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that young men's bowels thus enamoured, are so continually tormented by love." Gordonius cap. 2. part. 2. " will have the testicles an immediate subject or cause, the liver an antecedent." Fracastorius agrees in this with Gordonius, inde primitus imaginatio venerea, erectio, &c. titillatissimam partem vocat, ita ut nisi extruso semine gestiens voluptas non cessat, nec assidua veneris recordatio, addit Gnastivinius Comment. 4. Sect. prob. 27. Arist. But properly it is a passion of the brain, as all other melancholy, by reason of corrupt imagination, and so doth Jason Pratensis c. 19. de morb. cerebri, (who writes copiously of this Erotical love) place and reckon it amongst the affections of the brain. Melancthon de anima confutes those that make the liver a part affected, and Guianerius Tract. 15. cap. 13. & 17. though many put all the affections in the heart, refers it to the brain. Ficinus cap. 7. in Convivium Platonis, "will have the blood to be the part affected." Jo. Frietagius cap. 14. noct. med. supposeth all four affected, heart, liver, brain, blood; but the major part concur upon the brain, 'tis imaginatio lesa; and both imagination and reason are misaffected; because of his corrupt judgement, and continuall meditation of that which he desires, he may truly be said to be melancholy. If it be violent, or hist disease inveterate, as I have determined in the precedent partitions, both imagination and reason are misaffected, first one, then the other.

d

MEMB. II. SUBSECT. I:

Causes of Heroicall love, Temperature, full Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, &c.

OF

are most to

с

Fall causes the remotest are stars. Ficinus cap. 19. saith they are most prone to this burning lust, that have Venus in Lee in their Horoscope, when the Moon and Venus be mutually aspected, or such as be of Venus' complexion. * Plutarch interprets Astrologically that tale of Mars and Venus, "in whose genitures and are in conjunction," they are

. Cap.

• Testiculi quoad causam conjunctam, epar antecedentem, possunt esse sub. jectum. Propriè passio cerebri est ob corruptam imaginationem. de affectibus. Est corruptio imaginativæ & æstimativæ facultatis, ob for. mam fortiter affixam, corruptumq; judicium, ut semper de eo cogitet, ideoq; recte melancholicus appellatur. Concupiscentia vehemens ex corrupto judico æstimativæ virtutis. • Comment. in. convivium Platonis. Irretiuntur cito quibus nascentibus Venus fuerit in Leone, vel Luna venerem vehementer aspexerit, & qui eadem complexione sunt præditi, f Plerumq; amatores sunt,

& si fœminæ meretrices, 1. de audiend.

VOL. II.

P

commonly

"as the good

commonly lascivious, and if women, queanes;
wife of Bath confessed in Chaucer;"

I followed ape mine inclination,
Bp vertue of mp constellation.

*

But of all those Astrological Aphorisms which I have ever read, that of Cardan is most memorable, for which howsoever he be bitterly censured by Marinus Marcennus, a malapert Frier, and some others (which + he himself suspected), yet me thinks it is free, down right, plain and ingenuous. In his ‡ eighth Geniture or example, he hath these words of himself. & in dignitatibus assiduam mihi Venereorum cogitationem præstabunt, ita ut nunquam quiescam. Et paulo post, Cogitatio Venereorum me torquet perpetuò, & quam facto implere non licuit, aut fecisse potentem puduit, cogitatione assiduá mentitus sum voluptatem. Et alibi, ob & dominium & radiorum mixtionem, profundum fuit ingenium, sed lascivum, egoq; turpi libidini deditus & obscenus. So far Cardan of himself, quod de se fatetur ideo ut utilitatem adferat studiosis hujusce discipline, and for this he is traduced by Marcennus, when as in effect he saith no more then what Gregory Nazianzen of old, to Chilo his scholar, offerebant se mihi visende mulieres, quarum præcellenti elegantia & decore spectabili tentabatur meæ integritas pudicitia. Et quidem flagitium vitavi fornicationis, at munditiæ virginalis florem arcana cordis cogitatione fadavi. Sed ad rem. Aptiores ad masculinam venerem sunt quorum genesi Venus est in signo masculino, & in Saturni finibus aur oppositione, &c. Ptolomæus in quadripart. plura de his & specialia habet Aphorismata, longo proculdubio usu confirmata, et ab experientia multa perfecta, inquit commentator ejus Cardanus. Tho. Campanella Astrologiæ lib. 4. cap. 8. articulis 4. & 5. insaniam amatoriam remonstrantia, multa præ cæteris accumulat aphorismata, quæ qui volet, consulat. Chiromantici ex cingulo Veneris plerumq; conjecturam faciunt, et monte Veneris, de quorum decretis, Taisnerum, Johan. de Indagine, Goclenium, ceterosq; si lubet, inspicias. Physitians divine wholly from the temperature and complexion; Phlegmatic persons are seldom taken, according to Ficinus Comment. cap. 9.; naturally melancholy less than they, but once taken they are never freed; though many are of opinion flatuous or hypocondriacal melancholy are most subject of all others to this infirmity. Valescus

Et si in hoc parum à præclara infamia
Edit. Basil. 1553. Cum Com◄

* Comment in Genes, cap. 3. stultitiaq; abero, vincit tamen amor veritatis. mentar. in Ptolemæi quadripartitum.

Fol. 445. Basil. Edit.

assigns

*

assigns their strong imagination for a cause, Bodine abundance of wind, Gordonius of seed, and spirits, or atomi in the seed, which cause their violent and furious passions. Sanguine thence. are soon caught, young folks most apt to love, and by their good wills, saith Lucian, "would have a bout with every one they see:" the colt's evil is common to all complexions. Theomestus a young and lusty gallant acknowledgeth (in the said Author) all this to be verified in him, " I am so amorously given, you may sooner number the Sea sands, and snow falling from the skies, then my severall loves. Cupid had shot all his arrows at me, I am deluded with various desires, one love succeeds another, and that so soon, that before one is ended, I begin with a second; she that is last is still fairest, and she that is present pleaseth me most: as an Hydra's head my loves increase, no Iolaus can help me. Mine eys are so moist a refuge and sanctuary of love, that they draw all beauties to them, and are never satisfied. I am in a doubt what fury of Venus this should be: Alas, how have I offended her so to vex me, what Hippolitus am I!" What Telchin is my Genius? or is it a natural imperfection, an hereditary passion? Another in †Anacreon confesseth that he had twenty sweet-hearts in Athens at once, fifteen at Corinth, as many at Thebes, at Lesbos, and at Rhodes, twice as many in Ionia, thrice in Caria, twenty thousand in all: or in a word, & Qúhha návтa, &c.

"Folia arborum omnium si

Nôsti referre cuncta,

Aut computare arenas
In æquore universas,

Solum meorum amorum
Te fecero logistam?"

Canst count the leaves in May,
Or sands i'th' Ocean Sea,
Then count my loves I pray.

His eys are like a ballance, apt to propend each way, and to be weighed down with every wench's looks, his heart a weathercock, his affection tinder, or Napthe it self, which every fair object, sweet smile, or mistris' favor sets on fire. Guianerius tract. 15. cap. 14. refers all this to "the hot temperature of the testicles," Ferandus a Frenchman in his Erotique Mel.

▲ Dial. amorum. * Citiùs maris Aluctus & nives cœlo delabentes numeraris, quam amores meos; Alii amores aliis succedunt, ac priusquam desinant priores, incipiunt sequentes. Adeo humidis oculis meus inhabitat Asylus omnem formam ad se rapiens, ut nullâ satietate expleatur. Quænam hæc ira Veneris, &C. + Num. 32. Qui Calidum testiculorum crisin habent, &c.

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(which book came first to my hands after the third Edition)
to certain atomi in the seed, "such as are very spermatick and
full of seed." I finde the same in Aristot. sect. 4. prob. 17.
si non secernatur semen, cessare tentigines non possunt, as
Gaustavinius his Commentator translates it; for which cause
these yong men, that be strong set, of able bodies, are so sub-
ject to it. Hercules de Saxonia hath the same words in ef-
fect. But most part I say, such are aptest to love that are
young and lusty, live at ease, staul-fed, free from cares, like
cattle in a rank pasture, idle and solitary persons, they must
needs hirquitullire, as Guastavinius recites out of Censorinus.
"Mens erit apta capi tum quum lætissima rerum.
Ut seges in pingui luxuriabit humo."

The minde is apt to lust, and hot or cold,
As corn luxuriates in a better mold.

The place it self makes much wherein we live, the clime, air, and discipline if they concur. In our Misnia, saith Galen, neer to Pergamus, thou shalt scarce finde an adulterer, but many at Rome, by reason of the delights of the seat. It was that plenty of all things, which made + Corinth so infamous of old, and the opportunity of the place to entertain those forraign commers; every day strangers came in, at each gate, from all quarters. In that one Temple of Venus a thousand whores did prostitute themselves, as Strabo writes, besides Lais and the rest of better note: All nations resorted thither, as to a school of Venus. Your hot and Southern countries are prone to lust, and far more incontinent, then those that live in the North, as Bodine discourseth at large, Method. hist. cap. 5. Molles Asiatici, so are Turks, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, even all that latitude and in those Tracts, such as are more fruitful, plentiful, and delitious, as Valence in Spain, Capua in Italy, domicilium lurus Tully terms it, and (which Hannibal's souldiers can witness) Canopus in Egypt, Sybaris, Phocacia, Baiæ, Cyprus, Lampsacus. In Naples the fruits of the soyl and pleasant air enervate their bodies, and alter constitutions: insomuch, that Florus calls it Certamen Bacchi & Veneris, but Foliot admires it. In Italy and Spain they have their stews in every

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*Printed at Paris 1624. seven years after my first Edition. k Ovid de art. + Gerbelius descript. Græciæ. Rerum omnium affluentia & loci mira opporinnitas, nullo non die hospites in portas advertebant. Templo Veneris mille meretrices se prostituebant. Tota Cypri insula delitiis incumbit, & ob id tantum luxuriæ dedita ut sit olim Veneri sacrata. Ortelius, Lampsacus olim Priapo sacer ob vinum generosum, & loci delitias. Idem.、 Agri Neapolitani delectatio, elegantia, amoenitas, vix intra modum humanum consistere videtur; unde, &c. Leand. Alber. in Campania. Lib. de laud. urb. Neap. Disputat, de morbis animi, Reinoldo Interpret.

great

great city, as in Rome, Venice, Florence, wherein, some say, dwell ninety thousand Inhabitants, of which ten thousand are Curtizans; and yet for all this, every Gentleman almost hath a peculiar Mistris; fornications, adulteries are nowhere so common: urbs est jam tota lupanar; how should a man live honest amongst so many provocations? now if vigor of youth, greatness, liberty I mean, and that impunity of sin which grandies take unto themselves in this kinde shall meet, what a gap must it needs open to all manner of vice, with what fury will it rage? For, as Maximus Tyrius the Platonist observes, libido consequuta quum fuerit materiam improbam, & præruptam licentiam, & effrenatam audaciam, &c. what will not lust effect in such persons? For commonly Princes and great men make no scruple at all of such matters, but with that whore in Spartian, quicquid libet licet, they think they may do what they list, profess it publikely, and rather brag with Proculus (that writ to a friend of his in Rome, "what famous exploits he had done in that kind) then any way be abashed at it. Nicholas Sanders relates of Henry the 8th. (I know not how truly) Quod paucas vidit pulchriores quas non concupierit, & paucissimas non concupieret quas non violarit, He saw very few maids that he did not desire, and desired fewer whom he did not enjoy nothing so familiar amongst them, 'tis most of their business: Sardanapalas, Messalina, and Jone of Naples, are not comparable to P meaner men and women; Solomon of old had a thousand Concubines; Assuerus his Eunuches and keepers; Nero his Tigillinus Panders, and Bawds; the Turks, Muscovites, Mogors, Xeriffs of Barbary, and Persian Sophies, are no whit inferior to them in our times. Delectus fit omnium puellarum toto regno formá præstantiorum (saith Jovius) pro imperatore; & quas ille linquit, nobiles habent; They press and muster up wenches as we do souldiers, and have their choice of the rarest beauties their countries can afford, and yet all this cannot keep them from adultery, incest, sodomy, buggery, and such prodigious lusts. We may conclude, that if they be yong, fortunate, rich, high-fed, and idle withall, it is almost impossible they should live honest, not rage, and precipitate themselves into those inconveniencies of burning

lust.

"Otium & reges prius & beatas
Perdidit urbes."

Lampridius, Quod decem noctibus centum virgines fecisset mulieres. Vita ejus. If they contain themselves, many times it is not virtutis amore; non deest voluntas sed facultas. s In Muscov.

Lesbiam.

P3

Catullus ad

Idleness

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