the anatomy of the soul. I will only now point at the wonderful effects
and power of it; which, as it is eminent in all, so most especially it
rageth in melancholy persons, in keeping the species of objects so
long, mistaking, amplifying them by continual and [1601]strong
meditation, until at length it produceth in some parties real effects,
causeth this, and many other maladies. And although this phantasy of
ours be a subordinate faculty to reason, and should be ruled by it, yet
in many men, through inward or outward distemperatures, defect of
organs, which are unapt, or otherwise contaminated, it is likewise
unapt, or hindered, and hurt. This we see verified in sleepers, which
by reason of humours and concourse of vapours troubling the phantasy,
imagine many times absurd and prodigious things, and in such as are
troubled with incubus, or witch-ridden (as we call it), if they lie on
their backs, they suppose an old woman rides, and sits so hard upon
them, that they are almost stifled for want of breath; when there is
nothing offends, but a concourse of bad humours, which trouble the
phantasy. This is likewise evident in such as walk in the night in
their sleep, and do strange feats: [1602]these vapours move the
phantasy, the phantasy the appetite, which moving the animal spirits
causeth the body to walk up and down as if they were awake. Fracast. l.
3. de intellect, refers all ecstasies to this force of imagination,
such as lie whole days together in a trance: as that priest whom
[1603]Celsus speaks of, that could separate himself from his senses
when he list, and lie like a dead man, void of life and sense. Cardan
brags of himself, that he could do as much, and that when he list. Many
times such men when they come to themselves, tell strange things of
heaven and hell, what visions they have seen; as that St. Owen, in
Matthew Paris, that went into St. Patrick's purgatory, and the monk of
Evesham in the same author. Those common apparitions in Bede and
Gregory, Saint Bridget's revelations, Wier. l. 3. de lamiis, c. 11.
Caesar Vanninus, in his Dialogues, &c. reduceth (as I have formerly
said), with all those tales of witches' progresses, dancing, riding,
transformations, operations, &c. to the force of [1604] imagination,
and the [1605]devil's illusions. The like effects almost are to be seen
in such as are awake: how many chimeras, antics, golden mountains and
castles in the air do they build unto themselves? I appeal to painters,
mechanicians, mathematicians. Some ascribe all vices to a false and
corrupt imagination, anger, revenge, lust, ambition, covetousness,
which prefers falsehood before that which is right and good, deluding
the soul with false shows and suppositions. [1606]Bernardus Penottus
will have heresy and superstition to proceed from this fountain; as he
falsely imagineth, so he believeth; and as he conceiveth of it, so it
must be, and it shall be, contra gentes, he will have it so. But most
especially in passions and affections, it shows strange and evident
effects: what will not a fearful man conceive in the dark? What strange
forms of bugbears, devils, witches, goblins? Lavater imputes the
greatest cause of spectrums, and the like apparitions, to fear, which
above all other passions begets the strongest imagination (saith
[1607]Wierus), and so likewise love, sorrow, joy, &c. Some die
suddenly, as she that saw her son come from the battle at Cannae, &c.
Jacob the patriarch, by force of imagination, made speckled lambs,
laying speckled rods before his sheep. Persina, that Ethiopian queen in
Heliodorus, by seeing the picture of Persius and Andromeda, instead of
a blackamoor, was brought to bed of a fair white child. In imitation of
whom belike, a hard-favoured fellow in Greece, because he and his wife
were both deformed, to get a good brood of children, Elegantissimas
imagines in thalamo collocavit, &c. hung the fairest pictures he could
buy for money in his chamber, That his wife by frequent sight of them,
might conceive and bear such children. And if we may believe Bale, one
of Pope Nicholas the Third's concubines by seeing of [1608]a bear was
brought to bed of a monster. If a woman (saith [1609] Lemnius), at the
time of her conception think of another man present or absent, the
child will be like him. Great-bellied women, when they long, yield us
prodigious examples in this kind, as moles, warts, scars, harelips,
monsters, especially caused in their children by force of a depraved
phantasy in them: Ipsam speciem quam animo effigiat, faetui inducit:
She imprints that stamp upon her child which she [1610]conceives unto
herself. And therefore Lodovicus Vives, lib. 2. de Christ, faem., gives
a special caution to great-bellied women, [1611]that they do not admit
such absurd conceits and cogitations, but by all means avoid those
horrible objects, heard or seen, or filthy spectacles. Some will laugh,
weep, sigh, groan, blush, tremble, sweat, at such things as are
suggested unto them by their imagination. Avicenna speaks of one that
could cast himself into a palsy when he list; and some can imitate the
tunes of birds and beasts that they can hardly be discerned:
Dagebertus' and Saint Francis' scars and wounds, like those of Christ's
(if at the least any such were), [1612]Agrippa supposeth to have
happened by force of imagination: that some are turned to wolves, from
men to women, and women again to men (which is constantly believed) to
the same imagination; or from men to asses, dogs, or any other shapes.
[1613]Wierus ascribes all those famous transformations to imagination;
that in hydrophobia they seem to see the picture of a dog, still in
their water, [1614]that melancholy men and sick men conceive so many
fantastical visions, apparitions to themselves, and have such absurd
apparitions, as that they are kings, lords, cocks, bears, apes, owls;
that they are heavy, light, transparent, great and little, senseless
and dead (as shall be showed more at large, in our [1615] sections of
symptoms), can be imputed to nought else, but to a corrupt, false, and
violent imagination. It works not in sick and melancholy men only, but
even most forcibly sometimes in such as are sound: it makes them
suddenly sick, and [1616]alters their temperature in an instant. And
sometimes a strong conceit or apprehension, as [1617]Valesius proves,
will take away diseases: in both kinds it will produce real effects.
Men, if they see but another man tremble, giddy or sick of some fearful
disease, their apprehension and fear is so strong in this kind, that
they will have the same disease. Or if by some soothsayer, wiseman,
fortune-teller, or physician, they be told they shall have such a
disease, they will so seriously apprehend it, that they will instantly
labour of it. A thing familiar in China (saith Riccius the Jesuit),
[1618]If it be told them they shall be sick on such a day, when that
day comes they will surely be sick, and will be so terribly afflicted,
that sometimes they die upon it. Dr. Cotta in his discovery of ignorant
practitioners of physic, cap. 8, hath two strange stories to this
purpose, what fancy is able to do. The one of a parson's wife in
Northamptonshire, _An._ 1607, that coming to a physician, and told by
him that she was troubled with the sciatica, as he conjectured (a
disease she was free from), the same night after her return, upon his
words, fell into a grievous fit of a sciatica: and such another example
he hath of another good wife, that was so troubled with the cramp,
after the same manner she came by it, because her physician did but
name it. Sometimes death itself is caused by force of phantasy. I have
heard of one that coming by chance in company of him that was thought
to be sick of the plague (which was not so) fell down suddenly dead.
Another was sick of the plague with conceit. One seeing his fellow let
blood falls down in a swoon. Another (saith [1619]Cardan out of
Aristotle), fell down dead (which is familiar to women at any ghastly
sight), seeing but a man hanged. A Jew in France (saith [1620]Lodovicus
Vives), came by chance over a dangerous passage or plank, that lay over
a brook in the dark, without harm, the next day perceiving what danger
he was in, fell down dead. Many will not believe such stories to be
true, but laugh commonly, and deride when they hear of them; but let
these men consider with themselves, as [1621]Peter Byarus illustrates
it, If they were set to walk upon a plank on high, they would be giddy,
upon which they dare securely walk upon the ground. Many (saith
Agrippa), [1622]strong-hearted men otherwise, tremble at such sights,
dazzle, and are sick, if they look but down from a high place, and what
moves them but conceit? As some are so molested by phantasy; so some
again, by fancy alone, and a good conceit, are as easily recovered. We
see commonly the toothache, gout, falling-sickness, biting of a mad
dog, and many such maladies cured by spells, words, characters, and
charms, and many green wounds by that now so much used Unguentum
Armarium, magnetically cured, which Crollius and Goclenius in a book of
late hath defended, Libavius in a just tract as stiffly contradicts,
and most men controvert. All the world knows there is no virtue in such
charms or cures, but a strong conceit and opinion alone, as
[1623]Pomponatius holds, which forceth a motion of the humours,
spirits, and blood, which takes away the cause of the malady from the
parts affected. The like we may say of our magical effects,
superstitious cures, and such as are done by mountebanks and wizards.
As by wicked incredulity many men are hurt (so saith [1624]Wierus of
charms, spells, &c.), we find in our experience, by the same means many
are relieved. An empiric oftentimes, and a silly chirurgeon, doth more
strange cures than a rational physician. Nymannus gives a reason,
because the patient puts his confidence in him, [1625] which Avicenna
prefers before art, precepts, and all remedies whatsoever. 'Tis opinion
alone (saith [1626]Cardan), that makes or mars physicians, and he doth
the best cures, according to Hippocrates, in whom most trust. So
diversely doth this phantasy of ours affect, turn, and wind, so
imperiously command our bodies, which as another [1627]Proteus, or a
chameleon, can take all shapes; and is of such force (as Ficinus adds),
that it can work upon others, as well as ourselves. How can otherwise
blear eyes in one man cause the like affection in another? Why doth one
man's yawning [1628]make another yawn? One man's pissing provoke a
second many times to do the like? Why doth scraping of trenchers offend
a third, or hacking of files? Why doth a carcass bleed when the
murderer is brought before it, some weeks after the murder hath been
done? Why do witches and old women fascinate and bewitch children: but
as Wierus, Paracelsus, Cardan, Mizaldus, Valleriola, Caesar Vanninus,
Campanella, and many philosophers think, the forcible imagination of
the one party moves and alters the spirits of the other. Nay more, they
can cause and cure not only diseases, maladies, and several
infirmities, by this means, as Avicenna, de anim. l. 4. sect. 4,
supposeth in parties remote, but move bodies from their places, cause
thunder, lightning, tempests, which opinion Alkindus, Paracelsus, and
some others, approve of. So that I may certainly conclude this strong
conceit or imagination is astrum hominis, and the rudder of this our
ship, which reason should steer, but, overborne by phantasy, cannot
manage, and so suffers itself, and this whole vessel of ours to be
overruled, and often overturned. Read more of this in Wierus, l. 3. de
Lamiis, c. 8, 9, 10. Franciscus Valesius, med. controv. l. 5. cont. 6.
Marcellus Donatus, l. 2. c. 1. de hist. med. mirabil. Levinus Lemnius,
de occult. nat. mir. l. 1. c. 12. Cardan, l. 18. de rerum var. Corn.
Agrippa, de occult. plilos. cap. 64, 65. Camerarius, 1 cent. cap. 54.
horarum subcis. Nymannus, morat. de Imag. Laurentius, and him that is
instar omnium, Fienus, a famous physician of Antwerp, that wrote three
books de viribus imaginationis. I have thus far digressed, because this
imagination is the medium deferens of passions, by whose means they
work and produce many times prodigious effects: and as the phantasy is
more or less intended or remitted, and their humours disposed, so do
perturbations move, more or less, and take deeper impression.
SUBSECT. III.—_Division of Perturbations_.
Perturbations and passions, which trouble the phantasy, though they
dwell between the confines of sense and reason, yet they rather follow
sense than reason, because they are drowned in corporeal organs of
sense. They are commonly [1629]reduced into two inclinations, irascible
and concupiscible. The Thomists subdivide them into eleven, six in the
coveting, and five in the invading. Aristotle reduceth all to pleasure
and pain, Plato to love and hatred, [1630]Vives to good and bad. If
good, it is present, and then we absolutely joy and love; or to come,
and then we desire and hope for it. If evil, we absolute hate it; if
present, it is by sorrow; if to come fear. These four passions
[1631]Bernard compares to the wheels of a chariot, by which we are
carried in this world. All other passions are subordinate unto these
four, or six, as some will: love, joy, desire, hatred, sorrow, fear;
the rest, as anger, envy, emulation, pride, jealousy, anxiety, mercy,
shame, discontent, despair, ambition, avarice, &c., are reducible unto
the first; and if they be immoderate, they [1632]consume the spirits,
and melancholy is especially caused by them. Some few discreet men
there are, that can govern themselves, and curb in these inordinate
affections, by religion, philosophy, and such divine precepts, of
meekness, patience, and the like; but most part for want of government,
out of indiscretion, ignorance, they suffer themselves wholly to be led
by sense, and are so far from repressing rebellious inclinations, that
they give all encouragement unto them, leaving the reins, and using all
provocations to further them: bad by nature, worse by art, discipline,
[1633]custom, education, and a perverse will of their own, they follow
on, wheresoever their unbridled affections will transport them, and do
more out of custom, self-will, than out of reason. Contumax voluntas,
as Melancthon calls it, malum facit: this stubborn will of ours
perverts judgment, which sees and knows what should and ought to be
done, and yet will not do it. Mancipia gulae, slaves to their several
lusts and appetite, they precipitate and plunge [1634]themselves into a
labyrinth of cares, blinded with lust, blinded with ambition;
[1635]They seek that at God's hands which they may give unto
themselves, if they could but refrain from those cares and
perturbations, wherewith they continually macerate their minds. But
giving way to these violent passions of fear, grief, shame, revenge,
hatred, malice, &c., they are torn in pieces, as Actaeon was with his
dogs, and [1636]crucify their own souls.
SUBSECT. IV.—_Sorrow a Cause of Melancholy_.
_Sorrow. Insanus dolor_.] In this catalogue of passions, which so much
torment the soul of man, and cause this malady, (for I will briefly
speak of them all, and in their order,) the first place in this
irascible appetite, may justly be challenged by sorrow. An inseparable
companion, [1637]The mother and daughter of melancholy, her epitome,
symptom, and chief cause: as Hippocrates hath it, they beget one
another, and tread in a ring, for sorrow is both cause and symptom of
this disease. How it is a symptom shall be shown in its place. That it
is a cause all the world acknowledgeth, Dolor nonnullis insaniae causa
fuit, et aliorum morborum insanabilium, saith Plutarch to Apollonius; a
cause of madness, a cause of many other diseases, a sole cause of this
mischief, [1638]Lemnius calls it. So doth Rhasis, cont. l. 1. tract. 9.
Guianerius, Tract. 15. c. 5, And if it take root once, it ends in
despair, as [1639]Felix Plater observes, and as in [1640]Cebes' table,
may well be coupled with it. [1641]Chrysostom, in his seventeenth
epistle to Olympia, describes it to be a cruel torture of the soul, a
most inexplicable grief, poisoned worm, consuming body and soul, and
gnawing the very heart, a perpetual executioner, continual night,
profound darkness, a whirlwind, a tempest, an ague not appearing,
heating worse than any fire, and a battle that hath no end. It
crucifies worse than any tyrant; no torture, no strappado, no bodily
punishment is like unto it. 'Tis the eagle without question which the
poets feigned to gnaw [1642]Prometheus' heart, and no heaviness is like
unto the heaviness of the heart, Eccles. xxv. 15, 16. [1643]Every
perturbation is a misery, but grief a cruel torment, a domineering
passion: as in old Rome, when the Dictator was created, all inferior
magistracies ceased; when grief appears, all other passions vanish. It
dries up the bones, saith Solomon, cap. 17. Prov., makes them
hollow-eyed, pale, and lean, furrow-faced, to have dead looks, wrinkled
brows, shrivelled cheeks, dry bodies, and quite perverts their
temperature that are misaffected with it. As Eleonara, that exiled
mournful duchess (in our [1644]English Ovid), laments to her noble
husband Humphrey, Duke of Gloucester,
Sawest thou those eyes in whose sweet cheerful look
Duke Humphrey once such joy and pleasure took,
Sorrow hath so despoil'd me of all grace,
Thou couldst not say this was my Elnor's face.
Like a foul Gorgon, &c.
[1645]It hinders concoction, refrigerates the heart, takes away
stomach, colour, and sleep, thickens the blood, ([1646]Fernelius, l. 1.
c. 18. de morb. causis,) contaminates the spirits. ([1647]Piso.)
Overthrows the natural heat, perverts the good estate of body and mind,
and makes them weary of their lives, cry out, howl and roar for very
anguish of their souls. David confessed as much, Psalm xxxviii. 8, I
have roared for the very disquietness of my heart. And Psalm cxix. 4,
part 4 v. My soul melteth away for very heaviness, v. 38. I am like a
bottle in the smoke. Antiochus complained that he could not sleep, and
that his heart fainted for grief, [1648]Christ himself, vir dolorum,
out of an apprehension of grief, did sweat blood, Mark xiv. His soul
was heavy to the death, and no sorrow was like unto his. Crato, consil.
24. l. 2, gives instance in one that was so melancholy by reason of
[1649]grief; and Montanus, consil. 30, in a noble matron, [1650]that
had no other cause of this mischief. I. S. D. in Hildesheim, fully
cured a patient of his that was much troubled with melancholy, and for
many years, [1651]but afterwards, by a little occasion of sorrow, he
fell into his former fits, and was tormented as before. Examples are
common, how it causeth melancholy, [1652]desperation, and sometimes
death itself; for (Eccles. xxxviii. 15,) Of heaviness comes death;
worldly sorrow causeth death. 2 Cor. vii. 10, Psalm xxxi. 10, My life
is wasted with heaviness, and my years with mourning. Why was Hecuba
said to be turned to a dog? Niobe into a stone? but that for grief she
was senseless and stupid. Severus the Emperor [1653] died for grief;
and how [1654]many myriads besides? Tanta illi est feritas, tanta est
insania luctus. [1655]Melancthon gives a reason of it, [1656]the
gathering of much melancholy blood about the heart, which collection
extinguisheth the good spirits, or at least dulleth them, sorrow
strikes the heart, makes it tremble and pine away, with great pain; and
the black blood drawn from the spleen, and diffused under the ribs, on
the left side, makes those perilous hypochondriacal convulsions, which
happen to them that are troubled with sorrow.
SUBSECT. V.—_Fear, a Cause_.
Cousin german to sorrow, is fear, or rather a sister, fidus Achates,
and continual companion, an assistant and a principal agent in
procuring of this mischief; a cause and symptom as the other. In a
word, as [1657] Virgil of the Harpies, I may justly say of them both,
Tristius haud illis monstrum, nec saevior ulla
Pestis et ira Deum stygiis sese extulit undis.
A sadder monster, or more cruel plague so fell,
Or vengeance of the gods, ne'er came from Styx or Hell.
This foul fiend of fear was worshipped heretofore as a god by the
Lacedaemonians, and most of those other torturing [1658]affections, and
so was sorrow amongst the rest, under the name of Angerona Dea, they
stood in such awe of them, as Austin, de Civitat. Dei, lib. 4. cap. 8,
noteth out of Varro, fear was commonly [1659]adored and painted in
their temples with a lion's head; and as Macrobius records, l. 10.
Saturnalium; [1660]In the calends of January, Angerona had her holy
day, to whom in the temple of Volupia, or goddess of pleasure, their
augurs and bishops did yearly sacrifice; that, being propitious to
them, she might expel all cares, anguish, and vexation of the mind for
that year following. Many lamentable effects this fear causeth in men,
as to be red, pale, tremble, sweat, [1661]it makes sudden cold and heat
to come over all the body, palpitation of the heart, syncope, &c. It
amazeth many men that are to speak, or show themselves in public
assemblies, or before some great personages, as Tully confessed of
himself, that he trembled still at the beginning of his speech; and
Demosthenes, that great orator of Greece, before Philippus. It
confounds voice and memory, as Lucian wittily brings in Jupiter
Tragoedus, so much afraid of his auditory, when he was to make a speech
to the rest of the Gods, that he could not utter a ready word, but was
compelled to use Mercury's help in prompting. Many men are so amazed
and astonished with fear, they know not where they are, what they say,
[1662]what they do, and that which is worst, it tortures them many days
before with continual affrights and suspicion. It hinders most
honourable attempts, and makes their hearts ache, sad and heavy. They
that live in fear are never free, [1663]resolute, secure, never merry,
but in continual pain: that, as Vives truly said, Nulla est miseria
major quam metus, no greater misery, no rack, nor torture like unto it,
ever suspicious, anxious, solicitous, they are childishly drooping
without reason, without judgment, [1664]especially if some terrible
object be offered, as Plutarch hath it. It causeth oftentimes sudden
madness, and almost all manner of diseases, as I have sufficiently
illustrated in my [1665] digression of the force of imagination, and
shall do more at large in my section of [1666]terrors. Fear makes our
imagination conceive what it list, invites the devil to come to us, as
[1667]Agrippa and Cardan avouch, and tyranniseth over our phantasy more
than all other affections, especially in the dark. We see this verified
in most men, as [1668]Lavater saith, Quae metuunt, fingunt; what they
fear they conceive, and feign unto themselves; they think they see
goblins, hags, devils, and many times become melancholy thereby.
Cardan, subtil. lib. 18, hath an example of such an one, so caused to
be melancholy (by sight of a bugbear) all his life after. Augustus
Caesar durst not sit in the dark, nisi aliquo assidente, saith
[1669]Suetonius, Nunquam tenebris exigilavit. And 'tis strange what
women and children will conceive unto themselves, if they go over a
churchyard in the night, lie, or be alone in a dark room, how they
sweat and tremble on a sudden. Many men are troubled with future
events, foreknowledge of their fortunes, destinies, as Severus the
Emperor, Adrian and Domitian, Quod sciret ultimum vitae diem, saith
Suetonius, valde solicitus, much tortured in mind because he foreknew
his end; with many such, of which I shall speak more opportunely in
another place.[1670] Anxiety, mercy, pity, indignation, &c., and such
fearful branches derived from these two stems of fear and sorrow, I
voluntarily omit; read more of them in [1671]Carolus Pascalius,
[1672]Dandinus, &c.
SUBSECT. VI.—_Shame and Disgrace, Causes_.
Shame and disgrace cause most violent passions and bitter pangs. Ob
pudorem et dedecus publicum, ob errorum commissum saepe moventur
generosi animi (Felix Plater, lib. 3. de alienat mentis.) Generous
minds are often moved with shame, to despair for some public disgrace.
And he, saith Philo, lib. 2. de provid. dei, [1673]that subjects
himself to fear, grief, ambition, shame, is not happy, but altogether
miserable, tortured with continual labour, care, and misery. It is as
forcible a batterer as any of the rest: [1674]Many men neglect the
tumults of the world, and care not for glory, and yet they are afraid
of infamy, repulse, disgrace, (Tul. offic. l. 1,) they can severely
contemn pleasure, bear grief indifferently, but they are quite
[1675]battered and broken, with reproach and obloquy: (siquidem vita et
fama pari passu ambulant) and are so dejected many times for some
public injury, disgrace, as a box on the ear by their inferior, to be
overcome of their adversary, foiled in the field, to be out in a
speech, some foul fact committed or disclosed, &c. that they dare not
come abroad all their lives after, but melancholise in corners, and
keep in holes. The most generous spirits are most subject to it;
Spiritus altos frangit et generosos: Hieronymus. Aristotle, because he
could not understand the motion of Euripus, for grief and shame drowned
himself: Caelius Rodigimus antiquar. lec. lib. 29. cap. 8. Homerus
pudore consumptus, was swallowed up with this passion of shame [1676]
because he could not unfold the fisherman's riddle. Sophocles killed
himself, [1677]for that a tragedy of his was hissed off the stage:
Valer. max. lib. 9. cap. 12. Lucretia stabbed herself, and so did
[1678]Cleopatra, when she saw that she was reserved for a triumph, to
avoid the infamy. Antonius the Roman, [1679]after he was overcome of
his enemy, for three days' space sat solitary in the fore-part of the
ship, abstaining from all company, even of Cleopatra herself, and
afterwards for very shame butchered himself, Plutarch, vita ejus.
Apollonius Rhodius [1680]wilfully banished himself, forsaking his
country, and all his dear friends, because he was out in reciting his
poems, Plinius, lib. 7. cap. 23. Ajax ran mad, because his arms were
adjudged to Ulysses. In China 'tis an ordinary thing for such as are
excluded in those famous trials of theirs, or should take degrees, for
shame and grief to lose their wits, [1681]Mat Riccius expedit. ad
Sinas, l. 3. c. 9. Hostratus the friar took that book which Reuclin had
writ against him, under the name of Epist. obscurorum virorum, so to
heart, that for shame and grief he made away with himself, [1682]Jovius
in elogiis. A grave and learned minister, and an ordinary preacher at
Alcmar in Holland, was (one day as he walked in the fields for his
recreation) suddenly taken with a lax or looseness, and thereupon
compelled to retire to the next ditch; but being [1683]surprised at
unawares, by some gentlewomen of his parish wandering that way, was so
abashed, that he did never after show his head in public, or come into
the pulpit, but pined away with melancholy: (Pet. Forestus med.
observat. lib. 10. observat. 12.) So shame amongst other passions can
play his prize.
I know there be many base, impudent, brazenfaced rogues, that will
[1684] Nulla pallescere culpa, be moved with nothing, take no infamy or
disgrace to heart, laugh at all; let them be proved perjured,
stigmatised, convict rogues, thieves, traitors, lose their ears, be
whipped, branded, carted, pointed at, hissed, reviled, and derided with
[1685]Ballio the Bawd in Plautus, they rejoice at it, Cantores probos;
babe and Bombax, what care they? We have too many such in our times,
———Exclamat Melicerta perisse
———Frontem de rebus.[1686]
Yet a modest man, one that hath grace, a generous spirit, tender of his
reputation, will be deeply wounded, and so grievously affected with it,
that he had rather give myriads of crowns, lose his life, than suffer
the least defamation of honour, or blot in his good name. And if so be
that he cannot avoid it, as a nightingale, Que cantando victa moritur,
(saith [1687]Mizaldus,) dies for shame if another bird sing better, he
languisheth and pineth away in the anguish of his spirit.
SUBSECT. VII.—_Envy, Malice, Hatred, Causes_.
Envy and malice are two links of this chain, and both, as Guianerius,
Tract. 15. cap. 2, proves out of Galen, 3 Aphorism, com. 22, [1688]
cause this malady by themselves, especially if their bodies be
otherwise disposed to melancholy. 'Tis Valescus de Taranta, and Felix
Platerus' observation, [1689]Envy so gnaws many men's hearts, that they
become altogether melancholy. And therefore belike Solomon, Prov. xiv.
13, calls it, the rotting of the bones, Cyprian, vulnus occultum;
[1690]———Siculi non invenere tyranni
Majus tormentum———