the heart and this saith he liueth first and dyeth last the onely storehouse of spirit the originall of veines arteries and sinewes the principal author of respiration the fountaine and welspring of all heate containing within the ventricles thereof a subtile and refined blood which serueth as a burning cole to kindle and set on fire all the other inferiour and smaller sorts of heate and to bee briefe the onely Sunne of this little world And euen in like sort The heauens and the heart finely compared together as the heauens are the principals whereon depend and rest all other elemental generations and alterations so the hart is the first and principall originall of all the actions and motions of the bodie The heauens bring forth their wonderfull effects by their motions heate and influence the heart by his continuall mouing which ought no lesse to rauish vs then the flowing and ebbing of Euripus and influence of his spirits doth put life into all the other parts endoweth them with this beautiful and vermillionlike colour and maintaineth their naturall heate The mouing and light which are in the superiour bodies are the instruments of the intelligences and of the heauens of the intelligences as being the first cause of mouing in others being themselues immoueable of the heauens as first mouing the other and being themselues moued The mouing of the heart and vitall spirit which distributeth it selfe like vnto light throughout and that as it were in the twinkling of an eye are the instruments of the mind and heart of the minde which is a chiefe and principall mouer and yet not moued of the heart as of a chiefe and principall mouer which is moued of the minde It is therefore the heart according to the doctrine of the Peripatetikes which is the true mansion of the soule the onely prince and gouernour in this so excellent and admirable disposing of all things in the gouernment of the bodie Chrysippus and all the Stoikes haue followed the same opinion and doe beleeue that all that region which containeth the parts which wee call vitall is named of the Grecians and Latines Thorax because it keepeth within it as it were vnder lock this heauenly vnderstanding so called of Anaxagoras this burning heate so called of Zeno replenished with a million of sciences this admirable fire which Prometheus stole out of heauen to put soule and life into mankinde this altering spirit whereof Theocritus made so great account Behold how these Philosophers haue diuersly spoken of the seate of the soule It is not my minde to bestow any time in the particuler examination of all these opinions either is it mine intent in this place to enter into any dispute intending to content my selfe with the simple deliuerie of the trueth That the brain is the principall seate of the soule For I assure my selfe that it shall be strong enough to ouerthrow all these false foundations I say then that the principall seate of the soule is in the braine because the goodliest powers thereof doe lodge and lye there and the most worthie actions of the same doe there most plainly appeare All the instruments of motion sence imagination discourse and memorie are found within the braine or immediatly depending therevpon Anatomie manifesteth vnto our eyes The reasons to proue the same The first how that there issue out from the lower part of the braine seuen great paire of sinewes which serue at a trice to conuey the animall spirit vnto the instrument of the sences and doe not any of them passe out of the head except the sixt paire which stretch out themselues to the mouth of the stomacke We see also that from the hindermost part of the braine where the great and little braine doe meete together doth proceede the admirable taile the beautifull and white spinall marow which the Wiseman in his booke of the Preacher calleth the siluer threed how it is carefully preserued within a sacred chanell as Lactantius calleth it From the same men see that there rise a million of little sinewes which conuey the powers of mouing and feeling vnto all such members as are capable of the same Men doe also perceiue the outward sences placed round about the braine The second which are as the light horsemen and messengers of the vnderstanding the principall part of the soule Philo saith that when men come within the view of a princes guard they thinke himselfe not to bee farre off we see all the guard and seruants of reason as the eyes the eares the nose the tongue to bee situated in the head whereupon by consequent we ought to iudge that this princesse is not farre off Experience also giueth vs to vnderstand that if the braine haue his temperature altered The third as for example if it be too hot as it falleth out in such as are franticke or ouer cold as it falleth out in melancholick men it corrupteth presently the imaginatiue facultie troubleth the iudgement weakeneth the memorie which is not incident in the diseases of the heart as namely either in a hectick feuer or when a man is poysoned The soule saith that diuine Philosopher Plato doth not please and content it selfe with that braine which is too soft The fourth too close and compact or too hard it requireth a good temperature If the proportion of the head be but a little out of square so that it be either too great or too little or too coppeld as that which men reade of Thersites in Homer or altogether round and not flat on the sides as naturally it ought to be men may perceiue all the actions of the soule to be depraued and thereupon doe call such heads foolish without iudgement without wisedome all which ought to make vs as well to beleeue that the braine is as much the organe and instrument of all these actions as the eye is the instrument of sight Furthermore this kind of round shape which is peculiar vnto mankinde The fift this head thus lifted vp to heauen this great quantitie of braine which is almost incredible doth shew very well that man hath something in his head more then other liuing creatures The wise Sages of Egypt haue very well acknowledged the same for they did not sweare by any other thing but by their head they ratified all their couenants by the head and forbad the eating of the braines of liuing creatures for the honour and reuerence sake which they bare to this part I thinke also that the falling sicknes was not for any other reason called sacred of the ancients but because it did assaile the soueraigne and sacred part of the body Let vs then acknowledge the braine to be the principall seate of the soule the originall of mouing and feeling and of all the other most noble functions of the same I know well that some curious spirits will aske me how it can bee the author of so many goodly actions seeing it is cold
and that the soule can doe nothing without heate But I answere The cause why the braine feeleth not that the braine hath not any particuler feeling for that it being the seate of common sence must iudge of all such obiects as about which sence is occupied But a good iudge ought to bee free from all passions and euery organe sayth Aristotle must bee without qualitie according whereunto agreeth that that the christalline humour hath no colour the care hath no particuler sound nor the tongue any taste But and if it come to passe that any organicall part decline from his nature as if the christalline become yellow all whatsoeuer presenteth it selfe to the sight of that eye will seeme to bee of the same colour As then the braine neither seeth nor heareth nor smelleth nor tasteth any thing and yet notwithstanding iudgeth very rightly of colours sounds smels and tasts so neither was it any reason that it should haue any particuler sence of feeling which should cause it to feele the excesse of those qualities which are tearmed the obiects of feeling and handling it is sufficient for it to haue the knowledge and discerning thereof As touching the other poynt I affirme that the braine is in very deede hot and that it cannot be called cold but as it is compared with the heart It behoued it of necessitie to bee of this temperature that so it might temper the spirits which were of a fierie nature The causes why the braine is of such temperature thereby the better to continue the kindes of liuing creatures and to preserue them long aliue For and if the braine were as hot as the heart there would day by day arise trouble and sedition amidst the noblest powers of the soule all the sences would be straying and wandring all the motions would bee out of square all our discourses mixed with rash headines and our memories very flote and fugitiue euen as betideth vnto franticke ones Let nothing then hinder vs from acknowledging the braine to bee the most noble part of the whole body This is that magnificent and stately turret of the soule this is that goodly royall palace the consecrated house of Pallas this is the impregnable sort enuironed with bones as with strong walles wherein is lodged the soueraigne power of the soule I meane reason which comprehendeth and compasseth as with imbracing armes the whole vniuersall world in a moment without touching of the same which flieth through the ayre soundeth the depths of the sea and surmounteth at the same instant the pauements of the heauens and which walking vpon their stages measuring their distances and communicating with the Angels pearceth in euen vnto the throne of God and at such time as the body is asleepe suffereth it self by a holy flight or delectable and sweete rauishment to be carried euen to the beholding of God according to whose image it was first framed To be short it is all in all as sayth Aristotle for that by the power it hath it possesseth all as being the place wherein I say this great princesse would rest her self as within her castle from thence to commaund the two inferiour regiments to hold in subiection the two lower forces I meane the Irascible and concupiscible which would euery day be ready to fall away and reuolt And yet I dare be bold to adde further and in stead of hauing named it among the chiefe and principall to say that there is not any other part of the body besides the braine which can truly be called noble and soueraigne and that because all the other parts are made for the braine and pay tribute thereunto as to their king Behold here the strength of my argument Most cleere and euident proofe of the excellencie of the braine which in my iudgement is as cleere as the Sunne in his brightest shine Mankinde differeth not from beasts in any thing but reason and the seate of reason is in the braine It is requisite the more commendably to reason and discourse that the imaginatiue part of the minde should set before the vnderstanding part of the same the obiects whereabout they be occupied altogether simple without mixture without matter and freed from all corporall qualities The Imaginatiue part can not conceiue them of it selfe if the outward sences which are his trustie spyes and faithfull reportsmen make not certificate of the same Hence then rise the necessitie of framing the instruments of the sences the eyes the eares the nose tongue and membranes as well inward as outward The sences the better to take acknowledgement of their obiects haue need of a local motion For man if he should not stirre from one place but abide immoueable like an image should not be able to conuey any store of varietie vnto the imagination It is necessary then for the benefit and perfecting of the sences to haue certaine instruments of motion these instruments are two the sinewes and the muscles the sinewes by reason of their continued coniunction and adherence vnto their originall being like vnto that of the Sunne beames with the Sun doe conuey from the braine that mouing power seated in a most subtile bodie namely the animall spirit the muscles after the maner of good subiects obey vnto their commandement and incontinently moue the member either by stretching it forth or bowing it in as the appetite or imagination shall wish and desire The braine then as is manifest commandeth the sinewes carrie the embassage and the muscles obeying thereunto expresse the intent of the minde And euen in like sort as the skilfull horserider manageth the horse with the bridle causing him to turne on the right hand or on the left as best pleaseth him euen so the braine by the sinewes boweth or stretcheth the muscles These two instruments of voluntarie motion should not know either how to be or vndergoe these their offices if they were not fixed vnto some solide and immoueable body Therefore it was behouefull to raise vp pillers such as are the bones and cartilages from whence the muscles doe rise and into which they do insert themselues againe and for that the bones could not bee ioyned or fastned together without ligaments it must needes follow that they should haue their membranouse coates to couer them withall And all these parts for their preseruation stoode in neede of naturall heate and nourishment this heate and nourishment being deriued from elsewhere must needes haue their passages prepared by certaine pipes and those are the veines and arteries the arteries draw their spirits from the hart the fountaine of the same the veines receiue their blood from the common storehouse of the same which is the liuer And thus returning by the same steps by which wee came hither wee shall well perceiue The conclusion that the heart and liuer were not made for any other thing but to nourish the heate of all the parts the bones and cartilages for rests and props vnto the
muscles and sinewes the instruments of voluntary motion the muscles and nerues for the perfecting of the sences the sences to set before the imaginatiue power of the minde their outward obiects the imagination to carrie along the formes of things voide of substance to be more deeply weighed of reason which thereupon commendeth them to the custodie of memorie her treasuresse Thus euery thing yeelding obedience vnto reason and the braine being the principall seate of reason we must needs affirme that all the parts of the body were made for the braine and must therfore acknowledge it as their chiefe and Soueraigne I will yet adde one other plaine and euident argument which in my iudgement is not common to testifie the excellence of this part which is that it giueth shape and perfection vnto all the rest For it is most certaine that of the shape and quantitie of the braine dependeth the grosnes greatnes smalnes and in a word euery maner of proportion hapning to the head forasmuch as euery containing thing doth conforme it selfe continually vnto the contained as the thing for which it was created and made Ioyntly after the head followeth the backe bone which is framed of foure and twentie vertebres besides the bone called Sacrum and maketh that which men call the truncke of the body If that hole in the head through which the marrow of the backe falleth be great then must also the vertebres bee large Vpon this backe bone doe all the rest of the bones stay and rest themselues as the vpper timbers doe vpon the keele of a ship As by name vpon high the shoulder bones whereunto are fastned the armes aswell on the one side as on the other and the twelue ribs and below the bones of the small guts and hips into whose hollow cauities the heads of the bones of the thighes are inserted so that if all their proportions be duly obserued it will appeare that the greatnes and grosnes thereof is answerable to that of the head and by consequence to that of the braine as the chiefe and principall Vnto the bones are fastned the muscles the ligaments and the most of the other parts of the body doe rest themselues thereupon and within their circuite and compasse are shut and made sure the most noble parts and the bowels In few words the bones impart vnto the whole bodie the shape which themselues haue receiued from the braine This is the same which diuine Hippocrates hath very well obserued in the second booke of his Epidemiques saying that of the greatnes and grosnes of the head a Phisition might iudge of the greatnes of all the other bones and parts also as veines arteries and sinewes Let vs therefore conclude with the trueth that the braine hauing such aduantage against the other parts ought to be esteemed the chiefe and principall seate of the soule CHAP. II. How the outward sences the proper messengers of the soule are only fiue and all placed without the braine SEeing it is most euident that the soule is shut vp within the bodie as it were in a darke dungeon and that it cannot discourse neither yet comprehend anything without the helpe of the sences which are as the obedient seruants and faithfull messengers of the same it was needfull to place the instruments of the sences very neere vnto the seate of reason and round about her royal pallace Now the sences which we call externall are onely fiue Why there are but fiue sences the fight the hearing the smelling the taste and handling of which altogether dependeth our knowledge and nothing as saith the Philosopher can enter into the vnderstanding part of our minde except it passe through one of these fiue doores Some men striuing to shew reason for this number The first reason say that there are but fiue sences because that whatsoeuer is in the whole world is compounded and made of onely fiue simple bodies as the foure elements and the firmament which they call the fift simple nature being much of the nature of the ayre free from all impurities and abounding with shining lights The sight say the Platonists which hath for his instrument these two twinne-borne starres all full of bright straines and heauenly fire which giueth light and burneth not representeth the skie and hath the light for his obiect The hearing which is occupied about nothing but sounds hath for his obiect the beaten ayre and his principall instrument if we beleeue Aristotle is a certaine ayre shut vp within a little labyrinth The smelling participateth the nature of fire for smels haue their being only in a drie qualitie caused through heate and we receiue it for a principle that all sweete smelling things are hot The taste hath moysture for his obiect And handling the earth for his The second Othersome say that there be but fiue sences because that there are but fiue proper sorts of obiects and that all the accidents which are to be found in any natural body may be referred either to colours or sounds or smels or tasts or to those qualities wherabout touching is occupied whether they be those which are principall or those that spring of them The third Some there be which gather the number of the sences to bee such from the consideration of their vses which are their finall ends The sences are made for the benefit of man man is compounded of two parts the body and the soule the sight and hearing serue more for the vse of the soule then of the body the taste and touching more for the body then the soule the smelling for both the twaine indifferently refreshing and purging the spirits which are the principall instruments of the soule But of the fiue sences I say that there are two altogether necessary and required to cause the being and life simply and that the three other serue onely for a happie being and life Those without which one can not be are taste and touching Touching if we will giue credit to natural Philosophers is as the foundation of liuelihood I will vse this word because it expresseth the thing very excellently The taste serueth for the preseruation of the life The sight hearing and smelling serue but for to liue well and pleasantly For the creature may be and continue without them The two first for that they were altogether necessarie haue their meane inward and so ioyned to the member as that it is as a man would say inseparable For in tasting and touching the Phisitions doe make the meane and the member all one The other three haue their meane outward and separated from the instrument as the sight hath the ayre the water and euery such body as is through cleere for his meane Aristotle in the beginning of his third booke of the soule hath plaid the Philosopher in more serious sort then any of all these but yet so darkly as that almost all his interpreters haue found themselues much busied to find out his meaning
qualitie which is drynes some there are which take vpon them to ouerthrow it and say that this old age is moist and not drie because a man shal see the eyes of these old men alwaies distilling teares their nose alwaies running there commeth out of their month euermore great store of water yea they doe nothing but cough and spet The temperature of old men is cold and drie but Galen answereth verie learnedly in his booke of temperatures that old men are moist through a superfluous moisture but that they are drie concerning radicall moisture and in the first booke of the preseruation of the health he saith that old men haue all those parts drie which infants haue moist that is to say the solide parts of which dependeth the constitution of the whole body This is the opinion comming neerest to the trueth which we must take hold vpon for their leannes wrinckles stifnes of sinewes and skin and stifnes of ioints doe sufficiently shew their drie temperature the ringwormes also and itches ouer al their bodies the scales which they haue on their heads maketh it plainely appeare vnto vs that their braine is full of salt humors and not of sweete flegme In the end commeth the last olde age which is called decrepite in which as the kingly Prophet saith The last degree of old age is called decrepise there is nothing but paine and languishing griefe all the actions both of the bodie and minde are weakened and growne feeble the sences are dull the memorie lost and the iudgement failing so that then they become as they were in their infancie and it is of these that the Greeke prouerbe 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that is to say that old men are twice children is to be vnderstood This last old age is described in the twelfth chapter of Ecclesiastes in so notable an allegoricall sort that there is not the like againe for excellentnes in all the world It was also the greatest Philosopher and profoundest scholler in natures workes that euer was which tooke the same vpon him this is that sage Salomon which elsewhere is sayd to haue knowne all the secrets and mysteries of nature which hath discoursed of all the plants of the field from the Ceder of Libanus to the Hissope which groweth out of the walls that is to say from the tallest and highest vnto the least and lowest for by this Hissope wee vnderstand one of the capillar hearbes which is called Saluia vitae which is one of the least hearbes that may be seene I will set downe the whole maner of this description from the beginning to the end because that besides the pleasantnes of it wee may reape instruction and a plaine and manifest declaration of the thing we haue in hand An excellent Allegorie describing and laying out the estate of old age Remember sayth he thy Creator in the daies of thy youth before the Sunne the starres and light grow darke and the clowdes returne after raine for then the keepers of the house will tremble and the strong men will bow themselues and the grinders will cease and bee no more in like manner the lookers through the windowes will be darkened the doores will be shut without because of the base sound of the grinding and he shall rise vp at the voyce of the bird so shall all the singing maides be humbled they shall feare the hie thing the Almond-tree shall florish and the grashoppers shall grow fat the Caper-tree shall be withered before that the siluer chaine doe lengthen it selfe or the ewer of golde bee broken and the water pot dasht in peeces at the head of the spring or the wheele broken at the cesterne and that dust returne vnto the earth as it was from thence and the spirit goe vnto God See here the description of the last age which is admirable and which hath neede of a good Anatomist to helpe out with the true vnderstanding of the same The interpretation of the Allegorie In decrepite old age the Sunne and starres do waxe darke that is the eyes which doe lose their light The clowdes returne after raine that is to say after they haue wept a long time there passeth before their eyes as it were clowdes being nothing else but grosse vapours which grow thicke and foggie The keepers of the house tremble that is the armes and hands which were giuen vnto man for the defence of the whole bodie The strong men bow that is to say the legges which are the pillars whereupon the whole building is set The grinders doe cease that is to say the teeth which serue vs to bite and chaw our meate The seers grow darke by reason of the windowes those are the eyes which are couered and ouergrowne oftentimes with a cataract which shutteth vp the apple of the eye which is commonly called the window of the eye The doores are shut without because of the base sound of the grinding that is the iawes which cannot open for to eate any thing or the passages of meate which are become narrow and streite They rise vp at the voyce of the bird that is to say they can not sleepe and are alwaies wakened with the cockcrow All the singing maides are abased that is their voyce which faileth them The Almond-tree doth florish that is the head which becommeth all white The grashoppers waxe fat that is the legges become swolne and puffed vp The Caper-tree withereth that is their appetite is lost for Capers haue a propertie to stirre vp appetite The siluer chaine groweth longer that is the faire and beautifull marrow of the back going all along the bone which groweth loose and boweth and causeth them to bend in the back The golden ewer is broke that is the hart which containeth much after the maner of a vessell the arteriall blood and vitall spirit which are somewhat yellow and of golden colour which ceaseth to moue and cannot any longer containe or hold much after the nature of a thing that is broken The water pot is broken at the spring head that is the great veine called the hollow veine which cannot draw blood any more out of the liuer which is the common store-house and fountaine which watereth all the bodie in such sort as that it yeeldeth no more seruice then a broken pitcher The wheele is broken at the cesterne that is the reines and bladder which become relaxed and cannot any longer containe the vrine Then when all this happeneth dust that is to say the body which is materiall doth returne to the earth and the spirit which is come from aboue doth returne to God Loe here the fiue ages described and bounded with their number of yeares according to their seuerall contents That the number of yeares doth not make old age But I would not that from hence any man should so tye himselfe to the number of yeares as that he should make youth and old age necessarily to depend thereupon but that
against the lawes of nature neither could it being so smal containe the greatnes no nor yet the shape of great mountaines whereupon we must needes conclude that we see by sending forth something Behold here all the faire and goodly forces on this side which I am now about to pitch and plant in the plaine field and now let vs goe to view the squadrons on the contrary side The contrary opinions of such as hold that we see by taking in something Chiefe captaine and generall of the same is Aristotle whose followers be the whole band of the Peripatetikes as also Auerrhoes Alexander Themistius and an infinite number of others All these hold that wee see by receiuing something into the eye and that there doth nothing goe out of the eye which may helpe vs to see but that either the obiect or the forme there of doth come vnto the eye The foundation and maine reason is cleane contrary vnto that of the Platonists for Plato was verilie perswaded that the eye was all full of fire and Aristotle maintaineth that the eye is all full of water and this he demonstrateth most excellently and therefore accordingly I will doe my endeuour to set it out most plainely A cleere and plaine proofe that the eye is all of water The instrument of the sight must be thorough cleere and transparent that is to say cleere as christal to the end there may be some likenes betwixt the obiect and the instrument and that there maybe some equality betwixt the thing doing and the thing suffering This principle is cleerely agreed vpon in naturall Philosophie But of the things which are christal-like cleere some are of subtile and thin bodies and othersome are more compact and thicke The eye was not to be made christal-like cleere and thin because that so it could not haue retained his formes they would haue speedely past away not finding any resting place as doe the bodies which are in the ayre and the glasse it selfe which is in looking glasses would neuer make shew of any picture or resemblance if it were not steeled or leaded on the backeside Whereupon it followeth that the eye must be christallike cleere and thicke Now of all the elements there is no one that is so cleare and thicke besides the water for the ayre and fire are in deede cleere but therewithall thin it followeth therefore that the eye is of the nature of the water This firme and demonstratiue argument is vnderpropped by another which cannot be gainesayd Another plains and strong proofe The chiefe part of the eye is the christallike humor which is nothing else but a congealed water which hath before it the waterish humor and behinde it the vitreous which doth feede and nourish it if you pearce the eye you shall not perceiue any other thing to come forth but water so that we must rather beleeue that the eye is of the nature of water then of fire Reasons prouing that we see by taking in something This foundation thus laid it will be easie to make sure the rest of the building and to maintaine that we see by receiuing of some thing into the eye and the rather because it is the propertie of moist things to receiue and take in Loe here the chiefest reasons of this sect as they follow The action of euery sence is a suffering and to doe the office of any of the sences is nothing else but to suffer The first euery action therefore of the sences is accomplished by receiuing and not by sending forth of anything which is an action as for example the eare heareth by receiuing of sounds smelling by receiuing of odours taste by receiuing of tastes and feeling The second by receiuing of such qualities as may be felt and then why should the eye be debarred of this receite Aristotle saith that they which haue their eyes very moyst doe seeme to see things bigger then in deede they bee which argueth that the formes of things are receiued into and as it were grauen in the christalline humor for bodies seeme alwaies to exceede themselues in greatnes being within the water Euery obiect exceeding in his qualitie The third doth destroy his sence as an exceeding great whitenes doth dimme and dasle the sight then it must follow that it is violently receiued Aristotle in his Problemes moueth a question The fourth which may be of some force in this place as wherefore the right hand is ordinarilie more nimble and strong then the left and not one care giuen to heare more readilie then the other Whose answer is that the facultie which causeth the hands to moue setteth it selfe on worke and that that which causeth sight and hearing is set on worke in such sort as that the eyes and cares may equally receiue and suffer Olde men commonly doe see things a farre off The fift better then those which are at hand and this cannot happen of any fierie streames or light going out of the eye because that those in them are of small quantitie and greatly delayed with darkenes the cause must needes be referred to the forme which comming from a thing farre remoued becommeth more fine and subtile and lesse participating of materiall substance and by consequent no more fit to be receiued The sixt In winter if the weather be calme and faire the Starres are often seene at midday which neuer hapneth in summer which is because in winter the ayre being more grosse and thicke the formes thereof doe consist and abide more permanently as also in greater number in the ayre but in summer by reason of the thinnes and subtilenes of the ayre their saide formes haue no staide abode or meanes to multiplie and this sheweth that we see by receiuing in and not sending forth of any thing Finally the eye is like vnto the looking glasse The seuenth and this receiueth all such shapes as are brought vnto it without sending any thing of it owne vnto the obiect They differ onely in this that the looking glasse hath no power to recommend his formes and shapes vnto their iudge as the eye doth vnto the common sence by the nerue opticke Loe here the two battels orderly in array and right ouer one against the other I could wish my selfe able to agree them being the same that Galen hath attempted but in deede there is little likeliehoode For the trueth cannot vphold and defend two things The Author his opinion contrary one to the other I will therefore set in foote with the stronger side and maintaine with Aristotle that wee see by receiuing only and that there goeth nothing out of the eye which may serue for the making of vs to see I will vse for my first incounter this reason which as it seemeth me is sharpe enough If there goe any thing out of the eye it is either some fine and subtile bodie Arguments plainly conuincing the Platonists as the animall spirit
braine and of a merueilous simpathy with the same will suffer first of all The euill disposition of the eye weakeneth the sight very oft although that the facultie be intire and strong Such disposition is found sometimes in the whole eye as when it is too fat and great or too small and leane sometimes in some speciall parts thereof as in the tunicle humors muscles spirits sinewes veines and arteries vnto euery of which doe happen their particular diseases which I will runne through in the chapter following The sight depraued and falsified The corrupting or falsifying of the sight falleth out when the obiect sheweth it selfe to be of another colour forme quantitie or situation then it is as for example if a white thing should shew yellow or red because the instrument of sight is tainted with some colour this it is which maketh them that haue the yellow Iaundise to see euery thing yellow when the thing which standeth fast seemeth to moue as it falleth out in them which haue the disease called Vertigo through the disordered and extraordinarie mouing of the spirits and when one single thing seemeth two and this falleth out either through default of the instrument or through the euill situation of the obiect or of the eyebeames If both the eyes be not in one and the same leuell but that the one be high and the other low out of doubt euery thing which they behold will shew double the causes hereof are oftentimes a palsie in the one and a conuulsion in the other The nerue opticke also being relaxed and mollified on the one side causeth all things that are looked vpen to seeme double as it happeneth to such as are drunke If you presse and beare downe the one eye with your finger not touching the other you shall see euery thing double of which missight the situation of the instrument is the principall cause and the situation of the obiect is the next As if you whirle a staffe round about you would thinke that it were a circle and if long wise you would iudge it to be nothing but a long stretched line which happeneth by the swift mouing of the obiect out of his place for so before the first figure be worne out a second commeth into his place The last cause consisteth in the diuerse situation of the eye beames as if you looke yourselfe in a crackt looking glasse your face will seeme two faces vnto you The losse of the sight The vtter losse and depriuation of the sight which we call blindnes commeth either of the drinesse of the humors or of the hindring of the two lights that they cannot meete and ioyne together in the christalline humour The inward which is the animall spirit is hindred by the obstruction of the nerue opticke and this disease is called gutta serena the outward is hindred by the cataract which shutteth the apple of the eye the window of the christalline humour Therefore the sight cannot be hurt but by one of these three waies CHAP. XII A briefe rehearsall of all the diseases of the eye I Doe not intend here to trouble my mind in drawing forth an exquisite description of all the diseases of the eye the attempt would be too great and I could not make so few as twentie chapters of the same seeing there are so many particular diseases of the eye I will content my selfe to lay out the way and best ordered course thereunto for the benefite of young Phisitions and Chirurgeons for whose sake I haue made choice of this chapter The diuision of the diseases of the eye Now then as concerning the diseases of the eye some of them are common to the whole member some others are proper vnto some particular part of the same Those which concerne the whole eye are either similar or instrumentall or common The similar ones are the moyst the drie the hote the colde distemperature The diseases to be referred to the whole eye as also the simple the compound the distemperature without matter and that which is accompanied with matter The instrumentall doe shew themselues in the euill shape of the eye as when it is ouer great or ouer little or not so situate as were requisite for comelines and vse The diseases comming of the bignes of it are when the eye is either too great or too little The greatnes of the eye the great eye is called the oxe eye it hindereth the action of the eye for the sight is not so quicke by reason of the excessiue expence of spirits neither is it so readie in motion The cause of this greatnes is either the error of the first forme and shape committed by nature or else some accident whether flegmatike humor or inflammation or else some great fluxe of humours falling down vpon the same The disease contrarie to this The smalnes of the eye is the smalnes of the eye which either is the worke of nature and is called the Pigges eye or else happeneth by some other meanes as by wasting of the naturall heate by suffering of intollerable paines much watchings sharpe rhewmes and continuall agues in such cases the whole eye being weakened it attracteth not his naturall nourishment or though it doe yet it cannot concoct it and this disease is called the pining away or leanenes of the eye The eye bolted out The diseases of situation is when the eye is out of his place as when it commeth out and when it falleth quite downe if it come forth it is called a falling out of the eye in greeke 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 Auicen obserueth that it happeneth either of an outward cause as of a blowe a fall or straine in coughing vomiting blowing or of an inward cause as of some suddaine falling down of humors which looseth all the muscles and whole bodie of the eye or of a great inflammation or other humor Solution of continuitie The common disease is called the solution of continuitie which happeneth when the eye is burst or when all the humours thereof are mingled and iumbled together Loe these be the diseases which may be referred to the whole bodie of the eye for the diseases called Nictalopia Myopiasis and Amblyopia are Symptomes touching onely the spirits or humors and not the whole eye The particular diseases of the eye The particular diseases differ according to the parts of the eye Now we haue alreadie obserued for parts of the eye the humors coates sinews and muscles of the same so then there are diseases proper vnto euery one of these parts I will begin to describe those which happen to the humours as being the noblest parts of the eye as also because Galen in his booke of the causes of accidents hath taken the same course The disease of the christalline humour Glaucoma The christalline humour is subiect to all maner of disease but the most vsuall is a drie distemperature and his going out of his place
seeing I haue sometimes delighted my selfe to crop and picke out thereof whatsoeuer I could finde or see to be faire and for profit But for as much as one of the principall causes of the weakenes of the sight yea I dare be bolde to say that it is more common then any of the rest doth proceede of a superfluous moisture of the eye and of the impurenes of the spirits I will ordaine an exquisite order for the same which shall serue for a patterne and scantling the better to aime at the curing of all the rest of the diseases of the eye The art which teacheth to heale diseases called by one word of the Grecians 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 is ordinarily performed by three instruments as Diet or the manner of liuing Chirurgerie and Medicine Good diet hath the first place in the curing of whatsoeuer diseases The maner of liuing is alwaies set in the forefront and hath bin iudged of the ancient learned to bee the chiefe and most noble part because it is most fauourable and familiar to nature not disturbing her any maner of way or molesting her in any respect so as medicines and manuall operations doe This maner of liuing doth not consist onely in meate and drinke as the common people imagine but in the ordering of the sixe things which the Phisitions call not naturall and these are the ayre meate and drinke sleepe and watching labour and rest emptines and fulnes and the passions of the minde The power of the ayre I will begin my order of diet at the ayre in as much as no man can want it the least minute and for that it hath a marueilous force to alter and change our bodies on the sudden The direct passages thereof is through the nose to the braine and through the mouth to the hart by the pores of the skinne and mouing of the arteries it goeth throughout the whole bodie it prouideth matter and nourishment for our spirits This is the cause why that famous Hippocrates did note very well that of the constitution of the aire doth wholly depend the good and ill disposition of our humours and spirits The qualities of the ayre In the ayre wee must looke vnto his first and second qualities his first are heate colde moysture and drines of which the two first are called actiue and the two latter passiue the second qualities are when the ayre is grosse thicke subtile pure darke light but let vs now make our profit of all this What ayre is good for the sight It behoueth vs for the better preseruation of our sight to chuse an ayre which is temperate in his first qualities as being neither too hot too cold too moyst or drie It is not good to abide in the heate of the Sunne neither in the beames of the Moone or in the open aire The Southerne and Northerne windes are hurtfull to the eyes The windes that are bad for the sight Reade that which Hippocrates writeth in his third section of Aphorismes The South winde saith he maketh a troubled sight hardnes of hearing a heauie head dull sences and all the body lazie and lither because it begetteth grosse spirits The North winde is very sharpe and therefore as saith the same author it stingeth and pricketh the eyes The places that are low waterish moyst and full of marishes are altogether contrary to the welfare of the sight It is better a great deale to dwell in drie places and such as are somewhat rising If a man be forced to dwell in moyst places his helpe is to alter and rectifie the ayre with artificiall fires How to correct the ayre by art made of the wood of Lawrel Iuniper Rosemary and Tamariske or otherwise to very good purpose hee may make the perfume inuented of the Arabians and vse it in the chamber where hee keepeth most Take of the leaues of Eyebright A perfume Fennell and Margerome of euery one an ounce of Zyloaloe finely powdred a dramme of Frankinsence three drammes mingle them altogether and perfume your chamber oftentimes therewith How the ayre must be affected in his second qualities As concerning the second qualities a grosse thicke and foggie ayre is contrary to the sight wee must choose such a one as is pure and cleane purged from all waterish earthie nitrous sulphurous and other such like mettal like vapours especially those of quicksiluer the dust fire and smoke do wonderfull harme to the eye and this is the reason why such as haue a weake sight should neuer intermeddle with Alchimy for so at once they should consume both their sight and their purse the vapours arising out of standing waters and from dead bodies are very noysome Neither yet must the ayre bee too lightsome What light is bad for the sight for an excessiue light doth scatter the spirits and causeth the sight oftentimes to be lost Wee reade that Zenophanes his souldiers hauing passed the snow became all of them as it were blind and Dionisius the tyrant of Sicile did after the same maner put out the eyes of all his prisoners for hauing shut them vp in a very darke hole caused them to bee led forth on the sudden into a very bright light so that they al therby lost their sight What colours doe comfort the sight Vnto the light wee will adioyne colours All colours are not profitable for the sight the white colour scattereth the spirits drawing them to it the blacke maketh them too grosse there is not any but the greene blew and violet which doe much comfort it And this hath nature taught vs in the framing of the eye for she hath died the grape-like coate with greene and blew on that side which is next vnto the christalline humour The colour of the Saphire and Emerauld is very commodious for the sight If you desire often to looke vpon these two colours mixed together I wil shew you to attaine therunto very easily Take of the flowers of Borage of the leaues of Burnet and when you are disposed to drinke cast them into the glasse and this will serue you for two purposes The colour will comfort your eyes and the hearbes by their propertie will represse the vaporousnes of the wine And thus much let bee sayd of the ayre Of meates and drinkes The second poynt of ordering thy diet aright consisteth in meate and drinke It behoueth therefore to know what victuals are good and what they be which can hurt the sight A man must altogether refraine such victuals as are of grosse nourishment as also slimie vaporous salt windie sweete and sharpe meates and such as make many excrements there must also bee made a more spare supper then dinner Of bread The bread must be made of cleane wheate well leauened and some what salted wherein may bee put Fennell or Anise-seede it must not bee eaten new nor after it is aboue three daies old Vnleauened bread doth hurt the
sight extremely especially if there be any darnell therein for some are of opinion that the vse of darnell doth destroy the sight I haue sometimes read in Plautus a pleasant treatise of a page who not daring to call his companion blinkard or blind-beetle mocked him with hauing eaten of darnell Of flesh All flesh that is easily disgested and doth not abound with superfluous moysture is most fit to bee eaten as Chicken Capon Henne Partridge Feasant Pigeon Larkes Turtles and other mountaine birds which may bee stuffed with sage or mountaine hissope .. There are certaine sorts of flesh which haue a certaine speciall propertie for to strengthen and cleere the sight as the flesh of the Pye the Swallow the Goose of Vipers well prepared of the Wolfe of the he-gote and other rauenous birds The Arabian Phisitions haue obserued that the eyes of liuing creatures doe I know not by what propertie or simpathie comfort the sight They doe often vse the flesh of Swallowes and Pyes dried in an ouen to pepper their meates withall They forbid vs the vse of grosse flesh as of Porke Hare and Hart. Of fish Fish if we credit Auicen is enemie vnto the eyes but I thinke hee vnderstandeth it of such as liue in standing waters which haue a slimie substance and flesh or such as bee salted for such as haue a fast flesh as Troutes Rochets and such like are not against the eyes New and soft egges with a little sugar and Cinamon doe marueilously cleere the sight but if they be fried with butter they hurt exceedingly All meates made of paste all baked and milke meates do hurt the eyes As concerning salt meates spices and fauces all of them are not forbidden wee vse to make artificiall salts which serue marueilouslie to cleere the sight and therewithall must ordinarily meates bee salted Of artificiall salts The salt of treacle is most excellent whereto may be added some Nutmeg Mace Cloues and Fennell seede There is likewise made salt of Eyebright after this maner Take of common salt one ounce of Eyebright two drammes of Cinamom and Mace the waight of halfe a crowne mixe them altogether and vse it as salt vnto your meate There be some which adde vnto these salts the powder of the flesh of a Pye dried in the ouen Strong spices Spices as Ginger Pepper and mustard do hurt the eyes it is meete to rest contented with Nutmegs Cloues Cinamom and a little Saffron All pulse is mightily against the sight except it bee Lupines which strengthen and helpe them by a certaine propertie As for hearbes that are good for the eyes Hearbes these are commended Fennell Sage Margerome Rosemary Betonie Mints Mountaine time Asparagus Burnet Succorie and Parselie On the contrary side these are forbidden Lettise Cresses Dill Basill Purselane Leekes Coleworts Garlike Onions and all bulbouse rootes as also Waterchestnuts and Toadstooles The Arabians which were more addicted to dishmeate then the Greekes doe commend Turneps but with all these it is very certaine that wee must mixe Fennell or Aniseede because they be very windie Raw fruites Fruites and such as abound with much moysture doe hurt the sight before meate presently one may vse stewed Prunes and presently after meate a Peare or Quince well preserued to close the mouth of the stomacke and to hinder vapours from ascending vp into the head It will not be amisse after meate to take a little Fennell or Annise seede comfits a morsell of Cidoniatum or of preserued Mirobalanes or Nutmegs Figges and Raisins are not forbidden but nuts Chesnuts and Oliues that are very ripe are well forbidden And thus much for meates Drinke What quantitie is to be vsed What qualitie it must be of As for drinke we are to obserue two things therein the quantitie and the qualitie Archigenes the great Phisition speaking of the quantitie saith that in all diseases of the eyes it is very hurtfull to drinke much Aristotle in his Problemes speaking of the qualitie saith that they which drinke water haue their sight more subtile notwithstanding Auicen and Rhases doe condemne the vse of water and I am verely perswaded that they doe not displease the sect of good fellowship which had rather loose their eyes then their wine To graunt the same which they affirme I holde it needfull to alay the wine well with water and to make choise of some small wine so that it be not sharpe or vaporouse sweete and new wines are very fuming thicke wines stay too long in the stomacke and send too great a quantitie of vapours vnto the braine We vse to make an artificiall wine of Eyebright Artificiall wines which is very singular for the preseruation of the sight Arnaldus de Villanoua a famous Phisition doth confidently affirme that he cured an olde man almost quite blinde by the onely vse of wine of eye-bright Also it will doe well to cast a bunch of Eyebright in the wine which one drinketh ordinarilie or otherwise as I haue alreadie said some Burnet with the flowers of Borage for besides that they comfort the sight with their colour they will helpe to purge the spirits and to represse vapours The hearbes are common enough and to be come by at all seasons Such as will not vse wine Hydromell shal drinke a simple honied water or else compound one in maner as followeth Take of cesterne or fountaine water fifteene pounds of good honie one pound mingle them both together in a pot adding thereto some Fennell Eyebright and Mace made vp in a little bagge the waight of a French crowne boyle all together vnto the consumption of the third part euermore looking well to the taking off of the scum of the honey Of watching and sleeping In watching and sleeping it behoueth to keepe a meane to sleepe very long hurteth the sight and to sleepe at noones maketh ablowne paire of cheekes troubleth the sight and maketh all the body lither and lazie it is best to sleepe vpon the side hauing the head raised high enough Immoderate watching doe spend the spirits coole the braine and hurt the sight infinitely It is good to goe to bed three or foure houres after supper and to rise very earlie to walke vp and downe the chamber to hake and spet to cleanse the eares to emptie the bodie of his ordinarie excrements and after that to combe the head and that alwaies against the hayre keeping it very cleane and not to accustome to washe the face and eyes with colde water as is ordinarilie accustomed for colde is an enemie to the eyes and braine it were better to vse in steede thereof a little white wine warme with some Fenell and Eyebright water Of the exercising of the whole bodie The moderate exercise of the whole bodie is good in a morning neither in deede can any man liue in health as Hippocrates noteth if hee labour not to waste the superfluities of the third digestion Particular exercises
the hicker and with an vnseparable sadnes which oftentimes turneth into dispayre he is alwaies disquieted both in bodie and spirit he is subiect to watchfulnes which doth consume him on the one side and vnto sleepe which tormenteth him on the other side for if he think to make truce with his passions by taking some rest behold so soone as hee would shut his eyelids hee is assayled with a thousand vaine visions and hideous buggards with fantasticall inuentions and dreadfull dreames if he would call any to helpe him his speech is cut off before it be halfe ended and what he speaketh commeth out in fasling and stammering sort he can not liue with companie To conclude hee is become a sauadge creature haunting the shadowed places suspicious solitarie enemie to the Sunne and one whom nothing can please but onely discontentment which forgeth vnto it selfe a thousand false and vaine imaginations Then iudge and weigh if the titles which I haue heretofore giuen to man calling him a diuine and politique creature can any way agree with the melancholike person And yet I would not haue thee O thou Atheist whosoeuer thou art hereupon to conclude Against Atheists which think the soule to be mortall that the soule of man suffereth any thing in his essence and thereby to become subiect to corruption it is neuer altered or changed neither can it suffer any thing it is his instrument that is euill affected Thou maist vnderstand this matter if thou wilt by a comparison drawne from the Sunne for euen as the Sunne doth neuer feele any diminishment of brightnes althought it seeme oftentimes to be darke and eclipsed for this happeneth either by the thicknes of the clowdes or by reason of the Moone comming betwixt it and vs and so our soule seemeth oftentimes to suffer but indeede it is the bodie which is out of frame There is an excellent sentence in Hippocrates in the end of his first book of diet which deserueth to be written in letters of gold A pregnant place prouing the immortalitie Our soule saith he cannot be changed in his essence neither by drinking nor eating nor by any excesse we must impute the cause of all his alterations either to the spirits where with it chiefly hath to deale or vnto the vessels by which it diffuseth it selfe throughout the body Now the instrument of these noble faculties is the braine which is considered of by the Phisition either as a similar part whose health and welfare consisteth in a good temperature or as an instrumentall part and then the health and welfare thereof consisteth in a laudable shape both of the bodie as also of the ventricles of the same That a good temperature and laudable figure are requisite for the actions of the soule And both these two sorts are requisite for the well executing of these three faculties It is most true that Galen attributeth more to a good temperature then to a commendable shape and in one whole booke maintaineth with strong and firme argument that the maners of the soule doe follow the temperature of the bodie as thou shalt see in the chapter following And yet I for my part wil not yeeld so much either to temperature or shape That naturall inclinations may be corrected by studied and laboured ones A most excellent historie of Zopyrus and Socrates as that they can altogether commaund and ouer-rule the soule For such qualities as are naturall and as it were borne with vs may bee amended by those qualities which the Philosophers call acquisite or purchased and gotten by other meanes The historie of Socrates maketh this plaine enough Zopyrus a great Philosopher taking vpon him to iudge and know at the first sight the disposition of euery man as vpon a day he had beheld Socrates reading and being vrgently pressed of all them that sate by to speake his opinion of him answered at last that he well knew that hee was the most corrupt and vicious man in the world The speech was hastily carried to Socrates by one of his disciples who mocked Zopyrus for it Then Socrates by the way of admiration cried aloude Oh the profound Philosopher he hath throughly looked into my humour and disposition I was by nature inclined to all these vices but morall Philosophie hath drawne me away from them And in very deede Socrates had a very long head and ill shaped his countenance vgly and his nose turning vp These naturall inclinations then which proceede of the temperature and shape of the bodie foreseene that these two vices bee not exceeding great as in melancholike persons may bee reclaimed and amended by the qualities which we get vnto ourselues by morall Philosophie by the reading of good bookes and by frequenting the companies of honest and vertuous men CHAP. III. Who they bee which are called melancholike persons and how one should put difference betwixt melancholike men that are sicke and those that are sound and whole ALL such as wee call melancholike men are not infected with this miserable passion which wee call melancholie there are melancholike constitutions which keep within the bounds and limits of health which if we credit ancient writers are very large and wide We must therefore for the orderly handling of this matter set downe all the sorts and differences of melancholike persons to the end that the likenes of names may not trouble vs in the sequele of this discourse That there are foure humors in our bodies It is a thing most freely agreed vpon in Phisicke that there are foure humours in our bodies Blood Phlegme Choler and Melancholie and that all these are to bee found at all times in euery age and at all seasons to be mixed and mingled together within the veines though not alike much of euery one for euen as it is not possible to finde the partie in whom the foure elements are equally mixed and as there is not that temperament in the world in which the foure contrary qualities are in the whole euery part equally cōpounded but that of necessitie there must be some one euermore which doth exceed the other euen so it is not possible to see any perfect liuing creature in which the foure humours are equally mixed there is alwaies some one which doth ouer-rule the rest and of it is the parties complexion named if blood doe abound we call such a complexion sanguine if phlegme phlegmatike if choler cholerike and if melancholie melancholike These foure humours if they doe not too much abound may very easily stand with the health of the partie for they doe not sensibly hurt and hinder the actions of the bodie It is most true that euery constitutions bringeth forth his different effects which make the actions of the soule more quicke and liuely or more dull and dead Phlegmatike persons are for the most part blockish and lubberlike hauing a slow iudgement The effects of phlegme and all the noblest powers of the minde as it
were asleepe because the substance of their braine is too thicke and the spirits laboured therein too grosse these are no fit men for the vndergoing of weightie affaires neither apt to conceiue of profound mysteries a bed and a pot full of pottage is fitted for them Whereunto the sanguine complexion is inclined The sanguine persons are borne for to be sociable and louers of companie they are as it were alwaies in loue they loue to laugh and bee pleasant this is the best complexion for health and long life because that it hath the two maine pillars of life which are naturall heate and moysture in greatest measure and yet such folke are not the fittest for great exployts nor yet for high and hard attempts because they bee impatient and cannot belong in doing about one thing being for the most part drawne away either by their sences or els by their delights whereto they are naturally addicted Cholerike persons being hote and drie haue a quicke vnderstanding The properties of a cholerike persons abounding with many sleight inuentions for they seldome sound any deepe and hidden secrets it fitteth not their fist to graple with such businesses as require continuance of time and paines of the bodies they cannot be at leisure their bodies and spirits doe let them their spirits are soone spent by reason of their thinnesse and their weake bodies cannot indure much watching I will adde also that one thing which Aristotle mentioneth in his Ethickes as that they loue change of things and for this cause are not so fit for consultations of great importance The melancholike are accounted as most fit to vndertake maters of weightie charge and high attempt That melancholike persons are ingenious and wittie Aristotle in his Problemes sayth that the melancholike are most wittie and ingenious but we must looke that we vnderstand this place aright for there are many sorts of melancholie That there are three sorts of melancholie there is one that is altogether grosse and earthie cold and drie there is another that is hot and adust men call it atrabilis there is yet another which is mixed with some small quantitie of blood and yet not withstanding is more drie then moyst The first sort which is grosse and earthie maketh men altogether grosse and slacke in all their actions both of bodie and minde fearefull sluggish and without vnderstanding it is commonly called Asse-like melancholie the second sort being hote and burnt doth cause men to be outragious and vnfit to be imployed in any charge There is none then but that which is mixed with a certaine quantitie of blood that maketh men wittie and causeth them to excell others Why melancholike men are wittie The reasons hereof are very plaine the braine of such melancholike persons is neither too soft nor too hard and yet it is true that drynes doth beare the sway therein But Heraclitus oftentimes said that a drie light did make the wifest minde there are but small store of excrements in their braine their spirits are most pure and are not easilie wasted they are hardly drawne from their purpose and meaning their conceit is very deepe their memorie very fast their bodie strong to endure labour and when this humour groweth hot by the vapours of blood it causeth as it were as kinde of diuine rauishment commonly called Enthousiasma which stirreth men vp to plaie the Philosophers Poets and also to prophesie in such maner as that it may seeme to containe in it some diuine parts See here the effects of the foure complexions and how they may all foure be within the bounds of health It is not then of these sound melancholike persons that we speake in this treatise We will intreate onely of the sicke and such as are pained with the griefe which men call melancholie which I am now about to describe CHAP. IIII. The definition of Melancholie and all the differences of it DIseases commonly take their names either from the place which they seaze vpon or of some irkesome accident accompanying them Whence melancholie tooke his name or of the cause which causeth them Melancholie marcheth in his hinder-most ranke for this name was giuen it because it springeth of a melancholike humour Wee will define as other good authors doe a kinde of dotage without any serue hauing for his ordinarie companions feare and sadnes without any apparant occasion Dotage in this definition standeth for the Genus the Greekes call it more properlie 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 the Latines Delirium The diuerse sorts of dotage There are two sorts of dotage the one without a feuer the other with a feuer that which is ioyned with a feuer is either continuall and haunteth the sicke continually or else it taketh him at certaine times distinguisht by distance that which is continuall is properly called frensie and it commeth either through the inflammation of the muscles called Diaphragma and this is the cause why the auncient Greeke writers do call the said muscle 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 that dotage which commenth by fit happeneth commonly in burning agues and in the stage or full strength of feuers tertains and it is called 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 〈◊〉 The other sort of dotage is without a feauer and it is either accompanied with rage and furie and then it is called Mania or madnes or else with feare and sadnes and then it is caled melancholie Melancholie therefore is a dotage What dotage is not coupled with an ague but with feare and sadnes We call that dotage when some one of the principall faculties of the minde as imagination or reason is corrupted All melancholike persons haue their imagination troubled for that they deuise with themselues a thousand fantasticall inuentions and obiects which in deede are not at all they haue also verie oft their reason corrupted Why melancholie is not accompanied with a feuer Wherefore we cannot make any doubt whether melancholie be a dotage or no but it is ordinarylie without a feuer because the humour is drie and hath these two qualities coldenes and drynes which are altogether contrarie vnto putrefaction so that there cannot any putrisied vapour breath out of them no more then there doth out of meere ashes which might be conueyed to the heart there to kindle the fire and procure a feauer Feare and sadnes are vnseperable companions of this miserable griefe for some reasons which I will set downe in the chapter following Beholde here the description of melancholie as it is a symptome or accident which hath relation to some action hurt and hindered that is to say to the imagination and reason depraued and corrupted This accident is as it were an effect of some cause and dependeth immediatlie vpon a disease for as the shadow followeth the bodie euen so the symptome followeth and accompanieth the disease Melancholie is a similar disease All the Phisitions both Greekes and Arabians doe thike that the cause of this accident
bolde quicke of motion and headlong in all their actions colde on the contrarie maketh them fearefull leaden-heelde and not resoluing of any thing All such as are of a colde temperament become fearefull olde folkes ordinarilie are fearefull and so are gelded men also women are alwaies more timerous then men and to be briefe the qualities of the minde doe follow the temperament of the bodie The authors iudgement Loe here here the contrarie opinions of these two great and famous men I thinke they may be reconciled if wee would ioyne these two causes together that is the temperature of the humour as the chiefe and principall and the blacke colour of the Spirits as that which may much further and helpe forward the same The melancholike humour being colde doth not onely coole the braine but also the heart being the feare of this couragious facultie of the Soule which men call the instinct and pronenes of nature vnto anger and rebateth the flames therein hence creepeth out feare the same humour being blacke causeth the animall spirits which ought to be pure subtile cleere and lightsome it maketh them I say grosse darke and as it were all to be smoked But the spirits being the chiefe and principall instrument of the minde if they be blacke and ouercooled also doe trouble her most noble powers and principally the imagination presenting vnto it continually blacke formes and strange visions which may be seene with the eye notwithstanding that they be within This is a deepe reach which no man hitherto it may be hath attayned and it serueth infinitely for the defence of Galen That with our owne eyes we may see something within the same The eye doth not onely see that which is without but it seeth also that which is within howsoeuer it may iudge that same thing to be without Those which haue some small beginnings of a Cataract doe see many bodies flying like to Ants flyes and long haires the same also doe such as are readie to vomite Hippocrates and Galen place amongst the signes adn tokens of a criticall fluxe of blood these false apparitions as when one seeth red bodies hanging in the ayre which yet notwithstanding are not there because that then euery one should see them this is an inward vapour which offereth it selfe vnto the christalline humour in his naturall colour and so if it arise of blood it appeareth red if of choler yellow and wherefore then should not the vapours of the melancholike humour and of the spirits being blacke ordinarilie present themselues and appeare in their naturall colour vnto the eye and so vnto the imagination The melancholike partie may see that which is within his owne braine but vnder another forme because that the spirits and blacke vapours continually passe by the finewes vaines and arteries from the braine vnto the eye which causeth it to see many shadowes and vntrue apparitions in the aire whereupon from the eye the formes thereof are conueyed vnto the imagination which being continuallie serued with the same dish abideth continuallie in feare and terror That which maketh me to ioyne the blacke colour with the temperature is because the braine is very oft of colde distemperature and notwithstanding we finde not the partie troubled either with such feare nor yet such gastlie sights Fleagme is yet more colde then melancholie and notwithstanding it troubleth not the imagination because his whitenes hath some resemblance of the substance of the braine That the melancholike humour is altogether contrarie to our spirits and with the colour and cleerenes of the spirits but the melancholike humour is altogether opposite and enemie vnto the same Our spirits account colde and darkenes to be their enemies feeling the colde they drawn themselues in and as darkenes presseth on more and more so they flie blacke into their fort and castle forsake the vtter parts and procure vs to sleepe the melancholike humour hath both these properties it is colde and darke it ought not therefore to astonish vs if that we see it to molest the most noble and principall powers of the minde seeing it tainteth and brandeth with blackenes the principall instrument thereof which is the spirit which passing from the braine to the eye and from the eye to the braine backe againe is able to moue these blacke sights and to set them vncessantly before the minde Loe heere the first accident which haunteth melancholike persons they are alwaies full of feare for they feare euery thing euen that which is furthest off from feare they are hartlesse they honour their enemies and abuse their friends they conceiue of death as a terrible thing and notwithstanding which is strange they oftentimes desire it yea so eagerlie as that they will not let to destroy themselues but this falleth out then only when feare is turned into dispayre it is true in deede that this happeneth so oft vnto those whom melancholie simply assaileth as vnto those which are mad Mad men doe more oft kill themselues then melancholike perspons Wee haue very few examples of meere melancholike persons which haue slaine themselues but of mad men very many are found and those of great reputation Empedocles Agrigentinus became mad and cast himselfe headlong into the burning flames of the mountaine Aetna Examples Ariax the sonne of Telamon was out of his wits for that he was not thought worthie of Achilles armour but that it was adiudged vnto Vlisses Whereupon he passed ouer some part of his furie in killing all maner of cattell he met withall thinking he had slaine Vlisses and all his companions Cleomenes being likewise out of his wits slew himself with his own sword Orestes hauing slaine his mother Clytemnestra was so furiously outraged that if his deare friend Pylades had not carefully watched ouer him he had destroyed himselfe a hundred times It falleth out therefore more oft vnto mad then to melancholike men to kill themselues Why melancholike persons are sad The second accident which almost neuer leaueth melancholike persons is sadnes they weepe and know not wherefore I beleeue the distemperature of the humour is the cause thereof for as ioy and cheerefulnes proceede from heate and moysture well tempered so heauines and sadnes come from the two contrarie qualities which are found in this humour For the most part of men of sanguine complexion are cheerefull and merrie because they consist of a mixture of moysture and heate cholerike persons are way ward and vnpleasant because their heate is drie and hath as it were an edge set vpon it melancholike persons are sad and peruerse because they bee cold and drie Euen so it befell the sillie Bellerophon who as he is very artificially set out in Homer went wandring through the defart places continually mourning and lamenting And the Ephesian Philosopher named Heraclitus liued in continuall teares because sayth Theophrastus that he was possessed of melancholie and as his writings altogether confused and darkned with obscuritie
doe sufficiently witnesse the same Why they be suspicious The accident of suspition followeth the two former hard and close at the heeles the melancholike party is euermore suspicious if he see three or foure talking together he thinketh that it is of him The cause of such suspition riseth of the former feare and of a corrupt kinde of reasoning for being alwaies in feare he thinketh verely that one or other doeth lie in wait for him and that some doe purpose to slay him Melancholike men sayth Aristotle doe deceiue themselues commonly in matters which depend vpon choice for that they oftentimes forget the generall propositions wherein honestie consisteth and chuse rather to follow the motions of their foolish imaginations The cause of their restlesnes They are neuer at rest either in their bodies or in their spirits they can make no answere to such questions as are propounded them they oftentimes change from one kinde to another This disquieting and distracting of themselues ariseth of the diuersitie of matters which they propound and set before themselues for receiuing all maner of formes and stamping them with the print of dislike they are constrained oftentimes to change and to find out new things which being no more acceptable to them then the first doe still continue them in these restles distractions The cause of their sighing Melancholike folke are commonly giuen to sigh because the minde being possessed with great varietie and store of foolish apparitions doth not remember or suffer the partie to bee at leisure to breathe according to the necessitie of nature whereupon she is constrained at once to sup vp as much ayre as otherwise would serue for two or three times and this great draught of breath is called by the name of sighing which is as it were a reduplicating of the ordinary manner of breathing In this order it falleth out with louers and all those which are very busily occupied in some deepe contemplation Sillie fooles likewise which fall into a wonder at the sight of any beautifull and goodly picture are constrained to giue a great sight their will which is the efficient cause of breathing being altogether distracted and wholly possessed with the sight of the image Why they watch and can not sleepe There is yet another accident which is very tedious and euen consumeth these poore melancholike men euen continuall watchings I haue seene some that haue abode three whole moneths without sleepe The causes of sleepe Now the causes of such watchings are easie enough to vnderstand if wee know what it is which causeth vs to sleepe Men are giuen to obserue in sleepe the materiall formall finall and instrumentall cause The materiall is a pleasant vapour which is cast vp from the first and second concoction which whē it commeth to slacken and stop all the sinewes by his moysture it causeth all sence and motion for to cease The finall cause is the repayre of spirits and the rest of all the animall powers which hauing been wearied by continuall labour doe craue a little reliefe and recreation this end cannot be obtained if so bee the minde which setteth all the powers of the bodie on worke be not vouchsafed some maner of peaceable rest in this sort the sillie Dido all ouer whelmed with musing pensiuenes could not espie the approach of night to the shutting vp of her mournfull eyes or easing of her oppressed heart The formall cause of sleepe consisteth in the withdrawing of the spirits and naturall heate from the outward parts to the inward and from all the circumference vnto the center The instrumentall cause is the braine which must be of good temperature for if it be too hot as in frenticke folkes or drie as in old folkes the sleepe will neuer be with peace and quietnes The causes of all that watchfulnes which is in melancholike persons In melancholike persons the materiall is wanting the minde is not at rest the braine is distempered the matter is a melancholike humour drie as ashes from whence cannot arise any pleasant and delightsome vapour the braine is distempered and greatly ouerdried the minde is in continuall restlesnes for the feare that is in them doth continually set before them tedious grieuous things which so gnaw and pinch them as that they hinder them from sleeping But if at one time or other it fall out that they be ouertaken with a little slumber it is then but a troublesome sleepe accompanied with a thousand of false and fearefull apparitions and dreames so dreadfull as that it were better for them to be awake The causes of all these dreames are to bee referred to the propertie of the humour The causes of all their fearefull dreames for as the phlegmatike partre dreameth commonly of riuers of water and the cholerike of flaming fire so the melancholike person dreameth of nothing but dead men graues and all other such mournfull and vnpleasant things because he exerciseth his imaginations with formes altogether like vnto the humour which beareth sway in him vpon which occasion the memorie beginneth to stirre and rouse vp her selfe or else because that the spirits being growne as it were wilde and altogether blacke ranging the braine throughout and bending themselues to the eye doe set before the iamgination all manner of darke and obscure things The cause why they loue darknes Melancholike men are also enemies to the Sunne and shunne the light because that their spirits and humours are altogether contrary to the light The Sunne is bright and warme the melancholike humour is blacke and colde They desire solitarines because they vsing to bee busie and earnestly following their imagination doe feare to bee drawne away by others their presence and therefore doe auoide it but the cause of such their vncessant perseuerance in their imaginations is because their spirits are grosse and as it were immoueable They haue their eyes fixed and as it were set fast by reason of the cold and drines of the instrument they haue a hissing in their cares and oftentimes are troubled with swimmering or giddinesse Why they loue to be silent and as Galen obserueth they loue silence out of measure and oftentimen cannot speake not for any defect of the tongue but rather because of I cannot tell what maner of conceitednes finally they inuent continually some one or other strange imagination and haue in a maner all of them one speciall obiect from which they cannot be weined till time haue worne it out CHAP. VI. Whence it commeth that melancholike persons haue all of them their particular and altogether diuers obiects whereupon they dote THe imagination of melancholike men bringeth forth such diuersitie of effects according to the difference of the matters where about it is occupied as that a man shall searse finde fiue of sixe among then thousand which dote after one and the same maner Whereupon ancient writers haue compared this humour to wine for as wine according
potabile conserues of Rubies and Emeralds Elixir vitae or the fained and fabulous fountaine of restored youth cannot withstand but that our heate must at length grow weake and feeble The opinion of the Egiptians condemned Galen derideth very well an Egyptian Sophister which had drawen commentaries of the immortalitie of the bodie If a man sayth he could when a thing is come to his perfection renew the same at that very instant and make the principles thereof in like maner new without doubt such a bodie would become immortall but this thing being impossible it must needes fall out that euery naturall agent must weaken it selfe and so of necessitie waxe old The men of Egypt Alexandria did beleeue that the natunall cause of olde age did come of the diminishing of the heart they said that the heart did growe till-fiftie yeeres the weight of two drams euery yeere and that after fiftie yeeres it waxed lesser and lesser till in the end it was growne to nothing but these are nothing but vaine imaginations and meere fooleries We haue caused many old men to be opened whose hearts haue been found as great and heauie as those of the yonger sort There is then but two inward causes of our old age the contrariety of the principles whereof we are composed and framed and the action or operation of our naturall heat which consisting in the consuming of his radicall moisture doth by little and little fall a drying and cooling of our bodies Outward causes of our old age that cannot be auoided There are other causes also of our dissolution which are outward and such as cannot be auoyded For seeing that our bodies are compounded of three substances which are subiect to waste the one wherof is subtile and of an airie nature the second liquide and the third solide it must needes be that we haue some outward thing for to repaire them otherwise our life would neuer last longer then the seuenth daie for this is the terme which Hippocrates hath giuen to perfect bodies and such as haue much naturall heate That which repayreth our nature is called nourishment and it is three fold the ayre drinke and meates the aire vpholdeth and maintaineth the substance of spirits the drinke all that which is liquide and the meate that which is solide This threefolde kinde of nourishment how well soeuer it be cleansed and purified hath notwithstanding euermore something disagreeing with our nature and that so much as that it cannot assimilate and turne it into it owne nature and therefore maketh an excrement of it which being retained altereth the bodie and maketh an infinite number of diseases See and beholde how meates doe of necessitie alter out bodies I leaue to speake of all other outward causes as ouer violent exercises an idle and sitting life long and continuall watching the passions of the minde which of themselues can make vs olde as feare and sadoes because we may in some sort auoide and shunne them I leaue also to say any thing of chancing causes or such as may befall vs by hap hazard as hurts I am onely purposed to shew that it is of necessitie that euery liuing creature must waxe olde that he sostereth within himselfe the naturall causes of his death and that he hath outward causes thereof hanging about him which cannot bee auoyded CHAP. II. A very not able description of olde age SEeing is is most certaine that our bodies Distinction of ages euen from the daye of our birth are subiect vnto many alterations and changes the phisitions hauing regard vnto such alterations as are most sensible and apparant haue diuided the whole life of man into many parts which they haue called ages The opinion of the Egyptians The Egyptians haue made as many ages as there are seuens in the number of an hundred for they verily beleeued that a man could not liue aboue a hundred yeeres The Pythagoreans The opinion of the Pythagorists which were very superstitious in their numbers haue published in their writings how that in euery seuenth we feele some notable change both in the temperature of the bodie and in the disposition of the mind and that al this ought to be referred and attributed to the perfection of the number of seuen I purpose not here to discusse the question of numbers I haue handled it largely enough in my third book of critical daies it is sufficient for me to sit downe and rest my selfe with all the most famous writers in saying that man following the naturall course of life vndergoeth fiue notable alterations and changes in his temperature and runnoth through fiue ages which are Fiue ages Infancie Adolescencie Youth Manhood or the constant age and Old age Infancie is hote and moist Infancie but moysture exceedeth and keepeth heate so vnder foote as that it cannot shew his effects it lasteth till thirteene yeeres of age Adolescencie followeth next Adolescencie which yet is hot and moyst but so as that heat beginneth to play the master the sparkes thereof are seene to glitter twinckle and shine in euery thing In the mankind the voice groweth greater all their waies and courses stretch and reach further and further they cast their first wool In the female kind their paps grow hard great to the sight of the eye their blood stirreth it selfe throughout all their bodie and causeth it to giue place and make way for it till it haue found out the doore this age holdeth on to twenty foure or tweny fiue yeeres which is the appointed and prefixed terme for growth After this commeth Youth Flourishing youth which is hot and drie full of heate liuelihood and nimblenes it hath his course till fortie yeeres The manly age Then the bodie is come to his full stature and this is called the mans age or constant age it is the most temperate of all the rest participating the foure extremities indifferently and continueth to the fiftith yeere Old age And there beginneth Olde age which containeth all the rest of our life But yet notwithstanding this olde age may further bee diuided into three ages Three degrees of olde age there is a first old age a second and a third I haue nothing to doe with that which is caused by sickenes and called Senium ex morbo The first old age is called greene because it is accompanied with prudence The first full of experience and fit for to gouerne common weales The second beginneth at seuentie yeeres The second and is incumbred with many small disaduantages it is very cold and drie As for the coldnes there are so manifest signes and tokens of it that no man hath euer made anie doubt of it for if you do touch them you shall alwaies finde them as cold as yee they haue no liuely or vermilion colour all their sences are weakened and become subiect to an infinite number of colde diseases but as for the other
he would rather iudge thereof by the rule of the temperature and constitution of the bodie for euery man that is cold and drie is he whom I may call old There are very many which become old men at fortie and againe there are an infinit sort which are young men at sixtie there are some constitutions that grow old very speedily and others very slowly They which are of a sanguine complexion grow old very slowly because they haue great store of heate and moysture melancholike men which are cold and drie become old in shorter time Why women grow old sooner then men As for the difference of sexes the female groweth old alwaies sooner then the male Hippocrates hath very well obserued it in his booke intreating of the seuenth moneth childbirth The females males sayth he as they are in their mothers wombe are formed and grow more slowly then males but being once out they come sooner to growth sooner to ripenes of wit and sooner to old age by reason of the weakenes of their bodies and of their manner of liuing Weakenes maketh them to grow vp sooner and to waxe old sooner for euen as trees which are short liued grow vp to their height by and by euen so the bodies which must not long continue come very speedily to the top of their perfection Their manner of liuing also doth make them to waxe old because they liue as it were alwaies in idlenes But there is nothing that hasteneth old age more then idlenes CHAP. III. An order of gouernment for the prolonging of the strong and lustie estate of man SEeing that the naturall and vnauoidable causes of our old age are three as the contrarietie of the principles of our life the waste of radicall heate and moisture and the excrements which are ordinarily ingendred by our nourishment it behoueth vs if wee will keepe our bodies in good plight and preserue them from waxing old so soone so to dispose of and order these three things as that the agreement and vnitie of the elements which is called temperature be throughly prouided for that our heate and moysture which waste euery houre bee well repaired and that the excrements which hide themselues and stay behinde in the bodie bee hunted out We shall obtaine all this very easily by keeping good order of gouernment and diet without hauing need to haue recourse to Phisicke Now this name of Diet as I haue alreadie sayd comprehendeth many things all which may bee referred to sixe The Phisitions call them not naturall because that if they be rightly vsed and that a man know how to make the best maner of seruice of them they doe preserue the health and may bee called naturall But and if a man abuse them if they be vsed either too little or too much though it bee neuer so little they are the causes of many diseases and may be sayd to be contrarie to nature They are these which follow the ayre meat and drinke sleepe and watching labour and rest emptines and fulnes and the passions of the minde which I am about to runne through in order CHAP. IIII. What choise wee must make of the ayre for our longer life as also what ayre is most fit for such persons as are old The necessitie of the ayre AMongst all the causes which may alter our bodies there is not any one more necessary more headlong or which concerneth vs more neerely then the ayre The neede wee haue of it doth sufficiently appeare in sicknesses which abridge and depriue vs of breathing for if it happen that any one of the instruments which are appointed either for the giuing of entrance or receiuing or preparing of the ayre bee greatly impeached the man dyeth by and by strangled in so much as it seemeth hereby that the ayre and life are things inseparable in all such kindes of creatures as are called perfect The naturall heate if wee beleeue Hippocrates is preserued by moderate cold and if you take the ayre away from the fire which is as a continuall bellowes vnto it it is quenched and choked incontinently Our spirits which are the principal instruments of the soule are begotten and nourished by the ayre they doe not vphold nor purge themselues but by the passing of the ayre in and out this is the cause also why all the bodie is porouse and perspirable this is the cause why our arteries doe continually beate and that nature hath made so goodly and wonderfull doores and entrances for the two vessels in such sort as that I dare bee bold to say that the ayre is as needfull for man as life it selfe The quicknes and celeritie of the ayre As for the celeritie and swiftnes which it participateth wee perceiue it euery day In a trice it passeth through the nose to the braine and pressing through a million of streits which are to bee seene in the admirable net it entreth in into the most secret chambers thereof it dispatcheth it selfe downward after that with like incredible celeritie and swiftnes through the mouth vnto the lungs and from thence vnto the heart it pearceth and cannot bee perceiued the pores of the skinne and entreth by the transpiration of the arteries vnto the most deepe and hidden corners of our bodies This is a bodie so common and neere vnto vs that it compasseth vs about continually without forsaking vs any moment yea we must whether we will or no make our daily supping meate thereof Diuine Hippocrates hauing very well perceiued this powerfulnes of the ayre sayth in his Epidemikes and in his second booke of Diet that the whole constitution of our spirits humours and bodie doth depend wholy vpon the ayre Wherefore the chusing of a good ayre and of a fayre and pleasant dwelling place must alwaies in all good order of diet keepe the first and chiefe place Wherein the goodnes of the ayre consisteth The Phisitions take acknowledgement of the goodnesse of the ayre by his substance and qualities By his substance as when it is well purified not hauing any seeds of corruption in it neither yet being infected with any venemous vapours which might rise from dead bodies priuies and filthines of townes or from the putrifaction of standing waters There are also certaine plants which a man must hardly come neere vnto to make his ordinarie lodging because they haue a contrary qualitie vnto the animall spirit as the Nut tree Figge tree Colewort Danewort wilde Rocket Hemlocke and an infinite sort of others The vapour of forges and mines is a very great enemie vnto the hart and causeth as Aristotle obserueth the greatest part of them which labour therein to fall into a consumption How to rectifie the ayre If the ayre bee corrupted and that wee cannot auoide it very quickly wee must purifie it with artificiall fires of Rosemarie Iuniper Cypers Bay tree and with parfumes of the wood of Aloes Saunders Iuniper beries Fusses and such other aromatical things The vapour of
as it is hurtfull for children There is an old prouerbe which sayth that olde folke liue onely on the pot as old Eagles doe vpon the iuyce of carryon Wine is all their refreshment The praise of wine and therefore some doe call it old folkes milke it heateth all their parts and casteth out the waterish parts of the foure humours by vrine Plato in his second booke of Lawes writeth that wine heateth the body and reuiueth the drouping spirits of old men euen as the yron relenteth with the heate of the fire Zeno sayd oftentimes that wine correcteth and maketh pleasant the manners of the most harsh and churlish natures One of the most renowmed Phisitions that euer Arabia bred writeth that yong folke must refraine wine but so soone as they bee fortie yeeres olde looke how oft they either see or smell it they ought to praise God and giue him thankes for creating of so pleasant and delightsome a licour The wine that is chiefly to bee made choise of for old folke What wine is best for olde folke must be an old red and good strong wine and it must not bee much delayed New sweete and grosse are not good because they stop the liuer the spleene and passages of vrine and make old age subiect vnto the dropsie or stone It is not good to drinke wine fasting nor after that one is throughly heated because the vapour thereof ascendeth by and by vp into the head hutteth the sinewes and causeth conuulsions sudden rheumes and apoplexies Olde men must drinke a little at once and oft Galen commendeth artificiall wines made of Betonie and Parcelie for the Stone and Goute Hippocras Malmesie and Candie wine foreseene that they be not counterfeited neither yet contrarie to their natures Honyed water is commended of all men they may vse the common for their ordinarie drinke and the other which is called the counterfeite of wine being strong like vnto Malmesie they may take in the morning with a toste CHAP. VIII Of the exercises of old folke IT is most certaine that all manner of nourishment how cleane and puresoeuer it bee hath alwaies something in it not agreeable vnto nature It must necessarily therefore follow that in euery concoction there be ingendred some excrement which being kept and not auoyded may bee the cause of an infinite sort of diseases The grosser kinde of excrements doe purge themselues by a sensible and manifest kinde of euacuation but the more subtile and fine maybe wasted and resolued by exercise This is the cause why diuine Hippocrates in his bookes of Diet The necessitie of exercise hath affirmed and that very well that man cannot liue in health if he ioyne not labour and foode together because sayth he that the one repayreth natures expences and the other spendeth her superfluities and surcharging burthens Plato in his Theaetetus writeth that exercise vpholdeth and preserueth the good state of the bodie and that idlenes on the contrarie doth ouerthrow it Exercise moderatly and orderly vsed preuenteth repletion the meere nurse of a thousand diseases increaseth naturall heate keepeth open both the sensible and insensible passages of the bodie maketh the bodie plyant and nimble prepareth and disposeth all the superfluities and excrements as well vniuersall as particular vnto auoidance strengtheneth the sinewes marueilously and maketh all the ioynts more firme And this is it which Hippocrates saith in his Epidemicall treatises that as sleepe is requisite for the inward parts so labour serueth to strengthen the ioynts There is a notable treatise in Celsus which I must not passe ouer with silence Sluggish slothfulnes sayth he doth make the bodie loose and heauie but paines and labour doth make it firme and nimble idlenes maketh vs soone to waxe old and exercise preserueth our youthfulnes long and many yeares How we must vse our exercises But we must carrie our selues cunningly in the manner of our exercises first it must bee done before we eate because thereby wee awake naturall heate that it may be the readier to disgest and not asleepe when it should bee doing his dutie Hippocrates his Aphorisme is most plaine and euident Let labour goe before meate This exercise must be moderated according to our meate for they that eate much must worke much and they that eate but a little must labour the lesse This exercise also must be moderate and equall I call that moderate which maketh not wearie and I call that equall which exerciseth all the parts of the bodie both vpper and lower alike Violent and vnequall exercise ouerthroweth the strongest bodies weakeneth their ioynts and maketh all the muscles loose wherein consisteth a part of nimblenes The morning exercise is best or else at after dinner when the two first concoctions are perfected that which is vsed by and by after meate begetteth an infinite number of obstructions filleth the veines with raw humours and causeth the meate to descend too soone out of the stomacke In winter we must walke more swiftly and in summer more softly and alwaies the Phisition must haue regard to that whereunto the partie is accustomed for as Hippocrates writeth in his second book of Aphorismes They which are accustomed to take paines doe beare it the more easily although they be weake and come to old age There are vniuersall and particular exercises The vniuersall if a man can do them are the better and amongst them one praiseth especially the ball play foote-walkes and riding The particular are fricasies which auaile much to the stirring vp of naturall heate to make attraction of nourishment to any part and to consume the vapours and excrements of the third concoction which lie lurking oftentimes in the voide spaces of the muscles and among the membranes Old folke must content themselues with moderate exercise The exercise of old folke for feare that the little naturall heat which they haue should be spent Frications or rubbing of the parts are most fit for them They must be rubd and chafed in the morning after they be awake vntill the parts begin to bee red and warme The rubbing must begin at the armes and from thence to the shoulders backe and breast from thence we must goe downe to the thighes and rise vp againe from thence to the shoulders the head must bee the last which must be combd and trimd vp euery morning There are other particular exercises of the eyes voyce and breast which are of vse CHAP. IX What rules are to be obserued in sleeping SLeepe is one of the chiefe poynts of well ordering and gouerning ones self cōcerning which there are certaine generall rules to be obserued of thē which are desirous to keep back and hinder the hastie accesse of old age It is good saith Hippocrates to sleepe onely in the night and to keepe waking in the daytime Sleeping at nooneday is very dangerous and maketh all the body heauie and blowne vp It must be obserued not to goe to bed vnder three or foure