[4440] ———"Id sibi negoti credidit solum dari, Populo ut placrent, quas fecissit fabulas,"

made this his only care and sole study to please the people, tickle the ear, and to delight; but mine earnest intent is as much to profit as to please; non tam ut populo placerem, quam ut populum juvarem, and these my writings, I hope, shall take like gilded pills, which are so composed as well to tempt the appetite, and deceive the palate, as to help and medicinally work upon the whole body; my lines shall not only recreate, but rectify the mind. I think I have said enough; if not, let him that is otherwise minded, remember that of [4441]Maudarensis, "he was in his life a philosopher" (as Ausonius apologiseth for him), "in his epigrams a lover, in his precepts most severe; in his epistle to Caerellia, a wanton." Annianus, Sulpicius, Evemus, Menander, and many old poets besides, did in scriptis prurire, write Fescennines, Atellans, and lascivious songs; laetam materiam; yet they had in moribus censuram, et severitatem, they were chaste, severe, and upright livers.

[4442] "Castum esse decet pium poetam Ipsum, versiculos nihil necesse est, Qui tum denique habent salem et leporem."

I am of Catullus' opinion, and make the same apology in mine own behalf; Hoc etiam quod scribo, pendet plerumque ex aliorum sententia et auctoritate; nec ipse forsan insanio, sed insanientes sequor. Atqui detur hoc insanire me; Semel insanivimus omnes, et tute ipse opinor insanis aliquando, et is, et ille, et ego, scilicet.[4443] Homo sum, humani a me nihil alienum puto:[4444] And which he urgeth for himself, accused of the like fault, I as justly plead, [4445]lasciva est nobis pagina, vita proba est. Howsoever my lines err, my life is honest, [4446]vita verecunda est, musa jocosa mihi. But I presume I need no such apologies, I need not, as Socrates in Plato, cover his face when he spake of love, or blush and hide mine eyes, as Pallas did in her hood, when she was consulted by Jupiter about Mercury's marriage, quod, super nuptiis virgo consulitur, it is no such lascivious, obscene, or wanton discourse; I have not offended your chaster ears with anything that is here written, as many French and Italian authors in their modern language of late have done, nay some of our Latin pontificial writers, Zanches, Asorius, Abulensis, Burchardus, &c., whom [4447]Rivet accuseth to be more lascivious than Virgil in Priapeiis, Petronius in Catalectis, Aristophanes in Lycistratae, Martialis, or any other pagan profane writer, qui tam atrociter ([4448]one notes) hoc genere peccarunt ut multa ingeniosissime scripta obscaenitatum gratia castae mentes abhorreant. 'Tis not scurrile this, but chaste, honest, most part serious, and even of religion itself. [4449]"Incensed" (as he said) "with the love of finding love, we have sought it, and found it." More yet, I have augmented and added something to this light treatise (if light) which was not in the former editions, I am not ashamed to confess it, with a good [4450]author, quod extendi et locupletari hoc subjectum plerique postulabant, et eorum importunitate victus, animum utcunque renitentem eo adegi, ut jam sexta vice calamum in manum sumerem, scriptionique longe et a studiis et professione mea alienae, me accingerem, horas aliquas a seriis meis occupationibus interim suffuratus, easque veluti ludo cuidam ac recreationi destinans;

[4451] "Cogor———retrorsum Vela dare, atque literare cursus Olim relictos"———

etsi non ignorarem novos fortasse detractores novis hisce interpolationibus meis minime defuturos. [4452]

And thus much I have thought good to say by way of preface, lest any man (which [4453]Godefridus feared in his book) should blame in me lightness, wantonness, rashness, in speaking of love's causes, enticements, symptoms, remedies, lawful and unlawful loves, and lust itself, [4454]I speak it only to tax and deter others from it, not to teach, but to show the vanities and fopperies of this heroical or Herculean love, [4455]and to apply remedies unto it. I will treat of this with like liberty as of the rest.

[4456] "Sed dicam vobis, vos porro dicite multis Millibus, et facite haec charta loquatur anus."

Condemn me not good reader then, or censure me hardly, if some part of this treatise to thy thinking as yet be too light; but consider better of it; Omnia munda mundis, [4457]a naked man to a modest woman is no otherwise than a picture, as Augusta Livia truly said, and [4458]mala mens, malus animus, 'tis as 'tis taken. If in thy censure it be too light, I advise thee as Lipsius did his reader for some places of Plautus, istos quasi Sirenum scopulos praetervehare, if they like thee not, let them pass; or oppose that which is good to that which is bad, and reject not therefore all. For to invert that verse of Martial, and with Hierom Wolfius to apply it to my present purpose, sunt mala, sunt quaedam mediocria, sunt bona plura; some is good, some bad, some is indifferent. I say further with him yet, I have inserted ([4459]levicula quaedam et ridicula ascribere non sum gravatus, circumforanea quaedam e theatris, e plateis, etiam e popinis) some things more homely, light, or comical, litans gratiis, &c. which I would request every man to interpret to the best, and as Julius Caesar Scaliger besought Cardan (si quid urbaniuscule lusum a nobis, per deos immortales te oro Hieronyme Cardane ne me male capias). I beseech thee, good reader, not to mistake me, or misconstrue what is here written; Per Musas et Charites, et omnia Poetarum numina, benigne lector, oro te ne me male capias. 'Tis a comical subject; in sober sadness I crave pardon of what is amiss, and desire thee to suspend thy judgment, wink at small faults, or to be silent at least; but if thou likest, speak well of it, and wish me good success. Extremum hunc Arethusa mihi concede laborem.[4460]

I am resolved howsoever, velis, nolis, audacter stadium intrare, in the Olympics, with those Aeliensian wrestlers in Philostratus, boldly to show myself in this common stage, and in this tragicomedy of love, to act several parts, some satirically, some comically, some in a mixed tone, as the subject I have in hand gives occasion, and present scene shall require, or offer itself.

SUBSECT. II.—Love's Beginning, Object, Definition, Division.

"Love's limits are ample and great, and a spacious walk it hath, beset with thorns," and for that cause, which [4461]Scaliger reprehends in Cardan, "not lightly to be passed over." Lest I incur the same censure, 1 will examine all the kinds of love, his nature, beginning, difference, objects, how it is honest or dishonest, a virtue or vice, a natural passion, or a disease, his power and effects, how far it extends: of which, although something has been said in the first partition, in those sections of perturbations ([4462] "for love and hatred are the first and most common passions, from which all the rest arise, and are attendant," as Picolomineus holds, or as Nich. Caussinus, the primum mobile of all other affections, which carry them all about them) I will now more copiously dilate, through all his parts and several branches, that so it may better appear what love is, and how it varies with the objects, how in defect, or (which is most ordinary and common) immoderate, and in excess, causeth melancholy.

Love universally taken, is defined to be a desire, as a word of more ample signification: and though Leon Hebreus, the most copious writer of this subject, in his third dialogue make no difference, yet in his first he distinguisheth them again, and defines love by desire. [4463]"Love is a voluntary affection, and desire to enjoy that which is good. [4464]Desire wisheth, love enjoys; the end of the one is the beginning of the other; that which we love is present; that which we desire is absent." [4465]"It is worth the labour," saith Plotinus, "to consider well of love, whether it be a god or a devil, or passion of the mind, or partly god, partly devil, partly passion." He concludes love to participate of all three, to arise from desire of that which is beautiful and fair, and defines it to be "an action of the mind desiring that which is good." [4466]Plato calls it the great devil, for its vehemency, and sovereignty over all other passions, and defines it an appetite, [4467]"by which we desire some good to be present." Ficinus in his comment adds the word fair to this definition. Love is a desire of enjoying that which is good and fair. Austin dilates this common definition, and will have love to be a delectation of the heart, [4468]"for something which we seek to win, or joy to have, coveting by desire, resting in joy." [4469]Scaliger exerc. 301. taxeth these former definitions, and will not have love to be defined by desire or appetite; "for when we enjoy the things we desire, there remains no more appetite:" as he defines it, "Love is an affection by which we are either united to the thing we love, or perpetuate our union;" which agrees in part with Leon Hebreus.

Now this love varies as its object varies, which is always good, amiable, fair, gracious, and pleasant. [4470]"All things desire that which is good," as we are taught in the Ethics, or at least that which to them seems to be good; quid enim vis mali (as Austin well infers) dic mihi? puto nihil in omnibus actionibus; thou wilt wish no harm, I suppose, no ill in all thine actions, thoughts or desires, nihil mali vis; [4471]thou wilt not have bad corn, bad soil, a naughty tree, but all good; a good servant, a good horse, a good son, a good friend, a good neighbour, a good wife. From this goodness comes beauty; from beauty, grace, and comeliness, which result as so many rays from their good parts, make us to love, and so to covet it: for were it not pleasing and gracious in our eyes, we should not seek. [4472]"No man loves" (saith Aristotle 9. mor. cap. 5.) "but he that was first delighted with comeliness and beauty." As this fair object varies, so doth our love; for as Proclus holds, Omne pulchrum amabile, every fair thing is amiable, and what we love is fair and gracious in our eyes, or at least we do so apprehend and still esteem of it. [4473] "Amiableness is the object of love, the scope and end is to obtain it, for whose sake we love, and which our mind covets to enjoy." And it seems to us especially fair and good; for good, fair, and unity, cannot be separated. Beauty shines, Plato saith, and by reason of its splendour and shining causeth admiration; and the fairer the object is, the more eagerly it is sought. For as the same Plato defines it, [4474]"Beauty is a lively, shining or glittering brightness, resulting from effused good, by ideas, seeds, reasons, shadows, stirring up our minds, that by this good they may be united and made one." Others will have beauty to be the perfection of the whole composition, [4475]"caused out of the congruous symmetry, measure, order and manner of parts, and that comeliness which proceeds from this beauty is called grace, and from thence all fair things are gracious." For grace and beauty are so wonderfully annexed, [4476]"so sweetly and gently win our souls, and strongly allure, that they confound our judgment and cannot be distinguished. Beauty and grace are like those beams and shinings that come from the glorious and divine sun," which are diverse, as they proceed from the diverse objects, to please and affect our several senses. [4477]"As the species of beauty are taken at our eyes, ears, or conceived in our inner soul," as Plato disputes at large in his Dialogue de pulchro, Phaedro, Hyppias, and after many sophistical errors confuted, concludes that beauty is a grace in all things, delighting the eyes, ears, and soul itself; so that, as Valesius infers hence, whatsoever pleaseth our ears, eyes, and soul, must needs be beautiful, fair, and delightsome to us. [4478]"And nothing can more please our ears than music, or pacify our minds." Fair houses, pictures, orchards, gardens, fields, a fair hawk, a fair horse is most acceptable unto us; whatsoever pleaseth our eyes and ears, we call beautiful and fair; [4479]"Pleasure belongeth to the rest of the senses, but grace and beauty to these two alone." As the objects vary and are diverse, so they diversely affect our eyes, ears, and soul itself. Which gives occasion to some to make so many several kinds of love as there be objects. One beauty ariseth from God, of which and divine love S. Dionysius, [4480]with many fathers and neoterics, have written just volumes, De amore Dei, as they term it, many paraenetical discourses; another from his creatures; there is a beauty of the body, a beauty of the soul, a beauty from virtue, formam martyrum, Austin calls it, quam videmus oculis animi, which we see with the eyes of our mind; which beauty, as Tully saith, if we could discern with these corporeal eyes, admirabili sui amores excitaret, would cause admirable affections, and ravish our souls. This other beauty which ariseth from those extreme parts, and graces which proceed from gestures, speeches, several motions, and proportions of creatures, men and women (especially from women, which made those old poets put the three graces still in Venus' company, as attending on her, and holding up her train) are infinite almost, and vary their names with their objects, as love of money, covetousness, love of beauty, lust, immoderate desire of any pleasure, concupiscence, friendship, love, goodwill, &c. and is either virtue or vice, honest, dishonest, in excess, defect, as shall be showed in his place. Heroical love, religious love, &c. which may be reduced to a twofold division, according to the principal parts which are affected, the brain and liver. Amor et amicitia, which Scaliger exercitat. 301. Valesius and Melancthon warrant out of Plato [Greek: philein] and [Greek: eran] from that speech of Pausanias belike, that makes two Veneres and two loves. [4481]"One Venus is ancient without a mother, and descended from heaven, whom we call celestial; the younger, begotten of Jupiter and Dione, whom commonly we call Venus." Ficinus, in his comment upon this place, cap. 8. following Plato, calls these two loves, two devils, [4482]or good and bad angels according to us, which are still hovering about our souls. [4483]"The one rears to heaven, the other depresseth us to hell; the one good, which stirs us up to the contemplation of that divine beauty for whose sake we perform justice and all godly offices, study philosophy, &c.; the other base, and though bad yet to be respected; for indeed both are good in their own natures: procreation of children is as necessary as that finding out of truth, but therefore called bad, because it is abused, and withdraws our souls from the speculation of that other to viler objects," so far Ficinus. S. Austin, lib. 15. de civ. Dei et sup. Psal. lxiv., hath delivered as much in effect. [4484]"Every creature is good, and may be loved well or ill:" and [4485]"Two cities make two loves, Jerusalem and Babylon, the love of God the one, the love of the world the other; of these two cities we all are citizens, as by examination of ourselves we may soon find, and of which." The one love is the root of all mischief, the other of all good. So, in his 15. cap. lib. de amor. Ecclesiae, he will have those four cardinal virtues to be nought else but love rightly composed; in his 15. book de civ. Dei, cap. 22. he calls virtue the order of love, whom Thomas following 1. part. 2. quaest. 55. art. 1. and quaest. 56. 3. quaest. 62. art. 2. confirms as much, and amplifies in many words. [4486]Lucian, to the same purpose, hath a division of his own, "One love was born in the sea, which is as various and raging in young men's breasts as the sea itself, and causeth burning lust: the other is that golden chain which was let down from heaven, and with a divine fury ravisheth our souls, made to the image of God, and stirs us up to comprehend the innate and incorruptible beauty to which we were once created." Beroaldus hath expressed all this in an epigram of his:

"Dogmata divini memorant si vera Platonis, Sunt geminae Veneres, et geminatus amor. Coelestis Venus est nullo generata parente, Quae casto sanctos nectit amore viros. Altera sed Venus est totum vulgata per orbem, Quae divum mentes alligat, atque hominum;"

"Improba, seductrix, petulans," &c.

"If divine Plato's tenets they be true, Two Veneres, two loves there be, The one from heaven, unbegotten still, Which knits our souls in unity. The other famous over all the world, Binding the hearts of gods and men; Dishonest, wanton, and seducing she, Rules whom she will, both where and when."

This twofold division of love, Origen likewise follows, in his Comment on the Canticles, one from God, the other from the devil, as he holds (understanding it in the worse sense) which many others repeat and imitate. Both which (to omit all subdivisions) in excess or defect, as they are abused, or degenerate, cause melancholy in a particular kind, as shall be shown in his place. Austin, in another Tract, makes a threefold division of this love, which we may use well or ill: [4487]"God, our neighbour, and the world: God above us, our neighbour next us, the world beneath us. In the course of our desires, God hath three things, the world one, our neighbour two. Our desire to God, is either from God, with God, or to God, and ordinarily so runs. From God, when it receives from him, whence, and for which it should love him: with God, when it contradicts his will in nothing: to God, when it seeks to him, and rests itself in him. Our love to our neighbour may proceed from him, and run with him, not to him: from him, as when we rejoice of his good safety, and well doing: with him, when we desire to have him a fellow and companion of our journey in the way of the Lord: not in him, because there is no aid, hope, or confidence in man. From the world our love comes, when we begin to admire the Creator in his works, and glorify God in his creatures: with the world it should run, if, according to the mutability of all temporalities, it should be dejected in adversity, or over elevated in prosperity: to the world, if it would settle itself in its vain delights and studies." Many such partitions of love I could repeat, and subdivisions, but least (which Scaliger objects to Cardan, Exercitat. 501.) [4488]"I confound filthy burning lust with pure and divine love," I will follow that accurate division of Leon Hebreus, dial. 2. betwixt Sophia and Philo, where he speaks of natural, sensible, and rational love, and handleth each apart. Natural love or hatred, is that sympathy or antipathy which is to be seen in animate and inanimate creatures, in the four elements, metals, stones, gravia tendunt deorsum, as a stone to his centre, fire upward, and rivers to the sea. The sun, moon, and stars go still around, [4489]Amantes naturae, debita exercere, for love of perfection. This love is manifest, I say, in inanimate creatures. How comes a loadstone to draw iron to it? jet chaff? the ground to covet showers, but for love? No creature, S. Hierom concludes, is to be found, quod non aliquid amat, no stock, no stone, that hath not some feeling of love, 'Tis more eminent in plants, herbs, and is especially observed in vegetables; as between the vine and elm a great sympathy, between the vine and the cabbage, between the vine and the olive, [4490] Virgo fugit Bromium, between the vine and bays a great antipathy, the vine loves not the bay, [4491]"nor his smell, and will kill him, if he grow near him;" the bur and the lentil cannot endure one another, the olive [4492]and the myrtle embrace each other, in roots and branches if they grow near. Read more of this in Picolomineus grad. 7. cap. 1. Crescentius lib. 5. de agric. Baptista Porta de mag. lib. 1. cap. de plant. dodio et element. sym. Fracastorius de sym. et antip. of the love and hatred of planets, consult with every astrologer. Leon Hebreus gives many fabulous reasons, and moraliseth them withal.

Sensible love is that of brute beasts, of which the same Leon Hebreus dial. 2. assigns these causes. First for the pleasure they take in the act of generation, male and female love one another. Secondly, for the preservation of the species, and desire of young brood. Thirdly, for the mutual agreement, as being of the same kind: Sus sui, canis cani, bos bovi, et asinus asino pulcherrimus videtur, as Epicharmus held, and according to that adage of Diogenianus, Adsidet usque graculus apud graculum, they much delight in one another's company, [4493]Formicae grata est formica, cicada cicadae, and birds of a feather will gather together. Fourthly, for custom, use, and familiarity, as if a dog be trained up with a lion and a bear, contrary to their natures, they will love each other. Hawks, dogs, horses, love their masters and keepers: many stories I could relate in this kind, but see Gillius de hist. anim. lib. 3. cap. 14. those two Epistles of Lipsius, of dogs and horses, Agellius, &c. Fifthly, for bringing up, as if a bitch bring up a kid, a hen ducklings, a hedge-sparrow a cuckoo, &c.

The third kind is Amor cognitionis, as Leon calls it, rational love, Intellectivus amor, and is proper to men, on which I must insist. This appears in God, angels, men. God is love itself, the fountain of love, the disciple of love, as Plato styles him; the servant of peace, the God of love and peace; have peace with all men and God is with you.

[4494] ———"Quisquis veneratur Olympum, Ipse sibi mundum subjicit atque Deum."

[4495]"By this love" (saith Gerson) "we purchase heaven," and buy the kingdom of God. This [4496]love is either in the Trinity itself (for the Holy Ghost is the love of the Father and the Son, &c. John iii. 35, and v. 20, and xiv. 31), or towards us his creatures, as in making the world. Amor mundum fecit, love built cities, mundi anima, invented arts, sciences, and all [4497]good things, incites us to virtue and humanity, combines and quickens; keeps peace on earth, quietness by sea, mirth in the winds and elements, expels all fear, anger, and rusticity; Circulus a bono in bonum, a round circle still from good to good; for love is the beginner and end of all our actions, the efficient and instrumental cause, as our poets in their symbols, impresses, [4498]emblems of rings, squares, &c., shadow unto us,

"Si rerum quaeris fuerit quis finis et ortus, Desine; nam causa est unica solus amor."

"If first and last of anything you wit, Cease; love's the sole and only cause of it."

Love, saith [4499]Leo, made the world, and afterwards in redeeming of it, "God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten son for it," John iii. 16. "Behold what love the Father hath showed on us, that we should be called the sons of God," 1 John iii. 1. Or by His sweet Providence, in protecting of it; either all in general, or His saints elect and church in particular, whom He keeps as the apple of His eye, whom He loves freely, as Hosea xiv. 5. speaks, and dearly respects, [4500]Charior est ipsis homo quam sibi. Not that we are fair, nor for any merit or grace of ours, for we are most vile and base; but out of His incomparable love and goodness, out of His Divine Nature. And this is that Homer's golden chain, which reacheth down from heaven to earth, by which every creature is annexed, and depends on his Creator. He made all, saith [4501]Moses, "and it was good;" He loves it as good.

The love of angels and living souls is mutual amongst themselves, towards us militant in the church, and all such as love God; as the sunbeams irradiate the earth from those celestial thrones, they by their well wishes reflect on us, [4502]in salute hominum promovenda alacres, et constantes administri, there is joy in heaven for every sinner that repenteth; they pray for us, are solicitous for our good, [4503]Casti genii.

[4504] "Ubi regnat charitas, suave desiderium, Laetitiaque et amor Deo conjunctus."

Love proper to mortal men is the third member of this subdivision, and the subject of my following discourse.

MEMB. II.

SUBSECT. I.—Love of Men, which varies as his Objects, Profitable, Pleasant, Honest.

Valesius, lib. 3. contr. 13, defines this love which is in men, "to be [4505]an affection of both powers, appetite and reason." The rational resides in the brain, the other in the liver (as before hath been said out of Plato and others); the heart is diversely affected of both, and carried a thousand ways by consent. The sensitive faculty most part overrules reason, the soul is carried hoodwinked, and the understanding captive like a beast. [4506]"The heart is variously inclined, sometimes they are merry, sometimes sad, and from love arise hope and fear, jealousy, fury, desperation." Now this love of men is diverse, and varies, as the object varies, by which they are enticed, as virtue, wisdom, eloquence, profit, wealth, money, fame, honour, or comeliness of person, &c. Leon Hubreus, in his first dialogue, reduceth them all to these three, utile, jucundum, honestum, profitable, pleasant, honest; (out of Aristotle belike 8. moral.) of which he discourseth at large, and whatsoever is beautiful and fair, is referred to them, or any way to be desired. [4507]"To profitable is ascribed health, wealth, honour, &c., which is rather ambition, desire, covetousness, than love:" friends, children, love of women, [4508]all delightful and pleasant objects, are referred to the second. The love of honest things consists in virtue and wisdom, and is preferred before that which is profitable and pleasant: intellectual, about that which is honest. [4509]St. Austin calls "profitable, worldly; pleasant, carnal; honest, spiritual. [4510]Of and from all three, result charity, friendship, and true love, which respects God and our neighbour." Of each of these I will briefly dilate, and show in what sort they cause melancholy.

Amongst all these fair enticing objects, which procure love, and bewitch the soul of man, there is none so moving, so forcible as profit; and that which carrieth with it a show of commodity. Health indeed is a precious thing, to recover and preserve which we will undergo any misery, drink bitter potions, freely give our goods: restore a man to his health, his purse lies open to thee, bountiful he is, thankful and beholding to thee; but give him wealth and honour, give him gold, or what shall be for his advantage and preferment, and thou shalt command his affections, oblige him eternally to thee, heart, hand, life, and all is at thy service, thou art his dear and loving friend, good and gracious lord and master, his Mecaenas; he is thy slave, thy vassal, most devote, affectioned, and bound in all duty: tell him good tidings in this kind, there spoke an angel, a blessed hour that brings in gain, he is thy creature, and thou his creator, he hugs and admires thee; he is thine for ever. No loadstone so attractive as that of profit, none so fair an object as this of gold; [4511]nothing wins a man sooner than a good turn, bounty and liberality command body and soul:

"Munera (crede mihi) placant hominesque deosque; Placatur donis Jupiter ipse datis."

"Good turns doth pacify both God and men, And Jupiter himself is won by them."

Gold of all other is a most delicious object; a sweet light, a goodly lustre it hath; gratius aurum quam solem intuemur, saith Austin, and we had rather see it than the sun. Sweet and pleasant in getting, in keeping; it seasons all our labours, intolerable pains we take for it, base employments, endure bitter flouts and taunts, long journeys, heavy burdens, all are made light and easy by this hope of gain: At mihi plaudo ipse domi, simul ac nummos contemplor in arca. The sight of gold refresheth our spirits, and ravisheth our hearts, as that Babylonian garment and [4512] golden wedge did Achan in the camp, the very sight and hearing sets on fire his soul with desire of it. It will make a man run to the antipodes, or tarry at home and turn parasite, lie, flatter, prostitute himself, swear and bear false witness; he will venture his body, kill a king, murder his father, and damn his soul to come at it. Formosior auri massa, as [4513] he well observed, the mass of gold is fairer than all your Grecian pictures, that Apelles, Phidias, or any doting painter could ever make: we are enamoured with it,

[4514] "Prima fere vota, et cunctis notissima templis, Divitiae ut crescant."———

All our labours, studies, endeavours, vows, prayers and wishes, are to get, how to compass it.

[4515] "Haec est illa cui famulatur maximus orbis, Diva potens rerum, domitrixque pecunia fati."

"This is the great goddess we adore and worship; this is the sole object of our desire." If we have it, as we think, we are made for ever, thrice happy, princes, lords, &c. If we lose it, we are dull, heavy, dejected, discontent, miserable, desperate, and mad. Our estate and bene esse ebbs and flows with our commodity; and as we are endowed or enriched, so are we beloved and esteemed: it lasts no longer than our wealth; when that is gone, and the object removed, farewell friendship: as long as bounty, good cheer, and rewards were to be hoped, friends enough; they were tied to thee by the teeth, and would follow thee as crows do a carcass: but when thy goods are gone and spent, the lamp of their love is out, and thou shalt be contemned, scorned, hated, injured. [4516]Lucian's Timon, when he lived in prosperity, was the sole spectacle of Greece, only admired; who but Timon? Everybody loved, honoured, applauded him, each man offered him his service, and sought to be kin to him; but when his gold was spent, his fair possessions gone, farewell Timon: none so ugly, none so deformed, so odious an object as Timon, no man so ridiculous on a sudden, they gave him a penny to buy a rope, no man would know him.

'Tis the general humour of the world, commodity steers our affections throughout, we love those that are fortunate and rich, that thrive, or by whom we may receive mutual kindness, hope for like courtesies, get any good, gain, or profit; hate those, and abhor on the other side, which are poor and miserable, or by whom we may sustain loss or inconvenience. And even those that were now familiar and dear unto us, our loving and long friends, neighbours, kinsmen, allies, with whom we have conversed, and lived as so many Geryons for some years past, striving still to give one another all good content and entertainment, with mutual invitations, feastings, disports, offices, for whom we would ride, run, spend ourselves, and of whom we have so freely and honourably spoken, to whom we have given all those turgent titles, and magnificent eulogiums, most excellent and most noble, worthy, wise, grave, learned, valiant, &c., and magnified beyond measure: if any controversy arise between us, some trespass, injury, abuse, some part of our goods be detained, a piece of land come to be litigious, if they cross us in our suit, or touch the string of our commodity, we detest and depress them upon a sudden: neither affinity, consanguinity, or old acquaintance can contain us, but [4517]rupto jecore exierit Caprificus. A golden apple sets altogether by the ears, as if a marrowbone or honeycomb were flung amongst bears: father and son, brother and sister, kinsmen are at odds: and look what malice, deadly hatred can invent, that shall be done, Terrible, dirum, pestilens, atrox, ferum, mutual injuries, desire of revenge, and how to hurt them, him and his, are all our studies. If our pleasures be interrupt, we can tolerate it: our bodies hurt, we can put it up and be reconciled: but touch our commodities, we are most impatient: fair becomes foul, the graces are turned to harpies, friendly salutations to bitter imprecations, mutual feastings to plotting villainies, minings and counterminings; good words to satires and invectives, we revile e contra, nought but his imperfections are in our eyes, he is a base knave, a devil, a monster, a caterpillar, a viper, a hog-rubber, &c. Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne;[4518] the scene is altered on a sudden, love is turned to hate, mirth to melancholy: so furiously are we most part bent, our affections fixed upon this object of commodity, and upon money, the desire of which in excess is covetousness: ambition tyranniseth over our souls, as [4519]I have shown, and in defect crucifies as much, as if a man by negligence, ill husbandry, improvidence, prodigality, waste and consume his goods and fortunes, beggary follows, and melancholy, he becomes an abject, [4520]odious and "worse than an infidel, in not providing for his family."

SUBSECT. II.—Pleasant Objects of Love.

Pleasant objects are infinite, whether they be such as have life, or be without life; inanimate are countries, provinces, towers, towns, cities, as he said, [4521]Pulcherrimam insulam videmus, etiam cum non videmus we see a fair island by description, when we see it not. The [4522]sun never saw a fairer city, Thessala Tempe, orchards, gardens, pleasant walks, groves, fountains, &c. The heaven itself is said to be [4523]fair or foul: fair buildings, [4524]fair pictures, all artificial, elaborate and curious works, clothes, give an admirable lustre: we admire, and gaze upon them, ut pueri Junonis avem, as children do on a peacock: a fair dog, a fair horse and hawk, &c. [4525]Thessalus amat equum pullinum, buculum Aegyptius, Lacedaemonius Catulum, &c., such things we love, are most gracious in our sight, acceptable unto us, and whatsoever else may cause this passion, if it be superfluous or immoderately loved, as Guianerius observes. These things in themselves are pleasing and good, singular ornaments, necessary, comely, and fit to be had; but when we fix an immoderate eye, and dote on them over much, this pleasure may turn to pain, bring much sorrow and discontent unto us, work our final overthrow, and cause melancholy in the end. Many are carried away with those bewitching sports of gaming, hawking, hunting, and such vain pleasures, as [4526]I have said: some with immoderate desire of fame, to be crowned in the Olympics, knighted in the field, &c., and by these means ruinate themselves. The lascivious dotes on his fair mistress, the glutton on his dishes, which are infinitely varied to please the palate, the epicure on his several pleasures, the superstitious on his idol, and fats himself with future joys, as Turks feed themselves with an imaginary persuasion of a sensual paradise: so several pleasant objects diversely affect diverse men. But the fairest objects and enticings proceed from men themselves, which most frequently captivate, allure, and make them dote beyond all measure upon one another, and that for many respects: first, as some suppose, by that secret force of stars, (quod me tibi temperat astrum?) They do singularly dote on such a man, hate such again, and can give no reason for it. [4527]Non amo te Sabidi, &c. Alexander admired Ephestion, Adrian Antinous, Nero Sporus, &c. The physicians refer this to their temperament, astrologers to trine and sextile aspects, or opposite of their several ascendants, lords of their genitures, love and hatred of planets; [4528] Cicogna, to concord and discord of spirits; but most to outward graces. A merry companion is welcome and acceptable to all men, and therefore, saith [4529]Gomesius, princes and great men entertain jesters and players commonly in their courts. But [4530]Pares cum paribus facillime congregantur, 'tis that [4531]similitude of manners, which ties most men in an inseparable link, as if they be addicted to the same studies or disports, they delight in one another's companies, "birds of a feather will gather together:" if they be of divers inclinations, or opposite in manners, they can seldom agree. Secondly, [4532]affability, custom, and familiarity, may convert nature many times, though they be different in manners, as if they be countrymen, fellow-students, colleagues, or have been fellow-soldiers, [4533]brethren in affliction, ([4534]acerba calamitatum societas, diversi etiam ingenii homines conjungit) affinity, or some such accidental occasion, though they cannot agree amongst themselves, they will stick together like burrs, and bold against a third; so after some discontinuance, or death, enmity ceaseth; or in a foreign place:

"Pascitur in vivis livor, post fata quiescit: Et cecidere odia, et tristes mors obruit iras."

A third cause of love and hate, may be mutual offices, acceptum beneficium, [4535]commend him, use him kindly, take his part in a quarrel, relieve him in his misery, thou winnest him for ever; do the opposite, and be sure of a perpetual enemy. Praise and dispraise of each other, do as much, though unknown, as [4536]Schoppius by Scaliger and Casaubonus: mulus mulum scabit; who but Scaliger with him? what encomiums, epithets, eulogiums? Antistes sapientiae, perpetuus dictator, literarum ornamentum, Europae miraculum, noble Scaliger, [4537] incredibilis ingenii praestantia, &c., diis potius quam hominibus per omnia comparandus, scripta ejus aurea ancylia de coelo delapsa poplitibus veneramur flexis, &c.,[4538] but when they began to vary, none so absurd as Scaliger, so vile and base, as his books de Burdonum familia, and other satirical invectives may witness, Ovid, in Ibin, Archilocus himself was not so bitter. Another great tie or cause of love, is consanguinity: parents are clear to their children, children to their parents, brothers and sisters, cousins of all sorts, as a hen and chickens, all of a knot: every crow thinks her own bird fairest. Many memorable examples are in this kind, and 'tis portenti simile, if they do not: [4539]"a mother cannot forget her child:" Solomon so found out the true owner; love of parents may not be concealed, 'tis natural, descends, and they that are inhuman in this kind, are unworthy of that air they breathe, and of the four elements; yet many unnatural examples we have in this rank, of hard-hearted parents, disobedient children, of [4540]disagreeing brothers, nothing so common. The love of kinsmen is grown cold, [4541]"many kinsmen" (as the saying is) "few friends;" if thine estate be good, and thou able, par pari referre, to requite their kindness, there will be mutual correspondence, otherwise thou art a burden, most odious to them above all others. The last object that ties man and man, is comeliness of person, and beauty alone, as men love women with a wanton eye: which [Greek: kat' exochaen] is termed heroical, or love-melancholy. Other loves (saith Picolomineus) are so called with some contraction, as the love of wine, gold, &c., but this of women is predominant in a higher strain, whose part affected is the liver, and this love deserves a longer explication, and shall be dilated apart in the next section.

SUBSECT. III.—Honest Objects of Love.

Beauty is the common object of all love, [4542]"as jet draws a straw, so doth beauty love:" virtue and honesty are great motives, and give as fair a lustre as the rest, especially if they be sincere and right, not fucate, but proceeding from true form, and an incorrupt judgment; those two Venus' twins, Eros and Anteros, are then most firm and fast. For many times otherwise men are deceived by their flattering gnathos, dissembling camelions, outsides, hypocrites that make a show of great love, learning, pretend honesty, virtue, zeal, modesty, with affected looks and counterfeit gestures: feigned protestations often steal away the hearts and favours of men, and deceive them, specie virtutis et umbra, when as revera and indeed, there is no worth or honesty at all in them, no truth, but mere hypocrisy, subtlety, knavery, and the like. As true friends they are, as he that Caelius Secundus met by the highway side; and hard it is in this temporising age to distinguish such companions, or to find them out. Such gnathos as these for the most part belong to great men, and by this glozing flattery, affability, and such like philters, so dive and insinuate into their favours, that they are taken for men of excellent worth, wisdom, learning, demigods, and so screw themselves into dignities, honours, offices; but these men cause harsh confusion often, and as many times stirs as Rehoboam's counsellors in a commonwealth, overthrew themselves and others. Tandlerus and some authors make a doubt, whether love and hatred may be compelled by philters or characters; Cardan and Marbodius, by precious stones and amulets; astrologers by election of times, &c. as [4543]I shall elsewhere discuss. The true object of this honest love is virtue, wisdom, honesty, [4544]real worth, Interna forma, and this love cannot deceive or be compelled, ut ameris amabilis esto, love itself is the most potent philtrum, virtue and wisdom, gratia gratum faciens, the sole and only grace, not counterfeit, but open, honest, simple, naked, [4545]"descending from heaven," as our apostle hath it, an infused habit from God, which hath given several gifts, as wit, learning, tongues, for which they shall be amiable and gracious, Eph. iv. 11. as to Saul stature and a goodly presence, 1 Sam. ix. 1. Joseph found favour in Pharaoh's court, Gen. xxxix, for [4546]his person; and Daniel with the princes of the eunuchs, Dan. xix. 19. Christ was gracious with God and men, Luke ii. 52. There is still some peculiar grace, as of good discourse, eloquence, wit, honesty, which is the primum mobile, first mover, and a most forcible loadstone to draw the favours and good wills of men's eyes, ears, and affections unto them. When "Jesus spake, they were all astonished at his answers," (Luke ii. 47.) "and wondered at his gracious words which proceeded from his mouth." An orator steals away the hearts of men, and as another Orpheus, quo vult, unde vult, he pulls them to him by speech alone: a sweet voice causeth admiration; and he that can utter himself in good words, in our ordinary phrase, is called a proper man, a divine spirit. For which cause belike, our old poets, Senatus populusque poetarum, made Mercury the gentleman-usher to the Graces, captain of eloquence, and those charities to be Jupiter's and Eurymone's daughters, descended from above. Though they be otherwise deformed, crooked, ugly to behold, those good parts of the mind denominate them fair. Plato commends the beauty of Socrates; yet who was more grim of countenance, stern and ghastly to look upon? So are and have been many great philosophers, as [4547]Gregory Nazianzen observes, "deformed most part in that which is to be seen with the eyes, but most elegant in that which is not to be seen." Saepe sub attrita latitat sapientia veste. Aesop, Democritus, Aristotle, Politianus, Melancthon, Gesner, &c. withered old men, Sileni Alcibiadis, very harsh and impolite to the eye; but who were so terse, polite, eloquent, generally learned, temperate and modest? No man then living was so fair as Alcibiades, so lovely quo ad superficiem, to the eye, as [4548]Boethius observes, but he had Corpus turpissimum interne, a most deformed soul; honesty, virtue, fair conditions, are great enticers to such as are well given, and much avail to get the favour and goodwill of men. Abdolominus in Curtius, a poor man, (but which mine author notes, [4549]"the cause of this poverty was his honesty") for his modesty and continency from a private person (for they found him digging in his garden) was saluted king, and preferred before all the magnificoes of his time, injecta ei vestis purpura auroque distincta, "a purple embroidered garment was put upon him, [4550]and they bade him wash himself, and, as he was worthy, take upon him the style and spirit of a king," continue his continency and the rest of his good parts. Titus Pomponius Atticus, that noble citizen of Rome, was so fair conditioned, of so sweet a carriage, that he was generally beloved of all good men, of Caesar, Pompey, Antony, Tully, of divers sects, &c. multas haereditates ([4551]Cornelius Nepos writes) sola bonitate consequutus. Operae, pretium audire, &c. It is worthy of your attention, Livy cries, [4552]"you that scorn all but riches, and give no esteem to virtue, except they be wealthy withal, Q. Cincinnatus had but four acres, and by the consent of the senate was chosen dictator of Rome." Of such account were Cato, Fabricius, Aristides, Antonius, Probus, for their eminent worth: so Caesar, Trajan, Alexander, admired for valour, [4553] Haephestion loved Alexander, but Parmenio the king: Titus deliciae humani generis, and which Aurelius Victor hath of Vespasian, the darling of his time, as [4554]Edgar Etheling was in England, for his [4555]excellent virtues: their memory is yet fresh, sweet, and we love them many ages after, though they be dead: Suavem memoriam sui reliquit, saith Lipsius of his friend, living and dead they are all one. [4556]"I have ever loved as thou knowest" (so Tully wrote to Dolabella) "Marcus Brutus for his great wit, singular honesty, constancy, sweet conditions; and believe it" [4557] "there is nothing so amiable and fair as virtue." "I [4558]do mightily love Calvisinus," (so Pliny writes to Sossius) "a most industrious, eloquent, upright man, which is all in all with me:" the affection came from his good parts. And as St. Austin comments on the 84th Psalm, [4559]"there is a peculiar beauty of justice, and inward beauty, which we see with the eyes of our hearts, love, and are enamoured with, as in martyrs, though their bodies be torn in pieces with wild beasts, yet this beauty shines, and we love their virtues." The [4560]stoics are of opinion that a wise man is only fair; and Cato in Tully 3 de Finibus contends the same, that the lineaments of the mind are far fairer than those of the body, incomparably beyond them: wisdom and valour according to [4561]Xenophon, especially deserve the name of beauty, and denominate one fair, et incomparabiliter pulchrior est (as Austin holds) veritas Christianorum quam Helena Graecorum. "Wine is strong, the king is strong, women are strong, but truth overcometh all things," Esd. i. 3, 10, 11, 12. "Blessed is the man that findeth wisdom, and getteth understanding, for the merchandise thereof is better than silver, and the gain thereof better than gold: it is more precious than pearls, and all the things thou canst desire are not to be compared to her," Prov. ii. 13, 14, 15, a wise, true, just, upright, and good man, I say it again, is only fair: [4562]it is reported of Magdalene Queen of France, and wife to Lewis 11th, a Scottish woman by birth, that walking forth in an evening with her ladies, she spied M. Alanus, one of the king's chaplains, a silly, old, [4563]hard-favoured man fast asleep in a bower, and kissed him sweetly; when the young ladies laughed at her for it, she replied, that it was not his person that she did embrace and reverence, but, with a platonic love, the divine beauty of [4564]his soul. Thus in all ages virtue hath been adored, admired, a singular lustre hath proceeded from it: and the more virtuous he is, the more gracious, the more admired. No man so much followed upon earth as Christ himself: and as the Psalmist saith, xlv. 2, "He was fairer than the sons of men." Chrysostom Hom. 8 in Mat. Bernard Ser. 1. de omnibus sanctis; Austin, Cassiodore, Hier. in 9 Mat. interpret it of the [4565]beauty of his person; there was a divine majesty in his looks, it shined like lightning and drew all men to it: but Basil, Cyril, lib. 6. super. 55. Esay. Theodoret, Arnobius, &c. of the beauty of his divinity, justice, grace, eloquence, &c. Thomas in Psal. xliv. of both; and so doth Baradius and Peter Morales, lib de pulchritud. Jesu et Mariae, adding as much of Joseph and the Virgin Mary,—haec alias forma praecesserit omnes, [4566]according to that prediction of Sibylla Cumea. Be they present or absent, near us, or afar off, this beauty shines, and will attract men many miles to come and visit it. Plato and Pythagoras left their country, to see those wise Egyptian priests: Apollonius travelled into Ethiopia, Persia, to consult with the Magi, Brachmanni, gymnosophists. The Queen of Sheba came to visit Solomon; and "many," saith [4567]Hierom, "went out of Spain and remote places a thousand miles, to behold that eloquent Livy:" [4568]Multi Romam non ut urbem pulcherrimam, aut urbis et orbis dominum Octavianum, sed ut hunc unum inviserent audirentque, a Gadibus profecti sunt. No beauty leaves such an impression, strikes so deep [4569], or links the souls of men closer than virtue.

[4570] "Non per deos aut pictor posset, Aut statuarius ullus fingere Talem pulchritudinem qualem virtus habet;"

"no painter, no graver, no carver can express virtue's lustre, or those admirable rays that come from it, those enchanting rays that enamour posterity, those everlasting rays that continue to the world's end." Many, saith Phavorinus, that loved and admired Alcibiades in his youth, knew not, cared not for Alcibiades a man, nunc intuentes quaerebant Alcibiadem; but the beauty of Socrates is still the same; [4571]virtue's lustre never fades, is ever fresh and green, semper viva to all succeeding ages, and a most attractive loadstone, to draw and combine such as are present. For that reason belike, Homer feigns the three Graces to be linked and tied hand in hand, because the hearts of men are so firmly united with such graces. [4572]"O sweet bands (Seneca exclaims), which so happily combine, that those which are bound by them love their binders, desiring withal much more harder to be bound," and as so many Geryons to be united into one. For the nature of true friendship is to combine, to be like affected, of one mind,

[4573] "Velle et nolle ambobus idem, satiataque toto Mens aevo"———

as the poet saith, still to continue one and the same. And where this love takes place there is peace and quietness, a true correspondence, perfect amity, a diapason of vows and wishes, the same opinions, as between [4574] David and Jonathan, Damon and Pythias, Pylades and Orestes, [4575]Nysus and Euryalus, Theseus and Pirithous, [4576]they will live and die together, and prosecute one another with good turns. [4577]Nam vinci in amore turpissimum putant, not only living, but when their friends are dead, with tombs and monuments, nenias, epitaphs elegies, inscriptions, pyramids, obelisks, statues, images, pictures, histories, poems, annals, feasts, anniversaries, many ages after (as Plato's scholars did) they will parentare still, omit no good office that may tend to the preservation of their names, honours, and eternal memory. [4578]Illum coloribus, illum cera, illum aere, &c. "He did express his friends in colours, in wax, in brass, in ivory, marble, gold, and silver" (as Pliny reports of a citizen in Rome), "and in a great auditory not long since recited a just volume of his life." In another place, [4579]speaking of an epigram which Martial had composed in praise of him, [4580]"He gave me as much as he might, and would have done more if he could: though what can a man give more than honour, glory, and eternity?" But that which he wrote peradventure will not continue, yet he wrote it to continue. 'Tis all the recompense a poor scholar can make his well-deserving patron, Mecaenas, friend, to mention him in his works, to dedicate a book to his name, to write his life, &c., as all our poets, orators, historiographers have ever done, and the greatest revenge such men take of their adversaries, to persecute them with satires, invectives, &c., and 'tis both ways of great moment, as [4581] Plato gives us to understand. Paulus Jovius, in the fourth book of the life and deeds of Pope Leo Decimus, his noble patron, concludes in these words, [4582]"Because I cannot honour him as other rich men do, with like endeavour, affection, and piety, I have undertaken to write his life; since my fortunes will not give me leave to make a more sumptuous monument, I will perform those rites to his sacred ashes, which a small, perhaps, but a liberal wit can afford." But I rove. Where this true love is wanting, there can be no firm peace, friendship from teeth outward, counterfeit, or for some by-respects, so long dissembled, till they have satisfied their own ends, which, upon every small occasion, breaks out into enmity, open war, defiance, heart-burnings, whispering, calumnies, contentions, and all manner of bitter melancholy discontents. And those men which have no other object of their love, than greatness, wealth, authority, &c., are rather feared than beloved; nec amant quemquam, nec amantur ab ullo: and howsoever borne with for a time, yet for their tyranny and oppression, griping, covetousness, currish hardness, folly, intemperance, imprudence, and such like vices, they are generally odious, abhorred of all, both God and men.

"Non uxor salvum te vult, non filius, omnes Vicini oderunt,"———

"wife and children, friends, neighbours, all the world forsakes them, would feign be rid of them," and are compelled many times to lay violent hands on them, or else God's judgments overtake them: instead of graces, come furies. So when fair [4583]Abigail, a woman of singular wisdom, was acceptable to David, Nabal was churlish and evil-conditioned; and therefore [4584]Mordecai was received, when Haman was executed, Haman the favourite, "that had his seat above the other princes, to whom all the king's servants that stood in the gates, bowed their knees and reverenced." Though they flourished many times, such hypocrites, such temporising foxes, and blear the world's eyes by flattery, bribery, dissembling their natures, or other men's weakness, that cannot so apprehend their tricks, yet in the end they will be discerned, and precipitated in a moment: "surely," saith David, "thou hast set them in slippery places," Psal. xxxvii. 5. as so many Sejani, they will come down to the Gemonian scales; and as Eusebius in [4585] Ammianus, that was in such authority, ad jubendum Imperatorem, be cast down headlong on a sudden. Or put case they escape, and rest unmasked to their lives' end, yet after their death their memory stinks as a snuff of a candle put out, and those that durst not so much as mutter against them in their lives, will prosecute their name with satires, libels, and bitter imprecations, they shall male audire in all succeeding ages, and be odious to the world's end.

MEMB. III. Charity composed of all three Kinds, Pleasant, Profitable, Honest.

Besides this love that comes from profit, pleasant, honest (for one good turn asks another in equity), that which proceeds from the law of nature, or from discipline and philosophy, there is yet another love compounded of all these three, which is charity, and includes piety, dilection, benevolence, friendship, even all those virtuous habits; for love is the circle equant of all other affections, of which Aristotle dilates at large in his Ethics, and is commanded by God, which no man can well perform, but he that is a Christian, and a true regenerate man; this is, [4586]"To love God above all, and our neighbour as ourself;" for this love is lychnus accendens et accensus, a communicating light, apt to illuminate itself as well as others. All other objects are fair, and very beautiful, I confess; kindred, alliance, friendship, the love that we owe to our country, nature, wealth, pleasure, honour, and such moral respects, &c., of which read [4587]copious Aristotle in his morals; a man is beloved of a man, in that he is a man; but all these are far more eminent and great, when they shall proceed from a sanctified spirit, that hath a true touch of religion, and a reference to God. Nature binds all creatures to love their young ones; a hen to preserve her brood will run upon a lion, a hind will fight with a bull, a sow with a bear, a silly sheep with a fox. So the same nature urgeth a man to love his parents, ([4588]dii me pater omnes oderint, ni te magis quam oculos amem meos!) and this love cannot be dissolved, as Tully holds, [4589]"without detestable offence:" but much more God's commandment, which enjoins a filial love, and an obedience in this kind. [4590]"The love of brethren is great, and like an arch of stones, where if one be displaced, all comes down," no love so forcible and strong, honest, to the combination of which, nature, fortune, virtue, happily concur; yet this love comes short of it. [4591]Dulce et decorum pro patria mori, [4592]it cannot be expressed, what a deal of charity that one name of country contains. Amor laudis et patriae pro stipendio est; the Decii did se devovere, Horatii, Curii, Scaevola, Regulus, Codrus, sacrifice themselves for their country's peace and good.

[4593] "Una dies Fabios ad bellum miserat omnes, Ad bellum missos perdidit una dies."

"One day the Fabii stoutly warred, One day the Fabii were destroyed."

Fifty thousand Englishmen lost their lives willingly near Battle Abbey, in defence of their country. [4594]P. Aemilius l. 6. speaks of six senators of Calais, that came with halters in their hands to the king of England, to die for the rest. This love makes so many writers take such pains, so many historiographers, physicians, &c., or at least, as they pretend, for common safety, and their country's benefit. [4595]Sanctum nomen amiciticae, sociorum communio sacra; friendship is a holy name, and a sacred communion of friends. [4596]"As the sun is in the firmament, so is friendship in the world," a most divine and heavenly band. As nuptial love makes, this perfects mankind, and is to be preferred (if you will stand to the judgment of [4597]Cornelius Nepos) before affinity or consanguinity; plus in amiciticia valet similitudo morum, quam affinitas, &c., the cords of love bind faster than any other wreath whatsoever. Take this away, and take all pleasure, joy, comfort, happiness, and true content out of the world; 'tis the greatest tie, the surest indenture, strongest band, and, as our modern Maro decides it, is much to be preferred before the rest.

[4598] "Hard is the doubt, and difficult to deem, When all three kinds of love together meet; And do dispart the heart with power extreme, Whether shall weigh the balance down; to wit, The dear affection unto kindred sweet, Or raging fire of love to women kind, Or zeal of friends, combin'd by virtues meet; But of them all the band of virtuous mind, Methinks the gentle heart should most assured bind.

For natural affection soon doth cease, And quenched is with Cupid's greater flame; But faithful friendship doth them both suppress, And them with mastering discipline doth tame, Through thoughts aspiring to eternal fame. For as the soul doth rule the earthly mass, And all the service of the body frame, So love of soul doth love of body pass, No less than perfect gold surmounts the meanest brass."

[4599]A faithful friend is better than [4600]gold, a medicine of misery, [4601]an only possession; yet this love of friends, nuptial, heroical, profitable, pleasant, honest, all three loves put together, are little worth, if they proceed not from a true Christian illuminated soul, if it be not done in ordine ad Deum for God's sake. "Though I had the gift of prophecy, spake with tongues of men and angels, though I feed the poor with all my goods, give my body to be burned, and have not this love, it profiteth me nothing," 1 Cor. xiii. 1, 3. 'tis splendidum peccatum, without charity. This is an all-apprehending love, a deifying love, a refined, pure, divine love, the quintessence of all love, the true philosopher's stone, Non potest enim, as [4602]Austin infers, veraciter amicus esse hominis, nisi fuerit ipsius primitus veritatis, He is no true friend that loves not God's truth. And therefore this is true love indeed, the cause of all good to mortal men, that reconciles all creatures, and glues them together in perpetual amity and firm league; and can no more abide bitterness, hate, malice, than fair and foul weather, light and darkness, sterility and plenty may be together; as the sun in the firmament (I say), so is love in the world; and for this cause 'tis love without an addition, love [Greek: kat' exochaen], love of God, and love of men. [4603]"The love of God begets the love of man; and by this love of our neighbour, the love of God is nourished and increased." By this happy union of love, [4604]"all well-governed families and cities are combined, the heavens annexed, and divine souls complicated, the world itself composed, and all that is in it conjoined in God, and reduced to one." [4605]"This love causeth true and absolute virtues, the life, spirit, and root of every virtuous action, it finisheth prosperity, easeth adversity, corrects all natural encumbrances," inconveniences, sustained by faith and hope, which with this our love make an indissoluble twist, a Gordian knot, an equilateral triangle, "and yet the greatest of them is love," 1 Cor. xiii. 13, [4606]"which inflames our souls with a divine heat, and being so inflamed, purged, and so purgeth, elevates to God, makes an atonement, and reconciles us unto him." [4607] "That other love infects the soul of man, this cleanseth; that depresses, this rears; that causeth cares and troubles, this quietness of mind; this informs, that deforms our life; that leads to repentance, this to heaven." For if once we be truly linked and touched with this charity, we shall love God above all, our neighbour as ourself, as we are enjoined, Mark xii. 31. Matt. xix. 19. perform those duties and exercises, even all the operations of a good Christian.

"This love suffereth long, it is bountiful, envieth not, boasteth not itself, is not puffed up, it deceiveth not, it seeketh not his own things, is not provoked to anger, it thinketh not evil, it rejoiceth not in iniquity, but in truth. It suffereth all things, believeth all things, hopeth all things," 1 Cor. xiii. 4, 5, 6, 7; "it covereth all trespasses," Prov, x. 12; "a multitude of sins," 1 Pet. 4, as our Saviour told the woman in the Gospel, that washed his feet, "many sins were forgiven her, for she loved much," Luke vii. 47; "it will defend the fatherless and the widow," Isa. i. 17; "will seek no revenge, or be mindful of wrong," Levit. xix. 18; "will bring home his brother's ox if he go astray, as it is commanded," Deut. xxii. 1; "will resist evil, give to him that asketh, and not turn from him that borroweth, bless them that curse him, love his enemy," Matt. v; "bear his brother's burthen," Gal. vi. 7. He that so loves will be hospitable, and distribute to the necessities of the saints; he will, if it be possible, have peace with all men, "feed his enemy if he be hungry, if he be athirst give him drink;" he will perform those seven works of mercy, "he will make himself equal to them of the lower sort, rejoice with them that rejoice, weep with them that weep," Rom. xii; he will speak truth to his neighbour, be courteous and tender-hearted, "forgiving others for Christ's sake, as God forgave him," Eph. iv. 32; "he will be like minded," Phil. ii. 2. "Of one judgment; be humble, meek, long-suffering," Colos. iii. "Forbear, forget and forgive," xii. 13. 23. and what he doth shall be heartily done to God, and not to men. "Be pitiful and courteous," 1 Pet. iii. "Seek peace and follow it." He will love his brother, not in word and tongue, but in deed and truth, John iii. 18. "and he that loves God, Christ will love him that is begotten of him," John v. 1, &c. Thus should we willingly do, if we had a true touch of this charity, of this divine love, if we could perform this which we are enjoined, forget and forgive, and compose ourselves to those Christian laws of love.

[4608] "O felix hominum genus, Si vestros animos amor Quo coelum regitur regat!"

"Angelical souls, how blessed, how happy should we be, so loving, how might we triumph over the devil, and have another heaven upon earth!"

But this we cannot do; and which is the cause of all our woes, miseries, discontent, melancholy, [4609]want of this charity. We do invicem angariare, contemn, consult, vex, torture, molest, and hold one another's noses to the grindstone hard, provoke, rail, scoff, calumniate, challenge, hate, abuse (hard-hearted, implacable, malicious, peevish, inexorable as we are), to satisfy our lust or private spleen, for [4610]toys, trifles, and impertinent occasions, spend ourselves, goods, friends, fortunes, to be revenged on our adversary, to ruin him and his. 'Tis all our study, practice, and business how to plot mischief, mine, countermine, defend and offend, ward ourselves, injure others, hurt all; as if we were born to do mischief, and that with such eagerness and bitterness, with such rancour, malice, rage, and fury, we prosecute our intended designs, that neither affinity or consanguinity, love or fear of God or men can contain us: no satisfaction, no composition will be accepted, no offices will serve, no submission; though he shall upon his knees, as Sarpedon did to Glaucus in Homer, acknowledging his error, yield himself with tears in his eyes, beg his pardon, we will not relent, forgive, or forget, till we have confounded him and his, "made dice of his bones," as they say, see him rot in prison, banish his friends, followers, et omne invisum genus, rooted him out and all his posterity. Monsters of men as we are, dogs, wolves, [4611]tigers, fiends, incarnate devils, we do not only contend, oppress, and tyrannise ourselves, but as so many firebrands, we set on, and animate others: our whole life is a perpetual combat, a conflict, a set battle, a snarling fit. Eris dea is settled in our tents, [4612]Omnia de lite, opposing wit to wit, wealth to wealth, strength to strength, fortunes to fortunes, friends to friends, as at a sea-fight, we turn our broadsides, or two millstones with continual attrition, we fire ourselves, or break another's backs, and both are ruined and consumed in the end. Miserable wretches, to fat and enrich ourselves, we care not how we get it, Quocunque modo rem; how many thousands we undo, whom we oppress, by whose ruin and downfall we arise, whom we injure, fatherless children, widows, common societies, to satisfy our own private lust. Though we have myriads, abundance of wealth and treasure, (pitiless, merciless, remorseless, and uncharitable in the highest degree), and our poor brother in need, sickness, in great extremity, and now ready to be starved for want of food, we had rather, as the fox told the ape, his tail should sweep the ground still, than cover his buttocks; rather spend it idly, consume it with dogs, hawks, hounds, unnecessary buildings, in riotous apparel, ingurgitate, or let it be lost, than he should have part of it; [4613]rather take from him that little which he hath, than relieve him.

Like the dog in the manger, we neither use it ourselves, let others make use of or enjoy it; part with nothing while we live: for want of disposing our household, and setting things in order, set all the world together by the ears after our death. Poor Lazarus lies howling at his gates for a few crumbs, he only seeks chippings, offals; let him roar and howl, famish, and eat his own flesh, he respects him not. A poor decayed kinsman of his sets upon him by the way in all his jollity, and runs begging bareheaded by him, conjuring by those former bonds of friendship, alliance, consanguinity, &c., uncle, cousin, brother, father,

———"Per ego has lachrymas, dextramque tuam te, Si quidquam de te merui, fuit aut tibi quidquam Dulce meum, misere mei."

"Show some pity for Christ's sake, pity a sick man, an old man," &c., he cares not, ride on: pretend sickness, inevitable loss of limbs, goods, plead suretyship, or shipwreck, fires, common calamities, show thy wants and imperfections,

"Et si per sanctum juratus dicat Osyrim, Credite, non ludo, crudeles tollite claudum."

Swear, protest, take God and all his angels to witness, quaere peregrinum, thou art a counterfeit crank, a cheater, he is not touched with it, pauper ubique jacet, ride on, he takes no notice of it. Put up a supplication to him in the name of a thousand orphans, a hospital, a spittle, a prison, as he goes by, they cry out to him for aid, ride on, surdo narras, he cares not, let them eat stones, devour themselves with vermin, rot in their own dung, he cares not. Show him a decayed haven, a bridge, a school, a fortification, etc., or some public work, ride on; good your worship, your honour, for God's sake, your country's sake, ride on. But show him a roll wherein his name shall be registered in golden letters, and commended to all posterity, his arms set up, with his devices to be seen, then peradventure he will stay and contribute; or if thou canst thunder upon him, as Papists do, with satisfactory and meritorious works, or persuade him by this means he shall save his soul out of hell, and free it from purgatory (if he be of any religion), then in all likelihood he will listen and stay; or that he have no children, no near kinsman, heir, he cares for, at least, or cannot well tell otherwise how or where to bestow his possessions (for carry them with him he cannot), it may be then he will build some school or hospital in his life, or be induced to give liberally to pious uses after his death. For I dare boldly say, vainglory, that opinion of merit, and this enforced necessity, when they know not otherwise how to leave, or what better to do with them, is the main cause of most of our good works. I will not urge this to derogate from any man's charitable devotion, or bounty in this kind, to censure any good work; no doubt there be many sanctified, heroical, and worthy-minded men, that in true zeal, and for virtue's sake (divine spirits), that out of commiseration and pity extend their liberality, and as much as in them lies do good to all men, clothe the naked, feed the hungry, comfort the sick and needy, relieve all, forget and forgive injuries, as true charity requires; yet most part there is simulatum quid, a deal of hypocrisy in this kind, much default and defect. [4614]Cosmo de Medici, that rich citizen of Florence, ingeniously confessed to a near friend of his, that would know of him why he built so many public and magnificent palaces, and bestowed so liberally on scholars, not that he loved learning more than others, "but to [4615]eternise his own name, to be immortal by the benefit of scholars; for when his friends were dead, walls decayed, and all inscriptions gone, books would remain to the world's end." The lantern in [4616]Athens was built by Zenocles, the theatre by Pericles, the famous port Pyraeum by Musicles, Pallas Palladium by Phidias, the Pantheon by Callicratidas; but these brave monuments are decayed all, and ruined long since, their builders' names alone flourish by meditation of writers. And as [4617]he said of that Marian oak, now cut down and dead, nullius Agricolae manu vulta stirps tam diuturna, quam quae poetae, versu seminari potest, no plant can grow so long as that which is ingenio sata, set and manured by those ever-living wits. [4618]Allon Backuth, that weeping oak, under which Deborah, Rebecca's nurse, died, and was buried, may not survive the memory of such everlasting monuments. Vainglory and emulation (as to most men) was the cause efficient, and to be a trumpeter of his own fame, Cosmo's sole intent so to do good, that all the world might take notice of it. Such for the most part is the charity of our times, such our benefactors, Mecaenates and patrons. Show me amongst so many myriads, a truly devout, a right, honest, upright, meek, humble, a patient, innocuous, innocent, a merciful, a loving, a charitable man! [4619]Probus quis nobiscum vivit? Show me a Caleb or a Joshua! Dic mihi Musa virum—show a virtuous woman, a constant wife, a good neighbour, a trusty servant, an obedient child, a true friend, &c. Crows in Africa are not so scant. He that shall examine this [4620]iron age wherein we live, where love is cold, et jam terras Astrea reliquit, justice fled with her assistants, virtue expelled,

[4621] ———"Justitiae soror, Incorrupta fides, nudaque veritas,"———

all goodness gone, where vice abounds, the devil is loose, and see one man vilify and insult over his brother, as if he were an innocent, or a block, oppress, tyrannise, prey upon, torture him, vex, gall, torment and crucify him, starve him, where is charity? He that shall see men [4622]swear and forswear, lie and bear false witness, to advantage themselves, prejudice others, hazard goods, lives, fortunes, credit, all, to be revenged on their enemies, men so unspeakable in their lusts, unnatural in malice, such bloody designments, Italian blaspheming, Spanish renouncing, &c., may well ask where is charity? He that shall observe so many lawsuits, such endless contentions, such plotting, undermining, so much money spent with such eagerness and fury, every man for himself, his own ends, the devil for all: so many distressed souls, such lamentable complaints, so many factions, conspiracies, seditions, oppressions, abuses, injuries, such grudging, repining, discontent, so much emulation, envy, so many brawls, quarrels, monomachies, &c., may well require what is become of charity? when we see and read of such cruel wars, tumults, uproars, bloody battles, so many [4623]men slain, so many cities ruinated, &c. (for what else is the subject of all our stones almost, but bills, bows, and guns!) so many murders and massacres, &c., where is charity? Or see men wholly devote to God, churchmen, professed divines, holy men, [4624]"to make the trumpet of the gospel the trumpet of war," a company of hell-born Jesuits, and fiery-spirited friars, facem praeferre to all seditions: as so many firebrands set all the world by the ears (I say nothing of their contentious and railing books, whole ages spent in writing one against another, and that with such virulency and bitterness, Bionaeis sermonibus et sale nigro), and by their bloody inquisitions, that in thirty years, Bale saith, consumed 39 princes, 148 earls, 235 barons, 14,755 commons; worse than those ten persecutions, may justly doubt where is charity? Obsecro vos quales hi demum Christiani! Are these Christians? I beseech you tell me: he that shall observe and see these things, may say to them as Cato to Caesar, credo quae de inferis dicuntur falsa existimas, "sure I think thou art of opinion there is neither heaven nor hell." Let them pretend religion, zeal, make what shows they will, give alms, peace-makers, frequent sermons, if we may guess at the tree by the fruit, they are no better than hypocrites, epicures, atheists, with the [4625]"fool in their hearts they say there is no God." 'Tis no marvel then if being so uncharitable, hard-hearted as we are, we have so frequent and so many discontents, such melancholy fits, so many bitter pangs, mutual discords, all in a combustion, often complaints, so common grievances, general mischiefs, si tantae in terris tragoediae, quibus labefactatur et misere laceratur humanum genus, so many pestilences, wars, uproars, losses, deluges, fires, inundations, God's vengeance and all the plagues of Egypt, come upon us, since we are so currish one towards another, so respectless of God, and our neighbours, and by our crying sins pull these miseries upon our own heads. Nay more, 'tis justly to be feared, which [4626]Josephus once said of his countrymen Jews, "if the Romans had not come when they did to sack their city, surely it had been swallowed up with some earthquake, deluge, or fired from heaven as Sodom and Gomorrah: their desperate malice, wickedness and peevishness was such." 'Tis to be suspected, if we continue these wretched ways, we may look for the like heavy visitations to come upon us. If we had any sense or feeling of these things, surely we should not go on as we do, in such irregular courses, practise all manner of impieties; our whole carriage would not be so averse from God. If a man would but consider, when he is in the midst and full career of such prodigious and uncharitable actions, how displeasing they are in God's sight, how noxious to himself, as Solomon told Joab, 1 Kings, ii. "The Lord shall bring this blood upon their heads." Prov. i. 27, "sudden desolation and destruction shall come like a whirlwind upon them: affliction, anguish, the reward of his hand shall be given him," Isa. iii. 11, &c., "they shall fall into the pit they have digged for others," and when they are scraping, tyrannising, getting, wallowing in their wealth, "this night, O fool, I will take away thy soul," what a severe account they must make; and how [4627]gracious on the other side a charitable man is in God's eyes, haurit sibi gratiam. Matt. v. 7, "Blessed are the merciful, for they shall obtain mercy: he that lendeth to the poor, gives to God," and how it shall be restored to them again; "how by their patience and long-suffering they shall heap coals on their enemies' heads," Rom. xii. "and he that followeth after righteousness and mercy, shall find righteousness and glory;" surely they would check their desires, curb in their unnatural, inordinate affections, agree amongst themselves, abstain from doing evil, amend their lives, and learn to do well. "Behold how comely and good a thing it is for brethren to live together in [4628]union: it is like the precious ointment, &c. How odious to contend one with the other!" [4629] Miseriquid luctatiunculis hisce volumus? ecce mors supra caput est, et supremum illud tribunal, ubi et dicta et facta nostra examinanda sunt: Sapiamus! "Why do we contend and vex one another? behold death is over our heads, and we must shortly give an account of all our uncharitable words and actions: think upon it: and be wise."

SECT. II. MEMB. I.

SUBSECT. I.—Heroical love causeth Melancholy. His Pedigree, Power, and Extent.

In the preceding section mention was made, amongst other pleasant objects, of this comeliness and beauty which proceeds from women, that causeth heroical, or love-melancholy, is more eminent above the rest, and properly called love. The part affected in men is the liver, and therefore called heroical, because commonly gallants. Noblemen, and the most generous spirits are possessed with it. His power and extent is very large, [4630] and in that twofold division of love, [Greek: philein] and [Greek: eran] [4631]those two veneries which Plato and some other make mention of it is most eminent, and [Greek: kat' exochaen] called Venus, as I have said, or love itself. Which although it be denominated from men, and most evident in them, yet it extends and shows itself in vegetal and sensible creatures, those incorporeal substances (as shall be specified), and hath a large dominion of sovereignty over them. His pedigree is very ancient, derived from the beginning of the world, as [4632]Phaedrus contends, and his [4633] parentage of such antiquity, that no poet could ever find it out. Hesiod makes [4634]Terra and Chaos to be Love's parents, before the Gods were born: Ante deos omnes primum generavit amorem. Some think it is the self-same fire Prometheus fetched from heaven. Plutarch amator. libello, will have Love to be the son of Iris and Favonius; but Socrates in that pleasant dialogue of Plato, when it came to his turn to speak of love, (of which subject Agatho the rhetorician, magniloquus Agatho, that chanter Agatho, had newly given occasion) in a poetical strain, telleth this tale: when Venus was born, all the gods were invited to a banquet, and amongst the rest, [4635]Porus the god of bounty and wealth; Penia or Poverty came a begging to the door; Porus well whittled with nectar (for there was no wine in those days) walking in Jupiter's garden, in a bower met with Penia, and in his drink got her with child, of whom was born Love; and because he was begotten on Venus's birthday, Venus still attends upon him. The moral of this is in [4636]Ficinus. Another tale is there borrowed out of Aristophanes: [4637]in the beginning of the world, men had four arms and four feet, but for their pride, because they compared themselves with the gods, were parted into halves, and now peradventure by love they hope to be united again and made one. Otherwise thus, [4638]Vulcan met two lovers, and bid them ask what they would and they should have it; but they made answer, O Vulcane faber Deorum, &c. "O Vulcan the gods' great smith, we beseech thee to work us anew in thy furnace, and of two make us one; which he presently did, and ever since true lovers are either all one, or else desire to be united." Many such tales you shall find in Leon Hebreus, dial. 3. and their moral to them. The reason why Love was still painted young, (as Phornutus [4639]and others will) [4640]"is because young men are most apt to love; soft, fair, and fat, because such folks are soonest taken: naked, because all true affection is simple and open: he smiles, because merry and given to delights: hath a quiver, to show his power, none can escape: is blind, because he sees not where he strikes, whom he hits, &c." His power and sovereignty is expressed by the [4641]poets, in that he is held to be a god, and a great commanding god, above Jupiter himself; Magnus Daemon, as Plato calls him, the strongest and merriest of all the gods according to Alcinous and [4642]Athenaeus. Amor virorum rex, amor rex et deum, as Euripides, the god of gods and governor of men; for we must all do homage to him, keep a holiday for his deity, adore in his temples, worship his image, (numen enim hoc non est nudum nomen) and sacrifice to his altar, that conquers all, and rules all:

[4643] "Mallem cum icone, cervo et apro Aeolico, Cum Anteo et Stymphalicis avibus luctari Quam cum amore"———

"I had rather contend with bulls, lions, bears, and giants, than with Love;" he is so powerful, enforceth [4644]all to pay tribute to him, domineers over all, and can make mad and sober whom he list; insomuch that Caecilius in Tully's Tusculans, holds him to be no better than a fool or an idiot, that doth not acknowledge Love to be a great god.