The Works of Sir Thomas Browne Volume I Part 6

Toad-stools are not peculiar to the _French_; they were a great delicacy among the _Romans_, as appears every where in _Martial_. It was conceived the Emperor _Claudius_ received his death by Poyson, which he took in Mushroom. _Suet._ and _Tac._

_Sect. 2. Pag. 87._

_How among so many millions of faces, there should be none alike._] It is reported there have been some so much alike, that they could not be distinguished; as King _Antiochus_, and one _Antemon_, a Plebeian of _Syria_, were so much alike, that _Laodice_, the Kings widow, by pretending this man was the King, dissembled the death of the King so long, till according to her own mind, a Successor was chosen. _Cn.

Pompeius_, and one _Vibius_ the Orator; _C. Plancus_, and _Rubrius_ the Stage-player; _Ca.s.sius Severus_ the Orator, and one _Mirmello_; _M.

Messala Censorius_, and one _Menogenes_, were so much alike, that unless it were by their habit, they could not be distinguished: but this you must take upon the Faith of _Pliny_ (_lib. 7. c. 12._) and _Solinus_, (_cap. 6._) who as this Author tells elsewhere, are Authors not very infallible.

_Sect. 3. Pag. 89._

_What a_ at??????a??a _and hot skirmish is betwixt_ S. _and_ T. _in Lucian_.] In his _Dialog. judicium vocalium_, where there is a large Oration made to the Vowels, being Judges, by _Sigma_ against _Tau_, complaining that _Tau_ has bereaved him of many words, which should begin with _Sigma_.

_Their Tongues are sharper than_ Actius _his razor_.] _Actius Navius_ was chief Augur, who (as the story saith) admonis.h.i.+ng _Tarqu. Priscus_ that he should not undertake any action of moment, without first consulting the Augur, the King (shewing that he had little faith in his skill) demanded of him, whether by the rules of his skill, what he had conceived in his mind might be done: to whom when _Actius_ had answered it might be done, he bid him take a Whetstone which he had in his hand, and cut it in two with a Razor; which accordingly the Augur did. _Livy._ And therefore we must conceive it was very sharp. Here the Adage was cross'd, ????? e?? ??????, i.e. _novacula in cotem. Vid. Erasm.

Chiliad_.

_Pag. 90._

_It is not meer Zeal to Learning, or devotion to the Muses, that wiser Princes Patronize the Arts_, etc. _but a desire to have their names eterniz'd by the memory of their Writings_.] There is a great Scholar, who took the boldness to tell a Prince so much. _Est enim bonorum principum c.u.m viris eruditis tacita quaedam naturalisque Societas, ut alteri ab alteris ill.u.s.trentur, ac dum sibi mutuo suffragantur, et gloria principibus, et doctis authoritas concilietur_. Politian. _Ep.

Ludovic. Sfort. quae extat, lib. 11. Ep. ep. 1_. And to this Opinion astipulates a Country man of our own, whose words are these: _Ignotus esset Lucilius, nisi eum Epistolae Senecae ill.u.s.trarent. Laudibus Caesareis plus Virgilius et Varus Luca.n.u.sq; adjecerunt, quam immensum illud aerarium quo urbem et orbem spoliavit. Nemo prudentiam Ithaci aut Pelidae vires agnosceret, nisi eas Homerus divino publica.s.set ingenio: unde nihil mihi videtur consultius viro ad gloriam properanti fidelium favore scriptorum._ Joan. Sarisb. _Polycrat. l 8. c. 14_. And that Princes are as much beholding to the Poets Pens as their own Swords, _Horace_ tells _Censorinus_ with great confidence. _Od. 8. l. 4. Non incisa notis_, etc.

_Sect. 4. Pag. 90._

_St._ Paul _that calls the_ Cretians _Lyars, doth it but indirectly, and upon quotation of one of their own Poets_.] That is, _Epimenides_; the place is _t.i.t. 1. v. 12._ where _Paul_ useth this verse, taken out of _Epimenides_.

???te? ?e? ?e?sta?, ?a?? ????a, ?ast??e? ???a?.

_It is as b.l.o.o.d.y a thought in one way, as_ Nero's _was in another_. _For by a word we wound a thousand._] I suppose he alludes to that pa.s.sage in _Sueton._ in the life of _Nero_, where he relates that a certain person upon a time, spoke in his hearing these words,

??? ?a???t?? ?a?a ????t? p???.

_i.e._ When I am dead let Earth be mingled with Fire. Whereupon the Emperour uttered these words, ??? ???t??, _i.e._ _Yea whilst I live_: there by one word, he express'd a cruel thought, which I think is the thing he meant; this is more cruel than the wish of _Caligula_, that the people of _Rome_ had but one Neck, that he might destroy them all at a blow.

_Sect. 6. Pag. 95._

_I cannot believe the story of the_ Italian, etc.] It is reported that a certain _Italian_ having met with one that had highly provoked him, put a Ponyard to his breast, and unless he would blaspheme G.o.d, told him he would kill him, which the other doing to save his life, the _Italian_ presently kill'd him, to the intent he might be d.a.m.ned, having no time of Repentance.

_Sect. 7. Pag. 97._

_I have no sins that want a Name._] The Author in _cap. ult. lib. ult.

Pseudodox._ speaking of the Act of carnality exercised by the _Egyptian_ Pollinctors with the dead carca.s.ses, saith we want a name for this, wherein neither _Petronius_ nor _Martial_ can relieve us; therefore I conceive the Author here means a venereal sin.

_This was the Temper of that Leacher that carnal'd with a Statua._] The Latine Annotator upon this hath these words: _Romae refertur de Hispano quodam_. But certainly the Author means the Statue of _Venus Gnidia_ made by _Praxiteles_, of which a certain young man became so enamoured, that _Pliny_ relates, _Ferunt amore captum c.u.m delituisset nocta simulachro cohaesisse, ejusq; cupiditas esse indicem masculum_. _Lucian_ also has the story in his _Dialog_. [_Amores._]

_And the const.i.tution of_ Nero _in his Spintrian recreations._] The Author doth not mean the last _Nero_, but _Tiberius_ the Emperour, whose name was _Nero_ too; of whom _Sueton. Secessu vero Capreensi etiam sellariam excogitavit sedem arcanarum libidinum, in quam undique conquisti puellarum et exoletorum greges monstrosiq; concubitus repertores, quos spintrias apellabat, triplici serie connexi invicem incestarent se coram ipso, ut adspectu deficientes libidines excitaret._ Suet. _in Tib. 43_.

_Sect. 8. Pag. 98._

_I have seen a Grammarian toure and plume himself over a single line in_ Horace, _and shew more pride_, etc.] _Movent mihi stomachum Grammatistae quidam, qui c.u.m duas tenuerint vocabularum origenes ita se ostentant, ita venditant, ita circ.u.mferunt jactabundi, ut prae ipsis pro nihilo habendos Philosophos arbitrentur._ Picus Mirand. _in Ep. ad Hermol.

Barb. quae extat lib. nono Epist. Politian_.

_Garsio quisq; duas postquam scit jungere partes, Sic stat, sic loquitur, velut omnes noverit artes._

_Pag. 99._

_I cannot think that_ Homer _pin'd away upon the Riddle of the Fishermen._] The History out of _Plutarch_ is thus: Sailing from _Thebes_ to the Island _Ion_, being landed and set down upon the sh.o.r.e, there happen'd certain Fishermen to pa.s.s by him, and he asking them what they had taken, they made him this Enigmatical answer, That what they had taken, they had left behind them; and what they had not taken, they had with them: meaning, that because they could take no Fish, they went to loose themselves; and that all which they had taken, they had killed, and left behind them, and all which they had not taken, they had with them in their clothes: and that _Homer_ being struck with a deep sadness because he could not interpret this, pin'd away, and at last dyed.

_Pliny_ alludes to this Riddle, in his _Ep._ to his Friend _Fuscus_, where giving an account of spending his time in the Country, he tells him, _Venor aliquando, sed non sine pugilluribus, ut quamvis nihil ceperim, non nihil referam._ Plin. _Ep. lib. 9, Ep. 36_.

_Or that_ Aristot.----_did ever drown himself upon the flux or reflux of_ Euripus.] _Laertius_ reports that _Aristotle_ dyed of a disease at 63 years of age. For this and the last, see the Author in _Pseudodox_.

Aristotle _doth but instruct us as_ Plato _did him, to confute himself_.] In the matter of _Idea's_, Eternity of the world, _etc._

_Sec. 9. Pag. 100._

_I could be content that we might procreate like trees without conjunction, or that there were any way to perpetuate the world without this trivial and vulgar way of Coition: It is the foolishest act a wise man commits in all his life._] There was a Physitian long before the Author, that was of the same opinion, _Hippocrates_; for which _vide A.

Gel. l. 19. Noct. Attic. c. 2_. And so of late time was _Paracelsus_, who did undertake to prescribe a way for the generation of a man without coition. _Vide Campanel. de sensu rerum, in Append. ad _cap. 19._ l. 4._ _Monsieur Montaignes_ words on this subject, are worth the reading; these they are: _Je trouve apres tout, que l'amour n'est autre chose que la fame de cette jouyssance, et considerant maintes fois la ridicule t.i.tillation de ce plaiser par on il nous tient, les absurdes movements escervelez et estourdis dequoy il agite Zenon et Cratippus, ceste rage indiscrete, ce visage inflamme de fureur et de cruaute au plus doux effect de l'amour, et puis cette morgue grare severe et extatique en une action si folle, et que la supreme volupte aye du trainsy et du plaintiff commer la douleur, je croye qu'on se joue de nous, et que c'est par industrie que nature nous a laisse la plus trouble de nos actions les plus communes pour nous esgaller par la et apparier les fols et les sayes, et nous et les bestes. Le plus contemplatif et prudent homme quand je l'imagin en cette a.s.siette je le tien pour un affronteur, de faire le prudent et le contemplatif: et sont les pieds du paon qui abbatent son orgueil. Nous mangeons bien et beuvons comme les bestes, mais ce ne sont pas actions, qui empeschent les operations de nostre ame, en celles-la nous gardons nostre advantage sur elles: cettecy met tout autre pensee sous le joug, abrutist et abesiit par son imperieuse authorite toute la Theology et Philosophy, qui est en Platon et si il ne s'en plaint pas. Par tout ailleurs vous pouvez garder quelque decence; toutes autres operations souffrent des Regles d'honestete: cettecy ne se peut sculement imaginer que vitieuse ou ridicule; trouvez y pour voir un proceder sage et discret. Alexander disoit qu'il se cognossoit princ.i.p.alement mortel par cette action et par le dormir: le sommeil suffoque et supprime les facultez de nostre ame, la besoigne les absorbe et dissipe de mesme. Certes c'est une marque non seulement de nostre corruption originelle, mais aussi de nostre vanite et disformite. D'un coste nature nous y pousse ayant attache a ce desire la plan n.o.ble, utile et plaisante de toutes ses operations, et la nous laisse d'autre part accuser et fuyr comme insolent et dishoneste, en rougir et recommander l'abstinence_, etc. Montaign _liv. 3. chapit. 5_.

_Sect. 10. Pag. 103._

_And may be inverted on the worst._] That is, that there are none so abandoned to vice, but they have some sprinklings of vertue. There are scarce any so vitious, but commend virtue in those that are endued with it, and do some things laudable themselves, as _Plin._ saith in _Panegyric_. _Machiavel_ upon _Livy, lib. 1. cap. 27_. sets down the ensuing relation as a notable confirmation of this truth. _Julius Pontifex ejus nominis secundus, anno salutis 1505. Bononiam exercitus duxit, ut Bentivolorum familiam, quae ejus urbis imperium centum jam annos tenuerat, loco moveret. Eudemque in expeditione etiam Johannem Pagolum, Bagloneum tyrannum Perusinum sua sede expellere decreverat, ut caeteros item, qui urbes Ecclesiae per vim tenerent. Ejus rei causa c.u.m ad Perusinam urbem accessisset, et notum jam omnibus esset quid in animo haberet: tamen impatiens morae, noluit exercitus expectare, sed inermis quasi urbem ingressus est, in quant Johannes Pagolus defendendi sui causa, non exiguas copias contraxerat. Is autem eodem furore, quo res suas administrare solebat, una c.u.m milite, cui custodiam sui corporis demandarat, sese in pontificis potestatem dedidit; a quo abductus est relictusque alius, qui Ecclesiae nomine urbem gubernaret. Hac ipsu in re magnopere admirati sunt viri sapientes, qui Pontificem comitabantur, c.u.m Pontificis ipsius temeritatem, c.u.m abjectum vilemq; Johannis Pagoli animum: nec causam intelligebant, ob quam permotus idem Pagolus, hostem suum inermem (quod illi c.u.m perpetua nominis sui memoria facere licebat) non subit oppresserit, et tam pretiosa spolia diripuerit; c.u.m Pontifex urbem ingressus fuisset, Cardinalibus tantum suis stipatus, qui pretiosissimas quasq; suarum rerum sec.u.m habebant. Neque enim credebatur Pagolus a tanto facinore vel sua bonitate, vel animi conscientia abstinuisse: quod in hominem sceleratum, qui et propria sorore utebatur, et consobrinos nepotesque dominandi causa e medio sustulerat hujusmodi pii affectus cadere non viderentur. c.u.m igitur hac de re variae essent sapientum virorum sententiae; concluserunt tandem id ei accidisse, quod ita comparatum sit_, ut homines neque plane pravi esse queant, neque perfecte boni. _Pravi perfecte esse nequeant, propterea quod, ubi tale quoddam scelus est, in quo aliquid magnifici ac generosi insit, id patrare non andeant. Nam c.u.m Pagolus neq; incestam prius horraisset, neque patricidio abstinnisset: tamen cnm oblata esset occasio, pravi quidem sed memorabilis, atque aeternae memoriae facinoris patrandi, id attentare non ausus fuit, c.u.m id sine infamia prestare licuisset, quod rei magnitudo omnia priora scelera obtegere potuisset, et a periculo conservare. Quibus accedit, quod illi gratulati fuissent etiam quam plurimi, si primus ausus esset Pontificibus monstrare rationem dominandi; totiusque humanae vitae usum ab illis nimis parei pendi._

_Poysons contain within themselves their own Antidote._] The Poyson of a Scorpion is not Poyson to it self, nor the Poyson of a Toad is not Poyson to it self; so that the sucking out of Poyson from persons infected by Psylls, (who are continually nourished with venomous aliment) without any prejudice to themselves, is the less to be wondred at.

_The man without a Navil yet lives in me._] The Latine Annotator hath explicated this by _h.o.m.o non perfectus_, by which it seems he did not comprehend the Author's meaning; for the Author means _Adam_, and by a Metonymie original sin; for the Navil being onely of use to attract the aliment _in utero materno_, and _Adam_ having no mother, he had no use of a Navil, and therefore it is not to be conceived he had any; and upon that ground the Author calls him the man without a Navil.

_Sect. 11. Pag. 106._

_Our grosser memories have then so little hold of our abstracted understandings, that they forget the story, and can onely relate to our awaked senses a confused and broken tale of that that hath pa.s.s'd._] For the most part it is so. In regard of the Author's expression of forgetting the story, though otherwise it be not very pertinent to this place, I shall set down a relation given by an English Gentleman, of two dreams that he had, wherein he did not forget the story, but (what is more strange) found his dreams verified. This it is.

Whilst I lived at _Prague_, and one night had sit up very late drinking at a feast, early in the morning the Sun beams glancing on my face, as I lay in my bed, I dreamed that a shadow pa.s.sing by told me that my Father was dead; at which awaking all in a sweat, and affected with this dream, I rose and wrote the day and hour, and all circ.u.mstances thereof in a Paper-book, which book with many other things I put into a Barrel, and sent it from _Prague_ to _Stode_, thence to be conveyed into _England_.

And now being at _Nurenburgh_, a Merchant of a n.o.ble Family well acquainted with me and my friends, arrived there, who told me my Father dyed some two months ago. I list not to write any lyes, but that which I write, is as true as strange. When I returned into _England_ some four years after, I would not open the Barrel I sent from _Prague_, nor look into the Paper-book in which I had written this dream, till I had called my Sisters and some friends to be witnesses, where my self and they were astonished to see my written dream answer the very day of my Father's death.

I may lawfully swear that which my Kinsman hath heard witnessed by my brother _Henry_ whilst he lived, that in my youth at _Cambridge_, I had the like dream of my Mother's death, where my brother _Henry_ living with me, early in the morning I dreamed that my Mother pa.s.sed by with a sad countenance, and told me that she could not come to my Commencement: I being within five months to proceed Master of Arts, and she having promised at that time to come to _Cambridge_. And when I related this dream to my brother, both of us awaking together in a sweat, he protested to me that he had dreamed the very same; and when we had not the least knowledge of our Mother's sickness, neither in our youthful affections were any whit affected with the strangeness of this dream, yet the next Carrier brought us word of our Mother's death. Mr. _Fiennes Morison_ in his Itinerary. I am not over-credulous of such relations, but methinks the circ.u.mstance of publis.h.i.+ng it at such a time, when there were those living that might have disprov'd it, if it had been false, is a great argument of the truth of it.

_Sect. 12. Pag. 107._

_I wonder the fancy of _Lucan_ and _Seneca_ did not discover it._] For they had both power from _Nero_ to chuse their deaths.

_Sect. 13. Pag. 108._

_To conceive our selves Urinals is not so ridiculous._] _Reperti sunt Galeno et Avicenna testibus qui se vasa fictilia crederent, et ideirco hominum attactum ne confringerentur solicite fugerent._ Pontan. _in Attic. bellar._ (_Hist. 22._) Which proceeds from extremity of Melancholy.

_Pag. 109._

Aristot. _is too severe, that will not allow us to be truely liberal without wealth._] _Aristot. l. 1. Ethic. c. 8._

_Sect. 15. Pag. 112._

_Thy will be done though in mine own undoing._] This should be the wish of every man, and is of the most wise and knowing, _Le Christien plus humble et plus sage et mieux recognoissant que c'est que de luy se rapporte a son createur de choisir et ordonner ce qu'il luy faut. Il ne le supplie dautre chose que sa volunte soit faite._ Montaign.