Selected quad for the lemma: love_n
Text snippets containing the quad
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A25694
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An apology for lovers, or, A discourse of the antiquity and lawfulnesse of love by Erastophil, no proselyte, but a native of that religion.
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Erastophil.
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1651
(1651)
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Wing A3544; ESTC R8369
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23,849
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122
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is able to trample upon all extremities of heat and cold and set the Wind and Weather at defiance Certainly whatsoever it be it hath occasioned a great deal of wrangling amongst Philosophers and some of them as * Cicero saith of Velleius Epicurus de nullo magis dubitans quam ne de aliqua re dubitare videretur doubting of nothing more then least they should seem to doubt of any thing and fearing least their silence should seem to confess and acknowledge their Ignorance have given us a Definition of it such as it is Love say they is an Appetition of a Good which is present if there be an Appetition when the Good is absent it is then called Desire If there be a possibility of obtaining this absent Good why then it is Hope but how far short this comes of giving us any true knowledge what Love is I leave every one to judge For the truth of it is the Essence of it is not capable of a definition neither is it demonstrable a priori but we must content our selves with such a rude Description of it as we are able to gather from the Effects taking an imperfect and short View from thence And here me thinks Xenophon gives us some little light who as my Lord of St. Albans saith in his Advancement of Learning observeth truly That all other affections though they raise the Mind yet they do it by distorting and uncomlinesse of extasies and Excêsses onely Love doth exalt the mind and neverthelesse at the same instant doth settle and compose it strange that so different and repugnant Effects should proceed and flow from one and the same Cause and therefore it is elegantly said by Menander saith the same Lord of St. Albans elsewhere Amor melior Sophista lavo ad humanum vitam That Love teacheth a man to carry himself better then the Sophist or Preceptor which he calleth left-handed because with all his Rules and Preceptions he cannot form a man so Dexterously nor with that facility to carry and govern himself as Love can do Let us give a guesse then at the Cause by the Effects for that is all we are able to do and from these gracefull and amiable Operations imagine and conjecture how much more excellent and beautifull that must necessarily be from whence all these beauties and excellencies proceed and are derived For we know the Old Maxime Quod efficit tale illud est magis tale That which makes a thing to be so be it good or bad must needs be more and in a far greater measure so it selfe Now some have undertaken to discover and find out the intricacie of this involv'd and hidden Mystery by several Symptomes some by one and some by another as by the Eye the Pulse c. Concerning the Eye there have been great questions mov'd which are the amourous or the loving Eys Whether the dying or the smiling or the wild such as Aristotle calls in sani the mad eys for all of these have found their assertors who have tooke up the Gauntlet in maintainance and defence of them or again whether it be true what some of the Platonists held That the Spirits of the Lover do pass by the Eye into the Spirits of the Person loved which causeth the desire of return into the body whence they were emitted whereupon say they followeth that Appetite of Vnion which is in Lovers So likewise about the Pulse Whether there be not a love-Pulse or a Pulse proper and peculiar to discover Love by as wee read in Plutarch of Erasistratus the Physitian that found out that young Antiochus the son of Seleucus was in love with the fair Stratonica his fathers Wife by the unusual beating of his Pulse and then again what kind of motion it causeth whether great or little quick or slow or rather quite irregular and altogether confused like to that which is observ'd to be at the point of death at which time the Heart doth so palpitate and tremble that the Systole and Diastole are in a manner confounded This I onely mention to shew how hard a matter it is amidst so many difficulties and diversities of Opinion to state any thing aright concerning this subject Give me leave therefore to draw over the Curtain again and to leave it here seeing we may be rather said to admire then know it as long as we are here upon Earth where we see but onely in Aenigmate tanquam per speculum darkly and in much obscurity To conclude then I say that even God Almighty himself is most happy in that he is most loving infinitly loving or rather * Love it self as St. Iohn speaks the Devil is most unhappy in that he is not capable of this excelleÌ„cy and Divine perfection Having therefore the example pattern of so great a Patriarch before us let no Lover hereafter be asham'd to imitate it or write after so excellent a Copy when he reads that Iacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few dayes for the love he had unto her I have now done with the literall and Historicall parts of the Text I shall a little touch upon the allegoricall and so make an end This indeed is the kernel and the marrow the other is but the bone and the shell this is the spirit that quickneth and giveth life the other is but a dead letter for so Saint Paul saith Litera occidit spiritus autem vivificat By Iacob therefore is here meant every Christian Militant upon earth by the service which he indures the afflictions and crosses which he must abide and undergoe in this world by Rachel the Kingdome of Heaven By Seven Years the whole time of his life which will then seeme short and pleasing to him when his Heart is kindled and inflamed with Love towards God and Charity towards his Neighbour Let us but a little consider the vast infinite disparity and disproportion betwixt these things and surely we shall be ashamed to have made the Comparison For what shall Iacob undergo so much sufferance and hardship and that with so great delight and pleasure for a temporal Remand and should not every Christianâ—â—dure much more 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 nall and far more 〈◊〉 weight of Glory For 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is this life but a Stage 〈◊〉 of Misery and Discontent whereon every one acts a sad and sorrowfull part some more some less but every one hath a share Man is born to Misery saith Job as the Sparks fly upwards and how natural it is for light bodies to ascend such as sparks are every one knows What is this life but a Repetition of the same things over and over or as * one elegantly saith a Dull retaining to the Sun and Moon we eat we drink we sleep that we may eat and drink and sleep again and thus the Year runs round And as the same seasons return which were before so do we reiterate the same
AN APOLOGY FOR LOVERS OR A Discourse of the Antiquity and Lawfulnesse of LOVE By Erastophil no Proselyte but a native of that Religion Faelices ter amplius Quos irrupta tenet copula nec malia Divulsus querimoniis Suprema citius solvet amor die Horat. ad Lydiam Ode 13. London Printed in the year 1651. TO My Dearest Sister Mrs. M. VV. My Dearest Sister WHat I long since promised I now perform if a thing imperfectly slubber'd over and in hast may merit the name of a performance but for that as I acknowledge the debt so I look upon you as an easie Creditress and not so scrupulous as to refuse payment because it comes in clipt and broken money 'T is true I have sometimes heretofore thought of it but those thoughts perisht almost in the very conception without producing any thing unless it were some few rude lineaments and which I should call the rough draught of this discourse but that I should be injurious to it as it is now by robbing the thing of its apellation although I am perswaded the conceptions concerning this subject being so exceeding fine and having so little commerce with sense are not to be exprest to the life by the most curious Pencil much lesse by so uneven an hand as mine but are like to those which Apelles is said to have drawn when he contended with Protogenes Lineas visum effugientes however deliniated it is yours by a double relation both because I know you to be and me thinks there should be no one of so little humanity as not to be a friend to lovers and next because it is a task which I had not undertaken but upon your assignment and so in both respects most properly belonging to you For a conclusion I wish you all the joys of Love of Youth and Health and what ever Happinesse else is to be found in this World and in the next eternal and ever lasting Felicity Your most affectionate Brother and Servant Erastophil To my worthy friend the Author on his Apology for Lovers I 'Ve seen thy fair Design and I approve Thy each part like the first great Act of Love When fire pursu'd and water stood at Bay Heat fought with cold and darkness with the day When Nature was all tempest when no Cheek Had smiles nor were there lips to kiss or speak When unfledg'd Cupid had no wings to flie Nor were his shafts plac'd in the killing eye Love calm'd the Chaos and reduc'd the brawl Into a good a great and glorious ALL Thus friend thy pâ—â— transcribes his draughts above And every line runs parallel with Jove Something alike in both my fancy finds He work'd on matter thou doost work on minds Love was his creature but thy ward nay thou Ar't more then Guardian to that passion now He in a larger volumn did express His admir'd flame thou doest it in a less And though thy narrow Trace may not contend With his vast course yet both conspire in th' end To the same point of union thou dost run As Heliosropes do imitate their Sun Me thinks I see the soul like some course fire Ally'd to Coal inslav'd with a defire Of pelf and stock so that her noble flame Feeds on cheap chips and stuff beneath her name Health to thy brave design that would translate Our Spirits from this durty Kitchin-state And fix them in a heaven where eys with eys And beams with beams may twist and eternize Why should we doat on trash and so misplace That on the Fan which is due to the face Stars mix with stars and trouble not the earth Least st should interpose and soi the Birth I would fright the Mother did the Childs aspect But figure that most fathers do affect And well she might mistake her self a Mint Did stamp Philippo's and bring forth in Print We should have children fac'd like Duckatoons And like George riding too out of the Wombs Such indirect affections I can pitty And justly may bequeath them to the City There without Love Gold onely hath the Name They have the Fuell but they want a Flame Eugenius Philalethes To my dear Brother upon the publishing of his Apologie for Lovers I Thank thee for this Credit thou hast done A Stock of super-erogation Now I may run upon the score and say My Younger Brother will the reck'ning pay Thou mak'st up what I want I now may play The Fool and Elder-Brother ev'ry day And yet be born with for though my Scale 's light It well may passe because thine 's over-weight But is 't impossible I should be screw'd T'a higher pitch more near thee Am I mew'd Unto a Ne plus ultra nor can find Some way to Elevate my sluggish mind Am I so sottish or so little kin To Thee that Emulation cannot win Upon my Genius nor resemble it In some proportion to thy lofty wit It will not be Nor can a man invite On any tearms an Aethiop to look white Where didst thou get my dear Evastophil This huge advantage I did climb the Hill Of Nature first but now in all beside Thou hast out stript me the whole Heaven-wide Sure there 's a different stuff in Thee and Me Or is 't the Fate of firstlings that they be Essayes and rough casts which the following draughts Exceed far more then do the second Thoughts I 'me but thy Hench boy and thy Harbinger The Prologue to thy day thy morning star Nay to speak truth thou art so much alone That there 's between us no comparison Nor can my verse commend more then the Gown On Horseback did that Otacousticon That would demonstrate his new ta'ne degree To his admiring friends in the country Yet fear not thou shalt have thy due applause The great Eugenius who knows natures laws And can tie love knots there he who held forth A candle to the world approves thy worth And Deigns to Vsher in thy Virgin muse So did the noble generous Romans use To grace their friends as Scipio for his brother Wore a blew coat for his own son another F. W. AN APOLOGIE FOR LOVERS Gen. 29. vers. 20. And Jacob served seven years for Rachel and they seemed to him but a few days for the love he had unto her CErtainly if man could ever have brocked Solitude or beene happy in himselfe without the Society of another it was the in the state of his Innocency when his understanding was clear and unclouded his will indifferent and unbyassed his affections regular and obedient and in a word all the faculties and powers of his soule healthfull and undiseased for having so absolute a command over himself so vast a Seigniory and unlimited Empire over the creatures it was not to be expected that his condition should be more independent than then it was or himself better able to subsist without supply from any other yet even then amidst all these perfections he was imperfect amidst all these riches he was in poverty there