The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 22

[1865] ------"manifesta phrenesis Ut locuples moriaris egenti vivere fato."

A mere madness, to live like a wretch, and die rich.

SUBSECT. XIII.--_Love of Gaming, &c. and pleasures immoderate; Causes_.

It is a wonder to see, how many poor, distressed, miserable wretches, one shall meet almost in every path and street, begging for an alms, that have been well descended, and sometimes in flouris.h.i.+ng estate, now ragged, tattered, and ready to be starved, lingering out a painful life, in discontent and grief of body and mind, and all through immoderate l.u.s.t, gaming, pleasure and riot. 'Tis the common end of all sensual epicures and brutish prodigals, that are stupefied and carried away headlong with their several pleasures and l.u.s.ts. Cebes in his table, St. Ambrose in his second book of Abel and Cain, and amongst the rest Lucian in his tract _de Mercede conductis_, hath excellent well deciphered such men's proceedings in his picture of Opulentia, whom he feigns to dwell on the top of a high mount, much sought after by many suitors; at their first coming they are generally entertained by pleasure and dalliance, and have all the content that possibly may be given, so long as their money lasts: but when their means fail, they are contemptibly thrust out at a back door, headlong, and there left to shame, reproach, despair. And he at first that had so many attendants, parasites, and followers, young and l.u.s.ty, richly arrayed, and all the dainty fare that might be had, with all kind of welcome and good respect, is now upon a sudden stripped of all, [1866]pale, naked, old, diseased and forsaken, cursing his stars, and ready to strangle himself; having no other company but repentance, sorrow, grief, derision, beggary, and contempt, which are his daily attendants to his life's end. As the [1867]prodigal son had exquisite music, merry company, dainty fare at first; but a sorrowful reckoning in the end; so have all such vain delights and their followers. [1868]_Tristes voluptatum exitus, et quisquis voluptatum suarum reminisci volet, intelliget_, as bitter as gall and wormwood is their last; grief of mind, madness itself. The ordinary rocks upon which such men do impinge and precipitate themselves, are cards, dice, hawks, and hounds, _Insanum venandi studium_, one calls it, _insanae substructiones_: their mad structures, disports, plays, &c., when they are unseasonably used, imprudently handled, and beyond their fortunes. Some men are consumed by mad fantastical buildings, by making galleries, cloisters, terraces, walks, orchards, gardens, pools, rillets, bowers, and such like places of pleasure; _Inutiles domos_, [1869]Xenophon calls them, which howsoever they be delightsome things in themselves, and acceptable to all beholders, an ornament, and benefiting some great men: yet unprofitable to others, and the sole overthrow of their estates. Forestus in his observations hath an example of such a one that became melancholy upon the like occasion, having consumed his substance in an unprofitable building, which would afterward yield him no advantage. Others, I say, are [1870]

overthrown by those mad sports of hawking and hunting; honest recreations, and fit for some great men, but not for every base inferior person; whilst they will maintain their falconers, dogs, and hunting nags, their wealth, saith [1871]Salmutze, "runs away with hounds, and their fortunes fly away with hawks." They persecute beasts so long, till in the end they themselves degenerate into beasts, as [1872]Agrippa taxeth them, [1873]Actaeon like, for as he was eaten to death by his own dogs, so do they devour themselves and their patrimonies, in such idle and unnecessary disports, neglecting in the mean time their more necessary business, and to follow their vocations.

Over-mad too sometimes are our great men in delighting, and doting too much on it. [1874]"When they drive poor husbandmen from their tillage," as [1875]Sarisburiensis objects, _Polycrat. l. 1. c. 4_, "fling down country farms, and whole towns, to make parks, and forests, starving men to feed beasts, and [1876]punis.h.i.+ng in the mean time such a man that shall molest their game, more severely than him that is otherwise a common hacker, or a notorious thief." But great men are some ways to be excused, the meaner sort have no evasion why they should not be counted mad. Poggius the Florentine tells a merry story to this purpose, condemning the folly and impertinent business of such kind of persons. A physician of Milan, saith he, that cured mad men, had a pit of water in his house, in which he kept his patients, some up to the knees, some to the girdle, some to the chin, _pro modo insaniae_, as they were more or less affected. One of them by chance, that was well recovered, stood in the door, and seeing a gallant ride by with a hawk on his fist, well mounted, with his spaniels after him, would needs know to what use all this preparation served; he made answer to kill certain fowls; the patient demanded again, what his fowl might be worth which he killed in a year; he replied 5 or 10 crowns; and when he urged him farther what his dogs, horse, and hawks stood him in, he told him 400 crowns; with that the patient bad be gone, as he loved his life and welfare, for if our master come and find thee here, he will put thee in the pit amongst mad men up to the chin: taxing the madness and folly of such vain men that spend themselves in those idle sports, neglecting their business and necessary affairs. Leo Decimus, that hunting pope, is much discommended by [1877]Jovius in his life, for his immoderate desire of hawking and hunting, in so much that (as he saith) he would sometimes live about Ostia weeks and months together, leave suitors [1878]unrespected, bulls and pardons unsigned, to his own prejudice, and many private men's loss. [1879]"And if he had been by chance crossed in his sport, or his game not so good, he was so impatient, that he would revile and miscall many times men of great worth with most bitter taunts, look so sour, be so angry and waspish, so grieved and molested, that it is incredible to relate it."

But if he had good sport, and been well pleased, on the other side, _incredibili munificentia_, with unspeakable bounty and munificence he would reward all his fellow hunters, and deny nothing to any suitor when he was in that mood. To say truth, 'tis the common humour of all gamesters, as Galataeus observes, if they win, no men living are so jovial and merry, but [1880]if they lose, though it be but a trifle, two or three games at tables, or a dealing at cards for two pence a game, they are so choleric and testy that no man may speak with them, and break many times into violent pa.s.sions, oaths, imprecations, and unbeseeming speeches, little differing from mad men for the time. Generally of all gamesters and gaming, if it be excessive, thus much we may conclude, that whether they win or lose for the present, their winnings are not _Munera fortunae, sed insidiae_ as that wise Seneca determines, not fortune's gifts, but baits, the common catastrophe is [1881]beggary, [1882]_Ut pestis vitam, sic adimit alea pecuniam_, as the plague takes away life, doth gaming goods, for [1883] _omnes nudi, inopes et egeni_;

[1884] "Alea Scylla vorax, species certissima furti, Non contenta bonis animum quoque perfida mergit, Foeda, furax, infamis, iners, furiosa, ruina."

For a little pleasure they take, and some small gains and gettings now and then, their wives and children are ringed in the meantime, and they themselves with loss of body and soul rue it in the end. I will say nothing of those prodigious prodigals, _perdendae pecuniae, genitos_, as he [1885]

taxed Anthony, _Qui patrimonium sine ulla fori calumnia amittunt_, saith [1886]Cyprian, and [1887]mad sybaritical spendthrifts, _Quique una comedunt patrimonia coena_; that eat up all at a breakfast, at a supper, or amongst bawds, parasites, and players, consume themselves in an instant, as if they had flung it into [1888]Tiber, with great wages, vain and idle expenses, &c., not themselves only, but even all their friends, as a man desperately swimming drowns him that comes to help him, by suretys.h.i.+p and borrowing they will willingly undo all their a.s.sociates and allies. [1889] _Irati pecuniis_, as he saith, angry with their money: [1890]"what with a wanton eye, a liquorish tongue, and a gamesome hand," when they have indiscreetly impoverished themselves, mortgaged their wits, together with their lands, and entombed their ancestors' fair possessions in their bowels, they may lead the rest of their days in prison, as many times they do; they repent at leisure; and when all is gone begin to be thrifty: but _Sera est in fundo parsimonia_, 'tis then too late to look about; their [1891]end is misery, sorrow, shame, and discontent. And well they deserve to be infamous and discontent. [1892]_Catamidiari in Amphitheatro_, as by Adrian the emperor's edict they were of old, _decoctores bonorum suorum_, so he calls them, prodigal fools, to be publicly shamed, and hissed out of all societies, rather than to be pitied or relieved. [1893]The Tuscans and Boetians brought their bankrupts into the marketplace in a bier with an empty purse carried before them, all the boys following, where they sat all day _circ.u.mstante plebe_, to be infamous and ridiculous. At [1894]Padua in Italy they have a stone called the stone of turpitude, near the senate-house, where spendthrifts, and such as disclaim non-payment of debts, do sit with their hinder parts bare, that by that note of disgrace others may be terrified from all such vain expense, or borrowing more than they can tell how to pay. The [1895]civilians of old set guardians over such brain-sick prodigals, as they did over madmen, to moderate their expenses, that they should not so loosely consume their fortunes, to the utter undoing of their families.

I may not here omit those two main plagues, and common dotages of human kind, wine and women, which have infatuated and besotted myriads of people; they go commonly together.

[1896] "Qui vino indulget, quemque aloa decoquit, ille In venerem putret"------

To whom is sorrow, saith Solomon, Pro. xxiii. 39, to whom is woe, but to such a one as loves drink? it causeth torture, (_vino tortus et ira_) and bitterness of mind, Sirac. 31. 21. _Vinum furoris_, Jeremy calls it, _15.

cap._ wine of madness, as well he may, for _insanire facit sanos_, it makes sound men sick and sad, and wise men [1897]mad, to say and do they know not what. _Accidit hodie terribilis casus_ (saith [1898]S. Austin) hear a miserable accident; Cyrillus' son this day in his drink, _Matrem praegnantem nequiter oppressit, sororem violare voluit, patrem occidit fere, et duas alias sorores ad mortem vulneravit_, would have violated his sister, killed his father, &c. A true saying it was of him, _Vino dari laet.i.tiam et dolorem_, drink causeth mirth, and drink causeth sorrow, drink causeth "poverty and want," (Prov. xxi.) shame and disgrace. _Multi ign.o.biles evasere ob vini potum, et_ (Austin) _amissis honoribus profugi aberrarunt_: many men have made s.h.i.+pwreck of their fortunes, and go like rogues and beggars, having turned all their substance into _aurum potabile_, that otherwise might have lived in good wors.h.i.+p and happy estate, and for a few hours' pleasure, for their Hilary term's but short, or [1899]free madness, as Seneca calls it, purchase unto themselves eternal tediousness and trouble.

That other madness is on women, _Apostatare facit cor_, saith the wise man, [1900]_Atque homini cerebrum minuit_. Pleasant at first she is, like Dioscorides Rhododaphne, that fair plant to the eye, but poison to the taste, the rest as bitter as wormwood in the end (Prov. v. 4.) and sharp as a two-edged sword, (vii. 27.) "Her house is the way to h.e.l.l, and goes down to the chambers of death." What more sorrowful can be said? they are miserable in this life, mad, beasts, led like [1901]"oxen to the slaughter:" and that which is worse, wh.o.r.emasters and drunkards shall be judged, _amittunt gratiam_, saith Austin, _perdunt gloriam, incurrunt d.a.m.nationem aeternam_. They lose grace and glory;

[1902] ------"brevis illa voluptas Abrogat aeternum caeli decus"------

they gain h.e.l.l and eternal d.a.m.nation.

SUBSECT. XIV.--_Philautia, or Self-love, Vainglory, Praise, Honour, Immoderate Applause, Pride, overmuch Joy, &c., Causes_.

Self-love, pride, and vainglory, [1903]_caecus amor sui_, which Chrysostom calls one of the devil's three great nets; [1904]"Bernard, an arrow which pierceth the soul through, and slays it; a sly, insensible enemy, not perceived," are main causes. Where neither anger, l.u.s.t, covetousness, fear, sorrow, &c., nor any other perturbation can lay hold; this will slyly and insensibly pervert us, _Quem non gula vicit, Philautia, superavit_, (saith Cyprian) whom surfeiting could not overtake, self-love hath overcome.

[1905]"He hath scorned all money, bribes, gifts, upright otherwise and sincere, hath inserted himself to no fond imagination, and sustained all those tyrannical concupiscences of the body, hath lost all his honour, captivated by vainglory." Chrysostom, _sup. Io._ _Tu sola animum mentemque peruris, gloria_. A great a.s.sault and cause of our present malady, although we do most part neglect, take no notice of it, yet this is a violent batterer of our souls, causeth melancholy and dotage. This pleasing humour; this soft and whispering popular air, _Amabilis insania_; this delectable frenzy, most irrefragable pa.s.sion, _Mentis gratissimus error_, this acceptable disease, which so sweetly sets upon us, ravisheth our senses, lulls our souls asleep, puffs up our hearts as so many bladders, and that without all feeling, [1906]insomuch as "those that are misaffected with it, never so much as once perceive it, or think of any cure." We commonly love him best in this [1907]malady, that doth us most harm, and are very willing to be hurt; _adulationibus nostris libentur facemus_ (saith [1908] Jerome) we love him, we love him for it: [1909]_O Bonciari suave, suave fuit a te tali haec tribui_; 'Twas sweet to hear it. And as [1910]Pliny doth ingenuously confess to his dear friend Augurinus, "all thy writings are most acceptable, but those especially that speak of us." Again, a little after to Maximus, [1911]"I cannot express how pleasing it is to me to hear myself commended." Though we smile to ourselves, at least ironically, when parasites bedaub us with false encomiums, as many princes cannot choose but do, _Quum tale quid nihil intra se repererint_, when they know they come as far short, as a mouse to an elephant, of any such virtues; yet it doth us good. Though we seem many times to be angry, [1912] "and blush at our own praises, yet our souls inwardly rejoice, it puffs us up;" 'tis _fallax suavitas, blandus daemon_, "makes us swell beyond our bounds, and forget ourselves." Her two daughters are lightness of mind, immoderate joy and pride, not excluding those other concomitant vices, which [1913]Iodocus Lorichius reckons up; bragging, hypocrisy, peevishness, and curiosity.

Now the common cause of this mischief, ariseth from ourselves or others, [1914]we are active and pa.s.sive. It proceeds inwardly from ourselves, as we are active causes, from an overweening conceit we have of our good parts, own worth, (which indeed is no worth) our bounty, favour, grace, valour, strength, wealth, patience, meekness, hospitality, beauty, temperance, gentry, knowledge, wit, science, art, learning, our [1915] excellent gifts and fortunes, for which, Narcissus-like, we admire, flatter, and applaud ourselves, and think all the world esteems so of us; and as deformed women easily believe those that tell them they be fair, we are too credulous of our own good parts and praises, too well persuaded of ourselves. We brag and venditate our [1916]own works, and scorn all others in respect of us; _Inflati scientia_, (saith Paul) our wisdom, [1917]our learning, all our geese are swans, and we as basely esteem and vilify other men's, as we do over-highly prize and value our own. We will not suffer them to be _in secundis_, no, not _in tertiis_; what, _Mec.u.m confertur Ulysses_? they are _Mures, Muscae, culices prae se_, nits and flies compared to his inexorable and supercilious, eminent and arrogant wors.h.i.+p: though indeed they be far before him. Only wise, only rich, only fortunate, valorous, and fair, puffed up with this tympany of self-conceit; [1918]as that proud Pharisee, they are not (as they suppose) "like other men," of a purer and more precious metal: [1919]_Soli rei gerendi sunt efficaces_, which that wise Periander held of such: [1920]_meditantur omne qui prius negotium_, &c.

_Novi quendam_ (saith [1921]Erasmus) I knew one so arrogant that he thought himself inferior to no man living, like [1922]Callisthenes the philosopher, that neither held Alexander's acts, or any other subject worthy of his pen, such was his insolency; or Seleucus king of Syria, who thought none fit to contend with him but the Romans. [1923]_Eos solos dignos ratus quibusc.u.m de imperio certaret_. That which Tully writ to Atticus long since, is still in force. [1924]"There was never yet true poet nor orator, that thought any other better than himself." And such for the most part are your princes, potentates, great philosophers, historiographers, authors of sects or heresies, and all our great scholars, as [1925]Hierom defines; "a natural philosopher is a glorious creature, and a very slave of rumour, fame, and popular opinion," and though they write _de contemptu gloriae_, yet as he observes, they will put their names to their books. _Vobis et famae, me semper dedi_, saith Trebellius Pollio, I have wholly consecrated myself to you and fame. "'Tis all my desire, night and day, 'tis all my study to raise my name." Proud [1926]Pliny seconds him; _Quamquam O_! &c. and that vainglorious [1927]orator is not ashamed to confess in an Epistle of his to Marcus Lecceius, _Ardeo incredibili cupididate_, &c. "I burn with an incredible desire to have my [1928]name registered in thy book." Out of this fountain proceed all those cracks and brags,--[1929]_speramus carmina fingi Posse linenda cedro, et leni servanda cupresso_--[1930]_Non usitata nec tenui ferar penna.--nec in terra morabor longius. Nil parvum aut humili modo, nil mortale loquor. Dicar qua violens obstrepit Ausidus.--Exegi monumentum aere perennius. Iamque opus exegi, quod nec Jovis ira, nec ignis, &c. c.u.m venit ille dies, &c. parte tamen meliore mei super alta perennis astra ferar, nomenque erit indelebile nostrum_. (This of Ovid I have paraphrased in English.)

"And when I am dead and gone, My corpse laid under a stone My fame shall yet survive, And I shall be alive, In these my works for ever, My glory shall persever," &c.

And that of Ennius,

"Nemo me lachrymis decoret, neque funera fletu Faxit, cur? volito docta per ora virum."

"Let none shed tears over me, or adorn my bier with sorrow--because I am eternally in the mouths of men." With many such proud strains, and foolish flashes too common with writers. Not so much as Democharis on the [1931]

Topics, but he will be immortal. _Typotius de fama_, shall be famous, and well he deserves, because he writ of fame; and every trivial poet must be renowned,--_Plausuque pet.i.t clarescere vulgi_. "He seeks the applause of the public." This puffing humour it is, that hath produced so many great tomes, built such famous monuments, strong castles, and Mausolean tombs, to have their acts eternised,--_Digito monstrari, et dicier hic est_; "to be pointed at with the finger, and to have it said 'there he goes,'" to see their names inscribed, as Phryne on the walls of Thebes, _Phryne fecit_; this causeth so many b.l.o.o.d.y battles,--_Et noctes cogit vigilare serenas_; "and induces us to watch during calm nights." Long journeys, _Magnum iter intendo, sed dat mihi gloria vires_, "I contemplate a monstrous journey, but the love of glory strengthens me for it," gaining honour, a little applause, pride, self-love, vainglory. This is it which makes them take such pains, and break out into those ridiculous strains, this high conceit of themselves, to [1932]scorn all others; _ridiculo fastu et intolerando contemptu_; as [1933]Palaemon the grammarian contemned Varro, _sec.u.m et natas et morituras literas jactans_, and brings them to that height of insolency, that they cannot endure to be contradicted, [1934]"or hear of anything but their own commendation," which Hierom notes of such kind of men. And as [1935]Austin well seconds him, "'tis their sole study day and night to be commended and applauded." When as indeed, in all wise men's judgments, _quibus cor sapit_, they are [1936]mad, empty vessels, funges, beside themselves, derided, _et ut Camelus in proverbio quaerens cornua, etiam quas habebat aures amisit_, [1937]their works are toys, as an almanac out of date, [1938]_authoris pereunt garrulitate sui_, they seek fame and immortality, but reap dishonour and infamy, they are a common obloquy, _insensati_, and come far short of that which they suppose or expect.

[1939]_O puer ut sis vitalis metuo_,

------"How much I dread Thy days are short, some lord shall strike thee dead."

Of so many myriads of poets, rhetoricians, philosophers, sophisters, as [1940]Eusebius well observes, which have written in former ages, scarce one of a thousand's works remains, _nomina et libri simul c.u.m corporibus interierunt_, their books and bodies are perished together. It is not as they vainly think, they shall surely be admired and immortal, as one told Philip of Macedon insultingly, after a victory, that his shadow was no longer than before, we may say to them,

"Nos demiramur, sed non c.u.m deside vulgo, Sed velut Harpyas, Gorgonas, et Furias."

"We marvel too, not as the vulgar we, But as we Gorgons, Harpies, or Furies see."

Or if we do applaud, honour and admire, _quota pars_, how small a part, in respect of the whole world, never so much as hears our names, how few take notice of us, how slender a tract, as scant as Alcibiades' land in a map!

And yet every man must and will be immortal, as he hopes, and extend his fame to our antipodes, when as half, no not a quarter of his own province or city, neither knows nor hears of him--but say they did, what's a city to a kingdom, a kingdom to Europe, Europe to the world, the world itself that must have an end, if compared to the least visible star in the firmament, eighteen times bigger than it? and then if those stars be infinite, and every star there be a sun, as some will, and as this sun of ours hath his planets about him, all inhabited, what proportion bear we to them, and where's our glory? _Orbem terrarum victor Roma.n.u.s habebat_, as he cracked in Petronius, all the world was under Augustus: and so in Constantine's time, Eusebius brags he governed all the world, _universum mundum praeclare admodum administravit,--et omnes...o...b..s gentes Imperatori subjecti_: so of Alexander it is given out, the four monarchies, &c. when as neither Greeks nor Romans ever had the fifteenth part of the now known world, nor half of that which was then described. What braggadocios are they and we then?

_quam brevis hic de n.o.bis sermo_, as [1941]he said, [1942]_pudebit aucti nominis_, how short a time, how little a while doth this fame of ours continue? Every private province, every small territory and city, when we have all done, will yield as generous spirits, as brave examples in all respects, as famous as ourselves, Cadwallader in Wales, Rollo in Normandy, Robin Hood and Little John, are as much renowned in Sherwood, as Caesar in Rome, Alexander in Greece, or his Hephestion, [1943] _Omnis aetas omnisque populus in exemplum et admirationem veniet_, every town, city, book, is full of brave soldiers, senators, scholars; and though [1944]Bracyclas was a worthy captain, a good man, and as they thought, not to be matched in Lacedaemon, yet as his mother truly said, _plures habet Sparta Bracyda meliores_, Sparta had many better men than ever he was; and howsoever thou admirest thyself, thy friend, many an obscure fellow the world never took notice of, had he been in place or action, would have done much better than he or he, or thou thyself.

Another kind of mad men there is opposite to these, that are insensibly mad, and know not of it, such as contemn all praise and glory, think themselves most free, when as indeed they are most mad: _calcant sed alio fastu_: a company of cynics, such as are monks, hermits, anchorites, that contemn the world, contemn themselves, contemn all t.i.tles, honours, offices: and yet in that contempt are more proud than any man living whatsoever. They are proud in humility, proud in that they are not proud, _saepe h.o.m.o de vanae gloriae contemptu, vanius gloriatur_, as Austin hath it, _confess. lib. 10, cap. 38_, like Diogenes, _intus gloriantur_, they brag inwardly, and feed themselves fat with a self-conceit of sanct.i.ty, which is no better than hypocrisy. They go in sheep's russet, many great men that might maintain themselves in cloth of gold, and seem to be dejected, humble by their outward carriage, when as inwardly they are swollen full of pride, arrogancy, and self-conceit. And therefore Seneca adviseth his friend Lucilius, [1945]"in his attire and gesture, outward actions, especially to avoid all such things as are more notable in themselves: as a rugged attire, hirsute head, horrid beard, contempt of money, coa.r.s.e lodging, and whatsoever leads to fame that opposite way."

All this madness yet proceeds from ourselves, the main engine which batters us is from others, we are merely pa.s.sive in this business: from a company of parasites and flatterers, that with immoderate praise, and bombast epithets, glossing t.i.tles, false eulogiums, so bedaub and applaud, gild over many a silly and undeserving man, that they clap him quite out of his wits. _Res imprimis violenta est_, as Hierom notes, this common applause is a most violent thing, _laudum placenta_, a drum, fife, and trumpet cannot so animate; that fattens men, erects and dejects them in an instant. [1946]

_Palma negata macrum, donata reducit opimum_. It makes them fat and lean, as frost doth conies. [1947]"And who is that mortal man that can so contain himself, that if he be immoderately commended and applauded, will not be moved?" Let him be what he will, those parasites will overturn him: if he be a king, he is one of the nine worthies, more than a man, a G.o.d forthwith,--[1948]_edictum Domini Deique nostri_: and they will sacrifice unto him,

[1949] ------"divinos si tu patiaris honores, Ultro ipsi dabimus meritasque sacrabimus aras."

If he be a soldier, then Themistocles, Epaminondas, Hector, Achilles, _duo fulmina belli, triumviri terrarum_, &c., and the valour of both Scipios is too little for him, he is _invictissimus, serenissimus, multis trophaeus ornatissimus, naturae, dominus_, although he be _lepus galeatus_, indeed a very coward, a milk-sop, [1950]and as he said of Xerxes, _postremus in pugna, primus in fuga_, and such a one as never durst look his enemy in the face. If he be a big man, then is he a Samson, another Hercules; if he p.r.o.nounce a speech, another Tully or Demosthenes; as of Herod in the Acts, "the voice of G.o.d and not of man:" if he can make a verse, Homer, Virgil, &c., And then my silly weak patient takes all these eulogiums to himself; if he be a scholar so commended for his much reading, excellent style, method, &c., he will eviscerate himself like a spider, study to death, _Laudatas ostendit avis Junonia pennas_, peac.o.c.k-like he will display all his feathers. If he be a soldier, and so applauded, his valour extolled, though it be _impar congressus_, as that of Troilus and Achilles, _Infelix puer_, he will combat with a giant, run first upon a breach, as another [1951]Philippus, he will ride into the thickest of his enemies. Commend his housekeeping, and he will beggar himself; commend his temperance, he will starve himself.

------"laudataque virtus Crescit, et immensum gloria calcar habet."[1952]

he is mad, mad, mad, no woe with him:--_impatiens consortis erit_, he will over the [1953]Alps to be talked of, or to maintain his credit. Commend an ambitious man, some proud prince or potentate, _si plus aequo laudetur_ (saith [1954]Erasmus) _cristas erigit, exuit hominem, Deum se putat_, he sets up his crest, and will be no longer a man but a G.o.d.

[1955] ------"nihil est quod credere de se Non audet quum laudatur diis aequa potestas."[1956]

How did this work with Alexander, that would needs be Jupiter's son, and go like Hercules in a lion's skin? Domitian a G.o.d, [1957](_Dominus Deus noster sic fieri jubet_,) like the [1958]Persian kings, whose image was adored by all that came into the city of Babylon. Commodus the emperor was so gulled by his flattering parasites, that he must be called Hercules.

[1959]Antonius the Roman would be crowned with ivy, carried in a chariot, and adored for Bacchus. Cotys, king of Thrace, was married to [1960]

Minerva, and sent three several messengers one after another, to see if she were come to his bedchamber. Such a one was [1961]Jupiter Menecrates, Maximinus, Jovia.n.u.s, Dioclesia.n.u.s Herculeus, Sapor the Persian king, brother of the sun and moon, and our modern Turks, that will be G.o.ds on earth, kings of kings, G.o.d's shadow, commanders of all that may be commanded, our kings of China and Tartary in this present age. Such a one was Xerxes, that would whip the sea, fetter Neptune, _stulta jactantia_, and send a challenge to Mount Athos; and such are many sottish princes, brought into a fool's paradise by their parasites, 'tis a common humour, incident to all men, when they are in great places, or come to the solstice of honour, have done, or deserved well, to applaud and flatter themselves.

_Stult.i.tiam suam produnt_, &c., (saith [1962]Platerus) your very tradesmen if they be excellent, will crack and brag, and show their folly in excess.

They have good parts, and they know it, you need not tell them of it; out of a conceit of their worth, they go smiling to themselves, a perpetual meditation of their trophies and plaudits, they run at last quite mad, and lose their wits. [1963]Petrarch, _lib. 1 de contemptu mundi_, confessed as much of himself, and Cardan, in his fifth book of wisdom, gives an instance in a smith of Milan, a fellow-citizen of his, [1964]one Galeus de Rubeis, that being commended for refining of an instrument of Archimedes, for joy ran mad. Plutarch in the life of Artaxerxes, hath such a like story of one Chamus, a soldier, that wounded king Cyrus in battle, and "grew thereupon so [1965]arrogant, that in a short s.p.a.ce after he lost his wits." So many men, if any new honour, office, preferment, booty, treasure, possession, or patrimony, _ex insperato_ fall unto them for immoderate joy, and continual meditation of it, cannot sleep [1966]or tell what they say or do, they are so ravished on a sudden; and with vain conceits transported, there is no rule with them. Epaminondas, therefore, the next day after his Leuctrian victory, [1967]"came abroad all squalid and submiss," and gave no other reason to his friends of so doing, than that he perceived himself the day before, by reason of his good fortune, to be too insolent, overmuch joyed.

That wise and virtuous lady, [1968]Queen Katherine, Dowager of England, in private talk, upon like occasion, said, that [1969]"she would not willingly endure the extremity of either fortune; but if it were so, that of necessity she must undergo the one, she would be in adversity, because comfort was never wanting in it, but still counsel and government were defective in the other:" they could not moderate themselves.

SUBSECT. XV.--_Love of Learning, or overmuch study. With a Digression of the misery of Scholars, and why the Muses are Melancholy_.

Leonartus Fuchsius _Inst.i.t. lib. iii. sect. 1. cap. 1._ Felix Plater, _lib.

iii. de mentis alienat_. Herc. de Saxonia, _Tract. post. de melanch. cap.

3_, speak of a [1970]peculiar fury, which comes by overmuch study.

Fernelius, _lib. 1, cap. 18_, [1971]puts study, contemplation, and continual meditation, as an especial cause of madness: and in his _86 consul._ cites the same words. Jo. Arcula.n.u.s, _in lib. 9, Rhasis ad Alnansorem, cap. 16_, amongst other causes reckons up _studium vehemens_: so doth Levinus Lemnius, _lib. de occul. nat. mirac. lib. 1, cap. 16._ [1972]"Many men" (saith he) "come to this malady by continual [1973]study, and night-waking, and of all other men, scholars are most subject to it:"

and such Rhasis adds, [1974]"that have commonly the finest wits." _Cont.

lib. 1, tract. 9_, Marsilius Ficinus, _de sanit. tuenda, lib. 1. cap. 7_, puts melancholy amongst one of those five princ.i.p.al plagues of students, 'tis a common Maul unto them all, and almost in some measure an inseparable companion. Varro belike for that cause calls _Tristes Philosophos et severos_, severe, sad, dry, tetric, are common epithets to scholars: and [1975]Patritius therefore, in the inst.i.tution of princes, would not have them to be great students. For (as Machiavel holds) study weakens their bodies, dulls the spirits, abates their strength and courage; and good scholars are never good soldiers, which a certain Goth well perceived, for when his countrymen came into Greece, and would have burned all their books, he cried out against it, by no means they should do it, [1976]

"leave them that plague, which in time will consume all their vigour, and martial spirits." The [1977]Turks abdicated Cornutus the next heir from the empire, because he was so much given to his book: and 'tis the common tenet of the world, that learning dulls and diminisheth the spirits, and so _per consequens_ produceth melancholy.

Two main reasons may be given of it, why students should be more subject to this malady than others. The one is, they live a sedentary, solitary life, _sibi et musis_, free from bodily exercise, and those ordinary disports which other men use: and many times if discontent and idleness concur with it, which is too frequent, they are precipitated into this gulf on a sudden: but the common cause is overmuch study; too much learning (as [1978]Festus told Paul) hath made thee mad; 'tis that other extreme which effects it. So did Trincavelius, _lib. 1, consil. 12 and 13_, find by his experience, in two of his patients, a young baron, and another that contracted this malady by too vehement study. So Forestus, _observat. l.

10, observ. 13_, in a young divine in Louvain, that was mad, and said [1979]"he had a Bible in his head:" Marsilius Ficinus _de sanit. tuend.

lib. 1, cap. 1, 3, 4_, and _lib. 2, cap. 16_, gives many reasons, [1980]

"why students dote more often than others." The first is their negligence; [1981]"other men look to their tools, a painter will wash his pencils, a smith will look to his hammer, anvil, forge; a husbandman will mend his plough-irons, and grind his hatchet if it be dull; a falconer or huntsman will have an especial care of his hawks, hounds, horses, dogs, &c.; a musician will string and unstring his lute, &c.; only scholars neglect that instrument, their brain and spirits (I mean) which they daily use, and by which they range overall the world, which by much study is consumed."

_Vide_ (saith Lucian) _ne funiculum nimis intendendo aliquando abrumpas_: "See thou twist not the rope so hard, till at length it [1982]break."

Facinus in his fourth chap. gives some other reasons; Saturn and Mercury, the patrons of learning, they are both dry planets: and Origa.n.u.s a.s.signs the same cause, why Mercurialists are so poor, and most part beggars; for that their president Mercury had no better fortune himself. The destinies of old put poverty upon him as a punishment; since when, poetry and beggary are Gemelli, twin-born brats, inseparable companions;