on the Canticles, one from God, the other from the devil, as he holds
(understanding it in the worse sense) which many others repeat and
imitate. Both which (to omit all subdivisions) in excess or defect, as
they are abused, or degenerate, cause melancholy in a particular kind,
as shall be shown in his place. Austin, in another Tract, makes a
threefold division of this love, which we may use well or ill:
[4487]God, our neighbour, and the world: God above us, our neighbour
next us, the world beneath us. In the course of our desires, God hath
three things, the world one, our neighbour two. Our desire to God, is
either from God, with God, or to God, and ordinarily so runs. From God,
when it receives from him, whence, and for which it should love him:
with God, when it contradicts his will in nothing: to God, when it
seeks to him, and rests itself in him. Our love to our neighbour may
proceed from him, and run with him, not to him: from him, as when we
rejoice of his good safety, and well doing: with him, when we desire to
have him a fellow and companion of our journey in the way of the Lord:
not in him, because there is no aid, hope, or confidence in man. From
the world our love comes, when we begin to admire the Creator in his
works, and glorify God in his creatures: with the world it should run,
if, according to the mutability of all temporalities, it should be
dejected in adversity, or over elevated in prosperity: to the world, if
it would settle itself in its vain delights and studies. Many such
partitions of love I could repeat, and subdivisions, but least (which
Scaliger objects to Cardan, Exercitat. 501.) [4488]I confound filthy
burning lust with pure and divine love, I will follow that accurate
division of Leon Hebreus, dial. 2. betwixt Sophia and Philo, where he
speaks of natural, sensible, and rational love, and handleth each
apart. Natural love or hatred, is that sympathy or antipathy which is
to be seen in animate and inanimate creatures, in the four elements,
metals, stones, gravia tendunt deorsum, as a stone to his centre, fire
upward, and rivers to the sea. The sun, moon, and stars go still
around, [4489]Amantes naturae, debita exercere, for love of perfection.
This love is manifest, I say, in inanimate creatures. How comes a
loadstone to draw iron to it? jet chaff? the ground to covet showers,
but for love? No creature, S. Hierom concludes, is to be found, quod
non aliquid amat, no stock, no stone, that hath not some feeling of
love, 'Tis more eminent in plants, herbs, and is especially observed in
vegetables; as between the vine and elm a great sympathy, between the
vine and the cabbage, between the vine and the olive, [4490] Virgo
fugit Bromium, between the vine and bays a great antipathy, the vine
loves not the bay, [4491]nor his smell, and will kill him, if he grow
near him; the bur and the lentil cannot endure one another, the olive
[4492]and the myrtle embrace each other, in roots and branches if they
grow near. Read more of this in Picolomineus grad. 7. cap. 1.
Crescentius lib. 5. de agric. Baptista Porta de mag. lib. 1. cap. de
plant. dodio et element. sym. Fracastorius de sym. et antip. of the
love and hatred of planets, consult with every astrologer. Leon Hebreus
gives many fabulous reasons, and moraliseth them withal.
Sensible love is that of brute beasts, of which the same Leon Hebreus
dial. 2. assigns these causes. First for the pleasure they take in the
act of generation, male and female love one another. Secondly, for the
preservation of the species, and desire of young brood. Thirdly, for
the mutual agreement, as being of the same kind: Sus sui, canis cani,
bos bovi, et asinus asino pulcherrimus videtur, as Epicharmus held, and
according to that adage of Diogenianus, Adsidet usque graculus apud
graculum, they much delight in one another's company, [4493]Formicae
grata est formica, cicada cicadae, and birds of a feather will gather
together. Fourthly, for custom, use, and familiarity, as if a dog be
trained up with a lion and a bear, contrary to their natures, they will
love each other. Hawks, dogs, horses, love their masters and keepers:
many stories I could relate in this kind, but see Gillius de hist.
anim. lib. 3. cap. 14. those two Epistles of Lipsius, of dogs and
horses, Agellius, &c. Fifthly, for bringing up, as if a bitch bring up
a kid, a hen ducklings, a hedge-sparrow a cuckoo, &c.
The third kind is Amor cognitionis, as Leon calls it, rational love,
Intellectivus amor, and is proper to men, on which I must insist. This
appears in God, angels, men. God is love itself, the fountain of love,
the disciple of love, as Plato styles him; the servant of peace, the
God of love and peace; have peace with all men and God is with you.
[4494]———Quisquis veneratur Olympum,
Ipse sibi mundum subjicit atque Deum.
[4495]By this love (saith Gerson) we purchase heaven, and buy the
kingdom of God. This [4496]love is either in the Trinity itself (for
the Holy Ghost is the love of the Father and the Son, &c. John iii. 35,
and v. 20, and xiv. 31), or towards us his creatures, as in making the
world. Amor mundum fecit, love built cities, mundi anima, invented
arts, sciences, and all [4497]good things, incites us to virtue and
humanity, combines and quickens; keeps peace on earth, quietness by
sea, mirth in the winds and elements, expels all fear, anger, and
rusticity; Circulus a bono in bonum, a round circle still from good to
good; for love is the beginner and end of all our actions, the
efficient and instrumental cause, as our poets in their symbols,
impresses, [4498]emblems of rings, squares, &c., shadow unto us,
Si rerum quaeris fuerit quis finis et ortus,
Desine; nam causa est unica solus amor.
If first and last of anything you wit,
Cease; love's the sole and only cause of it.
Love, saith [4499]Leo, made the world, and afterwards in redeeming of
it, God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son for it,
John iii. 16. Behold what love the Father hath showed on us, that we
should be called the sons of God, 1 John iii. 1. Or by His sweet
Providence, in protecting of it; either all in general, or His saints
elect and church in particular, whom He keeps as the apple of His eye,
whom He loves freely, as Hosea xiv. 5. speaks, and dearly respects,
[4500]Charior est ipsis homo quam sibi. Not that we are fair, nor for
any merit or grace of ours, for we are most vile and base; but out of
His incomparable love and goodness, out of His Divine Nature. And this
is that Homer's golden chain, which reacheth down from heaven to earth,
by which every creature is annexed, and depends on his Creator. He made
all, saith [4501]Moses, and it was good; He loves it as good.
The love of angels and living souls is mutual amongst themselves,
towards us militant in the church, and all such as love God; as the
sunbeams irradiate the earth from those celestial thrones, they by
their well wishes reflect on us, [4502]in salute hominum promovenda
alacres, et constantes administri, there is joy in heaven for every
sinner that repenteth; they pray for us, are solicitous for our good,
[4503]Casti genii.
[4504]Ubi regnat charitas, suave desiderium,
Laetitiaque et amor Deo conjunctus.
Love proper to mortal men is the third member of this subdivision, and
the subject of my following discourse.
MEMB. II.
SUBSECT. I.—_Love of Men, which varies as his Objects, Profitable,
Pleasant, Honest_.
Valesius, lib. 3. contr. 13, defines this love which is in men, to be
[4505]an affection of both powers, appetite and reason. The rational
resides in the brain, the other in the liver (as before hath been said
out of Plato and others); the heart is diversely affected of both, and
carried a thousand ways by consent. The sensitive faculty most part
overrules reason, the soul is carried hoodwinked, and the understanding
captive like a beast. [4506]The heart is variously inclined, sometimes
they are merry, sometimes sad, and from love arise hope and fear,
jealousy, fury, desperation. Now this love of men is diverse, and
varies, as the object varies, by which they are enticed, as virtue,
wisdom, eloquence, profit, wealth, money, fame, honour, or comeliness
of person, &c. Leon Hubreus, in his first dialogue, reduceth them all
to these three, utile, jucundum, honestum, profitable, pleasant,
honest; (out of Aristotle belike 8. moral.) of which he discourseth at
large, and whatsoever is beautiful and fair, is referred to them, or
any way to be desired. [4507]To profitable is ascribed health, wealth,
honour, &c., which is rather ambition, desire, covetousness, than love:
friends, children, love of women, [4508]all delightful and pleasant
objects, are referred to the second. The love of honest things consists
in virtue and wisdom, and is preferred before that which is profitable
and pleasant: intellectual, about that which is honest. [4509]St.
Austin calls profitable, worldly; pleasant, carnal; honest, spiritual.
[4510]Of and from all three, result charity, friendship, and true love,
which respects God and our neighbour. Of each of these I will briefly
dilate, and show in what sort they cause melancholy.
Amongst all these fair enticing objects, which procure love, and
bewitch the soul of man, there is none so moving, so forcible as
profit; and that which carrieth with it a show of commodity. Health
indeed is a precious thing, to recover and preserve which we will
undergo any misery, drink bitter potions, freely give our goods:
restore a man to his health, his purse lies open to thee, bountiful he
is, thankful and beholding to thee; but give him wealth and honour,
give him gold, or what shall be for his advantage and preferment, and
thou shalt command his affections, oblige him eternally to thee, heart,
hand, life, and all is at thy service, thou art his dear and loving
friend, good and gracious lord and master, his Mecaenas; he is thy
slave, thy vassal, most devote, affectioned, and bound in all duty:
tell him good tidings in this kind, there spoke an angel, a blessed
hour that brings in gain, he is thy creature, and thou his creator, he
hugs and admires thee; he is thine for ever. No loadstone so attractive
as that of profit, none so fair an object as this of gold;
[4511]nothing wins a man sooner than a good turn, bounty and liberality
command body and soul:
Munera (crede mihi) placant hominesque deosque;
Placatur donis Jupiter ipse datis.
Good turns doth pacify both God and men,
And Jupiter himself is won by them.
Gold of all other is a most delicious object; a sweet light, a goodly
lustre it hath; gratius aurum quam solem intuemur, saith Austin, and we
had rather see it than the sun. Sweet and pleasant in getting, in
keeping; it seasons all our labours, intolerable pains we take for it,
base employments, endure bitter flouts and taunts, long journeys, heavy
burdens, all are made light and easy by this hope of gain: At mihi
plaudo ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca. The sight of gold
refresheth our spirits, and ravisheth our hearts, as that Babylonian
garment and [4512] golden wedge did Achan in the camp, the very sight
and hearing sets on fire his soul with desire of it. It will make a man
run to the antipodes, or tarry at home and turn parasite, lie, flatter,
prostitute himself, swear and bear false witness; he will venture his
body, kill a king, murder his father, and damn his soul to come at it.
Formosior auri massa, as [4513] he well observed, the mass of gold is
fairer than all your Grecian pictures, that Apelles, Phidias, or any
doting painter could ever make: we are enamoured with it,
[4514]Prima fere vota, et cunctis notissima templis,
Divitiae ut crescant.———
All our labours, studies, endeavours, vows, prayers and wishes, are to
get, how to compass it.
[4515]Haec est illa cui famulatur maximus orbis,
Diva potens rerum, domitrixque pecunia fati.
This is the great goddess we adore and worship; this is the sole object
of our desire. If we have it, as we think, we are made for ever, thrice
happy, princes, lords, &c. If we lose it, we are dull, heavy, dejected,
discontent, miserable, desperate, and mad. Our estate and bene esse
ebbs and flows with our commodity; and as we are endowed or enriched,
so are we beloved and esteemed: it lasts no longer than our wealth;
when that is gone, and the object removed, farewell friendship: as long
as bounty, good cheer, and rewards were to be hoped, friends enough;
they were tied to thee by the teeth, and would follow thee as crows do
a carcass: but when thy goods are gone and spent, the lamp of their
love is out, and thou shalt be contemned, scorned, hated, injured.
[4516]Lucian's Timon, when he lived in prosperity, was the sole
spectacle of Greece, only admired; who but Timon? Everybody loved,
honoured, applauded him, each man offered him his service, and sought
to be kin to him; but when his gold was spent, his fair possessions
gone, farewell Timon: none so ugly, none so deformed, so odious an
object as Timon, no man so ridiculous on a sudden, they gave him a
penny to buy a rope, no man would know him.
'Tis the general humour of the world, commodity steers our affections
throughout, we love those that are fortunate and rich, that thrive, or
by whom we may receive mutual kindness, hope for like courtesies, get
any good, gain, or profit; hate those, and abhor on the other side,
which are poor and miserable, or by whom we may sustain loss or
inconvenience. And even those that were now familiar and dear unto us,
our loving and long friends, neighbours, kinsmen, allies, with whom we
have conversed, and lived as so many Geryons for some years past,
striving still to give one another all good content and entertainment,
with mutual invitations, feastings, disports, offices, for whom we
would ride, run, spend ourselves, and of whom we have so freely and
honourably spoken, to whom we have given all those turgent titles, and
magnificent eulogiums, most excellent and most noble, worthy, wise,
grave, learned, valiant, &c., and magnified beyond measure: if any
controversy arise between us, some trespass, injury, abuse, some part
of our goods be detained, a piece of land come to be litigious, if they
cross us in our suit, or touch the string of our commodity, we detest
and depress them upon a sudden: neither affinity, consanguinity, or old
acquaintance can contain us, but [4517]rupto jecore exierit Caprificus.
A golden apple sets altogether by the ears, as if a marrowbone or
honeycomb were flung amongst bears: father and son, brother and sister,
kinsmen are at odds: and look what malice, deadly hatred can invent,
that shall be done, Terrible, dirum, pestilens, atrox, ferum, mutual
injuries, desire of revenge, and how to hurt them, him and his, are all
our studies. If our pleasures be interrupt, we can tolerate it: our
bodies hurt, we can put it up and be reconciled: but touch our
commodities, we are most impatient: fair becomes foul, the graces are
turned to harpies, friendly salutations to bitter imprecations, mutual
feastings to plotting villainies, minings and counterminings; good
words to satires and invectives, we revile e contra, nought but his
imperfections are in our eyes, he is a base knave, a devil, a monster,
a caterpillar, a viper, a hog-rubber, &c. Desinit in piscem mulier
formosa superne;[4518] the scene is altered on a sudden, love is turned
to hate, mirth to melancholy: so furiously are we most part bent, our
affections fixed upon this object of commodity, and upon money, the
desire of which in excess is covetousness: ambition tyranniseth over
our souls, as [4519]I have shown, and in defect crucifies as much, as
if a man by negligence, ill husbandry, improvidence, prodigality, waste
and consume his goods and fortunes, beggary follows, and melancholy, he
becomes an abject, [4520]odious and worse than an infidel, in not
providing for his family.
SUBSECT. II.—_Pleasant Objects of Love_.
Pleasant objects are infinite, whether they be such as have life, or be
without life; inanimate are countries, provinces, towers, towns,
cities, as he said, [4521]Pulcherrimam insulam videmus, etiam cum non
videmus we see a fair island by description, when we see it not. The
[4522]sun never saw a fairer city, Thessala Tempe, orchards, gardens,
pleasant walks, groves, fountains, &c. The heaven itself is said to be
[4523]fair or foul: fair buildings, [4524]fair pictures, all
artificial, elaborate and curious works, clothes, give an admirable
lustre: we admire, and gaze upon them, ut pueri Junonis avem, as
children do on a peacock: a fair dog, a fair horse and hawk, &c.
[4525]Thessalus amat equum pullinum, buculum Aegyptius, Lacedaemonius
Catulum, &c., such things we love, are most gracious in our sight,
acceptable unto us, and whatsoever else may cause this passion, if it
be superfluous or immoderately loved, as Guianerius observes. These
things in themselves are pleasing and good, singular ornaments,
necessary, comely, and fit to be had; but when we fix an immoderate
eye, and dote on them over much, this pleasure may turn to pain, bring
much sorrow and discontent unto us, work our final overthrow, and cause
melancholy in the end. Many are carried away with those bewitching
sports of gaming, hawking, hunting, and such vain pleasures, as [4526]I
have said: some with immoderate desire of fame, to be crowned in the
Olympics, knighted in the field, &c., and by these means ruinate
themselves. The lascivious dotes on his fair mistress, the glutton on
his dishes, which are infinitely varied to please the palate, the
epicure on his several pleasures, the superstitious on his idol, and
fats himself with future joys, as Turks feed themselves with an
imaginary persuasion of a sensual paradise: so several pleasant objects
diversely affect diverse men. But the fairest objects and enticings
proceed from men themselves, which most frequently captivate, allure,
and make them dote beyond all measure upon one another, and that for
many respects: first, as some suppose, by that secret force of stars,
(quod me tibi temperat astrum?) They do singularly dote on such a man,
hate such again, and can give no reason for it. [4527]Non amo te
Sabidi, &c. Alexander admired Ephestion, Adrian Antinous, Nero Sporus,
&c. The physicians refer this to their temperament, astrologers to
trine and sextile aspects, or opposite of their several ascendants,
lords of their genitures, love and hatred of planets; [4528] Cicogna,
to concord and discord of spirits; but most to outward graces. A merry
companion is welcome and acceptable to all men, and therefore, saith
[4529]Gomesius, princes and great men entertain jesters and players
commonly in their courts. But [4530]Pares cum paribus facillime
congregantur, 'tis that [4531]similitude of manners, which ties most
men in an inseparable link, as if they be addicted to the same studies
or disports, they delight in one another's companies, birds of a
feather will gather together: if they be of divers inclinations, or
opposite in manners, they can seldom agree. Secondly, [4532]affability,
custom, and familiarity, may convert nature many times, though they be
different in manners, as if they be countrymen, fellow-students,
colleagues, or have been fellow-soldiers, [4533]brethren in affliction,
([4534]acerba calamitatum societas, diversi etiam ingenii homines
conjungit) affinity, or some such accidental occasion, though they
cannot agree amongst themselves, they will stick together like burrs,
and bold against a third; so after some discontinuance, or death,
enmity ceaseth; or in a foreign place:
Pascitur in vivis livor, post fata quiescit:
Et cecidere odia, et tristes mors obruit iras.
A third cause of love and hate, may be mutual offices, acceptum
beneficium, [4535]commend him, use him kindly, take his part in a
quarrel, relieve him in his misery, thou winnest him for ever; do the
opposite, and be sure of a perpetual enemy. Praise and dispraise of
each other, do as much, though unknown, as [4536]Schoppius by Scaliger
and Casaubonus: mulus mulum scabit; who but Scaliger with him? what
encomiums, epithets, eulogiums? Antistes sapientiae, perpetuus
dictator, literarum ornamentum, Europae miraculum, noble Scaliger,
[4537] incredibilis ingenii praestantia, &c., diis potius quam
hominibus per omnia comparandus, scripta ejus aurea ancylia de coelo
delapsa poplitibus veneramur flexis, &c.,[4538] but when they began to
vary, none so absurd as Scaliger, so vile and base, as his books de
Burdonum familia, and other satirical invectives may witness, Ovid, in
Ibin, Archilocus himself was not so bitter. Another great tie or cause
of love, is consanguinity: parents are clear to their children,
children to their parents, brothers and sisters, cousins of all sorts,
as a hen and chickens, all of a knot: every crow thinks her own bird
fairest. Many memorable examples are in this kind, and 'tis portenti
simile, if they do not: [4539]a mother cannot forget her child: Solomon
so found out the true owner; love of parents may not be concealed, 'tis
natural, descends, and they that are inhuman in this kind, are unworthy
of that air they breathe, and of the four elements; yet many unnatural
examples we have in this rank, of hard-hearted parents, disobedient
children, of [4540]disagreeing brothers, nothing so common. The love of
kinsmen is grown cold, [4541]many kinsmen (as the saying is) few
friends; if thine estate be good, and thou able, par pari referre, to
requite their kindness, there will be mutual correspondence, otherwise
thou art a burden, most odious to them above all others. The last
object that ties man and man, is comeliness of person, and beauty
alone, as men love women with a wanton eye: which κατ' ἐξοχὴν is termed
heroical, or love-melancholy. Other loves (saith Picolomineus) are so
called with some contraction, as the love of wine, gold, &c., but this
of women is predominant in a higher strain, whose part affected is the
liver, and this love deserves a longer explication, and shall be
dilated apart in the next section.
SUBSECT. III.—_Honest Objects of Love_.