Anthonius Lodovicus, in his book de pudore, will have this subtil bloud to arise in the face, not so much for the reverence of our betters in presence, but for joy and pleasure, or if any thing at unawares shall pass from us, a sudden accident, occurse, or meeting: (which Disarius in Macrobius confirms) any object heard or seen, for blind men never blush, as Dandinus observes, the night & darkness make men impudent. Or that we be staid before our betters, or in company we like not, or if any thing molest and offend us, erubescentia turnes to rubor, blushing to a continuate redness.

Sometimes the extremity of the ears tingle, and are red, sometimes the whole face, Etsi nihil vitiosum commiseris, as Lodovicus holds: though Aristotle is of opinion, omnis pudor ex vitio commisso, All shame for some offence. But we finde otherwise, it may as well proceed from fear, from force and inexperience, (so Dandinus holds) as vice; a hot liver, saith Duretus (notis in Hollerium): From a hot brain, from wind, the lungs heated, or after drinking of wine, strong drink, perturbations, &c.

Laughter what it is, saith Tully, how caused where, and so suddenly breaks out, that desirous to stay it, we cannot, how it comes to possess and stirre our face, veines, eyes, countenance, mouth, sides, let Democritus determine. The cause that it often affects melancholy men so much, is given by Gomesius lib. 3. de sale genial. cap. 18. abundance of pleasant vapours, which in sanguine melancholy especially, break from the heart, and tickle the midriffe, because it is transverse and full of nerves: by which titillation the sense being moved, and arteries distended, or pulled, the spirits from thence move and possess the sides, vaines, countenance, eyes. See more in Jossius de risu & fletu, Vives 3 de Animâ. Tears, as Scaliger defines, proceed from grief and pity, or from the heating of a moist brain, for a dry cannot weep.

That they see and hear so many phantasmes, chimeræs, noyses, visions, &c. as Fienus hath discoursed at large in his book of imagination, & Lavater de spectris part. 1. cap. 2. 3. 4. their corrupt phantasie makes them see & hear that which indeed is neither heard nor seen, Qui multum jejunant, aut noctes ducunt insomnes, they that much fast, or want sleep, as melancholy or sick men commonly do, see visions, or such as are weak-sighted, very timorous by nature, mad, distracted, or earnestly seek. Sabini quod volunt somniant, as the saying is, they dream of that they desire.

Like Sarmiento the Spaniard, who when he was sent to discover the Streights of Magellan, and Confine places, by the Prorex of Peru, standing on the top of an Hill, Amænissimam planitiem despicere sibi visus fuit, ædificia magnifica, quamplurimos Pagos, altas Turres, splendida Templa, and brave Cities, built like ours in Europe, not saith mine Author, that there was any such thing, but that he was vanissimus & nimis credulus, and would fain have had it so.

Or as Lod. Mercatus proves, by reason of inward vapours, and humours from bloud, choler, &c. diversly mixt, they apprehend and see outwardly, as they suppose, divers images, which indeed are not. As they that drink wine think all runs round, when it is in their own brain; so is it with these men, the fault and cause is inward, as Galen affirmes, mad men and such as are near death, quas extra se videre putant Imagines, intra oculos habent, ’tis in their brain, which seemes to be before them; the brain as a concave glas reflects solid bodies. Senes etiam decrepiti cerebrum habent concavum & aridum, ut imaginentur se videre saith Boissardus, quæ non sunt, old men are too frequently mistaken and dote in like case:

or as he that looketh through a piece of red glass, judgeth every thing he sees to be red; corrupt vapours mounting from the body to the head, and distilling again from thence to the eyes, when they have mingled themselves with the watry crystal which receiveth the shadows of things to be seen, make all things appear of the same colour which remains in the humour that overspreds our sight, as to melancholy men all is black, to phlegmatick all white &c. Or else as before the Organs corrupt by a corrupt phantasy, as Lemnius lib. 1. cap. 16. well quotes, cause a great agitation of spirits, and humors, which wander to and fro in all the creeks of the brain, and cause such apparations before their eyes.

One thinks he reads something written in the moon, as Pythagoras is said to have done of old, another smels brimstone, hears Cerberus bark: Orestes now mad supposed he saw the furies tormenting him, and his mother still ready to run upon him.

O mater obsecro noli me persequi His furiis, aspectu anguineis, horribilibus, Ecce ecce me invadunt, in me jam ruunt.

but Electra told him thus raving in his mad fit, he saw no such sights at all, it was but his crased imagination.

Quiesce, quiesce miser in linteis tuis, Non cernis etenim quæ videre te putas.

So Pentheus (in Bacchis Euripidis) saw two suns, two Thebes, his brain alone was troubled. Sickness is an ordinarie cause of such sights. Cardan subtil. 8. Mens ægra laboribus & jejuniis fracta, facit eos videre, audire, &c. And. Osiander beheld strange visions, and Alexander ab Alexandro both, in their sickness, which he relates de rerum varietat. lib. 8 cap. 44. Albategnius that noble Arabian on his death bed, saw a ship ascending and descending, which Fracastorius records of his friend Baptista Tirrianus.

Weak sight and vaine perswasion withall, may effect as much, and second causes concurring, as an oare in water makes a refraction, and seems bigger, bended double, &c. The thickness of the aire may cause such effects, or any object not well discerned in the dark, fear and phantasie will suspect to be a Ghost, a devil, &c. Quod nimis miseri timent, hoc facile credunt, we are apt to beleeve, and mistake in such cases. Marcellus Donatus, lib. 2. cap. 1. brings in a storie out of Aristotle, of one Antepheron which likely saw wheresoever he was, his own image in the aire, as in a glass.