The First Section. Member. Subsection. The Preface.

There will not be wanting, I presume, one or other that will much discommend some part of this Treatise of Love-Melancholy, and object (which Erasmus in his Preface to Sʳ Thomas Moore suspects of his) that it is too light for a Divine, too Commical a subject to speak of Love-Symptomes, too phantastical, and fit alone for a wanton Poet, a feeling young love-sick gallant, an effeminate Courtier, or some such idle person.

And tis true they say: for by the naughtiness of men it is so come to pass, as Caussinus observes, ut castis auribus vox amoris suspecta sit, & invisa, the very name of love is odious to chaster ears: And therefore some again out of an affected gravity will dislike all for the names sake before they read a word; dissembling with him in Petronius, and seem to be angry that their ears are violated with such obscene speeches, that so they may be admired for grave Philosophers, and staid carriage.

They cannot abide to hear talk of Love toies, or amorous discourses, vultu, gestu, oculis in their outward actions averse, and yet in their cogitations they are all out as bad, if not worse then others.

Erubuit, posuitq; meum Lucretia librum, Sed coram Bruto, Brute recede, legit.

But let these cavillers and counterfeit Cato’s know, that as the Lord John answered the Queen in that Italian Guazzo, An old, a grave discreet man is fittest to discourse of love matters, because he hath likely more experience, observed more, hath a more staid judgment, can better discern, resolve, discusse, advise, give better cautions, and more solid precepts, better inform his auditors in such a subject, and by reason of his riper years sooner divert.

Besides, nihil in hac amoris voce subtimendum, there is nothing here to be excepted at; Love is a species of melancholy, and a necessary part of this my Treatise, which I may not omit; operi suscepto inserviendum fuit; so Jacobus Mycillus pleadeth for himself in his translation of Lucians Dialogues, and so do I; I must and will perform my task. And that short Excuse of Mercerus, for his edition of Aristænetus shall be mine, If I have spent my time ill to write, let not them be so idle as to read.

But I am perswaded it is not so ill spent, I ought not to excuse or repent my self of this subject, on which many grave and worthy men have written whole volumns, Plato, Plutarch, Plotinus, Maximus, Tyrius, Alcinous, Avicenna, Leon Hebreus in three large Dialogues, Xenophon sympos. Theophrastus, if we may believe Athenæus lib. 13. cap 9. Picus Mirandula, Marius Æquicola, both in Italian, Kornmannus de linea Amoris, lib. 3. Petrus Godefridus hath handled in three books, P. Hædus,

and which almost every Physitian, as Arnoldus, Villanovanus, Valleriola observat. med. lib. 2. observ. 7. Ælian Montaltus, and Laurentius in their Treatises of Melancholy, Jason Pratensis de morb. cap. Valescus de Taranta, Gordonius, Hercules de Saxonia, Savanarola, Langius, &c. have treated of apart, and in their works. I excuse my self therefore with Peter Godefridus, Valleriola, Ficinus, and in Langius words. Cadmus Milesius writ fourteen books of Love, and why should I be ashamed to write an Epistle in favour of young men, of this subject?

A company of stern Readers dislike the second of the Æneads, and Virgils gravity, for inserting such amorous passions in an heroical subject; But Servius his Commentator justly vindicates the Poets worth, wisdome, and discretion in doing as he did. Castalio would not have young men read the Canticles, because to his thinking it was too light and amorous a tract, a Ballade of Ballades, as our old English translation hath it.

He might as well forbid the reading of Genesis, because of the loves of Jacob and Rachel, the stories of Sichem and Dinah, Judah and Thamar; reject the book of Numbers, for the fornications of the people of Israel with the Moabites; that of Judges for Sampson and Dalilahs embracings; that of the Kings, for David and Bersheba’s adulteries, the incest of Ammon and Thamar, Solomons Concubines, &c. The stories of Esther, Judith, Susanna, and many such.

Dicearchus, and some other carp at Plato’s majesty, that he would vouchsafe to indite such love toyes; amongst the rest, for that dalliance with Agatho,

Suavia dans Agathoni, animam ipse in labra tenebam; Ægra etenim properans tanquam abitura fuit.

For my part saith Maximus Tyrius, a great Platonist himself, me non tantum admiratio habet, sed etiam stupor, I do not only admire, but stand amazed to read, that Plato and Socrates both should expell Homer from their City, because he writ of such light and wanton subjects, Quod Iunonem cum Iove in Ida concumbentes inducit, ab immortali nube contectos, Vulcans net, Mars and Venus fopperies before all the Gods, because Apollo fled, when he was persecuted by Achilles, the Gods were wounded and ran whining away, as Mars that roared lowder then Stentor, and covered nine akers of ground with his fall;

Vulcan was a summers day falling down from heaven, and in Lemnos Ile brake his leg, &c. with such ridiculous passages; when as both Socrates and Plato, by his testimony writ lighter themselves: quid enim tam distat (as he follows it) quam amans à temperante, formarum admirator à demente, what can be more absurd then for grave Philosophers to treate of such fooleries, to admire Autiloquus, Alcibiades, for their beauties as they did, to run after, to gaze, to dote on fair Phædrus, delicate Agatho, young Lysis, fine Charmides, hæccine Philosophum decent? Doth this become grave Philosophers?