audire in this kind: Constantinople itself, where commonly carrion lies
in the street. Some find the same fault in Spain, even in Madrid, the
king's seat, a most excellent air, a pleasant site; but the inhabitants
are slovens, and the streets uncleanly kept.
A troublesome tempestuous air is as bad as impure, rough and foul
weather, impetuous winds, cloudy dark days, as it is commonly with us,
Coelum visu foedum, [1529]Polydore calls it a filthy sky, et in quo
facile generantur nubes; as Tully's brother Quintus wrote to him in
Rome, being then quaestor in Britain. In a thick and cloudy air (saith
Lemnius) men are tetric, sad, and peevish: And if the western winds
blow, and that there be a calm, or a fair sunshine day, there is a kind
of alacrity in men's minds; it cheers up men and beasts: but if it be a
turbulent, rough, cloudy, stormy weather, men are sad, lumpish, and
much dejected, angry, waspish, dull, and melancholy. This was
[1530]Virgil's experiment of old,
Verum ubi tempestas, et coeli mobilis humor
Mutavere vices, et Jupiter humidus Austro,
Vertuntur species animorum, et pectore motus
Concipiunt alios———
But when the face of Heaven changed is
To tempests, rain, from season fair:
Our minds are altered, and in our breasts
Forthwith some new conceits appear.
And who is not weather-wise against such and such conjunctions of
planets, moved in foul weather, dull and heavy in such tempestuous
seasons? [1531] Gelidum contristat Aquarius annum: the time requires,
and the autumn breeds it; winter is like unto it, ugly, foul, squalid,
the air works on all men, more or less, but especially on such as are
melancholy, or inclined to it, as Lemnius holds, [1532]They are most
moved with it, and those which are already mad, rave downright, either
in, or against a tempest. Besides, the devil many times takes his
opportunity of such storms, and when the humours by the air be stirred,
he goes in with them, exagitates our spirits, and vexeth our souls; as
the sea waves, so are the spirits and humours in our bodies tossed with
tempestuous winds and storms. To such as are melancholy therefore,
Montanus, consil. 24, will have tempestuous and rough air to be
avoided, and consil. 27, all night air, and would not have them to walk
abroad, but in a pleasant day. Lemnius, l. 3. c. 3, discommends the
south and eastern winds, commends the north. Montanus, consil. 31.
[1533]Will not any windows to be opened in the night. Consil. 229. et
consil. 230, he discommends especially the south wind, and nocturnal
air: So doth [1534]Plutarch. The night and darkness makes men sad, the
like do all subterranean vaults, dark houses in caves and rocks, desert
places cause melancholy in an instant, especially such as have not been
used to it, or otherwise accustomed. Read more of air in Hippocrates,
Aetius, l. 3. a c. 171. ad 175. Oribasius, a c. 1. ad 21. Avicen. l. 1.
can. Fen. 2. doc. 2. Fen. 1. c. 123 to the 12, &c.
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