reason for it it being too high for the vulgar capacity to attain to the knowledge of it They by their influence act upon the humors and bodies and by their secret qualities tie creatures with the knot of love for how many are there who love things which are neither lovely nor good I mean not only in effect but in their own opinion and judgement yet are they fastened by some tie unknown to any but the reall sons of art and those which are acquainted with the sublime sciences nor can they free themselves from it but by the absolute power of reason Do we not dayly finde by experience that a Man who is and who knoweth himself to be deformed and wicked yet by nature falleth not in love with himself so through a love of Concupiscence he may love things which have neither beauty nor goodness although he daily hath a blinde feeling of something sutable to sensuality and an unperceptible attractive For there may be a sympathy in Nature and an antipathy in Complexion and a sympathy in Complexion and an antipathy in Nature as in animals there is amity betwixt the Black-bird and the Thrush betwixt the Crow and Hern betwixt Peacocks and Pigeons Turtles and Parrats Whence Sappho in Ovids Epist. writes to Phaon To Birds unlike oft-times joyn'd are white Doves Also the Bird that 's green black Turtle loves For of what sort the amities and enmities of the superiours be such are the inclinations of things subject to them in these inferiours These dispositions therefore of Love are nothing else but certain inclinations of things of one towards another desiring such and such a thing if it be absent and to move toward it and to acquiesce in it when it is obtained shunning the contrary and dreading the approach of it He that knowes the amities and enmities the superiours have one towards another knows my meaning and will quickly give you a reason and that none of the worst let the Priests say what they please The third Cause is from Parents and Education This cause is from our first Parents for the preservation and propagation of the Species and will so continue till nature shall be no more It is according to the old Adage Qualis Pater talis Filius like Father like Son Cat to her kinde if the Dam trot the foal will not amble Experience and nature approves it that the fruit will relish of the tree from whence it sprung Consider how Love proceeds from Parents and gradually descends that so soon as we are come to maturity and that our bloud begins to boyl in our veins we devote our selves to a Woman forgetting our Mother in a wise and the womb that bare us in that which shall bear our image This Woman blessing us with Children our affection leaves the levell it held before and sinks from our bed unto our issue and picture of posterity where affection holds no steady mansion they applying themselves to a Woman take a lawful way to love another better then our selves and thus run to posterity But Education is more potent for Themistocles in his youth as himself confesseth for want of Discipline was carryed away by the lascivious and hot passion of Love like to a young unbridled Colt untill that by Miltiades example who was then famous among the Grecians he caused the heat of his courage to be cooled and the lasciviousness which was naturally in him to attend upon virtue he fed delicately and highly Qualis cibus talis sanguis membrum such as the meat such is the broath for luscious fare is the only nurse and nourisher of sensual appetite the sole maintenance of youthful affection the fewell of this inordinate passion nothing so much feeding it nor insensates the understanding by delighting in it He was very idly educated which is one main branch that causeth love and the first arrow that Cupid shooteth into the hot Liver of a heedless Lover For the Man being idle the minde is apt to all uncleanness the minde being void of exercise the Man is void of honesty Doth not rust corrode the hardest Iron if it be not used Doth not the Moth eat the finest garment if it be not worn Doth not impiety infect the clearest and most acute wit if it be given to idleness Doth not common experience make this common unto us that the fertilest ground bringeth forth nothing but weeds if it be not tilled The particulars of idleness as immoderate sleep immodest play unsatiable drinking doth so weaken the senses and bewitch the soul that before we feel the motion of Love we are resolved to lust Cupid is a crafty Gentleman he followes those to a hair that studdy pleasure and flies those that stoutly labour Likewise though their natural inclination be to virtue if they be Educated in Dancing-schooles Schooles of Musick lead a riotous life they will be much subject to this passion they will prefer fancie before friends lay Reason in the water being too salt for their tast and follow unbridled Affection suitable to their education But let their inclinations be never so strong if they have been well brought up and instructed they are in some sort forced to moderate themselves not suffering Love to have such pernicious effects in them as naturally they are inclined to whereupon in my opinion that old proverb was not spoken without reason That Education goeth beyond Nature so that Quintilian would not have Nurses to be of an immodest or uncomely speech adding this cause Lest saith he such manners precepts and discourses as young children learn in their unriper years remain so deeply rooted as they shall scarce ever be relinquished Sure I am that the first impressions whether good or evill are most continuate and with least difficulty preserved Quo semel est imbuta recens servabit odorem Testa diu A pot well season'd holds the primitive tast A long time after Socrates confesseth in Plato that by nature he was inclined to vices and yet Philosophy made him as perfect and excellent a Man as any was in the world Besides Education and custome have power not only to change the natural inclination of some particular Men but also of whole Countries as the Histories of most Nations declare unto us and namely that of the Germans who in the time of Tacitus and Lycurgus amongst the Lacedemonians had neither Law nor Religion knowledge nor forme of Common-wealth but were led and carryed on by the current of their own inclinations and as their wils was inclined by the influence of the superiours whereas now they will give place to no Nation for good institution in all things To reform the Lacedemonians Lycurgus used this piece of policy He nourished two whelps both of one Sire and one Dam but in different manner for the one he trained up to hunt and the other to lie alwaies in the chimney-corner at the porridge-pot afterwards calling the Lacedemonians into one assembly he said Ye
that are sick of love melancholy are generally lean throughout the whole body facit amor maciem as well by reason of their little eating and drinking as also for their bad digestion by reason that the spirits and natural heat are withdrawn from the stomach to the brain Another will have leannesse to be caused in a Lover by reason of too much intention of the minde pensivenesse and anxietie the Lover loseth the fulnesse of flesh and good liking of his body that before he enjoyed A third will have leannesse caused in Lovers by a direction of vitall heat from the circumference to the Center thereby consuming the vitall spirits drying the body and causing leannesse They are troubled with immoderate watchings wakings and sighings because in Lovers are divers imaginations and fancies that steal into the brain and never suffers them to take any quiet repose whence the brain becomes dry and cold and if by chance they be surprised by any light slumber which is the provision Nature hath made for the repairing of the animal spirits which in them are wasted and much impaired by the violence of their imagination and excessive wakings that slumber is attended on by a thousand phantasmes and fearful dreams so that they awake oft-times more discontented sad pensive and melancholy then before and for the most part they finde themselves more tormented sleeping then waking They are vexed with immoderate sighings by reason that they many times are oblivious of drawing their breath being wholly taken up with the strong imagination that they love either in beholding the beauty of their objects or else in their absence contemplating on their rare perfections and contriving the means how to come to their desires so that recollecting themselves Nature is constrained to draw in as much air at once as before it should have done at two or three times And such a respiration is called a sigh which indeed is nothing else but a double respiration Observe one tranfixed with violent Love whose minde is bewitched brain dislocated and reason eclipsed and you shall finde that all he holdeth all he meditateth on all he speaketh all he dreameth is of the creature he loveth He hath her in his head and heart painted graved carved in the most pleasing formes For her he entereth sometimes into quakings sometimes into faintings another while into fits of fire Ice he soreth in the aire and instantly is drenched in the abysse he attendeth he espieth he fears he hopes he despaires he sighes he blushes he waxeth pale he doteth in the best company he addresses his colloquiums to Woods Groves and Fountains he writeth he blots out he teareth he lives like a spittler estranged from the conversation of Men Repose which charmeth all the eares of the World is not made for him still this fair one still this cruel one tormenteth him Plutarch saith the heart of a Lover was a City in which upon one and the same day were seen sports and banquets battles and funerals You shall see another of Cupids slaves burthen himself with Newes of no value he makes a secret of every thing and gives out those for mysteries to his Mistresse which are proclaimed with a trumpet Another is so extremely open breasted that you need look for no other signe he tels all his thoughts and as if his heart were a Sieve it keeps nothing which it sends not out by the lips He becomes an extreme babler which proceeds from the influence of the heart for Plutarch saith that Love is naturally a great babler chiefly when it chanceth to light upon the commendation of those things that are its objects For that Lovers have a strong desire to induce others to give credence to that whereof themselves are already perswaded which is that they love nothing but what is absolutely perfect both for goodnesse and beauty and they would willingly have these opinions of theirs confirmed also by all other judgements He is importunate and unseasonable in complements he pratles with his friends whilest he hath a fever he tels extravagant tales wherein he makes himself very facetious although at the latter end of the discourse he askes where the conceit to be laughed at lies He is very merry and then within a moment he fals to be very melancholy and extreme sad pensive and dejected then by and by he entertains himself with some merry pleasant conceits and then within a small tract of time the contrary by this weather cock you may perceive in what quarter the winde is This passion makes him very simple next door to sottishnesse and makes him do many extravagancies so that through these fooleries he brings to himself a turbulent life a continual torment a hasty death and his salvation doubtful All of them are restlesse casting their weariâ—d members upon their loathed beds in their solitary Chambers filling the aire with a thousand throbs and interrupted sighes sometimes disturbed with the rivality of others sometimes afflicted and fear those manifold mischances that may befall the person beloved so that the many passions that multiply in the breast of a Lover do bring with them an extenuation and impairing of the complexion and sometimes a strange kinde of alteration in the individual essence from whence doe arise those furies of Love and potent frenzies and insensible astonishments which happen many times to those that love either because they make not reason the forerunner of their sense or because they directed not their loves by the rules of wisdome which teacheth the only means to the attaining of all other virtues They are guided with the blind Lanthorne of sense whilest rambling in the streets they leave reason sleeping with the Constable Never raged Alcides on mount Oeta nor fierce Orlando for his Angelica more then these Vtopian Lovers for their imaginary shadowes You may observe this passion drawn to the life by Virgil in his Dido Aeneid 4. Uritur infelix Dido totaque vagatur Urbe furens c. She was so tormented with the heat of her love that she ran up and down the City as if she had been distracted For Lovers through despair of obtaining their desires through the inflamation of the vitals become nelancholy which is to speak truth a madnesse for all passions that produce strange and unusuall behaviour are called by the general terme of madnesse And of the severall kinds of madnesse caused by Love he that would take the paines might enroll a legion By reason of these perturbations of the minde the bloud becomes adust as in all other violent passions excepting joy according to Galen by which means divers have fallen into strange and desperate diseases growing foolish mad Cynicall and Wolvish The learned Avicen reporteth in his Chapter de amore that from this passion proceeds the Green sicknesse in Women which is sometimes accompanyed with a gentle Fever called by our modern Writers an amorous Fever Suffocations Head-ach Epilepsies and divers other desperate symptomes which for the most
Mistresse So that through the eye it seizeth upon the liver which is the first receptacle of Love then the heart then the brain and bloud and then the spirits and so consequently the imagination and reason The Liver to be the seat of Love is grounded upon the saying of Solomon in Prov. 7. That a young man void of understanding goeth after a strange woman till a dart strike through his Liver Cogit amare jecur the which being affected and inflamed setteth all the other principall parts on fire according to Senec. in Hippol Pectus insanum vapor Amorque torret intimas saevus vorat Penitus medullas atque per venas meat Visceribus ignis mersus venis latens Vt agilis altas flamma percurrit trabes Now Love within my raging bosome fumes And with a cruell fire my reins consumes The flame within my bowels hid remains Thence shooteth up and down my melting veins As agile fire over dry Timber spreads Valesius lib. 3. Contr. 13. saith that that Love which is in Men is defined to be an affection of both powers appetite and reason The rationall resides in the brain and the appetite in the Liver and the heart is diversly affected of both and carryed a thousand wayes by consent being variously inclined sometimes merry and jocond and sometimes sad and dejected The sensitive faculty over-ruling reason carryes the soul hoodwink't and hurries the understanding to Dawfair to eat a Wood-cock pie Of Jealousie in Lovers the Defininition the Signes and Symptomes of it IT is described and defined to be a certain suspicion which the Lover hath of the party he chiefly affecteth lest he or she should be enamoured of another Or an eager desire of enjoying some beauty alone and to have it proper to himself only It is a fear or doubt lest any forainer should participate or share with him in his love still apt to suspect the worst in such doubtfull cases This passion of Jealousie is more eminent among Batchelours then Marryed-men If it appear among Batchelours we commonly call them Rivals or Corrivals a similitude having its original from a River Rivales a rivo for as a River divides a common ground betwixt two Men and both participate of it So is a Woman indifferent betwixt two Suitors both likely to enjoy her and thence cometh this emulation which breaks out many times into tempestuous stormes and produceth lamentable effects murders it self with much cruelty many single combates Ariosto calls it a fury a continual Fever full of suspicion fear and sorrow a mirth-marring monster Ecclus. 28. 6. The sorrow and grief of heart of one woman jealous of another is heavier then death But true and pure Love is without jealousie for this affection springs from the love of concupiscency for jealousie is a fear as I have said which a Man hath lest another should enjoy the thing he desireth the reason thereof is because we judge it hurtfull either to our selves or to those whom we love if others should enjoy it And if they have any interest in the party beloved they have a speciall care that no other have the fruition thereof but themselves taking the matter heavily if it fall out otherwise being very much offended and full of indignation against him that should attempt any such thing being very suspicious and carrying within themselves matter of jealousie and tormenting themselves and others without cause for Love with Jealousie and a madman are cozen germans in understanding for questionlesse immoderate love is a madnesse and then had Bedlam need be a great and spacious house for he that never was in that predicament is either blinde or babish When jealousie once seiseth on these silly weak and unresisting souls 't is pitifull to see how cruelly it tormenteth them insultingly it tyrannizeth over them It insinuateth it self under colour of friendship but after it once possesseth them the same causes which served for a ground of goodwill serves for the foundation of mortal hatred Of all the mindes diseases that is it whereto most things serve for sustenance and fewest for remedy This consuming Fever blemisheth and corrupteth all that otherwise is good and goodly in them But as the most firme in Religion may have doubts so the most confident in Love are capable of some suspicion The strongest trees are shaken by the winde though the root be fixed whilst the leaves and branches be tossed Why should we not rest our selves and abandon all suspicious Ideas after having had a tryall of a person and many effects for testimonies of the affection yet all these proofs and tryals keep us not from vexing and tormenting our selves because fear which is not in our power to restrain interprets ill the least appearance and buries it self in false objections where it findes no true ones O weak jealousie did ever thy prying and suspicious sight finde thy Mistresses lip guilty of any smile or any lascivious glance from her eye doest not thou see the blushes of her cheeks are innocent her carriage sober her discourse all chast no toyish gesture no desire to see the publick shewes or haunt the Theater she is no popular Mistresse all her kisses do speak her Virgin such a bashful heat at several tides ebbes and flowes flowes and ebbes again as it were affraid to meet our wilder flame what is it then that stirs up this hot passion in thee Some will object and say All this is but cunningnesse as who knowes the sleights of Sirens It is these Idiots that have these symptomes of jealousie as fear sorrow suspicion strange actions gestures outrages lockings up oathes tryals with a thousand more devises then any pen is able to enumerate 'T is a vehement passion a furious perturbation a bitter pain a scorching fire a pernicious curiosity it fils the minde with grief half suspicion accidentall brawles compassionate tears throbbings of the heart distracted cogitations inconstant desires and a thousand the like lancing razors that cut and wound the hearts of Men as Gall corrupting the Hony of our life more then ordinarily disquieted and discontented Next time you see a jealous Lover doe but mark him and you shall see without a pair of Spectacles how he misinterprets every thing is either said or done most apt to mistake or misconster he peeps into every corner followes close observes to an hair all the postures and actions of his Mistresse he will sometimes sigh weep and sob for anger swear slander and belie any Man sometimes he will use obsequious and flattering speeches and aske forgivenesse condemning his rashnesse and folly and then immediately again he is as impatient and furious as ever he was therefore I wish Gentlewomen to beware of such infidels who wax and wane an hundred times in an hour as though they were got in the change of the Moon so strange is the inferences of this malicious jealousie that it never makes a good Logician He pries on all sides accurately