MEMB. 2. SUBSETC. 1. Love of men, which varies as his objects, profitable, pleasant, honest.

Valesius lib. 3. contr. 13. defines this love which is in men, to be an affection of both powers, Appetite, and Reason. The rational resides in the Brain, the other in the Liver (as before hath been said out of Plato and others) the heart is diversly affected of both, and carried a thousand waies by consent. The sensitive faculty most part over-rules reason, the Soul is carried hood-winkt, and the understanding captive like a beast.

The heart is variously inclin’d, sometimes they are merry, sometimes sad, and from love arise Hope and Fear, Jealousie, Fury, Desperation. Now this love of men is divers, and varies, as the object varies, by which they are enticed, as vertue, wisdome, eloquence, profit, wealth, money, fame, honour, or comeliness of person, &c.

Leon Hebreus in his first Dialogue, reduceth them all to these three, Utile, Jucundum, Honestum, Profitable, Pleasant, Honest; (out of Aristotle belike 8. moral.) of which he discourseth at large, and whatsoever is beautifull and fair, is referred to them, or any way to be desired. To profitable, is ascribed health, wealth, honour, &c. which is rather Ambition, Desire, Covetousness, then Love: Friends, Children, love of women, all delightfull and pleasant objects, are referred to the second.

The love of honest things, consists in vertue and wisdome, and is preferred before that which is profitable and pleasant: Intellectuall, about that which is honest. St. Austin calls profitable, worldly; pleasant, carnal; honest, spirituall. Of and from all three, result Charity, Friendship, and true love, which respects God and our neighbour. Of each of these I will briefly dilate, and shew in what sort they cause melancholy.

Amongst all these fair entising objects, which procure Love, and bewitch the Soul of man, there is none so moving, so forcible as profit, and that which carrieth with it a shew of commodity. Health indeed is a pretious thing, to recover and preserve which we will undergo any misery, drink bitter potions, freely give our goods: restore a man to his health, his purse lies open to thee, bountifull he is, thankfull and beholding to thee;

but give him wealth and honour, give him gold, or what shall be for his advantage and preferment, and thou shalt command his affections, oblige him eternally to thee, heart, hand, life and all is at thy service, thou art his dear and loving friend, good and gracious Lord and Master, his Mæcenas; he is thy slave, thy vassall, most devote, affectioned, and bound in all duty: tell him good tydings in this kinde, there spoke an Angel, a blessed hour that brings in gain, he is thy creature, and thou his creator, he hugges and admires thee; he is thine for ever.

No Loadstone so attractive as that of profit, no so fair an object as this of gold: nothing wins a man sooner then a good turn; bounty and liberality command body and soul:

Munera (crede mihi) placant hominesq; deosque; Placatur donis Jupiter ipse datis.

Good turns do pacifie both God and men, And Jupiter himself is won by them.

Gold of all other is a most delitious object, a sweet sight, a goodly lustre it hath; gratius aurum quàm solem intuemur, saith Austin, and we had rather see it then the Sun. Sweet and pleasant in getting, in keeping; it seasons all our labours, intolerable pains we take for it, base imployments, endure bitter flouts and taunts, long journeys, heavy burdens, all are made light and easie by this hope of gain; At mihi plaudo ipse domi, simulac nummos contemplor in arca.

The sight of gold refresheth our spirits, and ravisheth our hearts, as that Babylonian garment, and golden wedge did Achan in the camp, the very sight and hearing, sets on fire his soul with desire of it. It will make a man run to the Antipodes, or tarry at home and turn parasite, lye, flatter, prostitute himself, swear and bear false witness; he will venture his body, kill a King, murther his father, and damn his soul to come at it. Formosior auri massa, as he well observed, the mass of gold is fairer then all your Græcian pictures, that Apelles, Phydias, or any doting painter could ever make: we are enamoured with it,

Prima ferè vota, & cunctis notissima templis, Divitiæ ut crescant. ———

All our labours, studies, endeavours, vows, prayers and wishes, are to get, how to compass it.

Hæc est illa cui famulatur maximus orbis, Diva potens rerum, domitrixq; pecunia fati.

This is the great Goddesse we adore and worship, this is the sole object of our desire. If we have it, as we think, we are made for ever, thrice happy, Princes, Lords, &c. If we lose it, we are dull, heavy, dejected, discontent, miserable, desperate and mad. Our estate and benè esse ebbs and flows with our commodity; and as we are endowed or enriched, so are we beloved and esteemed: it lasts no longer then our wealth; when that is gone, and the object removed, farewell friendship:

as long as bounty, good cheer, and rewards were to be hoped, friends enough; they were tied to thee by the teeth, and would follow thee as Crows do a Carcass: but when thy goods are gone and spent, the lamp of their love is out, and thou shalt be contemned, scorned, hated, injured.

Lucians Timon, when he lived in prosperity, was the sole spectacle of Greece, onely admired; who but Timon? Every body loved, honoured, applauded him, each man offered him his service, and sought to be kin to him; but when his gold was spent, his fair possessions gone, farewell Timon: none so ugly, none so deformed, so odious an abject as Timon, no man so ridiculous on a sudden, they gave him a penny to buy a rope, no man would know him.

’Tis the generall humour of the world, commodity steers our affections throughout, we love those that are fortunate and rich, that thrive, or by whom we may receive mutuall kindness, hope for like curtesies, get any good, gain, or profit; hate those, and abhor on the other side, which are poor and miserable, or by whom we may sustain loss or inconvenience.

And even those that were now familiar and dear unto us, our loving and long friends, neighbours, kinsmen, allies, with whom we have conversed and lived as so many Geryons for some years past, striving still to give one another all good content and entertainment, with mutual invitations, feastings, disports, offices, for whom we would ride, run, spend our selves, and of whom we have so freely and honourably spoken, to whom we have given all those turgent titles, and magnificent elogiums, most excellent and most noble, worthy, wise, grave, learned, valiant, &c. and magnified beyond measure:

If any controversie arise betwixt us, some trespass, injury, abuse, some part of our goods be detained, a peece of Land come to be litigious, if they cross us in our suit, or touch the string of our commodity, we detest and depress them upon a sudden: neither affinity, consanguinity, or old acquaintance can contain us, but rupto jecore exierit Caprificus. A golden apple sets altogether by the ears, as if a marrow bone, or hony comb were flung amongst Bears: Father and Son, Brother and Sister, kinsmen are at odds:

and look what malice, deadly hatred can invent, that shall be done, Terribile, dirum, pestilens, atrox, ferum, mutuall injuries, desire of revenge, and how to hurt them, him and his, are all our studies. If our pleasures be interrupt, we can tolerate it: our bodies hurt, we can put it up and be reconciled:

but touch our commodities, we are most impatient; fair becomes foul, the Graces are turned to Harpyes, friendly salutations to bitter imprecations, mutuall feastings to plotting villanies, minings and counterminings; good words to Satyres and invectives, we revile e contra, nought but his imperfections are in our eyes, he is a base knave, a Divel, a Monster, a Caterpiller, a Viper, an Hog-rubber, &c.

Desinit in piscem mulier formosa superne:

The Scene is altered on a sudden, love is turned to hate, mirth to melancholy: so furiously are we most part bent, our affections fixed upon this object of commodity, and upon money, the desire of which in excess is covetousness: Ambition tyrannizeth over our souls, as I have shewed, and in defect crucifies as much, as if a man by negligence, ill husbandry, improvidence, prodigality, waste and consume his goods and fortunes, beggery follows, and melancholy, he becomes an abject, odious and worse then an Infidel, in not providing for his family.