The Anatomy of Melancholy Part 43

"Parentes, patriam, amicos, genus, cognates, divitias, Haec perinde sunt ac illius animus qui ea possidet; Qui uti scit, ei bona; qui ut.i.tur non recte, mala."

"Parents, friends, fortunes, country, birth, alliance, &c., ebb and flow with our conceit; please or displease, as we accept and construe them, or apply them to ourselves." _Faber quisque fortunae suae_, and in some sort I may truly say, prosperity and adversity are in our own hands. _Nemo laeditur nisi a seipso_, and which Seneca confirms out of his judgment and experience. [3841]"Every man's mind is stronger than fortune, and leads him to what side he will; a cause to himself each one is of his good or bad life." But will we, or nill we, make the worst of it, and suppose a man in the greatest extremity, 'tis a fortune which some indefinitely prefer before prosperity; of two extremes it is the best. _Luxuriant animi rebus plerumque secundis_, men in [3842]prosperity forget G.o.d and themselves, they are besotted with their wealth, as birds with henbane: [3843]

miserable if fortune forsake them, but more miserable if she tarry and overwhelm them: for when they come to be in great place, rich, they that were most temperate, sober, and discreet in their private fortunes, as Nero, Otho, Vitellius, Heliogabalus (_optimi imperatores nisi impera.s.sent_) degenerate on a sudden into brute beasts, so prodigious in l.u.s.t, such tyrannical oppressors, &c., they cannot moderate themselves, they become monsters, odious, harpies, what not? _c.u.m triumphos, opes, honores adepti sunt, ad voluptatem et otium deinceps se convertunt_: 'twas [3844]Cato's note, "they cannot contain." For that cause belike

[3845] "Eutrapilus cuicunque nocere volebat, Vestimenta dabat pretiosa: beatus enim jam, c.u.m pulchris tunicis sumet nova consilia et spes, Dormiet in lucem scorto, postponet honestum Officium"------

"Eutrapilus when he would hurt a knave, Gave him gay clothes and wealth to make him brave: Because now rich he would quite change his mind, Keep wh.o.r.es, fly out, set honesty behind."

On the other side, in adversity many mutter and repine, despair, &c., both bad, I confess,

[3846] ------"ut calceus olim Si pede major erit, subvertet: si minor, uret."

"As a shoe too big or too little, one pincheth, the other sets the foot awry," _sed e malis minimum_. If adversity hath killed his thousand, prosperity hath killed his ten thousand: therefore adversity is to be preferred; [3847]_haec froeno indiget, illa solatio: illa fallit, haec instruit_: the one deceives, the other instructs; the one miserably happy, the other happily miserable; and therefore many philosophers have voluntarily sought adversity, and so much commend it in their precepts.

Demetrius, in Seneca, esteemed it a great infelicity, that in his lifetime he had no misfortune, _miserum cui nihil unquam accidisset, adversi_.

Adversity then is not so heavily to be taken, and we ought not in such cases so much to macerate ourselves: there is no such odds in poverty and riches. To conclude in [3848]Hierom's words, "I will ask our magnificoes that build with marble, and bestow a whole manor on a thread, what difference between them and Paul the Eremite, that bare old man? They drink in jewels, he in his hand: he is poor and goes to heaven, they are rich and go to h.e.l.l."

MEMB. IV.

_Against Servitude, Loss of Liberty, Imprisonment, Banishment_.

Servitude, loss of liberty, imprisonment, are no such miseries as they are held to be: we are slaves and servants the best of us all: as we do reverence our masters, so do our masters their superiors: gentlemen serve n.o.bles, and n.o.bles subordinate to kings, _omne sub regno graviore regnum_, princes themselves are G.o.d's servants, _reges in ipsos imperium est Jovis_.

They are subject to their own laws, and as the kings of China endure more than slavish imprisonment, to maintain their state and greatness, they never come abroad. Alexander was a slave to fear, Caesar of pride, Vespasian to his money (_nihil enim refert, rerum sis servus an hominum_), [3849] Heliogabalus to his gut, and so of the rest. Lovers are slaves to their mistresses, rich men to their gold, courtiers generally to l.u.s.t and ambition, and all slaves to our affections, as Evangelus well discourseth in [3850]Macrobius, and [3851]Seneca the philosopher, _a.s.siduam servitutem extremam et ineluctabilem_ he calls it, a continual slavery, to be so captivated by vices; and who is free? Why then dost thou repine? _Satis est potens_, Hierom saith, _qui servire non cogitur_. Thou carriest no burdens, thou art no prisoner, no drudge, and thousands want that liberty, those pleasures which thou hast. Thou art not sick, and what wouldst thou have?

But _nitimur in vet.i.tum_, we must all eat of the forbidden fruit. Were we enjoined to go to such and such places, we would not willingly go: but being barred of our liberty, this alone torments our wandering soul that we may not go. A citizen of ours, saith [3852]Cardan, was sixty years of age, and had never been forth of the walls of the city of Milan; the prince hearing of it, commanded him not to stir out: being now forbidden that which all his life he had neglected, he earnestly desired, and being denied, _dolore confectus mortem, obiit_, he died for grief.

What I have said of servitude, I again say of imprisonment, we are all prisoners. [3853]What is our life but a prison? We are all imprisoned in an island. The world itself to some men is a prison, our narrow seas as so many ditches, and when they have compa.s.sed the globe of the earth, they would fain go see what is done in the moon. In [3854]Muscovy and many other northern parts, all over Scandia, they are imprisoned half the year in stoves, they dare not peep out for cold. At [3855]Aden in Arabia they are penned in all day long with that other extreme of heat, and keep their markets in the night. What is a s.h.i.+p but a prison? And so many cities are but as so many hives of bees, anthills; but that which thou abhorrest, many seek: women keep in all winter, and most part of summer, to preserve their beauties; some for love of study: Demosthenes shaved his beard because he would cut off all occasions from going abroad: how many monks and friars, anchorites, abandon the world. _Monachus in urbe, piscis in arido_. Art in prison? Make right use of it, and mortify thyself; [3856] "Where may a man contemplate better than in solitariness," or study more than in quietness?

Many worthy men have been imprisoned all their lives, and it hath been occasion of great honour and glory to them, much public good by their excellent meditation. [3857]Ptolomeus king of Egypt, _c.u.m viribus attenuatis infirma valetudine laboraret, miro descendi studio affectus_, &c. now being taken with a grievous infirmity of body that he could not stir abroad, became Strato's scholar, fell hard to his book, and gave himself wholly to contemplation, and upon that occasion (as mine author adds), _pulcherrimum regiae opulentiae monumentum_, &c., to his great honour built that renowned library at Alexandria, wherein were 40,000 volumes. Severinus Boethius never writ so elegantly as in prison, Paul so devoutly, for most of his epistles were dictated in his bands: "Joseph,"

saith [3858]Austin, "got more credit in prison, than when he distributed corn, and was lord of Pharaoh's house." It brings many a lewd, riotous fellow home, many wandering rogues it settles, that would otherwise have been like raving tigers, ruined themselves and others.

Banishment is no grievance at all, _Omne solum forti patria, &c. et patria est ubicunque bene est_, that's a man's country where he is well at ease.

Many travel for pleasure to that city, saith Seneca, to which thou art banished, and what a part of the citizens are strangers born in other places? [3859]_Incolentibus patria_, 'tis their country that are born in it, and they would think themselves banished to go to the place which thou leavest, and from which thou art so loath to depart. 'Tis no disparagement to be a stranger, or so irksome to be an exile. [3860]"The rain is a stranger to the earth, rivers to the sea, Jupiter in Egypt, the sun to us all. The soul is an alien to the body, a nightingale to the air, a swallow in a house, and Ganymede in heaven, an elephant at Rome, a Phoenix in India;" and such things commonly please us best, which are most strange and come the farthest off. Those old Hebrews esteemed the whole world Gentiles; the Greeks held all barbarians but themselves; our modern Italians account of us as dull Transalpines by way of reproach, they scorn thee and thy country which thou so much admirest. 'Tis a childish humour to hone after home, to be discontent at that which others seek; to prefer, as base islanders and Norwegians do, their own ragged island before Italy or Greece, the gardens of the world. There is a base nation in the north, saith [3861]Pliny, called Chauci, that live amongst rocks and sands by the seaside, feed on fish, drink water: and yet these base people account themselves slaves in respect, when they come to Rome. _Ita est profecto_ (as he concludes) _multis fortuna parcit in poenam_, so it is, fortune favours some to live at home, to their further punishment: 'tis want of judgment. All places are distant from heaven alike, the sun s.h.i.+nes happily as warm in one city as in another, and to a wise man there is no difference of climes; friends are everywhere to him that behaves himself well, and a prophet is not esteemed in his own country. Alexander, Caesar, Trajan, Adrian, were as so many land-leapers, now in the east, now in the west, little at home; and Polus Venetus, Lod. Vertomannus, Pinzonus, Cadamustus, Columbus, Americus Vespucius, Vascus Gama, Drake, Candish, Oliver Anort, Schoutien, got, all their honour by voluntary expeditions. But you say such men's travel is voluntary; we are compelled, and as malefactors must depart; yet know this of [3862]Plato to be true, _ultori Deo summa cura peregrinus est_, G.o.d hath an especial care of strangers, "and when he wants friends and allies, he shall deserve better and find more favour with G.o.d and men." Besides the pleasure of peregrination, variety of objects will make amends; and so many n.o.bles, Tully, Aristides, Themistocles, Theseus, Codrus, &c. as have been banished, will give sufficient credit unto it.

Read Pet. Alcionius his two books of this subject.

MEMB. V.

_Against Sorrow for Death of Friends or otherwise, vain Fear, &c._

Death and departure of friends are things generally grievous, [3863]

_Omnium quae in humana vita contingunt, luctus atque mors sunt acerbissima_, the most austere and bitter accidents that can happen to a man in this life, _in aeternum valedicere_, to part for ever, to forsake the world and all our friends, 'tis _ultimum terribilium_, the last and the greatest terror, most irksome and troublesome unto us, [3864]_h.o.m.o toties moritur, quoties amitt.i.t suos_. And though we hope for a better life, eternal happiness, after these painful and miserable days, yet we cannot compose ourselves willingly to die; the remembrance of it is most grievous unto us, especially to such who are fortunate and rich: they start at the name of death, as a horse at a rotten post. Say what you can of that other world, [3865]Montezuma that Indian prince, _Bonum est esse hic_, they had rather be here. Nay many generous spirits, and grave staid men otherwise, are so tender in this, that at the loss of a dear friend they will cry out, roar, and tear their hair, lamenting some months after, howling "O Hone,"

as those Irish women and [3866]Greeks at their graves, commit many indecent actions, and almost go beside themselves. My dear father, my sweet husband, mine only brother's dead, to whom shall I make my moan? _O me miserum! Quis dabit in lachrymas fontem_, &c. What shall I do?

[3867] "Sed totum hoc studium luctu fraterna mihi mors Abstulit, hei misero frater adempte mihi?"

"My brother's death my study hath undone, Woe's me, alas my brother he is gone."

Mezentius would not live after his son:

[3868] "Nunc vivo, nec adhuc homines lucemque relinquo, Sed linquam"------

And Pompey's wife cried out at the news of her husband's death,

[3869] "Turpe mori post te solo non posse dolore, Violenta luctu et nescia tolerandi,"

as [3870]Tacitus of Agrippina, not able to moderate her pa.s.sions. So when she heard her son was slain, she abruptly broke off her work, changed countenance and colour, tore her hair, and fell a roaring downright.

[3871] ------"subitus miserae color ossa reliquit, Excussi manibus radii, revolutaque pensa: Evolat infelix et foemineo ululatu Scissa comam"------

Another would needs run upon the sword's point after Euryalus' departure,

[3872] "Figite me, si qua est pietas, in me omnia tela Conjicite o Rutili;"------

O let me die, some good man or other make an end of me. How did Achilles take on for Patroclus' departure? A black cloud of sorrows overshadowed him, saith Homer. Jacob rent his clothes, put sackcloth about his loins, sorrowed for his son a long season, and could not be comforted, but would needs go down into the grave unto his son, Gen. x.x.xvii. 37. Many years after, the remembrance of such friends, of such accidents, is most grievous unto us, to see or hear of it, though it concern not ourselves but others.

Scaliger saith of himself, that he never read Socrates' death, in Plato's Phaedon, but he wept: [3873]Austin shed tears when he read the destruction of Troy. But howsoever this pa.s.sion of sorrow be violent, bitter, and seizeth familiarly on wise, valiant, discreet men, yet it may surely be withstood, it may be diverted. For what is there in this life, that it should be so dear unto us? or that we should so much deplore the departure of a friend? The greatest pleasures are common society, to enjoy one another's presence, feasting, hawking, hunting, brooks, woods, hills, music, dancing, &c. all this is but vanity and loss of time, as I have sufficiently declared.

[3874] ------"dum bibimus, dum serta, unguenta, puellas Poscimus, obrepit non intellecta senectus."

"Whilst we drink, prank ourselves, with wenches dally, Old age upon's at unawares doth sally."

As alchemists spend that small modic.u.m they have to get gold, and never find it, we lose and neglect eternity, for a little momentary pleasure which we cannot enjoy, nor shall ever attain to in this life. We abhor death, pain, and grief, all, yet we will do nothing of that which should vindicate us from, but rather voluntarily thrust ourselves upon it. [3875]

"The lascivious prefers his wh.o.r.e before his life, or good estate; an angry man his revenge: a parasite his gut; ambitious, honours; covetous, wealth; a thief his booty; a soldier his spoil; we abhor diseases, and yet we pull them upon us." We are never better or freer from cares than when we sleep, and yet, which we so much avoid and lament, death is but a perpetual sleep; and why should it, as [3876]Epicurus argues, so much affright us? "When we are, death is not: but when death is, then we are not:" our life is tedious and troublesome unto him that lives best; [3877]"'tis a misery to be born, a pain to live, a trouble to die:" death makes an end of our miseries, and yet we cannot consider of it; a little before [3878]Socrates drank his portion of cicuta, he bid the citizens of Athens cheerfully farewell, and concluded his speech with this short sentence; "My time is now come to be gone, I to my death, you to live on; but which of these is best, G.o.d alone knows." For there is no pleasure here but sorrow is annexed to it, repentance follows it. [3879]"If I feed liberally, I am likely sick or surfeit: if I live sparingly my hunger and thirst is not allayed; I am well neither full nor fasting; if I live honest, I burn in l.u.s.t;" if I take my pleasure, I tire and starve myself, and do injury to my body and soul.

[3880]"Of so small a quant.i.ty of mirth, how much sorrow? after so little pleasure, how great misery?" 'Tis both ways troublesome to me, to rise and go to bed, to eat and provide my meat; cares and contentions attend me all day long, fears and suspicions all my life. I am discontented, and why should I desire so much to live? But a happy death will make an end of all our woes and miseries; _omnibus una meis certa medela malis_; why shouldst not thou then say with old Simeon since thou art so well affected, "Lord now let thy servant depart in peace:" or with Paul, "I desire to be dissolved, and to be with Christ"? _Beata mors quae ad beatam vitam aditum aperit_, 'tis a blessed hour that leads us to a [3881]blessed life, and blessed are they that die in the Lord. But life is sweet, and death is not so terrible in itself as the concomitants of it, a loathsome disease, pain, horror, &c. and many times the manner of it, to be hanged, to be broken on the wheel, to be burned alive. [3882]Servetus the heretic, that suffered in Geneva, when he was brought to the stake, and saw the executioner come with fire in his hand, _h.o.m.o viso igne tam horrendum exclamavit, ut universum populum perterrefecerit_, roared so loud, that he terrified the people. An old stoic would have scorned this. It troubles some to be unburied, or so:

------"non te optima mater Condet humi, patriove onerabit membra sepulchro; Alitibus linguere feris, et gurgite mersum Unda feret, piscesque impasti vulnera lambent."

"Thy gentle parents shall not bury thee, Amongst thine ancestors entomb'd to be, But feral fowl thy carca.s.s shall devour, Or drowned corps hungry fish maws shall scour."

As Socrates told Crito, it concerns me not what is done with me when I am dead; _Facilis jactura sepulchri_: I care not so long as I feel it not; let them set mine head on the pike of Tenerife, and my quarters in the four parts of the world,--_pascam licet in cruce corvos_, let wolves or bears devour me;--[3883]_Caelo tegitur qui non habet urnam_, the canopy of heaven covers him that hath no tomb. So likewise for our friends, why should their departure so much trouble us? They are better as we hope, and for what then dost thou lament, as those do whom Paul taxed in his time, 1 Thes. iv. 13.

"that have no hope"? 'Tis fit there should be some solemnity.

[3884] "Sed sepelire decet defunctum, pectore forti, Constantes, unumque diem fletui indulgentes."

Job's friends said not a word to him the first seven days, but let sorrow and discontent take their course, themselves sitting sad and silent by him.

When Jupiter himself wept for Sarpedon, what else did the poet insinuate, but that some sorrow is good

[3885] "Quis matrem nisi mentis inops in funere nati Flere vetat?"------

who can blame a tender mother if she weep for her children? Beside, as [3886]Plutarch holds, 'tis not in our power not to lament, _Indolentia non cuivis contingit_, it takes away mercy and pity, not to be sad; 'tis a natural pa.s.sion to weep for our friends, an irresistible pa.s.sion to lament and grieve. "I know not how" (saith Seneca) "but sometimes 'tis good to be miserable in misery: and for the most part all grief evacuates itself by tears,"

[3887] ------"est quaedam flere voluptas, Expletur lachrymis egeriturque dolor:"

"yet after a day's mourning or two, comfort thyself for thy heaviness,"

Eccles. x.x.xviii. 17. [3888]_Non decet defunctum ignavo quaestu prosequi_; 'twas Germanicus' advice of old, that we should not dwell too long upon our pa.s.sions, to be desperately sad, immoderate grievers, to let them tyrannise, there's _indolentiae, ars_, a medium to be kept: we do not (saith [3889]Austin) forbid men to grieve, but to grieve overmuch. "I forbid not a man to be angry, but I ask for what cause he is so? Not to be sad, but why is he sad? Not to fear, but wherefore is he afraid?" I require a moderation as well as a just reason. [3890]The Romans and most civil commonwealths have set a time to such solemnities, they must not mourn after a set day, "or if in a family a child be born, a daughter or son married, some state or honour be conferred, a brother be redeemed from his bands, a friend from his enemies," or the like, they must lament no more.

And 'tis fit it should be so; to what end is all their funeral pomp, complaints, and tears? When Socrates was dying, his friends Apollodorus and Crito, with some others, were weeping by him, which he perceiving, asked them what they meant: [3891]"for that very cause he put all the women out of the room, upon which words of his they were abashed, and ceased from their tears." Lodovicus Cortesius, a rich lawyer of Padua (as [3892]

Bernardinus Scardeonius relates) commanded by his last will, and a great mulct if otherwise to his heir, that no funeral should be kept for him, no man should lament: but as at a wedding, music and minstrels to be provided; and instead of black mourners, he took order, [3893]"that twelve virgins clad in green should carry him to the church." His will and testament was accordingly performed, and he buried in St. Sophia's church. [3894]Tully was much grieved for his daughter Tulliola's death at first, until such time that he had confirmed his mind with some philosophical precepts, [3895]"then he began to triumph over fortune and grief, and for her reception into heaven to be much more joyed than before he was troubled for her loss." If a heathen man could so fortify himself from philosophy, what shall a Christian from divinity? Why dost thou so macerate thyself? 'Tis an inevitable chance, the first statute in Magna Charta, an everlasting Act of Parliament, all must [3896]die.

[3897] "Constat aeterna positumque lege est, Ut constet genitum nihil."

It cannot be revoked, we are all mortal, and these all commanding G.o.ds and princes "die like men:"[3898]--_involvit humile pariter et celsum caput, aquatque summis infima_. "O weak condition of human estate," Sylvius exclaims: [3899]Ladislaus, king of Bohemia, eighteen years of age, in the flower of his youth, so potent, rich, fortunate and happy, in the midst of all his friends, amongst so many [3900]physicians, now ready to be [3901]

married, in thirty-six hours sickened and died. We must so be gone sooner or later all, and as Calliopeius in the comedy took his leave of his spectators and auditors, _Vos valete et plaudite, Calliopeius recensui_, must we bid the world farewell (_Exit Calliopeius_), and having now played our parts, for ever be gone. Tombs and monuments have the like fate, _data sunt ipsis quoque fata sepulchris_, kingdoms, provinces, towns, and cities have their periods, and are consumed. In those flouris.h.i.+ng times of Troy, Mycenae was the fairest city in Greece, _Graeciae cunctae imperitabat_, but it, alas, and that [3902]"a.s.syrian Nineveh are quite overthrown:" the like fate hath that Egyptian and Boeotian Thebes, Delos, _commune Graeciae, conciliabulum_, the common council-house of Greece, [3903]and Babylon, the greatest city that ever the sun shone on, hath now nothing but walls and rubbish left. [3904]_Quid Pandioniae restat nisi nomen Athenae_? Thus [3905]Pausanias complained in his times. And where is Troy itself now, Persepolis, Carthage, Cizic.u.m, Sparta, Argos, and all those Grecian cities?