Canst count the leaves in May,
Or sands i' th' ocean sea?
Then count my loves I pray.
His eyes are like a balance, apt to propend each way, and to be weighed down with every wench's looks, his heart a weathercock, his affection tinder, or naphtha itself, which every fair object, sweet smile, or mistress's favour sets on fire. Guianerius tract 15. cap. 14. refers all this [4770]to “the hot temperature of the testicles,” Ferandus a Frenchman in his Erotique Mel. (which [4771]book came first to my hands after the third edition) to certain atomi in the seed, “such as are very spermatic and full of seed.” I find the same in Aristot. sect. 4. prob. 17. si non secernatur semen, cessare tentigines non possunt, as Gaustavinius his commentator translates it: for which cause these young men that be strong set, of able bodies, are so subject to it. Hercules de Saxonia hath the same words in effect. But most part I say, such as are aptest to love that are young and lusty, live at ease, stall-fed, free from cares, like cattle in a rank pasture, idle and solitary persons, they must needs hirquitullire, as Guastavinius recites out of Censorinus.
[4772]Mens erit apta capi tum quum laetissima rerum.
Ut seges in pingui luxuriabit humo.
The mind is apt to lust, and hot or cold,
As corn luxuriates in a better mould.
[4781]Otium et reges prius et beatas
Perdidit urbes.