"* Hæc est illa cui famulatur maximus orbis, This is the great Goddess we adore and worship, this is the sole object of our desire. If we have it, as we think, we are made for ever, thrice happy, Princes, Lords, &c. If we lose it, we are dull, heavy, dejected, discontent, miserable, desperate and mad. Our estate and benè esse ebbs and flows with our commodity; and as we are endowed or enriched, so are we beloved and esteemed: it lasts no longer then our wealth; when that is gone, and the object removed, farewell friendship: as long as bounty, good cheer, and rewards were to be hoped, friends enough; they were tied to thee by the teeth, and would follow thee as Crows do a Carcass: but when thy goods are gone and spent, the lamp of their love is out, and thou shalt be contemned, scorned, hated, injured. Lucian's Timon, when he lived in prosperity, was the sole spectacle of Greece, onely admired; who but Timon? Every body loved, honoured, applauded him, each man offered him his service, and sought to be kin to him; but when his gold was spent, his fair possessions gone, farewell Timon: none so ugly, none so deformed, so odious an object as Timon, no man so ridiculous on a sudden, they gave him a penny to buy a rope, no man would know him. 'Tis the generall humour of the world, commodity steers our affections throughout, we love those that are fortunate and rich, that thrive, or by whom we may receive mutuall kindness, hope for like curtesies, get any good, gain, or profit; hate those, and abhor on the other side, which are poor and miserable, or by whom we may sustain loss or inconvenience. And even those that were now familiar and dear unto us, our loving and long friends, neighbours, kinsmen, allies, with whom we have conversed and lived as so many Geryons for some years past, striving still to give one another all good content and entertainment, with mutual invitations, feastings, disports, offices, for whom we would ride, run, spend our selves, and of whom we have so freely and honourably spoken, to whom we have given all those turgent titles, and magnificent elogiums, most excellent and most noble, worthy, wise, grave, learned, valiant, &c. and magnified beyond measure: If any controversie arise betwixt us, some trespass, injury, abuse, some part of our goods be detained, a peece of Land come to be litigious, if they cross us in our suit, or touch the string of our commodity, we detest and depress them upon a * Joh. Secund. lib. sylvarum, Lucianus Timon. sudden: If our sudden: neither affinity, consanguinity, or old acquaintance can contain us, but rupto jecore exierit Caprificus. A golden apple sets altogether by the ears, as if a marrow bone, or hony-. comb were flung amongst Bears: Father and Son, Brother and Sister, kinsemen are at odds: and look what malice, deadly hatred can invent, that shall be done, Terribile, dirum, pestilens, atrox, ferum, mutuall injuries, desire of revenge, and how to hurt them, him and his, are all our studies. pleasures be interrupt, we can tolerate it: our bodies hurt, we can put it up and be reconciled: but touch our commodities, we are most impatient: fair becomes foul, the Graces are turned to Harpyes, friendly salutations to bitter imprecations, mutuall feastings to plotting villanies, minings and counterminings; good words to Satyres and invectives, we revile è contra, nought but his imperfections are in our eyes, he is a base knave, a Divel, a Monster, a Caterpillar, a Viper, an Hogrubber, &c. "Desinit in piscem mulier formosa supernè:" The Scene is altered on a sudden, love is turned to hate, mirth to melancholy so furiously are we most part bent, our affections fixed upon this object of commodity, and upon money, the desire of which in excess is covetousness: Ambition tyrannizeth over our souls, as I have shewed, and in defect crucifies as much, as if a man by negligence, ill husbandry, improvidence, prodigality, waste and consume his goods and fortunes, beggery followes, and melancholy, he becomes an abject, odious and "worse then an Infidel, in not providing for his family." SUBSECT. II. Pleasant Objects of Love. PLEASANT Objects are infinite, whether they be such as have life, or be without life: Inanimate are Countries, Provinces, Towers, Towns, Cities, as he said, Pulcherrimam insulam videmus, etiam cum non videmus, we see a fair Island by description, when we see it not. The Sun never saw a fairer City, Thessala Tempe, Orchards, Gardens, pleasant walks, Groves, Fountains, &c. The heaven it self is said to be fair or foul: fair buildings, fair pictures, all artificiall, elaborate and curious works, clothes, give an admirable lustre: we admire, and gaze upon them, ut pueri Junonis avem, as children do on a Peacock: A fair Dog, a fair Horse and Hawk, &c. a Thessalus amat equum pullinum, bucu lum Egyptius, Lacedæmonius Catulum, &c. such things we love, are most gracious in our sight, acceptable unto us, and whatsoever else may cause this passion, if it be superfluous or immoderately loved, as Guianerius observes. These things in themselves are pleasing and good, singular ornaments, necessary, comely, and fit to be had; but when we fix an immoderate eye, and dote on them over much, this pleasure may turn to pain, bring much sorrow and discontent unto us, work our finall overthrow, and cause melancholy in the end. Many are carried away with those bewitching sports of gaming, hawking, hunting, and such vain pleasures, as I have said: some with immoderate desire of fame, to be crowned in the Olympicks, knighted in the field, &c. and by these means ruinate themselves. The lascivious dotes on his fair mistress, the Glutton on his dishes, which are infinitely varied to please the palate, the Epicure on his severall pleasures, the superstitious on his Idoll, and fats himself with future joys, as Turks feed themselves with an imaginary persuasion of a sensuall Paradise: so several pleasant objects, diversly affect divers men. But the fairest objects and enticings proceed from men themselves, which most frequently captivate, allure, and make them dote beyond all measure upon one another, and that for many respects: First, as some suppose, by that secret force of stars, (quod me tibi temperat astrum?) They do singularly dote on such a man, hate such again, and can give no reason for it. Non amo te Sabidi, &c. Alexander admired Ephestion, Adrian Antinous, Nero Sporus, &c. The Physitians refer this to their temperament, Astrologers to trine and sextile Aspects, or opposite of their severall Ascendents, Lords of their genitures, love and hatred of Planets; + Cicogna, to concord and discord of Spirits; but most to outward Graces. A merry companion is welcome and acceptable to all men, and therefore saith Gomesius, Princes and great men entertain Jesters and Players commonly in their Courts. But I Pares cum paribus fácillime congregantur, tis that sinilitude of manners, which ties most men in an inseparable link, as if they be addicted to the * Cœlum serenum, cœlum visu fædum. Polid. lib. 1. de Anglia. equidem vivos ducent e marmore vultus. Se. 2. memb. 3. d • Credo b Part. 1. • De sale Max. Tyrius scr. 9. d Mart. +Omnif. mag. lib. 12. cap. 3. Theod. Prodromus amor lib. 3. ↑ Similitudo morum same same studies or disports, they delight in one another's companies, "birds of a feather will gather together:" if they be of divers inclinations, or opposite in manners, they can seldome agree. Secondly, affability, custome and familiarity, may convert nature many times, though they be different in manners, as if they be Country-men, fellow-students, colleagues, or have been fellow-souldiers, brethren in affliction, (*acerba calamitatum societas, diversi etiam ingenii homines conjungit) affinity, or some such accidentall occasion, though they cannot agree amongst themselves, they will stick together like burrs, and hold against a third: so after some discontinuance, or death, enmity ceaseth; or in a forrain place: "Pascitur in vivis livor, post fata quiescit : Et cecidêre odia, & tristes mors obruit iras." A third cause of love and hate, may be mutuall offices, acceptum beneficium, commend him, use him kindly, take his part in a quarrell, relieve him in his misery, thou winnest him for ever; do the opposite, and be sure of a perpetuall enemy. Praise and dispraise of each other, do as much, though unknown, as Schoppius by Scaliger and Casaubonus: mulus mulum scabit; who but Scaliger with him? what Encomions, Epithetes, Elogiums? Antistes sapientiæ, perpetuus dictator, literarum ornamentum, Europe miraculum, noble Scaliger, incredibilis ingenii præstantia, &c. diis potius quam hominibus per omnia comparandus, scripta ejus aurea ancylia de calo delapsa poplitibus veneramur flexis, &c. but when they began to vary, none so absurd as Scaliger, so vile and base, as his books de Burdonum familia and other Satyrical invectives may witness. Ovid. in Ibin, Archilocus himself was not so bitter. Another great tye or cause of love, is consanguinity; Parents are dear to their children, children to their parents,,: brothers and sisters, cosens of all sorts, as an hen and chickens, all of a knot: every Crow thinks her own bird fairest. Many memorable examples are in this kinde, and tis portenti similé, if they do not: "ta mother cannot forget her child," Salomon so found out the true owner: love of parents may not be concealed, 'tis naturall, descends, and they that are inhumane Vives 3. de Anima. h Qui simul fecere naufragium, aut una pertulere vincula vel consilii conjurationisve societate junguntur, invicem amant: Brutum et Cassium invicem infensos Cæsarianus dominatus conciliavit. Emilius Lépidus et Julius Flaccus, quum essent inimicissimi, censores renunciati simultates illico deposuere. Scultet. cap. 4. de causa Amor. * Papinius 3 Isocrates Demonico præcipit ut quum alicujus amicitiam vellet, illum laudet, quod laus initium amoris sit, vituperatio simultatuin. *Suspect. lect. lib. 1. cap. 2. + Isay 49. in in this kinde, are unworthy of that air they breath, and of the four elements; yet many unnaturall examples we have in this rank, of hard-hearted parents, disobedient children, of 'disagreeing brothers, nothing so common. The love of kinsmen 66 111 is grown cold, many kinsmen (as the saying is) few friends;" if thine estate be good, and thou able, par pari referre, to requite their kindness, there will be mutuall correspondence, otherwise thou art a burden, most odious to them above all others. The last object that tyes man and man, is comeliness of person, and beauty alone, as men love women with a wanton eye: which xxl'ox is termed Heroicall, or Love Melancholy. Other loves (saith Picolomineus) are so called with some contraction, as the love of wine, gold, &c. but this of women is predominant in an higher strain, whose part affected is the liver, and this love deserves a longer explication, and shall be dilated apart in the next Section. SUBSECT. III. Honest objects of Love. BEAUTY is the common object of all love, ❝ as jet draws a straw, so doth beauty love:" vertue and honesty are great motives, and give as fair a lustre as the rest, especially if they be sincere and right, not fucate, but proceeding from true. form, and an incorrupt judgement; Those two Venus twins, Eros and Anteros, are then most firm and fast. For many times otherwise men are deceived by their flattering Gnathoes, dissembling Camelions, outsides, hypocrites that make a shew of great love, learning, pretend honesty, vertue, zeal, modesty, with affected looks and counterfeit gestures: fained protestations often steal away the hearts and favours of men, and deceive them, specie virtutis & umbra, when as reverà and indeed, there is no worth or honesty at all in them, no truth, but meer hypocrisie, subtilty, knavery, and the like. As true friends they are, as he that Cælius Secundus met by the high way side, and hard it is in this temporising age to distinguish such companions, or to finde them out. Such Gnathoes as these for the most part belong to great men, and by this glozing flattery, affability, and such like philters, so dive and insinuate into their favours, that they are taken for men of excellent worth, wisdome, learning, demi-Gods, and so screw themselves into dignities, honours, offices: but these men Rara est concordia fratrum. Grad. 1. cap. 22. ma, ut palcam succinum sic formam amor trahit. • Vives 3. de Aai cause |