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hath been always an ordinary custom, as Gellius observes,
"for later Writers and impostors, to broach many absurd and
insolent fictions, under the name of so noble a philosopher as
Democritus, to get themselves credit, and by that means the
more to be respected,"
marmori ascribunt Praxatilem suo.
as artificers usually do, Novo qui
'Tis not so with me.
"Non hic Centauros, non Gorgonas, Harpyasque
Invenies, hominem pagina nostra sapit."

No Centaurs here, or Gorgons look to find,
My subject is of man, and human kind.

Thou thy self art the subject of my discourse.

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Quicquid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas,
Gaudia, discursus, nostri farrago libelli."

Whate'er men do, vows, fears, in ire, in sport,

Joys, wand'rings, are the sum of my report.

My intent is no otherwise to use his name, then Mercurius Gallobelgicus, Mercurius Britannicus, use the name of Mercury, Democritas Christianus, &c.; Although there be some other circumstances for which I have masked my under this visard, and some peculiar respect which I cannot self so well expresse, untill I have set down a brief character of this our Democritus, what he was, with an Epitome of his life.

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Democritus, as he is described by Hippocrates and Laertius, was a little wearish old man, very melancholy by nature, averse from company in his latter daies, and much given to solitarinesse, a famous philosopher in his age, 'coavus with Socrates, wholly addicted to his studies at the last, and to a private life, wrote many excellent works, a great Divine, according to the divinity of those times, an expert Physician, a Politician, an excellent Mathematician, as " Diacosmus and the rest of his works do witnesse. He was much delighted with the studies of Husbandry, saith "Columella, and often I finde him cited by Constantínus and others treating of that subject. He knew the natures, differences of all beasts, plants, fishes, birds; and, as some say, could understand the tunes and voyces of them. In a word, he was omnifariam doctus, a generall scholar, a great student; and to the intent he might better contemplate, I find it related by some, that he put out his

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Juv. sat. 1.

Lib. 10. c. 12. Multa à malè feriatis in Democriti nomine commenta data, nobilitatis, authoritatisque ejus perfugio utentibus. epigr. 14. • Martialis, lib. 10. Auth. Pet. Besseo edit. Coloniæ 1616. Laert. lib. 9. Hortulo sibi cellulam 1 Floruit Olympiade Diacos. quod cunctis op eribus facilè Const. lib. de agric. passim.

Hip. Epist. Dameget. seligens, ibique seipsum includens, vixit solitarius. 80, 700 annis post Troiam. excellit, Laert.

n Col. lib. 1. c. 1.

> Volucrum voces & linguas intelligere se dicit Abderitans Ep. Hip. Sabellicus exempl. lib. 10. Oculis se privavit, ut melius contemplationi operam daret, subliini vir ingenio, profundæ cogitationis, &c.

cys

eys, and was in his old age voluntarily blinde, yet saw more then all Greece besides, and 'writ of every subject, Nihil in toto opificio naturæ, de quo non scripsit. A man of an excellent wit, profound conceit; and to attain knowledg the better in his younger years, he travelled to Egypt and Athens, to confer with learned men, "tadmired of some, despised of others." After a wandering life, he setled at Abdera, a town in Thrace, and was sent for thither to be their Law-maker, Recorder, or town-clerk as some will; or as others, he was there bred and born. Howsoever it was, there he lived at last in a garden in the suburbs, wholly betaking himself to his studies, and a private life, "saving that sometimes he would walk down to the haven, * and laugh heartily at such variety of ridiculous objects, which there he saw." Such a one was

Democritus.

*

But in the mean time, how doth this concern me, or upon what reference do I usurp his habit? I confesse, indeed, that to compare my self unto him for aught I have yet said, were both impudency and arrogancie. I do not presume to make any parallel, Antistat mihi millibus trecentis, parvus sum, nullus sum, altum nec spiro, nec spero. Yet thus much I will say of my self, and that I hope without all suspition of pride, or self-conceit, I have lived a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life, mihi & musis in the University, as long almost as Xenocrates in Athens, ad senectam ferè to learn wisdom as he did, penned up most part in my study. For I have been brought up a student in the most flourishing colledge of Europe, augustissimo collegio and can brag with Jovius, almost, in eá luce domicilii Vacicani, totius orbis celeberrimi, per 37 annos multa opportunaque didici," for 30 years I have continued (having the use of as good a Libraries as ever he had) a scholar, and would be therefore loth, either by living as a drone, to be an unprofitable or unworthy Member of so learned and noble a societie, or to write that which should be any way dishonourable to such a royal and ample foundation. Something I have done, though by my profession a Divine, yet turbine raptus ingenii, as he said, out of a running wit, an unconstant, unsetled mind, I had a great desire (not able to attain to a superficial skil in any) to have some smattering in all, to be aliquis in omnibus, nullus in singulis,

Naturalia, Moralia, Mathematica, liberales disciplinas, artiumque omnium peritiam callebat. Veni Athenas, & nemo me novit. Idem contemptui & admirationi habitus. "Solebat ad portam ambulare, & inde, &c. Hip. Ep. Dameg. * Perpetuo risu pulmonem agitare solebat Democritus. Juv. Sat. 7. Non sum dignus præstare matella. Mart. 2 Christ Church in Oxford.

a

*Præfat. hist. Keeper of our college library lately revived by Otho Nicolson, Esquire. ▸ Scaliger.

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which

which Plato commends, out of him Lipsius approves and furthers, "as fit to be imprinted in all curious wits, not to be a slave of one science, or dwell altogether in one subject, as most do, but to rove abroad, centum puer artium, to have an oar in every man's boat, to taste of every dish, and sip of every cup," which, saith 'Montaigne, was well performed by Aristotle, and his learned countery-man Adrian Turnebus. This roving humor (though not with like successe) I have ever had, and like a ranging spaniel, that barks at every bird he sees, leaving his game, I have followed all, saving that which I should, and may justly complain, and truly, qui ubique est, nusquam est, which Gesner did in modesty, that I have read many books, but to little purpose, for want of good method; I have confusedly tumbled over divers authors in our Libraries, with small profit for want of art, order, memory, judgment. I never travelled but in Map or Card, in which my unconfined thoughts have freely expatiated, as having ever been especially delighted with the study of Cosmography. Saturn was Lord of my geniture, culminating, &c. and Mars principal significator of manners, in partile conjunction with my Ascendant; both fortunate in their houses, &c. I am not poor, I am not rich; nihil est, nihil deest, I have little, I want nothing: all my treasure is in Minerva's tower. Greater preferment as I could never get, so am I not in debt for it, I have a competence (Laus Deo) from my noble and munificent Patrons, though I live still a Collegiate student, as Democritus in his garden, and lead a monastique life, ipse mihi theatrum, sequestred from those tumults and troubles of the world, Et tanquam in specula positus, (as he said) in some high place above you all, like Stoicus Sapiens, omnia sæcula, præterita presentiaque videns, uno velut intuitu, I hear and see what is done abroad, how others: run, ride, turmoil, and macerate themselves in court and countrey, far from those wrangling Law Suits, aule vanitatem, fori ambitionem, ridere mecum soleo: I laugh at all, only secure, lest my suit go amiss, my ships perish, corn and cattle miscarry, trade decay, I have no wife nor children good or bad to provide for. A meer spectator of other mens fortunes and adventures, and how they act their parts, which methinks are diversly presented unto

< In Theat. Phil. Stoic. li. diff. 8. Dogma cupidis & curiosis ingeniis imprimendum, ut sit talis qui nulli rei serviat, aut exactè unum aliquid elaboret, alia negligens, ut artifices, &c. • Delibare gratu de quocunque cibo, & pittisare de quocunque dolio jucundum. f Essays, lib. 3. & Præfat. bibliothec.

Ambo fortes & fortunati, Mars idem magisterii dominus juxta primam Leovitii regulam. i Hensius. * Calide ambientes, solicite litigantes, aut misere excidentes, voces, strepitum, contentiones, &c. Cyp. ad Donat. Unice securus, ne excidam in foro, aut in mari Indico bonis eluã, de dote filiæ, patrimonio filii non sum solicitus.

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me,

me, as from a common theatre or scene. I hear new news every day, and those ordinary rumors of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, spectrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey, Persia, Poland, &c. daily musters and preparations, and such like, which these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain, monomachies, shipwracks, piracies, and sea-fights; peace, leagues, stratagems, and fresh alarums. A vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions, edicts, petitions, law-suits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints, grievances are daily brought to our ears. New books every day, pamphlets, currantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophie, religion, &c. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mummeries, entertainments, jubilies, embassies, tilts and tournaments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, playes: then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous vilanies in all kindes, funerals, burials, deaths of Princes, new discoveries, expeditions, now comical, then tragical matters. To-day we heare of new Lords and officers created, to-morrow of some great men deposed, and then again of fresh honors conferred; one is let loose, another imprisoned; one purchaseth, another breaketh: he thrives, his neighbor turns bankrupt; now plenty, then again dearth and famine; one runs, another rides, wrangles, laughs, weeps, &c. Thus I daily hear, and such like, both private and public news, amidst the gallantry and misery of the world; jollitie, pride, perplexities and cares, simplicity and vilany; subtletie, knavery, candour and integrity, mutually mixed and offering themselves; I rub on privus privatus, as I have still lived, so I now continue, statu quo prius, left to a solitary life, and mine own domestick discontents: saving that sometimes, ne quid mentiar, as Diogenes went into the city, and Democritus to the haven to see fashions, I did for my recreation now and then walk abroad, look into the world, and could not choose but make some little observation, non tam sagar observator, ac simplex recitator, not as they did, to scoffe or laugh at all, but with a mixt passion.

"Bilem sæpè, jocum vestri movêre tumultus."

I did sometime laugh and scoff with Lucian, and satyrically tax with Menippus, lament with Heraclitus, sometimes again I was "petulanti splene chachinno, and then again, bilis jecur, I was much moved to see that abuse which I could not mend. In which passion howsoever I may simpathize

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with him or them, 'tis for no such respect I shroud my self under his name; but either in an unknown habit to assume a little more liberty and freedom of speech, or if you will needs know, for that reason and only respect which Hippocrates relates at large in his Epistle to Damegetus, wherein he doth expresse, how coming to visit him one day, he found Democritus in his garden at Abdera, in the suburbs, Punder a shady bower, with a book on his knees, busie at his study, sometimes writing, sometimes walking. The subject of his book was melancholy and madness; about him lay the carcasses of many several beasts, newly by him cut up and anatomized; not that he did contemn God's creatures, as he told Hippocrates, but to finde out the seat of this atra bilis, or melancholy, whence it proceeds, and how it was engendred in mens bodies, to the intent he might better cure it in himself, and by his writings and observations 'teach others how to prevent and avoid it. Which good intent of his, Hippocrates highly commended: Democritus Junior is therefore bold to imitate, and because he left it unperfect, and it is now lost, quasi succenturiator Democriti, to revive again, prosecute, and finish in this treatise.

You have had a reason of the name. If the title and inscription offend your gravity, were it a sufficient justification to accuse others, I could produce many sober treatises, even sermons themselves, which in their fronts carry more phantastical names. Howsoever, it is a kinde of policie in these daies, to prefix a phantastical title to a book which is to be sold; for, as Larks come down to a day-net, many vain readers will tarry and stand gazing like silly passengers at an antick picture in a painters shop, that will not look at a judicious peece. And, indeed, as Scaliger observes, "nothing more invites a reader then an argument unlooked for, unthought of, and sels better than a scurrile pamphlet," tum maxime cum novitas excitat *palatum. "Many men," saith Gellius," are very conceited in their inscriptions," "and able (as Plinie quotes out of Seneca) to make him loyter by the way that went in haste to fetch a midwife for his daughter, now ready to lie down." For my part, I have honourable "presidents for this which I have done: I will cite one for all, Anthony Zara Pap. Episc. his

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P Secundum moenia locus erat frondosis populis opacus, vitibusque sponte natis, tenuis prope aqua defluebat, placide murmurans, ubi sedile & domus Democriti conspiciebatur. Ipse composite considebat, super genua volumen habens, & utrinque alia patentia parata, dissectaque animalia cumulatim strata, quorum viscera rimabatur, Cùm mundus extra se sit, & mente captus sit, & nesciat se languere, ut medelam adhibeat. Scaliger, Ep. ad Patisonem. Nihil magis lectorem invitat quam inopinatum argumentum, neque vendibilior merx est quàm petulans liber. * Lib. xx. c. 11. Miras sequuntur inscriptionum festivitates. Præfat. Nat. Hist. Patri obstetricem parturienti filiæ accersenti moram injicere possunt. Anatomy of popery. Anatomy of immortality. Angelus salas, Anatomy of Antimony, &c.

Anatomy

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