MEMB. 3. SUBSECT. 1. Passions and perturbations of the minde, how they cause Melancholy.

As that Gymnosophist in Plutarch, made answer to Alexander, (demanding which spake best) Every one of his fellows did speak better then the other: so may I say of these causes; to him that shall require which is the greatest, every one is more grievous then other, and this of Passion the greatest of all.

A most frequent and ordinary cause of Melancholy, fulmen perturbationum (Piccolomineus calls it) this thunder and lightning of perturbation, which causeth such violent and speedy alterations in this our Microcosme, and many times subverts the good estate and temperature of it. For as the Body works upon the minde, by his bad humors, troubling the Spirits, sending gross fumes into the Brain; and so per consequens disturbing the Soul, and all the faculties of it,

——Corpus onustum, Hesternis vitiis animum quoque prægravat una,

with fear, sorrow, &c. which are ordinary symptomes of this Disease: so on the other side, the minde most effectually works upon the Body, producing by his passions and perturbations, miraculous alterations; as Melancholy, despair, cruel diseases, and sometimes death it self.

Insomuch, that it is most true which Plato saith in his Charmides: omnia corporis mala ab animâ procedere; all the mischiefes of the body, proceed from the soul: and Democritus in Plutarch urgeth, Damnatam iri animam à corpore, if the Body should in this behalf, bring an action against the Soul, surly the Soul would be cast and convicted, that by her supine negligence, had caused such inconveniences,

having authority over the Body, and using it for an instrument, as a Smith doth his hammer (saith Cyprian) imputing all those vices and maladies to the Minde. Even so doth Philostratus, non coinquinatur corpus, nisi consensu animæ; the Body is not corrupted, but by the Soul. Lodovicus Vives will have such turbulent commotions proceed from Ignorance, and Indiscretion. All Philosophers, impute the miseries of the Body to the Soul, that should have governed it better, by command of reason, and hath not done it.

The Stoicks are altogether of opinion (as Lipsius, and Piccolomineus record) that a wise man should be ἀπαθής, without all maner of passions and perturbations whatsoever, as Seneca reports of Cato, the Greeks of Socrates, and Io. Aubanus of a nation in Africk, so free from passion, or rather so stupid, that if they be wounded with a sword, they will only look back.

Lactantius 2. instit. will exclude fear from a wise man: others except all, some the greatest passions. But let them dispute how they will, set down in Thesi, give precepts to the contrary; we finde that of Lemnius true by common experience; No mortal man is free from these perturbations: Or if he be so, sure he is either a god, or a block.

They are born and bred with us, we have them from our parents by inheritance, A parentibus habemus malum hunc assem, saith Pelezius, Nascitur unâ nobiscum, aliturque, ’tis propagated from Adam, Cain was melancholy, 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, that as a torrent, (torrens velut aggere rupto) bears down all before, and overflows his banks, sternit agros, sternit sata, they overwhelm Reason, Judgment, and pervert the temperature of the Body: Fertur equis auriga, nec audit currus habenas.

Now such a man (saith Austin) that is so led, in a wise mans eye, is no better then he that stands upon his head. It is doubted by some, Gravioresne morbi à perturbationibus, an ab humoribus, whether humors or perturbations cause the more grievous maladies. But we finde that of our Saviour, Mat. 26. 41. most true, The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak, we cannot resist:

And this of Philo Judæus, 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 Winds upon the Sea, some onely move as those great gales, but others turbulent quite overturn the ship.

Those which are light, easie, and more seldom, to our thinking, do us little harm, and are therefore contemned of us: Yet if they be reiterated, as the rain (saith Austin) doth a stone, so do these perturbations penetrate the minde: And (as one observes) produce an 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, Agrippa hath handled at large, Occult. Philos. l. 1. c. 63. Cardan, l. 14. subtil. Lemnius, l. 1. c. 12. de occult. nat. mir. & lib. 1. cap. 16. Suarez, Met. disput. 18. sect. 1. art. 25. T. Bright, cap 12. Of his Melancholy Treatise. Wright the Jesuite, in his Book of the Passions of the Minde, &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 signifie what good or bad object was presented; which immediately bends it self to prosecute, or avoid it; and withal, draweth with it other humors 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 humors in the body be likewise prepared, and the temperature it self ill or well disposed, the passions are longer and stronger: So that the first step and fountain of all our grievances in this kinde, is læsa Imaginatio, which mis-informing the Heart, causeth all these distemperatures, alteration and confusion of spirits and humors.