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Anatomy of Melancholy
by Robert Burton
Introduction to this Edition.
This edition of _The Anatomy of Melancholy_ is based on a
nineteenth-century edition that modernized Burton's spelling and
typographic conventions. In preparing this electronic version, it became
evident that the editor had made a variety of mistakes in this
modernization: some words were left in their original spelling (unusual
words were a particular problem), portions of book titles were mistaken for
proper names, proper names were mistaken for book titles or Latin words,
etc. A certain number of misprints were also introduced into the Latin. As
a result, I have re-edited the text, checking it against images of the 1638
edition, and correcting all errors not present in the earlier edition. I
have continued to follow the general editorial practice of the base text
for quotation marks, italics, etc. Rare words have been normalized
according to their primary spelling in the Oxford English Dictionary. When
Burton spells a person's name in several ways, I have normalized the names
to the most common spelling, or to modern practice if well-known. In a few
cases, mistakes present in both the 1638 edition and the base text have
been corrected. These are always minor reference errors (e.g., an incorrect
or missing section number in the synopses, or misnumbered footnotes).
Incorrect citations to other texts (Burton seems to quote by memory and
sometimes gets it wrong) have not been changed if they are wrong in both
editions. To display some symbols (astrological signs, etc.) the HTML
version requires a browser with unicode support. Most recent browsers
should be OK.--KTH
FRONTISPIECE TO THE ORIGINAL EDITION
[Illustration: 1. Democritus Abderites; 2. Zelotypia 3. Solitudo; 4.
Inamorato; 5. Hypocondriacus; 6. Superstitiosus; 7. Maniacus; 8. Borage; 9.
Hellebor; 10. Democritus Junior
THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY
What it is, with all the kinds, causes, symptoms, prognostics, and several
cures of it.
In three Partitions, with their several Sections, numbers, and subsections.
Philosophically, medicinally, Historically, opened and cut up.
By Democritus Junior
With a Satyrical Preface conducing to the following Discourse.
The Sixth Edition, corrected and augmented by the Author.
Omne tulit punctum, qui miscit utile dulce.
London
Printed & to be sold by Hen. Crips & Lodo Lloyd at their shop in
Popes-head Alley. 1652]
THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY,
WHAT IT IS,
WITH
ALL THE KINDS, CAUSES, SYMPTOMS, PROGNOSTICS, AND SEVERAL CURES OF IT.
IN THREE PARTITIONS.
WITH THEIR SEVERAL
SECTIONS, MEMBERS, AND SUBSECTIONS, PHILOSOPHICALLY, MEDICALLY,
HISTORICALLY OPENED AND CUT UP.
BY DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR.
WITH A SATIRICAL PREFACE, CONDUCING TO THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE.
A NEW EDITION,
CORRECTED, AND ENRICHED BY TRANSLATIONS OF THE NUMEROUS CLASSICAL EXTRACTS.
BY DEMOCRITUS MINOR.
TO WHICH IS PREFIXED AN ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR.
Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci.
He that joins instruction with delight,
Profit with pleasure, carries all the votes.
HONORATISSIMO DOMINO
NON MINVS VIRTUTE SUA, QUAM GENERIS SPLENDORE,
ILLVSTRISSIMO,
GEORGIO BEKKLEIO,
MILITI DE BALNEO, BARONI DE BERKLEY, MOUBREY, SEGRAVE,
D. DE BRUSE,
DOMINO SUO MULTIS NOMINIBUS OBSERVANDO,
HANC SUAM
MELANCHOLIAE ANATOMEN,
JAM SEXTO REVISAM, D.D.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR.
ADVERTISEMENT TO THE LAST LONDON EDITION.
The work now restored to public notice has had an extraordinary fate. At
the time of its original publication it obtained a great celebrity, which
continued more than half a century. During that period few books were more
read, or more deservedly applauded. It was the delight of the learned, the
solace of the indolent, and the refuge of the uninformed. It passed through
at least eight editions, by which the bookseller, as WOOD records, got an
estate; and, notwithstanding the objection sometimes opposed against it, of
a quaint style, and too great an accumulation of authorities, the
fascination of its wit, fancy, and sterling sense, have borne down all
censures, and extorted praise from the first Writers in the English
language. The grave JOHNSON has praised it in the warmest terms, and the
ludicrous STERNE has interwoven many parts of it into his own popular
performance. MILTON did not disdain to build two of his finest poems on it;
and a host of inferior writers have embellished their works with beauties
not their own, culled from a performance which they had not the justice
even to mention. Change of times, and the frivolity of fashion, suspended,
in some degree, that fame which had lasted near a century; and the
succeeding generation affected indifference towards an author, who at
length was only looked into by the plunderers of literature, the poachers
in obscure volumes. The plagiarisms of _Tristram Shandy_, so successfully
brought to light by DR. FERRIAR, at length drew the attention of the public
towards a writer, who, though then little known, might, without impeachment
of modesty, lay claim to every mark of respect; and inquiry proved, beyond
a doubt, that the calls of justice had been little attended to by others,
as well as the facetious YORICK. WOOD observed, more than a century ago,
that several authors had unmercifully stolen matter from BURTON without any
acknowledgment. The time, however, at length arrived, when the merits of
the _Anatomy of Melancholy_ were to receive their due praise. The book was
again sought for and read, and again it became an applauded performance.
Its excellencies once more stood confessed, in the increased price which
every copy offered for sale produced; and the increased demand pointed out
the necessity of a new edition. This is now presented to the public in a
manner not disgraceful to the memory of the author; and the publisher
relies with confidence, that so valuable a repository of amusement and
information will continue to hold the rank to which it has been restored,
firmly supported by its own merit, and safe from the influence and blight
of any future caprices of fashion. To open its valuable mysteries to those
who have not had the advantage of a classical education, translations of
the countless quotations from ancient writers which occur in the work, are
now for the first time given, and obsolete orthography is in all instances
modernized.
ACCOUNT OF THE AUTHOR.
Robert Burton was the son of Ralph Burton, of an ancient and genteel family
at Lindley, in Leicestershire, and was born there on the 8th of February
1576. [1]He received the first rudiments of learning at the free school of
Sutton Coldfield, in Warwickshire [2]from whence he was, at the age of
seventeen, in the long vacation, 1593, sent to Brazen Nose College, in the
condition of a commoner, where he made considerable progress in logic and
philosophy. In 1599 he was elected student of Christ Church, and, for
form's sake, was put under the tuition of Dr. John Bancroft, afterwards
Bishop of Oxford. In 1614 he was admitted to the reading of the Sentences,
and on the 29th of November, 1616, had the vicarage of St. Thomas, in the
west suburb of Oxford, conferred on him by the dean and canons of Christ
Church, which, with the rectory of Segrave, in Leicestershire, given to him
in the year 1636, by George, Lord Berkeley, he kept, to use the words of
the Oxford antiquary, with much ado to his dying day. He seems to have been
first beneficed at Walsby, in Lincolnshire, through the munificence of his
noble patroness, Frances, Countess Dowager of Exeter, but resigned the
same, as he tells us, for some special reasons. At his vicarage he is
remarked to have always given the sacrament in wafers. Wood's character of
him is, that "he was an exact mathematician, a curious calculator of
nativities, a general read scholar, a thorough-paced philologist, and one
that understood the surveying of lands well. As he was by many accounted a
severe student, a devourer of authors, a melancholy and humorous person; so
by others, who knew him well, a person of great honesty, plain dealing and
charity. I have heard some of the ancients of Christ Church often say, that
his company was very merry, facete, and juvenile; and no man in his time
did surpass him for his ready and dexterous interlarding his common
discourses among them with verses from the poets, or sentences from classic
authors; which being then all the fashion in the University, made his
company the more acceptable." He appears to have been a universal reader of
all kinds of books, and availed himself of his multifarious studies in a
very extraordinary manner. From the information of Hearne, we learn that
John Rouse, the Bodleian librarian, furnished him with choice books for the
prosecution of his work. The subject of his labour and amusement, seems to
have been adopted from the infirmities of his own habit and constitution.
Mr. Granger says, "He composed this book with a view of relieving his own
melancholy, but increased it to such a degree, that nothing could make him
laugh, but going to the bridge-foot and hearing the ribaldry of the
bargemen, which rarely failed to throw him into a violent fit of laughter.
Before he was overcome with this horrid disorder, he, in the intervals of
his vapours, was esteemed one of the most facetious companions in the
University."
His residence was chiefly at Oxford; where, in his chamber in Christ Church
College, he departed this life, at or very near the time which he had some
years before foretold, from the calculation of his own nativity, and which,
says Wood, "being exact, several of the students did not forbear to whisper
among themselves, that rather than there should be a mistake in the
calculation, he sent up his soul to heaven through a slip about his neck."
Whether this suggestion is founded in truth, we have no other evidence than
an obscure hint in the epitaph hereafter inserted, which was written by the
author himself, a short time before his death. His body, with due
solemnity, was buried near that of Dr. Robert Weston, in the north aisle
which joins next to the choir of the cathedral of Christ Church, on the
27th of January 1639-40. Over his grave was soon after erected a comely
monument, on the upper pillar of the said aisle, with his bust, painted to
the life. On the right hand is the following calculation of his nativity:
[Illustration: R. natus B.
1576, 8 Feb.
hor. 3, scrup. 16.
long. 22 deg. 0'
polus 51 deg. 30"]
and under the bust, this inscription of his own composition:--
Paucis notus, paucioribus ignotus,
Hic jacet _Democritus_ junior
Cui vitam dedit et mortem
Melancholia
Ob. 8 Id. Jan. A. C. MDCXXXIX.
Arms:--Azure on a bend O. between three dogs' heads O. a crescent G.
A few months before his death, he made his will, of which the following is
a copy:
EXTRACTED FROM THE REGISTRY OF THE PREROGATIVE COURT OF CANTERBURY.
_In nomine Dei Amen_. August 15th One thousand six hundred thirty nine
because there be so many casualties to which our life is subject besides
quarrelling and contention which happen to our Successors after our Death
by reason of unsettled Estates I Robert Burton Student of Christ-church
Oxon. though my means be but small have thought good by this my last Will
and Testament to dispose of that little which I have and being at this
present I thank God in perfect health of Bodie and Mind and if this
Testament be not so formal according to the nice and strict terms of Law
and other Circumstances peradventure required of which I am ignorant I
desire howsoever this my Will may be accepted and stand good according to
my true Intent and meaning First I bequeath Animam Deo Corpus Terrae
whensoever it shall please God to call me I give my Land in Higham which my
good Father Ralphe Burton of Lindly in the County of Leicester Esquire gave
me by Deed of Gift and that which I have annexed to that Farm by purchase
since, now leased for thirty eight pounds per Ann. to mine Elder Brother
William Burton of Lindly Esquire during his life and after him to his Heirs
I make my said Brother William likewise mine Executor as well as paying
such Annuities and Legacies out of my Lands and Goods as are hereafter
specified I give to my nephew Cassibilan Burton twenty pounds Annuity per
Ann. out of my Land in Higham during his life to be paid at two equal
payments at our Lady Day in Lent and Michaelmas or if he be not paid within
fourteen Days after the said Feasts to distrain on any part of the Ground
or on any of my Lands of Inheritance Item I give to my Sister Katherine
Jackson during her life eight pounds per Ann. Annuity to be paid at the two
Feasts equally as above said or else to distrain on the Ground if she be
not paid after fourteen days at Lindly as the other _some_ is out of the
said Land Item I give to my Servant John Upton the Annuity of Forty
Shillings out of my said Farme during his life (if till then my Servant) to
be paid on Michaelmas day in Lindley each year or else after fourteen days
to distrain Now for my goods I thus dispose them First I give an C'th
pounds to Christ Church in Oxford where I have so long lived to buy five
pounds Lands per Ann. to be Yearly bestowed on Books for the Library Item I
give an hundredth pound to the University Library of Oxford to be bestowed
to purchase five pound Land per Ann. to be paid out Yearly on Books as Mrs.
Brooks formerly gave an hundred pounds to buy Land to the same purpose and
the Rent to the same use I give to my Brother George Burton twenty pounds
and my watch I give to my Brother Ralph Burton five pounds Item I give to
the Parish of Seagrave in Leicestershire where I am now Rector ten pounds
to be given to a certain Feoffees to the perpetual good of the said _Parish
Oxon_ [3]Item I give to my Niece Eugenia Burton One hundredth pounds Item I
give to my Nephew Richard Burton now Prisoner in London an hundredth pound
to redeem him Item I give to the Poor of Higham Forty Shillings where my
Land is to the poor of Nuneaton where I was once a Grammar Scholar three
pound to my Cousin Purfey of Wadlake [Wadley] my Cousin Purfey of Calcott
my Cousin Hales of Coventry my Nephew Bradshaw of Orton twenty shillings a
piece for a small remembrance to Mr. Whitehall Rector of Cherkby myne own
Chamber Fellow twenty shillings I desire my Brother George and my Cosen
Purfey of Calcott to be the Overseers of this part of my Will I give
moreover five pounds to make a small Monument for my Mother where she is
buried in London to my Brother Jackson forty shillings to my Servant John
Upton forty shillings besides his former Annuity if he be my Servant till I
die if he be till then my Servant [4]--ROBERT BURTON--Charles Russell
Witness--John Pepper Witness.
An Appendix to this my Will if I die in Oxford or whilst I am of Christ
Church and with good Mr. Paynes August the Fifteenth 1639.
I give to Mr. Doctor Fell Dean of Christ Church Forty Shillings to the
Eight Canons twenty Shillings a piece as a small remembrance to the poor of
St. Thomas Parish Twenty Shillings to Brasenose Library five pounds to Mr.
Rowse of Oriell Colledge twenty Shillings to Mr. Heywood _xx_s. to Dr.
Metcalfe _xx_s. to Mr. Sherley _xx_s. If I have any Books the University
Library hath not, let them take them If I have any Books our own Library
hath not, let them take them I give to Mrs. Fell all my English Books of
Husbandry one excepted to her Daughter Mrs. Katherine Fell my Six Pieces of
Silver Plate and six Silver spoons to Mrs. Iles my Gerards Herball To Mrs.
Morris my Country Farme Translated out of French 4. and all my English
Physick Books to Mr. Whistler the Recorder of Oxford I give twenty
shillings to all my fellow Students Mrs of Arts a Book in fol. or two a
piece as Master Morris Treasurer or Mr. Dean shall appoint whom I request
to be the Overseer of this Appendix and give him for his pains Atlas
Geografer and Ortelius Theatrum Mond' I give to John Fell the Dean's Son
Student my Mathematical Instruments except my two Crosse Staves which I
give to my Lord of Donnol if he be then of the House To Thomas Iles Doctor
Iles his Son Student Saluntch on Paurrhelia and Lucian's Works in 4 Tomes
If any books be left let my Executors dispose of them with all such Books
as are written with my own hands and half my Melancholy Copy for Crips hath
the other half To Mr. Jones Chaplin and Chanter my Surveying Books and
Instruments To the Servants of the House Forty Shillings ROB.
BURTON--Charles Russell Witness--John Pepper Witness--This Will was shewed
to me by the Testator and acknowledged by him some few days before his
death to be his last Will Ita Testor John Morris S Th D. Prebendari' Eccl
Chri' Oxon Feb. 3, 1639.
Probatum fuit Testamentum suprascriptum, &c. 11 deg. 1640 Juramento Willmi
Burton Fris' et Executoris cui &c. de bene et fideliter administrand.
&c. coram Mag'ris Nathanaele Stephens Rectore Eccl. de Drayton, et
Edwardo Farmer, Clericis, vigore commissionis, &c.
The only work our author executed was that now reprinted, which probably
was the principal employment of his life. Dr. Ferriar says, it was
originally published in the year 1617; but this is evidently a mistake;
[5]the first edition was that printed in 4to, 1621, a copy of which is at
present in the collection of John Nichols, Esq., the indefatigable
illustrator of the _History of Leicestershire_; to whom, and to Isaac Reed,
Esq., of Staple Inn, this account is greatly indebted for its accuracy. The
other impressions of it were in 1624, 1628, 1632, 1638, 1651-2, 1660, and
1676, which last, in the titlepage, is called the eighth edition.
The copy from which the present is reprinted, is that of 1651-2; at the
conclusion of which is the following address:
"TO THE READER.
"Be pleased to know (Courteous Reader) that since the last Impression
of this Book, the ingenuous Author of it is deceased, leaving a Copy
of it exactly corrected, with several considerable Additions by his
own hand; this Copy he committed to my care and custody, with
directions to have those Additions inserted in the next Edition; which
in order to his command, and the Publicke Good, is faithfully
performed in this last Impression."
H. C. (_i.e. HEN. CRIPPS._)
The following testimonies of various authors will serve to show the
estimation in which this work has been held:--
"The ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, wherein the author hath piled up variety of
much excellent learning. Scarce any book of philology in our land hath, in
so short a time, passed so many editions."--_Fuller's Worthies_, fol. 16.
"'Tis a book so full of variety of reading, that gentlemen who have lost
their time, and are put to a push for invention, may furnish themselves
with matter for common or scholastical discourse and writing."--_Wood's
Athenae Oxoniensis_, vol. i. p. 628. 2d edit.
"If you never saw BURTON UPON MELANCHOLY, printed 1676, I pray look into
it, and read the ninth page of his Preface, 'Democritus to the Reader.'
There is something there which touches the point we are upon; but I mention
the author to you, as the pleasantest, the most learned, and the most full
of sterling sense. The wits of Queen Anne's reign, and the beginning of
George the First, were not a little beholden to him."--_Archbishop
Herring's Letters_, 12mo. 1777. p. 149.
"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, he (Dr. Johnson) said, was the only book
that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to
rise."--_Boswell's Life of Johnson_, vol. i. p. 580. 8vo. edit.
"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY is a valuable book," said Dr. Johnson. "It
is, perhaps, overloaded with quotation. But there is great spirit and great
power in what Burton says when he writes from his own mind."--_Ibid_, vol.
ii. p. 325.
"It will be no detraction from the powers of Milton's original genius and
invention, to remark, that he seems to have borrowed the subject of _L'
Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_, together with some particular thoughts,
expressions, and rhymes, more especially the idea of a contrast between
these two dispositions, from a forgotten poem prefixed to the first edition
of BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, entitled, 'The Author's Abstract of
Melancholy; or, A Dialogue between Pleasure and Pain.' Here pain is
melancholy. It was written, as I conjecture, about the year 1600. I will
make no apology for abstracting and citing as much of this poem as will be
sufficient to prove, to a discerning reader, how far it had taken
possession of Milton's mind. The measure will appear to be the same; and
that our author was at least an attentive reader of Burton's book, may be
already concluded from the traces of resemblance which I have incidentally
noticed in passing through the _L' Allegro_ and _Il Penseroso_."--After
extracting the lines, Mr. Warton adds, "as to the very elaborate work to
which these visionary verses are no unsuitable introduction, the writer's
variety of learning, his quotations from scarce and curious books, his
pedantry sparkling with rude wit and shapeless elegance, miscellaneous
matter, intermixture of agreeable tales and illustrations, and, perhaps,
above all, the singularities of his feelings, clothed in an uncommon
quaintness of style, have contributed to render it, even to modern readers,
a valuable repository of amusement and information."--_Warton's Milton_, 2d
edit. p. 94.
"THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY is a book which has been universally read and
admired. This work is, for the most part, what the author himself styles
it, 'a cento;' but it is a very ingenious one. His quotations, which abound
in every page, are pertinent; but if he had made more use of his invention
and less of his commonplace-book, his work would perhaps have been more
valuable than it is. He is generally free from the affected language and
ridiculous metaphors which disgrace most of the books of his
time."--_Granger's Biographical History_.
"BURTON'S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, a book once the favourite of the learned
and the witty, and a source of surreptitious learning, though written on a
regular plan, consists chiefly of quotations: the author has honestly
termed it a cento. He collects, under every division, the opinions of a
multitude of writers, without regard to chronological order, and has too
often the modesty to decline the interposition of his own sentiments.
Indeed the bulk of his materials generally overwhelms him. In the course of
his folio he has contrived to treat a great variety of topics, that seem
very loosely connected with the general subject; and, like Bayle, when he
starts a favourite train of quotations, he does not scruple to let the
digression outrun the principal question. Thus, from the doctrines of
religion to military discipline, from inland navigation to the morality of
dancing-schools, every thing is discussed and determined."--_Ferriar's
Illustrations of Sterne_, p. 58.
"The archness which BURTON displays occasionally, and his indulgence of
playful digressions from the most serious discussions, often give his style
an air of familiar conversation, notwithstanding the laborious collections
which supply his text. He was capable of writing excellent poetry, but he
seems to have cultivated this talent too little. The English verses
prefixed to his book, which possess beautiful imagery, and great sweetness
of versification, have been frequently published. His Latin elegiac verses
addressed to his book, shew a very agreeable turn for raillery."--_Ibid_.
p. 58.
"When the force of the subject opens his own vein of prose, we discover
valuable sense and brilliant expression. Such is his account of the first
feelings of melancholy persons, written, probably, from his own
experience." [See p. 154, of the present edition.]--_Ibid._ p. 60.
"During a pedantic age, like that in which BURTON'S production appeared, it
must have been eminently serviceable to writers of many descriptions. Hence
the unlearned might furnish themselves with appropriate scraps of Greek and
Latin, whilst men of letters would find their enquiries shortened, by
knowing where they might look for what both ancients and moderns had
advanced on the subject of human passions. I confess my inability to point
out any other English author who has so largely dealt in apt and original
quotation."--_Manuscript note of the late George Steevens, Esq., in his
copy of_ THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR AD LIBRUM SUUM.
Vade liber, qualis, non ausum dicere, felix,
Te nisi felicem fecerit Alma dies.
Vade tamen quocunque lubet, quascunque per oras,
Et Genium Domini fac imitere tui.
I blandas inter Charites, mystamque saluta
Musarum quemvis, si tibi lector erit.
Rura colas, urbem, subeasve palatia regum,
Submisse, placide, te sine dente geras.
Nobilis, aut si quis te forte inspexerit heros,
Da te morigerum, perlegat usque lubet.
Est quod nobilitas, est quod desideret heros,
Gratior haec forsan charta placere potest.
Si quis morosus Cato, tetricusque Senator,
Hunc etiam librum forte videre velit,
Sive magistratus, tum te reverenter habeto;
Sed nullus; muscas non capiunt Aquilae.
Non vacat his tempus fugitivum impendere nugis,
Nec tales cupio; par mihi lector erit.
Si matrona gravis casu diverterit istuc,
Illustris domina, aut te Comitissa legat:
Est quod displiceat, placeat quod forsitan illis,
Ingerere his noli te modo, pande tamen.
At si virgo tuas dignabitur inclyta chartas
Tangere, sive schedis haereat illa tuis:
Da modo te facilem, et quaedam folia esse memento
Conveniant oculis quae magis apta suis.
Si generosa ancilla tuos aut alma puella
Visura est ludos, annue, pande lubens.
Dic utinam nunc ipse meus [6](nam diligit istas)
In praesens esset conspiciendus herus.
Ignotus notusve mihi de gente togata
Sive aget in ludis, pulpita sive colet,
Sive in Lycaeo, et nugas evolverit istas,
Si quasdam mendas viderit inspiciens,
Da veniam Authori, dices; nam plurima vellet
Expungi, quae jam displicuisse sciat.
Sive Melancholicus quisquam, seu blandus Amator,
Aulicus aut Civis, seu bene comptus eques
Huc appellat, age et tuto te crede legenti,
Multa istic forsan non male nata leget.
Quod fugiat, caveat, quodque amplexabitur, ista
Pagina fortassis promere multa potest.
At si quis Medicus coram te sistet, amice
Fac circumspecte, et te sine labe geras:
Inveniet namque ipse meis quoque plurima scriptis,
Non leve subsidium quae sibi forsan erunt.
Si quis Causidicus chartas impingat in istas,
Nil mihi vobiscum, pessima turba vale;
Sit nisi vir bonus, et juris sine fraude peritus,
Tum legat, et forsan doctior inde siet.
Si quis cordatus, facilis, lectorque benignus
Huc oculos vertat, quae velit ipse legat;
Candidus ignoscet, metuas nil, pande libenter,
Offensus mendis non erit ille tuis,
Laudabit nonnulla. Venit si Rhetor ineptus,
Limata et tersa, et qui bene cocta petit,
Claude citus librum; nulla hic nisi ferrea verba,
Offendent stomachum quae minus apta suum.
At si quis non eximius de plebe poeta,
Annue; namque istic plurima ficta leget.
Nos sumus e numero, nullus mihi spirat Apollo,
Grandiloquus Vates quilibet esse nequit.
Si Criticus Lector, tumidus Censorque molestus,
Zoilus et Momus, si rabiosa cohors:
Ringe, freme, et noli tum pandere, turba malignis
Si occurrat sannis invidiosa suis:
Fac fugias; si nulla tibi sit copia eundi,
Contemnes, tacite scommata quaeque feres.
Frendeat, allatret, vacuas gannitibus auras
Impleat, haud cures; his placuisse nefas.
Verum age si forsan divertat purior hospes,
Cuique sales, ludi, displiceantque joci,
Objiciatque tibi sordes, lascivaque: dices,
Lasciva est Domino et Musa jocosa tuo,
Nec lasciva tamen, si pensitet omne; sed esto;
Sit lasciva licet pagina, vita proba est.
Barbarus, indoctusque rudis spectator in istam
Si messem intrudat, fuste fugabis eum,
Fungum pelle procul (jubeo) nam quid mihi fungo?
Conveniunt stomacho non minus ista suo.
Sed nec pelle tamen; laeto omnes accipe vultu,
Quos, quas, vel quales, inde vel unde viros.
Gratus erit quicunque venit, gratissimus hospes
Quisquis erit, facilis difficilisque mihi.
Nam si culparit, quaedam culpasse juvabit,
Culpando faciet me meliora sequi.
Sed si laudarit, neque laudibus efferar ullis,
Sit satis hisce malis opposuisse bonum.
Haec sunt quae nostro placuit mandare libello,
Et quae dimittens dicere jussit Herus.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR TO HIS BOOK
PARAPHRASTIC METRICAL TRANSLATION.
Go forth my book into the open day;
Happy, if made so by its garish eye.
O'er earth's wide surface take thy vagrant way,
To imitate thy master's genius try.
The Graces three, the Muses nine salute,
Should those who love them try to con thy lore.
The country, city seek, grand thrones to boot,
With gentle courtesy humbly bow before.
Should nobles gallant, soldiers frank and brave
Seek thy acquaintance, hail their first advance:
From twitch of care thy pleasant vein may save,
May laughter cause or wisdom give perchance.
Some surly Cato, Senator austere,
Haply may wish to peep into thy book:
Seem very nothing--tremble and revere:
No forceful eagles, butterflies e'er look.
They love not thee: of them then little seek,
And wish for readers triflers like thyself.
Of ludeful matron watchful catch the beck,
Or gorgeous countess full of pride and pelf.
They may say "pish!" and frown, and yet read on:
Cry odd, and silly, coarse, and yet amusing.
Should dainty damsels seek thy page to con,
Spread thy best stores: to them be ne'er refusing:
Say, fair one, master loves thee dear as life;
Would he were here to gaze on thy sweet look.
Should known or unknown student, freed from strife
Of logic and the schools, explore my book:
Cry mercy critic, and thy book withhold:
Be some few errors pardon'd though observ'd:
An humble author to implore makes bold.
Thy kind indulgence, even undeserv'd,
Should melancholy wight or pensive lover,
Courtier, snug cit, or carpet knight so trim
Our blossoms cull, he'll find himself in clover,
Gain sense from precept, laughter from our whim.
Should learned leech with solemn air unfold
Thy leaves, beware, be civil, and be wise:
Thy volume many precepts sage may hold,
His well fraught head may find no trifling prize.
Should crafty lawyer trespass on our ground,
Caitiffs avaunt! disturbing tribe away!
Unless (white crow) an honest one be found;
He'll better, wiser go for what we say.
Should some ripe scholar, gentle and benign,
With candour, care, and judgment thee peruse:
Thy faults to kind oblivion he'll consign;
Nor to thy merit will his praise refuse.
Thou may'st be searched for polish'd words and verse
By flippant spouter, emptiest of praters:
Tell him to seek them in some mawkish verse:
My periods all are rough as nutmeg graters.
The doggerel poet, wishing thee to read,
Reject not; let him glean thy jests and stories.
His brother I, of lowly sembling breed:
Apollo grants to few Parnassian glories.
Menac'd by critic with sour furrowed brow,
Momus or Troilus or Scotch reviewer:
Ruffle your heckle, grin and growl and vow:
Ill-natured foes you thus will find the fewer,
When foul-mouth'd senseless railers cry thee down,
Reply not: fly, and show the rogues thy stern;
They are not worthy even of a frown:
Good taste or breeding they can never learn;
Or let them clamour, turn a callous ear,
As though in dread of some harsh donkey's bray.
If chid by censor, friendly though severe,
To such explain and turn thee not away.
Thy vein, says he perchance, is all too free;
Thy smutty language suits not learned pen:
Reply, Good Sir, throughout, the context see;
Thought chastens thought; so prithee judge again.
Besides, although my master's pen may wander
Through devious paths, by which it ought not stray,
His life is pure, beyond the breath of slander:
So pardon grant; 'tis merely but his way.
Some rugged ruffian makes a hideous rout--
Brandish thy cudgel, threaten him to baste;
The filthy fungus far from thee cast out;
Such noxious banquets never suit my taste.
Yet, calm and cautious moderate thy ire,
Be ever courteous should the case allow--
Sweet malt is ever made by gentle fire:
Warm to thy friends, give all a civil bow.
Even censure sometimes teaches to improve,
Slight frosts have often cured too rank a crop,
So, candid blame my spleen shall never move,
For skilful gard'ners wayward branches lop.
Go then, my book, and bear my words in mind;
Guides safe at once, and pleasant them you'll find.
THE ARGUMENT OF THE FRONTISPIECE.
Ten distinct Squares here seen apart,
Are joined in one by Cutter's art.
I.
Old Democritus under a tree,
Sits on a stone with book on knee;
About him hang there many features,
Of Cats, Dogs and such like creatures,
Of which he makes anatomy,
The seat of black choler to see.
Over his head appears the sky,
And Saturn Lord of melancholy.
II.
To the left a landscape of Jealousy,
Presents itself unto thine eye.
A Kingfisher, a Swan, an Hern,
Two fighting-cocks you may discern,
Two roaring Bulls each other hie,
To assault concerning venery.
Symbols are these; I say no more,
Conceive the rest by that's afore.
III.
The next of solitariness,
A portraiture doth well express,
By sleeping dog, cat: Buck and Doe,
Hares, Conies in the desert go:
Bats, Owls the shady bowers over,
In melancholy darkness hover.
Mark well: If't be not as't should be,
Blame the bad Cutter, and not me.
IV.
I'th' under column there doth stand
_Inamorato_ with folded hand;
Down hangs his head, terse and polite,
Some ditty sure he doth indite.
His lute and books about him lie,
As symptoms of his vanity.
If this do not enough disclose,
To paint him, take thyself by th' nose.
V.
_Hypocondriacus_ leans on his arm,
Wind in his side doth him much harm,
And troubles him full sore, God knows,
Much pain he hath and many woes.
About him pots and glasses lie,
Newly brought from's Apothecary.
This Saturn's aspects signify,
You see them portray'd in the sky.
VI.
Beneath them kneeling on his knee,
A superstitious man you see:
He fasts, prays, on his Idol fixt,
Tormented hope and fear betwixt:
For Hell perhaps he takes more pain,
Than thou dost Heaven itself to gain.
Alas poor soul, I pity thee,
What stars incline thee so to be?
VII.
But see the madman rage downright
With furious looks, a ghastly sight.
Naked in chains bound doth he lie,
And roars amain he knows not why!
Observe him; for as in a glass,
Thine angry portraiture it was.
His picture keeps still in thy presence;
'Twixt him and thee, there's no difference.
VIII, IX.
_Borage_ and _Hellebor_ fill two scenes,
Sovereign plants to purge the veins
Of melancholy, and cheer the heart,
Of those black fumes which make it smart;
To clear the brain of misty fogs,
Which dull our senses, and Soul clogs.
The best medicine that e'er God made
For this malady, if well assay'd.
X.
Now last of all to fill a place,
Presented is the Author's face;
And in that habit which he wears,
His image to the world appears.
His mind no art can well express,
That by his writings you may guess.
It was not pride, nor yet vainglory,
(Though others do it commonly)
Made him do this: if you must know,
The Printer would needs have it so.
Then do not frown or scoff at it,
Deride not, or detract a whit.
For surely as thou dost by him,
He will do the same again.
Then look upon't, behold and see,
As thou lik'st it, so it likes thee.
And I for it will stand in view,
Thine to command, Reader, adieu.
THE AUTHOR'S ABSTRACT OF MELANCHOLY, [Greek: Dialogos]
When I go musing all alone
Thinking of divers things fore-known.
When I build castles in the air,
Void of sorrow and void of fear,
Pleasing myself with phantasms sweet,
Methinks the time runs very fleet.
All my joys to this are folly,
Naught so sweet as melancholy.
When I lie waking all alone,
Recounting what I have ill done,
My thoughts on me then tyrannise,
Fear and sorrow me surprise,
Whether I tarry still or go,
Methinks the time moves very slow.
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so mad as melancholy.
When to myself I act and smile,
With pleasing thoughts the time beguile,
By a brook side or wood so green,
Unheard, unsought for, or unseen,
A thousand pleasures do me bless,
And crown my soul with happiness.
All my joys besides are folly,
None so sweet as melancholy.
When I lie, sit, or walk alone,
I sigh, I grieve, making great moan,
In a dark grove, or irksome den,
With discontents and Furies then,
A thousand miseries at once
Mine heavy heart and soul ensconce,
All my griefs to this are jolly,
None so sour as melancholy.
Methinks I hear, methinks I see,
Sweet music, wondrous melody,
Towns, palaces, and cities fine;
Here now, then there; the world is mine,
Rare beauties, gallant ladies shine,
Whate'er is lovely or divine.
All other joys to this are folly,
None so sweet as melancholy.
Methinks I hear, methinks I see
Ghosts, goblins, fiends; my phantasy
Presents a thousand ugly shapes,
Headless bears, black men, and apes,
Doleful outcries, and fearful sights,
My sad and dismal soul affrights.
All my griefs to this are jolly,
None so damn'd as melancholy.
Methinks I court, methinks I kiss,
Methinks I now embrace my mistress.
O blessed days, O sweet content,
In Paradise my time is spent.
Such thoughts may still my fancy move,
So may I ever be in love.
All my joys to this are folly,
Naught so sweet as melancholy.
When I recount love's many frights,
My sighs and tears, my waking nights,
My jealous fits; O mine hard fate
I now repent, but 'tis too late.
No torment is so bad as love,
So bitter to my soul can prove.
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so harsh as melancholy.
Friends and companions get you gone,
'Tis my desire to be alone;
Ne'er well but when my thoughts and I
Do domineer in privacy.
No Gem, no treasure like to this,
'Tis my delight, my crown, my bliss.
All my joys to this are folly,
Naught so sweet as melancholy.
'Tis my sole plague to be alone,
I am a beast, a monster grown,
I will no light nor company,
I find it now my misery.
The scene is turn'd, my joys are gone,
Fear, discontent, and sorrows come.
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so fierce as melancholy.
I'll not change life with any king,
I ravisht am: can the world bring
More joy, than still to laugh and smile,
In pleasant toys time to beguile?
Do not, O do not trouble me,
So sweet content I feel and see.
All my joys to this are folly,
None so divine as melancholy.
I'll change my state with any wretch,
Thou canst from gaol or dunghill fetch;
My pain's past cure, another hell,
I may not in this torment dwell!
Now desperate I hate my life,
Lend me a halter or a knife;
All my griefs to this are jolly,
Naught so damn'd as melancholy.
DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR TO THE READER.
Gentle reader, I presume thou wilt be very inquisitive to know what antic
or personate actor this is, that so insolently intrudes upon this common
theatre, to the world's view, arrogating another man's name; whence he is,
why he doth it, and what he hath to say; although, as [7]he said, _Primum
si noluero, non respondebo, quis coacturus est_? I am a free man born, and
may choose whether I will tell; who can compel me? If I be urged, I will as
readily reply as that Egyptian in [8]Plutarch, when a curious fellow would
needs know what he had in his basket, _Quum vides velatam, quid inquiris in
rem absconditam_? It was therefore covered, because he should not know what
was in it. Seek not after that which is hid; if the contents please thee,
[9]"and be for thy use, suppose the Man in the Moon, or whom thou wilt to
be the author;" I would not willingly be known. Yet in some sort to give
thee satisfaction, which is more than I need, I will show a reason, both of
this usurped name, title, and subject. And first of the name of Democritus;
lest any man, by reason of it, should be deceived, expecting a pasquil, a
satire, some ridiculous treatise (as I myself should have done), some
prodigious tenet, or paradox of the earth's motion, of infinite worlds, _in
infinito vacuo, ex fortuita atomorum collisione_, in an infinite waste, so
caused by an accidental collision of motes in the sun, all which Democritus
held, Epicurus and their master Lucippus of old maintained, and are lately
revived by Copernicus, Brunus, and some others. Besides, it hath been
always an ordinary custom, as [10]Gellius observes, "for later writers and
impostors, to broach many absurd and insolent fictions, under the name of
so noble a philosopher as Democritus, to get themselves credit, and by that
means the more to be respected," as artificers usually do, _Novo qui
marmori ascribunt Praxatilem suo_. 'Tis not so with me.
[11] "Non hic Centaurus, non Gorgonas, Harpyasque
Invenies, hominem pagina nostra sapit."
"No Centaurs here, or Gorgons look to find,
My subject is of man and human kind."
Thou thyself art the subject of my discourse.
[12] "Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas,
Gaudia, discursus, nostri farrago libelli."
"Whate'er men do, vows, fears, in ire, in sport,
Joys, wand'rings, are the sum of my report."
My intent is no otherwise to use his name, than Mercurius Gallobelgicus,
Mercurius Britannicus, use the name of Mercury, [13]Democritus Christianus,
&c.; although there be some other circumstances for which I have masked
myself under this vizard, and some peculiar respect which I cannot so well
express, until I have set down a brief character of this our Democritus,
what he was, with an epitome of his life.
Democritus, as he is described by [14]Hippocrates and [15]Laertius, was a
little wearish old man, very melancholy by nature, averse from company in
his latter days, [16]and much given to solitariness, a famous philosopher
in his age, [17]_coaevus_ with Socrates, wholly addicted to his studies at
the last, and to a private life: wrote many excellent works, a great
divine, according to the divinity of those times, an expert physician, a
politician, an excellent mathematician, as [18]Diacosmus and the rest of
his works do witness. He was much delighted with the studies of husbandry,
saith [19]Columella, and often I find him cited by [20]Constantinus and
others treating of that subject. He knew the natures, differences of all
beasts, plants, fishes, birds; and, as some say, could [21]understand the
tunes and voices of them. In a word, he was _omnifariam doctus_, a general
scholar, a great student; and to the intent he might better contemplate,
[22]I find it related by some, that he put out his eyes, and was in his old
age voluntarily blind, yet saw more than all Greece besides, and [23] writ
of every subject, _Nihil in toto opificio naturae, de quo non scripsit_.
[24]A man of an excellent wit, profound conceit; and to attain knowledge
the better in his younger years, he travelled to Egypt and [25] Athens, to
confer with learned men, [26]"admired of some, despised of others." After a
wandering life, he settled at Abdera, a town in Thrace, and was sent for
thither to be their lawmaker, recorder, or town-clerk, as some will; or as
others, he was there bred and born. Howsoever it was, there he lived at
last in a garden in the suburbs, wholly betaking himself to his studies and
a private life, [27]"saving that sometimes he would walk down to the
haven," [28]"and laugh heartily at such variety of ridiculous objects,
which there he saw." Such a one was Democritus.
But in the mean time, how doth this concern me, or upon what reference do I
usurp his habit? I confess, indeed, that to compare myself unto him for
aught I have yet said, were both impudency and arrogancy. I do not presume
to make any parallel, _Antistat mihi millibus trecentis_, [29]_parvus sum,
nullus sum, altum nec spiro, nec spero_. Yet thus much I will say of
myself, and that I hope without all suspicion of pride, or self-conceit, I
have lived a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life, _mihi et musis_ in
the University, as long almost as Xenocrates in Athens, _ad senectam fere_
to learn wisdom as he did, penned up most part in my study. For I have been
brought up a student in the most flourishing college of Europe,
[30]_augustissimo collegio_, and can brag with [31]Jovius, almost, _in ea
luce domicilii Vacicani, totius orbis celeberrimi, per 37 annos multa
opportunaque didici_; for thirty years I have continued (having the use of
as good [32]libraries as ever he had) a scholar, and would be therefore
loath, either by living as a drone, to be an unprofitable or unworthy
member of so learned and noble a society, or to write that which should be
any way dishonourable to such a royal and ample foundation. Something I
have done, though by my profession a divine, yet _turbine raptus ingenii_,
as [33]he said, out of a running wit, an unconstant, unsettled mind, I had
a great desire (not able to attain to a superficial skill in any) to have
some smattering in all, to be _aliquis in omnibus, nullus in singulis_,
[34] which [35]Plato commends, out of him [36]Lipsius approves and
furthers, "as fit to be imprinted in all curious wits, not to be a slave of
one science, or dwell altogether in one subject, as most do, but to rove
abroad, _centum puer artium_, to have an oar in every man's boat, to
[37]taste of every dish, and sip of every cup," which, saith [38]Montaigne,
was well performed by Aristotle, and his learned countryman Adrian
Turnebus. This roving humour (though not with like success) I have ever
had, and like a ranging spaniel, that barks at every bird he sees, leaving
his game, I have followed all, saving that which I should, and may justly
complain, and truly, _qui ubique est, nusquam est_,[39] which [40]Gesner
did in modesty, that I have read many books, but to little purpose, for
want of good method; I have confusedly tumbled over divers authors in our
libraries, with small profit, for want of art, order, memory, judgment. I
never travelled but in map or card, in which mine unconfined thoughts have
freely expatiated, as having ever been especially delighted with the study
of Cosmography. [41]Saturn was lord of my geniture, culminating, &c., and
Mars principal significator of manners, in partile conjunction with my
ascendant; both fortunate in their houses, &c. I am not poor, I am not
rich; _nihil est, nihil deest_, I have little, I want nothing: all my
treasure is in Minerva's tower. Greater preferment as I could never get, so
am I not in debt for it, I have a competence (_laus Deo_) from my noble and
munificent patrons, though I live still a collegiate student, as Democritus
in his garden, and lead a monastic life, _ipse mihi theatrum_, sequestered
from those tumults and troubles of the world, _Et tanquam in specula
positus_, ([42]as he said) in some high place above you all, like Stoicus
Sapiens, _omnia saecula, praeterita presentiaque videns, uno velut
intuitu_, I hear and see what is done abroad, how others [43]run, ride,
turmoil, and macerate themselves in court and country, far from those
wrangling lawsuits, _aulia vanitatem, fori ambitionem, ridere mecum soleo_:
I laugh at all, [44]only secure, lest my suit go amiss, my ships perish,
corn and cattle miscarry, trade decay, I have no wife nor children good or
bad to provide for. A mere spectator of other men's fortunes and
adventures, and how they act their parts, which methinks are diversely
presented unto me, as from a common theatre or scene. I hear new news every
day, and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations,
thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies,
apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey,
Persia, Poland, &c., daily musters and preparations, and such like, which
these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain,
monomachies, shipwrecks, piracies and sea-fights; peace, leagues,
stratagems, and fresh alarms. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions,
edicts, petitions, lawsuits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints,
grievances are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets,
corantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new
paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy,
religion, &c. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries,
entertainments, jubilees, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies,
triumphs, revels, sports, plays: then again, as in a new shifted scene,
treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villainies in all kinds,
funerals, burials, deaths of princes, new discoveries, expeditions, now
comical, then tragical matters. Today we hear of new lords and officers
created, tomorrow of some great men deposed, and then again of fresh
honours conferred; one is let loose, another imprisoned; one purchaseth,
another breaketh: he thrives, his neighbour turns bankrupt; now plenty,
then again dearth and famine; one runs, another rides, wrangles, laughs,
weeps, &c. This I daily hear, and such like, both private and public news,
amidst the gallantry and misery of the world; jollity, pride, perplexities
and cares, simplicity and villainy; subtlety, knavery, candour and
integrity, mutually mixed and offering themselves; I rub on _privus
privatus_; as I have still lived, so I now continue, _statu quo prius_,
left to a solitary life, and mine own domestic discontents: saving that
sometimes, _ne quid mentiar_, as Diogenes went into the city, and
Democritus to the haven to see fashions, I did for my recreation now and
then walk abroad, look into the world, and could not choose but make some
little observation, _non tam sagax observator ac simplex recitator_, [45]
not as they did, to scoff or laugh at all, but with a mixed passion.
[46] "Bilem saepe, jocum vestri movere tumultus."
"Ye wretched mimics, whose fond heats have been,
How oft! the objects of my mirth and spleen."
I did sometime laugh and scoff with Lucian, and satirically tax with
Menippus, lament with Heraclitus, sometimes again I was [47]_petulanti
splene chachinno_, and then again, [48]_urere bilis jecur_, I was much
moved to see that abuse which I could not mend. In which passion howsoever
I may sympathise with him or them, 'tis for no such respect I shroud myself
under his name; but either in an unknown habit to assume a little more
liberty and freedom of speech, or if you will needs know, for that reason
and only respect which Hippocrates relates at large in his Epistle to
Damegetus, wherein he doth express, how coming to visit him one day, he
found Democritus in his garden at Abdera, in the suburbs, [49]under a shady
bower, [50]with a book on his knees, busy at his study, sometimes writing,
sometimes walking. The subject of his book was melancholy and madness;
about him lay the carcases of many several beasts, newly by him cut up and
anatomised; not that he did contemn God's creatures, as he told
Hippocrates, but to find out the seat of this _atra bilis_, or melancholy,
whence it proceeds, and how it was engendered in men's bodies, to the
intent he might better cure it in himself, and by his writings and
observation [51]teach others how to prevent and avoid it. Which good intent
of his, Hippocrates highly commended: Democritus Junior is therefore bold
to imitate, and because he left it imperfect, and it is now lost, _quasi
succenturiator Democriti_, to revive again, prosecute, and finish in this
treatise.
You have had a reason of the name. If the title and inscription offend your
gravity, were it a sufficient justification to accuse others, I could
produce many sober treatises, even sermons themselves, which in their
fronts carry more fantastical names. Howsoever, it is a kind of policy in
these days, to prefix a fantastical title to a book which is to be sold;
for, as larks come down to a day-net, many vain readers will tarry and
stand gazing like silly passengers at an antic picture in a painter's shop,
that will not look at a judicious piece. And, indeed, as [52]Scaliger
observes, "nothing more invites a reader than an argument unlooked for,
unthought of, and sells better than a scurrile pamphlet," _tum maxime cum
novitas excitat [53]palatum_. "Many men," saith Gellius, "are very
conceited in their inscriptions," "and able" (as [54]Pliny quotes out of
Seneca) "to make him loiter by the way that went in haste to fetch a
midwife for his daughter, now ready to lie down." For my part, I have
honourable [55]precedents for this which I have done: I will cite one for
all, Anthony Zara, Pap. Epis., his Anatomy of Wit, in four sections,
members, subsections, &c., to be read in our libraries.
If any man except against the matter or manner of treating of this my
subject, and will demand a reason of it, I can allege more than one; I
write of melancholy, by being busy to avoid melancholy. There is no greater
cause of melancholy than idleness, "no better cure than business," as
[56]Rhasis holds: and howbeit, _stultus labor est ineptiarum_, to be busy
in toys is to small purpose, yet hear that divine Seneca, _aliud agere quam
nihil_, better do to no end, than nothing. I wrote therefore, and busied
myself in this playing labour, _oliosaque diligentia ut vitarem torporum
feriandi_ with Vectius in Macrobius, _atque otium in utile verterem
negatium_.
[57] "Simul et jucunda et idonea dicere vita,
Lectorem delectando simul atque monendo."
"Poets would profit or delight mankind,
And with the pleasing have th' instructive joined.
Profit and pleasure, then, to mix with art,
T' inform the judgment, nor offend the heart,
Shall gain all votes."
To this end I write, like them, saith Lucian, that "recite to trees, and
declaim to pillars for want of auditors:" as [58]Paulus Aegineta
ingenuously confesseth, "not that anything was unknown or omitted, but to
exercise myself," which course if some took, I think it would be good for
their bodies, and much better for their souls; or peradventure as others
do, for fame, to show myself (_Scire tuum nihil est, nisi te scire hoc
sciat alter_). I might be of Thucydides' opinion, [59]"to know a thing and
not to express it, is all one as if he knew it not." When I first took this
task in hand, _et quod ait [60]ille, impellents genio negotium suscepi_,
this I aimed at; [61]_vel ut lenirem animum scribendo_, to ease my mind by
writing; for I had _gravidum cor, foetum caput_, a kind of imposthume in my
head, which I was very desirous to be unladen of, and could imagine no
fitter evacuation than this. Besides, I might not well refrain, for _ubi
dolor, ibi digitus_, one must needs scratch where it itches. I was not a
little offended with this malady, shall I say my mistress Melancholy, my
Aegeria, or my _malus genius_? and for that cause, as he that is stung with
a scorpion, I would expel _clavum clavo_, [62]comfort one sorrow with
another, idleness with idleness, _ut ex vipera Theriacum_, make an antidote
out of that which was the prime cause of my disease. Or as he did, of whom
[63]Felix Plater speaks, that thought he had some of Aristophanes' frogs in
his belly, still crying _Breec, okex, coax, coax, oop, oop_, and for that
cause studied physic seven years, and travelled over most part of Europe to
ease himself. To do myself good I turned over such physicians as our
libraries would afford, or my [64]private friends impart, and have taken
this pains. And why not? Cardan professeth he wrote his book, _De
Consolatione_ after his son's death, to comfort himself; so did Tully write
of the same subject with like intent after his daughter's departure, if it
be his at least, or some impostor's put out in his name, which Lipsius
probably suspects. Concerning myself, I can peradventure affirm with Marius
in Sallust, [65]"that which others hear or read of, I felt and practised
myself; they get their knowledge by books, I mine by melancholising."
_Experto crede Roberto_. Something I can speak out of experience,
_aerumnabilis experientia me docuit_; and with her in the poet, [66]_Haud
ignara mali miseris succurrere disco_; I would help others out of a
fellow-feeling; and, as that virtuous lady did of old, [67]"being a leper
herself, bestow all her portion to build an hospital for lepers," I will
spend my time and knowledge, which are my greatest fortunes, for the common
good of all.
Yea, but you will infer that this is [68]_actum agere_, an unnecessary
work, _cramben bis coctam apponnere_, the same again and again in other
words. To what purpose? [69]"Nothing is omitted that may well be said," so
thought Lucian in the like theme. How many excellent physicians have
written just volumes and elaborate tracts of this subject? No news here;
that which I have is stolen, from others, [70]_Dicitque mihi mea pagina fur
es_. If that severe doom of [71]Synesius be true, "it is a greater offence
to steal dead men's labours, than their clothes," what shall become of most
writers? I hold up my hand at the bar among others, and am guilty of felony
in this kind, _habes confitentem reum_, I am content to be pressed with the
rest. 'Tis most true, _tenet insanabile multos scribendi cacoethes_, and
[72]"there is no end of writing of books," as the wiseman found of old, in
this [73]scribbling age, especially wherein [74]"the number of books is
without number," (as a worthy man saith,) "presses be oppressed," and out
of an itching humour that every man hath to show himself, [75]desirous of
fame and honour (_scribimus indocti doctique_----) he will write no matter
what, and scrape together it boots not whence. [76]"Bewitched with this
desire of fame," _etiam mediis in morbis_, to the disparagement of their
health, and scarce able to hold a pen, they must say something, [77]"and
get themselves a name," saith Scaliger, "though it be to the downfall and
ruin of many others." To be counted writers, _scriptores ut salutentur_, to
be thought and held polymaths and polyhistors, _apud imperitum vulgus ob
ventosae nomen artis_, to get a paper-kingdom: _nulla spe quaestus sed
ampla famae_, in this precipitate, ambitious age, _nunc ut est saeculum,
inter immaturam eruditionem, ambitiosum et praeceps_ ('tis [78]Scaliger's
censure); and they that are scarce auditors, _vix auditores_, must be
masters and teachers, before they be capable and fit hearers. They will
rush into all learning, _togatam armatam_, divine, human authors, rake over
all indexes and pamphlets for notes, as our merchants do strange havens for
traffic, write great tomes, _Cum non sint re vera doctiores, sed
loquaciores_, whereas they are not thereby better scholars, but greater
praters. They commonly pretend public good, but as [79]Gesner observes,
'tis pride and vanity that eggs them on; no news or aught worthy of note,
but the same in other terms. _Ne feriarentur fortasse typographi vel ideo
scribendum est aliquid ut se vixisse testentur_. As apothecaries we make
new mixtures everyday, pour out of one vessel into another; and as those
old Romans robbed all the cities of the world, to set out their bad-sited
Rome, we skim off the cream of other men's wits, pick the choice flowers of
their tilled gardens to set out our own sterile plots. _Castrant alios ut
libros suos per se graciles alieno adipe suffarciant_ (so [80]Jovius
inveighs.) They lard their lean books with the fat of others' works.
_Ineruditi fures_, &c. A fault that every writer finds, as I do now, and
yet faulty themselves, [81]_Trium literarum homines_, all thieves; they
pilfer out of old writers to stuff up their new comments, scrape Ennius'
dunghills, and out of [82]Democritus' pit, as I have done. By which means
it comes to pass, [83]"that not only libraries and shops are full of our
putrid papers, but every close-stool and jakes," _Scribunt carmina quae
legunt cacantes_; they serve to put under pies, to [84]lap spice in, and
keep roast meat from burning. "With us in France," saith [85]Scaliger,
"every man hath liberty to write, but few ability." [86]"Heretofore
learning was graced by judicious scholars, but now noble sciences are
vilified by base and illiterate scribblers," that either write for
vainglory, need, to get money, or as Parasites to flatter and collogue with
some great men, they put cut [87]_burras, quisquiliasque ineptiasque_.
[88]Amongst so many thousand authors you shall scarce find one, by reading
of whom you shall be any whit better, but rather much worse, _quibus
inficitur potius, quam perficitur_, by which he is rather infected than any
way perfected.
[89] ------"Qui talia legit,
Quid didicit tandem, quid scit nisi somnia, nugas?"
So that oftentimes it falls out (which Callimachus taxed of old) a great
book is a great mischief. [90]Cardan finds fault with Frenchmen and
Germans, for their scribbling to no purpose, _non inquit ab edendo
deterreo, modo novum aliquid inveniant_, he doth not bar them to write, so
that it be some new invention of their own; but we weave the same web
still, twist the same rope again and again; or if it be a new invention,
'tis but some bauble or toy which idle fellows write, for as idle fellows
to read, and who so cannot invent? [91]"He must have a barren wit, that in
this scribbling age can forge nothing. [92]Princes show their armies, rich
men vaunt their buildings, soldiers their manhood, and scholars vent their
toys;" they must read, they must hear whether they will or no.
[93] "Et quodcunque semel chartis illeverit, omnes
Gestiet a furno redeuntes scire lacuque,
Et pueros et anus"------
"What once is said and writ, all men must know,
Old wives and children as they come and go."
"What a company of poets hath this year brought out," as Pliny complains to
Sossius Sinesius. [94]"This April every day some or other have recited."
What a catalogue of new books all this year, all this age (I say), have our
Frankfort Marts, our domestic Marts brought out? Twice a year, [95]
_Proferunt se nova ingenia et ostentant_, we stretch our wits out, and set
them to sale, _magno conatu nihil agimus_. So that which [96]Gesner much
desires, if a speedy reformation be not had, by some prince's edicts and
grave supervisors, to restrain this liberty, it will run on _in infinitum_.
_Quis tam avidus librorum helluo_, who can read them? As already, we shall
have a vast chaos and confusion of books, we are [97]oppressed with them,
[98]our eyes ache with reading, our fingers with turning. For my part I am
one of the number, _nos numerus sumus_, (we are mere ciphers): I do not
deny it, I have only this of Macrobius to say for myself, _Omne meum, nihil
meum_, 'tis all mine, and none mine. As a good housewife out of divers
fleeces weaves one piece of cloth, a bee gathers wax and honey out of many
flowers, and makes a new bundle of all, _Floriferis ut apes in saltibus
omnia libant_, I have laboriously [99]collected this cento out of divers
writers, and that _sine injuria_, I have wronged no authors, but given
every man his own; which [100]Hierom so much commends in Nepotian; he stole
not whole verses, pages, tracts, as some do nowadays, concealing their
authors' names, but still said this was Cyprian's, that Lactantius, that
Hilarius, so said Minutius Felix, so Victorinus, thus far Arnobius: I cite
and quote mine authors (which, howsoever some illiterate scribblers account
pedantical, as a cloak of ignorance, and opposite to their affected fine
style, I must and will use) _sumpsi, non suripui_; and what Varro, _lib. 6.
de re rust._ speaks of bees, _minime maleficae nullius opus vellicantes
faciunt delerius_, I can say of myself, Whom have I injured? The matter is
theirs most part, and yet mine, _apparet unde sumptum sit_ (which Seneca
approves), _aliud tamen quam unde sumptum sit apparet_, which nature doth
with the aliment of our bodies incorporate, digest, assimilate, I do
_concoquere quod hausi_, dispose of what I take. I make them pay tribute,
to set out this my Maceronicon, the method only is mine own, I must usurp
that of [101]Wecker _e Ter. nihil dictum quod non dictum prius, methodus
sola artificem ostendit_, we can say nothing but what hath been said, the
composition and method is ours only, and shows a scholar. Oribasius,
Aesius, Avicenna, have all out of Galen, but to their own method, _diverso
stilo, non diversa fide_. Our poets steal from Homer; he spews, saith
Aelian, they lick it up. Divines use Austin's words verbatim still, and our
story-dressers do as much; he that comes last is commonly best,
------"donec quid grandius aetas
Postera sorsque ferat melior."------[102]
Though there were many giants of old in physic and philosophy, yet I say
with [103]Didacus Stella, "A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may
see farther than a giant himself;" I may likely add, alter, and see farther
than my predecessors; and it is no greater prejudice for me to indite after
others, than for Aelianus Montaltus, that famous physician, to write _de
morbis capitis_ after Jason Pratensis, Heurnius, Hildesheim, &c., many
horses to run in a race, one logician, one rhetorician, after another.
Oppose then what thou wilt,
"Allatres licet usque nos et usque
Et gannitibus improbis lacessas."
I solve it thus. And for those other faults of barbarism, [104]Doric
dialect, extemporanean style, tautologies, apish imitation, a rhapsody of
rags gathered together from several dunghills, excrements of authors, toys
and fopperies confusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgment,
wit, learning, harsh, raw, rude, fantastical, absurd, insolent, indiscreet,
ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull, and dry; I confess
all ('tis partly affected), thou canst not think worse of me than I do of
myself. 'Tis not worth the reading, I yield it, I desire thee not to lose
time in perusing so vain a subject, I should be peradventure loath myself
to read him or thee so writing; 'tis not _operae, pretium_. All I say is
this, that I have [105]precedents for it, which Isocrates calls _perfugium
iis qui peccant_, others as absurd, vain, idle, illiterate, &c. _Nonnulli
alii idem fecerunt_; others have done as much, it may be more, and perhaps
thou thyself, _Novimus et qui te_, &c. We have all our faults; _scimus, et
hanc, veniaim_, &c.; [106]thou censurest me, so have I done others, and may
do thee, _Cedimus inque vicem_, &c., 'tis _lex talionis, quid pro quo_. Go
now, censure, criticise, scoff, and rail.
[107] "Nasutus cis usque licet, sis denique nasus:
Non potes in nugas dicere plura meas,
Ipse ego quam dixi, &c."
"Wert thou all scoffs and flouts, a very Momus,
Than we ourselves, thou canst not say worse of us."
Thus, as when women scold, have I cried whore first, and in some men's
censures I am afraid I have overshot myself, _Laudare se vani, vituperare
stulti_, as I do not arrogate, I will not derogate. _Primus vestrum non
sum, nec imus_, I am none of the best, I am none of the meanest of you. As
I am an inch, or so many feet, so many parasangs, after him or him, I may
be peradventure an ace before thee. Be it therefore as it is, well or ill,
I have essayed, put myself upon the stage; I must abide the censure, I may
not escape it. It is most true, _stylus virum arguit_, our style bewrays
us, and as [108]hunters find their game by the trace, so is a man's genius
descried by his works, _Multo melius ex sermone quam lineamentis, de
moribus hominum judicamus_; it was old Cato's rule. I have laid myself open
(I know it) in this treatise, turned mine inside outward: I shall be
censured, I doubt not; for, to say truth with Erasmus, _nihil morosius
hominum judiciis_, there is nought so peevish as men's judgments; yet this
is some comfort, _ut palata, sic judicia_, our censures are as various as
our palates.
[109] "Tres mihi convivae prope dissentire videntur,
Poscentes vario multum diversa palato," &c.
"Three guests I have, dissenting at my feast,
Requiring each to gratify his taste
With different food."
Our writings are as so many dishes, our readers guests, our books like
beauty, that which one admires another rejects; so are we approved as men's
fancies are inclined. _Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli._. That
which is most pleasing to one is _amaracum sui_, most harsh to another.
_Quot homines, tot sententiae_, so many men, so many minds: that which thou
condemnest he commends. [110]_Quod petis, id sane est invisum acidumque
duobus_. He respects matter, thou art wholly for words; he loves a loose
and free style, thou art all for neat composition, strong lines,
hyperboles, allegories; he desires a fine frontispiece, enticing pictures,
such as [111]Hieron. Natali the Jesuit hath cut to the Dominicals, to draw
on the reader's attention, which thou rejectest; that which one admires,
another explodes as most absurd and ridiculous. If it be not point blank to
his humour, his method, his conceit, [112]_si quid, forsan omissum, quod is
animo conceperit, si quae dictio_, &c. If aught be omitted, or added, which
he likes, or dislikes, thou art _mancipium paucae lectionis_, an idiot, an
ass, _nullus es_, or _plagiarius_, a trifler, a trivant, thou art an idle
fellow; or else it is a thing of mere industry, a collection without wit or
invention, a very toy. [113]_Facilia sic putant omnes quae jam facta, nec
de salebris cogitant, ubi via strata_; so men are valued, their labours
vilified by fellows of no worth themselves, as things of nought, who could
not have done as much. _Unusquisque abundat sensu suo_, every man abounds
in his own sense; and whilst each particular party is so affected, how
should one please all?
[114] "Quid dem? quid non dem? Renuis tu quod jubet ille."
------"What courses must I choose?
What not? What both would order you refuse."
How shall I hope to express myself to each man's humour and [115]conceit,
or to give satisfaction to all? Some understand too little, some too much,
_qui similiter in legendos libros, atque in salutandos homines irruunt, non
cogitantes quales, sed quibus vestibus induti sint_, as [116]Austin
observes, not regarding what, but who write, [117]_orexin habet auctores
celebritas_, not valuing the metal, but stamp that is upon it, _Cantharum
aspiciunt, non quid in eo_. If he be not rich, in great place, polite and
brave, a great doctor, or full fraught with grand titles, though never so
well qualified, he is a dunce; but, as [118]Baronius hath it of Cardinal
Caraffa's works, he is a mere hog that rejects any man for his poverty.
Some are too partial, as friends to overween, others come with a prejudice
to carp, vilify, detract, and scoff; (_qui de me forsan, quicquid est, omni
contemptu contemptius judicant_) some as bees for honey, some as spiders to
gather poison. What shall I do in this case? As a Dutch host, if you come
to an inn in. Germany, and dislike your fare, diet, lodging, &c., replies
in a surly tone, [119]_aliud tibi quaeras diversorium_, if you like not
this, get you to another inn: I resolve, if you like not my writing, go
read something else. I do not much esteem thy censure, take thy course, it
is not as thou wilt, nor as I will, but when we have both done, that of
[120]Plinius Secundus to Trajan will prove true, "Every man's witty labour
takes not, except the matter, subject, occasion, and some commending
favourite happen to it." If I be taxed, exploded by thee and some such, I
shall haply be approved and commended by others, and so have been
(_Expertus loquor_), and may truly say with [121]Jovius in like case,
_(absit verbo jactantia) heroum quorundam, pontificum, et virorum nobilium
familiaritatem et amicitiam, gratasque gratias, et multorum [122] bene
laudatorum laudes sum inde promeritus_, as I have been honoured by some
worthy men, so have I been vilified by others, and shall be. At the first
publishing of this book, (which [123]Probus of Persius satires), _editum
librum continuo mirari homines, atque avide deripere caeperunt_, I may in
some sort apply to this my work. The first, second, and third edition were
suddenly gone, eagerly read, and, as I have said, not so much approved by
some, as scornfully rejected by others. But it was Democritus his fortune,
_Idem admirationi et [124]irrisioni habitus_. 'Twas Seneca's fate, that
superintendent of wit, learning, judgment, [125]_ad stuporem doctus_, the
best of Greek and Latin writers, in Plutarch's opinion; that "renowned
corrector of vice," as, [126]Fabius terms him, "and painful omniscious
philosopher, that writ so excellently and admirably well," could not please
all parties, or escape censure. How is he vilified by [127] Caligula,
Agellius, Fabius, and Lipsius himself, his chief propugner? _In eo pleraque
pernitiosa_, saith the same Fabius, many childish tracts and sentences he
hath, _sermo illaboratus_, too negligent often and remiss, as Agellius
observes, _oratio vulgaris et protrita, dicaces et ineptae, sententiae,
eruditio plebeia_, an homely shallow writer as he is. _In partibus spinas
et fastidia habet_, saith [128]Lipsius; and, as in all his other works, so
especially in his epistles, _aliae in argutiis et ineptiis occupantur,
intricatus alicubi, et parum compositus, sine copia rerum hoc fecit_, he
jumbles up many things together immethodically, after the Stoics' fashion,
_parum ordinavit, multa accumulavit_, &c. If Seneca be thus lashed, and
many famous men that I could name, what shall I expect? How shall I that am
_vix umbra tanti philosophi_ hope to please? "No man so absolute"
([129]Erasmus holds) "to satisfy all, except antiquity, prescription, &c.,
set a bar." But as I have proved in Seneca, this will not always take
place, how shall I evade? 'Tis the common doom of all writers, I must (I
say) abide it; I seek not applause; [130]_Non ego ventosa venor suffragia
plebis_; again, _non sum adeo informis_, I would not be [131]vilified:
[132] ------"laudatus abunde,
Non fastiditus si tibi, lector, ero."
I fear good men's censures, and to their favourable acceptance I submit my
labours,
[133] ------"et linguas mancipiorum
Contemno."------
As the barking of a dog, I securely contemn those malicious and scurrile
obloquies, flouts, calumnies of railers and detractors; I scorn the rest.
What therefore I have said, _pro tenuitate mea_, I have said.
One or two things yet I was desirous to have amended if I could, concerning
the manner of handling this my subject, for which I must apologise,
_deprecari_, and upon better advice give the friendly reader notice: it was
not mine intent to prostitute my muse in English, or to divulge _secreta
Minervae_, but to have exposed this more contract in Latin, if I could have
got it printed. Any scurrile pamphlet is welcome to our mercenary
stationers in English; they print all
------"cuduntque libellos
In quorum foliis vix simia nuda cacaret;"
But in Latin they will not deal; which is one of the reasons [134]Nicholas
Car, in his oration of the paucity of English writers, gives, that so many
flourishing wits are smothered in oblivion, lie dead and buried in this our
nation. Another main fault is, that I have not revised the copy, and
amended the style, which now flows remissly, as it was first conceived; but
my leisure would not permit; _Feci nec quod potui, nec quod volui_, I
confess it is neither as I would, nor as it should be.
[135] "Cum relego scripsisse pudet, quia plurima cerno
Me quoque quae fuerant judice digna lini."
"When I peruse this tract which I have writ,
I am abash'd, and much I hold unfit."
_Et quod gravissimum_, in the matter itself, many things I disallow at this
present, which when I writ, [136]_Non eadem est aetas, non mens_; I would
willingly retract much, &c., but 'tis too late, I can only crave pardon now
for what is amiss.
I might indeed, (had I wisely done) observed that precept of the poet,
------_nonumque prematur in annum_, and have taken more care: or, as
Alexander the physician would have done by lapis lazuli, fifty times washed
before it be used, I should have revised, corrected and amended this tract;
but I had not (as I said) that happy leisure, no amanuenses or assistants.
Pancrates in [137]Lucian, wanting a servant as he went from Memphis to
Coptus in Egypt, took a door bar, and after some superstitious words
pronounced (Eucrates the relator was then present) made it stand up like a
serving-man, fetch him water, turn the spit, serve in supper, and what work
he would besides; and when he had done that service he desired, turned his
man to a stick again. I have no such skill to make new men at my pleasure,
or means to hire them; no whistle to call like the master of a ship, and
bid them run, &c. I have no such authority, no such benefactors, as that
noble [138]Ambrosius was to Origen, allowing him six or seven amanuenses to
write out his dictates; I must for that cause do my business myself, and
was therefore enforced, as a bear doth her whelps, to bring forth this
confused lump; I had not time to lick it into form, as she doth her young
ones, but even so to publish it, as it was first written _quicquid in
buccam venit_, in an extemporean style, as [139]I do commonly all other
exercises, _effudi quicquid dictavit genius meus_, out of a confused
company of notes, and writ with as small deliberation as I do ordinarily
speak, without all affectation of big words, fustian phrases, jingling
terms, tropes, strong lines, that like [140]Acesta's arrows caught fire as
they flew, strains of wit, brave heats, elegies, hyperbolical exornations,
elegancies, &c., which many so much affect. I am [141]_aquae potor_, drink
no wine at all, which so much improves our modern wits, a loose, plain,
rude writer, _ficum, voco ficum et ligonem ligonem_ and as free, as loose,
_idem calamo quod in mente_, [142]I call a spade a spade, _animis haec
scribo, non auribus_, I respect matter not words; remembering that of
Cardan, _verba propter res, non res propter verba_: and seeking with
Seneca, _quid scribam, non quemadmodum_, rather _what_ than _how_ to write:
for as Philo thinks, [143]"He that is conversant about matter, neglects
words, and those that excel in this art of speaking, have no profound
learning,"
[144] "Verba nitent phaleris, at nullus verba medullas
Intus habent"------
Besides, it was the observation of that wise Seneca, [145]"when you see a
fellow careful about his words, and neat in his speech, know this for a
certainty, that man's mind is busied about toys, there's no solidity in
him." _Non est ornamentum virile concinnitas_: as he said of a nightingale,
------_vox es, praeterea nihil_, &c. I am therefore in this point a
professed disciple of [146]Apollonius a scholar of Socrates, I neglect
phrases, and labour wholly to inform my reader's understanding, not to
please his ear; 'tis not my study or intent to compose neatly, which an
orator requires, but to express myself readily and plainly as it happens.
So that as a river runs sometimes precipitate and swift, then dull and
slow; now direct, then _per ambages_, now deep, then shallow; now muddy,
then clear; now broad, then narrow; doth my style flow: now serious, then
light; now comical, then satirical; now more elaborate, then remiss, as the
present subject required, or as at that time I was affected. And if thou
vouchsafe to read this treatise, it shall seem no otherwise to thee, than
the way to an ordinary traveller, sometimes fair, sometimes foul; here
champaign, there enclosed; barren, in one place, better soil in another: by
woods, groves, hills, dales, plains, &c. I shall lead thee _per ardua
montium, et lubrica valllum, et roscida cespitum, et [147]glebosa
camporum_, through variety of objects, that which thou shalt like and
surely dislike.
For the matter itself or method, if it be faulty, consider I pray you that
of _Columella, Nihil perfectum, aut a singulari consummatum industria_, no
man can observe all, much is defective no doubt, may be justly taxed,
altered, and avoided in Galen, Aristotle, those great masters. _Boni
venatoris_ ([148]one holds) _plures feras capere, non omnes_; he is a good
huntsman can catch some, not all: I have done my endeavour. Besides, I
dwell not in this study, _Non hic sulcos ducimus, non hoc pulvere
desudamus_, I am but a smatterer, I confess, a stranger, [149]here and
there I pull a flower; I do easily grant, if a rigid censurer should
criticise on this which I have writ, he should not find three sole faults,
as Scaliger in Terence, but three hundred. So many as he hath done in
Cardan's subtleties, as many notable errors as [150]Gul Laurembergius, a
late professor of Rostock, discovers in that anatomy of Laurentius, or
Barocius the Venetian in _Sacro boscus_. And although this be a sixth
edition, in which I should have been more accurate, corrected all those
former escapes, yet it was _magni laboris opus_, so difficult and tedious,
that as carpenters do find out of experience, 'tis much better build a new
sometimes, than repair an old house; I could as soon write as much more, as
alter that which is written. If aught therefore be amiss (as I grant there
is), I require a friendly admonition, no bitter invective, [151]_Sint musis
socii Charites, Furia omnis abesto_, otherwise, as in ordinary
controversies, _funem contentionis nectamus, sed cui bono_? We may contend,
and likely misuse each other, but to what purpose? We are both scholars,
say,
[152] ------"Arcades ambo
Et Cantare pares, et respondere parati."
"Both young Arcadians, both alike inspir'd
To sing and answer as the song requir'd."
If we do wrangle, what shall we get by it? Trouble and wrong ourselves,
make sport to others. If I be convict of an error, I will yield, I will
amend. _Si quid bonis moribus, si quid veritati dissentaneum, in sacris vel
humanis literis a me dictum sit, id nec dictum esto_. In the mean time I
require a favourable censure of all faults omitted, harsh compositions,
pleonasms of words, tautological repetitions (though Seneca bear me out,
_nunquam nimis dicitur, quod nunquam satis dicitur_) perturbations of
tenses, numbers, printers' faults, &c. My translations are sometimes rather
paraphrases than interpretations, _non ad verbum_, but as an author, I use
more liberty, and that's only taken which was to my purpose. Quotations are
often inserted in the text, which makes the style more harsh, or in the
margin, as it happened. Greek authors, Plato, Plutarch, Athenaeus, &c., I
have cited out of their interpreters, because the original was not so
ready. I have mingled _sacra prophanis_, but I hope not profaned, and in
repetition of authors' names, ranked them _per accidens_, not according to
chronology; sometimes neoterics before ancients, as my memory suggested.
Some things are here altered, expunged in this sixth edition, others
amended, much added, because many good [153]authors in all kinds are come
to my hands since, and 'tis no prejudice, no such indecorum, or oversight.
[154] "Nunquam ita quicquam bene subducta ratione ad vitam fuit,
Quin res, aetas, usus, semper aliquid apportent novi,
Aliquid moneant, ut illa quae scire te credas, nescias,
Et quae tibi putaris prima, in exercendo ut repudias."
"Ne'er was ought yet at first contriv'd so fit,
But use, age, or something would alter it;
Advise thee better, and, upon peruse,
Make thee not say, and what thou tak'st refuse."
But I am now resolved never to put this treatise out again, _Ne quid
nimis_, I will not hereafter add, alter, or retract; I have done. The last
and greatest exception is, that I, being a divine, have meddled with
physic,
[155] "Tantumne est ab re tua otii tibi,
Aliena ut cures, eaque nihil quae ad te attinent."
Which Menedemus objected to Chremes; have I so much leisure, or little
business of mine own, as to look after other men's matters which concern me
not? What have I to do with physic? _Quod medicorum est promittant medici_.
The [156]Lacedaemonians were once in counsel about state matters, a
debauched fellow spake excellent well, and to the purpose, his speech was
generally approved: a grave senator steps up, and by all means would have
it repealed, though good, because _dehonestabatur pessimo auctore_, it had
no better an author; let some good man relate the same, and then it should
pass. This counsel was embraced, _factum est_, and it was registered
forthwith, _Et sic bona sententia mansit, malus auctor mutatus est_. Thou
sayest as much of me, stomachosus as thou art, and grantest, peradventure,
this which I have written in physic, not to be amiss, had another done it,
a professed physician, or so, but why should I meddle with this tract? Hear
me speak. There be many other subjects, I do easily grant, both in humanity
and divinity, fit to be treated of, of which had I written _ad
ostentationem_ only, to show myself, I should have rather chosen, and in
which I have been more conversant, I could have more willingly luxuriated,
and better satisfied myself and others; but that at this time I was fatally
driven upon this rock of melancholy, and carried away by this by-stream,
which, as a rillet, is deducted from the main channel of my studies, in
which I have pleased and busied myself at idle hours, as a subject most
necessary and commodious. Not that I prefer it before divinity, which I do
acknowledge to be the queen of professions, and to which all the rest are
as handmaids, but that in divinity I saw no such great need. For had I
written positively, there be so many books in that kind, so many
commentators, treatises, pamphlets, expositions, sermons, that whole teams
of oxen cannot draw them; and had I been as forward and ambitious as some
others, I might have haply printed a sermon at Paul's Cross, a sermon in
St. Marie's Oxon, a sermon in Christ Church, or a sermon before the right
honourable, right reverend, a sermon before the right worshipful, a sermon
in Latin, in English, a sermon with a name, a sermon without, a sermon, a
sermon, &c. But I have been ever as desirous to suppress my labours in this
kind, as others have been to press and publish theirs. To have written in
controversy had been to cut off an hydra's head, [157]_Lis litem generat_,
one begets another, so many duplications, triplications, and swarms of
questions. _In sacro bello hoc quod stili mucrone agitur_, that having once
begun, I should never make an end. One had much better, as [158]Alexander,
the sixth pope, long since observed, provoke a great prince than a begging
friar, a Jesuit, or a seminary priest, I will add, for _inexpugnabile genus
hoc hominum_, they are an irrefragable society, they must and will have the
last word; and that with such eagerness, impudence, abominable lying,
falsifying, and bitterness in their questions they proceed, that as he
[159]said, _furorne caecus, an rapit vis acrior, an culpa, responsum date_?
Blind fury, or error, or rashness, or what it is that eggs them, I know
not, I am sure many times, which [160]Austin perceived long since,
_tempestate contentionis, serenitas charitatis obnubilatur_, with this
tempest of contention, the serenity of charity is overclouded, and there be
too many spirits conjured up already in this kind in all sciences, and more
than we can tell how to lay, which do so furiously rage, and keep such a
racket, that as [161]Fabius said, "It had been much better for some of them
to have been born dumb, and altogether illiterate, than so far to dote to
their own destruction."
"At melius fuerat non scribere, namque tacere
Tutum semper erit,"------[162]
'Tis a general fault, so Severinus the Dane complains [163]in physic,
"unhappy men as we are, we spend our days in unprofitable questions and
disputations," intricate subtleties, _de lana caprina_ about moonshine in
the water, "leaving in the mean time those chiefest treasures of nature
untouched, wherein the best medicines for all manner of diseases are to be
found, and do not only neglect them ourselves, but hinder, condemn, forbid,
and scoff at others, that are willing to inquire after them." These motives
at this present have induced me to make choice of this medicinal subject.
If any physician in the mean time shall infer, _Ne sutor ultra crepidam_,
and find himself grieved that I have intruded into his profession, I will
tell him in brief, I do not otherwise by them, than they do by us. If it be
for their advantage, I know many of their sect which have taken orders, in
hope of a benefice, 'tis a common transition, and why may not a melancholy
divine, that can get nothing but by simony, profess physic? Drusianus an
Italian (Crusianus, but corruptly, Trithemius calls him) [164]"because he
was not fortunate in his practice, forsook his profession, and writ
afterwards in divinity." Marcilius Ficinus was _semel et simul_; a priest
and a physician at once, and [165]T. Linacer in his old age took orders.
The Jesuits profess both at this time, divers of them _permissu
superiorum_, chirurgeons, panders, bawds, and midwives, &c. Many poor
country-vicars, for want of other means, are driven to their shifts; to
turn mountebanks, quacksalvers, empirics, and if our greedy patrons hold us
to such hard conditions, as commonly they do, they will make most of us
work at some trade, as Paul did, at last turn taskers, maltsters,
costermongers, graziers, sell ale as some have done, or worse. Howsoever in
undertaking this task, I hope I shall commit no great error or _indecorum_,
if all be considered aright, I can vindicate myself with Georgius Braunus,
and Hieronymus Hemingius, those two learned divines; who (to borrow a line
or two of mine [166]elder brother) drawn by a "natural love, the one of
pictures and maps, prospectives and chorographical delights, writ that
ample theatre of cities; the other to the study of genealogies, penned
_theatrum genealogicum_." Or else I can excuse my studies with [167]Lessius
the Jesuit in like case. It is a disease of the soul on which I am to
treat, and as much appertaining to a divine as to a physician, and who
knows not what an agreement there is betwixt these two professions? A good
divine either is or ought to be a good physician, a spiritual physician at
least, as our Saviour calls himself, and was indeed, Mat. iv. 23; Luke, v.
18; Luke, vii. 8. They differ but in object, the one of the body, the other
of the soul, and use divers medicines to cure; one amends _animam per
corpus_, the other _corpus per animam_ as [168]our Regius Professor of
physic well informed us in a learned lecture of his not long since. One
helps the vices and passions of the soul, anger, lust, desperation, pride,
presumption, &c. by applying that spiritual physic; as the other uses
proper remedies in bodily diseases. Now this being a common infirmity of
body and soul, and such a one that hath as much need of spiritual as a
corporal cure, I could not find a fitter task to busy myself about, a more
apposite theme, so necessary, so commodious, and generally concerning all
sorts of men, that should so equally participate of both, and require a
whole physician. A divine in this compound mixed malady can do little
alone, a physician in some kinds of melancholy much less, both make an
absolute cure.
[169] "Alterius sic altera poscit opem."
------"when in friendship joined
A mutual succour in each other find."
And 'tis proper to them both, and I hope not unbeseeming me, who am by my
profession a divine, and by mine inclination a physician. I had Jupiter in
my sixth house; I say with [170]Beroaldus, _non sum medicus, nec medicinae
prorsus expers_, in the theory of physic I have taken some pains, not with
an intent to practice, but to satisfy myself, which was a cause likewise of
the first undertaking of this subject.
If these reasons do not satisfy thee, good reader, as Alexander Munificus
that bountiful prelate, sometimes bishop of Lincoln, when he had built six
castles, _ad invidiam operis eluendam_, saith [171]Mr. Camden, to take away
the envy of his work (which very words Nubrigensis hath of Roger the rich
bishop of Salisbury, who in king Stephen's time built Shirburn castle, and
that of Devises), to divert the scandal or imputation, which might be
thence inferred, built so many religious houses. If this my discourse be
over-medicinal, or savour too much of humanity, I promise thee that I will
hereafter make thee amends in some treatise of divinity. But this I hope
shall suffice, when you have more fully considered of the matter of this my
subject, _rem substratam_, melancholy, madness, and of the reasons
following, which were my chief motives: the generality of the disease, the
necessity of the cure, and the commodity or common good that will arise to
all men by the knowledge of it, as shall at large appear in the ensuing
preface. And I doubt not but that in the end you will say with me, that to
anatomise this humour aright, through all the members of this our
Microcosmus, is as great a task, as to reconcile those chronological errors
in the Assyrian monarchy, find out the quadrature of a circle, the creeks
and sounds of the north-east, or north-west passages, and all out as good a
discovery as that hungry [172]Spaniard's of Terra Australis Incognita, as
great trouble as to perfect the motion of Mars and Mercury, which so
crucifies our astronomers, or to rectify the Gregorian Calendar. I am so
affected for my part, and hope as [173]Theophrastus did by his characters,
"That our posterity, O friend Policles, shall be the better for this which
we have written, by correcting and rectifying what is amiss in themselves
by our examples, and applying our precepts and cautions to their own use."
And as that great captain Zisca would have a drum made of his skin when he
was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to
flight, I doubt not but that these following lines, when they shall be
recited, or hereafter read, will drive away melancholy (though I be gone)
as much as Zisca's drum could terrify his foes. Yet one caution let me give
by the way to my present, or my future reader, who is actually melancholy,
that he read not the [174]symptoms or prognostics in this following tract,
lest by applying that which he reads to himself, aggravating, appropriating
things generally spoken, to his own person (as melancholy men for the most
part do) he trouble or hurt himself, and get in conclusion more harm than
good. I advise them therefore warily to peruse that tract, _Lapides
loquitur_ (so said [175]Agrippa _de occ. Phil._) _et caveant lectores ne
cerebrum iis excutiat_. The rest I doubt not they may securely read, and to
their benefit. But I am over-tedious, I proceed.
Of the necessity and generality of this which I have said, if any man
doubt, I shall desire him to make a brief survey of the world, as [176]
Cyprian adviseth Donat, "supposing himself to be transported to the top of
some high mountain, and thence to behold the tumults and chances of this
wavering world, he cannot choose but either laugh at, or pity it." S.
Hierom out of a strong imagination, being in the wilderness, conceived with
himself, that he then saw them dancing in Rome; and if thou shalt either
conceive, or climb to see, thou shalt soon perceive that all the world is
mad, that it is melancholy, dotes; that it is (which Epichthonius
Cosmopolites expressed not many years since in a map) made like a fool's
head (with that motto, _Caput helleboro dignum_) a crazed head, _cavea
stultorum_, a fool's paradise, or as Apollonius, a common prison of gulls,
cheaters, flatterers, &c. and needs to be reformed. Strabo in the ninth
book of his geography, compares Greece to the picture of a man, which
comparison of his, Nic. Gerbelius in his exposition of Sophianus' map,
approves; the breast lies open from those Acroceraunian hills in Epirus, to
the Sunian promontory in Attica; Pagae and Magaera are the two shoulders;
that Isthmus of Corinth the neck; and Peloponnesus the head. If this
allusion hold, 'tis sure a mad head; Morea may be Moria; and to speak what
I think, the inhabitants of modern Greece swerve as much from reason and
true religion at this day, as that Morea doth from the picture of a man.
Examine the rest in like sort, and you shall find that kingdoms and
provinces are melancholy, cities and families, all creatures, vegetal,
sensible, and rational, that all sorts, sects, ages, conditions, are out of
tune, as in Cebes' table, _omnes errorem bibunt_, before they come into the
world, they are intoxicated by error's cup, from the highest to the lowest
have need of physic, and those particular actions in [177]Seneca, where
father and son prove one another mad, may be general; Porcius Latro shall
plead against us all. For indeed who is not a fool, melancholy, mad?--[178]
_Qui nil molitur inepte_, who is not brain-sick? Folly, melancholy,
madness, are but one disease, _Delirium_ is a common name to all.
Alexander, Gordonius, Jason Pratensis, Savanarola, Guianerius, Montaltus,
confound them as differing _secundum magis et minus_; so doth David, Psal.
xxxvii. 5. "I said unto the fools, deal not so madly," and 'twas an old
Stoical paradox, _omnes stultos insanire_, [179]all fools are mad, though
some madder than others. And who is not a fool, who is free from
melancholy? Who is not touched more or less in habit or disposition? If in
disposition, "ill dispositions beget habits, if they persevere," saith
[180]Plutarch, habits either are, or turn to diseases. 'Tis the same which
Tully maintains in the second of his Tusculans, _omnium insipientum animi
in morbo sunt, et perturbatorum_, fools are sick, and all that are troubled
in mind: for what is sickness, but as [181]Gregory Tholosanus defines it,
"A dissolution or perturbation of the bodily league, which health
combines:" and who is not sick, or ill-disposed? in whom doth not passion,
anger, envy, discontent, fear and sorrow reign? Who labours not of this
disease? Give me but a little leave, and you shall see by what testimonies,
confessions, arguments, I will evince it, that most men are mad, that they
had as much need to go a pilgrimage to the Anticyrae (as in [182]Strabo's
time they did) as in our days they run to Compostella, our Lady of Sichem,
or Lauretta, to seek for help; that it is like to be as prosperous a voyage
as that of Guiana, and that there is much more need of hellebore than of
tobacco.
That men are so misaffected, melancholy, mad, giddy-headed, hear the
testimony of Solomon, Eccl. ii. 12. "And I turned to behold wisdom, madness
and folly," &c. And ver. 23: "All his days are sorrow, his travel grief,
and his heart taketh no rest in the night." So that take melancholy in what
sense you will, properly or improperly, in disposition or habit, for
pleasure or for pain, dotage, discontent, fear, sorrow, madness, for part,
or all, truly, or metaphorically, 'tis all one. Laughter itself is madness
according to Solomon, and as St. Paul hath it, "Worldly sorrow brings
death." "The hearts of the sons of men are evil, and madness is in their
hearts while they live," Eccl. ix. 3. "Wise men themselves are no better."
Eccl. i. 18. "In the multitude of wisdom is much grief, and he that
increaseth wisdom, increaseth sorrow," chap. ii. 17. He hated life itself,
nothing pleased him: he hated his labour, all, as [183]he concludes, is
"sorrow, grief, vanity, vexation of spirit." And though he were the wisest
man in the world, _sanctuarium sapientiae_, and had wisdom in abundance, he
will not vindicate himself, or justify his own actions. "Surely I am more
foolish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man in me," Prov.
xxx. 2. Be they Solomon's words, or the words of Agur, the son of Jakeh,
they are canonical. David, a man after God's own heart, confesseth as much
of himself, Psal. xxxvii. 21, 22. "So foolish was I and ignorant, I was
even as a beast before thee." And condemns all for fools, Psal. xciii.;
xxxii. 9; xlix. 20. He compares them to "beasts, horses, and mules, in
which there is no understanding." The apostle Paul accuseth himself in like
sort, 2 Cor. ix. 21. "I would you would suffer a little my foolishness, I
speak foolishly." "The whole head is sick," saith Esay, "and the heart is
heavy," cap. i. 5. And makes lighter of them than of oxen and asses, "the
ox knows his owner," &c.: read Deut. xxxii. 6; Jer. iv.; Amos, iii. 1;
Ephes. v. 6. "Be not mad, be not deceived, foolish Galatians, who hath
bewitched you?" How often are they branded with this epithet of madness and
folly? No word so frequent amongst the fathers of the Church and divines;
you may see what an opinion they had of the world, and how they valued
men's actions.
I know that we think far otherwise, and hold them most part wise men that
are in authority, princes, magistrates, [184]rich men, they are wise men
born, all politicians and statesmen must needs be so, for who dare speak
against them? And on the other, so corrupt is our judgment, we esteem wise
and honest men fools. Which Democritus well signified in an epistle of his
to Hippocrates: [185]the "Abderites account virtue madness," and so do most
men living. Shall I tell you the reason of it? [186]Fortune and Virtue,
Wisdom and Folly, their seconds, upon a time contended in the Olympics;
every man thought that Fortune and Folly would have the worst, and pitied
their cases; but it fell out otherwise. Fortune was blind and cared not
where she stroke, nor whom, without laws, _Audabatarum instar_, &c. Folly,
rash and inconsiderate, esteemed as little what she said or did. Virtue and
Wisdom gave [187]place, were hissed out, and exploded by the common people;
Folly and Fortune admired, and so are all their followers ever since:
knaves and fools commonly fare and deserve best in worldlings' eyes and
opinions. Many good men have no better fate in their ages: Achish, 1 Sam.
xxi. 14, held David for a madman. [188]Elisha and the rest were no
otherwise esteemed. David was derided of the common people, Ps. ix. 7, "I
am become a monster to many." And generally we are accounted fools for
Christ, 1 Cor. xiv. "We fools thought his life madness, and his end without
honour," Wisd. v. 4. Christ and his Apostles were censured in like sort,
John x.; Mark iii.; Acts xxvi. And so were all Christians in [189]Pliny's
time, _fuerunt et alii, similis dementiae_, &c. And called not long after,
[190]_Vesaniae sectatores, eversores hominum, polluti novatores, fanatici,
canes, malefici, venefici, Galilaei homunciones_, &c. 'Tis an ordinary
thing with us, to account honest, devout, orthodox, divine, religious,
plain-dealing men, idiots, asses, that cannot, or will not lie and
dissemble, shift, flatter, _accommodare se ad eum locum ubi nati sunt_,
make good bargains, supplant, thrive, _patronis inservire; solennes
ascendendi modos apprehendere, leges, mores, consuetudines recte observare,
candide laudare, fortiter defendere, sententias amplecti, dubitare de
nullus, credere omnia, accipere omnia, nihil reprehendere, caeteraque quae
promotionem ferunt et securitatem, quae sine ambage felicem, reddunt
hominem, et vere sapientem apud nos_; that cannot temporise as other men
do, [191]hand and take bribes, &c. but fear God, and make a conscience of
their doings. But the Holy Ghost that knows better how to judge, he calls
them fools. "The fool hath said in his heart," Psal. liii. 1. "And their
ways utter their folly," Psal. xlix. 14. [192]"For what can be more mad,
than for a little worldly pleasure to procure unto themselves eternal
punishment?" As Gregory and others inculcate unto us.
Yea even all those great philosophers the world hath ever had in
admiration, whose works we do so much esteem, that gave precepts of wisdom
to others, inventors of Arts and Sciences, Socrates the wisest man of his
time by the Oracle of Apollo, whom his two scholars, [193]Plato and [194]
Xenophon, so much extol and magnify with those honourable titles, "best and
wisest of all mortal men, the happiest, and most just;" and as [195]
Alcibiades incomparably commends him; Achilles was a worthy man, but
Bracides and others were as worthy as himself; Antenor and Nestor were as
good as Pericles, and so of the rest; but none present, before, or after
Socrates, _nemo veterum neque eorum qui nunc sunt_, were ever such, will
match, or come near him. Those seven wise men of Greece, those Britain
Druids, Indian Brachmanni, Ethiopian Gymnosophist, Magi of the Persians,
Apollonius, of whom Philostratus, _Non doctus, sed natus sapiens_, wise
from his cradle, Epicurus so much admired by his scholar Lucretius:
"Qui genus humanum ingenio superavit, et omnes
Perstrinxit stellas exortus ut aetherius sol."
"Whose wit excell'd the wits of men as far,
As the sun rising doth obscure a star,"
Or that so much renowned Empedocles,
[196] "Ut vix humana videatur stirpe creatus."
All those of whom we read such [197]hyperbolical eulogiums, as of
Aristotle, that he was wisdom itself in the abstract, [198]a miracle of
nature, breathing libraries, as Eunapius of Longinus, lights of nature,
giants for wit, quintessence of wit, divine spirits, eagles in the clouds,
fallen from heaven, gods, spirits, lamps of the world, dictators, _Nulla
ferant talem saecla futura virum_: monarchs, miracles, superintendents of
wit and learning, _oceanus, phoenix, atlas, monstrum, portentum hominis,
orbis universi musaeum, ultimus humana naturae donatus, naturae maritus_,
------"merito cui doctior orbis
Submissis defert fascibus imperium."
As Aelian writ of Protagoras and Gorgias, we may say of them all, _tantum a
sapientibus abfuerunt, quantum a viris pueri_, they were children in
respect, infants, not eagles, but kites; novices, illiterate, _Eunuchi
sapientiae_. And although they were the wisest, and most admired in their
age, as he censured Alexander, I do them, there were 10,000 in his army as
worthy captains (had they been in place of command) as valiant as himself;
there were myriads of men wiser in those days, and yet all short of what
they ought to be. [199]Lactantius, in his book of wisdom, proves them to be
dizzards, fools, asses, madmen, so full of absurd and ridiculous tenets,
and brain-sick positions, that to his thinking never any old woman or sick
person doted worse. [200]Democritus took all from Leucippus, and left,
saith he, "the inheritance of his folly to Epicurus," [201]_insanienti dum
sapientiae_, &c. The like he holds of Plato, Aristippus, and the rest,
making no difference [202]"betwixt them and beasts, saving that they could
speak." [203]Theodoret in his tract, _De cur. grec. affect._ manifestly
evinces as much of Socrates, whom though that Oracle of Apollo confirmed to
be the wisest man then living, and saved him from plague, whom 2000 years
have admired, of whom some will as soon speak evil as of Christ, yet _re
vera_, he was an illiterate idiot, as [204]Aristophanes calls him,
_irriscor et ambitiosus_, as his master Aristotle terms him, _scurra
Atticus_, as Zeno, an [205]enemy to all arts and sciences, as Athaeneus, to
philosophers and travellers, an opiniative ass, a caviller, a kind of
pedant; for his manners, as Theod. Cyrensis describes him, a [206]
sodomite, an atheist, (so convict by Anytus) _iracundus et ebrius, dicax_,
&c. a pot-companion, by [207]Plato's own confession, a sturdy drinker; and
that of all others he was most sottish, a very madman in his actions and
opinions. Pythagoras was part philosopher, part magician, or part witch. If
you desire to hear more of Apollonius, a great wise man, sometime
paralleled by Julian the apostate to Christ, I refer you to that learned
tract of Eusebius against Hierocles, and for them all to Lucian's
_Piscator, Icaromenippus, Necyomantia_: their actions, opinions in general
were so prodigious, absurd, ridiculous, which they broached and maintained,
their books and elaborate treatises were full of dotage, which Tully _ad
Atticum_ long since observed, _delirant plerumque scriptores in libris
suis_, their lives being opposite to their words, they commended poverty to
others, and were most covetous themselves, extolled love and peace, and yet
persecuted one another with virulent hate and malice. They could give
precepts for verse and prose, but not a man of them (as [208]Seneca tells
them home) could moderate his affections. Their music did show us _flebiles
modos_, &c. how to rise and fall, but they could not so contain themselves
as in adversity not to make a lamentable tone. They will measure ground by
geometry, set down limits, divide and subdivide, but cannot yet prescribe
_quantum homini satis_, or keep within compass of reason and discretion.
They can square circles, but understand not the state of their own souls,
describe right lines and crooked, &c. but know not what is right in this
life, _quid in vita rectum sit, ignorant_; so that as he said, _Nescio an
Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem._ I think all the Anticyrae will not
restore them to their wits, [209]if these men now, that held [210]
Xenodotus' heart, Crates' liver, Epictetus' lantern, were so sottish, and
had no more brains than so many beetles, what shall we think of the
commonalty? what of the rest?
Yea, but you will infer, that is true of heathens, if they be conferred
with Christians, 1 Cor. iii. 19. "The wisdom of this world is foolishness
with God, earthly and devilish," as James calls it, iii. 15. "They were
vain in their imaginations, and their foolish heart was full of darkness,"
Rom. i. 21, 22. "When they professed themselves wise, became fools." Their
witty works are admired here on earth, whilst their souls are tormented in
hell fire. In some sense, _Christiani Crassiani_, Christians are Crassians,
and if compared to that wisdom, no better than fools. _Quis est sapiens?
Solus Deus_, [211]Pythagoras replies, "God is only wise," Rom. xvi. Paul
determines "only good," as Austin well contends, "and no man living can be
justified in his sight." "God looked down from heaven upon the children of
men, to see if any did understand," Psalm liii. 2, 3, but all are corrupt,
err. Rom. iii. 12, "None doeth good, no, not one." Job aggravates this, iv.
18, "Behold he found no steadfastness in his servants, and laid folly upon
his angels;" 19. "How much more on them that dwell in houses of clay?" In
this sense we are all fools, and the [212]Scripture alone is _arx
Minervae_, we and our writings are shallow and imperfect. But I do not so
mean; even in our ordinary dealings we are no better than fools. "All our
actions," as [213]Pliny told Trajan, "upbraid us of folly," our whole
course of life is but matter of laughter: we are not soberly wise; and the
world itself, which ought at least to be wise by reason of his antiquity,
as [214]Hugo de Prato Florido will have it, "_semper stultizat_, is every
day more foolish than other; the more it is whipped, the worse it is, and
as a child will still be crowned with roses and flowers." We are apish in
it, _asini bipedes_, and every place is full _inversorum Apuleiorum_ of
metamorphosed and two-legged asses, _inversorum Silenorum_, childish,
_pueri instar bimuli, tremula patris dormientis in ulna_. Jovianus
Pontanus, Antonio Dial, brings in some laughing at an old man, that by
reason of his age was a little fond, but as he admonisheth there, _Ne
mireris mi hospes de hoc sene_, marvel not at him only, for _tota haec
civitas delirium_, all our town dotes in like sort, [215]we are a company
of fools. Ask not with him in the poet, [216]_Larvae hunc intemperiae
insaniaeque agitant senem_? What madness ghosts this old man, but what
madness ghosts us all? For we are _ad unum omnes_, all mad, _semel
insanivimus omnes_ not once, but alway so, _et semel, et simul, et semper_,
ever and altogether as bad as he; and not _senex bis puer, delira anus_,
but say it of us all, _semper pueri_, young and old, all dote, as
Lactantius proves out of Seneca; and no difference betwixt us and children,
saving that, _majora ludimus, et grandioribus pupis_, they play with babies
of clouts and such toys, we sport with greater baubles. We cannot accuse or
condemn one another, being faulty ourselves, _deliramenta loqueris_, you
talk idly, or as [217]Mitio upbraided Demea, _insanis, auferte_, for we are
as mad our own selves, and it is hard to say which is the worst. Nay, 'tis
universally so, [218]_Vitam regit fortuna, non sapientia_.
When [219]Socrates had taken great pains to find out a wise man, and to
that purpose had consulted with philosophers, poets, artificers, he
concludes all men were fools; and though it procured him both anger and
much envy, yet in all companies he would openly profess it. When [220]
Supputius in Pontanus had travelled all over Europe to confer with a wise
man, he returned at last without his errand, and could find none. [221]
Cardan concurs with him, "Few there are (for aught I can perceive) well in
their wits." So doth [222]Tully, "I see everything to be done foolishly and
unadvisedly."
"Ille sinistrorsum, hic dextrorsum, unus utrique
Error, sed variis illudit partibus omnes."
"One reels to this, another to that wall,
'Tis the same error that deludes them all."
[223]They dote all, but not alike, [Greek: Mania gar pasin homoia], not in
the same kind, "One is covetous, a second lascivious, a third ambitious, a
fourth envious," &c. as Damasippus the Stoic hath well illustrated in the
poet,
[224] "Desipiunt omnes aeque ac tu."
"And they who call you fool, with equal claim
May plead an ample title to the name."
'Tis an inbred malady in every one of us, there is _seminarium stultitiae_,
a seminary of folly, "which if it be stirred up, or get ahead, will run _in
infinitum_, and infinitely varies, as we ourselves are severally addicted,"
saith [225]Balthazar Castilio: and cannot so easily be rooted out, it takes
such fast hold, as Tully holds, _altae radices stultitiae_, [226]so we are
bred, and so we continue. Some say there be two main defects of wit, error
and ignorance, to which all others are reduced; by ignorance we know not
things necessary, by error we know them falsely. Ignorance is a privation,
error a positive act. From ignorance comes vice, from error heresy, &c. But
make how many kinds you will, divide and subdivide, few men are free, or
that do not impinge on some one kind or other. [227]_Sic plerumque agitat
stultos inscitia_, as he that examines his own and other men's actions
shall find.
[228]Charon in Lucian, as he wittily feigns, was conducted by Mercury to
such a place, where he might see all the world at once; after he had
sufficiently viewed, and looked about, Mercury would needs know of him what
he had observed: He told him that he saw a vast multitude and a
promiscuous, their habitations like molehills, the men as emmets, "he could
discern cities like so many hives of bees, wherein every bee had a sting,
and they did nought else but sting one another, some domineering like
hornets bigger than the rest, some like filching wasps, others as drones."
Over their heads were hovering a confused company of perturbations, hope,
fear, anger, avarice, ignorance, &c., and a multitude of diseases hanging,
which they still pulled on their pates. Some were brawling, some fighting,
riding, running, _sollicite ambientes, callide litigantes_ for toys and
trifles, and such momentary things, Their towns and provinces mere
factions, rich against poor, poor against rich, nobles against artificers,
they against nobles, and so the rest. In conclusion, he condemned them all
for madmen, fools, idiots, asses, _O stulti, quaenam haec est amentia_? O
fools, O madmen, he exclaims, _insana studia, insani labores_, &c. Mad
endeavours, mad actions, mad, mad, mad, [229]_O saeclum insipiens et
infacetum_, a giddy-headed age. Heraclitus the philosopher, out of a
serious meditation of men's lives, fell a weeping, and with continual tears
bewailed their misery, madness, and folly. Democritus on the other side,
burst out a laughing, their whole life seemed to him so ridiculous, and he
was so far carried with this ironical passion, that the citizens of Abdera
took him to be mad, and sent therefore ambassadors to Hippocrates, the
physician, that he would exercise his skill upon him. But the story is set
down at large by Hippocrates, in his epistle to Damogetus, which because it
is not impertinent to this discourse, I will insert verbatim almost as it
is delivered by Hippocrates himself, with all the circumstances belonging
unto it.
When Hippocrates was now come to Abdera, the people of the city came
flocking about him, some weeping, some intreating of him, that he would do
his best. After some little repast, he went to see Democritus, the people
following him, whom he found (as before) in his garden in the suburbs all
alone, [230]"sitting upon a stone under a plane tree, without hose or
shoes, with a book on his knees, cutting up several beasts, and busy at his
study." The multitude stood gazing round about to see the congress.
Hippocrates, after a little pause, saluted him by his name, whom he
resaluted, ashamed almost that he could not call him likewise by his, or
that he had forgot it. Hippocrates demanded of him what he was doing: he
told him that he was [231]"busy in cutting up several beasts, to find out
the cause of madness and melancholy." Hippocrates commended his work,
admiring his happiness and leisure. And why, quoth Democritus, have not you
that leisure? Because, replied Hippocrates, domestic affairs hinder,
necessary to be done for ourselves, neighbours, friends; expenses,
diseases, frailties and mortalities which happen; wife, children, servants,
and such business which deprive us of our time. At this speech Democritus
profusely laughed (his friends and the people standing by, weeping in the
mean time, and lamenting his madness). Hippocrates asked the reason why he
laughed. He told him, at the vanities and the fopperies of the time, to see
men so empty of all virtuous actions, to hunt so far after gold, having no
end of ambition; to take such infinite pains for a little glory, and to be
favoured of men; to make such deep mines into the earth for gold, and many
times to find nothing, with loss of their lives and fortunes. Some to love
dogs, others horses, some to desire to be obeyed in many provinces,[232]
and yet themselves will know no obedience. [233]Some to love their wives
dearly at first, and after a while to forsake and hate them; begetting
children, with much care and cost for their education, yet when they grow
to man's estate, [234]to despise, neglect, and leave them naked to the
world's mercy. [235]Do not these behaviours express their intolerable
folly? When men live in peace, they covet war, detesting quietness, [236]
deposing kings, and advancing others in their stead, murdering some men to
beget children of their wives. How many strange humours are in men! When
they are poor and needy, they seek riches, and when they have them, they do
not enjoy them, but hide them under ground, or else wastefully spend them.
O wise Hippocrates, I laugh at such things being done, but much more when
no good comes of them, and when they are done to so ill purpose. There is
no truth or justice found amongst them, for they daily plead one against
another, [237]the son against the father and the mother, brother against
brother, kindred and friends of the same quality; and all this for riches,
whereof after death they cannot be possessors. And yet notwithstanding they
will defame and kill one another, commit all unlawful actions, contemning
God and men, friends and country. They make great account of many senseless
things, esteeming them as a great part of their treasure, statues,
pictures, and such like movables, dear bought, and so cunningly wrought, as
nothing but speech wanteth in them, [238]and yet they hate living persons
speaking to them. [239]Others affect difficult things; if they dwell on
firm land they will remove to an island, and thence to land again, being no
way constant to their desires. They commend courage and strength in wars,
and let themselves be conquered by lust and avarice; they are, in brief, as
disordered in their minds, as Thersites was in his body. And now, methinks,
O most worthy Hippocrates, you should not reprehend my laughing, perceiving
so many fooleries in men; [240]for no man will mock his own folly, but that
which he seeth in a second, and so they justly mock one another. The
drunkard calls him a glutton whom he knows to be sober. Many men love the
sea, others husbandry; briefly, they cannot agree in their own trades and
professions, much less in their lives and actions.
When Hippocrates heard these words so readily uttered, without
premeditation, to declare the world's vanity, full of ridiculous
contrariety, he made answer, that necessity compelled men to many such
actions, and divers wills ensuing from divine permission, that we might not
be idle, being nothing is so odious to them as sloth and negligence.
Besides, men cannot foresee future events, in this uncertainty of human
affairs; they would not so marry, if they could foretell the causes of
their dislike and separation; or parents, if they knew the hour of their
children's death, so tenderly provide for them; or an husbandman sow, if he
thought there would be no increase; or a merchant adventure to sea, if he
foresaw shipwreck; or be a magistrate, if presently to be deposed. Alas,
worthy Democritus, every man hopes the best, and to that end he doth it,
and therefore no such cause, or ridiculous occasion of laughter.
Democritus hearing this poor excuse, laughed again aloud, perceiving he
wholly mistook him, and did not well understand what he had said concerning
perturbations and tranquillity of the mind. Insomuch, that if men would
govern their actions by discretion and providence, they would not declare
themselves fools as now they do, and he should have no cause of laughter;
but (quoth he) they swell in this life as if they were immortal, and
demigods, for want of understanding. It were enough to make them wise, if
they would but consider the mutability of this world, and how it wheels
about, nothing being firm and sure. He that is now above, tomorrow is
beneath; he that sate on this side today, tomorrow is hurled on the other:
and not considering these matters, they fall into many inconveniences and
troubles, coveting things of no profit, and thirsting after them, tumbling
headlong into many calamities. So that if men would attempt no more than
what they can bear, they should lead contented lives, and learning to know
themselves, would limit their ambition, [241]they would perceive then that
nature hath enough without seeking such superfluities, and unprofitable
things, which bring nothing with them but grief and molestation. As a fat
body is more subject to diseases, so are rich men to absurdities and
fooleries, to many casualties and cross inconveniences. There are many that
take no heed what happeneth to others by bad conversation, and therefore
overthrow themselves in the same manner through their own fault, not
foreseeing dangers manifest. These are things (O more than mad, quoth he)
that give me matter of laughter, by suffering the pains of your impieties,
as your avarice, envy, malice, enormous villainies, mutinies, unsatiable
desires, conspiracies, and other incurable vices; besides your
[242]dissimulation and hypocrisy, bearing deadly hatred one to the other,
and yet shadowing it with a good face, flying out into all filthy lusts,
and transgressions of all laws, both of nature and civility. Many things
which they have left off, after a while they fall to again, husbandry,
navigation; and leave again, fickle and inconstant as they are. When they
are young, they would be old, and old, young. [243] Princes commend a
private life; private men itch after honour: a magistrate commends a quiet
life; a quiet man would be in his office, and obeyed as he is: and what is
the cause of all this, but that they know not themselves? Some delight to
destroy, [244]one to build, another to spoil one country to enrich another
and himself. [245]In all these things they are like children, in whom is no
judgment or counsel and resemble beasts, saving that beasts are better than
they, as being contented with nature. [246] When shall you see a lion hide
gold in the ground, or a bull contend for better pasture? When a boar is
thirsty, he drinks what will serve him, and no more; and when his belly is
full, ceaseth to eat: but men are immoderate in both, as in lust--they
covet carnal copulation at set times; men always, ruinating thereby the
health of their bodies. And doth it not deserve laughter to see an amorous
fool torment himself for a wench; weep, howl for a misshapen slut, a dowdy
sometimes, that might have his choice of the finest beauties? Is there any
remedy for this in physic? I do anatomise and cut up these poor beasts,
[247]to see these distempers, vanities, and follies, yet such proof were
better made on man's body, if my kind nature would endure it: [248]who from
the hour of his birth is most miserable; weak, and sickly; when he sucks he
is guided by others, when he is grown great practiseth unhappiness [249]and
is sturdy, and when old, a child again, and repenteth him of his life past.
And here being interrupted by one that brought books, he fell to it again,
that all were mad, careless, stupid. To prove my former speeches, look into
courts, or private houses. [250]Judges give judgment according to their own
advantage, doing manifest wrong to poor innocents to please others.
Notaries alter sentences, and for money lose their deeds. Some make false
monies; others counterfeit false weights. Some abuse their parents, yea
corrupt their own sisters; others make long libels and pasquils, defaming
men of good life, and extol such as are lewd and vicious. Some rob one,
some another: [251]magistrates make laws against thieves, and are the
veriest thieves themselves. Some kill themselves, others despair, not
obtaining their desires. Some dance, sing, laugh, feast and banquet, whilst
others sigh, languish, mourn and lament, having neither meat, drink, nor
clothes. [252]Some prank up their bodies, and have their minds full of
execrable vices. Some trot about [253]to bear false witness, and say
anything for money; and though judges know of it, yet for a bribe they wink
at it, and suffer false contracts to prevail against equity. Women are all
day a dressing, to pleasure other men abroad, and go like sluts at home,
not caring to please their own husbands whom they should. Seeing men are so
fickle, so sottish, so intemperate, why should not I laugh at those to whom
[254]folly seems wisdom, will not be cured, and perceive it not?
It grew late: Hippocrates left him; and no sooner was he come away, but all
the citizens came about flocking, to know how he liked him. He told them in
brief, that notwithstanding those small neglects of his attire, body, diet,
[255]the world had not a wiser, a more learned, a more honest man, and they
were much deceived to say that he was mad.
Thus Democritus esteemed of the world in his time, and this was the cause
of his laughter: and good cause he had.
[256] "Olim jure quidem, nunc plus Democrite ride;
Quin rides? vita haec nunc mage ridicula est."
"Democritus did well to laugh of old,
Good cause he had, but now much more;
This life of ours is more ridiculous
Than that of his, or long before."
Never so much cause of laughter as now, never so many fools and madmen.
'Tis not one [257]Democritus will serve turn to laugh in these days; we
have now need of a "Democritus to laugh at Democritus;" one jester to flout
at another, one fool to fleer at another: a great stentorian Democritus, as
big as that Rhodian Colossus, For now, as [258]Salisburiensis said in his
time, _totus mundus histrionem agit_, the whole world plays the fool; we
have a new theatre, a new scene, a new comedy of errors, a new company of
personate actors, _volupiae sacra_ (as Calcagninus willingly feigns in his
Apologues) are celebrated all the world over, [259]where all the actors
were madmen and fools, and every hour changed habits, or took that which
came next. He that was a mariner today, is an apothecary tomorrow; a smith
one while, a philosopher another, _in his volupiae ludis_; a king now with
his crown, robes, sceptre, attendants, by and by drove a loaded ass before
him like a carter, &c. If Democritus were alive now, he should see strange
alterations, a new company of counterfeit vizards, whifflers, Cumane asses,
maskers, mummers, painted puppets, outsides, fantastic shadows, gulls,
monsters, giddy-heads, butterflies. And so many of them are indeed ([260]if
all be true that I have read). For when Jupiter and Juno's wedding was
solemnised of old, the gods were all invited to the feast, and many noble
men besides: Amongst the rest came Crysalus, a Persian prince, bravely
attended, rich in golden attires, in gay robes, with a majestical presence,
but otherwise an ass. The gods seeing him come in such pomp and state, rose
up to give him place, _ex habitu hominem metientes_; [261]but Jupiter
perceiving what he was, a light, fantastic, idle fellow, turned him and his
proud followers into butterflies: and so they continue still (for aught I
know to the contrary) roving about in pied coats, and are called
chrysalides by the wiser sort of men: that is, golden outsides, drones, and
flies, and things of no worth. Multitudes of such, &c.
[262] ------"ubique invenies
Stultos avaros, sycopliantas prodigos."
Many additions, much increase of madness, folly, vanity, should Democritus
observe, were he now to travel, or could get leave of Pluto to come see
fashions, as Charon did in Lucian to visit our cities of Moronia Pia, and
Moronia Felix: sure I think he would break the rim of his belly with
laughing. [263]_Si foret in terris rideret Democritus, seu_, &c.
A satirical Roman in his time, thought all vice, folly, and madness were
all at full sea, [264]_Omne in praecipiti vitium stetit._
[265]Josephus the historian taxeth his countrymen Jews for bragging of
their vices, publishing their follies, and that they did contend amongst
themselves who should be most notorious in villainies; but we flow higher
in madness, far beyond them,
[266] "Mox daturi progeniem vitiosorem,"
"And yet with crimes to us unknown,
Our sons shall mark the coming age their own,"
and the latter end (you know whose oracle it is) is like to be worse. 'Tis
not to be denied, the world alters every day, _Ruunt urbes, regna
transferuntur, &c. variantur habitus, leges innovantur_, as [267]Petrarch
observes, we change language, habits, laws, customs, manners, but not
vices, not diseases, not the symptoms of folly and madness, they are still
the same. And as a river, we see, keeps the like name and place, but not
water, and yet ever runs, [268]_Labitur et labetur in omne volubilis
aevum_; our times and persons alter, vices are the same, and ever will be;
look how nightingales sang of old, cocks crowed, kine lowed, sheep bleated,
sparrows chirped, dogs barked, so they do still: we keep our madness still,
play the fools still, _nec dum finitus Orestes_; we are of the same humours
and inclinations as our predecessors were; you shall find us all alike,
much at one, we and our sons, _Et nati natorum, et qui nascuntur ab illis_.
And so shall our posterity continue to the last. But to speak of times
present.
If Democritus were alive now, and should but see the superstition of our
age, our [269]religious madness, as [270]Meteran calls it, _Religiosam
insaniam_, so many professed Christians, yet so few imitators of Christ; so
much talk of religion, so much science, so little conscience; so much
knowledge, so many preachers, so little practice; such variety of sects,
such have and hold of all sides, [271]--_obvia signis Signa_, &c., such
absurd and ridiculous traditions and ceremonies: If he should meet a [272]
Capuchin, a Franciscan, a Pharisaical Jesuit, a man-serpent, a
shave-crowned Monk in his robes, a begging Friar, or, see their
three-crowned Sovereign Lord the Pope, poor Peter's successor, _servus
servorum Dei_, to depose kings with his foot, to tread on emperors' necks,
make them stand barefoot and barelegged at his gates, hold his bridle and
stirrup, &c. (O that Peter and Paul were alive to see this!) If he should
observe a [273]prince creep so devoutly to kiss his toe, and those red-cap
cardinals, poor parish priests of old, now princes' companions; what would
he say? _Coelum ipsum petitur stultitia_. Had he met some of our devout
pilgrims going barefoot to Jerusalem, our lady of Lauretto, Rome, S. Iago,
S. Thomas' Shrine, to creep to those counterfeit and maggot-eaten relics;
had he been present at a mass, and seen such kissing of paxes, crucifixes,
cringes, duckings, their several attires and ceremonies, pictures of
saints, [274]indulgences, pardons, vigils, fasting, feasts, crossing,
knocking, kneeling at Ave-Marias, bells, with many such; _--jucunda rudi
spectacula plebi_,[275] praying in gibberish, and mumbling of beads. Had he
heard an old woman say her prayers in Latin, their sprinkling of holy
water, and going a procession,
[276] ------"incedunt monachorum agmina mille;
Quid momerem vexilla, cruces, idolaque culta," &c.
Their breviaries, bulls, hallowed beans, exorcisms, pictures, curious
crosses, fables, and baubles. Had he read the Golden Legend, the Turks'
Alcoran, or Jews' Talmud, the Rabbins' Comments, what would he have
thought? How dost thou think he might have been affected? Had he more
particularly examined a Jesuit's life amongst the rest, he should have seen
an hypocrite profess poverty, [277]and yet possess more goods and lands
than many princes, to have infinite treasures and revenues; teach others to
fast, and play the gluttons themselves; like watermen that row one way and
look another. [278]Vow virginity, talk of holiness, and yet indeed a
notorious bawd, and famous fornicator, _lascivum pecus_, a very goat. Monks
by profession, [279]such as give over the world, and the vanities of it,
and yet a Machiavellian rout [280]interested in all manner of state: holy
men, peace-makers, and yet composed of envy, lust, ambition, hatred, and
malice; firebrands, _adulta patriae pestis_, traitors, assassinats, _hac
itur ad astra_, and this is to supererogate, and merit heaven for
themselves and others. Had he seen on the adverse side, some of our nice
and curious schismatics in another extreme, abhor all ceremonies, and
rather lose their lives and livings, than do or admit anything Papists have
formerly used, though in things indifferent (they alone are the true
Church, _sal terrae, cum sint omnium insulsissimi_). Formalists, out of
fear and base flattery, like so many weather-cocks turn round, a rout of
temporisers, ready to embrace and maintain all that is or shall be proposed
in hope of preferment: another Epicurean company, lying at lurch as so many
vultures, watching for a prey of Church goods, and ready to rise by the
downfall of any: as [281]Lucian said in like case, what dost thou think
Democritus would have done, had he been spectator of these things?
Or had he but observed the common people follow like so many sheep one of
their fellows drawn by the horns over a gap, some for zeal, some for fear,
_quo se cunque rapit tempestas_, to credit all, examine nothing, and yet
ready to die before they will adjure any of those ceremonies to which they
have been accustomed; others out of hypocrisy frequent sermons, knock their
breasts, turn up their eyes, pretend zeal, desire reformation, and yet
professed usurers, gripers, monsters of men, harpies, devils in their
lives, to express nothing less.
What would he have said to see, hear, and read so many bloody battles, so
many thousands slain at once, such streams of blood able to turn mills:
_unius ob noxam furiasque_, or to make sport for princes, without any just
cause, [282]"for vain titles" (saith Austin), "precedency, some wench, or
such like toy, or out of desire of domineering, vainglory, malice, revenge,
folly, madness," (goodly causes all, _ob quas universus orbis bellis et
caedibus misceatur_,) whilst statesmen themselves in the mean time are
secure at home, pampered with all delights and pleasures, take their ease,
and follow their lusts, not considering what intolerable misery poor
soldiers endure, their often wounds, hunger, thirst, &c., the lamentable
cares, torments, calamities, and oppressions that accompany such
proceedings, they feel not, take no notice of it. "So wars are begun, by
the persuasion of a few debauched, hair-brain, poor, dissolute, hungry
captains, parasitical fawners, unquiet hotspurs, restless innovators, green
heads, to satisfy one man's private spleen, lust, ambition, avarice," &c.;
_tales rapiunt scelerata in praelia causae. Flos hominum_, proper men, well
proportioned, carefully brought up, able both in body and mind, sound, led
like so many [283]beasts to the slaughter in the flower of their years,
pride, and full strength, without all remorse and pity, sacrificed to
Pluto, killed up as so many sheep, for devils' food, 40,000 at once. At
once, said I, that were tolerable, but these wars last always, and for many
ages; nothing so familiar as this hacking and hewing, massacres, murders,
desolations--_ignoto coelum clangore remugit_, they care not what mischief
they procure, so that they may enrich themselves for the present; they will
so long blow the coals of contention, till all the world be consumed with
fire. The [284]siege of Troy lasted ten years, eight months, there died
870,000 Grecians, 670,000 Trojans, at the taking of the city, and after
were slain 276,000 men, women, and children of all sorts. Caesar killed a
million, [285]Mahomet the second Turk, 300,000 persons; Sicinius Dentatus
fought in a hundred battles, eight times in single combat he overcame, had
forty wounds before, was rewarded with 140 crowns, triumphed nine times for
his good service. M. Sergius had 32 wounds; Scaeva, the Centurion, I know
not how many; every nation had their Hectors, Scipios, Caesars, and
Alexanders! Our [286]Edward the Fourth was in 26 battles afoot: and as they
do all, he glories in it, 'tis related to his honour. At the siege of
Hierusalem, 1,100,000 died with sword and famine. At the battle of Cannas,
70,000 men were slain, as [287]Polybius records, and as many at Battle
Abbey with us; and 'tis no news to fight from sun to sun, as they did, as
Constantine and Licinius, &c. At the siege of Ostend (the devil's academy)
a poor town in respect, a small fort, but a great grave, 120,000 men lost
their lives, besides whole towns, dorps, and hospitals, full of maimed
soldiers; there were engines, fireworks, and whatsoever the devil could
invent to do mischief with 2,500,000 iron bullets shot of 40 pounds weight,
three or four millions of gold consumed. [288]"Who" (saith mine author)
"can be sufficiently amazed at their flinty hearts, obstinacy, fury,
blindness, who without any likelihood of good success, hazard poor
soldiers, and lead them without pity to the slaughter, which may justly be
called the rage of furious beasts, that run without reason upon their own
deaths:" [289]_quis malus genius, quae furia quae pestis_, &c.; what
plague, what fury brought so devilish, so brutish a thing as war first into
men's minds? Who made so soft and peaceable a creature, born to love,
mercy, meekness, so to rave, rage like beasts, and run on to their own
destruction? how may Nature expostulate with mankind, _Ego te divinum
animal finxi_, &c.? I made thee an harmless, quiet, a divine creature: how
may God expostulate, and all good men? yet, _horum facta_ (as [290]one
condoles) _tantum admirantur, et heroum numero habent_: these are the brave
spirits, the gallants of the world, these admired alone, triumph alone,
have statues, crowns, pyramids, obelisks to their eternal fame, that
immortal genius attends on them, _hac itur ad astra_. When Rhodes was
besieged, [291]_fossae urbis cadaveribus repletae sunt_, the ditches were
full of dead carcases: and as when the said Suleiman, great Turk,
beleaguered Vienna, they lay level with the top of the walls. This they
make a sport of, and will do it to their friends and confederates, against
oaths, vows, promises, by treachery or otherwise; [292]--_dolus an virtus?
quis in hoste requirat_? leagues and laws of arms, ([293]_silent leges
inter arma_,) for their advantage, _omnia jura, divina, humana, proculcata
plerumque sunt_; God's and men's laws are trampled under foot, the sword
alone determines all; to satisfy their lust and spleen, they care not what
they attempt, say, or do, [294]_Rara fides, probitasque viris qui castra
sequuntur._ Nothing so common as to have [295] "father fight against the
son, brother against brother, kinsman against kinsman, kingdom against
kingdom, province against province, Christians against Christians:" _a
quibus nec unquam cogitatione fuerunt laesi_, of whom they never had
offence in thought, word, or deed. Infinite treasures consumed, towns
burned, flourishing cities sacked and ruinated, _quodque animus meminisse
horret_, goodly countries depopulated and left desolate, old inhabitants
expelled, trade and traffic decayed, maids deflowered, _Virgines nondum
thalamis jugatae, et comis nondum positis ephaebi_; chaste matrons cry out
with Andromache, [296]_Concubitum mox cogar pati ejus, qui interemit
Hectorem_, they shall be compelled peradventure to lie with them that erst
killed their husbands: to see rich, poor, sick, sound, lords, servants,
_eodem omnes incommodo macti_, consumed all or maimed, &c. _Et quicquid
gaudens scelere animus audet, et perversa mens_, saith Cyprian, and
whatsoever torment, misery, mischief, hell itself, the devil, [297] fury
and rage can invent to their own ruin and destruction; so abominable a
thing is [298]war, as Gerbelius concludes, _adeo foeda et abominanda res
est bellum, ex quo hominum caedes, vastationes_, &c., the scourge of God,
cause, effect, fruit and punishment of sin, and not _tonsura humani
generis_ as Tertullian calls it, but _ruina_. Had Democritus been present
at the late civil wars in France, those abominable wars--_bellaque matribus
detestata_, [299]"where in less than ten years, ten thousand men were
consumed," saith Collignius, twenty thousand churches overthrown; nay, the
whole kingdom subverted (as [300]Richard Dinoth adds). So many myriads of
the commons were butchered up, with sword, famine, war, _tanto odio
utrinque ut barbari ad abhorrendam lanienam obstupescerent_, with such
feral hatred, the world was amazed at it: or at our late Pharsalian fields
in the time of Henry the Sixth, betwixt the houses of Lancaster and York, a
hundred thousand men slain, [301]one writes; [302]another, ten thousand
families were rooted out, "that no man can but marvel," saith Comineus, "at
that barbarous immanity, feral madness, committed betwixt men of the same
nation, language, and religion." [303]_Quis furor, O cives_? "Why do the
Gentiles so furiously rage," saith the Prophet David, Psal. ii. 1. But we
may ask, why do the Christians so furiously rage? [304]_Arma volunt, quare
poscunt, rapiuntque juventus_? Unfit for Gentiles, much less for us so to
tyrannise, as the Spaniard in the West Indies, that killed up in 42 years
(if we may believe [305]Bartholomeus a Casa, their own bishop) 12 millions
of men, with stupend and exquisite torments; neither should I lie (said he)
if I said 50 millions. I omit those French massacres, Sicilian evensongs,
[306]the Duke of Alva's tyrannies, our gunpowder machinations, and that
fourth fury, as [307]one calls it, the Spanish inquisition, which quite
obscures those ten persecutions, [308]------_saevit toto Mars impius orbe._
Is not this [309]_mundus furiosus_, a mad world, as he terms it, _insanum
bellum_? are not these mad men, as [310]Scaliger concludes, _qui in praelio
acerba morte, insaniae, suae memoriam pro perpetuo teste relinquunt
posteritati_; which leave so frequent battles, as perpetual memorials of
their madness to all succeeding ages? Would this, think you, have enforced
our Democritus to laughter, or rather made him turn his tune, alter his
tone, and weep with [311]Heraclitus, or rather howl, [312]roar, and tear
his hair in commiseration, stand amazed; or as the poets feign, that Niobe
was for grief quite stupefied, and turned to a stone? I have not yet said
the worst, that which is more absurd and [313]mad, in their tumults,
seditions, civil and unjust wars, [314]_quod stulte sucipitur, impie
geritur, misere finitur_. Such wars I mean; for all are not to be
condemned, as those fantastical Anabaptists vainly conceive. Our Christian
tactics are all out as necessary as the Roman acies, or Grecian phalanx, to
be a soldier is a most noble and honourable profession (as the world is),
not to be spared, they are our best walls and bulwarks, and I do therefore
acknowledge that of [315]Tully to be most true, "All our civil affairs, all
our studies, all our pleading, industry, and commendation lies under the
protection of warlike virtues, and whensoever there is any suspicion of
tumult, all our arts cease;" wars are most behoveful, _et bellatores
agricolis civitati sunt utiliores_, as [316]Tyrius defends: and valour is
much to be commended in a wise man; but they mistake most part, _auferre,
trucidare, rapere, falsis nominibus virtutem vocant_, &c. ('Twas Galgacus'
observation in Tacitus) they term theft, murder, and rapine, virtue, by a
wrong name, rapes, slaughters, massacres, &c. _jocus et ludus_, are pretty
pastimes, as Ludovicus Vives notes. [317]"They commonly call the most
hair-brain bloodsuckers, strongest thieves, the most desperate villains,
treacherous rogues, inhuman murderers, rash, cruel and dissolute caitiffs,
courageous and generous spirits, heroical and worthy captains, [318]brave
men at arms, valiant and renowned soldiers, possessed with a brute
persuasion of false honour," as Pontus Huter in his Burgundian history
complains. By means of which it comes to pass that daily so many
voluntaries offer themselves, leaving their sweet wives, children, friends,
for sixpence (if they can get it) a day, prostitute their lives and limbs,
desire to enter upon breaches, lie sentinel, perdu, give the first onset,
stand in the fore front of the battle, marching bravely on, with a cheerful
noise of drums and trumpets, such vigour and alacrity, so many banners
streaming in the air, glittering armours, motions of plumes, woods of
pikes, and swords, variety of colours, cost and magnificence, as if they
went in triumph, now victors to the Capitol, and with such pomp, as when
Darius' army marched to meet Alexander at Issus. Void of all fear they run
into imminent dangers, cannon's mouth, &c., _ut vulneribus suis ferrum
hostium hebetent_, saith [319]Barletius, to get a name of valour, humour
and applause, which lasts not either, for it is but a mere flash this fame,
and like a rose, _intra diem unum extinguitur_, 'tis gone in an instant. Of
15,000 proletaries slain in a battle, scarce fifteen are recorded in
history, or one alone, the General perhaps, and after a while his and their
names are likewise blotted out, the whole battle itself is forgotten. Those
Grecian orators, _summa vi ingenii et eloquentiae_, set out the renowned
overthrows at Thermopylae, Salamis, Marathon, Micale, Mantinea, Cheronaea,
Plataea. The Romans record their battle at Cannas, and Pharsalian fields,
but they do but record, and we scarce hear of them. And yet this supposed
honour, popular applause, desire of immortality by this means, pride and
vainglory spur them on many times rashly and unadvisedly, to make away
themselves and multitudes of others. Alexander was sorry, because there
were no more worlds for him to conquer, he is admired by some for it,
_animosa vox videtur, et regia_, 'twas spoken like a Prince; but as wise
[320]Seneca censures him, 'twas _vox inquissima et stultissima_, 'twas
spoken like a Bedlam fool; and that sentence which the same [321]Seneca
appropriates to his father Philip and him, I apply to them all, _Non
minores fuere pestes mortalium quam inundatio, quam conflagratio, quibus_,
&c. they did as much mischief to mortal men as fire and water, those
merciless elements when they rage. [322]Which is yet more to be lamented,
they persuade them this hellish course of life is holy, they promise heaven
to such as venture their lives _bello sacro_, and that by these bloody
wars, as Persians, Greeks, and Romans of old, as modern Turks do now their
commons, to encourage them to fight, _ut cadant infeliciter_. "If they die
in the field, they go directly to heaven, and shall be canonised for
saints." (O diabolical invention!) put in the Chronicles, _in perpetuam rei
memoriam_, to their eternal memory: when as in truth, as [323]some hold, it
were much better (since wars are the scourge of God for sin, by which he
punisheth mortal men's peevishness and folly) such brutish stories were
suppressed, because _ad morum institutionem nihil habent_, they conduce not
at all to manners, or good life. But they will have it thus nevertheless,
and so they put note of [324]"divinity upon the most cruel and pernicious
plague of human kind," adore such men with grand titles, degrees, statues,
images, [325]honour, applaud, and highly reward them for their good
service, no greater glory than to die in the field. So Africanus is
extolled by Ennius: Mars, and [326]Hercules, and I know not how many
besides of old, were deified; went this way to heaven, that were indeed
bloody butchers, wicked destroyers, and troublers of the world, prodigious
monsters, hell-hounds, feral plagues, devourers, common executioners of
human kind, as Lactantius truly proves, and Cyprian to Donat, such as were
desperate in wars, and precipitately made away themselves, (like those
Celts in Damascen, with ridiculous valour, _ut dedecorosum putarent muro
ruenti se subducere_, a disgrace to run away for a rotten wall, now ready
to fall on their heads,) such as will not rush on a sword's point, or seek
to shun a cannon's shot, are base cowards, and no valiant men. By which
means, _Madet orbis mutuo sanguine_, the earth wallows in her own blood,
[327]_Savit amor ferri et scelerati insania belli_; and for that, which if
it be done in private, a man shall be rigorously executed, [328]"and which
is no less than murder itself; if the same fact be done in public in wars,
it is called manhood, and the party is honoured for it."
[329] ------"Prosperum et felix scelus,
Virtus vocatur."------
We measure all as Turks do, by the event, and most part, as Cyprian notes,
in all ages, countries, places, _saevitiae magnitudo impunitatem sceleris
acquirit_; the foulness of the fact vindicates the offender. [330]One is
crowned for that which another is tormented: _Ille crucem sceleris precium
tulit, hic diadema_; made a knight, a lord, an earl, a great duke, (as
[331]Agrippa notes) for that which another should have hung in gibbets, as
a terror to the rest,
[332] ------"et tamen alter,
Si fecisset idem, caderet sub judice morum."
A poor sheep-stealer is hanged for stealing of victuals, compelled
peradventure by necessity of that intolerable cold, hunger, and thirst, to
save himself from starving: but a [333]great man in office may securely rob
whole provinces, undo thousands, pill and poll, oppress _ad libitum_, flea,
grind, tyrannise, enrich himself by spoils of the commons, be
uncontrollable in his actions, and after all, be recompensed with turgent
titles, honoured for his good service, and no man dare find fault, or [334]
mutter at it.
How would our Democritus have been affected to see a wicked caitiff or
[335]"fool, a very idiot, a funge, a golden ass, a monster of men, to have
many good men, wise, men, learned men to attend upon him with all
submission, as an appendix to his riches, for that respect alone, because
he hath more wealth and money," [336]"to honour him with divine titles, and
bombast epithets," to smother him with fumes and eulogies, whom they know
to be a dizzard, a fool, a covetous wretch, a beast, &c. "because he is
rich?" To see _sub exuviis leonis onagrum_, a filthy loathsome carcass, a
Gorgon's head puffed up by parasites, assume this unto himself, glorious
titles, in worth an infant, a Cuman ass, a painted sepulchre, an Egyptian
temple? To see a withered face, a diseased, deformed, cankered complexion,
a rotten carcass, a viperous mind, and Epicurean soul set out with orient
pearls, jewels, diadems, perfumes, curious elaborate works, as proud of his
clothes as a child of his new coats; and a goodly person, of an angel-like
divine countenance, a saint, an humble mind, a meet spirit clothed in rags,
beg, and now ready to be starved? To see a silly contemptible sloven in
apparel, ragged in his coat, polite in speech, of a divine spirit, wise?
another neat in clothes, spruce, full of courtesy, empty of grace, wit,
talk nonsense?
To see so many lawyers, advocates, so many tribunals, so little justice; so
many magistrates, so little care of common good; so many laws, yet never
more disorders; _Tribunal litium segetem_, the Tribunal a labyrinth, so
many thousand suits in one court sometimes, so violently followed? To see
_injustissimum saepe juri praesidentem, impium religioni, imperitissimum
eruditioni, otiosissimum labori, monstrosum humanitati_? to see a lamb
[337]executed, a wolf pronounce sentence, _latro_ arraigned, and _fur_ sit
on the bench, the judge severely punish others, and do worse himself, [338]
_cundem furtum facere et punire_, [339]_rapinam plectere, quum sit ipse
raptor_? Laws altered, misconstrued, interpreted pro and con, as the
[340]judge is made by friends, bribed, or otherwise affected as a nose of
wax, good today, none tomorrow; or firm in his opinion, cast in his?
Sentence prolonged, changed, _ad arbitrium judicis_, still the same case,
[341]"one thrust out of his inheritance, another falsely put in by favour,
false forged deeds or wills." _Incisae leges negliguntur_, laws are made
and not kept; or if put in execution, [342]they be some silly ones that are
punished. As, put case it be fornication, the father will disinherit or
abdicate his child, quite cashier him (out, villain, be gone, come no more
in my sight); a poor man is miserably tormented with loss of his estate
perhaps, goods, fortunes, good name, for ever disgraced, forsaken, and must
do penance to the utmost; a mortal sin, and yet make the worst of it,
_nunquid aliud fecit_, saith Tranio in the [343]poet, _nisi quod faciunt
summis nati generibus_? he hath done no more than what gentlemen usually
do. [344]_Neque novum, neque mirum, neque secus quam alii solent_. For in a
great person, right worshipful Sir, a right honourable grandee, 'tis not a
venial sin, no, not a peccadillo, 'tis no offence at all, a common and
ordinary thing, no man takes notice of it; he justifies it in public, and
peradventure brags of it,
[345] "Nam quod turpe bonis, Titio, Seioque, decebat Crispinum"------
"For what would be base in good men, Titius, and Seius, became
Crispinus."
[346]Many poor men, younger brothers, &c. by reason of bad policy and idle
education (for they are likely brought up in no calling), are compelled to
beg or steal, and then hanged for theft; than which, what can be more
ignominious, _non minus enim turpe principi multa supplicia, quam medico
multa funera_, 'tis the governor's fault. _Libentius verberant quam
docent_, as schoolmasters do rather correct their pupils, than teach them
when they do amiss. [347]"They had more need provide there should be no
more thieves and beggars, as they ought with good policy, and take away the
occasions, than let them run on, as they do to their own destruction: root
out likewise those causes of wrangling, a multitude of lawyers, and compose
controversies, _lites lustrales et seculares_, by some more compendious
means." Whereas now for every toy and trifle they go to law, [348]_Mugit
litibus insanum forum, et saevit invicem discordantium rabies_, they are
ready to pull out one another's throats; and for commodity [349]"to squeeze
blood," saith Hierom, "out of their brother's heart," defame, lie,
disgrace, backbite, rail, bear false witness, swear, forswear, fight and
wrangle, spend their goods, lives, fortunes, friends, undo one another, to
enrich an harpy advocate, that preys upon them both, and cries _Eia
Socrates, Eia Xantippe_; or some corrupt judge, that like the [350]kite in
Aesop, while the mouse and frog fought, carried both away. Generally they
prey one upon another as so many ravenous birds, brute beasts, devouring
fishes, no medium, [351]_omnes hic aut captantur aut captant; aut cadavera
quae lacerantur, aut corvi qui lacerant_, either deceive or be deceived;
tear others or be torn in pieces themselves; like so many buckets in a
well, as one riseth another falleth, one's empty, another's full; his ruin
is a ladder to the third; such are our ordinary proceedings. What's the
market? A place, according to [352]Anacharsis, wherein they cozen one
another, a trap; nay, what's the world itself? [353]A vast chaos, a
confusion of manners, as fickle as the air, _domicilium insanorum_, a
turbulent troop full of impurities, a mart of walking spirits, goblins, the
theatre of hypocrisy, a shop of knavery, flattery, a nursery of villainy,
the scene of babbling, the school of giddiness, the academy of vice; a
warfare, _ubi velis nolis pugnandum, aut vincas aut succumbas_, in which
kill or be killed; wherein every man is for himself, his private ends, and
stands upon his own guard. No charity, [354]love, friendship, fear of God,
alliance, affinity, consanguinity, Christianity, can contain them, but if
they be any ways offended, or that string of commodity be touched, they
fall foul. Old friends become bitter enemies on a sudden for toys and small
offences, and they that erst were willing to do all mutual offices of love
and kindness, now revile and persecute one another to death, with more than
Vatinian hatred, and will not be reconciled. So long as they are behoveful,
they love, or may bestead each other, but when there is no more good to be
expected, as they do by an old dog, hang him up or cashier him: which [355]
Cato counts a great indecorum, to use men like old shoes or broken glasses,
which are flung to the dunghill; he could not find in his heart to sell an
old ox, much less to turn away an old servant: but they instead of
recompense, revile him, and when they have made him an instrument of their
villainy, as [356]Bajazet the second Emperor of the Turks did by Acomethes
Bassa, make him away, or instead of [357]reward, hate him to death, as
Silius was served by Tiberius. In a word, every man for his own ends. Our
_summum bonum_ is commodity, and the goddess we adore _Dea moneta_, Queen
money, to whom we daily offer sacrifice, which steers our hearts, hands,
[358]affections, all: that most powerful goddess, by whom we are reared,
depressed, elevated, [359]esteemed the sole commandress of our actions, for
which we pray, run, ride, go, come, labour, and contend as fishes do for a
crumb that falleth into the water. It's not worth, virtue, (that's _bonum
theatrale_,) wisdom, valour, learning, honesty, religion, or any
sufficiency for which we are respected, but [360]money, greatness, office,
honour, authority; honesty is accounted folly; knavery, policy; [361]men
admired out of opinion, not as they are, but as they seem to be: such
shifting, lying, cogging, plotting, counterplotting, temporizing,
nattering, cozening, dissembling, [362]"that of necessity one must highly
offend God if he be conformable to the world, _Cretizare cum Crete_, or
else live in contempt, disgrace and misery." One takes upon him temperance,
holiness, another austerity, a third an affected kind of simplicity, when
as indeed, he, and he, and he, and the rest are [363]"hypocrites,
ambidexters," outsides, so many turning pictures, a lion on the one side,
a lamb on the other. [364]How would Democritus have been affected to see
these things!
To see a man turn himself into all shapes like a chameleon, or as Proteus,
_omnia transformans sese in miracula rerum_, to act twenty parts and
persons at once, for his advantage, to temporise and vary like Mercury the
planet, good with good; bad with bad; having a several face, garb, and
character for every one he meets; of all religions, humours, inclinations;
to fawn like a spaniel, _mentitis et mimicis obsequis_; rage like a lion,
bark like a cur, fight like a dragon, sting like a serpent, as meek as a
lamb, and yet again grin like a tiger, weep like a crocodile, insult over
some, and yet others domineer over him, here command, there crouch,
tyrannise in one place, be baffled in another, a wise man at home, a fool
abroad to make others merry.
To see so much difference betwixt words and deeds, so many parasangs
betwixt tongue and heart, men like stage-players act variety of parts,
[365]give good precepts to others, soar aloft, whilst they themselves
grovel on the ground.
To see a man protest friendship, kiss his hand, [366]_quem mallet truncatum
videre_, [367]smile with an intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he
salutes, [368]magnify his friend unworthy with hyperbolical eulogiums; his
enemy albeit a good man, to vilify and disgrace him, yea all his actions,
with the utmost that livor and malice can invent.
To see a [369]servant able to buy out his master, him that carries the mace
more worth than the magistrate, which Plato, _lib. 11, de leg._, absolutely
forbids, Epictetus abhors. A horse that tills the [370]land fed with chaff,
an idle jade have provender in abundance; him that makes shoes go barefoot
himself, him that sells meat almost pined; a toiling drudge starve, a drone
flourish.
To see men buy smoke for wares, castles built with fools' heads, men like
apes follow the fashions in tires, gestures, actions: if the king laugh,
all laugh;
[371] "Rides? majore chachiano
Concutitur, flet si lachrymas conspexit amici."
[372]Alexander stooped, so did his courtiers; Alphonsus turned his head,
and so did his parasites. [373]Sabina Poppea, Nero's wife, wore
amber-coloured hair, so did all the Roman ladies in an instant, her fashion
was theirs.
To see men wholly led by affection, admired and censured out of opinion
without judgment: an inconsiderate multitude, like so many dogs in a
village, if one bark all bark without a cause: as fortune's fan turns, if a
man be in favour, or commanded by some great one, all the world applauds
him; [374]if in disgrace, in an instant all hate him, and as at the sun
when he is eclipsed, that erst took no notice, now gaze and stare upon him.
To see a man [375]wear his brains in his belly, his guts in his head, an
hundred oaks on his back, to devour a hundred oxen at a meal, nay more, to
devour houses and towns, or as those Anthropophagi, [376]to eat one
another.
To see a man roll himself up like a snowball, from base beggary to right
worshipful and right honourable titles, unjustly to screw himself into
honours and offices; another to starve his genius, damn his soul to gather
wealth, which he shall not enjoy, which his prodigal son melts and consumes
in an instant. [377]
To see the [Greek: kakozaelian] of our times, a man bend all his forces,
means, time, fortunes, to be a favorite's favorite's favorite, &c., a
parasite's parasite's parasite, that may scorn the servile world as having
enough already.
To see an hirsute beggar's brat, that lately fed on scraps, crept and
whined, crying to all, and for an old jerkin ran of errands, now ruffle in
silk and satin, bravely mounted, jovial and polite, now scorn his old
friends and familiars, neglect his kindred, insult over his betters,
domineer over all.
To see a scholar crouch and creep to an illiterate peasant for a meal's
meat; a scrivener better paid for an obligation; a falconer receive greater
wages than a student; a lawyer get more in a day than a philosopher in a
year, better reward for an hour, than a scholar for a twelvemonth's study;
him that can [378]paint Thais, play on a fiddle, curl hair, &c., sooner get
preferment than a philologer or a poet.
To see a fond mother, like Aesop's ape, hug her child to death, a [379]
wittol wink at his wife's honesty, and too perspicuous in all other
affairs; one stumble at a straw, and leap over a block; rob Peter, and pay
Paul; scrape unjust sums with one hand, purchase great manors by
corruption, fraud and cozenage, and liberally to distribute to the poor
with the other, give a remnant to pious uses, &c. Penny wise, pound
foolish; blind men judge of colours; wise men silent, fools talk; [380]
find fault with others, and do worse themselves; [381]denounce that in
public which he doth in secret; and which Aurelius Victor gives out of
Augustus, severely censure that in a third, of which he is most guilty
himself.
To see a poor fellow, or an hired servant venture his life for his new
master that will scarce give him his wages at year's end; A country colon
toil and moil, till and drudge for a prodigal idle drone, that devours all
the gain, or lasciviously consumes with fantastical expenses; A noble man
in a bravado to encounter death, and for a small flash of honour to cast
away himself; A worldling tremble at an executor, and yet not fear
hell-fire; To wish and hope for immortality, desire to be happy, and yet by
all means avoid death, a necessary passage to bring him to it.
To see a foolhardy fellow like those old Danes, _qui decollari malunt quam
verberari_, die rather than be punished, in a sottish humour embrace death
with alacrity, yet [382]scorn to lament his own sins and miseries, or his
clearest friends' departures.
To see wise men degraded, fools preferred, one govern towns and cities, and
yet a silly woman overrules him at home; [383]Command a province, and yet
his own servants or children prescribe laws to him, as Themistocles' son
did in Greece; [384]"What I will" (said he) "my mother will, and what my
mother will, my father doth." To see horses ride in a coach, men draw it;
dogs devour their masters; towers build masons; children rule; old men go
to school; women wear the breeches; [385]sheep demolish towns, devour men,
&c. And in a word, the world turned upside downward. _O viveret
Democritus_.
[386]To insist in every particular were one of Hercules' labours, there's
so many ridiculous instances, as motes in the sun. _Quantum est in rebus
inane_? (How much vanity there is in things!) And who can speak of all?
_Crimine ab uno disce omnes_, take this for a taste.
But these are obvious to sense, trivial and well known, easy to be
discerned. How would Democritus have been moved, had he seen [387]the
secrets of their hearts? If every man had a window in his breast, which
Momus would have had in Vulcan's man, or that which Tully so much wished it
were written in every man's forehead, _Quid quisque de republica sentiret_,
what he thought; or that it could be effected in an instant, which Mercury
did by Charon in Lucian, by touching of his eyes, to make him discern
_semel et simul rumores et susurros_.
"Spes hominum caecas, morbos, votumque labores,
Et passim toto volitantes aethere curas."
"Blind hopes and wishes, their thoughts and affairs,
Whispers and rumours, and those flying cares."
That he could _cubiculorum obductas foras recludere et secreta cordium
penetrare_, which [388]Cyprian desired, open doors and locks, shoot bolts,
as Lucian's Gallus did with a feather of his tail: or Gyges' invisible
ring, or some rare perspective glass, or _Otacousticon_, which would so
multiply species, that a man might hear and see all at once (as [389]
Martianus Capella's Jupiter did in a spear which he held in his hand, which
did present unto him all that was daily done upon the face of the earth),
observe cuckolds' horns, forgeries of alchemists, the philosopher's stone,
new projectors, &c., and all those works of darkness, foolish vows, hopes,
fears and wishes, what a deal of laughter would it have afforded? He should
have seen windmills in one man's head, an hornet's nest in another. Or had
he been present with Icaromenippus in Lucian at Jupiter's whispering place,
[390]and heard one pray for rain, another for fair weather; one for his
wife's, another for his father's death, &c.; "to ask that at God's hand
which they are abashed any man should hear:" How would he have been
confounded? Would he, think you, or any man else, say that these men were
well in their wits? _Haec sani esse hominis quis sanus juret Orestes_? Can
all the hellebore in the Anticyrae cure these men? No, sure, [391]"an acre
of hellebore will not do it."
That which is more to be lamented, they are mad like Seneca's blind woman,
and will not acknowledge, or [392]seek for any cure of it, for _pauci
vident morbum suum, omnes amant_. If our leg or arm offend us, we covet by
all means possible to redress it; [393]and if we labour of a bodily
disease, we send for a physician; but for the diseases of the mind we take
no notice of them: [394]Lust harrows us on the one side; envy, anger,
ambition on the other. We are torn in pieces by our passions, as so many
wild horses, one in disposition, another in habit; one is melancholy,
another mad; [395]and which of us all seeks for help, doth acknowledge his
error, or knows he is sick? As that stupid fellow put out the candle
because the biting fleas should not find him; he shrouds himself in an
unknown habit, borrowed titles, because nobody should discern him. Every
man thinks with himself, _Egomet videor mihi sanus_, I am well, I am wise,
and laughs at others. And 'tis a general fault amongst them all, that [396]
which our forefathers have approved, diet, apparel, opinions, humours,
customs, manners, we deride and reject in our time as absurd. Old men
account juniors all fools, when they are mere dizzards; and as to sailors,
------_terraeque urbesque recedunt_------ they move, the land stands still,
the world hath much more wit, they dote themselves. Turks deride us, we
them; Italians Frenchmen, accounting them light headed fellows, the French
scoff again at Italians, and at their several customs; Greeks have
condemned all the world but themselves of barbarism, the world as much
vilifies them now; we account Germans heavy, dull fellows, explode many of
their fashions; they as contemptibly think of us; Spaniards laugh at all,
and all again at them. So are we fools and ridiculous, absurd in our
actions, carriages, diet, apparel, customs, and consultations; we [397]
scoff and point one at another, when as in conclusion all are fools, [398]
"and they the veriest asses that hide their ears most." A private man if he
be resolved with himself, or set on an opinion, accounts all idiots and
asses that are not affected as he is, [399]------_nil rectum, nisi quod
placuit sibi, ducit_, that are not so minded, [400](_quodque volunt homines
se bene velle putant_,) all fools that think not as he doth: he will not
say with Atticus, _Suam quisque sponsam, mihi meam_, let every man enjoy
his own spouse; but his alone is fair, _suus amor_, &c. and scorns all in
respect of himself [401]will imitate none, hear none [402]but himself, as
Pliny said, a law and example to himself. And that which Hippocrates, in
his epistle to Dionysius, reprehended of old, is verified in our times,
_Quisque in alio superfluum esse censet, ipse quod non habet nec curat_,
that which he hath not himself or doth not esteem, he accounts superfluity,
an idle quality, a mere foppery in another: like Aesop's fox, when he had
lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs. The Chinese
say, that we Europeans have one eye, they themselves two, all the world
else is blind: (though [403]Scaliger accounts them brutes too, _merum
pecus_,) so thou and thy sectaries are only wise, others indifferent, the
rest beside themselves, mere idiots and asses. Thus not acknowledging our
own errors and imperfections, we securely deride others, as if we alone
were free, and spectators of the rest, accounting it an excellent thing, as
indeed it is, _Aliena optimum frui insania_, to make ourselves merry with
other men's obliquities, when as he himself is more faulty than the rest,
_mutato nomine, de te fabula narratur_, he may take himself by the nose for
a fool; and which one calls _maximum stultitiae specimen_, to be ridiculous
to others, and not to perceive or take notice of it, as Marsyas was when he
contended with Apollo, _non intelligens se deridiculo haberi_, saith [404]
Apuleius; 'tis his own cause, he is a convicted madman, as [405]Austin well
infers "in the eyes of wise men and angels he seems like one, that to our
thinking walks with his heels upwards." So thou laughest at me, and I at
thee, both at a third; and he returns that of the poet upon us again,
[406]_Hei mihi, insanire me aiunt, quum ipsi ultro insaniant_. We accuse
others of madness, of folly, and are the veriest dizzards ourselves. For it
is a great sign and property of a fool (which Eccl. x. 3, points at) out of
pride and self-conceit to insult, vilify, condemn, censure, and call other
men fools (_Non videmus manticae quod a tergo est_) to tax that in others
of which we are most faulty; teach that which we follow not ourselves: For
an inconstant man to write of constancy, a profane liver prescribe rules of
sanctity and piety, a dizzard himself make a treatise of wisdom, or with
Sallust to rail downright at spoilers of countries, and yet in [407]office
to be a most grievous poller himself. This argues weakness, and is an
evident sign of such parties' indiscretion. [408]_Peccat uter nostrum cruce
dignius_? "Who is the fool now?" Or else peradventure in some places we are
all mad for company, and so 'tis not seen, _Satietas erroris et dementiae,
pariter absurditatem et admirationem tollit_. 'Tis with us, as it was of
old (in [409]Tully's censure at least) with C. Pimbria in Rome, a bold,
hair-brain, mad fellow, and so esteemed of all, such only excepted, that
were as mad as himself: now in such a case there is [410]no notice taken of
it.
"Nimirum insanus paucis videatur; eo quod
Maxima pars hominum morbo jactatur eodem."
"When all are mad, where all are like opprest
Who can discern one mad man from the rest?"
But put case they do perceive it, and some one be manifestly convicted of
madness, [411]he now takes notice of his folly, be it in action, gesture,
speech, a vain humour he hath in building, bragging, jangling, spending,
gaming, courting, scribbling, prating, for which he is ridiculous to
others, [412]on which he dotes, he doth acknowledge as much: yet with all
the rhetoric thou hast, thou canst not so recall him, but to the contrary
notwithstanding, he will persevere in his dotage. 'Tis _amabilis insania,
et mentis gratissimus error_, so pleasing, so delicious, that he [413]
cannot leave it. He knows his error, but will not seek to decline it, tell
him what the event will be, beggary, sorrow, sickness, disgrace, shame,
loss, madness, yet [414]"an angry man will prefer vengeance, a lascivious
his whore, a thief his booty, a glutton his belly, before his welfare."
Tell an epicure, a covetous man, an ambitious man of his irregular course,
wean him from it a little, _pol me occidistis amici_, he cries anon, you
have undone him, and as [415]a "dog to his vomit," he returns to it again;
no persuasion will take place, no counsel, say what thou canst,
"Clames licet et mare coelo
------Confundas, surdo narras,"[416]
demonstrate as Ulysses did to [417]Elpenor and Gryllus, and the rest of his
companions "those swinish men," he is irrefragable in his humour, he will
be a hog still; bray him in a mortar, he will be the same. If he be in an
heresy, or some perverse opinion, settled as some of our ignorant Papists
are, convince his understanding, show him the several follies and absurd
fopperies of that sect, force him to say, _veris vincor_, make it as clear
as the sun, [418]he will err still, peevish and obstinate as he is; and as
he said [419]_si in hoc erro, libenter erro, nec hunc errorem auferri mihi
volo_; I will do as I have done, as my predecessors have done, [420]and as
my friends now do: I will dote for company. Say now, are these men [421]mad
or no, [422]_Heus age responde_? are they ridiculous? _cedo quemvis
arbitrum_, are they _sanae mentis_, sober, wise, and discreet? have they
common sense? ------[423]_uter est insanior horum_? I am of Democritus'
opinion for my part, I hold them worthy to be laughed at; a company of
brain-sick dizzards, as mad as [424]Orestes and Athamas, that they may go
"ride the ass," and all sail along to the Anticyrae, in the "ship of fools"
for company together. I need not much labour to prove this which I say
otherwise than thus, make any solemn protestation, or swear, I think you
will believe me without an oath; say at a word, are they fools? I refer it
to you, though you be likewise fools and madmen yourselves, and I as mad to
ask the question; for what said our comical Mercury?
[425] "Justum ab injustis petere insipientia est."
"I'll stand to your censure yet, what think you?"
But forasmuch as I undertook at first, that kingdoms, provinces, families,
were melancholy as well as private men, I will examine them in particular,
and that which I have hitherto dilated at random, in more general terms, I
will particularly insist in, prove with more special and evident arguments,
testimonies, illustrations, and that in brief. [426]_Nunc accipe quare
desipiant omnes aeque ac tu._ My first argument is borrowed from Solomon,
an arrow drawn out of his sententious quiver, Pro. iii. 7, "Be not wise in
thine own eyes." And xxvi. 12, "Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit?
more hope is of a fool than of him." Isaiah pronounceth a woe against such
men, cap. v. 21, "that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own
sight." For hence we may gather, that it is a great offence, and men are
much deceived that think too well of themselves, an especial argument to
convince them of folly. Many men (saith [427]Seneca) "had been without
question wise, had they not had an opinion that they had attained to
perfection of knowledge already, even before they had gone half way," too
forward, too ripe, _praeproperi_, too quick and ready, [428]_cito
prudentes, cito pii, cito mariti, cito patres, cito sacerdotes, cito omnis
officii capaces et curiosi_, they had too good a conceit of themselves, and
that marred all; of their worth, valour, skill, art, learning, judgment,
eloquence, their good parts; all their geese are swans, and that manifestly
proves them to be no better than fools. In former times they had but seven
wise men, now you can scarce find so many fools. Thales sent the golden
tripos, which the fishermen found, and the oracle commanded to be [429]
"given to the wisest, to Bias, Bias to Solon," &c. If such a thing were now
found, we should all fight for it, as the three goddesses did for the
golden apple, we are so wise: we have women politicians, children
metaphysicians; every silly fellow can square a circle, make perpetual
motions, find the philosopher's stone, interpret Apocalypses, make new
Theories, a new system of the world, new Logic, new Philosophy, &c. _Nostra
utique regio_, saith [430]Petronius, "our country is so full of deified
spirits, divine souls, that you may sooner find a God than a man amongst
us," we think so well of ourselves, and that is an ample testimony of much
folly.
My second argument is grounded upon the like place of Scripture, which
though before mentioned in effect, yet for some reasons is to be repeated
(and by Plato's good leave, I may do it, [431][Greek: dis to kalon raethen
ouden blaptei]) "Fools" (saith David) "by reason of their transgressions."
&c. Psal. cvii. 17. Hence Musculus infers all transgressors must needs be
fools. So we read Rom. ii., "Tribulation and anguish on the soul of every
man that doeth evil;" but all do evil. And Isaiah, lxv. 14, "My servant
shall sing for joy, and [432]ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and vexation
of mind." 'Tis ratified by the common consent of all philosophers.
"Dishonesty" (saith Cardan) "is nothing else but folly and madness." [433]
_Probus quis nobiscum vivit_? Show me an honest man, _Nemo malus qui non
stultus_, 'tis Fabius' aphorism to the same end. If none honest, none wise,
then all fools. And well may they be so accounted: for who will account him
otherwise, _Qui iter adornat in occidentem, quum properaret in orientem_?
that goes backward all his life, westward, when he is bound to the east? or
hold him a wise man (saith [434]Musculus) "that prefers momentary pleasures
to eternity, that spends his master's goods in his absence, forthwith to be
condemned for it?" _Nequicquam sapit qui sibi non sapit_, who will say that
a sick man is wise, that eats and drinks to overthrow the temperature of
his body? Can you account him wise or discreet that would willingly have
his health, and yet will do nothing that should procure or continue it?
[435]Theodoret, out of Plotinus the Platonist, "holds it a ridiculous thing
for a man to live after his own laws, to do that which is offensive to God,
and yet to hope that he should save him: and when he voluntarily neglects
his own safety, and contemns the means, to think to be delivered by
another:" who will say these men are wise?
A third argument may be derived from the precedent, [436]all men are
carried away with passion, discontent, lust, pleasures, &c., they generally
hate those virtues they should love, and love such vices they should hate.
Therefore more than melancholy, quite mad, brute beasts, and void of
reason, so Chrysostom contends; "or rather dead and buried alive," as [437]
Philo Judeus concludes it for a certainty, "of all such that are carried
away with passions, or labour of any disease of the mind. Where is fear and
sorrow," there [438]Lactantius stiffly maintains, "wisdom cannot dwell,"
------"qui cupiet, metuet quoque porro,
Qui metuens vivit, liber mihi non erit unquam."[439]
Seneca and the rest of the stoics are of opinion, that where is any the
least perturbation, wisdom may not be found. "What more ridiculous," as
[440]Lactantius urges, than to hear how Xerxes whipped the Hellespont,
threatened the Mountain Athos, and the like. To speak _ad rem_, who is free
from passion? [441]_Mortalis nemo est quem non attingat dolor, morbusve_,
as [442]Tully determines out of an old poem, no mortal men can avoid sorrow
and sickness, and sorrow is an inseparable companion from melancholy.
[443]Chrysostom pleads farther yet, that they are more than mad, very
beasts, stupefied and void of common sense: "For how" (saith he) "shall I
know thee to be a man, when thou kickest like an ass, neighest like a horse
after women, ravest in lust like a bull, ravenest like a bear, stingest
like a scorpion, rakest like a wolf, as subtle as a fox, as impudent as a
dog? Shall I say thou art a man, that hast all the symptoms of a beast? How
shall I know thee to be a man? by thy shape? That affrights me more, when I
see a beast in likeness of a man."
[444]Seneca calls that of Epicurus, _magnificam vocem_, an heroical speech,
"A fool still begins to live," and accounts it a filthy lightness in men,
every day to lay new foundations of their life, but who doth otherwise? One
travels, another builds; one for this, another for that business, and old
folks are as far out as the rest; _O dementem senectutem_, Tully exclaims.
Therefore young, old, middle age, are all stupid, and dote.
[445]Aeneas Sylvius, amongst many other, sets down three special ways to
find a fool by. He is a fool that seeks that he cannot find: he is a fool
that seeks that, which being found will do him more harm than good: he is a
fool, that having variety of ways to bring him to his journey's end, takes
that which is worst. If so, methinks most men are fools; examine their
courses, and you shall soon perceive what dizzards and mad men the major
part are.
Beroaldus will have drunkards, afternoon men, and such as more than
ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad. The first pot quencheth thirst, so
Panyasis the poet determines in _Athenaeus, secunda gratiis, horis et
Dyonisio_: the second makes merry, the third for pleasure, _quarta, ad
insaniam_, the fourth makes them mad. If this position be true, what a
catalogue of mad men shall we have? what shall they be that drink four
times four? _Nonne supra omnem furorem, supra omnem insanian reddunt
insanissimos_? I am of his opinion, they are more than mad, much worse than
mad.
The [446]Abderites condemned Democritus for a mad man, because he was
sometimes sad, and sometimes again profusely merry. _Hac Patria_ (saith
Hippocrates) _ob risum furere et insanire dicunt_, his countrymen hold him
mad because he laughs; [447]and therefore "he desires him to advise all his
friends at Rhodes, that they do not laugh too much, or be over sad." Had
those Abderites been conversant with us, and but seen what [448] fleering
and grinning there is in this age, they would certainly have concluded, we
had been all out of our wits.
Aristotle in his Ethics holds _felix idemque sapiens_, to be wise and
happy, are reciprocal terms, _bonus idemque sapiens honestus_. 'Tis [449]
Tully's paradox, "wise men are free, but fools are slaves," liberty is a
power to live according to his own laws, as we will ourselves: who hath
this liberty? who is free?
[450] ------"sapiens sibique imperiosus,
Quem neque pauperis, neque mors, neque vincula terrent,
Responsare cupidinibus, contemnere honores
Fortis, et in seipso totus teres atque rotundus."
"He is wise that can command his own will,
Valiant and constant to himself still,
Whom poverty nor death, nor bands can fright,
Checks his desires, scorns honours, just and right."
But where shall such a man be found? If no where, then _e diametro_, we are
all slaves, senseless, or worse. _Nemo malus felix_. But no man is happy
in this life, none good, therefore no man wise. [451]_Rari quippe
boni_------ For one virtue you shall find ten vices in the same party;
_pauci Promethei, multi Epimethei_. We may peradventure usurp the name, or
attribute it to others for favour, as Carolus Sapiens, Philippus Bonus,
Lodovicus Pius, &c., and describe the properties of a wise man, as Tully
doth an orator, Xenophon Cyrus, Castilio a courtier, Galen temperament, an
aristocracy is described by politicians. But where shall such a man be
found?
"Vir bonus et sapiens, qualem vix repperit unum
Millibus e multis hominum consultus Apollo."
"A wise, a good man in a million,
Apollo consulted could scarce find one."
A man is a miracle of himself, but Trismegistus adds, _Maximum miraculum
homo sapiens_, a wise man is a wonder: _multi Thirsigeri, pauci Bacchi_.
Alexander when he was presented with that rich and costly casket of king
Darius, and every man advised him what to put in it, he reserved it to keep
Homer's works, as the most precious jewel of human wit, and yet [452]
Scaliger upbraids Homer's muse, _Nutricem insanae sapientiae_, a nursery of
madness, [453]impudent as a court lady, that blushes at nothing. Jacobus
Mycillus, Gilbertus Cognatus, Erasmus, and almost all posterity admire
Lucian's luxuriant wit, yet Scaliger rejects him in his censure, and calls
him the Cerberus of the muses. Socrates, whom all the world so much
magnified, is by Lactantius and Theodoret condemned for a fool. Plutarch
extols Seneca's wit beyond all the Greeks, _nulli secundus_, yet [454]
Seneca saith of himself, "when I would solace myself with a fool, I reflect
upon myself, and there I have him." Cardan, in his Sixteenth Book of
Subtleties, reckons up twelve supereminent, acute philosophers, for worth,
subtlety, and wisdom: Archimedes, Galen, Vitruvius, Architas Tarentinus,
Euclid, Geber, that first inventor of Algebra, Alkindus the Mathematician,
both Arabians, with others. But his _triumviri terrarum_ far beyond the
rest, are Ptolomaeus, Plotinus, Hippocrates. Scaliger _exercitat. 224_,
scoffs at this censure of his, calls some of them carpenters and
mechanicians, he makes Galen _fimbriam Hippocratis_, a skirt of
Hippocrates: and the said [455]Cardan himself elsewhere condemns both Galen
and Hippocrates for tediousness, obscurity, confusion. Paracelsus will have
them both mere idiots, infants in physic and philosophy. Scaliger and
Cardan admire Suisset the Calculator, _qui pene modum excessit humani
ingenii_, and yet [456]Lod. Vives calls them _nugas Suisseticas_: and
Cardan, opposite to himself in another place, contemns those ancients in
respect of times present, [457]_Majoresque nostros ad presentes collatos
juste pueros appellari_. In conclusion, the said [458]Cardan and Saint
Bernard will admit none into this catalogue of wise men, [459]but only
prophets and apostles; how they esteem themselves, you have heard before.
We are worldly-wise, admire ourselves, and seek for applause: but hear
Saint [460]Bernard, _quanto magis foras es sapiens, tanto magis intus
stultus efficeris_, &c. _in omnibus es prudens, circa teipsum insipiens_:
the more wise thou art to others, the more fool to thyself. I may not deny
but that there is some folly approved, a divine fury, a holy madness, even
a spiritual drunkenness in the saints of God themselves; _sanctum insanium_
Bernard calls it (though not as blaspheming [461]Vorstius, would infer it
as a passion incident to God himself, but) familiar to good men, as that of
Paul, 2 Cor. "he was a fool," &c. and Rom. ix. he wisheth himself to be
anathematised for them. Such is that drunkenness which Ficinus speaks of,
when the soul is elevated and ravished with a divine taste of that heavenly
nectar, which poets deciphered by the sacrifice of Dionysius, and in this
sense with the poet, [462]_insanire lubet_, as Austin exhorts us, _ad
ebrietatem se quisque paret_, let's all be mad and [463]drunk. But we
commonly mistake, and go beyond our commission, we reel to the opposite
part, [464]we are not capable of it, [465]and as he said of the Greeks,
_Vos Graeci semper pueri, vos Britanni, Galli, Germani, Itali_, &c. you are
a company of fools.
Proceed now _a partibus ad totum_, or from the whole to parts, and you
shall find no other issue, the parts shall be sufficiently dilated in this
following Preface. The whole must needs follow by a sorites or induction.
Every multitude is mad, [466]_bellua multorum capitum_, (a many-headed
beast), precipitate and rash without judgment, _stultum animal_, a roaring
rout. [467]Roger Bacon proves it out of Aristotle, _Vulgus dividi in
oppositum contra sapientes, quod vulgo videtur verum, falsum est_; that
which the commonalty accounts true, is most part false, they are still
opposite to wise men, but all the world is of this humour (_vulgus_), and
thou thyself art _de vulgo_, one of the commonalty; and he, and he, and so
are all the rest; and therefore, as Phocion concludes, to be approved in
nought you say or do, mere idiots and asses. Begin then where you will, go
backward or forward, choose out of the whole pack, wink and choose, you
shall find them all alike, "never a barrel better herring."
Copernicus, Atlas his successor, is of opinion, the earth is a planet,
moves and shines to others, as the moon doth to us. Digges, Gilbert,
Keplerus, Origanus, and others, defend this hypothesis of his in sober
sadness, and that the moon is inhabited: if it be so that the earth is a
moon, then are we also giddy, vertiginous and lunatic within this sublunary
maze.
I could produce such arguments till dark night: if you should hear the
rest,
"Ante diem clauso component vesper Olimpo:"
"Through such a train of words if I should run,
The day would sooner than the tale be done:"
but according to my promise, I will descend to particulars. This melancholy
extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles. I speak
not of those creatures which are saturnine, melancholy by nature, as lead,
and such like minerals, or those plants, rue, cypress, &c. and hellebore
itself, of which [468]Agrippa treats, fishes, birds, and beasts, hares,
conies, dormice, &c., owls, bats, nightbirds, but that artificial, which is
perceived in them all. Remove a plant, it will pine away, which is
especially perceived in date trees, as you may read at large in
Constantine's husbandry, that antipathy betwixt the vine and the cabbage,
vine and oil. Put a bird in a cage, he will die for sullenness, or a beast
in a pen, or take his young ones or companions from him, and see what
effect it will cause. But who perceives not these common passions of
sensible creatures, fear, sorrow, &c. Of all other, dogs are most subject
to this malady, insomuch some hold they dream as men do, and through
violence of melancholy run mad; I could relate many stories of dogs that
have died for grief, and pined away for loss of their masters, but they are
common in every [469]author.
Kingdoms, provinces, and politic bodies are likewise sensible and subject
to this disease, as [470]Boterus in his politics hath proved at large. "As
in human bodies" (saith he) "there be divers alterations proceeding from
humours, so be there many diseases in a commonwealth, which do as diversely
happen from several distempers," as you may easily perceive by their
particular symptoms. For where you shall see the people civil, obedient to
God and princes, judicious, peaceable and quiet, rich, fortunate, [471]and
flourish, to live in peace, in unity and concord, a country well tilled,
many fair built and populous cities, _ubi incolae nitent_ as old [472]Cato
said, the people are neat, polite and terse, _ubi bene, beateque vivunt_,
which our politicians make the chief end of a commonwealth; and which [473]
Aristotle, _Polit. lib. 3, cap. 4_, calls _Commune bonum_, Polybius _lib.
6_, _optabilem et selectum statum_, that country is free from melancholy;
as it was in Italy in the time of Augustus, now in China, now in many other
flourishing kingdoms of Europe. But whereas you shall see many discontents,
common grievances, complaints, poverty, barbarism, beggary, plagues, wars,
rebellions, seditions, mutinies, contentions, idleness, riot, epicurism,
the land lie untilled, waste, full of bogs, fens, deserts, &c., cities
decayed, base and poor towns, villages depopulated, the people squalid,
ugly, uncivil; that kingdom, that country, must needs be discontent,
melancholy, hath a sick body, and had need to be reformed.
Now that cannot well be effected, till the causes of these maladies be
first removed, which commonly proceed from their own default, or some
accidental inconvenience: as to be situated in a bad clime, too far north,
sterile, in a barren place, as the desert of Libya, deserts of Arabia,
places void of waters, as those of Lop and Belgian in Asia, or in a bad
air, as at Alexandretta, Bantam, Pisa, Durrazzo, S. John de Ulloa, &c., or
in danger of the sea's continual inundations, as in many places of the Low
Countries and elsewhere, or near some bad neighbours, as Hungarians to
Turks, Podolians to Tartars, or almost any bordering countries, they live
in fear still, and by reason of hostile incursions are oftentimes left
desolate. So are cities by reason [474]of wars, fires, plagues,
inundations, [475]wild beasts, decay of trades, barred havens, the sea's
violence, as Antwerp may witness of late, Syracuse of old, Brundusium in
Italy, Rye and Dover with us, and many that at this day suspect the sea's
fury and rage, and labour against it as the Venetians to their inestimable
charge. But the most frequent maladies are such as proceed from themselves,
as first when religion and God's service is neglected, innovated or
altered, where they do not fear God, obey their prince, where atheism,
epicurism, sacrilege, simony, &c., and all such impieties are freely
committed, that country cannot prosper. When Abraham came to Gerar, and saw
a bad land, he said, sure the fear of God was not in that place. [476]
Cyprian Echovius, a Spanish chorographer, above all other cities of Spain,
commends Borcino, "in which there was no beggar, no man poor, &c., but all
rich, and in good estate, and he gives the reason, because they were more
religious than, their neighbours:" why was Israel so often spoiled by their
enemies, led into captivity, &c., but for their idolatry, neglect of God's
word, for sacrilege, even for one Achan's fault? And what shall we except
that have such multitudes of Achans, church robbers, simoniacal patrons,
&c., how can they hope to flourish, that neglect divine duties, that live
most part like Epicures?
Other common grievances are generally noxious to a body politic; alteration
of laws and customs, breaking privileges, general oppressions, seditions,
&c., observed by [477]Aristotle, Bodin, Boterus, Junius, Arniscus, &c. I
will only point at some of chiefest. [478]_Impotentia gubernandi, ataxia_,
confusion, ill government, which proceeds from unskilful, slothful,
griping, covetous, unjust, rash, or tyrannizing magistrates, when they are
fools, idiots, children, proud, wilful, partial, indiscreet, oppressors,
giddy heads, tyrants, not able or unfit to manage such offices: [479]many
noble cities and flourishing kingdoms by that means are desolate, the whole
body groans under such heads, and all the members must needs be
disaffected, as at this day those goodly provinces in Asia Minor, &c. groan
under the burthen of a Turkish government; and those vast kingdoms of
Muscovia, Russia, [480]under a tyrannizing duke. Who ever heard of more
civil and rich populous countries than those of "Greece, Asia Minor,
abounding with all [481]wealth, multitudes of inhabitants, force, power,
splendour and magnificence?" and that miracle of countries, [482]the Holy
Land, that in so small a compass of ground could maintain so many towns,
cities, produce so many fighting men? Egypt another paradise, now barbarous
and desert, and almost waste, by the despotical government of an imperious
Turk, _intolerabili servitutis jugo premitur_ ([483]one saith) not only
fire and water, goods or lands, _sed ipse spiritus ab insolentissimi
victoris pendet nutu_, such is their slavery, their lives and souls depend
upon his insolent will and command. A tyrant that spoils all wheresoever he
comes, insomuch that an [484]historian complains, "if an old inhabitant
should now see them, he would not know them, if a traveller, or stranger,
it would grieve his heart to behold them." Whereas [485]Aristotle notes,
_Novae exactiones, nova onera imposita_, new burdens and exactions daily
come upon them, like those of which Zosimus, _lib. 2_, so grievous, _ut
viri uxores, patres filios prostituerent ut exactoribus e questu_, &c.,
they must needs be discontent, _hinc civitatum gemitus et ploratus_, as
[486] Tully holds, hence come those complaints and tears of cities, "poor,
miserable, rebellious, and desperate subjects," as [487]Hippolitus adds;
and [488]as a judicious countryman of ours observed not long since, in a
survey of that great Duchy of Tuscany, the people lived much grieved and
discontent, as appeared by their manifold and manifest complainings in that
kind. "That the state was like a sick body which had lately taken physic,
whose humours are not yet well settled, and weakened so much by purging,
that nothing was left but melancholy."
Whereas the princes and potentates are immoderate in lust, hypocrites,
epicures, of no religion, but in show: _Quid hypocrisi fragilius_? what so
brittle and unsure? what sooner subverts their estates than wandering and
raging lusts, on their subjects' wives, daughters? to say no worse. That
they should _facem praeferre_, lead the way to all virtuous actions, are
the ringleaders oftentimes of all mischief and dissolute courses, and by
that means their countries are plagued, [489]"and they themselves often
ruined, banished, or murdered by conspiracy of their subjects, as
Sardanapalus was, Dionysius Junior, Heliogabalus, Periander, Pisistratus,
Tarquinius, Timocrates, Childericus, Appius Claudius, Andronicus, Galeacius
Sforza, Alexander Medices," &c.
Whereas the princes or great men are malicious, envious, factious,
ambitious, emulators, they tear a commonwealth asunder, as so many Guelfs
and Gibelines disturb the quietness of it, [490]and with mutual murders let
it bleed to death; our histories are too full of such barbarous
inhumanities, and the miseries that issue from them.
Whereas they be like so many horseleeches, hungry, griping, corrupt, [491]
covetous, _avaritice mancipia_, ravenous as wolves, for as Tully writes:
_qui praeest prodest, et qui pecudibus praeest, debet eorum utilitati
inservire_: or such as prefer their private before the public good. For as
[492]he said long since, _res privatae publicis semper officere_. Or
whereas they be illiterate, ignorant, empirics in policy, _ubi deest
facultas_, [493]_virtus_ (Aristot. _pol. 5, cap. 8._) _et scientia_, wise
only by inheritance, and in authority by birthright, favour, or for their
wealth and titles; there must needs be a fault, [494]a great defect:
because as an [495]old philosopher affirms, such men are not always fit.
"Of an infinite number, few alone are senators, and of those few, fewer
good, and of that small number of honest, good, and noble men, few that are
learned, wise, discreet and sufficient, able to discharge such places, it
must needs turn to the confusion of a state."
For as the [496]Princes are, so are the people; _Qualis Rex, talis grex_:
and which [497]Antigonus right well said of old, _qui Macedonia regem
erudit, omnes etiam subditos erudit_, he that teacheth the king of Macedon,
teacheth all his subjects, is a true saying still.
"For Princes are the glass, the school, the book,
Where subjects' eyes do learn, do read, do look."
------"Velocius et citius nos
Corrumpunt vitiorum exempla domestica, magnis
Cum subeant animos auctoribus."------[498]
Their examples are soonest followed, vices entertained, if they be profane,
irreligious, lascivious, riotous, epicures, factious, covetous, ambitious,
illiterate, so will the commons most part be, idle, unthrifts, prone to
lust, drunkards, and therefore poor and needy ([Greek: hae penia stasin
empoiei kai kakourgian], for poverty begets sedition and villainy) upon all
occasions ready to mutiny and rebel, discontent still, complaining,
murmuring, grudging, apt to all outrages, thefts, treasons, murders,
innovations, in debt, shifters, cozeners, outlaws, _Profligatae famae ac
vitae_. It was an old [499]politician's aphorism, "They that are poor and
bad envy rich, hate good men, abhor the present government, wish for a new,
and would have all turned topsy-turvy." When Catiline rebelled in Rome, he
got a company of such debauched rogues together, they were his familiars
and coadjutors, and such have been your rebels most part in all ages, Jack
Cade, Tom Straw, Kette, and his companions.
Where they be generally riotous and contentious, where there be many
discords, many laws, many lawsuits, many lawyers and many physicians, it is
a manifest sign of a distempered, melancholy state, as [500]Plato long
since maintained: for where such kind of men swarm, they will make more
work for themselves, and that body politic diseased, which was otherwise
sound. A general mischief in these our times, an insensible plague, and
never so many of them: "which are now multiplied" (saith Mat. Geraldus,
[501]a lawyer himself,) "as so many locusts, not the parents, but the
plagues of the country, and for the most part a supercilious, bad,
covetous, litigious generation of men." [502]_Crumenimulga natio_ &c. A
purse-milking nation, a clamorous company, gowned vultures, [503]_qui ex
injuria vivent et sanguine civium_, thieves and seminaries of discord;
worse than any pollers by the highway side, _auri accipitres, auri
exterebronides, pecuniarum hamiolae, quadruplatores, curiae harpagones,
fori tintinabula, monstra hominum, mangones_, &c. that take upon them to
make peace, but are indeed the very disturbers of our peace, a company of
irreligious harpies, scraping, griping catchpoles, (I mean our common
hungry pettifoggers, [504]_rabulas forenses_, love and honour in the
meantime all good laws, and worthy lawyers, that are so many [505]oracles
and pilots of a well-governed commonwealth). Without art, without judgment,
that do more harm, as [506]Livy said, _quam bella externa, fames, morbive_,
than sickness, wars, hunger, diseases; "and cause a most incredible
destruction of a commonwealth," saith [507]Sesellius, a famous civilian
sometimes in Paris, as ivy doth by an oak, embrace it so long, until it
hath got the heart out of it, so do they by such places they inhabit; no
counsel at all, no justice, no speech to be had, _nisi eum premulseris_, he
must be fed still, or else he is as mute as a fish, better open an oyster
without a knife. _Experto crede_ (saith [508] Salisburiensis) _in manus
eorum millies incidi, et Charon immitis qui nulli pepercit unquam, his
longe clementior est_; "I speak out of experience, I have been a thousand
times amongst them, and Charon himself is more gentle than they; [509]he is
contented with his single pay, but they multiply still, they are never
satisfied," besides they have _damnificas linguas_, as he terms it, _nisi
funibus argenteis vincias_, they must be fed to say nothing, and [510]get
more to hold their peace than we can to say our best. They will speak their
clients fair, and invite them to their tables, but as he follows it,
[511]"of all injustice there is none so pernicious as that of theirs, which
when they deceive most, will seem to be honest men." They take upon them to
be peacemakers, _et fovere causas humilium_, to help them to their right,
_patrocinantur afflictis_, [512]but all is for their own good, _ut loculos
pleniorom exhauriant_, they plead for poor men gratis, but they are but as
a stale to catch others. If there be no jar, [513]they can make a jar, out
of the law itself find still some quirk or other, to set them at odds, and
continue causes so long, _lustra aliquot_, I know not how many years before
the cause is heard, and when 'tis judged and determined by reason of some
tricks and errors, it is as fresh to begin, after twice seven years
sometimes, as it was at first; and so they prolong time, delay suits till
they have enriched themselves, and beggared their clients. And, as
[514]Cato inveighed against Isocrates' scholars, we may justly tax our
wrangling lawyers, they do _consenescere in litibus_, are so litigious and
busy here on earth, that I think they will plead their client's causes
hereafter, some of them in hell. [515] Simlerus complains amongst the
Swissers of the advocates in his time, that when they should make an end,
they began controversies, and "protract their causes many years, persuading
them their title is good, till their patrimonies be consumed, and that they
have spent more in seeking than the thing is worth, or they shall get by
the recovery." So that he that goes to law, as the proverb is, [516]holds a
wolf by the ears, or as a sheep in a storm runs for shelter to a brier, if
he prosecute his cause he is consumed, if he surcease his suit he loseth
all; [517]what difference? They had wont heretofore, saith Austin, to end
matters, _per communes arbitros_; and so in Switzerland (we are informed by
[518]Simlerus), "they had some common arbitrators or daysmen in every town,
that made a friendly composition betwixt man and man, and he much wonders
at their honest simplicity, that could keep peace so well, and end such
great causes by that means." At [519]Fez in Africa, they have neither
lawyers nor advocates; but if there be any controversies amongst them, both
parties plaintiff and defendant come to their Alfakins or chief judge, "and
at once without any farther appeals or pitiful delays, the cause is heard
and ended." Our forefathers, as [520]a worthy chorographer of ours
observes, had wont _pauculis cruculis aureis_, with a few golden crosses,
and lines in verse, make all conveyances, assurances. And such was the
candour and integrity of succeeding ages, that a deed (as I have oft seen)
to convey a whole manor, was _implicite_ contained in some twenty lines or
thereabouts; like that scede or _Sytala Laconica_, so much renowned of old
in all contracts, which [521]Tully so earnestly commends to Atticus,
Plutarch in his Lysander, Aristotle _polit._: Thucydides, _lib. 1_,
[522]Diodorus and Suidus approve and magnify, for that laconic brevity in
this kind; and well they might, for, according to [523]Tertullian, _certa
sunt paucis_, there is much more certainty in fewer words. And so was it of
old throughout: but now many skins of parchment will scarce serve turn; he
that buys and sells a house, must have a house full of writings, there be
so many circumstances, so many words, such tautological repetitions of all
particulars (to avoid cavillation they say); but we find by our woeful
experience, that to subtle wits it is a cause of much more contention and
variance, and scarce any conveyance so accurately penned by one, which
another will not find a crack in, or cavil at; if any one word be
misplaced, any little error, all is disannulled. That which is a law today,
is none tomorrow; that which is sound in one man's opinion, is most faulty
to another; that in conclusion, here is nothing amongst us but contention
and confusion, we bandy one against another. And that which long since
[524]Plutarch complained of them in Asia, may be verified in our times.
"These men here assembled, come not to sacrifice to their gods, to offer
Jupiter their first-fruits, or merriments to Bacchus; but an yearly disease
exasperating Asia hath brought them hither, to make an end of their
controversies and lawsuits." 'Tis _multitudo perdentium et pereuntium_, a
destructive rout that seek one another's ruin. Such most part are our
ordinary suitors, termers, clients, new stirs every day, mistakes, errors,
cavils, and at this present, as I have heard in some one court, I know not
how many thousand causes: no person free, no title almost good, with such
bitterness in following, so many slights, procrastinations, delays,
forgery, such cost (for infinite sums are inconsiderately spent), violence
and malice, I know not by whose fault, lawyers, clients, laws, both or all:
but as Paul reprehended the [525]Corinthians long since, I may more
positively infer now: "There is a fault amongst you, and I speak it to your
shame, Is there not a [526]wise man amongst you, to judge between his
brethren? but that a brother goes to law with a brother." And [527]Christ's
counsel concerning lawsuits, was never so fit to be inculcated as in this
age: [528]"Agree with thine adversary quickly," &c. Matth. v. 25.
I could repeat many such particular grievances, which must disturb a body
politic. To shut up all in brief, where good government is, prudent and
wise princes, there all things thrive and prosper, peace and happiness is
in that land: where it is otherwise, all things are ugly to behold, incult,
barbarous, uncivil, a paradise is turned to a wilderness. This island
amongst the rest, our next neighbours the French and Germans, may be a
sufficient witness, that in a short time by that prudent policy of the
Romans, was brought from barbarism; see but what Caesar reports of us, and
Tacitus of those old Germans, they were once as uncivil as they in
Virginia, yet by planting of colonies and good laws, they became from
barbarous outlaws, [529]to be full of rich and populous cities, as now they
are, and most flourishing kingdoms. Even so might Virginia, and those wild
Irish have been civilised long since, if that order had been heretofore
taken, which now begins, of planting colonies, &c. I have read a
[530]discourse, printed _anno_ 1612. "Discovering the true causes why
Ireland was never entirely subdued, or brought under obedience to the crown
of England, until the beginning of his Majesty's happy reign." Yet if his
reasons were thoroughly scanned by a judicious politician, I am afraid he
would not altogether be approved, but that it would turn to the dishonour
of our nation, to suffer it to lie so long waste. Yea, and if some
travellers should see (to come nearer home) those rich, united provinces of
Holland, Zealand, &c., over against us; those neat cities and populous
towns, full of most industrious artificers, [531]so much land recovered
from the sea, and so painfully preserved by those artificial inventions, so
wonderfully approved, as that of Bemster in Holland, _ut nihil huic par aut
simile invenias in toto orbe_, saith Bertius the geographer, all the world
cannot match it, [532]so many navigable channels from place to place, made
by men's hands, &c. and on the other side so many thousand acres of our
fens lie drowned, our cities thin, and those vile, poor, and ugly to behold
in respect of theirs, our trades decayed, our still running rivers stopped,
and that beneficial use of transportation, wholly neglected, so many havens
void of ships and towns, so many parks and forests for pleasure, barren
heaths, so many villages depopulated, &c. I think sure he would find some
fault.
I may not deny but that this nation of ours, doth _bene audire apud
exteros_, is a most noble, a most flourishing kingdom, by common consent of
all [533]geographers, historians, politicians, 'tis _unica velut arx_,
[534]and which Quintius in Livy said of the inhabitants of Peloponnesus,
may be well applied to us, we are _testudines testa sua inclusi_, like so
many tortoises in our shells, safely defended by an angry sea, as a wall on
all sides. Our island hath many such honourable eulogiums; and as a learned
countryman of ours right well hath it, [535]"Ever since the Normans first
coming into England, this country both for military matters, and all other
of civility, hath been paralleled with the most flourishing kingdoms of
Europe and our Christian world," a blessed, a rich country, and one of the
fortunate isles: and for some things [536]preferred before other countries,
for expert seamen, our laborious discoveries, art of navigation, true
merchants, they carry the bell away from all other nations, even the
Portugals and Hollanders themselves; [537]"without all fear," saith
Boterus, "furrowing the ocean winter and summer, and two of their captains,
with no less valour than fortune, have sailed round about the world." [538]
We have besides many particular blessings, which our neighbours want, the
Gospel truly preached, church discipline established, long peace and
quietness free from exactions, foreign fears, invasions, domestical
seditions, well manured, [539]fortified by art, and nature, and now most
happy in that fortunate union of England and Scotland, which our
forefathers have laboured to effect, and desired to see. But in which we
excel all others, a wise, learned, religious king, another Numa, a second
Augustus, a true Josiah; most worthy senators, a learned clergy, an
obedient commonalty, &c. Yet amongst many roses, some thistles grow, some
bad weeds and enormities, which much disturb the peace of this body
politic, eclipse the honour and glory of it, fit to be rooted out, and with
all speed to be reformed.
The first is idleness, by reason of which we have many swarms of rogues,
and beggars, thieves, drunkards, and discontented persons (whom Lycurgus in
Plutarch calls _morbos reipublicae_, the boils of the commonwealth), many
poor people in all our towns. _Civitates ignobiles_, as [540]Polydore calls
them, base-built cities, inglorious, poor, small, rare in sight, ruinous,
and thin of inhabitants. Our land is fertile we may not deny, full of all
good things, and why doth it not then abound with cities, as well as Italy,
France, Germany, the Low Countries? because their policy hath been
otherwise, and we are not so thrifty, circumspect, industrious. Idleness is
the _malus genius_ of our nation. For as [541]Boterus justly argues,
fertility of a country is not enough, except art and industry be joined
unto it, according to Aristotle, riches are either natural or artificial;
natural are good land, fair mines, &c. artificial, are manufactures, coins,
&c. Many kingdoms are fertile, but thin of inhabitants, as that Duchy of
Piedmont in Italy, which Leander Albertus so much magnifies for corn, wine,
fruits, &c., yet nothing near so populous as those which are more barren.
[542]"England," saith he, "London only excepted, hath never a populous
city, and yet a fruitful country." I find 46 cities and walled towns in
Alsatia, a small province in Germany, 50 castles, an infinite number of
villages, no ground idle, no not rocky places, or tops of hills are
untilled, as [543]Munster informeth us. In [544]Greichgea, a small
territory on the Necker, 24 Italian miles over, I read of 20 walled towns,
innumerable villages, each one containing 150 houses most part, besides
castles and noblemen's palaces. I observe in [545]Turinge in Dutchland
(twelve miles over by their scale) 12 counties, and in them 144 cities,
2000 villages, 144 towns, 250 castles. In [546]Bavaria 34 cities, 46 towns,
&c. [547]_Portugallia interamnis_, a small plot of ground, hath 1460
parishes, 130 monasteries, 200 bridges. Malta, a barren island, yields
20,000 inhabitants. But of all the rest, I admire Lues Guicciardine's
relations of the Low Countries. Holland hath 26 cities, 400 great villages.
Zealand 10 cities, 102 parishes. Brabant 26 cities, 102 parishes. Flanders
28 cities, 90 towns, 1154 villages, besides abbeys, castles, &c. The Low
Countries generally have three cities at least for one of ours, and those
far more populous and rich: and what is the cause, but their industry and
excellency in all manner of trades? Their commerce, which is maintained by
a multitude of tradesmen, so many excellent channels made by art and
opportune havens, to which they build their cities; all which we have in
like measure, or at least may have. But their chiefest loadstone which
draws all manner of commerce and merchandise, which maintains their present
estate, is not fertility of soil, but industry that enricheth them, the
gold mines of Peru, or Nova Hispania may not compare with them. They have
neither gold nor silver of their own, wine nor oil, or scarce any corn
growing in those united provinces, little or no wood, tin, lead, iron,
silk, wool, any stuff almost, or metal; and yet Hungary, Transylvania, that
brag of their mines, fertile England cannot compare with them. I dare
boldly say, that neither France, Tarentum, Apulia, Lombardy, or any part of
Italy, Valentia in Spain, or that pleasant Andalusia, with their excellent
fruits, wine and oil, two harvests, no not any part of Europe is so
flourishing, so rich, so populous, so full of good ships, of well-built
cities, so abounding with all things necessary for the use of man. 'Tis our
Indies, an epitome of China, and all by reason of their industry, good
policy, and commerce. Industry is a loadstone to draw all good things; that
alone makes countries flourish, cities populous, [548]and will enforce by
reason of much manure, which necessarily follows, a barren soil to be
fertile and good, as sheep, saith [549]Dion, mend a bad pasture.
Tell me politicians, why is that fruitful Palestina, noble Greece, Egypt,
Asia Minor, so much decayed, and (mere carcases now) fallen from that they
were? The ground is the same, but the government is altered, the people are
grown slothful, idle, their good husbandry, policy, and industry is
decayed. _Non fatigata aut effaeta, humus_, as [550]Columella well informs
Sylvinus, _sed nostra fit inertia_, &c. May a man believe that which
Aristotle in his politics, Pausanias, Stephanus, Sophianus, Gerbelius
relate of old Greece? I find heretofore 70 cities in Epirus overthrown by
Paulus Aemilius, a goodly province in times past, [551]now left desolate of
good towns and almost inhabitants. Sixty-two cities in Macedonia in
Strabo's time. I find 30 in Laconia, but now scarce so many villages, saith
Gerbelius. If any man from Mount Taygetus should view the country round
about, and see _tot delicias, tot urbes per Peloponesum dispersas_, so many
delicate and brave built cities with such cost and exquisite cunning, so
neatly set out in Peloponnesus, [552]he should perceive them now ruinous
and overthrown, burnt, waste, desolate, and laid level with the ground.
_Incredibile dictu_, &c. And as he laments, _Quis talia fando Temperet a
lachrymis? Quis tam durus aut ferreus_, (so he prosecutes it). [553]Who is
he that can sufficiently condole and commiserate these ruins? Where are
those 4000 cities of Egypt, those 100 cities in Crete? Are they now come to
two? What saith Pliny and Aelian of old Italy? There were in former ages
1166 cities: Blondus and Machiavel, both grant them now nothing near so
populous, and full of good towns as in the time of Augustus (for now
Leander Albertus can find but 300 at most), and if we may give credit to
[554]Livy, not then so strong and puissant as of old: "They mustered 70
Legions in former times, which now the known world will scarce yield."
Alexander built 70 cities in a short space for his part, our sultans and
Turks demolish twice as many, and leave all desolate. Many will not believe
but that our island of Great Britain is now more populous than ever it was;
yet let them read Bede, Leland and others, they shall find it most
flourished in the Saxon Heptarchy, and in the Conqueror's time was far
better inhabited, than at this present. See that Doomsday Book, and show me
those thousands of parishes, which are now decayed, cities ruined, villages
depopulated, &c. The lesser the territory is, commonly, the richer it is.
_Parvus sed bene cultus ager_. As those Athenian, Lacedaemonian, Arcadian,
Aelian, Sycionian, Messenian, &c. commonwealths of Greece make ample proof,
as those imperial cities and free states of Germany may witness, those
Cantons of Switzers, Rheti, Grisons, Walloons, Territories of Tuscany, Luke
and Senes of old, Piedmont, Mantua, Venice in Italy, Ragusa, &c.
That prince therefore as, [555]Boterus adviseth, that will have a rich
country, and fair cities, let him get good trades, privileges, painful
inhabitants, artificers, and suffer no rude matter unwrought, as tin, iron,
wool, lead, &c., to be transported out of his country,--[556]a thing in
part seriously attempted amongst us, but not effected. And because industry
of men, and multitude of trade so much avails to the ornament and enriching
of a kingdom; those ancient [557]Massilians would admit no man into their
city that had not some trade. Selym the first Turkish emperor procured a
thousand good artificers to be brought from Tauris to Constantinople. The
Polanders indented with Henry Duke of Anjou, their new chosen king, to
bring with him an hundred families of artificers into Poland. James the
first in Scotland (as [558]Buchanan writes) sent for the best artificers he
could get in Europe, and gave them great rewards to teach his subjects
their several trades. Edward the Third, our most renowned king, to his
eternal memory, brought clothing first into this island, transporting some
families of artificers from Gaunt hither. How many goodly cities could I
reckon up, that thrive wholly by trade, where thousands of inhabitants live
singular well by their fingers' ends: As Florence in Italy by making cloth
of gold; great Milan by silk, and all curious works; Arras in Artois by
those fair hangings; many cities in Spain, many in France, Germany, have
none other maintenance, especially those within the land. [559]Mecca, in
Arabia Petraea, stands in a most unfruitful country, that wants water,
amongst the rocks (as Vertomannus describes it), and yet it is a most
elegant and pleasant city, by reason of the traffic of the east and west.
Ormus in Persia is a most famous mart-town, hath nought else but the
opportunity of the haven to make it flourish. Corinth, a noble city (Lumen
Greciae, Tully calls it) the Eye of Greece, by reason of Cenchreas and
Lecheus, those excellent ports, drew all that traffic of the Ionian and
Aegean seas to it; and yet the country about it was _curva et
superciliosa_, as [560]Strabo terms it, rugged and harsh. We may say the
same of Athens, Actium, Thebes, Sparta, and most of those towns in Greece.
Nuremberg in Germany is sited in a most barren soil, yet a noble imperial
city, by the sole industry of artificers, and cunning trades, they draw the
riches of most countries to them, so expert in manufactures, that as
Sallust long since gave out of the like, _Sedem animae in extremis digitis
habent_, their soul, or _intellectus agens_, was placed in their fingers'
end; and so we may say of Basil, Spire, Cambray, Frankfurt, &c. It is
almost incredible to speak what some write of Mexico and the cities
adjoining to it, no place in the world at their first discovery more
populous, [561]Mat. Riccius, the Jesuit, and some others, relate of the
industry of the Chinese most populous countries, not a beggar or an idle
person to be seen, and how by that means they prosper and flourish. We have
the same means, able bodies, pliant wits, matter of all sorts, wool, flax,
iron, tin, lead, wood, &c., many excellent subjects to work upon, only
industry is wanting. We send our best commodities beyond the seas, which
they make good use of to their necessities, set themselves a work about,
and severally improve, sending the same to us back at dear rates, or else
make toys and baubles of the tails of them, which they sell to us again, at
as great a reckoning as the whole. In most of our cities, some few
excepted, like [562]Spanish loiterers, we live wholly by tippling-inns and
alehouses. Malting are their best ploughs, their greatest traffic to sell
ale. [563]Meteran and some others object to us, that we are no whit so
industrious as the Hollanders: "Manual trades" (saith he) "which are more
curious or troublesome, are wholly exercised by strangers: they dwell in a
sea full of fish, but they are so idle, they will not catch so much as
shall serve their own turns, but buy it of their neighbours." Tush
[564]_Mare liberum_, they fish under our noses, and sell it to us when they
have done, at their own prices.
------"Pudet haec opprobria nobis
Et dici potuisse, et non potuisse refelli."
I am ashamed to hear this objected by strangers, and know not how to answer
it.
Amongst our towns, there is only [565]London that bears the face of a city,
[566]_Epitome Britanniae_, a famous emporium, second to none beyond seas, a
noble mart: but _sola crescit, decrescentibus aliis_; and yet, in my
slender judgment, defective in many things. The rest ([567]some few
excepted) are in mean estate, ruinous most part, poor, and full of beggars,
by reason of their decayed trades, neglected or bad policy, idleness of
their inhabitants, riot, which had rather beg or loiter, and be ready to
starve, than work.
I cannot deny but that something may be said in defence of our cities,
[568]that they are not so fair built, (for the sole magnificence of this
kingdom (concerning buildings) hath been of old in those Norman castles and
religious houses,) so rich, thick sited, populous, as in some other
countries; besides the reasons Cardan gives, _Subtil. Lib. 11._ we want
wine and oil, their two harvests, we dwell in a colder air, and for that
cause must a little more liberally [569]feed of flesh, as all northern
countries do: our provisions will not therefore extend to the maintenance
of so many; yet notwithstanding we have matter of all sorts, an open sea
for traffic, as well as the rest, goodly havens. And how can we excuse our
negligence, our riot, drunkenness, &c., and such enormities that follow it?
We have excellent laws enacted, you will say, severe statutes, houses of
correction, &c., to small purpose it seems; it is not houses will serve,
but cities of correction; [570]our trades generally ought to be reformed,
wants supplied. In other countries they have the same grievances, I
confess, but that doth not excuse us, [571]wants, defects, enormities, idle
drones, tumults, discords, contention, lawsuits, many laws made against
them to repress those innumerable brawls and lawsuits, excess in apparel,
diet, decay of tillage, depopulations, [572]especially against rogues,
beggars, Egyptian vagabonds (so termed at least) which have [573] swarmed
all over Germany, France, Italy, Poland, as you may read in [574] Munster,
Cranzius, and Aventinus; as those Tartars and Arabians at this day do in
the eastern countries: yet such has been the iniquity of all ages, as it
seems to small purpose. _Nemo in nostra civitate mendicus esto_, [575]
saith Plato: he will have them purged from a [576]commonwealth, [577]"as a
bad humour from the body," that are like so many ulcers and boils, and must
be cured before the melancholy body can be eased.
What Carolus Magnus, the Chinese, the Spaniards, the duke of Saxony and
many other states have decreed in this case, read Arniseus, _cap. 19_;
Boterus, _libro 8, cap. 2_; Osorius _de Rubus gest. Eman. lib. 11._ When a
country is overstocked with people, as a pasture is oft overlaid with
cattle, they had wont in former times to disburden themselves, by sending
out colonies, or by wars, as those old Romans; or by employing them at home
about some public buildings, as bridges, roadways, for which those Romans
were famous in this island; as Augustus Caesar did in Rome, the Spaniards
in their Indian mines, as at Potosi in Peru, where some 30,000 men are
still at work, 6000 furnaces ever boiling, &c. [578]aqueducts, bridges,
havens, those stupend works of Trajan, Claudius, at [579]Ostium,
Dioclesiani Therma, Fucinus Lacus, that Piraeum in Athens, made by
Themistocles, ampitheatrums of curious marble, as at Verona, Civitas
Philippi, and Heraclea in Thrace, those Appian and Flaminian ways,
prodigious works all may witness; and rather than they should be [580]idle,
as those [581] Egyptian Pharaohs, Maris, and Sesostris did, to task their
subjects to build unnecessary pyramids, obelisks, labyrinths, channels,
lakes, gigantic works all, to divert them from rebellion, riot,
drunkenness, [582]_Quo scilicet alantur et ne vagando laborare desuescant_.
Another eyesore is that want of conduct and navigable rivers, a great
blemish as [583]Boterus, [584]Hippolitus a Collibus, and other politicians
hold, if it be neglected in a commonwealth. Admirable cost and charge is
bestowed in the Low Countries on this behalf, in the duchy of Milan,
territory of Padua, in [585]France, Italy, China, and so likewise about
corrivations of water to moisten and refresh barren grounds, to drain fens,
bogs, and moors. Massinissa made many inward parts of Barbary and Numidia
in Africa, before his time incult and horrid, fruitful and bartable by this
means. Great industry is generally used all over the eastern countries in
this kind, especially in Egypt, about Babylon and Damascus, as Vertomannus
and [586]Gotardus Arthus relate; about Barcelona, Segovia, Murcia, and many
other places of Spain, Milan in Italy; by reason of which, their soil is
much impoverished, and infinite commodities arise to the inhabitants.
The Turks of late attempted to cut that Isthmus betwixt Africa and Asia,
which [587]Sesostris and Darius, and some Pharaohs of Egypt had formerly
undertaken, but with ill success, as [588]Diodorus Siculus records, and
Pliny, for that Red Sea being three [589]cubits higher than Egypt, would
have drowned all the country, _caepto destiterant_, they left off; yet as
the same [590]Diodorus writes, Ptolemy renewed the work many years after,
and absolved in it a more opportune place.
That Isthmus of Corinth was likewise undertaken to be made navigable by
Demetrius, by Julius Caesar, Nero, Domitian, Herodes Atticus, to make a
speedy [591]passage, and less dangerous, from the Ionian and Aegean seas;
but because it could not be so well effected, the Peloponnesians built a
wall like our Picts' wall about Schaenute, where Neptune's temple stood,
and in the shortest cut over the Isthmus, of which Diodorus, _lib. 11._
Herodotus, _lib. 8. Uran._ Our latter writers call it Hexamilium, which
Amurath the Turk demolished, the Venetians, _anno_ 1453, repaired in 15
days with 30,000 men. Some, saith Acosta, would have a passage cut from
Panama to Nombre de Dios in America; but Thuanus and Serres the French
historians speak of a famous aqueduct in France, intended in Henry the
Fourth's time, from the Loire to the Seine, and from Rhodanus to the Loire.
The like to which was formerly assayed by Domitian the emperor, [592]from
Arar to Moselle, which Cornelius Tacitus speaks of in the 13 of his annals,
after by Charles the Great and others. Much cost hath in former times been
bestowed in either new making or mending channels of rivers, and their
passages, (as Aurelianus did by Tiber to make it navigable to Rome, to
convey corn from Egypt to the city, _vadum alvei tumentis effodit_ saith
Vopiscus, _et Tiberis ripas extruxit_ he cut fords, made banks, &c.)
decayed havens, which Claudius the emperor with infinite pains and charges
attempted at Ostia, as I have said, the Venetians at this day to preserve
their city; many excellent means to enrich their territories, have been
fostered, invented in most provinces of Europe, as planting some Indian
plants amongst us, silkworms, [593]the very mulberry leaves in the plains
of Granada yield 30,000 crowns per annum to the king of Spain's coffers,
besides those many trades and artificers that are busied about them in the
kingdom of Granada, Murcia, and all over Spain. In France a great benefit
is raised by salt, &c., whether these things might not be as happily
attempted with us, and with like success, it may be controverted, silkworms
(I mean) vines, fir trees, &c. Cardan exhorts Edward the Sixth to plant
olives, and is fully persuaded they would prosper in this island. With us,
navigable rivers are most part neglected; our streams are not great, I
confess, by reason of the narrowness of the island, yet they run smoothly
and even, not headlong, swift, or amongst rocks and shelves, as foaming
Rhodanus and Loire in France, Tigris in Mesopotamia, violent Durius in
Spain, with cataracts and whirlpools, as the Rhine, and Danubius, about
Shaffausen, Lausenburgh, Linz, and Cremmes, to endanger navigators; or
broad shallow, as Neckar in the Palatinate, Tibris in Italy; but calm and
fair as Arar in France, Hebrus in Macedonia, Eurotas in Laconia, they
gently glide along, and might as well be repaired many of them (I mean Wye,
Trent, Ouse, Thamisis at Oxford, the defect of which we feel in the mean
time) as the river of Lee from Ware to London. B. Atwater of old, or as
some will Henry I. [594]made a channel from Trent to Lincoln, navigable;
which now, saith Mr. Camden, is decayed, and much mention is made of
anchors, and such like monuments found about old [595]Verulamium, good
ships have formerly come to Exeter, and many such places, whose channels,
havens, ports are now barred and rejected. We contemn this benefit of
carriage by waters, and are therefore compelled in the inner parts of this
island, because portage is so dear, to eat up our commodities ourselves,
and live like so many boars in a sty, for want of vent and utterance.
We have many excellent havens, royal havens, Falmouth, Portsmouth, Milford,
&c. equivalent if not to be preferred to that Indian Havana, old Brundusium
in Italy, Aulis in Greece, Ambracia in Acarnia, Suda in Crete, which have
few ships in them, little or no traffic or trade, which have scarce a
village on them, able to bear great cities, _sed viderint politici_. I
could here justly tax many other neglects, abuses, errors, defects among
us, and in other countries, depopulations, riot, drunkenness, &c. and many
such, _quae nunc in aurem susurrare, non libet_. But I must take heed, _ne
quid gravius dicam_, that I do not overshoot myself, _Sus Minervam_, I am
forth of my element, as you peradventure suppose; and sometimes _veritas
odium parit_, as he said, "verjuice and oatmeal is good for a parrot." For
as Lucian said of an historian, I say of a politician. He that will freely
speak and write, must be for ever no subject, under no prince or law, but
lay out the matter truly as it is, not caring what any can, will, like or
dislike.
We have good laws, I deny not, to rectify such enormities, and so in all
other countries, but it seems not always to good purpose. We had need of
some general visitor in our age, that should reform what is amiss; a just
army of Rosy-cross men, for they will amend all matters (they say)
religion, policy, manners, with arts, sciences, &c. Another Attila,
Tamerlane, Hercules, to strive with Achelous, _Augeae stabulum purgare_, to
subdue tyrants, as [596]he did Diomedes and Busiris: to expel thieves, as
he did Cacus and Lacinius: to vindicate poor captives, as he did Hesione:
to pass the torrid zone, the deserts of Libya, and purge the world of
monsters and Centaurs: or another Theban Crates to reform our manners, to
compose quarrels and controversies, as in his time he did, and was
therefore adored for a god in Athens. "As Hercules [597]purged the world of
monsters, and subdued them, so did he fight against envy, lust, anger,
avarice, &c. and all those feral vices and monsters of the mind." It were
to be wished we had some such visitor, or if wishing would serve, one had
such a ring or rings, as Timolaus desired in [598]Lucian, by virtue of
which he should be as strong as 10,000 men, or an army of giants, go
invisible, open gates and castle doors, have what treasure he would,
transport himself in an instant to what place he desired, alter affections,
cure all manner of diseases, that he might range over the world, and reform
all distressed states and persons, as he would himself. He might reduce
those wandering Tartars in order, that infest China on the one side,
Muscovy, Poland, on the other; and tame the vagabond Arabians that rob and
spoil those eastern countries, that they should never use more caravans, or
janissaries to conduct them. He might root out barbarism out of America,
and fully discover _Terra Australis Incognita_, find out the north-east and
north-west passages, drain those mighty Maeotian fens, cut down those vast
Hircinian woods, irrigate those barren Arabian deserts, &c. cure us of our
epidemical diseases, _scorbutum, plica, morbus Neapolitanus_, &c. end all
our idle controversies, cut off our tumultuous desires, inordinate lusts,
root out atheism, impiety, heresy, schism and superstition, which now so
crucify the world, catechise gross ignorance, purge Italy of luxury and
riot, Spain of superstition and jealousy, Germany of drunkenness, all our
northern country of gluttony and intemperance, castigate our hard-hearted
parents, masters, tutors; lash disobedient children, negligent servants,
correct these spendthrifts and prodigal sons, enforce idle persons to work,
drive drunkards off the alehouse, repress thieves, visit corrupt and
tyrannizing magistrates, &c. But as L. Licinius taxed Timolaus, you may us.
These are vain, absurd and ridiculous wishes not to be hoped: all must be
as it is, [599]Bocchalinus may cite commonwealths to come before Apollo,
and seek to reform the world itself by commissioners, but there is no
remedy, it may not be redressed, _desinent homines tum demum stultescere
quando esse desinent_, so long as they can wag their beards, they will play
the knaves and fools.
Because, therefore, it is a thing so difficult, impossible, and far beyond
Hercules labours to be performed; let them be rude, stupid, ignorant,
incult, _lapis super lapidem sedeat_, and as the [600]apologist will,
_resp. tussi, et graveolentia laboret, mundus vitio_, let them be barbarous
as they are, let them [601]tyrannise, epicurise, oppress, luxuriate,
consume themselves with factions, superstitions, lawsuits, wars and
contentions, live in riot, poverty, want, misery; rebel, wallow as so many
swine in their own dung, with Ulysses' companions, _stultos jubeo esse
libenter_. I will yet, to satisfy and please myself, make an Utopia of mine
own, a new Atlantis, a poetical commonwealth of mine own, in which I will
freely domineer, build cities, make laws, statutes, as I list myself. And
why may I not?--[602]_Pictoribus atque poetis_, &c. You know what liberty
poets ever had, and besides, my predecessor Democritus was a politician, a
recorder of Abdera, a law maker as some say; and why may not I presume so
much as he did? Howsoever I will adventure. For the site, if you will needs
urge me to it, I am not fully resolved, it may be in _Terra Australi
Incognita_, there is room enough (for of my knowledge neither that hungry
Spaniard, [603]nor Mercurius Britannicus, have yet discovered half of it)
or else one of these floating islands in Mare del Zur, which like the
Cyanian isles in the Euxine sea, alter their place, and are accessible only
at set times, and to some few persons; or one of the fortunate isles, for
who knows yet where, or which they are? there is room enough in the inner
parts of America, and northern coasts of Asia. But I will choose a site,
whose latitude shall be 45 degrees (I respect not minutes) in the midst of
the temperate zone, or perhaps under the equator, that [604]paradise of the
world, _ubi semper virens laurus_, &c. where is a perpetual spring: the
longitude for some reasons I will conceal. Yet "be it known to all men by
these presents," that if any honest gentleman will send in so much money,
as Cardan allows an astrologer for casting a nativity, he shall be a
sharer, I will acquaint him with my project, or if any worthy man will
stand for any temporal or spiritual office or dignity, (for as he said of
his archbishopric of Utopia, 'tis _sanctus ambitus_, and not amiss to be
sought after,) it shall be freely given without all intercessions, bribes,
letters, &c. his own worth shall be the best spokesman; and because we
shall admit of no deputies or advowsons, if he be sufficiently qualified,
and as able as willing to execute the place himself, be shall have present
possession. It shall be divided into 12 or 13 provinces, and those by
hills, rivers, roadways, or some more eminent limits exactly bounded. Each
province shall have a metropolis, which shall be so placed as a centre
almost in a circumference, and the rest at equal distances, some 12 Italian
miles asunder, or thereabout, and in them shall be sold all things
necessary for the use of man; _statis horis et diebus_, no market towns,
markets or fairs, for they do but beggar cities (no village shall stand
above 6, 7, or 8 miles from a city) except those emporiums which are by the
sea side, general staples, marts, as Antwerp, Venice, Bergen of old,
London, &c. cities most part shall be situated upon navigable rivers or
lakes, creeks, havens; and for their form, regular, round, square, or long
square, [605]with fair, broad, and straight [606]streets, houses uniform,
built of brick and stone, like Bruges, Brussels, Rhegium Lepidi, Berne in
Switzerland, Milan, Mantua, Crema, Cambalu in Tartary, described by M.
Polus, or that Venetian Palma. I will admit very few or no suburbs, and
those of baser building, walls only to keep out man and horse, except it be
in some frontier towns, or by the sea side, and those to be fortified [607]
after the latest manner of fortification, and situated upon convenient
havens, or opportune places. In every so built city, I will have convenient
churches, and separate places to bury the dead in, not in churchyards; a
_citadella_ (in some, not all) to command it, prisons for offenders,
opportune market places of all sorts, for corn, meat, cattle, fuel, fish,
commodious courts of justice, public halls for all societies, bourses,
meeting places, armouries, [608]in which shall be kept engines for
quenching of fire, artillery gardens, public walks, theatres, and spacious
fields allotted for all gymnastic sports, and honest recreations, hospitals
of all kinds, for children, orphans, old folks, sick men, mad men,
soldiers, pest-houses, &c. not built _precario_, or by gouty benefactors,
who, when by fraud and rapine they have extorted all their lives, oppressed
whole provinces, societies, &c. give something to pious uses, build a
satisfactory alms-house, school or bridge, &c. at their last end, or before
perhaps, which is no otherwise than to steal a goose, and stick down a
feather, rob a thousand to relieve ten; and those hospitals so built and
maintained, not by collections, benevolences, donaries, for a set number,
(as in ours,) just so many and no more at such a rate, but for all those
who stand in need, be they more or less, and that _ex publico aerario_, and
so still maintained, _non nobis solum nati sumus_, &c. I will have conduits
of sweet and good water, aptly disposed in each town, common [609]
granaries, as at Dresden in Misnia, Stetein in Pomerland, Noremberg, &c.
Colleges of mathematicians, musicians, and actors, as of old at Labedum in
Ionia, [610]alchemists, physicians, artists, and philosophers: that all
arts and sciences may sooner be perfected and better learned; and public
historiographers, as amongst those ancient [611]Persians, _qui in
commentarios referebant quae memoratu digna gerebantur_, informed and
appointed by the state to register all famous acts, and not by each
insufficient scribbler, partial or parasitical pedant, as in our times. I
will provide public schools of all kinds, singing, dancing, fencing, &c.
especially of grammar and languages, not to be taught by those tedious
precepts ordinarily used, but by use, example, conversation, [612]as
travellers learn abroad, and nurses teach their children: as I will have
all such places, so will I ordain [613]public governors, fit officers to
each place, treasurers, aediles, quaestors, overseers of pupils, widows'
goods, and all public houses, &c. and those once a year to make strict
accounts of all receipts, expenses, to avoid confusion, _et sic fiet ut non
absumant_ (as Pliny to Trajan,) _quad pudeat dicere_. They shall be
subordinate to those higher officers and governors of each city, which
shall not be poor tradesmen, and mean artificers, but noblemen and
gentlemen, which shall be tied to residence in those towns they dwell next,
at such set times and seasons: for I see no reason (which [614]Hippolitus
complains of) "that it should be more dishonourable for noblemen to govern
the city than the country, or unseemly to dwell there now, than of old."
[615]I will have no bogs, fens, marshes, vast woods, deserts, heaths,
commons, but all enclosed; (yet not depopulated, and therefore take heed
you mistake me not) for that which is common, and every man's, is no man's;
the richest countries are still enclosed, as Essex, Kent, with us, &c.
Spain, Italy; and where enclosures are least in quantity, they are best
[616]husbanded, as about Florence in Italy, Damascus in Syria, &c. which
are liker gardens than fields. I will not have a barren acre in all my
territories, not so much as the tops of mountains: where nature fails, it
shall be supplied by art: [617]lakes and rivers shall not be left desolate.
All common highways, bridges, banks, corrivations of waters, aqueducts,
channels, public works, buildings, &c. out of a [618]common stock,
curiously maintained and kept in repair; no depopulations, engrossings,
alterations of wood, arable, but by the consent of some supervisors that
shall be appointed for that purpose, to see what reformation ought to be
had in all places, what is amiss, how to help it, _et quid quaeque ferat
regio, et quid quaeque recuset_, what ground is aptest for wood, what for
corn, what for cattle, gardens, orchards, fishponds, &c. with a charitable
division in every village, (not one domineering house greedily to swallow
up all, which is too common with us) what for lords, [619]what for tenants;
and because they shall be better encouraged to improve such lands they
hold, manure, plant trees, drain, fence, &c. they shall have long leases, a
known rent, and known fine to free them from those intolerable exactions of
tyrannizing landlords. These supervisors shall likewise appoint what
quantity of land in each manor is fit for the lord's demesnes, [620]what
for holding of tenants, how it ought to be husbanded, _ut [621]magnetis
equis, Minyae gens cognita remis_, how to be manured, tilled, rectified,
[622]_hic segetes veniunt, illic felicius uvae, arborei foetus alibi, atque
injussa virescunt Gramina_, and what proportion is fit for all callings,
because private professors are many times idiots, ill husbands, oppressors,
covetous, and know not how to improve their own, or else wholly respect
their own, and not public good.
Utopian parity is a kind of government, to be wished for, [623]rather than
effected, _Respub. Christianopolitana_, Campanella's city of the Sun, and
that new Atlantis, witty fictions, but mere chimeras; and Plato's community
in many things is impious, absurd and ridiculous, it takes away all
splendour and magnificence. I will have several orders, degrees of
nobility, and those hereditary, not rejecting younger brothers in the mean
time, for they shall be sufficiently provided for by pensions, or so
qualified, brought up in some honest calling, they shall be able to live of
themselves. I will have such a proportion of ground belonging to every
barony, he that buys the land shall buy the barony, he that by riot
consumes his patrimony, and ancient demesnes, shall forfeit his honours.
[624]As some dignities shall be hereditary, so some again by election, or
by gift (besides free officers, pensions, annuities,) like our bishoprics,
prebends, the Bassa's palaces in Turkey, the [625]procurator's houses and
offices in Venice, which, like the golden apple, shall be given to the
worthiest, and best deserving both in war and peace, as a reward of their
worth and good service, as so many goals for all to aim at, (_honos alit
artes_) and encouragements to others. For I hate these severe, unnatural,
harsh, German, French, and Venetian decrees, which exclude plebeians from
honours, be they never so wise, rich, virtuous, valiant, and well
qualified, they must not be patricians, but keep their own rank, this is
_naturae bellum inferre_, odious to God and men, I abhor it. My form of
government shall be monarchical.
[626] "nunquam libertas gratior extat,
Quam sub Rege pio," &c.
few laws, but those severely kept, plainly put down, and in the mother
tongue, that every man may understand. Every city shall have a peculiar
trade or privilege, by which it shall be chiefly maintained: [627]and
parents shall teach their children one of three at least, bring up and
instruct them in the mysteries of their own trade. In each town these
several tradesmen shall be so aptly disposed, as they shall free the rest
from danger or offence: fire-trades, as smiths, forge-men, brewers, bakers,
metal-men, &c., shall dwell apart by themselves: dyers, tanners,
fellmongers, and such as use water in convenient places by themselves:
noisome or fulsome for bad smells, as butchers' slaughterhouses, chandlers,
curriers, in remote places, and some back lanes. Fraternities and
companies, I approve of, as merchants' bourses, colleges of druggists,
physicians, musicians, &c., but all trades to be rated in the sale of
wares, as our clerks of the market do bakers and brewers; corn itself, what
scarcity soever shall come, not to extend such a price. Of such wares as
are transported or brought in, [628]if they be necessary, commodious, and
such as nearly concern man's life, as corn, wood, coal, &c., and such
provision we cannot want, I will have little or no custom paid, no taxes;
but for such things as are for pleasure, delight, or ornament, as wine,
spice, tobacco, silk, velvet, cloth of gold, lace, jewels, &c., a greater
impost. I will have certain ships sent out for new discoveries every year,
[629]and some discreet men appointed to travel into all neighbouring
kingdoms by land, which shall observe what artificial inventions and good
laws are in other countries, customs, alterations, or aught else,
concerning war or peace, which may tend to the common good. Ecclesiastical
discipline, _penes Episcopos_, subordinate as the other. No impropriations,
no lay patrons of church livings, or one private man, but common societies,
corporations, &c., and those rectors of benefices to be chosen out of the
Universities, examined and approved, as the literati in China. No parish to
contain above a thousand auditors. If it were possible, I would have such
priest as should imitate Christ, charitable lawyers should love their
neighbours as themselves, temperate and modest physicians, politicians
contemn the world, philosophers should know themselves, noblemen live
honestly, tradesmen leave lying and cozening, magistrates corruption, &c.,
but this is impossible, I must get such as I may. I will therefore have
[630]of lawyers, judges, advocates, physicians, chirurgeons, &c., a set
number, [631]and every man, if it be possible, to plead his own cause, to
tell that tale to the judge which he doth to his advocate, as at Fez in
Africa, Bantam, Aleppo, Ragusa, _suam quisque causam dicere tenetur_. Those
advocates, chirurgeons, and [632]physicians, which are allowed to be
maintained out of the [633]common treasury, no fees to be given or taken
upon pain of losing their places; or if they do, very small fees, and when
the [634]cause is fully ended. [635]He that sues any man shall put in a
pledge, which if it be proved he hath wrongfully sued his adversary, rashly
or maliciously, he shall forfeit, and lose. Or else before any suit begin,
the plaintiff shall have his complaint approved by a set delegacy to that
purpose; if it be of moment he shall be suffered as before, to proceed, if
otherwise they shall determine it. All causes shall be pleaded _suppresso
nomine_, the parties' names concealed, if some circumstances do not
otherwise require. Judges and other officers shall be aptly disposed in
each province, villages, cities, as common arbitrators to hear causes, and
end all controversies, and those not single, but three at least on the
bench at once, to determine or give sentence, and those again to sit by
turns or lots, and not to continue still in the same office. No controversy
to depend above a year, but without all delays and further appeals to be
speedily despatched, and finally concluded in that time allotted. These and
all other inferior magistrates to be chosen [636]as the literati in China,
or by those exact suffrages of the [637]Venetians, and such again not to be
eligible, or capable of magistracies, honours, offices, except they be
sufficiently [638]qualified for learning, manners, and that by the strict
approbation of deputed examiners: [639]first scholars to take place, then
soldiers; for I am of Vigetius his opinion, a scholar deserves better than
a soldier, because _Unius aetatis sunt quae fortiter fiunt, quae vero pro
utilitate Reipub. scribuntur, aeterna_: a soldier's work lasts for an age,
a scholar's for ever. If they [640]misbehave themselves, they shall be
deposed, and accordingly punished, and whether their offices be annual
[641]or otherwise, once a year they shall be called in question, and give
an account; for men are partial and passionate, merciless, covetous,
corrupt, subject to love, hate, fear, favour, &c., _omne sub regno graviore
regnum_: like Solon's Areopagites, or those Roman Censors, some shall visit
others, and [642]be visited _invicem_ themselves, [643] they shall oversee
that no prowling officer, under colour of authority, shall insult over his
inferiors, as so many wild beasts, oppress, domineer, flea, grind, or
trample on, be partial or corrupt, but that there be _aequabile jus_,
justice equally done, live as friends and brethren together; and which
[644]Sesellius would have and so much desires in his kingdom of France, "a
diapason and sweet harmony of kings, princes, nobles, and plebeians so
mutually tied and involved in love, as well as laws and authority, as that
they never disagree, insult, or encroach one upon another." If any man
deserve well in his office he shall be rewarded.
------"quis enim virtutem amplectitur ipsam,
Proemia si tollas?"------[645]
He that invents anything for public good in any art or science, writes a
treatise, [646]or performs any noble exploit, at home or abroad, [647]
shall be accordingly enriched, [648]honoured, and preferred. I say with
Hannibal in Ennius, _Hostem qui feriet erit mihi Carthaginensis_, let him
be of what condition he will, in all offices, actions, he that deserves
best shall have best.
Tilianus in Philonius, out of a charitable mind no doubt, wished all his
books were gold and silver, jewels and precious stones, [649]to redeem
captives, set free prisoners, and relieve all poor distressed souls that
wanted means; religiously done. I deny not, but to what purpose? Suppose
this were so well done, within a little after, though a man had Croesus'
wealth to bestow, there would be as many more. Wherefore I will suffer no
[650]beggars, rogues, vagabonds, or idle persons at all, that cannot give
an account of their lives how they [651]maintain themselves. If they be
impotent, lame, blind, and single, they shall be sufficiently maintained in
several hospitals, built for that purpose; if married and infirm, past
work, or by inevitable loss, or some such like misfortune cast behind, by
distribution of [652]corn, house-rent free, annual pensions or money, they
shall be relieved, and highly rewarded for their good service they have
formerly done; if able, they shall be enforced to work. [653]"For I see no
reason" (as [654]he said) "why an epicure or idle drone, a rich glutton, a
usurer, should live at ease, and do nothing, live in honour, in all manner
of pleasures, and oppress others, when as in the meantime a poor labourer,
a smith, a carpenter, an husbandman that hath spent his time in continual
labour, as an ass to carry burdens, to do the commonwealth good, and
without whom we cannot live, shall be left in his old age to beg or starve,
and lead a miserable life worse than a jument." As [655]all conditions
shall be tied to their task, so none shall be overtired, but have their set
times of recreations and holidays, _indulgere genio_, feasts and merry
meetings, even to the meanest artificer, or basest servant, once a week to
sing or dance, (though not all at once) or do whatsoever he shall please;
like [656]that _Saccarum festum_ amongst the Persians, those Saturnals in
Rome, as well as his master. [657]If any be drunk, he shall drink no more
wine or strong drink in a twelvemonth after. A bankrupt shall be [658]
_Catademiatus in Amphitheatro_, publicly shamed, and he that cannot pay his
debts, if by riot or negligence he have been impoverished, shall be for a
twelvemonth imprisoned, if in that space his creditors be not satisfied,
[659]he shall be hanged. He [660]that commits sacrilege shall lose his
hands; he that bears false witness, or is of perjury convicted, shall have
his tongue cut out, except he redeem it with his head. Murder, [661]
adultery, shall be punished by death, [662]but not theft, except it be some
more grievous offence, or notorious offenders: otherwise they shall be
condemned to the galleys, mines, be his slaves whom they have offended,
during their lives. I hate all hereditary slaves, and that _duram Persarum
legem_ as [663]Brisonius calls it; or as [664]Ammianus, _impendio
formidatas et abominandas leges, per quas ob noxam unius, omnis
propinquitas perit_ hard law that wife and children, friends and allies,
should suffer for the father's offence.
No man shall marry until he [665]be 25, no woman till she be 20, [666]
_nisi alitur dispensatum fuerit_. If one [667]die, the other party shall
not marry till six months after; and because many families are compelled to
live niggardly, exhaust and undone by great dowers, [668]none shall be
given at all, or very little, and that by supervisors rated, they that are
foul shall have a greater portion; if fair, none at all, or very little:
[669]howsoever not to exceed such a rate as those supervisors shall think
fit. And when once they come to those years, poverty shall hinder no man
from marriage, or any other respect, [670]but all shall be rather enforced
than hindered, [671]except they be [672]dismembered, or grievously
deformed, infirm, or visited with some enormous hereditary disease, in body
or mind; in such cases upon a great pain, or mulct, [673]man or woman shall
not marry, other order shall be taken for them to their content. If people
overabound, they shall be eased by [674]colonies.
[675]No man shall wear weapons in any city. The same attire shall be kept,
and that proper to several callings, by which they shall be distinguished.
[676]_Luxus funerum_ shall be taken away, that intempestive expense
moderated, and many others. Brokers, takers of pawns, biting usurers, I
will not admit; yet because _hic cum hominibus non cum diis agitur_, we
converse here with men, not with gods, and for the hardness of men's hearts
I will tolerate some kind of usury. [677]If we were honest, I confess, _si
probi essemus_, we should have no use of it, but being as it is, we must
necessarily admit it. Howsoever most divines contradict it, _dicimus
inficias, sed vox ea sola reperta est_, it must be winked at by
politicians. And yet some great doctors approve of it, Calvin, Bucer,
Zanchius, P. Martyr, because by so many grand lawyers, decrees of emperors,
princes' statutes, customs of commonwealths, churches' approbations it is
permitted, &c. I will therefore allow it. But to no private persons, nor to
every man that will, to orphans only, maids, widows, or such as by reason
of their age, sex, education, ignorance of trading, know not otherwise how
to employ it; and those so approved, not to let it out apart, but to bring
their money to a [678]common bank which shall be allowed in every city, as
in Genoa, Geneva, Nuremberg, Venice, at [679]5, 6, 7, not above 8 per
centum, as the supervisors, or _aerarii praefecti_ shall think fit.
[680]And as it shall not be lawful for each man to be an usurer that will,
so shall it not be lawful for all to take up money at use, not to prodigals
and spendthrifts, but to merchants, young tradesmen, such as stand in need,
or know honestly how to employ it, whose necessity, cause and condition the
said supervisors shall approve of.
I will have no private monopolies, to enrich one man, and beggar a
multitude, [681]multiplicity of offices, of supplying by deputies, weights
and measures, the same throughout, and those rectified by the _Primum
mobile_ and sun's motion, threescore miles to a degree according to
observation, 1000 geometrical paces to a mile, five foot to a pace, twelve
inches to a foot, &c. and from measures known it is an easy matter to
rectify weights, &c. to cast up all, and resolve bodies by algebra,
stereometry. I hate wars if they be not _ad populi salutem_ upon urgent
occasion, [682]_odimus accipitrim, quia semper vivit in armis_ [683]
offensive wars, except the cause be very just, I will not allow of. For I
do highly magnify that saying of Hannibal to Scipio, in [684]Livy, "It had
been a blessed thing for you and us, if God had given that mind to our
predecessors, that you had been content with Italy, we with Africa. For
neither Sicily nor Sardinia are worth such cost and pains, so many fleets
and armies, or so many famous Captains' lives." _Omnia prius tentanda_,
fair means shall first be tried. [685]_Peragit tranquilla potestas, Quod
violenta nequit_. I will have them proceed with all moderation: but hear
you, Fabius my general, not Minutius, _nam [686]qui Consilio nititur plus
hostibus nocet, quam qui sini animi ratione, viribus_: And in such wars to
abstain as much as is possible from [687]depopulations, burning of towns,
massacring of infants, &c. For defensive wars, I will have forces still
ready at a small warning, by land and sea, a prepared navy, soldiers _in
procinctu, et quam [688]Bonfinius apud Hungaros suos vult, virgam ferream_,
and money, which is _nerves belli_, still in a readiness, and a sufficient
revenue, a third part as in old [689]Rome and Egypt, reserved for the
commonwealth; to avoid those heavy taxes and impositions, as well to defray
this charge of wars, as also all other public defalcations, expenses, fees,
pensions, reparations, chaste sports, feasts, donaries, rewards, and
entertainments. All things in this nature especially I will have maturely
done, and with great [690]deliberation: _ne quid [691] temere, ne quid
remisse ac timide fiat; Sid quo feror hospes_? To prosecute the rest would
require a volume. _Manum de tabella_, I have been over tedious in this
subject; I could have here willingly ranged, but these straits wherein I am
included will not permit.
From commonwealths and cities, I will descend to families, which have as
many corsives and molestations, as frequent discontents as the rest. Great
affinity there is betwixt a political and economical body; they differ only
in magnitude and proportion of business (so Scaliger [692]writes) as they
have both likely the same period, as [693]Bodin and [694]Peucer hold, out
of Plato, six or seven hundred years, so many times they have the same
means of their vexation and overthrows; as namely, riot, a common ruin of
both, riot in building, riot in profuse spending, riot in apparel, &c. be
it in what kind soever, it produceth the same effects. A [695]chorographer
of ours speaking _obiter_ of ancient families, why they are so frequent in
the north, continue so long, are so soon extinguished in the south, and so
few, gives no other reason but this, _luxus omnia dissipavit_, riot hath
consumed all, fine clothes and curious buildings came into this island, as
he notes in his annals, not so many years since; _non sine dispendio
hospitalitatis_ to the decay of hospitality. Howbeit many times that word
is mistaken, and under the name of bounty and hospitality, is shrouded riot
and prodigality, and that which is commendable in itself well used, hath
been mistaken heretofore, is become by his abuse, the bane and utter ruin
of many a noble family. For some men live like the rich glutton, consuming
themselves and their substance by continual feasting and invitations, with
[696]Axilon in Homer, keep open house for all comers, giving entertainment
to such as visit them, [697]keeping a table beyond their means, and a
company of idle servants (though not so frequent as of old) are blown up on
a sudden; and as Actaeon was by his hounds, devoured by their kinsmen,
friends, and multitude of followers. [698]It is a wonder that Paulus Jovius
relates of our northern countries, what an infinite deal of meat we consume
on our tables; that I may truly say, 'tis not bounty, not hospitality, as
it is often abused, but riot and excess, gluttony and prodigality; a mere
vice; it brings in debt, want, and beggary, hereditary diseases, consumes
their fortunes, and overthrows the good temperature of their bodies. To
this I might here well add their inordinate expense in building, those
fantastical houses, turrets, walks, parks, &c. gaming, excess of pleasure,
and that prodigious riot in apparel, by which means they are compelled to
break up house, and creep into holes. Sesellius in his commonwealth of
[699]France, gives three reasons why the French nobility were so frequently
bankrupts: "First, because they had so many lawsuits and contentions one
upon another, which were tedious and costly; by which means it came to
pass, that commonly lawyers bought them out of their possessions. A second
cause was their riot, they lived beyond their means, and were therefore
swallowed up by merchants." (La Nove, a French writer, yields five reasons
of his countrymen's poverty, to the same effect almost, and thinks verily
if the gentry of France were divided into ten parts, eight of them would be
found much impaired, by sales, mortgages, and debts, or wholly sunk in
their estates.) "The last was immoderate excess in apparel, which consumed
their revenues." How this concerns and agrees with our present state, look
you. But of this elsewhere. As it is in a man's body, if either head,
heart, stomach, liver, spleen, or any one part be misaffected, all the rest
suffer with it: so is it with this economical body. If the head be naught,
a spendthrift, a drunkard, a whoremaster, a gamester, how shall the family
live at ease? [700]_Ipsa si cupiat solus servare, prorsus, non potest hanc
familiam_, as Demea said in the comedy, Safety herself cannot save it. A
good, honest, painful man many times hath a shrew to his wife, a sickly,
dishonest, slothful, foolish, careless woman to his mate, a proud, peevish
flirt, a liquorish, prodigal quean, and by that means all goes to ruin: or
if they differ in nature, he is thrifty, she spends all, he wise, she
sottish and soft; what agreement can there be? what friendship? Like that
of the thrush and swallow in Aesop, instead of mutual love, kind
compellations, whore and thief is heard, they fling stools at one another's
heads. [701]_Quae intemperies vexat hanc familiam_? All enforced marriages
commonly produce such effects, or if on their behalves it be well, as to
live and agree lovingly together, they may have disobedient and unruly
children, that take ill courses to disquiet them, [702]"their son is a
thief, a spendthrift, their daughter a whore;" a step [703]mother, or a
daughter-in-law distempers all; [704]or else for want of means, many
torturers arise, debts, dues, fees, dowries, jointures, legacies to be
paid, annuities issuing out, by means of which, they have not wherewithal
to maintain themselves in that pomp as their predecessors have done, bring
up or bestow their children to their callings, to their birth and quality,
[705]and will not descend to their present fortunes. Oftentimes, too, to
aggravate the rest, concur many other inconveniences, unthankful friends,
decayed friends, bad neighbours, negligent servants [706]_servi furaces,
Versipelles, callidi, occlusa sibi mille clavibus reserant, furtimque;
raptant, consumunt, liguriunt_; casualties, taxes, mulcts, chargeable
offices, vain expenses, entertainments, loss of stock, enmities,
emulations, frequent invitations, losses, suretyship, sickness, death of
friends, and that which is the gulf of all, improvidence, ill husbandry,
disorder and confusion, by which means they are drenched on a sudden in
their estates, and at unawares precipitated insensibly into an inextricable
labyrinth of debts, cares, woes, want, grief, discontent and melancholy
itself.
I have done with families, and will now briefly run over some few sorts and
conditions of men. The most secure, happy, jovial, and merry in the world's
esteem are princes and great men, free from melancholy: but for their
cares, miseries, suspicions, jealousies, discontents, folly and madness, I
refer you to Xenophon's Tyrannus, where king Hieron discourseth at large
with Simonides the poet, of this subject. Of all others they are most
troubled with perpetual fears, anxieties, insomuch, that as he said in
[707]Valerius, if thou knewest with what cares and miseries this robe were
stuffed, thou wouldst not stoop to take it up. Or put case they be secure
and free from fears and discontents, yet they are void [708]of reason too
oft, and precipitate in their actions, read all our histories, _quos de
stultis prodidere stulti_, Iliades, Aeneides, Annales, and what is the
subject?
"Stultorum regum, et populorum continet aestus."
"The giddy tumults and the foolish rage
Of kings and people."
How mad they are, how furious, and upon small occasions, rash and
inconsiderate in their proceedings, how they dote, every page almost will
witness,
------"delirant reges, plectuntur Achivi."
"When doting monarchs urge
Unsound resolves, their subjects feel the scourge."
Next in place, next in miseries and discontents, in all manner of
hair-brain actions, are great men, _procul a Jove, procul a fulmine_, the
nearer the worse. If they live in court, they are up and down, ebb and flow
with their princes' favours, _Ingenium vultu statque caditque suo_, now
aloft, tomorrow down, as [709]Polybius describes them, "like so many
casting counters, now of gold, tomorrow of silver, that vary in worth as
the computant will; now they stand for units, tomorrow for thousands; now
before all, and anon behind." Beside, they torment one another with mutual
factions, emulations: one is ambitious, another enamoured, a third in debt,
a prodigal, overruns his fortunes, a fourth solicitous with cares, gets
nothing, &c. But for these men's discontents, anxieties, I refer you to
Lucian's Tract, _de mercede conductis_, [710]Aeneas Sylvius (_libidinis et
stultitiae servos_, he calls them), Agrippa, and many others.
Of philosophers and scholars _priscae sapientiae dictatores_, I have
already spoken in general terms, those superintendents of wit and learning,
men above men, those refined men, minions of the muses,
[711] ------"mentemque habere queis bonam
Et esse [712]corculis datum est."------
[713]These acute and subtle sophisters, so much honoured, have as much need
of hellebore as others.--[714]_O medici mediam pertundite venam._ Read
Lucian's Piscator, and tell how he esteemed them; Agrippa's Tract of the
vanity of Sciences; nay read their own works, their absurd tenets,
prodigious paradoxes, _et risum teneatis amici_? You shall find that of
Aristotle true, _nullum magnum ingenium sine mixtura dementiae_, they have
a worm as well as others; you shall find a fantastical strain, a fustian, a
bombast, a vainglorious humour, an affected style, &c., like a prominent
thread in an uneven woven cloth, run parallel throughout their works. And
they that teach wisdom, patience, meekness, are the veriest dizzards,
harebrains, and most discontent. [715]"In the multitude of wisdom is grief,
and he that increaseth wisdom, increaseth sorrow." I need not quote mine
author; they that laugh and contemn others, condemn the world of folly,
deserve to be mocked, are as giddy-headed, and lie as open as any other.
[716]Democritus, that common flouter of folly, was ridiculous himself,
barking Menippus, scoffing Lucian, satirical Lucilius, Petronius, Varro,
Persius, &c., may be censured with the rest, _Loripedem rectus derideat,
Aethiopem albus._ Bale, Erasmus, Hospinian, Vives, Kemnisius, explode as a
vast ocean of obs and sols, school divinity. [717]A labyrinth of intricable
questions, unprofitable contentions, _incredibilem delirationem_, one calls
it. If school divinity be so censured, _subtilis [718]Scotus lima
veritatis, Occam irrefragabilis, cujus ingenium vetera omnia ingenia
subvertit_, &c. Baconthrope, Dr. Resolutus, and _Corculum Theolgiae_,
Thomas himself, Doctor [719]Seraphicus, _cui dictavit Angelus_, &c. What
shall become of humanity? _Ars stulta_, what can she plead? what can her
followers say for themselves? Much learning, [720] _cere-diminuit-brum_,
hath cracked their sconce, and taken such root, that _tribus Anticyris
caput insanabile_, hellebore itself can do no good, nor that renowned
[721]lantern of Epictetus, by which if any man studied, he should be as
wise as he was. But all will not serve; rhetoricians, _in ostentationem
loquacitatis multa agitant_, out of their volubility of tongue, will talk
much to no purpose, orators can persuade other men what they will, _quo
volunt, unde volunt_, move, pacify, &c., but cannot settle their own
brains, what saith Tully? _Malo indisertam prudentiam, quam loquacem,
stultitiam_; and as [722]Seneca seconds him, a wise man's oration should
not be polite or solicitous. [723]Fabius esteems no better of most of them,
either in speech, action, gesture, than as men beside themselves, _insanos
declamatores_; so doth Gregory, _Non mihi sapit qui sermone, sed qui factis
sapit._ Make the best of him, a good orator is a turncoat, an evil man,
_bonus orator pessimus vir_, his tongue is set to sale, he is a mere voice,
as [724]he said of a nightingale, _dat sine mente sonum_, an hyperbolical
liar, a flatterer, a parasite, and as [725] Ammianus Marcellinus will, a
corrupting cozener, one that doth more mischief by his fair speeches, than
he that bribes by money; for a man may with more facility avoid him that
circumvents by money, than him that deceives with glozing terms; which made
[726]Socrates so much abhor and explode them. [727]Fracastorius, a famous
poet, freely grants all poets to be mad; so doth [728]Scaliger; and who
doth not? _Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit_ (He's mad or making verses),
Hor. _Sat. vii. l. 2._ _Insanire lubet, i. versus componere._ Virg. _3
Ecl._; so Servius interprets it, all poets are mad, a company of bitter
satirists, detractors, or else parasitical applauders: and what is poetry
itself, but as Austin holds, _Vinum erroris ab ebriis doctoribus
propinatum_? You may give that censure of them in general, which Sir Thomas
More once did of Germanus Brixius' poems in particular.
------"vehuntur
In rate stultitiae sylvam habitant Furiae."[729]
Budaeus, in an epistle of his to Lupsetus, will have civil law to be the
tower of wisdom; another honours physic, the quintessence of nature; a
third tumbles them both down, and sets up the flag of his own peculiar
science. Your supercilious critics, grammatical triflers, note-makers,
curious antiquaries, find out all the ruins of wit, _ineptiarum delicias_,
amongst the rubbish of old writers; [730]_Pro stultis habent nisi aliquid
sufficiant invenire, quod in aliorum scriptis vertant vitio_, all fools
with them that cannot find fault; they correct others, and are hot in a
cold cause, puzzle themselves to find out how many streets in Rome, houses,
gates, towers, Homer's country, Aeneas's mother, Niobe's daughters, _an
Sappho publica fuerit? ovum [731]prius extiterit an gallina! &c. et alia
quae dediscenda essent scire, si scires_, as [732]Seneca holds. What
clothes the senators did wear in Rome, what shoes, how they sat, where they
went to the close-stool, how many dishes in a mess, what sauce, which for
the present for an historian to relate, [733]according to Lodovic. Vives,
is very ridiculous, is to them most precious elaborate stuff, they admired
for it, and as proud, as triumphant in the meantime for this discovery, as
if they had won a city, or conquered a province; as rich as if they had
found a mine of gold ore. _Quosvis auctores absurdis commentis suis
percacant et stercorant_, one saith, they bewray and daub a company of
books and good authors, with their absurd comments, _correctorum
sterquilinia_ [734]Scaliger calls them, and show their wit in censuring
others, a company of foolish note-makers, humble-bees, dors, or beetles,
_inter stercora ut plurimum versantur_, they rake over all those rubbish
and dunghills, and prefer a manuscript many times before the Gospel itself,
[735]_thesaurum criticum_, before any treasure, and with their deleaturs,
_alii legunt sic, meus codex sic habet_, with their _postremae editiones_,
annotations, castigations, &c. make books dear, themselves ridiculous, and
do nobody good, yet if any man dare oppose or contradict, they are mad, up
in arms on a sudden, how many sheets are written in defence, how bitter
invectives, what apologies? [736]_Epiphilledes hae sunt ut merae, nugae_.
But I dare say no more of, for, with, or against them, because I am liable
to their lash as well as others. Of these and the rest of our artists and
philosophers, I will generally conclude they are a kind of madmen, as [737]
Seneca esteems of them, to make doubts and scruples, how to read them
truly, to mend old authors, but will not mend their own lives, or teach us
_ingevia sanare, memoriam officiorum ingerere, ac fidem in rebus humanis
retinere_, to keep our wits in order, or rectify our manners. _Numquid tibi
demens videtur, si istis operam impenderit_? Is not he mad that draws lines
with Archimedes, whilst his house is ransacked, and his city besieged, when
the whole world is in combustion, or we whilst our souls are in danger,
(_mors sequitur, vita fugit_) to spend our time in toys, idle questions,
and things of no worth?
That [738]lovers are mad, I think no man will deny, _Amare simul et sapere,
ipsi Jovi non datur_, Jupiter himself cannot intend both at once.
[739] "Non bene conveniunt, nec in una sede morantur
Majestas et amor."
Tully, when he was invited to a second marriage, replied, he could not
_simul amare et sapere_ be wise and love both together. [740]_Est orcus
ille, vis est immedicabilis, est rabies insana_, love is madness, a hell,
an incurable disease; _inpotentem et insanam libidinem_ [741]Seneca calls
it, an impotent and raging lust. I shall dilate this subject apart; in the
meantime let lovers sigh out the rest.
[742]Nevisanus the lawyer holds it for an axiom, "most women are fools,"
[743]_consilium foeminis invalidum_; Seneca, men, be they young or old; who
doubts it, youth is mad as Elius in Tully, _Stulti adolescentuli_, old age
little better, _deleri senes_, &c. Theophrastes, in the 107th year of his
age, [744]said he then began to be to wise, _tum sapere coepit_, and
therefore lamented his departure. If wisdom come so late, where shall we
find a wise man? Our old ones dote at threescore-and-ten. I would cite more
proofs, and a better author, but for the present, let one fool point at
another. [745]Nevisanus hath as hard an opinion of [746]rich men, "wealth
and wisdom cannot dwell together," _stultitiam patiuntur opes_, [747]and
they do commonly [748]_infatuare cor hominis_, besot men; and as we see it,
"fools have fortune:" [749]_Sapientia non invenitur in terra suaviter
viventium_. For beside a natural contempt of learning, which accompanies
such kind of men, innate idleness (for they will take no pains), and which
[750]Aristotle observes, _ubi mens plurima, ibi minima fortuna, ubi plurima
fortuna, ibi mens perexigua_, great wealth and little wit go commonly
together: they have as much brains some of them in their heads as in their
heels; besides this inbred neglect of liberal sciences, and all arts, which
should _excolere mentem_, polish the mind, they have most part some gullish
humour or other, by which they are led; one is an Epicure, an Atheist, a
second a gamester, a third a whoremaster (fit subjects all for a satirist
to work upon);
[751] "Hic nuptarum insanit amoribus, hic puerorum."
"One burns to madness for the wedded dame;
Unnatural lusts another's heart inflame."
[752]one is mad of hawking, hunting, cocking; another of carousing,
horse-riding, spending; a fourth of building, fighting, &c., _Insanit
veteres statuas Damasippus emendo_, Damasippus hath an humour of his own,
to be talked of: [753]Heliodorus the Carthaginian another. In a word, as
Scaliger concludes of them all, they are _Statuae erectae stultitiae_, the
very statutes or pillars of folly. Choose out of all stories him that hath
been most admired, you shall still find, _multa ad laudem, multa ad
vituperationem magnifica_, as [754]Berosus of Semiramis; _omnes mortales
militia triumphis, divitiis_, &c., _tum et luxu, caede, caeterisque vitiis
antecessit_, as she had some good, so had she many bad parts.
Alexander, a worthy man, but furious in his anger, overtaken in drink:
Caesar and Scipio valiant and wise, but vainglorious, ambitious: Vespasian
a worthy prince, but covetous: [755]Hannibal, as he had mighty virtues, so
had he many vices; _unam virtutem mille vitia comitantur_, as Machiavel of
Cosmo de Medici, he had two distinct persons in him. I will determine of
them all, they are like these double or turning pictures; stand before
which you see a fair maid, on the one side an ape, on the other an owl;
look upon them at the first sight, all is well, but farther examine, you
shall find them wise on the one side, and fools on the other; in some few
things praiseworthy, in the rest incomparably faulty. I will say nothing of
their diseases, emulations, discontents, wants, and such miseries: let
poverty plead the rest in Aristophanes' Plutus.
Covetous men, amongst others, are most mad, [756]they have all the symptoms
of melancholy, fear, sadness, suspicion, &c., as shall be proved in its
proper place,
"Danda est Hellebori multo pars maxima avaris."
"Misers make Anticyra their own;
Its hellebore reserved for them alone."
And yet methinks prodigals are much madder than they, be of what condition
they will, that bear a public or private purse; as a [757]Dutch writer
censured Richard the rich duke of Cornwall, suing to be emperor, for his
profuse spending, _qui effudit pecuniam, ante pedes principium Electorum
sicut aquam_, that scattered money like water; I do censure them, _Stulta
Anglia_ (saith he) _quae, tot denariis sponte est privata, stulti principes
Alemaniae, qui nobile jus suum pro pecunia vendiderunt_; spendthrifts,
bribers, and bribe-takers are fools, and so are [758]all they that cannot
keep, disburse, or spend their moneys well.
I might say the like of angry, peevish, envious, ambitious; [759]
_Anticyras melior sorbere meracas_; Epicures, Atheists, Schismatics,
Heretics; _hi omnes habent imaginationem laesam_ (saith Nymannus) "and
their madness shall be evident," 2 Tim. iii. 9. [760]Fabatus, an Italian,
holds seafaring men all mad; "the ship is mad, for it never stands still;
the mariners are mad, to expose themselves to such imminent dangers: the
waters are raging mad, in perpetual motion: the winds are as mad as the
rest, they know not whence they come, whither they would go: and those men
are maddest of all that go to sea; for one fool at home, they find forty
abroad." He was a madman that said it, and thou peradventure as mad to read
it. [761] Felix Platerus is of opinion all alchemists are mad, out of their
wits; [762]Atheneus saith as much of fiddlers, _et musarum luscinias_,
[763] Musicians, _omnes tibicines insaniunt, ubi semel efflant, avolat
illico mens_, in comes music at one ear, out goes wit at another. Proud and
vainglorious persons are certainly mad; and so are [764]lascivious; I can
feel their pulses beat hither; horn-mad some of them, to let others lie
with their wives, and wink at it.
To insist [765]in all particulars, were an Herculean task, to [766]reckon
up [767]_insanas substructiones, insanos labores, insanum luxum_, mad
labours, mad books, endeavours, carriages, gross ignorance, ridiculous
actions, absurd gestures; _insanam gulam, insaniam villarum, insana
jurgia_, as Tully terms them, madness of villages, stupend structures; as
those Egyptian Pyramids, Labyrinths and Sphinxes, which a company of
crowned asses, _ad ostentationem opum_, vainly built, when neither the
architect nor king that made them, or to what use and purpose, are yet
known: to insist in their hypocrisy, inconstancy, blindness, rashness,
_dementem temeritatem_, fraud, cozenage, malice, anger, impudence,
ingratitude, ambition, gross superstition, [768]_tempora infecta et
adulatione sordida_, as in Tiberius' times, such base flattery, stupend,
parasitical fawning and colloguing, &c. brawls, conflicts, desires,
contentions, it would ask an expert Vesalius to anatomise every member.
Shall I say? Jupiter himself, Apollo, Mars, &c. doted; and
monster-conquering Hercules that subdued the world, and helped others,
could not relieve himself in this, but mad he was at last. And where shall
a man walk, converse with whom, in what province, city, and not meet with
Signior Deliro, or Hercules Furens, Maenads, and Corybantes? Their speeches
say no less. [769]_E fungis nati homines_, or else they fetched their
pedigree from those that were struck by Samson with the jaw-bone of an ass.
Or from Deucalion and Pyrrha's stones, for _durum genus sumus_, [770]
_marmorei sumus_, we are stony-hearted, and savour too much of the stock,
as if they had all heard that enchanted horn of Astolpho, that English duke
in Ariosto, which never sounded but all his auditors were mad, and for fear
ready to make away with themselves; [771]or landed in the mad haven in the
Euxine sea of _Daphnis insana_, which had a secret quality to dementate;
they are a company of giddy-heads, afternoon men, it is Midsummer moon
still, and the dog-days last all the year long, they are all mad. Whom
shall I then except? Ulricus Huttenus [772]_nemo, nam, nemo omnibus horis
sapit, Nemo nascitur sine vitiis, Crimine Nemo caret, Nemo sorte sua vivit
contentus, Nemo in amore sapit, Nemo bonus, Nemo sapiens, Nemo, est ex omni
parti beatus_, &c. [773]and therefore Nicholas Nemo, or Monsieur Nobody
shall go free, _Quid valeat nemo, Nemo referre potest_? But whom shall I
except in the second place? such as are silent, _vir sapit qui pauca
loquitur_; [774]no better way to avoid folly and madness, than by
taciturnity. Whom in a third? all senators, magistrates; for all fortunate
men are wise, and conquerors valiant, and so are all great men, _non est
bonum ludere cum diis_, they are wise by authority, good by their office
and place, _his licet impune pessimos esse_, (some say) we must not speak
of them, neither is it fit; _per me sint omnia protinus alba_, I will not
think amiss of them. Whom next? Stoics? _Sapiens Stoicus_, and he alone is
subject to no perturbations, as [775]Plutarch scoffs at him, "he is not
vexed with torments, or burnt with fire, foiled by his adversary, sold of
his enemy: though he be wrinkled, sand-blind, toothless, and deformed; yet
he is most beautiful, and like a god, a king in conceit, though not worth a
groat. He never dotes, never mad, never sad, drunk, because virtue cannot
be taken away," as [776]Zeno holds, "by reason of strong apprehension," but
he was mad to say so. [777]_Anticyrae caelo huic est opus aut dolabra_, he
had need to be bored, and so had all his fellows, as wise as they would
seem to be. Chrysippus himself liberally grants them to be fools as well as
others, at certain times, upon some occasions, _amitti virtutem ait per
ebrietatem, aut atribilarium morbum_, it may be lost by drunkenness or
melancholy, he may be sometimes crazed as well as the rest: [778]_ad summum
sapiens nisi quum pituita molesta_. I should here except some Cynics,
Menippus, Diogenes, that Theban Crates; or to descend to these times, that
omniscious, only wise fraternity [779]of the Rosicrucians, those great
theologues, politicians, philosophers, physicians, philologers, artists,
&c. of whom S. Bridget, Albas Joacchimus, Leicenbergius, and such divine
spirits have prophesied, and made promise to the world, if at least there
be any such (Hen. [780]Neuhusius makes a doubt of it, [781] Valentinus
Andreas and others) or an Elias artifex their Theophrastian master; whom
though Libavius and many deride and carp at, yet some will have to be "the
[782]renewer of all arts and sciences," reformer of the world, and now
living, for so Johannes Montanus Strigoniensis, that great patron of
Paracelsus, contends, and certainly avers [783]"a most divine man," and the
quintessence of wisdom wheresoever he is; for he, his fraternity, friends,
&c. are all [784]"betrothed to wisdom," if we may believe their disciples
and followers. I must needs except Lipsius and the Pope, and expunge their
name out of the catalogue of fools. For besides that parasitical testimony
of Dousa,
"A Sole exoriente Maeotidas usque paludes,
Nemo est qui justo se aequiparare queat."[785]
Lipsius saith of himself, that he was [786]_humani generis quidem
paedagogus voce et stylo_, a grand signior, a master, a tutor of us all,
and for thirteen years he brags how he sowed wisdom in the Low Countries,
as Ammonius the philosopher sometimes did in Alexandria, [787]_cum
humanitate literas et sapientiam cum prudentia: antistes sapientiae_, he
shall be _Sapientum Octavus_. The Pope is more than a man, as [788]his
parrots often make him, a demigod, and besides his holiness cannot err, _in
Cathedra_ belike: and yet some of them have been magicians, Heretics,
Atheists, children, and as Platina saith of John 22, _Et si vir literatus,
multa stoliditatem et laevitatem prae se ferentia egit, stolidi et socordis
vir ingenii_, a scholar sufficient, yet many things he did foolishly,
lightly. I can say no more than in particular, but in general terms to the
rest, they are all mad, their wits are evaporated, and, as Ariosto feigns,
_l. 34_, kept in jars above the moon.
"Some lose their wits with love, some with ambition,
Some following [789]Lords and men of high condition.
Some in fair jewels rich and costly set,
Others in Poetry their wits forget.
Another thinks to be an Alchemist,
Till all be spent, and that his number's mist."
Convicted fools they are, madmen upon record; and I am afraid past cure
many of them, [790]_crepunt inguina_, the symptoms are manifest, they are
all of Gotam parish:
[791] "Quum furor haud dubius, quum sit manifesta phrenesis,"
"Since madness is indisputable, since frenzy is obvious."
what remains then [792]but to send for Lorarios, those officers to carry
them all together for company to Bedlam, and set Rabelais to be their
physician.
If any man shall ask in the meantime, who I am that so boldly censure
others, _tu nullane habes vitia_? have I no faults? [793]Yes, more than
thou hast, whatsoever thou art. _Nos numerus sumus_, I confess it again, I
am as foolish, as mad as any one.
[794] "Insanus vobis videor, non deprecor ipse,
Quo minus insanus,"------
I do not deny it, _demens de populo dematur_. My comfort is, I have more
fellows, and those of excellent note. And though I be not so right or so
discreet as I should be, yet not so mad, so bad neither, as thou perhaps
takest me to be.
To conclude, this being granted, that all the world is melancholy, or mad,
dotes, and every member of it, I have ended my task, and sufficiently
illustrated that which I took upon me to demonstrate at first. At this
present I have no more to say; _His sanam mentem Democritus_, I can but
wish myself and them a good physician, and all of us a better mind.
And although for the above-named reasons, I had a just cause to undertake
this subject, to point at these particular species of dotage, that so men
might acknowledge their imperfections, and seek to reform what is amiss;
yet I have a more serious intent at this time; and to omit all impertinent
digressions, to say no more of such as are improperly melancholy, or
metaphorically mad, lightly mad, or in disposition, as stupid, angry,
drunken, silly, sottish, sullen, proud, vainglorious, ridiculous, beastly,
peevish, obstinate, impudent, extravagant, dry, doting, dull, desperate,
harebrain, &c. mad, frantic, foolish, heteroclites, which no new [795]
hospital can hold, no physic help; my purpose and endeavour is, in the
following discourse to anatomise this humour of melancholy, through all its
parts and species, as it is an habit, or an ordinary disease, and that
philosophically, medicinally, to show the causes, symptoms, and several
cures of it, that it may be the better avoided. Moved thereunto for the
generality of it, and to do good, it being a disease so frequent, as [796]
Mercurialis observes, "in these our days; so often happening," saith [797]
Laurentius, "in our miserable times," as few there are that feel not the
smart of it. Of the same mind is Aelian Montaltus, [798]Melancthon, and
others; [799]Julius Caesar Claudinus calls it the "fountain of all other
diseases, and so common in this crazed age of ours, that scarce one of a
thousand is free from it;" and that splenetic hypochondriacal wind
especially, which proceeds from the spleen and short ribs. Being then a
disease so grievous, so common, I know not wherein to do a more general
service, and spend my time better, than to prescribe means how to prevent
and cure so universal a malady, an epidemical disease, that so often, so
much crucifies the body and mind.
If I have overshot myself in this which hath been hitherto said, or that it
is, which I am sure some will object, too fantastical, "too light and
comical for a Divine, too satirical for one of my profession," I will
presume to answer with [800]Erasmus, in like case, 'tis not I, but
Democritus, Democritus _dixit_: you must consider what it is to speak in
one's own or another's person, an assumed habit and name; a difference
betwixt him that affects or acts a prince's, a philosopher's, a
magistrate's, a fool's part, and him that is so indeed; and what liberty
those old satirists have had; it is a cento collected from others; not I,
but they that say it.
[801] "Dixero si quid forte jocosius, hoc mihi juris
Cum venia, dabis"------
"Yet some indulgence I may justly claim,
If too familiar with another's fame."
Take heed you mistake me not. If I do a little forget myself, I hope you
will pardon it. And to say truth, why should any man be offended, or take
exceptions at it?
"Licuit, semperque licebit,
Parcere personis, dicere de vitiis."
"It lawful was of old, and still will be,
To speak of vice, but let the name go free."
I hate their vices, not their persons. If any be displeased, or take aught
unto himself, let him not expostulate or cavil with him that said it (so
did [802]Erasmus excuse himself to Dorpius, _si parva licet componere
magnis_) and so do I; "but let him be angry with himself, that so betrayed
and opened his own faults in applying it to himself:" [803]"if he be guilty
and deserve it, let him amend, whoever he is, and not be angry." "He that
hateth correction is a fool," Prov. xii. 1. If he be not guilty, it
concerns him not; it is not my freeness of speech, but a guilty conscience,
a galled back of his own that makes him wince.
"Suspicione si quis errabit sua,
Et rapiet ad se, quod erit commune omnium,
Stulte nudabit animi conscientiam."[804]
I deny not this which I have said savours a little of Democritus; [805]
_Quamvis ridentem dicere verum quid velat_; one may speak in jest, and yet
speak truth. It is somewhat tart, I grant it; _acriora orexim excitant
embammata_, as he said, sharp sauces increase appetite, [806]_nec cibus
ipse juvat morsu fraudatus aceti_. Object then and cavil what thou wilt, I
ward all with [807]Democritus's buckler, his medicine shall salve it;
strike where thou wilt, and when: _Democritus dixit_, Democritus will
answer it. It was written by an idle fellow, at idle times, about our
Saturnalian or Dionysian feasts, when as he said, _nullum libertati
periculum est_, servants in old Rome had liberty to say and do what them
list. When our countrymen sacrificed to their goddess [808]Vacuna, and sat
tippling by their Vacunal fires. I writ this, and published this [Greek:
houtis helegen], it is _neminis nihil_. The time, place, persons, and all
circumstances apologise for me, and why may not I then be idle with others?
speak my mind freely? If you deny me this liberty, upon these presumptions
I will take it: I say again, I will take it.
[809] "Si quis est qui dictum in se inclementius
Existimavit esse, sic existimet."
If any man take exceptions, let him turn the buckle of his girdle, I care
not. I owe thee nothing (Reader), I look for no favour at thy hands, I am
independent, I fear not.
No, I recant, I will not, I care, I fear, I confess my fault, acknowledge a
great offence,
------"motos praestat componere fluctus."
------"let's first assuage the troubled waves"
I have overshot myself, I have spoken foolishly, rashly, unadvisedly,
absurdly, I have anatomised mine own folly. And now methinks upon a sudden
I am awaked as it were out of a dream; I have had a raving fit, a
fantastical fit, ranged up and down, in and out, I have insulted over the
most kind of men, abused some, offended others, wronged myself; and now
being recovered, and perceiving mine error, cry with [810]Orlando, _Solvite
me_, pardon (_o boni_) that which is past, and I will make you amends in
that which is to come; I promise you a more sober discourse in my following
treatise.
If through weakness, folly, passion, [811]discontent, ignorance, I have
said amiss, let it be forgotten and forgiven. I acknowledge that of [812]
Tacitus to be true, _Asperae facetiae, ubi nimis ex vero traxere, acrem sui
memoriam relinquunt_, a bitter jest leaves a sting behind it: and as an
honourable man observes, [813]"They fear a satirist's wit, he their
memories." I may justly suspect the worst; and though I hope I have wronged
no man, yet in Medea's words I will crave pardon,
------"Illud jam voce extrema peto,
Ne si qua noster dubius effudit dolor,
Maneant in animo verba, sed melior tibi
Memoria nostri subeat, haec irae data
Obliterentur"------
"And in my last words this I do desire,
That what in passion I have said, or ire,
May be forgotten, and a better mind,
Be had of us, hereafter as you find."
I earnestly request every private man, as Scaliger did Cardan, not to take
offence. I will conclude in his lines, _Si me cognitum haberes, non solum
donares nobis has facetias nostras, sed etiam indignum duceres, tam humanum
aninum, lene ingenium, vel minimam suspicionem deprecari oportere_. If thou
knewest my [814]modesty and simplicity, thou wouldst easily pardon and
forgive what is here amiss, or by thee misconceived. If hereafter
anatomizing this surly humour, my hand slip, as an unskilful 'prentice I
lance too deep, and cut through skin and all at unawares, make it smart, or
cut awry, [815]pardon a rude hand, an unskilful knife, 'tis a most
difficult thing to keep an even tone, a perpetual tenor, and not sometimes
to lash out; _difficile est Satyram non scribere_, there be so many objects
to divert, inward perturbations to molest, and the very best may sometimes
err; _aliquando bonus dormitat Homerus_ (some times that excellent Homer
takes a nap), it is impossible not in so much to overshoot;--_opere in
longo fas est obrepere, summum_. But what needs all this? I hope there will
no such cause of offence be given; if there be, [816]_Nemo aliquid
recognoscat, nos mentimur omnia_. I'll deny all (my last refuge), recant
all, renounce all I have said, if any man except, and with as much facility
excuse, as he can accuse; but I presume of thy good favour, and gracious
acceptance (gentle reader). Out of an assured hope and confidence thereof,
I will begin.
LECTORI MALE FERIATO.
Tu vero cavesis edico quisquis es, ne temere sugilles Auctorem hujusce
operis, aut cavillator irrideas. Imo ne vel ex aliorum censura tacite
obloquaris (vis dicam verbo) nequid nasutulus inepte improbes, aut falso
fingas. Nam si talis revera sit, qualem prae se fert Junior Democritus,
seniori Democrito saltem affinis, aut ejus Genium vel tantillum sapiat;
actum de te, censorem aeque ac delatorem [817]aget econtra (_petulanti
splene cum sit_) sufflabit te in jocos, comminuet in sales, addo etiam, _et
deo risui_ te sacrificabit.
Iterum moneo, ne quid cavillere, ne dum Democritum Juniorem conviciis
infames, aut ignominiose vituperes, de te non male sentientem, tu idem
audias ab amico cordato, quod olim vulgus Abderitanum ab [818] Hippocrate,
concivem bene meritum et popularem suum Democritum, pro insano habens. _Ne
tu Democrite sapis, stulti autem et insani Abderitae_.
[819] "Abderitanae pectora plebis habes."
Haec te paucis admonitum volo (male feriate Lector) abi.
TO THE READER AT LEISURE.
Whoever you may be, I caution you against rashly defaming the author of
this work, or cavilling in jest against him. Nay, do not silently reproach
him in consequence of others' censure, nor employ your wit in foolish
disapproval, or false accusation. For, should Democritus Junior prove to be
what he professes, even a kinsman of his elder namesake, or be ever so
little of the same kidney, it is all over with you: he will become both
accuser and judge of you in your spleen, will dissipate you in jests,
pulverise you into salt, and sacrifice you, I can promise you, to the God
of Mirth.
I further advise you, not to asperse, or calumniate, or slander, Democritus
Junior, who possibly does not think ill of you, lest you may hear from some
discreet friend, the same remark the people of Abdera did from Hippocrates,
of their meritorious and popular fellow-citizen, whom they had looked on as
a madman; "It is not that you, Democritus, that art wise, but that the
people of Abdera are fools and madmen." "You have yourself an Abderitian
soul;" and having just given you, gentle reader, these few words of
admonition, farewell.
"Heraclite fleas, misero sic convenit aevo,
Nil nisi turpe vides, nil nisi triste vides.
Ride etiam, quantumque lubet, Democrite ride
Non nisi vana vides, non nisi stulta vides.
Is fletu, his risu modo gaudeat, unus utrique
Sit licet usque labor, sit licet usque dolor.
Nunc opes est (nam totus eheu jam desipit orbis)
Mille Heraclitis, milleque Democritis.
Nunc opus est (tanta est insania) transeat omnis
Mundus in Anticyras, gramen in Helleborum."
"Weep, O Heraclitus, it suits the age,
Unless you see nothing base, nothing sad.
Laugh, O Democritus, as much as you please,
Unless you see nothing either vain or foolish.
Let one rejoice in smiles, the other in tears;
Let the same labour or pain be the office of both.
Now (for alas! how foolish the world has become),
A thousand Heraclitus', a thousand Democritus' are required.
Now (so much does madness prevail), all the world must be
Sent to Anticyra, to graze on Hellebore."
THE SYNOPSIS OF THE FIRST PARTITION.
In diseases, consider _Sect. 1. Memb. 1._
Their Causes. _Subs. 1._
Impulsive;
Sin, concupiscence, &c.
Instrumental;
Intemperance, all second causes, &c.
Or Definition, Member, Division. _Subs. 2._
Of the body 300, which are
Epidemical, as Plague, Plica, &c.
Or Particular as Gout, Dropsy, &c.
Or Of the head or mind. _Subs. 3._
In disposition; as all perturbations, evil affection, &c.
Or Habits, as _Subs. 4._
Dotage
Frenzy.
Madness.
Ecstasy.
Lycanthropia.
Chorus sancti Viti.
Hydrophobia.
Possession or obsession of Devils.
Melancholy. See [Symbol: Aries].
[Symbol: Aries] Melancholy: in which consider
Its Equivocations, in Disposition, Improper, &c. _Subsect. 5._
_Memb. 2._
To its explication, a digression of anatomy, in which observe parts of
_Subs. 1._
Body hath parts _Subs. 2._
contained as
Humours, 4. Blood, Phlegm, &c.
Spirits; vital, natural, animal.
or containing
Similar; spermatical, or flesh, bones, nerves, &c. _Subs. 3._
Dissimilar; brain, heart, liver, &c. _Subs. 4._
Soul and its faculties, as
Vegetal. _Subs. 5._
Sensible. _Subs. 6, 7, 8._
Rational. _Subsect. 9, 10, 11._
_Memb. 3._
Its definition, name, difference, _Subs. 1._
The part and parties affected, affection, &c. _Subs. 2._
The matter of melancholy, natural, &c. _Subs. 3._
Species, or kinds [_Subs. 4._], which are
Proper to parts, as
Of the head alone, hypochondriacal, or windy melancholy. Of the
whole body.
with their several causes, symptoms, prognostics, cures
Or Indefinite; as Love-melancholy, the subject of the third
Partition.
Its Causes in general. _Sect. 2._ A.
Its Symptoms or signs. _Sect. 3._ B.
Its Prognostics or indications. _Sect. 4._ C.
Its Cures; the subject of the second Partition.
A. _Sect. 2._ Causes of Melancholy are either
General, as _Memb. 1._
Supernatural
As from God immediately, or by second causes. _Subs. 1._
Or from the devil immediately, with a digression of the nature of
spirits and devils. _Subs. 2._
Or mediately, by magicians, witches. _Subs. 3._
Or Natural
Primary, as stars, proved by aphorisms, signs from physiognomy,
metoposcopy, chiromancy. _Subs. 4._
Or Secondary, as
Congenite, inward from
Old age, temperament, _Subs. 5._
Parents, it being an hereditary disease, _Subs. 6._
Or Outward or adventitious, which are
Evident, outward, remote, adventitious, as,
Necessary, see [Symbol: Taurus].
Not necessary, as _M. 4. S. 2._
Nurses, _Subs. 1._
Education, _Subs. 2._
Terrors, affrights, _Subs. 3._
Scoffs, calumnies, bitter jests, _Subs. 4._
Loss of liberty, servitude, imprisonment, _Subs.
5._
Poverty and want, _Subs. 6.
A heap of other accidents, death of friends,
loss, &c. _Subs. 7._
Or Contingent, inward, antecedent, nearest. _Memb. 5.
Sect. 2._
In which the body works on the mind, and this malady
is caused by precedent diseases; as agues, pox,
&c., or temperature, innate _Subs. 1._
Or by particular parts distempered, as brain, heart,
spleen, liver, mesentery, pylorus, stomach &c.
_Subs. 2._
Particular to the three species. See [Symbol: Gemini].
[Symbol: Gemini] Particular causes. _Sect. 2. Memb. 5._
Of head Melancholy are _Subs. 3._
Inward
Innate humour, or from temperature adjust.
A hot brain, corrupted blood in the brain
Excess of venery, or defect
Agues, or some precedent disease
Fumes arising from the stomach, &c.
Or Outward
Heat of the sun, immoderate
A blow on the head
Overmuch use of hot wines, spices, garlic, onions, hot baths,
overmuch waking, &c.
Idleness, solitariness, or overmuch study, vehement labour, &c.
Passions, perturbations, &c.
Of hypochondriacal or windy melancholy are, [_Subs. 4._]
Inward
Default of spleen, belly, bowels, stomach, mesentery, miseraic
veins, liver, &c.
Months or hemorrhoids stopped, or any other ordinary evacuation
or Outward
Those six non-natural things abused.
Over all the body are, _Subs. 5._
Inward
Liver distempered, stopped, over-hot, apt to engender melancholy,
temperature innate.
or Outward
Bad diet, suppression of hemorrhoids &c. and such evacuations,
passions, cares, &c. those six non-natural things abused.
[Symbol: Taurus] Necessary causes, as those six non-natural things, which
are, _Sect. 2 Memb. 2._
Diet offending in _Subs. 1._
Substance
Bread; course and black, &c.
Drink; thick, thin, sour, &c.
Water unclean, milk, oil, vinegar, wine, spices &c.
Flesh
Parts: heads, feet, entrails, fat, bacon, blood, &c.
Kinds:
Beef, pork, venison, hares, goats, pigeons, peacocks,
fen-fowl, &c.
Herbs, Fish, &c.
Of fish; all shellfish, hard and slimy fish, &c.
Of herbs; pulse, cabbage, melons, garlic, onions, &c.
All roots, raw fruits, hard and windy meats
Quality, as in
Preparing, dressing, sharp sauces, salt meats, indurate, soused,
fried, broiled or made-dishes, &c.
Quantity
Disorder in eating, immoderate eating, or at unseasonable times,
&c. _Subs. 2_
Custom; delight, appetite, altered, &c. _Subs. 3._
Retention and evacuation, _Subs. 4._
Costiveness, hot baths, sweating, issues stopped, Venus in excess, or
in defect, phlebotomy, purging, &c.
Air; hot, cold, tempestuous, dark, thick, foggy, moorish, &c. _Subs. 5._
Exercise, _Subs. 6._
Unseasonable, excessive, or defective, of body or mind, solitariness,
idleness, a life out of action, &c.
Sleep and waking, unseasonable, inordinate, overmuch, overlittle, &c.
_Subs. 7._
_Memb. 3. Sect. 2._
Passions and perturbations of the mind, _Subs. 1._ With a digression of
the force of imagination. _Subs. 2._ and division of passions into
_Subs. 3._
Irascible,
Sorrow, cause and symptom, _Subs. 4._
Fear, cause and symptom, _Subs. 5._
Shame, repulse, disgrace, &c. _Subs. 6._
Envy and malice, _Subs. 7._
Emulation, hatred, faction, desire of revenge, _Subs. 8._
Anger a cause, _Subs. 9._
Discontents, cares, miseries, &c. _Subs. 10._
or concupiscible.
Vehement desires, ambition, _Subs. 11._
Covetousness, [Greek: philargurian], _Subs. 12._
Love of pleasures, gaming in excess, &c. _Subs. 13._
Desire of praise, pride, vainglory, &c. _Subs. 14._
Love of learning, study in excess, with a digression, of the
misery of scholars, and why the Muses are melancholy, _Subs.
15._
B. Symptoms of melancholy are either _Sect. 3._
General, as of _Memb. 1._
Body, as ill digestion, crudity, wind, dry brains, hard belly, thick
blood, much waking, heaviness, and palpitation of heart, leaping in
many places, &c., _Subs. 1._
or Mind
Common to all or most.
Fear and sorrow without a just cause, suspicion, jealousy,
discontent, solitariness, irksomeness, continual cogitations,
restless thoughts, vain imaginations, &c. _Subs. 2._
Or Particular to private persons, according to _Subs. 3. 4._
Celestial influences, as [Symbol: Saturn] [Symbol: Jupiter]
[Symbol: Mars], &c. parts of the body, heart, brain, liver,
spleen, stomach, &c.
Humours
Sanguine are merry still, laughing, pleasant, meditating
on plays, women, music, &c.
Phlegmatic, slothful, dull, heavy, &c.
Choleric, furious, impatient, subject to hear and see
strange apparitions, &c.
Black, solitary, sad; they think they are bewitched,
dead, &c.
Or mixed of these four humours adust, or not adust,
infinitely varied.
Their several customs, conditions, inclinations, discipline,
&c.
Ambitious, thinks himself a king, a lord; covetous, runs
on his money; lascivious on his mistress; religious, hath
revelations, visions, is a prophet, or troubled in mind;
a scholar on his book, &c.
Continuance of time as the humour is intended or remitted,
&c.
Pleasant at first, hardly discerned; afterwards harsh and
intolerable, if inveterate. Hence some make three
degrees,
1. _Falsa cogitatio._
2. _Cogitata loqui._
3. _Exequi loquutum._
By fits, or continuate, as the object varies, pleasing,
or displeasing.
Simple, or as it is mixed with other diseases, apoplexies, gout, _caninus
appetitus_, &c. so the symptoms are various.
[Symbol: Cancer] Particular symptoms to the three distinct species. _Sect.
3. Memb. 2._
Head melancholy. _Subs. 1._
In body
Headache, binding and heaviness, vertigo, lightness, singing of
the ears, much waking, fixed eyes, high colour, red eyes, hard
belly, dry body; no great sign of melancholy in the other parts.
Or In mind.
Continual fear, sorrow, suspicion, discontent, superfluous cares,
solicitude, anxiety, perpetual cogitation of such toys they are
possessed with, thoughts like dreams, &c.
Hypochondriacal, or windy melancholy. _Subs. 2._
In body
Wind, rumbling in the guts, bellyache, heat in the bowels,
convulsions, crudities, short wind, sour and sharp belchings,
cold sweat, pain in the left side, suffocation, palpitation,
heaviness of the heart, singing in the ears, much spittle, and
moist, &c.
Or In mind.
Fearful, sad, suspicious, discontent, anxiety, &c. Lascivious by
reason of much wind, troublesome dreams, affected by fits, &c.
Over all the body. _Subs. 3._
In body
Black, most part lean, broad veins, gross, thick blood, their
hemorrhoids commonly stopped, &c.
Or In mind.
Fearful, sad, solitary, hate light, averse from company, fearful
dreams, &c.
Symptoms of nuns, maids, and widows melancholy, in body and mind, &c.
[_Subs. 4_]
A reason of these symptoms. _Memb. 3._
Why they are so fearful, sad, suspicious without a cause, why
solitary, why melancholy men are witty, why they suppose they hear
and see strange voices, visions, apparitions.
Why they prophesy, and speak strange languages; whence comes their
crudity, rumbling, convulsions, cold sweat, heaviness of heart,
palpitation, cardiaca, fearful dreams, much waking, prodigious
fantasies.
C. Prognostics of melancholy. _Sect. 4._
Tending to good, as
Morphew, scabs, itch, breaking out, &c.
Black jaundice.
If the hemorrhoids voluntarily open.
If varices appear.
Tending to evil, as
Leanness, dryness, hollow-eyed, &c.
Inveterate melancholy is incurable.
If cold, it degenerates often into epilepsy, apoplexy, dotage, or
into blindness.
If hot, into madness, despair, and violent death.
Corollaries and questions.
The grievousness of this above all other diseases.
The diseases of the mind are more grievous than those of the body.
Whether it be lawful, in this case of melancholy, for a man to offer
violence to himself. _Neg._
How a melancholy or mad man offering violence to himself, is to be
censured.
THE FIRST PARTITION.
THE FIRST SECTION, MEMBER, SUBSECTION.
_Man's Excellency, Fall, Miseries, Infirmities; The causes of them_.
_Man's Excellency_.] Man the most excellent and noble creature of the
world, "the principal and mighty work of God, wonder of Nature," as
Zoroaster calls him; _audacis naturae miraculum_, "the [820]marvel of
marvels," as Plato; "the [821]abridgment and epitome of the world," as
Pliny; _microcosmus_, a little world, a model of the world, [822]sovereign
lord of the earth, viceroy of the world, sole commander and governor of all
the creatures in it; to whose empire they are subject in particular, and
yield obedience; far surpassing all the rest, not in body only, but in
soul; [823]_imaginis imago_, [824]created to God's own [825]image, to that
immortal and incorporeal substance, with all the faculties and powers
belonging unto it; was at first pure, divine, perfect, happy, [826]
"created after God in true holiness and righteousness;" _Deo congruens_,
free from all manner of infirmities, and put in Paradise, to know God, to
praise and glorify him, to do his will, _Ut diis consimiles parturiat deos_
(as an old poet saith) to propagate the church.
_Man's Fall and Misery_.] But this most noble creature, _Heu tristis, et
lachrymosa commutatio_ ([827]one exclaims) O pitiful change! is fallen from
that he was, and forfeited his estate, become _miserabilis homuncio_, a
castaway, a caitiff, one of the most miserable creatures of the world, if
he be considered in his own nature, an unregenerate man, and so much
obscured by his fall that (some few relics excepted) he is inferior to a
beast, [828]"Man in honour that understandeth not, is like unto beasts that
perish," so David esteems him: a monster by stupend metamorphoses, [829]a
fox, a dog, a hog, what not? _Quantum mutatus ab illo_? How much altered
from that he was; before blessed and happy, now miserable and accursed;
[830]"He must eat his meat in sorrow," subject to death and all manner of
infirmities, all kind of calamities.
_A Description of Melancholy_.] [831]"Great travail is created for all men,
and an heavy yoke on the sons of Adam, from the day that they go out of
their mother's womb, unto that day they return to the mother of all things.
Namely, their thoughts, and fear of their hearts, and their imagination of
things they wait for, and the day of death. From him that sitteth in the
glorious throne, to him that sitteth beneath in the earth and ashes; from
him that is clothed in blue silk and weareth a crown, to him that is
clothed in simple linen. Wrath, envy, trouble, and unquietness, and fear of
death, and rigour, and strife, and such things come to both man and beast,
but sevenfold to the ungodly." All this befalls him in this life, and
peradventure eternal misery in the life to come.
_Impulsive Cause of Man's Misery and Infirmities_.] The impulsive cause of
these miseries in man, this privation or destruction of God's image, the
cause of death and diseases, of all temporal and eternal punishments, was
the sin of our first parent Adam, [832]in eating of the forbidden fruit, by
the devil's instigation and allurement. His disobedience, pride, ambition,
intemperance, incredulity, curiosity; from whence proceeded original sin,
and that general corruption of mankind, as from a fountain, flowed all bad
inclinations and actual transgressions which cause our several calamities
inflicted upon us for our sins. And this belike is that which our fabulous
poets have shadowed unto us in the tale of [833] Pandora's box, which being
opened through her curiosity, filled the world full of all manner of
diseases. It is not curiosity alone, but those other crying sins of ours,
which pull these several plagues and miseries upon our heads. For _Ubi
peccatum, ibi procella_, as [834]Chrysostom well observes. [835]"Fools by
reason of their transgression, and because of their iniquities, are
afflicted." [836]"Fear cometh like sudden desolation, and destruction like
a whirlwind, affliction and anguish," because they did not fear God.
[837]"Are you shaken with wars?" as Cyprian well urgeth to Demetrius, "are
you molested with dearth and famine? is your health crushed with raging
diseases? is mankind generally tormented with epidemical maladies? 'tis all
for your sins," Hag. i. 9, 10; Amos i.; Jer. vii. God is angry, punisheth
and threateneth, because of their obstinacy and stubbornness, they will not
turn unto him. [838]"If the earth be barren then for want of rain, if dry
and squalid, it yield no fruit, if your fountains be dried up, your wine,
corn, and oil blasted, if the air be corrupted, and men troubled with
diseases, 'tis by reason of their sins:" which like the blood of Abel cry
loud to heaven for vengeance, Lam. v. 15. "That we have sinned, therefore
our hearts are heavy," Isa. lix. 11, 12. "We roar like bears, and mourn
like doves, and want health, &c. for our sins and trespasses." But this we
cannot endure to hear or to take notice of, Jer. ii. 30. "We are smitten in
vain and receive no correction;" and cap. v. 3. "Thou hast stricken them,
but they have not sorrowed; they have refused to receive correction; they
have not returned. Pestilence he hath sent, but they have not turned to
him," Amos iv. [839]Herod could not abide John Baptist, nor [840]Domitian
endure Apollonius to tell the causes of the plague at Ephesus, his
injustice, incest, adultery, and the like.
To punish therefore this blindness and obstinacy of ours as a concomitant
cause and principal agent, is God's just judgment in bringing these
calamities upon us, to chastise us, I say, for our sins, and to satisfy
God's wrath. For the law requires obedience or punishment, as you may read
at large, Deut. xxviii. 15. "If they will not obey the Lord, and keep his
commandments and ordinances, then all these curses shall come upon them."
[841]"Cursed in the town and in the field," &c. [842]"Cursed in the fruit
of the body," &c. [843]"The Lord shall send thee trouble and shame, because
of thy wickedness." And a little after, [844]"The Lord shall smite thee
with the botch of Egypt, and with emerods, and scab, and itch, and thou
canst not be healed; [845]with madness, blindness, and astonishing of
heart." This Paul seconds, Rom. ii. 9. "Tribulation and anguish on the soul
of every man that doeth evil." Or else these chastisements are inflicted
upon us for our humiliation, to exercise and try our patience here in this
life to bring us home, to make us to know God ourselves, to inform and
teach us wisdom. [846]"Therefore is my people gone into captivity, because
they had no knowledge; therefore is the wrath of the Lord kindled against
his people, and he hath stretched out his hand upon them." He is desirous
of our salvation. [847]_Nostrae salutis avidus_, saith Lemnius, and for
that cause pulls us by the ear many times, to put us in mind of our duties:
"That they which erred might have understanding, (as Isaiah speaks xxix.
24) and so to be reformed." [848]"I am afflicted, and at the point of
death," so David confesseth of himself, Psal. lxxxviii. v. 15, v. 9. "Mine
eyes are sorrowful through mine affliction:" and that made him turn unto
God. Great Alexander in the midst of all his prosperity, by a company of
parasites deified, and now made a god, when he saw one of his wounds bleed,
remembered that he was but a man, and remitted of his pride. _In morbo
recolligit se animus_,[849] as [850]Pliny well perceived; "In sickness the
mind reflects upon itself, with judgment surveys itself, and abhors its
former courses;" insomuch that he concludes to his friend Marius,[851]
"that it were the period of all philosophy, if we could so continue sound,
or perform but a part of that which we promised to do, being sick. Whoso is
wise then, will consider these things," as David did (Psal. cxliv., verse
last); and whatsoever fortune befall him, make use of it. If he be in
sorrow, need, sickness, or any other adversity, seriously to recount with
himself, why this or that malady, misery, this or that incurable disease is
inflicted upon him; it may be for his good, [852]_sic expedit_ as Peter
said of his daughter's ague. Bodily sickness is for his soul's health,
_periisset nisi periisset_, had he not been visited, he had utterly
perished; for [853]"the Lord correcteth him whom he loveth, even as a
father doth his child in whom he delighteth." If he be safe and sound on
the other side, and free from all manner of infirmity; [854]_et cui_
"Gratia, forma, valetudo contingat abunde
Et mundus victus, non deficiente crumena."
"And that he have grace, beauty, favour, health,
A cleanly diet, and abound in wealth."
Yet in the midst of his prosperity, let him remember that caveat of Moses,
[855]"Beware that he do not forget the Lord his God;" that he be not puffed
up, but acknowledge them to be his good gifts and benefits, and [856]"the
more he hath, to be more thankful," (as Agapetianus adviseth) and use them
aright.
_Instrumental Causes of our Infirmities_.] Now the instrumental causes of
these our infirmities, are as diverse as the infirmities themselves; stars,
heavens, elements, &c. And all those creatures which God hath made, are
armed against sinners. They were indeed once good in themselves, and that
they are now many of them pernicious unto us, is not in their nature, but
our corruption, which hath caused it. For from the fall of our first parent
Adam, they have been changed, the earth accursed, the influence of stars,
altered, the four elements, beasts, birds, plants, are now ready to offend
us. "The principal things for the use of man, are water, fire, iron, salt,
meal, wheat, honey, milk, oil, wine, clothing, good to the godly, to the
sinners turned to evil," Ecclus. xxxix. 26. "Fire, and hail, and famine,
and dearth, all these are created for vengeance," Ecclus. xxxix. 29. The
heavens threaten us with their comets, stars, planets, with their great
conjunctions, eclipses, oppositions, quartiles, and such unfriendly
aspects. The air with his meteors, thunder and lightning, intemperate heat
and cold, mighty winds, tempests, unseasonable weather; from which proceed
dearth, famine, plague, and all sorts of epidemical diseases, consuming
infinite myriads of men. At Cairo in Egypt, every third year, (as it is
related by [857]Boterus, and others) 300,000 die of the plague; and
200,000, in Constantinople, every fifth or seventh at the utmost. How doth
the earth terrify and oppress us with terrible earthquakes, which are most
frequent in [858]China, Japan, and those eastern climes, swallowing up
sometimes six cities at once? How doth the water rage with his inundations,
irruptions, flinging down towns, cities, villages, bridges, &c. besides
shipwrecks; whole islands are sometimes suddenly overwhelmed with all their
inhabitants in [859]Zealand, Holland, and many parts of the continent
drowned, as the [860]lake Erne in Ireland? [861]_Nihilque praeter arcium
cadavera patenti cernimus freto._ In the fens of Friesland 1230, by reason
of tempests, [862]the sea drowned _multa hominum millia, et jumenta sine
numero_, all the country almost, men and cattle in it. How doth the fire
rage, that merciless element, consuming in an instant whole cities? What
town of any antiquity or note hath not been once, again and again, by the
fury of this merciless element, defaced, ruinated, and left desolate? In a
word,
[863] "Ignis pepercit, unda mergit, aeris
Vis pestilentis aequori ereptum necat,
Bello superstes, tabidus morbo perit."
"Whom fire spares, sea doth drown; whom sea,
Pestilent air doth send to clay;
Whom war 'scapes, sickness takes away."
To descend to more particulars, how many creatures are at deadly feud with
men? Lions, wolves, bears, &c. Some with hoofs, horns, tusks, teeth, nails:
How many noxious serpents and venomous creatures, ready to offend us with
stings, breath, sight, or quite kill us? How many pernicious fishes,
plants, gums, fruits, seeds, flowers, &c. could I reckon up on a sudden,
which by their very smell many of them, touch, taste, cause some grievous
malady, if not death itself? Some make mention of a thousand several
poisons: but these are but trifles in respect. The greatest enemy to man,
is man, who by the devil's instigation is still ready to do mischief, his
own executioner, a wolf, a devil to himself, and others. [864]We are all
brethren in Christ, or at least should be, members of one body, servants of
one lord, and yet no fiend can so torment, insult over, tyrannise, vex, as
one man doth another. Let me not fall therefore (saith David, when wars,
plague, famine were offered) into the hands of men, merciless and wicked
men:
[865] ------"Vix sunt homines hoc nomine digni,
Quamque lupi, saevae plus feritatis habent."
We can most part foresee these epidemical diseases, and likely avoid them;
Dearths, tempests, plagues, our astrologers foretell us; Earthquakes,
inundations, ruins of houses, consuming fires, come by little and little,
or make some noise beforehand; but the knaveries, impostures, injuries and
villainies of men no art can avoid. We can keep our professed enemies from
our cities, by gates, walls and towers, defend ourselves from thieves and
robbers by watchfulness and weapons; but this malice of men, and their
pernicious endeavours, no caution can divert, no vigilancy foresee, we have
so many secret plots and devices to mischief one another.
Sometimes by the devil's help as magicians, [866]witches: sometimes by
impostures, mixtures, poisons, stratagems, single combats, wars, we hack
and hew, as if we were _ad internecionem nati_, like Cadmus' soldiers born
to consume one another. 'Tis an ordinary thing to read of a hundred and two
hundred thousand men slain in a battle. Besides all manner of tortures,
brazen bulls, racks, wheels, strappadoes, guns, engines, &c. [867]_Ad unum
corpus humanum supplicia plura, quam membra_: We have invented more
torturing instruments, than there be several members in a man's body, as
Cyprian well observes. To come nearer yet, our own parents by their
offences, indiscretion and intemperance, are our mortal enemies. [868]"The
fathers have eaten sour grapes, and the children's teeth are set on edge."
They cause our grief many times, and put upon us hereditary diseases,
inevitable infirmities: they torment us, and we are ready to injure our
posterity;
[869] ------"mox daturi progeniem vitiosiorem."
"And yet with crimes to us unknown,
Our sons shall mark the coming age their own;"
and the latter end of the world, as [870]Paul foretold, is still like to be
the worst. We are thus bad by nature, bad by kind, but far worse by art,
every man the greatest enemy unto himself. We study many times to undo
ourselves, abusing those good gifts which God hath bestowed upon us,
health, wealth, strength, wit, learning, art, memory to our own
destruction, [871]_Perditio tua ex te_. As [872]Judas Maccabeus killed
Apollonius with his own weapons, we arm ourselves to our own overthrows;
and use reason, art, judgment, all that should help us, as so many
instruments to undo us. Hector gave Ajax a sword, which so long as he
fought against enemies, served for his help and defence; but after he began
to hurt harmless creatures with it, turned to his own hurtless bowels.
Those excellent means God hath bestowed on us, well employed, cannot but
much avail us; but if otherwise perverted, they ruin and confound us: and
so by reason of our indiscretion and weakness they commonly do, we have too
many instances. This St. Austin acknowledgeth of himself in his humble
confessions, "promptness of wit, memory, eloquence, they were God's good
gifts, but he did not use them to his glory." If you will particularly know
how, and by what means, consult physicians, and they will tell you, that it
is in offending in some of those six non-natural things, of which I shall
[873]dilate more at large; they are the causes of our infirmities, our
surfeiting, and drunkenness, our immoderate insatiable lust, and prodigious
riot. _Plures crapula, quam gladius_, is a true saying, the board consumes
more than the sword. Our intemperance it is, that pulls so many several
incurable diseases upon our heads, that hastens [874]old age, perverts our
temperature, and brings upon us sudden death. And last of all, that which
crucifies us most, is our own folly, madness (_quos Jupiter perdit,
dementat_; by subtraction of his assisting grace God permits it) weakness,
want of government, our facility and proneness in yielding to several
lusts, in giving way to every passion and perturbation of the mind: by
which means we metamorphose ourselves and degenerate into beasts. All which
that prince of [875]poets observed of Agamemnon, that when he was well
pleased, and could moderate his passion, he was--_os oculosque Jovi par_:
like Jupiter in feature, Mars in valour, Pallas in wisdom, another god; but
when he became angry, he was a lion, a tiger, a dog, &c., there appeared no
sign or likeness of Jupiter in him; so we, as long as we are ruled by
reason, correct our inordinate appetite, and conform ourselves to God's
word, are as so many saints: but if we give reins to lust, anger, ambition,
pride, and follow our own ways, we degenerate into beasts, transform
ourselves, overthrow our constitutions, [876]provoke God to anger, and heap
upon us this of melancholy, and all kinds of incurable diseases, as a just
and deserved punishment of our sins.
SUBSECT. II.--_The Definition, Number, Division of Diseases_.
What a disease is, almost every physician defines. [877]Fernelius calleth
it an "affection of the body contrary to nature." [878]Fuschius and Crato,
"an hindrance, hurt, or alteration of any action of the body, or part of
it." [879]Tholosanus, "a dissolution of that league which is between body
and soul, and a perturbation of it; as health the perfection, and makes to
the preservation of it." [880]Labeo in Agellius, "an ill habit of the body,
opposite to nature, hindering the use of it." Others otherwise, all to this
effect.
_Number of Diseases_.] How many diseases there are, is a question not yet
determined; [881]Pliny reckons up 300 from the crown of the head to the
sole of the foot: elsewhere he saith, _morborum infinita multitudo_, their
number is infinite. Howsoever it was in those times, it boots not; in our
days I am sure the number is much augmented:
[882] ------"macies, et nova febrium
Terris incubit cohors."
For besides many epidemical diseases unheard of, and altogether unknown to
Galen and Hippocrates, as scorbutum, small-pox, plica, sweating sickness,
morbus Gallicus, &c., we have many proper and peculiar almost to every
part.
_No man free from some Disease or other_.] No man amongst us so sound, of
so good a constitution, that hath not some impediment of body or mind.
_Quisque suos patimur manes_, we have all our infirmities, first or last,
more or less. There will be peradventure in an age, or one of a thousand,
like Zenophilus the musician in [883]Pliny, that may happily live 105 years
without any manner of impediment; a Pollio Romulus, that can preserve
himself [884]"with wine and oil;" a man as fortunate as Q. Metellus, of
whom Valerius so much brags; a man as healthy as Otto Herwardus, a senator
of Augsburg in Germany, whom [885]Leovitius the astrologer brings in for an
example and instance of certainty in his art; who because he had the
significators in his geniture fortunate, and free from the hostile aspects
of Saturn and Mars, being a very cold man, [886]"could not remember that
ever he was sick." [887]Paracelsus may brag that he could make a man live
400 years or more, if he might bring him up from his infancy, and diet him
as he list; and some physicians hold, that there is no certain period of
man's life; but it may still by temperance and physic be prolonged. We find
in the meantime, by common experience, that no man can escape, but that of
[888]Hesiod is true:
"[Greek: pleiae men gar gaia kakon, pleiae de thalassa,
nousoid' anthropoi ein eph' haemerae, aed' epi nukti
Hautomatoi phoitosi.]"------
"Th' earth's full of maladies, and full the sea,
Which set upon us both by night and day."
_Division of Diseases_.] If you require a more exact division of these
ordinary diseases which are incident to men, I refer you to physicians;
[889]they will tell you of acute and chronic, first and secondary, lethals,
salutares, errant, fixed, simple, compound, connexed, or consequent,
belonging to parts or the whole, in habit, or in disposition, &c. My
division at this time (as most befitting my purpose) shall be into those of
the body and mind. For them of the body, a brief catalogue of which
Fuschius hath made, _Institut. lib. 3, sect. 1, cap. 11._ I refer you to
the voluminous tomes of Galen, Areteus, Rhasis, Avicenna, Alexander, Paulus
Aetius, Gordonerius: and those exact Neoterics, Savanarola, Capivaccius,
Donatus Altomarus, Hercules de Saxonia, Mercurialis, Victorius Faventinus,
Wecker, Piso, &c., that have methodically and elaborately written of them
all. Those of the mind and head I will briefly handle, and apart.
SUBSECT. III.--_Division of the Diseases of the Head_.
These diseases of the mind, forasmuch as they have their chief seat and
organs in the head, which are commonly repeated amongst the diseases of the
head which are divers, and vary much according to their site. For in the
head, as there be several parts, so there be divers grievances, which
according to that division of [890]Heurnius, (which he takes out of
Arculanus,) are inward or outward (to omit all others which pertain to eyes
and ears, nostrils, gums, teeth, mouth, palate, tongue, weezle, chops,
face, &c.) belonging properly to the brain, as baldness, falling of hair,
furfur, lice, &c. [891]Inward belonging to the skins next to the brain,
called _dura_ and _pia mater_, as all headaches, &c., or to the ventricles,
caules, kells, tunicles, creeks, and parts of it, and their passions, as
caro, vertigo, incubus, apoplexy, falling sickness. The diseases of the
nerves, cramps, stupor, convulsion, tremor, palsy: or belonging to the
excrements of the brain, catarrhs, sneezing, rheums, distillations: or else
those that pertain to the substance of the brain itself, in which are
conceived frenzy, lethargy, melancholy, madness, weak memory, sopor, or
_Coma Vigilia et vigil Coma_. Out of these again I will single such as
properly belong to the phantasy, or imagination, or reason itself, which
[892]Laurentius calls the disease of the mind; and Hildesheim, _morbos
imaginationis, aut rationis laesae_, (diseases of the imagination, or of
injured reason,) which are three or four in number, frenzy, madness,
melancholy, dotage, and their kinds: as hydrophobia, lycanthropia, _Chorus
sancti viti, morbi daemoniaci_, (St. Vitus's dance, possession of devils,)
which I will briefly touch and point at, insisting especially in this of
melancholy, as more eminent than the rest, and that through all his kinds,
causes, symptoms, prognostics, cures: as Lonicerus hath done _de
apoplexia_, and many other of such particular diseases. Not that I find
fault with those which have written of this subject before, as Jason
Pratensis, Laurentius, Montaltus, T. Bright, &c., they have done very well
in their several kinds and methods; yet that which one omits, another may
haply see; that which one contracts, another may enlarge. To conclude with
[893]Scribanius, "that which they had neglected, or perfunctorily handled,
we may more thoroughly examine; that which is obscurely delivered in them,
may be perspicuously dilated and amplified by us:" and so made more
familiar and easy for every man's capacity, and the common good, which is
the chief end of my discourse.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Dotage, Frenzy, Madness, Hydrophobia, Lycanthropia, Chorus
sancti Viti, Extasis_.
_Delirium, Dotage_.] Dotage, fatuity, or folly, is a common name to all the
following species, as some will have it. [894]Laurentius and [895]
Altomarus comprehended madness, melancholy, and the rest under this name,
and call it the _summum genus_ of them all. If it be distinguished from
them, it is natural or ingenite, which comes by some defect of the organs,
and overmuch brain, as we see in our common fools; and is for the most part
intended or remitted in particular men, and thereupon some are wiser than
others: or else it is acquisite, an appendix or symptom of some other
disease, which comes or goes; or if it continue, a sign of melancholy
itself.
_Frenzy_.] _Phrenitis_, which the Greeks derive from the word [Greek:
phraen], is a disease of the mind, with a continual madness or dotage,
which hath an acute fever annexed, or else an inflammation of the brain, or
the membranes or kells of it, with an acute fever, which causeth madness
and dotage. It differs from melancholy and madness, because their dotage is
without an ague: this continual, with waking, or memory decayed, &c.
Melancholy is most part silent, this clamorous; and many such like
differences are assigned by physicians.
_Madness_.] Madness, frenzy, and melancholy are confounded by Celsus, and
many writers; others leave out frenzy, and make madness and melancholy but
one disease, which [896]Jason Pratensis especially labours, and that they
differ only _secundam majus_ or _minus_, in quantity alone, the one being a
degree to the other, and both proceeding from one cause. They differ
_intenso et remisso gradu_, saith [897]Gordonius, as the humour is intended
or remitted. Of the same mind is [898]Areteus, Alexander Tertullianus,
Guianerius, Savanarola, Heurnius; and Galen himself writes promiscuously of
them both by reason of their affinity: but most of our neoterics do handle
them apart, whom I will follow in this treatise. Madness is therefore
defined to be a vehement dotage; or raving without a fever, far more
violent than melancholy, full of anger and clamour, horrible looks,
actions, gestures, troubling the patients with far greater vehemency both
of body and mind, without all fear and sorrow, with such impetuous force
and boldness, that sometimes three or four men cannot hold them. Differing
only in this from frenzy, that it is without a fever, and their memory is
most part better. It hath the same causes as the other, as choler adust,
and blood incensed, brains inflamed, &c. [899]Fracastorius adds, "a due
time, and full age" to this definition, to distinguish it from children,
and will have it confirmed impotency, to separate it from such as
accidentally come and go again, as by taking henbane, nightshade, wine, &c.
Of this fury there be divers kinds; [900]ecstasy, which is familiar with
some persons, as Cardan saith of himself, he could be in one when he list;
in which the Indian priests deliver their oracles, and the witches in
Lapland, as Olaus Magnus writeth, _l. 3, cap. 18._ _Extasi omnia
praedicere_, answer all questions in an ecstasis you will ask; what your
friends do, where they are, how they fare, &c. The other species of this
fury are enthusiasms, revelations, and visions, so often mentioned by
Gregory and Bede in their works; obsession or possession of devils,
sibylline prophets, and poetical furies; such as come by eating noxious
herbs, tarantulas stinging, &c., which some reduce to this. The most known
are these, lycanthropia, hydrophobia, chorus sancti Viti.
_Lycanthropia_.] Lycanthropia, which Avicenna calls _cucubuth_, others
_lupinam insaniam_, or wolf-madness, when men run howling about graves and
fields in the night, and will not be persuaded but that they are wolves, or
some such beasts. [901]Aetius and [902]Paulus call it a kind of melancholy;
but I should rather refer it to madness, as most do. Some make a doubt of
it whether there be any such disease. [903]Donat ab Altomari saith, that he
saw two of them in his time: [904]Wierus tells a story of such a one at
Padua 1541, that would not believe to the contrary, but that he was a wolf.
He hath another instance of a Spaniard, who thought himself a bear;
[905]Forrestus confirms as much by many examples; one amongst the rest of
which he was an eyewitness, at Alcmaer in Holland, a poor husbandman that
still hunted about graves, and kept in churchyards, of a pale, black, ugly,
and fearful look. Such belike, or little better, were king Praetus'
[906]daughters, that thought themselves kine. And Nebuchadnezzar in Daniel,
as some interpreters hold, was only troubled with this kind of madness.
This disease perhaps gave occasion to that bold assertion of [907]Pliny,
"some men were turned into wolves in his time, and from wolves to men
again:" and to that fable of Pausanias, of a man that was ten years a wolf,
and afterwards turned to his former shape: to [908]Ovid's tale of Lycaon,
&c. He that is desirous to hear of this disease, or more examples, let him
read Austin in his 18th book _de Civitate Dei, cap. 5._ Mizaldus, _cent. 5.
77._ Sckenkius, _lib. 1._ Hildesheim, _spicel. 2. de Mania_. Forrestus
_lib. 10. de morbis cerebri._ Olaus Magnus, Vincentius Bellavicensis,
_spec. met. lib. 31. c. 122._ Pierius, Bodine, Zuinger, Zeilger, Peucer,
Wierus, Spranger, &c. This malady, saith Avicenna, troubleth men most in
February, and is nowadays frequent in Bohemia and Hungary, according to
[909]Heurnius. Scheretzius will have it common in Livonia. They lie hid
most part all day, and go abroad in the night, barking, howling, at graves
and deserts; [910]"they have usually hollow eyes, scabbed legs and thighs,
very dry and pale," [911]saith Altomarus; he gives a reason there of all
the symptoms, and sets down a brief cure of them.
_Hydrophobia_ is a kind of madness, well known in every village, which
comes by the biting of a mad dog, or scratching, saith [912]Aurelianus;
touching, or smelling alone sometimes as [913]Sckenkius proves, and is
incident to many other creatures as well as men: so called because the
parties affected cannot endure the sight of water, or any liquor, supposing
still they see a mad dog in it. And which is more wonderful; though they be
very dry, (as in this malady they are) they will rather die than drink:
[914]de Venenis Caelius Aurelianus, an ancient writer, makes a doubt
whether this Hydrophobia be a passion of the body or the mind. The part
affected is the brain: the cause, poison that comes from the mad dog, which
is so hot and dry, that it consumes all the moisture in the body. [915]
Hildesheim relates of some that died so mad; and being cut up, had no
water, scarce blood, or any moisture left in them. To such as are so
affected, the fear of water begins at fourteen days after they are bitten,
to some again not till forty or sixty days after: commonly saith Heurnius,
they begin to rave, fly water and glasses, to look red, and swell in the
face, about twenty days after (if some remedy be not taken in the meantime)
to lie awake, to be pensive, sad, to see strange visions, to bark and howl,
to fall into a swoon, and oftentimes fits of the falling sickness. [916]
Some say, little things like whelps will be seen in their urine. If any of
these signs appear, they are past recovery. Many times these symptoms will
not appear till six or seven months after, saith [917]Codronchus; and
sometimes not till seven or eight years, as Guianerius; twelve as Albertus;
six or eight months after, as Galen holds. Baldus the great lawyer died of
it: an Augustine friar, and a woman in Delft, that were [918]Forrestus'
patients, were miserably consumed with it. The common cure in the country
(for such at least as dwell near the seaside) is to duck them over head and
ears in sea water; some use charms: every good wife can prescribe
medicines. But the best cure to be had in such cases, is from the most
approved physicians; they that will read of them, may consult with
Dioscorides, _lib. 6. c. 37_, Heurnius, Hildesheim, Capivaccius, Forrestus,
Sckenkius and before all others Codronchus an Italian, who hath lately
written two exquisite books on the subject.
_Chorus sancti Viti_, or St. Vitus's dance; the lascivious dance, [919]
Paracelsus calls it, because they that are taken from it, can do nothing
but dance till they be dead, or cured. It is so called, for that the
parties so troubled were wont to go to St. Vitus for help, and after they
had danced there awhile, they were [920]certainly freed. 'Tis strange to
hear how long they will dance, and in what manner, over stools, forms,
tables; even great bellied women sometimes (and yet never hurt their
children) will dance so long that they can stir neither hand nor foot, but
seem to be quite dead. One in red clothes they cannot abide. Music above
all things they love, and therefore magistrates in Germany will hire
musicians to play to them, and some lusty sturdy companions to dance with
them. This disease hath been very common in Germany, as appears by those
relations of [921]Sckenkius, and Paracelsus in his book of Madness, who
brags how many several persons he hath cured of it. Felix Plateras _de
mentis alienat. cap. 3_, reports of a woman in Basil whom he saw, that
danced a whole month together. The Arabians call it a kind of palsy. Bodine
in his 5th book _de Repub. cap. 1_, speaks of this infirmity; Monavius in
his last epistle to Scoltizius, and in another to Dudithus, where you may
read more of it.
The last kind of madness or melancholy, is that demoniacal (if I may so
call it) obsession or possession of devils, which Platerus and others would
have to be preternatural: stupend things are said of them, their actions,
gestures, contortions, fasting, prophesying, speaking languages they were
never taught, &c. Many strange stories are related of them, which because
some will not allow, (for Deacon and Darrel have written large volumes on
this subject pro and con.) I voluntarily omit.
[922]Fuschius, _Institut. lib. 3. sec. 1. cap. 11_, Felix Plater,
[923]Laurentius, add to these another fury that proceeds from love, and
another from study, another divine or religious fury; but these more
properly belong to melancholy; of all which I will speak [924]apart,
intending to write a whole book of them.
SUBSECT. V.--_Melancholy in Disposition, improperly so called,
Equivocations_.
Melancholy, the subject of our present discourse, is either in disposition
or habit. In disposition, is that transitory melancholy which goes and
comes upon every small occasion of sorrow, need, sickness, trouble, fear,
grief, passion, or perturbation of the mind, any manner of care,
discontent, or thought, which causeth anguish, dullness, heaviness and
vexation of spirit, any ways opposite to pleasure, mirth, joy, delight,
causing frowardness in us, or a dislike. In which equivocal and improper
sense, we call him melancholy that is dull, sad, sour, lumpish, ill
disposed, solitary, any way moved, or displeased. And from these melancholy
dispositions, [925]no man living is free, no stoic, none so wise, none so
happy, none so patient, so generous, so godly, so divine, that can
vindicate himself; so well composed, but more or less, some time or other
he feels the smart of it. Melancholy in this sense is the character of
mortality. [926]"Man that is born of a woman, is of short continuance, and
full of trouble." Zeno, Cato, Socrates himself, whom [927]Aelian so highly
commends for a moderate temper, that "nothing could disturb him, but going
out, and coming in, still Socrates kept the same serenity of countenance,
what misery soever befell him," (if we may believe Plato his disciple) was
much tormented with it. Q. Metellus, in whom [928]Valerius gives instance
of all happiness, "the most fortunate man then living, born in that most
flourishing city of Rome, of noble parentage, a proper man of person, well
qualified, healthful, rich, honourable, a senator, a consul, happy in his
wife, happy in his children," &c. yet this man was not void of melancholy,
he had his share of sorrow. [929]Polycrates Samius, that flung his ring
into the sea, because he would participate of discontent with others, and
had it miraculously restored to him again shortly after, by a fish taken as
he angled, was not free from melancholy dispositions. No man can cure
himself; the very gods had bitter pangs, and frequent passions, as their
own [930]poets put upon them. In general, [931]"as the heaven, so is our
life, sometimes fair, sometimes overcast, tempestuous, and serene; as in a
rose, flowers and prickles; in the year itself, a temperate summer
sometimes, a hard winter, a drought, and then again pleasant showers: so is
our life intermixed with joys, hopes, fears, sorrows, calumnies: _Invicem
cedunt dolor et voluptas_," there is a succession of pleasure and pain.
[932] ------"medio de fonte leporum
Surgit amari aliquid, in ipsis floribus angat."
"Even in the midst of laughing there is sorrow," (as [933]Solomon holds):
even in the midst of all our feasting and jollity, as [934]Austin infers in
his _Com. on the 41st Psalm_, there is grief and discontent. _Inter
delicias semper aliquid saevi nos strangulat_, for a pint of honey thou
shalt here likely find a gallon of gall, for a dram of pleasure a pound of
pain, for an inch of mirth an ell of moan; as ivy doth an oak, these
miseries encompass our life. And it is most absurd and ridiculous for any
mortal man to look for a perpetual tenure of happiness in his life. Nothing
so prosperous and pleasant, but it hath [935]some bitterness in it, some
complaining, some grudging; it is all [Greek: glukupikron], a mixed
passion, and like a chequer table black and white: men, families, cities,
have their falls and wanes; now trines, sextiles, then quartiles and
oppositions. We are not here as those angels, celestial powers and bodies,
sun and moon, to finish our course without all offence, with such
constancy, to continue for so many ages: but subject to infirmities,
miseries, interrupted, tossed and tumbled up and down, carried about with
every small blast, often molested and disquieted upon each slender
occasion, [936]uncertain, brittle, and so is all that we trust unto. [937]
"And he that knows not this is not armed to endure it, is not fit to live
in this world (as one condoles our time), he knows not the condition of it,
where with a reciprocalty, pleasure and pain are still united, and succeed
one another in a ring." _Exi e mundo_, get thee gone hence if thou canst
not brook it; there is no way to avoid it, but to arm thyself with
patience, with magnanimity, to [938]oppose thyself unto it, to suffer
affliction as a good soldier of Christ; as [939]Paul adviseth constantly to
bear it. But forasmuch as so few can embrace this good council of his, or
use it aright, but rather as so many brute beasts give away to their
passion, voluntary subject and precipitate themselves into a labyrinth of
cares, woes, miseries, and suffer their souls to be overcome by them,
cannot arm themselves with that patience as they ought to do, it falleth
out oftentimes that these dispositions become habits, and "many affects
contemned" (as [940]Seneca notes) "make a disease. Even as one
distillation, not yet grown to custom, makes a cough; but continual and
inveterate causeth a consumption of the lungs;" so do these our melancholy
provocations: and according as the humour itself is intended, or remitted
in men, as their temperature of body, or rational soul is better able to
make resistance; so are they more or less affected. For that which is but a
flea-biting to one, causeth insufferable torment to another; and which one
by his singular moderation, and well-composed carriage can happily
overcome, a second is no whit able to sustain, but upon every small
occasion of misconceived abuse, injury, grief, disgrace, loss, cross,
humour, &c. (if solitary, or idle) yields so far to passion, that his
complexion is altered, his digestion hindered, his sleep gone, his spirits
obscured, and his heart heavy, his hypochondries misaffected; wind,
crudity, on a sudden overtake him, and he himself overcome with melancholy.
As it is with a man imprisoned for debt, if once in the gaol, every
creditor will bring his action against him, and there likely hold him. If
any discontent seize upon a patient, in an instant all other perturbations
(for--_qua data porta ruunt_) will set upon him, and then like a lame dog
or broken-winged goose he droops and pines away, and is brought at last to
that ill habit or malady of melancholy itself. So that as the philosophers
make [941]eight degrees of heat and cold, we may make eighty-eight of
melancholy, as the parts affected are diversely seized with it, or have
been plunged more or less into this infernal gulf, or waded deeper into it.
But all these melancholy fits, howsoever pleasing at first, or displeasing,
violent and tyrannizing over those whom they seize on for the time; yet
these fits I say, or men affected, are but improperly so called, because
they continue not, but come and go, as by some objects they aye moved. This
melancholy of which we are to treat, is a habit, _mosbus sonticus_, or
_chronicus_, a chronic or continuate disease, a settled humour, as [942]
Aurelianus and [943]others call it, not errant, but fixed; and as it was
long increasing, so now being (pleasant, or painful) grown to an habit, it
will hardly be removed.
SECT. I. MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.--_Digression of Anatomy_.
Before I proceed to define the disease of melancholy, what it is, or to
discourse farther of it, I hold it not impertinent to make a brief
digression of the anatomy of the body and faculties of the soul, for the
better understanding of that which is to follow; because many hard words
will often occur, as mirach, hypocondries, emerods, &c., imagination,
reason, humours, spirits, vital, natural, animal, nerves, veins, arteries,
chylus, pituita; which by the vulgar will not so easily be perceived, what
they are, how cited, and to what end they serve. And besides, it may
peradventure give occasion to some men to examine more accurately, search
further into this most excellent subject, and thereupon with that royal
[944]prophet to praise God, ("for a man is fearfully and wonderfully made,
and curiously wrought") that have time and leisure enough, and are
sufficiently informed in all other worldly businesses, as to make a good
bargain, buy and sell, to keep and make choice of a fair hawk, hound,
horse, &c. But for such matters as concern the knowledge of themselves,
they are wholly ignorant and careless; they know not what this body and
soul are, how combined, of what parts and faculties they consist, or how a
man differs from a dog. And what can be more ignominious and filthy (as
[945]Melancthon well inveighs) "than for a man not to know the structure
and composition of his own body, especially since the knowledge of it tends
so much to the preservation, of his health, and information of his
manners?" To stir them up therefore to this study, to peruse those
elaborate works of [946]Galen, Bauhines, Plater, Vesalius, Falopius,
Laurentius, Remelinus, &c., which have written copiously in Latin; or that
which some of our industrious countrymen have done in our mother tongue,
not long since, as that translation of [947]Columbus and [948]
Microcosmographia, in thirteen books, I have made this brief digression.
Also because [949]Wecker, [950]Melancthon, [951]Fernelius, [952] Fuschius,
and those tedious Tracts _de Anima_ (which have more compendiously handled
and written of this matter,) are not at all times ready to be had, to give
them some small taste, or notice of the rest, let this epitome suffice.
SUBSECT. II.--_Division of the Body, Humours, Spirits_.
Of the parts of the body there may be many divisions: the most approved is
that of [953]Laurentius, out of Hippocrates: which is, into parts
contained, or containing. Contained, are either humours or spirits.
_Humours_.] A humour is a liquid or fluent part of the body, comprehended
in it, for the preservation of it; and is either innate or born with us, or
adventitious and acquisite. The radical or innate, is daily supplied by
nourishment, which some call cambium, and make those secondary humours of
ros and gluten to maintain it: or acquisite, to maintain these four first
primary humours, coming and proceeding from the first concoction in the
liver, by which means chylus is excluded. Some divide them into profitable
and excrementitious. But [954]Crato out of Hippocrates will have all four
to be juice, and not excrements, without which no living creature can be
sustained: which four, though they be comprehended in the mass of blood,
yet they have their several affections, by which they are distinguished
from one another, and from those adventitious, peccant, or [955]diseased
humours, as Melancthon calls them.
_Blood_.] Blood is a hot, sweet, temperate, red humour, prepared in the
mesaraic veins, and made of the most temperate parts of the chylus in the
liver, whose office is to nourish the whole body, to give it strength and
colour, being dispersed by the veins through every part of it. And from it
spirits are first begotten in the heart, which afterwards by the arteries
are communicated to the other parts.
Pituita, or phlegm, is a cold and moist humour, begotten of the colder part
of the chylus (or white juice coming out of the meat digested in the
stomach,) in the liver; his office is to nourish and moisten the members of
the body, which as the tongue are moved, that they be not over dry.
Choler, is hot and dry, bitter, begotten of the hotter parts of the chylus,
and gathered to the gall: it helps the natural heat and senses, and serves
to the expelling of excrements.
_Melancholy_.] Melancholy, cold and dry, thick, black, and sour, begotten
of the more feculent part of nourishment, and purged from the spleen, is a
bridle to the other two hot humours, blood and choler, preserving them in
the blood, and nourishing the bones. These four humours have some analogy
with the four elements, and to the four ages in man.
_Serum, Sweat, Tears_.] To these humours you may add serum, which is the
matter of urine, and those excrementitious humours of the third concoction,
sweat and tears.
_Spirits_.] Spirit is a most subtle vapour, which is expressed from the
blood, and the instrument of the soul, to perform all his actions; a common
tie or medium between the body and the soul, as some will have it; or as
[956]Paracelsus, a fourth soul of itself. Melancthon holds the fountain of
those spirits to be the heart, begotten there; and afterward conveyed to
the brain, they take another nature to them. Of these spirits there be
three kinds, according to the three principal parts, brain, heart, liver;
natural, vital, animal. The natural are begotten in the liver, and thence
dispersed through the veins, to perform those natural actions. The vital
spirits are made in the heart of the natural, which by the arteries are
transported to all the other parts: if the spirits cease, then life
ceaseth, as in a syncope or swooning. The animal spirits formed of the
vital, brought up to the brain, and diffused by the nerves, to the
subordinate members, give sense and motion to them all.
SUBSECT. III.--_Similar Parts_.
_Similar Parts_] Containing parts, by reason of their more solid substance,
are either homogeneal or heterogeneal, similar or dissimilar; so Aristotle
divides them, _lib. 1, cap. 1, de Hist. Animal._; Laurentius, _cap. 20,
lib. 1._ Similar, or homogeneal, are such as, if they be divided, are still
severed into parts of the same nature, as water into water. Of these some
be spermatical, some fleshy or carnal. [957]Spermatical are such as are
immediately begotten of the seed, which are bones, gristles, ligaments,
membranes, nerves, arteries, veins, skins, fibres or strings, fat.
_Bones_.] The bones are dry and hard, begotten of the thickest of the seed,
to strengthen and sustain other parts: some say there be 304, some 307, or
313 in man's body. They have no nerves in them, and are therefore without
sense.
A gristle is a substance softer than bone, and harder than the rest,
flexible, and serves to maintain the parts of motion.
Ligaments are they that tie the bones together, and other parts to the
bones, with their subserving tendons: membranes' office is to cover the
rest.
Nerves, or sinews, are membranes without, and full of marrow within; they
proceed from the brain, and carry the animal spirits for sense and motion.
Of these some be harder, some softer; the softer serve the senses, and
there be seven pair of them. The first be the optic nerves, by which we
see; the second move the eyes; the third pair serve for the tongue to
taste; the fourth pair for the taste in the palate; the fifth belong to the
ears; the sixth pair is most ample, and runs almost over all the bowels;
the seventh pair moves the tongue. The harder sinews serve for the motion
of the inner parts, proceeding from the marrow in the back, of whom there
be thirty combinations, seven of the neck, twelve of the breast, &c.
_Arteries_.] Arteries are long and hollow, with a double skin to convey the
vital spirit; to discern which the better, they say that Vesalius the
anatomist was wont to cut up men alive. [958]They arise in the left side of
the heart, and are principally two, from which the rest are derived, aorta
and venosa: aorta is the root of all the other, which serve the whole body;
the other goes to the lungs, to fetch air to refrigerate the heart.
_Veins_.] Veins are hollow and round, like pipes, arising from the liver,
carrying blood and natural spirits; they feed all the parts. Of these there
be two chief, _Vena porta_ and _Vena cava_, from which the rest are
corrivated. That _Vena porta_ is a vein coming from the concave of the
liver, and receiving those mesaraical veins, by whom he takes the chylus
from the stomach and guts, and conveys it to the liver. The other derives
blood from the liver to nourish all the other dispersed members. The
branches of that _Vena porta_ are the mesaraical and haemorrhoids. The
branches of the _cava_ are inward or outward. Inward, seminal or emulgent.
Outward, in the head, arms, feet, &c., and have several names.
_Fibrae, Fat, Flesh_.] Fibrae are strings, white and solid, dispersed
through the whole member, and right, oblique, transverse, all which have
their several uses. Fat is a similar part, moist, without blood, composed
of the most thick and unctuous matter of the blood. The [959]skin covers
the rest, and hath _cuticulum_, or a little skin tinder it. Flesh is soft
and ruddy, composed of the congealing of blood, &c.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Dissimilar Parts_.
Dissimilar parts are those which we call organical, or instrumental, and
they be inward or outward. The chiefest outward parts are situate forward
or backward:--forward, the crown and foretop of the head, skull, face,
forehead, temples, chin, eyes, ears, nose, &c., neck, breast, chest, upper
and lower part of the belly, hypocondries, navel, groin, flank, &c.;
backward, the hinder part of the head, back, shoulders, sides, loins,
hipbones, _os sacrum_, buttocks, &c. Or joints, arms, hands, feet, legs,
thighs, knees, &c. Or common to both, which, because they are obvious and
well known, I have carelessly repeated, _eaque praecipua et grandiora
tantum; quod reliquum ex libris de anima qui volet, accipiat_.
Inward organical parts, which cannot be seen, are divers in number, and
have several names, functions, and divisions; but that of [960]Laurentius
is most notable, into noble or ignoble parts. Of the noble there be three
principal parts, to which all the rest belong, and whom they serve--brain,
heart, liver; according to whose site, three regions, or a threefold
division, is made of the whole body. As first of the head, in which the
animal organs are contained, and brain itself, which by his nerves give
sense and motion to the rest, and is, as it were, a privy counsellor and
chancellor to the heart. The second region is the chest, or middle belly,
in which the heart as king keeps his court, and by his arteries
communicates life to the whole body. The third region is the lower belly,
in which the liver resides as a _Legat a latere_, with the rest of those
natural organs, serving for concoction, nourishment, expelling of
excrements. This lower region is distinguished from the upper by the
midriff, or diaphragma, and is subdivided again by [961]some into three
concavities or regions, upper, middle, and lower. The upper of the
hypocondries, in whose right side is the liver, the left the spleen; from
which is denominated hypochondriacal melancholy. The second of the navel
and flanks, divided from the first by the rim. The last of the water
course, which is again subdivided into three other parts. The Arabians make
two parts of this region, _Epigastrium_ and _Hypogastrium_, upper or lower.
_Epigastrium_ they call _Mirach_, from whence comes _Mirachialis
Melancholia_, sometimes mentioned of them. Of these several regions I will
treat in brief apart; and first of the third region, in which the natural
organs are contained.
_De Anima.--The Lower Region, Natural Organs_.] But you that are readers in
the meantime, "Suppose you were now brought into some sacred temple, or
majestical palace" (as [962]Melancthon saith), "to behold not the matter
only, but the singular art, workmanship, and counsel of this our great
Creator. And it is a pleasant and profitable speculation, if it be
considered aright." The parts of this region, which present themselves to
your consideration and view, are such as serve to nutrition or generation.
Those of nutrition serve to the first or second concoction; as the
oesophagus or gullet, which brings meat and drink into the stomach. The
ventricle or stomach, which is seated in the midst of that part of the
belly beneath the midriff, the kitchen, as it were, of the first
concoction, and which turns our meat into chylus. It hath two mouths, one
above, another beneath. The upper is sometimes taken for the stomach
itself; the lower and nether door (as Wecker calls it) is named Pylorus.
This stomach is sustained by a large kell or caul, called omentum; which
some will have the same with peritoneum, or rim of the belly. From the
stomach to the very fundament are produced the guts, or intestina, which
serve a little to alter and distribute the chylus, and convey away the
excrements. They are divided into small and great, by reason of their site
and substance, slender or thicker: the slender is duodenum, or whole gut,
which is next to the stomach, some twelve inches long, saith [963]
Fuschius. Jejunum, or empty gut, continuate to the other, which hath many
mesaraic veins annexed to it, which take part of the chylus to the liver
from it. Ilion the third, which consists of many crinkles, which serves
with the rest to receive, keep, and distribute the chylus from the stomach.
The thick guts are three, the blind gut, colon, and right gut. The blind is
a thick and short gut, having one mouth, in which the ilium and colon meet:
it receives the excrements, and conveys them to the colon. This colon hath
many windings, that the excrements pass not away too fast: the right gut is
straight, and conveys the excrements to the fundament, whose lower part is
bound up with certain muscles called sphincters, that the excrements may be
the better contained, until such time as a man be willing to go to the
stool. In the midst of these guts is situated the mesenterium or midriff,
composed of many veins, arteries, and much fat, serving chiefly to sustain
the guts. All these parts serve the first concoction. To the second, which
is busied either in refining the good nourishment or expelling the bad, is
chiefly belonging the liver, like in colour to congealed blood, the shop of
blood, situate in the right hypochondry, in figure like to a half-moon,
_generosum membrum_ Melancthon styles it, a generous part; it serves to
turn the chylus to blood, for the nourishment of the body. The excrements
of it are either choleric or watery, which the other subordinate parts
convey. The gall placed in the concave of the liver, extracts choler to it:
the spleen, melancholy; which is situate on the left side, over against the
liver, a spongy matter, that draws this black choler to it by a secret
virtue, and feeds upon it, conveying the rest to the bottom of the stomach,
to stir up appetite, or else to the guts as an excrement. That watery
matter the two kidneys expurgate by those emulgent veins and ureters. The
emulgent draw this superfluous moisture from the blood; the two ureters
convey it to the bladder, which, by reason of his site in the lower belly,
is apt to receive it, having two parts, neck and bottom: the bottom holds
the water, the neck is constringed with a muscle, which, as a porter, keeps
the water from running out against our will.
Members of generation are common to both sexes, or peculiar to one; which,
because they are impertinent to my purpose, I do voluntarily omit.
_Middle Region_.] Next in order is the middle region, or chest, which
comprehends the vital faculties and parts; which (as I have said) is
separated from the lower belly by the diaphragma or midriff, which is a
skin consisting of many nerves, membranes; and amongst other uses it hath,
is the instrument of laughing. There is also a certain thin membrane, full
of sinews, which covereth the whole chest within, and is called pleura, the
seat of the disease called pleurisy, when it is inflamed; some add a third
skin, which is termed mediastinus, which divides the chest into two parts,
right and left; of this region the principal part is the heart, which is
the seat and fountain of life, of heat, of spirits, of pulse and
respiration--the sun of our body, the king and sole commander of it--the
seat and organ of all passions and affections. _Primum vivens, ultimum
moriens_, it lives first, dies last in all creatures. Of a pyramidical
form, and not much unlike to a pineapple; a part worthy of [964]
admiration, that can yield such variety of affections, by whose motion it
is dilated or contracted, to stir and command the humours in the body. As
in sorrow, melancholy; in anger, choler; in joy, to send the blood
outwardly; in sorrow, to call it in; moving the humours, as horses do a
chariot. This heart, though it be one sole member, yet it may be divided
into two creeks right and left. The right is like the moon increasing,
bigger than the other part, and receives blood from _vena cava_,
distributing some of it to the lungs to nourish them; the rest to the left
side, to engender spirits. The left creek hath the form of a cone, and is
the seat of life, which, as a torch doth oil, draws blood unto it,
begetting of it spirits and fire; and as fire in a torch, so are spirits in
the blood; and by that great artery called aorta, it sends vital spirits
over the body, and takes air from the lungs by that artery which is called
_venosa_; so that both creeks have their vessels, the right two veins, the
left two arteries, besides those two common anfractuous ears, which serve
them both; the one to hold blood, the other air, for several uses. The
lungs is a thin spongy part, like an ox hoof, (saith [965]Fernelius) the
town-clerk or crier, ([966]one terms it) the instrument of voice, as an
orator to a king; annexed to the heart, to express their thoughts by voice.
That it is the instrument of voice, is manifest, in that no creature can
speak, or utter any voice, which wanteth these lights. It is, besides, the
instrument of respiration, or breathing; and its office is to cool the
heart, by sending air unto it, by the venosal artery, which vein comes to
the lungs by that _aspera arteria_ which consists of many gristles,
membranes, nerves, taking in air at the nose and mouth, and by it likewise
exhales the fumes of the heart.
In the upper region serving the animal faculties, the chief organ is the
brain, which is a soft, marrowish, and white substance, engendered of the
purest part of seed and spirits, included by many skins, and seated within
the skull or brain pan; and it is the most noble organ under heaven, the
dwelling-house and seat of the soul, the habitation of wisdom, memory,
judgment, reason, and in which man is most like unto God; and therefore
nature hath covered it with a skull of hard bone, and two skins or
membranes, whereof the one is called _dura mater_, or meninx, the other
_pia mater_. The dura mater is next to the skull, above the other, which
includes and protects the brain. When this is taken away, the pia mater is
to be seen, a thin membrane, the next and immediate cover of the brain, and
not covering only, but entering into it. The brain itself is divided into
two parts, the fore and hinder part; the fore part is much bigger than the
other, which is called the little brain in respect of it. This fore part
hath many concavities distinguished by certain ventricles, which are the
receptacles of the spirits, brought hither by the arteries from the heart,
and are there refined to a more heavenly nature, to perform the actions of
the soul. Of these ventricles there are three--right, left, and middle. The
right and left answer to their site, and beget animal spirits; if they be
any way hurt, sense and motion ceaseth. These ventricles, moreover, are
held to be the seat of the common sense. The middle ventricle is a common
concourse and cavity of them both, and hath two passages--the one to
receive pituita, and the other extends itself to the fourth creek; in this
they place imagination and cogitation, and so the three ventricles of the
fore part of the brain are used. The fourth creek behind the head is common
to the cerebel or little brain, and marrow of the backbone, the last and
most solid of all the rest, which receives the animal spirits from the
other ventricles, and conveys them to the marrow in the back, and is the
place where they say the memory is seated.
SUBSECT. V.--_Of the Soul and her Faculties_.
According to [967]Aristotle, the soul is defined to be [Greek:
entelecheia], _perfectio et actus primus corporis organici, vitam habentis
in potentia_: the perfection or first act of an organical body, having
power of life, which most [968]philosophers approve. But many doubts arise
about the essence, subject, seat, distinction, and subordinate faculties of
it. For the essence and particular knowledge, of all other things it is
most hard (be it of man or beast) to discern, as [969]Aristotle himself,
[970]Tully, [971]Picus Mirandula, [972]Tolet, and other neoteric
philosophers confess:--[973]"We can understand all things by her, but what
she is we cannot apprehend." Some therefore make one soul, divided into
three principal faculties; others, three distinct souls. Which question of
late hath been much controverted by Picolomineus and Zabarel. [974]
Paracelsus will have four souls, adding to the three grand faculties a
spiritual soul: which opinion of his, Campanella, in his book _de sensu
rerum_ [975]much labours to demonstrate and prove, because carcasses bleed
at the sight of the murderer; with many such arguments And [976]some again,
one soul of all creatures whatsoever, differing only in organs; and that
beasts have reason as well as men, though, for some defect of organs, not
in such measure. Others make a doubt whether it be all in all, and all in
every part; which is amply discussed in Zabarel amongst the rest. The
[977]common division of the soul is into three principal
faculties--vegetal, sensitive, and rational, which make three distinct
kinds of living creatures--vegetal plants, sensible beasts, rational men.
How these three principal faculties are distinguished and connected,
_Humano ingenio inaccessum videtur_, is beyond human capacity, as [978]
Taurellus, Philip, Flavins, and others suppose. The inferior may be alone,
but the superior cannot subsist without the other; so sensible includes
vegetal, rational both; which are contained in it (saith Aristotle) _ut
trigonus in tetragono_ as a triangle in a quadrangle.
_Vegetal Soul_.] Vegetal, the first of the three distinct faculties, is
defined to be "a substantial act of an organical body, by which it is
nourished, augmented, and begets another like unto itself." In which
definition, three several operations are specified--altrix, auctrix,
procreatrix; the first is [979]nutrition, whose object is nourishment,
meat, drink, and the like; his organ the liver in sensible creatures; in
plants, the root or sap. His office is to turn the nutriment into the
substance of the body nourished, which he performs by natural heat. This
nutritive operation hath four other subordinate functions or powers
belonging to it--attraction, retention, digestion, expulsion.
_Attraction_.] [980]Attraction is a ministering faculty, which, as a
loadstone doth iron, draws meat into the stomach, or as a lamp doth oil;
and this attractive power is very necessary in plants, which suck up
moisture by the root, as, another mouth, into the sap, as a like stomach.
_Retention_.] Retention keeps it, being attracted unto the stomach, until
such time it be concocted; for if it should pass away straight, the body
could not be nourished.
_Digestion_.] Digestion is performed by natural heat; for as the flame of a
torch consumes oil, wax, tallow, so doth it alter and digest the nutritive
matter. Indigestion is opposite unto it, for want of natural heat. Of this
digestion there be three differences--maturation, elixation, assation.
_Maturation_.] Maturation is especially observed in the fruits of trees;
which are then said to be ripe, when the seeds are fit to be sown again.
Crudity is opposed to it, which gluttons, epicures, and idle persons are
most subject unto, that use no exercise to stir natural heat, or else choke
it, as too much wood puts out a fire.
_Elixation_.] Elixation is the seething of meat in the stomach, by the said
natural heat, as meat is boiled in a pot; to which corruption or
putrefaction is opposite.
_Assation_.] Assation is a concoction of the inward moisture by heat; his
opposite is semiustulation.
_Order of Concoction fourfold_.] Besides these three several operations of
digestion, there is a fourfold order of concoction:--mastication, or
chewing in the mouth; chilification of this so chewed meat in the stomach;
the third is in the liver, to turn this chylus into blood, called
sanguification; the last is assimilation, which is in every part.
_Expulsion_.] Expulsion is a power of nutrition, by which it expels all
superfluous excrements, and relics of meat and drink, by the guts, bladder,
pores; as by purging, vomiting, spitting, sweating, urine, hairs, nails,
&c.
_Augmentation_.] As this nutritive faculty serves to nourish the body, so
doth the augmenting faculty (the second operation or power of the vegetal
faculty) to the increasing of it in quantity, according to all dimensions,
long, broad, thick, and to make it grow till it come to his due proportion
and perfect shape; which hath his period of augmentation, as of
consumption; and that most certain, as the poet observes:--
"Stat sua cuique dies, breve et irreparabile tempus
Omnibus est vitae."------
"A term of life is set to every man,
Which is but short, and pass it no one can."
_Generation_.] The last of these vegetal faculties is generation, which
begets another by means of seed, like unto itself, to the perpetual
preservation of the species. To this faculty they ascribe three subordinate
operations:--the first to turn nourishment into seed, &c.
_Life and Death concomitants of the Vegetal Faculties_.] Necessary
concomitants or affections of this vegetal faculty are life and his
privation, death. To the preservation of life the natural heat is most
requisite, though siccity and humidity, and those first qualities, be not
excluded. This heat is likewise in plants, as appears by their increasing,
fructifying, &c., though not so easily perceived. In all bodies it must
have radical [981]moisture to preserve it, that it be not consumed; to
which preservation our clime, country, temperature, and the good or bad use
of those six non-natural things avail much. For as this natural heat and
moisture decays, so doth our life itself; and if not prevented before by
some violent accident, or interrupted through our own default, is in the
end dried up by old age, and extinguished by death for want of matter, as a
lamp for defect of oil to maintain it.
SUBSECT. VI.--_Of the sensible Soul_.
Next in order is the sensible faculty, which is as far beyond the other in
dignity, as a beast is preferred to a plant, having those vegetal powers
included in it. 'Tis defined an "Act of an organical body by which it
lives, hath sense, appetite, judgment, breath, and motion." His object in
general is a sensible or passible quality, because the sense is affected
with it. The general organ is the brain, from which principally the
sensible operations are derived. This sensible soul is divided into two
parts, apprehending or moving. By the apprehensive power we perceive the
species of sensible things present, or absent, and retain them as wax doth
the print of a seal. By the moving, the body is outwardly carried from one
place to another; or inwardly moved by spirits and pulse. The apprehensive
faculty is subdivided into two parts, inward or outward. Outward, as the
five senses, of touching, hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting, to which you
may add Scaliger's sixth sense of titillation, if you please; or that of
speech, which is the sixth external sense, according to Lullius. Inward are
three--common sense, phantasy, memory. Those five outward senses have their
object in outward things only, and such as are present, as the eye sees no
colour except it be at hand, the ear sound. Three of these senses are of
commodity, hearing, sight, and smell; two of necessity, touch, and taste,
without which we cannot live. Besides, the sensitive power is active or
passive. Active in sight, the eye sees the colour; passive when it is hurt
by his object, as the eye by the sunbeams. According to that axiom,
_visibile forte destruit sensum_. [982]Or if the object be not pleasing, as
a bad sound to the ear, a stinking smell to the nose, &c.
_Sight_.] Of these five senses, sight is held to be most precious, and the
best, and that by reason of his object, it sees the whole body at once. By
it we learn, and discern all things, a sense most excellent for use: to the
sight three things are required; the object, the organ, and the medium. The
object in general is visible, or that which is to be seen, as colours, and
all shining bodies. The medium is the illumination of the air, which comes
from [983]light, commonly called diaphanum; for in dark we cannot see. The
organ is the eye, and chiefly the apple of it, which by those optic nerves,
concurring both in one, conveys the sight to the common sense. Between the
organ and object a true distance is required, that it be not too near, or
too far off! Many excellent questions appertain to this sense, discussed by
philosophers: as whether this sight be caused _intra mittendo, vel extra
mittendo_, &c., by receiving in the visible species, or sending of them
out, which [984]Plato, [985]Plutarch, [986]Macrobius, [987]Lactantius and
others dispute. And, besides, it is the subject of the perspectives, of
which Alhazen the Arabian, Vitellio, Roger Bacon, Baptista Porta, Guidus
Ubaldus, Aquilonius, &c., have written whole volumes.
_Hearing_.] Hearing, a most excellent outward sense, "by which we learn and
get knowledge." His object is sound, or that which is heard; the medium,
air; organ, the ear. To the sound, which is a collision of the air, three
things are required; a body to strike, as the hand of a musician; the body
struck, which must be solid and able to resist; as a bell, lute-string, not
wool, or sponge; the medium, the air; which is inward, or outward; the
outward being struck or collided by a solid body, still strikes the next
air, until it come to that inward natural air, which as an exquisite organ
is contained in a little skin formed like a drum-head, and struck upon by
certain small instruments like drum-sticks, conveys the sound by a pair of
nerves, appropriated to that use, to the common sense, as to a judge of
sounds. There is great variety and much delight in them; for the knowledge
of which, consult with Boethius and other musicians.
_Smelling_.] Smelling is an "outward sense, which apprehends by the
nostrils drawing in air;" and of all the rest it is the weakest sense in
men. The organ in the nose, or two small hollow pieces of flesh a little
above it: the medium the air to men, as water to fish: the object, smell,
arising from a mixed body resolved, which, whether it be a quality, fume,
vapour, or exhalation, I will not now dispute, or of their differences, and
how they are caused. This sense is an organ of health, as sight and
hearing, saith [988]Agellius, are of discipline; and that by avoiding bad
smells, as by choosing good, which do as much alter and affect the body
many times, as diet itself.
_Taste_.] Taste, a necessary sense, "which perceives all savours by the
tongue and palate, and that by means of a thin spittle, or watery juice."
His organ is the tongue with his tasting nerves; the medium, a watery
juice; the object, taste, or savour, which is a quality in the juice,
arising from the mixture of things tasted. Some make eight species or kinds
of savour, bitter, sweet, sharp, salt, &c., all which sick men (as in an
ague) cannot discern, by reason of their organs misaffected.
_Touching_.] Touch, the last of the senses, and most ignoble, yet of as
great necessity as the other, and of as much pleasure. This sense is
exquisite in men, and by his nerves dispersed all over the body, perceives
any tactile quality. His organ the nerves; his object those first
qualities, hot, dry, moist, cold; and those that follow them, hard, soft,
thick, thin, &c. Many delightsome questions are moved by philosophers about
these five senses; their organs, objects, mediums, which for brevity I
omit.
SUBSECT. VII.--_Of the Inward Senses._
_Common Sense_.] Inner senses are three in number, so called, because they
be within the brainpan, as common sense, phantasy, memory. Their objects
are not only things present, but they perceive the sensible species of
things to come, past, absent, such as were before in the sense. This common
sense is the judge or moderator of the rest, by whom we discern all
differences of objects; for by mine eye I do not know that I see, or by
mine ear that I hear, but by my common sense, who judgeth of sounds and
colours: they are but the organs to bring the species to be censured; so
that all their objects are his, and all their offices are his. The fore
part of the brain is his organ or seat.
_Phantasy_.] Phantasy, or imagination, which some call estimative, or
cogitative, (confirmed, saith [989]Fernelius, by frequent meditation,) is
an inner sense which doth more fully examine the species perceived by
common sense, of things present or absent, and keeps them longer, recalling
them to mind again, or making new of his own. In time of sleep this faculty
is free, and many times conceive strange, stupend, absurd shapes, as in
sick men we commonly observe. His organ is the middle cell of the brain;
his objects all the species communicated to him by the common sense, by
comparison of which he feigns infinite other unto himself. In melancholy
men this faculty is most powerful and strong, and often hurts, producing
many monstrous and prodigious things, especially if it be stirred up by
some terrible object, presented to it from common sense or memory. In poets
and painters imagination forcibly works, as appears by their several
fictions, antics, images: as Ovid's house of sleep, Psyche's palace in
Apuleius, &c. In men it is subject and governed by reason, or at least
should be; but in brutes it hath no superior, and is _ratio brutorum_, all
the reason they have.
_Memory_.] Memory lays up all the species which the senses have brought in,
and records them as a good register, that they may be forthcoming when they
are called for by phantasy and reason. His object is the same with
phantasy, his seat and organ the back part of the brain.
_Affections of the Senses, sleep and waking._] The affections of these
senses are sleep and waking, common to all sensible creatures. "Sleep is a
rest or binding of the outward senses, and of the common sense, for the
preservation of body and soul" (as Scaliger [990]defines it); for when the
common sense resteth, the outward senses rest also. The phantasy alone is
free, and his commander reason: as appears by those imaginary dreams, which
are of divers kinds, natural, divine, demoniacal, &c., which vary according
to humours, diet, actions, objects, &c., of which Artemidorus, Cardanus,
and Sambucus, with their several interpretators, have written great
volumes. This litigation of senses proceeds from an inhibition of spirits,
the way being stopped by which they should come; this stopping is caused of
vapours arising out of the stomach, filling the nerves, by which the
spirits should be conveyed. When these vapours are spent, the passage is
open, and the spirits perform their accustomed duties: so that "waking is
the action and motion of the senses, which the spirits dispersed over all
parts cause."
SUBSECT. VIII.--_Of the Moving Faculty_.
_Appetite_] This moving faculty is the other power of the sensitive soul,
which causeth all those inward and outward animal motions in the body. It
is divided into two faculties, the power of appetite, and of moving from
place to place. This of appetite is threefold, so some will have it;
natural, as it signifies any such inclination, as of a stone to fall
downward, and such actions as retention, expulsion, which depend not on
sense, but are vegetal, as the appetite of meat and drink; hunger and
thirst. Sensitive is common to men and brutes. Voluntary, the third, or
intellective, which commands the other two in men, and is a curb unto them,
or at least should be, but for the most part is captivated and overruled by
them; and men are led like beasts by sense, giving reins to their
concupiscence and several lusts. For by this appetite the soul is led or
inclined to follow that good which the senses shall approve, or avoid that
which they hold evil: his object being good or evil, the one he embraceth,
the other he rejecteth; according to that aphorism, _Omnia appetunt bonum_,
all things seek their own good, or at least seeming good. This power is
inseparable from sense, for where sense is, there are likewise pleasure and
pain. His organ is the same with the common sense, and is divided into two
powers, or inclinations, concupiscible or irascible: or (as one [991]
translates it) coveting, anger invading, or impugning. Concupiscible covets
always pleasant and delightsome things, and abhors that which is
distasteful, harsh, and unpleasant. _Irascible, quasi [992] aversans per
iram et odium_, as avoiding it with anger and indignation. All affections
and perturbations arise out of these two fountains, which, although the
stoics make light of, we hold natural, and not to be resisted. The good
affections are caused by some object of the same nature; and if present,
they procure joy, which dilates the heart, and preserves the body: if
absent, they cause hope, love, desire, and concupiscence. The bad are
simple or mixed: simple for some bad object present, as sorrow, which
contracts the heart, macerates the soul, subverts the good estate of the
body, hindering all the operations of it, causing melancholy, and many
times death itself; or future, as fear. Out of these two arise those mixed
affections and passions of anger, which is a desire of revenge; hatred,
which is inveterate anger; zeal, which is offended with him who hurts that
he loves; and [Greek: epikairekakia], a compound affection of joy and hate,
when we rejoice at other men's mischief, and are grieved at their
prosperity; pride, self-love, emulation, envy, shame, &c., of which
elsewhere.
_Moving from place to place_, is a faculty necessarily following the other.
For in vain were it otherwise to desire and to abhor, if we had not
likewise power to prosecute or eschew, by moving the body from place to
place: by this faculty therefore we locally move the body, or any part of
it, and go from one place to another. To the better performance of which,
three things are requisite: that which moves; by what it moves; that which
is moved. That which moves, is either the efficient cause, or end. The end
is the object, which is desired or eschewed; as in a dog to catch a hare,
&c. The efficient cause in man is reason, or his subordinate phantasy,
which apprehends good or bad objects: in brutes imagination alone, which
moves the appetite, the appetite this faculty, which by an admirable league
of nature, and by meditation of the spirit, commands the organ by which it
moves: and that consists of nerves, muscles, cords, dispersed through the
whole body, contracted and relaxed as the spirits will, which move the
muscles, or [993]nerves in the midst of them, and draw the cord, and so
_per consequens_ the joint, to the place intended. That which is moved, is
the body or some member apt to move. The motion of the body is divers, as
going, running, leaping, dancing, sitting, and such like, referred to the
predicament of _situs_. Worms creep, birds fly, fishes swim; and so of
parts, the chief of which is respiration or breathing, and is thus
performed. The outward air is drawn in by the vocal artery, and sent by
mediation of the midriff to the lungs, which, dilating themselves as a pair
of bellows, reciprocally fetch it in, and send it out to the heart to cool
it; and from thence now being hot, convey it again, still taking in fresh.
Such a like motion is that of the pulse, of which, because many have
written whole books, I will say nothing.
SUBSECT. IX.--_Of the Rational Soul._
In the precedent subsections I have anatomised those inferior faculties of
the soul; the rational remaineth, "a pleasant, but a doubtful subject" (as
[994]one terms it), and with the like brevity to be discussed. Many
erroneous opinions are about the essence and original of it; whether it be
fire, as Zeno held; harmony, as Aristoxenus; number, as Xenocrates; whether
it be organical, or inorganical; seated in the brain, heart or blood;
mortal or immortal; how it comes into the body. Some hold that it is _ex
traduce_, as _Phil. 1. de Anima_, Tertullian, Lactantius _de opific. Dei,
cap. 19._ Hugo, _lib. de Spiritu et Anima_, Vincentius Bellavic. _spec.
natural. lib. 23. cap. 2. et 11._ Hippocrates, Avicenna, and many [995]
late writers; that one man begets another, body and soul; or as a candle
from a candle, to be produced from the seed: otherwise, say they, a man
begets but half a man, and is worse than a beast that begets both matter
and form; and, besides, the three faculties of the soul must be together
infused, which is most absurd as they hold, because in beasts they are
begot, the two inferior I mean, and may not be well separated in men. [996]
Galen supposeth the soul _crasin esse_, to be the temperature itself;
Trismegistus, Musaeus, Orpheus, Homer, Pindarus, Phaerecides Syrus,
Epictetus, with the Chaldees and Egyptians, affirmed the soul to be
immortal, as did those British [997]Druids of old. The [998]Pythagoreans
defend Metempsychosis; and Palingenesia, that souls go from one body to
another, _epota prius Lethes unda_, as men into wolves, bears, dogs, hogs,
as they were inclined in their lives, or participated in conditions:
[999] ------"inque ferinas
Possumus ire domus, pecudumque in corpora condi."
[1000]Lucian's cock was first Euphorbus, a captain:
"Ille ego (nam memini) Trojani tempore belli,
Panthoides Euphorbus eram,"
a horse, a man, a sponge. [1001]Julian the Apostate thought Alexander's
soul was descended into his body: Plato in Timaeo, and in his Phaedon, (for
aught I can perceive,) differs not much from this opinion, that it was from
God at first, and knew all, but being enclosed in the body, it forgets, and
learns anew, which he calls _reminiscentia_, or recalling, and that it was
put into the body for a punishment; and thence it goes into a beast's, or
man's, as appears by his pleasant fiction _de sortitione animarum, lib. 10.
de rep._ and after [1002]ten thousand years is to return into the former
body again,
[1003] ------"post varios annos, per mille figuras,
Rursus ad humanae fertur primordia vitae."
Others deny the immortality of it, which Pomponatus of Padua decided out of
Aristotle not long since, Plinias Avunculus, _cap. 1. lib. 2, et lib. 7.
cap. 55_; Seneca, _lib. 7. epist. ad Lucilium, epist. 55_; Dicearchus _in
Tull. Tusc._ Epicurus, Aratus, Hippocrates, Galen, Lucretius, _lib. 1._
(Praeterea gigni pariter cum corpore, et una
Cresere sentimus, pariterque senescere mentem.)[1004]
Averroes, and I know not how many Neoterics. [1005]"This question of the
immortality of the soul, is diversely and wonderfully impugned and
disputed, especially among the Italians of late," saith Jab. Colerus, _lib.
de immort. animae, cap. 1._ The popes themselves have doubted of it: Leo
Decimus, that Epicurean pope, as [1006]some record of him, caused this
question to be discussed pro and con before him, and concluded at last, as
a profane and atheistical moderator, with that verse of Cornelius Gallus,
Et redit in nihilum, quod fuit ante nihil. It began of nothing, and in
nothing it ends. Zeno and his Stoics, as [1007]Austin quotes him, supposed
the soul so long to continue, till the body was fully putrified, and
resolved into _materia prima_: but after that, _in fumos evanescere_, to be
extinguished and vanished; and in the meantime, whilst the body was
consuming, it wandered all abroad, _et e longinquo multa annunciare_, and
(as that Clazomenian Hermotimus averred) saw pretty visions, and suffered I
know not what. [1008]Errant exangues sine corpore et ossibus umbrae. Others
grant the immortality thereof, but they make many fabulous fictions in the
meantime of it, after the departure from the body: like Plato's Elysian
fields, and that Turkey paradise. The souls of good men they deified; the
bad (saith [1009]Austin) became devils, as they supposed; with many such
absurd tenets, which he hath confuted. Hierome, Austin, and other Fathers
of the church, hold that the soul is immortal, created of nothing, and so
infused into the child or embryo in his mother's womb, six months after the
[1010]conception; not as those of brutes, which are _ex traduce_, and dying
with them vanish into nothing. To whose divine treatises, and to the
Scriptures themselves, I rejourn all such atheistical spirits, as Tully did
Atticus, doubting of this point, to Plato's Phaedon. Or if they desire
philosophical proofs and demonstrations, I refer them to Niphus, Nic.
Faventinus' tracts of this subject. To Fran. and John Picus _in digress:
sup. 3. de Anima_, Tholosanus, Eugubinus, To. Soto, Canas, Thomas,
Peresius, Dandinus, Colerus, to that elaborate tract in Zanchius, to
Tolet's Sixty Reasons, and Lessius' Twenty-two Arguments, to prove the
immortality of the soul. Campanella, _lib. de sensu rerum_, is large in the
same discourse, Albertinus the Schoolman, Jacob. Nactantus, _tom. 2. op._
handleth it in four questions, Antony Brunus, Aonius Palearius, Marinus
Marcennus, with many others. This reasonable soul, which Austin calls a
spiritual substance moving itself, is defined by philosophers to be "the
first substantial act of a natural, humane, organical body, by which a man
lives, perceives, and understands, freely doing all things, and with
election." Out of which definition we may gather, that this rational soul
includes the powers, and performs the duties of the two other, which are
contained in it, and all three faculties make one soul, which is
inorganical of itself, although it be in all parts, and incorporeal, using
their organs, and working by them. It is divided into two chief parts,
differing in office only, not in essence. The understanding, which is the
rational power apprehending; the will, which is the rational power moving:
to which two, all the other rational powers are subject and reduced.
SUBSECT. X.--_Of the Understanding_.
"Understanding is a power of the soul, [1011]by which we perceive, know,
remember, and judge as well singulars, as universals, having certain innate
notices or beginnings of arts, a reflecting action, by which it judgeth of
his own doings, and examines them." Out of this definition (besides his
chief office, which is to apprehend, judge all that he performs, without
the help of any instruments or organs) three differences appear betwixt a
man and a beast. As first, the sense only comprehends singularities, the
understanding universalities. Secondly, the sense hath no innate notions.
Thirdly, brutes cannot reflect upon themselves. Bees indeed make neat and
curious works, and many other creatures besides; but when they have done,
they cannot judge of them. His object is God, _ens_, all nature, and
whatsoever is to be understood: which successively it apprehends. The
object first moving the understanding, is some sensible thing; after by
discoursing, the mind finds out the corporeal substance, and from thence
the spiritual. His actions (some say) are apprehension, composition,
division, discoursing, reasoning, memory, which some include in invention,
and judgment. The common divisions are of the understanding, agent, and
patient; speculative, and practical; in habit, or in act; simple, or
compound. The agent is that which is called the wit of man, acumen or
subtlety, sharpness of invention, when he doth invent of himself without a
teacher, or learns anew, which abstracts those intelligible species from
the phantasy, and transfers them to the passive understanding, [1012]
"because there is nothing in the understanding, which was not first in the
sense." That which the imagination hath taken from the sense, this agent
judgeth of, whether it be true or false; and being so judged he commits it
to the passible to be kept. The agent is a doctor or teacher, the passive a
scholar; and his office is to keep and further judge of such things as are
committed to his charge; as a bare and rased table at first, capable of all
forms and notions. Now these notions are twofold, actions or habits:
actions, by which we take notions of, and perceive things; habits, which
are durable lights and notions, which we may use when we will. Some reckon
up eight kinds of them, sense, experience, intelligence, faith, suspicion,
error, opinion, science; to which are added art, prudency, wisdom: as also
[1013]synteresis, _dictamen rationis_, conscience; so that in all there be
fourteen species of the understanding, of which some are innate, as the
three last mentioned; the other are gotten by doctrine, learning, and use.
Plato will have all to be innate: Aristotle reckons up but five
intellectual habits; two practical, as prudency, whose end is to practise;
to fabricate; wisdom to comprehend the use and experiments of all notions
and habits whatsoever. Which division of Aristotle (if it be considered
aright) is all one with the precedent; for three being innate, and five
acquisite, the rest are improper, imperfect, and in a more strict
examination excluded. Of all these I should more amply dilate, but my
subject will not permit. Three of them I will only point at, as more
necessary to my following discourse.
Synteresis, or the purer part of the conscience, is an innate habit, and
doth signify "a conversation of the knowledge of the law of God and Nature,
to know good or evil." And (as our divines hold) it is rather in the
understanding than in the will. This makes the major proposition in a
practical syllogism. The _dictamen rationis_ is that which doth admonish us
to do good or evil, and is the minor in the syllogism. The conscience is
that which approves good or evil, justifying or condemning our actions, and
is the conclusion of the syllogism: as in that familiar example of Regulus
the Roman, taken prisoner by the Carthaginians, and suffered to go to Rome,
on that condition he should return again, or pay so much for his ransom.
The synteresis proposeth the question; his word, oath, promise, is to be
religiously kept, although to his enemy, and that by the law of nature.
[1014]"Do not that to another which thou wouldst not have done to thyself."
Dictamen applies it to him, and dictates this or the like: Regulus, thou
wouldst not another man should falsify his oath, or break promise with
thee: conscience concludes, therefore, Regulus, thou dost well to perform
thy promise, and oughtest to keep thine oath. More of this in Religious
Melancholy.
SUBSECT. XI.--_Of the Will_.
Will is the other power of the rational soul, [1015]"which covets or avoids
such things as have been before judged and apprehended by the
understanding." If good, it approves; if evil, it abhors it: so that his
object is either good or evil. Aristotle calls this our rational appetite;
for as, in the sensitive, we are moved to good or bad by our appetite,
ruled and directed by sense; so in this we are carried by reason. Besides,
the sensitive appetite hath a particular object, good or bad; this an
universal, immaterial: that respects only things delectable and pleasant;
this honest. Again, they differ in liberty. The sensual appetite seeing an
object, if it be a convenient good, cannot but desire it; if evil, avoid
it: but this is free in his essence, [1016]"much now depraved, obscured,
and fallen from his first perfection; yet in some of his operations still
free," as to go, walk, move at his pleasure, and to choose whether it will
do or not do, steal or not steal. Otherwise, in vain were laws,
deliberations, exhortations, counsels, precepts, rewards, promises, threats
and punishments: and God should be the author of sin. But in [1017]
spiritual things we will no good, prone to evil (except we be regenerate,
and led by the Spirit), we are egged on by our natural concupiscence, and
there is [Greek: ataxia], a confusion in our powers, [1018]"our whole will
is averse from God and his law," not in natural things only, as to eat and
drink, lust, to which we are led headlong by our temperature and inordinate
appetite,
[1019] "Nec nos obniti contra, nec tendere tantum
Sufficimus,"------
we cannot resist, our concupiscence is originally bad, our heart evil, the
seat of our affections captivates and enforceth our will. So that in
voluntary things we are averse from God and goodness, bad by nature, by
[1020]ignorance worse, by art, discipline, custom, we get many bad habits:
suffering them to domineer and tyrannise over us; and the devil is still
ready at hand with his evil suggestions, to tempt our depraved will to some
ill-disposed action, to precipitate us to destruction, except our will be
swayed and counterpoised again with some divine precepts, and good motions
of the spirit, which many times restrain, hinder and check us, when we are
in the full career of our dissolute courses. So David corrected himself,
when he had Saul at a vantage. Revenge and malice were as two violent
oppugners on the one side; but honesty, religion, fear of God, withheld him
on the other.
The actions of the will are _velle_ and _nolle_, to will and nill: which
two words comprehend all, and they are good or bad, accordingly as they are
directed, and some of them freely performed by himself; although the stoics
absolutely deny it, and will have all things inevitably done by destiny,
imposing a fatal necessity upon us, which we may not resist; yet we say
that our will is free in respect of us, and things contingent, howsoever in
respect of God's determinate counsel, they are inevitable and necessary.
Some other actions of the will are performed by the inferior powers, which
obey him, as the sensitive and moving appetite; as to open our eyes, to go
hither and thither, not to touch a book, to speak fair or foul: but this
appetite is many times rebellious in us, and will not be contained within
the lists of sobriety and temperance. It was (as I said) once well agreeing
with reason, and there was an excellent consent and harmony between them,
but that is now dissolved, they often jar, reason is overborne by passion:
_Fertur equis auriga, nec audit currus habenas_, as so many wild horses run
away with a chariot, and will not be curbed. We know many times what is
good, but will not do it, as she said,
[1021] "Trahit invitum nova vis, aliudque cupido,
Mens aliud suadet,"------
Lust counsels one thing, reason another, there is a new reluctancy in men.
[1022]_Odi, nec possum, cupiens non esse, quod odi_. We cannot resist, but
as Phaedra confessed to her nurse, [1023]_quae loqueris, vera sunt, sed
furor suggerit sequi pejora_: she said well and true, she did acknowledge
it, but headstrong passion and fury made her to do that which was opposite.
So David knew the filthiness of his fact, what a loathsome, foul, crying
sin adultery was, yet notwithstanding he would commit murder, and take away
another man's wife, enforced against reason, religion, to follow his
appetite.
Those natural and vegetal powers are not commanded by will at all; for "who
can add one cubit to his stature?" These other may, but are not: and thence
come all those headstrong passions, violent perturbations of the mind; and
many times vicious habits, customs, feral diseases; because we give so much
way to our appetite, and follow our inclination, like so many beasts. The
principal habits are two in number, virtue and vice, whose peculiar
definitions, descriptions, differences, and kinds, are handled at large in
the ethics, and are, indeed, the subject of moral philosophy.
MEMB. III.
SUBSECT. I.--_Definition of Melancholy, Name, Difference_.
Having thus briefly anatomised the body and soul of man, as a preparative
to the rest; I may now freely proceed to treat of my intended object, to
most men's capacity; and after many ambages, perspicuously define what this
melancholy is, show his name and differences. The name is imposed from the
matter, and disease denominated from the material cause: as Bruel observes,
[Greek: Melancholia] quasi [Greek: Melainacholae], from black choler. And
whether it be a cause or an effect, a disease or symptom, let Donatus
Altomarus and Salvianus decide; I will not contend about it. It hath
several descriptions, notations, and definitions. [1024]Fracastorius, in
his second book of intellect, calls those melancholy, "whom abundance of
that same depraved humour of black choler hath so misaffected, that they
become mad thence, and dote in most things, or in all, belonging to
election, will, or other manifest operations of the understanding." [1025]
Melanelius out of Galen, Ruffus, Aetius, describe it to be "a bad and
peevish disease, which makes men degenerate into beasts:" Galen, "a
privation or infection of the middle cell of the head," &c. defining it
from the part affected, which [1026]Hercules de Saxonia approves, _lib. 1.
cap. 16._ calling it "a depravation of the principal function:" Fuschius,
_lib. 1. cap. 23._ Arnoldus _Breviar. lib. 1. cap. 18._ Guianerius, and
others: "By reason of black choler," Paulus adds. Halyabbas simply calls it
a "commotion of the mind." Aretaeus, [1027]"a perpetual anguish of the
soul, fastened on one thing, without an ague;" which definition of his,
Mercurialis _de affect. cap. lib. 1. cap. 10._ taxeth: but Aelianus
Montaltus defends, _lib. de morb. cap. 1. de Melan._ for sufficient and
good. The common sort define it to be "a kind of dotage without a fever,
having for his ordinary companions, fear and sadness, without any apparent
occasion." So doth Laurentius, _cap. 4._ Piso. _lib. 1. cap. 43._ Donatus
Altomarus, _cap. 7. art. medic_. Jacchinus, _in com. in lib. 9. Rhasis ad
Almansor, cap. 15._ Valesius, _exerc. 17._ Fuschius, _institut. 3. sec. 1.
c. 11._ &c. which common definition, howsoever approved by most,
[1028]Hercules de Saxonia will not allow of, nor David Crucius, _Theat.
morb. Herm. lib. 2. cap. 6._ he holds it insufficient: as [1029]rather
showing what it is not, than what it is: as omitting the specific
difference, the phantasy and brain: but I descend to particulars. The
_summum genus_ is "dotage, or anguish of the mind," saith Aretaeus; "of the
principal parts," Hercules de Saxonia adds, to distinguish it from cramp
and palsy, and such diseases as belong to the outward sense and motions
[depraved] [1030]to distinguish it from folly and madness (which Montaltus
makes _angor animi_, to separate) in which those functions are not
depraved, but rather abolished; [without an ague] is added by all, to sever
it from frenzy, and that melancholy which is in a pestilent fever. (Fear
and sorrow) make it differ from madness: [without a cause] is lastly
inserted, to specify it from all other ordinary passions of [fear and
sorrow.] We properly call that dotage, as [1031]Laurentius interprets it,
"when some one principal faculty of the mind, as imagination, or reason, is
corrupted, as all melancholy persons have." It is without a fever, because
the humour is most part cold and dry, contrary to putrefaction. Fear and
sorrow are the true characters and inseparable companions of most
melancholy, not all, as Her. de Saxonia, _Tract. de posthumo de
Melancholia, cap. 2._ well excepts; for to some it is most pleasant, as to
such as laugh most part; some are bold again, and free from all manner of
fear and grief, as hereafter shall be declared.
SUBSECT. II.--_Of the part affected. Affection. Parties affected_.
Some difference I find amongst writers, about the principal part affected
in this disease, whether it be the brain, or heart, or some other member.
Most are of opinion that it is the brain: for being a kind of dotage, it
cannot otherwise be but that the brain must be affected, as a similar part,
be it by [1032]consent or essence, not in his ventricles, or any
obstructions in them, for then it would be an apoplexy, or epilepsy, as
[1033]Laurentius well observes, but in a cold, dry distemperature of it in
his substance, which is corrupt and become too cold, or too dry, or else
too hot, as in madmen, and such as are inclined to it: and this [1034]
Hippocrates confirms, Galen, the Arabians, and most of our new writers.
Marcus de Oddis (in a consultation of his, quoted by [1035]Hildesheim) and
five others there cited are of the contrary part; because fear and sorrow,
which are passions, be seated in the heart. But this objection is
sufficiently answered by [1036]Montaltus, who doth not deny that the heart
is affected (as [1037]Melanelius proves out of Galen) by reason of his
vicinity, and so is the midriff and many other parts. They do _compati_,
and have a fellow feeling by the law of nature: but forasmuch as this
malady is caused by precedent imagination, with the appetite, to whom
spirits obey, and are subject to those principal parts, the brain must
needs primarily be misaffected, as the seat of reason; and then the heart,
as the seat of affection. [1038]Capivaccius and Mercurialis have copiously
discussed this question, and both conclude the subject is the inner brain,
and from thence it is communicated to the heart and other inferior parts,
which sympathise and are much troubled, especially when it comes by
consent, and is caused by reason of the stomach, or _mirach_, as the
Arabians term it, whole body, liver, or [1039]spleen, which are seldom
free, pylorus, mesaraic veins, &c. For our body is like a clock, if one
wheel be amiss, all the rest are disordered; the whole fabric suffers: with
such admirable art and harmony is a man composed, such excellent
proportion, as Ludovicus Vives in his Fable of Man hath elegantly declared.
As many doubts almost arise about the [1040]affection, whether it be
imagination or reason alone, or both, Hercules de Saxonia proves it out of
Galen, Aetius, and Altomarus, that the sole fault is in [1041]imagination.
Bruel is of the same mind: Montaltus in his _2 cap._ of Melancholy confutes
this tenet of theirs, and illustrates the contrary by many examples: as of
him that thought himself a shellfish, of a nun, and of a desperate monk
that would not be persuaded but that he was damned; reason was in fault as
well as imagination, which did not correct this error: they make away
themselves oftentimes, and suppose many absurd and ridiculous things. Why
doth not reason detect the fallacy, settle and persuade, if she be free?
[1042]Avicenna therefore holds both corrupt, to whom most Arabians
subscribe. The same is maintained by [1043]Areteus, [1044]Gorgonius,
Guianerius, &c. To end the controversy, no man doubts of imagination, but
that it is hurt and misaffected here; for the other I determine with [1045]
Albertinus Bottonus, a doctor of Padua, that it is first in "imagination,
and afterwards in reason; if the disease be inveterate, or as it is more or
less of continuance;" but by accident, as [1046]Herc. de Saxonia adds;
"faith, opinion, discourse, ratiocination, are all accidentally depraved by
the default of imagination."
_Parties affected_.] To the part affected, I may here add the parties,
which shall be more opportunely spoken of elsewhere, now only signified.
Such as have the moon, Saturn, Mercury misaffected in their genitures, such
as live in over cold or over hot climes: such as are born of melancholy
parents; as offend in those six non-natural things, are black, or of a high
sanguine complexion, [1047]that have little heads, that have a hot heart,
moist brain, hot liver and cold stomach, have been long sick: such as are
solitary by nature, great students, given to much contemplation, lead a
life out of action, are most subject to melancholy. Of sexes both, but men
more often; yet [1048]women misaffected are far more violent, and
grievously troubled. Of seasons of the year, the autumn is most melancholy.
Of peculiar times: old age, from which natural melancholy is almost an
inseparable accident; but this artificial malady is more frequent in such
as are of a [1049]middle age. Some assign 40 years, Gariopontus 30.
Jubertus excepts neither young nor old from this adventitious. Daniel
Sennertus involves all of all sorts, out of common experience, [1050]_in
omnibus omnino corporibus cujuscunque constitutionis dominatar_. Aetius and
Aretius [1051]ascribe into the number "not only [1052]discontented,
passionate, and miserable persons, swarthy, black; but such as are most
merry and pleasant, scoffers, and high coloured." "Generally," saith
Rhasis, [1053]"the finest wits and most generous spirits, are before other
obnoxious to it;" I cannot except any complexion, any condition, sex, or
age, but [1054]fools and stoics, which, according to [1055]Synesius, are
never troubled with any manner of passion, but as Anacreon's _cicada, sine
sanguine et dolore; similes fere diis sunt_. Erasmus vindicates fools from
this melancholy catalogue, because they have most part moist brains and
light hearts; [1056]they are free from ambition, envy, shame and fear; they
are neither troubled in conscience, nor macerated with cares, to which our
whole life is most subject.
SUBSECT. III.--_Of the Matter of Melancholy_.
Of the matter of melancholy, there is much question betwixt Avicen and
Galen, as you may read in [1057]Cardan's Contradictions, [1058]Valesius'
Controversies, Montanus, Prosper Calenus, Capivaccius, [1059]Bright,
[1060]Ficinus, that have written either whole tracts, or copiously of it,
in their several treatises of this subject. [1061]"What this humour is, or
whence it proceeds, how it is engendered in the body, neither Galen, nor
any old writer hath sufficiently discussed," as Jacchinus thinks: the
Neoterics cannot agree. Montanus, in his Consultations, holds melancholy to
be material or immaterial: and so doth Arculanus: the material is one of
the four humours before mentioned, and natural. The immaterial or
adventitious, acquisite, redundant, unnatural, artificial; which [1062]
Hercules de Saxonia will have reside in the spirits alone, and to proceed
from a "hot, cold, dry, moist distemperature, which, without matter, alter
the brain and functions of it." Paracelsus wholly rejects and derides this
division of four humours and complexions, but our Galenists generally
approve of it, subscribing to this opinion of Montanus.
This material melancholy is either simple or mixed; offending in quantity
or quality, varying according to his place, where it settleth, as brain,
spleen, mesaraic veins, heart, womb, and stomach; or differing according to
the mixture of those natural humours amongst themselves, or four unnatural
adust humours, as they are diversely tempered and mingled. If natural
melancholy abound in the body, which is cold and dry, "so that it be more
[1063]than the body is well able to bear, it must needs be distempered,"
saith Faventius, "and diseased;" and so the other, if it be depraved,
whether it arise from that other melancholy of choler adust, or from blood,
produceth the like effects, and is, as Montaltus contends, if it come by
adustion of humours, most part hot and dry. Some difference I find, whether
this melancholy matter may be engendered of all four humours, about the
colour and temper of it. Galen holds it may be engendered of three alone,
excluding phlegm, or pituita, whose true assertion [1064]Valesius and
Menardus stiffly maintain, and so doth [1065]Fuschius, Montaltus, [1066]
Montanus. How (say they) can white become black? But Hercules de Saxonia,
_lib. post. de mela. c. 8_, and [1067]Cardan are of the opposite part (it
may be engendered of phlegm, _etsi raro contingat_, though it seldom come
to pass), so is [1068]Guianerius and Laurentius, _c. 1._ with Melanct. in
his book _de Anima_, and Chap. of Humours; he calls it _asininam_, dull,
swinish melancholy, and saith that he was an eyewitness of it: so is
[1069]Wecker. From melancholy adust ariseth one kind; from choler another,
which is most brutish; another from phlegm, which is dull; and the last
from blood, which is best. Of these some are cold and dry, others hot and
dry, [1070]varying according to their mixtures, as they are intended, and
remitted. And indeed as Rodericus a Fons. _cons. 12. l. 1._ determines,
ichors, and those serous matters being thickened become phlegm, and phlegm
degenerates into choler, choler adust becomes _aeruginosa melancholia_, as
vinegar out of purest wine putrified or by exhalation of purer spirits is
so made, and becomes sour and sharp; and from the sharpness of this humour
proceeds much waking, troublesome thoughts and dreams, &c. so that I
conclude as before. If the humour be cold, it is, saith [1071]Faventinus,
"a cause of dotage, and produceth milder symptoms: if hot, they are rash,
raving mad, or inclining to it." If the brain be hot, the animal spirits
are hot; much madness follows, with violent actions: if cold, fatuity and
sottishness, [1072]Capivaccius. [1073]"The colour of this mixture varies
likewise according to the mixture, be it hot or cold; 'tis sometimes black,
sometimes not," Altomarus. The same [1074]Melanelius proves out of Galen;
and Hippocrates in his Book of Melancholy (if at least it be his), giving
instance in a burning coal, "which when it is hot, shines; when it is cold,
looks black; and so doth the humour." This diversity of melancholy matter
produceth diversity of effects. If it be within the [1075]body, and not
putrified, it causeth black jaundice; if putrified, a quartan ague; if it
break out to the skin, leprosy; if to parts, several maladies, as scurvy,
&c. If it trouble the mind; as it is diversely mixed, it produceth several
kinds of madness and dotage: of which in their place.
SUBSECT. IV.--_Of the species or kinds of Melancholy_.
When the matter is divers and confused, how should it otherwise be, but
that the species should be divers and confused? Many new and old writers
have spoken confusedly of it, confounding melancholy and madness, as [1076]
Heurnius, Guianerius, Gordonius, Salustius Salvianus, Jason Pratensis,
Savanarola, that will have madness no other than melancholy in extent,
differing (as I have said) in degrees. Some make two distinct species, as
Ruffus Ephesius, an old writer, Constantinus Africanus, Aretaeus, [1077]
Aurelianus, [1078]Paulus Aegineta: others acknowledge a multitude of kinds,
and leave them indefinite, as Aetius in his _Tetrabiblos_, [1079]Avicenna,
_lib. 3. Fen. 1. Tract. 4. cap. 18._ Arculanus, _cap. 16. in 9. Rasis_.
Montanus, _med. part. 1._ [1080]"If natural melancholy be adust, it maketh
one kind; if blood, another; if choler, a third, differing from the first;
and so many several opinions there are about the kinds, as there be men
themselves." [1081]Hercules de Saxonia sets down two kinds, "material and
immaterial; one from spirits alone, the other from humours and spirits."
Savanarola, _Rub. 11. Tract. 6. cap. 1. de aegritud. capitis_, will have
the kinds to be infinite; one from the mirach, called _myrachialis_ of the
Arabians; another _stomachalis_, from the stomach; another from the liver,
heart, womb, haemorrhoids, [1082]"one beginning, another consummate."
Melancthon seconds him, [1083]"as the humour is diversely adust and mixed,
so are the species divers;" but what these men speak of species I think
ought to be understood of symptoms; and so doth [1084] Arculanus interpret
himself: infinite species, _id est_, symptoms; and in that sense, as Jo.
Gorrheus acknowledgeth in his medicinal definitions, the species are
infinite, but they may be reduced to three kinds by reason of their seat;
head, body, and hypochrondries. This threefold division is approved by
Hippocrates in his Book of Melancholy, (if it be his, which some suspect)
by Galen, _lib. 3. de loc. affectis, cap. 6._ by Alexander, _lib. 1. cap.
16._ Rasis, _lib. 1. Continent. Tract. 9. lib. 1. cap. 16._ Avicenna and
most of our new writers. Th. Erastus makes two kinds; one perpetual, which
is head melancholy; the other interrupt, which comes and goes by fits,
which he subdivides into the other two kinds, so that all comes to the same
pass. Some again make four or five kinds, with Rodericus a Castro, _de
morbis mulier. lib. 2. cap. 3._ and Lod. Mercatus, who in his second book
_de mulier. affect. cap. 4._ will have that melancholy of nuns, widows, and
more ancient maids, to be a peculiar species of melancholy differing from
the rest: some will reduce enthusiasts, ecstatical and demoniacal persons
to this rank, adding [1085] love melancholy to the first, and lycanthropia.
The most received division is into three kinds. The first proceeds from the
sole fault of the brain, and is called head melancholy; the second
sympathetically proceeds from the whole body, when the whole temperature is
melancholy: the third ariseth from the bowels, liver, spleen, or membrane,
called _mesenterium_, named hypochondriacal or windy melancholy, which
[1086]Laurentius subdivides into three parts, from those three members,
hepatic, splenetic, mesaraic. Love melancholy, which Avicenna calls
_ilishi_: and Lycanthropia, which he calls _cucubuthe_, are commonly
included in head melancholy; but of this last, which Gerardus de Solo calls
_amoreus_, and most knight melancholy, with that of religious melancholy,
_virginum et viduarum_, maintained by Rod. a Castro and Mercatus, and the
other kinds of love melancholy, I will speak of apart by themselves in my
third partition. The three precedent species are the subject of my present
discourse, which I will anatomise and treat of through all their causes,
symptoms, cures, together and apart; that every man that is in any measure
affected with this malady, may know how to examine it in himself, and apply
remedies unto it.
It is a hard matter, I confess, to distinguish these three species one from
the other, to express their several causes, symptoms, cures, being that
they are so often confounded amongst themselves, having such affinity, that
they can scarce be discerned by the most accurate physicians; and so often
intermixed with other diseases, that the best experienced have been
plunged. Montanus _consil. 26_, names a patient that had this disease of
melancholy and caninus appetitus both together; and _consil. 23_, with
vertigo, [1087]Julius Caesar Claudinus with stone, gout, jaundice.
Trincavellius with an ague, jaundice, caninus appetitus, &c. [1088]Paulus
Regoline, a great doctor in his time, consulted in this case, was so
confounded with a confusion of symptoms, that he knew not to what kind of
melancholy to refer it. [1089]Trincavellius, Fallopius, and Francanzanus,
famous doctors in Italy, all three conferred with about one party, at the
same time, gave three different opinions. And in another place,
Trincavellius being demanded what he thought of a melancholy young man to
whom he was sent for, ingenuously confessed that he was indeed melancholy,
but he knew not to what kind to reduce it. In his seventeenth consultation
there is the like disagreement about a melancholy monk. Those symptoms,
which others ascribe to misaffected parts and humours, [1090]Herc. de
Saxonia attributes wholly to distempered spirits, and those immaterial, as
I have said. Sometimes they cannot well discern this disease from others.
In Reinerus Solenander's counsels, (_Sect, consil. 5_,) he and Dr. Brande
both agreed, that the patient's disease was hypochondriacal melancholy. Dr.
Matholdus said it was asthma, and nothing else. [1091]Solenander and
Guarionius, lately sent for to the melancholy Duke of Cleve, with others,
could not define what species it was, or agree amongst themselves. The
species are so confounded, as in Caesar Claudinus his forty-fourth
consultation for a Polonian Count, in his judgment [1092]"he laboured of
head melancholy, and that which proceeds from the whole temperature both at
once." I could give instance of some that have had all three kinds _semel
et simul_, and some successively. So that I conclude of our melancholy
species, as [1093]many politicians do of their pure forms of commonwealths,
monarchies, aristocracies, democracies, are most famous in contemplation,
but in practice they are temperate and usually mixed, (so [1094]Polybius
informeth us) as the Lacedaemonian, the Roman of old, German now, and many
others. What physicians say of distinct species in their books it much
matters not, since that in their patients' bodies they are commonly mixed.
In such obscurity, therefore, variety and confused mixture of symptoms,
causes, how difficult a thing is it to treat of several kinds apart; to
make any certainty or distinction among so many casualties, distractions,
when seldom two men shall be like effected _per omnia_? 'Tis hard, I
confess, yet nevertheless I will adventure through the midst of these
perplexities, and, led by the clue or thread of the best writers, extricate
myself out of a labyrinth of doubts and errors, and so proceed to the
causes.
SECT. II. MEMB. I.
SUBSECT. I.--_Causes of Melancholy. God a cause._
"It is in vain to speak of cures, or think of remedies, until such time as
we have considered of the causes," so [1095]Galen prescribes Glauco: and
the common experience of others confirms that those cures must be
imperfect, lame, and to no purpose, wherein the causes have not first been
searched, as [1096]Prosper Calenius well observes in his tract _de atra
bile_ to Cardinal Caesius. Insomuch that [1097]"Fernelius puts a kind of
necessity in the knowledge of the causes, and without which it is
impossible to cure or prevent any manner of disease." Empirics may ease,
and sometimes help, but not thoroughly root out; _sublata causa tollitur
effectus_ as the saying is, if the cause be removed, the effect is likewise
vanquished. It is a most difficult thing (I confess) to be able to discern
these causes whence they are, and in such [1098]variety to say what the
beginning was. [1099]He is happy that can perform it aright. I will
adventure to guess as near as I can, and rip them all up, from the first to
the last, general and particular, to every species, that so they may the
better be described.
General causes, are either supernatural, or natural. "Supernatural are from
God and his angels, or by God's permission from the devil" and his
ministers. That God himself is a cause for the punishment of sin, and
satisfaction of his justice, many examples and testimonies of holy
Scriptures make evident unto us, Ps. cvii, 17. "Foolish men are plagued for
their offence, and by reason of their wickedness." Gehazi was stricken with
leprosy, 2 Reg. v. 27. Jehoram with dysentery and flux, and great diseases
of the bowels, 2 Chron. xxi. 15. David plagued for numbering his people, 1
Par. 21. Sodom and Gomorrah swallowed up. And this disease is peculiarly
specified, Psalm cxxvii. 12. "He brought down their heart through
heaviness." Deut. xxviii. 28. "He struck them with madness, blindness, and
astonishment of heart." [1100]"An evil spirit was sent by the Lord upon
Saul, to vex him." [1101]Nebuchadnezzar did eat grass like an ox, and his
"heart was made like the beasts of the field." Heathen stories are full of
such punishments. Lycurgus, because he cut down the vines in the country,
was by Bacchus driven into madness: so was Pentheus and his mother Agave
for neglecting their sacrifice. [1102]Censor Fulvius ran mad for untiling
Juno's temple, to cover a new one of his own, which he had dedicated to
Fortune, [1103]"and was confounded to death with grief and sorrow of
heart." When Xerxes would have spoiled [1104]Apollo's temple at Delphos of
those infinite riches it possessed, a terrible thunder came from heaven and
struck four thousand men dead, the rest ran mad. [1105]A little after, the
like happened to Brennus, lightning, thunder, earthquakes, upon such a
sacrilegious occasion. If we may believe our pontifical writers, they will
relate unto us many strange and prodigious punishments in this kind,
inflicted by their saints. How [1106]Clodoveus, sometime king of France,
the son of Dagobert, lost his wits for uncovering the body of St. Denis:
and how a [1107]sacrilegious Frenchman, that would have stolen a silver
image of St. John, at Birgburge, became frantic on a sudden, raging, and
tyrannising over his own flesh: of a [1108]Lord of Rhadnor, that coming
from hunting late at night, put his dogs into St. Avan's church, (Llan Avan
they called it) and rising betimes next morning, as hunters use to do,
found all his dogs mad, himself being suddenly strucken blind. Of Tyridates
an [1109]Armenian king, for violating some holy nuns, that was punished in
like sort, with loss of his wits. But poets and papists may go together for
fabulous tales; let them free their own credits: howsoever they feign of
their Nemesis, and of their saints, or by the devil's means may be deluded;
we find it true, that _ultor a tergo Deus_, [1110]"He is God the avenger,"
as David styles him; and that it is our crying sins that pull this and many
other maladies on our own heads. That he can by his angels, which are his
ministers, strike and heal (saith [1111]Dionysius) whom he will; that he
can plague us by his creatures, sun, moon, and stars, which he useth as his
instruments, as a husbandman (saith Zanchius) doth a hatchet: hail, snow,
winds, &c. [1112]_Et conjurati veniunt in classica venti_: as in Joshua's
time, as in Pharaoh's reign in Egypt; they are but as so many executioners
of his justice. He can make the proudest spirits stoop, and cry out with
Julian the Apostate, _Vicisti Galilaee_: or with Apollo's priest in
[1113]Chrysostom, _O coelum! o terra! unde hostis hic_? What an enemy is
this? And pray with David, acknowledging his power, "I am weakened and sore
broken, I roar for the grief of mine heart, mine heart panteth," &c. Psalm
xxxviii. 8. "O Lord, rebuke me not in thine anger, neither chastise me in
thy wrath," Psalm xxxviii. 1. "Make me to hear joy and gladness, that the
bones which thou hast broken, may rejoice," Psalm li. 8. and verse 12.
"Restore to me the joy of thy salvation, and stablish me with thy free
spirit." For these causes belike [1114]Hippocrates would have a physician
take special notice whether the disease come not from a divine supernatural
cause, or whether it follow the course of nature. But this is farther
discussed by Fran. Valesius, _de sacr. philos. cap. 8._ [1115] Fernelius,
and [1116]J. Caesar Claudinus, to whom I refer you, how this place of
Hippocrates is to be understood. Paracelsus is of opinion, that such
spiritual diseases (for so he calls them) are spiritually to be cured, and
not otherwise. Ordinary means in such cases will not avail: _Non est
reluctandum cum Deo_ (we must not struggle with God.) When that
monster-taming Hercules overcame all in the Olympics, Jupiter at last in an
unknown shape wrestled with him; the victory was uncertain, till at length
Jupiter descried himself, and Hercules yielded. No striving with supreme
powers. _Nil juvat immensos Cratero promittere montes_, physicians and
physic can do no good, [1117]"we must submit ourselves unto the mighty hand
of God," acknowledge our offences, call to him for mercy. If he strike us
_una eademque manus vulnus opemque feret_, as it is with them that are
wounded with the spear of Achilles, he alone must help; otherwise our
diseases are incurable, and we not to be relieved.
SUBSECT. II.--_A Digression of the nature of Spirits, bad Angels, or
Devils, and how they cause Melancholy_.
How far the power of spirits and devils doth extend, and whether they can
cause this, or any other disease, is a serious question, and worthy to be
considered: for the better understanding of which, I will make a brief
digression of the nature of spirits. And although the question be very
obscure, according to [1118]Postellus, "full of controversy and ambiguity,"
beyond the reach of human capacity, _fateor excedere vires intentionis
meae_, saith [1119]Austin, I confess I am not able to understand it,
_finitum de infinito non potest statuere_, we can sooner determine with
Tully, _de nat. deorum_, _quid non sint, quam quid sint_, our subtle
schoolmen, Cardans, Scaligers, profound Thomists, Fracastoriana and
Ferneliana _acies_, are weak, dry, obscure, defective in these mysteries,
and all our quickest wits, as an owl's eyes at the sun's light, wax dull,
and are not sufficient to apprehend them; yet, as in the rest, I will
adventure to say something to this point. In former times, as we read, Acts
xxiii., the Sadducees denied that there were any such spirits, devils, or
angels. So did Galen the physician, the Peripatetics, even Aristotle
himself, as Pomponatius stoutly maintains, and Scaliger in some sort
grants. Though Dandinus the Jesuit, _com. in lib. 2. de anima_, stiffly
denies it; _substantiae separatae_ and intelligences, are the same which
Christians call angels, and Platonists devils, for they name all the
spirits, _daemones_, be they good or bad angels, as Julius Pollux
_Onomasticon, lib. 1. cap. 1._ observes. Epicures and atheists are of the
same mind in general, because they never saw them. Plato, Plotinus,
Porphyrius, Jamblichus, Proclus, insisting in the steps of Trismegistus,
Pythagoras and Socrates, make no doubt of it: nor Stoics, but that there
are such spirits, though much erring from the truth. Concerning the first
beginning of them, the [1120]Talmudists say that Adam had a wife called
Lilis, before he married Eve, and of her he begat nothing but devils. The
Turks' [1121]Alcoran is altogether as absurd and ridiculous in this point:
but the Scripture informs us Christians, how Lucifer, the chief of them,
with his associates, [1122]fell from heaven for his pride and ambition;
created of God, placed in heaven, and sometimes an angel of light, now cast
down into the lower aerial sublunary parts, or into hell, "and delivered
into chains of darkness (2 Pet. ii. 4.) to be kept unto damnation."
_Nature of Devils._] There is a foolish opinion which some hold, that they
are the souls of men departed, good and more noble were deified, the baser
grovelled on the ground, or in the lower parts, and were devils, the which
with Tertullian, Porphyrius the philosopher, M. Tyrius, _ser. 27_
maintains. "These spirits," he [1123]saith, "which we call angels and
devils, are nought but souls of men departed, which either through love and
pity of their friends yet living, help and assist them, or else persecute
their enemies, whom they hated," as Dido threatened to persecute Aeneas:
"Omnibus umbra locis adero: dabis improbe poenas."
"My angry ghost arising from the deep,
Shall haunt thee waking, and disturb thy sleep;
At least my shade thy punishment shall know,
And Fame shall spread the pleasing news below."
They are (as others suppose) appointed by those higher powers to keep men
from their nativity, and to protect or punish them as they see cause: and
are called _boni et mali Genii_ by the Romans. Heroes, lares, if good,
lemures or larvae if bad, by the stoics, governors of countries, men,
cities, saith [1124]Apuleius, _Deos appellant qui ex hominum numero juste
ac prudenter vitae curriculo gubernato, pro numine, postea ab hominibus
praediti fanis et ceremoniis vulgo admittuntur, ut in Aegypto Osyris_, &c.
_Praestites_, Capella calls them, "which protected particular men as well
as princes," Socrates had his _Daemonium Saturninum et ignium_, which of
all spirits is best, _ad sublimes cogitationes animum erigentem_, as the
Platonists supposed; Plotinus his, and we Christians our assisting angel,
as Andreas Victorellus, a copious writer of this subject, Lodovicus de
La-Cerda, the Jesuit, in his voluminous tract _de Angelo Custode_,
Zanchius, and some divines think. But this absurd tenet of Tyreus, Proclus
confutes at large in his book _de Anima et daemone_.
Psellus [1125], a Christian, and sometimes tutor (saith Cuspinian) to
Michael Parapinatius, Emperor of Greece, a great observer of the nature of
devils, holds they are corporeal [1126], and have "aerial bodies, that they
are mortal, live and die," (which Martianus Capella likewise maintains, but
our Christian philosophers explode) "that they [1127]are nourished and have
excrements, they feel pain if they be hurt" (which Cardan confirms, and
Scaliger justly laughs him to scorn for; _Si pascantur aere, cur non
pugnant ob puriorem aera_? &c.) "or stroken:" and if their bodies be cut,
with admirable celerity they come together again. Austin, _in Gen. lib.
iii. lib. arbit._, approves as much, _mutata casu corpora in deteriorem
qualitatem aeris spissioris_, so doth Hierome. _Comment. in epist. ad
Ephes. cap. 3_, Origen, Tertullian, Lactantius, and many ancient Fathers of
the Church: that in their fall their bodies were changed into a more aerial
and gross substance. Bodine, _lib. 4, Theatri Naturae_ and David Crusius,
_Hermeticae Philosophiae, lib. 1. cap. 4_, by several arguments proves
angels and spirits to be corporeal: _quicquid continetur in loco corporeum
est; At spiritus continetur in loco, ergo. [1128]Si spiritus sunt quanti,
erunt corporei: At sunt quanti, ergo. sunt finiti, ergo. quanti_, &c.
Bodine [1129]goes farther yet, and will have these, _Animae separatae
genii_, spirits, angels, devils, and so likewise souls of men departed, if
corporeal (which he most eagerly contends) to be of some shape, and that
absolutely round, like Sun and Moon, because that is the most perfect form,
_quae nihil habet asperitatis, nihil angulis incisum, nihil anfractibus
involutem, nihil eminens, sed inter corpora perfecta est perfectissimum_;
[1130]therefore all spirits are corporeal he concludes, and in their proper
shapes round. That they can assume other aerial bodies, all manner of
shapes at their pleasures, appear in what likeness they will themselves,
that they are most swift in motion, can pass many miles in an instant, and
so likewise [1131]transform bodies of others into what shape they please,
and with admirable celerity remove them from place to place; (as the Angel
did Habakkuk to Daniel, and as Philip the deacon was carried away by the
Spirit, when he had baptised the eunuch; so did Pythagoras and Apollonius
remove themselves and others, with many such feats) that they can represent
castles in the air, palaces, armies, spectrums, prodigies, and such strange
objects to mortal men's eyes, [1132]cause smells, savours, &c., deceive all
the senses; most writers of this subject credibly believe; and that they
can foretell future events, and do many strange miracles. Juno's image
spake to Camillus, and Fortune's statue to the Roman matrons, with many
such. Zanchius, Bodine, Spondanus, and others, are of opinion that they
cause a true metamorphosis, as Nebuchadnezzar was really translated into a
beast, Lot's wife into a pillar of salt; Ulysses' companions into hogs and
dogs, by Circe's charms; turn themselves and others, as they do witches
into cats, dogs, hares, crows, &c. Strozzius Cicogna hath many examples,
_lib. iii. omnif. mag. cap. 4 and 5_, which he there confutes, as Austin
likewise doth, _de civ. Dei lib. xviii_. That they can be seen when and in
what shape, and to whom they will, saith Psellus, _Tametsi nil tale
viderim, nec optem videre_, though he himself never saw them nor desired
it; and use sometimes carnal copulation (as elsewhere I shall [1133]prove
more at large) with women and men. Many will not believe they can be seen,
and if any man shall say, swear, and stiffly maintain, though he be
discreet and wise, judicious and learned, that he hath seen them, they
account him a timorous fool, a melancholy dizzard, a weak fellow, a
dreamer, a sick or a mad man, they contemn him, laugh him to scorn, and yet
Marcus of his credit told Psellus that he had often seen them. And Leo
Suavius, a Frenchman, _c. 8, in Commentar. l. 1. Paracelsi de vita longa_,
out of some Platonists, will have the air to be as full of them as snow
falling in the skies, and that they may be seen, and withal sets down the
means how men may see them; _Si irreverberatus oculis sole splendente
versus caelum continuaverint obtutus_, &c., [1134]and saith moreover he
tried it, _praemissorum feci experimentum_, and it was true, that the
Platonists said. Paracelsus confesseth that he saw them divers times, and
conferred with them, and so doth Alexander ab [1135]Alexandro, "that he so
found it by experience, when as before he doubted of it." Many deny it,
saith Lavater, _de spectris, part 1. c. 2_, and _part 2. c. 11_, "because
they never saw them themselves;" but as he reports at large all over his
book, especially _c. 19. part 1_, they are often seen and heard, and
familiarly converse with men, as Lod. Vives assureth us, innumerable
records, histories, and testimonies evince in all ages, times, places, and
[1136]all travellers besides; in the West Indies and our northern climes,
_Nihil familiarius quam in agris et urbibus spiritus videre, audire qui
vetent, jubeant_, &c. Hieronymus _vita Pauli_, Basil _ser. 40_, Nicephorus,
Eusebius, Socrates, Sozomenus, [1137]Jacobus Boissardus in his tract _de
spirituum apparitionibus_, Petrus Loyerus _l. de spectris_, Wierus _l. 1._
have infinite variety of such examples of apparitions of spirits, for him
to read that farther doubts, to his ample satisfaction. One alone I will
briefly insert. A nobleman in Germany was sent ambassador to the King of
Sweden (for his name, the time, and such circumstances, I refer you to
Boissardus, mine [1138]Author). After he had done his business, he sailed
to Livonia, on set purpose to see those familiar spirits, which are there
said to be conversant with men, and do their drudgery works. Amongst other
matters, one of them told him where his wife was, in what room, in what
clothes, what doing, and brought him a ring from her, which at his return,
_non sine omnium admiratione_, he found to be true; and so believed that
ever after, which before he doubted of. Cardan, _l. 19. de subtil_, relates
of his father, Facius Cardan, that after the accustomed solemnities, _An._
1491, 13 August, he conjured up seven devils, in Greek apparel, about forty
years of age, some ruddy of complexion, and some pale, as he thought; he
asked them many questions, and they made ready answer, that they were
aerial devils, that they lived and died as men did, save that they were far
longer lived (700 or 800 [1139]years); they did as much excel men in
dignity as we do juments, and were as far excelled again of those that were
above them; our [1140]governors and keepers they are moreover, which
[1141]Plato in Critias delivered of old, and subordinate to one another,
_Ut enim homo homini sic daemon daemoni dominatur_, they rule themselves as
well as us, and the spirits of the meaner sort had commonly such offices,
as we make horse-keepers, neat-herds, and the basest of us, overseers of
our cattle; and that we can no more apprehend their natures and functions,
than a horse a man's. They knew all things, but might not reveal them to
men; and ruled and domineered over us, as we do over our horses; the best
kings amongst us, and the most generous spirits, were not comparable to the
basest of them. Sometimes they did instruct men, and communicate their
skill, reward and cherish, and sometimes, again, terrify and punish, to
keep them in awe, as they thought fit, _Nihil magis cupientes_ (saith
Lysius, _Phis. Stoicorum_) _quam adorationem hominum_. [1142]The same
Author, Cardan, in his _Hyperchen_, out of the doctrine of Stoics, will
have some of these _genii_ (for so he calls them) to be [1143]desirous of
men's company, very affable and familiar with them, as dogs are; others,
again, to abhor as serpents, and care not for them. The same belike
Tritemius calls _Ignios et sublunares, qui nunquam demergunt ad inferiora,
aut vix ullum habent in terris commercium_: [1144]"Generally they far excel
men in worth, as a man the meanest worm; though some of them are inferior
to those of their own rank in worth, as the blackguard in a prince's court,
and to men again, as some degenerate, base, rational creatures, are
excelled of brute beasts."
That they are mortal, besides these testimonies of Cardan, Martianus, &c.,
many other divines and philosophers hold, _post prolixum tempus moriuntur
omnes_; The [1145]Platonists, and some |
