Memb. 6. Subsect. 1. Perturbations of the minde rectified. From himself, by resisting to the utmost, confessing his grief to a friend, &c.

Whosoever he is that shall hope to cure this malady in himself or any other, must first rectifie these passions and perturbations of the minde: the chiefest cure consists in them. A quiet mind is that voluptas, or Summum bonum of Epicurus, non dolere, curis vacare, animo tranquillo esse, not to grieve, but to want cares, and have a quiet soul, is the only pleasure of the World, as Seneca truly recites his opinion, not that of eating and drinking, which injurious Aristotle maliciously puts upon him, and for which he is still mistaken, male audit & vapulat, slandred without a cause, and lashed by all posterity.

Fear and Sorrow therefore are especially to be avoided, and the minde to be mitigated with mirth, constancy, good hope; vain terror, bad objects are to be removed, & all such persons in whose companies they be not well pleased. Gualter Bruel. Fernelius consil. 43. Mercurialis consil. 6. Piso, Iacchinus cap. 15. in 9. Rhasis, Capivaccius, Hildisheim, &c. all inculcate this as an especiall means of their cure, that their minds be quietly pacified, vain conceits diverted, if it be possible, with terrors cares, fixed studies, cogitations, and whatsoever it is that shall any way molest or trouble the Soul, because that otherwise there is no good to be done:

The bodies mischiefs, as Plato proves, proceed from the soul: and if the mind be not first satisfied, the body can never be cured. Alcibiades raves (saith Maximus Tyrius) and is sick, his furious desires carry him from Lyceus to the pleading place, thence to the Sea, so into Sicily, thence to Lacedæmon, thence to Persia, thence to Samos, then again to Athens; Critias tyrannizeth over all the city; Sardanapalus is love-sick: these men are ill-affected all, and can never be cured, till their minds be otherwise qualified.

Crato therefore in that often cited Counsell of his for a Noble man his Patient, when he had sufficiently informed him in diet, air, exercise, Venus, sleep, concludes with these as matters of greatest moment, Quod reliquum est, animæ accidentia corrigantur, from which alone proceeds Melancholy; they are the fountain, the subject, the hinges whereon it turns, and must necessarily be reformed.

For anger stirs choler, heats the blood and vital spirits; Sorrow on the other side refrigerates the body, and extinguisheth natural heat, overthrows appetite, hinders concoction, dries up the temperature, and perverts the understanding: Fear dissolves the spirits, infects the heart, attenuates the soul: and for these causes all passions and perturbations must to the uttermost of our power, and most seriously be removed.

Ælianus Montaltus attributes so much to them, that he holds the rectification of them alone to be sufficient to the cure of Melancholy in most patients. Many are fully cured when they have seen or heard, &c. enjoy their desires, or be secured and satisfied in their minds: Galen the common master of them all, from whose fountain they fetch water, brags lib. 1. de san. tuend. that he for his part hath cured divers of this infirmity, solum animis ad rectum institutis, by right setling alone of their minds.

Yea but you will here infer, that this is excellent good indeed if it could be done; but how shall it be effected, by whom, what art, what means? hic labor, hoc opus est. ’Tis a natural infirmity, a most powerful adversary, all men are subject to passions, and Melancholy above all others, as being distempered by their innate humors, abundance of choler adust, weakness of parts, outward occurrences; and how shall they be avoided?

the wisest men, greatest Philosophers of most excellent wit, reason, judgement, divine spirits, cannot moderate themselves in this behalf; such as are sound in body and mind, Stoicks, Heroes, Homers Gods, all are passionate, and furiously carryed sometimes; and how shall we that are already crased, fracti animis, sick in body, sick in mind, resist? we cannot perform it. You may advise and give good precepts, as who cannot? But, how shall they be put in practice?

I may not deny but our passions are violent, and tyrannize of us, yet there be means to curb them; though they be head-strong, they may be tamed, they may be qualified, if he himself or his friends, will but use their honest endevors, or make use of such ordinary helps as are commonly prescribed.

He himself (I say); from the Patient himself the first and chiefest remedy must be had: for if he be averse, peevish, waspish, give way wholly to his passions, will not seek to be helped, or be ruled by his friends, how is it possible he should be cured? But if he be willing at last, gentle, tractable, and desire his own good, no doubt but he may magnam morbi deponere partem, be eased at least, if not cured.

He himself must do his utmost indeavour to resist and withstand the beginnings. Principiis obsta, Give not water passage, no not a little; Eccles. 25. 27. If they open a little, they will make a greater breach at length.

Whatsoever it is that runneth in his mind, vain conceit, be it pleasing or displeasing, which so much affects or troubleth him, by all possible means he must withstand it; expel those vain, false, frivolous imaginations, absurd conceits, fained fears and sorrowes: from which, saith Piso, this disease primarily proceeds, and takes his first occasion or beginning, by doing something or other that shall be opposite unto them, thinking of something else, perswading by reason, or howsoever to make a sudden alteration of them.