3. 

Phiios.  i<b,  1.  cap.  61.  "i  Lib.  3.  de  Lamiis,  cap.  10.     Ex  alto  despicientes  aliqui  prre  timore  contremiscint, 

"^  Agrippa,  lib   1.  cap.  64.  »«  Sect.  3.  memb   L  sub-     cali(!ant,   iiifirmantur  ;     sic  Riiig\iltiis,    febres,    morol 

sect   3  "Malleus  malefic,  fiil.  77.  corpus  niutari    comiliales  quandoque  aequuntur,  quandoque  recediiut 

Mttest  in  diversasKgritudines,  ex  forti  appreliensione.  I 


Mem.  3.  Subs.  3.]  Division  of  Perturbations.  161 

are  sick,  if  they  look  but  down  from  a  high  place,  and  what  moves  them  but  con- 
ceit .?"  As  some  are  so  molested  by  phantasy ;  so  some  again,  by  fancy  alone,  and 
good  conceit,  are  as  easily  recovered.  We  see  commonly  the  tooth-ache,  gout,  fall 
iug-sickness,  biting  of  a  mad  dog,  and  many  such  maladies  cured  by  spells,  words, 
characters,  and  charms,  and  many  green  woxmds  by  that  now  so  much  used  Unguen- 
tum  Armarium,  magnetically  cured,  which  CroUius  and  Goclenhis  in  a  book  of  late 
hath  defended,  Libavius  in  a  just  tract  as  stiffly  contradicts,  and  most  men  controvert 
All  the  world  knows  there  is  no  virtue  in  such  charms  or  cures,  but  a  strong  conceit 
and  opinion  alone,  as  ■*  Pomponatius  holds,  "  which  forceth  a  motion  of  the  humours, 
spirits,  and  blood,  which  takes  away  the  cause  of  the  malady  from  the  parts  affected." 
The  like  we  may  say  of  our  magical  effects,  superstitious  cures,  and  such  as  are  done 
by  mountebanks  and  wizards.  ••'  As  by  wicked  incredulity  many  men  are  hurt  (so 
saith  *Wierus  of  charms,  spells,  &.C.),  we  find  in  our  experience,  by  the  same  means 
many  are  relieved."  An  empiric  ollentimes,  and  a  silly  chirurgeon,  doth  more 
strange  cures  tlian  a  rational  physician.  Nymannus  gives  a  reason,  because  the  pa- 
tient puts  his  confidence  in  him,  ^  which  Avicenna  '•'prefers  before  art,  precepts,  and 
all  remedies  wliatsoever."  'Tis  opinion  alone  (saith  '^ Cardan),  that  makes  or  mars 
physicians,  and  he  doth  the  best  cures,  according  to  Hippocrates,  in  whom  most  trust. 
So  diversely  doth  this  phantasy  of  ours  affect,  turn,  and  wind,  so  imperiously  command 
our  bodies,  which  as  another  ^"Proteus,  or  a  chameleon,  can'take  all  shapes;  and  is 
of  such  force  (as  Ficinus  adds),  that  it  can  work  upon  others,  as  well  as  ourselves." 
How  can  otherwise  blear  eyes  in  one  man  cause  the  like  affection  in  another  ^  Why 
doth  one  mane's  yawning  ®make  another  yawn  ?  One  man's  pissing  provoke  a  second 
many  times  to  do  the  like }  Why  doth  scraping  of  trenchers  offend  a  third,  or  hack- 
ing of  flies-}  Why  doth  a  carcass  bleed  wheii  the  murderer  is  brought  before  it,  some 
weeks  after  the  murder  hath  been  done .?  Why  do  witches  and  old  women  fascinate 
and  bewitch  children  :  but  as  Wierus,  Paracelsus,  Cardan,  Mizaldus,  Valleriola,  Ca3sar 
Vanninus,  Campanella,  and  many  philosophers  think,  the  forcible  imagination  of  the 
one  party  moves  and  alters  the  spirits  of  the  other.  Nay  more,  they  can  cause  and 
cure  not  only  diseases,  maladies,  and  several  infirmnies,  by  this  means,  as  Avicenna, 
de  anim.  I.  4.  sect.  4,  supposeth  in  parties  remote,  but  move  bodies  from  their  places, 
cause  thunder,  lightning,  tempests,  which  opinion  Alkindus,  Paracelsus,  and  some 
others,  approve  ol".  So  that  I  may  certainly  conclude  this  strong  conceit  or  imagina- 
tion is  astrum  ho7Jiinis,  and  the  rudder  of  this  our  ship,  which  reason  should  steer, 
but,  overborne  by  phantasy,  cannot  manage,  and  so  surfers  itself,  and  this  whole  vessel 
of  ours  to  be  overruled,  and  often  overturned.  Read  more  of  this  in  Wierus,  /.  3. 
de  Lamiis,  c.  8,  9,  10.  Franciscus  Valesius,  med.  cont.rov.  I.  5.  cant.  6.  Marcellus 
Donatus,  I.  2.  c.  \.  de  hist.  med.  mirabil.  Levinus  Lemnius,  de  occult,  nat.  mir.  I.  1 
c.  12.  Cardan,  Z.  18.  de  rerum  var.  Corn.  Agrippa,  de  occult,  philos.  cap.  04,  65 
Camerarius,  1  cent.  cap.  54.  horarum  subcis.  Nymannus,  morat.  de  Imag.  Lauren 
tins,  and  him  that  is  insfar  omnium,  Fienus,  a  famous  physician  of  Antwerp,  that 
wrote  three  books  de  viribus  imaginationis.  I  have  thus  far  digressed,  because  this 
imagination  is  the  medium  deferens  of  passions,  by  whose  means  they  work  and 
produce  many  times  prodigious  effects :  and  as  the  phantasy  is  more  or  less  intend'^d 
or  remitted,  and  their  humours  disposed,  so  do  perturbations  move, -more  or  less,  and 
take  deeper  impression. 

SuBSECT.  HI. — Division  of  PfHirbations. 

Perturbations  and  passions,  which  trouble  the  pht*itasy,  though  they  dwell  be- 
tween the  confines  of  sense  and  reason,  yet  they  rather  follow  sense  than  reason,  be- 
cause they  are  drowned  in  corporeal  organs  of  sense.  They  are  commonly  '"reducec' 
into  two  inclinations,  irascible  and  concupiscible.    The  Thomists  suodivide  them  into 

*  Lib.  de  Incantatione,  Imaginatio  subitum  humorum,  I  '  Plures  sanat  in  queni  plures  confldunt.  lib.  de  sapi- 
et  snirituum  molum  infert,  unde  varlo  affertu  rapitur  I  entia.  ''Marcelius  Ficinus,  1.  13.  c.  18.  de  theolog 

•anKuis,   ac   un4  inotbificas  causas   parlibus   affectis  |  Platonica.     Imaginatio  est  tanqunra  Proteus  vcl  Cha- 
eripit.  6i,ib.  3.  c.  18.  de  prsestig.     Ut  impia  ere- j  meleon,    corpus   proprium   et    alicnum   nonnunquam 

duiitatequis  Iffditur, sic  et  levari  eundem  credibile  est,  1  afficiens.  ''Cut    oscitaiites    oscitont,    Wierua 

iisuque  observatum.  "  iEgri  persuasio  et  fiducia,  i  ^oT.  W.  Jesuit. 

DMinl  arti  et  consilio  et  medicinae  praeferenda.  Avicen.  ' 

21  o  2 


1 62  Causes  of  Melancholy.  [Part.  1   Si^c.  '-^ 

elever.,  six  ii  the  coveting,  and  five  in  the  invading.  Aristotle  reduceth  ad  to  plea- 
sure and  pain,  Plato  to  love  and  hatred,  "  Vives  to  good  and  bad.  If  good,  it  is  pre- 
«ient,  and  then  we  absolutely  joy  and  love;  or  to  come,  and  tlien  we  desire  and  hojie 
for  it.  If  evil,  we  absolute  hate  it ;  if  present,  it  is  by  sorrow  ;  if  to  come  fear.  These 
four  passions  '^  Bernard  compares  "  to  tire  wheels  of  a  chariot,  by  whicli  we  are  car- 
ried in  this  world."  All  other  passions  are  subordinate  unto  these  four,  or  six,  as 
some  will  :  love,  joy,  desire,  hatred,  sorrow,  fear;  the  rest,  as  anger,  envy,  emula- 
tion, pride,  jealousy,  anxiety,  mercy,  shame,  discontent,  despair,  ambition,  avarice, 
&.C.,  are  reducible  unto  the  first;  and  if  they  be  immoderate,  they  '^consume  the 
spirits,  and  melancholy  is  especially  caused  by  them.  Some  few  discreet  men  theu 
are,  that  can  govern  themselves,  and  curb  in  these  inordinate  atlections,  by  religion, 
philosophy,  and  such  divine  precepts,  of  meekness,  patience,  and  the  like ;  but  mosi 
part  for  want  of  government,  out  of  indiscretion,  ignorance,  they  suHer  themselves 
wholly  to  be  led  by  sense,  and  are  so  far  from  repressing  rebellious  inclinations,  that 
they  give  all  encouragement  unto  them,  leaving  the  reins,  and  using  all  provocations 
to  further  them :  bad  by  nature,  worse  by  art,  discipline,  "custom,  education,  and  a 
perverse  will  of  their  own,  they  follow  on,  wheresoever  their  unbridled  affections 
will  transport  them,  and  do  more  out  of  custom,  self-will,  than  out  of  reason.  Con- 
tumax  iH)luntas^  as  Melancthon  calls  it,  malum  facit :  this  stubborn  will  of  ours  per- 
verts judgment,  which  sees  and  knows  what  should  and  ought  to  be  done,  and  yet 
v'ill  not  do  it.  Mancipia  gulcR.,  slaves  to  their  several  lusts  and  appetite,  they  pre- 
cipitate and  plunge  'Hliemselves  into  a  labyrinth  of  cares,  blinded  with  lust,  blinded 
with  ambition  ;  '"'■''They  seek  that  at  God's  hands  which  they  may  give  unto  them- 
selves, if  they  could  but  refrain  from  those  cares  and  perturbations,  wherewith  they 
continually  macerate  tlieir  minds."  ^  But  giving  way  to  these  violent  passions  of  fear, 
grief,  shame,  revenge,  hatred,  malice,  &c.,  they  are  torn  in  pieces,  as  Actaeon  was 
with  his  dogs,  and  '"crucify  their  own  souls. 

SuBSECT.  IV. — Sorrow  a  Cause  of  Melancholy. 

Sorroxo.  Insanus  dolor.]  L\  this  catalogue  of  passions,  which  so  much  torment 
the  soul  of  man,  and  cause  this  malady,  (for  I  will  briefly  speak  of  them  all,  and  in  theii 
order,)  the  first  place  in  this  irascible  appetite,  may  justly  be  challenged  by  sorrow. 
An  inseparable  companion,  "*'•'•  The  mother  and  daughter  of  melancholy,  her  epitome, 
symptom,  and  chief  cause  :"  as  Hippocrates  hath  it,  they  beget  one  another,  and  tread 
in  a  ring,  for  sorrow  is  both  cause  and  symptom  of  this  disease.  How  it  is  a  symp- 
tom shall  be  shown  in  its  place.  That  it  is  a  cause  all  the  world  acknowledgeth. 
Dolor  nonnullis  insanice,  causa  fait.,  et  aliorum  morhorum  msanabiliujn.,  saith  Plutarch 
to  Apollonius ;  a  cause  of  madness,  a  cause  of  many  other  diseases,  a  sole  cause  of 
this  mischief,  '^Lemnius  calls  it.  So  doth  Rhasis,  conf.  I.  1.  tract.  9.  Guinerius, 
Tract.  15.  c.  5,  And  if  it  take  root  once,  it  ends  in  despair,  as  ^"Foslix  Plater  ob- 
serves, and  as  in  ^'Cebes'  table,  may  well  be  coupled  with  it.  ^^Chrysostom,  in  liis 
seventeenth  epistle  to  Olympia,  describes  it  to  be  "  a  cruel  torture  of  the  soul,  a  most 
inexplicable  grief,  poisoned  worm,  consuming  body  and  soul,  and  gnawing  the  very 
heart,  a  perpetual  executioner,  continual  night,  profound  darkness,  a  whirlwind,  a 
tempest,  an  ague  not  appearing,  heating  worse  than  any  fire,  and  a  battle  that  hath  no 
end.     It  crucifies  worse  than  any  tyrant ;  no  torture,  no  strappado,  no  bodilv  punish- 

"3.  de  Aninia.  '2Ser.  35.   H(e  qiiatiior  passiones  boles  atri  humoris  sunt,  et  in  circuliim  se  procreant. 

mnttanquain  rotiein  curru,qiiibus  veliiniur  hoc  niundo.  Hip.  Aphoris.  23.  I.  6.     Idem  Montallus,  ...ip.  19,    Vie- 

''H.iniui  qiiippe  inimoderatione,  spiritiis  marcescunt.  torius  FaventUMTSi'ifrkcl.  iiuag.  '"M'llti  ex  niterore 
Feme).  1.  1.  I'ath.  c  18.  "  Mala  consuetndiiie  depra- ,  et  metu  luic  delapsi  sunt.  I^enin.,  lib.  1.  cap.  10. 
vatur  ingeniuui  ne  bene  facial.    Prosper  Caleiius,  1.  de  ;  '■^'' Multa  cura  et  tristitia  faciunt  accedere  nielancho- 

alra  bile.   Plura  faciunt  hnuiines  ^coiisuetudine  quam  Ham  (cap.  3.  de  mentis  alien  )  si  altas   iidices  ajral,  ip 

6  ratione.    A  teneiis  assuescere  niultum  est.    A'ideo  veram  fixamque  degenerat  Mielancholiam  et  in  de.spe- 

meliora  proboque  deteriora  sequor.  Ovid.  '^Nenio  rationeni  desiriit.  '-' Ille  luctus.  ejus   verO  soror 

Isditiir  nisi  Jlseipso.  '^  MnUi  ge  j,,  inquietudiiiem  desperatio  siniul   ponitur.  ^-Aniiiiarum  crudele 

praicipitant  ambitione  et  cupidllatlbus  exciecati,  non  tormentum,  dolor  inexplicabilis,  tinea  non  solum  ossa, 

intelli^unt  se  illud  k  diis  petere,  quod  sibi  ipsis  si  ve-  sed  corda  pertingens,  perpetuus  carnifex,  vires  anims 

lint  prKstare  possint,  si  curis  et  perturbationibus,  qui-  consumens,  jut'is  no.x,  et  tenebrffi  profundie,  tempostas 

bus  assidue  se  macerant,  imperare  velleiit.        i' Tanto  et  turbo  et  febris  non   ajiparens,  onini  ijine  validiiu 

■tudio  niiseriarum  causas.  et  alimenta  dolornm  qua-ri-  'ncendens  ;   Innsior.  et  pugna'  finem  non   liabons 

mils,  vitamque  secus  fiMicissimam,  tristein  et  misera-  Crucem    circumlfert   dolor,   facieuique   omni   tyraiinc 

bilem   pfficinius.     Petrarch,  prsfat.  de   Rnmediis,  &c.  crudelioreni  pree  se  fert. 
'*  Timor  et  inoestitia,  si  diu  perseverent,  causa  et  so- 


Vlcni.  3.  Subs,  5.] 


Fear.,  a  Cause. 


163 


ment  is  like  unto  it.  'Tis  the  eagle  without  question  which  the  poets  feigned  to'gnaw 
'^Promeliieus'  heart,  and  "no  heaviness  is  like  unto  the  heaviness  of  the  heart," 
Eccles.  XXV.  15,  16.  ^''"  Every  perturbation  is  a  misery,  but  grief  a  cruel  torment," 
a  domineering  passion :  as  in  old  Rome,  when  the  Dictator  was  created,  ^11  inferior 
magistracies  ceased ;  when  grief  appears,  all  other  passions  vanish.  "  It  dries  up  the 
bones,"  saith  Solomon,  ch.  17.  Pro.,  "makes  them  hollow-eyed,  pale,  and  lean,  fur- 
row-faced, to  have  dead  looks,  wrinkled  brows,  shrivelled  cheeks,  dry  bodies,  and 
quite  perverts  their  temperature  that  are  misaflected  with  it.  As  Eleonara,  that  exiled 
mournful  duchess  (in  our  ^* English  Ovid),  laments  to  her  noble  husband  Humphrey; 
Duke  of  Gloucester, 

I,  _  ,         ,  .,  .t<-ii.         Sorrow  hath  so  despoil 'd  me  of  all  grace, 

'  Sawest  thou  those  eyes  in  whose  sweet  cneeriul  look 

Duke  Humphrey  once  such  joy  and  pleasure  took, 


Thou  couldst  not  say  this  was  my  Eluor's  face. 
Like  a  foul  Gorgon,"  &.c. 


^^"it  hinders  concoction,  refrigerates  the  heart,  takes  away  stomach,  colour,  and 
sleep,  tliickens  tlie  blood,  ^''(Fernelius,  I.  1.  c.  18.  de  morb.  causis.)  contaminates  the 
spirits."  ^^(Piso.)  Overthrows  the  natural  heat,  perverts  the  good  estate  of  body 
and  mind,  and  makes  them  weary  of  tlieir  lives,  cry  out,  howl  and  roar  for  very 
anguish  of  their  souls.  David  confessed  as  much.  Psalm  xxxviii.  8,  "  I  have  roared 
for  the  very  disquietness  of  my  heart."  And  Psalm  cxix.  4,  part  4  v.  "  My  soul 
melteth  away  for  very  heaviness,"  v.  38.  "  I  am  like  a  bottle  in  the  smoke."  An- 
tiochus  complained  that  he  could  not  sleep,  and  that  his  heart  fainted  for  grief, 
^* Christ  himself,  Vir  dolorum.,  out  of  an  apprehension  of  grief,  did  sweat  blood. 
Mark  xiv.  "  His  sool  was  heavy  to  the  death,  and  no  sorow  was  like  unto  his." 
Crato,  consil.  21.  I.  2,  gives  instance  in  one  that  was  so  melancholy  by  reason  of 
^  grief ;  and  Montanus,  consil.  30,  in  a  noble  matron,  ^'"  that  had  no  other  cause  of 
this  mischief"  I.  S.  D.  in  Hildesheim,  fully  cured  a  patient  of  his  that  was  much 
troubled  with  melancholy,  and  for  many  years,  ''^but  afterwards,  by  a  little  occasion 
of  sorrow,  he  fell  into  his  former  fits,  and  was  tormented  as  before."  Examples  are 
common,  how  it  causeth  melancholy,  ^^desperation,  and  sometimes  death  itself; 
for  (Eccles.  xxxviii.  15,)  "Of  heaviness  comes  death;  worldly  sorrow  causeth 
death."  2  Cor.  vii.  10,  Psalm  xxxi.  10,  "My  life  is  wasted  with  heaviness,  and  my 
years  with  mourning."  Why  was  Hecuba  said  to  be  turned  to  a  dog  ?  Niobe  into 
a  stone  .^  but  that  for  grief  she  was  senseless  and  stupid.  Severus  the  Emperor'*'* 
died  for  grief-;  and  how  ^^many  myriads  besides.?  Tanta  illi  est.  feritas,  tanta  est 
insanla  luctus?^  'sl\lelancthon  gives  a  reason  of  it,  ^'"the  gathering  of  much  melan- 
choly blood  about  the  heart,  which  collection  extinguisheth  the  good  spirits,  or  at 
least  duUeth  them,  sorrow  strikes  the  heart,  makes  it  tremble  and  pine  away,  with 
great  pain ;  and  the  black  blood  drawn  from  the  spleen,  and  diffused  under  the  ribs, 
on  the  left  side,  makes  those  perilous  hypochondriacal  convulsions,  which  happen 
to  them  that  are  troubled  with  sorrow." 

SuBSECT.  V. — Fear^  a  Cause. 

Cousin  german  to  sorrow,  is  fear,  or  rather  a  sister,  Jidus  .Achates,  and  continual 
companion,  an  assistant  and  a  principal  agent  in  procuring  of  this  mischief;  a  cause 
and  symptom  as  the  other.  In  a  word,  as  ''^Virgil  of  the  Harpies,  I  may  justly  say 
of  them  both, 

"Tristius  haud  illis  monstrum,  nee  Sfevior  ulla      I  "A  sadder  monster,  or  more  cruel  plague  so  fell, 
Pcstis  et  ira  Deum  stygiis  sese  extulit  undis."    |     Or  vengeance  of  the  gods,  ne'er  came  from  Styx  or  Hell." 

This  foul  fiend  of  fear  was  worshipped  heretofore  as  a  god  by  the  I^acedaemo- 
nians,  and  most  of  those  other  torturing  "^  affections,  and  so  was  sorrow   amongst 

23  Nat.  Comes  Mythol.  1.  4.  c.  6.  24Tully  3.  Tusc. 
oinnis  perturbatio  miseria  et  carnificina  est  dolor. 
's  M.  Drayton  in  his  Her.  ep.  -^  Crato  consil.  21. 

lib.  2.  moestitia  universum  infrigidat  corpus,  calorem 
innatuin  extinguit,  appetitum  destruit.  27  cor  re- 

frigerat  tristitia,  spiritus  exsiccat,  innatumque  calorem 
obruit,  vigilias  inducit,  concoctionem  laberfactat,  san- 
guinem  incrassat,  exageratque  melancholicum  suc- 
cum.  28Spifi[„ggt  sanguis  hoc  conlaminatur. 

Piso.  29j|arc.  vi.  16.  II.  so  Msrore  maceror, 

marcesco  et  conseriesco  miser,  ossa  atque  pellis  sum 
misera  macritndice.     Plaut.  si  Malum  ineeptum 

et  actum  iL  tristi'ia  sola.  ^  Hildesheim,  spicel.  2. 

de  me  anrholia,  maerore  animi  postea  accedente,  in 


priora  symptomata  incidit.  S3  vives,  3.  df  anima, 

c.  de  maerore.  Sabin.  in  Ovid.  s^Herodian.  1.  3. 

mEerore  magis  quern  morbo  consumptus  est.  ss  Bolh- 
wellius  atribilarius  obiit  Brizarrus  Genuensis  hist.  &c. 
"^So  great  is  the  fierceness  and  madness  of  melan- 
choly. 27  Moestitia  cor  quasi  percussum  constringi- 
tur,  iremit  et  languescit  cum  acri  sensu  dolorin.  In 
tristitia  cor  fugiens  altrahit