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Idleness overthrows all, Vacuo pectore regnat amor, love tyrannizeth in an idle person. Amore abundas Antipho. If thou hast nothing to do,

« Invidiâ vel amore miser torquebere"

Thou shalt be haled in pieces with envy, lust, some passion or other. Homines nihil agendo malè agere discunt; 'Tis Aristotle's simile, 66 t as match or touchwood takes fire, so

doth an idle person love."

Quæritur Ægistus quare sit factus adulter," &c.

why was Ægistus a whoremaster? You need not ask a reason of it. Ismenedora stole Baccho, a woman forced a man, as * Aurora did Cephalus: No marvel, saith "Plutarch, Luxurians opibus more hominum mulier agit: She was rich, fortunate and jolly, and doth but as men do in that case, as Jupiter did by Europa, Neptune by Amymone. The Poets therefore did well to feign all Shepheards Lovers, to give themselves to songs and dalliances, because they lived such idle lives. For love, as + Theophrastus defines it, is otiosi animi affectus, an affection of an idle minde, or as Seneca describes it, Juventá gignitur, juxu nutritur, feriis alitur, otioq; inter læta fortune bone; Youth begets it, riot maintains it, idle. ness nourisheth it, &c. which makes Gordonius the Physitian cap. 20. part. 2. calls this disease the proper passion of Nobility. Now if a weak judgment and a strong apprehension do concur, how, saith Hercules de Saxonia, shall they resist? Savanarola appropriates it almost to "y Monks, Friers, and religious persons, because they live solitary, fare daintily, and do nothing" and well he may, for how should they otherwise choose?

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Diet alone is able to cause it: A rare thing to see a young man or a woman that lives idly, and fares well, of what condition soever, not to be in love. Alcibiades was still dallying with wanton young women, immoderate in his expences, effeminate in his apparel, ever in love, but why? he was over deicate in his diet, too frequent and excessive in banquets. Ubicunq; securitas, ibi libido dominatur; lust and security do

• Hor. 'Polit. 8. num. 28. ut naptha. ad ignem, sic amor ad illos qui, torpescunt ocio. * Pausanias Attic. lib. 1. Cephalus egregiæ formæ juvenis ab aurora raptus quod ejus amore capta esset. In amatorio, +E. Stobao ser. 62. Amor otiosæ cura est sollicitudinis. x Principes plerumq; ob licentiam & adfluentiam divitiarum istam passionem solent incurrere. y Ardenter appetit qui otiosam vitam agit, & communiter incurrit hæc passio solitarios delitiose viventes, incontinentes, religiosos, &c. § Plutarch. vit, ejus.

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mineer together, as S. Hierome averreth. All which the wife of Bath in Chaucer freely justifies.

For all to sicker, as cold engendreth hail,

A liquorish tongue must have a liquorish tail. Especially if they shall further it by choice Diet, as many times those Sybarites and Phæaces do, feed liberally, and by their good will eat nothing else but lascivious meats. * Vinum imprimis generosum, legumen, fabas, radices omnium generum benè conditas, & largo pipere aspersas, carduos hortulanos, lactucas, erucas, rapas, porros, cæpas, nucem piceam, amygdalas dulces, electuaria, syrupos, succos, cochleas, conchas, pisces optimè præparatos, aviculas, testiculos animalium, ova, condimenta diversorum generum, molles lectos, pulvinaria, &c. Et quicquid ferè medici impotentia rei venerea laboranti præscribunt, hoc quasi diasatyrion habent in delitiis, & his dapes multò delicatiores; mulsum, exquisitas & exoticas fruges, aromata, placentas, expressos succos multis ferculis variatos, ipsumque vinum suavitate vincentes, & quicquid culina, pharmacopea, aut quæque ferè officina subministrare possit. Et hoc plerumque victu quum se ganeones infarciant, ut ille ob Chreseida suam, se bulbis & cochleis curavit; etiam ad Venerem se parent, & ad hanc palestram se exerceant, qui fieri possit, ut non miserè depereant, ut non penitus insaniant? Estuans venter cito despuit in libidinem, Hieronymus ait. < Post prandia, Callyroenda. Quis enim continere se potest? Luxuriosa res vinum, fomentum libidinis vocat Augustinus, blandum dæmonem, Bernardus; lac veneris, Aristophanes. Non Etna, non Vesuvius tantis ardoribus æstuant, ac juveniles medullæ vino plenæ, addit Hieronymus: unde ob optimum vinum Lamsacus olim Priapo sacer: & venerandi Bacchi socia, apud + Orpheum Venus audit. Hæc si vinum simplex, & per se sumptum præstare possit, nam- quo me Bacche rapis tui plenum? quam non insaniam, quem non furorem à cæteris expectemus? Gomesius salem enumerat inter ea quæ intempestivam libidinem provocare solent, Et salaciores fieri fœminas ob esum salis contendit: Venerem ideo dicunt ab Oceano ortam,

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a

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* Vina parant animos vencri. • Sed nihil erucæ faciunt bulbiq; salaces ; Improba nec prosit jam satureia tibi. Ovid. Petronius. Curavi me mox

cibis validioribus, &c. Uti ille apud Skenkium, qui post potionem, uxorem & quatuor ancillas proximo cubiculo cubantes, compressit. Siracides. Nox, & amor vinumq; nihil moderabile suadent.

ad Olympiam.

Sat. 3.

cap. 21.

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c Pers. e Lip. f De sale lib.

"Unde

"Unde tot in Veneta scortorum millia cur sunt?
In promptu causa est, est Venus orla mari."

Et hinc fœta mater Salacea Oceani conjux, verbumque fortasse salax à sale effluxit. Mala Bacchica tantum olim in amoribus prævaluerunt, ut coronæ ex illis statue Bacchi ponerentur. & Cubebis in vino maceratis utuntur Indi Orientales ad Venerem excitandum, & Surax radice Africani. China radix eosdem effectus habet, talisque herba meminit mag. nat. lib. 2. cap. 16. + Baptista Porta ex India allata, cujus mentionem facit & Theophrastus. Sed infinita his sianilia apud Rhasin, Matthiolum, Mizaldum, cæterosque medicos occurrunt, quorum ideò mentionem feci, ne quis imperitior in hos scopulos impingat, sed pro virili tanquam syrtes & cautes consultò effugiat.

MEMB. II. SUBSECT, II.

Other causes of Love-Melancholy, Sight, Beauty from the face, eyes, other parts, and how it pierceth,

ANY such causes may be reckoned up, but they cannot

avail, except opportunity be offered of time, place, and those other beautiful objects, or artificial enticements, as kissing, conference, discourse, gestures concur, with such like lascivious provocations. Kornmannus in his book de linea amoris makes five degrees of lust, out of Lucian belike, which he handles in five Chapters,

"Visus, Colloquium, Convictus, Oscula, Tactus."

Sight, of all other, is the first step of this unruly love, though sometime it be prevented by relation or hearing, or rather incensed. For there be those so apt, credulous, and facile to love, that if they hear of a proper man, or woman, they are in love before they see them, and that meerly by relation, as Achilles Tatius observes. Such is their intemperance and lust, that they are as much maimed by report, as if they saw them. Calisthenes a rich young gentleman of Byzance in

*Kornmannus lib. de virginitate.

Garcias ab horto aromatum, lib. 1; cap. 28. Surax radix ad coitum summe facit si quis comedat, aut infusionem bibat, membrum subito erigitur. Leo Afer. lib. 9. cap. ult. + Quæ non solum edentibus sed & genitale tangentibus tantum valet, ut coire summe desiderent; quoties fere velint, possint; alios duodecies profecisse, alios ad 60 vices pervenisse refert. iLucian. Tom. 4. Dial. amorum. *Ea enim hominum intemperantium libido est ut etiam fama ad amandum impellantur, & audientes æquè afficiuntur ac videntes.

Thrace,

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Thrace, hearing of 'Leucippe, Sostratus' fair daughter, was far in love with her, and, out of fame and common rumour, so much incensed, that he would needs have her to be his wife." And sometimes by reading they are so affected, as he in " Lucian confesseth of himself, "I never read that place of Panthea in Xenophon, but I am as much affected as if I were present with her." Such persons commonly " fain a kind of beauty to themselves; and so did those three gentlewomen in Balthasar Castilio fall in love with a yong man whom they never knew, but only heard him commended: or by reading of a letter; for there is a grace cometh from hearing, P as a moral Philosopher informeth us, as "well as from sight; and the species of love are received into the phantasie by relation alone;"Ut cupere ab aspectu, sic velle ab auditu, both senses affect. Interdum & absentes amamus, sometimes we love those that are absent, saith Philostratus, and gives instance in his friend Athenodorus, that lov'd a maid at Corinth whom he never saw; non oculi sed mens videt, We see with the eyes of our understanding.

But the most familiar and usual cause of Love, is that which comes by sight, which conveys those admirable rayes of beauty and pleasing graces to the heart, Plotinus derives love from sight, έρως quasi ὅρασις,

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Si nescis, oculi sunt in amore duces,"

the eys are the harbingers of love, and the first step of love is sight, as Lilius Giraldus proves at large, hist. deor. syntag. 13. they as two sluces let in the influences of that divine, powerful, soul-ravishing, and captivating beauty, which, as one saith, "is sharper than any dart or needle, wounds deeper into the heart; and opens a gap through our eys to that lovely wound, which pierceth the soul it self (Eccles. 18.) Through it love is kindled like a fire. This amazing, confounding, admirable, amiable Beauty, *" then which in all Nature's treasure (saith Isocrates) there is nothing so majestical and sacred, nothing so divine, lovely, pretious," 'tis nature's Crown, gold and glory; bonum si non summum, de summis tamen non infrequenter triumphans, whose power hence may be discerned;

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Formosam Sostrato filiam audiens, uxorem cupit, & sola illius, auditione ardet. Quoties de Panthea Xenophontis locum perlego, ita animo affectus ac si coram intuerer. "Pulchritudinem sibi ipsis confingunt, Imagines. ⚫De aulico lib. 2. fol. 116. 'tis a pleasant story, and related at large by him. ▸ Gratia venit ab auditu æquè ac visu, & species amoris in phantasiam recipiunt sola relatione. Picolomineus grad, 8. c. 38. 9 Lips cent. 2. epist. 22.

Beautie's Encomions.

aspiciat rem amatam.

* Propert. • Amoris primum gradum visus habet, ut Achilles Tatius lib. 1. Forma telo quovis acutior ad inferendum vulnus, perq: oculos amatorio vulneri aditum patefaciens in aniIn totâ rerum natura nihil forma divinius, nihil augus

mum penetrat.

țius, nihil pretiosius, cujus vires hinc facile intelliguntur, &c,

We

we contemn and abhor generally such things as are foul and ugly to behold, accompt them filthy, but love and covet that which is fair. 'Tis beauty in all things, which pleaseth and allureth us, a fair hawk, a fine garment, a goodly building, a fair house, &c. That Persian Xerxes when he destroyed all those Temples of the Gods in Greece, caused that of Diana, in integrum servari, to be spared alone for that excellent beauty and magnificence of it. Inanimate beauty can so command. 'Tis that which Painters, Artificers, Orators, all aynı at, as Eriximachus the Physitian in Plato contends, "It was beauty first that ministered occasion to art, to find out the knowledge of carving, painting, building, to find out models, perspectives, rich furnitures, and so many rare inventions." Whiteness in the Lilly, red in the Rose, purple in the Violet, a lustre in all things without life, the cleer light of the Moon, the bright beams of the Sun, splendor of gold, purple, sparkling Diamond, the excellent feature of the Horse, the majesty of the Lion, the colour of Birds, Peacocks tails, the silver scales of Fish, we behold with singular delight and admiration. ❝y And which is rich in plants, delightful in flowers, wonderful in beasts, but most glorious in men," doth make us affect and earnestly desire it, as when we hear any sweet harmony, an eloquent tongue, see any excellent quality, curious work of man, elaborate art, or ought that is exquisite, there ariseth instantly in us a longing for the same. We love such men, but most part for comeliness of person; we call them Gods and Goddesses, divine, serene, happy, &c. And of all mortal men they alone (+Calcagninus holds) are free from calumny; qui divitiis, magistratu & gloria florent, injuriá lacessimus, we back-bite, wrong, hate renowned, rich, and happy men, we repine at their felicity, they are undeserving we think, fortune is a step-mother to us, a parent to them. "We envy (saith Isocrates) wise, just, honest men, except with mutual offices and kindnesses, some good turn or other, they extort this love from us; only fair persons we love at first sight, desire their acquaintance, and adore them as so many Gods: we had rather serve them then command others, and account ourselves the more beholding to them, the more service they enjoyn us though they be otherwise vitious, unhonest, we love them, favour them, and are ready to do them any good office

* S. L.

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*Christ. Fonseca. Bruys prob. 11. de forma è Lucianos + Lib. de calumnia. Formosi Calumninia vacant; dolemus alios meliore loco positos, fortunam nobis novercam illis, &c. Invidemus sapientibus, justis, nisi beneficiis assiduè amorem extorquent; solos formosos amamus & primo velut aspectu benevolentia conjungimur, & eos tanquam Deos colimus, libentius iis servimus quam aliis imperamus, majoremq; &c.

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