it self, of which Agrippa treats, Fishes, Birds, and Beasts, Hares, Conies, Dorinice, &c. Owls, Bats, Nightbirds, but that artificial, which is perceived in them all. Remove a plant, it will pine away, which is especially perceived in Date trees, as you may reade at large in Constantine's husbandry, that antipathy betwixt the Vine and the Cabbage, Vine and Oyl. Put a bird in a cage, he will dye for suliennesse, or a beast in a pen, or take his yong ones or companions from him, and see what effect it will cause. But who perceives not these common passions of sensible creatures, fear, sorrow, &c. Of all other, dogs are most subject to this maladie, in so much some hold they dream as men do, and through violence of melancholy run mad; I could relate many stories of dogs that have dyed for grief, and pined away for loss of their Masters, but they are common in every Author. b Kingdoms, Provinces, and politick bodies are likewise sensible and subject to this disease, as Boterus in his politicks hath proved at large. "As in humane bodies (saith he) there be divers alterations proceeding from humors, so there be many diseases in a common-wealth, which do as diversely happen from severall distempers," as you may easily perceive by their particular symptomes. For where you shall see the people civil, obedient to God and Princes, judicious, peaceable and quiet, rich, fortunate, and flourish, to live in peace, in unity and concord, a Country well tilled, many fair built and populous Cities, ubi incolæ nitent, as old Cato said, the people are neat, polite and terse, ubi bene, beateque vivunt, which our Politicians make the chief end of a Common-wealth; and which Aristotle Polit. lib. 3. cap. 4. cals Commune bonum, Polibius lib. 6. optabilem & selectum statum, That countrey is free from melancholy; as it was in Italy in the time of Augustus, now in China, now in many other flourishing kingdoms of Europe. But whereas you shall see many discontents, common grievances, complaints, poverty, barbarism, beggery, plagues, wars, rebellions, seditions, mutinies, contentions, idlenesse, riot, epicurism, the land ly untilled, waste, full of bogs, fens, desarts, &c. cities decayed, base and poor towns, villages depopulated, the people squalid, ougly, uncivil; that kingdom, that country, must needs be discontent, melancholy, hath a sick body, and had need to be reformed. c Ubi ↳ Sce LipDe occult. Philosop. 1. I. c. 25 & 19. ejusd. 1. Lib. 10. cap. 4. sius epist. De politia illustrium lib. 1. cap. 4. ut in humanis corporibus variæ accidunt mutationes corporis, animique, sic in republica, &c. reges philosophantur, Plato. f Vel publicam utilitatem: salus publica suprema lex esto. Beata civitas non ubi pauci beati, sed tota civitas beata. Plato quarto de republica. e Lib. de re rust. F 2 Now Now that cannot well be effected, till the causes of these maladies be first removed, which comonly proceed from their own default, or some accidental inconvenience: as to be site in a bad clime, too far North, steril, in a barren place, as the desart of Lybia, desarts of Arabia, places void of waters, as those of Lop and Belgian in Asia, or in a bad ayr, as at Alexandretta, Bantam, Pisa, Durazzo, S. John de Ullua, &c. or in danger of the seas continual inundations, as in many places of the Low-countries and elsewhere, or neer some bad neighbors, as Hungarians to Turks, Podolians to Tartars, or almost any bordering countries, they live in fear still, and by reason of hostile incursions are oftentimes left desolate. So are cities by reason of wars, fires, plagues, inundations, wilde beasts, decay of trades, barred havens, the seas violence, as Antwerp may witness of late, Syracuse of old, Brundusium in Italy, Rhye and Dover with us, and many that at this day suspect the seas fury and rage, and labor against it as the Venetians to their inestimable charge. But the most frequent maladies are such as proceed from themselves, as first when religion and God's service is neglected, innovated or altered, where they do not fear God, obey their prince, where Atheism, Epicurism, Sacriledg, Simony, &c. and all such impieties are freely committed, that countrey cannot prosper. When Abraham came to Gerar, and saw a bad land, he said, sure the fear of God was not in that place. Cyprian Echovius, a Spanish Chorographer, above all other Cities of Spain, commends "Borcino, in which there was no begger, no man poor &c. but all rich & in good estate, and he gives the reason, because they were more religious then their neighbors:" why was Israel so often spoiled by their enemies, led into captivity, &c. but for their idolatry, neglect of God's word, for sacriledge, even for one Achan's fault? And what shall we expect that have such-multitudes of Achans, church robbers, simoniacal Patrons, &c. how can they hope to flourish, that neg lect divine duties, that live most part like Epicures? Other common grievances are generally noxious to a body politick; alteration of laws and customs, breaking priviledges, generall oppressions, seditions, &c. observed by "Aristotle, Bodin, Boterus, Junius, Arniscus, &c. I will only point at some of the chiefest. Impotentia gubernandi, ataxia, confusion, с • Mantua væ miseræ nimium vicina Cremone, Interdum à feris, ut olim Mauritania, &c. Deliciis Hispaniæ anno 1604. Nemo malus, nemo pauper, optimus quisque atque ditissimus. Pie, sanctcque vivebant summaq; cum veneratione, & timore divino cultui, sacrisq; rebus incumbebant. d Polit. 1.5..c.3. Boterus Polit. lib. 1. c. 1. Cum nempe princeps rerum gerendarum imperitus, segnis, oscitans, suique muneris immemor, aut fatuus est. h ill government, which proceeds from unskilful, slothful, griping, covetous, unjust, rash, or tyrannizing magistrates, when they are fools, idiots, children, proud, wilful, partial, undiscreet, oppressors, giddy heads, tyrants, not able or unfit to manage such offices: many noble cities and flourishing kingdoms by that means are desolate, the whole body grones under such heads, and all the members must needs be misaffected, as at this day those goodly provinces in Asia Minor, &c. grone under the burthen of a Turkish government; and those vast kingdoms of Muscovia, Russia, & under a tyrannizing Duke, Who ever heard of more civil and rich populous countreys then those of "Greece, Asia Minor, abounding with all wealth, multitudes of inhabitants, force, power, splendor and magnificence?" and that miracle of countrys, a the Holy land, that in so small a compass of ground could maintain so many Towns, Cities, produce so many fighting men? Egypt another Paradise, now barbarous and desart, and almost waste, by the despotical government of an imperious Turk, intolerabili servitu tis jugo premitur (bone saith) not only fire and water, goods or lands, sed ipse spiritus ab insolentissimi victoris pendet nutu, such is their slavery, their lives and souls depend upon his insolent will and command. A tyrant that spoyls all wheresoever he comes, insomuch that an Historian complains, "if an old inhabitant should now see them, he would not know them, if a traveller, or stranger, it would grieve his heart to behold them." Whereas Aristotle notes, Nove exactiones, nova onera imposita, new burdens and exactions daily come upon them, like those of which Zosimus lib. 2. so grievous, ut viri uxores, patres filios prostituerent ut exactoribus è questu, &c. they must needs be discontent, hinc civitatum gemitus & ploratus, as Tully holds, hence come those complaints and tears of Cities, "poor, miserable, rebellious, and desperate subjects, as Hippolitus adds: and as a judicious countrey-man of ours observed not long since in a survey of that great Dutchy of Tuscany, the people lived much grieved and discontent, as appeared by their manifold and manifest complainings in that kinde. "That the State was like a sick body which had lately taken physick, whose humors are not yet well setled, and weakened so much by purging, that nothing was left but melancholy. с с & See Abundans omni Non viget respublica cujus caput infirmatur. Salisburiensis c. 22. D. Fletcher's relation, and Alexander Gagninus historie. divitiarum affluentia, incolarum multitudine splendore ac potentia. above 200 miles in length, 60 in breadth, according to Adricomius. mulus Amascus. * Epist. • Not b Ro f De Sabellicus. Si quis incola vetus, non agnosceret, si quis peregrinus ingemisceret. d Polit. 1. 5. c. 6. Crudelitas principum, impunitas scelerum, violatio legum peculatus pecuniæ publicæ, &c. increm. urb. cap. 20. subditi miseri, rebelles, desperati, &c. ton, 1596. conclusio libri. F 3 R. Dalling Whereas Whereas the Princes and Potentates are imiroderate in lust, Hypocrites, Epicures, of no religion, but in shew: Quid hypocrisi fragilius? what so brittle and unsure what sooner subverts their estates then wandring and raging lusts, on their subjects wives, daughters? to say no worse. That they should facem præferre, lead the way to all vertuous actions, are the ringleaders oftentimes of all mischief and dissolute courses, and by that means their countries are plagued, "and they themselves often reined, banished, or murdered by conspiracy of their subjects, as Sardanapalus was, Dionysius Junior, Heliogabalus, Periander, Pisistratus, Tarquinius, Timocrates, Childe icus, Appius Claudius, Andronicus, Galeacius Sforsia, Alexander Medices," &c. Whereas the Princes or great men are malicious, envious, factious, ambitious, emulators, they tear a Common-wealth asunder, as so many Guelfes and Gebellines disturb the quietness of it, and with mutual murders let it bleed to death; our histories are too full of such barbarous inhumanities, and the miseries that issue from them. Whereas they be like so many horse-leeches, hungry, griping, corrupt, covetous, avaritia mancipia, ravenous as wolves, for as Tully writes; qui præest prodest, & qui pecudibus præest, debet eorum utilitati inservire: or such as prefer their private before the publick good. For as he said long since, res private publicis semper officere. Or whereas they be illiterate, ignorant, Empericks in policie, ubi deest facultas, virtus (Aristot. pol. 5. cap. 8.) & scientia, wise only by inheritance, and in authority by birth-right, favour, or for their wealth and titles; there must needs be a fault, a great defect: because as an old Philosopher affirins, such men are not alwaves fit. "Of an infinite number, few alone are Senators, and of those few, fewer good, and of that small number of honest good and noble men, few that are learned, wise, discreet and sufficient, able to discharge such places, it must needs turn to the confusion of a State." a n For as the Princes are, so are the people; Qualis Rex, Boterus 1. 9. c. 4. Polit. Quo fit ut aut rebus desperatis exulent, aut conjuratione subd .orum crudel.ssime andem trucidentur. Mutuis odiis & cædi. * Lucra ex mals, secleratisq; causis. Salust. bus ex austi, &c. For mos par we mistake the name of Politicians, accounting such as reade Machiavel and Taci us great statesmen, that can spute of political precepts, supplant and overthrow their adversaries, enrich themselves, get honours, dissemble; but what s this to the hene esse, or preservation of a Commonwealth? "In perium suap e sponte corruit. Apul. Frim. Flor. Ex innumcrabilibus, pauci Senatores genere nobiles, è consular bus pauci boni, è bonis ad ucaci erudi i * Non solum vitia concipiunt ipsi principes, sed etiam intundunt in civitatem, plusq; exemplo quam peccato nocent. Cic. 1. de le gibus. talis grex and which Antigonus right well said of old, qui Macedoniæ regem erudit, omnes etiam subditos erudit, he that teacheth the king of Macedon, teacheth all his subjects, is a true saying still. For Princes are the glass, the school, the book, Where subjects eyes do learn, do reade, do look. Corrumpunt vitioruin exempla domestica, magnis Their examples are soonest followed, vices entertained, if they be prophane, irreligious, lascivious, riotous, Epicures, factious, covetous, ambitious, illiterate, so will the commons most part be, idle, unthrifts, prone to lust, drunkards, and therefore poor and needy (ἡ πενία ςάσιν εμποιει καὶ κακεργίαν, for poverty begets sedition and villany) upon all occasions ready to mutine and rebel, discontent still, complaining, murmuring, grudging, apt to all outrages, thefts, treasons, murders, innovations, in debt, shifters, cozeners, outlaws, Proflagate fame ac vite. It was an old politician's Aphorism, "They that are poor and bad, envie rich, hate good men, abhor the present government, wish for a new, and would have all turned topsie turvie." When Cateline rebelled in Rome, he got a company of such deboshed rogues together, they were his familiars and coadjutors, and such have been your rebels most part in all ages, Jack Cade, Tom Straw, Kette, and his companions. Where they be generally riotous and contentious, where there be many discords, many laws, many law-suits, many Lawyers, and many Physicians, it is a manifest sign of a distempered, melancholy state, as d Plato long since maintained: for where such kinde of men swarm, they will make more work for themselves, and that body politick diseased, which was otherwise sound. A general mischief in these our times, an unsensible plague, and never so many of them: " which are now multiplyed (saith Mat. Geraldus, a Lawyer himself,) as so many Locusts, not the parents, but the plagues of the Country, and for the most part a supercilious, bad, covetous, litigious generation of men. Crumenimulgu natio, &c. A pursemilking nation, a clamorous company, gowned vultures, & qui Epist. ad Zen. Juven. Sat. 4. Paupertas seditionem gignit & maleficium, Arist. pol. 2. c. 7. Salust. Semper in civitate quibus opes nullæ sunt bonis invident, vetera odere, nova exoptant, odio suaruin reru mutari omnia petunt. 4 De legibus. profligate in repub. disciplinæ est indicium jurisperitorum numerus, & medicorú copia. In præf. stud. juris. Mul.iplicantur nunc in terris ut locustæ non patriæ parentes, sed pestes, pessimi homines, majore ex f Dousa parta superciliosi, contentiosi, &c. licitum latrocinium exercent. • Barc. Argen. epid. loquieleia turba, vultures togati. F4 ex |