Second Partition: Cure of melancholyMEMB. III. _Air rectified. With a digression of the AirWander round about the worldAs a long-winged hawk, when he is first whistled off the fist, mounts aloft, and for his pleasure fetcheth many a circuit in the air, still soaring higher and higher, till he be come to his full pitch, and in the end when the game is sprung, comes down amain, and stoops upon a sudden: so will I, having now come at last into these ample fields of air, wherein I may freely expatiate and exercise myself for my recreation, awhile rove, wander round about the world, mount aloft to those ethereal orbs and celestial spheres, and so descend to my former elements again.Travel out of curiosityAs I go by Madagascar, I would see that great bird ruck, that can carry a man and horse or an elephant, with that Arabian phoenix described by Adricomius; see the pelicans of Egypt, those Scythian gryphes in Asia: and afterwards in Africa examine the fountains of Nilus, whether Herodotus, ]Seneca, Plin. _lib. 5. cap. 9._ Strabo. _lib. 5._ give a true cause of his annual flowing, [3012]Pagaphetta discourse rightly of it, or of Niger and Senegal; examine Cardan,Scaliger's reasons, and the rest. Is it from those Etesian winds, or melting of snow in the mountains under the equator (for Jordan yearly overflows when the snow melts in Mount Libanus), or from those great dropping perpetual showers which are so frequent to the inhabitants within the tropics, when the sun is vertical, and cause such vast inundations in Senegal, Maragnan, Oronoco and the rest of those great rivers in Zona Torrida, which have all commonly the same passions at set times: and by good husbandry and policy hereafter no doubt may come to be as populous, as well tilled, as fruitful, as Egypt itself or Cauchinthina? I would observe all those motions of the sea, and from what cause they proceed, from the moon (as the vulgar hold) or earth's motion, which Galileus, in the fourth dialogue of his system of the world, so eagerly proves, and firmly demonstrates; or winds, as some will. Why in that quiet ocean of Zur, _in mari pacifico_, it is scarce perceived, in our British seas most violent, in the Mediterranean and Red Sea so vehement, irregular, and diverse? Why the current in that Atlantic Ocean should still be in some places from, in some again towards the north, and why they come sooner than go? and so from Moabar to Madagascar in that Indian Ocean, the merchants come in three weeks, as Scaliger discusseth, they return scarce in three months, with the same or like winds: the continual current is from east to west.[...] For from the ocean, at the Straits of Gibraltar, there is a perpetual current into the Levant, and so likewise by the Thracian Bosphorus out of the Euxine or Black Sea, besides all those great rivers of Nile, Po, Rhone, &c. how is this water consumed, by the sun or otherwise? I would find out with Trajan the fountains of Danube, of Ganges, Oxus, see those Egyptian pyramids, Trajan's bridge, _Grotto de Sybilla_, Lucullus's fishponds, the temple of Nidrose, &c. (And, if I could, observe what becomes of swallows, storks, cranes, cuckoos, nightingales, redstarts, and many other kind of singing birds, water-fowls, hawks, &c. some of them are only seen in summer, some in winter; some are observed in the [3021]snow, and at no other times, each have their seasons. Risum teneatis, amici?Or whether that be true which Jordanus Brunus scoffs at, that if God did not detain it, the sea would overflow the earth by reason of his higher site, and which Josephus Blancanus the Jesuit in his interpretation on those mathematical places of Aristotle, foolishly fears, and in a just tract proves by many circumstances, that in time the sea will waste away the land, and all the globe of the earth shall be covered with waters; _risum teneatis amici_ [ can you contain your laughter, friends? ]? what the sea takes away in one place it adds in another. Methinks he might rather suspect the sea should in time be filled by land, trees grow up, carcasses, &c. that all-devouring fire, _omnia devorans et consumens_, will sooner cover and dry up the vast ocean with sand and ashes.Exploring the center of the earthI would have a convenient place to go down with Orpheus, Ulysses, Hercules, [3034]Lucian's Menippus, at St. Patrick's purgatory, at Trophonius' den, Hecla in Iceland, Aetna in Sicily, to descend and see what is done in the bowels of the earth: do stones and metals grow there still? how come fir trees to be [3035]digged out from tops of hills, as in our mosses, and marshes all over Europe? How come they to dig up fish bones, shells, beams, ironworks, many fathoms under ground, and anchors in mountains far remote from all seas? [3036]Anno 1460 at Bern in Switzerland 50 fathom deep a ship was digged out of a mountain, where they got metal ore, in which were 48 carcasses of men, with other merchandise. That such things are ordinarily found in tops of hills, Aristotle insinuates in his meteors, [3037]Pomponius Mela in his first book, _c. de Numidia_, and familiarly in the Alps, saith [3038]Blancanus the Jesuit, the like is to be seen: came this from earthquakes, or from Noah's flood, as Christians suppose, or is there a vicissitude of sea and land, as Anaximenes held of old, the mountains of Thessaly would become seas, and seas again mountains? The whole world belike should be new moulded, when it seemed good to those all-commanding powers, and turned inside out, as we do haycocks in harvest, top to bottom, or bottom to top: or as we turn apples to the fire, move the world upon his centre; that which is under the poles now, should be translated to the equinoctial, and that which is under the torrid zone to the circle arctic and antarctic another while, and so be reciprocally warmed by the sun: or if the worlds be infinite, and every fixed star a sun, with his compassing planets (as Brunus and Campanella conclude) cast three or four worlds into one; or else of one world make three or four new, as it shall seem to them best. To proceed, if the earth be 21,500 miles in [3039]compass, its diameter is 7,000 from us to our antipodes, and what shall be comprehended in all that space? What is the centre of the earth? is it pure element only, as Aristotle decrees, inhabited (as [3040] Paracelsus thinks) with creatures, whose chaos is the earth: or with fairies, as the woods and waters (according to him) are with nymphs, or as the air with spirits?Hell questionsFranciscus Ribera, _in cap. 14. Apocalyps._ will have hell a material and local fire in the centre of the earth, 200 Italian miles in diameter, as he defines it out of those words, _Exivit sanguis de terra--per stadia mille sexcenta_, &c. But Lessius _lib. 13. de moribus divinis, cap. 24._ will have this local hell far less, one Dutch mile in diameter, all filled with fire and brimstone: because, as he there demonstrates, that space, cubically multiplied, will make a sphere able to hold eight hundred thousand millions of damned bodies (allowing each body six foot square) which will abundantly suffice; _Cum cerium sit, inquit, facta subductione, non futuros centies mille milliones damnandorum._ But if it be no material fire (as Sco. Thomas, Bonaventure, Soncinas, Voscius, and others argue) it may be there or elsewhere, as Keckerman disputes _System. Theol._ for sure somewhere it is, _certum est alicubi, etsi definitus circulus non assignetur._ I will end the controversy in [3047]Austin's words, "Better doubt of things concealed, than to contend about uncertainties, where Abraham's bosom is, and hell fire:About species diversityWhence proceed that variety of manners, and a distinct character (as it were) to several nations? Some are wise, subtile, witty; others dull, sad and heavy; some big, some little, as Tully de Fato, Plato in Timaeo, Vegetius and Bodine prove at large, _method. cap. 5._ some soft, and some hardy, barbarous, civil, black, dun, white, is it from the air, from the soil, influence of stars, or some other secret cause? Why doth Africa breed so many venomous beasts, Ireland none? Athens owls, Crete none? [3051]Why hath Daulis and Thebes no swallows (so Pausanius informeth us) as well as the rest of Greece, [3052]Ithaca no hares, Pontus asses, Scythia swine? whence comes this variety of complexions, colours, plants, birds, beasts, [3053]metals, peculiar almost to every place? Why so many thousand strange birds and beasts proper to America alone, as Acosta demands _lib. 4. cap. 36._ were they created in the six days, or ever in Noah's ark? if there, why are they not dispersed and found in other countries? It is a thing (saith he) hath long held me in suspense; no Greek, Latin, Hebrew ever heard of them before, and yet as differing from our European animals, as an egg and a chestnut: and which is more, kine, horses, sheep, &c., till the Spaniards brought them, were never heard of in those parts? How comes it to pass, that in the same site, in one latitude, to such as are _Perioeci_, there should be such difference of soil, complexion, colour, metal, air, &c.Celestial spheresKepler confirms by his own, and Tycho's accurate observations, comes nearer the earth than the [Symbol: Sun] and is again eftsoons aloft in Jupiter's orb; and [3088]other sufficient reasons, far above the moon: exploding in the meantime that element of fire, those fictitious first watery movers, those heavens I mean above the firmament, which Delrio, Lodovicus Imola, Patricius, and many of the fathers affirm; those monstrous orbs of eccentrics, and _Eccentre Epicycles deserentes_. Which howsoever Ptolemy, Alhasen, Vitellio, Purbachius, Maginus, Clavius, and many of their associates, stiffly maintain to be real orbs, eccentric, concentric, circles aequant, &c. are absurd and ridiculous. For who is so mad to think that there should be so many circles, like subordinate wheels in a clock, all impenetrable and hard, as they feign, add and subtract at their pleasure. [3089]Maginus makes eleven heavens, subdivided into their orbs and circles, and all too little to serve those particular appearances: Fracastorius, seventy-two homocentrics; Tycho Brahe, Nicholas Ramerus, Heliseus Roeslin, have peculiar hypotheses of their own inventions; and they be but inventions, as most of them acknowledge, as we admit of equators, tropics, colures, circles arctic and antarctic,Sit terra animata?Besides, _An terra sit animata_? which some so confidently believe, with Orpheus, Hermes, Averroes, from which all other souls of men, beasts, devils, plants, fishes, &c. are derived, and into which again, after some revolutions, as Plato in his Timaeus, Plotinus in his Enneades more largely discuss, they return (see Chalcidius and Bennius, Plato's commentators), as all philosophical matter, _in materiam primam_. Keplerus, Patritius, and some other Neoterics, have in part revived this opinion. And that every star in heaven hath a soul, angel or intelligence to animate or move it, &c.Are there infinite worlds?We may likewise insert with Campanella and Brunus, that which Pythagoras, Aristarchus, Samius, Heraclitus, Epicurus, Melissus, Democritus, Leucippus maintained in their ages, there be [3110]infinite worlds, and infinite earths or systems, _in infinito aethere_, which [3111]Eusebius collects out of their tenets, because infinite stars and planets like unto this of ours, which some stick not still to maintain and publicly defend, _sperabundus expecto innumerabilium mundorum in aeternitate per ambulationem_, &c. (Nic. Hill. Londinensis _philos. Epicur._) For if the firmament be of such an incomparable bigness, as these Copernical giants will have it, _infinitum, aut infinito proximum_, so vast and full of innumerable stars, as being infinite in extent, one above another, some higher, some lower, some nearer, some farther off, and so far asunder, and those so huge and great, insomuch that if the whole sphere of Saturn, and all that is included in it, _totum aggregatum_ (as Fromundus of Louvain in his tract, _de immobilitate terrae_ argues) _evehatur inter stellas, videri a nobis non poterat, tam immanis est distantia inter tellurem et fixas, sed instar puncti_, &c. If our world be small in respect, why may we not suppose a plurality of worlds, those infinite stars visible in the firmament to be so many suns, with particular fixed centres; to have likewise their subordinate planets, as the sun hath his dancing still round him?Teologies, excrements of curiosityThe Jewish Talmudists take upon them to determine how God spends his whole time, sometimes playing with Leviathan, sometimes overseeing the world, &c., like Lucian's Jupiter, that spent much of the year in painting butterflies' wings, and seeing who offered sacrifice; telling the hours when it should rain, how much snow should fall in such a place, which way the wind should stand in Greece, which way in Africa. In the Turks' Alcoran, Mahomet is taken up to heaven, upon a Pegasus sent on purpose for him, as he lay in bed with his wife, and after some conference with God is set on ground again. The pagans paint him and mangle him after a thousand fashions; our heretics, schismatics, and some schoolmen, come not far behind: some paint him in the habit of an old man, and make maps of heaven, number the angels, tell their several [3133]names, offices: some deny God and his providence, some take his office out of his hands, will [3134]bind and loose in heaven, release, pardon, forgive, and be quarter-master with him: some call his Godhead in question, his power, and attributes, his mercy, justice, providence: they will know with [3135]Cecilius, why good and bad are punished together, war, fires, plagues, infest all alike, why wicked men flourish, good are poor, in prison, sick, and ill at ease. Why doth he suffer so much mischief and evil to be done, if he be [3136]able to help? why doth he not assist good, or resist bad, reform our wills, if he be not the author of sin, and let such enormities be committed, unworthy of his knowledge, wisdom, government, mercy, and providence, why lets he all things be done by fortune and chance? Others as prodigiously inquire after his omnipotency, _an possit plures similes creare deos? an ex scarcibaeo deum? &c., et quo demum ruetis sacrificuli_? Some, by visions and revelations, take upon them to be familiar with God, and to be of privy council with him; they will tell how many, and who shall be saved, when the world shall come to an end, what year, what month, and whatsoever else God hath reserved unto himself, and to his angels. Some again, curious fantastics, will know more than this, and inquire with [3137]Epicurus, what God did before the world was made? was he idle? Where did he bide? What did he make the world of? why did he then make it, and not before? If he made it new, or to have an end, how is he unchangeable, infinite, &c. Some will dispute, cavil, and object, as Julian did of old, whom Cyril confutes, as Simon Magus is feigned to do, in that [3138]dialogue betwixt him and Peter: and Ammonius the philosopher, in that dialogical disputation with Zacharias the Christian. If God be infinitely and only good, why should he alter or destroy the world? if he confound that which is good, how shall himself continue good? If he pull it down because evil, how shall he be free from the evil that made it evil? &c., with many such absurd and brain-sick questions, intricacies, froth of human wit, and excrements of curiosity, &c., which, as our Saviour told his inquisitive disciples, are not fit for them to know. But hoo! I am now gone quite out of sight, I am almost giddy with roving about: I could have ranged farther yet; but I am an infant, and not [3139]able to dive into these profundities, or sound these depths; not able to understand, much less to discuss. I leave the contemplation of these things to stronger wits, that have better ability, and happier leisure to wade into such philosophical mysteries; for put case I were as able as willing, yet what can one man do?25 pages later ...But my melancholy spaniel's quest, my game is sprung, and I must suddenly come down and follow.MEMB. IV._Exercise rectified of Body and MindModerate exerciseTo that great inconvenience, which comes on the one side by immoderate and unseasonable exercise, too much solitariness and idleness on the other, must be opposed as an antidote, a moderate and seasonable use of it, and that both of body and mind, as a most material circumstance, much conducing to this cure, and to the general preservation of our health. The heavens themselves run continually round, the sun riseth and sets, the moon increaseth and decreaseth, stars and planets keep their constant motions, the air is still tossed by the winds, the waters ebb and flow to their conservation no doubt, to teach us that we should ever be in action.Deambulatio per amoena locaBut the most pleasant of all outward pastimes is that of [3243]Areteus, _deambulatio per amoena loca_, to make a petty progress, a merry journey now and then with some good companions, to visit friends, see cities, castles, towns,[3244] "Visere saepe amnes nitidos, per amaenaque Tempe, Et placidas summis sectari in montibus auras." "To see the pleasant fields, the crystal fountains, And take the gentle air amongst the mountains." [3245]To walk amongst orchards, gardens, bowers, mounts, and arbours, artificial wildernesses, green thickets, arches, groves, lawns, rivulets, fountains, and such like pleasant places, like that Antiochian Daphne, brooks, pools, fishponds, between wood and water, in a fair meadow, by a river side, [3246]_ubi variae, avium cantationes, florum colores, pratorum frutices_, &c. to disport in some pleasant plain, park, run up a steep hill sometimes, or sit in a shady seat, must needs be a delectable recreation. _Hortus principis et domus ad delectationem facia, cum sylva, monte et piscina, vulgo la montagna_: the prince's garden at Ferrara [3247]Schottus highly magnifies, with the groves, mountains, ponds, for a delectable prospect, he was much affected with it: a Persian paradise, or pleasant park, could not be more delectable in his sight. [...] To take a boat in a pleasant evening, and with music [3252]to row upon the waters, which Plutarch so much applauds, Elian admires, upon the river Pineus: in those Thessalian fields, beset with green bays, where birds so sweetly sing that passengers, enchanted as it were with their heavenly music, _omnium laborum et curarum obliviscantur_, forget forthwith all labours, care, and grief: or in a gondola through the Grand Canal in Venice, to see those goodly palaces, must needs refresh and give content to a melancholy dull spirit. History, time travelIt will _laxare animos_, refresh the soul of man to see fair-built cities, streets, theatres, temples, obelisks, &c. The temple of Jerusalem was so fairly built of white marble, with so many pyramids covered with gold; _tectumque templi fulvo coruscans auro, nimio suo fulgore obcaecabat oculos itinerantium_, was so glorious, and so glistened afar off, that the spectators might not well abide the sight of it. But the inner parts were all so curiously set out with cedar, gold, jewels, &c., as he said of Cleopatra's palace in Egypt,--[3258]_Crassumque trabes absconderat aurum_, that the beholders were amazed. What so pleasant as to see some pageant or sight go by, as at coronations, weddings, and such like solemnities, to see an ambassador or a prince met, received, entertained with masks, shows, fireworks, &c. To see two kings fight in single combat, as Porus and Alexander; Canute and Edmund Ironside; Scanderbeg and Ferat Bassa the Turk; when not honour alone but life itself is at stake, as the [3259]poet of Hector,------"nec enim pro tergore Tauri, Pro bove nec certamen erat, quae praemia cursus Esse solent, sed pro magni viraque animaque--Hectoris." To behold a battle fought, like that of Crecy, or Agincourt, or Poitiers, _qua nescio_ (saith Froissart) _an vetustas ullam proferre possit clariorem_. To see one of Caesar's triumphs in old Rome revived, or the like. To be present at an interview, [3260]as that famous of Henry the Eighth and Francis the First, so much renowned all over Europe; _ubi tanto apparatu_ (saith Hubertus Veillius) _tamque triumphali pompa ambo reges com eorum conjugibus coiere, ut nulla unquam aetas tam celebria festa viderit aut audieriti_, no age ever saw the like. So infinitely pleasant are such shows, to the sight of which oftentimes they will come hundreds of miles, give any money for a place, and remember many years after with singular delight. TourismEvery palace, every city almost hath its peculiar walks, cloisters, terraces, groves, theatres, pageants, games, and several recreations; every country, some professed gymnics to exhilarate their minds, and exercise their bodies. The [3272]Greeks had their Olympian, Pythian, Isthmian, Nemean games, in honour of Neptune, Jupiter, Apollo; Athens hers: some for honour, garlands, crowns; for [3273]beauty, dancing, running, leaping, like our silver games.Fly catchingAll seasons almost, all places, have their several pastimes; some in summer, some in winter; some abroad, some within: some of the body, some of the mind: and diverse men have diverse recreations and exercises. Domitian, the emperor, was much delighted with catching flies; Augustus to play with nuts amongst children; [3280]Alexander Severus was often pleased to play with whelps and young pigs. [3281]Adrian was so wholly enamoured with dogs and horses, that he bestowed monuments and tombs of them, and buried them in graves.Books, maps, studyBooksJulian 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 red a great part of your speech yesterdaybefore dinner and after dinner I finished it without a stop, What arguments! what a style!] 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.Maps 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.? Atlases, herbaria. mathematicsTo 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.King JamesKing 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.Study, but not too muchBut 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. The bible, memory, algebraNay, 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.Science wondersBy 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.Women? needleworkNow 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. MEMB. VI Perturbations of the mind rectifiedThe power of musicBut to leave all declamatory speeches in praise [3481]of divine music, I will confine myself to my proper subject: besides that excellent power it hath to expel many other diseases, it is a sovereign remedy against [3482] despair and melancholy, and will drive away the devil himself. Canus, a Rhodian fiddler, in [3483]Philostratus, when Apollonius was inquisitive to know what he could do with his pipe, told him, "That he would make a melancholy man merry, and him that was merry much merrier than before, a lover more enamoured, a religious man more devout."Merry companyTo expel grief, and procure pleasure, sweet smells, good diet, touch, taste, embracing, singing, dancing, sports, plays, and above the rest, exquisite beauties, _quibus oculi jucunde moventur et animi_, are most powerful means, _obvia forma_, to meet or see a fair maid pass by, or to be in company with her.[...] For when a sad and sick patient was brought unto him to be cured, "he laid him on a down bed, crowned him with a garland of sweet-smelling flowers, in a fair perfumed closet delicately set out, and after a portion or two of good drink, which he administered, he brought in a beautiful young [3513]wench that could play upon a lute, sing, and dance," &c. LaughterThose old [3525]Greeks had their _Lubentiam Deam_, goddess of pleasure, and the Lacedaemonians, instructed from Lycurgus, did _Deo Risui sucrificare_, after their wars especially, and in times of peace, which was used in Thessaly, as it appears by that of [3526]Apuleius, who was made an instrument of their laughter himself: [3527]"Because laughter and merriment was to season their labours and modester life." [3528]_Risus enim divum atque; hominum est aeterna voluptas_.Live merrily"Live merrily, O my friends, free from cares, perplexity, anguish, grief of mind, live merrily," _laetitia caelum vos creavit_: [3536]"Again and again I request you to be merry, if anything trouble your hearts, or vex your souls, neglect and contemn it," [3537]"let it pass." [3538]"And this I enjoin you, not as a divine alone, but as a physician; for without this mirth, which is the life and quintessence of physic, medicines, and whatsoever is used and applied to prolong the life of man, is dull, dead, and of no force." _Dum fata sinunt, vivite laeti_ (Seneca), I say be merry.MEMB. I. _A Consolatory Digression, containing the Remedies of all manner of DiscontentJoys and sorrows are annexed, and succeed one another"So it is, and so it was, and so it ever will be. He that refuseth to see and hear, to suffer this, is not fit to live in this world, and knows not the common condition of all men, to whom so long as they live, with a reciprocal course, joys and sorrows are annexed, and succeed one another." It is inevitable, it may not be avoided, and why then shouldst thou be so much troubled? _Grave nihil est homini quod fert necessitas_, as [3568]Tully deems out of an old poet, "that which is necessary cannot be grievous." If it be so, then comfort thyself in this, [3569]"that whether thou wilt or no, it must be endured:" make a virtue of necessity, and conform thyself to undergo it. [3570]_Si longa est, levis est; si gravis est, brevis est._ If it be long, 'tis light; if grievous, it cannot last. It will away, _dies dolorem minuit_, and if nought else, time will wear it out; custom will ease it; [3571] oblivion is a common medicine for all losses, injuries, griefs, and detriments whatsoever, [3572]"and when they are once past, this commodity comes of infelicity, it makes the rest of our life sweeter unto us:[...] We must not therefore hope to have all things answer our own expectation, to have a continuance of good success and fortunes, _Fortuna nunquam perpetuo est bona_. Wouldst thou share alike, and take thy portion?Yea, but thou thinkest thou art more miserable than the rest, other men are happy but in respect of thee, their miseries are but flea-bitings to thine, thou alone art unhappy, none so bad as thyself. Yet if, as Socrates said, [3579]"All men in the world should come and bring their grievances together, of body, mind, fortune, sores, ulcers, madness, epilepsies, agues, and all those common calamities of beggary, want, servitude, imprisonment, and lay them on a heap to be equally divided, wouldst thou share alike, and take thy portion? or be as thou art? Without question thou wouldst be as thou art."[...] How many thousands want that which thou hast? how many myriads of poor slaves, captives, of such as work day and night in coal-pits, tin-mines, with sore toil to maintain a poor living, of such as labour in body and mind, live in extreme anguish, and pain, all which thou art free from? _O fortunatos nimium bona si sua norint_: Thou art most happy if thou couldst be content, and acknowledge thy happiness; [3583]_Rem carendo, non fruendo cognoscimus_, when thou shalt hereafter come to want that which thou now loathest, abhorrest, and art weary of, and tired with, when 'tis past thou wilt say thou wert most happy: and after a little miss, wish with all thine heart thou hadst the same content again, mightst lead but such a life, a world for such a life: the remembrance of it is pleasant. Our life is but short, a very dream"If we should all sleep at all times," (as Endymion is said to have done) "who then were happier than his fellow?" Our life is but short, a very dream, and while we look about [3588]_immortalitas adest_, eternity is at hand: [3589]"Our life is a pilgrimage on earth, which wise men pass with great alacrity." If thou be in woe, sorrow, want, distress, in pain, or sickness, think of that of our apostle, "God chastiseth them whom he loveth: they that sow in tears, shall reap in joy,"Poor, but freeThou art an epicure, I am a good Christian; thou art many parasangs before me in means, favour, wealth, honour, Claudius's Narcissus, Nero's Massa, Domitian's Parthenius, a favourite, a golden slave; thou coverest thy floors with marble, thy roofs with gold, thy walls with statues, fine pictures, curious hangings, &c., what of all this? _calcas opes_, &c., what's all this to true happiness? I live and breathe under that glorious heaven, that august capitol of nature, enjoy the brightness of stars, that clear light of sun and moon, those infinite creatures, plants, birds, beasts, fishes, herbs, all that sea and land afford, far surpassing all that art and _opulentia_ can give. I am free, and which [3723]Seneca said of Rome, _culmen liberos texit, sub marmore et auro postea servitus habitavit_, thou hast _Amaltheae cornu_, plenty, pleasure, the world at will, I am despicable and poor; but a word overshot, a blow in choler, a game at tables, a loss at sea, a sudden fire, the prince's dislike, a little sickness, &c., may make us equal in an instant; howsoever take thy time, triumph and insult awhile, _cinis aequat_, as [3724]Alphonsus said, death will equalise us all at last.Gaudeix el que tens and therefore be composed in thy fortune. Thou hast enough: he that is wet in a bath, can be no more wet if he be flung into Tiber, or into the ocean itself: and if thou hadst all the world, or a solid mass of gold as big as the world, thou canst not have more than enough; enjoy thyself at length, and that which thou hast; the mind is all; be content, thou art not poor, but rich, and so much the richer as [3779]Censorinus well writ to Cerellius, _quanto pauciora optas, non quo plura possides_, in wishing less, not having more. Faber quisque fortunae suae "Parents, friends, fortunes, country, birth, alliance, &c., ebb and flow with our conceit; please or displease, as we accept and construe them, or apply them to ourselves." _Faber quisque fortunae suae_ [every one is the architect of his own fortune ], and in some sort I may truly say, prosperity and adversity are in our own hands. _Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso_ [ no one is injured except by himsef ], and which Seneca confirms out of his judgment and experience. [3841]"Every man's mind is stronger than fortune, and leads him to what side he will; a cause to himself each one is of his good or bad life. Divine preceptsMany other grievances there are, which happen to mortals in this life, from friends, wives, children, servants, masters, companions, neighbours, our own defaults, ignorance, errors, intemperance, indiscretion, infirmities, &c., and many good remedies to mitigate and oppose them, many divine precepts to counterpoise our hearts, special antidotes both in Scriptures and human authors, which, whoso will observe, shall purchase much ease and quietness unto himself: I will point out a few.[ ... ] Out of human authors take these few cautions, [4036]"know thyself. [4037]Be contented with thy lot. [4038]Trust not wealth, beauty, nor parasites, they will bring thee to destruction. [4039]Have peace with all men, war with vice. [4040]Be not idle. [4041]Look before you leap. [4042]Beware of 'had I wist.' [4043]Honour thy parents, speak well of friends. Be temperate in four things, _lingua, locis, oculis, et poculis_ [ in speech, in going about, in looking, and in drinking] . Watch thine eye.[4044] Moderate thine expenses. Hear much, speak little, [4045]_sustine et abstine_. If thou seest ought amiss in another, mend it in thyself. Keep thine own counsel, reveal not thy secrets, be silent in thine intentions. [4046]Give not ear to tale-tellers, babblers, be not scurrilous in conversation: [4047]jest without bitterness: give no man cause of offence: set thine house in order: [4048]take heed of suretyship. [4049]_Fide et diffide_, as a fox on the ice, take heed whom you trust. [4050]Live not beyond thy means. [4051]Give cheerfully. Pay thy dues willingly. Be not a slave to thy money; [4052]omit not occasion, embrace opportunity, lose no time. Be humble to thy superiors, respective to thine equals, affable to all, [4053]but not familiar. Flatter no man. [4054]Lie not, dissemble not. Keep thy word and promise, be constant in a good resolution. Speak truth. Be not opiniative, maintain no factions. Lay no wagers, make no comparisons. [4055]Find no faults, meddle not with other men's matters. Admire not thyself. [4056]Be not proud or popular. Insult not. _Fortunam reverentur habe_. [4057]Fear not that which cannot be avoided. [4058] Grieve not for that which cannot be recalled. [4059]Undervalue not thyself. [4060]Accuse no man, commend no man rashly. Go not to law without great cause. Strive not with a greater man. Cast not off an old friend, take heed of a reconciled enemy. [4061]If thou come as a guest stay not too long. Be not unthankful. Be meek, merciful, and patient. Do good to all. Be not fond of fair words. [4062]Be not a neuter in a faction; moderate thy passions. [4063]Think no place without a witness. [4064] Admonish thy friend in secret, commend him in public. Keep good company. [4065]Love others to be beloved thyself. _Ama tanquam osurus_ [ in loving remember that you may one day hate ] . _Amicus tardo fias_ [ form freindships slowly ]. Provide for a tempest. _Noli irritare crabrones_ [ don't stir up a hornets nets] . Do not prostitute thy soul for gain. Make not a fool of thyself to make others merry. Marry not an old crony or a fool for money. Be not over solicitous or curious. Seek that which may be found. Seem not greater than thou art. Take thy pleasure soberly. _Ocymum ne terito_. [4066]Live merrily as thou canst. [4067]Take heed by other men's examples. Go as thou wouldst be met, sit as thou wouldst be found, [4068]yield to the time, follow the stream. Wilt thou live free from fears and cares? [4069]Live innocently, keep thyself upright, thou needest no other keeper," &c. Look for more in Isocrates, Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus, &c., and for defect, consult with cheese-trenchers and painted cloths. SECT. IV. Pharmaceutics against melancholy, medicinesHippocrates, critisizedThe first that ever wrote in physic to any purpose, was Hippocrates, and his disciple and commentator Galen, whom Scaliger calls _Fimbriam Hippocratis_; but as [4088]Cardan censures them, both immethodical and obscure, as all those old ones are, their precepts confused, their medicines obsolete, and now most part rejected. Those cures which they did, Paracelsus holds, were rather done out of their patients' confidence, [4089]and good opinion they had of them, than out of any skill of theirs, which was very small, he saith, they themselves idiots and infants, as are all their academical followers.Remedies in ValenciaIn the kingdom of Valencia, in Spain, [4112]Maginus commends two mountains, Mariola and Renagolosa, famous for simples; [4113] Leander Albertus, [4114]Baldus a mountain near the Lake Benacus in the territory of Verona, to which all the herbalists in the country continually flock; Ortelius one in Apulia, Munster Mons major in Istria; others Montpelier in France; Prosper Altinus prefers Egyptian simples, Garcias ab Horto Indian before the rest, another those of Italy, Crete, &c.Botanical gardensThere have been diverse worthy physicians, which have tried excellent conclusions in this kind, and many diligent, painful apothecaries, as Gesner, Besler, Gerard, &c., but amongst the rest those famous public gardens of Padua in Italy, Nuremberg in Germany, Leyden in Holland, Montpelier in France, (and ours in Oxford now in _fieri_, at the cost and charges for the Right Honourable the Lord Danvers Earl of Danby) are much to be commended, wherein all exotic plants almost are to be seen, and liberal allowance yearly made for their better maintenance, that young students may be the sooner informed in the knowledge of them: which as [4118]Fuchsius holds, "is most necessary for that exquisite manner of curing," and as great a shame for a physician not to observe them, as for a workman not to know his axe, saw, square, or any other tool which he must of necessity use.HerbarialsWhat extraordinary virtues are ascribed unto plants? [4122]_Satyrium et eruca penem erigunt, vitex et nymphea semen extinguunt_, [4123]some herbs provoke lust, some again, as agnus castus, water-lily, quite extinguisheth seed; poppy causeth sleep, cabbage resisteth drunkenness, &c., and that which is more to be admired, that such and such plants should have a peculiar virtue to such particular parts, [4124]as to the head aniseeds, foalfoot, betony, calamint, eye-bright, lavender, bays, roses, rue, sage, marjoram, peony, &c. For the lungs calamint, liquorice, ennula campana, hyssop, horehound, water germander, &c. For the heart, borage, bugloss, saffron, balm, basil, rosemary, violet, roses, &c. For the stomach, wormwood, mints, betony, balm, centaury, sorrel, parslan. For the liver, darthspine or camaepitis, germander, agrimony, fennel, endive, succory, liverwort, barberries. For the spleen, maidenhair, finger-fern, dodder of thyme, hop, the rind of ash, betony. For the kidneys, grumel, parsley, saxifrage, plaintain, mallow. For the womb, mugwort, pennyroyal, fetherfew, savine, &c. For the joints, camomile, St. John's wort, organ, rue, cowslips, centaury the less, &c. And so to peculiar diseases. Melissa balm hath an admirable virtue to alter melancholy, be it steeped in our ordinary drink, extracted, or otherwise taken. Cardan, _lib. 8._ much admires this herb.Precious stonesNicholas Cabeus, a Jesuit of Ferrara, in the first book of his Magnetical Philosophy, _cap. 3._ speaking of the virtues of a loadstone, recites many several opinions.[ pomegranates, lapislazuli, or ... ] Arnau de VilanovaThe wines ordinarily used to this disease are wormwood wine, tamarisk, and buglossatum, wine made of borage and bugloss, the composition of which is specified in Arnoldus Villanovanus, _lib. de vinis_, of borage, balm, bugloss, cinnamon, &c. and highly commended for its virtues: [4182]"it drives away leprosy, scabs, clears the blood, recreates the spirits, exhilarates the mind, purgeth the brain of those anxious black melancholy fumes, and cleanseth the whole body of that black humour by urine. To which I add," saith Villanovanus, "that it will bring madmen, and such raging bedlamites as are tied in chains, to the use of their reason again. My conscience bears me witness, that I do not lie, I saw a grave matron helped by this means; she was so choleric, and so furious sometimes, that she was almost mad, and beside herself; she said, and did she knew not what, scolded, beat her maids, and was now ready to be bound till she drank of this borage wine, and by this excellent remedy was cured, which a poor foreigner, a silly beggar, taught her by chance, that came to crave an alms from door to door."Purging, tobacco, suppositories, wineTobaccoTobacco, divine, rare, superexcellent tobacco, which goes far beyond all the panaceas, potable gold, and philosopher's stones, a sovereign remedy to all diseases. A good vomit, I confess, a virtuous herb, if it be well qualified, opportunely taken, and medicinally used; but as it is commonly abused by most men, which take it as tinkers do ale, 'tis a plague, a mischief, a violent purger of goods, lands, health, hellish, devilish and damned tobacco, the ruin and overthrow of body and soul.Preventing self-medicationI might here insert many receipts of prescribed potions, boles, &c. The doses of these, but that they are common in every good physician, and that I am loath to incur the censure of Forestus, _lib. 3. cap. 6. de urinis_, [4240]"against those that divulge and publish medicines in their mother-tongue," and lest I should give occasion thereby to some ignorant reader to practise on himself, without the consent of a good physician.SuppositoriesTaken into the inferior parts are clysters strong or weak, suppositories of Castilian soap, honey boiled to a consistence; or stronger of scammony, hellebore, &c.Leeches for haemorrhoidsHorseleeches are much used in melancholy, applied especially to the haemorrhoids. Horatius Augenius, _lib. 10. cap. 10._ Platerus _de mentis alienat. cap. 3._ Altomarus, Piso, and many others, prefer them before any evacuations in this kind .Clysters and suppositoriesAverters and purgers must go together, as tending all to the same purpose, to divert this rebellious humour, and turn it another way. In this range, clysters and suppositories challenge a chief place, to draw this humour from the brain and heart, to the more ignoble parts. Some would have them still used a few days between, and those to be made with the boiled seeds of anise, fennel, and bastard saffron, hops, thyme, epithyme, mallows, fumitory, bugloss, polypody, senna, diasene, hamech, cassia, diacatholicon, hierologodium, oil of violets, sweet almonds, &c. For without question, a clyster opportunely used, cannot choose in this, as most other maladies, but to do very much good; _Clysteres nutriunt_, sometimes clysters nourish, as they may be prepared, as I was informed not long since by a learned lecture of our natural philosophy [4278]reader, which he handled by way of discourse, out of some other noted physicians.Now and then to be drunk"No better physic" (saith [4310]Rhasis) "for a melancholy man: and he that can keep company, and carouse, needs no other medicines," 'tis enough. His countryman Avicenna, _31. doc. 2. cap. 8._ proceeds farther yet, and will have him that is troubled in mind, or melancholy, not to drink only, but now and then to be drunk: excellent good physic it is for this and many other diseases. _Magninus Reg. san. part. 3. c. 31._ will have them to be so once a month at least, and gives his reasons for it,CoffeeThe Turks have a drink called coffee (for they use no wine), so named of a berry as black as soot, and as bitter, (like that black drink which was in use amongst the Lacedaemonians, and perhaps the same,) which they sip still of, and sup as warm as they can suffer; they spend much time in those coffeehouses, which are somewhat like our alehouses or taverns, and there they sit chatting and drinking to drive away the time, and to be merry together, because they find by experience that kind of drink, so used, helpeth digestion, and procureth alacrity. Some of them take opium to this purpose.Strange potionsEvery physician is full of such receipts: one only I will add for the rareness of it, which I find recorded by many learned authors, as an approved medicine against dotage, head-melancholy, and such diseases of the brain. Take a [4332]ram's head that never meddled with an ewe, cut off at a blow, and the horns only take away, boil it well, skin and wool together; after it is well sod, take out the brains, and put these spices to it, cinnamon, ginger, nutmeg, mace, cloves, _ana_ [Symbol: Ounce]ß, mingle the powder of these spices with it, and heat them in a platter upon a chafing-dish of coals together, stirring them well, that they do not burn; take heed it be not overmuch dried, or drier than a calf's brains ready to be eaten. Keep it so prepared, and for three days give it the patient fasting, so that he fast two hours after it. It may be eaten with bread in an egg or broth, or any way, so it be taken. For fourteen days let him use this diet, drink no wine, &c. Gesner, _hist. animal. lib. 1. pag. 917._ Caricterius, _pract. 13. in Nich. de metri. pag. 129._ Iatro: _Wittenberg. edit. Tubing. pag. 62_, mention this medicine, though with some variation; he that list may try it, [4333]and many such.[ ... ] A ring made of the hoof of an ass's right fore foot carried about, &c. I say with [4345]Renodeus, they are not altogether to be rejected. Paeony doth cure epilepsy; precious stones most diseases; [4346]a wolf's dung borne with one helps the colic, [4347]a spider an ague, &c. Being in the country in the vacation time not many years since, at Lindley in Leicestershire, my father's house, I first observed this amulet of a spider in a nut-shell lapped in silk, &c., so applied for an ague by [4348]my mother; whom, although I knew to have excellent skill in chirurgery, sore eyes, aches, &c., and such experimental medicines, as all the country where she dwelt can witness, to have done many famous and good cures upon diverse poor folks, that were otherwise destitute of help: yet among all other experiments, this methought was most absurd and ridiculous, I could see no warrant for it. |