"Et multum saliens incitat unda sitim." The sight of drink makes one dry, and the sight of meat increaseth " Infirmis causa pusilla nocet, A sickly man a little thing offends, As brimstone doth a fire decayed renew, Or as the Poet compares it to embers in ashes, which the wind blows, ut solet à ventis, &c. a scald head (as the saying is) is soon broken, dry wood quickly kindles, and when they have been formerly wounded with sight, how can they by seeing but be inflamed? Ismenias acknowledgeth as much of himself, when he had been long absent, and almost forgotten his Mistriss," at the first sight of her, as straw in a fire I burned afresh, and more than ever I did before." 669 Chariclia was as much moved at the sight of her dear Theagines, after he had been a great stranger. Mertila in Aristænetus swore she would never love Pamphilus again, and did moderate her passion, so long as he was absent; but the next time he came in presence, she could not contain, effuse amplexa attrectari se sinit, &c. she broke her vow, and did profusely embrace him. Hermotinus a yong man (in the said Author) is all out as unstaid, he had forgot his Mistriss quite, and by his friends was well weaned from her love; but seeing her by chance, agnovit veteris vestigia flamme, he raved amain, Illa tamen emergens veluti lucida stella cepit elucere, &c. she did appear as a blazing star, or an Angel to his sight. And it is the common passion of all lovers to be overcome in this sort. For that cause be Seneca cont. lib. 2. cont. 9. n Ovid. • Met. 7. ut solet à ventis alimenta resumere, quæq; Pavia sub inducta latuit scintilla favilla. Crescere & in veteres agitata resurgere flammas. Eustathii 1. 3. aspectus amorem incendit, ut marcescentem in palea igncm ventus; ardebam interea majore concepto incendio. Heliodorus 1. 4. imflammat mentem novus aspectus, perinde ac ignis materiæ admotus, Chariclia, &c. Epist. 4. lib. 2. Epist. 15. 1. 2. A a 4 like like Alexander discerning this inconvenience and danger that comes by seeing, "when he heard Darius' wife so much commended for her beauty, would scarse admit her to come in his sight," foreknowing belike that of Plutarch, formosam videre periculosissimum, how full of danger it is to see a proper woman, and though he was intemperate in other things, yet in this superbè se gessit, he carried himself bravely. And so when as Araspus, in Xenophon, had so much magnified that divine face of Panthea to Cyrus," by how much she was fairer than ordinary, by so much he was the more unwilling to see her." Scipio a yong man of 23 years of age, and the most beautiful of the Romans, equal in person to that Græcian Charinus, or Homer's Nireus, at the siege of a city in Spain, when as a noble and most fair yong Gentlewoman was brought unto him, "and he had heard she was betrothed to a Lord, rewarded her, and sent her back to her sweet-heart." S. Austin, as Gregory reports of him, ne cum sorore quidem sua putavit habitandum, would not live in the house with his own sister. Xenecrates lay with Lais of Corinth all night, and would not touch her. Socrates, though all the city of Athens supposed him to dote upon fair Alcibiades, yet when he had an opportunity † solus cum solo to lye in the chamber with, and was woed by him besides, as the said Alcibiades publiquely confessed, formam sprevit & superbè contempsit, he scornfully rejected him. Petrarch that had so magnified his Laura in several poems, when by the Pope's means she was offered unto him, would not accept of her. "It is a good happiness to be free from this passion of Love, and great discretion it argues in such a man that he can so contain himself; but when thou art once in love, to moderate thyself (as he saith) is a singular point of wisdome. "§ Nam vitare plagas in amoris ne jacjamur But for as much as few men are free, so discreet lovers, or that can contain themselves, and moderate their passions, to curb their senses, as not to see them, not to look lasciviously, not to Curtius lib. 3. cum uxorem Darii laudatam audivisset, tantum cupiditati suæ frænum injecit, ut illam vix vellet intueri. Cyropædia. cum Pantheæ forman evexisset Araspus, tanto magis, inquit Cyrus, abstinere oportet, quanto pulchrior est. Livius, cum eam regulo cuidam Ep. 39. lib. 7. Platonis Convivio. ribus cumulatam remisit. amatores loqui solent. esse amoris beatitudo est; at quum captus sis, mum prudentia singularis. § Lucretius 1. 4. desponsaram audivisset munc + Et ea loqui posset quæ soli u Heliodorus lib. 4. expertem ad moderationem revocarę ani น confer confer with them, such is the fury of this head-strong passion of raging lust, and their weakness, ferox ille ardor à natura insitus, as he terms it, such a furious desire nature hath inscribed, such unspeakable delight, * "Sic Divæ Veneris furor, Insanis adeò mentibus incubat, which neither reason, counsel, poverty, pain, misery, drudgery, partus dolor, &c. can deter them from; we must use some speedy means to correct and prevent that, and all other inconveniencies, which come by conference and the like. The best, readiest, surest way, and which all approve, is Loci mutatio, to send them several ways, that they may neither hear of, see, nor have an opportunity to send to one another again, or live together, soli cum sola as so many Gilbertines. Elongatio à patria, 'tis Savanarola's fourth rule, and Gordonius' precept, distrahatur ad longinquas regiones, send him to travel. "Tis that which most run upon, as so many hounds with full cry, Poets, Divines, Philosophers, Physitians, all, mutet patriam: Valesius: X as a sick man he must be cured with change of Aire, Tully 4. Tuscul. The best remedy is to get thee gone, Jason Pratensis: change air and soyl, Laurentius. Fuge littus amatum. Virg. Utile finitimis abstinuisse locis." "Ovid. I procul, & longas carpere perge vias. sed fuge tutus eris." Travelling is an Antidote of Love, " "Magnum iter ad doctas proficisci cogor Athenas, For this purpose, saith Propertius, my parents sent me to Athens; time and patience wear away pain and grief, as fire goes out for want of fuel. "Quantum oculis, animo tam procul ibit amor." But so as they tarry out long enough: a whole year § Xenophon prescribes Critobulus, vix enim intra hoc tempus ab amore sanari poteris: some will hardly be weaned under. All this Heinsius merrily inculcates in an Epistle to his friend Pri Hædus lib. 1. de amor. contem. Loci mutatione tanquam non conva+Quisquis amat, loca nota Ire licet procul hinc patriæq; § Lib. 1. Socrat. memor. • Proximum est ut lescens curandus est. cap. 11. y Amorum 1. 2. esurias 2. ut moram temporis opponas. 3. & locum mutes. 4. ut de laqueo cogites. mierus; mierus: First fast, then tarry, thirdly change thy place, fourthly think of an halter. If change of place, continuance of time, absence, will not wear it out with those precedent remedies, it will hardly be removed: but these commonly are of force. Felix Plater observ. lib. 1. had a baker to his patient, almost mad for the love of his maid, and desperate; by removing her from him, he was in a short space cured. Isæus a Philosopher of Assyria, was a most dissolute liver in his youth, palàm la. sciviens, in love with all he met; but after he betook himself by his friends advice to his study, and left womens' companie, he was so changed that he cared no more for plays, nor feasts, nor masks, nor songs, nor verses, fine clothes, nor no such love toyes: he became a new upon a sudden, tanquam si priores oculos amisisset, (saith mine Author) as if he had lost his former eys. * Peter Godefridus, in the last chapter of his third book, hath a story out of S. Ambrose, of a yong man that meeting his old love after long absence, on whom he had extremely doted, would scarce take notice of her; she wondered at it, that he should so lightly esteem her, called him again, lenibat dictis animum, and told him who she was, Ego sum, inquit: At ego non sum ego; But he replied, he was not the same man: proripuit sese tandem, as Dido fled from † Eneas, not vouchsafing her any farther parley, loathing his folly, and ashamed of that which formerly he had done. "Non sum stultus ut ante jam Neæra,” man O Neæra, put your tricks, and practise hereafter upon somebody else, you shall befool me no longer. Petrarch hath such another tale of a yong gallant, that loved a wench with one eye, and for that cause by his parents was sent to travel into far Countries," after some years he returned, and meeting the maid for whose sake he was sent abroad, asked her how, and by what chance she lost her eye? no, said she, I have lost none, but you have found your's: Signifying thereby that all Lovers were blind, as Fabius saith, Amantes de forma judicare non possunt, Lovers cannot judge of beauty, nor scarse of any thing else, as they will easily confess after they return. unto themselves, by some discontinuance or better advice, wonder at their own folly, madness, stupidity, blindness, be much abashed," and laugh at Love, and call't an idle thing, condemn themselves that ever they should be so besotted or misled; and be heartily glad they have so happily escaped. If so be (which is seldome) that change of place will not effect this alteration, then other remedies are to be annexed, *Philostratus de vitis Sophistarum, + Virg. 6. Æn. Buchanan. fair с fair and foul means, as to perswade, promise, threaten, terrifie, or to divert by some contrarie passion, rumour, tales, news, or some witty invention to alter his affection, "b bby some greater sorrow to drive out the less," saith Gordonius, as that his house is on fire, his best friends dead, his mony stolen." That he is made some great Governour, or hath some honour, office, some inheritance is befaln him." He shall be a Knight, a Baron or by some false accusation, as they do to such as have the hickhop, to make them forget it. Saint Hierome lib. 2, epist. 16. to Rusticus the Monk, hath an instance of a yong man of Greece, that lived in a Monastery in Egypt, "d that by no labour, no continence, no perswasion could be diverted, but at last by this trick he was delivered. The Abbot sets one of his covent to quarrel with him, and with some scandalous re proach or other to defame him before company, and then to come and complain first, the witnesses were likewise suborned for the plaintiffe. The yong man wept, and when all were against him, the Abbot cunningly took his part, least he should be overcome with immoderate grief: but what need many words? By this invention he was cured, and alienated from his pristine love-thoughts.Injuries, slanders, contempts, disgraces, "spretæque injuria formæ," e are very forcible means to withdraw mens' affections, contumeliá affecti amatores amare desinunt, as Lucian saith, Lovers reviled or neglected, contemned or misused, turn Love to hate; redeam? Non si me obsecret, "I'le never love thee more." Egone illam, quæ illum, quæ me, que non? So Zephyrus hated Hyacinthus because he scorned him, and preferred his -corrival Apollo (Palephetus fab. Nar.) he will not come again though he be invited. Tell him but how he was scoffed at behind his back, ('tis the councel of Avicenna) that his Love is false, and entertains another, rejects him, cares not for him, or that she is a fool, a nasty quean, a slut, a fixen, a scold, a divel, or, which Italians commonly do, that he or she hath some loathsome filthy disease, gout, stone, strangury, falling sickness, and that they are hereditary, not to be avoided, he is subject to a consumption, hath the Pox, that he hath three or four incurable tetters, issues; that she is bald, her breath stinks, she d Adolescens ▸ Annuncientur valde tristia, ut major tristitia possit minorem obfuscare. • Aut quod sit factus seneseallus, aut habcat honorem magnum. Græcus erat in Egypti coenobio qui nulla operis magnitudine, nulla persuasione flammam poterat sedare: monasterii pater hac arte servavit. Imperat cuidam è sociis, &c. Flebat ille, omnes adversabantur; solus pater callidè opponere, në abundantia tristitiæ absorberetur, quid multa? hoc invento curatus est, & à cogitationibus pristinis avocatus. • Tom. 4. Ter. |