Chapter X (26)

Who will not be affected so in like case, or see those well-furnished cloisters and galleries of the Roman cardinals, so richly stored with all modern pictures, old statues and antiquities? Cum se—spectando recreet simul et legendo, to see their pictures alone and read the description, as [3316]Boisardus well adds, whom will it not affect? which Bozius, Pomponius, Laetus, Marlianus, Schottus, Cavelerius, Ligorius, &c., and he himself hath well performed of late. Or in some prince's cabinets, like that of the great dukes in Florence, of Felix Platerus in Basil, or noblemen's houses, to see such variety of attires, faces, so many, so rare, and such exquisite pieces, of men, birds, beasts, &c., to see those excellent landscapes, Dutch works, and curious cuts of Sadlier of Prague, Albertus Durer, Goltzius Vrintes, &c., such pleasant pieces of perspective, Indian pictures made of feathers, China works, frames, thaumaturgical motions, exotic toys, &c. Who is he that is now wholly overcome with idleness, or otherwise involved in a labyrinth of worldly cares, troubles and discontents, that will not be much lightened in his mind by reading of some enticing story, true or feigned, whereas in a glass he shall observe what our forefathers have done, the beginnings, ruins, falls, periods of commonwealths, private men's actions displayed to the life, &c. [3317] Plutarch therefore calls them, secundas mensas et bellaria, the second course and junkets, because they were usually read at noblemen's feasts. Who is not earnestly affected with a passionate speech, well penned, an elegant poem, or some pleasant bewitching discourse, like that of [3318] Heliodorus, ubi oblectatio quaedam placide fuit, cum hilaritate conjuncta? Julian the Apostate was so taken with an oration of Libanius, the sophister, that, as he confesseth, he could not be quiet till he had read it all out. Legi orationem tuam magna ex parte, hesterna die ante prandium, pransus vero sine ulla intermissione totam absolvi.[3319]O argumenta! O compositionem! I may say the same of this or that pleasing tract, which will draw his attention along with it. To most kind of men it is an extraordinary delight to study. For what a world of books offers itself, in all subjects, arts, and sciences, to the sweet content and capacity of the reader? In arithmetic, geometry, perspective, optics, astronomy, architecture, sculpture, painting, of which so many and such elaborate treatises are of late written: in mechanics and their mysteries, military matters, navigation, [3320]riding of horses, [3321]fencing, swimming, gardening, planting, great tomes of husbandry, cookery, falconry, hunting, fishing, fowling, &c., with exquisite pictures of all sports, games, and what not? In music, metaphysics, natural and moral philosophy, philology, in policy, heraldry, genealogy, chronology, &c., they afford great tomes, or those studies of [3322]antiquity, &c., et [3323]quid subtilius Arithmeticis inventionibus, quid jucundius Musicis rationibus, quid divinius Astronomicis, quid rectius Geometricis demonstrationibus? What so sure, what so pleasant? He that shall but see that geometrical tower of Garezenda at Bologna in Italy, the steeple and clock at Strasburg, will admire the effects of art, or that engine of Archimedes, to remove the earth itself, if he had but a place to fasten his instrument: Archimedes Coclea, and rare devices to corrivate waters, musical instruments, and tri-syllable echoes again, again, and again repeated, with myriads of such. What vast tomes are extant in law, physic, and divinity, for profit, pleasure, practice, speculation, in verse or prose, &c.! their names alone are the subject of whole volumes, we have thousands of authors of all sorts, many great libraries full well furnished, like so many dishes of meat, served out for several palates; and he is a very block that is affected with none of them. Some take an infinite delight to study the very languages wherein these books are written, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Chaldee, Arabic, &c. Methinks it would please any man to look upon a geographical map, [3324]sauvi animum delectatione allicere, ob incredibilem rerum varietatem et jucunditatem, et ad pleniorem sui cognitionem excitare, chorographical, topographical delineations, to behold, as it were, all the remote provinces, towns, cities of the world, and never to go forth of the limits of his study, to measure by the seale and compass their extent, distance, examine their site. Charles the Great, as Platina writes, had three fair silver tables, in one of which superficies was a large map of Constantinople, in the second Rome neatly engraved, in the third an exquisite description of the whole world, and much delight he took in them. What greater pleasure can there now be, than to view those elaborate maps of Ortelius, [3325]Mercator, Hondius, &c.? To peruse those books of cities, put out by Braunus and Hogenbergius? To read those exquisite descriptions of Maginus, Munster, Herrera, Laet, Merula, Boterus, Leander, Albertus, Camden, Leo Afer, Adricomius, Nic. Gerbelius, &c.? Those famous expeditions of Christoph. Columbus, Americus Vespucius, Marcus Polus the Venetian, Lod. Vertomannus, Aloysius Cadamustus, &c.? Those accurate diaries of Portuguese, Hollanders, of Bartison, Oliver a Nort, &c. Hakluyt's voyages, Pet. Martyr's Decades, Benzo, Lerius, Linschoten's relations, those Hodoeporicons of Jod. a Meggen, Brocard the monk, Bredenbachius, Jo. Dublinius, Sands, &c., to Jerusalem, Egypt, and other remote places of the world? those pleasant itineraries of Paulus Hentzerus, Jodocus Sincerus, Dux Polonus, &c., to read Bellonius' observations, P. Gillius his surveys; those parts of America, set out, and curiously cut in pictures, by Fratres a Bry. To see a well-cut herbal, herbs, trees, flowers, plants, all vegetables expressed in their proper colours to the life, as that of Matthiolus upon Dioscorides, Delacampius, Lobel, Bauhinus, and that last voluminous and mighty herbal of Beslar of Nuremberg, wherein almost every plant is to his own bigness. To see birds, beasts, and fishes of the sea, spiders, gnats, serpents, flies, &c., all creatures set out by the same art, and truly expressed in lively colours, with an exact description of their natures, virtues, qualities, &c., as hath been accurately performed by Aelian, Gesner, Ulysses Aldrovandus, Bellonius, Rondoletius, Hippolitus Salvianus, &c. [3326]Arcana coeli, naturae secreta, ordinem universi scire majoris felicitatis et dulcedinis est, quam cogitatione quis assequi possit, aut mortalis sperare. What more pleasing studies can there be than the mathematics, theoretical or practical parts? as to survey land, make maps, models, dials, &c., with which I was ever much delighted myself. Tails est Mathematum pulchritudo (saith [3327] Plutarch) ut his indignum sit divitiarum phaleras istas et bullas, et puellaria spectacula comparari; such is the excellency of these studies, that all those ornaments and childish bubbles of wealth, are not worthy to be compared to them: credi mihi ( [3328]saith one) extingui dulce erit Mathematicarum artium studio, I could even live and die with such meditation, [3329]and take more delight, true content of mind in them, than thou hast in all thy wealth and sport, how rich soever thou art. And as [3330]Cardan well seconds me, Honorificum magis est et gloriosum haec intelligere, quam provinciis praeesse, formosum aut ditem juvenem esse. [3331]The like pleasure there is in all other studies, to such as are truly addicted to them, [3332]ea suavitas (one holds) ut cum quis ea degustaverit, quasi poculis Circeis captus, non possit unquam ab illis divelli; the like sweetness, which as Circe's cup bewitcheth a student, he cannot leave off, as well may witness those many laborious hours, days and nights, spent in the voluminous treatises written by them; the same content. [3333]Julius Scaliger was so much affected with poetry, that he brake out into a pathetical protestation, he had rather be the author of twelve verses in Lucan, or such an ode in [3334]Horace, than emperor of Germany. [3335]Nicholas Gerbelius, that good old man, was so much ravished with a few Greek authors restored to light, with hope and desire of enjoying the rest, that he exclaims forthwith, Arabibus atque Indis omnibus erimus ditiores, we shall be richer than all the Arabic or Indian princes; of such [3336]esteem they were with him, incomparable worth and value. Seneca prefers Zeno and Chrysippus, two doting stoics (he was so much enamoured of their works), before any prince or general of an army; and Orontius, the mathematician, so far admires Archimedes, that he calls him Divinum et homine majorem, a petty god, more than a man; and well he might, for aught I see, if you respect fame or worth. Pindarus, of Thebes, is as much renowned for his poems, as Epaminondas, Pelopidas, Hercules or Bacchus, his fellow citizens, for their warlike actions; et si famam respicias, non pauciores Aristotelis quam Alexandri meminerunt (as Cardan notes), Aristotle is more known than Alexander; for we have a bare relation of Alexander's deeds, but Aristotle, totus vivit in monumentis, is whole in his works: yet I stand not upon this; the delight is it, which I aim at, so great pleasure, such sweet content there is in study. [3337]King James, 1605, when he came to see our University of Oxford, and amongst other edifices now went to view that famous library, renewed by Sir Thomas Bodley, in imitation of Alexander, at his departure brake out into that noble speech, If I were not a king, I would be a university man: [3338] and if it were so that I must be a prisoner, if I might have my wish, I would desire to have no other prison than that library, and to be chained together with so many good authors et mortuis magistris. So sweet is the delight of study, the more learning they have (as he that hath a dropsy, the more he drinks the thirstier he is) the more they covet to learn, and the last day is prioris discipulus; harsh at first learning is, radices amarcae, but fractus dulces, according to that of Isocrates, pleasant at last; the longer they live, the more they are enamoured with the Muses. Heinsius, the keeper of the library at Leyden in Holland, was mewed up in it all the year long: and that which to thy thinking should have bred a loathing, caused in him a greater liking. [3339]I no sooner (saith he) come into the library, but I bolt the door to me, excluding lust, ambition, avarice, and all such vices, whose nurse is idleness, the mother of ignorance, and melancholy herself, and in the very lap of eternity, amongst so many divine souls, I take my seat, with so lofty a spirit and sweet content, that I pity all our great ones, and rich men that know not this happiness. I am not ignorant in the meantime (notwithstanding this which I have said) how barbarously and basely, for the most part, our ruder gentry esteem of libraries and books, how they neglect and contemn so great a treasure, so inestimable a benefit, as Aesop's cock did the jewel he found in the dunghill; and all through error, ignorance, and want of education. And 'tis a wonder, withal, to observe how much they will vainly cast away in unnecessary expenses, quot modis pereant (saith [3340]Erasmus) magnatibus pecuniae, quantum absumant alea, scorta, compotationes, profectiones non necessariae, pompae, bella quaesita, ambitio, colax, morio, ludio, &c., what in hawks, hounds, lawsuits, vain building, gormandising, drinking, sports, plays, pastimes, &c. If a well-minded man to the Muses, would sue to some of them for an exhibition, to the farther maintenance or enlargement of such a work, be it college, lecture, library, or whatsoever else may tend to the advancement of learning, they are so unwilling, so averse, that they had rather see these which are already, with such cost and care erected, utterly ruined, demolished or otherwise employed; for they repine many and grudge at such gifts and revenues so bestowed: and therefore it were in vain, as Erasmus well notes, vel ab his, vel a negotiatoribus qui se Mammonae dediderunt, improbum fortasse tale officium exigere, to solicit or ask anything of such men that are likely damned to riches; to this purpose. For my part I pity these men, stultos jubeo esse libenter, let them go as they are, in the catalogue of Ignoramus. How much, on the other side, are all we bound that are scholars, to those munificent Ptolemies, bountiful Maecenases, heroical patrons, divine spirits, [3341]———qui nobis haec otio fecerunt, namque erit ille mihi semper Deus———

These blessings, friend, a Deity bestow'd, For never can I deem him less than God.

that have provided for us so many well-furnished libraries, as well in our public academies in most cities, as in our private colleges? How shall I remember [3342]Sir Thomas Bodley, amongst the rest, [3343]Otho Nicholson, and the Right Reverend John Williams, Lord Bishop of Lincoln (with many other pious acts), who besides that at St. John's College in Cambridge, that in Westminster, is now likewise in Fieri with a library at Lincoln (a noble precedent for all corporate towns and cities to imitate), O quam te memorem (vir illustrissime) quibus elogiis? But to my task again. Whosoever he is therefore that is overrun with solitariness, or carried away with pleasing melancholy and vain conceits, and for want of employment knows not how to spend his time, or crucified with worldly care, I can prescribe him no better remedy than this of study, to compose himself to the learning of some art or science. Provided always that this malady proceed not from overmuch study; for in such case he adds fuel to the fire, and nothing can be more pernicious: let him take heed he do not overstretch his wits, and make a skeleton of himself; or such inamoratos as read nothing but play-books, idle poems, jests, Amadis de Gaul, the Knight of the Sun, the Seven Champions, Palmerin de Oliva, Huon of Bordeaux, &c. Such many times prove in the end as mad as Don Quixote. Study is only prescribed to those that are otherwise idle, troubled in mind, or carried headlong with vain thoughts and imaginations, to distract their cogitations (although variety of study, or some serious subject, would do the former no harm) and divert their continual meditations another way. Nothing in this case better than study; semper aliquid memoriter ediscant, saith Piso, let them learn something without book, transcribe, translate, &c. Read the Scriptures, which Hyperius, lib. 1. de quotid. script. lec. fol. 77. holds available of itself, [3344]the mind is erected thereby from all worldly cares, and hath much quiet and tranquillity. For as [3345]Austin well hath it, 'tis scientia scientiarum, omni melle dulcior, omni pane suavior, omni vino, hilarior: 'tis the best nepenthe, surest cordial, sweetest alterative, presentest diverter: for neither as [3346]Chrysostom well adds, those boughs and leaves of trees which are plashed for cattle to stand under, in the heat of the day, in summer, so much refresh them with their acceptable shade, as the reading of the Scripture doth recreate and comfort a distressed soul, in sorrow and affliction. Paul bids pray continually; quod cibus corpori, lectio animae facit, saith Seneca, as meat is to the body, such is reading to the soul. [3347]To be at leisure without books is another hell, and to be buried alive. [3348]Cardan calls a library the physic of the soul; [3349]divine authors fortify the mind, make men bold and constant; and (as Hyperius adds) godly conference will not permit the mind to be tortured with absurd cogitations. Rhasis enjoins continual conference to such melancholy men, perpetual discourse of some history, tale, poem, news, &c., alternos sermones edere ac bibere, aeque jucundum quam cibus, sive potus, which feeds the mind as meat and drink doth the body, and pleaseth as much: and therefore the said Rhasis, not without good cause, would have somebody still talk seriously, or dispute with them, and sometimes [3350]to cavil and wrangle (so that it break not out to a violent perturbation), for such altercation is like stirring of a dead fire to make it burn afresh, it whets a dull spirit, and will not suffer the mind to be drowned in those profound cogitations, which melancholy men are commonly troubled with. [3351]Ferdinand and Alphonsus, kings of Arragon and Sicily, were both cured by reading the history, one of Curtius, the other of Livy, when no prescribed physic would take place. [3352]Camerarius relates as much of Lorenzo de' Medici. Heathen philosophers arc so full of divine precepts in this kind, that, as some think, they alone are able to settle a distressed mind. [3353]Sunt verba et voces, quibus hunc lenire dolorem, &c. Epictetus, Plutarch, and Seneca; qualis ille, quae tela, saith Lipsius, adversus omnes animi casus administrat, et ipsam mortem, quomodo vitia eripit, infert virtutes? when I read Seneca, [3354]methinks I am beyond all human fortunes, on the top of a hill above mortality. Plutarch saith as much of Homer, for which cause belike Niceratus, in Xenophon, was made by his parents to con Homer's Iliads and Odysseys without book, ut in virum bonum evaderet, as well to make him a good and honest man, as to avoid idleness. If this comfort be got from philosophy, what shall be had from divinity? What shall Austin, Cyprian, Gregory, Bernard's divine meditations afford us? [3355]Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, Plenius et melius Chrysippo et Crantore dicunt.

Nay, what shall the Scripture itself? Which is like an apothecary's shop, wherein are all remedies for all infirmities of mind, purgatives, cordials, alteratives, corroboratives, lenitives, &c. Every disease of the soul, saith [3356]Austin, hath a peculiar medicine in the Scripture; this only is required, that the sick man take the potion which God hath already tempered. [3357]Gregory calls it a glass wherein we may see all our infirmities, ignitum colloquium, Psalm cxix. 140. [3358]Origen a charm. And therefore Hierom prescribes Rusticus the monk, [3359]continually to read the Scripture, and to meditate on that which he hath read; for as mastication is to meat, so is meditation on that which we read. I would for these causes wish him that, is melancholy to use both human and divine authors, voluntarily to impose some task upon himself, to divert his melancholy thoughts: to study the art of memory, Cosmus Rosselius, Pet. Ravennas, Scenkelius' Detectus, or practise brachygraphy, &c., that will ask a great deal of attention: or let him demonstrate a proposition in Euclid, in his five last books, extract a square root, or study Algebra: than which, as [3360]Clavius holds, in all human disciplines nothing can be more excellent and pleasant, so abstruse and recondite, so bewitching, so miraculous, so ravishing, so easy withal and full of delight, omnem humanum captum superare videtur. By this means you may define ex ungue leonem, as the diverb is, by his thumb alone the bigness of Hercules, or the true dimensions of the great [3361]Colossus, Solomon's temple, and Domitian's amphitheatre out of a little part. By this art you may contemplate the variation of the twenty-three letters, which may be so infinitely varied, that the words complicated and deduced thence will not be contained within the compass of the firmament; ten words may be varied 40,320 several ways: by this art you may examine how many men may stand one by another in the whole superficies of the earth, some say 148,456,800,000,000, assignando singulis passum quadratum (assigning a square foot to each), how many men, supposing all the world as habitable as France, as fruitful and so long-lived, may be born in 60,000 years, and so may you demonstrate with [3362]Archimedes how many sands the mass of the whole world might contain if all sandy, if you did but first know how much a small cube as big as a mustard-seed might hold, with infinite such. But in all nature what is there so stupendous as to examine and calculate the motion of the planets, their magnitudes, apogees, perigees, eccentricities, how far distant from the earth, the bigness, thickness, compass of the firmament, each star, with their diameters and circumference, apparent area, superficies, by those curious helps of glasses, astrolabes, sextants, quadrants, of which Tycho Brahe in his mechanics, optics ([3363]divine optics) arithmetic, geometry, and such like arts and instruments? What so intricate and pleasing withal, as to peruse and practise Heron Alexandrinus's works, de spiritalibus, de machinis bellicis, de machina se movente, Jordani Nemorarii de ponderibus proposit. 13, that pleasant tract of Machometes Bragdedinus de superficierum divisionibus, Apollonius's Conics, or Commandinus's labours in that kind, de centro gravitatis, with many such geometrical theorems and problems? Those rare instruments and mechanical inventions of Jac. Bessonus, and Cardan to this purpose, with many such experiments intimated long since by Roger Bacon, in his tract de [3364]Secretis artis et naturae, as to make a chariot to move sine animali, diving boats, to walk on the water by art, and to fly in the air, to make several cranes and pulleys, quibus homo trahat ad se mille homines, lift up and remove great weights, mills to move themselves, Archita's dove, Albertus's brazen head, and such thaumaturgical works. But especially to do strange miracles by glasses, of which Proclus and Bacon writ of old, burning glasses, multiplying glasses, perspectives, ut unus homo appareat exercitus, to see afar off, to represent solid bodies by cylinders and concaves, to walk in the air, ut veraciter videant, (saith Bacon) aurum et argentum et quicquid aliud volunt, et quum veniant ad locum visionis, nihil inveniant, which glasses are much perfected of late by Baptista Porta and Galileo, and much more is promised by Maginus and Midorgius, to be performed in this kind. Otocousticons some speak of, to intend hearing, as the other do sight; Marcellus Vrencken, a Hollander, in his epistle to Burgravius, makes mention of a friend of his that is about an instrument, quo videbit quae in altero horizonte sint. But our alchemists, methinks, and Rosicrucians afford most rarities, and are fuller of experiments: they can make gold, separate and alter metals, extract oils, salts, lees, and do more strange works than Geber, Lullius, Bacon, or any of those ancients. Crollius hath made after his master Paracelsus, aurum fulminans, or aurum volatile, which shall imitate thunder and lightning, and crack louder than any gunpowder; Cornelius Drible a perpetual motion, inextinguishable lights, linum non ardens, with many such feats; see his book de natura elementorum, besides hail, wind, snow, thunder, lightning, &c., those strange fireworks, devilish petards, and such like warlike machinations derived hence, of which read Tartalea and others. Ernestus Burgravius, a disciple of Paracelsus, hath published a discourse, in which he specifies a lamp to be made of man's blood, Lucerna vitae et mortis index, so he terms it, which chemically prepared forty days, and afterwards kept in a glass, shall show all the accidents of this life; si lampus hic clarus, tunc homo hilaris et sanus corpore et animo; si nebulosus et depressus, male afficitur, et sic pro statu hominis variatur, unde sumptus sanguis; [3365]and which is most wonderful, it dies with the party, cum homine perit, et evanescit, the lamp and the man whence the blood was taken, are extinguished together. The same author hath another tract of Mumia (all out as vain and prodigious as the first) by which he will cure most diseases, and transfer them from a man to a beast, by drawing blood from one, and applying it to the other, vel in plantam derivare, and an Alexi-pharmacum, of which Roger Bacon of old in his Tract. de retardanda senectute, to make a man young again, live three or four hundred years. Besides panaceas, martial amulets, unguentum armarium, balsams, strange extracts, elixirs, and such like magico-magnetical cures. Now what so pleasing can there be as the speculation of these things, to read and examine such experiments, or if a man be more mathematically given, to calculate, or peruse Napier's Logarithms, or those tables of artificial [3366]sines and tangents, not long since set out by mine old collegiate, good friend, and late fellow-student of Christ Church in Oxford, [3367]Mr. Edmund Gunter, which will perform that by addition and subtraction only, which heretofore Regiomontanus's tables did by multiplication and division, or those elaborate conclusions of his [3368]sector, quadrant, and cross-staff. Or let him that is melancholy calculate spherical triangles, square a circle, cast a nativity, which howsoever some tax, I say with [3369]Garcaeus, dabimus hoc petulantibus ingeniis, we will in some cases allow: or let him make an ephemerides, read Suisset the calculator's works, Scaliger de emendatione temporum, and Petavius his adversary, till he understand them, peruse subtle Scotus and Suarez's metaphysics, or school divinity, Occam, Thomas, Entisberus, Durand, &c. If those other do not affect him, and his means be great, to employ his purse and fill his head, he may go find the philosopher's stone; he may apply his mind, I say, to heraldry, antiquity, invent impresses, emblems; make epithalamiums, epitaphs, elegies, epigrams, palindroma epigrammata, anagrams, chronograms, acrostics, upon his friends' names; or write a comment on Martianus Capella, Tertullian de pallio, the Nubian geography, or upon Aelia Laelia Crispis, as many idle fellows have essayed; and rather than do nothing, vary a [3370]verse a thousand ways with Putean, so torturing his wits, or as Rainnerus of Luneburg, [3371]2150 times in his Proteus Poeticus, or Scaliger, Chrysolithus, Cleppissius, and others, have in like sort done. If such voluntary tasks, pleasure and delight, or crabbedness of these studies, will not yet divert their idle thoughts, and alienate their imaginations, they must be compelled, saith Christophorus a Vega, cogi debent, l. 5. c. 14, upon some mulct, if they perform it not, quod ex officio incumbat, loss of credit or disgrace, such as our public University exercises. For, as he that plays for nothing will not heed his game; no more will voluntary employment so thoroughly affect a student, except he be very intent of himself, and take an extraordinary delight in the study, about which he is conversant. It should be of that nature his business, which volens nolens he must necessarily undergo, and without great loss, mulct, shame, or hindrance, he may not omit. Now for women, instead of laborious studies, they have curious needleworks, cut-works, spinning, bone-lace, and many pretty devices of their own making, to adorn their houses, cushions, carpets, chairs, stools, (for she eats not the bread of idleness, Prov. xxxi. 27. quaesivit lanam et linum) confections, conserves, distillations, &c., which they show to strangers. [3372]Ipsa comes praesesque operis venientibus ultro Hospitibus monstrare solet, non segniter horas Contestata suas, sed nec sibi depertisse.

Which to her guests she shows, with all her pelf, Thus far my maids, but this I did myself.

This they have to busy themselves about, household offices, &c., [3373] neat gardens, full of exotic, versicolour, diversely varied, sweet-smelling flowers, and plants in all kinds, which they are most ambitious to get, curious to preserve and keep, proud to possess, and much many times brag of. Their merry meetings and frequent visitations, mutual invitations in good towns, I voluntarily omit, which are so much in use, gossiping among the meaner sort, &c., old folks have their beads: an excellent invention to keep them from idleness, that are by nature melancholy, and past all affairs, to say so many paternosters, avemarias, creeds, if it were not profane and superstitious. In a word, body and mind must be exercised, not one, but both, and that in a mediocrity; otherwise it will cause a great inconvenience. If the body be overtired, it tires the mind. The mind oppresseth the body, as with students it oftentimes falls out, who (as [3374]Plutarch observes) have no care of the body, but compel that which is mortal to do as much as that which is immortal: that which is earthly, as that which is ethereal. But as the ox tired, told the camel, (both serving one master) that refused to carry some part of his burden, before it were long he should be compelled to carry all his pack, and skin to boot (which by and by, the ox being dead, fell out), the body may say to the soul, that will give him no respite or remission: a little after, an ague, vertigo, consumption, seizeth on them both, all his study is omitted, and they must be compelled to be sick together: he that tenders his own good estate, and health, must let them draw with equal yoke, both alike, [3375] that so they may happily enjoy their wished health.

MEMB. V.

_Waking and terrible Dreams rectified_.

As waking that hurts, by all means must be avoided, so sleep, which so much helps, by like ways, [3376]must be procured, by nature or art, inward or outward medicines, and be protracted longer than ordinary, if it may be, as being an especial help. It moistens and fattens the body, concocts, and helps digestion (as we see in dormice, and those Alpine mice that sleep all winter), which Gesner speaks of, when they are so found sleeping under the snow in the dead of winter, as fat as butter. It expels cares, pacifies the mind, refresheth the weary limbs after long work: [3377]Somne quies rerum, placidissime somne deorum, Pax animi, quem cura fugit, qui corpora duris Fessa ministeriis mulces reparasque labori.

Sleep, rest of things, O pleasing deity, Peace of the soul, which cares dost crucify, Weary bodies refresh and mollify.

The chiefest thing in all physic, [3378]Paracelsus calls it, omnia arcana gemmarum superans et metallorum. The fittest time is [3379]two or three hours after supper, when as the meat is now settled at the bottom of the stomach, and 'tis good to lie on the right side first, because at that site the liver doth rest under the stomach, not molesting any way, but heating him as a fire doth a kettle, that is put to it. After the first sleep 'tis not amiss to lie on the left side, that the meat may the better descend; and sometimes again on the belly, but never on the back. Seven or eight hours is a competent time for a melancholy man to rest, as Crato thinks; but as some do, to lie in bed and not sleep, a day, or half a day together, to give assent to pleasing conceits and vain imaginations, is many ways pernicious. To procure this sweet moistening sleep, it's best to take away the occasions (if it be possible) that hinder it, and then to use such inward or outward remedies, which may cause it. Constat hodie (saith Boissardus in his tract de magia, cap. 4.) multos ita fascinari ut noctes integras exigant insomnes, summa, inquietudine animorum et corporum; many cannot sleep for witches and fascinations, which are too familiar in some places; they call it, dare alicui malam noctem. But the ordinary causes are heat and dryness, which must first be removed: [3380]a hot and dry brain never sleeps well: grief, fears, cares, expectations, anxieties, great businesses, [3381]In aurum utramque otiose ut dormias, and all violent perturbations of the mind, must in some sort be qualified, before we can hope for any good repose. He that sleeps in the daytime, or is in suspense, fear, any way troubled in mind, or goes to bed upon a full [3382]stomach, may never hope for quiet rest in the night; nec enim meritoria somnos admittunt, as the [3383]poet saith; inns and such like troublesome places are not for sleep; one calls ostler, another tapster, one cries and shouts, another sings, whoops, halloos, [3384]———absentem cantat amicam, Multa prolutus vappa nauta atque viator.

Who not accustomed to such noises can sleep amongst them? He that will intend to take his rest must go to bed animo securo, quieto et libero, with a [3385]secure and composed mind, in a quiet place: omnia noctes erunt placida composta quiete: and if that will not serve, or may not be obtained, to seek then such means as are requisite. To lie in clean linen and sweet; before he goes to bed, or in bed, to hear [3386]sweet music, which Ficinus commends, lib. 1. cap. 24, or as Jobertus, med. pract. lib. 3. cap. 10. [3387]to read some pleasant author till he be asleep, to have a basin of water still dropping by his bedside, or to lie near that pleasant murmur, lene sonantis aquae. Some floodgates, arches, falls of water, like London Bridge, or some continuate noise which may benumb the senses, lenis motus, silentium et tenebra, tum et ipsa voluntas somnos faciunt; as a gentle noise to some procures sleep, so, which Bernardinus Tilesius, lib. de somno, well observes, silence, in a dark room, and the will itself, is most available to others. Piso commends frications, Andrew Borde a good draught of strong drink before one goes to bed; I say, a nutmeg and ale, or a good draught of Muscadine, with a toast and nutmeg, or a posset of the same, which many use in a morning, but methinks, for such as have dry brains, are much more proper at night; some prescribe a [3388] sup of vinegar as they go to bed, a spoonful, saith Aetius Tetrabib. lib. 2. ser. 2. cap. 10. lib. 6. cap. 10. Aegineta, lib. 3. cap. 14. Piso, a little after meat, [3389]because it rarefies melancholy, and procures an appetite to sleep. Donat. ab Altomar. cap. 7. and Mercurialis approve of it, if the malady proceed from the [3390]spleen. Salust. Salvian. lib. 2. cap. 1. de remed. Hercules de Saxonia in Pan. Aelinus, Montaltus de morb. capitis, cap. 28. de Melan. are altogether against it. Lod. Mercatus, de inter. Morb. cau. lib. 1. cap. 17. in some cases doth allow it. [3391]Rhasis seems to deliberate of it, though Simeon commend it (in sauce peradventure) he makes a question of it: as for baths, fomentations, oils, potions, simples or compounds, inwardly taken to this purpose, [3392] I shall speak of them elsewhere. If, in the midst of the night, when they lie awake, which is usual to toss and tumble, and not sleep, [3393] Ranzovius would have them, if it be in warm weather, to rise and walk three or four turns (till they be cold) about the chamber, and then go to bed again. Against fearful and troublesome dreams, Incubus and such inconveniences, wherewith melancholy men are molested, the best remedy is to eat a light supper, and of such meats as are easy of digestion, no hare, venison, beef, &c., not to lie on his back, not to meditate or think in the daytime of any terrible objects, or especially talk of them before he goes to bed. For, as he said in Lucian after such conference, Hecates somniare mihi videor, I can think of nothing but hobgoblins: and as Tully notes, [3394] for the most part our speeches in the daytime cause our fantasy to work upon the like in our sleep, which Ennius writes of Homer: Et canis in somnis leporis vestigia latrat: as a dog dreams of a hare, so do men on such subjects they thought on last. [3395]Somnia quae mentes ludunt volitantibus umbris, Nec delubra deum, nec ab aethere numina mittunt, Sed sibi quisque facit, &c.

For that cause when Ptolemy, king of Egypt, had posed the seventy interpreters in order, and asked the nineteenth man what would make one sleep quietly in the night, he told him, [3396]the best way was to have divine and celestial meditations, and to use honest actions in the daytime. [3397]Lod. Vives wonders how schoolmen could sleep quietly, and were not terrified in the night, or walk in the dark, they had such monstrous questions, and thought of such terrible matters all day long. They had need, amongst the rest, to sacrifice to god Morpheus, whom [3398] Philostratus paints in a white and black coat, with a horn and ivory box full of dreams, of the same colours, to signify good and bad. If you will know how to interpret them, read Artemidorus, Sambucus and Cardan; but how to help them, [3399]I must refer you to a more convenient place.

MEMB. VI.

SUBSECT. I.—_Perturbations of the mind rectified. From himself, by resisting to the utmost, confessing his grief to a friend, &c._

Whosoever he is that shall hope to cure this malady in himself or any other, must first rectify these passions and perturbations of the mind: the chiefest cure consists in them. A quiet mind is that voluptas, or summum bonum of Epicurus, non dolere, curis vacare, animo tranquillo esse, not to grieve, but to want cares, and have a quiet soul, is the only pleasure of the world, as Seneca truly recites his opinion, not that of eating and drinking, which injurious Aristotle maliciously puts upon him, and for which he is still mistaken, male audit et vapulat, slandered without a cause, and lashed by all posterity. [3400]Fear and sorrow, therefore, are especially to be avoided, and the mind to be mitigated with mirth, constancy, good hope; vain terror, bad objects are to be removed, and all such persons in whose companies they be not well pleased. Gualter Bruel. Fernelius, consil. 43. Mercurialis, consil. 6. Piso, Jacchinus, cap. 15. in 9. Rhasis, Capivaccius, Hildesheim, &c., all inculcate this as an especial means of their cure, that their [3401]minds be quietly pacified, vain conceits diverted, if it be possible, with terrors, cares, [3402] fixed studies, cogitations, and whatsoever it is that shall any way molest or trouble the soul, because that otherwise there is no good to be done. [3403]The body's mischiefs, as Plato proves, proceed from the soul: and if the mind be not first satisfied, the body can never be cured. Alcibiades raves (saith [3404]Maximus Tyrius) and is sick, his furious desires carry him from Lyceus to the pleading place, thence to the sea, so into Sicily, thence to Lacedaemon, thence to Persia, thence to Samos, then again to Athens; Critias tyranniseth over all the city; Sardanapalus is lovesick; these men are ill-affected all, and can never be cured, till their minds be otherwise qualified. Crato, therefore, in that often-cited Counsel of his for a nobleman his patient, when he had sufficiently informed him in diet, air, exercise, Venus, sleep, concludes with these as matters of greatest moment, Quod reliquum est, animae accidentia corrigantur, from which alone proceeds melancholy; they are the fountain, the subject, the hinges whereon it turns, and must necessarily be reformed. [3405]For anger stirs choler, heats the blood and vital spirits; sorrow on the other side refrigerates the body, and extinguisheth natural heat, overthrows appetite, hinders concoction, dries up the temperature, and perverts the understanding: fear dissolves the spirits, infects the heart, attenuates the soul: and for these causes all passions and perturbations must, to the uttermost of our power and most seriously, be removed. Aelianus Montaltus attributes so much to them, [3406]that he holds the rectification of them alone to be sufficient to the cure of melancholy in most patients. Many are fully cured when they have seen or heard, &c., enjoy their desires, or be secured and satisfied in their minds; Galen, the common master of them all, from whose fountain they fetch water, brags, lib. 1. de san. tuend., that he, for his part, hath cured divers of this infirmity, solum animis ad rectum institutis, by right settling alone of their minds. Yea, but you will here infer, that this is excellent good indeed if it could be done; but how shall it be effected, by whom, what art, what means? hic labor, hoc opus est. 'Tis a natural infirmity, a most powerful adversary, all men are subject to passions, and melancholy above all others, as being distempered by their innate humours, abundance of choler adust, weakness of parts, outward occurrences; and how shall they be avoided? The wisest men, greatest philosophers of most excellent wit, reason, judgment, divine spirits, cannot moderate themselves in this behalf; such as are sound in body and mind, Stoics, heroes, Homer's gods, all are passionate, and furiously carried sometimes; and how shall we that are already crazed, fracti animis, sick in body, sick in mind, resist? we cannot perform it. You may advise and give good precepts, as who cannot? But how shall they be put in practice? I may not deny but our passions are violent, and tyrannise of us, yet there be means to curb them; though they be headstrong, they may be tamed, they may be qualified, if he himself or his friends will but use their honest endeavours, or make use of such ordinary helps as are commonly prescribed. He himself (I say); from the patient himself the first and chiefest remedy must be had; for if he be averse, peevish, waspish, give way wholly to his passions, will not seek to be helped, or be ruled by his friends, how is it possible he should be cured? But if he be willing at least, gentle, tractable, and desire his own good, no doubt but he may magnam morbi deponere partem, be eased at least, if not cured. He himself must do his utmost endeavour to resist and withstand the beginnings. Principiis obsta, Give not water passage, no not a little, Ecclus. xxv. 27. If they open a little, they will make a greater breach at length. Whatsoever it is that runneth in his mind, vain conceit, be it pleasing or displeasing, which so much affects or troubleth him, [3407]by all possible means he must withstand it, expel those vain, false, frivolous imaginations, absurd conceits, feigned fears and sorrows; from which, saith Piso, this disease primarily proceeds, and takes his first occasion or beginning, by doing something or other that shall be opposite unto them, thinking of something else, persuading by reason, or howsoever to make a sudden alteration of them. Though he have hitherto run in a full career, and precipitated himself, following his passions, giving reins to his appetite, let him now stop upon a sudden, curb himself in; and as [3408]Lemnius adviseth, strive against with all his power, to the utmost of his endeavour, and not cherish those fond imaginations, which so covertly creep into his mind, most pleasing and amiable at first, but bitter as gall at last, and so headstrong, that by no reason, art, counsel, or persuasion, they may be shaken off. Though he be far gone, and habituated unto such fantastical imaginations, yet as [3409]Tully and Plutarch advise, let him oppose, fortify, or prepare himself against them, by premeditation, reason, or as we do by a crooked staff, bend himself another way. [3410]Tu tamen interea effugito quae tristia mentem Solicitant, procul esse jube curasque metumque Pallentum, ultrices iras, sint omnia laeta.

In the meantime expel them from thy mind, Pale fears, sad cares, and griefs which do it grind, Revengeful anger, pain and discontent, Let all thy soul be set on merriment.

Curas tolle graves, irasci crede profanum. If it be idleness hath caused this infirmity, or that he perceive himself given to solitariness, to walk alone, and please his mind with fond imaginations, let him by all means avoid it; 'tis a bosom enemy, 'tis delightsome melancholy, a friend in show, but a secret devil, a sweet poison, it will in the end be his undoing; let him go presently, task or set himself a work, get some good company. If he proceed, as a gnat flies about a candle, so long till at length he burn his bodv, so in the end he will undo himself: if it be any harsh object, ill company, let him presently go from it. If by his own default, through ill diet, bad air, want of exercise, &c., let him now begin to reform himself. It would be a perfect remedy against all corruption, if, as [3411]Roger Bacon hath it, we could but moderate ourselves in those six non-natural things. [3412]If it be any disgrace, abuse, temporal loss, calumny, death of friends, imprisonment, banishment, be not troubled with it, do not fear, be not angry, grieve not at it, but with all courage sustain it. (Gordonius, lib. 1. c. 15. de conser. vit.) Tu contra audentior ito. [3413]If it be sickness, ill success, or any adversity that hath caused it, oppose an invincible courage, fortify thyself by God's word, or otherwise, mala bonis persuadenda, set prosperity against adversity, as we refresh our eyes by seeing some pleasant meadow, fountain, picture, or the like: recreate thy mind by some contrary object, with some more pleasing meditation divert thy thoughts. Yea, but you infer again, facile consilium damus aliis, we can easily give counsel to others; every man, as the saying is, can tame a shrew but he that hath her; si hic esses, aliter sentires; if you were in our misery, you would find it otherwise, 'tis not so easily performed. We know this to be true; we should moderate ourselves, but we are furiously carried, we cannot make use of such precepts, we are overcome, sick, male sani, distempered and habituated to these courses, we can make no resistance; you may as well bid him that is diseased not to feel pain, as a melancholy man not to fear, not to be sad: 'tis within his blood, his brains, his whole temperature, it cannot be removed. But he may choose whether he will give way too far unto it, he may in some sort correct himself. A philosopher was bitten with a mad dog, and as the nature of that disease is to abhor all waters, and liquid things, and to think still they see the picture of a dog before them: he went for all this, reluctante se, to the bath, and seeing there (as he thought) in the water the picture of a dog, with reason overcame this conceit, quid cani cum balneo? what should a dog do in a bath? a mere conceit. Thou thinkest thou hearest and seest devils, black men, &c., 'tis not so, 'tis thy corrupt fantasy; settle thine imagination, thou art well. Thou thinkest thou hast a great nose, thou art sick, every man observes thee, laughs thee to scorn; persuade thyself 'tis no such matter: this is fear only, and vain suspicion. Thou art discontent, thou art sad and heavy; but why? upon what ground? consider of it: thou art jealous, timorous, suspicious; for what cause? examine it thoroughly, thou shalt find none at all, or such as is to be contemned; such as thou wilt surely deride, and contemn in thyself, when it is past. Rule thyself then with reason, satisfy thyself, accustom thyself, wean thyself from such fond conceits, vain fears, strong imaginations, restless thoughts. Thou mayst do it; Est in nobis assuescere (as Plutarch saith), we may frame ourselves as we will. As he that useth an upright shoe, may correct the obliquity, or crookedness, by wearing it on the other side; we may overcome passions if we will. Quicquid sibi imperavit animus obtinuit (as [3414]Seneca saith) nulli tam feri affectus, ut non disciplina perdomentur, whatsoever the will desires, she may command: no such cruel affections, but by discipline they may be tamed; voluntarily thou wilt not do this or that, which thou oughtest to do, or refrain, &c., but when thou art lashed like a dull jade, thou wilt reform it: fear of a whip will make thee do, or not do. Do that voluntarily then which thou canst do, and must do by compulsion; thou mayst refrain if thou wilt, and master thine affections. [3415]As in a city (saith Melancthon) they do by stubborn rebellious rogues, that will not submit themselves to political judgment, compel them by force; so must we do by our affections. If the heart will not lay aside those vicious motions, and the fantasy those fond imaginations, we have another form of government to enforce and refrain our outward members, that they be not led by our passions. If appetite will not obey, let the moving faculty overrule her, let her resist and compel her to do otherwise. In an ague the appetite would drink; sore eyes that itch would be rubbed; but reason saith no, and therefore the moving faculty will not do it. Our fantasy would intrude a thousand fears, suspicions, chimeras upon us, but we have reason to resist, yet we let it be overborne by our appetite; [3416]imagination enforceth spirits, which, by an admirable league of nature, compel the nerves to obey, and they our several limbs: we give too much way to our passions. And as to him that is sick of an ague, all things are distasteful and unpleasant, non ex cibi vitio saith Plutarch, not in the meat, but in our taste: so many things are offensive to us, not of themselves, but out of our corrupt judgment, jealousy, suspicion, and the like: we pull these mischiefs upon our own heads. If then our judgment be so depraved, our reason overruled, will precipitated, that we cannot seek our own good, or moderate ourselves, as in this disease commonly it is, the best way for ease is to impart our misery to some friend, not to smother it up in our own breast: aliter vitium crescitque tegendo, &c., and that which was most offensive to us, a cause of fear and grief, quod nunc te coquit, another hell; for [3417] strangulat inclusus dolor atque exaestuat intus, grief concealed strangles the soul; but when as we shall but impart it to some discreet, trusty, loving friend, it is [3418]instantly removed, by his counsel happily, wisdom, persuasion, advice, his good means, which we could not otherwise apply unto ourselves. A friend's counsel is a charm, like mandrake wine, curas sopit; and as a [3419]bull that is tied to a fig-tree becomes gentle on a sudden (which some, saith [3420]Plutarch, interpret of good words), so is a savage, obdurate heart mollified by fair speeches. All adversity finds ease in complaining (as [3421]Isidore holds), and 'tis a solace to relate it, [3422]Ἀγαθὴ δε παραίφασις ἐστὶν ἐταίρου. Friends' confabulations are comfortable at all times, as fire in winter, shade in summer, quale sopor fessis in gramine, meat and drink to him that is hungry or athirst; Democritus's collyrium is not so sovereign to the eyes as this is to the heart; good words are cheerful and powerful of themselves, but much more from friends, as so many props, mutually sustaining each other like ivy and a wall, which Camerarius hath well illustrated in an emblem. Lenit animum simplex vel saepe narratio, the simple narration many times easeth our distressed mind, and in the midst of greatest extremities; so diverse have been relieved, by [3423]exonerating themselves to a faithful friend: he sees that which we cannot see for passion and discontent, he pacifies our minds, he will ease our pain, assuage our anger; quanta inde voluptas, quanta securitas, Chrysostom adds, what pleasure, what security by that means! [3424]Nothing so available, or that so much refresheth the soul of man. Tully, as I remember, in an epistle to his dear friend Atticus, much condoles the defect of such a friend. [3425]I live here (saith he) in a great city, where I have a multitude of acquaintance, but not a man of all that company with whom I dare familiarly breathe, or freely jest. Wherefore I expect thee, I desire thee, I send for thee; for there be many things which trouble and molest me, which had I but thee in presence, I could quickly disburden myself of in a walking discourse. The like, peradventure, may he and he say with that old man in the comedy, [3426]Nemo est meorum amicorum hodie, Apud quem expromere occulta mea audeam.

and much inconvenience may both he and he suffer in the meantime by it. He or he, or whosoever then labours of this malady, by all means let him get some trusty friend, [3427]Semper habens Pylademque aliquem qui curet Orestem, a Pylades, to whom freely and securely he may open himself. For as in all other occurrences, so it is in this, Si quis in coelum ascendisset, &c. as he said in [3428]Tully, if a man had gone to heaven, seen the beauty of the skies, stars errant, fixed, &c., insuavis erit admiratio, it will do him no pleasure, except he have somebody to impart what he hath seen. It is the best thing in the world, as [3429]Seneca therefore adviseth in such a case, to get a trusty friend, to whom we may freely and sincerely pour out our secrets; nothing so delighteth and easeth the mind, as when we have a prepared bosom, to which our secrets may descend, of whose conscience we are assured as our own, whose speech may ease our succourless estate, counsel relieve, mirth expel our mourning, and whose very sight may be acceptable unto us. It was the counsel which that politic [3430]Comineus gave to all princes, and others distressed in mind, by occasion of Charles Duke of Burgundy, that was much perplexed, first to pray to God, and lay himself open to him, and then to some special friend, whom we hold most dear, to tell all our grievances to him; nothing so forcible to strengthen, recreate, and heal the wounded soul of a miserable man.

SUBSECT. II.—_Help from friends by counsel, comfort, fair and foul means, witty devices, satisfaction, alteration of his course of life, removing objects, &c._