treatise of the passions of the mind, or stomach,
spleen, midriff, or all the misaffected parts together,
it boots not, they keep the mind in a perpetual dungeon,
and oppress it with continual fears, anxieties, sorrows,
&c. It is an ordinary thing for such as are sound
to laugh at this dejected pusillanimity, and those
other symptoms of melancholy, to make themselves merry
with them, and to wonder at such, as toys and trifles,
which may be resisted and withstood, if they will
themselves: but let him that so wonders, consider
with himself, that if a man should tell him on a sudden,
some of his especial friends were dead, could he choose
but grieve? Or set him upon a steep rock, where
he should be in danger to be precipitated, could he
be secure? His heart would tremble for fear,
and his head be giddy. P. Byaras,
Tract. de
pest. gives instance (as I have said) [2666]"and
put case” (saith he) “in one that walks
upon a plank, if it lie on the ground, he can safely
do it: but if the same plank be laid over some
deep water, instead of a bridge, he is vehemently
moved, and ’tis nothing but his imagination,
forma cadendi impressa, to which his other
members and faculties obey.” Yea, but you
infer, that such men have a just cause to fear, a true
object of fear; so have melancholy men an inward cause,
a perpetual fume and darkness, causing fear, grief,
suspicion, which they carry with them, an object which
cannot be removed; but sticks as close, and is as
inseparable as a shadow to a body, and who can expel
or overrun his shadow? Remove heat of the liver,
a cold stomach, weak spleen: remove those adust
humours and vapours arising from them, black blood
from the heart, all outward perturbations, take away
the cause, and then bid them not grieve nor fear, or
be heavy, dull, lumpish, otherwise counsel can do
little good; you may as well bid him that is sick
of an ague not to be a dry; or him that is wounded
not to feel pain.
Suspicion follows fear and sorrow at heels, arising
out of the same fountain, so thinks [2667]Fracastorius,
“that fear is the cause of suspicion, and still
they suspect some treachery, or some secret machination
to be framed against them, still they distrust.”
Restlessness proceeds from the same spring, variety
of fumes make them like and dislike. Solitariness,
avoiding of light, that they are weary of their lives,
hate the world, arise from the same causes, for their
spirits and humours are opposite to light, fear makes
them avoid company, and absent themselves, lest they
should be misused, hissed at, or overshoot themselves,
which still they suspect. They are prone to venery
by reason of wind. Angry, waspish, and fretting
still, out of abundance of choler, which causeth fearful
dreams and violent perturbations to them, both sleeping
and waking: That they suppose they have no heads,
fly, sink, they are pots, glasses, &c. is wind in
their heads. [2668]Herc. de Saxonia doth ascribe this
to the several motions in the animal spirits, “their