PERTURBATION OF THE MIND RECTIFIED WH THOSOEVER he is that shall hope to cure this malady in himself or any other, must first rectify these passions and perturbations of the mind: the chiefest cure consists in them. A quiet mind is that voluptas or summum bonum of Epicurus; non dolere, curis vacare, animo tranquillo esse, not to grieve, but to want cares, and to have a quiet soul, is the only pleasure in the world, as Seneca truly recites his opinion, not that of eating and drinking, which injurious Aristotle maliciously puts upon him, and for which he is still mistaken, male audit et vapulat, slandered without a cause, and lashed by all posterity. "Fear and sorrow, therefore, are especially to be avoided, and the mind to be mitigated with mirth, constancy, good hope; vain terror, bad objects are to be removed, and all such persons in whose companies they be not well pleased." Gualter Bruel, Fernelius, consil. 43; Mercurialis, consil. 6; Piso Jacchinus, cap. 15, in 9. Rhasis, Capivaccius, Hildesheim, etc., all inculcate this as an especial means of their cure, that their "minds be quietly pacified, vain conceits diverted, if it be possible, with terrors, cares, fixed studies, cogitations, and whatsoever it is that shall any way molest or trouble the soul," because that otherwise there is no good to be done. "The body's mischiefs," as Plato proves, proceed from the soul; and if the mind be not first satisfied, the body can never be cured." Alcibiades raves (saith Maximus Tyrius) and is sick, his furious desires carry him from Lyceus to the pleadingplace, thence to the sea, so into Sicily, thence to Lacedæmon, thence to Persia, thence to Samos, then again to Athens; Critias tyrannizeth over all the city; Sardanapalus is love-sick; these men are ill-affected all, and can never be cured till their minds be otherwise qualified. Crato, therefore, in that often-cited counsel of his for a nobleman his patient, when he had sufficiently informed him in diet, air, exercise, Venus, sleep, conVOL. I.-3 33 66 cludes with these as matters of greatest moment, Quod reliquum est, animæ accidentia corrigantur, from which alone proceeds melancholy; they are the fountain, the subject, the hinges whereon it turns, and must necessarily be reformed. "For anger stirs choler, heats the blood and vital spirits; sorrow on the other side refrigerates the body, and extinguisheth natural heat, overthrows appetite, hinders concoction, dries up the temperature, and perverts the understanding: fear dissolves the spirits, infects the heart, attenuates the soul: and for these causes all passions and perturbations must, to the utmost of our power and most seriously, be removed. Elianus Montaltus attributes so much to them, that he holds the rectification of them alone to be sufficient to the cure of melancholy in most patients." Many are fully cured when they have seen or heard, etc., enjoy their desires, or be secured and satisfied in their minds; Galen, the common master of them all, from whose fountain they fetch water, brags, lib. 1, de san. tuend., that he, for his part, hath cured divers of this infirmity, solum animis ad rectum institutis, by right settling alone of their minds. 66 Yea, but you will here infer that this is excellent good indeed if it could be done; but how shall it be effected, by whom, what art, what means? hic labor, hoc opus est. It is a natural infirmity, a most powerful adversary; all men are subject to passions, and melancholy above all others, as being distempered by their innate humors, abundance of choler adust, weakness of parts, outward occurrences; and how shall they be avoided? the wisest men, greatest philosophers of most excellent wit, reason, judgment, divine spirits, cannot moderate themselves in this behalf; such as are sound in body and mind, Stoics, heroes, Homer's gods, all are passionate, and furiously carried sometimes; and how shall we that are already crazed, fracti animis, sick in body, sick in mind, resist? we cannot perform it. You may advise and give good precepts, as who cannot? But how shall they be put in practice? I may not deny but our passions are violent, and tyrannize of us, yet there be means to curb them; though they be headstrong, they may be tamed, they may be qualified, if he himself or his friends will but use their honest endeavors, or make use of such ordinary helps as are commonly prescribed. He himself (I say); from the patient himself the first and chiefest remedy must be had; for if he be averse, peevish, waspish, give way wholly to his passions, will not seek to be helped, or be ruled by his friends, how is it possible he should be cured? But if he be willing, at least, gentle, tractable, and desire his own good, no doubt but he may magnam morbi deponere partem, be eased at least, if not cured. He himself must do his utmost endeavor to resist and withstand the beginnings. Principiis obsta, "Give not water passage, no not a little" (Ecclus. xxv. 27). If they open a little, they will make a greater breach at length. Whatsoever it is that runneth in his mind, vain conceit be it pleasing or displeasing, which so much affects or troubleth him, "by all possible means he must withstand it, expel those vain, false, frivolous imaginations, absurd conceits, feigned fears and sorrows; from which," saith Piso, "this disease primarily proceeds, and takes his first occasion or beginning, by doing something or other that shall be opposite unto them, thinking of something else, persuading by reason, or howsoever to make a sudden alteration of them." Though he have hitherto run in a full career, and precipitated himself, following his passions, giving reins to his appetite, let him now stop upon a sudden, curb himself in; and as Lemnius adviseth, " strive against with all his power, to the utmost of his endeavor, and not cherish those fond imaginations, which so covertly creep into his mind, most pleasing and amiable at first, but bitter as gall at last, and so headstrong, that by no reason, art, counsel, or persuasion, they may be shaken off." Though he be far gone, and habituated unto such fantastical imaginations, yet as Tully and Plutarch advise, let him oppose, fortify, or prepare himself against them, by premeditation, reason, or as we do by a crooked staff, bend himself another way. "Tu tamen interea effugito quæ tristia mentem "In the mean time expel them from my mind, Let all thy soul be set on merriment." Curas tolles graves, irasci crede profanum. If it be idleness hath caused this infirmity, or that he perceive himself given to solitariness, to walk alone, and please himself with fond imagination, let him by all means avoid it; it is a bosom enemy, it is delightful melancholy, a friend in show, but a secret devil, a sweet poison, it will in the end be his undoing; let him go presently, task or set himself a work, get some good company. If he proceed, as a gnat flies about a candle so long till at length he burn his body, so in the end he will undo himself; if it be any harsh object, ill company, let him presently go from it. If by his own default, through ill diet, bad air, want of exercise, etc., let him now begin to reform himself. "It would be a perfect remedy against all corruption, if," as Roger Bacon hath it, "we could but moderate ourselves in those six non-natural things." "If it be any disgrace, abuse, temporal loss, calumny, death of friends, imprisonment, banishment, be not troubled with it, do not fear, be not angry, grieve not at it, but with all courage sustain it" (Gordonius, lib. 1, c. 15, de conser. vit.). Tu contra audentior ito. If it be sickness, ill success, or any adversity that hath caused it, oppose an invincible courage, "fortify thyself by God's Word or otherwise," mala bonis persuadenda, set prosperity against adversity, as we refresh our eyes by seeing some pleasant meadow, fountain, picture, or the like; recreate thy mind by some contrary object, with some more pleasing meditation divert thy thoughts. Yea, but thou infer again, facile consilium damus aliis, we can easily give counsel to others; every man, as the saying is, can tame a shrew, but he that hath her; si hic esses, aliter sentires; if you were in our misery, you would find it otherwise; it is not easily performed. We know this to be true; we should moderate ourselves; but we are furiously carried; we cannot make use of such precepts; we are overcome, sick, male sani, distempered, and habituated to these courses; we can make no resistance; you may as well bid him that is diseased, not to feel pain, as a melancholy man not to fear, not to be sad it is within his blood, his brains, his whole temperature: it cannot be removed. But he may choose whether he will give way too far unto it; he may in some sort correct himself. A philosopher was bitten with a mad dog; and, as the nature of that disease is to abhor all waters, and liquid things, and to think still they see the picture of a dog before them, he went, for all this, reluctante se, to the bath, and seeing there (as he thought) in the water the picture of a dog, with reason overcame this conceit: quid cani cum balneo?—what should a dog do in a bath? a mere conceit. Thou thinkest thou hearest and seest devils, black men, etc., it is not so; it is thy corrupt fantasy; settle thine imagination; thou art well. Thou thinkest thou hast a great nose, thou art sick, every man observes thee, laughs thee to scorn; persuade thyself it is no such matter: this is fear only, and vain suspicion. Thou art discontent, thou art sad and heavy, but why? upon what ground? consider of it thou art jealous, timorous, suspicious; for what cause? examine it thoroughly; thou shalt find none at all, or such as is to be contemned, such as thou wilt surely deride, and contemn in thyself, when it is past. Rule thyself then with reason; satisfy thyself; accustom thyself; wean thyself from such fond conceits, vain fears, strong imaginations, restless thoughts. Thou mayest do it; Est in nobis assuescere (as Plutarch saith): we may frame ourselves as we will. As he that useth an upright shoe, may correct the obliquity or crookedness by wearing it on the other side; we may overcome passions if we will. Quicquid sibi imperavit animus, obtinuit (as Seneca saith) nulli tam ferti affectus, ut non disciplina perdomentur: whatsoever the will desires, she may command: no such cruel affections, but by discipline they may be tamed. Voluntarily thou wilt not do this or that, which thou oughtest to do, or refrain, etc., but when thou art lashed like a dull jade, thou wilt reform it; fear of a whip will make thee do or not do. Do that voluntarily then what thou canst do, and must do by compulsion; thou mayest refrain if thou wilt, and master thine affections. "As, in a city," saith Melanchthon, "they do by stubborn rebellious rogues, that will not submit themselves to political judgment, compel them by force; so must we do by our affections. If the heart will not lay aside those vicious motions, and the fantasy those fond imaginations, we have another form of government to enforce and refrain our outward members, that they be not led by our passions. If appetite will not obey, let the moving faculty overrule her; let her resist and compel her to do otherwise." In an ague, the appetite would drink; sore eyes that itch would be rubbed; but reason saith no; and therefore the moving faculty will not do it. Our fantasy would intrude a thousand fears, suspicious chimeras upon us; but we have |