such skil to make new men at my pleasure, or means to hire them; no whistle to call like the master of a ship, and bid them run, &c. I have no such authority, no such benefactors, as that noble Ambrosius was to Origen, allowing him six or seven Amanuenses to write out his dictats; I must for that cause do my businesse myself, and was therefore enforced, as a Bear doth her. whelps, to bring forth this confused lump; I had not time to lick it into form, as she doth her yong ones, but even so to publish it, as it was first written, quicquid in buccam venit, in an extemporean style, as I do commonly all other exercises, effudi quicquid dictavit genius meus, out of a confused company of notes, and writ with as small deliberation as I do ordinarily speak, without all affectation of big words, fustian phrases, jingling terms, tropes, strong lines, that like *Acesta's arrows caught fire as they flew, strains of wit, brave heats, elogies, hyperbolical exornations, elegancies, &c. which many so much affect. I am aquæ potor, drink no wine at all, which so much improves our modern wits, a loose, plain, rude writer, ficum, voco ficum & ligonem ligonem, and as free, as loose, idem calamo quod in mente, I call a spade a spade, animis hæc scribo, non auribus, I respect matter, not words; remembring that of Cardan, verba propter res, non res propter verba: and seeking with Seneca, quid scribam, non quemadmodum, rather what, then how to write. For as Philo thinks, "He that is conversant about matter, neglects words, and those that excell in this art of speaking, have no profound learning, "Verba nitent phaleris, at nullas verba medullas Intus habent" "when Besides, it was the observation of that wise Seneca, you see a fellow carefull about his words, and neat in his speech, know this for a certaintie, that man's mind is busied about toys, there's no soliditie in him. Non est ornamentum virile concinnitas: as he said of a nightingale, "vox es, præterea nihil, &c." I am therefore in this point a professed disciple of Apollonius a scholar of Socrates, I neglect phrases, and labor wholly to inform my reader's understanding, not to please his ear; 'tis *Eusebius eccles. hist. lib. 6. h Stans pede in uno, as he made verses. * Virg. Non eadem à summo expectes, minimoq; poeta. * Stylus hic nullus præter parrhesiam. 1 Qui rebus se exercet, verba negligit, & qui callet artem dicendi, nullam disciplinam habet recognitam. m Palingenius. "Cujuscunque orationem vides politam & sollicitam, scito animum in pusillis occupatu, in scriptis nil solidum. Epist. lib. 1. 21. Philostratus lib. 8. vit. Apol. Negligebat oratoriam facultatem, & penitus aspernabatur ejus professores, quod linguam duntaxat, non autem mentem redderent eruditiorem. VOL. I. C not not my study or intent to compose neatly, which an Orator requires, but to express my self readily and plainly as it happens. So that as a River runs sometimes precipitate and swift, then dull and slow; now direct, then per ambages; now deep, then shallow; now muddy, then clear; now broad, then narrow; doth my style flow: now serious, then light; now comical, then satyrical; now more elaborate, then remisse, as the present subject required, or as at that time I was affected. And if thou vouchsafe to reade this treatise, it shall seem no otherwise to thee, then the way to an ordinary Traveller, sometimes fair, sometimes foul; here champion, there inclosed; barren in one place, better soyl in another: by woods, groves, hils, dales, plains, &c. I shall lead thee per ardua montium, & lubrica vallium, & roscida cespitum, & glebosa camporum, through variety of objects, that which thou shalt like and surely dislike. For the matter it self or method, if it be faulty, consider I pray you that of Columella, Nihil perfectum, aut à singulari consummatum industriá, no man can observe all, much is defective no doubt, may be justly taxed, altered, and avoided in Galen, Aristotle, those great Masters. Boni venatoris (Pone holds) plures feras capere, non omnes; He is a good Huntsman can catch some, not all: I have done my endeavor. Besides, I dwell not in this study, Non hic sulcos ducimus, non hoc pulvere desudamus, I am but a smatterer, I confesse, a stranger, here and there I pull a flower; I do easily grant, if a rigid censurer should criticise on this which I have writ, he should not finde three sole faults, as Scaliger in Terence, but 300. So many as he hath done in Cardan's subtleties, as many notable errors as 'Gul. Laurembergius, a late professor of Rostocke, dicovers in that anatomie of Laurentius, or Barocius the Venetian in Sacro boscus. And although this be a sixth Edition, in which I should have been more accurate, corrected all those former escapes, yet it was magni laboris opus, so difficult and tedious, that as Carpenters do finde out of experience, 'tis much better build a new sometimes, then repair an old house; I could as soon write as much more, as alter that which is written. If ought therefore be amisse, (as I grant there is) I require a friendly admonition, no bitter invective, "Sint musis socii Charites, Furia omnis abesto," Otherwise, as in ordinarie controversies, funem contentionis Non hic colonus *Hic enim, quod Seneca de Ponte, bos herbam, Ciconia larisam, canis leporem, virgo florem legat. P Pet. Nannius not. in Hor. domicilium habeo, sed topiarii in morem, hinc inde florem vellico, ut canis Nilum lambens. T Supra bis mille notabiles errores Laurentii demonstravi, &c. Philo de Con. nectamus, nectamus, sed cui bono? We may contend, and likely misuse each other, but to what purpose? We are both scholars, say, "Arcades ambo, Et cantare pares, & respondere parati." If we do wrangle, what shal we get by it? Trouble and wrong our selves, make sport to others. If I be convict of an error, I wil yield, I wil amend. Si quid bonis moribus, si quid veritati dissentaneum, in sacris vel humanis literis a me dictum sit, id nec dictum esto. In the mean time I require a favorable censure of all faults omitted, harsh compositions, pleonasmes of words, tautological repetitions (though Seneca bear me out, nunquam nimis dicitur, quod nunquam satis dicitur) perturbations of tenses, numbers, printers faults, &c. My translations are sometimes rather paraphrases, then interpretations, non ad verbum, but as an author, I use more liberty, and that's only taken, which was to my purpose: Quotations are often inserted in the Text, which make the stile more harsh, or in the margent as it hapned. Greek authors, Plato, Plutarch, Athenæus, &c. I have cited out of their interpreters, because the original was not so readie. I have mingled sacra prophanis, but I hope not prophaned, and in repetition of authors names, ranked them per accidens, not according to Chronologie; sometimes Neotericks before Ancients, as my memory suggested. Some things are here altered, expunged in this sixth Edition, others amended, much added, because many good * authors in all kinds are come to my hands since, and 'tis no prejudice, no such indecorum, or oversight. * "Nunquam ita quicquam bene subductâ ratione ad vitam fuit, Ne're was ought yet at first contriv'd so fit, Make thee not say, and what thou tak'st refuse. But I am now resolved never to put this treatise out again, Ne quid nimis, I wil not hereafter add, alter, or retract; I have done. The last and greatest exception is, that I being a divine have medled with physick, y—— Tantumne est ab re tuâ otii tibi, Frambesarius, Sennertus, Ferandus, &c. Virg. C 2 * Ter. Adelph. Which Which Menedemus objected to Chremes; have I so much lei sure, or little businesse of mine own, as to look after other men's matters which concern me not? What have I to do with physick? quod medicorum est promittant medici. The z Lacedemonians were once in counsel about state-matters, a deboshed fellow spake excellent wel, and to the purpose, his speech was generally approved: A grave Senator steps up, and by all means would have it repealed, though good, because dehonestabatur pessimo authore, it had no better an author; let some good man relate the same, and then it should pass. This counsel was embraced, factum est, and it was registered forthwith, Et sic bona sententia mansit, malus author mutatus est. Thou saiest as much of me, stomachosus as thou art, and grantest peradventure this which I have written in physic, not to be amiss, had another done it, a professed physician, or so; but why should I meddle with this tract? Hear me speak: There be many other subjects, I do easily grant, both in humanity and divinity, fit to be treated of, of which had I written ad ostentationem only, to shew myself, I should have rather chosen, and in which I have been more conversant, I could have more willingly luxuriated, and better satisfied myself and others; but that at this time I was fatally driven upon this rock of melancholy, and carried away by this by-stream, which, as a rillet, is deducted from the main channel of my studies, in which I have pleased and busied my self at idle hours, as a subject most necessary and commodious. Not that I prefer it before Divinity, which I do acknowledge to be the queen of professions, and to which all the rest are as handmaids, but that in Divinity I saw no such great need. For had I written positively, there be so many books in that kind, so many commentators, treatises, pamphlets, expositions, sermons, that whole teemes of oxen cannot draw them; and had I been as forward and ambitious as some others, I might have haply printed a sermon at Paul's-Cross, a sermon in St. Marie's Oxon, a sermon in Christ-Church, or a sermon before the right honorable, right reverend, a sermon before the right worshipful, a sermon in latine, in english, a sermon with a name, a sermon without, a sermon, a sermon, &c. But I have been ever as desirous to suppresse my labours in this kinde, as others have been to presse and publish theirs. To have written in controversie, had been to cut off an Hydra's head, lis lite generat, one begets another, so many duplications, triplications, and swarms of questions, In sacro bello hoc quod stili mucrone agitur, that having once begun, I should 2 Gellius. lib. 18. cap. 3. * Et inde catena quædam fit, quæ hæredes etiam ligat. Cardan. Hensius. b never make an end. One had much better, as Alexander the sixth Pope, long since observed, provoke a great prince than a begging friar, a Jesuit, or a seminary priest, I will add, for inexpugnabile genus hoc hominum, they are an irrefragable society, they must and wil have the last word; and that with such eagernesse, impudence, abominable lying, falsifying, and bitterness in their questions they proceed, that as he said, furorne cæcus, an rapit vis acrior, an culpa, responsum date? Blind fury, or error, or rashness, or what it is that eggs them, I know not, I am sure many times, which Austin perceived long since, tempestate contentionis, serenitas charitatis obnubilatur, with this tempest of contention, the serenity of charity is over-clouded, and there be too many spirits conjured up already in this kinde in all sciences, and more than we can tel how to lay, which do so furiously rage, and keep such a racket, that as Fabius said, "It had been much better for some of them to have been born dumb, and altogether illiterate, then so far to dote to their own destruction. с "At melius fuerat non scribere, namque tacere 'Tis a generall fault, so Severinus the Dane complains fin physick, "unhappy men as we are, we spend our daies in unprofitable questions and disputations," intricate subtleties, de laná caprind about moonshine in the water, "leaving in the mean time those chiefest treasures of nature untouched, wherein the best medicines for all manner of diseases are to be found, and do not only neglect them our selves, but hinder, condemn, forbid, and scoff at others, that are willing to enquire after them." These motives at this present have induced ine to make choice of this medicinal subject. If any physitian in the mean time shall infer, Ne sutor ultra crepidam, and finde himself grieved that I have intruded into his profession, I will tell him in brief, I do not otherwise by them, than they do by us. If it be for their advantage, I know many of their sect which have taken orders, in hope of a benefice, 'tis a common transition, and why Malle se bellum cum magno principe gerere, quam cum uno ex fratrum raendicantium ordine. Hor. epod. lib. od. 7. d Epist. 86. ad Casulam presb. Lib. 12. cap. 1. Mutos nasci, & omni scientia egere satius fuisset, quàm sic in propriam perniciem insanire. f Infælix mortalitas inutilibus quæs tionibus ac disceptationibus vitam traducimus, naturæ principes thesauros, in quibus gravissimæ morborum medicina collocatæ sunt, interim intactos reinquimus. Nec ipsi solum relinquimus sed & alios prohibemus, impedimus, condemnamus, ludibriisq; afficimus. C 3 may |