example of the philosopher who, when he thought most
seriously to have withdrawn himself unto a solitary
privacy, far from the rustling clutterments of the
tumultuous and confused world, the better to improve
his theory, to contrive, comment, and ratiocinate,
was, notwithstanding his uttermost endeavours to free
himself from all untoward noises, surrounded and environed
about so with the barking of curs, bawling of mastiffs,
bleating of sheep, prating of parrots, tattling of
jackdaws, grunting of swine, girning of boars, yelping
of foxes, mewing of cats, cheeping of mice, squeaking
of weasels, croaking of frogs, crowing of cocks, cackling
of hens, calling of partridges, chanting of swans,
chattering of jays, peeping of chickens, singing of
larks, creaking of geese, chirping of swallows, clucking
of moorfowls, cucking of cuckoos, bumbling of bees,
rammage of hawks, chirming of linnets, croaking of
ravens, screeching of owls, whicking of pigs, gushing
of hogs, curring of pigeons, grumbling of cushat-doves,
howling of panthers, curkling of quails, chirping of
sparrows, crackling of crows, nuzzing of camels, wheening
of whelps, buzzing of dromedaries, mumbling of rabbits,
cricking of ferrets, humming of wasps, mioling of
tigers, bruzzing of bears, sussing of kitlings, clamouring
of scarfs, whimpering of fulmarts, booing of buffaloes,
warbling of nightingales, quavering of mavises, drintling
of turkeys, coniating of storks, frantling of peacocks,
clattering of magpies, murmuring of stock-doves, crouting
of cormorants, cigling of locusts, charming of beagles,
guarring of puppies, snarling of messens, rantling
of rats, guerieting of apes, snuttering of monkeys,
pioling of pelicans, quacking of ducks, yelling of
wolves, roaring of lions, neighing of horses, crying
of elephants, hissing of serpents, and wailing of
turtles, that he was much more troubled than if he
had been in the middle of the crowd at the fair of
Fontenay or Niort. Just so is it with those who
are tormented with the grievous pangs of hunger.
The stomach begins to gnaw, and bark, as it were,
the eyes to look dim, and the veins, by greedily sucking
some refection to themselves from the proper substance
of all the members of a fleshy consistence, violently
pull down and draw back that vagrant, roaming spirit,
careless and neglecting of his nurse and natural host,
which is the body; as when a hawk upon the fist, willing
to take her flight by a soaring aloft in the open
spacious air, is on a sudden drawn back by a leash
tied to her feet.
To this purpose also did he allege unto us the authority of Homer, the father of all philosophy, who said that the Grecians did not put an end to their mournful mood for the death of Patroclus, the most intimate friend of Achilles, till hunger in a rage declared herself, and their bellies protested to furnish no more tears unto their grief. For from bodies emptied and macerated by long fasting there could not be such supply of moisture and brackish drops as might be proper on that occasion.