"Si Numerus uti censet sine amore jocisque, Nil est jucundum, vivas in amore jocisque."1 Nothing better (to conclude with Solomon, Eccles. iii. 22), "Than that a man should rejoice in his affairs." "Tis the same advice which every physician in this case rings to his patient, as Capivaccius to his, 2" avoid overmuch study and perturbations of the mind, and as much as in thee lies, live at heart's-ease;" Prosper Calenus to that melancholy Cardinal Cæsius, 3" amidst thy serious studies and business, use jests and conceits, plays and toys, and whatsoever else may recreate thy mind." Nothing better than mirth and merry company in this malady. "It begins with sorrow (saith Montanus), it must be expelled with hilarity." 4.66 5 But see the mischief; many men, knowing that merry company is the only medicine against melancholy, will therefore neglect their business; and in another extreme, spend all their days among good fellows in a tavern or an alehouse, and know not otherwise how to bestow their time but in drinking; maltworms, men-fishes, or water-snakes, Qui bibunt solum ranarum more, nihil comedentes, like so many frogs in a puddle. 'Tis their sole exercise to eat, and drink; to sacrifice to Volupia, Rumina, Edulica, Potina, Mellona, is all their religion. They wish for Philoxenus's neck, Jupiter's trinoctium, and that the sun would stand still as in Joshua's time, to satisfy their lust, that they might dies noctesque pergræcuri et bibere. Flourishing wits, and men of good parts, good fashion, and good worth, basely prostitute themselves to every rogue's company, to take tobacco and drink, to roar and sing scurrilous songs in base places. 6"Invenies aliquem cum percussore jacentem, 1"If the world think that nothing can be happy without love and mirth, then live in joy and jollity." 2 Hildesheim, spicel. 2, de Mania, fol. 161. Studia literarum et animi perturbationes fugiat, et quantum potest jucunde vivat. 3 Lib. de atra bile. Gravioribus curis ludos et facetias aliquando interpone, jocos, et quæ solent animum relaxare. 4 Consil. 30, mala valetudo aucta et contracta est tristitia, ac propterea exhilaratione animi removenda. 5 Athen. dipnosoph. lib. 1. 6 Juven. sat. 8. "You will find him beside some cutthroat, along with sailors, or thieves, or runaways." Which Thomas Erastus objects to Paracelsus, that he would lie drinking all day long with carmen and tapsters, in a brothel-house, is too frequent amongst us, with men of better note; like Timocreon of Rhodes, multa bibens, et multa vorans, &c. They drown their wits, seethe their brains in ale, consume their fortunes, lose their time, weaken their temperatures, contract filthy diseases, rheums, dropsies, calentures, tremor, get swoln jugulars, pimpled red faces, sore eyes, &c.; heat their livers, alter their complexions, spoil their stomachs, overthrow their bodies; for drink drowns more than the sea and all the rivers that fall into it (mere funges and casks), confound their souls, suppress reason, go from Scylla to Charybdis, and use that which is a help to their undoing. 1Quid refert morbo an ferro pereamve ruinâ? 2 When the Black Prince went to set the exiled king of Castile into his kingdom, there was a terrible battle fought between the English and the Spanish; at last the Spanish fled, the English followed them to the river-side, where some drowned themselves to avoid their enemies, the rest were killed. Now tell me what difference is between drowning and killing? As good be melancholy still, as drunken beasts and beggars. Company a sole comfort, and an only remedy to all kind of discontent, is their sole misery and cause of perdition. As Hermione lamented in Euripides, malæ mulieres me fecerunt malam. Evil company marred her, may they justly complain, bad companions have been their bane. For, malus malum vult ut sit sui similis; one drunkard in a company, one thief, one whoremaster, will by his good-will make all the rest as bad as himself, 8 4" Et si Nocturnos jures te formidare vapores," be of what complexion you will, inclination, love or hate, be it good or bad, if you come amongst them, you must do as 1 Hor. "What does it signify whether I perish by disease or by the sword!" 2 Frossard. hist. lib. 1. Hispani cum Anglorum vires ferre non possent, in fu gam se dederunt, &c. Præcipites in fluvium se dederunt, ne in hostium manus venirent. 3 Ter. 4 Hor. Although you swear that you dread the night air.” they do; yea, though it be to the prejudice of your health, you must drink venenum pro vino. And so like grasshoppers, whilst they sing over their cups all summer, they starve in winter; and for a little vain merriment shall find a sorrowful reckoning in the end. SECT. III. MEMB. I. SUBSECT. I.-A Consolatory Digression, containing the Remedies of all manner of Discontents. BECAUSE in the preceding section I have made mention of good counsel, comfortable speeches, persuasion, how necessarily they are required to the cure of a discontented or troubled mind, how present a remedy they yield, and many times. a sole sufficient cure of themselves; I have thought fit in this following section, a little to digress (if at least it be to digress in this subject), to collect and glean a few remedies, and comfortable speeches out of our best orators, philosophers, divines, and fathers of the church, tending to this purpose. I confess, many have copiously written of this subject, Plato, Seneca, Plutarch, Xenophon, Epictetus, Theophrastus, Xenocrates, Crantor, Lucian, Boethius; and some of late, Sadoletus, Cardan, Budæus, Stella, Petrarch, Erasmus, besides Austin, Cyprian, Bernard, &c. And they so well, that as Hierome in like case said, si nostrum areret ingenium, de illorum posset fontibus irrigari, if our barren wits were dried up, they might be copiously irrigated from those wellsprings; and I shall but actum agere; yet because these tracts are not so obvious and common, I will epitomize, and briefly insert some of their divine precepts, reducing their voluminous and vast treatises to my small scale; for it were otherwise impossible to bring so great vessels into so little a creek. And although (as Cardan said of his book de consol.) 2“ I know 1 Ἢ πῖθι ἢ ἄπιθι, “ either drink or depart.” 2 Lib. de lib. propriis. Hos libros VOL. II. 66 16 beforehand, this tract of mine many will contemn and reject; they that are fortunate, happy, and in flourishing estate, have no need of such consolatory speeches; they that are miserable and unhappy, think them insufficient to ease their grieved minds, and comfort their misery; yet I will go on; for this must needs do some good to such as are happy, to bring them to a moderation, and make them reflect and know themselves, by seeing the inconstancy of human felicity, others' misery; and to such as are distressed, if they will but attend and consider of this, it cannot choose but give some content and comfort." 1" Tis true, no medicine can cure all diseases, some affections of the mind are altogether incurable; yet these helps of art, physic, and philosophy must not be contemned." Arrianus and Plotinus are stiff in the contrary opinion, that such precepts can do little good. Boethius himself cannot comfort in some cases, they will reject such speeches like bread of stones, Insana stultæ mentis hæc solatia.2 8 Words add no courage, which Catiline once said to his soldiers, "a captain's oration doth not make a coward a valiant man ;" and as Job *feelingly said to his friends, "you are but miserable comforters all." "Tis to no purpose in that vulgar phrase to use a company of obsolete sentences, and familiar sayings; as Plinius Secundus, being now sorrowful and heavy for the departure of his dear friend, Cornelius Rufus, a Roman senator, wrote to his fellow Tiro in like case, adhibe solatia, sed nova aliqua, sed fortia, quæ audierim nunquam, legerim nunquam: nam quæ audivi, quæ legi omnia, tanto dolore superantur, either say something that I never read nor heard of before, or else hold thy peace. Most men will here except trivial consolations, ordinary speeches, and scio multos spernere, nam felices his se non indigere putant, infelices ad solationem miseriæ non sufficere. Et tamen felicibus moderationem, dum inconstantiam humanæ felicitatis docent, præstant; infelices si omnia rectè æstimare velint, felices reddere possunt. 1 Nullum medicamentum omnes sanare potest; sunt affectus animi qui prorsus sunt insanabiles; non tamen artis opus sperni debet, aut medicinæ, aut philosophiæ. 2The insane consolations of a foolish mind." 3 Salust. Verba virtutem non addunt, nec imperatoris oratio facilè timido fortem. 4 Job, cap. 16. 5 Epist. 13, lib. 1. known persuasions in this behalf will be of small force; what can any man say that hath not been said? To what end are such parenetical discourses? you may as soon remove Mount Caucasus, as alter some men's affections. Yet sure I think they cannot choose but do some good, and comfort and ease a little, though it be the same again, I will say it, and upon that hope I will adventure. Non meus hic sermo, 'tis not my speech this, but of Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus, Austin, Bernard, Christ and his Apostles. If I make nothing, as 2 Montaigne said in like case, I will mar nothing; 'tis not my doctrine but my study, I hope I shall do nobody wrong to speak what I think, and deserve not blame in imparting my mind. If it be not for thy ease, it may for mine own; so Tully, Cardan, and Boethius wrote de consol. as well to help themselves as others; be it as it may I will essay. 8 Discontents and grievances are either general or particular; general are wars, plagues, dearths, famine, fires, inundations, unseasonable weather, epidemical diseases which afflict whole kingdoms, territories, cities; or peculiar to private men, as cares, crosses, losses, death of friends, poverty, want, sickness, orbities, injuries, abuses, &c. Generally all discontent * homines quatimur fortunæ salo. No condition free, quisque suos patimur manes. Even in the midst of our mirth and jollity, there is some grudging, some complaint, as 5 he saith, our whole life is a glucupricon, a bitter-sweet passion, honey and gall mixed together, we are all miserable and discontent, who can deny it? If all, and that it be a common calamity, an inevitable necessity, all distressed, then as Cardan infers, 6"who art thou that hopest to go free? Why dost thou not grieve thou art a mortal man, and not governor of the 1 Hor. 2 Lib. 2, Essays, cap. 6. 3 Alium paupertas, alium orbitas, hunc morbi, illum timor, alium injuriæ, hunc insidiæ, illum uxor, filii distrahunt, Cardan. 4 Boethius, 1. 1, met. 5. 5 Apuleius, 4, florid. Nihil homini tam prosperè datum divinitus, quin ei admixtum sit aliquid difficultatis, in amplissi ma quaque lætitia subest quædam querimonia, conjugatione quadam mellis et fellis. 6 Si omnes premantur, quis tu es qui solus evadere cupis ab ea lege quæ neminem præterit? cur te mortalem factum et universi non orbis regem fieri non doles? |