ANATOMY

MELANCHOLY

WHAT IT IS, WITH ALL THE

KINDS CAUSES, SYMPTOMES, PROGNOSTICS,

SEVERAL CURES OF IT.

IN THREE PARTITIONS.

WITH THEIR SEVERAL

SECTIONS, MEMBERS, & SUBSE CTIONS,

PHILOSOPHICALLY, MEDICINALLY, HISTORICALLY OPENED AND CUT UP.

BY

DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR.

A SATYRICAL PREFACE CONDUCING TO THE FOLLOWING DISCOURSE.

A NEW EDITION.

TO WHICH IS PREFIXED

THE LIFE OF THE AUTHOR.

VOL. I.

LONDON :

PRINTED FOR THOMAS M'LEAN, HAYMARKET; R. GRIFFIN & CO. GLASGOW; AND J. CUMMING, DUBLIN.

1826.

36761

HONORATISSIMO DOMINO,

NON M1NVS VIRTVTE SVA,

QUASI GENERIS

SPLENDORE,

ILLVSTRISSIMO,

GEORGIO BERKLEIO

MILTI DE BALNEO,

BARONI DE BERKLEY,

Moubrey, Segravc,

D. DE BRUSE,

DOMINO SVO MULTIS NOMINIBUS OBSERVANDO, HANC SUAM

MELANCHOLIA

Democritus Junior ad Librum suum.

VADE liber, qualis, non ausim dieere, fcelix,

Te nisi foelicem fecerit alma dies,

V ade tamen quocunque lubet, quascunque per eras, Et Genium Domini fae imitere tui.

I blandas inter Charites, mystamque saluta Musarum quemvis, si tibi lector erit.

Rura colas, urbem, subeasve palatia regum, Submisse, placide, te sine dente geras.

Nobilis, aut si quis te forte inspexerit heros,

Da te morigerum, perlegat usque lubet.

Est quod Nobilitas, est quod desideret heros,

Gratior hsec forsan charta placere potest.

Si quis morosus Cato, tetricusque Senator Hunc etiam librum forte videre velit,

Sive magistratus, turn te reverenter habeto ;

Sed nullus ; muscas non capiunt aquiLse.

Non vacat his tempus fugitivum impendere nugis, Nec tales cupio ; par mihi lector erit.

Si matrona gravis casu diverterit istuc,

Illustris domina, aut te Comitissa legat :

Est quod displieeat, placeat quod forsitan illis, Ingerere his noli te modo, pande tamen.

At si virgo tuas dignabitur inclyta chartas Tangere, sive schedis heereat ilia tuis :

Da modo te facilem, et qusedam folia esse memento Conveniant oculis quae magis apta suis.

Si generosa ancilla tuos ant alma puella Visura est ludos, annue, pande lubens.

Die, Utinam nunc ipse meus* (nam diligit istas)

In prsesens esset conspiciendus herns.

Ignotus notusve mihi de gente togata Sive aget in ludis, pulpita sive colet,

Sive in Lycaeo, et nugas evolverit istas.

Si quasdam mendas viderit inspiciens,

Da veniam auctori, dices ; nam plurima vellet Expungi, quse jam displicuisse sciat.

Sive Melancholicus quisquam, seu hlandus Amator, Aulicus aut Civis, seu bene comptus Eques Hue appellat, age et tuto te crede legenti,

Multa istic forsan non male nata leget.

Quod fugiat, caveat, quodque amplexabitur, ista Pagina fortassis promere multa potest.

* Hsec comice dicta, cave ne male capias.

Democritus Junior ad Librum suum.

At si quis Medicus coram te sistet, amice Fac circumspecte, et te sine labe geras :

Inveniet namque ipse meis quoque plurima scriptis. Non leve subsidium quse sibi forsan erunt.

Si quis Causidicus chartas impingat in istas,

Nil mihi vobiseum, pessima turba vale :

Sit nisi vir bonus, et juris sine fraude. peritus ; .

Turn legat, et forsan doetior inde siet.

Si quis cordatus, facilis, lectorque benignus Hue oculos vertat, quse velit ipse legat ;

Candidus ignoscet, metuas nil, pande libenter, OfFensus mendis non erit ille tuis,

Laudabit nonnulla, Venit si Rhetor ineptus, Limata et tersa, et qui bene cocta petit,

Claude citus librum ; nulla hcic nisi ferrea verba, Offendent stomachum quse minus apta suum.

At si quis non eximius de plebe poeta,

Annue ; namque istic plurima. ficta leget.

Nos sumus e numero, nullus mihi spirat Apollo, Grandiloquus Vates quilibet esse nequit.

Si Criticus Lector, tumidus Censorque.molestus, Zoilus et Momus, si rabiosa cohors :

Ringe, freme, et noli tunv pandere, turba malignis Si oecurrat sannis invidiosa suis :

Fac fiigias ; si nulla tibi sit copia eundi,

Contemnes tacite scommata quseque feres.

Frendeat, allatret, vacuas gannitibus auras Impleat, haud cures ; his placuisse nefas.

Verum age si forsan divertat purior hospes,

Cuique sales, ludi, displiceantque joci,

Objiciatque tibi sordes, lascivaque : dices,

Lasciva est Domino et Musa jocosa tuo,

Nec lasciva tamen, si pensitet omne ; sed esto ;

Sit lasciva licet pagina, vita, proba pst.

Barbarus, indoctusque rudis! spectator in istam Si messem intrudat, fuste fugabis eum :

Fungum pelle procul (jubeo); nam quid mihi fungo Conveniunt stomacho non minus ista suo.

Sed nec pelle tamen; Iseto omnes accipe vultu, Quos, quas, vel, quales, inde. vel unde viros.

Gratus erit quicunque venit, gratissimus hospes Quisquis erit, facilis difficilisque mihi.

Nam si culparit, queedam culpasse juvabit. Culpando faciet me meliora sequi.

. Sed si laudarit, neque laudibus efferar ullis,

Sit satis hisce malis ppposuisse bonum.

Haec sunt quse nostro placuLt mandare lihello,

Et quse dimittens diseerejussit Herus.

The Author’s Abstract of Melancholy, AikxoyZ-

WHEN I go musing all alone, Thinking of divers things fore¬ known.

When I build castles in the ayr,

V oid of sorrow and void of feare. Pleasing myself with phantasms sweet,

Methinks the time runs very fleet.

All my joys to this are folly. Naught so sweet as melancholy. When I lie waking all alone, Recounting what I have ill done,

My thoughts on me then tyrannize, Fear and sorrow me surprise. Whether I tarry still or go,

Methinks the time moves very slow. All my griefs to this are jolly, Naught so sad as melancholy. When to myself I act and smile, With pleasing thoughts the time beguile.

By a brook side or wood so green, Unheard, uns ughtfor, or unseen,

A thousand pleasures do me bless, And crown my soule with happiness. All my joyes besides are folly, I None so sweet as melancholy. ' When I lie, sit, or walk alone,

1^ sigh, I grieve, making great mone,

In a dark grove, or irksome den, With discontents and Furies then, A thousand miseries at once Mine heavy heart and soule en¬ sconce.

All my griefs to this are jolly, None so sour as melancholy.

Me thinks 1 hear, me thinks I see. Sweet music, wondrous melodie, Towns, palaces, and cities fine ; Here now, then there ; the world is mine.

Rare beauties, gallant ladies shine. What e’er is lovely or divine.

All other joyes^to this are folly, None so sweet as melancholy.

M ethinks 1 hear, methinks I see Ghosts, goblins, fiends ; my phan- tasie

Presents a thousand ugly shapes. Headless bears, black men, and apes.

Doleful outcries, and fearful sights, My sad and dismall soule aft'rights.

* All my griefs to this are jolly. None so damn’d as melancholy.

Me thinks I court, me thinks I kiss. Me thinks I now embrace my mis- triss.

O blessed dayes, O sweet content, i In paradise my time is spent, i Such thoughts may still my fancy | move,

So may I ever be in love.

All my joyes to this are folly, Naught so sweet as melancholy. When I recount loves many frights, My sighs and tears, my waking nights.

My jealous fits ; O mine hard fate I now repent, but’tis too late.

No torment is so bad as love,

So bitter to my soule can prove.

All my griefs to this are jolly. Naught so harsh as melancholy. Friends and companions get you gone,

’Tis my desire to be alone ;

Ne’er well but when my thoughts and I

Do domineer in privacie.

No gernin, no treasure like to this, ’Tis my delight, my crown, my bliss. All my joyes to this are folly, Naught so sweet as melancholy. ’Tis my sole plague to be alone,

I am a beast, anaionster grown,

I will no light nor company,

I finde it now my misery.

The scean is turn’d, my jojrns are gone,?

Feare,discontent,and sorrows come. All my griefs to this are jolly, Naught so fierce as melancholy. I’ll not change life with any King,

I ravisht am ; can the world bring More joy, then still to laughandsmile, In pleasant toyes time to beguile ? Do not, 0 do not trouble me,

So sweet content I feel and see.

All my joyes to this are folly. None so divine as melancholy.

I’ll ehange my state with any wretch

Thou canst from gaole or dunghill fetch :

My pain’s past cure, another hell,

I may not in this torment dwell. Now desperate I hate my life.

Lend me a halter or a knife ;

All my griefs to this are jolly, Naught so damn’d as melancholy.

The A rgument oj

TEN distinct Squares here seen apart.

Are joyn’d in one by Cutter’s art.

1. Old Democritus under a tree.

Sits on a stone with boojc on knee; About him hang there many fea¬ tures

Of cats, dogs, and suchlikecreatures, Of which he makes anatomy,

The seat of black choler to see.

Over his head appears the skie,

And Saturn Lord of melancholy.

2. To the left a landscape of “Jea-

lousie.

Presents itself unto thine eye,

A kingfisher, a swan, an hern,

Two fighting cocks you may discern, Two roaring bulls each other hie, ToaSsauIt concerning venery. Symboles are these; I say no more, Conceive the rest by that’s afore.

3. The next of solitariness,

A portraiture doth well express,

By sleeping dog, cat; buck and do. Hares, conies in the desart go : Bats, ow'ls the shady bowers over In melancholy darkness hover.. Markw ell: If the not as’t should be Blame the bad Cutter, and not me.

4. Ith’ under column there doth

stand

Inamorato with folded hand ;

Down hangs his head, terse and polite,

Some dittie sure he doth indite.

His lute and books about him lie, As symptomes of his vanity.

If this do not enough disclose.

To paint him, take thyself by th’ nose.

5. Hypochondriacus leans on his arm Windein his side doth him much

harm,

And troubles him full sore, God knows,

Much pain he hath and many woes. About him pots and glasses lie, Newly brought from’s Apothecary. This Saturn’s aspects signifie,

N ou see them portrait in the skie.

the Frontispiece.

6. Beneath them kneeling on his

knee,'

A superstitious man you see ;

He fasts, prays, on his idol fixt. Tormented hope and feare betwixt : For hell perhaps he takesmore pain, Then thou dost heaven itself to gain, Alas poor soule, I pitie thee,

What stars incline thee so to be ?

7. But see the madmen rage down -

right

With furious looks, a ghastly sight! Naked in chains bound doth he lie And roars amain he knows not why! Observe him ; for as in a glass, Thine angry portraiture it was. - His picture keep still in thy pre¬ sence ;

Twixt him and thee there’s no dif¬ ference.

8. 9. Borage and hellebor fill two scenes, ..

Sovereign plants to purge the veins Of melancholy, and chear the heart Of those black fumes which make it smart;

To clear the brain of misty fogs, Which dull our senses, and soule clogs.

The best medicine that ere God made

For this malady, if well assaid.

10. Now last of all to fill a place, Presented is the Author’s face ;

And in that habit which he wears, His image to the world appears,

His minde no art can well express, That by his writings you may guess. It was not pride, nor yet vain glory, (Though others do it commonly) Made him do this: if you must know.

The Printer would needs have it so. Then do not frowne or seoffe at it, Deride not, nor detract a whit,

For surely as thou dost by him,

He will do the Same again. , Then look upon’t, behold and; see, As thou lik’st it, so it likes thee. And I for it will stand in view, Thine to command, Reader, adieu.

DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR

TO THE READER.

GENTLE reader, I presume thou wilt be very inquisitive to know what antick or personate actor this is, that so in¬ solently intrudes, upon this common theatre, to the worlds view, arrogating- another mans name, whence he is, why he doth it, and what he hath to say. Although, a as he said, Primum, si noluero , non respondebo : guis coaeturus est ? (I am a free man boro, and may chuse whether I will tell : who can compel me ?) if I be urged, I will as readily reply as that Egyptian in b Plutarch, when a curious fellow would needs know what he had in his basket, Quurn vides velatam , quid inquiris in rent absconditam ? It was therefore covered, be¬ cause he should not know what was in it. Seek not after that which is hid: if the contents please thee, c and be for thy use, suppose the man in the moon, or whom thou wilt, to be the author : 1 would not willingly be known. Yet, in some sort to give thee satisfaction, which is more than I need, I will shew a reason, both of this usurped name, title, and subject. And first of the name of Democritus ; lest any man, by reason of it, should be deceived, expecting a pasquil, a satyre, some ridiculous treatise (as I myself should have done,) some pro¬ digious tenent, or paradox of the earths motion, of infinite worlds, in infinito vacuo, ex fortuita atomorum collisione, in an infinite waste, so caused by an accidental collision of motes in thesun, all which Democritus held, Epicurus and their master Leucippus of old maintained, and are lately revived by Coper¬ nicus, Brunus, and some others. Besides, it hath been always

a Seneca, in Ludo in mortem Claadii Csesaris. b Lib. de Cnriositate. __

c Modo haec tibi ustii sint, qaemvis auctorem fingito. W ecker.

VOL. I. B

2

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

an ordinary custom, as dGellius observes, for later writers and impostors, to broach many absurd and insolent fictions , under the name ofiso noble a philosopher as Democritus, to get them¬ selves credit, and by that means the more to be respected, as ar¬ tificers usually do, novo quimarmori ascribunt Praxitelem suo. 5Tis not so with, me,

e Non hie Centauros, non Gorgonas, Harpyiasque,

Invenies'; hominem pagina nostra^apit.

No Centaurs here, or Gorgons, look to find :

My subject is of man and humane, kind.

Thou thy self art the subject of my discourse.

f' "Quid quid agunt homines, votum, timor, ira, voluptas, Guadia, discursus, nostri farrago libelli.

Whate’er men do, vows, fears, in ire, in sport,

Joys, wandrings, are the summ of my report.

My intent is no otherwise to use his name, than Mercuries Gallobelgicus, Mercurius Britannicus, use the name of Mer- curie,'S Democritus Christianas, &c. although there be some other circumstances for which I have masked myself under this visard, and some peculiar respects, which 1 cannot so well express, until I have set down a brief character of this our Democritus, what he was, with an epitome of his life.

Democritus, as he is described by 11 Hippocrates, and 1 Laer¬ tius, was a little wearish old man, very melanchoiy by nature, averse from company in bis later dayes, * and much given to solitariness, a famous philosopher in his age, 1 cosevous with Socrates, wholly addicted to his studies at the last, and to a private life writ many excellent works, a great divine, ac¬ cording to the divinity of those times, an expert physician, a politician, ah excellent mathematician, as m Diacosmus and the rest of his works do witness. He was much delighted with the studies of husbandry, saith 111 Columella; and often I find him cited by 0 Constantinus and others treating of thatsubject. He knew the natures, differences of all beasts, plants, fishes, birds; and, as some say, could p understand the tunes and voices of them. In a word, he was omnifariam doctus, a gene- - ral scholar, a great student ; and, to the intent he might better contemplate, ^ I find it related by some, that he put out his

d Lib. 10. c. 12. Multa a male feriaiis in Democriti nomine commenta data, nobiliiatis, auctoritatisque ejus perfogio ntentibus. e Martialis, lib. 10.

epigr. 14. fJuy. Sat 1. sAuth. Pet. Besseo, edit Colonise 1616.

h-Hip. Epist. Damaget » Laert. lib. 9. k Hortulo sibi cellulam

seligens, ubique seipsum includens, vixit solitarius. 1 Eloruit Olympiade.

80 ; 700 annis post Trojam. mDiacos. qned cunctis operibus facile

excellit. Laert. n Col. lib. 1. c. 1. •' o Const, lib. de agric. passim.

P Volucrum voces et lingua's intelligere se dicit Abderitanus, Ep. Hip. <1 Sabellicus, exempt lib. 10. Oculis se privavit, ut melius contemplgtioni operam daret, sublimi vir ingenio, profundae cogitationis, &c. .

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

3

eyes, and was in his old age voluntarily blind, yet saw more than all Greece besides, and rwrit of every subject: Ni hil in toto opificio natures, de quo non seripsit : a man of an ex¬ cellent wit, profound conceit ; and, to attain knowledge the better inhis younger years, he travelled to Egypt and3 At hens, to confer with learned men, t admired of some, despised of others. After a wandring life, he setled at Abdera, a town in Thrace, and was sent for thither to be their law-maker, recorder, or town-clerk, as some will ; or as others, he was there bred and born. Howsoever it was, there he lived at last in a garden in the suburbs, wholly betaking himself to his studies and a private life, u saving that sometimes he would walk down to the haven, x and laugh heartily at such variety of ridiculous objects , which there he saw. Such a one was Democritus.

But, in the mean time, how doth this concern me, or upon what reference do I usurp his habit ? I confess, indeed, that to compare my self unto him for ought I have yet said, ■were both impudency and arrogancy. I do not presume to make- any parallel. Antistat mihi millibus trecentis : y parvus sum ; nullus sum ; altum nec spiro, nec spero. Yet thus much I will say of my self, and that I hope without all suspicion of pride, or self-conceit, I have lived a silent, sedentary, solitary, private life, mihi et Musis, in the university, as long almost as Xenocrates in Athens, ad senectam fere, to learn wisdom as he did, penned up most part in my study : for 1 have, been brought up a student in the most flourishing college of Eu¬ rope, 2 augustissimo collegio , and can brag with * Jovius, al¬ most, in ea luce domicilii Vaticani , totius orbis celeberrimi, per 37 annos multa opportunaque didici ; for thirty years I have continued (having the use of as g-ood '“libraries as ever he had) a scholar, and would be therefore loth, either, by living as a drone, to be an unprofitable or unworthy member of so learned and noble a society, er to write that which should he any way dishonourable to such a royal and ample foundation. Something 1 have done : though by my profession a divine, yet turbine raptus ingenii , as b he said, out of a running wit, an un constant, unsettled mind, I had a great desire (not able to attain to a superficial skill in any) to have some smat¬ tering in all, to be aliquis in omnibus , nullus in singulis ;

’■Natnralia, moralia, mathematica, liberates disciplinas, artiumque omnium peri- tiam, callebat. 3 Yeni A then as ; et nemo me novit 5 Idemcontemptui

et admirationi babitus. u Solebat ad portam ambulare, et inde, &c. Hip. Ep.

Dameg. x Perpetuo risu pulmonem agitare solebat Democritus. Jiiv. Sat. 7.

y Non sum dignus praestare matellam. Mart. z Christ Church in Oxford.

* Prsefat. hist. a Keeper of our college library lately revived by Otho Nicolson,

Esquire. b Sealiger. _ _ _

4

DEMOCRITUS TD THE READER.

which c Plato commends, out of him d Lipsius approves and furthers, as fit to be imprinted in all curious wits , not to be a slave of one science, or dwell altogether in one subject, as most do,- but to rove abroad, centum puer arfcium, to have an oar in every mans boat, to e taste of every dish, and to sip of every cup; which, saith f Montaigne, was well performed by Aristotle, and his learned coun trey- man Adrian Turnebus. This roving' humour (though not with like success) I have ever had, and, like a ranging spaniel, that barks at every bird he sees, leaving his game, I have followed all, saving that which I should, and may justly complain, and truly ,quiubique est, nusquam est, which s Gcsner did in modesty ; that I have read many books, but to little purpose, for want of good method, I have confusedly tumbled over divers authors in our libraries with small profit, for want of art, order, memory, judgement. I never travelled but in map or card, in which my unconfined thoughts have freely expatiated, as having ever been especially Aelighted with the study of cosmography. h Saturn was lord of my geniture, culminating, &c. and Mars principal significator of manners, in partile conjunction with mine ascendent ; both fortunate in their houses, &c. I am not poor, I am not rich ; nihil est, nihil deest ; I have little, I want nothing : all my treasure is in Minerva’s tower. Greater preferment as I could never get, so am I not in debt for it. I have a competency (lam Deo ) from my noble and munificent patrons. Though Hive still a collegiat student, as Democritus in his garden, and lead amonastique life, ipse mihi theatrum, sequestred from those tumults and troubles of the world, et tamquam in specula, positus (‘ as he said,) in some high place above you all, like Stoicus sapiens, omnia scecula prceterita prcesentiaque videns, uno velut intuitu, 1 hear and see what is done abroad, how others k run, ride, turmoil, . and macerate themselves in court and countrey. Far from thpse wrangling law-suits, aulce vanitatem,fori ambitionem, ridere mecum soleo: I laugh at all, 1 only secure, lest my suit go amiss, my ships perish, corn and cattle miscarry, trade decay, / have no wife, nor children, good or bad, to provide for ;; a meer spectator of other mens fortunes and adventures, and how they act their parts, which me thinks are diversely presented unto

cln Theset. d Phil. Stoic, li. diff. 8. Dogma cupidis et cnriosis ingeniis

imprimendum, ut sit talis qui nulli rei serviat, aut exacte unum aliqnid elaboret, alia negligens, nt artifices, &c. e Delibare gratum de quocunque cibo, et pitissare

de qnocanque dolio jucnndum. f Essays, lib. 3. _ S Prasfat. bibliothec.

hAmbo fortes- et fortunati. Mars idem magisterii dominns juxta primam Leovitii regulam. 5 Heinsius. k Calide ambientes, solicite litigantes, aut misere

excidentes, voces, strepitom, contentiones, &c. 1 Cyp. ad Donat. Unice se-

cnrus, ne excidam in foro, aut in mari Indico bonis eluam> de dote Alias, patrimonio filii non sum solicitus.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

5

me, as from a common theatre or scene. I hear new news every day : and those ordinary rumours of war, plagues, fires, inundations, thefts, murders, massacres, meteors, comets, speetrums, prodigies, apparitions, of towns taken, cities be¬ sieged in France, Germany, Turky, Persia, Poland, &c. daily musters and preparations, and such like, which these tempestuous times afford, battles fought, so many men slain, monomachies, shipwracks, piracies, and sea-fights, peace, leagues, stratagems, and fresh alarms — a vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions, edicts, petitions, law-suits, pleas, laws, proclamations, complaints, grievances — are daily brought to our ears : new books every day, pamphlets, currantoes, stories, whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts, new paradoxes, opinions, schisms, heresies, controversies in philosophy, re¬ ligion, &c. Now come tidings of weddings, maskings, mum¬ meries, entertainments, jubiies, embassies, tilts, and torna- ments, trophies, triumphs, revels, sports, playes : then again, as in a new shifted scene, treasons, cheating tricks, robberies, enormous villanies in all kinds, funerals, burials, death of princes, new discoveries, expeditions ; now comical, then tragical matters. To day we hear of new lords and officers created, to morrow of some great men deposed, and then again of fresh honours conferred : one is let loose, another imprisoned : one purchaseth, another breaketh : he thrives, his neighbour turns bankrupt ; now plenty, then again dearth and famine ; one runs, another rides, wrangles, laughs, weeps, &c. Thus 1 daily hear, and such like, both private and pub- lick newrs. Amidst the gallantry and misery of the world, jollity, pride, perplexities and cares, simplicity and villany, subtlety, knavery, candour and integrity, mutually mixt and offering themselves, I rub on, privus privatus : as I have still lived, so I now continue statu quo prius, left to a solitary life, and mine own domestic discontents ; saving that sometimes, ne quid mentiar , as Diogenes went into the city and Demo¬ critus to the haven, to see fashions, I did for my recreation now and then walk abroad, look into the world, and could not chuse but make some little observation, non tam sagax observator, ac simplex recitator, not, as they did, to scoff or laugh at all, but with a mixt passion :

m Bilem, ssepe jocum vestri movere tumultus.

1 did sometime laugh and scoff with Lucian, and satyrically tax with Menippus, lament with Heraclitus, sometimes again I was Upetulanti splene cachinno, and then again, 0 urere bilis jecur, I was much moved to see that .abuse-which I could not amend : in which passion howsoever I may sympathize

“Hor. “Per. °Hor.

6

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

with him or them, ’tis for no such respect I shroud my self under his name, but either, in an unknown habit, to assume a little more liberty and freedom of speech, or if you will needs know, for that reason and only respect which Hippocrates relates at large in his epistle to Damegetus, wherein he doth express, how, coming to visit him one day, he found Demo¬ critus in his garden at Abdera, in the suburbs, p under a shady bower, ^with a book on his knees, busie at his study, some¬ time writing, sometime walking. The subject of lus book was melancholy and madness : about him iay the carkasses of many several beasts, newly by him cut up and anatomized; not that he did contemn Gods creatures, as he told Hippo¬ crates, but to find out the seat of this atra bills, or melancholy, whence it proceeds, and how it is engendred in mens bodies, to the intent he might better cure it in himself, by his writings and observations r teach others how to prevent and avoid it. Which good intent of his Hippocrates highly commended, De¬ mocritus Junior is therefore bold to imitate, and, because he left it imperfect, and it is now lost, quasi succeniuriator Demo- criti, to revive again, prosecute, and finish in this treatise.

You have had a reason of the name. If the title and in- cription offend your gravity, were it a sufficient justification to accuse others, I could produce many sober treatises, even sermons themselves, which in their fronts carry more phantas- tical names. Howsoever, it is a kind of policy in these dayes, to prefix a phantastical title, to a book which is to be sold: for as larks come down to a day-net, many vain readers will tarry and stand gazing, like silly passengers, at an antipk picture in a painter’s shop, that will not look at a judicious piece. And indeed, as s Sealiger observes, nothing more invites a reader than an argument unlooked for , unthought of, arid sells better than a scurrile pamphlet, turn maxime cum novitas excitat palatum. Many men saith, * Gellius, are very conceited in their inscriptions, and able, (as * Pliny quotes out of Se¬ neca) to make him loyter by the way, that went in haste to fetch a mid-wife for his daughter , now ready to lye down For my part, I have honourable u precedents for this I have done : I will cite one for all, Anthonie Zara Pap. Epise. his

P Secundum mcenia locus erat frondosis populis opacus, vitibusque spoute natis : tenuis prope aqua defluebat, placide murmurans, ubi sedile et domus Democriti con- spiciebatur. q lpse composite considebat, super genua volumen habens, et

utrinque alia patentia parata, dissectaque animalia eumulatim strata, quorum viscera rimabatur. rCum mundus extra se sit, et mente captus sit, et. nesciat se languere, ut medelam adhibeat. s Sealiger, Ep. ad Patisonem. Nihil magis lectorem invi- tat quam inopinatum argumentum ; neque vendibilior merx est quam petulans liber. * Lib. xx. c, 11. Miras sequuntur inscriptionum festivitates. t Praefat. Nat.

Hist. Patri obstetricem parturienti filias accersenti moram injicere possunt. “Ana¬ tomy of Popery. Anatomy of Immortality. Angelas Scalas, Anatomy oP Anti¬ mony, 8£c. ' _

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER. 7

Anatomy of' Wit, in four sections, members, subsections, &c. to be read in our libraries.

If any man except against the matter or manner of treating of this my subject, and will demand a reason of it, I can allege more than one. 1 write of melancholy, by being busie, to avoid melancholy. There is no greater cause of melancholy than idleness, no better cure than business, as x Rhasis holds : and howbeit, stultus labor est ineptiarum, to be busied in toyes is to small purpose, yet hear that divine Seneca, better aliud agere quam nihil, better do to no end, than nothing. I writ therefore, and busied my self in this, playing labour, otiosdque diligentia ut vitarem torpor em feriandi, with Veetius in Ma- crobius, atque otiurn in utile verier em negotium;

y — Simul et jueunda et idonea dicere vitae,

Lectorem deleetando simul atque monendo.

To this end I write, like them, saith Lucian, that recite to trees, and declaim to pillar ss for want of auditors ; as z Pau- lus iEgineta ingenuously confesseth, not that any thing was unknown or omitted, but to exercise my self (which course if some took, I think it would be good for their bodies, and much better for their souls ;) or peradventure, as others do, for fame to shew my self ( Scire timm nihil est, nisi te scire hoc sciat alter.) I might be of Thucydides opinion, a to know a thing and not to express it, is all one as if he knew it not . When I first took this task in hand, el, quod ait b ille, im¬ pellent e genio negotium suscepi, this I aimed at, c vel ut lenirem animum scribendo, to ease my mind by writing, for I had, gravidum cor, fetum caput, a kind of imposthume in my head, which I was very desirous to be unladen of, and could imagine no fitter evacuation than this. Besides, I might not well refrain ; for, ubi dolor, ihi digitus, one must needs scratch where it itches. I was not a little offended with this malady, shall I say my mistris melancholy , my Egeria, or my malus genius ; and for that cause, as he that is stung with a scorpion, I would expel, clavum clavo, d comfort one sorrow with another, idleness with idleness, ut ex viper a theriacum, make an antidote out of that which was the prime cause of my disease. Or as he did, of whom e Felix Plater speaks, that thought he had some of Aristophanes frogs in his belly, still crying Breed ekex, coax, oop, oop, and for that cause studied physick seven years, and travelled

* Cont. 1. 4. c. 9. Non est cura melior quam labor. y Hor. 2 Non quod de novo quid addere, aut a veteribus praetermissum, sed propria exercitationis caussa. a Qui novit, neqtie id quod sentit exprimit, perinde est ac si nesciret. b Jovius,

Prsef. Hist ^Erasmus. d Otium otio, dolorem dolore, sum s date 3,

* Obserrat. 1. 1.

8

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER,

over most part of Europe, to ease himself ; to do my self good,

I turned over such physicians as our libraries would afford, or my g private friends impart, and have taken this pains. And why not ? Cardan professeth he writ his book De consola¬ tions^ after his sons death, to comfort himself ; so did Tully write of the same subject with like intent after his daughters departure, if it be his at least, or some impostors put out in his name, which Lipsius probably suspects. Concerning my self, I can peradventure affirm with Marius in Sallust, h that which others hear or read of, I felt and practised my self: they get their knowledge by hooks, I mine by melancholizing : experto crede Roberto. Something I can speak out of ex¬ perience, eerumnabilis experientia me docuit ; and with her in the poet, 1 Hand ignara mali miseris succurrere disco. I would help others out of a fellow-feeling, and as that vertuous lady did of old, k being a leper her self , bestow all her portion to build an hospitalfor lepers, X will spend my time and know¬ ledge, which are my greatest fortunes, for the common good of all.

Yea, but you will inferr that is 1 actum agere, an unne¬ cessary work, cramhen bis coctam apponere, the same again and again in other words. To what purpose ? m Nothing is omitted that may well be said : so thought Lucian in the like theam. How many excellent physicians have written just volumes and elaborate tracts of this subject ? no news here : that which I have is stoln from others ; n dicitque mihi mea pagina, fur es. If that severe doom of 0 Synesius be true, it is a greater offence to steal dead mens labours, than their cloaths, what shall become of most writers ? I hold up my hand at the bar amongst others, and am guilty of felony in this kind : habes confitentem reum, I am content to be pressed- with the rest. ’Tis most true, tenet msanabile multos scri- bendi cacoethes ; and p there is no end of writing of books, as the wise man found of old, in this <i scribling age especially, wherein r the number of books is without number, (as a worthy man saith) presses be oppressed, and out of an itching humour, that every man hath to shew himself, 5 desirous of fame and

honour, (scribimus indocti doctique - ■) he will write, no

matter what, and scrape together, it boots not whence.

fM. Joh. Rous, our Protobib. Oxon. Mr. Hopper, Mr. Guthridge, &c. Qu® illi audire et legere solent, eoram partim vidi egomet, alia gessi : qu® illi literis, ego jnilitando didici. Nunc vos existimate, facta an dicta pluris sint _ J Dido,

Yirg. k Camden, Ipsa elepbantiasi correpta elephantiasis hospitium constroxit.

i Iliada postHomerum. “ Nihil pr®termissum quod a qnovis dici possit.

» Martialis, ° Magis impiurn mortuornm lucubrationes quam vestes fnrari.

pEccl. ult. <3 Libros eunuebi gignnnt, 'steriles pairiunt. rD. King, pr®fat. lect. Jonas, the late right reverend lord bishop of London. * Homines famelici gloria ad osterstationem ej-aditionis undique congerunt. Bochananus.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

9

* Bewitched with this desire of fame, eliam mediis in mor - bis, to the disparagement of their health, and scarce able to hold a pen, they must say something, aand get themselves a name, saith Scaligar, though it be to the downfall and ruine of many others. To be counted writers, scriptores ut saluten- tur, to be thought and held Polymathes and Polyhistors, apud imperitum vulgus ob ventosce nomen artis, to get a paper kingdom : nulla spe qucestus, sed amplafamce, in this preci¬ pitate, ambitious age, nuncut est sceculum, inter immaturam eruditionem, ambitiosum et prceceps (’tis x Scaliger’s censure) and they that are scarce auditors, vix auditores, must be masters and teachers, before they be capable and fit hearers. They will rush into all learning togatam, armatam, divine, humane authors, rake over all indexes and pamphlets for notes, as our merchants do strange havens for traffick, write great tomes, cum non sint revera doctioresr sed loquaciores, - when as they are not thereby better scholars, but greater praters. They commonly pretend publick good : but, as Gesner y observes, ’tis pride and vanity that eggs them on ; no news, or ought worthy of note, but the same in other terms. Ne feriarentur fortasse typography vel ideo scribendum est aliquid ut se vixisse testentur. As apothecaries, we make new mixtures every day, pour out of one vessel into another ; and as those old Romans rob’d all the cities of the world, to set out their bad sited Rome, we skim off the cream of other mens wits, pick the choice flowers of their till’d gardens to set out our own sterile plots. Castrant alios, ut libros suos, per se graciles, alieno adipe suffarciant (so * Joviiis inveighs); they lard their lean books with the fat of others works. Ineruditi fares, Sj-c. (a fault that every writer finds, as I do now, and yet faulty themselves) z Trium liter arum homines , all thieves ; they pilfer out of old writers to stuff up their new comments, scrape Ennius dung-hils, and out of a Democritus pit, as I have done. By which means it comes to pass, b that not only libraries and shops are full of our putid papers , but every close-stool andjakes : Scribunt carmina, quae legunt ca- cantes ; they serve to put under pies, to clap spice in, and keep roast meat from burning. With us in France, saith d Scaliger, every man hath liberty to write, but few ability. e Heretofore learning was graced by judicious scholars, but

* Effascinati etiam Iaudis amore, &c. Justus Baronins. u Ex minis alien®

exisiimationis sibi gradum ad famam struunt. * Exercit.288. y Omnes sibi famam quserant, et quovis modo in orbem spargi contendunt, ut novae alicujus rei- habeanter auctores. Prasf. biblioth. _ * Prae£ hist 2 Plautus. a Et De-

mocriti puteo. 'DNon tam referte bibliothecas quam cloaca*. « Et quidquid

chartis amicitur ineptis. dEpist. adPetas. In regno Franciae omnibus scribendi

datur libertas, paucis facultas. e Olim liter® ob homines in pretio, nunc sordent

ob homines. __

w

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

now noble sciences are vilified by base and illiterate scriblers, that either write for vain-glory, need to get money, or as parasities to flatter and collogue with some great men : they put out f burr as, quisquiliasque, ineptiasque. s Among so many thousand authors you shall scarce find one, by reading of whom you shall be any whit the better, but rather much worse , quibus inficitur potius, quam perfidtur, by which -he is rather infected, than any way perfected.

— - — — hQui talia legit,

Quid didicit tandem, quid scit, nisi somnia, nugas ?

So that oftentimes it falls out (which Callimachus taxed of old) a great book is a great mischief. 5 Cardan finds fault with Frenchmen and Germans, for their scribling to no pur¬ pose: non, inquit, ab edendo deterreo, modo novum aliquia in- veniant : he doth not bar them to write, so that it be some new invention of their own; but we weave the same web still, twist the same rope again and again : or if it be a new invention, ’tis but some bauble or toy which idle fellows write, for as idle - fellows to read : and who so cannot invent? k He must have a barren wit , that in this scribling age can forge nothing.

1 Princes shew their armies, rich men vaunt their buildings, souldiers their manhood, and scholars vent their toyes ; they must read, they must hear, whether they will or no.

m Et quodcumque semel Chartis ifleverit, omnes Gestiet a furno redeuntes scire lacuque,

Et pueros et anus- - .

What once is said and writ, all men must know,

Old wives and children as they come and go.

What a company of poets hath this year brought out ! as Pliny complains to Sosius Senecio. a This April, every day some or other have recited. What a catalogue of new books all this year, all this age (I say), have our Frank-furt marts, our do- mestick marts brought out ! twice a year, ° prof erunt se nova ingenia et ostentant : we stretch our wits out, and set them to sale ; magno conaiu nihil agimus. So that, which p Gesner much desires, if a speedy reformation be not had, by some princes edicts and grave supervisors, to restrain this liberty, it will run on in infinitum . Quis tarn avidus librorum helluo,

f f Ans. pac. _ S Inter tot mille volumina-vix unum a cujus lectione qnis melior eradat,immo potius non pejor. h Palingenius. i Lib. 5. de sap. ^Sterile opojrtetesse ingeninm quod in hoc scripturientnm prnritu, &c. 1 Cardan prsef.

ad consol. m Hor: ser. 1. sat 4. n Epist lib. lr Magnum poetarum pro ventom annus hie attulit : mense Aprili nullns fere dies quo non aliquis recitavit. 0 Idem. P Principibus et doctoribus deliberandum relinquo, ut arguantur auctorem furta, et millies repetita tollantur, et temere scribendi libido coerceatur, aliter in infinitum pro- gressura.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

II

who can read them*? As already, we shall have a vast chaos, and confusion of books : we areP oppressed with them; q our eyes ake with reading, our fingers with turning. For my part,

I am one of the number ; nosnumerus sumus : I do not deny it. I have only this of Macrobius to say for myself, Omne meum, nihil meum, 'tis all mine, and none mine. As a good house- wife out of diverse fleeces weaves one piece of cloth, a bee gathers wax and honey out of many flowers, and makes a new bundle of all,

Floriferis nt apes in saltibus omnia libant,

I have laboriously r collected this cento out of fhrious writers, and that sine injuria. : I have wronged no authors, but given every man his own ; which s Hierom so much commends in Nepotian ; he stole not whole verses, pages, tracts, as some do now a days, concealing their authors names ; but still said this was Cyprians, that Lactantius, that Hilarius, so said Minutius Felix, so Victorinus, thus far Arnobius : I cite and quote mine authors (which, howsoever some illiterate scriblers ac¬ count pedantical,as a cloke of ignorance, and opposite to their affected fine style, I must and will use) sumpsi, non surripui ; and what Varro, lib. 6. de re rust, speaks of bees, minime maleficoe, nullius opus vellicantes faciunt deterius, I can say of myself. Whom have I injured? The matter is theirs most part, and yet mine : apparetunde sumptum sit (which Seneca approves) ; aliud tamen, quam unde sumptum sit, apparet ; which nature doth with the aliment of our bodies, incorpo¬ rate, digest, assimilate, I do concoquere quod hausi, dispose of what I take : I make them pay tribute, to set out this my Maceronican : the method only is mine own : I must usurp that of * Wecker e Ter. nihil dictum quod non dictum prius : methodus sola artificem ostendit : we can say nothing but what hath been said, the composition and method is ours only, and shews a scholar. Oribasius, Aetius, Avicenna, have all out of Galen, but to their own method, diverso stylo, non di¬ ver sd fide. Our poets steal from Homer; he spews, saith iEIian, they lick it up. Divines use Austins words verbatim still, and our story-dressers do as much ; he that comes last is commonly best,

- donee quid grandius setas

Postera, sorsque ferat melior.- -

P Onerabuntnr ingenia, nelno legendis sufficit 1 Libris. obruimur : oculi

legendo, manus volitando dolent. Fam. Strada, Momon. Lucretius. r Quidquid ubique bene dictum facio meum, et illud nunc meis ad compendium., nnne ad fidem et aoctoritatem alienis, exprimo verbis : omnes auctores me os ciientes esse arbitror. &e. Sarisboriensis ad Polycrat proL s In Epitaph. Nep. illud Cyp. hoc Lact illud Hilar, est, ita Victor inns, in hunc modum loonutus est Arnobius, &e. 1 Prsef.ad

Syntax, med. '

12

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

Though there were many giants of old in physic and philo¬ sophy, yet I say with u Didacus Stella, A dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant , may see farther than a giant himself ; I may likely add, alter, and see farther than my predecessors : and it is no greater prejudice for me to indite after others, than for vElianus Montaltus, that famous physician, to write do morbis capitis after Jason Pratensis, Heurnius, Hildesheim, &c. Many horses to run in a race, one logician, one rheto¬ rician, after another. Oppose then what thou wilt,

Allafres licet usque nos et usque,

Et gannitibus improbis lacessas ;

I solve it thus. And for those other faults of barbarism, x Dorick dialect, extemporanean style, tautologies, apish imi¬ tation, a rhapsody of rags gathered together from several dung-hills, excrements of authors, toyes and fopperies con¬ fusedly tumbled out, without art, invention, judgement, wit, learning, harsh, raw, rude, phantastical, absurd, insolent, in¬ discreet, ill-composed, indigested, vain, scurrile, idle, dull and dry ; I confess all (’tis partly affected): thou canst not think worse of me than I do of my self. ’Tis not worth the reading, I yield it : I desire thee not to lose time in perusing so vain a subject ; I should be peradventure loth my self to read him or thee so writing : ’tis not opercepretium. All I say, is this, that I have y precedents for it, which Isocrates calls perfugium Us qui peccant, others as absurd, vain, idle, illiterate, &c. Nonnulli alii idem fecerunt, others have done as much, it may be more, and perhaps thou thy self : 'Novimus et qui te, fyc. we have all Our faults ; scimus, et hanc veniam, Sf-c. z thou censurest me, so have I done others, and may do thee : Ccedimus, inque vicem, Sfc, ’tis lex talionis, quid pro quo . Go now censure, criticise, scoff and rail.

a Nasutus sis usque licet, sis denique nasus,

Non potes in nugas dicere plura meas,

Ipse ego quam dixi, &c.

Wer’st thou all scoffs and flouts, a very Momus,

Than we our selves, thou canst not say worse of us.

Thus, as when women scold, have 1 cryed whore first ; and, in some mens censures, I am afraid I have overshot my self. Laudare se vani, vituperare stulti: as I do not arrogate, I will not derogate. Primus vestrum non sum, nec imus, I am none of the best, I am none of the meanest of you. As I

u In Luc. 10. tom 2. Pygmaei gigantum humeris impositi plus quam ipsr gigantes vident. x Nec aranearum textus ideo melior, quia ex se fila gignnntur,, nec noster

ideo vilior, quia ex alienis libamus, ut apes. Lipsius adversus dialogist. y Uno absurdo dato, mille sequuntur. z Non aubito multos Iectores hie fore stultos.

z Martial 13. S. s

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

13

am an inch, or so many feet, so many parasanges, after him or him, I may be peradventure an ace before thee. Be it therefore as it is, well or ill, I have assayed, put my self upon the stage : I must abide the censure ; I may not escape it. It is most true, stylus virum arguit, our style bewrayes us, and b hunters find their game by the trace, so is a mans genius described by his works : multo melius ex sermone quam linea- mentis, de moribus hominum judicaraus ; ’twas old Cato’s rule. I have laid myself open (I know it) in this treatise, turned mine inside outward : I shall be censured, I doubt not; for, to say truth with Erasmas, nihil morosius hominum judiciis, there’s nought so pievish as mens judgements : yet thisis some comfort — ut p alat a, sic judicia, our censures are as various as our palats.

cTres mihi convivae prope dissentire videntur,

Poscentes vario mnltum diversa palato, &c.

Our writings are as so many dishes, our readers guests ; our books like beauty ; that which one admires, another rejects; so are we approved as mens fancies are inclined.

Pro captu lectoris habent sua fata libelli.

That which is most pleasing to one is amaracum sui, most harsh to another. Quot homines , tot sententice, so many men, so many minds : that which thou condemnest, he commends.

d Quod petis, id sane est invisum acidumpue duobus.

He respects matter; thou art wholly for words: be loves a loose and free stile ; thou art all for neat composition, strong lines, Iiyberboles, allegories : he desires a fine frontispiece, en¬ ticing pictures, such as Hieron. Natali* the Jesuit hath cut to the Dominicals, to draw on the readers attention, which thou rgectest ; that which one admires, another explodes as most absurd and ridiculous. If it be not point-blank to his humour, his method, his conceit, e si quid forsan omissum, quod is ammo conceperit,si quae dictio, frc. if ought be omitted, or added, which he likes, or dislikes, thou art mancipium paucce lectionis, an idiot, an ass, nullus es, or plagiarius, a trifler, a triviant, thou art an idle fellow; or else ’tis a thing* of meer industry, a collection without wit or invention, a very toy. f Facilia sic putant omnes quae jam facta, nec de salebris cogitant, ubi via strata ; so men are valued, their la¬ bours vilified, by fellows of no worth themselves, as things of nought : who could not have done so much ? unusquisque abundat sensu suo, every man abounds in his own sense ; and

bUt venatores feram e vestigio impresso, virum scriptiuncnla. Lips. c Hor.

dHor. * Antwerp, fo!. 1607. e Muretus. fLipsius.

14 DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

whitest each particular party is so affected, how should one please all }

" s Quid dem ? quid non dem ? Renuis tu, quod jubet ille.

How shall t hope to express my self to each mans humor and h conceit, or to give satisfaction to all ? Some understand too little, some too much, qui similiter in legendos libros, atque in salutandos homines irruunt, non cogitantes quales , sed qui bus testibus induii shit , as 1 Austin observes, not regarding what, but who write, k or exin habet auctoris celehritas, not valuing the mettal, but the stamp that is upon it ; cantharum aspiciunt , non quid in eo. If he be not rich, in great place, polite and brave, a great doctor, or full fraught with grand titles, though never so well qualified, he is a dunce. But as # Baronins hath it of cardinal Caraffa’s works, he is a meer hog that rejects any man for his poverty. Some are too partial, as friends to overween ; others come with a prejudice to carp, vilifie, detract and scoff ; (qui de me forsan quidguid est, omni eontemptu contemptius judieant) some as bees for honey, come as spiders to gather poyson. What shall I do in this case ? As a Dutch host, if you come to an inn in Ger¬ many, and dislike your fare, diet, lodging, &c. replyes in a surly tone, 1 aliud iibi queer as diversorium, if you like not this, get you to another inn: I' resolve, if you like not my writing,; go read something else. I do not much esteem thy censure: take thy course : ’tis not as thou wilt, nor as I will : but when we have both done, that of m Plinius Secundus to Trajan will prove true, Every mans witty labour takes not , except the mat¬ ter ^subject, occasion , and some commending favourite happen to it. If I be taxed, exploded by thee and some such, 1 shall haply be approved and commended by others, and so have been (expertus loquor ;) and may truly say with n Jovius in like case (absit verbo jactantia) heroum quorundam,.pontijicum, et virorum nobilium familiaritatem et amicitiam, gratasque gra- tias, et mult or urn °bene laudatorum laudes sum hide promeritus: as I have been honoured by some worthy men, so have I been vilified by others, and shall be. At the first publishing of this hook, (which ? Probus of Persies satyrs) editum lihrum continuo mirari homines, atque avide deripere coeperunt , I may in some sort apply to this my work. The first, second, and third edition w ere suddenly gone, eagerly read, and,

S Hor, b Fieri non potest, nt quad quisque cogitat, dicat unus. Muretus.

i Lib. 1. de ord. cap. 11. k Erasmus. * Annal. tom, 3. ad annum 360.

Est porcus ille qui sacerdotem ex amplitndine reditiium sordide demetitur. 1 Erasm. dial. “Epist. L 6. Cujusque ingenium non statim emergit, misi materise

fautor, occasio, commendatorque contingat, “Prsef. Mst. «Laudari a

laudato laus est. I1 Vit, Persii,

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

15

as I have said, not so much approved by some, as scornfully rejected by others. But it was Democritus his fortune, Idem, admirationi et *irrisioni habitus. ’Twas Seneca’s fate : that superintendant of wit, learning, judgement, °-ad stuporem doctrn, the best of Greek and Latin writers, in Plutarch’s opinion; that renowned corrector of vice, as rFabius terms him, and painful omniscious philosopher that writ so excel¬ lently and admirably well , could not please all parties, or escape censure. How is he villified by s Caligula, Agellius, Fabius, and Lipsius himself, his chief propugner ? In eo pie- raque perniciosa, saith the same Fabius : many childish tracts and sentences he hath, sermo illaboratus, too negligent often and remiss, as Agellius observes, oratio vulgaris et protrita , dicaces et inept ce sententice, eruditio plebeia, an homely shal¬ low writer as he is . In partibus spinas etfastidia , habet, saith * Lipsius; and, as in all his other works, so especially in his Epistles, alias in argutiis et ineptiis occupantur : intricatus alicubi, et parum compositus , sine copid rerum hoc fecit : he jumbles up many things together immethodically, after the Stoicks fashion : parum ordinavit multa accumulavit, Sfc. If Seneca be thus lashed, and many famous men that I could name, what shall I expect ? How shall I that am vix umbra tanti philosophic hope to please ? No man so absolute, ‘Eras¬ mus holds, to satisfe all, except antiquity, prescription, $c. set a bar. But as 1 have proved in Seneca, this will not alwayes take place, how shall I evade? ’Tis the common doom of all writers : I must (I say) abide it : I seek not applause ; u Non ego ventosce venor suffragia plebis / again, non sum adeo informis : I would not be vilified x;

— - - — - -y laudatus abunde,

Non fastiditus ti tibi, lector ero.

I fear good mens censures; and to their favourable acceptance I submit my labours,

- z et linguas mancipiorum

Contemno — -

As the barking of a dog, I securely contemn those malicious and scurrile obloquies, flouts, calumnies of railers and de- . tractors ; I scorn the rest. What therefore I have said, pro tenuitaie med I have said.

* Mirnrit prassentia famam. 1 Lipsius, Judic. de Seneca." r Lib. 10.

Plurimum studii, multam rerum cognitionem, omnem studiorum materiam, &c. multa in eo probanda, multa admiranda. 5 Suet. Arena sine calce.

* Introduc. ad Sen. 1 Judic de Sen. Vix aliquis tain absolutus, ut aMeri

per omnia satisfaciat, nisi longa temporis praescriptio, semcta judicandi libertate, religione quadam aniraos occnparit u Hor. Ep. 1. lib. 29. s iEque

tnrpe frigide laudari ac insectanter vituperari. Phavorinus. A. Gel. lib. 19. c. 2, y Ovid. Trist. 1. eleg. 6. * Juven. Sat. 5.

18

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

One or two thing's yet I was desirous to hare amended, if I could, concerning the manner of handling this my subject, for which I must apologize, deprecari, and upon better advice give the friendly reader notice. It was not mine intent to prosti¬ tute my muse in English, or to divulge secreta Minervce , but to have exposed this more contract in Latin, if I could have got it printed. Any scurrile pamphlet is welcome to our mercenary stationers in English : they print all,

— - - — — cuduntque libellos,

In quorum foliis vix simia nuda cacaret : but in Latin they will not deal : which is one of the reasons aNicholas Car,. in his Oration of the paucity of English writers gives, that so many flourishing wits are smothered in oblivion, lye dead and buried, in this our nation. Another main fault is, that I have not revised the copy, and amended the style, which now flows remisly, as it was first conceived : but my leisure would not permit : Fecinec quodpotui , nec quod volui,

I confess it is neither as I would, or as it should be.

b Cum relego, scripsisse pudet, quia plurima cerno,

Me quoque quae fuer ant judice digna lini.

When I peruse this tract which I have writ,

I am abash’d, and much I hold unfit.

Et quod gravissimum , in the matter it self, many things I dis¬ allow at this present, which when 1 writ, cJSTon eademest cetas non mens. I would willingly retract much, &c. but his too late. I can only crave pardon now for what is amiss,"

I might indeed (had 1 wisely done) observed that precept of the poet,

- nonumque prematur in annum,

and have taken more care : or as Alexander the physici in would have done by lapis lazuli, fifty times washed before it be used, I should have revised, corrected, and amended this tract ; but I had not (as I said) that happy leisure, no ama¬ nuenses or assistants. Pancrates in 4 Lucian, wanting a ser¬ vant as he went from Memphis to Coptus in iEgypi, took a door bar, and, after some superstitious Words pronounced, (Eucrates the relator was then present) made it stand up like a serving- man, fetch him water, turn the spit, serve in supper, and what work he would besides ; and when be had done that service he desired, turn’d his man to a stick again. I have no

a Aut artis inscii, ant quaestui magis quam literis student, hab. Cantab, et Lend, excas. 1676. b Ovid, do Pont. eleg. 1. 6. c Hor. d Tore. 3. ,

Philopseud. accepto pessnlo, qnum carmen quoddam dixisset, effecit ul ambularet, aqaam hauriret, coenaxn pararet, &c.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

17

such skill to make ue^ men at my pleasure, or means to hire them, no whistle, to call, like the master of a ship, and bid them run, &e. I have no such authority, no such benefactors, as that noble * Ambrosius was to Origen, allowing him six or seven amanuenses to write out his dictates ; I must, for that cause, do my business myself, and was therefore enforced, as a bear doth her whelps, to bring forth this confused lump : I had not time to lick it into form, as she doth her young ones, but even so to publish it, as it was first written, quidquid in buccam venit : in an extemporean style, (as e I do commonly all other exercises) effudi quidquid diciavit genius meus ; out of a confused company of notes, and writ with as small deli¬ beration as I do ordinarily speak, without all affectation of big words, fustian phrases, jingling terms, tropes, strong, lines, (that, like * Acestes arrows, caught fire as they flow) strains of wit, brave heats, elogies, hyperbolical exomations, elegancies, &c. which many so much affect. I am * aquas potor , drink no wine at all, which so much improves our mo¬ dern wits; a loose, plain, rude writer , ficum voco ficum, et ligonem ligonem, and as free, as loose : idem calamo quod in mente : g 1 call a spade a spade : ardmis Jicec scribo, non auri- bus , I respect matter, not words ; remembering that of Cardan, verba propter res, non res propter verba ; and seeking with Seneca, quid scribam , non quemadmodum, rather what, than how to write. For, as Philo thinks, h he that is conversant about matter, neglects words ; and those that excell in this art of speaking , have no profound learning :

' Verba nitent phaleris ; at nullas verba medullas Intus habent — ■ —

Besides, it was the observation of that wise Seneca, vwhen you see a fellow careful about his words, and neat in his speech , know this for a certainty , that mans mind is busied about toyes, there’s no solidity in him. Non est ornamentum virile concinnitas : as he said of a nightingale,

- vox es, prseterea nihil, &e.

I am therefore in this point a professed disciple of Apollo¬ nius, ascholarofSocrates: I neglectphrases, and labour wholly to inform my readers understanding, not to please his ear ; ’tis

* Eusebios, eccles. hist. lib. 6. e Stans pede in uno, as he made verses.

* Yirg. f Non eadem a summo expectes, minimoqne poeta, S Stylos

hie nullus prater parrhesiam. h Qui rebus se exercet, verba negligit ; et qui

callet artem dicendi, nullam disciplinam habet recognitam. _ 1 Palingenius.

k Cujoscunqoe orationem vides politam et solicitam, scito animum in pnsillis occupa- tum, in scriptis nil solidum Epist. lib. 1. 21. 1 Philestratus, lib. 8. vit Apol.

Neglige bat oratoriam facultatem, et penitus aspernabatur ejus professores, quod lia- guam duntaxat, non autem mentem, redderent eruditiorem.

VOL. I. C

18

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

not my study or intent to compose neatly, which an orator re¬ quires, hut to express my self readily and plainly as it hap¬ pens : so that, as a river runs, sometimes precipitate and swift, then dull and slow ; now direct, then per ambages ; now deep, then shallow; now muddy, then clear; now broad, then nar¬ row ; doth my style flow — now serious, then light; now comical, then satyrical; now more elaborate, then remiss,' as the present subject required, or as at that time I was affect¬ ed. And if thou vouchsafe to read this treatise, it shall seem no otherwise to thee, than the way to an ordinary traveller, sometimes fair, sometimes foul ; here champion, there in¬ closed; barren in one place, better soil in another. By woods, groves, hills, dales, plains, &c. T shall lead thee per ardua montium, et lubrica vallium, et roscida cespitum, et * glebosa camporum, through variety of objects, that which thou shalt like, and surely dislike.

For the matter it self or method, if it be faulty, consider, I pray you, that of Columella: nihil per fectum, aut a singulan consummatum industria : no man can observe all ; much is de¬ fective no doubt, may be justly taxed, altered, and avoided in Galen, Aristotle, those great masters. Boni venatoris, (mOne hoi da) plures f eras capere, non omnes. He is a good hunts¬ man can catch some, not all: I have done my endeavour. Besides, I dwell not in this study: non hie sulcos ducimus ; non hoc pulvere desudamm : I am but a smatterer, I confess, a stranger : 11 here and there 1 pull a flower! I do easily grant, if a rigid censurer should criticize on this which 1 have writ, he should not find three sole faults, as Scaliger in Terence, but three hundred, so many as he hath done in Cardans Sub¬ tleties, as many notable errors as 0 GuL Laurembergius, a late professor of Bwstocke, discovers in that anatomy of Laurentius, or Barocius the Venetian in Saferoboscus. And although this be a sixth edition, in which I should have been more accurate, corrected all those former escapes, yet it was magni laboris opus, so difficult and tedious, that (as carpenters uo find out of experience, ’tis much better build a new sometimes, than repair an old house) I could as soon write as much more, as alter that which is written. If ought therefore be amiss, (as I grant there is) I require a friendly admonition, no bitter in¬ vective :

p Sint. Musis socise Charites ; Furia omnis abesto. Otherwise, as in ordinary controversies, funem contentionis

* Hie enim, quod Ssneca de Ponto, bos herbam, ciconia larisam, canis leporem, virgo fiorem legal m Pet. Nanning, not. in Hor. “Non hie colonos

domiciliam habeo; sedj topiarii in morem, bine inde fiorem vellico, ut canis Nilum lambens. ° Sspra bis miile aotabijes errores Laurentii^ demonstravi, &c.

v Philo de Con.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

19

nectamus .* sed cui bono ? We may contend, and likely mis¬ use each other : but to what purpose ? We are both scholars, say,

- q Arcades ambo,

Et cantare pares, et respondere parati.

If we do wrangle, what shall we get by it ? Trouble and wrong our selves, make sport to others. If I be convict of an error, I will yield, I will amend. Si quid bonis morihus, si quid veritati dissent aneum, in sacris vel humanis Uteris a me dictum sit, id nec dictum esto. In the mean time I require a favourable censure of all faults omitted, harsh compositions, pleonasmes of words, tautological repetitions, (though Seneca bear me out nunquam nimis dicitur, quod nunquam satis dici- tur ) perturbation of tenses, numbers, printers faults. See. My translations are sometimes rather paraphrases, than interpre¬ tations; non adverbum ; but, as an author, I use more liberty, and that’s only taken, which was to my purpose. Quota¬ tions are often inserted in the text, which make the style more harsh, or in the margent, as it hapned. Greek authors, Plato, Plutarch, Athenaeus, &c. I have cited out of their in¬ terpreters, because the original was not so ready. I have mingled sacra prof anis, but I hope not prophaned, and, in repetition of authors names, ranked them per accidens, not according to chronology ; sometimes neotericks before an¬ cients, as my memory suggested. Some things are here al¬ tered, expunged in this sixth edition, others amended, much added, because many good * authors in all kinds are come to my hands since ; and ’tis no prejudice, no such indecorum, or oversight.

r Nunquam ita quidquam bene subducta ratione ad vilam fuit. Quin res, eetas, usus, semper aliquid apportet novi, .

Aliquid moneat ; ut ilia, quae scire te credas, nescias,

Et, quae tibi putaris prima, in experiundo ut repudies.

Ne’er was ought yet at first contriv’d so fit,

But use, age, or something, would alter it ;

Advise thee better, and, upon peruse,

Make thee not say, and, what thou tak’st, refuse.

But I am now resolved never to put this treatise out ag'ain : ne quid nimis, I will not hereafter add, alter, or retract* I have done.

The last and greatest exception is, that I, being a divine, have medled with pbysick :

- -s Tantumne est ab re tua otii tibi,

Aliena ut cures, eaque nihil quse ad te attinent ?

? Yirg. * Frambesarios, Sennertns, Ferandus, &c. r Ter. Adelph.

3 Heant act. 1. seen. 1.

20 DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

(which Menedemus objected to Chremes) have I so much leisure or little business of mine own, as to look after other mens matters, which concern me not ? What have I to do with physick ? quod medicorum est, promittant medici. The 1 Lacedaemonians were once in counsel about state matters : a debauched fellow spake excellent well, and to thepurpose : his speech was generally approved : a grave senator steps up, and by all means would have it repealed, though good, because dehonestabatur pessimo auctore, it had no better an author ; let some good man relate the same, and then it should pass. This counsel was embraced, factum est, and it was registered forthwith ; et sic bona sententia mansit , malus auctor mutatus est. Thou sayest as much of me, stomachous as thou art, and grantest peradventure this which I have written in physick, not to be amiss, had another done it, a professed physician, or so ; but why should I meddle with this tract ? Hear me speak : there be many other subjects, I do easily grant, both in humanity and divinity, fit to be treated of, which, had I written ad ostentationem only, to show my self, I should have rather chosen, and in which 1 have been more conversant, I could have more willingly luxuriated, and better satisfied my self and others; but that at this time I was fatally driven upon this rock of melancholy, and carried away by this by¬ stream, which, as a rillet, is deducted from the main chanel of my studies, in which I have pleased and busied my self at idle hours, as a subject most necessary and commodious : — not that I prefer it before divinity, which I do acknowledge to be the queen of professions, and to which all the rest are as handmaids, but that in divinity I saw no such great need : for, had I written positively, there be so many books in that kind, so many commentators, treatises, pamphlets, expositions, sermons, that whole teems of oxen cannot draw them; and, had I been as forward and ambitious as some others, I might have haply printed a sermon at Pauls Cross, a sermon in St. Maries Oxon, a sermon in Christ Church, or a sermon be¬ fore the right honourable, right reverend, a sermon before the right worshipful, a sermon in Latine,in English, a sermon with a name, a sermon without, a sermon, a sermon, &c. But I have ever been as desirous to suppress my labours in this kind, as others have been to press and publish theirs. To have written in controversie, had been to cut off an Hydras head : u lis litem generat ; one begets another ; so many duplications, triplications, and swarms of questions, in sacro bello hoc quod styli mucrone agitur, that having once began, I should never

1 Gellius, lib. 18. c. 3. u Et inde catena qasedam fit, quse hseredes etiam

ligat. Cardan. Heinsius. '

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

21

make an end. One had much better, as x Alexander the Sixth, pope, long since observed, provoke a great prince than a begging friar, a Jesuite, or a seminary priest: I will add, for inexpugnabile genus hoc hominum : they are an irrefragable society ; they must and will have the last word, and that with such eagerness, impudence, abominable lying, falsifying, and bitterness in their questions they proceed, that, as y he said furorne cagcus, an rapit vis acrior, an culpa ? responswm date. Blind fury or errour, or rashness, or what it is that eggs them, I know not, I am sure, many times ; which z Austin perceived long since: tempestate contentionis, serenitas, cha- ritatis obnubilatur : with this tempest of contention, the se¬ renity of charity is over-clouded; and there be too many spirits conjured up already in this kind in all sciences, and more than we can tell how to lay, which do furiously rage, and keep such a racket, that as aFabius said, it had been much better for some of them to have been born dumb , and altogether illiterate, than so far to dote to their own destruc¬ tion .

At melius fueratnon scribere : namque tacere

Tutum semper erit. .

’Tis a general fault— ‘so Severinus the Dane complains b in physick —unhappy men as we are, we spend our daies in un¬ prof table questions and disputations, intricate sub tilties,«Ze land caprina about moonshine in the water, leaving in the mean time those chief est treasures of nature untouched, wherein the best medicines for all manner of diseases are to be found, and do not only neglect them our selves, but hinder, condemn, forbid, and scoff at others, that are willing to enquire after them . These motives at this present have induced me to make choice of this medicinal subject.

If any physician in the mean time shall infer, ne sutor ultra crepidam, and find himself grieved that I have intruded into his profession, I will tell him in brief, I do not otherwise by them, than they do by us, if it be for their advantage. I know many of their sect which have taken orders in hope of a benefice : ’tis a common transition : and why may

_ x Malle se bellum cum magno principe gerere, quameum rmo esfratrummendican-. tium ordine. y Hor. epod. lib. od. 7. zEpist 86. ad Casulam presb-

a Lib. 12. cap. 1. Mutos nasci, et oifini scientist egere, satins fuisset, qnam sic in propriam perniciem.insanire. bInfelix mortalitas ! Inntilibus quaestionibns

ac disceptationibus vitam traducimus ; naturae principes thesauros, in quibus gravis- simae morborum medicinae collocatse sunt, interim intactos relinqnimus ; nec ipsi solum relinquimus, sed et alios prohihemus, impedimus, condemnamus, ludibriisqne afficimus.

22

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

not a melancholy divine, that can get nothing' hut by si¬ mony, profess physick ? Drusianus, an Italian, (Crusianus hut corruptly, Trithemius calls him) c because be was not fortunate in his practice, forsook his profession, and writ after¬ wards in divinity. Marcilius Ficinus was semel et sirnul, a priest and a physician at once ; and d T. Linacer, in his old age, took orders. The Jesuites profess both at this time : divers of them, permissu superiorum chirurgions, panders, bawds, and midwives, &c. Many poor countrey- vicars, for want of other means, are driven to their shifts ; to turn mountebanks, quacksalvers, empricks : and if our greedy patrons hold us to such hard conditions, as commonly they do, they will make most of us work at some trade, as Paul did - — at last turn taskers, maltsters, costermongers, grasiers, sell ale, as some have done, or worse. Howsoever, in undertak¬ ing this task, I hope I shall commit no great errour, or inde¬ corum, if all be considered aright- I can vindicate my self with Georgius Braunus, and Hieronymus Hemingius, those two learned divines, who, (to borrow a line or two of mine e elder brother) drawn by a natural love, the one of pictures and maps, prospectives and choro graphical delights, writ that ample Theatre of Cities ; the other to the study of genealogies , penned Theatrum Genealogicum: or else I can excuse my studies with f Lessiusthe Jesuiteinlike ease — It is adisease of the soul, on which l am to treat, and as much appertaining to a divine as to a physician ; and who knows not what an agree¬ ment there is betwixt these two professions ? A good divine either is, or ought to he, a good physician, a spiritual physician at least, as our Saviour calls himself, and was indeed, Mat. 4. 23. Luke 5. 18. Luke 7* 8. They differ but in object, the one of the body, the other of the soul, and use divers medi¬ cines to cure ; one amen d s animamper corpus, th e othet corpus per animam, as sour regius professour of physick well informed us in a learned lecture of his not long since. One helps the vices and passions, of the soul, anger, lust, desperation, pride, presumption, &e. by applying that spiritual physick, as the other uses proper remedies in bodily diseases. Now, this being a common infirmity of body and soul, and such a one that hath as much need of a spiritual as a corporal cure, I could not find a fitter task to busie my self about — a more apposite theam, so necessary, so commodious, and generally concerning all

° Quod in prasi minime fortunatus esset, medicinani reliquit, et, ordlnibns initiatns, in theologia. postmoduia scripsit Gesner, Bibliotheca. d P. Joyins, ‘•’Si.

W. Burton, Preface to his Description of Leicestershire, printed at London by W, Jaggardfor J. White, 1622. f InHygiasticgn; neque eni,m baac tractatio aliens videri debet a theologo, &c. agitur de morbo animae. sD. Clayton, m coipxtiis^

anno 1621. "

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

23

sorts of men, that should so equally participate of both, and require a whole physician. A divine, in this compound mixt malady, can do little alone; a physician, in some kinds of melancholy, much less : both make an absolute cure :

b Alterius sic altera poscit opem :

and ’tis proper to them both, and, I hope, not unbeseeming me, who am by my profession a divine, and by mine inclina¬ tion a physician. I had Jupiter in my sixth house ; I say, with 1 Beroaldus, non sum medians, nec medicines prorsns expers; in the theorick of physic I have taken some pains, not with an intent to practise, but to satisfie my self ; which was a cause likewise of the first undertaking of this subject.

If these reasons, do not satisfiethee, good reader — as Alex¬ ander Munificus, that bountiful prelate, sometime bishop of Lincoln, when he had built six castles, ad invidiam operis eluendam, saith k Mr. Crambden, to take away the envy of his work, (which very words Nubrigensis hath of Roger the rich bishop of Salisbury, who, in king Stephens time, built Shir- burn castle, and that of Devises) to divert the scandal or impu¬ tation which might be thence inferred, built so many religious houses — If this my discourse be over medicinal, or savour too much of humanity, I promise thee that I will hereafter make thee amends in some treatise of divinity. But this, I hope, shall suffice, when you have more fully considered of the mat¬ ter of this my subject, rem suhstratam, melancholy madness, and of the reasons following, which were my chief motives— the generality of the disease, the necessity of the cure, and the ; commodity or common good that will arise to all men by the knowledge of it, as shall at large appear in the ensuing pre¬ face. And I doubt not but that in the end you will say with me, that to anatomize this humour aright through all the members of this our microcosmus , is as great a task as to re¬ concile those chronological errours in the Assyrian monarchy, find out the quadrature of a circle, the creeks and sounds of the north-east or north-west passages, and, all out, as good a discovery as that hungry 1 Spaniards of Terra Australis Incog¬ nita— as great trouble as to perfect the motion of Mars and Mercury, which so crucifies our astronomers, or to rectifie the Gregorian kalendar. I am so affected, for my part, and hope, as m Theoprastus did by his Characters, that our posterity,

h Hor. i Lib. de pestil. & In Newark in Nottingham shire. Cam dno

sedificasset castella, ad tollendam structionis invidiam, et expiandam maculam, dno institnit ccenobia et collegia religiosis implevit. 1 Ferdinando de Qnir.

anno 1612, Amsterdami impress. “Prafat. ad Characteres. , Spero enim, Q

jolycles,. liberos nostros meliores inde.futuros, quod istiusmodi memoriae mandata xgliqnerimus, ex prseceptis et exemplis nostris ad vitam accommodatis, ut se inde corrigant

24

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

friend Polyeles, shall he better for this which we have written, by correcting and rectifying what is amiss in themselves by our examples , and applying our precepts and cautions to their own use. And. as that great captain, Zisca, would have a drum made of his skin when he was dead, because he thought the very noise of it would put his enemies to flight, I doubt not but that these following lines, when they shall be recited, or hereafter read, will drive away melancholy (though I be gone), as much as Zisca’s drum could terrifie his foes. Yet one caution, let me give by the. way to my present or future reader, who is actually melancholy — that he read not the ” symptomes or prognosticks in the following tract, lest, by ap¬ plying that which he reads to himself, aggravating, appropriat¬ ing things generally spoken, to his own person (as melancholy men for the most part do), he trouble or hurt himself, and get, in conclusion, more harm than good. I advise them there¬ fore warily to peruse that tract. Lapides loquitur (so said ° Agrippa, deocc. Phil.) et caveant lectores ne cerebrum ids excutiat. The rest, I doubt not, they may securely read, and to their benefit. But 1 am over-tedious ; X proceed.

Of the necessity and generality of this which I have said, if any man doubt, I shall desire him to make a brief survey of the world, as p Cyprian adviseth Dona te— Supposing himself to be transported to the top of some high mountain , and thence to behold the tumults and chances of this wavering world, he - cannot chuse but either laugh at, or pity it. St. Hierom, out of a strong imagination, being in the wilderness, conceived with himself that he then saw them dancing in Borne ; and if thou shalt either conceive, or climb to see, thou shalt soon perceive that all the world is mad, that it is melancholy, dotes; that it is (which Epichthonius Cosmopolites expressed not many years since in a map) made like a fools head (with that motto, caput helleboro dignum ) a erased head, cavea stul - torum, a fools paradise, or (as Apollonius) a common prison of gulls, cheaters, flatterers, &c. and needs to be reformed. Strabo, in the ninth book of his Geography, compares Greece to the picture of a man ; which comparison of his Nic. Ger- belius, in his exposition of Sophianus map, approves — The breast lies open from those Acroceraunian hills in Epirus, ta the Sunian promontory in Attica ; Pagae and Megara are the two shoulders ; that Isthmos of Corinth the neck ; and Pelo¬ ponnesus the head. If this allusion hold, ’tis, sure, a mad

* Part I. sect 3. » Prsef. Lectori. P Ep. 2. 1. 2. ad Donatnm. Paullisper

te crede subdue! in ardui mentis verticem celsiorem : speeul^re inderertun jacentinm facies ; et, oculis in diverse porreetis, flnetuantis mundi turbines intuere : jam sijaul_ aut ride bis aut misereberis, &c.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READEfe.

25

head — Morea may be Moria; and, to speak what I think, the inhabitants of modern Greece swerve as much from reason and time religion at this day, as that Morea doth from the picture of a man. Examine the rest in like sort ; and you shall find that kingdoms and provinces are melancholy, cities and families, all creatures, vegetal, sensible, and rational— that all sorts, sects, ages, conditions, are out of tune : as in Gebes table, omnes errorem bibunt : before they come into the world, they are intoxicated by errours cup — from the highest to the lowest, have need of physick; and those particular actions in i Seneca, where father and son prove one another mad, may be general : Porcius Latro shall plead against us all. For indeed who is not a fool, melancholy, mad? — r Qui nil molitur inepte ; who is not brain-sick ? Folly, melancholy, madness, are but one disease : delirium is a common name to all, Alexander Gordonius, Jason Pratensis, Savanarola,Guianerius,Montaltus, confound tern, as differing secundum magis et minus ; so doth David, Psal. 37- 5. I said unto the fools, deal not so madly : and ’twas an old Stoical paradox, omnes stultos insanire, — s all fools are mad, though some madder than others. And who is not a fool ? who is free from melancholy ? who is not touched more or less in habit or disposition ? If in disposition, ill disposi¬ tions beget habits ; if they persevere, saith * Plutarch, habits either are or turn to diseases. ’Tis the same which Tully maintains in the second of his Tusculanes, omnium insipien- tum animi in morbo sunt, et perturb at orum : fools are sick, and all that are troubled in mind: for what is sickness, but, as u Gregory Tholosansus defines it, a dissolution or perturba¬ tion of the bodily league which health combines ? and who is not sick, or ill disposed ? in whom doth not passion, anger, envy, discontent, fear, and sorrow, reign ? who labours not of this disease ? Give me but a little leave, and you shall see by what testimonies, confessions, arguments, I will evince it, that most men are mad, that they had as much need to go a pil¬ grimage to the Anticyrae (as in x Strabo’s time they did), as in our dayes they run to Compostella, our Lady of Sichem or Lauretta, to seek for help — that it is like to be as prosperous a voyage as that of Guiana, and that there is much more need of hellebore than of tobacco.

q Controv. 1. 2. cont. 7. et 1. 6. cont, r Horatius. 5 Idem Hor. 1. 2.

sat 3. Damasippus Stoi'cus probat omnes stultos insanire. * T om. 2. sympos.

lib. 5. c. 6. Animi affectiones, si diutius inhsereant, pravos generant babitus. u Lib 28. cap. 1. Synt. art mir. Morbus nihil est aliud quam dissolutio qusedam ac pertur- hatio feederis in corpore existentis^ sicutet sanitas est consentientis bene corporis con- snmmatio qusedam. * Lib. 9. Geogr. Piures oiim gentes navigabant illue

sanitatis caussa.

26

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

That men are so misaffected, melancholy, mad, giddy- headed, hear the testimony of Solomon, Eccles. 2. 1 2. And I turned to behold wisdom , madness , and folly, Sfc. And rer. 23. All his day es are sorrow , his travel grief, and his heart taketh no rest in the night. So that, take melancholy in what sense you will, properly or improperly, in disposition or habit, for pleasure or for pain, dotage, discontent, fear, sorrow, madness, for part, or all, truly, or metaphorically, ’tis all one. Laughter it self is madness, according to Solomon; and, as St. Paul hath it, worldly sorrow brings death. The hearts of the sons of men are evil ; and madness is in their hearts while they live , Eccles. 9. 3. Wise men themselves are no better, Eccles. 1. 18. In the multitude of wisdom is much grief; and he that increasetk wisdom, increaseth sorrow, cap. 2. 17. He hated life it self; nothing pleased him ; he hated his labour ; all, as y he concludes, is sorrow, grief, vanity, vexation of spirit. And, though he were the wisest man in the world, sanctuarium sapientice, and had wisdom in abundance, he will not vindicate himself, or justice his own actions. Surely I am more foolish than any man, and have not the understanding of a man in me, Prov. 33. 2. Be they Solo¬ mon's words, or the words of Agur the son of Jakeh, they are canonical. David, a man after Gods own heart, confesseth as much of himself, Psal. 37 • 21. 2f. So foolish was I and ignorant, I was even as a beast before thee— and condemns all for fools, Psal. 93, and 32. 9. and 4§. 20. He compares them to beasts, horses, and mules , in which there is no under¬ standing. The apostle Paul accuseth himself in like . sort, 2. Cor. 11. 21. I would you would suffer a little my fool¬ ishness ; I speak foolishly. The whole head is sick, saith Esay; and the heart is heavy, cap. 1. 5. and makes lighter of them than of oxen and asses ; the ass knows his owner, Sf-c. read Deut. 32. 6. Jer. 4. Amos 3. 1. Ephes. 5, 6. Be not mad, be not deceived: foolish Galatians, who hath be¬ witched you ? How often are they branded from this epithet of madness and folly ! No word so frequent amongst the fathers of the church and divines. You may see what an opinion they had of the world, and how they valued mens actions.

I know that we think far otherwise, and hold them, most part, wise men that are in authority— princes, magistrates, z rich men — they are wise men born : all politicians and states¬ men must needs be so ; for who dare speak against them ? And on the other, so corrupt is our judgement, we esteem wise

2 Jure hsereditario sapere jubentor. Enphormio, Satyr.

y Eccles. 1. 24.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

27

and honest men fools ; which Democritus well signified in an epistle of his to Hippocrates ; a the Abderites account vertue madness ; and so do most men living. Shall I tell you the reason of it ? b Fortune and Vertue ( Wisdom and Folly their seconds) upon a time contended in the Olympicks ; every man thought that Fortune and Folly would have the worst, and pittied their cases. _ But it fell out otherwise. Fortune was blind, and cared not where she stroke, nor whom, without laws, andabatarum instar, Sfc. Folly, rash and inconsiderate, esteemed as little what she said or did. Vertue and Wisdom gave place, cwere hissed out, and exploded by the common people — Folly and Fortune admired ; and so are all their fol¬ lowers ever since. Knaves and fools commonly fare and de¬ serve best in worldlings eyes and opinions. Many good men have no better fate in their ages. Achish, l Sam. 21. 14. held David for a madman. d Elisha and the rest were no otherwise esteemed. David was derided of the common people, Psal. 9. 7. I am become a monster to many . And generally we are ac¬ counted fools for Christ, 1 Cor. 1 4. We fools thought his life madness and his end without honour , Wisd. 5. 4. Christ and his Apostles were censured in like sort, John 10. Mark 3. Acts 26. And so were all Christians in ePlinys time : fuerunt et alii similis dementias , %-c. and called not long after, {vesct- nice sectatores, eversores hominum, polluti novatores, fanatici , canes, malefici , venefci, Galilcei homunciones, SfC. ’Tis an ordinary thing with us to account honest, devout, orthodox, divine, religious, plain-dealing men, ideots, asses, that can¬ not or will not lye and dissemble, shift, flatter, accommodare se ad eum locum ubi nati sunt, make good bargains, supplant, thrive, patronis inservire, solennes ascenderidi modos appre- hendere, leges, mores , consuetudines recte observare, candide laudare,.fortiter defendere, sententias amplecti, dubitare de nullis, credere omnia , accipere omnia, nihil reprehendere, coeteraque quxs promotionem ferunt et securitatem, quce sine arnbage felicem reddunt hominem, et vere sapientem apud nos — that cannot temporize as other men do, § hand and take bribes, &c.— but fear God, and make a conscience of their doings. But the Holy Ghost, that knows better howi to j udge — he calls them fools. The fool hath said in his heart , Psal. 53. 1 . And their wages utter their folly, Psal. 49. 14. hFor what can be more mad , than for a little worldly pleasure , to

* Apud quos virtus, insania et furor esse dicitar. b Calcagninus, Apol. Omnes narabaotur, putantes iilisum iri Stultitiam. Sed praster expectationem res evenit. Audax Stultitia in earn irruit, &c. ilia cedit irrisa: et plures hinc hafeet sectatores Stdltitia. c Non est respondendum stulto secundum stultitiain. a 2 Reg. 7.

* Lib. 10. ep. 97. 1 Aug. ep. 178. 8 Qufe, nisi mentis inops, &c.

- Q uid Susanins quam pro momentanea felicitate seternis te. mancipare suppliers ?

28

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

procure unto themselves eternal punishment ? as Gregory and others inculcate unto us.

Yea even all those great philosophers the world hath ever had in admiration, whose works we do so much esteem, that gave precepts ofwisdomto others, inventers of arts and sciences — Socrates, the wisest man of his time by the oracle of Apollo, whom his two scholars k Plato and Xenophon so much extol and magnifie with those honourable titles, best and wisest of all mortal men, the happiest and most just ; and as *Alcibiades incomparably commends him; “Achilles was a worthy man, but Brasidas and others were as worthy as himself ; Antenor and Nestor were as good as Pericles ; and so of the rest : but none present, before, or after Socrates, nemo veterum neque eorum qui nunc sunt, were ever such, will match, or come near him” — those seven wise men of Greece, those Britain Druids, Indian Brachmanni, ^Ethiopian Gymnosophists, Magi of the Persians — Apollonius, of whom Philostratus, non doctus, sed natus sapiens , wise from his cradle — Epicurus, so much ad¬ mired by his scholar Lucretius ;

Qui genus humanum ingenio super-avit, et omnes

Perstrinxit, stellas exortus ut setherius Sol -

Whose wit' excell’ d the wit of men as far,

As the Sun rising doth obscure a star -

or that so much renowned Empedocles,

* Ut vix human& videatur stirpe crcatus -

all those, of whom we read such m hyperbolical eulogiums ; as of Aristotle, that he was wisdom itself in the abstract, na mi¬ racle of nature, breathing libraries, (as Eunapius of Longinus) lights of nature, gyants for wit, quintessence of wit, divine spirits, eagles in the clouds, fallen from heaven, gods, spirits, lamps of the world, dictators,

(Nulla ferant talem secla futura virum) moharchs, miracles, superintendents of wit and learning Oceanus , phoenix, Atlas, nonstrum, portentum hominis,orbis universi musceum , ultimus humanoe naturae conatus , naturae maritus ,

— - - merito cui doctior orbis

Submissis defert fascibus imperium,

k In fine Phsedonis. Hie finis fuit amici nostri, o Eucrates, nostro quidem judicio, omnium qnos ’expert! sumns*optimi et apprime sapientissimi, et j ustissimi. 1 Xenop 1. 4. de dictis Socratis, ad finem. Talis fuit Socrates, quern omnium opti¬ mum et felicissimum statuam. * Lib. 25. Plantonis Corrvivio. * Lucre-

tins. m Anaxagoras olim Mens dictus ab antiquis. 31 Regnla naturae,

natur® miraculum, ipsa eruditio, damonium hominis, sol scientiarum, mare, Sophia, antistes literarum ef sapientiae, ut Scioppius olim de Seal, et Heinsius. Aquila in nubibus, imperator literatorum, columen literarum, abjssus eruditionis, ocellus Europas, Scaliger.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

29

as iElian writ of Protagoras and Gorgias — we may say of them all, tantum a sapientibus dbfuerunt , quantum a viris- pueri, they were children in respect, infants, not eagles bat kites, novices, illiterate, eunuchi sapiential. And, although they were the wisest' and most admired in their age, as he censured Alexander, I do them: there were 10,000 in his army as worthy captains (had they been in place of command), as valiant as himself ; there were myriads of men wiser in those dayes, and yet all short of what they ought to be. 0 Lactan- tius, in his book of Wisdom, proves them to be dizards, fools, - asses, mad-men, so full of absurd and ridiculous tenets ahd brain-sick positions, that, to his thinking, never any old woman or sick person doted worse, p Democritus took all from Leu¬ cippus, and left, saith he, the inheritance of Ms folly to Epi¬ curus : insanienti dum sapiential , Sf c. The like he holds of Plato, Aristippus, and the rest, making no difference r betwixt . them and beasts , saving that they could speak. s Theodoret, in his tract De Cur Grace. Affect, manifestly evinces as much of Socrates, whom though that oracle of Apollo confirmed to be the wisest man then living,- and saved him from the plague, whom 2000 years have admired, of whom some will as soon speak evil as of Christ, yet re verd, he was an illi¬ terate ideot, as * Aristophanes calls him — irrisor et anihitiosus, as his master Aristotle terms him, scurry, Jltticus , as Zeno, an u enemy to all arts and sciences, as Athenseus, to philoso¬ phers and travellers, an Opinionative asse, a caviller, a kind of pedant; for his manners, (as Tkeod. Cyrensis describes him) a * Sodomite, an atheist, (so convict by Anytus) iracundus et ebrius, dicax, fyc. a pot companion, by Plato’s own confes¬ sion, a sturdy drinker ; and that of all others he was most sottish, a very mad -man in his actions and opinions. Pytha¬ goras was part philosopher, part magician, or part witch. If you desire to hear more of Apollonius, a great wise man, some¬ time parallel’d by Julian the apostate, to Christ, I refer you to thatlearned tract of Eusebius against Hierocles— and, for them all, to Lucian’s Piscator,Icaromenippus, Necyomantia. Their actions, opinions in general, were so prodigious, absurd, ridi¬ culous, which they broached and maintained ; their books and elaborate treatises wei'e full of dotage ; which Tully (ad At- ticum ) long since observed — delirant plerumque scriptores in libris suis — their lives being opposite to their words, they com-

° Lib. 3. de sap c.,17. et 20. Omnes philosophi aut stnlti aut insani : nulla anus, null us asgev, ineptius deliravit. p Democritus, a Leucippo doctus, hsereditatem stultitiae reliquit Epicuro. q Hor. car lib. 1. od. 34. . r Nihil interest inter hos et bestias, nisi quod loquantur. De sa. 1. 26 c. 8. s Cap. de virt, 4 Neb. et Ranis. “Omnium disciplinarum ignarus. * Pulchrorum adolescentum

causa frequenter gymnasium obibat, &c.

so

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

mended poverty toothers, and were most covetous themselves, extolled love and peace, and yet persecuted one another with virulent hate and malice. They could give precepts for verse and prose ; but not a man of them (as * Seneca tells them home) could moderate his affections. Their musickdid shew us flebiles modes, Sf-c. how to rise and fall; but they could not so contain themselves, as in adversity not to make a lamentable tone. They will measure ground by geometry, set dowm limits, divide and subdivide, but cannot yet prescribe quantum homini satis, or keep within compass of reason and discretion. They can square circles, but understand not the state of their own souls —describe right lines, and crooked, &c. but know not what is right in this life — quidinvita rectum sit, ignorant : so that, as he said,

Nescio, an Anticyram ratio illis destinet omnem.

I think all the Anticyrae will not restore them to their wits. *If these men now, that held y Zenodotus heart, Crates liver, Epictatus lanthorn, were so sottish, and had no more brains than so many beetles, what shall we think of the commonalty ? what of the rest ?

Yea, but (will you infer) that is true of heathens, if they be conferred with Christians, 1 Cor. 3. 19. The wisdom of this world is foolishness with God, earthly and devilish, as James calls it, 3. 1 5. They were vain in their imaginations ; and their foolish heart was full of darkness. Rom. 1 . 21, 22. When they professed themselves wise, became fools. Their witty works are admired here on earth, whilst their souls are tormented in hell fire. In some sense, Christiani Crassiani, Christians are.Crassians, and, if compared to that wisdom, no better than fools. Quis est sapiens ? Solus Deus, * Pytha¬ goras replies : God is only wise. — Rom. 16. Paul determines, only good, as Austin well contends; and no man living can be justified in his sight. God looketh down from heaven upon the children of men , to see if any did understand. Psalm 53. 2. 3. but all are corrupt, erre. Rom. 3. 12. None doth good, no not one. Job aggravates this, 4. 18* Behold, he found no stedfastness in his servants, and laid folly upon his angels , 1 9. How much more on them that dwell in houses of clay ! In this sense, we are all as fools; and the z Scripture alone is arx Minervce ; we and our writings are shallow and imperfect. But I do not so mean : even in our ordinary dealings, we are

* Seneca. Scis rotunda metiri, sed non tnum animum. x Ab nberibns sapientife lactatt, cascutire non peasant. 5' Gor Zenodoti, et jecur Cratetis. * Lib. de nat. boni. 2 Hie profiindissimse sophise fodinse.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

SI

no better than fools. All our actions, as a Pliny told Trajan, upbraid us of folly : our whole course of life is but matter of laughter : we are not soberly wise; and the world it self, which ought at least to be wise by reason of his antiquity, as b Hugo de Prato Florido will have it, semper stultizat , is every day more foolish than other : the more it is whipped, the wore it is : and, as a child, will still be crowned with roses and flowers. We are apish in it, asini bipedes; and every place is full ihversorum Apuleiorum, of metamorphosed and two-legged asses, inversorum Silenorum, childish, pueri instar bimuli, tremuld patris dormientis in ulna. Jovianus Pontanus (An¬ tonio Dial.) brings in some laughing at an old man, that by reason of his age was a little fond : but, as he admonisheth there, ne mireris , mi hospes, de hoc sene, marvel not at him only ; for iota hcec civitas delirium, all our town dotes in like sort ; c we are a company, of fools. Ask not, with him in the poet, d Larvae hunc, intemperice, insaniceque, agitant senem ? What madness ghosts this old man ; what madness ghosts us all ? For we are, ad unum omnes , all mad ; semel insani- vimus omnes : not once, but always so, et semel , et simul, et semper, ever and altogether as bad as he ; and not senex bis puer, delira anus; but say it of us all, semper pueri ; young and old, all dote, as Lactantius proves out of Seneca ; and no difference betwixt us and children, saving that majora ludimus, et grandioribus pupis, they play with babies of clouts, and such toys, we sport with greater babies. We cannot accuse or condemn one another, being faulty ourselves ; de- Ur amenta loqueris, you talk idly, or, as e Micio Upbraided Demea, insanis ? aujfer ; for we are as mad our own selves ; and it is hard to say which is the worst. Nay^’tis univer¬ sally so,

f Vitam regit fortuna, non sapientia.

When s Socrates had taken great pains to find out a wise man, and, to that purpose, had consulted with philosophers, poets, artificers, he concludes all men were fools ; and, though it procured him both anger and much envy, yet in all com¬ panies he would openly profess it. When * Supputius in Pontanus had travelled all over Europe to conferr with a wise man, he returned at last without his errand, and could find none, h Cardan concurs with him : Few there are (for ought

aPanegyr.Trajano. Omnes actiones exprobrare staltitiam videntur. bSer.4. in domi Pal. Mundns, qni oh antiquitatem deberet esse sapiens, semper stnltizat, et nullis flageliis alteratnr ; sed, et pner, vnlt rosis et floribus coronari. c Insannm te omnes pueri. elamaritqaepuells. Hor. d Plautus, Aulular. <> Adelph.'act. 5 seen. 8. i Tally, Tcso. 5. g Plato, Apologia Socratis. * An i. Dial. 11 Lib. 3. de. sap. Pauci, ut video, sanse mentis sunt.

32

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

I can perceive) well in their wits . So doth hTuIly : I see

every thing to be done foolishly and unadvisedly.

Ille sinistrorsum, hie dextrorsum abit : unus utrique Error; sed variis illudit partibus omnes.

One reels to this, another ,to that wall;

’Tis the same errour that deludes them all.

* They dote all, but not alike, (m avia. yov irao-tv fifiiex) not in the same kind. One is covetous , a second lascivious, d third ambitious, a fourth envious, fyc. as Damasippus the Stoick hath well illustrated in the poet,

k Desipiunt omnes seque ac tu.

’Tis an inhred maladie : in every one of us, there is seminarium stultitice, a seminary of folly, which, if it be stirred up, or get a head, will run in infinitum, and infinitely varies, as we our selves are severally addicted, (saith 1 Balthazar Cas'tilio) and cannot so easily be rooted out; it takes such hold, as Tally holds, altce radices stultitice ; m so we are bred, and so we con¬ tinue. Some say there be two main defects of wit— errour and ignorance— to which all others are reduced. By ignorance we know not things necessary ; by errour we know them falsly. Ig¬ norance is a privation, errour a positive act. From ignorance comes vice, from errour heresie, &c. But make how many kinds you will, divide and subdivide ; few men are free, or that do not impinge on some one kind or other. n Sic pie - rumque agitat stultos inscitia, as he that examines his own and other mens actions, shall find.

* Charon, in Lucian, (as he wittily feigns) was conducted by Mercury to such a place, where he might see all the world at once. After he had sufficiently viewed, and looked about, Mer¬ cury would needs know of him what he had observed. He told him that he saw a vast multitude, and a promiscuous ; their habitations like mole-hills ; the men as emmets : he could discern cities like so many hives of bees, wherein every bee had a sting ; and they did nought else but sting one another ; some domineering like hornets, bigger than the rest, some like filching wasps, others as drones. Over their heads were hovering a confused company of perturbations, hope, fear, anger, avarice, ignorance, & c. and a multitude of diseases hanging, which they still pulled on their pates. Some were

h Stulte et incaute omnia agi video. > Insania non omnibus eadem. Erasm. chil. 3. cent. 10. Nemo mortalium qui non aliqua in re desipit, licet alius alio.morbo laboret, hie libidinis, ille aviriti®, ambitionis, invidise. k H0r. 1 . 2. sat 3.' 1 Lib. 1. de aulico. Est in unoquoque nostrum seminarium aliquod stultiti®, quod si quando ex- citetur, in infinitum facile excrescit mPrimaque lux vitas prima furoris erat.

Tibullus. Stulti praetereunt dies ; their wits are a wool-gathering. So fools com¬ monly dote. * Dial contemplantes, tom. 2:

33

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

brawling, some fighting, riding, running, solicite ambientes, collide litigantes , for toyes, and trifles, and such momentany things — their towns and provinces meer factions, rich against poor, poor against rich, nobles against artificers, they against nobles, and so the rest. In conclusion, he condemned them all for mad -men, fools, ideots, asses — O stulti ! quoenam base est amentia ? O fools ! O mad-men ! he exclaims, insana studia, insani labar.es , fyc. Mad endeavours! mad actions ! mad ! mad ! mad ! ° O seclum insipiens et injicetum ! a giddy-headed age. Heraclitus the philosopher, out of a serious meditation of mens lives, fell a weeping, and with continual tears bewailed their misery, madness and folly; Democritus, on the other side, burst out a laughing; their whole life seemed to him so ridicu¬ lous : and he was so far carried with this ironical passion, that the citizens of Abdera took him to be mad, aud sent therefore embassadors to Hippocrates the physician,' that he would ex¬ ercise his skill upon him. But the story is set down at large by Hippocrates, in his Epistle to Damagetus, which, because it is not impertinent to this discourse, I will insert verbatim almost,. as it is delivered by Hippocrates himself, with all the circumstances belonging unto it.

When Hippocrates was come to Abdera, the people of the city came flocking about him, some weeping, some intreating of him that he would do his best. After some little repast, he went to see Democritus, the people following him, whom he found (as before) in his garden in the suburbs, all alone, v sitting upon a stone under a plane tree, without hose or shoes, with a book on his knees, cutting up several beasts, and, busie at his study. The multitude stood gazing round about, to see the congress. Hippocrates, after a little pause, saluted him by his name, whom he re-saluted, ashamed almost that he could not call him likewise by his, or that he had forgot it. Hippocrates demanded of him what he -was doing. He told him that he was i busie in cutting up several beasts, to find out the cause of madness and melancholy. Hippocrates commended his work, admiring his happiness and leisure. And why, quoth Democritus, have not you that leisure ? Because,replyed Hippocrates, domestical affairs hinder,neces- sary to be done, for our selves, neighbours, friends — expences, diseases, frailties and mortalities which happen — wife, children,, servants, and such businesses, which deprive us of our time.

° Catullus. PSub ramosa platano sedentem, solum, discalceatum, super

lapidem, valde pallidum ac macilentum, promissa barba, librum super genibus ha- bentem. qBe furore, mania melancholia scribo, ut sciam quo pacto in ho-

minibus gignatur, fiat, crescat, eumuletur, minuatur. Heec (iniquit) animalia, quse •rides, propterea seeo, non Dei opera perosus, sed fellis biiisque uaturam disqui-

34

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

At this speech Democritus profusely laughed (his friends, and the people standing by, weeping in the mean time, and lament¬ ing his madness). Hippocrates asked the reason why he laughed. He told him, at the vanities and fopperies of the time, to see men so empty of all virtuous actions, to hunt so far after gold, having no end of ambition — to take such infinite pains for a little glory, and to be favoured of men — to make such deep mines into the earth for gold, and many times to find nothing, with loss of their lives and fortunes — some to love dogs, others horses, some to desire to be obeyed in many provinces, r and yet themselves will knowno obedience— s some to love their wives dearly at first, and, after a while, to forsake and hate them— begetting children, with much care and cost for their education, yet, when they grow to mans estate, 4 to despise, neglect, and leave them naked to the worlds mercy.

“ Do not these behaviours express their intolerable folly ?; When men live in peace, they covet war, detesting quietness, x deposing kings, and advancing others in their stead, murder¬ ing some men, to beget children of their wives. How many strange humours are in men ! When they are poor and needy, they seek riches ; and, when they have them, they do not enj oy them, but hide them under ground, or else wastef'ully spend them. O wise Hippocrates ! I laugh at such things being done, but much more when no good comes of them, and when they are done to so ill purpose. There is no truth or justice found amongst them ; for they daily plead one against another, y the son against the father and the mother, brother against brother, kindred and friends of the same quality ; and all this for riches,' whereof, after death, they cannot be possessors. And yet— notwithstanding they will defame and kill one an¬ other, commit all unlawful actions, contemning God and men, friends and countrey— they makegreataccount of many sense¬ less things, esteeming them as a great part of their treasure statues, pictures, and such like moveables, dear bought, and so cunningly wrought, * as nothing but speech wanteth in them ; z and yet they hate living persons speaking to them. Others affect difficult things : if they dwell on firm land, they will re¬ move to an island thence to land again, being no way con¬ stant to their desires. They commend courage and strength in wars, a7Td let themselves be conquered by lust and avarice. They are, in brief, as disordered in their minds, as Thersites

r Aust. 1. 1. in Gen. Jnmenti et servi toi obsequiutn rigide postnlas ; et tn nnlkitn prsestas aliis, nec ipsi Deo, sUxores docunt,Tnox foras ejiciunt. 1 Paeros amaijt, mox fastidiunt. "Quid hoc ab insania deest? x Reges eligunt, deponent,

y Contra parentes, fratres, cives, perpetuo rixantur, et inimicitias agunt. * Credo

eqoidein, lives docent de mannore vultos. * Idola inanimata amant ; aniinata odio habent ; sic pontificii.

DEMOCRITUS TO TRE READER.

35

was in his body. And now me thinks, O most worthy Hip¬ pocrates ! yon should not reprehend my laughing-, perceiving so many fooleries in men ; a for no man will mock his own folly, but that which he seeth in a second ; and so they justly mock one another. The drunkard calls him a glutton, whom he knows to be sober. Many men love the sea, others husbandry: briefly, ^they cannot agree in their own trades and professions, much less in their lives and actions.

When Hippocrates heard these words so readily uttered, without premeditation, to declare the worlds vanity, full of ridiculous contrariety, he made answer, that necessity com¬ pelled men to many such actions, and divers wills easuingfrom divine permission, that we might not be, idle, seeing nothing is so odious to them as'sloth and negligence. Besides, men can¬ not forsee future events, in the uncertainty of humane affairs ; they would not so marry, if they could foretell the causes of their dislike and separation ; or parents, if they knew the hour of their childrens death so tenderly provide for them ; or an husbandman sow, if he thought there would be no increase ; or a merchant adventure to sea, if he foresaw shipwrack ; or be a magistrate, if presently to be deposed. Alas ! worthy Pemocritus, every man hopes the best ; and to that end he doth it ; and therefore no such cause, or ridiculous occasion of laughter.

Pemocritus, hearing this poor excuse, laughed again aloud, perceiving he wholly mistook him, and did not well understand what he had said concerning perturbations, and tranquillity of the mind— insomuch, that, if men would govern their actions by discretion and providence, they would not declare them¬ selves fools as now they do ; and he should have no cause of laughter ; but (quoth he) they swell in this life, as if they were immortal, and demi-gods, for want of understanding. It were enough to make them wise, if they would but consider the mutability of this world, and how it wheels about, nothing being firm and sure. He that is now above, to morrow is beneath ; he that sate on this side to day, to morrow is hurled on the other ; and, not considering these matters, they fall into many inconveniences and troubles, coveting things of no profit, and thirsting after them, tumbling headlong into many cala¬ mities — so that, if men would attempt no more than what they can bear, they should lead contented lives — and, learning to know themselves, would limit their ambition, b they would perceive then that nature hath enough, without seeking such

aSuam stnltitiam perspicit nemo, sed alter al teram deridet. b Denique sit finis quasrendi : cumque habeas pins, Pauperiem metuas minus, et-finire laborem Incipias, parto, quod avebas ; ntere. Hor.

36

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

superfluities, and unprofitable things, which bring' nothing with them but gTief and molestation. As a fat body is more subject to diseases, so are rich men to absurdities and fooleries, to many casualties and cross inconveniencies. There are many that take no heed what happeneth to others by bad conversa¬ tion, and therefore overthrow themselves in. the same manner through their own fault, not foreseeing dangers manifest. These are things (O more than mad ! quoth he) that give me matter of laughter, by suffering the pains of your impieties, as your avarice, envy, malice, enormous villanies, mutinies, unsalable desires, conspiracies, and other incurable vices — be¬ sides yourcdissimulaiion and hypocrisie, bearing deadly hatred one to the other, and yet shadowing it with a good face — flying out into ali filthy lusts, and transgressions of all laws, both of nature and civility. Many things, which they have left off, after a while they fall to again— husbandry, navigation— and leave again, fickle and unconstant as they are. When they are young’, they would be old, and old, young. dPrinces com¬ mend a private life ; private men itch after honour : a magi¬ strate commends a quiet life; a quiet man would be in his office, and obeyed as he is: and what is the cause of all this, butthat they know not themselves ? Some delight to destroy, ebne to build, another to spoil one countrey to enrich another and himself. fIn all these things they are like children, in whom is no judgement or counsel, and resemble beasts, saving that beasts are better than they, as being cpntented with nature. gWhen shall you see a lion hide gold in the ground, or ahull contend for a better pasture ? When a boar is tbirsty,he drinks what will serve him, and no more ; and, when his belly is full, he ceaseth to eat; but men are immoderate inboth, as in lust — they covet carnal copulation at set times ; men always, ruinat¬ ing thereby the health of their bodies. And doth it not de¬ serve laughter, to see an amorous fool torment himself for a wench, weep, howl for a mis-shapen slut, a dowdy some¬ times, that might have his choice of the finest beauties? Is there any remedy for this in physick? hI do anatomize and cut up these poor beasts, to see these distempers, vanities, and follies : yet such proof were better made on mans body, (if my

c Astutam vapido servat sub pectore vulpem.— Et, cum; vulpe positus, pariter vul- pinarier. — Cretinandum cum Crete. dQui fit, Msecenas, at nemo, quam sibi sortem

Sen ratio dederit, sen sors objecerit, ilia Coutentus vivat? &c Hor. eDiruit;

asdificat, mutat qnadrata rotundis — Trajanus pontem struxit super Danubinm, quem successor ejns Adrianos statim demolitus. f Qua quid in re ab infantibus differunt. quibus mens et sensus sine ratione inest ? Qnidqnid sese his off'ert, volupe est. S Idem Plat. !l Ut msanise caussam disquiram, bruta macto et seco, cum hoc potius in ho- minibus investigandnm ess et. •

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

37

kind nature would endure it) * who, from the hour of his birth, is most miserable, weak, and sickly : when he sucks, he is guided by others, when he is grown great, practised! unhap¬ piness, k and is sturdy, and, when old, a child again, and repen teth him of his life past. And here being interrupted by one that brought books, he fell to it again, that all were mad, careless, stupid. To prove my former speeches, look into courts, or private houses, fudges give judgement according totheirown advantage, doingmanifestwrong to poorinnocents to please others. Notaries alter sentences, and, for money, lose their deeds. Some make false moneys : others counterfeit false weights. Some abuse their parents, yea corrupt their own sisters ; others make long libels and pasquils, defaming men of good life, and extol such as are lewd and vicious. Some rob one, some another : “magistrates make laws against thieves, and are the veriest, thieves themselves. Some kill themselves, others despair, not obtaining their desires.' Some dance, sing, laugh, feast, and banquet, whilst others sigh, lan¬ guish, mourn, and lament, having neither meat, drink, nor clothes. n Some prank up their bodies, and have their minds full of execrable vices. Some trot about, °tp bear false witness, and sayany thing for money; and though judges know of it, yet for a bribe they wink at it, and suffer false contracts to prevail against equity. Women are all day a dressing, to pleasure other men abroad, and go like sluts athome,not caring to please their own husbands, whom they should. Seeing men are so fickle, so sottish, so intemperate, why should not I laugh at those, to whom p folly seems wisdom, will not be cured, and per¬ ceive it not?

It grew late : Hippocrates left him ; and no sooner was he come away, but all the citizens came about flocking, to know bow he liked him. Hetold them in brief, that, notwithstand¬ ing those small neglects of his attire, body, diet, s the world had not a wiser, a more learned, a more honest man; and they were much deceived, to say that he was mad.

Thus Democritus esteemed of the world in his time ; and this was the cause of his laughter : and good cause he had.

\Totas a nativitate morbus est. k In vigore furibundus, qDum decrescit insana- bilis. ^Cyprian. ad Donatum. Qui sedet, crimina judicatures, &c. mTu

pessimus omnium latro es, as a thief told Alexander in Curtius. — Damnat foras judex, quod intus operator. Cyprian. n Vultos magnacura; magna animi incu¬

ria. Am. Marcel. ° Horrenda res est ! vix duo verba sine mendacio proferuntur : et, quamvis solenniter homines ad veritatem dicendam invitentur, pejerare tamen non dubitant; ut ex, decern testibus vix unusverum dicat. Calv. in 8. Job. Serm. 1. P Sapientiam insaniam esse dicnnt. <! Siquidem sapientiae suae admiratione me complevit ; offendi sapientissimum virum, qui salvos potest omnes homines reddere. .

SB DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

r01im jure quidem, nunc plus, Democrite, ride.

Quin rides? vita hsec nunc mage ridicula est.

Democritus did well to laugh of old:

Good cause he had, but now much more :

This life of ours is more ridiculous Than that of his, or long before.

Never so much cause of laughter, as now ■; never so many fools and mad men. ’Tis not one s Democritus will serve turn to laugh in these days : we have now need of a Democritus to laugh, at Democritus , one jester to flout at another, one fool to flear at another — a great Stentorian Democritus, as bigas that Rhodian Colossus ; for now, as 1 Salisburiensis said in his time, totus mundus histrionem agit — the whole world playes the fool : we have a new theatre, a new scene, a new comedy oferrours, a new company of personate actors: Volupice sacrce (as Calcagnihus wittily feigns in his Apologues) are ce¬ lebrated all the world over, * where all the actors were mad men and fools, and every hour changed habits or took that which came next. He that was a mariner to day, is an apo¬ thecary to morrow, a smith one while, a philosopher another, in Ms Volupice ludis — a king now with his crown, robes, scepter, attendants, by and by drove a loaded asse before him like a carter, &c. If Democritus were alive now, he should see strange alterations, anew company of counterfeit vizards, whifiers, Cumane asses, maskers, mummers, painted puppets, outsides, phantastick shadows, guls, monsters^ giddy-heads, butter-flies : and so many of them are indeed (u if all be true that I have read); for, when Jupiter and Junos wedding was solemni zed of old, the gods were all invited to the feast, and many noble men besides : amongst the rest came Chrysalus,a Persian prince, bravely attended, rich in golden attires, in gay robes, with a majestical presence, but otherwise an asse. The gods, seeing him come in such pomp and state, rose up to give him place, ex habitu hominem metientes; xhut Jupiter, per¬ ceiving what he was — alight, phantastick, idle fellow — t urned him and his proud followers into butter-flies: and so they con¬ tinue still (for ought I know to the contrary), roving about in

— r'E. Graec. epig. ^Flares Democriti nunc non sufficinnt. ’Optts-Deffiticrito,

qui Democritum rideat. Eras. Moria. * Poiycrait. lib. 3. cap. 8. e Petron.

'* TJbi omnes delirabant, omnes insani, &c. hodie nanta, eras philosophus: hodie faber, cras pharmacopola ; hie inodo regem agebat multo satellitio, tiara, et soeptro drn’atus, nunc vili amictus centiculo, asinum clitellarium impe'llit. uGalcagmi-

nus, Apol.Ghrysalns ecaeferis. attro dives^manicatopeploet trara conspicnns, levis alioquin etmulhus consilii, &c. Magno faslu ingretdienti assurgunt5)iv&c. xSed hominis levitatem Jupiter perspiciehs, at tn (inquit) esto bombilio, Ac. protinusque Vests ilia manicata in alas Versa est ; et mortales inde Chrysalides vocant hujusmodi homines.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

39

pied-coats, and are. called Chrysalides by the wiser sort of men — that is, golden outsides, drones, flies, and things of no worth. Multitudes of such, &c.

- ubique invenies

Stultos avaros, sycophantas prodigos.

Many additions, much increaseof madness, folly, vanity should Democritus observe, were he now to travel, or could get leave of Pluto to come to see fashions, (as Charon did in Lucian) to visit our cities of Moronia Pia, and Moronia Felix — sure I think he would break the rim of his belly laughing.

a Si foret in terris, rideret Democritus, seu, &c,

A satyrical Roman, in his time, thought all vice, folly, and madness, were all at full sea,

b Omne in prsecipiti vitium stetit. -

* Josephus the historian taxeth his countrymen Jews for bragging of their vices, publishing their follies, and that they did contend amongst themselves, who should be most notorious in villanies : but we flow higher in madness, far beyond them?

c Mox daturi progeniem vitiosiorem ;

and the latter end (you know, whose oracle it is) is like to be worst. ’Tis not to be denied ; the world alters every day. Ruunt urbes, regna transfer untur, fyc. variantur habitus, leges innovantur , as d Petrarch observes — >we change language, habits, laws customs, manners, but not vices, not diseases, not the symptoms of folly and madness ; they are still the same. And, as a river (we see) keeps the like name and place, but not water, and yet ever runs,

(* Labitur et labetur iri omne volubilis eevum) our times and persons alter, vices are the same, and ever will be. Look how nightingals sang of old, cocks crowed, kine lowed, sheep bleated, sparrows chirped, dogs barked; so they do still : we keep our madness still, play the fools still, nee dumjmitus Orestes ; we are of the same humours and inclina¬ tions as our predecessors were ; you shall find us all alike, much at one, we and our sons,

Et nati natorum, et qui nascentur ab illis ; and so shall our posterity continue to the last. Bat to speak of times present—

a Juven. b Juven. *De bello Jud. 1. 8. c. 11. Iniquitates vestrse

neminem latent ; inque dies smgulos certanaen babetis, quis pejor sit c Hor.

dLib. 5. Epist. 8. *Hor.

40

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

If Democritus were alive now, and should but see the su¬ perstition of our age, our e religious madness, as f Meteran calls it, religiosam insamara — so many professed Christians', yet so few imitators of Christ, so much talk of religion, so much science, so little conscience, so much knowledge, so many preachers, so little practice — such variety of sects, such have and hold of all sides,

- * obvia signis signa, &c, —

such absurd and ridiculous traditions and ceremonies — if he should meet a® Capouchin, a Franciscan, a pharisaical Jesuite, a man-serpent, a shave-crowned monk in his robes, a begging frier, or see their three-crowned soveraign lord the pope, poor Peter’s successour ,servus servorum Dei, to depose kings with his foot, to tread on emperours necks, make them, hare-foot and bare-legg’d at his gates, hold his bridle and stirrup, &c. (O that Peter and Paul were alive to see this!) — if he should ob¬ serve a h prince creep so devoutly to kiss his toe, and those red¬ cap cardinals, poor parish priests of old, now princes com¬ panions — what would he say ? Ccelum ipsumpetitur stultitid „ Had he met some of our devout pilgrims going bare-foot to Jerusalem, our lady of Lauretto, Rome, St. Iago, S. Thomas shrine, to creep to those counterfeit and maggot-eaten reliques — had he been present at a masse, and seen such kissing of paxes, crucifixes, cringes, duckings, their several attires and ceremonies, pictures of saints, 1 indulgences, pardons, vigils, fasting, feasts, crossing, knocking, kneeling at Ave Maries , bells, with many such

- jucunda rudi spectacula plebi,

pi'aying in gibberish, and mumbling of beads — had he heard an old woman say her prayers in Latine, their sprinkling of holy water, and going a procession,

( - - — -* monachorum incedunt agmina mille ;

Quid memorem vexilla, cruces, idolaque culta, &c. their breviaries, bulls, hallowed beads, exorcisms, pictures, curious crosses, fables, and babies — had he read the Golden' Legend, the Turks Alcoran, or Jews Talmud, the Rabbins

eSuperstitio est insanus error. fLib. 8. hist. Be!g. * Lucan. g Fa¬

ther Angelo, the Duke of Joyeuse, going bare-foot over the Alps .to Rome, &c. 11 Si cui intueri vacet quae patiuntur superstitiosi, invenies tam indecora honestis, tam indigna liberis, tam dissimilia sanis. ut nemo fuerit dubitaturus furere eos, si cum paucioribus furerent. Senec. 5 Quid dicam de eorum indulgentiis, oblationibus, votis, solutionibus, jejuniis, coenobiis, vigiliis, somniis, horis, organis, cantilenis, campanis, simulacris, missis, pnrgatoriis, mitris, breviariis, bullis, lustralibus aquis, rasuris, unctionibus, candeiis, calicibus, crucibus, mappis, cereis, thuribulis, incanta- tiombus, eiorcismis, sputis, legendis, &c. Baleus, de actis Rom. Pont. * Th.

DEMOCRITTTS TO THE READER.

41

Comments, what would he have thought ? How dost thou think he might have been affected ? Had he more particularly examined a Jesuites life amongst the rest, he should have seen an hypocrite profess poverty, k and yet possess more goods and lauds than many princes, to have infinite treasures and reve¬ nues — teach others to fast, and play the gluttons themselves ; like watermen, that rowe one way and look another — 1 vow -virginity, talk of holiness, and yet indeed a notorious bawd, and famous fornicator, lascivum pecus, a very goat — monks by profession*, such as give over the world, and the vanities of it, and yet a Machiavellian rout “interested in all matters of state — holy men, peace-makers, and yet composed of envy, lust, ambition, hatred and malice, fire-brands, adulta putrios pestis, traitours, assassinates— hac itur ad astfa ; and this is to supererogate, and meritheaven for themselves and others ! Had he seen on the adverse side, some of our nice and cu¬ rious schismaticks in another extream, abhor all ceremonies, and rather lose their lives and livings, than do or admit any thing papists have formerly used, though in things indifferent (they alone are the true church, sal terrce , cum sint omnium insulsissimi) — formalists, out of fear and base flattery, like so many weather-cocks, turn round — a rout of temporisers, ready to embrace and maintain all that is or shall be proposed, in hope of preferment— another Epicurean company, lying at lurch as so many vultures, watching for a prey of church goods, and ready to rise by the down- fall of any— as n Lucian said in like case, what dost thou think Democritus would have done, had he been spectatour of these things ; or, had he but observed the common people follow like so many sheep one of their fellows drawn by the horns over a gap, some for zeal, some for fear, quo se cumque rapid tempestas, to credit all, . examine nothing, and yet ready to dye before they will abjure any of those ceremonies, to which they have been accustomed — others out of hypocrisie frequent sermons, knock their breasts, turn up their eyes, pretend zeal, desire reformation, and yet professed usurers, gripers, monsters of men, harpies, devils, in their lives, to express nothing less ?

What would he have said, to see, hear, and read so many bloody battels, so many thousands slain at once, such streams of blood able to turn mills, unius oh noxam furiasque, or to

k Dum simulant spernere, acquisiverunt sibi 30 annorum spatio bis centena millia librarum annua. Arnold. 1 Et quum inferdiu de virtute loquuti sunt, sero

in latibulis dunes agitant labore nocturno. Agrippa.- * 2 Tim. 3. 13. — But they shall prevail no longer: their madness shall be evident to all men. mBenigm-

tatis sinus solebat esse, nunc litium officina, curia Romana. Budseus. u Quid

tibi videtur facturus Democritus, si horum spectator contigisset ?

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

42*

make sport for princes, without any just cause, * for vain titles (saith Austin) precedency, some wench, or such like toy , or out of desire of domineering, vain-glory, malice, revenge, folly, madness, (goodly causes all, oh quas universus orhis bellis et ccedibus misceatur ) wildest statesmen themselves in the mean time are secure at home, pampered with all delights and pleasures, take their ease, and follow their lust, not con¬ sidering what intolerable misery poor souldiers endure, their often wounds, hunger, thirst, &c. ? The lamentable cares, torments, calamities and oppressions, that accompany such , proceedings, they feel not, take no notice of it. jSo wars are begun , by the perswmion of debauched , hair-brained, poor , dissolute , hungry captains, parasitical fawners, unquiet hot¬ spurs, restless innovators , green heads, to satisfe one mans private spleen, lust, ambition , avarice, tales repiunt seelerata in prcelia caussce. Flos hominum, proper men, well proportioned, carefully brought up, able both in body and mind, sound, led like so many ° beasts to the slaughter in the . flower of their years, pride, and full strength, without all re¬ morse and pitty, sacrificed to Pluto, killed up as so many sheep, for devils food, 40000 at once. At once, said I ? — that were tolerable : but these wars last alwayes ; and for many ages, nothing- so familiar as this hacking and hewing, massacres, murders, desolations—

( — • — - ignoto ccelum clangore remugit)

they care not what mischief they procure, so that they may en¬ rich themselves for the present : they will so long blow the coals of contention, till all the world be consumed with fire. The Pseige of Troy lasted ten years, eight months : there died 870000 Grecians, 670000 Trojans : at the taking of the city, and after, were slain27 6000 men, women, and children, of all sorts. Csesar killed a million, Mahomet the ^ Second Turk 30000 persons ; Sicinius Dentals fought in an hundred battels ; eight times in single combat he overcame, had forty wounds before, was rewarded with 140 crowns, triumphed nine times for his good service. M. Sergius had 32 wounds; Scseva the centurion, I know not how many ; every nation hath their Hectors, Scipios, Caesars, and Alexanders. Our r Edward the Fourth was in 26 battels afoot : and, as they do all, he glories in it ; ’tis related to his honour. At the siege of Hierusalem, 1100000 died with sword and famine. At the battel of Cannas, 70000 men were

* Ob inanes ditionum titulos, ob prsereptum locum, ob -interceptam mnliercu- lam, vel quod e stultitia natum, vel e malitia, quod cupido dominandi libido nocendi, &c. ° Bellum rem plane belluinam vocat Morns, Utop. lib. 2.

p Munster. Cosmog. 1. 5. c. 3. E Diet. Cretans. ‘ q Jovius, vit. ejus.

r Comineus.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

43

slain, *as Polybius records, and as many at Battle Abbye with us ; and ’tis no news to fight from sun to sun, as they did, as Constantine and Licinius, &e. At the siege of Ostend, (the devils academy) a poor town in respect, a small fort, but a great grave, 1 20000 men lost their lives, besides whole towns, dorpes, and hospitals, full of maimed souldiers. There were engines, fire-works, and whatsoever the devil could invent to domisehief,with 2500000 iron bullets shot of 40 pounds weight, three or four millions of gold consumed. 5 Who (saith mine author) can be sufficiently amazed at their flinty hearts , obsti¬ nacy, flury, blindness, who, without any lihelyhood of good success, hazard poor souldiers, and lead them without pitty to the slaughter, which may justly be called the rage of furious beasts , that run without reason upon their own deaths ? * quis malus genius, quce Furia, quce pestis, <$fC. what plague, what Fury, brought so devilfish, so bruitish a thing as war first into mens minds ? Who had so soft and peaceable a creature, born to love, mercy, meekness, so to rave, rage like beasts, and run on to their own destruction? how may Nature expostulate with mankind, Ego te divinum animal flnxi, Sfc. I made thee an harmless, quiet, a divine creature ! how may God ex¬ postulate, and all good men ! yet, horum facta (as '* one con¬ doles ( tantum admirantur, et heroum numero habent : these are the brave spirits, the gallants of the world, these admired alone triumph alone, have statues, crowns, pyramids, obelisks to their eternal fame, that immortal genius attends on them : hac itur adastra. When Rhodes was besieged, * fosse urbis cadaveribus repletce sunt, the ditches were full of dead car¬ cases; and (as when the said Solyman great Turk beleagred Vienna) they lay level with the top of the walls. This they make a sport of, and will do it to their friends and confederates, against oathes, vows, promises, by treachery or otherwise — u dolus an virtus, quis in hoste reqmrat ? leagues and laws of arms (x silent leges inter arma : for their advantage, omnia jura, divina, humana, proculcata plerum- que sunt) Gods and mens laws, are trampled under foot ; the sword alone determines all ; to safisfie their lust and spleen, they care not what they attempt, say or do :

- y Kara fides, probitasque, viris qui castra sequuntur.

*Lib.3. cBist. of the iSi^ge of Ostend, fol. 23. _ * Erasmus

<Je bello. tit placidum illad animal benevolentiae natum tam ferina vecordia in mutuam rueret pemiciem. * Rich. Dinoth, preefet. .Belli civilis Gal. 1 Jo- vins. u Dolus, asperitas, injustitia, propria bellormn negotia. Tertul.

x T.ully. y Lucan.

44

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

Nothing so common as to have z father fight against the son, brother against brother, kinsman against kinsman, kingdom against kingdom, province against province, Christians against Christians, a quibus nec unquam cogitatione fuef'unt Icesi, of whom they never had offence in thought, word, or deed. Infinite treasures consumed, towns burned, flourishing cities sacked and ruinated — quodque animus meutdnisse horret , goodly countries depopulated and left desolate, old inhabitants ex¬ pelled, trade and trafiick decayed, maids deflowered,

Virgines nondum thalamis jugatse,

Et comis nondum positis ephebi ;

chaste matrons cry out with Andromache, * Coneubitum most cogarpati ejus, qui inter emit Hector em, they shall be com¬ pelled peradventure to lye with them that erst killed their husbands — to see rich, poor, sick, sound, lords, servants, eodem omnes incommodo mactati, consumedall or maimed, &c. et quidquid gaudens scelere animus audet, et perversa mens, saith Cyprian, and whatsoever torment, misery, mischief, hell it self, the devil, afury and rage can invent to their own ruine and destruction: so abominable a thing b is war, as, Gerbelius concludes — ade&foeda et abominanda res est helium, ex quo hominum caedes, vastationes. Sec. — the scourge of God, cause, effect,, fruit and punishment of sin, and not tonsura humani generis, as Tertullian calls it, but ruina. Had Demo¬ critus been present at the late civil wars in France, those abominable wars,

( — --bellaque matribus detestata)

e where in less than ten years, ten hundred thousand men were consumed, saith Collignius, 20 thousand churches overthrown, nay the whole kingdom subverted, (as d Richard Dinoth adds) so many myriads of the commons were butchered up, with sword, famine, war, tanto odio utrinque, ut barbari ad ab- horrendam lanienam obstupescereni, with such feral hatred, the world was amazed at it — or at our late Pharsalian fields in the time of Henry the Sixth, betwixt the houses of Lancaster and York; an hundred thousand men slain, # one writes, e an¬ other, ten thousand families were rooted out, that no man can but marvel, (saith Comineus,) at that barbarous immanity,

z Pater in filium, affinis in affinem, amicus in amicum, &c. Regio cum regione, regnum regno colliditnr, populus populo, in mutuam perniciem, bel- luarum instar sanguinolente ruentium. * Labanii declam. a Ira enim et

furor Bellonae consultores, &c. dementes sacerdotes sunt. b Bellum quasi

bellua, et ad omnia scelera furor immissus. c GaUorum decies centum millia ceciderunt, ecclesiarum 20 millia fundamentis excisa. d Belli civilis Gal. 1. 1.

hoc ferali bello et csedibus omnia repleverunt, et regnum amplissimum a fundamen¬ tis pene everterunt : pie bis tot myriades gladio, bello, fame, miserabiliter perierunt. * Pont. Huterus. e Comineus. Ut nullus non execretur et admiretur crudeli-

tatem, et barbaram, insanium, qua inter homines eodem sub coelo natos, ejusdem linguae, sanguinis, religionis, exercebatur. —

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

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feral madness, committed between men of the same nation , language, and religion. eQuis furor, O cives ? Why do the gentiles so furiously rage ? saith the prophet David, Psal. 2. 1. But we may ask, why do the Christians so furiously rage ?

* Arma volant, quare, poscunt, rapiuntque j uventus ?

Unfit for gentiles, much less for us, so to tyrannize, as the Spaniards in the West Indies, that killed up in 42 years (if we may believe f Bartholomssus a Casa their own bishop,) 12 millions of men, with stupend and exquisite torments ; neither should 1 lye, (said he) if I said 50- millions. T omit those French massacres, Sicilian evensongs., § the duke of Alva’s tyrannies; our gun-powder machinations, and that fourth Fury (as 11 one calls it), the Spanish inquisition, which quite ob¬ scures those ten persecutions—

- * sievit toto Mars'impius orbe. -

Is not this k mundusfuriosus, a mad world, as he terms it, insa- num helium £ are not these mad men, as * Scaliger concludes, qui in pr celia, acerb a morte, insanice suae memoriam pro per- petuo teste relinquunt posteritaii,-— •which leave so frequent battels, as perpetual memorials of their madness to all succeed¬ ing ages? Would this, think you, have enforced ourDemocritus to laughter, or rather made him turn his tune, alter his tone, and weep with 1 Heraclitus, or rather howl, m roar, and tear his hair, in commiseration — stand amazed ; or as the poets faign, that Niobe was for grief quite stupified, and turned to a stone ? 1 have not yet said the worst. That which is more absurd and “mad— in their tumults, seditions, civil and unjust wars, °quod stulte suscipitur, impie geritur > miser e finitur — such wars, I mean ; for all are not to be condemned, as those phantastical Anabaptists vainly conceive. Our Christian tacticks are, all out, as necessary as the Roman acres, or Grecian phalanx. To be a souldier is a most noble and honourable profession, (as the world is) not to be spared. They areour best walls and bul¬ warks ; and I do therefore acknowledge that of * Tully to be most true. All our civil affairs, all our studies , all our plead¬ ing, industry , and commendation, lies under the protection of warlike vertues ; and, whensoever there is any suspicion of tu-

e Lucan. *Yirg. f Bishop of Casco, an eye witness. SiRead Mete-

ran, of his stupend cruelties. - h Heinsius, Austriac. . * Virg. Georg.

k Jansenius Gallobelgicus, 1598- Mundas furiosus, inscriptio libri. * Bxercitat.

250. serin. 4. ■Meat Heraclitus', an radieat Democritus ? ra Curse leves lo-

qunntur, ingentes stupent. n Arma amens capio, nec sat rationis in armis.

° Erasmus. * Pro Murasna. O rones urban® res, omnia studia, omnis forensis

laus et industria latet in tutela et prassido bellicae virtutis ; et, simul atque.increpuit suspicio.tumultus, artes illico nostras conticescunt.

46

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

mult , all our arts cease: wars are most belioveful ; et bella- tores agricolis civitati sunt uiiliores, as * Tyrius defends : and valour is rnueli to be commended in a wise man ; but they mis¬ take most part : auferre, trucidare, rapere Jhlsis nominibus virtutem vocant, %-c. (’Twas Galgacus observation in Tacitus) they term theft, murder, and rapine, vertue, by a wrong name : rapes, slaughters, massacres, &c. jocus et Indus, are pretty pastimes, as Ludovicus Vives notes, p They commonly call the most hair-brain blood-suckers, strongest thieves, the most des¬ perate villains, trecherous rogues, inhumane murderers, rash, cruel and dissolute caitiff's, courageous and generous spirits , heroical and worthy captains, ^ brave men at arms, valiant and renowned souldiers, possessed with a brute perswasion of false honour, asPontus Huter in bis Burgundian history complains : by means of which, it comes to pass that daily so many vo¬ luntaries offer themselves, leaving their sweet wives, children, friends, — for sixpence (if they can get it) a day, prostitute their lives and limbs, desire to enter upon breaches, lye sentinel, perdue, give the first onset, stand in the fore-front of thebattel, marching bravely on, with a cheerful noise of drums and trumpets, such vigour and alacrity , so many banners streaming in the ayr, glittering armours, motions of plumes, woods of pikes, and swords, variety of colours, cost and magnifi¬ cence, as if they went in triumph, now victors, to the Capitol, and with such pomp, as when Darius army marched to meet Alexander at Issus. Yoid of all fear, they run into eminent dangers, canons mouth, he. ut vulneribus suis ferrum hos- tium hebetent, saith r Barletius, to get a name of valour, honour and applause, which lasts not neither; for it is but a mere flash, this fame, and, like a rose, intra diem unum extin- guitur, ’tis gone in an instant. Of 15000 proletaries slain in a battel, scarce fifteen are recorded in history, or one alone, the general perhaps ; and after a while, his and their names are likewise blotted out ; the whole battel it self is forgotten. Those Grecian orators, summd vi ingenii et eloquentice, set out the renowned overthrows at Thermopylce, Salamine, Marathon , My cole, Mantinea, Cheer onea, Platea : the Romans record their battel at Gannas, and Pharsalian fields ; but they do but record ; and we scarce hear of them. And yet this supposed honour, popular applause, desire of immortality ' by this means, pride and vain-glory, spurs them on many times

* Ser. 13. PCrudelissimos ssevissimosque latrones, fortissimos

propugnatores, fidelissimos duces, habent, bruta persuasions donati. qEo-

banus Hessus. Quibus omnis in armis Vita placet, non ulla juvat, nisi morte ; nec ullam Esse putant vitam, quas non assaeverit armis. r Lib, 10. vit. Scan-

derbeg.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

47

rashly and unadvisedly to make away themselves and mul¬ titudes of others. Alexander was sorry, because there were no more worlds for him to conquer : he is admired by some for it : animosa vox videtur, et regia : ’twas spoken like a prince : but (as wise s Seneca censures him) ’twas vox iniquissima et stultissima: ’twas spoken like a bedlam fool ; and that sen¬ tence which the same t Seneca appropriates to his father Philip and him, I apply to them . all — Non minores fuere pestes mortalium quam inundatio, quam conjiagratio , quibis, Src. they did as much mischief to mortal men, as fire and water, those merciless elements when they rage. "Which is yet more to be lamented, they perswade them this hellish course of .life is holy : they promise heaven to such as venture their lives hello sacro, and that, by these bloody wars, (as Persians, Greeks, and Romans of old, as modern Turks do now their commons, to encourage them to fight, nt cadant infieliciter,') if they die in the field, they go directly to heaven, and shall be canonized for saints, (O diabolical invention !) put in the chronicles, in perpetuam rei memoriam, to their eternal memory; when as in truth, as xsome hold it, it were much better (since wars are the scourge of God for sin, by which he punisheth mortal mens pievishness and folly) such brutish stories were suppressed, because ad morurn instituiionem nihil habent, they conduce not at all to manners, or good life. But they will have it thus nevertheless ; and so they put a note of J divinity upon the most cruel and pernicious plague of hu¬ mane kind, adorn such men with grand titles, degrees, statues, images — z honour, applaud and highly reward them for their good service — no greater glory than to dye in the field ! So Africanus is extolled by Ennius': and Mars,ahd "Hercules, and I know not how many besides, of old w ere deified, went this way to heaven, that were indeed bloody butchers, wicked destroyers, and troublers of the world, prodigious monsters, hell-hounds, feral plagues, devourers, common executioners of humane kind, (as Ractantius truly proves, and Cyprian to Donat) such as were desperate in wars, and precipitately made

r s Nulli beatiores habiti, quam qui in proeliis cecidissent. Brisonius, de rep. Persarum. h 3. fol. 3. 44. Idem Lactantius de Romanis et Grsecis. Idem Ammi- anus, lib. 23. de Parthis. Judicatur is sola's beatus apud eos, qui in proelio fude- rit animam. De Benef. lib. 2. c. 1. ‘Nat. quasst. lib. 3, “ Boterus Amphitri-

drion. Busbequius, Turc. hist. Per cades et sanguinem patere hominibus ascensum in -coelom putant. Lactant. de falsa relig. 1.1. cap. 8. xQuoniam bella -acer-

bissima Dei flagella sunt, qui bus hominum pertinaciam ponit, ea perpetua oblivione sepelienda potius quam memoriae mandanda plerique judicant. Rich. Dinoth. praef. hist. Gail. y Cruentam humani generis pesteni et perniciem

divinitatis nota insigniunt. zEt (quod dolendum) applansum habent et occur -

sum viri tales. a Herculi eadem porta ad coelum patuit, qui magnam generis

humani partem perdidit.

48

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

away themselves, like those Celtes in Damascen, with ridicu¬ lous valour, ui dedecorosum putarent muro ruenti se subdu- cere, a disgrace to run away from a rotten wall, now ready to fall on Their heads. Such as will not rush on a swords point, or seek to shun a canons shot, are base cowards, and no valient men. By which means, Madet orbis mutuo sanguine % the earth wallows in her own blood : a Scevit amor ferri et scelerata insania belli ; and for that, which if it be dona in . private, a man shall be rigorously executed, b and which is no less than murder it self if the same fact be done in publick in wars, it is called manhood and the party is honoured for it.

• - c prosjterum etfelix scelus virtus vocaiur—W e measure

all, as Turks do, by the event ; and, most part, as Cyprian notes, in all ages, countreys, places, scevitice magnitudo im- punitatem sceleris acquirit — the foulness of the fact vindi¬ cates the offender. dOne is crowned foy that which another is tormented,'

(Ille crucem sceleris pretium tulit, hie diadema)

made a knight, a lord, an earl, a great duke, (as e Agrippa notes) for which another should have hung in gibbets, as a terror to the rest—

- - — . — — f et tamen alter.

Si fecisset idem, caderet subjudic,e morrnn.

A poor sheep-stealer is hanged for stealing of victuals, com¬ pelled peradventure by necessity of that intolerable cold, hunger, and thirst, to save himself from starving : but a "great man in office may securely rob whole provinces, undo thousands,, pill and pole, oppress ad libitum, fley, grind, tyrannize, enrich himself by spoils of the commons, be uncontrollable in his actions, and, after all, be recompensed with turgent titles, honoured for his good service ; and no man dare find fault, or h mutter at it.

How Would our Democritus have been affected, to see a wicked caitiff, or ifool, a very ideot, a funge, a golden ass, a monster of man, to have many good men, wise men ,

a Virg-. iEneid. 7. bHomicidium quuru committunt singuii, crimen est,

qunm publice geritur, virtus vocatur. Cyprianus. c Seneca. '<) Juyen. e De vardt. scient. de priucip. aobilitatis. f Juven. Sat 4. Pansa rapit, quodNatta reliquit — Tu, pessimus omnium latro es, as Demetrius the pyrat told Alexander, in . Curtins. hNoa ausi mutire, &c. JEsop. ‘ 5 Improbum et stultum,

si divitem, mpltos bonos viros in servitute habentem, (ob id duntaxat quod.ei contingat aureorum numismatum cumulus) ut appendices et additamenta numismatum. Morns, Utopia. ! ,

49

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

learned men to attend upon him with all submission, as an appendix to his riches, for that respect aloud, because he hath more wealth and money, aand to honour him with divine titles, and humbast epithets, to smother Mm with fumes and eulo¬ gies, whom they knew to be a dizard, a fool, a covetous wretch, a beast, &c. because he is rich /—to see sub exuviis leonis onagrum, a filthy loathsome carkass, a Gorgons head puffed up by parasites, assume thus Unto himself glorious titles, in worm an infant, a Cuman ass, ' a painted sepulchre, an Egyptian temple ! — to see a withered face, a diseased, de¬ formed, cankered complexion, a rotten carkass, a viperous mind, and Epicurean soul, set out with orient pearls, jewels, diadems, perfumes, curious, elaborate works, as proud of his clothes as a child of his new coats- — and a goodly person, of an angelick divine countenance, a saint, an humble mind, a meek spirit clothed in rags, beg, and now ready to be starved ! — to see a silly contemptible sloven in apparel, ragged in his coat, polite in speech, of a divine spirit, wise ! another neat in clothes, spruce j full of courtesie, empty of grace, wit, talk non-sense S

To see so many lawyers, advocates, so many tribunals, so little justice : so many magistrates, so little care- of common good ; so many laws, yet never more disorders— tribunal lithm Segetem, the tribunal a labyrinth— so many thousand suits in one court sometimes, so violently followed ! — to see infustissimum scepe juri prcesidektum , impihm religioni, im- periiissimum eruditioni, biiosissimum labori, mohstrosulnhu- manitati / To see a Iamb b executed, a Woolf pl’dhounce sen¬ tence, Latro arraigned, and Fur sit on the bench, the judge severely punish others, and do worse himself, c eimdem fur- turn facere et punire, d rapinam pleciere, quum sit ipse raptor /—Laws altered, misconstrued, interpreted pro and con, as the e judge is made by friends, bribed, or otherwise affected as a nose of wax, good to-day, none to-morrow ; or firm in his opinion, cast in his ! Sentence prolonged, changed, ad ar- bitriumjudicis ; still the same case, f one thrust out of his in¬ heritance, another falsly put in by favour, false forged deeds or wills. Incises leges negligmitur, laws are made and not kept; or, if put in execution, § they be some silly ones that are

a Eorumque detestantur Utiopienses insaniam, qui.divinqs honores iis impendunt, quos sordidos et avaros agnoscunt ; non alio respecta honorantes, quamquod dites sint. Idem. lib. 2. bCyp. 2. ad Donat. ep ut reus innocens pereaf, fitnocens.

Judex . damnat foris, qnod intus operatur. c Sidonius Apo. d Salvianqs, 1. 3.

de provid. “Ergo judicium nihil est nisi publica merces. Petronius. Quid

faciant leges, ubi sola pecunia regnat ? Idem. fflic arceutur hseredita-

tibus liberi ; hie donatur bonis alienis ; falsum consulit ; alter testamentum comunpit, &c. Idem. s Vexat ceusura columbas.

VOL. I. E

50

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

punished. As, put case it to be fornication, the father will dis¬ inherit or abdicate his child, quite casheer him (out villain ! be gone! come no more in my sight) : a poor man is miserably tormented with loss of his estate perhaps, goods, fortunes, good name, for ever disgraced, forsaken, and must do penance to the utmost : — a mortal sin 1 and yet, make the worst of it, numquid aliud fecit, saith Tranio in the a poet, nisi quodfaci- unt summis nati generibus ; he hath done no more than what gentlemen usually do —

(b Neque novum, neque mirum, neque secus quam alii 'solent) for, in a great person, right worshipful sir, a right honourable grandee, ’tis not a venial sin, no not & peccadillo : ’tis no of¬ fence at all, a common and ordinary thing: no man takes notice of it ; he justifies it in publick, and perad venture brags of it ;

c Nam quod turps bonis, Titio, Seioque, decebat Grispinum - - — — —

d many poor men, younger brothers, &c. by reason of bad policy, and idle education (for they are, likely, brought up in no calling), are compelled to beg or steal, and then hanged for theft; than which, what can be more ignominious ? non minus enim turpe principi multa supplicia, quam medico mult a funer a : ’tis the governours fault, Libentius verber ant quam docent, as school-masters do rather correct their pupils, than teach them when they do amiss. e They had more need provide there should be no more thieves and beggars, as they ought jvith good policy, and take away the occasions, than let them run on, as they do, to their own destruction — root out likewise those causes of wrangling, a multitude of lawyers, and compose controversies, lites lustrales et secular es, by some more compendious means ; whereas now, for every toy and trifle, they go to law, ( %Mugit litibus insanum forum, et scevit. invicem discordantium rabies) they are ready to pull out one anothers throats ; and, for commodity g to squeeze; blood (saith Hieorum) out of their brothers hearts, defame, lye, dis¬ grace, backbite, rail, bear false witness, swear,, forswear, fight and wrangle, spend their goods, lives, fortunes, friends, undo one another, to enrich an harpy advocate, that preys upon them both, and eryes> eia, Socrates ! eia , Xanthippe ! or some

a Plant. Mostel. b Idem. c Juven. Sat. 4. d Quod tot smt fures

et mendici, magistratuum culpa fit, qui malos imitantur prEBceptore,>3, qtri discipulos libentius verberant quam docent. Morus, Utop. lib. 1. <■ Decernunter furi

gravia et borrenda supplicia, quum potius providendum multo foret ne fures sint, ne cuiquam tain dira furandi aut perenndi sit necessitas. ' Idem. fBo-

terus, de augmen. urb. lib. 3. cap. 3. sE fraterno eorde sanguinem eli-

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

51

corrupt judge, that like the akite in iEsop, while the mouse and frog fought, earryed both away. Generally they prey one upon another, as so many ravenous birds, brute beasts, devour¬ ing fishes : no medium ; omnes b Me aut eaptantur aut captant ; aut cadavera quee lacerantur, aut corvi qui lacerant — either deceive or be deceived— tear others, or be torn in pieces them¬ selves ; like so many buckets in a well, as one riseth, another falleth ; one’s empty another’s full ; his ruine is a ladder to the third; such are our ordinary proceedings. What’s the market? a place (according to c Anacharsis) wherein they cozen one another, a trap ; nay, wliat’s the world it self? d a vast chaos, a confusion of manners, as fickle as the air, domicilium insano- rum , a turbulent troop full of impurities, a mart of walking spirits, goblins, the theatre of hypocrisie, a shop of knavery, flattery, a nursery of villany, the scene of b aiding, the school of giddiness, the academy of vice ; a warfare ubi ( veils, nolis ) pugnandum; ant vincas out succumhas ; in which kill or be killed ; wherein every man is for himself, his private ends, and stands upon his own guard. No charity, elove, friendship, fear of God, alliance, affinity, consanguinity, Christianity, can contain them ; but if they be any wayes offended, or that string of commodity be touched, they fail foul. Old friends become bitter enemies on a suddain, for toyes and small of¬ fences ; and they that erst were willing to do all mutual offices of love and kindness, now revile, and persecute one another to death, with more than Vatinian hatred, and will not be reconciled. So long as they are behoveful, they love, or may bestead each other; but, when there is no more good to be expected, as they do by an old dog, hang him up or casheer him ; which f Cato counts a great indecorum , to use Men like old shoos or broken glasses, which are flung to the dunghilf he could not find in his heart to sell, an ox, much less, to turn away an old servant : but they in stead of recompence, revile him; and when they have made him an instrument of their villany, (as sBajazet the second, emperor of theTurks,did by Acomethes Bassa) make him away, or, in stead of h reward,' hate him to death, as Silius was served by Tiberius. In a word, every man for his own ends. Our summum bonum is

* Milvus rapit ac deglubit. bPetronius, de Crotone civit. c Quid forum ? ~ locus quo alius alium circumvenit. ^Vastum chaos, larvarum emporium, thea- trum hypocrisios,' &c. e Nemo coelum, nemo jusjurandum, nemo Jovem, pluris

facit ; sed onmes apertis oculis bona sua computant. Petrou. fPlutarch. vit.

ejns. Indecorum animatis at calceis uti aut vitris, quas, ubi fracta, abjicimus ; nam, nt de miepso dicam, nee bovem senem yendiderim, nedum hominemT natu grandem, laboris socium. sJovins. Cuminnumera illins beneficia rependere non possit aliter, mterfici jussit. h Beneficia eousque lata sunt, dum videntur solvi posse : ubi

' in ill turn antevenere, pro gratia edium redditur. Tac.

E 2

52

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

commodity ; and the goddess we adore; Dea morietd, queen money, to whom we daily offer sacrifice ; which steers our hearts, hands, a affections all — that most powerful goddess, by whom we are reared, depressed, elevated, ^esteemed the sole commaudress of our actions — for which we pray, run, ride, go, come, labour, and contend as fishes do for a crum that falleth into the water. Jfis not worth fvertue, (that’s honumthe- atrale) wisdom, valour, learning, honesty, religion, of any sufficiency, for which we are respected, but c money, greatness, office, honour, authority. Honesty is accounted folly; knavery, policy; d men admired out of opinion, not as they are, but as they seem to he : such shifting, lying, cogging, plotting coun¬ terplotting, temporizing, flattering, cozening, dissembling, e that of necessity one must highly offend God, if he be con¬ formable to the world , (Cretizare cum Crete) or else live in contempt, disgrace, and misery. One takes upon him. tem¬ perance, holiness ; another, austerity ; a third, an affected kind of simplicity ; when as indeed he, and he, and he, and the rest, are f hypocrites, ambodexters, out-sides, so many turning pic¬ tures, a « lion on the one side, a lamb on the other. How would Democritus have been affected to see these things ?

To see a inan turn himself into all shapes like a camelionj Or, as ^roteus, omnia transf ormans sese in miracula rerum, to act twenty parts and persons at once, for his advantage— to temporize and vary like Mercury the planet, good with good, bad with bad ; having a several face, garb, and character for every one he meets— of all religions, humours, inclinatidhs-v-to fawn like a spaniel, mentitis et mimicis ohsequiis, rage like a lion, bark like a cur, fight like a dragon, sting like a ser¬ pent, as meek as a lamb, and yet again grin like a tygre, weep like a crocodile, insult over some, and yet others domi¬ neer o ver him, here command, there crouch ; tyrannize in one place', be baffled in another ; a wise man at home, a fool abroad to make others merry.

To see so much difference betwixt words and deeds, so many parasanges betwixt tongue and heart— men, like stage- players, act variety of parts, h give good precepts to others to Soar aloft, wildest they themselves grovel on the ground.

,a Paucis carior est fides quam pecunia. Sallust. t> Pritua fere votn et

ciniciis, &c. c Et genus et formam regina pe.cunia donat. Quantum quisque '

stia nummorum servut in arefL, Tantinn habet etfidei, d Non a peritia, sed>

ab omatu er vulgi vocibus, habemur excellentes. Cardan 1. 2. de cons. e Per-

jurata sno postponit numina lucro Mercator.— U t necessajium sit vel Deo displicere, vel ab hominibus contemni, vexari, negligi.. fQui Curios simulant, et

Bacchanalia vi yuiit. sTragelapbo similes vel Centauris, sursum homines,

deorsum equi. h Praeceptis suis ccelum promittunt, ipsi interim pulveris terreni

vilia mancipia.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

53

To see a man protest friendship, kiss his hand, a quern mallet truncatum videre, b smile with an intent to do mischief, or cozen him whom he salutes, c magnifle his friend unworthy with hyberbolical elogiums — his enemy albeit a good man, to vilifie, and disgrace him, yea, all his actions, with the utmost livor and malice he can invent.

To see a d servant able to buy out his master, him that car¬ ries the mace more worth than the magistrate ; which Plato (lib, 11. de leg.) absolutely forbids, Epictetus abhors. An horse that tills the eland fed with chaff, an idle jade have

£ro vender in abundance ; him that makes shoos go hare-foot imself, him that sells meat almost pined; a toiling drudge starve, a drone flourish.

To see men buy smoke for wares, castles built with fools heads, men like apes follow the fashions, in tires, gestures, actions : if the king laugh, all laugh ;

— — - f Rides ? majore cachinno

Corieutitur : flet, si lacrymas conspexit amici.

g Alexander stooped : so did his courtiers : Alphonsusjnrned his bead; and so did his parasites. h Sabina Poppeea, Neros wife, wore amber-colour’d hair ; so did all the Roman ladies in an instant; her fashion was theirs.

To see men wholly led by affection, admired and censured out of opinion without judgement : an inconsiderate multitude;, like so many Hogs in a village, if one ' bark, all bark without a cause : as fortunes fan turns, if a man be in favour, or com¬ mended by some great one, all the world applauds him: iif in disgrace, in . an instant all hate him, and as the sun when beds eclipsed, that erst took no notice, now gaze, and stare upon him. '

To see a k man wear his brains in his belly, his guts in his head, an hundred oaks on his back, to devour an hundred oxen at a meal ; nay more, to devour houses and towns, ;or as those anthropophagi, xto eat one another.

To see a man roll himself up, like a .snow-ball, from base beg¬ gary to right worshipful and right honourable titles, unjustly to

1 iEneas Sylv. b Arridere homines, ut sseviant : blandiri ut fallant. Cyp*

ad Donatum. _ 0 Love and hate are like the two ends of a perspective glass:

the one multiplies ; the other makes less. d Ministri locupletiores iis quibus

ministratur ; servus majores opes habens quam patronus. e Qni terram colunt,

eqni paleis pascuntur ; qni otiantur, caballi a vena saginantur : discalceatas discurrit, quicalceos aliis facit. fJnven. sBodin. lib. 4. de repub. c. 6. i>Piinius, 1. 37. c. 3. Capillos habuit snccineos : exinde factum ut Omnes puellae Homaniae colorem ilium affeitarent 5 Odit damnatos. Juv. k Agrippa ep. 28. 1. 7.- Quorum

cerebrum est in ventre, ingeniuin in patinis, . . > Psa). They eat up my people

as bread. V ‘ • .

54

, DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

screw himself into honours and offices; another to starve his genius, damn his soul, to gather wealth, which he shall not en¬ joy, which his prodigal ason melts and consumes in an. instant.

To see the xaxo&faxv of our times, a man bend all his forces, means, time, fortunes, to he afavourites favouritesfavourite,&c. a parasites parasites parasite, that may scorn the servile world, as having enough already.

To see an hirsutebeggars brat, that lately fed on scraps, crept and whin’d, crying to all, and for an old jerkin ran of errands, now ruffle in silk and satten, bravely mounted, jovial and polite, now scorn his old friends and familiars, neglect his kindred, insult over his betters, domineer over all.

To see a scholar crouch and creep to an illiterate peasant for a meals meat ; a scrivener better paid for an obligation, a faulkner receive greater wages than a student ; a lawyer get more in a day, than a philosoper in a year ; better reward for an hour, than a scholar for a twelve moneths study ; him that can b paint Thais, play on a fiddle, curl hair, &c. sooner get preferment than a philologer or a poet.

To see a fond mother, like iEsops ape, hug her child to death, a c wittal wink at his wives honesty, and too perspicuous in all other affairs; one stumble at a straw, and leap over a block; rob Peter, and pay Paul ; scrape unjust summs with one hand, purchase great mannors by corruption, fraud, and cozenage, and liberally to distribute to the poor with the other, give a remnant to pious uses, &c — penny wise, pound foolish ; blind men judge of colours ; wise men silent, fools talk; d find fault with others, and do worse themselves ; e denounce that in public which he doth in secret; and (which Aurelius Victor gives out of Augustus) severely censures that in a third, of which he is most guilty himself.

To see a poor fellow, or an hired servant, venture his life for his new master, that will scarce give him his wages at years end ; a countrey colone toil and moil, till and drudge for a pro¬ digal idle drone, that devours all the gain, or lasciviously con¬ sumes with phantastical expences ; a noble man in a bravado to encounter death, and, for a small flash of honour, to cast away himself ; a worldling tremble at an executor, and yet not fear hell-fire ; to wish and hope for immortality, desire to be

a Absumet hseres Caecuba dignior' servata centum davibus, et mero distinguet pavimentum superbis pontificum potiore coenis. Hor. *> Qui Thai'dem pingere, inflare tibiam, crispare crines. cDoctus spectare lacunar. d Tullius. Est enim proprinm stultitise aliornm cernere vitia, oblivisci suoruin. Idem Aristippus Charidemo apud Lucianum. Omnino stultitia3 enjusdam esse puto, &c. e Execrari pnblice quod

occalte agat. Salvianus, lib. de pro. Acres nlciscendis vitiis quibus ipsi vehementer indulgent.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

55

haPPy* and yet by all means avoid death, a necessary passage to bring him to it. *

To see a fool-hardy fellow, like those old Danes, qui decol- lari nialunt quam verberari , dye rather than be punished, in a sottish humour imbrace death with alacrity, a yet scorn to lament his own sins and miseries, or his dearest friends de¬ parture.

To see wise men degraded, fools preferred, one govern towns and cities, and yet a silly woman over-rules him at home ; command a province, and yet his own b servants or children prescribe laws to him, as Themistocles son did in Greece ; c What I will (said he) my mother will, and what my mother will, my father doth. To see horses ride in a coach, men draw it; dogs devour their masters ; towers build masons; children rule ; old men go to school ; women wear the breeches ; dsheep demolish towns, devour men, &c. and in a word, the world turned upside downward. O ! viveret Democritus!

e To insist in every particular, were one of Hercules labours ; there’s so many ridiculous instances, as motes in the sun. Quantum est in rebus inane ! And who can speak of all ? Crimine ah uno disce omnes ; take this for a taste.

But these are obvious to sense, trivial and well known, easie to be discerned. How would Democritus have been moved, had he seen f the secrets of their hearts ! If every man had a window in his breast, which Momus would havehad in Vulcan’s man, or (that which Tully so much wisht) it were written in every mans forehead, Quid quisque de republica sentiret, what he thought; or that it could be effected in an instant, which Mercury did by Charon in Lucian, by touching of his eyes, to make him discern semel et simul rumores et susurros,

Spes hominum csecas, morbos, votumque, labores,

Et passim toto volitantes eethere curas —

Blind hopes and wishes, their thoughts and affairs. Whispers and rumours, and those flying cares —

* Adamus, eccl. hist. cap. 212. Siquis damnatus fuerit, Isetus esse gloria est ; nam lacrymas, etplanctam, cseteraque compunctionumgenera,qu8e nos salnbria censemus,ita abominatnr Dani, ntnec pro peccatis nec pro defnnctis amieis ulli flere liceat. bOrbi dat leges foris, vix famnlum regit sine strepitu domi. c Quidqoid ego volo, hoc vnlt mater me a, et quod mater vnlt, facit pater. d Oves, olim mite pecus, nunc tarn indomitum et edax, ut homines devorent, &c. Morus.Utop. lib. 1. eDiversos

variis tribuit natura furores. f Democrit. ep. prsed. Hos dejerantes et potantes

deprehendet, hos vomentes,illos litigantes, insidias molientes, sufiragantes venena mis- centes, in amicorum accusationem subscribentes, hos gloria,illos ambitione, cupiditate, mente captos, &c.

56

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

that he could cubiculorum obducfas fores recludere , et secre- ta cordium penetrare, (which a Cyprian desired) open doors and locks, shoot bolts, as Lucians Gallqs did with a feather of his tail; or Gyt>es invisible ring, or some rare perspective glass, or otacousticon, which would so multiply species, that a man might hear and see all at once (as b Biartianus Capellas Jupiter did in a spear, which he held in his hand, which did present unto him all that was daily done upon the face of the earth) observe cuckolds horns, forgeries of afohyifosts, the philosophers stone, new projectors, &e. and all those works of darkness, foolish vows, hopes, fears, and wishes, what a deal of laughter would it have afforded ! He should havp seen wind-mills, in one mans head, an hornets nest in an other. Or, had he been present with Iearomenippus in Lucian at Jupiters whispering place, c and heard one pray for rain, another for fair weather; one for his wives, another for his fathers death, &c, to ask that at Gods hand, which they are abashed any man should hear; how would we have been' confounded.!, would he, think you, or any man else, say jbat these jnen were well in their wits ?

Haec sapi esse hominis qui sanus juret Orestes,?

pan all the hellebore in the Anticyras care these men ? No, sure, d an acre of %ellebore will not do it.

That which is more to be lamented, they are mad like Se¬ necas blind woman, and will not acknowledge, or e seek for any cure of it ; for pauci vident morhim suum , omnes qntant. If bur fleg or arm offend us, we covet by all means possible to redress it ; f and if we labour of a bodily disease, we send for a physician ; hut, for the diseases of the mind, we take np no¬ tice of them. Lust harrows us on the one side, envy, anger, ambition on the other. We are torn in pieces by our passions as so many wild horses, one in disposition, another in habit ; one is melancholy, another mad; and which of us all seeks

a Ad Donat, ep. 2. lib. 1. O si posses in specula subiimi constitutus, &c. b Lib. 1. de nup. Pbilol. in qua, qnid singuli nationum populi quotidianis motibus agitarent, relncebat c O Jupiter ! contingat mihi aurum, hsereditas, &c. Multos da, Jupiter, - an nos ! Dementia quanta est hominum ! tuypissima yota. Dijf insusurrapt : si quis admoverit aufem, conticescupt ; et quod scire homines np.innt, Deo najrrant. Senec- .ep. 10. lib. I. d Piantus, Menaecb. Aon potest base res bollebori jngere obtinerier.

e Ecque grayior morbus, quo ignotior periclitaptj. PQuas lajdnnt oculos, iestjjms

demere ; si quid Est animnm, differs curandi tempus in an nuni. H or. = Sicapnt, criis dqlet, braebium, &c. niedicam accersinms, rente eihoneste, si par etiain indusfei® in animi morbisponeretur. Job, PeletmsJesuitji, lib. 2. de bum. affec, morboniflwpje enra. !i Et.quofnsqnisqne tamen esf, qui contra, tot peste.s medicum requirat, vel segrotare se agnoscai ? ebuliit ira. See. Etnos tamen Kgrqspsse,negai8S.s. Inoolnmes

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

57

for help, doth acknowledge his error, or knows he is sick? As that stupid fellow put out the candle, because the biting fleas should not find him ; he shrouds himself in an unknown habit, borrowed titles, because no body should discern him. Every man thinks with himself, egomet videor mihi sanus, I am well, I am wise, and laughs at: others. And ’tis a general fault amongst them all, that a which our fore- fathers have ap¬ proved, diet, apparel, opinions, humours, customs, manners, we deride and reject in our time as absurd. l> Old men ac¬ count, juniors all fools, when they are mere dizards ; and {as, to sailers, -

— — terrseque urbesque recedunt ■ they move ; the land stand still) the world hath much more wit; they dote themselves. Turks deride us, we them; Italians Frenchmen, accounting them light headed fellows ; the French scoff again at Italians, and at their Several cus¬ toms : Greeks have condemned all the world but themselves of barbarism; the world as much vilifies them now: we ac¬ count Germans heavy, dull fellows, explode many of their fashions ; they as contemptibly think of us ; Spaniards laugh at all, and ail again at them. Sc are we fools and ridiculous, absurd in our actions, carriages, dyet, apparel * customs and consultations ; c we scoff and point one at another, when as, in conclusion, all are fools, d and they the veriest asses that hide their ears most. A private man, if he be resolved with him¬ self, or set on an opinion, account all ideots and asses that are not affected as he is,

e — —(nil rectum, nisi quod placuit sibi, ducit) that are not so minded^ f(Quodque vohmt homines, se bene vette putdni) all fools that think not as he doth. He will not say with Atticus, suam quisque sponsam, mihi meam, let every man enjoy his own spouse ; but his alone is fair, sum amor , Sfc. and scorns all in respect of himself, ? will imitate noiie,hear none h but himself, as Pliny said, a law and example to him¬ self. And that which Hippocrates, in his epistle to Dionysius, reprehended of old, is verified in our times, Quisque in alio super ftuum .esse censet, ipse . quod non hafcetf nec curat ; that which he hath not himself dr doth not esteem, he accounts superfluity, ah idle quality, a mere foppery in another ; like iEsops fox, when he had lost his fail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs. The Chinese say that we Euro-

aPr®sens aetas stoltitiam priscis exprcbrat. Bud. de affec. lip. 5. b Senas

pro shiltis liahent .javenes.-Baltli. Cast. ; . c CIotTins accusat mqgcl»as

4 Omnium stultissim} qoi auriculas studiose tegpnt. Sat. Me nip. e Hor. Epist.g.

t Prosper. ' e Staiim“sapia».tJ sta#m,scmrit, nemoein rsvereptpk nerpipepnirni-

tantur, ipsi sibi exemplo. p!iu. ep. lib. 8. ilNulli a%>'i sapere concept, ne

desipere videatnr. A grip.

53 DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

peans have one eye, they themselves two, all the world else is blind (though aSeaiiger accounts them brutes too, merum peeus ) : so thou and thy sectaries are only wise, others indiffer¬ ent; the rest, beside themselves, meer ideots and asses. Thus not acknowledging our own errors and imperfections, we se¬ curely deride others, as if we alone were free, and spectators of the rest, accounting it an excellent thing, as indeed it is, aliena optimum frui insanid, to make our selves merry with other mens obliquities, when as he himself is more faulty than the rest : mutato nomine, de tefabula narratur : he may take himself by the nose for a fool ; and, which one calls maximum stultitice specimen, to be ridiculous to others, and not to per¬ ceive or take notice of it, as Marsyas when he contended with Apollo, non intelligens se deridiculo haberi, saifh b Apuleius ; ’tis his own cause ; he is a convict mad-man, as c Austin well infers : In the eyes of wise men and angels he seems like - one, that to our thinking walks with his heels upwards . So thou laughest at me, and I at thee, both at a third ; and he re¬ turns that of the poet upon us again, & Hex nihi ! iusanire me aiunt, quum ipsi ultra insaniant. We accuse others of mad¬ ness, of folly, and are the veriest dizards our selves : for it is a great sign and property of a fool (which Eccl. 10. 3. points at), out of pride and self-conceit, to insult, vilifie, condemn, censure, and call other men fools (JVbn videmus manticce quod a tergo est), to tax that in others, of which we are most faulty ; teach that which we follow not our selves; for an inconstant man to write of constancy, a prophane liver prescribe rules of sanctity and piety, a dizard himself make aAreatise of wis¬ dom, or, with Sallust, to rail down-right, at spoilers of coun¬ treys, and yet in e office to be a most grevious poller himself. This argues weakness, and is an evident sign of such parties indiscretion. f Peccat uter nostrum cruce dignius ? Who is the fool now ? Or else peradventure in some places we are s all mad for company ; and so ’tis not seen : societas erroris et dementice pariter absurdfatem et admirationem tollit. ’Tis with us, as it was of old (fn hTullies censure at least) with C. Fimbria in Rome, a bold, hair-brained, mad fellow, and so esteemed of all, such only excepted, that were as mad as him¬ self : now in such a case there is no notice taken of it.

a Omnis orbis . . . ... a Persis ad Lusitanium. b2Florid. c August.

Qnalis in ocnlis hominum qui inversis pedibus ambulat, talis in oculis sapientum et angelorum qui sibi placet, adt cui passiones dominantur. d Plautus, Mensechmi.

e Govemour of Africk- by Caesars appointment. f Nunc sanitatis patrocinium est

insanientium turba. Seu. s Pro Roscio Amerino. Et, quod inter omnes constat,

insanissimus, nisi inter eos, qui ipsi qnoque insaniunt. h Necesse est cum insani- entibus furere,. nisi, solus relinqueris, Petronius.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER. 59

Nimirum insanus paucis videatur, eo quod Maxima pars ho min um morbo jactatur eodem.

When all are mad, where all are like opprest,

Who can discern one mad man from the rest ?

But put the case they do perceive it and some one be mani¬ festly convict of madness ; a he now takes notice of his folly, be it in action, gesture, speech, a vain humour he hath in building, bragging, jangling, spending, gaming, courting, scribling, prating, for which he is ridiculous to others, b on which he dotes ; he doth acknowledge as much : yet, with all the rhetorick thou hast, thou canst not so recall him, but, to the contrary, notwithstanding, he will persevere in his dotage. ’Tis amabilis insania, et mentis gratissimus error, so pleasing, so delicious, that he c cannot leave it. He knows bis error, but will not seek to decline it. Tell him what the event will be, beggary, sorrow, sickness, disgrace, shame, loss, mad¬ ness; yet dan angry man will ■prefer vengeance, a lascivious his whore, a thief his booty , a glutton his belly, before his welfare. Tell an epicure, a covetous man, an ambitious man, of his irregular course ; wean him from it a little, (Poll me occidistis, amici ! ) he cry es anon, you have undone him ; and, as e a dog to his vomit, he returns to it again : no per- swasion will take place, no counsel : say what thou canst,

- Clames, licet, et mare ccelo

Confundas,— — surdo narras :

demonstrate, as Ulysses did to f Elpenorand Gryllus and the rest of his companions those swinish men, he is irrefragable in his humour; he will be a hog still : bray him in a morter ; he will be the same. If he be in an heresie, or some perverse opinion, settled as some of our ignorant papists are, convince his understanding, shew him the several follies and absurd fopperies of that sect, force him to say, veris vincor, make it as clear as the sun, she will err still, peevish and obstinate as he is; and as he said, h si in hoc err o, libenter erro, nec hunc errorem auferri mihi volo ; I will do as I have done, as my predecessors have done, i and as my friends now do : I will dote for company. Say now, are these men kmad or

a Qaoniam non est genus unum stultitias, qua me insanire putas ? b Stultum me fateor, liceat concedere verum, Atque itiayn insanum. Hor. cOdi : nec possum cupiens non esse quod odi. Ovid. Errore grato libenter omnes insanimus. d Ama- tor scortum vitae prasponit, iracundus vindictam, fur pradam, parisatus gulam, am- bitiosus honores, avarus opes, &c. odimus hasc et accersimus. Cardan. 1. 2. de conso. e Prov. 26. 11. f Plutarch. Gryllo. suilli homines, sic Clem. Alex. vo. gNon persuadebis, etiamsi persuaseris. h Tally. _ * Malo cum illis insanire,

quasi cum aliis bene sentire. k Qui inter hos enutriuntur, non magis sapere pos-

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

60 ✓

no ? a Hens , age, respond 'e 1 are they ridiculous ? cedo quemvis arbitrum ; are they same mentis, sober, wise, and discreet ? have they common sense ?

- buter est insanior horum ?

I am of Democritus opinion, for my part; I hold them worthy to be laughed at : a company of brain-sick dizards, as mad as c Orestes and Aihamas, that they may go ride the ass , and all sail along to the Anti cyras, in the ship of fools, for com¬ pany together. I need not much labour to prove this which I say, otherwise than thus, make any solemn protestation, or ‘ swear ,* I think you will believe me without an oath ; say at a word, are they fools ? I refer it to you, though you be likewise fools and madmen your selves, and I as mad to ask the ques¬ tion : for what said our comical Mercury?

d Justum ab injustis pctere insipientia est. i’le stand to your censure yet, what think you ?

But, for as much as I undertook at first, that kingdoms, provinces, families, were melancholy as well as private men,

I will examine them in particular; and that which I have, hitherto dilated at random, in more general terms, I will par¬ ticularly insist in, prove with more special and evident argu¬ ments, testimonies, illustrations, and that in brief.

— - — - e Nunc accipe, quare

Desipiant omnes seque ac tu.

My first argument is borrowed from Solomon, an arrow drawn out of his sententious quiver, Prov. 3. 7. be not wise in thine own eyes. And 26. 12, f Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit ? niore hope is of a fool than of him. Isaiah pronounceth a woe against such men, (cap. 5, 21.) that are wise in their own eyes, and prudent in their own sight. For hence we may gather, that it is a great offence, and men are much deceived that think too well of themselves, and an espe- 'cial argument to convince them of folly . Many men (saith ? Seneca) had been without question wise, had they not had an opinion that they had attained to perfection of knowledge air ready , even before they had gone half way, too forward, too ripe, jor proper*, too quick and ready, hcito prudentes, cito pii, cito inariti, cito patres, cito sacer dotes, cito oifinis officii capaces et curiosi : they had too good a. con? ceit of themselves, and that marred all — of their worth,

aPersius. b Hor. 2, ser. c Vesanum exagitant pueri, innupfeque puellsa.

d Plantes. eHor 1. 2. sat. 2. ' _f Snperbam steititiam Plinius vocat. 7. ep, 2l>

quodsemel dixi, fixum ratuinqne sit. % Multi sapientes procnldubip fuispent, &

sese non putassent aJ sapientias sammiim pervenisse. h Idem.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER. 61

valour, skill, art, learning, judgement, eloquence, their good parts : all their geese are swans : and that manifestly proves them to be no better than fools. In former times they had but seven wise men ; now you can scarce find so many fools. Thales sent the golden tripos , which the fisherman found, and the oracle commanded to be a given to the wisest, to Bias, Bias to Solon, &c If such a thing were now found, we should all fight for it, as the three goddesses did for the golden apple— we are so wise : we have women-politicians, children metaphysicians : every silly fellow can square a circle, make perpetual motions, find the philosophers stone, interpret A po- calypsis, make new theoricks, a new systeme of the world, new logick, new philosophy, &e. Nostr antique regio, saith b Petroiiius, our eokntrey is so full of deified spirits, divine souls , that you may sooner find a God than a man amongst us; we think so well of our selves, and that is an ample testimony of much folly. '

My second argument is grounded Upon the like place of Scripture, which, though before mentioned in effect, yet for some reasons is to be repeated (and, by Platos good leave, I may do it: 4 ‘ht rt> y.»Xov pj&v sSev ,0a«btc<) ‘Fools (saith David) by reason of their transgressions, fye. Psal. 107.17- Hence Musculus iuferrs, all transgressors must needs be fools; So we read Kora. 2. Tribulation and anguish on the soul of every man that doth evil ; but all do evil. And Tsai. 65. 14. My servants shall sing for joy, and d ye shall cry for sorrow of heart, and vexation of mind. ’Tis ratified by the: com¬ mon consent of all philosophers. Dishonesty (saith Cardan) is nothing else but folly and madness. e Pfohus quis nobiscum vivit? Shew me am honest man. Memo malus, qui non) stultus : ’tis Fabius aphorism to the same - end. If none honest, none wise, then all fools. And Well may they be so accounted: for who will account him otherwise, qui iter adornat in occidentem, quum proper aret in orieniem f th at goes backward all his life, westward when he is bound to the east? or holds him a wise man (saith f Musculus) .that prefers momentary pleasures to eternity, that spends his masters goods in his absence, forthwith to be condemned for it ? Necquidquam sapit, qui sibi non sapit. Who will say that a sick man is wise, that eats and drinks to overthrow the temperature of his body ? Can you account him wise or discreet that

aPlutarchus, Solone. Detar sapientidri. bTam praesentibus plena est numinibus, ntfacilius possis Deum quam hominem invenire. c Pu!clirtim bis dieere non noeet. d Malefactors. 6 VV ho can find a faithful man ? Prov. 20. 6. fIn Psal. 49. Qui

praefert momentanea sempiternis, qui dilapidat heri absentis bona, mox in jus vocandus et damnandus.

62

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

would willingly have his health, and yet will do nothing that should procure or continue it ? aTheodoret, (out of Plotinus the Platonist) holds it a ridiculous thing for a man to live after his own laws , to do that which is offensive to God , and yet to 'hope that he should save him ; and, when he voluntarily neglects his own safety , and contemns the means, to think to he delivered by another. Who will say these men are wise ?

A third argument may be derived from the precedent. b All men are carried away with passion, discontent, lust, pleasures, &e. They generally hate those vertues they should love, and love such vices they should hate Therefore more than melan¬ choly, quite mad, bruit beasts, and void of reason, (soChrysos- tome contends) or rather dead and buried alive, as c Philo Judseus concludes itfor a certainty, of all such that are carried ' away withpassions, or labour of any disease of the mind. Where is fear and sorrow, tlrere (dLactantiusstifly maintains) wisdom cannot dwell. '

— — qui cupiet, metuet quoque porro.

Qui metuens vivit, liber mihi non erit unquam.

Seneca and the rest of the Stoieks are of opinion, that, where is any the least perturbation, wisdom may not. be found. What more ridiculous, (as eLactantius urgeth) than to hear how Xerxes whipped the Hellespont, threatened the mountain Athos, and the like? To speak ad rem, who is >. free from passion? f Mortalis nemo est, quern non attingat dolor morbusve, (as g Tully determines out of an old poem) no mortal men can avoid sorrow and sickness ; and sorrow is an unseparable companion of melancholy. h Chrysostome pleads farther yet, that they are more than mad, very beasts, stupified, and void of common sense : for how (saith he) shall I know thee, to be a man, when thou kickest like an ass , neighest like an horse after women, rarest in lust like a hull, ravenest like a bear , stingest like a scorpion, rakest like a wolf,

a Perquam ridicnlnm est homines ex animi sententia vivere, et, qase Diis in- grata sunt, exequi, et tamen a solis Diis veile salvos fieri, qunm propri* salutis curam abjecerint Theod. c. 6. de provid. lib, de curat. Grsec. affecfe b Sa¬ piens, sibi qui imperiosus, &c. Hor. 2. Ser. 7. c Conclus. lib. de vic» offer.

Certum est animi morbis laborantes pro mortuis censendos. d Lib. de sap.

Ubi timor adest, sapientia adesse nequit. e Quid insanius Xerxe Helles-

pontum verberante ? &c. f Eccles. 21. 12- Where is bitterness, -there is no

understanding. Prov. 12. 16. An angry man is a fool. g3 Tusc. Injuria in

sapientem non cadit. h Horn. 6. in 2, Epist. ad Cor. Hpminem te agnoscere

nequeo, cum tamquam' asinns recalcitres, lascivias ut taurus, hinnias nt equus post mulieres, ut ursus ventri indulgeas, quum rapias ut lupus, &c. At (inquis) formam hominis habeo. Id" magis territ, qunm feram humana specie videre me putem.

63

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

as subtile as a fox, as impudent as a dog ? Shall I say thou art a man, thou hast all the symptomes of a beast ? How shall I know thee to be a man ? By thy shape ? That affrights me more, when I see a beast in likeness of a man.

a Seneca calls that of Epicurus, magnificam vocem, an he- roical speech, a fool still begins to live, and accounts it a filthy lightness in men, every day today new foundations of their life : but who doth otherwise ? One travels ; another builds ; one for this, another for that business ; and old folks are as far out as the rest : O dementem senectutem ! Tully exclaims. Therefore young, old, middle age,. all are stupid, and dote.

b iErieas Sylvius, amongst many others, sets down three special wayes to find a fool by. He is a fool that seeks that he can not find; he is a fool that seeks that, which, being found, will do him more harm than good : he is a fool, that, having variety of ways tp: bring him to his journ'eys end, takes that which is worst. If so, me thinks most men are fools. Examine their courses, and you shall soon perceive what dizards and mad men the major part are.

Beroalduswiil have drunkards, afternoon-men, and such as more than ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad. The first pot quencheth thirst (so Panyasis the poet determines in Athenaeus ): secunda Gratiis, Horis, et Dionysio — the second makes merry : the third for pleasure : quarta ad insaniam, the fourth makes them mad. If this position be true, what a catalogue of mad men shall we have ! what shall they be that drink four times four ? Nonne supra omnen furorem, supra omnem insaniam, reddunt insanissimos ? I am- of his opinion, they are more than mad, much worse than mad.

The cAbderites condemned Democritus for a mad man, be¬ cause he was sometimes sad, and sometimes again profusely merry. Hac patrici (saith Hippocrates) bb risumfurere et in - sanire dicunt : his countrey men hold him mad, because he laughs ; d and therefore he desires him to advise dll his friends , at Rhodes, that they do not laugh too much, or be over sad. Had those Abderites been conversant with us, and but seen what e fleering’ and grinning there is in this age, they would certainly have concluded, we had been all out of our wits.

aEpis{. I. 2. IS. Stultus semper incipit vivere, Foeda hominum levitas ! nova qaotidie fundamenta vitae ponere, novas spes, &c. bDe curial. miser. Stultus,

qui quarit quod nequit invenire, stultus qui quaerit quod nocet inventum, stultus aui cum plures Iiabet cailes, deteriorem deligit. Mihi videntur omnes deliri, amentes, &e. c Ep. Damageto. . d Amicis nostris Rhodi dicito, ne nimium rideant,

aut nimium tristes sint. <= Per multum risum poteris cognoscere stultum,

Offic. 3. c. 9.

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DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

Aristotle, in his Ethicks, holds, felix idemque sapiens , t obe wise ami happy, are reciprocal terras. Bonus idemque sapiens honest us. ’Tis £- Tallies paradox: wise men are free, hut fools are slaves: liberty is a power to live according- to his own laws, as we will ourselves. Who hath this liberty? Who is free?

- - - ——b sapiens sibique imperiosus,

Quern neque pauperies, neqne mors, neque vincula terrent ; Responsare eupidini'bu's, contemnere honores - •>

For tis, et in seipso totas teres alque rotundas.

He is wise that can command his own will,

Valiant and constant to himself still.

Whom poverty, nor death, nor bands can fright.

Checks his desires, scorns honours, just and right.

But where shall such a man be found ? if no where, then e diametro, we all- are slaves, senseless, or worse* Nemo malus felix ; But no man is happy in this life, none good ; therer fore no man wise. ,

c Rari quippe boni —

For one vertue, you shall find ten vices in the same party — pauci PrometJiei, multi Epimethei. We may perad venture usurp the name, or attribute it to others for favour, as Carolus Sapiens, Philippus Bonus, Ludovieus Pius, &c. and describe the properties of a wise man, as Tally doth an orator, Xeno¬ phon Cyrus, Castilip a courtier, Galen temperament; an aristocracy is described by politicians. But where shall such a man be found ?

Vir bonus et sapiens, qualem vix repperit unum Millibus e mult is hominum consultus Apollo.

A wise, a good man in a million,

Apollo consulted could scarce find one.

A man is a miracle of himself : but Trismegistus adds, maxi-* mum miraculum homo sapiens : a wise man is a wonder : multi thyrsigeri, pauci Bttcchi.

Alexander, when be was presented witbtbatrich and costly casket of King Darius, and every man advised him what to put in it, he reserved it to keep Homers works, as the most precious jewel of humane wit: and yet d Scaliger upbraids Homers Muse, nutricem insance sapientice, a nursery of madness, e impudent as a court lady, that blushes at nothing'. Jacobus Micyllus, Gilbertus Cognatus, Erasmus, and almost

aSapientes liberi, stulti servi. Xiibertas est potestas, &c. bHor. 2. ser 7.

cjuven. ‘ ^ Hypercrite. eUt mulier aulica nullias pudens.

DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.

65

all posterity, admire Liiciaas luxuriant wit: yet Scaliger re¬ jects him in his censure, and calls him the Cerberus of the Muses. Socrates, whom all the world so much magnified, is, by Lactantius and Theodoret, condemned for a fool. Plutarch extolls Senecas wit beyond all the Greeks — radii secundus : yet 3 Seneca saith of himself, when I would solace my self with a fool , I reflect upon my self ; and there I have him. Cardan, in his sixteenth book ofSubtilties, reckons up twelve supereminent, acute philosophers, for worth, subtlety, and wisdom — Archimedes, Galen, Vitruvius, Archytas Tarentinus, Euclide, Geber, that first inventer of algebra, Alkindus the mathematician, both Arabians, with others. But his triumviri terrarum, far beyond therest, the Ptolemseus, Plotinus, Hippo¬ crates. Scaliger lexer citat. 224) scoff's at this censure of his, calls some of them carpenters, and mechanicians : he makes Galen flmbriam Hippocratis, a skirt of Hippocrates : and the saidb Cardan himself elsewhere condemns both Galen and Hippocrates for tediousness, obscurity, confusion. Para¬ celsus will have them both meer ideots, infants in physick and philosophy. Scaliger andCardan admire Suissetthe calculator, qui pene modum excessit humani ingenii ? and yet c Lud. Vives calls them nugas Suisseticas: and Cardan opposite to him¬ self in another place, contemns those antients in respect of times present, dmajotesque nostros, ad prcesentes collatos, juste pueros dppellari. In conclusion, the said e Cardan and Saint Bernard will admit none into this catalogue of wise men, f but only prophets and apostles : how they esteem themselves, you have heard before. We are worldly-wise, admire our selves, and seek for applause: but hear Saint ^Bernard, quanto magis for as es sapiens , tanto magis intus stultus efficeris, fyc. in omnibus es prudens, circa teipsum insipiens : the more wise thou art to others, the more fool to thy self. I may not deny but that there is some folly approved, a divine fury, a holy madness, even a spiritual drunkenness in the saints of God themselves: Sanctdm insaniam Bernard calls it, (though not, as blaspheming h Vorstitus would inferr it as a passion incident to God himself, but) familiar to good men, as that of Paul, 2 Cor. he was a fool, fyc. and Rom. 9. he wiseth himself to be anathematized for them. Such is that drunkenness which Ficinus speaks of, when the

aEpist 33. Quando fatuo delectari volo, non est longe quserendus ; me video. ^Primo contradicentium. cJjib. de caossis corrupt, artium. d Actione ad

subtil, in Seal. fol. 12. 26. _ e Lib. 1. de sap.. * _ fVide, miser bomo, quia

totum est vanitas, totum stultitia, totum dementia, quidquid facisin hoc mundo, prater hoe solum quod propter Deum facis. Ser. de miser, hom. % In 2 Platonis, dial.

1. dejusto. hDum iram et odium in Deo revera ponit.

VOL. I

66 DEMOCRITUS TO THE READER.