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
A DISCOVRSE OF THE PRESERVATION OF THE SIGHT of Melancholike diseases of Rheumes and of Old age Composed by M. Andreas Laurentius ordinarie Phisition to the King and publike professor of Phisicke in the Vniuersitie of Mompelier Translated out of French into English according to the last Edition by RICHARD SVRPHLET Practitioner in Phisicke AT LONDON Imprinted by FELIX KINGSTON for RALPH IACSON dwelling in Paules Church yard at the signe of the Swan 1599. TO THE RIGHT HONORABLE SIR THOMAS WEST KNIGHT LORD LA WARE and the right vertuous Ladie Anne his wife IT hath been vsuall and accustomed Right Noble and worthie Sir in all ages and amongst all sorts of people though otherwise neuer so rude and barbarous to adorne and eternize the manners liues conuersation gests birth and sayings of their famous and renowmed with monuments either openlie and in liuely sort contayning and specifying the same or more closely and secretly insinuating as much that so the praise and fame thereof might remaine and liue throughout all ages The course was good and commendable for so the excellent and renowmed deceased had but his due the excellent and renowmed liuing a glorious and beautifull spectacle to stirre them vp vnto couragious and vndaunted perseuerance in still making vsurie of their excellencie and the base vile and abiect persons the spots and blemishes yea the puddle and mudpit of actiue pregnant and nimble nature might rouse themselues from the lolling bed of their continuall snorting and dead sleepe I meane not to blazon and decipher particularly and from point to point the originall antiquite of your Nobilitie The vprightnes innocencie mildnes humanitie bountifulnes and loue in matters concerning your owne priuate affayres and businesses wherewith your Honorable condition is richly set and garnished The vehement suspition of vndermining flatterie the discontenting of your affections leaning to the contrarie and the stirring vp of aduersarie emulation and repining enuie vtterly disswading me Neither yet doe I meane to proclaime and lay abroad your faithfulnes in the actions of Iustice your wisedome in the discerning of things necessarie and swaying of matters most conueniently for the weale publique or your prowes and valorousnes in warlike feates and Martiall affayres howsoeuer the cause of God your Prince and Countrie your birth Dignitie and leisure hath I doubt not put both you and many other godly and religious Noble men within this Realme in minde thereof and stirred you vp amongst other your godly cares and studies to striue to become able and worthie if her sacred Maiestie should at any time call you or them vnto the same But leauing all these and whatsoeuer other praises that might iustly be giuen to the manifold vertues shining both in your selfe as also in your Honorable Ladie holding out the markes of a good profession in the loue of the trueth with sobrietie modestie and a good conuersation notwithstanding the seas of sinne roring round about and ouerflowing almost all estates and persons and that so cleerely in the eyes and mindes of all such as doe not willingly winke and couer the bright light of inward touch with the vaile of wilfull sencelesnes my onely indeuour and drift is to intreate your Honors to receiue with fauourable acceptation and good liking these first fruites of my publique labours as vndertaken for the good of all so especially dedicated and deuoted vnto your particular seruice and vse not so much in respect of any your present necessities through any infirmities that I am priuie vnto as to make way for the shutting out of such as hereafter might creepe vpon you to your vntimely annoyance assuring my selfe that in the reading thereof you shal finde a well stored treasurie of rich and rare Iewels and in the practising of it the comfort of health and contentation in satietie of daies Which the Ancient of daies with all increase of Honor wealth and pietie graunt and giue vnto you and all your succeeding posteritie Your Honors most vnfeignedly affected RICHARD SVRPHLET To the Reader COnsidering gentle Reader the lamentable times and miserable daies that are come vpon vs in this last and weakest age of the world partly by reason of the commonnes and multitude of infirmities partly by reason of the strangenes and rebelliousnes of diseases breaking out more tediously then heretofore and considering herewithall how apt and prone the multitude and common people are to affect nay which is more to dote vpon and runne after the painted crew of seeming Phisitions and pratling practisers both men and women gathering their skill honestie and most precious secrets from the rich mines of brasen-faced impudencie and bold blindnes I could not but admonish thee as thou tenderest thy health and wealth to auoide such noisome vermine and deepe deceiuers And on the contrarie I can but exhort and stirre thee vp to buy and reade this and other such like treatises that so thou maist be the better prepared though not to take vpon thee the cure of thine owne or others their sicke estate to discerne betwixt the ignorant and the learned and the skilfull in word only and those which are skilfull in deede As also that thou maist bee the better able to manifest and make knowne by word or writing the state and true condition of thy disease vnto the profound and long studied in that profession who for the keeping of a good conscience and thy welfare haue not spared their bodies or goods or refused any good meanes whereby they might become fit to furnish thee with wholesome counsaile and due reliefe in the daies of thy distresse Here shalt thou finde by serious suruay great dimensions within small and narrow bounds This volume shalt thou finde stuffed full of Phisicke as teaching by the lesser what is to bee conceiued of the greater and by a few what is to bee followed in many Full of Philosophie as not resting in the things of the bodie but deeply and diuinely laying open the nature of the soule Herein is contained not onely great plentie of precepts but also many controuersies of great moment and difficultie sharply and pithily decided and that with such varietie of authoritie as is not almost in any other to bee found This treatise shalt thou finde full of pleasantnes as both the store of histories and meanes of dispelling the mournfull fantasies of melancholike moodes doe giue thee to conceiue full of delight as maintaining the sight the conductor and conueier of delights vnto the minde full of healthfulnes as teaching the way to auoide the rheume that pregnant mother of so many maladies And finally full of instruction and reliefe for the mitigating of the annoyances and inconueniences of drouping old age as shewing the maner how to square out and piteh downe the firme and durable props of the continuing and long inioying of strong and lustie yeares Which if thou striue and seeke accordingly to attaine then shalt thou be the better able to discharge the duties of thy calling
muscles and sinewes the instruments of voluntary motion the muscles and nerues for the perfecting of the sences the sences to set before the imaginatiue power of the minde their outward obiects the imagination to carrie along the formes of things voide of substance to be more deeply weighed of reason which thereupon commendeth them to the custodie of memorie her treasuresse Thus euery thing yeelding obedience vnto reason and the braine being the principall seate of reason we must needs affirme that all the parts of the body were made for the braine and must therfore acknowledge it as their chiefe and Soueraigne I will yet adde one other plaine and euident argument which in my iudgement is not common to testifie the excellence of this part which is that it giueth shape and perfection vnto all the rest For it is most certaine that of the shape and quantitie of the braine dependeth the grosnes greatnes smalnes and in a word euery maner of proportion hapning to the head forasmuch as euery containing thing doth conforme it selfe continually vnto the contained as the thing for which it was created and made Ioyntly after the head followeth the backe bone which is framed of foure and twentie vertebres besides the bone called Sacrum and maketh that which men call the truncke of the body If that hole in the head through which the marrow of the backe falleth be great then must also the vertebres bee large Vpon this backe bone doe all the rest of the bones stay and rest themselues as the vpper timbers doe vpon the keele of a ship As by name vpon high the shoulder bones whereunto are fastned the armes aswell on the one side as on the other and the twelue ribs and below the bones of the small guts and hips into whose hollow cauities the heads of the bones of the thighes are inserted so that if all their proportions be duly obserued it will appeare that the greatnes and grosnes thereof is answerable to that of the head and by consequence to that of the braine as the chiefe and principall Vnto the bones are fastned the muscles the ligaments and the most of the other parts of the body doe rest themselues thereupon and within their circuite and compasse are shut and made sure the most noble parts and the bowels In few words the bones impart vnto the whole bodie the shape which themselues haue receiued from the braine This is the same which diuine Hippocrates hath very well obserued in the second booke of his Epidemiques saying that of the greatnes and grosnes of the head a Phisition might iudge of the greatnes of all the other bones and parts also as veines arteries and sinewes Let vs therefore conclude with the trueth that the braine hauing such aduantage against the other parts ought to be esteemed the chiefe and principall seate of the soule CHAP. II. How the outward sences the proper messengers of the soule are only fiue and all placed without the braine SEeing it is most euident that the soule is shut vp within the bodie as it were in a darke dungeon and that it cannot discourse neither yet comprehend anything without the helpe of the sences which are as the obedient seruants and faithfull messengers of the same it was needfull to place the instruments of the sences very neere vnto the seate of reason and round about her royal pallace Now the sences which we call externall are onely fiue Why there are but fiue sences the fight the hearing the smelling the taste and handling of which altogether dependeth our knowledge and nothing as saith the Philosopher can enter into the vnderstanding part of our minde except it passe through one of these fiue doores Some men striuing to shew reason for this number The first reason say that there are but fiue sences because that whatsoeuer is in the whole world is compounded and made of onely fiue simple bodies as the foure elements and the firmament which they call the fift simple nature being much of the nature of the ayre free from all impurities and abounding with shining lights The sight say the Platonists which hath for his instrument these two twinne-borne starres all full of bright straines and heauenly fire which giueth light and burneth not representeth the skie and hath the light for his obiect The hearing which is occupied about nothing but sounds hath for his obiect the beaten ayre and his principall instrument if we beleeue Aristotle is a certaine ayre shut vp within a little labyrinth The smelling participateth the nature of fire for smels haue their being only in a drie qualitie caused through heate and we receiue it for a principle that all sweete smelling things are hot The taste hath moysture for his obiect And handling the earth for his The second Othersome say that there be but fiue sences because that there are but fiue proper sorts of obiects and that all the accidents which are to be found in any natural body may be referred either to colours or sounds or smels or tasts or to those qualities wherabout touching is occupied whether they be those which are principall or those that spring of them The third Some there be which gather the number of the sences to bee such from the consideration of their vses which are their finall ends The sences are made for the benefit of man man is compounded of two parts the body and the soule the sight and hearing serue more for the vse of the soule then of the body the taste and touching more for the body then the soule the smelling for both the twaine indifferently refreshing and purging the spirits which are the principall instruments of the soule But of the fiue sences I say that there are two altogether necessary and required to cause the being and life simply and that the three other serue onely for a happie being and life Those without which one can not be are taste and touching Touching if we will giue credit to natural Philosophers is as the foundation of liuelihood I will vse this word because it expresseth the thing very excellently The taste serueth for the preseruation of the life The sight hearing and smelling serue but for to liue well and pleasantly For the creature may be and continue without them The two first for that they were altogether necessarie haue their meane inward and so ioyned to the member as that it is as a man would say inseparable For in tasting and touching the Phisitions doe make the meane and the member all one The other three haue their meane outward and separated from the instrument as the sight hath the ayre the water and euery such body as is through cleere for his meane Aristotle in the beginning of his third booke of the soule hath plaid the Philosopher in more serious sort then any of all these but yet so darkly as that almost all his interpreters haue found themselues much busied to find out his meaning
and make it like vnto the vnderstanding Euen as the vnderstanding part of the minde receiueth from the imaginatiue the formes of things naked and voide of substance A comparing of the sight and vnderstanding together euen so the sight is the subiect of formes without bodie which the Philosophers call intentionals The vnderstanding comprehendeth the vniuersall world no place or roome in the vnderstanding taken vp or any whit more pestered thereby it containeth Heauen and earth without any maner of incumbrance from the one to the other so contained therein the sight comprehendeth also the Heauen without admitting of any place thereto the hugest mountaines in the world doe enter all at once and that vndiminished through the apple of the eye without any maner of offence through straitnes of entrance The vnderstanding iudgeth at one and the very same time of two contraries as of right and wrong placeth them indifferently in it selfe attaineth to the knowledge of the one by the other and bandeth them vnder one and the same science The eye at one instant receiueth and is occupied about blacke and white and distinguisheth them perfectly the knowledge of the one being no maner of impeachment to the knowledge of the other being that which the other sences are not capable of For if a mā haue tasted any bitter thing his knowledge to iudge aright at the very same instant of that which is sweet will faile deceiue him The vnderstanding in a moment whirleth round about the world the sight likewise receiueth at one instance of time the whole widenes of heauen All the other sences doe moue by intercourse of time And this is the reason why men see the lightning before they heare the thunder although that neither of them bee made before or after other The vnderstanding is free of it own nature and hath a will either to discourse or not to discourse The sight in his function hath as it were a certaine kinde of libertie which nature hath denied vnto the other sences The eares are alwaies open so as the nose is also the skinne is alwaies subiect vnto cold and heate and other the iniuries of the ayre but the eyes haue eyelids which open and shut when wee will for the furtherance or staying of our sight as best shall please our selues The third thing which I haue to testifie the excellencie of the sight is the certaintie of the function For it is out of all doubt that this is the most infallible sence and that which least deceiueth according to that which mē are wont to say when they wil assuredly auouch any thing namely that they see it with their owne eyes And the prouerbe vsed amongst men of olde time is most true that it is better to haue a witnes which hath seene the thing then ten which speake but by heare say Thales the Milesian Philosopher said that there was as much difference betwixt sight and hearing as betwixt true and false The Prophets themselues to confirme the trueth of their prophesies called them by the name of visions as being most true and certaine things Finally the excellencie of the sight appeareth in his particular obiect The third proofe of the excellencie of the sight which is the most noble common and best knowne of all others I call it the most noble because it is endowed with the goodliest qualitie that is in the whole world that is to say the light which is of an heauenly ofspring and which the Poets call the eldest daughter of God I call it the commonest because in differently it communicateth it selfe vnto all And I call it the best knowne of vs in as much as all other naturall bodies do more or lesse consist of mixt colour and for that there cannot be any part therof in the world but that it will be attained and gotten by sight Let vs then say with Theophrastus that the sight is as it were the forme and perfection of man with the Stoikes that the sight maketh vs to draw neere vnto the diuine nature and with the Philosopher Anaxagoras that it seemeth that we were borne onely to see CHAP. IIII. Of the excellencie of the eye the proper instrument of sight IF the sence of sight be wonderfull the member or instrument seruing for the same can not but goe beyond all wonder for it is framed so cunningly and of such beautifull parts as that there cannot be the man which is not rauished with the consideration of the same and for my selfe I know not whether with Plotine and Sinesius I should call nature some magicall inchauntresse or iuglar for hauing inclosed in so small a starre so manifold gracious influences and made a worke so farre surpassing all other her common and ordinary ones The Egyptians haue worshipped the Sunne and called it the visible Sonne of the inuisible God and wherefore shall not we admire the eye which as the ancient Poet Orpheus affirmeth is the Sun of this little world more notable without comparison then that of the great world The great Sunne by the stretching forth of his beames doth enlighten the whole world A comparing of the Sun and the eye together but it reapeth neither profit nor pleasure by this his ministerie neither doth it selfe see any thing of all that which it causeth vs to see The eye that pettie Sunne in representing vnto vs whatsoeuer coloured bodies that there are doth therewithall see and acknowledge them all it selfe yea it pleasantly delighteth it selfe therein together with the minde and also perceiueth the fashion greatnes and distances of the things about which it is occupied which no other of the instruments of sence can doe Plato for the honour he bare vnto this diuine part called it celestiall and heauenly he beleeueth that the eye is all full of such straines and fire as the starres haue which shineth and burneth not Orpheus called the eyes the looking glasses of nature The eyes are the looking glasses of the minde Hesichius the doores for the Sunne to enter in by Alexander the Peripatecian the windowes of the mind because that by the eyes we doe cleerely see what is in the same we pearce into the deepe thoughts thereof and enter into the priuities of his secret chamber And as the face doth shadow out vnto vs the liuely and true image of the minde so the eyes doe lay open vnto vs all the perturbations of the same the eyes doe admire loue and are full of lust In the eyes thou maist spie out loue and hatred sorrow and mirth resolution and timorousnes compassion and mercilesnes hope and despayre health and sicknes life and death Marke I pray thee how in the feates of loue the eyes can craftely flatter thee how they become courteous kinde full of fauour craftie alluring All the passions of the minde are to be espied and seene in the eye rowling and strangely enchaunting thee in hatred how they looke fierce and sterne in bold attempts
a looking-glasse Aristotle maintaineth that we receiue in nothing but the forme which is produced of the obiect and multiplied or continued in an vnseparable continuitie in and by the ayre as the bodie maketh and produceth the shadow and the Sunne the light And this is the soundest iudgement of all the rest but such as needeth a plainer declaration That the eye receiueth nothing but the formes of things for euery man is not able at the first blush to vnderstand what is meant by the forme of the obiect We affirme then that this forme hath not his seate and place in the vnderstanding as also that it is not the same which schoolemen call Ens rationis What this forme is but that it is a certaine reall thing seated in the ayre and eye Now whatsoeuer hath a reall being is either a substance or an accident This forme cannot be a substance because that thereby it should be more noble and perfect then his obiect which is colour Then it is an accident But what kinde a one Shall we call it a quantitie No for then it would haue the allowance either of height bredth or depth and we dare not call it a relation because relation hath not the force to doe any thing but this forme causeth vs to see And least of all may wee reduce and bring it vnto the predicament of Action It must then needes bee a qualitie without matter or bodie and vncapable of all maner of diuision such a forme is called of the Philosophers intentionall which hath respect vnto the obiect and is immediatly produced and made shew of as the shadow of the bodie This forme doth multiplie it selfe throughout the ayre for the ayre being subtile moyst is apt to receiue all the formes and receiuing one part of the obiect representeth the whole obiect This forme is not seene but maketh vs to see for there is nothing but the obiect which can be seene Question Some man may demaund how this forme altereth the sight in vniting or dispersing of the spirits it selfe being voyd of al matter for whitenes disperseth the spirits and blacknes keepeth them together Answer I answere that this alteration commeth not of the forme but of the light which commeth of the colours And it is most certaine that a great light wasteth the sight because our spirits which are very subtile and light come foorth to ioyne themselues vnto this outward light on the contrary they beholding darknes and a blacke colour withdraw themselues shunning their enemie There is nothing then but a forme without matter which is receiued and hence it is that we see a thing in a moment and not by intermission of time as al the other sences haue their operations and actions In what part of the eye this receipt is made Now let vs see in what place that is whereabout or in what part of the eye this forme is receiued Some there are which thinke it to be receiued in the braine because it is the seate of common sence and for that there is none of the sences which hath not his originall from the braine Auicen did verely thinke that this receipt was where the nerues optickes doe ioyne together and that the obiect doth not appeare double because the formes are vnited in this coniunction of the sinewes Others are of minde that this receipt is accomplished in the cobweb-like tunicle which is more cleere and bright then any looking-glasse But we hold with Aristotle Galen and the trueth also that this receipt is effected in the christalline humour because this is the most noble part of the eye hauing such a substance as none other hath and the same seated in the middest of the instrument as in his center where the two lights doe meete each other the outward which entreth at the apple of the eye as at a window and the inward which is brought thither by the nerue optick Notwithstanding if thou bee disposed to reconcile all these seuerall opinions The true and proper meanes by which we haue sight thou maist say that the receipt is made in the christalline humour the rebating of their violence in the tunicles the perfect consummation in the coniunction of the nerues optickes the knowledge triall or discerning of the same in the substance of the braine Of all this long discourse these are the fruites which we shall reape that the sight is effected onely by receiuing of some thing into the eye and not by sending any thing out of it that the christalline humour being the chiefe instrument of sight receiueth nothing but formes which are as the shadowes of things that may bee seene that these formes being produced and multiplied along throughout the ayre are by a direct line and not else receiued and that at an instant I am constrained to adde this disputation in this small treatise of the eye as hauing been vrgently pressed or rather expressely commanded to doe the same CHAP. XI How many waies the sight may be endamaged and hurt THe whole discourse which I haue gone about to make concerning the excellencie of the sight the cunning workemanship of the eye and of all his partes besides the delight which it will bring to such as are curious will not in my iudgement be vnprofitable vnto them which shall earnestly desire to know the diseases of the eyes and would vndertake to heale and cure the same For we holde it for a principle in phisicke that no man can know that which happeneth contrarie to nature in any part if he doe not first know that which is naturall vnto the same part The direct saith Aristotle in his first booke of the soule or straight line is a rule both to iudge it selfe and the crooked by It behooueth then that the Phisition should know the naturall state of the eye and whatsoeuer is needefull for the execution of his office if so be he be desirous to know how many waies it may be hurt Euery action as Galen obserueth in many places may be hurt three waies How many waies a function may be hurt for either it is wholie lost or else greatly impayred or else corrupted and depraued These three faults may happen to the sight the impeachment or weakenes thereof is ordinarie with olde folkes the sight is then depraued when the obiect sheweth other then it is the vtter losse thereof is called blindenes The sight groweth weake How the sight is weakened either through default of his faculties or through the euill disposition of the instrument The facultie which is that power of the soule which maketh vs see hath his seate in the braine if then the brain be altered in his temperature as whē it falleth out to be too hote cold moyst or drie or when it is not fashioned well commendablie then all the sences will bewray a great impeachment in their actions but aboue all the rest the sight because the eye being next neighbour vnto the
the hicker and with an vnseparable sadnes which oftentimes turneth into dispayre he is alwaies disquieted both in bodie and spirit he is subiect to watchfulnes which doth consume him on the one side and vnto sleepe which tormenteth him on the other side for if he think to make truce with his passions by taking some rest behold so soone as hee would shut his eyelids hee is assayled with a thousand vaine visions and hideous buggards with fantasticall inuentions and dreadfull dreames if he would call any to helpe him his speech is cut off before it be halfe ended and what he speaketh commeth out in fasling and stammering sort he can not liue with companie To conclude hee is become a sauadge creature haunting the shadowed places suspicious solitarie enemie to the Sunne and one whom nothing can please but onely discontentment which forgeth vnto it selfe a thousand false and vaine imaginations Then iudge and weigh if the titles which I haue heretofore giuen to man calling him a diuine and politique creature can any way agree with the melancholike person And yet I would not haue thee O thou Atheist whosoeuer thou art hereupon to conclude Against Atheists which think the soule to be mortall that the soule of man suffereth any thing in his essence and thereby to become subiect to corruption it is neuer altered or changed neither can it suffer any thing it is his instrument that is euill affected Thou maist vnderstand this matter if thou wilt by a comparison drawne from the Sunne for euen as the Sunne doth neuer feele any diminishment of brightnes althought it seeme oftentimes to be darke and eclipsed for this happeneth either by the thicknes of the clowdes or by reason of the Moone comming betwixt it and vs and so our soule seemeth oftentimes to suffer but indeede it is the bodie which is out of frame There is an excellent sentence in Hippocrates in the end of his first book of diet which deserueth to be written in letters of gold A pregnant place prouing the immortalitie Our soule saith he cannot be changed in his essence neither by drinking nor eating nor by any excesse we must impute the cause of all his alterations either to the spirits where with it chiefly hath to deale or vnto the vessels by which it diffuseth it selfe throughout the body Now the instrument of these noble faculties is the braine which is considered of by the Phisition either as a similar part whose health and welfare consisteth in a good temperature or as an instrumentall part and then the health and welfare thereof consisteth in a laudable shape both of the bodie as also of the ventricles of the same That a good temperature and laudable figure are requisite for the actions of the soule And both these two sorts are requisite for the well executing of these three faculties It is most true that Galen attributeth more to a good temperature then to a commendable shape and in one whole booke maintaineth with strong and firme argument that the maners of the soule doe follow the temperature of the bodie as thou shalt see in the chapter following And yet I for my part wil not yeeld so much either to temperature or shape That naturall inclinations may be corrected by studied and laboured ones A most excellent historie of Zopyrus and Socrates as that they can altogether commaund and ouer-rule the soule For such qualities as are naturall and as it were borne with vs may bee amended by those qualities which the Philosophers call acquisite or purchased and gotten by other meanes The historie of Socrates maketh this plaine enough Zopyrus a great Philosopher taking vpon him to iudge and know at the first sight the disposition of euery man as vpon a day he had beheld Socrates reading and being vrgently pressed of all them that sate by to speake his opinion of him answered at last that he well knew that hee was the most corrupt and vicious man in the world The speech was hastily carried to Socrates by one of his disciples who mocked Zopyrus for it Then Socrates by the way of admiration cried aloude Oh the profound Philosopher he hath throughly looked into my humour and disposition I was by nature inclined to all these vices but morall Philosophie hath drawne me away from them And in very deede Socrates had a very long head and ill shaped his countenance vgly and his nose turning vp These naturall inclinations then which proceede of the temperature and shape of the bodie foreseene that these two vices bee not exceeding great as in melancholike persons may bee reclaimed and amended by the qualities which we get vnto ourselues by morall Philosophie by the reading of good bookes and by frequenting the companies of honest and vertuous men CHAP. III. Who they bee which are called melancholike persons and how one should put difference betwixt melancholike men that are sicke and those that are sound and whole ALL such as wee call melancholike men are not infected with this miserable passion which wee call melancholie there are melancholike constitutions which keep within the bounds and limits of health which if we credit ancient writers are very large and wide We must therefore for the orderly handling of this matter set downe all the sorts and differences of melancholike persons to the end that the likenes of names may not trouble vs in the sequele of this discourse That there are foure humors in our bodies It is a thing most freely agreed vpon in Phisicke that there are foure humours in our bodies Blood Phlegme Choler and Melancholie and that all these are to bee found at all times in euery age and at all seasons to be mixed and mingled together within the veines though not alike much of euery one for euen as it is not possible to finde the partie in whom the foure elements are equally mixed and as there is not that temperament in the world in which the foure contrary qualities are in the whole euery part equally cōpounded but that of necessitie there must be some one euermore which doth exceed the other euen so it is not possible to see any perfect liuing creature in which the foure humours are equally mixed there is alwaies some one which doth ouer-rule the rest and of it is the parties complexion named if blood doe abound we call such a complexion sanguine if phlegme phlegmatike if choler cholerike and if melancholie melancholike These foure humours if they doe not too much abound may very easily stand with the health of the partie for they doe not sensibly hurt and hinder the actions of the bodie It is most true that euery constitutions bringeth forth his different effects which make the actions of the soule more quicke and liuely or more dull and dead Phlegmatike persons are for the most part blockish and lubberlike hauing a slow iudgement The effects of phlegme and all the noblest powers of the minde as it
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
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