[3547]Invenies aliquem cum percussore jacentem,
Permistum nautis, aut furibus, aut fugitivis.
Which Thomas Erastus objects to Paracelsus, that he would be drinking all day long with carmen and tapsters in a brothel-house, is too frequent among us, with men of better note: like Timocreon of Rhodes, multa bibens, et multa vorans, &c. They drown their wits, seethe their brains in ale, consume their fortunes, lose their time, weaken their temperatures, contract filthy diseases, rheums, dropsies, calentures, tremor, get swollen jugulars, pimpled red faces, sore eyes, &c.; heat their livers, alter their complexions, spoil their stomachs, overthrow their bodies; for drink drowns more than the sea and all the rivers that fall into it (mere funges and casks), confound their souls, suppress reason, go from Scylla to Charybdis, and use that which is a help to their undoing. [3548]Quid refert morbo an ferro pereamve ruina? [3549]When the Black Prince went to set the exiled king of Castile into his kingdom, there was a terrible battle fought between the English and the Spanish: at last the Spanish fled, the English followed them to the river side, where some drowned themselves to avoid their enemies, the rest were killed. Now tell me what difference is between drowning and killing? As good be melancholy still, as drunken beasts and beggars. Company a sole comfort, and an only remedy to all kind of discontent, is their sole misery and cause of perdition. As Hermione lamented in Euripides, malae mulieres me fecerunt malam. Evil company marred her, may they justly complain, bad companions have been their bane. For, [3550]malus malum vult ut sit sui similis; one drunkard in a company, one thief, one whoremaster, will by his goodwill make all the rest as bad as himself,
[3551]———Et si
Nocturnos jures te formidare vapores,
SECT. III. MEMB. I.
A Consolatory Digression, containing the Remedies of all manner of Discontents.
Because in the preceding section I have made mention of good counsel, comfortable speeches, persuasion, how necessarily they are required to the cure of a discontented or troubled mind, how present a remedy they yield, and many times a sole sufficient cure of themselves; I have thought fit in this following section, a little to digress (if at least it be to digress in this subject), to collect and glean a few remedies, and comfortable speeches out of our best orators, philosophers, divines, and fathers of the church, tending to this purpose. I confess, many have copiously written of this subject, Plato, Seneca, Plutarch, Xenophon, Epictetus, Theophrastus, Xenocrates, Grantor, Lucian, Boethius: and some of late, Sadoletus, Cardan, Budaeus, Stella, Petrarch, Erasmus, besides Austin, Cyprian, Bernard, &c. And they so well, that as Hierome in like case said, si nostrum areret ingenium, de illorum posset fontibus irrigari, if our barren wits were dried up, they might be copiously irrigated from those well-springs: and I shall but actum agere; yet because these tracts are not so obvious and common, I will epitomise, and briefly insert some of their divine precepts, reducing their voluminous and vast treatises to my small scale; for it were otherwise impossible to bring so great vessels into so little a creek. And although (as Cardan said of his book de consol.) [3553]“I know beforehand, this tract of mine many will contemn and reject; they that are fortunate, happy, and in flourishing estate, have no need of such consolatory speeches; they that are miserable and unhappy, think them insufficient to ease their grieved minds, and comfort their misery:” yet I will go on; for this must needs do some good to such as are happy, to bring them to a moderation, and make them reflect and know themselves, by seeing the inconstancy of human felicity, others' misery; and to such as are distressed, if they will but attend and consider of this, it cannot choose but give some content and comfort. [3554]“'Tis true, no medicine can cure all diseases, some affections of the mind are altogether incurable; yet these helps of art, physic, and philosophy must not be contemned.” Arrianus and Plotinus are stiff in the contrary opinion, that such precepts can do little good. Boethius himself cannot comfort in some cases, they will reject such speeches like bread of stones, Insana stultae mentis haec solatia. [3555]
“Words add no courage,” which [3556]Catiline once said to his soldiers, “a captain's oration doth not make a coward a valiant man:” and as Job [3557] feelingly said to his friends, “you are but miserable comforters all.” 'Tis to no purpose in that vulgar phrase to use a company of obsolete sentences, and familiar sayings: as [3558]Plinius Secundus, being now sorrowful and heavy for the departure of his dear friend Cornelius Rufus, a Roman senator, wrote to his fellow Tiro in like case, adhibe solatia, sed nova aliqua, sed fortia, quae audierim nunquam, legerim nunquam: nam quae audivi, quae legi omnia, tanto dolore superantur, either say something that I never read nor heard of before, or else hold thy peace. Most men will here except trivial consolations, ordinary speeches, and known persuasions in this behalf will be of small force; what can any man say that hath not been said? To what end are such paraenetical discourses? you may as soon remove Mount Caucasus, as alter some men's affections. Yet sure I think they cannot choose but do some good, and comfort and ease a little, though it be the same again, I will say it, and upon that hope I will adventure. [3559]Non meus hic sermo, 'tis not my speech this, but of Seneca, Plutarch, Epictetus, Austin, Bernard, Christ and his Apostles. If I make nothing, as [3560]Montaigne said in like case, I will mar nothing; 'tis not my doctrine but my study, I hope I shall do nobody wrong to speak what I think, and deserve not blame in imparting my mind. If it be not for thy ease, it may for mine own; so Tully, Cardan, and Boethius wrote de consol. as well to help themselves as others; be it as it may I will essay.
Discontents and grievances are either general or particular; general are wars, plagues, dearths, famine, fires, inundations, unseasonable weather, epidemical diseases which afflict whole kingdoms, territories, cities; or peculiar to private men, [3561]as cares, crosses, losses, death of friends, poverty, want, sickness, orbities, injuries, abuses, &c. Generally all discontent, [3562]homines quatimur fortunae, salo. No condition free, quisque suos patimur manes. Even in the midst of our mirth and jollity, there is some grudging, some complaint; as [3563]he saith, our whole life is a glycypicron, a bitter sweet passion, honey and gall mixed together, we are all miserable and discontent, who can deny it? If all, and that it be a common calamity, an inevitable necessity, all distressed, then as Cardan infers, [3564]“who art thou that hopest to go free? Why dost thou not grieve thou art a mortal man, and not governor of the world?” Ferre quam sortem patiuntur omnes, Nemo recuset, [3565]“If it be common to all, why should one man be more disquieted than another?” If thou alone wert distressed, it were indeed more irksome, and less to be endured; but when the calamity is common, comfort thyself with this, thou hast more fellows, Solamen miseris socios habuisse doloris; 'tis not thy sole case, and why shouldst thou be so impatient? [3566]“Aye, but alas we are more miserable than others, what shall we do? Besides private miseries, we live in perpetual fear and danger of common enemies: we have Bellona's whips, and pitiful outcries, for epithalamiums; for pleasant music, that fearful noise of ordnance, drums, and warlike trumpets still sounding in our ears; instead of nuptial torches, we have firing of towns and cities; for triumphs, lamentations; for joy, tears.” [3567]“So it is, and so it was, and so it ever will be. He that refuseth to see and hear, to suffer this, is not fit to live in this world, and knows not the common condition of all men, to whom so long as they live, with a reciprocal course, joys and sorrows are annexed, and succeed one another.” It is inevitable, it may not be avoided, and why then shouldst thou be so much troubled? Grave nihil est homini quod fert necessitas, as [3568]Tully deems out of an old poet, “that which is necessary cannot be grievous.” If it be so, then comfort thyself in this, [3569]“that whether thou wilt or no, it must be endured:” make a virtue of necessity, and conform thyself to undergo it. [3570]Si longa est, levis est; si gravis est, brevis est. If it be long, 'tis light; if grievous, it cannot last. It will away, dies dolorem minuit, and if nought else, time will wear it out; custom will ease it; [3571] oblivion is a common medicine for all losses, injuries, griefs, and detriments whatsoever, [3572]“and when they are once past, this commodity comes of infelicity, it makes the rest of our life sweeter unto us:” [3573] Atque haec olim meminisse juvabit, “recollection of the past is pleasant:” “the privation and want of a thing many times makes it more pleasant and delightsome than before it was.” We must not think the happiest of us all to escape here without some misfortunes,