were asleepe because the substance of their braine is too thicke and the spirits laboured therein too grosse these are no fit men for the vndergoing of weightie affaires neither apt to conceiue of profound mysteries a bed and a pot full of pottage is fitted for them Whereunto the sanguine complexion is inclined The sanguine persons are borne for to be sociable and louers of companie they are as it were alwaies in loue they loue to laugh and bee pleasant this is the best complexion for health and long life because that it hath the two maine pillars of life which are naturall heate and moysture in greatest measure and yet such folke are not the fittest for great exployts nor yet for high and hard attempts because they bee impatient and cannot belong in doing about one thing being for the most part drawne away either by their sences or els by their delights whereto they are naturally addicted Cholerike persons being hote and drie haue a quicke vnderstanding The properties of a cholerike persons abounding with many sleight inuentions for they seldome sound any deepe and hidden secrets it fitteth not their fist to graple with such businesses as require continuance of time and paines of the bodies they cannot be at leisure their bodies and spirits doe let them their spirits are soone spent by reason of their thinnesse and their weake bodies cannot indure much watching I will adde also that one thing which Aristotle mentioneth in his Ethickes as that they loue change of things and for this cause are not so fit for consultations of great importance The melancholike are accounted as most fit to vndertake maters of weightie charge and high attempt That melancholike persons are ingenious and wittie Aristotle in his Problemes sayth that the melancholike are most wittie and ingenious but we must looke that we vnderstand this place aright for there are many sorts of melancholie That there are three sorts of melancholie there is one that is altogether grosse and earthie cold and drie there is another that is hot and adust men call it atrabilis there is yet another which is mixed with some small quantitie of blood and yet not withstanding is more drie then moyst The first sort which is grosse and earthie maketh men altogether grosse and slacke in all their actions both of bodie and minde fearefull sluggish and without vnderstanding it is commonly called Asse-like melancholie the second sort being hote and burnt doth cause men to be outragious and vnfit to be imployed in any charge There is none then but that which is mixed with a certaine quantitie of blood that maketh men wittie and causeth them to excell others Why melancholike men are wittie The reasons hereof are very plaine the braine of such melancholike persons is neither too soft nor too hard and yet it is true that drynes doth beare the sway therein But Heraclitus oftentimes said that a drie light did make the wifest minde there are but small store of excrements in their braine their spirits are most pure and are not easilie wasted they are hardly drawne from their purpose and meaning their conceit is very deepe their memorie very fast their bodie strong to endure labour and when this humour groweth hot by the vapours of blood it causeth as it were as kinde of diuine rauishment commonly called Enthousiasma which stirreth men vp to plaie the Philosophers Poets and also to prophesie in such maner as that it may seeme to containe in it some diuine parts See here the effects of the foure complexions and how they may all foure be within the bounds of health It is not then of these sound melancholike persons that we speake in this treatise We will intreate onely of the sicke and such as are pained with the griefe which men call melancholie which I am now about to describe CHAP. IIII. The definition of Melancholie and all the differences of it DIseases commonly take their names either from the place which they seaze vpon or of some irkesome accident accompanying them Whence melancholie tooke his name or of the cause which causeth them Melancholie marcheth in his hinder-most ranke for this name was giuen it because it springeth of a melancholike humour Wee will define as other good authors doe a kinde of dotage without any serue hauing for his ordinarie companions feare and sadnes without any apparant occasion Dotage in this definition standeth for the Genus the Greekes call it more properlie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Delirium The diuerse sorts of dotage There are two sorts of dotage the one without a feuer the other with a feuer that which is ioyned with a feuer is either continuall and haunteth the sicke continually or else it taketh him at certaine times distinguisht by distance that which is continuall is properly called frensie and it commeth either through the inflammation of the muscles called Diaphragma and this is the cause why the auncient Greeke writers do call the said muscle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that dotage which commenth by fit happeneth commonly in burning agues and in the stage or full strength of feuers tertains and it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other sort of dotage is without a feauer and it is either accompanied with rage and furie and then it is called Mania or madnes or else with feare and sadnes and then it is caled melancholie Melancholie therefore is a dotage What dotage is not coupled with an ague but with feare and sadnes We call that dotage when some one of the principall faculties of the minde as imagination or reason is corrupted All melancholike persons haue their imagination troubled for that they deuise with themselues a thousand fantasticall inuentions and obiects which in deede are not at all they haue also verie oft their reason corrupted Why melancholie is not accompanied with a feuer Wherefore we cannot make any doubt whether melancholie be a dotage or no but it is ordinarylie without a feuer because the humour is drie and hath these two qualities coldenes and drynes which are altogether contrarie vnto putrefaction so that there cannot any putrisied vapour breath out of them no more then there doth out of meere ashes which might be conueyed to the heart there to kindle the fire and procure a feauer Feare and sadnes are vnseperable companions of this miserable griefe for some reasons which I will set downe in the chapter following Beholde here the description of melancholie as it is a symptome or accident which hath relation to some action hurt and hindered that is to say to the imagination and reason depraued and corrupted This accident is as it were an effect of some cause and dependeth immediatlie vpon a disease for as the shadow followeth the bodie euen so the symptome followeth and accompanieth the disease Melancholie is a similar disease All the Phisitions both Greekes and Arabians doe thike that the cause of this accident
is a similar disease that is to say a cold and drie distemperature of the braine The braine then is the part grieued and hurt How that in it the temperature of the braine is hurt but that not by reason of any misshapednes of the same either by any tumour against nature neither yet by any thing oppressing or obstructing his ventricles as it happeneth in the Apoplexie and falling sicknes but in his proper substance and temperature the temperature is corrupted it is become too drie and colde How it commeth to passe that melancholike men fall into the falling sicknes Hippocrates hath obserued the same in his Epidemikes and Aphorismes very excellently Such saith he as haue the falling sicknes become melancholike and such as are menlancholicke fall into the falling sicknes according as the menlancholike humour doth possesse the ventricles or the substance of the braine if this humour corrupt the temperature which he calleth the minde because that it seemeth that the most excellent powers of the minde doe execute their functions by the helpe of this temperature without doubt it will cause melancholie but if it shut vp it selfe in the ventricles and cauities of the braine it will cause the falling sicknes because the ventricles being stuffed and the spirit not being able to passe freely to the sinewes the braine draweth it selfe together thereby to enlarge his ventricles and in this retraction doth equallie and as much draw and pull his great tayle from whence all the sinewes doe arise as it selfe and thus thereupon ariseth an vniuersall conuulsion I take it that the definition of melancholie is made cleere and plaine enough by this little discourse Now let vs come to the differences and diuers sorts thereof The differences of melancholie There are three kindes of melancholie the one commeth of the onely and sole fault of the braine the other sympatheticallie proceedeth from the whole bodie when as the whole temperature and constitution of the bodie is melancholike the third ariseth from amongst the bowels but especially from the spleene liuer and the membrance called mesenterium The first is called simplie and absolutelie by the name of melancholie the latter is called the windie melancholie with an addition The first is the most tedious of all the rest it vexeth the patient continuallie affoording little or no breathing whiles vnto him that which riseth from amongst the bowels doth handle the grieued nothing so roughlie it hath his periods oftentimes making truce with the diseased The first hath many degrees of afflicting if it haue nothing in it extraordinarie it shall not alter his name but and if it fall out to affect the partie altogether with sauage conditions it shall be called Wolues melancholie if with raging and violent passion of loue Knights melancholie The flatuous or windie melancholie hath also his degrees for there is some sorts of it but easie and light and there are other some that are very fierce and violent And now intending to handle all these sorts in order I will begin with that which hath his seate in the braine CHAP. V. Of melancholie which hath his proper seate in the braine of all accidents which doe accompanie the same and the causes of feare sadnes watchings fearefull dreames and other Symptomes THat melancholie with commeth of the drie cold distemperature of the braine is ordinarilie accompanied with so manifold and tedious accidents that it should stirre vp euery one to be moued with pitie and compassion for the bodie is not onely cast into a traunce but the minde is yet a great deale more violently set on the racke The accidents happening to melancholike persons For here beholde all the tirannous excecutioners and tormentors of melancholie feare keepeth companie with it day by day and now and then assayleth the partie with such an astonishment as that he is made afraide and becommeth a terror vnto himselfe sadnes doth neuer forsake him suspition doth secretly gall him sighings watchings fearefull dreames silence solitarynes bashfulnes and the abhorring of the Sun are as it were vnseparable accidents of this miserable passion Here we haue ample occasion administred to enter into some Philosophicall discourses and for pleasure sake I minde to recreate my selfe in searching out all the causes of these accidents beginning with that of feare The greatest Phisitions are at controuersie from whence this feare in melancholike persons should come Why melancholike men are alwaies afraide Galen his reason Galen imputeth all vnto the colour which is blacke and thinketh that the spirits being made wilde and the substance of the braine as it were cloudie and darke all the obiects thereof appeare terrible and that the minde is in continuall darkenes And euen as wee see the night doth bring with it some maner of feare not onely to children but sometimes also to the most confident Auerrhoes mocketh Galen euen so melancholike persons hauing in their braine a continuall night are in vncessant feare Auerrhoes that had deeper insight in Philosophie then same for his skill in Phisicke and being the sworne enemie of Galen The colour of the humour is not the cause of feare The first reason laugheth to scorne this reason The colour saith he cannot be the cause of this feare because colours can alter nothing but the eyes being onely the obiect of the sight so that the minde can see nothing without the eyes But there is neuer an eye in the braine how then can it finde it selfe agrieued at the blacknes of the melancholike humour seeing that it cannot see it The second I adde for the more confirmation of Auerrhoes his argument that the blacknes of the colour is so farre from being any cause of this feare in melancholike persons as that it is rather that colour which they most loue as being enemies to Sun and light and following darkenes altogether seeking after shadowed places walking often in the night and that with greater boldnes then vpon the day The third Furthermore madnes is caused of an humour as blacke as that which causeth melancholie for the humour called blacke choler is altogether blacke and glistning like pitch and therefore can make blacke the spirits and braine as well as the other But we see it falleth out that mad men are nothing fearefull but rather bolde and furious not taking acknowledgement of any danger as appeareth in their headlong casting of themselues into the deuouring fire The fourth and vpon the murtherous knife Finally if blackenes should be the cause of such feare it should follow on the contrarie that whitenes should make them bolde but how is it then that such as abound with Phlegme are also commonly fearefull the colour therefore cannot be the cause of this feare But saith Auerrhoes Auerrhoes his opinion it must needes be that the cause hereof is the temperature of the melancholike humour which is colde and worketh effects contrarie vnto those of heate Heate maketh men
obserue yet for his further assurance the temperature age dwelling place season of the yeare and order of life for if the bodie be of a colde temperature if it be olde if he dwell in colde waterie and marishie places and that it be in winter if he eate ordinarilie of raw fruites of moyst and colde victuals and if he liue an idle and slouthfull sitting life we neede not doubt but that it is a colde rheume There be also hot rheumes Hote rheumes howsoeuer that many learned Phisitions denie it for wee are confirmed in the contrarie both by the authoritie of Hippocrates and our owne experience Hippocrates maketh mention of a sommer squinancie which commeth of a subtile sharpe and hot distillation and we see come forth at the nose oftentimes a yellow and cholericke humour which taketh off all the skin and it is ingendred ordinarilie of choler in the braine which is purged out from thence by the cares The olde writers haue obserued very well that there are three sorts of excrements ingendred in the braine as one sorte of fleagme another sort of melancholie and another sort choler The fleagmatike passe away by the mouth and nose the melancholike by the eyes and the cholerike by the eares wee see also when wee make cleane our eares that all that commeth forth is yellow and extreame bitter Then there are hot rheumes which are such either by their generation as if they be made of choler or by corruption as when fleagme putrifieth it getteth a certaine acrimonie and becommeth salt The signes of a hot rheume It is easie to finde out these hot rheumes for if the humour passe by the palate and mouth they taste it bitter and pricking it burneth and taketh off the skin euery where where it commeth the face is all red and fierie the forehead extreame hot and commonly it walketh hand in hand with an ague we must adde vnto all this a temperature that is hot and cholericke a hot constitution of ayre a maner of liuing and all other things which are apt to heate the humours and to ingender such as are hote The third difference riseth from the qualitie of the humour We obserue furthermore in the humour besides his substance and temperature what his qualitie is that is to say the maners thereof for there are some humours which are malicious and haue a certaine secret malignitie there are some more gentle there are some that are concocted and some that are crude and raw From these conditions wee shall finde a difference of rheumes as there are some that are rebellious as those which accompanie the french disease or which rise of some remainder thereof and these are not cured by ordinarie remedies they must be ouercome by soueraigne cordials and preseruatiues there are other some more gentle Signes of concocted and vnconcocted rheumes The sourth difference riseth from the taste of the rheume which are easilie cured and helped by some simple purgation there are some that are crude and some concocted it is known to be crude when we see it cleere thin vnequall greene yellow bitter or pricking contrarilie if it be equall and euery where alike and a little thicke we judge it to be concocted We take some difference of rheumes from the taste and sauour which is in the humour there are salte sweete sharpe and tastlesse sauours the salt ones are alwaies most dangerous for if they fall ones vpon the Lungs they cause an vlcer if among the guts a bloodie fluxe finally we may drawe from the mixture of the humours these differences There are simple rheumes caused of one onely humour and there are others which are made of the mixture of many And thus much concerning the particular viewe of the first difference which is taken from the matter The second difference taken from the parts The second difference may be gathered from the parts now we haue two forts of parts to looke into as the sending and receiuing parts those which send are either within or without the braine Those within are commonly full of excrements both because of their colde distemperature and also of their marrowish substance those without also as betwixt the scull and the membrane next couering it and betwixt this inner membrane and the vttermost skin may be retained and gathered in great quantitie of water either by the vapours which not being able to passe any further doe there growe thicke or by the breathing forth of waterish humours out of the veines and arteries which there stay and abide From these parts then we shalf draw these differences of rheumes there are outward ones which come from without and runne downe by the continued proceeding of the membranes through all the outward parts euen vnto the ioyntes and make oftentimes the Goute There are inward ones which come from within the braine and runne diuerse waies to the inward partes If they take the waie of the spinall marrowe they will cause an Apoplexie Palsey astonishment and trembling if they passe and fall into the eyes and eares they will cause blindenesse and deafenesse if they fall into the nose they will cause the disease called Coryza if into the palate and rough arterie they will cause hoarcenesse as also shortnesse of breath the cough the consumption if into the Lunges and the fluxe of the bellie called Lienteria they fall into the stomacke The third difference taken from the accidents The third difference shall be taken from the accidents There are rheumes which choake vp the parties and kill them suddainely and they are those which Hippocrates calleth 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the other are without daunger and distill but softly There are rheumes without feauers and there are some that are accompanied with the feuer there are some also that are painfull and here are some withour paine The last difference The last difference is taken from the maner of their generation and the efficient causes There are some rheumes that are of themselues as being begotten of the sole defect of the braine all the rest of the body being found and there are some which come by consent as those which are caused of the ill disposition of the other parts as of the liuer too much heated and of the stomacke too much cooled the liuer ouer hote doth send great quantitie of vapours vnto the braine and the stomacke too much cooled doth fill all full of crudities There are epidemike or popular rheumes and there are erraticke or hereditarie ones the popular rheumes happen of the constitution of the ayre as was the whupping or crowing disease which happened this yeare and that which ranne through all Europe about tenne yeares agoe The erraticke or hereditarie rheumes come of a particular constitution of the bodie and of the maner of liuing which is particular vnto euery one CHAP. IIII. Of the causes of the Rheume THe causes of the rheume are either outward or inward the outward doe ordinarily
potabile conserues of Rubies and Emeralds Elixir vitae or the fained and fabulous fountaine of restored youth cannot withstand but that our heate must at length grow weake and feeble The opinion of the Egiptians condemned Galen derideth very well an Egyptian Sophister which had drawen commentaries of the immortalitie of the bodie If a man sayth he could when a thing is come to his perfection renew the same at that very instant and make the principles thereof in like maner new without doubt such a bodie would become immortall but this thing being impossible it must needes fall out that euery naturall agent must weaken it selfe and so of necessitie waxe old The men of Egypt Alexandria did beleeue that the natunall cause of olde age did come of the diminishing of the heart they said that the heart did growe till-fiftie yeeres the weight of two drams euery yeere and that after fiftie yeeres it waxed lesser and lesser till in the end it was growne to nothing but these are nothing but vaine imaginations and meere fooleries We haue caused many old men to be opened whose hearts haue been found as great and heauie as those of the yonger sort There is then but two inward causes of our old age the contrariety of the principles whereof we are composed and framed and the action or operation of our naturall heat which consisting in the consuming of his radicall moisture doth by little and little fall a drying and cooling of our bodies Outward causes of our old age that cannot be auoided There are other causes also of our dissolution which are outward and such as cannot be auoyded For seeing that our bodies are compounded of three substances which are subiect to waste the one wherof is subtile and of an airie nature the second liquide and the third solide it must needes be that we haue some outward thing for to repaire them otherwise our life would neuer last longer then the seuenth daie for this is the terme which Hippocrates hath giuen to perfect bodies and such as haue much naturall heate That which repayreth our nature is called nourishment and it is three fold the ayre drinke and meates the aire vpholdeth and maintaineth the substance of spirits the drinke all that which is liquide and the meate that which is solide This threefolde kinde of nourishment how well soeuer it be cleansed and purified hath notwithstanding euermore something disagreeing with our nature and that so much as that it cannot assimilate and turne it into it owne nature and therefore maketh an excrement of it which being retained altereth the bodie and maketh an infinite number of diseases See and beholde how meates doe of necessitie alter out bodies I leaue to speake of all other outward causes as ouer violent exercises an idle and sitting life long and continuall watching the passions of the minde which of themselues can make vs olde as feare and sadoes because we may in some sort auoide and shunne them I leaue also to say any thing of chancing causes or such as may befall vs by hap hazard as hurts I am onely purposed to shew that it is of necessitie that euery liuing creature must waxe olde that he sostereth within himselfe the naturall causes of his death and that he hath outward causes thereof hanging about him which cannot bee auoyded CHAP. II. A very not able description of olde age SEeing is is most certaine that our bodies Distinction of ages euen from the daye of our birth are subiect vnto many alterations and changes the phisitions hauing regard vnto such alterations as are most sensible and apparant haue diuided the whole life of man into many parts which they haue called ages The opinion of the Egyptians The Egyptians haue made as many ages as there are seuens in the number of an hundred for they verily beleeued that a man could not liue aboue a hundred yeeres The Pythagoreans The opinion of the Pythagorists which were very superstitious in their numbers haue published in their writings how that in euery seuenth we feele some notable change both in the temperature of the bodie and in the disposition of the mind and that al this ought to be referred and attributed to the perfection of the number of seuen I purpose not here to discusse the question of numbers I haue handled it largely enough in my third book of critical daies it is sufficient for me to sit downe and rest my selfe with all the most famous writers in saying that man following the naturall course of life vndergoeth fiue notable alterations and changes in his temperature and runnoth through fiue ages which are Fiue ages Infancie Adolescencie Youth Manhood or the constant age and Old age Infancie is hote and moist Infancie but moysture exceedeth and keepeth heate so vnder foote as that it cannot shew his effects it lasteth till thirteene yeeres of age Adolescencie followeth next Adolescencie which yet is hot and moyst but so as that heat beginneth to play the master the sparkes thereof are seene to glitter twinckle and shine in euery thing In the mankind the voice groweth greater all their waies and courses stretch and reach further and further they cast their first wool In the female kind their paps grow hard great to the sight of the eye their blood stirreth it selfe throughout all their bodie and causeth it to giue place and make way for it till it haue found out the doore this age holdeth on to twenty foure or tweny fiue yeeres which is the appointed and prefixed terme for growth After this commeth Youth Flourishing youth which is hot and drie full of heate liuelihood and nimblenes it hath his course till fortie yeeres The manly age Then the bodie is come to his full stature and this is called the mans age or constant age it is the most temperate of all the rest participating the foure extremities indifferently and continueth to the fiftith yeere Old age And there beginneth Olde age which containeth all the rest of our life But yet notwithstanding this olde age may further bee diuided into three ages Three degrees of olde age there is a first old age a second and a third I haue nothing to doe with that which is caused by sickenes and called Senium ex morbo The first old age is called greene because it is accompanied with prudence The first full of experience and fit for to gouerne common weales The second beginneth at seuentie yeeres The second and is incumbred with many small disaduantages it is very cold and drie As for the coldnes there are so manifest signes and tokens of it that no man hath euer made anie doubt of it for if you do touch them you shall alwaies finde them as cold as yee they haue no liuely or vermilion colour all their sences are weakened and become subiect to an infinite number of colde diseases but as for the other
the heart and this saith he liueth first and dyeth last the onely storehouse of spirit the originall of veines arteries and sinewes the principal author of respiration the fountaine and welspring of all heate containing within the ventricles thereof a subtile and refined blood which serueth as a burning cole to kindle and set on fire all the other inferiour and smaller sorts of heate and to bee briefe the onely Sunne of this little world And euen in like sort The heauens and the heart finely compared together as the heauens are the principals whereon depend and rest all other elemental generations and alterations so the hart is the first and principall originall of all the actions and motions of the bodie The heauens bring forth their wonderfull effects by their motions heate and influence the heart by his continuall mouing which ought no lesse to rauish vs then the flowing and ebbing of Euripus and influence of his spirits doth put life into all the other parts endoweth them with this beautiful and vermillionlike colour and maintaineth their naturall heate The mouing and light which are in the superiour bodies are the instruments of the intelligences and of the heauens of the intelligences as being the first cause of mouing in others being themselues immoueable of the heauens as first mouing the other and being themselues moued The mouing of the heart and vitall spirit which distributeth it selfe like vnto light throughout and that as it were in the twinkling of an eye are the instruments of the mind and heart of the minde which is a chiefe and principall mouer and yet not moued of the heart as of a chiefe and principall mouer which is moued of the minde It is therefore the heart according to the doctrine of the Peripatetikes which is the true mansion of the soule the onely prince and gouernour in this so excellent and admirable disposing of all things in the gouernment of the bodie Chrysippus and all the Stoikes haue followed the same opinion and doe beleeue that all that region which containeth the parts which wee call vitall is named of the Grecians and Latines Thorax because it keepeth within it as it were vnder lock this heauenly vnderstanding so called of Anaxagoras this burning heate so called of Zeno replenished with a million of sciences this admirable fire which Prometheus stole out of heauen to put soule and life into mankinde this altering spirit whereof Theocritus made so great account Behold how these Philosophers haue diuersly spoken of the seate of the soule It is not my minde to bestow any time in the particuler examination of all these opinions either is it mine intent in this place to enter into any dispute intending to content my selfe with the simple deliuerie of the trueth That the brain is the principall seate of the soule For I assure my selfe that it shall be strong enough to ouerthrow all these false foundations I say then that the principall seate of the soule is in the braine because the goodliest powers thereof doe lodge and lye there and the most worthie actions of the same doe there most plainly appeare All the instruments of motion sence imagination discourse and memorie are found within the braine or immediatly depending therevpon Anatomie manifesteth vnto our eyes The reasons to proue the same The first how that there issue out from the lower part of the braine seuen great paire of sinewes which serue at a trice to conuey the animall spirit vnto the instrument of the sences and doe not any of them passe out of the head except the sixt paire which stretch out themselues to the mouth of the stomacke We see also that from the hindermost part of the braine where the great and little braine doe meete together doth proceede the admirable taile the beautifull and white spinall marow which the Wiseman in his booke of the Preacher calleth the siluer threed how it is carefully preserued within a sacred chanell as Lactantius calleth it From the same men see that there rise a million of little sinewes which conuey the powers of mouing and feeling vnto all such members as are capable of the same Men doe also perceiue the outward sences placed round about the braine The second which are as the light horsemen and messengers of the vnderstanding the principall part of the soule Philo saith that when men come within the view of a princes guard they thinke himselfe not to bee farre off we see all the guard and seruants of reason as the eyes the eares the nose the tongue to bee situated in the head whereupon by consequent we ought to iudge that this princesse is not farre off Experience also giueth vs to vnderstand that if the braine haue his temperature altered The third as for example if it be too hot as it falleth out in such as are franticke or ouer cold as it falleth out in melancholick men it corrupteth presently the imaginatiue facultie troubleth the iudgement weakeneth the memorie which is not incident in the diseases of the heart as namely either in a hectick feuer or when a man is poysoned The soule saith that diuine Philosopher Plato doth not please and content it selfe with that braine which is too soft The fourth too close and compact or too hard it requireth a good temperature If the proportion of the head be but a little out of square so that it be either too great or too little or too coppeld as that which men reade of Thersites in Homer or altogether round and not flat on the sides as naturally it ought to be men may perceiue all the actions of the soule to be depraued and thereupon doe call such heads foolish without iudgement without wisedome all which ought to make vs as well to beleeue that the braine is as much the organe and instrument of all these actions as the eye is the instrument of sight Furthermore this kind of round shape which is peculiar vnto mankinde The fift this head thus lifted vp to heauen this great quantitie of braine which is almost incredible doth shew very well that man hath something in his head more then other liuing creatures The wise Sages of Egypt haue very well acknowledged the same for they did not sweare by any other thing but by their head they ratified all their couenants by the head and forbad the eating of the braines of liuing creatures for the honour and reuerence sake which they bare to this part I thinke also that the falling sicknes was not for any other reason called sacred of the ancients but because it did assaile the soueraigne and sacred part of the body Let vs then acknowledge the braine to be the principall seate of the soule the originall of mouing and feeling and of all the other most noble functions of the same I know well that some curious spirits will aske me how it can bee the author of so many goodly actions seeing it is cold
in such maner as that he may seeme to haue gone about to hide the secrets of nature and mysteries of his Philosophie not with the vaile of fained fables as doe the Poets neither yet with any superstitious conceit of numbers as Pithagoras his sect were wont to doe but by an obscure breuitie resembling the cuttle fish which to the end that she may not fall into the hand of the fisher casteth vp a blackish water and so hideth her selfe The fourth The sences sayth Aristotle are but fiue because the meanes by which they worke cannot be altered any moe then fiue wayes Aristotle his proofe for the number of the sences The meanes by which we haue the vse of our sences are onely two the one is outward the other is inward the outward is the ayre or the water the inward is the flesh or the membranes The ayre and water do receiue the obiects that are outward either as they are transparent and then they serue the sight or as they are moueable and thin bodies and then they serue the hearing or as moist ones doe receiue and embrace that which is drie and then they be the subiects of smelling The flesh or membranes may be considered of two maner of wayes either according to the temperature of the foure elementall qualities and then they bee the subiects of feeling or els according to the mixture of the qualities drie and moyst and then they are the subiects of relishes for the taste But howsoeuer the case standeth for the reason of this number we see there are but fiue externall sences which are all placed without the braine These are the proper posts and messengers of the soule these are the windowes by which wee see cleerely round about vs. These are the watch or doore keepers which make vs way into their most priuie closet if they performe their faithfull seruice vnto reason then do they set before her a million of delightsome obiects whereof she frameth marueilous discourses But alas and woe is me how oft doe they betray her Oh how many dangers do they inwrap her in and how subiect are they vnto corruption The sences become the cutthrotes of reason It is not without cause that this thrice renowmed Mercurie doth call the sences tyrants and the cutthrotes of reason for oftentimes doe they make captiue the same vnto the two inferiour powers they make her of a mistresse a seruant and of a free woman a drudge and thrall to all slauerie She may well commaund but she shall be obeyed all one as lawes and Magistrates are in an estate troubled with ciuill dissentions Yea tell me how many soules haue lost their libertie through the sight of the eyes How that the sences steale away and rob reason of her libertie Doe not men say that that little wanton that blind archer doth enter into our hearts by this doore and that loue is shaped by the glittering glimces which issue out of the eyes or rather by certaine subtile and thin spirits which passe from the heart to the eye through a straite and narrow way very secretly and hauing deceiued this porter doe place loue within which by little and little doth make it selfe Lord of the house and casteth reason out of the doores How oft is reason bewitched by the eare If thou giue thine eare to hearken vnto these craftie tongues and cogging speeches vnto these cunning discourses full of honie and a thousand other baits doubt not but that thy reason wil be surprised for the scout watch being fallen asleepe the enemie stealeth vpon them softly and becommeth master of the fort The wise Vlisses did not he stop the eares of his companions fearing least they should bee bewitched and besotted with the melodious tunes and sweete songs of the Syrens The licorishnes of the taste surfetting and drunkennes haue they not spoyled many great personages And the sence of feeling which nature hath giuen to liuing creatures for the preseruation of their kinde being the grossest and most earthly of all the rest and so by consequent the most delicate of al the rest doth it not oftentimes cause vs to become beasts Reason then is neuer ouertaken but through the false and treacherous dealing of these doore keepers no man can at any time come within her pallace but by the priuitie of these watchmen for that as I haue sayd in the beginning of this chapter the soule being fast shut vp within the bodie cannot doe any thing hut by the aide and assistance of the sences CHAP. III. That the sight is the noblest of all the rest of the sences AMongst all the sences that of the sight in the common iudgement of all the Philosophers hath been accounted the most noble perfect and admirable Foure things prouing the excellencie of the sight The excellencie thereof is to be perceiued in an infinite sort of things but most principally in foure as first in respect of the varietie of the obiects which it representeth vnto the soule secondly in respect of the meanes of his operation which is as it were altogether spirituall thirdly in respect of his particular obiect which is the light which is the most noble and perfect qualitie that euer God created and lastly in respect of the certaintie of his action First therefore it is out of all doubt The first that the sight causeth vs to know greater varietie and more differences of things then any of the rest of the sences For all naturall bodies are visible and may bee seene but all of them cannot bee felt neither doe they all affoord smels tasts or sounds the heauen the worlds ornament and most noble substance amongst all the rest will not suffer vs to touch the same neither can we heare the sweete harmonie which proceedeth of the concords and agreements of so many diuerse motions There is nothing but the sight which acquainteth vs therewithall soft bodies make no sound neither is there any taste in the earth or fire and yet euery one of these may bee seene The sight besides his owne proper obiect which is colour hath an infinit sort of others as greatnes number proportion motion rest situation and distances And this is the cause why the Philosopher in his Metaphysiques calleth it the sence of inuention as for that by the meanes thereof all the goodliest Sciences and Arts haue been inuented and found out By the meanes of this noble sence it came first to passe that man should begin to play the Philosopher for Philosophie was not begot but by admiring of things and admiratiō sprung not from elswhere then from the sight of pleasant and beautifull things Whereupon the minde raising it selfe on hie toward heauen and rauished with the consideration of so many marueilous things was desirous to know the cause of them and thereupon began to play the Philosopher And yet I will say further that the sight is the sence of our blessednes For the chiefe felicitie
seeing I haue sometimes delighted my selfe to crop and picke out thereof whatsoeuer I could finde or see to be faire and for profit But for as much as one of the principall causes of the weakenes of the sight yea I dare be bolde to say that it is more common then any of the rest doth proceede of a superfluous moisture of the eye and of the impurenes of the spirits I will ordaine an exquisite order for the same which shall serue for a patterne and scantling the better to aime at the curing of all the rest of the diseases of the eye The art which teacheth to heale diseases called by one word of the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ordinarily performed by three instruments as Diet or the manner of liuing Chirurgerie and Medicine Good diet hath the first place in the curing of whatsoeuer diseases The maner of liuing is alwaies set in the forefront and hath bin iudged of the ancient learned to bee the chiefe and most noble part because it is most fauourable and familiar to nature not disturbing her any maner of way or molesting her in any respect so as medicines and manuall operations doe This maner of liuing doth not consist onely in meate and drinke as the common people imagine but in the ordering of the sixe things which the Phisitions call not naturall and these are the ayre meate and drinke sleepe and watching labour and rest emptines and fulnes and the passions of the minde The power of the ayre I will begin my order of diet at the ayre in as much as no man can want it the least minute and for that it hath a marueilous force to alter and change our bodies on the sudden The direct passages thereof is through the nose to the braine and through the mouth to the hart by the pores of the skinne and mouing of the arteries it goeth throughout the whole bodie it prouideth matter and nourishment for our spirits This is the cause why that famous Hippocrates did note very well that of the constitution of the aire doth wholly depend the good and ill disposition of our humours and spirits The qualities of the ayre In the ayre wee must looke vnto his first and second qualities his first are heate colde moysture and drines of which the two first are called actiue and the two latter passiue the second qualities are when the ayre is grosse thicke subtile pure darke light but let vs now make our profit of all this What ayre is good for the sight It behoueth vs for the better preseruation of our sight to chuse an ayre which is temperate in his first qualities as being neither too hot too cold too moyst or drie It is not good to abide in the heate of the Sunne neither in the beames of the Moone or in the open aire The Southerne and Northerne windes are hurtfull to the eyes The windes that are bad for the sight Reade that which Hippocrates writeth in his third section of Aphorismes The South winde saith he maketh a troubled sight hardnes of hearing a heauie head dull sences and all the body lazie and lither because it begetteth grosse spirits The North winde is very sharpe and therefore as saith the same author it stingeth and pricketh the eyes The places that are low waterish moyst and full of marishes are altogether contrary to the welfare of the sight It is better a great deale to dwell in drie places and such as are somewhat rising If a man be forced to dwell in moyst places his helpe is to alter and rectifie the ayre with artificiall fires How to correct the ayre by art made of the wood of Lawrel Iuniper Rosemary and Tamariske or otherwise to very good purpose hee may make the perfume inuented of the Arabians and vse it in the chamber where hee keepeth most Take of the leaues of Eyebright A perfume Fennell and Margerome of euery one an ounce of Zyloaloe finely powdred a dramme of Frankinsence three drammes mingle them altogether and perfume your chamber oftentimes therewith How the ayre must be affected in his second qualities As concerning the second qualities a grosse thicke and foggie ayre is contrary to the sight wee must choose such a one as is pure and cleane purged from all waterish earthie nitrous sulphurous and other such like mettal like vapours especially those of quicksiluer the dust fire and smoke do wonderfull harme to the eye and this is the reason why such as haue a weake sight should neuer intermeddle with Alchimy for so at once they should consume both their sight and their purse the vapours arising out of standing waters and from dead bodies are very noysome Neither yet must the ayre bee too lightsome What light is bad for the sight for an excessiue light doth scatter the spirits and causeth the sight oftentimes to be lost Wee reade that Zenophanes his souldiers hauing passed the snow became all of them as it were blind and Dionisius the tyrant of Sicile did after the same maner put out the eyes of all his prisoners for hauing shut them vp in a very darke hole caused them to bee led forth on the sudden into a very bright light so that they al therby lost their sight What colours doe comfort the sight Vnto the light wee will adioyne colours All colours are not profitable for the sight the white colour scattereth the spirits drawing them to it the blacke maketh them too grosse there is not any but the greene blew and violet which doe much comfort it And this hath nature taught vs in the framing of the eye for she hath died the grape-like coate with greene and blew on that side which is next vnto the christalline humour The colour of the Saphire and Emerauld is very commodious for the sight If you desire often to looke vpon these two colours mixed together I wil shew you to attaine therunto very easily Take of the flowers of Borage of the leaues of Burnet and when you are disposed to drinke cast them into the glasse and this will serue you for two purposes The colour will comfort your eyes and the hearbes by their propertie will represse the vaporousnes of the wine And thus much let bee sayd of the ayre Of meates and drinkes The second poynt of ordering thy diet aright consisteth in meate and drinke It behoueth therefore to know what victuals are good and what they be which can hurt the sight A man must altogether refraine such victuals as are of grosse nourishment as also slimie vaporous salt windie sweete and sharpe meates and such as make many excrements there must also bee made a more spare supper then dinner Of bread The bread must be made of cleane wheate well leauened and some what salted wherein may bee put Fennell or Anise-seede it must not bee eaten new nor after it is aboue three daies old Vnleauened bread doth hurt the
bolde quicke of motion and headlong in all their actions colde on the contrarie maketh them fearefull leaden-heelde and not resoluing of any thing All such as are of a colde temperament become fearefull olde folkes ordinarilie are fearefull and so are gelded men also women are alwaies more timerous then men and to be briefe the qualities of the minde doe follow the temperament of the bodie The authors iudgement Loe here here the contrarie opinions of these two great and famous men I thinke they may be reconciled if wee would ioyne these two causes together that is the temperature of the humour as the chiefe and principall and the blacke colour of the Spirits as that which may much further and helpe forward the same The melancholike humour being colde doth not onely coole the braine but also the heart being the feare of this couragious facultie of the Soule which men call the instinct and pronenes of nature vnto anger and rebateth the flames therein hence creepeth out feare the same humour being blacke causeth the animall spirits which ought to be pure subtile cleere and lightsome it maketh them I say grosse darke and as it were all to be smoked But the spirits being the chiefe and principall instrument of the minde if they be blacke and ouercooled also doe trouble her most noble powers and principally the imagination presenting vnto it continually blacke formes and strange visions which may be seene with the eye notwithstanding that they be within This is a deepe reach which no man hitherto it may be hath attayned and it serueth infinitely for the defence of Galen That with our owne eyes we may see something within the same The eye doth not onely see that which is without but it seeth also that which is within howsoeuer it may iudge that same thing to be without Those which haue some small beginnings of a Cataract doe see many bodies flying like to Ants flyes and long haires the same also doe such as are readie to vomite Hippocrates and Galen place amongst the signes adn tokens of a criticall fluxe of blood these false apparitions as when one seeth red bodies hanging in the ayre which yet notwithstanding are not there because that then euery one should see them this is an inward vapour which offereth it selfe vnto the christalline humour in his naturall colour and so if it arise of blood it appeareth red if of choler yellow and wherefore then should not the vapours of the melancholike humour and of the spirits being blacke ordinarilie present themselues and appeare in their naturall colour vnto the eye and so vnto the imagination The melancholike partie may see that which is within his owne braine but vnder another forme because that the spirits and blacke vapours continually passe by the finewes vaines and arteries from the braine vnto the eye which causeth it to see many shadowes and vntrue apparitions in the aire whereupon from the eye the formes thereof are conueyed vnto the imagination which being continuallie serued with the same dish abideth continuallie in feare and terror That which maketh me to ioyne the blacke colour with the temperature is because the braine is very oft of colde distemperature and notwithstanding we finde not the partie troubled either with such feare nor yet such gastlie sights Fleagme is yet more colde then melancholie and notwithstanding it troubleth not the imagination because his whitenes hath some resemblance of the substance of the braine That the melancholike humour is altogether contrarie to our spirits and with the colour and cleerenes of the spirits but the melancholike humour is altogether opposite and enemie vnto the same Our spirits account colde and darkenes to be their enemies feeling the colde they drawn themselues in and as darkenes presseth on more and more so they flie blacke into their fort and castle forsake the vtter parts and procure vs to sleepe the melancholike humour hath both these properties it is colde and darke it ought not therefore to astonish vs if that we see it to molest the most noble and principall powers of the minde seeing it tainteth and brandeth with blackenes the principall instrument thereof which is the spirit which passing from the braine to the eye and from the eye to the braine backe againe is able to moue these blacke sights and to set them vncessantly before the minde Loe heere the first accident which haunteth melancholike persons they are alwaies full of feare for they feare euery thing euen that which is furthest off from feare they are hartlesse they honour their enemies and abuse their friends they conceiue of death as a terrible thing and notwithstanding which is strange they oftentimes desire it yea so eagerlie as that they will not let to destroy themselues but this falleth out then only when feare is turned into dispayre it is true in deede that this happeneth so oft vnto those whom melancholie simply assaileth as vnto those which are mad Mad men doe more oft kill themselues then melancholike perspons Wee haue very few examples of meere melancholike persons which haue slaine themselues but of mad men very many are found and those of great reputation Empedocles Agrigentinus became mad and cast himselfe headlong into the burning flames of the mountaine Aetna Examples Ariax the sonne of Telamon was out of his wits for that he was not thought worthie of Achilles armour but that it was adiudged vnto Vlisses Whereupon he passed ouer some part of his furie in killing all maner of cattell he met withall thinking he had slaine Vlisses and all his companions Cleomenes being likewise out of his wits slew himself with his own sword Orestes hauing slaine his mother Clytemnestra was so furiously outraged that if his deare friend Pylades had not carefully watched ouer him he had destroyed himselfe a hundred times It falleth out therefore more oft vnto mad then to melancholike men to kill themselues Why melancholike persons are sad The second accident which almost neuer leaueth melancholike persons is sadnes they weepe and know not wherefore I beleeue the distemperature of the humour is the cause thereof for as ioy and cheerefulnes proceede from heate and moysture well tempered so heauines and sadnes come from the two contrarie qualities which are found in this humour For the most part of men of sanguine complexion are cheerefull and merrie because they consist of a mixture of moysture and heate cholerike persons are way ward and vnpleasant because their heate is drie and hath as it were an edge set vpon it melancholike persons are sad and peruerse because they bee cold and drie Euen so it befell the sillie Bellerophon who as he is very artificially set out in Homer went wandring through the defart places continually mourning and lamenting And the Ephesian Philosopher named Heraclitus liued in continuall teares because sayth Theophrastus that he was possessed of melancholie and as his writings altogether confused and darkned with obscuritie
doe sufficiently witnesse the same Why they be suspicious The accident of suspition followeth the two former hard and close at the heeles the melancholike party is euermore suspicious if he see three or foure talking together he thinketh that it is of him The cause of such suspition riseth of the former feare and of a corrupt kinde of reasoning for being alwaies in feare he thinketh verely that one or other doeth lie in wait for him and that some doe purpose to slay him Melancholike men sayth Aristotle doe deceiue themselues commonly in matters which depend vpon choice for that they oftentimes forget the generall propositions wherein honestie consisteth and chuse rather to follow the motions of their foolish imaginations The cause of their restlesnes They are neuer at rest either in their bodies or in their spirits they can make no answere to such questions as are propounded them they oftentimes change from one kinde to another This disquieting and distracting of themselues ariseth of the diuersitie of matters which they propound and set before themselues for receiuing all maner of formes and stamping them with the print of dislike they are constrained oftentimes to change and to find out new things which being no more acceptable to them then the first doe still continue them in these restles distractions The cause of their sighing Melancholike folke are commonly giuen to sigh because the minde being possessed with great varietie and store of foolish apparitions doth not remember or suffer the partie to bee at leisure to breathe according to the necessitie of nature whereupon she is constrained at once to sup vp as much ayre as otherwise would serue for two or three times and this great draught of breath is called by the name of sighing which is as it were a reduplicating of the ordinary manner of breathing In this order it falleth out with louers and all those which are very busily occupied in some deepe contemplation Sillie fooles likewise which fall into a wonder at the sight of any beautifull and goodly picture are constrained to giue a great sight their will which is the efficient cause of breathing being altogether distracted and wholly possessed with the sight of the image Why they watch and can not sleepe There is yet another accident which is very tedious and euen consumeth these poore melancholike men euen continuall watchings I haue seene some that haue abode three whole moneths without sleepe The causes of sleepe Now the causes of such watchings are easie enough to vnderstand if wee know what it is which causeth vs to sleepe Men are giuen to obserue in sleepe the materiall formall finall and instrumentall cause The materiall is a pleasant vapour which is cast vp from the first and second concoction which whē it commeth to slacken and stop all the sinewes by his moysture it causeth all sence and motion for to cease The finall cause is the repayre of spirits and the rest of all the animall powers which hauing been wearied by continuall labour doe craue a little reliefe and recreation this end cannot be obtained if so bee the minde which setteth all the powers of the bodie on worke be not vouchsafed some maner of peaceable rest in this sort the sillie Dido all ouer whelmed with musing pensiuenes could not espie the approach of night to the shutting vp of her mournfull eyes or easing of her oppressed heart The formall cause of sleepe consisteth in the withdrawing of the spirits and naturall heate from the outward parts to the inward and from all the circumference vnto the center The instrumentall cause is the braine which must be of good temperature for if it be too hot as in frenticke folkes or drie as in old folkes the sleepe will neuer be with peace and quietnes The causes of all that watchfulnes which is in melancholike persons In melancholike persons the materiall is wanting the minde is not at rest the braine is distempered the matter is a melancholike humour drie as ashes from whence cannot arise any pleasant and delightsome vapour the braine is distempered and greatly ouerdried the minde is in continuall restlesnes for the feare that is in them doth continually set before them tedious grieuous things which so gnaw and pinch them as that they hinder them from sleeping But if at one time or other it fall out that they be ouertaken with a little slumber it is then but a troublesome sleepe accompanied with a thousand of false and fearefull apparitions and dreames so dreadfull as that it were better for them to be awake The causes of all these dreames are to bee referred to the propertie of the humour The causes of all their fearefull dreames for as the phlegmatike partre dreameth commonly of riuers of water and the cholerike of flaming fire so the melancholike person dreameth of nothing but dead men graues and all other such mournfull and vnpleasant things because he exerciseth his imaginations with formes altogether like vnto the humour which beareth sway in him vpon which occasion the memorie beginneth to stirre and rouse vp her selfe or else because that the spirits being growne as it were wilde and altogether blacke ranging the braine throughout and bending themselues to the eye doe set before the iamgination all manner of darke and obscure things The cause why they loue darknes Melancholike men are also enemies to the Sunne and shunne the light because that their spirits and humours are altogether contrary to the light The Sunne is bright and warme the melancholike humour is blacke and colde They desire solitarines because they vsing to bee busie and earnestly following their imagination doe feare to bee drawne away by others their presence and therefore doe auoide it but the cause of such their vncessant perseuerance in their imaginations is because their spirits are grosse and as it were immoueable They haue their eyes fixed and as it were set fast by reason of the cold and drines of the instrument they haue a hissing in their cares and oftentimes are troubled with swimmering or giddinesse Why they loue to be silent and as Galen obserueth they loue silence out of measure and oftentimen cannot speake not for any defect of the tongue but rather because of I cannot tell what maner of conceitednes finally they inuent continually some one or other strange imagination and haue in a maner all of them one speciall obiect from which they cannot be weined till time haue worne it out CHAP. VI. Whence it commeth that melancholike persons haue all of them their particular and altogether diuers obiects whereupon they dote THe imagination of melancholike men bringeth forth such diuersitie of effects according to the difference of the matters where about it is occupied as that a man shall searse finde fiue of sixe among then thousand which dote after one and the same maner Whereupon ancient writers haue compared this humour to wine for as wine according
to the temperature and disposition of them that drinke it causeth sundrie and diuerse effects A comparing of wine with the melancholine humour making some to laught and some to weepe making some lumpish and drowsie and othersome ouer watchfull and furious euen so this humour affect ethithe imagination after diuerse sorts and fashions Whence it commeth that melancholike men haue so searfull obiects This difference ariseth either from the disposition of the bodie or from the maner of liuing or from such studies as the parties doe most applie themselues vnto or from some other secret and hidden cause The disposition of the bodie doth propound and set downe such obiects as are all alike or at the least or very neere resemblance foreseene that the occasion that is to say some outward cause be ioyned therewithall The first cause Such as are of an extreme drie temperature and haue the braine also very drie if they happen commonly to looke vpon some pitcher or glasse which are things very vsuall and common they will iudge themselues to be pitchers or glasses Such as are troubled with wormes either in the stomacke or guts will easily receiue if they be melancholike disposed that they haue some serpent viper or other liuing thing in their bellies Such as are trouled with very much windines will oftentimes imagine themselues flying in the ayre and to become birds They that abound in seede will rune a madding after women hauing the same for continual obiects before their eyes All these imaginations follow the disposition of the bodie and as wee see that in sleeping it befalleth vs oftentimes to dreame of a thousand straunge things which are sutable to the temperature of the bodie and naturall humour which doth chiefly raigne and this is the cause why such dreames are called naturall euen so melancholike folkeboth waking and sleeping may be haunted with a thousand vaine inuentions such as are sutable to the disposition of the humour Notwithstanding there is difference in the maner of their impressions for such fearefull visions as in sleepe are seene of the healthfull doe speedily passe away not making any abode because such parties are but slightly affected but in melancholike persons the braine may seeme to haue gotten a habit and therewithall the humour which is drie and earthie hauing set his stampe in a bodie that is hard suffereth not it selfe easily to be blotted out The second cause of the diue sitie of melancholike mē their imaginations There are other imaginations in melancholike folkes that proceede not of the disposition of the bodie but of their maner of liuing and of such studies as they bee most addcted vnto All the conditions of men and all their properties are not like One man feedeth himselfe with couetousnes and another with ambition this sillie man is led captiue of loue and religious deuotion preuaileth with another This humour then will imprint in melancholike men the obiects most answerable to their condition of life and ordinarie actions If an ambitious man become melancholike he straight way dreameth that he is a King an Emperour a Monarke If he bee couetous then all his foolish imaginations will runne vpon riches If he be giuen to bee religious he will doe nothing but mumble of his beades and you shal neuer finde him out of the Church If he bee addicted to Venus darlings he will doe nothing but plot the purchase of his loue and sometimes run after his owne shadow As much may be sayd of them which loue to contend in law or of them which in their health were deuoutly addicted vnto some one particular thing The third cause Finally we obserue and finde such strange imaginations in some melancholike men as cannot be referred either to the complexion of the bodie or to their condition of life the cause thereof remaineth vnknowne it seemeth to be some secret mysterie The old writers haue thought that there is some diuine thing in this humour Rhazis and Trallianus write that they haue seene many melancholike persons which haue oftentimes foretolde what afterward hath come to passe A comparison betwixt melancholike mē and a good huntsmen There is an Arabian Phisition which compareth melancholike men to good huntsmen For euen sayth hee as a good huntsman before he strike or let goe the string of his bow doth assure himselfe of the fall of the beast euen so the melancholike person by the forwardnes of his imagination doth oftentimes see that which must come to passe as though it were present before him We reade that one Marcus and one other called Melanthius of Syracuse became good Poets after their melancholy Anicen noteth that melancholike persons sometimes doe such strange things that the common people imagine them to bee possessed How many famous men be there in this our age which make scruple to condemne these olde witches thinking it to bee nothing but a melancholike humour which corrupteth their imagination and filleth them with all these vaine toyes I will not cast my selfe any further into the depth of this question the matter craueth a man of more leisure Let vs conclude therefore The conclusion that the varietie of things which the melancholike man busieth himselfe withall commeth either of the disposition of his bodie or of his condition of life or of some other cause which is aboue nature They which cannot at the first time conceiue al these reasons shall vnderstand them in my iudgement if they with patience will take the paines to reade this little treatise which shall very greatly further the making plaine of this matter and it shall not be from the purpose It happeneth all alike to melancholike persons as to those which dreame and as much doe wee obserue the causes of the one aas of the other for dreames haue recourse vnto the imagination as well as melancholie But let vs make three sorts of drames the one sort is of nature Three sorts of dreames Naturall dreames the other of the minde and the third is aboue the other two Those which are of nature doe follow the nature of the humour which doth most rule the that is cholerike dreameth of nothing but fires fightings and burnings the phlegmatike thinketh himselfe alwaies to be in water The knowledge of these dreames is necessarie for a good Phisition thereby to know the complexion and constitution of his sicke patient Hipocrates hath written a little treasite thereof whereupon the famous man Iulius Caesar Scaliger hath commented Galen also hath made another wherein he teacheth that by these naturall drames one may foretell the issues of diseases They sayth he which should sweate dreame commonly that they are in a bath of warme water or in some riuer There was one that dreamed that his thigh was become a stone and as he awoke the same thigh fell into a palsey Dreames rising of the troubles of the minde The second fort of dreames is that which commeth of the minde as
caused by some maner of disturbance happening to the same Some define this kinde of dreame to bee nothing else but that which hath passed the day before either through the sences or through the vnderstanding This kinde of dreame happeneth oftest for if wee haue seene or thought vpon or talked of any thing very earnestly in the day the night following the same thing will offer it selfe vnto vs. The fisherman sayth Theocritus dreameth commonly of fishes riuers and nets the souldier of alatums taking of nothing in the night but of their loues obiect Supernaturall dreames The last kinde of dreames exceede the course of nature the power of the sences and the reach of mans vnderstanding these dreames are either immediatly from God or from the Diuell those which come from God Diuine dreames doe oftentimes put vs in minde of that which must happen vnto vs and maketh vs partakers of reuelations containing in them great mysteries Such haue been in the old Testament of the drames of Abraham Iacob Ioseph Salomon Nabuchadnezzar Pharoah Daniel Mardoche and in the New Testament of holy Ioseph the three kings of the East and Saint Paul Dreames stirred vp the diuell The dreames called Diabolicall happen very oft of the subtiltie of Satan who goeth walking round about vs euery day and seeketh to intrap vs waking or sleeping Wherefore he setteth before vs oftentimes strange things and discouereth vnto vs hid and vnknowne secrecies in our sleepe euen such as nature her selfe may seeme to haue concealed he troubleth our imaginations with an infinit number of vaine illusions Loe here bee all the causes of dreames The imagination of melancholike men is troubled three wares We may say as much of melancholike persons Their imagination is troubled onely three waies by nature that is to say by the constitution of the bodie by the minde that is to say by some violent passion whereunto they had giuen themselues and by the intercourse or medling of euill angels which cause them oftentimes to foretell forge very strange things in their imaginatiōs CHAP. VII Histories of certaine melancholike persons which haue had strange imaginations I Haue largely enough described all the accidents which haunt those which are properly to be tearmed melancholike persons and haue searched out the causes of al these varities it behoueth me now in this chapter to the end I may somewhat delight the reader to set down some exāples of such as haue had the most fantasticall and foolish imaginations of all others Strange histories I will pick some out of the Greeke Arabian and Latine writers and I will adde some such as I haue seene with mine owne eyes Galen in his third booke of diseased parts maketh mention of three or foure very well worth the marking The first There was a melancholike man which tooke himselfe to bee a pitcher and prayed all that came to see him not to come neere vnto him least they should dash him in peeces The second Another imagined himsefe to be a cocke and did crow when her heard other cockes crow and bet his armes as the cockes doe clap their wings The third Another melancholike man was greatly perplexed in himselfe fearing that Atlas in the end would be wearie of bearing vp heauen and so might let it fall downe vpon him The fourth Aetius writeth of one which thought himselfe to haue no head and did speake it openly euery where that there was one which had cut it off for his tyrannous dealings This man was cured very cunningly by the skil of a Phisition named Philotimus For he caused a skull of yron waying very heauie to bee put vpon his head and he thereupon crying that his head did grieue him was by and by confirmed by all them that stood by which also cried then you haue a head which hee acknowledged by this meanes and so was freed from his false imagination The fift Trallianus writeth that he saw a woman which thought that she had swallowed a Serpent he healed her causing her to vomit and casting now and then a Serpent which hee had and held all readie in his hand into the basen The sixt I haue read that a young scholler being in his studie was taken with a strange imaginaton for he imagined that his nose was so great and so long as that he durst not stirre out of his place least he should dash it against something and the more he was dealt with and disswaded so much the more did he confirme himselfe in his opinion In the end a Phisition hauing taken a great peece of flesh and holding it in his hand secretly assured him that hee would heale him by and by and that he must needes take away this great nose and so vpon the suddaine pinching his nose a little and cutting the peece of flesh which he had he made him beleeue that his great nose was cut away The seuenth Arthemidorus the Grammarian hauing seene a Crocodile was taken with such a feare as that he forgot all that euer he had knowne and setled this opinion so deepely in himselfe namely that he had lost an arme and a legge as that he could neuer be perswaded the contrarie The eight There haue been seene very melancholike persons which did thinke themselues dead and would not eate any thing the Phisitions haue vsed this sleight to make them eate They caused some one or other seruant to lie neere vnto the sicke partie and hauing taught him to counterfeite himselfe dead yet not to forsake his meate but to eate and swallow it when it was put into his mouth and thus by this craftie deuise they perswaded the melancholike man that the dead did eate as well as those which are aliue The ninth There hath been seene not long since a melancholike man which affirmed himselfe the most wretched and miserable in all the world because he was nothing The tenth There was also of late a great Lord which thought himselfe to be glasse and had not his imagination troubled otherwise then in this one onely thing for he could speake meruailouslie well of any other thing he vsed commonly to sit and tooke great delight that his friends should come and see him but so as that he would desire them that they would not come neere vnto him The eleuenth There is yet an honest man and one of the best French Poets that is in this Realme which is fallen within these few yeares into a foolish conceite Being coursed with a continuall feauer which was accompanied with much watching the Phisitions appoynted for him a stupefactiue oyntment called Populeon and therewith rubbed his nose forehead and temples since which houre he hath Populeon in such hatefull loathsomenes as that euer since he casteth them from him and will weare them no more in other points hee is able to talke very sensiblie and ceaseth not to goe forward in his Poetrie It hath been
of feculent and melancholike iuyce in such sort as that if it attract and draw not the same vnto it or cleanse it not to nourish it selfe withall or expell not that which is superfluous as in dutie it ought we neede not doubt but that this grosse iuyce casting it selfe into the next veines doth there take an vnnaturall heate and maketh a marueilous hurlie-burlie in the whole order of nature Thus you may heere beholde and learne the parts affected in Hypochondriake melancholie The cause of the Hypochondriake disease that is to say the Mesenterium the liuer and the spleene The cause of their disease is an obstruction for the veines of these parts are stuffed and filled of some kinde of humour This humour is sometime simple as onely a naturall melancholike humour or a humour adust and made of blacke choler or else a flegmatike and raw humour sometimes it is mingled of two or three together which falleth out a great deale more oft but alwaies it is required that this humour should growe into some excessiue heate for to cause the Hypochondriake disease to arise thereof If the matter be cholericke or adust it is quicklie and easilie set on a heate if it be colde by nature as is fleagme and melancholie the long continuance of it in that place and the breathing of it out being hindred may cast it into a heate or else there neede no otherthing but a little leauen which will be supplied by a small portion of choler adust to leauen the whole lumpe and set it in a heate this heate hath been called of olde writers 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 in such maner as that we may define the Hypochondriake disease to be a drie inflammation of the veines of Mesenterium The diuerse sorts of this disease senterium the liuer and spleene rising of the suppressing of some grosse humours from this definition we shall gather all the different sorts of the Hypochondriake disease which are taken either from the part affected or from the matter or from the accidents thereof If we looke vnto the parts affected we shall finde three kindes of the Hypochondriake disease that is Hepatike Splenetike and Meseraicke The Hepaticke The Hepaticke is caused through the fault of the liuer which draweth by his excessiue heate ouer-great a quantitie of crudities from the stomacke and also it selfe ingendreth through the same distemperature ouer hote humours which it either retayneth in his owne veines which are in so great number as that no man can describe them or else distributeth them amongst all the braunches of the veine called Porta The Spleneticke commeth through defaulte in the Spleene The Splene-t cke when it cannot either attract disgest or expell the melancholike humour These defects happen when it is too great or too little or when being puffed vp with winde it cannot attract or retayne all the feculent and grosse part of the blood whereupon it must needes cast much of it out againe and all the bodie growe leane This is it which Hippocrates hath obserued very well in his Epidemikes when hee saith that they who haue a great Spleene become leane of their bodie and the Emperour Traianus was wont to compare the Spleene vnto the Exchequer for looke how the inriching of the Exchequer is the impouerishing and ruine of the people euen so the greatnes of the Spleene doth make a thin and leane bodie the smalnesse also of it comming through default of the framing facultie may be an occasion of this accident for being disabled thereby to attract or retaine all that melancholike humour which it ought it is constrained to cast it vp againe and to disperse it throughout all Messenterium There is a house of great nobilitie which is subiect vnto this Hypochondriake disease there haue been three or foure of them which haue died at the age of thirtie fiue and no other cause found of such vntimelie death but onely the littlenes of the spleene for it was so little and straite as that it could not doe his office The Mesenteriacke The last kinde of the Hypochondriake disease is that which is called the Meseraicke which is begotten either in Panchreas or in the veines and glandules of the Meseraicke membrane Hippocrates and many other Phisitions do acknowledge an Hypochondriake disease caused of the wombe or matrix after the suppression of the tearmes or some other matter it causeth the same accidents that the other and is oftentimes most fierce and furious because of merueilous sympathie which the matrix hath with all the rest of the parts of the bodie The second difference The second difference of the Hypochondriake disease is in respect of the matter there is one kinde which is made of that melancholie which is colde and naturall which keeping it selfe within the veines and being there pinched for lacke of roome groweth hote another is caused of an adust and burnt humour and the third of fleagme and other raw crudities mixed with some small quantitie of choler The last difference The last difference is taken from the accidents for there is some kinde of Hypochondriake disease that is sleight and easie and there is some other that is more churlish and violent There is some but young and in the beginning and there is other some which is come to his state and perfited CHAP. XIII The signes of Hypochondriake melancholie and the causes of all the accidents that accompanie it The accidents of the Hypochondriake disease complete and come to his perfection THe Hypochondriake disease being throughly growne and perfected is commonly coupled with an infinite number of grieuous accidents which by times holde the partie with such pangs as that they thinke to dye euery moment for besides the feare and sadnes they suffer as common accidents to all maner of melancholie they feele a burning in the places called Hypochondria they heare continually a noyse and rumbling sound throughout all their bellie they are beaten with winde on both sides they feele a heauines in their breast which causeth them to fetch their breath double and with a feeling of paine oftentimes they spit a cleere and thinne water they haue a swilling in their stomacke as though it did swimme all in water they feele an extraordinarie and violent kinde of mouing of the heart called the beating of the heart and on the side of the spleene there is something which biteth and beateth continually they haue some little cold sweats accompanied sometimes with a little sowning their face is oftentimes very red and there appeareth to them in maner of a flying fire or flame which passeth away their pulses doe change and become little and beating thicke they feele a wearisomnes and feeblenes all ouer their bodie and yet more specially in their legs the bellie is neuer loose in the end they grow leaner and leaner by little and little The particular causes of all these accidents The cause of heate All
arise of the corruption of the ayre and of the manner of life The ayre may alter and change vs three maner of waies by his qualities by his substance and by his sudden alteration and chaunge that which is too cold too hot and too moyst is apt to beget rheumes the hot ayre doth it by resoluing and melting such humours as are contained in the braine for thus it maketh them the more apt to fall downe the colde ayre is the cause of distillations because it presseth the braine together and euen as a spunge full of water being pressed wee may behold the water to run out like a riuer on euery side euen so the braine being shrunke together by colde letteth all her humours glide and slip away the same cold ayre may also bee the cause of rheumes by repelling and causing to retire the naturall heate from the vtter parts to the inner The Southerne and Northerne windes are mightie causes to moue and make rheumes for those doe fill the braine and make it heauie but these doe cause it to shrinke together Long tariance inthe Sun or open ayre doth effect as much The sudden change of the ayre and alteration of seasons are of the number of those causes which inforce the rheume As also if the seasons doe keepe their naturall temper as Hippocrates hath very well obserued in his third booke of Aphorismes the yeare will greatly incline vnto rheumatikenes If together with this partie alteration or vtter ouerthrow of the temperature there bee any particular defect in the substance of the ayre as some secret and hidden corruption or infection then it will ingender a popular and pestilent rheume The maner of liuing may likewise bee put in the scrole of outward causes which doe ingender and beget the rheume much eating and drinking doe likewise fill the braine and this is the cause why drunkards and gluttonous feeders are ordinarily subiect vnto the Wrangling rheume .. Great abstinence may likewise cause rheumes in attenuating and making thin the humours as also for that the stomacke being emptie and not prouided of any thing to fill it selfe withall is constrained to make attraction of such moysture as is in the parts neere about Long watching continuall studie extreame violent passions of the minde in as much as they spend and waste the naturall heate and coole the brainer doe ingender rheumes to liue all idle doth keepe the excrements vnconsumed Great euacuations but especiallie oft letting of blood and in great quantitie do cast headlong the body into old age and make it altogether rheumatike Much sleepe puffeth vp the bodie and maketh it moyst especially that which is taken at noonetide And thus much for the outward causes which may cause and mooue the rheume let vs now come vnto the inward The inward causes are either remote or else conioyned the remote which it pleaseth some better to call Antecedents haue relation to the euill disposition of the braine head liuer stomacke and sometimes of the whole bodie The distemperature of the braine causeth rheumes The cold moyst and hot distemperature of the braine doe oftentimes cause rheumes the cold and moyst of their owne nature the hot by way of accident the cold distemperature weakeneth naturall heate doth not make good disgestion of nourishment neither yet spend and waste vnnecessary superfluities whereupon it followeth that it must needs store vp abundance of excrements The hot distemperature attracteth more nourishment then it can well disgest and moe vapours then it can dispatch and make away withall There are some which haue very wittily obserued that the closenes of the substance of the braine is oftentimes the cause of rheumes because it retaineth the vapours and suffereth them not to spend by breathing out and euaporation The euil shape of the head The bad forme or shape of the head is likewise very forcible to procure rheumes for such as haue thc seames of their head very close set together or which haue not any at all as wee haue seene very many are subiect to distillations because the vapours retained doe turne into water and in deede the seames were chiefly made to serue for a vent and as it were a chimney vnto the braine The distemperapture of the lower parts The distemperature of the lower parts and especially of the liuer and stomacke is one of the most ordinarie causes of the rheume if wee beleeue Auicen the prince of the Arabians For from the liner being excessiuely hot doe come as it were from a great burning cole many hot exhalations which by the cold temperature of the braine doe congeale and turne into water I say further that they which haue a very hot liuer haue also their veines very hot in such sort as that there rise continually very hot vapours from them The cold distemperature of the stomacke ingendring many crudities my also be a cause of rheumes for thereby al the bodie is cooled the second disgestion not being able to correct the errour of the first But if it should so bee as that all the causes should concur and iumpe together that is to say that the braine should bee cold and moyst the lieu hot the stomacke cold there were no doubt but that thereupon would follow a perpetuall generation of excrements in the braine and this is that which the Arabians would haue sayd when they wrote that an vnequall distemperature of the principall parts is the greatest occasion of distillations And thus much concerning the remote causes The more neere or antecedent causes not onely of rheumes but of all other fluxes of humours are three The causes more necrely procuring rheumes are three The partsending the part sending the part receiuing and the nature of the humour In the part sending wee obserue his high situation and his strength if it bee indued with these two qualities it will easily cast his burthen vpon all the inferiour-parts which are as it were vassals vnto it Hippocrates hath well obserued it in the booke of the wounds of the head when he sayth that amongst all the parts of the head the brow is most subiect vnto inflammation because the brow is contained but euery fluxe is from the part containing vnto the part contained the brow is contained both in respect of the low situation thereof as also in respect of the production of vessels The part receiueth the humour either because it is inferiour or because it is weake The part receiuing or because it draweth it vnto it Euery inferiour part is subiect to receiue the burthen of that which commanded it but and if the part be weake it will yet be the more apt This weakenes commeth either of it selfe and from the proper nature of the part or else by some accident The weake part the rare and spungie parts are naturallie weake such as are all the glandules and it seemeth that nature of set purpose hath made them such to the end that they should receiue
euer were haue without any contradiction put to their hands to this writ of arrest Hippocrates in his first booke of diet Aristotle in a little booke which he made of the length and shortnes of our life and Galen in his first booke of health haue giuen so cleere and apparant reasons for the same that there is no way to withstand or gainsay it adde hereunto that experience doth so farre confirme vs as that hee which should doubt should be holden for a foole and one bereft of vnderstanding Wee celebrate day after day the funerals of our ancestors Euery houre doe we grieue and stand astonished at the consideratiō of the losse of so many great personages and of all whatsoeuer hath been since the creation of the world there is nothing remaining but that which the memorie of historie hath reserued to succeeding ages It is not my purpose here to sift out by peece meale all the causes which may alter and corrupt naturall bodies I haue nothing to doe with the transmutation of the elements the corrupting of metall the dying and growing olde of plants I will onely make euident that which may alter our bodies and whatsoeuer may cause them to waxe olde My reasons shall bee drawne from the liuing and cleare springs of naturall Philosophie The causes of old age The causes of our dissolution are either inward or outward the inward are borne with vs abide with vs dailie and accompanie vs euen to the graue The outward doe spring and rise from without compasse vs round on euery side and though a man may keepe himselfe from some few yet there are an infinite number besides which cannot be auoyded The inward causes of our death The contrarietie of the clements Those which are borne and bred with vs are two the contrarietie of the elements whereof our bodies are framed and the working of our naturall heate The elements accompanied with their foure contrarie qualities which are heate colde moisture and drines the better to mixe and vnite themselues together doe make a kinde of league euery one of them willingly for going some of his right and soueraigntie and thereby reducing themselues vnto a mediocritie which is called temperature but this bond of vnitie doth not long last for the qualitie which doth ouer rule and giue the name vnto the temperature beginneth the discord setteth vpon his contrarie which is more weake and ceaseth not to impugne it vntill it see the vtter ruine and ouerthrow of the same this is one of the vnauoidable causes of our death and that which we bring with vs from our mothers wombe for there is not one bodie in the whole world to be found of so equall a mixture as that there is not some excesse in one of the foure qualities ouer and aboue the rest That temperature which the olde writers haue described and called ad pondus is onely imaginarie not seruing for any other thing then to iudge of the rest by seeing it is not any more to be found then Plato his common wealth or Tullie his perfect Orator This iarre therefore which is found in our complexion is the principall cause of our olde age And it is the same which Aristotle hath well obserued in the booke alleaged whē he saith that in euery thing wherein contrarie things concur it must needes come to passe that corruption doe followe The operation of our naturall heate is the second cause of old age The other cause of our death and dissolution is the worke and operation of naturall heate Our life is stayed vpon two pillers which are the radicall heate and moisture the radicall heate is the principall instrument of the soule for is it that concocteth and distributeth our nourishment which procureth generation which stretcheth out and pearceth the passages which fashioneth all our parts which maketh to liue as saith Trismegistus all the seuerall kindes of things that are in the whole world and gouerneth them according to their worth and dignitie This heate being a naturall bodie hath neede of nourishment the humour which is called the radicall moisture is the nourishment thereof as the oyle which is put into the lampes doth maintayne and feede the flame this humour once failing it must needes fall out that the natural heate shuld perish but this humor cannot last for euer seeing the natural heate is daily threatning consuming the same But thou wilt say that it is continually repaired and renewed and that the heate and moisture influent which come from the heart as from a liuely fountaine and are conueyed along by the arteries as through certaine pipes may restore and put as much againe in place Our naturall moisture cannot be renewed with his first and former qualities as hath been lost and spent But then I would haue thee to know that the new reparations cannot be so pure as also that it neuer falleth out to be in like quantitie As for the purenes thereof it is easie to see that the moisture which commeth in place of that which was lost cannot attaine the same degree of perfection with the former for our solide parts wherein consisteth the foundation of life are made of seede that is most pure throughly wrought and concocted and refined in all those turning and winding labyrinths which are to be seene in the vessels of seede and now they are nourished onely with blood turned white by vertue of the said solide parts and that which passeth not through so many refining pipes whereby it commeth to passe that as wine the more that water is mixt with it becommeth so much the more waterish and in fine changeth altogether into water euen so the radicall heate and moisture waxe weaker and weaker euery houre by the coupling of them with new nourishment which is alwaies infected with some aduersarie and vnlike qualitie And seeing it is a generall vnchangeable and infallible rule in Philosophie that euery natural agent doth become a patient and sufferer in the performance of his action and so by consequent doth weaken it selfe our naturall heate weakening it selfe euery daye cannot repayre that which is lost and place in other of the same degree of perfection it must of necessitie therefore grow olde and in time dye right out The like quantitie of naturall moisture cannot be repaired And as forthe quantitie of that which as things that runne out is wasted it cannot be repayred altogether in the same proportion and measure for the wast is incessant but the repayre is by little and little and that after an infinite number of alterations See here how that which should preserue vs doth ouerturne and destroy vs and how our heate consuming our radicall moysture doth thereby in the ende cut it owne throate These two causes doe spring growe and are nourished together with our selues There is not that Phisition in the world were it Aesculapius himselfe which can saue and deliuer vs. All the precious licours that are Aurum
he would rather iudge thereof by the rule of the temperature and constitution of the bodie for euery man that is cold and drie is he whom I may call old There are very many which become old men at fortie and againe there are an infinit sort which are young men at sixtie there are some constitutions that grow old very speedily and others very slowly They which are of a sanguine complexion grow old very slowly because they haue great store of heate and moysture melancholike men which are cold and drie become old in shorter time Why women grow old sooner then men As for the difference of sexes the female groweth old alwaies sooner then the male Hippocrates hath very well obserued it in his booke intreating of the seuenth moneth childbirth The females males sayth he as they are in their mothers wombe are formed and grow more slowly then males but being once out they come sooner to growth sooner to ripenes of wit and sooner to old age by reason of the weakenes of their bodies and of their manner of liuing Weakenes maketh them to grow vp sooner and to waxe old sooner for euen as trees which are short liued grow vp to their height by and by euen so the bodies which must not long continue come very speedily to the top of their perfection Their manner of liuing also doth make them to waxe old because they liue as it were alwaies in idlenes But there is nothing that hasteneth old age more then idlenes CHAP. III. An order of gouernment for the prolonging of the strong and lustie estate of man SEeing that the naturall and vnauoidable causes of our old age are three as the contrarietie of the principles of our life the waste of radicall heate and moisture and the excrements which are ordinarily ingendred by our nourishment it behoueth vs if wee will keepe our bodies in good plight and preserue them from waxing old so soone so to dispose of and order these three things as that the agreement and vnitie of the elements which is called temperature be throughly prouided for that our heate and moysture which waste euery houre bee well repaired and that the excrements which hide themselues and stay behinde in the bodie bee hunted out We shall obtaine all this very easily by keeping good order of gouernment and diet without hauing need to haue recourse to Phisicke Now this name of Diet as I haue alreadie sayd comprehendeth many things all which may bee referred to sixe The Phisitions call them not naturall because that if they be rightly vsed and that a man know how to make the best maner of seruice of them they doe preserue the health and may bee called naturall But and if a man abuse them if they be vsed either too little or too much though it bee neuer so little they are the causes of many diseases and may be sayd to be contrarie to nature They are these which follow the ayre meat and drinke sleepe and watching labour and rest emptines and fulnes and the passions of the minde which I am about to runne through in order CHAP. IIII. What choise wee must make of the ayre for our longer life as also what ayre is most fit for such persons as are old The necessitie of the ayre AMongst all the causes which may alter our bodies there is not any one more necessary more headlong or which concerneth vs more neerely then the ayre The neede wee haue of it doth sufficiently appeare in sicknesses which abridge and depriue vs of breathing for if it happen that any one of the instruments which are appointed either for the giuing of entrance or receiuing or preparing of the ayre bee greatly impeached the man dyeth by and by strangled in so much as it seemeth hereby that the ayre and life are things inseparable in all such kindes of creatures as are called perfect The naturall heate if wee beleeue Hippocrates is preserued by moderate cold and if you take the ayre away from the fire which is as a continuall bellowes vnto it it is quenched and choked incontinently Our spirits which are the principal instruments of the soule are begotten and nourished by the ayre they doe not vphold nor purge themselues but by the passing of the ayre in and out this is the cause also why all the bodie is porouse and perspirable this is the cause why our arteries doe continually beate and that nature hath made so goodly and wonderfull doores and entrances for the two vessels in such sort as that I dare bee bold to say that the ayre is as needfull for man as life it selfe The quicknes and celeritie of the ayre As for the celeritie and swiftnes which it participateth wee perceiue it euery day In a trice it passeth through the nose to the braine and pressing through a million of streits which are to bee seene in the admirable net it entreth in into the most secret chambers thereof it dispatcheth it selfe downward after that with like incredible celeritie and swiftnes through the mouth vnto the lungs and from thence vnto the heart it pearceth and cannot bee perceiued the pores of the skinne and entreth by the transpiration of the arteries vnto the most deepe and hidden corners of our bodies This is a bodie so common and neere vnto vs that it compasseth vs about continually without forsaking vs any moment yea we must whether we will or no make our daily supping meate thereof Diuine Hippocrates hauing very well perceiued this powerfulnes of the ayre sayth in his Epidemikes and in his second booke of Diet that the whole constitution of our spirits humours and bodie doth depend wholy vpon the ayre Wherefore the chusing of a good ayre and of a fayre and pleasant dwelling place must alwaies in all good order of diet keepe the first and chiefe place Wherein the goodnes of the ayre consisteth The Phisitions take acknowledgement of the goodnesse of the ayre by his substance and qualities By his substance as when it is well purified not hauing any seeds of corruption in it neither yet being infected with any venemous vapours which might rise from dead bodies priuies and filthines of townes or from the putrifaction of standing waters There are also certaine plants which a man must hardly come neere vnto to make his ordinarie lodging because they haue a contrary qualitie vnto the animall spirit as the Nut tree Figge tree Colewort Danewort wilde Rocket Hemlocke and an infinite sort of others The vapour of forges and mines is a very great enemie vnto the hart and causeth as Aristotle obserueth the greatest part of them which labour therein to fall into a consumption How to rectifie the ayre If the ayre bee corrupted and that wee cannot auoide it very quickly wee must purifie it with artificiall fires of Rosemarie Iuniper Cypers Bay tree and with parfumes of the wood of Aloes Saunders Iuniper beries Fusses and such other aromatical things The vapour of