MEMB. 2. SUBSECT. 1. Causes of Heroicall love, Temperature, full Diet, Idleness, Place, Climate, &c.

OF all causes the remotest are stars. Ficinus cap. 19. saith, they are most prone to this burning lust, that have Venus in Leo in their Horoscope, when the Moon and Venus be mutually aspected, or such as be of Venus complexion.

Plutarch interprets Astrologically that tale of Mars and Venus, in whose genitures ♂ and ♀ are in conjunction, they are commonly lascivious, and if women, queanes; as the good wife of Bath confessed in Chaucer;

I followed aye mine inclination, By vertue of my constellation.

But of all those Astrologicall Aphorisms which I have ever read, that of Cardan is most memorable, for which howsoever he be bitterly censured by Marinus Marcennus, a malapert Frier, and some others also, (which he himself suspected) yet me thinks it is free, down right, plain and ingenuous.

In his eighth Geniture or example, he hath these words of himself. ♂ ♀ & ☿ in ☿ dignitatibus assiduam mihi Venereorum cogitationem præstabunt, ita ut nunquam quiescam. Et paulo post, Cogitatio Venereorum me torquet perpetuo, & quam facto implere non licuit, aut fecisse potentem puduit, cogitatione assiduâ mentitus sum voluptatem.

Et alibi, ob ☾ & ☿ dominium & radiorum mixtionem, profundum fuit ingenium, sed lascivum, egoq; turpi libidini deditus & obscœnus. So far Cardan of himself, quod de se fatetur ideo ut utilitatem adferat studiosis hujusce disciplinæ,

and for this he is traduced by Marcennus, when as in effect he saith no more then what Gregory Nazianzen of old, to Chilo his scholar, offerebant se mihi visendæ mulieres, quarum præcellenti elegantiâ & decore conspectabili tentabatur meæ integritas pudicitiæ. Et quidem flagitium vitavi fornicationis, at munditiæ virginalis florem arcanâ cordis cogitatione fœdavi.

Sed ad rem. Aptiores ad masculinam venerem sunt quorum genesi Venus est in signo masculino, & in Saturni finibus aut oppositione, &c. Ptolomæus in quadripart. plura de his & specialia habet Aphorismata, longo proculdubio usu confirmata, & ab experientia multa perfecta, inquit commentator ejus Cardanus.

Tho. Campanella Astrologiæ lib. 4. cap. 8. articulis 4. & 5. insaniam amatoriam remonstrantia, multa præ cæteris accumulat aphorismata, quæ qui volet, consulat. Chiromantici ex cingulo Veneris plerumq; conjecturam faciunt, & monte Veneris, de quorum decretis, Taisnerum, Johan. de Indagine, Goclenium, ceterosq; si lubet, inspicias.

Physitians divine wholly from the temperature and complexion; Phlegmatick persons are seldom taken according to Ficinus Comment. cap. 9. naturally melancholy less then they, but once taken they are never freed; though many are of opinion flatuous or hypocondriacal melancholy are most subject of all others to this infirmity.

Valescus assigns their strong imagination for a cause, Bodine abundance of wind, Gordonius of seed, and spirits, or atomi in the seed, which cause their violent and furious passions. Sanguine then are soon caught, young folks most apt to love, and by their good wills, saith Lucian, would have about with every one they see: the colts evil is common to all complexions.

Theomestus a young and lusty gallant acknowledgeth (in the said Author) all this to be verified in him, I am so amorously given, you may sooner number the Sea sands, and snow falling from the skies, then my severall loves. Cupid had shot all his arrows at me, I am deluded with various desires, one love succeeds another, and that so soon, that before one is ended, I begin with a second; she that is last is still fairest, and she that is present pleaseth me most:

as an Hydra’s head my loves increase, no Iolaus can help me. Mine eyes are so moist a refuge and sanctuary of love, that they draw all beauties to them, and are never satisfied. I am in a doubt what fury of Venus this should be: Alas, how have I offended her so to vex me, what Hippolitus am I! What Telchin is my Genius? or is it a naturall imperfection, an hereditary passion?

Another in Anacreon confesseth that he had twenty sweet-hearts in Athens at once, fifteen at Corinth, as many at Thebes, at Lesbos, and at Rhodes, twice as many in Ionia, thrice in Caria, twenty thousand in all: or in a word, εἰ φύλλα πάντα, &c.

Folia arborum omnium si Nosti referre cuncta, Aut computare arenas In æquore universas, Solum meorum amorum Te fecero logistam:

Canst count the leaves in May, Or sands ith’ Ocean Sea, Then count my loves I pray.

His eys are like a ballance, apt to propend each way, and to be weighed down with every wenches looks, his heart a weathercock, his affection tinder, or Napthe it self, which every fair object, sweet smile, or mistris favor sets on fire.

Guianerius tract. 15. cap. 14. refers all this to the hot temperature of the testicles, Fernandus a Frenchman in his Erotique Mel. (which book came first to my hands after the third Edition) to certain atomi in the seed, such as are very spermatick and full of seed. I finde the same in Aristot. sect. 4. prob. 17. si non secernatur semen, cessare tentigines non possunt, as Guastavinius his Commentator translates it, for which cause these yong men, that be strong set, of able bodies, are so subject to it.

Hercules de Saxonia, hath the same words in effect. But most part I say, such are aptest to love that are young and lusty, live at ease, staul-fed, free from cares, like cattle in a rank pasture, idle and solitary persons, they must needs hirquitullire, as Guastavinius recites out of Censorinus.

Mens erit apta capi tum quum lætissima rerum. Ut seges in pingui luxuriabit humo.

The minde is apt to lust, and hot or cold, As corn luxuriates in a better mold.

The place itself makes much wherein we live, the clime, air, and discipline if they concur. In our Misnia, saith Galen, neer to Pergamus, thou shalt scarce finde an adulterer, but many at Rome, by reason of the delights of the seat.

It was that plenty of all things, which made Corinth so infamous of old, and the opportunity of the place to entertain those forrain commers; every day strangers came in, at each gate, from all quarters. In that one Temple of Venus a thousand whores did prostitute themselves, as Strabo writes, besides Lais and the rest of better note: All nations resorted thither, as to a school of Venus.

Our hot and Southern countries are prone to lust, and far more incontinent then those that live in the North, as Bodine discourseth at large, Method. hist. cap. 5. Molles Asiatici, so are Turks, Greeks, Spaniards, Italians, even all that latitude:

and in those Tracts, such as are more fruitful, plentiful, and delicious, as Valence in Spain, Capua in Italy, domicilium luxus Tully terms it, and (which Hannibals souldiers can witness) Canopus in Ægypt, Sybaris, Phæacia, Baiæ, Cyprus, Lampsacus.

In Naples the fruits of the soyl and pleasant air enervate their bodies, and alter constitutions: insomuch, that Florus calls it Certamen Bacchi & Veneris, but Foliot admires it.

In Italy and Spain, they have their stews in every great City, as in Rome, Venice, Florence, where some say, dwell ninety thousand Inhabitants, of which ten thousand are Curtizans; and yet for all this, every Gentleman almost hath a peculiar Mistris; fornications, adulteries, are nowhere so common: urbs est jam tota lupanar; how should a man live honest among so many provocations?

now if vigor of youth, greatness, liberty I mean, and that impunity of sin which grandies take to themselves in this kinde shall meet, what a gap must it needs open to all manner of vice, with what fury will it rage? For, as Maximus Tyrius the Platonist observes, libido consecuta quum fuerit materiam improbam, & preruptam licentiam, & effrænatam audaciam, &c. what will not lust effect in such persons?

For commonly Princes and great men make no scruple at all of such matters, but with that whore in Spartian, quicquid libet licet, they think they may do what they list, profess it publikely, and rather brag with Proculus (that writ to a friend of his in Rome, what famous exploits he had done in that kind) then any way be abashed at it.