The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 37

But amongst those exercises, or recreations of the mind within doors, there is none so general, so aptly to be applied to all sorts of men, so fit and proper to expel idleness and melancholy, as that of study: _Studia, senectutem oblectant, adolescentiam, alunt, secundas res ornant, adversis perfugium et solatium praebent, domi delectant_, &c., find the rest in Tully _pro Archia Poeta._ [3312]What so full of content, as to read, walk, and see maps, pictures, statues, jewels, marbles, which some so much magnify, as those that Phidias made of old so exquisite and pleasing to be beheld, that as [3313]Chrysostom thinketh, "if any man be sickly, troubled in mind, or that cannot sleep for grief, and shall but stand over against one of Phidias' images, he will forget all care, or whatsoever else may molest him, in an instant?" There be those as much taken with Michael Angelo's, Raphael de Urbino's, Francesco Francia's pieces, and many of those Italian and Dutch painters, which were excellent in their ages; and esteem of it as a most pleasing sight, to view those neat architectures, devices, escutcheons, coats of arms, read such books, to peruse old coins of several sorts in a fair gallery; artificial works, perspective gla.s.ses, old relics, Roman antiquities, variety of colours. A good picture is _falsa veritas, et muta poesis_: and though (as [3314]Vives saith) _artificialia delectant, sed mox fastidimus_, artificial toys please but for a time; yet who is he that will not be moved with them for the present? When Achilles was tormented and sad for the loss of his dear friend Patroclus, his mother Thetis brought him a most elaborate and curious buckler made by Vulcan, in which were engraven sun, moon, stars, planets, sea, land, men fighting, running, riding, women scolding, hills, dales, towns, castles, brooks, rivers, trees, &c., with many pretty landscapes, and perspective pieces: with sight of which he was infinitely delighted, and much eased of his grief.

[3315] "Continuo eo spectaculo captus delenito maerore Oblectabatur, in manibus tenens dei splendida dona."

Who will not be affected so in like case, or see those well-furnished cloisters and galleries of the Roman cardinals, so richly stored with all modern pictures, old statues and antiquities? _c.u.m se--spectando recreet simul et legendo_, to see their pictures alone and read the description, as [3316]Boisardus well adds, whom will it not affect? which Bozius, Pomponius, Laetus, Marlia.n.u.s, Schottus, Cavelerius, Ligorius, &c., and he himself hath well performed of late. Or in some prince's cabinets, like that of the great dukes in Florence, of Felix Platerus in Basil, or n.o.blemen's houses, to see such variety of attires, faces, so many, so rare, and such exquisite pieces, of men, birds, beasts, &c., to see those excellent landscapes, Dutch works, and curious cuts of Sadlier of Prague, Albertus Durer, Goltzius Vrintes, &c., such pleasant pieces of perspective, Indian pictures made of feathers, China works, frames, thaumaturgical motions, exotic toys, &c. Who is he that is now wholly overcome with idleness, or otherwise involved in a labyrinth of worldly cares, troubles and discontents, that will not be much lightened in his mind by reading of some enticing story, true or feigned, whereas in a gla.s.s he shall observe what our forefathers have done, the beginnings, ruins, falls, periods of commonwealths, private men's actions displayed to the life, &c. [3317]

Plutarch therefore calls them, _secundas mensas et bellaria_, the second course and junkets, because they were usually read at n.o.blemen's feasts.

Who is not earnestly affected with a pa.s.sionate speech, well penned, an elegant poem, or some pleasant bewitching discourse, like that of [3318]

Heliodorus, _ubi oblectatio quaedam placide fuit, c.u.m hilaritate conjuncta_? Julian the Apostate was so taken with an oration of Libanius, the sophister, that, as he confesseth, he could not be quiet till he had read it all out. _Legi orationem tuam magna ex parte, hesterna die ante prandium, pransus vero sine ulla intermissione totam absolvi_. [3319]_O argumenta! O compositionem!_ I may say the same of this or that pleasing tract, which will draw his attention along with it. To most kind of men it is an extraordinary delight to study. For what a world of books offers itself, in all subjects, arts, and sciences, to the sweet content and capacity of the reader? In arithmetic, geometry, perspective, optics, astronomy, architecture, sculpture, painting, of which so many and such elaborate treatises are of late written: in mechanics and their mysteries, military matters, navigation, [3320]riding of horses, [3321]fencing, swimming, gardening, planting, great tomes of husbandry, cookery, falconry, hunting, fis.h.i.+ng, fowling, &c., with exquisite pictures of all sports, games, and what not? In music, metaphysics, natural and moral philosophy, philology, in policy, heraldry, genealogy, chronology, &c., they afford great tomes, or those studies of [3322]antiquity, &c., _et [3323]quid subtilius Arithmeticis inventionibus, quid jucundius Musicis rationibus, quid divinius Astronomicis, quid rectius Geometricis demonstrationibus_?

What so sure, what so pleasant? He that shall but see that geometrical tower of Garezenda at Bologna in Italy, the steeple and clock at Strasburg, will admire the effects of art, or that engine of Archimedes, to remove the earth itself, if he had but a place to fasten his instrument: Archimedes Coclea, and rare devices to corrivate waters, musical instruments, and tri-syllable echoes again, again, and again repeated, with myriads of such.

What vast tomes are extant in law, physic, and divinity, for profit, pleasure, practice, speculation, in verse or prose, &c.! their names alone are the subject of whole volumes, we have thousands of authors of all sorts, many great libraries full well furnished, like so many dishes of meat, served out for several palates; and he is a very block that is affected with none of them. Some take an infinite delight to study the very languages wherein these books are written, Hebrew, Greek, Syriac, Chaldee, Arabic, &c. Methinks it would please any man to look upon a geographical map, [3324]_sauvi animum delectatione allicere, ob incredibilem rerum varietatem et jucunditatem, et ad pleniorem sui cognitionem excitare_, chorographical, topographical delineations, to behold, as it were, all the remote provinces, towns, cities of the world, and never to go forth of the limits of his study, to measure by the seale and compa.s.s their extent, distance, examine their site. Charles the Great, as Platina writes, had three fair silver tables, in one of which superficies was a large map of Constantinople, in the second Rome neatly engraved, in the third an exquisite description of the whole world, and much delight he took in them.

What greater pleasure can there now be, than to view those elaborate maps of Ortelius, [3325]Mercator, Hondius, &c.? To peruse those books of cities, put out by Braunus and Hogenbergius? To read those exquisite descriptions of Maginus, Munster, Herrera, Laet, Merula, Boterus, Leander, Albertus, Camden, Leo Afer, Adricomius, Nic. Gerbelius, &c.? Those famous expeditions of Christoph. Columbus, Americus Vespucius, Marcus Polus the Venetian, Lod.

Vertomannus, Aloysius Cadamustus, &c.? Those accurate diaries of Portuguese, Hollanders, of Bartison, Oliver a Nort, &c. Hakluyt's voyages, Pet. Martyr's Decades, Benzo, Lerius, Linschoten's relations, those Hodoeporicons of Jod. a Meggen, Brocard the monk, Bredenbachius, Jo.

Dublinius, Sands, &c., to Jerusalem, Egypt, and other remote places of the world? those pleasant itineraries of Paulus Hentzerus, Jodocus Sincerus, Dux Polonus, &c., to read Bellonius' observations, P. Gillius his surveys; those parts of America, set out, and curiously cut in pictures, by Fratres a Bry. To see a well-cut herbal, herbs, trees, flowers, plants, all vegetables expressed in their proper colours to the life, as that of Matthiolus upon Dioscorides, Delacampius, Lobel, Bauhinus, and that last voluminous and mighty herbal of Beslar of Nuremberg, wherein almost every plant is to his own bigness. To see birds, beasts, and fishes of the sea, spiders, gnats, serpents, flies, &c., all creatures set out by the same art, and truly expressed in lively colours, with an exact description of their natures, virtues, qualities, &c., as hath been accurately performed by Aelian, Gesner, Ulysses Aldrovandus, Bellonius, Rondoletius, Hippolitus Salvia.n.u.s, &c. [3326]_Arcana coeli, naturae secreta, ordinem universi scire majoris felicitatis et dulcedinis est, quam cogitatione quis a.s.sequi possit, aut mortalis sperare_. What more pleasing studies can there be than the mathematics, theoretical or practical parts? as to survey land, make maps, models, dials, &c., with which I was ever much delighted myself.

_Tails est Mathematum pulchritudo_ (saith [3327] Plutarch) _ut his indignum sit divitiarum phaleras istas et bullas, et puellaria spectacula comparari_; such is the excellency of these studies, that all those ornaments and childish bubbles of wealth, are not worthy to be compared to them: _credi mihi_ ( [3328]saith one) _extingui dulce erit Mathematicarum artium studio_, I could even live and die with such meditation, [3329]and take more delight, true content of mind in them, than thou hast in all thy wealth and sport, how rich soever thou art. And as [3330]Cardan well seconds me, _Honorific.u.m magis est et gloriosum haec intelligere, quam provinciis praeesse, formosum aut ditem juvenem esse_. [3331]The like pleasure there is in all other studies, to such as are truly addicted to them, [3332]_ea suavitas_ (one holds) _ut c.u.m quis ea degustaverit, quasi poculis Circeis captus, non possit unquam ab illis divelli_; the like sweetness, which as Circe's cup bewitcheth a student, he cannot leave off, as well may witness those many laborious hours, days and nights, spent in the voluminous treatises written by them; the same content. [3333]Julius Scaliger was so much affected with poetry, that he brake out into a pathetical protestation, he had rather be the author of twelve verses in Lucan, or such an ode in [3334]Horace, than emperor of Germany.

[3335]Nicholas Gerbelius, that good old man, was so much ravished with a few Greek authors restored to light, with hope and desire of enjoying the rest, that he exclaims forthwith, _Arabibus atque Indis omnibus erimus ditiores_, we shall be richer than all the Arabic or Indian princes; of such [3336]esteem they were with him, incomparable worth and value. Seneca prefers Zeno and Chrysippus, two doting stoics (he was so much enamoured of their works), before any prince or general of an army; and Orontius, the mathematician, so far admires Archimedes, that he calls him _Divinum et homine majorem_, a petty G.o.d, more than a man; and well he might, for aught I see, if you respect fame or worth. Pindarus, of Thebes, is as much renowned for his poems, as Epaminondas, Pelopidas, Hercules or Bacchus, his fellow citizens, for their warlike actions; _et si famam respicias, non pauciores Aristotelis quam Alexandri meminerunt_ (as Cardan notes), Aristotle is more known than Alexander; for we have a bare relation of Alexander's deeds, but Aristotle, _totus vivit in monumentis_, is whole in his works: yet I stand not upon this; the delight is it, which I aim at, so great pleasure, such sweet content there is in study. [3337]King James, 1605, when he came to see our University of Oxford, and amongst other edifices now went to view that famous library, renewed by Sir Thomas Bodley, in imitation of Alexander, at his departure brake out into that n.o.ble speech, If I were not a king, I would be a university man: [3338]

"and if it were so that I must be a prisoner, if I might have my wish, I would desire to have no other prison than that library, and to be chained together with so many good authors _et mortuis magistris_." So sweet is the delight of study, the more learning they have (as he that hath a dropsy, the more he drinks the thirstier he is) the more they covet to learn, and the last day is _prioris discipulus_; harsh at first learning is, _radices amarcae_, but _fractus dulces_, according to that of Isocrates, pleasant at last; the longer they live, the more they are enamoured with the Muses.

Heinsius, the keeper of the library at Leyden in Holland, was mewed up in it all the year long: and that which to thy thinking should have bred a loathing, caused in him a greater liking. [3339]"I no sooner" (saith he) "come into the library, but I bolt the door to me, excluding l.u.s.t, ambition, avarice, and all such vices, whose nurse is idleness, the mother of ignorance, and melancholy herself, and in the very lap of eternity, amongst so many divine souls, I take my seat, with so lofty a spirit and sweet content, that I pity all our great ones, and rich men that know not this happiness." I am not ignorant in the meantime (notwithstanding this which I have said) how barbarously and basely, for the most part, our ruder gentry esteem of libraries and books, how they neglect and contemn so great a treasure, so inestimable a benefit, as Aesop's c.o.c.k did the jewel he found in the dunghill; and all through error, ignorance, and want of education. And 'tis a wonder, withal, to observe how much they will vainly cast away in unnecessary expenses, _quot modis pereant_ (saith [3340]Erasmus) _magnatibus pecuniae, quantum absumant alea, scorta, compotationes, profectiones non necessariae, pompae, bella quaesita, ambitio, colax, morio, ludio_, &c., what in hawks, hounds, lawsuits, vain building, gormandising, drinking, sports, plays, pastimes, &c. If a well-minded man to the Muses, would sue to some of them for an exhibition, to the farther maintenance or enlargement of such a work, be it college, lecture, library, or whatsoever else may tend to the advancement of learning, they are so unwilling, so averse, that they had rather see these which are already, with such cost and care erected, utterly ruined, demolished or otherwise employed; for they repine many and grudge at such gifts and revenues so bestowed: and therefore it were in vain, as Erasmus well notes, _vel ab his, vel a negotiatoribus qui se Mammonae dediderunt, improb.u.m forta.s.se tale officium exigere_, to solicit or ask anything of such men that are likely d.a.m.ned to riches; to this purpose. For my part I pity these men, _stultos jubeo esse libenter_, let them go as they are, in the catalogue of Ignoramus. How much, on the other side, are all we bound that are scholars, to those munificent Ptolemies, bountiful Maecenases, heroical patrons, divine spirits,

[3341] ------"qui n.o.bis haec otio fecerunt, namque erit ille mihi semper Deus"------

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

that have provided for us so many well-furnished libraries, as well in our public academies in most cities, as in our private colleges? How shall I remember [3342]Sir Thomas Bodley, amongst the rest, [3343]Otho Nicholson, and the Right Reverend John Williams, Lord Bishop of Lincoln (with many other pious acts), who besides that at St. John's College in Cambridge, that in Westminster, is now likewise in _Fieri_ with a library at Lincoln (a n.o.ble precedent for all corporate towns and cities to imitate), _O quam te memorem (vir ill.u.s.trissime) quibus elogiis_? But to my task again.

Whosoever he is therefore that is overrun with solitariness, or carried away with pleasing melancholy and vain conceits, and for want of employment knows not how to spend his time, or crucified with worldly care, I can prescribe him no better remedy than this of study, to compose himself to the learning of some art or science. Provided always that this malady proceed not from overmuch study; for in such case he adds fuel to the fire, and nothing can be more pernicious: let him take heed he do not overstretch his wits, and make a skeleton of himself; or such inamoratos as read nothing but play-books, idle poems, jests, Amadis de Gaul, the Knight of the Sun, the Seven Champions, Palmerin de Oliva, Huon of Bordeaux, &c. Such many times prove in the end as mad as Don Quixote. Study is only prescribed to those that are otherwise idle, troubled in mind, or carried headlong with vain thoughts and imaginations, to distract their cogitations (although variety of study, or some serious subject, would do the former no harm) and divert their continual meditations another way. Nothing in this case better than study; _semper aliquid memoriter ediscant_, saith Piso, let them learn something without book, transcribe, translate, &c. Read the Scriptures, which Hyperius, _lib. 1. de quotid. script. lec. fol. 77._ holds available of itself, [3344]"the mind is erected thereby from all worldly cares, and hath much quiet and tranquillity." For as [3345]Austin well hath it, 'tis _scientia scientiarum, omni melle dulcior, omni pane suavior, omni vino, hilarior_: 'tis the best nepenthe, surest cordial, sweetest alterative, presentest diverter: for neither as [3346]Chrysostom well adds, "those boughs and leaves of trees which are plashed for cattle to stand under, in the heat of the day, in summer, so much refresh them with their acceptable shade, as the reading of the Scripture doth recreate and comfort a distressed soul, in sorrow and affliction." Paul bids "pray continually;" _quod cibus corpori, lectio animae facit_, saith Seneca, as meat is to the body, such is reading to the soul. [3347]"To be at leisure without books is another h.e.l.l, and to be buried alive." [3348]Cardan calls a library the physic of the soul; [3349]"divine authors fortify the mind, make men bold and constant; and (as Hyperius adds) G.o.dly conference will not permit the mind to be tortured with absurd cogitations." Rhasis enjoins continual conference to such melancholy men, perpetual discourse of some history, tale, poem, news, &c., _alternos sermones edere ac bibere, aeque jucundum quam cibus, sive potus_, which feeds the mind as meat and drink doth the body, and pleaseth as much: and therefore the said Rhasis, not without good cause, would have somebody still talk seriously, or dispute with them, and sometimes [3350]"to cavil and wrangle" (so that it break not out to a violent perturbation), "for such altercation is like stirring of a dead fire to make it burn afresh," it whets a dull spirit, "and will not suffer the mind to be drowned in those profound cogitations, which melancholy men are commonly troubled with." [3351]Ferdinand and Alphonsus, kings of Arragon and Sicily, were both cured by reading the history, one of Curtius, the other of Livy, when no prescribed physic would take place.

[3352]Camerarius relates as much of Lorenzo de' Medici. Heathen philosophers arc so full of divine precepts in this kind, that, as some think, they alone are able to settle a distressed mind. [3353]_Sunt verba et voces, quibus liunc lenire dolorem_, &c. Epictetus, Plutarch, and Seneca; _qualis ille, quae tela_, saith Lipsius, _adversus omnes animi casus administrat, et ipsam mortem, quomodo vitia eripit, infert virtutes_?

when I read Seneca, [3354]"methinks I am beyond all human fortunes, on the top of a hill above mortality." Plutarch saith as much of Homer, for which cause belike Niceratus, in Xenophon, was made by his parents to con Homer's Iliads and Odysseys without book, _ut in virum bonum evaderet_, as well to make him a good and honest man, as to avoid idleness. If this comfort be got from philosophy, what shall be had from divinity? What shall Austin, Cyprian, Gregory, Bernard's divine meditations afford us?

[3355] "Qui quid sit pulchrum, quid turpe, quid utile, quid non, Plenius et melius Chrysippo et Crantore dic.u.n.t."

Nay, what shall the Scripture itself? Which is like an apothecary's shop, wherein are all remedies for all infirmities of mind, purgatives, cordials, alteratives, corroboratives, lenitives, &c. "Every disease of the soul,"

saith [3356]Austin, "hath a peculiar medicine in the Scripture; this only is required, that the sick man take the potion which G.o.d hath already tempered." [3357]Gregory calls it "a gla.s.s wherein we may see all our infirmities," _ignitum colloquium_, Psalm cxix. 140. [3358]Origen a charm.

And therefore Hierom prescribes Rusticus the monk, [3359]"continually to read the Scripture, and to meditate on that which he hath read; for as mastication is to meat, so is meditation on that which we read." I would for these causes wish him that, is melancholy to use both human and divine authors, voluntarily to impose some task upon himself, to divert his melancholy thoughts: to study the art of memory, Cosmus Rosselius, Pet.

Ravennas, Scenkelius' Detectus, or practise brachygraphy, &c., that will ask a great deal of attention: or let him demonstrate a proposition in Euclid, in his five last books, extract a square root, or study Algebra: than which, as [3360]Clavius holds, "in all human disciplines nothing can be more excellent and pleasant, so abstruse and recondite, so bewitching, so miraculous, so ravis.h.i.+ng, so easy withal and full of delight," _omnem humanum captum superare videtur_. By this means you may define _ex ungue leonem_, as the diverb is, by his thumb alone the bigness of Hercules, or the true dimensions of the great [3361]Colossus, Solomon's temple, and Domitian's amphitheatre out of a little part. By this art you may contemplate the variation of the twenty-three letters, which may be so infinitely varied, that the words complicated and deduced thence will not be contained within the compa.s.s 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, _a.s.signando singulis pa.s.sum quadratum_ (a.s.signing 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 ma.s.s 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, compa.s.s of the firmament, each star, with their diameters and circ.u.mference, apparent area, superficies, by those curious helps of gla.s.ses, astrolabes, s.e.xtants, 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 h.o.m.o 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 gla.s.ses, of which Proclus and Bacon writ of old, burning gla.s.ses, multiplying gla.s.ses, perspectives, _ut unus h.o.m.o 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 loc.u.m visionis, nihil inveniant_, which gla.s.ses are much perfected of late by Baptista Porta and Galileo, and much more is promised by Maginus and Midorgius, to be performed in this kind. _Otocousticons_ some speak of, to intend hearing, as the other do sight; Marcellus Vrencken, a Hollander, in his epistle to Burgravius, makes mention of a friend of his that is about an instrument, _quo videbit quae in altero horizonte sint_. But our alchemists, methinks, and Rosicrucians afford most rarities, and are fuller of experiments: they can make gold, separate and alter metals, extract oils, salts, lees, and do more strange works than Geber, Lullius, Bacon, or any of those ancients. Crollius hath made after his master Paracelsus, _aurum fulminans_, or _aurum volatile_, which shall imitate thunder and lightning, and crack louder than any gunpowder; Cornelius Drible a perpetual motion, inextinguishable lights, _linum non ardens_, with many such feats; see his book _de natura elementorum_, besides hail, wind, snow, thunder, lightning, &c., those strange fireworks, devilish petards, and such like warlike machinations derived hence, of which read Tartalea and others. Ernestus Burgravius, a disciple of Paracelsus, hath published a discourse, in which he specifies a lamp to be made of man's blood, _Lucerna vitae et mortis index_, so he terms it, which chemically prepared forty days, and afterwards kept in a gla.s.s, shall show all the accidents of this life; _si lampus hic clarus, tunc h.o.m.o hilaris et sa.n.u.s corpore et animo; si nebulosus et depressus, male afficitur, et sic pro statu hominis variatur, unde sumptus sanguis_; [3365]and which is most wonderful, it dies with the party, _c.u.m homine perit, et evanescit_, the lamp and the man whence the blood was taken, are extinguished together. The same author hath another tract of Mumia (all out as vain and prodigious as the first) by which he will cure most diseases, and transfer them from a man to a beast, by drawing blood from one, and applying it to the other, _vel in plantam derivare_, and an Alexi-pharmac.u.m, of which Roger Bacon of old in his _Tract. de r.e.t.a.r.danda senectute_, to make a man young again, live three or four hundred years. Besides panaceas, martial amulets, _unguentum armarium_, balsams, strange extracts, elixirs, and such like magico-magnetical cures. Now what so pleasing can there be as the speculation of these things, to read and examine such experiments, or if a man be more mathematically given, to calculate, or peruse Napier's Logarithms, or those tables of artificial [3366]sines and tangents, not long since set out by mine old collegiate, good friend, and late fellow-student of Christ Church in Oxford, [3367]Mr. Edmund Gunter, which will perform that by addition and subtraction only, which heretofore Regiomonta.n.u.s's tables did by multiplication and division, or those elaborate conclusions of his [3368]sector, quadrant, and cross-staff. Or let him that is melancholy calculate spherical triangles, square a circle, cast a nativity, which howsoever some tax, I say with [3369]Garcaeus, _dabimus hoc petulantibus ingeniis_, we will in some cases allow: or let him make an _ephemerides_, read Suisset the calculator's works, Scaliger _de emendatione temporum_, and Petavius his adversary, till he understand them, peruse subtle Scotus and Suarez's metaphysics, or school divinity, Occam, Thomas, Entisberus, Durand, &c. If those other do not affect him, and his means be great, to employ his purse and fill his head, he may go find the philosopher's stone; he may apply his mind, I say, to heraldry, antiquity, invent impresses, emblems; make epithalamiums, epitaphs, elegies, epigrams, palindroma epigrammata, anagrams, chronograms, acrostics, upon his friends' names; or write a comment on Martia.n.u.s Capella, Tertullian _de pallio_, the Nubian geography, or upon Aelia Laelia Crispis, as many idle fellows have essayed; and rather than do nothing, vary a [3370]verse a thousand ways with Putean, so torturing his wits, or as Rainnerus of Luneburg, [3371]2150 times in his _Proteus Poeticus_, or Scaliger, Chrysolithus, Clepp.i.s.sius, and others, have in like sort done. If such voluntary tasks, pleasure and delight, or crabbedness of these studies, will not yet divert their idle thoughts, and alienate their imaginations, they must be compelled, saith Christophorus a Vega, _cogi debent_, _l. 5. c. 14_, upon some mulct, if they perform it not, _quod ex officio inc.u.mbat_, loss of credit or disgrace, such as our public University exercises. For, as he that plays for nothing will not heed his game; no more will voluntary employment so thoroughly affect a student, except he be very intent of himself, and take an extraordinary delight in the study, about which he is conversant. It should be of that nature his business, which _volens nolens_ he must necessarily undergo, and without great loss, mulct, shame, or hindrance, he may not omit.

Now for women, instead of laborious studies, they have curious needleworks, cut-works, spinning, bone-lace, and many pretty devices of their own making, to adorn their houses, cus.h.i.+ons, carpets, chairs, stools, ("for she eats not the bread of idleness," Prov. x.x.xi. 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 superst.i.tious. In a word, body and mind must be exercised, not one, but both, and that in a mediocrity; otherwise it will cause a great inconvenience. If the body be overtired, it tires the mind. The mind oppresseth the body, as with students it oftentimes falls out, who (as [3374]Plutarch observes) have no care of the body, "but compel that which is mortal to do as much as that which is immortal: that which is earthly, as that which is ethereal. But as the ox tired, told the camel, (both serving one master) that refused to carry some part of his burden, before it were long he should be compelled to carry all his pack, and skin to boot (which by and by, the ox being dead, fell out), the body may say to the soul, that will give him no respite or remission: a little after, an ague, vertigo, consumption, seizeth on them both, all his study is omitted, and they must be compelled to be sick together:" he that tenders his own good estate, and health, must let them draw with equal yoke, both alike, [3375]

"that so they may happily enjoy their wished health."

MEMB. V.

_Waking and terrible Dreams rectified_.

As waking that hurts, by all means must be avoided, so sleep, which so much helps, by like ways, [3376]"must be procured, by nature or art, inward or outward medicines, and be protracted longer than ordinary, if it may be, as being an especial help." It moistens and fattens the body, concocts, and helps digestion (as we see in dormice, and those Alpine mice that sleep all winter), which Gesner speaks of, when they are so found sleeping under the snow in the dead of winter, as fat as b.u.t.ter. It expels cares, pacifies the mind, refresheth the weary limbs after long work:

[3377]Somne quies rerum, placidissime somne deorum, Pax animi, quem cura fugit, qui corpora duris Fessa ministeriis mulces reparasque labori."

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

The chiefest thing in all physic, [3378]Paracelsus calls it, _omnia arcana gemmarum superans et metallorum_. The fittest time is [3379]"two or three hours after supper, when as the meat is now settled at the bottom of the stomach, and 'tis good to lie on the right side first, because at that site the liver doth rest under the stomach, not molesting any way, but heating him as a fire doth a kettle, that is put to it. After the first sleep 'tis not amiss to lie on the left side, that the meat may the better descend;"

and sometimes again on the belly, but never on the back. Seven or eight hours is a competent time for a melancholy man to rest, as Crato thinks; but as some do, to lie in bed and not sleep, a day, or half a day together, to give a.s.sent to pleasing conceits and vain imaginations, is many ways pernicious. To procure this sweet moistening sleep, it's best to take away the occasions (if it be possible) that hinder it, and then to use such inward or outward remedies, which may cause it. _Constat hodie_ (saith Boissardus in his tract _de magia, cap. 4._) _multos ita fascinari ut noctes integras exigant insomnes, summa, inquietudine animorum et corporum_; many cannot sleep for witches and fascinations, which are too familiar in some places; they call it, _dare alicui malam noctem_. But the ordinary causes are heat and dryness, which must first be removed: [3380]a hot and dry brain never sleeps well: grief, fears, cares, expectations, anxieties, great businesses, [3381]_In aurum utramque otiose ut dormias_, and all violent perturbations of the mind, must in some sort be qualified, before we can hope for any good repose. He that sleeps in the daytime, or is in suspense, fear, any way troubled in mind, or goes to bed upon a full [3382]stomach, may never hope for quiet rest in the night; _nec enim meritoria somnos admittunt_, as the [3383]poet saith; inns and such like troublesome places are not for sleep; one calls ostler, another tapster, one cries and shouts, another sings, whoops, halloos,

[3384] ------"absentem cantat amicam, Multa prolutus vappa nauta atque viator."

Who not accustomed to such noises can sleep amongst them? He that will intend to take his rest must go to bed _animo securo, quieto et libero_, with a [3385]secure and composed mind, in a quiet place: _omnia noctes erunt placida composta quiete_: and if that will not serve, or may not be obtained, to seek then such means as are requisite. To lie in clean linen and sweet; before he goes to bed, or in bed, to hear [3386]"sweet music,"

which Ficinus commends, _lib. 1. cap. 24_, or as Jobertus, _med. pract.

lib. 3. cap. 10._ [3387]"to read some pleasant author till he be asleep, to have a basin of water still dropping by his bedside," or to lie near that pleasant murmur, _lene sonantis aquae_. Some floodgates, arches, falls of water, like London Bridge, or some continuate noise which may benumb the senses, _lenis motus, silentium et tenebra, tum et ipsa voluntas somnos faciunt_; as a gentle noise to some procures sleep, so, which Bernardinus Tilesius, _lib. de somno_, well observes, silence, in a dark room, and the will itself, is most available to others. Piso commends frications, Andrew Borde a good draught of strong drink before one goes to bed; I say, a nutmeg and ale, or a good draught of Muscadine, with a toast and nutmeg, or a posset of the same, which many use in a morning, but methinks, for such as have dry brains, are much more proper at night; some prescribe a [3388]

sup of vinegar as they go to bed, a spoonful, saith Aetius _Tetrabib. lib.

2. ser. 2. cap. 10. lib. 6. cap. 10._ Aegineta, _lib. 3. cap. 14._ Piso, "a little after meat," [3389]"because it rarefies melancholy, and procures an appet.i.te to sleep." _Donat. ab Altomar. cap. 7._ and Mercurialis approve of it, if the malady proceed from the [3390]spleen. Sal.u.s.t. Salvian. _lib. 2.

cap. 1. de remed._ Hercules de Saxonia _in Pan. Aelinus_, Montaltus _de morb. capitis, cap. 28. de Melan._ are altogether against it. Lod.

Mercatus, _de inter. Morb. cau. lib. 1. cap. 17._ in some cases doth allow it. [3391]Rhasis seems to deliberate of it, though Simeon commend it (in sauce peradventure) he makes a question of it: as for baths, fomentations, oils, potions, simples or compounds, inwardly taken to this purpose, [3392]

I shall speak of them elsewhere. If, in the midst of the night, when they lie awake, which is usual to toss and tumble, and not sleep, [3393]

Ranzovius would have them, if it be in warm weather, to rise and walk three or four turns (till they be cold) about the chamber, and then go to bed again.

Against fearful and troublesome dreams, Incubus and such inconveniences, wherewith melancholy men are molested, the best remedy is to eat a light supper, and of such meats as are easy of digestion, no hare, venison, beef, &c., not to lie on his back, not to meditate or think in the daytime of any terrible objects, or especially talk of them before he goes to bed. For, as he said in Lucian after such conference, _Hecates somniare mihi videor_, I can think of nothing but hobgoblins: and as Tully notes, [3394] "for the most part our speeches in the daytime cause our fantasy to work upon the like in our sleep," which Ennius writes of Homer: _Et canis in somnis leporis vestigia latrat_: as a dog dreams of a hare, so do men on such subjects they thought on last.

[3395] "Somnia quae mentes ludunt volitantibus umbris, Nec delubra deum, nec ab aethere numina mittunt, Sed sibi quisque facit," &c.

For that cause when Ptolemy, king of Egypt, had posed the seventy interpreters in order, and asked the nineteenth man what would make one sleep quietly in the night, he told him, [3396]"the best way was to have divine and celestial meditations, and to use honest actions in the daytime.

[3397]Lod. Vives wonders how schoolmen could sleep quietly, and were not terrified in the night, or walk in the dark, they had such monstrous questions, and thought of such terrible matters all day long." They had need, amongst the rest, to sacrifice to G.o.d Morpheus, whom [3398]

Philostratus paints in a white and black coat, with a horn and ivory box full of dreams, of the same colours, to signify good and bad. If you will know how to interpret them, read Artemidorus, Sambucus and Cardan; but how to help them, [3399]I must refer you to a more convenient place.

MEMB. VI.

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

Whosoever he is that shall hope to cure this malady in himself or any other, must first rectify these pa.s.sions and perturbations of the mind: the chiefest cure consists in them. A quiet mind is that _voluptas_, or _summum bonum_ of Epicurus, _non dolere, curis vacare, animo tranquillo esse_, not to grieve, but to want cares, and have a quiet soul, is the only pleasure of the world, as Seneca truly recites his opinion, not that of eating and drinking, which injurious Aristotle maliciously puts upon him, and for which he is still mistaken, _male audit et vapulat_, slandered without a cause, and lashed by all posterity. [3400]"Fear and sorrow, therefore, are especially to be avoided, and the mind to be mitigated with mirth, constancy, good hope; vain terror, bad objects are to be removed, and all such persons in whose companies they be not well pleased." Gualter Bruel.

Fernelius, _consil. 43._ Mercurialis, _consil. 6._ Piso, Jacchinus, _cap.

15. in 9. Rhasis_, Capivaccius, Hildesheim, &c., all inculcate this as an especial means of their cure, that their [3401]"minds be quietly pacified, vain conceits diverted, if it be possible, with terrors, cares," [3402]

"fixed studies, cogitations, and whatsoever it is that shall any way molest or trouble the soul," because that otherwise there is no good to be done.

[3403]"The body's mischiefs," as Plato proves, "proceed from the soul: and if the mind be not first satisfied, the body can never be cured."

Alcibiades raves (saith [3404]Maximus Tyrius) and is sick, his furious desires carry him from Lyceus to the pleading place, thence to the sea, so into Sicily, thence to Lacedaemon, thence to Persia, thence to Samos, then again to Athens; Critias tyranniseth over all the city; Sardanapalus is lovesick; these men are ill-affected all, and can never be cured, till their minds be otherwise qualified. Crato, therefore, in that often-cited Counsel of his for a n.o.bleman his patient, when he had sufficiently informed him in diet, air, exercise, Venus, sleep, concludes with these as matters of greatest moment, _Quod reliquum est, animae accidentia corrigantur_, from which alone proceeds melancholy; they are the fountain, the subject, the hinges whereon it turns, and must necessarily be reformed.

[3405]"For anger stirs choler, heats the blood and vital spirits; sorrow on the other side refrigerates the body, and extinguisheth natural heat, overthrows appet.i.te, hinders concoction, dries up the temperature, and perverts the understanding:" fear dissolves the spirits, infects the heart, attenuates the soul: and for these causes all pa.s.sions and perturbations must, to the uttermost of our power and most seriously, be removed.

Aelia.n.u.s Montaltus attributes so much to them, [3406]"that he holds the rectification of them alone to be sufficient to the cure of melancholy in most patients." Many are fully cured when they have seen or heard, &c., enjoy their desires, or be secured and satisfied in their minds; Galen, the common master of them all, from whose fountain they fetch water, brags, _lib. 1. de san. tuend._, that he, for his part, hath cured divers of this infirmity, _solum animis ad r.e.c.t.u.m inst.i.tutis_, by right settling alone of their minds.

Yea, but you will here infer, that this is excellent good indeed if it could be done; but how shall it be effected, by whom, what art, what means?

_hic labor, hoc opus est._ 'Tis a natural infirmity, a most powerful adversary, all men are subject to pa.s.sions, and melancholy above all others, as being distempered by their innate humours, abundance of choler adust, weakness of parts, outward occurrences; and how shall they be avoided? The wisest men, greatest philosophers of most excellent wit, reason, judgment, divine spirits, cannot moderate themselves in this behalf; such as are sound in body and mind, Stoics, heroes, Homer's G.o.ds, all are pa.s.sionate, and furiously carried sometimes; and how shall we that are already crazed, _fracti animis_, sick in body, sick in mind, resist? we cannot perform it. You may advise and give good precepts, as who cannot?

But how shall they be put in practice? I may not deny but our pa.s.sions are violent, and tyrannise of us, yet there be means to curb them; though they be headstrong, they may be tamed, they may be qualified, if he himself or his friends will but use their honest endeavours, or make use of such ordinary helps as are commonly prescribed.

He himself (I say); from the patient himself the first and chiefest remedy must be had; for if he be averse, peevish, waspish, give way wholly to his pa.s.sions, will not seek to be helped, or be ruled by his friends, how is it possible he should be cured? But if he be willing at least, gentle, tractable, and desire his own good, no doubt but he may _magnam morbi deponere partem_, be eased at least, if not cured. He himself must do his utmost endeavour to resist and withstand the beginnings. _Principiis obsta_, "Give not water pa.s.sage, no not a little," Ecclus. xxv. 27. If they open a little, they will make a greater breach at length. Whatsoever it is that runneth in his mind, vain conceit, be it pleasing or displeasing, which so much affects or troubleth him, [3407]"by all possible means he must withstand it, expel those vain, false, frivolous imaginations, absurd conceits, feigned fears and sorrows; from which," saith Piso, "this disease primarily proceeds, and takes his first occasion or beginning, by doing something or other that shall be opposite unto them, thinking of something else, persuading by reason, or howsoever to make a sudden alteration of them." Though he have hitherto run in a full career, and precipitated himself, following his pa.s.sions, giving reins to his appet.i.te, let him now stop upon a sudden, curb himself in; and as [3408]Lemnius adviseth, "strive against with all his power, to the utmost of his endeavour, and not cherish those fond imaginations, which so covertly creep into his mind, most pleasing and amiable at first, but bitter as gall at last, and so headstrong, that by no reason, art, counsel, or persuasion, they may be shaken off." Though he be far gone, and habituated unto such fantastical imaginations, yet as [3409]Tully and Plutarch advise, let him oppose, fortify, or prepare himself against them, by premeditation, reason, or as we do by a crooked staff, bend himself another way.

[3410] "Tu tamen interea effugito quae tristia mentem Solicitant, procul esse jube curasque metumque Pallentum, ultrices iras, sint omnia laeta."