The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 30

Lavater _de spectris, part. 1. cap. 2. 3. 4._ their corrupt phantasy makes them see and hear that which indeed is neither heard nor seen, _Qui multum jejunant, aut noctes duc.u.n.t insomnes_, they that much fast, or want sleep, as melancholy or sick men commonly do, see visions, or such as are weak-sighted, very timorous by nature, mad, distracted, or earnestly seek.

_Sabini quod volunt somniant_, as the saying is, they dream of that they desire. Like Sarmiento the Spaniard, who when he was sent to discover the straits of Magellan, and confine places, by the Prorex of Peru, standing on the top of a hill, _Amaenissimam planitiem despicere sibi visus fuit, aedificia magnifica, quamplurimos Pagos, alias Turres, splendida Templa_, and brave cities, built like ours in Europe, not, saith mine [2695]author, that there was any such thing, but that he was _vanissimus et nimis credulus_, and would fain have had it so. Or as [2696]Lod. Mercatus proves, by reason of inward vapours, and humours from blood, choler, &c. diversely mixed, they apprehend and see outwardly, as they suppose, divers images, which indeed are not. As they that drink wine think all runs round, when it is in their own brain; so is it with these men, the fault and cause is inward, as Galen affirms, [2697]mad men and such as are near death, _quas extra se videre putant Imagines, intra oculos habent_, 'tis in their brain, which seems to be before them; the brain as a concave gla.s.s reflects solid bodies. _Senes etiam decrepiti cerebrum habent concavum et aridum, ut imaginentur se videre_ (saith [2698]Boissardus) _quae non sunt_, old men are too frequently mistaken and dote in like case: or as he that looketh through a piece of red gla.s.s, judgeth everything he sees to be red; corrupt vapours mounting from the body to the head, and distilling again from thence to the eyes, when they have mingled themselves with the watery crystal which receiveth the shadows of things to be seen, make all things appear of the same colour, which remains in the humour that overspreads our sight, as to melancholy men all is black, to phlegmatic all white, &c. Or else as before the organs corrupt by a corrupt phantasy, as Lemnius, _lib.

1. cap. 16._ well quotes, [2699]"cause a great agitation of spirits, and humours, which wander to and fro in all the creeks of the brain, and cause such apparitions before their eyes." One thinks he reads something written in the moon, as Pythagoras is said to have done of old, another smells brimstone, hears Cerberus bark: Orestes now mad supposed he saw the furies tormenting him, and his mother still ready to run upon him,

[2700] "O mater obsecro noli me persequi His furiis, aspectu anguineis, horribilibus, Ecce ecce me invadunt, in me jam ruunt;"

but Electra told him thus raving in his mad fit, he saw no such sights at all, it was but his crazed imagination.

[2701] "Quiesce, quiesce miser in linteis tuis, Non cernis etenim quae videre te putas."

So Pentheus (in Bacchis Euripidis) saw two suns, two Thebes, his brain alone was troubled. Sickness is an ordinary cause of such sights. Cardan, _subtil. 8._ _Mens aegra laboribus et jejuniis fracta, facit eos videre, audire_, &c. And, Osiander beheld strange visions, and Alexander ab Alexandro both, in their sickness, which he relates _de rerum varietat.

lib. 8. cap. 44._ Albategnius that n.o.ble Arabian, on his death-bed, saw a ship ascending and descending, which Fracastorius records of his friend Baptista Tirria.n.u.s. Weak sight and a vain persuasion withal, may effect as much, and second causes concurring, as an oar in water makes a refraction, and seems bigger, bended double, &c. The thickness of the air may cause such effects, or any object not well-discerned in the dark, fear and phantasy will suspect to be a ghost, a devil, &c. [2702]_Quod nimis miseri timent, hoc facile credunt_, we are apt to believe, and mistake in such cases. Marcellus Donatus, _lib. 2. cap. 1._ brings in a story out of Aristotle, of one Antepharon which likely saw, wheresoever he was, his own image in the air, as in a gla.s.s. Vitellio, _lib. 10. perspect._ hath such another instance of a familiar acquaintance of his, that after the want of three or four nights sleep, as he was riding by a river side, saw another riding with him, and using all such gestures as he did, but when more light appeared, it vanished. Eremites and anchorites have frequently such absurd visions, revelations by reason of much fasting, and bad diet, many are deceived by legerdemain, as Scot hath well showed in his book of the discovery of witchcraft, and Cardan, _subtil. 18._ suffites, perfumes, suffumigations, mixed candles, perspective gla.s.ses, and such natural causes, make men look as if they were dead, or with horse-heads, bull's-horns, and such like brutish shapes, the room full of snakes, adders, dark, light, green, red, of all colours, as you may perceive in Baptista Porta, Alexis, Albertus, and others, glow-worms, fire-drakes, meteors, _Ignis fatuus_, which Plinius, _lib. 2. cap. 37._ calls Castor and Pollux, with many such that appear in moorish grounds, about churchyards, moist valleys, or where battles have been fought, the causes of which read in Goclenius, Velouris, Fickius, &c. such fears are often done, to frighten children with squibs, rotten wood, &c. to make folks look as if they were dead, [2703]_solito majores_, bigger, lesser, fairer, fouler, _ut astantes sine capitibus videantur; aut toti igniti, aut forma daemonum, accipe pilos canis nigri_, &c. saith Albertus; and so 'tis ordinary to see strange uncouth sights by catoptrics: who knows not that if in a dark room, the light be admitted at one only little hole, and a paper or gla.s.s put upon it, the sun shining, will represent on the opposite wall all such objects as are illuminated by his rays? with concave and cylinder gla.s.ses, we may reflect any shape of men, devils, antics, (as magicians most part do, to gull a silly spectator in a dark room), we will ourselves, and that hanging in the air, when 'tis nothing but such an horrible image as [2704]Agrippa demonstrates, placed in another room. Roger Bacon of old is said to have represented his own image walking in the air by this art, though no such thing appear in his perspectives. But most part it is in the brain that deceives them, although I may not deny, but that oftentimes the devil deludes them, takes his opportunity to suggest, and represent vain objects to melancholy men, and such as are ill affected. To these you may add the knavish impostures of jugglers, exorcists, ma.s.s-priests, and mountebanks, of whom Roger Bacon speaks, &c. _de miraculis naturae et artis. cap. 1._ [2705]they can counterfeit the voices of all birds and brute beasts almost, all tones and tunes of men, and speak within their throats, as if they spoke afar off, that they make their auditors believe they hear spirits, and are thence much astonished and affrighted with it. Besides, those artificial devices to overhear their confessions, like that whispering place of Gloucester [2706]with us, or like the duke's place at Mantua in Italy, where the sound is reverberated by a concave wall; a reason of which Blanca.n.u.s in his Echometria gives, and mathematically demonstrates.

So that the hearing is as frequently deluded as the sight, from the same causes almost, as he that hears bells, will make them sound what he list.

"As the fool thinketh, so the bell clinketh." Theophilus in Galen thought he heard music, from vapours which made his ears sound, &c. Some are deceived by echoes, some by roaring of waters, or concaves and reverberation of air in the ground, hollow places and walls. [2707]At Cadurc.u.m, in Aquitaine, words and sentences are repeated by a strange echo to the full, or whatsoever you shall play upon a musical instrument, more distinctly and louder, than they are spoken at first. Some echoes repeat a thing spoken seven times, as at Olympus, in Macedonia, as Pliny relates, _lib. 36. cap. 15._ Some twelve times, as at Charenton, a village near Paris, in France. At Delphos, in Greece, heretofore was a miraculous echo, and so in many other places. Cardan, _subtil. l. 18_, hath wonderful stories of such as have been deluded by these echoes. Blanca.n.u.s the Jesuit, in his Echometria, hath variety of examples, and gives his reader full satisfaction of all such sounds by way of demonstration. [2708]At Barrey, an isle in the Severn mouth, they seem to hear a smith's forge; so at Lipari, and those sulphureous isles, and many such like, which Olaus speaks of in the continent of Scandia, and those northern countries. Cardan _de rerum var. l. 15, c. 84_, mentioneth a woman, that still supposed she heard the devil call her, and speaking to her, she was a painter's wife in Milan: and many such illusions and voices, which proceed most part from a corrupt imagination.

Whence it comes to pa.s.s, that they prophesy, speak several languages, talk of astronomy, and other unknown sciences to them (of which they have been ever ignorant): [2709]I have in brief touched, only this I will here add, that Arcula.n.u.s, _Bodin. lib. 3, cap. 6, daemon._ and some others, [2710]

hold as a manifest token that such persons are possessed with the devil; so doth [2711]Hercules de Saxonia, and Apponensis, and fit only to be cured by a priest. But [2712]Guianerius, [2713]Montaltus, Pomporiatius of Padua, and Lemnius _lib. 2. cap. 2_, refer it wholly to the ill-disposition of the [2714]humour, and that out of the authority of Aristotle _prob. 30. 1_, because such symptoms are cured by purging; and as by the striking of a flint fire is enforced, so by the vehement motion of spirits, they do _elicere voces inauditas_, compel strange speeches to be spoken: another argument he hath from Plato's _reminiscentia_, which all out as likely as that which [2715]Marsilius Ficinus speaks of his friend Pierleonus; by a divine kind of infusion he understood the secrets of nature, and tenets of Grecian and barbarian philosophers, before ever he heard of, saw, or read their works: but in this I should rather hold with Avicenna and his a.s.sociates, that such symptoms proceed from evil spirits, which take all opportunities of humours decayed, or otherwise to pervert the soul of man: and besides, the humour itself is _balneum diaboli_, the devil's bath; and as Agrippa proves, doth entice him to seize upon them.

SECT. IV. MEMB. I.

_Prognostics of Melancholy_.

Prognostics, or signs of things to come, are either good or bad. If this malady be not hereditary, and taken at the beginning, there is good hope of cure, _recens curationem non habet difficilem_, saith Avicenna, _l. 3, Fen.

1, Tract. 4, c. 18._ That which is with laughter, of all others is most secure, gentle, and remiss, Hercules de Saxonia. [2716]"If that evacuation of haemorrhoids, or _varices_, which they call the water between the skin, shall happen to a melancholy man, his misery is ended," Hippocrates _Aphor.

6, 11._ Galen _l. 6, de morbis vulgar. com. 8_, confirms the same; and to this aphorism of Hippocrates, all the Arabians, new and old Latins subscribe; Montaltus _c. 25_, Hercules de Saxonia, Mercurialis, Vittorius Faventinus, &c. Skenkius, _l. 1, observat. med. c. de Mania_, ill.u.s.trates this aphorism, with an example of one Daniel Federer a coppersmith that was long melancholy, and in the end mad about the 27th year of his age, these _varices_ or water began to arise in his thighs, and he was freed from his madness. Marius the Roman was so cured, some, say, though with great pain.

Skenkius hath some other instances of women that have been helped by flowing of their mouths, which before were stopped. That the opening of the haemorrhoids will do as much for men, all physicians jointly signify, so they be voluntary, some say, and not by compulsion. All melancholy are better after a quartan; [2717]Jobertus saith, scarce any man hath that ague twice; but whether it free him from this malady, 'tis a question; for many physicians ascribe all long agues for especial causes, and a quartan ague amongst the rest. [2718]Rhasis _cont. lib. 1, tract. 9._ "When melancholy gets out at the superficies of the skin, or settles breaking out in scabs, leprosy, morphew, or is purged by stools, or by the urine, or that the spleen is enlarged, and those _varices_ appear, the disease is dissolved."

Guianerius, _cap. 5, tract. 15_, adds dropsy, jaundice, dysentery, leprosy, as good signs, to these scabs, morphews, and breaking out, and proves it out of the 6th of Hippocrates' Aphorisms.

Evil prognostics on the other part. _Inveterata melancholia incurabilis_, if it be inveterate, it is [2719]incurable, a common axiom, _aut difficulter curabilis_ as they say that make the best, hardly cured. This Galen witnesseth, _l. 3, de loc. affect. cap. 6_, [2720]"be it in whom it will, or from what cause soever, it is ever long, wayward, tedious, and hard to be cured, if once it be habituated." As Lucian said of the gout, she was [2721]"the queen of diseases, and inexorable," may we say of melancholy. Yet Paracelsus will have all diseases whatsoever curable, and laughs at them which think otherwise, as T. Erastus _par. 3_, objects to him; although in another place, hereditary diseases he accounts incurable, and by no art to be removed. [2722]Hildesheim _spicel. 2, de mel._ holds it less dangerous if only [2723]"imagination be hurt, and not reason,"

[2724]"the gentlest is from blood. Worse from choler adust, but the worst of all from melancholy putrefied." [2725]Bruel esteems hypochondriacal least dangerous, and the other two species (opposite to Galen) hardest to be cured. [2726]The cure is hard in man, but much more difficult in women.

And both men and women must take notice of that saying of Monta.n.u.s _consil.

230, pro Abate Italo_, [2727]"This malady doth commonly accompany them to their grave; physicians may ease, and it may lie hid for a time, but they cannot quite cure it, but it will return again more violent and sharp than at first, and that upon every small occasion or error:" as in Mercury's weather-beaten statue, that was once all over gilt, the open parts were clean, yet there was _in fimbriis aurum_, in the c.h.i.n.ks a remnant of gold: there will be some relics of melancholy left in the purest bodies (if once tainted) not so easily to be rooted out. [2728] Oftentimes it degenerates into epilepsy, apoplexy, convulsions, and blindness: by the authority of Hippocrates and Galen, [2729]all aver, if once it possess the ventricles of the brain, Frambesarius, and Sal.u.s.t. Salvia.n.u.s adds, if it get into the optic nerves, blindness. Mercurialis, _consil. 20_, had a woman to his patient, that from melancholy became epileptic and blind. [2730]If it come from a cold cause, or so continue cold, or increase, epilepsy; convulsions follow, and blindness, or else in the end they are moped, sottish, and in all their actions, speeches, and gestures, ridiculous. [2731]If it come from a hot cause, they are more furious, and boisterous, and in conclusion mad. _Calescentem melancholiam saepius sequitur mania_. [2732]If it heat and increase, that is the common event, [2733]_per circuitus, aut semper insanit_, he is mad by fits, or altogether. For as [2734]Sennertus contends out of Crato, there is _seminarius ignis_ in this humour, the very seeds of fire. If it come from melancholy natural adust, and in excess, they are often demoniacal, Monta.n.u.s.

[2735]Seldom this malady procures death, except (which is the greatest, most grievous calamity, and the misery of all miseries,) they make away themselves, which is a frequent thing, and familiar amongst them. 'Tis [2736]Hippocrates' observation, Galen's sentence, _Etsi mortem timent, tamen plerumque sibi ipsis mortem conscisc.u.n.t_, _l. 3. de locis affec. cap.

7._ The doom of all physicians. 'Tis [2737]Rabbi Moses' Aphorism, the prognosticon of Avicenna, Rhasis, Aetius, Gordonius, Valescus, Altomarus, Sal.u.s.t. Salvia.n.u.s, Capivaccius, Mercatus, Hercules de Saxonia, Piso, Bruel, Fuchsius, all, &c.

[2738] "Et saepe usque adeo mortis formidine vitae Percipit infelix odium lucisque videndae, Ut sibi consciscat maerenti pectore lethum."

"And so far forth death's terror doth affright, He makes away himself, and hates the light To make an end of fear and grief of heart, He voluntary dies to ease his smart."

In such sort doth the torture and extremity of his misery torment him, that he can take no pleasure in his life, but is in a manner enforced to offer violence unto himself, to be freed from his present insufferable pains. So some (saith [2739]Fracastorius) "in fury, but most in despair, sorrow, fear, and out of the anguish and vexation of their souls, offer violence to themselves: for their life is unhappy and miserable. They can take no rest in the night, nor sleep, or if they do slumber, fearful dreams astonish them." In the daytime they are affrighted still by some terrible object, and torn in pieces with suspicion, fear, sorrow, discontents, cares, shame, anguish, &c. as so many wild horses, that they cannot be quiet an hour, a minute of time, but even against their wills they are intent, and still thinking of it, they cannot forget it, it grinds their souls day and night, they are perpetually tormented, a burden to themselves, as Job was, they can neither eat, drink or sleep. Psal. cvii. 18. "Their soul abhorreth all meat, and they are brought to death's door, [2740]being bound in misery and iron:" they [2741]curse their stars with Job, [2742]"and day of their birth, and wish for death:" for as Pineda and most interpreters hold, Job was even melancholy to despair, and almost [2743]madness itself; they murmur many times against the world, friends, allies, all mankind, even against G.o.d himself in the bitterness of their pa.s.sion, [2744]_vivere nolunt, mori nesciunt_, live they will not, die they cannot. And in the midst of these squalid, ugly, and such irksome days, they seek at last, finding no comfort, [2745]no remedy in this wretched life, to be eased of all by death. _Omnia appetunt bonum_, all creatures seek the best, and for their good as they hope, _sub specie_, in show at least, _vel quia mori pulchrum putant_ (saith [2746]Hippocrates) _vel quia putant inde se majoribus malis liberari_, to be freed as they wish. Though many times, as Aesop's fishes, they leap from the frying-pan into the fire itself, yet they hope to be eased by this means: and therefore (saith Felix [2747]Platerus) "after many tedious days at last, either by drowning, hanging, or some such fearful end," they precipitate or make away themselves: "many lamentable examples are daily seen amongst us:" _alius ante, fores se laqueo suspendit_ (as Seneca notes), _alius se praecipitavit a tecto, ne dominum stomachantem audiret, alius ne reduceretur a fuga ferrum redegit in viscera_, "one hangs himself before his own door,--another throws himself from the house-top, to avoid his master's anger,--a third, to escape expulsion, plunges a dagger into his heart,"--so many causes there are--_His amor exitio est, furor his_--love, grief, anger, madness, and shame, &c. 'Tis a common calamity, [2748]a fatal end to this disease, they are condemned to a violent death, by a jury of physicians, furiously disposed, carried headlong by their tyrannising wills, enforced by miseries, and there remains no more to such persons, if that heavenly Physician, by his a.s.sisting grace and mercy alone do not prevent, (for no human persuasion or art can help) but to be their own butchers, and execute themselves. Socrates his _cicuta_, Lucretia's dagger, Timon's halter, are yet to be had; Cato's knife, and Nero's sword are left behind them, as so many fatal engines, bequeathed to posterity, and will be used to the world's end, by such distressed souls: so intolerable, insufferable, grievous, and violent is their pain, [2749]so unspeakable and continuate. One day of grief is an hundred years, as Cardan observes: 'Tis _carnificina hominum, angor animi_, as well saith Areteus, a plague of the soul, the cramp and convulsion of the soul, an epitome of h.e.l.l; and if there be a h.e.l.l upon earth, it is to be found in a melancholy man's heart.

"For that deep torture may be call'd an h.e.l.l, When more is felt, than one hath power to tell."

Yea, that which scoffing Lucian said of the gout in jest, I may truly affirm of melancholy in earnest.

[2750] "O triste nomen! o diis odibile Melancholia lacrymosa, Cocyti filia, Tu Tartari specubus opacis edita Erinnys, utero quam Megara suo tulit, Et ab uberibus aluit, cuique parvidae Amarulentum in os lac Alecto dedit, Omnes abominabilem te daemones Produxere in lucem, exitio mortalium. _Et paulo post_ Non Jupiter ferit tale telum fulminis, Non ulla sic procella saevit aequoris, Non impetuosi tanta vis est turbinis.

An asperos sustineo morsus Cerberi?

Num virus Echidnae membra mea depascitur?

Aut tunica sanie tincta Nessi sanguinis?

Illacrymabile et immedicabile malum hoc."

"O sad and odious name! a name so fell, Is this of melancholy, brat of h.e.l.l.

There born in h.e.l.lish darkness doth it dwell, The Furies brought it up, Megara's teat, Alecto gave it bitter milk to eat.

And all conspir'd a bane to mortal men, To bring this devil out of that black den.

Jupiter's thunderbolt, not storm at sea, Nor whirlwind doth our hearts so much dismay.

What? am I bit by that fierce Cerberus?

Or stung by [2751]serpent so pestiferous?

Or put on shirt that's dipt in Nessus' blood?

My pain's past cure; physic can do no good."

No torture of body like unto it, _Siculi non invenere tyranni majus tormentum_, no strappadoes, hot irons, Phalaris' bulls,

[2752] "Nec ira deum tantum, nec tela, nec hostis, Quantum sola noces animis illapsa."

"Jove's wrath, nor devils can Do so much harm to th' soul of man."

All fears, griefs, suspicions, discontents, imbonites, insuavities are swallowed up, and drowned in this Euripus, this Irish sea, this ocean of misery, as so many small brooks; 'tis _coagulum omnium aerumnarum_: which [2753]Ammia.n.u.s applied to his distressed Palladins. I say of our melancholy man, he is the cream of human adversity, the [2754] quintessence, and upshot; all other diseases whatsoever, are but flea-bitings to melancholy in extent: 'Tis the pith of them all, [2755] _Hospitium est calamitatis; quid verbis opus est_?

"Quamcunque malam rem quaeris, illic reperies:"

"What need more words? 'tis calamities inn, Where seek for any mischief, 'tis within;"

and a melancholy man is that true Prometheus, which is bound to Caucasus; the true t.i.tius, whose bowels are still by a vulture devoured (as poets feign) for so doth [2756]Lilius Geraldus interpret it, of anxieties, and those griping cares, and so ought it to be understood. In all other maladies, we seek for help, if a leg or an arm ache, through any distemperature or wound, or that we have an ordinary disease, above all things whatsoever, we desire help and health, a present recovery, if by any means possible it may be procured; we will freely part with all our other fortunes, substance, endure any misery, drink bitter potions, swallow those distasteful pills, suffer our joints to be seared, to be cut off, anything for future health: so sweet, so dear, so precious above all other things in this world is life: 'tis that we chiefly desire, long life and happy days, [2757]_multos da Jupiter annos_, increase of years all men wish; but to a melancholy man, nothing so tedious, nothing so odious; that which they so carefully seek to preserve [2758]he abhors, he alone; so intolerable are his pains; some make a question, _graviores morbi corporis an animi_, whether the diseases of the body or mind be more grievous, but there is no comparison, no doubt to be made of it, _multo enim saevior longeque est atrocior animi, quam corporis cruciatus_ (Lem. _l. 1. c. 12._) the diseases of the mind are far more grievous.--_Totum hic pro vulnere corpus_, body and soul is misaffected here, but the soul especially. So Cardan testifies _de rerum var. lib. 8. 40._ [2759]Maximus Tyrius a Platonist, and Plutarch, have made just volumes to prove it. [2760]_Dies adimit aegritudinem hominibus_, in other diseases there is some hope likely, but these unhappy men are born to misery, past all hope of recovery, incurably sick, the longer they live the worse they are, and death alone must ease them.

Another doubt is made by some philosophers, whether it be lawful for a man in such extremity of pain and grief, to make away himself: and how these men that so do are to be censured. The Platonists approve of it, that it is lawful in such cases, and upon a necessity; Plotinus _l. de beat.i.tud. c.

7._ and Socrates himself defends it, in Plato's Phaedon, "if any man labour of an incurable disease, he may despatch himself, if it be to his good."

Epicurus and his followers, the cynics and stoics in general affirm it, Epictetus and [2761]Seneca amongst the rest, _quamcunque veram esse viam ad libertatem_, any way is allowable that leads to liberty, [2762]"let us give G.o.d thanks, that no man is compelled to live against his will;" [2763]

_quid ad hominem claustra, career, custodia? liberum ostium habet_, death is always ready and at hand. _Vides illum praecipitem loc.u.m, illud flumen_, dost thou see that steep place, that river, that pit, that tree, there's liberty at hand, _effugia servitutis et doloris sunt_, as that Laconian lad cast himself headlong (_non serviam aiebat puer_) to be freed of his misery: every vein in thy body, if these be _nimis operosi exitus_, will set thee free, _quid tua refert finem facias an accipias_? there's no necessity for a man to live in misery. _Malum est necessitati vivere; sed in necessitate vivere, necessitas nulla est. Ignavus qui sine causa moritur, et stultus qui c.u.m dolore vivit_. _Idem epi. 58._ Wherefore hath our mother the earth brought out poisons, saith [2764]Pliny, in so great a quant.i.ty, but that men in distress might make away themselves? which kings of old had ever in a readiness, _ad incerta fortunae venenum sub custode promptum_, Livy writes, and executioners always at hand. Speusippes being sick was met by Diogenes, and carried on his slaves' shoulders, he made his moan to the philosopher; but I pity thee not, quoth Diogenes, _qui c.u.m talis vivere sustines_, thou mayst be freed when thou wilt, meaning by death. [2765]Seneca therefore commends Cato, Dido, and Lucretia, for their generous courage in so doing, and others that voluntarily die, to avoid a greater mischief, to free themselves from misery, to save their honour, or vindicate their good name, as Cleopatra did, as Sophonisba, Syphax's wife did, Hannibal did, as Junius Brutus, as Vibius Virus, and those Campanian senators in Livy (_Dec. 3. lib. 6._) to escape the Roman tyranny, that poisoned themselves. Themistocles drank bull's blood, rather than he would fight against his country, and Demosthenes chose rather to drink poison, Publius Cra.s.si _filius_, Censorius and Plancus, those heroical Romans to make away themselves, than to fall into their enemies' hands. How many myriads besides in all ages might I remember, _qui sibi lethum Insontes pepperere manu_, &c. [2766]Rhasis in the Maccabees is magnified for it, Samson's death approved. So did Saul and Jonas sin, and many worthy men and women, _quorum memoria celebratur in Ecclesia_, saith [2767]Leminchus, for killing themselves to save their chast.i.ty and honour, when Rome was taken, as Austin instances, _l. 1. de Civit. Dei, cap. 16._ Jerome vindicateth the same in _Ionam_ and Ambrose, _l. 3. de virginitate_ commendeth Pelagia for so doing. Eusebius, _lib. 8. cap. 15._ admires a Roman matron for the same fact to save herself from the l.u.s.t of Maxentius the Tyrant. Adelhelmus, abbot of Malmesbury, calls them _Beatas virgines quae sic_, &c. t.i.tus Pomponius Atticus, that wise, discreet, renowned Roman senator, Tully's dear friend, when he had been long sick, as he supposed, of an incurable disease, _vitamque produceret ad augendos dolores, sine spe salutis_, was resolved voluntarily by famine to despatch himself to be rid of his pain; and when as Agrippa, and the rest of his weeping friends earnestly besought him, _osculantes obsecrarent ne id quod natura cogeret, ipse acceleraret_, not to offer violence to himself, "with a settled resolution he desired again they would approve of his good intent, and not seek to dehort him from it:" and so constantly died, _precesque eorum taciturna sua obstinatione depressit_. Even so did Corellius Rufus, another grave senator, by the relation of Plinius Secundus, _epist. lib. 1. epist. 12._ famish himself to death; _pedibus correptus c.u.m incredibiles cruciatus et indignissima tormenta pateretur, a cibis omnino abstinuit_; [2768]neither he nor Hispilla his wife could divert him, but _destinatus mori obstinate magis_, &c. die he would, and die he did. So did Lycurgus, Aristotle, Zeno, Chrysippus, Empedocles, with myriads, &c. In wars for a man to run rashly upon imminent danger, and present death, is accounted valour and magnanimity, [2769]to be the cause of his own, and many a thousand's ruin besides, to commit wilful murder in a manner, of himself and others, is a glorious thing, and he shall be crowned for it. The [2770] Ma.s.segatae in former times, [2771]Barbiccians, and I know not what nations besides, did stifle their old men, after seventy years, to free them from those grievances incident to that age. So did the inhabitants of the island of Choa, because their air was pure and good, and the people generally long lived, _antevertebant fatum suum, priusquam manci forent, aut imbecillitas accederet, papavere vel cicuta_, with poppy or hemlock they prevented death. Sir Thomas More in his Utopia commends voluntary death, if he be _sibi aut aliis molestus_, troublesome to himself or others, ([2772]

"especially if to live be a torment to him,) let him free himself with his own hands from this tedious life, as from a prison, or suffer himself to be freed by others." [2773]And 'tis the same tenet which Laertius relates of Zeno, of old, _Juste sapiens sibi mortem consciscit, si in acerbis doloribus versetur, membrorum mutilatione aut morbis aegre curandis_, and which Plato _9. de legibus_ approves, if old age, poverty, ignominy, &c.

oppress, and which Fabius expresseth in effect. (_Praefat. 7. Inst.i.tut_.) _Nemo nisi sua culpa diu dolet_. It is an ordinary thing in China, (saith Mat. Riccius the Jesuit,) [2774]"if they be in despair of better fortunes, or tired and tortured with misery, to bereave themselves of life, and many times, to spite their enemies the more, to hang at their door." Tacitus the historian, Plutarch the philosopher, much approve a voluntary departure, and Aust. _de civ. Dei, l. 1. c. 29._ defends a violent death, so that it be undertaken in a good cause, _nemo sic mortuus, qui non fuerat_ _aliquando moriturus_; _quid autem interest, quo mortis genere vita ista finiatur, quando ille cui finitur, iterum mori non cogitur_? &c. [2775]no man so voluntarily dies, but _volens nolens_, he must die at last, and our life is subject to innumerable casualties, who knows when they may happen, _utrum satius est unam perpeti moriendo, an omnes timere vivendo_, [2776]

rather suffer one, than fear all. "Death is better than a bitter life,"

Eccl. x.x.x. 17. [2777]and a harder choice to live in fear, than by once dying, to be freed from all. Theombrotus Ambraciotes persuaded I know not how many hundreds of his auditors, by a luculent oration he made of the miseries of this, and happiness of that other life, to precipitate themselves. And having read Plato's divine tract _de anima_, for example's sake led the way first. That neat epigram of Callimachus will tell you as much,

[2778] "Jamque vale Soli c.u.m diceret Ambrociotes, In Stygios fertur desiluisse lacus, Morte nihil dignum pa.s.sus: sed forte Platonis Divini eximum de nece legit opus."

[2779]Calenus and his Indians hated of old to die a natural death: the Circ.u.mcellians and Donatists, loathing life, compelled others to make them away, with many such: [2780]but these are false and pagan positions, profane stoical paradoxes, wicked examples, it boots not what heathen philosophers determine in this kind, they are impious, abominable, and upon a wrong ground. "No evil is to be done that good may come of it;" _reclamat Christus, reclamat Scriptura_, G.o.d, and all good men are [2781]against it: He that stabs another, can kill his body; but he that stabs himself, kills his own soul. [2782]_Male meretur, qui dat mendico, quod edat_; _nam et illud quod dat, perit_; _et illi producit vitam ad miseriam_: he that gives a beggar an alms (as that comical poet said) doth ill, because he doth but prolong his miseries. But Lactantius _l. 6. c. 7. de vero cultu_, calls it a detestable opinion, and fully confutes it, _lib. 3. de sap. cap. 18._ and S. Austin, _epist. 52. ad Macedonium, cap. 61. ad Dulcitium Tribunum_: so doth Hierom to Marcella of Blesilla's death, _Non recipio tales animas_, &c., he calls such men _martyres stultae Philosophiae_: so doth Cyprian _de duplici martyrio; Si qui sic moriantur, aut infirmitas, aut ambitio, aut dementia cogit eos_; 'tis mere madness so to do, [2783]_furore est ne moriare mori_. To this effect writes Arist. _3. Ethic._ Lipsius _Manuduc.

ad Stoicam Philosophiaem lib. 3. dissertat. 23._ but it needs no confutation. This only let me add, that in some cases, those [2784]hard censures of such as offer violence to their own persons, or in some desperate fit to others, which sometimes they do, by stabbing, slashing, &c. are to be mitigated, as in such as are mad, beside themselves for the time, or found to have been long melancholy, and that in extremity, they know not what they do, deprived of reason, judgment, all, [2785]as a ship that is void of a pilot, must needs impinge upon the next rock or sands, and suffer shipwreck. [2786]P. Forestus hath a story of two melancholy brethren, that made away themselves, and for so foul a fact, were accordingly censured to be infamously buried, as in such cases they use: to terrify others, as it did the Milesian virgins of old; but upon farther examination of their misery and madness, the censure was [2787]revoked, and they were solemnly interred, as Saul was by David, 2 Sam. ii. 4. and Seneca well adviseth, _Irascere interfectori, sed miserere interfecti_; be justly offended with him as he was a murderer, but pity him now as a dead man.

Thus of their goods and bodies we can dispose; but what shall become of their souls, G.o.d alone can tell; his mercy may come _inter pontem et fontem, inter gladium et jugulum_, betwixt the bridge and the brook, the knife and the throat. _Quod cuiquam contigit, quivis potest_: Who knows how he may be tempted? It is his case, it may be thine: [2788]_Quae sua sors hodie est, eras fore vestra potest._ We ought not to be so rash and rigorous in our censures, as some are; charity will judge and hope the best: G.o.d be merciful unto us all.

THE SYNOPSIS OF THE SECOND PARt.i.tION.

Cure of melancholy is either

_Sect 1._ General to all, which contains