They are born and bred with us, we have them from our parents by
inheritance. A parentibus habemus malum hunc assem, saith
[1586]Pelezius, Nascitur una nobiscum, aliturque, 'tis propagated from
Adam, Cain was melancholy, [1587]as Austin hath it, and who is not?
Good discipline, education, philosophy, divinity (I cannot deny), may
mitigate and restrain these passions in some few men at some times, but
most part they domineer, and are so violent, [1588]that as a torrent
(torrens velut aggere rupto) bears down all before, and overflows his
banks, sternit agros, sternit sata, (lays waste the fields, prostrates
the crops,) they overwhelm reason, judgment, and pervert the
temperature of the body; Fertur [1589] equis auriga, nec audit currus
habenas. Now such a man (saith [1590]Austin) that is so led, in a wise
man's eye, is no better than he that stands upon his head. It is
doubted by some, Gravioresne morbi a perturbationibus, an ab humoribus,
whether humours or perturbations cause the more grievous maladies. But
we find that of our Saviour, Mat. xxvi. 41, most true, The spirit is
willing, the flesh is weak, we cannot resist; and this of [1591]Philo
Judeus, Perturbations often offend the body, and are most frequent
causes of melancholy, turning it out of the hinges of his health. Vives
compares them to [1592]Winds upon the sea, some only move as those
great gales, but others turbulent quite overturn the ship. Those which
are light, easy, and more seldom, to our thinking, do us little harm,
and are therefore contemned of us: yet if they be reiterated, [1593]as
the rain (saith Austin) doth a stone, so do these perturbations
penetrate the mind: [1594]and (as one observes) produce a habit of
melancholy at the last, which having gotten the mastery in our souls,
may well be called diseases.
How these passions produce this effect, [1595]Agrippa hath handled at
large, Occult. Philos. l. 11. c. 63. Cardan, l. 14. subtil. Lemnius, l.
1. c. 12, de occult. nat. mir. et lib. 1. cap. 16. Suarez, Met. disput.
18. sect. 1. art. 25. T. Bright, cap. 12. of his Melancholy Treatise.
Wright the Jesuit, in his Book of the Passions of the Mind, &c. Thus in
brief, to our imagination cometh by the outward sense or memory, some
object to be known (residing in the foremost part of the brain), which
he misconceiving or amplifying presently communicates to the heart, the
seat of all affections. The pure spirits forthwith flock from the brain
to the heart, by certain secret channels, and signify what good or bad
object was presented; [1596]which immediately bends itself to
prosecute, or avoid it; and withal, draweth with it other humours to
help it: so in pleasure, concur great store of purer spirits; in
sadness, much melancholy blood; in ire, choler. If the imagination be
very apprehensive, intent, and violent, it sends great store of spirits
to, or from the heart, and makes a deeper impression, and greater
tumult, as the humours in the body be likewise prepared, and the
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