their Mistress breast the only Paradise for Lovers Ghosts they break the prison of their own and anticipate the delivery of Death and fly thither as to the place of their eternal mansion Whoever thou art thâ—t darest to doubt of these excursions of amorous Souls let me advise thee attentively to observe how the Soul of a Lover almost visibly flies to that part of the body which approches neerest to his Panthea If they joyn hands you may perceive their souls to be palpably distributed into their fingers mutually to take hoâ—d and entwine each with other If they stand side by side their bowels yern their hearts leap for joy their spirits flow in crowds into their breasts and raising strong palpitations salute each other as Clowns use to do with thumps as if they strove to dissolve the lâ—gaments of life and intermix embraces What kind of Magique is that by which the blood is made to overflow the cheeks with crimson waves at the presence of a dear friend springing up out of the Arteries of the wounded Heart as an index of its sufferings no otherwise than the blood of a murdered man is said to flow forth afresh to betray the Homicide only with this difference that the blood in the case of Murder flows I know not by what instinct â—or revenge but in a Lovers blushes for cure and remedy of his harm See how greedily his soul catcheth the sounds of her voice and retired wholly into his ears stands there watching every accent nay is converted into the sense of Hearing or rather into the very sounds it receives In exchanging words they exchange spirits and immigrate into the wishes they utter See how their wandring souls in a continual efflux sally forth at their encontring eyes and consuming themselves in greedy looks leave their bodies faint and liveless many times falling into swoons and Syncopes To Lovers it is the same thing to speak and to expire the same to see and to extramit themselves by the eye to gaze and to pass into the object In them the Platonic opinion that sight is performed by Extramission of rays holds true Thus the whole Man hastning to get forth crowds one while into the Ear another into the Eye sometimes into the Lips suavia dans Agathoni animam ipse in labra tenebam was Plato's confession of himself living only in that part wherein he at present enjoys his Fellow his other and better half Thus Love epitomizeth Human nature compelling Men to breath and live more contractedly and like some imperfect Animals to be content with one sense alone But thus to reduce him from a necessity of many Organs or Instruments of life sense and motion to a capacity of existing more delightfully by one single Organ is not to maim Man but render him more perfect and divine We will therefore if you please conclude this Paragraph with a pertinent Stanza of that incomparable Critique in Love old Chaucer who in most lively and never-vading colours painting the surprize and astonishmen of Troilus till then a Woman-hater at first sight of the fair Creseide in her mourning habit sparkling like a Diamond set in Jet saith thus Lo he that iete him selven so conning And scorned hem that loves paines drien Was full unware that love had his dwelling Within the subtel streams of her â—yen That sodainly him thought he felt dren Right with her loke the spirit in his herte Blessed be love that thus can folke converte SECT VI. IN such spiritual efforts and sallies the Body indeed suffers a manifest though a grateful detriment but what 's a wonder even for wise men the soul acquires Augmentation For as if she were also definable by Extension being by a certain expansion more diffused than before she that was originally the Guest of one breast become's thenceforth the Governess of two Confused betwixt two bodies she scarcely knows for which she was first formed but as it were suspended betwixt both she perfectly informs neither By one Law of Nature she is confined to one body by another Law of the same Nature Love she is carried forth to animate and possess another which she strives to make equally her own so that in this case you are obliged to acknowledge both a Diminution and an Increment of her Soveraignty Every Individual in love is thenceforth a Number carrying always with him as Antipheron did another Himself if at least he may properly be said to be a Number whom one computes whom one distinguishes whom the word Homo alone expresses an Hermaphrodite and yet no Monster By a fruitful error to men in Love as well as to men in Drink all objects appear double yet no otherwise than the eyes themselves are double which have one and the same motion one and the same sight Here you see a kind of penetration of Dimensions two persons so closely embracing as to fill up the same space as to become one as to destroy their embraces for embraces imply a difference While like ovids Heâ—maphrodite Salmacis the person courting and the person courted are one and the same he knows not whether he love or is beloved more truely nor doth he enjoy but is converted into his wish Ah Cupid thy very bounty is mockery thy favour like that of Grandees in Court hypocritical while thou hidest within my breast what I require to be in my arms Thou art too propitious in making us one rather divide us that we may feel our selves to be what we would be different in sex one in will and desire Obstat cupienti nimium frui To have her made the same with my self whom I covet only as a Partner of my joys is to prevent them This excess of kindness this assimilation of another to my self makes me think I do not embrace my Friend but a shadow which always treads in my footsteps and imitates all my motions Stand farther from me O my dearest who art nearer to me than I am to my self that I may enjoy that pleasure which consisteth in the knowledge of a Distinction But alas I forget my self and wish a Contradiction The same power that makes one of two makes also two of one The Arithmetick of Love is performed aswel by substraction as by Multiplication nor do we think that substraction a loss but a Compendium unless it be more advantage to have our strengths collected than extended Every thing you know is so much the more perfect by how much the more simple To be comprehended within no space or number is the prerogative of the Deity and what is Best and Highest can be but one Love therefore as it hath this Divine perfection of Unity so hath it likewise that other of Self-communication For what is perfect is uncapable of addition or encrease otherwise than by Diffusion or Distribution of it self The only Usury of Love is to make others rich This liberality of conferring ones self upon another is the only good Mankind can justly call
also the immediate organ or instrument by which the nobler Soul informeth and acteth in the organs of the Body Now though we deny not but the rational Soul in respect of this her alliance with the Body is in some degree subject to the Laws of Matter and consequently that the humours and temperament of the Body have some influence or power to alter and work upon the mind especially in weak-minded persons who make no use of the arms of their reason to encounter and subdue the insurrections and assaults of sensual appetites Yet cannot we grant that the impressions which the body makes upon the mind are such as suffice to question either the Immortality or derogate from the Soveraignty of the Soul over the Body Not the Immortality of it because as an Infant in the Mothers womb though sympathising with the Mother in all distempers accidents and symptoms that befall her during the time of the Child's connexion to her body is yet capable of being in his due season separated from her and emancipated from his first state of compatibility into another of single subsistence So the Rational Soul though during its connexion to the Body subject to all affections and sufferings thereof is yet nevertheless capable of being separated in due season from the Body and surviving it to eternity in a state of â—implicity and incompatibility Nor the Soveraignty of it over the Body because as a Monarch notwithstanding he hath soveraign and absolute power over his Subjects may sometimes be inclined by the sway of his servants and yet without either subjection of his Person or diminution of his power So the Soul though sometimes the affections of its subject the Body may incline or dispose it to assent and compliance yet doth not that detract from either the excellency of its nature or the absoluteness of its dominion over the Body Besides all those mutations of the affections that arise from the variety of humours and temperament of the Body whether caused by Diet Wine or otherwise are most â—nduely imputed to the Mind or reasonable Soul it self whose essence being simple severeth it from all essential mutations and indeed extend no farther than the Sensitive or the Brain which is its principal organ So that as it doth not derogate from the skill and ability of an excellent Musitian that he cannot make good Musick upon an ill and untuneable Instrument so likewise doth it not from the dignity of the Soul that it cannot maintain the harmony of its Government where the Brain is out of tune And this we think sufficient to evince that the mutual league or alliance betwixt the Body and Mind is not so inseparable but the Mind may both continue its Soveraignty while that league continueth and also continue its Being after the same league is dissolved by death But if the Adversary shall further urge us to informe him What kind of â—ubstance we then conceive the Soul to be we shall ingeniously confess We do not understand it Nor are we ashamed of that ignorance forasmuch as the knowledge thereof is to be fetched not from Reason or Philosophy but from Revelation Divine For seeing the substance of the Soul was not deduced or extracted in its creation from Matter or Elements as is manifest even from the transcendency of its functions and operations certainly it follows that the Laws of Matter or Elements can in no wise comprehend its nature or lead to the knowledge of its substance but leaving Philosophy to its proper objects we must expect it from the inspiration of the same Divinity from whence the substance of it was originally derived But inspirations Divine being very rare our best way will be to suspend such subtle and Metaphysical Enquiries till death which will soon satisfie them and all other difficulties of that nature In the mean time we beg excuse for thus long digressing into so grave and unsutable a Speculation which yet we could not well avoid from our Story and for holding you upon the rack of suspense while your good nature makes you impatient till you are assuâ—ed of the Ladie 's perfect recovery Returning to our Matron I find my self surprised with more of wonder and amazement than the Souldier was when he first beheld her Methinks I perceive certain symptoms in her which signifie not only a change of humour but even a perfect metamorphosis of her person also and so strangely is she altered that did not the continuance of her mourning habit and yet she hath dropt her Veil together with the circumstances of time and place assure me to the contrary seriously I should not easily be perswaded that she is the same woman She appears now to have so little of the sorrowful Widow in her that if I might have the liberty Physiognomists take of divining by outward signes I should take her for the most pleased and happy Bride in the world Her forehead seems not only smoothed but dilated also to a more graceful largeness and over-cast with a delicate sanguine Dye Her eyes sparkling again with luster yet little more then half open with their amiable whites turned somewhat upward unsteady bedewed with a Ruby moisture by stealth casting certain languishing glances such as are observed only in persons dying and Lovers in the extasie of delight upon the Souldier Her lips swelling with a delicious ver-million tincture and gently trembling yet still preserving the decorum and sweetness of her mouth Her cheeks overâ—lowing with pleasing blushes Her head a little declinâ—ng as when Modesty hath a secâ—et conflict with Desire She is in â— kind of gentle disquiet such as accompanieth the impatience of the soul when it is eager and restless in pursuâ—â— of the object whereon it hath fixed itâ— chief felicity A temperate and Balmy sweat extilling from the pores of her snow-white skin helps to increase the kindly warmth of it arising doubtless from a great agitation of her spirits within and an effusion of them upon the outward parts together with â—he vapours of her purest bloud In a word I discern in her a concourse of all â—hose signes which as natural and inseparable characters are proper to great joy and pleasure What therefore should I think To imagine that she a woman of exemplaâ—y constancy of chastity more cold and severe than the Goddess her self who iâ— said to be guardian of it of sorrow as your self can witness almost unparallel'd and invincible whose tears are yet scarcely dry still fitting in a damp and horrid Charnel-house at the dead time of the night and upon the Coffin of her Dearest All To imagine I say that this Woman should be so soon ingulphed in the delightful transports of a new Love and that with a Fellow so much a Stranger so much her Inferiour This certainly is not only highly improbable but unpardonably scandalous and he doubtless would have no easie task to secure himself from being torn in pieces by those of her Sex who
and in a trance of wonder and amazement Upon which Love immediately succeeding and in a moment with its celestial raies dispelling all the foggs of his cold and phlegmatick brain yea inspiring him as it were with a new and ingenious soul he rowzd up himself reflected upon the misery and dishonour of his late condition and put on a sprightly resolution to pursue his Nymph with Courtship and Gallantry worthy her admirable Form and his own noble extraction To this purpose he the next day followed his retreating Fairy to the City put on a becoming habit and with it a graceful and obliging Mine and animated with hope industriously imploy'd himself in learning Musick dancing fencing and acquiring all other good qualities requisite in a Gentleman So that in a very short time he was transformed from an Ideot a BartholmewCokes a Clown to a Bon Esprit a Virtuoso a Truwitt in a word to the most accomplish'd Gallant of the times nor was Iphigenia so invincible to such assaulting perfections as not by marriage of him to appropriate to her self the fruits of the Miraculous Metamorphosis the vision of her Beauties had wrought in him Such power hath the sight of a fair Lady naked to cause Love such power hath Love to cure the Lethargy of the Soul and awaken it into Wit and Galantry making a Heros of a Sott in fewer minutes than the Writers of Romances can in years I say a Heros because the same Cymon proved also famous at Arms fought sundry combats performed many heroical exploits and alwaies had Fortune for his Second the same flame that enlightned his understanding having heated his blood also and kindled Courage and Magnanimity in his heart At this you will the less wonder if you remember what you have read in Cardan lib. 2. de Sap. who there occasionally recounting many of the admirable effects of Love says thus Ex vilibus generosos efficere solet ex timidis andaces ex avariâ— splendidos ex agrestibus civiles ex crudelibus mansuctos ex impiis religiosos ex sordidis nitidos cultos ex duris misericordes ex mutis eloquentes c. If you contemn this authority I hope you will not dispute the Example of Sir Walter Manny in Edward the thirds time who being stuck full of Ladies favours fought like a Dragon nor that of Ferdinand King of Spain who as Castilio thinks had never conquer'd Granado had not Queen Isabella and her Ladies been present at the Siege it cannot be expressed sayes our Author what courage the Spanish knights derived from the raâ—es of the Ladies eyes a handful of amorouâ— Spaniards overcoming a multude of Moors Every true Lover is wise just temperate and valiant saith Agatho lib. 3. de Aulico who doubts not therefore but if a Prince had an Army of such Lovers he might soon conquer the whole world except he met with the like Army of Inamorato's to oppose it Plato then had reason when 5. de Legibus he would have women follow the Camp to be both Spectators and Encouragers of noble Actions it being his opinion in convivio that Mars himself borrowed most of his valour from his love of Venus SECT V. HAving beheld this Proteus Love in some of those various shapes wherein it usually appears you are I presume thereupon inclined to think it may be no less unconstant to its Object than it seems to be to it self To obviate this scandalous mistake therefore I find my self obliged in the next place to evince that the Judgments of Love are like those of Fate unalterable and perpetual that it is constant and immutable He who can cease to love whom he hath once loved doe's but dream he loved For the conjunction of true Lovers hearts like solemn Matrimony admits of no divorce When the Virgin Zone is untied a knot is in the same instant knit that can never be dissolved sometimes indeed as the Gordian it may be cut asunder Death may be the Alexander to discind but cannot untie it Love ceases not though what is loved hath ceas'd to be When your Turtle hath molted all her beautiful feathers and is grown old you shall not cease to think her still the same still amiable and youthful and what of her charming featureâ— time hath impaired your affection will continually renew the pleasing Form now lost to your eye shall be perpetually found fresh and lively in your mind The fidelity of Remembrance shall countervail the cruelty of Age which may by a natural Metamorphosis render your Wife a stranger to her former self but hath not the more tyrannical power to alienate her from you Nay when Fate shall have torn her from your armes even then shall you still retain and enjoy her in your imagination you shall think her not dead but only absent and as often as you mix embraces wâ—tâ— her kind Ghost you shall deny her to have perish'd Love shall make you triumph over Mortality and in the ardor of your spiritual â—ruition you shall bid defiance to Destiny crying out Though you have seperated us O Fatal Sisters you have not divided us yet we converse together yet we are a pair from others you have taken away the Woman from me not so much as her shadow While she lived we used but one Soul now but one Body Her Spirit is received into my breast and there remains fixt as in its proper Asterism and Heaven Thus Love seems to perform iâ—s course as the Sun in a Circle alwaies returning to the point whence it set forth so ending in it self as alwayes to begin For no man loves who can ever be able to love either less or not at all Of love there can be no end because no satiety Like Heaven and a contemplative Mind it is perpetually in motion never at rest yet that labour doth not weary but refresh Thus the end of one benefit is a degree toward another and the Soul provoked by a double ardor cherishes first the person and then its own obligations ad amor is perennitatem sufficit amasse Notwithstanding Love be thus immortal as being the proper affection of an immortal Soul and devoted to an eternal Object Good yet can I not deny but it is a kind of Death For who is ignorant that Lovers die as often as they kiss or bid adieu exhaling their Souls upon each otheâ—s lips Like Apollo's Priests possessed with the spirit of Divination they are transported out of themselves their life is a perpetual Extasie they devest themselves of their own Souls that they may be more happily fill'd with others I believe Pythagoras his Metempsychosis or Transmigration of his Soul when he loved not when he philosophiz'd At sight of a fair and well built house our souls like delicate and proud Ladies grow weary of ther own homely dwellings and are unquiet until removed thither because they were not born they affect to live yea to be born again therein Longing for the Elyzium of
where he conceived nothing but horrour and unwholesome damps had resided That the sight of a woman there at that dead time of the night alone and in that strange posture too was sufficient to excuse his admiration and that to excuse his curiosity for the satisfaction of which he had approach'd her That if therein he had contrary to his intent been an occasion of disturbance to her in the performance of those dismal Rites her afflicted imagination had caused her to please her self withal what they were he knew not he was ready to aske her pardon for that his misfortune And as for any offense to the Manes of those whose bodies were there deposited he conceived himself wholly innocent as comming thither with no such black purpose as to dislodge their Reliques or violate their Sepulchres Lastly that if his presence were ungrateful to her to whom he heartily wished a serenity of mind equal to the sweetness of her person he was ready to depart notwithstanding the tenderness of his disposition made him have some sympathy in her afflictions and urged him to offer her that succour which he was able to afford Which yet he confessed could not be great considering the vast disparity betwixt the meanness of his condition and rudeness of education on his part and the wise counsel and consolatory arguments he found requisite on hers However if his diligence yea if his life might be anâ— way serviceable to her she should freely command him And having said thus he remained silent Lo how goodly spake this Knight As if it had be another wight And made it neither tough ne queint Here the Lady somewhat touched with the great humanity and gentleness of the Mâ—n whom by his Arms she perceived to be a Soldier and so had admitted some apprehensions of a return more rough and agreeable to the manners of those of his profession and ranck was offering to rise up and dismiss him with thanks due to his civility when her macerated and languishing body and her exhausted spirits failing to be obedient to her soul she sunk down â—n a swoon and lay speechless and eneâ—vated cross her Husbands Coffin Which the honest Fellow perceiving and fearing she had expâ—red her very soul in that last gâ—eat sigh that â—rake from her breast at the instant of her fall he was not a little astonished but yet he had so much reason left as hastned him to endeavour her recovery by taking her up in his arms gently reclining her heâ—d and pouring a little Winâ— into her mouth from a Bottle he had brought with him wherewith to fortifie himself against the cold and moystness of the weather This so repaired her defect of spirits that her heart and arteries renewing their intermitted pulses she soon came to her self again but so imperfectly that though her vitall Organs seemed to perform their offices aright yet those of voluntary motion wholly failed in theirs Which the Souldier observing and concluding with himself that the virtue of that cordial which infused into her in a small quantity had so happily begun his cure if administâ—ed in a greater dose would not fail to finish it he set the bottle a second time to her mouth and forced her to take in a large draught The Wine by reason of its sublety soon dispersing through her whole body and recâ—uiting her spirits consumed by immoderate grief and long abstinence wrought so powerfully upon her that she now feels her self not only revived but in some measure also comforted within her O! who can sufficiently admire the excellency of this divine Liquor and her faculty of moving her self restored so that erecting her self upon her legs she turned to her Physitian and disposing her eyes and countenance into such an aspect of gentleness and sweetness as intimated to him she had no ill resentments of the good offices his charity had done her without other expression of thankfulness she sat down to repose her self upon the Coffin the unfrequented place affording no other seat The Man encouraged by the happy success of his assistance and discreetly taking the opportunity of that calm which he discerned the Wine had brought upon both her mind spirits began with gentle reasons for Rhetorical arguments he had none to make her sensible of the extream need she was in of some speedy corporal refection And not being so ceremonious as to stay and expect her answer he instantly opens his Knapsack and produceth such cold and homely Viands as he in cleanly manner had laid therein for his own provision These he tenders to her in the most humble and decent posture the incommodities of the time and place would admit of intreating her in commiseration of her self to second the good effect of the Wine with a bit or two of solid meat and to dispense with the coorseness both of his diet and service her safety depending chiefly upon a speedy refreshment and at the present he was destitute of better accommodation Now whether we ought to ascribe it to the sole hand of Fate which laughs at the vanity of mens resolutions and by turning our hearts like rivers of water delights to convince us How little that power is we arrogant Mortals think we have over our selves Or to the benigne and sweetning efficacy of the Wine which doubtless is the most soveraign and present Antidote in Nature against excess of sorrow Or to the force of the Souldiers Perswasions which though not delivered with the advantage of smooth and courtly language appear to have been strong and prevalent Or to the secret strokes of Love as Philosophers call them which being observed alwaies to wound deepest upon the sodain and as often in the depth of adversâ—ry as in the height of ease and prosperity might for ought we know be by the wanton god iâ—flicted upon the Ladie 's heart and so wonderfully recompose all the confusions and disorders of her soul as at that very instant to tune all her faculties once more to the key of the most sweet and harmonious of all our affeâ—tions I say to which of all these probable causes or to the conspiracie of them all together the Miracle is to be imputed I confess I cannot determine and therefore willingly resigne that nice enquiry to those Sages who pretend to understand the secrets of Women's hearts But so it fell out that our Matron being now able to command a Truce to her sorrow cheerfully addressed her self to the victuals set before her and did eat moderately thereof in the quiet and pleasantness of her looks sweetly betraying that inward agreableness and delight Nature became sensible of in that supply which had been too long denyed her This our Man of War who it seems by the story was no fool perceiving and understanding withall that some sâ—asonable relief from reason and wise counsel was as requisite to the re-composure of her disordered mind as his meâ—t and drink had been to the instauration of her infeebled
body he bethought himself what to say that might conduce to the mitigation of her violent sorrow And though he were no Philosopher nor Orator his head not being altogether so well furnished with arguments of consolation as his Scrip and Bottle had been with Provision yet he had so competent a share of the light of Nature which as many wise men hold shineth alwaies clearest in the darkness of necessity and sudden occasions as directed him bluntly to tell her That albeit moderate humiliation of the body and contristation of spirit upon the decease of dear friends and relations were not to be disallowed as being the effects of that love and â—espect we bore them in our lives and pregnant testimonies of natural affection without which Man degenerateth into the savageness of beasts yet an intemperate sorrow and afflicting our selves beyond measure was not only unreasonable but also unnatural unreasonable in that it doth as little avail to the good or benefit of the dead as to the recalling them to life again they being in a state which admits of no commerce with or concernment for the survivors Unnatural in that it impaireth the health of the body and beclouds the brightness of the understanding both which are the chiefest treasures of our lives and every man is bound by the Law of Nature to endeavour their preservation as much as in him lies He added That if she had suffered her passion to transport her to any such extravagance as an intent to destroy â—er self as she had seemed to intimate both by her expressions and deportment in that place which of it self appeared a fit Scene whereon to act such a Tragedy she ought with the soonest to retract it For the greatest crime man could commit was Murder and of all Murders the most detestable was self-Homicide which the Creator did so abominate as that he Had engraven upon our very Nature the Law of self-preservation as if on purpose to prevent it And should Heaven be so mercifull as to forgive it which was dangerous to presume yet certainly the Ghost of her Husband would not since if he loved her while alive he could not be pleased with any violence she should offer to her self but would rather abhor the society of so great a Criminal among the Shades at least if Souls departed hence have any sense or cognizance of the actions of Mortals upon Earth The pious Matron hearing this could not refrain from interrupting her counsellor but replied That she must acknowledge the truth and weight of his discourses but yet and then she sighed she had lost such a Jewel of a Husband as never woman lost And therefore if her grief were violent and invincible she deserved rather pity and excuse than reprehension and condemnation both from gods and men And more she would have said but that a fresh flood of tears running down her cheeks robbed her lips of the freedom of their motion The Souldier seeing this and fearing a relapse had immediate recourse to the Antidote of the Bottle of whose cordial juice he had so admirable experience and without more ado he holds up her head with one hand while with the other he drencheth her with a round dose of the remaning liquor And she had no sooner felt the warmth and vigour of it in her stomach but the fountains of her tears were instantly sealed up her forehead smoothed and all her face reduced to its native sweetness Nay more this last draught wrought so divinely that her mind also seemed perfectly restored to its antient mildness and tranquility and she became the most affable compleasant and chearfull creature in the world indeed as if a new Soul had been infused into her This great change considered who can but fall into a rapture in thinking of the virtue of Wine or forbear to repeat father Sancho's prayer that Providence would never suffer him to want good store of that celestial Nectar But our argument is yet sad and it imports us to be more serious For Here some witty Disciple of Epicurus arresting us in the middle of our Narration may take advantage to disparage the excellency and immortallity of that noble essence the reasonable Soul of man and from the example of the soveraign operation of the Wine upon this deplorable Lady thus argue against it If our inclinations and wills be so neerly dependent upon the humours and temperament of our bodies as to be in a manner the pure and natural consequents or results from them and that our humours and temperament be so easily and soon variable according to the various qualities of meats and drinks received into our stomachs both which seem verified in the instance of this Ephesian Woman who by the generous quality of the Wine and nutritive juice of the Meat was as it were in a moment altered in her whole frame of a highly discontented and desperate wretch becomming a quiet tractable and good humour'd creature quitting her morosity and contumacy in a murderous resolution for frank affability yieldingness and alacrity Why should not men believe with his Master Epicurus that the Soul is nothing else but a certain composition or contexture of subtle Atoms in such manner figured and disposed and natively endowed with such activity as to animate the body and actuate all the members and organs of it or with Galen that the Soul is but the Harmony of Elements concurring in the composition of the body at first and in the same tenour continued afterward during life by supplies of the most subtle and refined parts of our nourishment Especially if they reflect upon the admirable effects of Wine which hath the power to alter not only the temperamâ—nt of the body but even that of the mind also subduing the most refractory and unbridled of all our passions and raising up others as violent in their room in a word so forcibly turning the needle of our affections and inclinations from one extreme to another and hurring them from point to point round the whole Compass as if it were it self a soul at least as it if had the soveraignty over the best of souls Now if any such weak and prevaricating Epicurean shall cast this stumbling-block in our way though we are loth to leave the Lady now she is in so goâ—d a humour yet the honour we owe to that divine substance which he endeavours thus vilely to abase obligeth us to digress a while and vouchsafe him a short refutation Let him know therefore that every individual man hath two distinct Souls the one Rational or Intellectual and Incorruptible as being of divine Original the breath of the Creator The other only Sensitive produced from the wombs of Elements common also to brute Animals and therefore capable of dissolution This latter Soul or more properly Spirit is the common Vinculum Cement or Tye betwixt the celestial and incorporeal nature of the reasonable Soul and the terrestriall and corporeal nature of the Body It is
be denyed but that Fitness is the only Motive to the Appetite nor that the Desire arising upon the Knowledge of that Fitness is the Love and the only Love that can be betwixt Male and Female as Male and Female Of Love determined BUt beside this General Love of a different sex which is no more but the Appetite of Procreation Indefinite there is yet another Love in which the same Appetite though respecting diversity of sex is yet determined to some one particular Person and such as are in this Passion are properly said to be in Love Now the Question doth concern not the General Love betwixt Male and Female but this Particular or Determined Love since this seems to be that which Ladys mean when they distinguish Love from Lust. Concerning this Personal Love therefore I say that forasmuch as it cannot be without diveâ—sity of Sex and tendeth as violently if not more to the same end as the general or indefinite Love doth viz. to the Act of Procreation and in both those respects doth participate of that sensual pleasure which accompanieth the indifferent Love it follows that Love of the Sex and Love of some one person of that Sex make but one and the same affection or Passion in Nature Nor is there indeed any other cause that makes this Love quit its indifferency to all of that divers Sex and fix only upon some one single peâ—son but only this that the perâ—on Loving or rather in Love apprehending that the Marks or Signs of the power Generative are more conspicuous in the person loved than in any other of that Sex thereupon imagineth that the Fruition of that peâ—son that is the doing that Act whiâ—â— is necessary to continuation of the kind with that person will better conduce to the satisfaction of the Appetite to Geneâ—ation than the doing of it with any other So that this Opinion or Imagination in the person loving is the cause why the person loved is courted and puâ—sued with that violence of desire which always agitateth and disquieteth those that are in Love And hence it comes that comely and proper men as they call them such as are of good complexions and well proportioned bodies are generally in great reputation with Women and fâ—ir and Beautiful Women in as high esteem and honour with Men. For it being a certain rule in Nature tâ—at all inward poweâ—s are more or less peâ—fect according â—o the more or less exact temperament and structure of the parts of the body upon which they depend and that the exact shape and constitution of the body and all its parts are marks of the perfection of the same poweâ—s where the senses discover the Marks in a more eminent measure there the soul concludeth to find the Powers themselves also in as eminent a degree and thereupon loves and pursues with proportionate ardency the person in whom they appear to be For particular instance Comliness and Strength of body in a Man being signs of the goodness of the power Generative Women no sooner perceive those signs but well understanding what they signifie they cannot chuse but have a greater liking esteem and inclination for such men in whom they appear than for others in whom they do not appear at least so conspicuously On the other side sweetness of complexon justness of stature and all that is comprized in the word Beauty being the Character which Nature hath imprinted upon a Woman by which we may judge of the Goodness of the passive power in Generation in such a Woman no sooner is this Character discerned by the eyes of men but they instantly know what it imports and thereupon honour and love those Women in whom that Mark is seen more than others in whom it doth not shew it self in so full a measure To confirm the Truâ—h of this besides the Natural Reasons here alledged we have also the suffrage of Experience For what woman was ever in love with an Eunuch though otheâ—wise exceedingly handsome Nay what Woman is there that doth not secretly despise any man of whose insufficiency whether Native or by Misfortune in the power of Generation she hath had any the least notice on the otherside what Man hath ever continued his passion for a Woman after he hath been once convinced of her impotency to club with him in the Act of procreation though she were in all other things the most beautiful of her Sex Which considered I confess I find my self a little inclined to suspect that few wives who have no Children by their Husbands love them half so well as they pretend and that as few Husbands abstain from breach of wedlock who have reason to complain of the Barrenness of their Wives For though Discretion may make them secret and â—lose in their amorous stealths yet without the restraint of great virtue desire of Issue and experiment of their Abilities will go neer to make them affect change Now after all this I hope it will be no longer a Paradox that the indefinite desire of different Sex which is geneâ—â—lly called Lust and desire of some one particular person of that different Sex which is generally called Love are one and the same Appetite to the Act of Procreation Nevertheless that I may not seem either ignorant of what hath given occasion to men to imagine a real difference betwixt them or willing to innovate a vulgar phrase by which they express their different sentiments I shall not omit to observe that when we Condemn this Appetite we give it the disparageing name of Lust and when we Approve it we cloath it in the neater word Love so that Lust and Love nevertheless are no more but divers Terms by which we express the divers Conceptions we have of one and the same Passion Nor will it be a whit to my disadvantage if I add also that the desire of different Sex in general is not accompanied with that Delight of the Mind as the Determined or personal Love is since in the Former men seek only to please themselves whereas in thâ— Latter they seek to please the Woman whom they love as much as if not more than themselves and by how much more they find themselves able to please their Mistresses by so much the more are they Delighted themselves For this Delight is not sensual as being that Pleasure or joy of the Mind which consisteth in the opinion we have of our own Power or Ability to please another especially the Person whom we love and therefore an effect rather of Charity which is a Desire to assist another in obtaining what he wanteth or is pleased with when he hath it than of this Love betwixt Male and Female of which I now discourse and so hinders not Love and Lust to be still one and the same thing as I have pâ—oved it to be Of Platonick Love IT remains only that we briefly examine the Purity of that Love which such profess who distinguish themselves from the herd of
into the same dust with that of her former Lover of whose singular Worth Fame hath diffused so honourable a report And having thus hastily delivered to her the Cause of his desperate Resolution he begins again to free his hands of the encumbrance of hers that he may speedily effect it But good and tender hearted Creature her Affection was too great to suffer her to yield to any thing conducing to his death and the more he strives to disingage her breast from his the closer she clings to him vowing withal That if he wounded himself it should be by forcing the sword first through her body â—o which she added that she would not live to be so miserable as to lose so dear a person so soon and in the same plâ—ce where she had been so happy to find him unexpectedly that very Gratitude forbad her to consent to the taking away his life who had lately and miraculously preseâ—ved hers and as she had some reason to believe infused a new life into her that it would be less affliction to her to die before him than to survive and behold at once the dead bodies of Two persons each of which she had loved infinitely above her own life and that the death he so much dreaded from from the Hangman was not so unavoidable as his Fears had made him imagine but there were other ways of evasion besides self-murder and would he but follow her advice she doubted not to put him upon such a course as should procure both his own security and her content The Soldier more effectually wrought upon by this last clause than by all else she had said and remembring the old saying that Womâ—n are always more subtle and ingenious at Evasions in sâ—ddain Exigences than men he easily promiseth as who would not in his case to listen to her Counsel and pursue it also if it appeared reasonable Well then saith this Good-Woman since the body of the best and greatest of mortals is but a lump of Clay after the departure of the soul which gave it life sense and motion that all Relations are extinguished in Death all Piety is determined in the Grave and that it is but Charity to use the reliques of the Dead in case of necessity to preserve the Living why should not I dispense with the Formality of posthume Respects to the putrifying Corps of my deceased Husband and make use of it for the preservation of my living Friend with whose life my own is inseparably bound up and whose danger therefore is equally mine Come therefore my Dear and let us take my Husbands body out of his Coffin and place it upon the Gibbet in the room of the Malefactor which you say hath been stoln away Death you know doth so change disfigure the Countenance as to disguise it from the knowledge of even the most famâ—liar Acquaintance Who then can distinguish this his naked body fâ—om the other Besides we will besmear his face with blood and dirt and rather than fail in any part of resemblance break his Arms and Lâ—gs and make the same wounds in him the Executioner did in the Rogue 's so that his neerest Relations shâ—ll not be able to find a difference much less shall strangers who come to gaze upon such horrid spectacles out of a savage Curiosity and commonly stand aloof off Here I cannot but cry out with Father Chaucer in his Bâ—llad of the praise of Women Lo what gentillesse these women have If we could knowe it for our rudeness How busie thei be us to keepe and save Both in heale and also in sickness And alwaie right sorie for our distress In every maner thus she we thei routh Tthat in hem is all goodness and trouth For of all creatures that ever were get and born This wote ye well a woman was the best By her was recovered the bliss that we had lorne And through the woman we shall come to rest And been â—saved if that our self lest Wherefore me thinketh if that we had grace We oughten honour women in every place The Souldier quickly approves the Woman's project how to excuse him and having no time for now day was approaching to insist upon acknowledgement either of her great Love or of the felicity of her Wit he joyns his strength with hers and removes the Husband's Corps out of the Vault to the Gibbet whereon he placeth it in the same posture he had left the villains omitting no part of those resemblances she had suggested as requisite to delude the spectators Which done He and his incomparable Mistress secretly retire to his obscure lodging there to consult further not only of their present safety but also how they might continue that mutual happiness which Fortune had so unexpectedly begun betwixt them And while they are there deliberating give me leave to deliver my self of a certain Conceipt I have in my head which is that the witty invention this Matron lighted upon on the suddain and in desperate extremity was that which gave the first occasion to this Proverb A Womans wit is always best at a dead lift FINIS THE Cimmerian MATRON To which is added THE MYSTERIES And MIRACLES OF LOVE By P. M. Gent. Qui cavet ne decipiatur vix cavet etiam cum cavet Etiam cum cavisse ratus est is cautor captus est Plautus In the SAVOY Printed for Henry Herringman at the Sign of the Anchor in the Lower-walk of the New-Exchange 1668. TO THE AUTHOR OF THE Ephesian Matron My dearest Friend YOu can be I perceive both highly obliging and no less severe to one and the same Person in one and the same act When you were pleas'd last Summer to send me your EPHESIAN MATRON with strict Command that I should entertain her as jealous Italians do their Mistresses mew her up in my Cabinet from sight of the whole world You sent a Present I acknowledge than which nothing could have been more gratefull but you conjoyn'd therewith a Râ—striction than which none could have been more rigorous You gave me good Wine and then gelt it with Water as the Spanish saying is of such who destroy their own benefits Like an imperious Lord you would have had the Lady my Tenent at your will and after you had made me a free Grant you inserted a Proviso to render it void In a word your Injunction to me to restrain her from the conversation of all others was not only tyrannical and inhumane in it self for as our great Moralist and beloved Author Chaucer in the Wise of Bath's Prologue He is to great a Diggarde that will werne A man to light a candle at his Lanterne but also inconsistent with both the goodness of her nature and the freedome of my enjoying the pleasures thereof For First the love of Liberty is no less natural to the soft and delicate Sex than to our harder and martial one nor doth our Magna Charta contain more Priviledges and Franchises than theirs
night linnen like a Bride going to bed which adding more Fewel to his suspicion and exasperating the sense of his wrong he puts on the countenance of rage and terror with enflamed and threatning eyes staring as Caesars Ghost upon Brutus upon his poor surprised wife who stood as still by reason of her astonishment as if she had been congealed by lightning or transformed into a Statue For shame upon the unexpected frustration of an evil design doth ususually produce confusion Her soul conscious of infidelity hitherto only in imagination and design began to presage more evils than it could have deserved had her design succeeded iâ—to Actâ— the violence of her passion being favourably considered But could she so soon have recollected her disordered spirits and recovered the use of her tongue her Husband 's fury would have restrain'd her and he yet could only breath revenge not utter it in words After a little pause going into her bed-chamber he there encounters with fresh causes of suspicion the dressing-Table by the bed-side richly furnisht with provoking delicates clean sheets perfum'd pillows and above all his spie the Chambermaid conjur'd out of the way confirm'd in his jealousie by these convincing signs he now meditates upon nothing but Revenge and how to effect it with the more security and apparence of justice Resolved therefore by cruelty to extort a Confession and so make her her own accuser without speaking a word he strips her to her snow-white skin and carrying her down into the Porch there binds her delicate Arms to one of the Pillars had you been so happy to have beheld her in that deplorable posture doubtless you would have thought you had seen the beautiful Andromede a second time chained naked to a Rock and one though perhaps not quite so chaste as she yet if Beauty had its due She could not merit any bonds beside Those with which Lovers mutualy are tyed and well worthy another Perseus to deliver love and enjoy her The hard-hearted Usurer fancying to himself some satisfaction in this first Act of the Tragedy he intended retires to his bed though likely to have but a melancholy night of it without his Consort hoping by sleep to recompose his troubled mind In the mean time our Man of War who had promised to himselfe the height of all enjoyments lay Soldier like perdue in the open Air and when he had till almost midnight in vain watched his Mistresses door which still continued as fast shut as the Temple of Ianus in time of peace he returns back to the house of his She-Officer the Bawd whom he found halfe naked and prepared to keep one of Venus's Vigils with a Client of hers for her Clients were often forced to gratifie her for solliciting their Love-causes with such Fees whom at that very hour she expected Ho Mother says he with what teâ—ious hope do I purchase from the Lady the pleasure promised me I have already consumed a whole hour longer indeed than a whole winters night in fruitless expectation while she who sought my Love and made the Assignation hath not vouchsafed to open the door 'T is very strange methinks unless having forgot both her self and her appointment she hath buried her amour in sleep Go thy ways dear Mother and enquire the cause of my disappointment and what commands the Lady hath for me if to readvance lo I am ready for the combat if to retreat I am as ready to march off with flying Colours and deferr the encounter till another night Scarcely were these last words out of his mouth when the Bawd incited partly by the sense of her honour for those of her Trade must be punctual in their assignations and partly by commiseration of his impatience hastily casting a Mantle a most useful garment in such cases over her shoulders catches the Soldier by the hand and conducts him back to the door which she opens with a Key given her by the Matron some while before for her private access upon occasion and entreating him to stand close and silent for a few minutes without she passes on through the Wood-yard and a little Garden till she arrived at the walk under the Porch where groping along she had almost run her head against â—he living Statue there bound to a Pillar which she no sooner discern'd but surpriz'd with horror as at sight of a Ghost or Apparition she stood still and gazed with affrighted eyes The milky whiteness of the Matrons skin to some degree overcame the darkness of the moonless night nor would it suffer her to be longer unperceived so that the Bawd soon recovering her self out of her first consternation boldly approaches to the Lady and omitting to enquire into the cause of her being in that strange and lamentable condition delivers in few words the Soldiers message even at that time not ungrateful to the receiver for the Lady finding the chains of Love more intollerable than those of her barbarous Husband and endowed with a Wit no whit inferior to her Beauty soon apprehended that now she had an opportunity to convert this her misfortune into a benefit and that she ought not to despond nor despair of reaping the delights which the jealousie of her Husband had hitherto prevented Thus reaâ—imated with fresh hope she begins to wheadle the Engineer of Lust and pouring the oyl of good language and endearing expressions into her ears My dearest Mother says she my good Angel I can bear this my affliction with patience becoming the undaunted resolution of a Lover yea more I can change it into a complete Felicity if you will but vouchsafe me your assistance I know no way to revenge my Husbands cruelty but to deserve it by acting what he so much fears Help me then to meet and embrace my Lover that he who hath so kindly entertain'd my invitation so justly observed our appointment may either accuse me of breach of faith nor want the reward due to his Fidelity Let your courteous hands untie the knots that hamper mine and for a few minutes free me from these bonds that I may really deserve them These charms soon wrought upon the good nature of the Bawd who was the very Renet of Concupiscence so that she readily disingaged her Daughter from the cold embraces of the Pillar Who being thus happily at liberty assumes more Courage and Wit from her adventure and falls to perswade her deliverer to suâ—fer her self to be bound with the same Cord and to supply her room only while she hasted to her Gallant to give him an assurance of her constancy she told her there could be no hazard in the enterprize since her Husband was in his bed and fast asleep and all the world but themselves at quiet and within two minutes she would return and relieve her Hereto she added such golden promises as might have overcome a mind much more obstinate and doubtful than the Bawds who boggled at no danger to oblige a friend but accordingly
son of Venus you know and nursed by his Mothers Milk and our friend Chaucer therefore wisely fixes the Epoche of Aeneas and Dido's love on the Iubile they celebrated in the Cave whither the tempest of Thunder and Lightning had forced them to retreat And shortly fro the Tempest her to save This noble Quene fled into a Cave And with her went this Aeneas also I wot not with them if there went any mo The Auctour maketh of it no mention And here began the deep affection Betwixt hem two this was the first morrowe Of her gladness and giâ—ning of her sorowe The Reason is that the Lover apprehending no fruition total no possession intire supposeth some further good in the object than what his former enjoyment made him acquainted withall nor doth he propose to himself meerly a Continuation of the Good he hath enjoy'd because whoever wisheth the continuation of a Good considers it not as a thing present but to come and consequently as a thing which yet he doth not know for no man can know what is not So that the wandering Love which hunts after variety and the Constant that is determined and fixt upon one individual object are twinns of the same birth and have one and the same original the latter affecting Novelty no less than the former Here 's all the difference one pursues Novelty in a single person the other in a multitude but both are equally insatiate O infelicem stultitiam O insaniam voluntariam what strange infelicity is this voti compotem voto non posse frui to have and at the same time to want The Covetuous mans curse is to possess and not enjoy the Lovers greater to enjoy and not enjoy utpote cui majora quám quae tota simul indulgeri fas sit gaudia quaeruntur The wise man Ecclesiasticus 30. and 20. describing the misery of the one compares it to the other 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 as the Septuagint he beholds his treasure with greedy eyes and sighs as an Eunuch embraceth a Virgin and sighs sighs most bitterly So our Lover sighs and enjoys and still sighs And to speak striâ—tly in this sense Hercules himself who deflowred fifty Virgins in a night was but an Eunuch for all that so we are all and our Ladies Virgins we embrace and sigh still unsatisfied still coveting quod nec assequi nec scire datur more than the nature of the thing can afford Notwithstanding this imperfection of our chiefest solace I am so far from accusing Nature of improvidence or unkindness in making Love of this composition that on the contrary I judge it to be an argument of her Wisdom and Indulgence Because our pleasure is endeared by its being incomplete and our appetite would soon be turned into loathing if once satiated 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is a Maxime of the Indian Gymnosophist in his speech to Alexander the Great recorded by Palladius de Bragmanibus not long since set forth by the learned Knight Sir Edward Bisse Clarenciux King at Arms. To this purpose it was most elegantly said by a modeâ—n Wit writing upon the same subject huic affectui sollâ—citè prospexit Namen dum gaudio immiscuit tremorem sollicitudinem ut delicatior exiret voluptas All desire indeed is grounded upon want and want implies imperfection yet the desire whereof we are now speaking being mostly an effect of fulness hath such a 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 such a complacentia annex'd to it that few complain of it as an imperfection Nor are there many of Plato's mind in this particular who as Marsilius Ficinus in his life thought it enough only once to sacrifice to Nature Most are as much pleas'd to possess this desire as to satisfie it yea to speak freely the desiâ—e is it self some satisfaction aequali voluptate afficiunt quod adest jam quod futurum speratur nam dulcis desiderii dens interim mordet dum periculum facis speras was the merry Lucians saying to his Thâ—omnestes in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 And I am apt to believe it was upon this veâ—y motive that Luther openly professed that without the consolatiâ—ncula creaturulae he could not live contented SECT IV. YEt more Aenigmata more perplexing Difficulties in Love This Affeâ—tion which composeth all other commotions of the soul which reconciles Men wild Beasts and Philosophers is yet at variance with it self being founded upon a discordant connexion of unlike and asymbolical natures it maintains its power by a civil Warre and like some pictures varies its representations according to the different positions of the eye that speculates it on one hand it carries the aspect of Fear on the other of Magnanimity in one posture it appears Blind in another sharp-sighted here a Fool there Wise c. so that its picture cannot be drawn in one Image and the spectator may easiâ—y be mistaken in its lines and features To be particular When you see a languishing Lover whose armes seem so tender and delicate that you think them fit only for embraces who exhales nothing but odours or sighs who is strook down with the contraction of a brow and wounded to the heart with the disdainful glance of an eye take heed notwithstanding how you reproach him as a soft effeminate and pusillanimous person For realy he is hardy daring and adventurous he repines not at the tediousness or cold of nightly vigils he inures himself to difficulties like Caesar posting from Rome into Germany he despises the obstacles of the Alps of frost and snow and overflowing rivers he exercises his fortitude with submissively undergoing accumulated injuries he defies dangers nay makes it a pleasure to create them in his imagination and is gratified with the encountre of adverse accidents as favours to his zealâ— and arguments of his devotion he neglects not only dress but health and like Candidates for St. Peters chair or the Dukedom of Venice thinks it advâ—â—tagious to look faint pale and meagre Nor ought you to accuse him of Stupidity though you observe him to suffer Contempts and Affronts from his proud Stratonice without just resentment For he be you well assured is wholly transmigrated into soul become all spirit retreated into that Aetherial particle of Fire which is impassible and can not be touch'd If this seem less credible be pleas'd to consider it is the Religion of Love to overcome evil with good to extinguish the fire of malice by the brighter flame of Charity the Philosophy of this endearing Passion to subdue hatred by submission and obsequiousness Besides our good-natured Gallant entertains neglects scorn not with insensibility but discretion as well understanding that injuries as they fade and die of themselves when bravely despised so they pass into Benefits when received with gentleness and humanity A flint is broken on a feather-bed Will you charge him with Blindness because he discerns not the defects the spots of his Mistress but takes these for starres and those for
ornaments and by a most 〈…〉 gilds over her faults with the title of the neerest virtues Herein certainly you are no equal Arbiter You require a Censor not a Lover and in the place of true affection you expect a severe judgement It is a sign of ill-nature in you thus to envy him the pleasure of an error wherein he thinks himself more happy Is it not lawful for him to impose upon himself by such innocent fraud to form in his mind a more august image of her whom he is resolved to contemplate and adore we account it an excellency in a Painter to make his pieces fairer than the Originals and among the many praises deservedly ascribed to our incomparable Mr. Lely this is not the least that his curious pencil can at pleasure not only follow the finest lines of Nature butsweeten them at once both imitate and excell the life Why then do you condemn the same in a Lover it is indeed an excess in both of Art in one of Affection in the other and in my opinion equally commendable Imagination is unconfined even by Nature and the very Extravagances thereof in love have been approved by Venus herself in that she infused warmth and life into Pygmalions Eburnea That you 'll say was a fiction yet the Mythology may serve to justifie our Inamorato The life given to that Statue by the Goddess was no other than the grace and beauty of the Figure which Appelles in his Pictures called the Venus which made it live in the estimation of those times and admiration of posterity Luciâ—n's Panthea in 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 likewise it is probable was no other than â—n Imagâ—nary or Romantique Lady made up of all the rare idea's of Beauty and admirable endowments of mind whereof humane nature is capable for his best Interpreters are at a loss in their conjectures what divine Princess that was whose glorious perfections he designed to celebrate under the veil of that Name yet even learned and grave men are so highly pleased with the description and Character that they equally admire his Wit and her accomplishments and scarcely abstain from rivalling him in both If such admiration then and applause be due to Lucian's Fancy why do you deride that of our Inamorato who thereby endeavours to form to himself such another Panthea If he deceive himself 't is to his own misfortune not your prejudice yet how can we call that a misfortune which he the best judge in the case esteems a Felicity But all this while the Dimness seems to be in your Understanding not in his sight His eyes are not put out but only covered with a thin vail through which they see more securely more cleerly as we behold the Sun bâ—st through a skreen of clouds You are to imagine them only contracted as those to take aim that they may discern more accutely and distinctly Being fixt upon one object and that a bright and chaâ—ming one they do not indeed so plainly peâ—ceive other things yet not that they are weak but because they loath them and will not endure to be diverted which is not to be dim-sighted but to see too much Again if to Philosophize be nothing but to contemplate Idea's then to love is to be a Philosopher Yea if every man loves so much as he understands which was Plato's opinion then dotage in love is an argument of Science You are too blame therefore if you think vehemency of desire to be a sort of Madness or take our Lover for one Infatuated only because his actions seem extravagant Alas what you call Follies in him are the Mysteries of a Dâ—vine Fury or Enthusiasm Love inspires into the Mind a new Faculty of acting by a more certain and compendious way than that of Ratiocination all his Reason like that art by which spiders weave their curious nets and Bees Govern their Commonwealth is Instinct His hand is not guided by the eye when he shoots at human hearts but by the Divinity of his Genius and therefore though he never takes aim he never misses the mark Impotens flammis simul sagittis Iste lascivus puer ac renidens Tela quam certo moderatur arcu While we poor mortals regulate our affairs by Reason which is a laborious faculty and obnoxious to error it is the priviledge of his Divinity to be carried on by a quick and most certain 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 or force to all his ends and like the Supreme Being he is wise without deliberation or counsel It is not then the prerogative of Iove alone sapere simul amare to be wise and to love at once For if wisdome be scire quid sit optimum then certainly a Lover is also wise because he knows what 's best aliud enim as Senecca amare praeter optimum nefas est If after all this you will not allow him to be in his wits pray consider what subtle devices ambushes stratagems and artifices he invents and makes use of to take in that strong and by open foâ—ce impregnable fortress of his Mistresses heart Cast your eye upon those troops of Virgins that are daily led Captives as trophies of their Lovers wit and cunning all which were of necessity to be deceived before they could be taken and by artificial violence to be drawn to their own desires For they love more to be ingeniously beguil'd than to be loved and the readiest way to bring them into the circle of your embraces is first to circumvent them with pretty fallaces and amorous treacheries Now he that can with neat address unperceived snares and harmless frauds bring this to pass either he is no Fool or I am one to think him otherwise and so was Virgil when he said quis faâ—â—ere possit amantâ—m Mantuan when he said Namque dolos inspirat amâ—r fraudesque ministrat Nay so far is this Passion from darkening the understanding and casting a mist over the Eye of the Mind that it rather illuminates and clears it Witness that pleasant Story in Boccace which he borrowed from the Greeks and which Beroaldus hath translated into Latin and Beblius turned into elegant verse of Cymon and Ephigenia This Cymon the Son of a Governor of Cyprus was naturally so very a Fool so stupid an indocil an Ass that his Father being ashamed of his rude and ideot-like behaviour sent him to be kept at a remote and solitary Grange of his in the Country Where he walking alone as his custome was by chance espied a beautiful young Gentlewomâ—n Iphigenia a Burgomasters Daughter of Cyprus as she lay fast asleep with her Maid in the cool shade of a little Thicket with no envious cover but a clean transparent Smock that rather betray'd than conceal'd her excellent shape and whiter skin At this surprising vision poor simple Cymon was astonisht he stood leaning on his staff for his legs were now unable alone to support his trembling body gaping on this female Angel unmoveable