Budaeus, in an epistle of his to Lupsetus, will have civil law to be the tower of wisdom; another honours physic, the quintessence of nature; a third tumbles them both down, and sets up the flag of his own peculiar science. Your supercilious critics, grammatical triflers, note-makers, curious antiquaries, find out all the ruins of wit, ineptiarum delicias, amongst the rubbish of old writers; [730]Pro stultis habent nisi aliquid sufficiant invenire, quod in aliorum scriptis vertant vitio, all fools with them that cannot find fault; they correct others, and are hot in a cold cause, puzzle themselves to find out how many streets in Rome, houses, gates, towers, Homer's country, Aeneas's mother, Niobe's daughters, an Sappho publica fuerit? ovum [731]prius extiterit an gallina! &c. et alia quae dediscenda essent scire, si scires, as [732]Seneca holds. What clothes the senators did wear in Rome, what shoes, how they sat, where they went to the close-stool, how many dishes in a mess, what sauce, which for the present for an historian to relate, [733]according to Lodovic. Vives, is very ridiculous, is to them most precious elaborate stuff, they admired for it, and as proud, as triumphant in the meantime for this discovery, as if they had won a city, or conquered a province; as rich as if they had found a mine of gold ore. Quosvis auctores absurdis commentis suis percacant et stercorant, one saith, they bewray and daub a company of books and good authors, with their absurd comments, correctorum sterquilinia [734]Scaliger calls them, and show their wit in censuring others, a company of foolish note-makers, humble-bees, dors, or beetles, inter stercora ut plurimum versantur, they rake over all those rubbish and dunghills, and prefer a manuscript many times before the Gospel itself, [735]thesaurum criticum, before any treasure, and with their deleaturs, alii legunt sic, meus codex sic habet, with their postremae editiones, annotations, castigations, &c. make books dear, themselves ridiculous, and do nobody good, yet if any man dare oppose or contradict, they are mad, up in arms on a sudden, how many sheets are written in defence, how bitter invectives, what apologies? [736]Epiphilledes hae sunt ut merae, nugae. But I dare say no more of, for, with, or against them, because I am liable to their lash as well as others. Of these and the rest of our artists and philosophers, I will generally conclude they are a kind of madmen, as [737] Seneca esteems of them, to make doubts and scruples, how to read them truly, to mend old authors, but will not mend their own lives, or teach us ingevia sanare, memoriam officiorum ingerere, ac fidem in rebus humanis retinere, to keep our wits in order, or rectify our manners. Numquid tibi demens videtur, si istis operam impenderit? Is not he mad that draws lines with Archimedes, whilst his house is ransacked, and his city besieged, when the whole world is in combustion, or we whilst our souls are in danger, (mors sequitur, vita fugit) to spend our time in toys, idle questions, and things of no worth?
That [738]lovers are mad, I think no man will deny, Amare simul et sapere, ipsi Jovi non datur, Jupiter himself cannot intend both at once.
[739] "Non bene conveniunt, nec in una sede morantur
Majestas et amor."
Tully, when he was invited to a second marriage, replied, he could not simul amare et sapere be wise and love both together. [740]Est orcus ille, vis est immedicabilis, est rabies insana, love is madness, a hell, an incurable disease; inpotentem et insanam libidinem [741]Seneca calls it, an impotent and raging lust. I shall dilate this subject apart; in the meantime let lovers sigh out the rest.
[742]Nevisanus the lawyer holds it for an axiom, "most women are fools," [743]consilium foeminis invalidum; Seneca, men, be they young or old; who doubts it, youth is mad as Elius in Tully, Stulti adolescentuli, old age little better, deleri senes, &c. Theophrastes, in the 107th year of his age, [744]said he then began to be to wise, tum sapere coepit, and therefore lamented his departure. If wisdom come so late, where shall we find a wise man? Our old ones dote at threescore-and-ten. I would cite more proofs, and a better author, but for the present, let one fool point at another. [745]Nevisanus hath as hard an opinion of [746]rich men, "wealth and wisdom cannot dwell together," stultitiam patiuntur opes, [747]and they do commonly [748]infatuare cor hominis, besot men; and as we see it, "fools have fortune:" [749]Sapientia non invenitur in terra suaviter viventium. For beside a natural contempt of learning, which accompanies such kind of men, innate idleness (for they will take no pains), and which [750]Aristotle observes, ubi mens plurima, ibi minima fortuna, ubi plurima fortuna, ibi mens perexigua, great wealth and little wit go commonly together: they have as much brains some of them in their heads as in their heels; besides this inbred neglect of liberal sciences, and all arts, which should excolere mentem, polish the mind, they have most part some gullish humour or other, by which they are led; one is an Epicure, an Atheist, a second a gamester, a third a whoremaster (fit subjects all for a satirist to work upon);
[751] "Hic nuptarum insanit amoribus, hic puerorum."
"One burns to madness for the wedded dame;
Unnatural lusts another's heart inflame."
[752]one is mad of hawking, hunting, cocking; another of carousing, horse-riding, spending; a fourth of building, fighting, &c., Insanit veteres statuas Damasippus emendo, Damasippus hath an humour of his own, to be talked of: [753]Heliodorus the Carthaginian another. In a word, as Scaliger concludes of them all, they are Statuae erectae stultitiae, the very statutes or pillars of folly. Choose out of all stories him that hath been most admired, you shall still find, multa ad laudem, multa ad vituperationem magnifica, as [754]Berosus of Semiramis; omnes mortales militia triumphis, divitiis, &c., tum et luxu, caede, caeterisque vitiis antecessit, as she had some good, so had she many bad parts.
Alexander, a worthy man, but furious in his anger, overtaken in drink: Caesar and Scipio valiant and wise, but vainglorious, ambitious: Vespasian a worthy prince, but covetous: [755]Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so had he many vices; unam virtutem mille vitia comitantur, as Machiavel of Cosmo de Medici, he had two distinct persons in him. I will determine of them all, they are like these double or turning pictures; stand before which you see a fair maid, on the one side an ape, on the other an owl; look upon them at the first sight, all is well, but farther examine, you shall find them wise on the one side, and fools on the other; in some few things praiseworthy, in the rest incomparably faulty. I will say nothing of their diseases, emulations, discontents, wants, and such miseries: let poverty plead the rest in Aristophanes' Plutus.
Covetous men, amongst others, are most mad, [756]they have all the symptoms of melancholy, fear, sadness, suspicion, &c., as shall be proved in its proper place,
"Danda est Hellebori multo pars maxima avaris."
"Misers make Anticyra their own;
Its hellebore reserved for them alone."
And yet methinks prodigals are much madder than they, be of what condition they will, that bear a public or private purse; as a [757]Dutch writer censured Richard the rich duke of Cornwall, suing to be emperor, for his profuse spending, qui effudit pecuniam, ante pedes principium Electorum sicut aquam, that scattered money like water; I do censure them, Stulta Anglia (saith he) quae, tot denariis sponte est privata, stulti principes Alemaniae, qui nobile jus suum pro pecunia vendiderunt; spendthrifts, bribers, and bribe-takers are fools, and so are [758]all they that cannot keep, disburse, or spend their moneys well.
I might say the like of angry, peevish, envious, ambitious; [759] Anticyras melior sorbere meracas; Epicures, Atheists, Schismatics, Heretics; hi omnes habent imaginationem laesam (saith Nymannus) "and their madness shall be evident," 2 Tim. iii. 9. [760]Fabatus, an Italian, holds seafaring men all mad; "the ship is mad, for it never stands still; the mariners are mad, to expose themselves to such imminent dangers: the waters are raging mad, in perpetual motion: the winds are as mad as the rest, they know not whence they come, whither they would go: and those men are maddest of all that go to sea; for one fool at home, they find forty abroad." He was a madman that said it, and thou peradventure as mad to read it. [761] Felix Platerus is of opinion all alchemists are mad, out of their wits; [762]Atheneus saith as much of fiddlers, et musarum luscinias, [763] Musicians, omnes tibicines insaniunt, ubi semel efflant, avolat illico mens, in comes music at one ear, out goes wit at another. Proud and vainglorious persons are certainly mad; and so are [764]lascivious; I can feel their pulses beat hither; horn-mad some of them, to let others lie with their wives, and wink at it.
To insist [765]in all particulars, were an Herculean task, to [766]reckon up [767]insanas substructiones, insanos labores, insanum luxum, mad labours, mad books, endeavours, carriages, gross ignorance, ridiculous actions, absurd gestures; insanam gulam, insaniam villarum, insana jurgia, as Tully terms them, madness of villages, stupend structures; as those Egyptian Pyramids, Labyrinths and Sphinxes, which a company of crowned asses, ad ostentationem opum, vainly built, when neither the architect nor king that made them, or to what use and purpose, are yet known: to insist in their hypocrisy, inconstancy, blindness, rashness, dementem temeritatem, fraud, cozenage, malice, anger, impudence, ingratitude, ambition, gross superstition, [768]tempora infecta et adulatione sordida, as in Tiberius' times, such base flattery, stupend, parasitical fawning and colloguing, &c. brawls, conflicts, desires, contentions, it would ask an expert Vesalius to anatomise every member. Shall I say? Jupiter himself, Apollo, Mars, &c. doted; and monster-conquering Hercules that subdued the world, and helped others, could not relieve himself in this, but mad he was at last. And where shall a man walk, converse with whom, in what province, city, and not meet with Signior Deliro, or Hercules Furens, Maenads, and Corybantes? Their speeches say no less. [769]E fungis nati homines, or else they fetched their pedigree from those that were struck by Samson with the jaw-bone of an ass. Or from Deucalion and Pyrrha's stones, for durum genus sumus, [770] marmorei sumus, we are stony-hearted, and savour too much of the stock, as if they had all heard that enchanted horn of Astolpho, that English duke in Ariosto, which never sounded but all his auditors were mad, and for fear ready to make away with themselves; [771]or landed in the mad haven in the Euxine sea of Daphnis insana, which had a secret quality to dementate; they are a company of giddy-heads, afternoon men, it is Midsummer moon still, and the dog-days last all the year long, they are all mad. Whom shall I then except? Ulricus Huttenus [772]nemo, nam, nemo omnibus horis sapit, Nemo nascitur sine vitiis, Crimine Nemo caret, Nemo sorte sua vivit contentus, Nemo in amore sapit, Nemo bonus, Nemo sapiens, Nemo, est ex omni parti beatus, &c. [773]and therefore Nicholas Nemo, or Monsieur Nobody shall go free, Quid valeat nemo, Nemo referre potest? But whom shall I except in the second place? such as are silent, vir sapit qui pauca loquitur; [774]no better way to avoid folly and madness, than by taciturnity. Whom in a third? all senators, magistrates; for all fortunate men are wise, and conquerors valiant, and so are all great men, non est bonum ludere cum diis, they are wise by authority, good by their office and place, his licet impune pessimos esse, (some say) we must not speak of them, neither is it fit; per me sint omnia protinus alba, I will not think amiss of them. Whom next? Stoics? Sapiens Stoicus, and he alone is subject to no perturbations, as [775]Plutarch scoffs at him, "he is not vexed with torments, or burnt with fire, foiled by his adversary, sold of his enemy: though he be wrinkled, sand-blind, toothless, and deformed; yet he is most beautiful, and like a god, a king in conceit, though not worth a groat. He never dotes, never mad, never sad, drunk, because virtue cannot be taken away," as [776]Zeno holds, "by reason of strong apprehension," but he was mad to say so. [777]Anticyrae caelo huic est opus aut dolabra, he had need to be bored, and so had all his fellows, as wise as they would seem to be. Chrysippus himself liberally grants them to be fools as well as others, at certain times, upon some occasions, amitti virtutem ait per ebrietatem, aut atribilarium morbum, it may be lost by drunkenness or melancholy, he may be sometimes crazed as well as the rest: [778]ad summum sapiens nisi quum pituita molesta. I should here except some Cynics, Menippus, Diogenes, that Theban Crates; or to descend to these times, that omniscious, only wise fraternity [779]of the Rosicrucians, those great theologues, politicians, philosophers, physicians, philologers, artists, &c. of whom S. Bridget, Albas Joacchimus, Leicenbergius, and such divine spirits have prophesied, and made promise to the world, if at least there be any such (Hen. [780]Neuhusius makes a doubt of it, [781] Valentinus Andreas and others) or an Elias artifex their Theophrastian master; whom though Libavius and many deride and carp at, yet some will have to be "the [782]renewer of all arts and sciences," reformer of the world, and now living, for so Johannes Montanus Strigoniensis, that great patron of Paracelsus, contends, and certainly avers [783]"a most divine man," and the quintessence of wisdom wheresoever he is; for he, his fraternity, friends, &c. are all [784]"betrothed to wisdom," if we may believe their disciples and followers. I must needs except Lipsius and the Pope, and expunge their name out of the catalogue of fools. For besides that parasitical testimony of Dousa,
"A Sole exoriente Maeotidas usque paludes,
Nemo est qui justo se aequiparare queat."[785]
Lipsius saith of himself, that he was [786]humani generis quidem paedagogus voce et stylo, a grand signior, a master, a tutor of us all, and for thirteen years he brags how he sowed wisdom in the Low Countries, as Ammonius the philosopher sometimes did in Alexandria, [787]cum humanitate literas et sapientiam cum prudentia: antistes sapientiae, he shall be Sapientum Octavus. The Pope is more than a man, as [788]his parrots often make him, a demigod, and besides his holiness cannot err, in Cathedra belike: and yet some of them have been magicians, Heretics, Atheists, children, and as Platina saith of John 22, Et si vir literatus, multa stoliditatem et laevitatem prae se ferentia egit, stolidi et socordis vir ingenii, a scholar sufficient, yet many things he did foolishly, lightly. I can say no more than in particular, but in general terms to the rest, they are all mad, their wits are evaporated, and, as Ariosto feigns, l. 34, kept in jars above the moon.
"Some lose their wits with love, some with ambition,
Some following [789]Lords and men of high condition.
Some in fair jewels rich and costly set,
Others in Poetry their wits forget.
Another thinks to be an Alchemist,
Till all be spent, and that his number's mist."
Convicted fools they are, madmen upon record; and I am afraid past cure many of them, [790]crepunt inguina, the symptoms are manifest, they are all of Gotam parish:
[791] "Quum furor haud dubius, quum sit manifesta phrenesis,"
"Since madness is indisputable, since frenzy is obvious."
what remains then [792]but to send for Lorarios, those officers to carry them all together for company to Bedlam, and set Rabelais to be their physician.
If any man shall ask in the meantime, who I am that so boldly censure others, tu nullane habes vitia? have I no faults? [793]Yes, more than thou hast, whatsoever thou art. Nos numerus sumus, I confess it again, I am as foolish, as mad as any one.
[794] "Insanus vobis videor, non deprecor ipse, Quo minus insanus,"———
I do not deny it, demens de populo dematur. My comfort is, I have more fellows, and those of excellent note. And though I be not so right or so discreet as I should be, yet not so mad, so bad neither, as thou perhaps takest me to be.
To conclude, this being granted, that all the world is melancholy, or mad, dotes, and every member of it, I have ended my task, and sufficiently illustrated that which I took upon me to demonstrate at first. At this present I have no more to say; His sanam mentem Democritus, I can but wish myself and them a good physician, and all of us a better mind.
And although for the above-named reasons, I had a just cause to undertake this subject, to point at these particular species of dotage, that so men might acknowledge their imperfections, and seek to reform what is amiss; yet I have a more serious intent at this time; and to omit all impertinent digressions, to say no more of such as are improperly melancholy, or metaphorically mad, lightly mad, or in disposition, as stupid, angry, drunken, silly, sottish, sullen, proud, vainglorious, ridiculous, beastly, peevish, obstinate, impudent, extravagant, dry, doting, dull, desperate, harebrain, &c. mad, frantic, foolish, heteroclites, which no new [795] hospital can hold, no physic help; my purpose and endeavour is, in the following discourse to anatomise this humour of melancholy, through all its parts and species, as it is an habit, or an ordinary disease, and that philosophically, medicinally, to show the causes, symptoms, and several cures of it, that it may be the better avoided. Moved thereunto for the generality of it, and to do good, it being a disease so frequent, as [796] Mercurialis observes, "in these our days; so often happening," saith [797] Laurentius, "in our miserable times," as few there are that feel not the smart of it. Of the same mind is Aelian Montaltus, [798]Melancthon, and others; [799]Julius Caesar Claudinus calls it the "fountain of all other diseases, and so common in this crazed age of ours, that scarce one of a thousand is free from it;" and that splenetic hypochondriacal wind especially, which proceeds from the spleen and short ribs. Being then a disease so grievous, so common, I know not wherein to do a more general service, and spend my time better, than to prescribe means how to prevent and cure so universal a malady, an epidemical disease, that so often, so much crucifies the body and mind.
If I have overshot myself in this which hath been hitherto said, or that it is, which I am sure some will object, too fantastical, "too light and comical for a Divine, too satirical for one of my profession," I will presume to answer with [800]Erasmus, in like case, 'tis not I, but Democritus, Democritus dixit: you must consider what it is to speak in one's own or another's person, an assumed habit and name; a difference betwixt him that affects or acts a prince's, a philosopher's, a magistrate's, a fool's part, and him that is so indeed; and what liberty those old satirists have had; it is a cento collected from others; not I, but they that say it.
[801] "Dixero si quid forte jocosius, hoc mihi juris
Cum venia, dabis"———
"Yet some indulgence I may justly claim,
If too familiar with another's fame."
Take heed you mistake me not. If I do a little forget myself, I hope you will pardon it. And to say truth, why should any man be offended, or take exceptions at it?
"Licuit, semperque licebit,
Parcere personis, dicere de vitiis."
"It lawful was of old, and still will be,
To speak of vice, but let the name go free."
I hate their vices, not their persons. If any be displeased, or take aught unto himself, let him not expostulate or cavil with him that said it (so did [802]Erasmus excuse himself to Dorpius, si parva licet componere magnis) and so do I; "but let him be angry with himself, that so betrayed and opened his own faults in applying it to himself:" [803]"if he be guilty and deserve it, let him amend, whoever he is, and not be angry." "He that hateth correction is a fool," Prov. xii. 1. If he be not guilty, it concerns him not; it is not my freeness of speech, but a guilty conscience, a galled back of his own that makes him wince.
"Suspicione si quis errabit sua,
Et rapiet ad se, quod erit commune omnium,
Stulte nudabit animi conscientiam."[804]
I deny not this which I have said savours a little of Democritus; [805] Quamvis ridentem dicere verum quid velat; one may speak in jest, and yet speak truth. It is somewhat tart, I grant it; acriora orexim excitant embammata, as he said, sharp sauces increase appetite, [806]nec cibus ipse juvat morsu fraudatus aceti. Object then and cavil what thou wilt, I ward all with [807]Democritus's buckler, his medicine shall salve it; strike where thou wilt, and when: Democritus dixit, Democritus will answer it. It was written by an idle fellow, at idle times, about our Saturnalian or Dionysian feasts, when as he said, nullum libertati periculum est, servants in old Rome had liberty to say and do what them list. When our countrymen sacrificed to their goddess [808]Vacuna, and sat tippling by their Vacunal fires. I writ this, and published this [Greek: houtis helegen], it is neminis nihil. The time, place, persons, and all circumstances apologise for me, and why may not I then be idle with others? speak my mind freely? If you deny me this liberty, upon these presumptions I will take it: I say again, I will take it.
[809] "Si quis est qui dictum in se inclementius Existimavit esse, sic existimet."
If any man take exceptions, let him turn the buckle of his girdle, I care not. I owe thee nothing (Reader), I look for no favour at thy hands, I am independent, I fear not.
No, I recant, I will not, I care, I fear, I confess my fault, acknowledge a great offence,
———"motos praestat componere fluctus."
———"let's first assuage the troubled waves"
I have overshot myself, I have spoken foolishly, rashly, unadvisedly, absurdly, I have anatomised mine own folly. And now methinks upon a sudden I am awaked as it were out of a dream; I have had a raving fit, a fantastical fit, ranged up and down, in and out, I have insulted over the most kind of men, abused some, offended others, wronged myself; and now being recovered, and perceiving mine error, cry with [810]Orlando, Solvite me, pardon (o boni) that which is past, and I will make you amends in that which is to come; I promise you a more sober discourse in my following treatise.
If through weakness, folly, passion, [811]discontent, ignorance, I have said amiss, let it be forgotten and forgiven. I acknowledge that of [812] Tacitus to be true, Asperae facetiae, ubi nimis ex vero traxere, acrem sui memoriam relinquunt, a bitter jest leaves a sting behind it: and as an honourable man observes, [813]"They fear a satirist's wit, he their memories." I may justly suspect the worst; and though I hope I have wronged no man, yet in Medea's words I will crave pardon,
———"Illud jam voce extrema peto,
Ne si qua noster dubius effudit dolor,
Maneant in animo verba, sed melior tibi
Memoria nostri subeat, haec irae data
Obliterentur"———
"And in my last words this I do desire,
That what in passion I have said, or ire,
May be forgotten, and a better mind,
Be had of us, hereafter as you find."
I earnestly request every private man, as Scaliger did Cardan, not to take offence. I will conclude in his lines, Si me cognitum haberes, non solum donares nobis has facetias nostras, sed etiam indignum duceres, tam humanum aninum, lene ingenium, vel minimam suspicionem deprecari oportere. If thou knewest my [814]modesty and simplicity, thou wouldst easily pardon and forgive what is here amiss, or by thee misconceived. If hereafter anatomizing this surly humour, my hand slip, as an unskilful 'prentice I lance too deep, and cut through skin and all at unawares, make it smart, or cut awry, [815]pardon a rude hand, an unskilful knife, 'tis a most difficult thing to keep an even tone, a perpetual tenor, and not sometimes to lash out; difficile est Satyram non scribere, there be so many objects to divert, inward perturbations to molest, and the very best may sometimes err; aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus (some times that excellent Homer takes a nap), it is impossible not in so much to overshoot;—opere in longo fas est obrepere, summum. But what needs all this? I hope there will no such cause of offence be given; if there be, [816]Nemo aliquid recognoscat, nos mentimur omnia. I'll deny all (my last refuge), recant all, renounce all I have said, if any man except, and with as much facility excuse, as he can accuse; but I presume of thy good favour, and gracious acceptance (gentle reader). Out of an assured hope and confidence thereof, I will begin.
Tu vero cavesis edico quisquis es, ne temere sugilles Auctorem hujusce operis, aut cavillator irrideas. Imo ne vel ex aliorum censura tacite obloquaris (vis dicam verbo) nequid nasutulus inepte improbes, aut falso fingas. Nam si talis revera sit, qualem prae se fert Junior Democritus, seniori Democrito saltem affinis, aut ejus Genium vel tantillum sapiat; actum de te, censorem aeque ac delatorem [817]aget econtra (petulanti splene cum sit) sufflabit te in jocos, comminuet in sales, addo etiam, et deo risui te sacrificabit.
Iterum moneo, ne quid cavillere, ne dum Democritum Juniorem conviciis infames, aut ignominiose vituperes, de te non male sentientem, tu idem audias ab amico cordato, quod olim vulgus Abderitanum ab [818] Hippocrate, concivem bene meritum et popularem suum Democritum, pro insano habens. Ne tu Democrite sapis, stulti autem et insani Abderitae.
[819] "Abderitanae pectora plebis habes."
Haec te paucis admonitum volo (male feriate Lector) abi.
Whoever you may be, I caution you against rashly defaming the author of this work, or cavilling in jest against him. Nay, do not silently reproach him in consequence of others' censure, nor employ your wit in foolish disapproval, or false accusation. For, should Democritus Junior prove to be what he professes, even a kinsman of his elder namesake, or be ever so little of the same kidney, it is all over with you: he will become both accuser and judge of you in your spleen, will dissipate you in jests, pulverise you into salt, and sacrifice you, I can promise you, to the God of Mirth.
I further advise you, not to asperse, or calumniate, or slander, Democritus Junior, who possibly does not think ill of you, lest you may hear from some discreet friend, the same remark the people of Abdera did from Hippocrates, of their meritorious and popular fellow-citizen, whom they had looked on as a madman; "It is not that you, Democritus, that art wise, but that the people of Abdera are fools and madmen." "You have yourself an Abderitian soul;" and having just given you, gentle reader, these few words of admonition, farewell.
"Heraclite fleas, misero sic convenit aevo,
Nil nisi turpe vides, nil nisi triste vides.
Ride etiam, quantumque lubet, Democrite ride
Non nisi vana vides, non nisi stulta vides.
Is fletu, his risu modo gaudeat, unus utrique
Sit licet usque labor, sit licet usque dolor.
Nunc opes est (nam totus eheu jam desipit orbis)
Mille Heraclitis, milleque Democritis.
Nunc opus est (tanta est insania) transeat omnis
Mundus in Anticyras, gramen in Helleborum."
"Weep, O Heraclitus, it suits the age,
Unless you see nothing base, nothing sad.
Laugh, O Democritus, as much as you please,
Unless you see nothing either vain or foolish.
Let one rejoice in smiles, the other in tears;
Let the same labour or pain be the office of both.
Now (for alas! how foolish the world has become),
A thousand Heraclitus', a thousand Democritus' are required.
Now (so much does madness prevail), all the world must be
Sent to Anticyra, to graze on Hellebore."
In diseases, consider Sect. 1. Memb. 1.
Their Causes. Subs. 1.
Impulsive;
Sin, concupiscence, &c.
Instrumental;
Intemperance, all second causes, &c.
Or Definition, Member, Division. Subs. 2.
Of the body 300, which are
Epidemical, as Plague, Plica, &c.
Or Particular as Gout, Dropsy, &c.
Or Of the head or mind. Subs. 3.
In disposition; as all perturbations, evil affection, &c.
Or Habits, as Subs. 4.
Dotage
Frenzy.
Madness.
Ecstasy.
Lycanthropia.
Chorus sancti Viti.
Hydrophobia.
Possession or obsession of Devils.
Melancholy. See [Symbol: Aries].
[Symbol: Aries] Melancholy: in which consider
Its Equivocations, in Disposition, Improper, &c. Subsect. 5.
Memb. 2.
To its explication, a digression of anatomy, in which observe parts of
Subs. 1.
Body hath parts Subs. 2.
contained as
Humours, 4. Blood, Phlegm, &c.
Spirits; vital, natural, animal.
or containing
Similar; spermatical, or flesh, bones, nerves, &c. Subs. 3.
Dissimilar; brain, heart, liver, &c. Subs. 4.
Soul and its faculties, as
Vegetal. Subs. 5.
Sensible. Subs. 6, 7, 8.
Rational. Subsect. 9, 10, 11.
Memb. 3.
Its definition, name, difference, Subs. 1.
The part and parties affected, affection, &c. Subs. 2.
The matter of melancholy, natural, &c. Subs. 3.
Species, or kinds [Subs. 4.], which are
Proper to parts, as
Of the head alone, hypochondriacal, or windy melancholy. Of the
whole body.
with their several causes, symptoms, prognostics, cures
Or Indefinite; as Love-melancholy, the subject of the third
Partition.
Its Causes in general. Sect. 2. A.
Its Symptoms or signs. Sect. 3. B.
Its Prognostics or indications. Sect. 4. C.
Its Cures; the subject of the second Partition.
A. Sect. 2. Causes of Melancholy are either
General, as Memb. 1.
Supernatural
As from God immediately, or by second causes. Subs. 1.
Or from the devil immediately, with a digression of the nature of
spirits and devils. Subs. 2.
Or mediately, by magicians, witches. Subs. 3.
Or Natural
Primary, as stars, proved by aphorisms, signs from physiognomy, metoposcopy, chiromancy. Subs. 4.
Or Secondary, as
Congenite, inward from
Old age, temperament, Subs. 5.
Parents, it being an hereditary disease, Subs. 6.
Or Outward or adventitious, which are
Evident, outward, remote, adventitious, as,
Necessary, see [Symbol: Taurus].
Not necessary, as M. 4. S. 2.
Nurses, Subs. 1.
Education, Subs. 2.
Terrors, affrights, Subs. 3.
Scoffs, calumnies, bitter jests, Subs. 4.
Loss of liberty, servitude, imprisonment, Subs.
5.
Poverty and want, _Subs. 6.
A heap of other accidents, death of friends,
loss, &c. Subs. 7.
Or Contingent, inward, antecedent, nearest. Memb. 5.
Sect. 2.
In which the body works on the mind, and this malady
is caused by precedent diseases; as agues, pox,
&c., or temperature, innate Subs. 1.
Or by particular parts distempered, as brain, heart,
spleen, liver, mesentery, pylorus, stomach &c.
Subs. 2.
Particular to the three species. See [Symbol: Gemini].
[Symbol: Gemini] Particular causes. Sect. 2. Memb. 5.
Of head Melancholy are Subs. 3.
Inward
Innate humour, or from temperature adjust.
A hot brain, corrupted blood in the brain
Excess of venery, or defect
Agues, or some precedent disease
Fumes arising from the stomach, &c.
Or Outward
Heat of the sun, immoderate
A blow on the head
Overmuch use of hot wines, spices, garlic, onions, hot baths,
overmuch waking, &c.
Idleness, solitariness, or overmuch study, vehement labour, &c.
Passions, perturbations, &c.
Of hypochondriacal or windy melancholy are, [Subs. 4.]
Inward
Default of spleen, belly, bowels, stomach, mesentery, miseraic
veins, liver, &c.
Months or hemorrhoids stopped, or any other ordinary evacuation
or Outward
Those six non-natural things abused.
Over all the body are, Subs. 5.
Inward
Liver distempered, stopped, over-hot, apt to engender melancholy,
temperature innate.
or Outward
Bad diet, suppression of hemorrhoids &c. and such evacuations,
passions, cares, &c. those six non-natural things abused.
[Symbol: Taurus] Necessary causes, as those six non-natural things, which are, Sect. 2 Memb. 2.
Diet offending in Subs. 1.
Substance
Bread; course and black, &c.
Drink; thick, thin, sour, &c.
Water unclean, milk, oil, vinegar, wine, spices &c.
Flesh
Parts: heads, feet, entrails, fat, bacon, blood, &c.
Kinds:
Beef, pork, venison, hares, goats, pigeons, peacocks,
fen-fowl, &c.
Herbs, Fish, &c.
Of fish; all shellfish, hard and slimy fish, &c.
Of herbs; pulse, cabbage, melons, garlic, onions, &c.
All roots, raw fruits, hard and windy meats
Quality, as in
Preparing, dressing, sharp sauces, salt meats, indurate, soused,
fried, broiled or made-dishes, &c.
Quantity
Disorder in eating, immoderate eating, or at unseasonable times,
&c. Subs. 2
Custom; delight, appetite, altered, &c. Subs. 3.
Retention and evacuation, Subs. 4.
Costiveness, hot baths, sweating, issues stopped, Venus in excess, or
in defect, phlebotomy, purging, &c.
Air; hot, cold, tempestuous, dark, thick, foggy, moorish, &c. Subs. 5.
Exercise, Subs. 6.
Unseasonable, excessive, or defective, of body or mind, solitariness,
idleness, a life out of action, &c.
Sleep and waking, unseasonable, inordinate, overmuch, overlittle, &c.
Subs. 7.
Memb. 3. Sect. 2.
Passions and perturbations of the mind, Subs. 1. With a digression of the force of imagination. Subs. 2. and division of passions into Subs. 3.
Irascible,
Sorrow, cause and symptom, Subs. 4.
Fear, cause and symptom, Subs. 5.
Shame, repulse, disgrace, &c. Subs. 6.
Envy and malice, Subs. 7.
Emulation, hatred, faction, desire of revenge, Subs. 8.
Anger a cause, Subs. 9.
Discontents, cares, miseries, &c. Subs. 10.
or concupiscible.
Vehement desires, ambition, Subs. 11.
Covetousness, [Greek: philargurian], Subs. 12.
Love of pleasures, gaming in excess, &c. Subs. 13.
Desire of praise, pride, vainglory, &c. Subs. 14.
Love of learning, study in excess, with a digression, of the
misery of scholars, and why the Muses are melancholy, Subs.
15.
B. Symptoms of melancholy are either Sect. 3.
General, as of Memb. 1.
Body, as ill digestion, crudity, wind, dry brains, hard belly, thick blood, much waking, heaviness, and palpitation of heart, leaping in many places, &c., Subs. 1.
or Mind
Common to all or most.
Fear and sorrow without a just cause, suspicion, jealousy,
discontent, solitariness, irksomeness, continual cogitations,
restless thoughts, vain imaginations, &c. Subs. 2.
Or Particular to private persons, according to Subs. 3. 4.
Celestial influences, as [Symbol: Saturn] [Symbol: Jupiter]
[Symbol: Mars], &c. parts of the body, heart, brain, liver,
spleen, stomach, &c.
Humours
Sanguine are merry still, laughing, pleasant, meditating
on plays, women, music, &c.
Phlegmatic, slothful, dull, heavy, &c.
Choleric, furious, impatient, subject to hear and see
strange apparitions, &c.
Black, solitary, sad; they think they are bewitched,
dead, &c.
Or mixed of these four humours adust, or not adust,
infinitely varied.
Their several customs, conditions, inclinations, discipline,
&c.
Ambitious, thinks himself a king, a lord; covetous, runs on his money; lascivious on his mistress; religious, hath revelations, visions, is a prophet, or troubled in mind; a scholar on his book, &c.
Continuance of time as the humour is intended or remitted,
&c.
Pleasant at first, hardly discerned; afterwards harsh and
intolerable, if inveterate. Hence some make three
degrees,
1. Falsa cogitatio.
2. Cogitata loqui.
3. Exequi loquutum.
By fits, or continuate, as the object varies, pleasing,
or displeasing.
Simple, or as it is mixed with other diseases, apoplexies, gout, caninus
appetitus, &c. so the symptoms are various.
[Symbol: Cancer] Particular symptoms to the three distinct species. Sect. 3. Memb. 2.
Head melancholy. Subs. 1.
In body
Headache, binding and heaviness, vertigo, lightness, singing of
the ears, much waking, fixed eyes, high colour, red eyes, hard
belly, dry body; no great sign of melancholy in the other parts.
Or In mind.
Continual fear, sorrow, suspicion, discontent, superfluous cares,
solicitude, anxiety, perpetual cogitation of such toys they are
possessed with, thoughts like dreams, &c.
Hypochondriacal, or windy melancholy. Subs. 2.
In body
Wind, rumbling in the guts, bellyache, heat in the bowels,
convulsions, crudities, short wind, sour and sharp belchings,
cold sweat, pain in the left side, suffocation, palpitation,
heaviness of the heart, singing in the ears, much spittle, and
moist, &c.
Or In mind.
Fearful, sad, suspicious, discontent, anxiety, &c. Lascivious by
reason of much wind, troublesome dreams, affected by fits, &c.
Over all the body. Subs. 3.
In body
Black, most part lean, broad veins, gross, thick blood, their
hemorrhoids commonly stopped, &c.
Or In mind.
Fearful, sad, solitary, hate light, averse from company, fearful
dreams, &c.
Symptoms of nuns, maids, and widows melancholy, in body and mind, &c.
[Subs. 4]
A reason of these symptoms. Memb. 3.
Why they are so fearful, sad, suspicious without a cause, why solitary, why melancholy men are witty, why they suppose they hear and see strange voices, visions, apparitions.
Why they prophesy, and speak strange languages; whence comes their crudity, rumbling, convulsions, cold sweat, heaviness of heart, palpitation, cardiaca, fearful dreams, much waking, prodigious fantasies.
C. Prognostics of melancholy. Sect. 4.
Tending to good, as
Morphew, scabs, itch, breaking out, &c.
Black jaundice.
If the hemorrhoids voluntarily open.
If varices appear.
Tending to evil, as
Leanness, dryness, hollow-eyed, &c.
Inveterate melancholy is incurable.
If cold, it degenerates often into epilepsy, apoplexy, dotage, or
into blindness.
If hot, into madness, despair, and violent death.
Corollaries and questions.
The grievousness of this above all other diseases.
The diseases of the mind are more grievous than those of the body.
Whether it be lawful, in this case of melancholy, for a man to offer
violence to himself. Neg.
How a melancholy or mad man offering violence to himself, is to be
censured.
THE FIRST SECTION, MEMBER, SUBSECTION. Man's Excellency, Fall, Miseries, Infirmities; The causes of them.
Man's Excellency.] Man the most excellent and noble creature of the world, "the principal and mighty work of God, wonder of Nature," as Zoroaster calls him; audacis naturae miraculum, "the [820]marvel of marvels," as Plato; "the [821]abridgment and epitome of the world," as Pliny; microcosmus, a little world, a model of the world, [822]sovereign lord of the earth, viceroy of the world, sole commander and governor of all the creatures in it; to whose empire they are subject in particular, and yield obedience; far surpassing all the rest, not in body only, but in soul; [823]imaginis imago, [824]created to God's own [825]image, to that immortal and incorporeal substance, with all the faculties and powers belonging unto it; was at first pure, divine, perfect, happy, [826] "created after God in true holiness and righteousness;" Deo congruens, free from all manner of infirmities, and put in Paradise, to know God, to praise and glorify him, to do his will, Ut diis consimiles parturiat deos (as an old poet saith) to propagate the church.
Man's Fall and Misery.] But this most noble creature, Heu tristis, et lachrymosa commutatio ([827]one exclaims) O pitiful change! is fallen from that he was, and forfeited his estate, become miserabilis homuncio, a castaway, a caitiff, one of the most miserable creatures of the world, if he be considered in his own nature, an unregenerate man, and so much obscured by his fall that (some few relics excepted) he is inferior to a beast, [828]"Man in honour that understandeth not, is like unto beasts that perish," so David esteems him: a monster by stupend metamorphoses, [829]a fox, a dog, a hog, what not? Quantum mutatus ab illo? How much altered from that he was; before blessed and happy, now miserable and accursed; [830]"He must eat his meat in sorrow," subject to death and all manner of infirmities, all kind of calamities.
A Description of Melancholy.] [831]"Great travail is created for all men, and an heavy yoke on the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of their mother's womb, unto that day they return to the mother of all things. Namely, their thoughts, and fear of their hearts, and their imagination of things they wait for, and the day of death. From him that sitteth in the glorious throne, to him that sitteth beneath in the earth and ashes; from him that is clothed in blue silk and weareth a crown, to him that is clothed in simple linen. Wrath, envy, trouble, and unquietness, and fear of death, and rigour, and strife, and such things come to both man and beast, but sevenfold to the ungodly." All this befalls him in this life, and peradventure eternal misery in the life to come.
Impulsive Cause of Man's Misery and Infirmities.] The impulsive cause of these miseries in man, this privation or destruction of God's image, the cause of death and diseases, of all temporal and eternal punishments, was the sin of our first parent Adam, [832]in eating of the forbidden fruit, by the devil's instigation and allurement. His disobedience, pride, ambition, intemperance, incredulity, curiosity; from whence proceeded original sin, and that general corruption of mankind, as from a fountain, flowed all bad inclinations and actual transgressions which cause our several calamities inflicted upon us for our sins. And this belike is that which our fabulous poets have shadowed unto us in the tale of [833] Pandora's box, which being opened through her curiosity, filled the world full of all manner of diseases. It is not curiosity alone, but those other crying sins of ours, which pull these several plagues and miseries upon our heads. For Ubi peccatum, ibi procella, as [834]Chrysostom well observes. [835]"Fools by reason of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are afflicted." [836]"Fear cometh like sudden desolation, and destruction like a whirlwind, affliction and anguish," because they did not fear God. [837]"Are you shaken with wars?" as Cyprian well urgeth to Demetrius, "are you molested with dearth and famine? is your health crushed with raging diseases? is mankind generally tormented with epidemical maladies? 'tis all for your sins," Hag. i. 9, 10; Amos i.; Jer. vii. God is angry, punisheth and threateneth, because of their obstinacy and stubbornness, they will not turn unto him. [838]"If the earth be barren then for want of rain, if dry and squalid, it yield no fruit, if your fountains be dried up, your wine, corn, and oil blasted, if the air be corrupted, and men troubled with diseases, 'tis by reason of their sins:" which like the blood of Abel cry loud to heaven for vengeance, Lam. v. 15. "That we have sinned, therefore our hearts are heavy," Isa. lix. 11, 12. "We roar like bears, and mourn like doves, and want health, &c. for our sins and trespasses." But this we cannot endure to hear or to take notice of, Jer. ii. 30. "We are smitten in vain and receive no correction;" and cap. v. 3. "Thou hast stricken them, but they have not sorrowed; they have refused to receive correction; they have not returned. Pestilence he hath sent, but they have not turned to him," Amos iv. [839]Herod could not abide John Baptist, nor [840]Domitian endure Apollonius to tell the causes of the plague at Ephesus, his injustice, incest, adultery, and the like.
To punish therefore this blindness and obstinacy of ours as a concomitant cause and principal agent, is God's just judgment in bringing these calamities upon us, to chastise us, I say, for our sins, and to satisfy God's wrath. For the law requires obedience or punishment, as you may read at large, Deut. xxviii. 15. "If they will not obey the Lord, and keep his commandments and ordinances, then all these curses shall come upon them." [841]"Cursed in the town and in the field," &c. [842]"Cursed in the fruit of the body," &c. [843]"The Lord shall send thee trouble and shame, because of thy wickedness." And a little after, [844]"The Lord shall smite thee with the botch of Egypt, and with emerods, and scab, and itch, and thou canst not be healed; [845]with madness, blindness, and astonishing of heart." This Paul seconds, Rom. ii. 9. "Tribulation and anguish on the soul of every man that doeth evil." Or else these chastisements are inflicted upon us for our humiliation, to exercise and try our patience here in this life to bring us home, to make us to know God ourselves, to inform and teach us wisdom. [846]"Therefore is my people gone into captivity, because they had no knowledge; therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against his people, and he hath stretched out his hand upon them." He is desirous of our salvation. [847]Nostrae salutis avidus, saith Lemnius, and for that cause pulls us by the ear many times, to put us in mind of our duties: "That they which erred might have understanding, (as Isaiah speaks xxix. 24) and so to be reformed." [848]"I am afflicted, and at the point of death," so David confesseth of himself, Psal. lxxxviii. v. 15, v. 9. "Mine eyes are sorrowful through mine affliction:" and that made him turn unto God. Great Alexander in the midst of all his prosperity, by a company of parasites deified, and now made a god, when he saw one of his wounds bleed, remembered that he was but a man, and remitted of his pride. In morbo recolligit se animus,[849] as [850]Pliny well perceived; "In sickness the mind reflects upon itself, with judgment surveys itself, and abhors its former courses;" insomuch that he concludes to his friend Marius,[851] "that it were the period of all philosophy, if we could so continue sound, or perform but a part of that which we promised to do, being sick. Whoso is wise then, will consider these things," as David did (Psal. cxliv., verse last); and whatsoever fortune befall him, make use of it. If he be in sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity, seriously to recount with himself, why this or that malady, misery, this or that incurable disease is inflicted upon him; it may be for his good, [852]sic expedit as Peter said of his daughter's ague. Bodily sickness is for his soul's health, periisset nisi periisset, had he not been visited, he had utterly perished; for [853]"the Lord correcteth him whom he loveth, even as a father doth his child in whom he delighteth." If he be safe and sound on the other side, and free from all manner of infirmity; [854]et cui
"Gratia, forma, valetudo contingat abunde
Et mundus victus, non deficiente crumena."
"And that he have grace, beauty, favour, health,
A cleanly diet, and abound in wealth."
Yet in the midst of his prosperity, let him remember that caveat of Moses, [855]"Beware that he do not forget the Lord his God;" that he be not puffed up, but acknowledge them to be his good gifts and benefits, and [856]"the more he hath, to be more thankful," (as Agapetianus adviseth) and use them aright.
Instrumental Causes of our Infirmities.] Now the instrumental causes of these our infirmities, are as diverse as the infirmities themselves; stars, heavens, elements, &c. And all those creatures which God hath made, are armed against sinners. They were indeed once good in themselves, and that they are now many of them pernicious unto us, is not in their nature, but our corruption, which hath caused it. For from the fall of our first parent Adam, they have been changed, the earth accursed, the influence of stars, altered, the four elements, beasts, birds, plants, are now ready to offend us. "The principal things for the use of man, are water, fire, iron, salt, meal, wheat, honey, milk, oil, wine, clothing, good to the godly, to the sinners turned to evil," Ecclus. xxxix. 26. "Fire, and hail, and famine, and dearth, all these are created for vengeance," Ecclus. xxxix. 29. The heavens threaten us with their comets, stars, planets, with their great conjunctions, eclipses, oppositions, quartiles, and such unfriendly aspects. The air with his meteors, thunder and lightning, intemperate heat and cold, mighty winds, tempests, unseasonable weather; from which proceed dearth, famine, plague, and all sorts of epidemical diseases, consuming infinite myriads of men. At Cairo in Egypt, every third year, (as it is related by [857]Boterus, and others) 300,000 die of the plague; and 200,000, in Constantinople, every fifth or seventh at the utmost. How doth the earth terrify and oppress us with terrible earthquakes, which are most frequent in [858]China, Japan, and those eastern climes, swallowing up sometimes six cities at once? How doth the water rage with his inundations, irruptions, flinging down towns, cities, villages, bridges, &c. besides shipwrecks; whole islands are sometimes suddenly overwhelmed with all their inhabitants in [859]Zealand, Holland, and many parts of the continent drowned, as the [860]lake Erne in Ireland? [861]Nihilque praeter arcium cadavera patenti cernimus freto. In the fens of Friesland 1230, by reason of tempests, [862]the sea drowned multa hominum millia, et jumenta sine numero, all the country almost, men and cattle in it. How doth the fire rage, that merciless element, consuming in an instant whole cities? What town of any antiquity or note hath not been once, again and again, by the fury of this merciless element, defaced, ruinated, and left desolate? In a word,
[863] "Ignis pepercit, unda mergit, aeris
Vis pestilentis aequori ereptum necat,
Bello superstes, tabidus morbo perit."
"Whom fire spares, sea doth drown; whom sea,
Pestilent air doth send to clay;
Whom war 'scapes, sickness takes away."
To descend to more particulars, how many creatures are at deadly feud with men? Lions, wolves, bears, &c. Some with hoofs, horns, tusks, teeth, nails: How many noxious serpents and venomous creatures, ready to offend us with stings, breath, sight, or quite kill us? How many pernicious fishes, plants, gums, fruits, seeds, flowers, &c. could I reckon up on a sudden, which by their very smell many of them, touch, taste, cause some grievous malady, if not death itself? Some make mention of a thousand several poisons: but these are but trifles in respect. The greatest enemy to man, is man, who by the devil's instigation is still ready to do mischief, his own executioner, a wolf, a devil to himself, and others. [864]We are all brethren in Christ, or at least should be, members of one body, servants of one lord, and yet no fiend can so torment, insult over, tyrannise, vex, as one man doth another. Let me not fall therefore (saith David, when wars, plague, famine were offered) into the hands of men, merciless and wicked men: