 Section 10 of the Anatomy of Melancholy, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org The Anatomy of Melancholy, Volume 1 by Robert Burton Section 10 Democratus Junior to the Reader, Part 8 That which is more to be lamented, they are mad like Seneca's blind woman, and will not acknowledge or seek for any cure of it for palki wident morbum sum, omnes amant. If our leg or arm offend us, we covet by all means possible to redress it, and if we labour of a bodily disease, we send for a physician. But for the diseases of the mind, we take no notice of them. Lust harrows us on the one side, envy, anger, ambition on the other. We are torn in pieces by our passions as so many wild horses, one in disposition, another in habit. One is melancholy, another mad. And which of us all seeks for help, doth acknowledge his error, or knows he is sick? As that stupid fellow put out the candle, because the biting fleas should not find him, he shrouds himself in an unknown habit, borrowed titles, because nobody should discern him. Every man thinks with himself, egomet widior mihi sanus, I am well, I am wise, and laughs at others. And is a general fault amongst them all, that which our forefathers have approved, diet, apparel, opinions, humours, customs, manners, we deride and reject in our time as absurd. Old men account juniors all fools, when they are mere dizzards. And as to sailors, terrei que urbes que requerunt. They move, the land stands still. The world hath much more wit, they don't themselves. Turks deride us, we them, Italians, Frenchmen, accounting them light-headed fellows. The French scoff again, Italians, and at their several customs. Greeks have condemned all the world but themselves of barbarism. The world as much vilifies them now. We account Germans heavy, dull fellows, explode many of their fashions. They, as contemptibly think of us. Spaniards laugh at all, and all again at them. So are we fools and ridiculous, absurd in our actions, carriages, diet, apparel, customs, and consultations. We scoff and point one at another, when, as in conclusion, all are fools, and they the various asses that hide their ears most. A private man, if he be resolved with himself or set on an opinion, accounts all idiots and asses that are not affected as he is. Nilerektum, Nisigwad Plakwit, Sibi, duke it. That are not so minded, quod qu'e wolunt hominés, se bene welle putant, all fools that think not as he doth. He will not say with Atticus, su am quiscue sponsor me he may am, let every man enjoy his own spouse, but his alone is fair, suus amore, etc. And scorns all, in respect of himself, will imitate none. He a none but himself, as Pliny said, a law and example to himself. And that which Hippocrates, in his epistle to Dionysius, reprehended of old, is verified in our times. Quiscue in alio superfluem e secensit, i pse quod known habit, nec qurat. That which he hath not himself, or doth not esteem, he accounts superfluity, an idle quality, a mere phoppery in another, like Esop's fox, when he had lost his tail, would have all his fellow foxes cut off theirs. The Chinese say that we Europeans have one eye, they themselves too, all the world else is blind. Though Scaliga accounts them brutes too, merum peccus. So thou and thy sectaries are only wise, others indifferent. The rest, beside themselves, mere idiots and asses. Thus not acknowledging our own errors and imperfections, we securely deride others, as if we alone were free and spectators of the rest. Accounting it an excellent thing, as indeed it is. Aliena optimum frui insania, to make ourselves merry with other men's obliquities, when, as he himself is more faulty than the rest, mutato nomine, dete fabul anarator. He may take himself by the nose for a fool, and which one calls maximum stiltiti speckimen to be ridiculous to others, and not to perceive or take notice of it, as Marcius was, when he contended with Apollo known in telegen, say, De ridicolo haberi, seith apuleus. Tis his own cause, he is a convicted madman. As Austin well infers, in the eyes of wise men and angels, he seems like one that to our thinking walks with his heels upwards. So thou laughest at me, and I at thee, both that a third, and he returns that of the poet upon us again. Hey, Mihi, insaniere may ayunt, cum ipsi ultra insaniant. We accuse others of madness, of folly, and are the various desards ourselves, for it is a great sign and property of a fool, which Ecclesiastes 10.3 points at, out of pride and self-conceit, to insult, vilify, condemn, censure, and call other men fools, known widemus manticai quadatergo est. To tax that in others, of which we are most faulty, teach that which we follow not ourselves. For an inconstant man to write of constancy, a profane liver prescribed rules of sanctity and piety, a desired himself make a treatise of wisdom, or with salast to rail downright at spoilers of countries, and yet in office to be a most grievous polar himself. This argues weakness, and is an evident sign of such parties in discretion. Pekat uternostrum crukey dignius, who is the fool now? Or else, per adventure, in some places we are all mad for company, and so it is not seen. Satiatas erroris et demantiae, paritair absurditatem et admirationem tolit. Tis with us, as it was of old, in Tully's censure, at least, with Gaius Pimbria in Rome, a bold, harebrained mad fellow, and so esteemed of all, such only accepted that were as mad as himself. Now, in such a case, there is no notice taken of it. Nimerum insanus palchis videator, eo quod maxima pas hominum morbo yactatur eo dem. When all are mad, where all are like oppressed, who can discern one madman from the rest? But put case, they do perceive it, and some one be manifestly convicted of madness. He now takes notice of his folly, be it in action, gesture, speech, a vain humour he hath in building, bragging, jangling, spending, gaming, courting, scribbling, prating, for which he is ridiculous to others, on which he dotes. He doth acknowledge as much. Yet, with all the rhetoric thou hast, thou canst not so recall him, but, to the contrary, notwithstanding, he will persevere in his dotage. Tis amabilis insania et mentis gratisimus error, so pleasing, so delicious, that he cannot leave it. He knows his error, but will not seek to decline it. Tell him what the event will be, beggary, sorrow, sickness, disgrace, shame, loss, madness. Yet an angry man will prefer vengeance, a lascivious his whore, a thief his booty, a glutton his belly, before his welfare. Tell an epicure, a covetous man, an ambitious man, of his irregular course, wean him from it a little. Pol, may ochi dis dis amici, he cries anon. You have undone him, and as a dog to his vomit, he returns to it again. No persuasion will take place. No counsel, say what thou canst. Clames liket et mare kylo, confundas surdo naras. Demonstrate, as Ulysses did, to Alpina and Gryllus, and the rest of his companions, those swinish men, he is irrefragable in his humour. He will be a hog-steal. Bray him in a mortar, he will be the same. If he be in an heresy, or some perverse opinion, settled as some of our ignorant papists are, convince his understanding, show him the several follies and absurd phopperies of that sect. Force him to say, where he swing-core, make it as clear as the sun, he will err still, peevish and obstinate as he is. And, as he said, si in hoke ero, li benter ero, neck honker orem al ferri mihi wallo, I will do as I have done, as my predecessors have done, and as my friends now do, I will dote for company. Say now, are these men mad or no? Huse aghe responde, are they ridiculous? Quiro quemvis arbitrum, are they sanay mentis, sober, wise and discreet? Have they common sense? Or ter est insani or horem? I am of democracy's opinion. For my part, I hold them worthy to be laughed at. A company of brain-sick desires, as mad as Orestes and Athamas, that they may go ride the ass, and all sail along to the Antichyri in the ship of fools for company together. I need not much labour to prove this which I say, otherwise than thus, make any solemn protestation or swear, I think you will believe me without an oath. Say at a word, are they fools? I refer it to you, though you be likewise fools and madmen yourselves, and I as mad to ask the question, for what said our comical Mercury? Justum abinustis petere insipentia est. I'll stand to your censure yet. What think you? But for as much as I undertook at first, that kingdoms, provinces, families were melancholy as well as private men, I will examine them in particular, and that which I have hitherto dilated at random, in more general terms, I will particularly insist in, prove with more special and evident arguments, testimonies, illustrations, and that in brief. Nunc acipe quare decipient omnes aque actu. My first argument is borrowed from Solomon, an arrow drawn out of his sententious quiver, Proverbs 3.7 Be not wise in thine own eyes, and 26.12 Seest thou a man wise in his own conceit, more hope is of a fool than of him. Isaiah pronouncedeth a woe against such men, Chapter 5.21, that are wise in their own eyes and prudent in their own sight, for hence we may gather that it is a great offence, men are much deceived that think too well of themselves, and a special argument to convince them of folly. Many men, saith Seneca, had been without question wise, had they not an opinion that they had attained to perfection of knowledge already, even before they had gone half-way, too forward, too right, pry properly, too quick and ready, chito prudentes, chito pii, chito mariti, chito patres, chito sacerdotes, chito omnis of fikiikapakes et kuriosi. They had too good a conceit of themselves, and that marred all. Of their worth, valour, skill, art, learning, judgement, eloquence, their good parts, all their geese are swans, and that manifestly proves them to be no better than fools. In former times they had but seven wise men, and now you can scarce find so many fools. Thales sent the golden tripos, which the fishermen found, and the oracle commanded to be given to the wisest, to Bias, Bias to Solon, et cetera. If such a thing were now found, we should all fight for it, as the three goddesses did for the golden apple. We are so wise, we have women politicians, children, metaphysicians, every silly fellow can square a circle, find perpetual motions, find the philosopher's stone, interpret apocalypsies, make new theories, a new system of the world, new logic, new philosophy, et cetera, nostra autiqueregio, saith Petronius, our country is so full of deified spirits, divine souls, that you may sooner find a god than a man amongst us. We think so well of ourselves, and that is an ample testimony of much folly. My second argument is grounded upon the like-place of Scripture, which though before mentioned in effect, yet for some reasons, is to be repeated, and by Plato's good leave I may do it, dish tocalon, rethen, oden, blabty, fools, saith David, by reason of their transgressions, et cetera, psalm 107, 17. Hence Musculus infers all transgressors, must needs be fools. So we read Romans 2, tribulation and anguish on the soul of every man that doeth evil, but all do evil. And Isaiah 65, 14. My servant shall sing for joy, and ye shall cry for sorrow of heart and vexation of mind. Tis ratified by the common consent of all philosophers. Dishonesty, saith Cardin, is nothing else but folly and madness, probus quis nobiscum wewit. Show me an honest man, neymul malus quinon stultus, tis Fabius' aphorism to the same end. If none honest, none wise, then all fools. And well may they be so accounted, for who will account him otherwise, qui iter adornat in ochidentem, com properaret in orientem, that goes backward all his life, westward when he is bound to the east, or hold him a wise man, saith Musculus, that prefers momentary pleasures to eternity, that spends his master's goods in his absence, forthwith to be condemned for it, ne quickuam sapit qui sibinon sapit, who will say that a sick man is wise, that eats and drinks to overthrow the temperature of his body. Can you account him wise or discreet, that would willingly have his health, and yet will do nothing that should procure or continue it? Theodoret, out of Plotinus, the Platonist, holds it a ridiculous thing for a man to live after his own laws, to do that which is offensive to God, and yet to hope that he should save him, and when he voluntarily neglects his own safety and contends the means to think to be delivered by another, who will say these men are wise? A third argument may be derived from the precedent all men are carried away with passion, discontent, lust, pleasures, etc. They generally hate those virtues they should love, and love such vices they should hate. Therefore, more than melancholy, quite mad, brute beasts, and void of reason, so Chrysostom contains. Or rather, dead and buried alive, as Philo Judeus concludes it for a certainty of all such that are carried away with passions or labour of any disease of the mind. Where his fear and sorrow, there lactantius stiffly maintains, wisdom cannot dwell. Quicupiet metuit quoque poro, quimetuens we wit liber mihi non erit un quam. Seneca and the rest of the Stoics are of opinion that where is any the least perturbation, wisdom may not be found. What more ridiculous, as lactantius urges, than to hear how Xerxes whipped the helispont, threatened the mountain Athos and the like, to speak ad rem, who is free from passion. Mortalis nemoest quem non atingat dolor morbus we. As Tully determines, out of an old poem, no mortal men can avoid sorrow and sickness, and sorrow is an inseparable companion from melancholy. Chrysostom pleads farther yet, that they are more than mad, very beasts, stupefied and void of common sense. For how, saith he, shall I know thee to be a man, when thou kickest like an ass, naist like a horse after women, raivest in lust like a bull, ravenest like a bear, stingest like a scorpion, raikest like a wolf, as subtle as a fox, as impudent as a dog. Shall I say thou art a man, that hast all the symptoms of a beast? How shall I know thee to be a man, by thy shape? That affrites me more, when I see a beast in likeness of a man. Seneca calls that of Epicurus, Magnificam Wolkem, an heroical speech. A fool still begins to live, and accounts it of filthy lightness in men, every day to lay new foundations of their life. But who doth otherwise? One travels, another builds, one for this, another for that business, and old folks are as far out as the rest. O de mentem, Seneca tutem, Tully exclaims. Therefore young, old, middle-aged, all are stupid and doped. In Eosilveus, amongst many other, sets down three special ways to find a fool by. He is a fool that seeks that he cannot find. He is a fool that seeks that which being found will do him more harm than good. He is a fool that having variety of ways to bring him to his journey's end takes that which is worst. If so, me thinks most men are fools. Examine their courses, and you shall soon perceive what disards and madmen the major part are. Beroaldus will have drunkards, afternoon men, and such as more than ordinarily delight in drink, to be mad. The first pot quencheth thirst, so Paniacis the poet determines in Atheneus. Secunda gratis, horis et Dionisio. The second makes merry. The third for pleasure. Quarta ad insaniam. The fourth makes the mad. If this position be true, what a catalogue of madmen shall we have? What shall they be that drink four times four? Non est supra omnem furorim? Supra omnem insaniam redund insannissimus? I am of his opinion. They are more than mad, much worse than mad. The Abderites condemn democratus for a madman because he was sometimes sad and sometimes again profusely merry. Hark patria, saith Hippocrates, obrisum furere et insanire dicunt. His countrymen hold him mad because he laughs, and therefore he desires him to advise all his friends at Rhodes that they do not laugh too much or be over-sad. Had those Abderites been conversant with us and but seen what fleering and grinning there is in this age, they would certainly have concluded we had been all out of our wits. Aristotle, in his ethics, holds phaelix idemque sapiens. To be wise and happy are reciprocal terms, bonus idemque sapiens onestus. Tis Tully's paradox, wise men are free, but fools are slaves. Liberty is a power to live according to his own laws, as we will ourselves. Wrath this liberty, who is free. Sapiens sibique imperiosus, quem neque palperies, neque mors, neque vinculaterent, responsare cupidinibus, contemnere onores, fortis et insaibso totus tereis atque rotundus. He is wise that can command his own will, valiant and constant to himself still, whom poverty, nor death, nor bands confrite, checks his desires, scorns honours, just and right. End of Section 10. Section 11 of The Anatomy of Melancholy, Volume 1. This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For further information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Anatomy of Melancholy, Volume 1. By Robert Burton. Section 11. Democratus Jr. to the Reader. Part 9. But where shall such a man be found? If nowhere, then, adiometro, we are all slaves, senseless or worse. Namo Marlos Felix, but no man is happy in this life, none good. Therefore, no man wise. Rari quipeboni. For one virtue, you shall find ten vices in the same party. Pauqui promethae multi epimethae. We may, per adventure, usurp the name or attribute it to others for favour as Corolla sapiens, Philippus bonus, Lodovicus peos, etc. and describe the properties of a wise man as Tali Dathanorita, Xanophon Cyrus, Castileo Accortia, Galen Temperament, and Aristocracy is described by politicians. But where shall such a man be found? Wir bonus et sapiens quale mwix reparetunum. Milibus se multis hominum consultus Apollo. A wise, a good man in a million. Apollo consulted, could scarce find one. A man is a miracle of himself, but Trismegistus adds, Maximum miraculum homo sapiens. A wise man is a wonder. Multi tircigheri pauqui bacchi. Alexander, when he was presented with that rich and costly casket of King Darius and every man advised him what to put in it, he reserved it to keep Homer's works as the most precious jewel of human wit. And yet Skarliga upbraids Homer's muse, Nutrikem insanis apientii, a nursery of madness, impudent as a court lady that blushes at nothing. Jacobus moculus, Gilbertus cognatus erasmus, and almost all posterity admire Lucian's luxuriant wit. Yet Skarliga rejects him in his censure and calls him the Cerberus of the Muses. Socrates, whom all the world so much magnified, is by lactantius and theodorette condemned for a fool. Plutarch extols Seneca's wit beyond all the Greeks, Nulli secundus, yet Seneca saith of himself, when I would solace myself with a fool I reflect upon myself, and there I have him. Carden, in his sixteenth book of subtleties, reckons up twelve supereminent acute philosophers for worth, subtlety and wisdom. Archimedes, Galen, Vitruvius, Architas, Tarentinus, Euclid, Jeber, that first inventor of algebra, Alcindus, the mathematician, both Arabians, with others. But his triumviri terrarum far beyond the rest are Ptolemaeus, Plutinus, Hippocrates. Skarliga, Exerchitationes, 224, scoffs at this censure of his, calls some of them carpenters and mecanicians. He makes Galen Fimbriam Hippocrates, a skirt of Hippocrates, and the said Carden himself elsewhere condemns both Galen and Hippocrates for tediousness, obscurity, confusion. Paracelsus will have them both mere idiots, infants in physics and philosophy. Skarliga and Carden admire Suisse, the calculator, Quippeni, Mordemex, Gesit, Humani, Ingenii, and yet Lodovicus Vives calls them Nugas Suisseticas, and Carden, opposite to himself in another place, condemns those ancients in respect of times present. Maiores que nostros ad presentes colatos, juste pueros apelari. In conclusion, the said Carden and St. Bernard will admit none into this catalogue of wise men, but only prophets and apostles, how they esteem themselves, you have heard before. We are worldly wise, admire ourselves, and seek for applause, but here St. Bernard, Quanto magis foras es sapiens, Tanto magis intus stultus efficaris, etc. In omnibus es prudens, Kirka te yipsum incipiens. The more wise thou art to others, the more fooled to thyself. I may not deny but that there is some folly approved, a divine fury, a holy madness, even a spiritual drunkenness in the saints of God themselves. Sanctum insanium, Bernard calls it, though not as blaspheming Vorstius would infer it as a passion incident to God himself, but familiar to good men, as that of Paul to Corinthians, he was a fool, etc., and Romans 9, he wisheth himself to be anathematised for them. Such is that drunkenness which Fikinos speaks of, when the soul is elevated and ravished with a divine taste of that heavenly nectar which poets deciphered by the sacrifice of Dionysius, and in this sense with the poet Insanire Lubet, as Austen exhorts us, ad ebriatatem sei quiscue parit, let's all be mad and drunk. But we commonly mistake and go beyond our commission, we reel to the opposite part, we are not capable of it, and as he said of the Greeks, wo screiki semper pueri, wo spritanni, gali, germani, itali, etc., you are a company of fools. Proceed now, a partibus ad totem, or from the whole to parts, and you shall find no other issue, the parts shall be sufficiently dilated in this following preface. The whole must needs follow by assortites or induction. Every multitude is mad, belloa motorum capitum, a many-headed beast, precipitate and rash without judgment, stultum animaul, a roaring rout. Roger Bacon proves it out of Aristotle, vulgus di wedi in oppositum contra sapientes, quod vulgo widetor verum fal sumest. That which the commonality accounts through is most part false, they are still opposite to wise men, all the world is of this humour, vulgus, and thou thyself art de vulgo, one of the commonality, and he, and he, and so are all the rest, and therefore, as Focon concludes, to be approved in naught you say or do, mere idiots and asses. Begin then where you will, go backward or forward, choose out of the whole pack, wink and choose, you shall find them all alike, never a barrel better herring. Copernicus, Atlas's successor, is of opinion the earth is a planet, moves and shines to others, as the moon doth to us. Diggs, Gilbert, Keplerus, Oryganus, and others defend this hypothesis of his in sober sadness, and that the moon is inhabited. If it be so that the earth is a moon, then are we also giddy, vertiginous and lunatic within this sub-lunary maze. I could produce such arguments till dark night if you should hear the rest, ante diem clausel component wesperolimpo, through such a train of words if I should run, the day would sooner than the tale be done. But according to my promise I will descend to particulars. This melancholy extends itself not to men only, but even to vegetals and sensibles. I speak not of those creatures which are satanine, melancholy by nature, as lead, and such like minerals, or those plants, roo, cypress etc, and helibor itself, of which are gripper treats, fishes, birds and beasts, hares, conies, dormice etc, owls, bats, nightbirds, but that artificial which is perceived in them all. Remove a plant, it will pine away, which is especially perceived in date trees, as you may read at large in Constantine's husbandry, that antipathy betwixt the vine and the cabbage, vine and oil. Put a bird in a cage, he will die for sullenness, or a beast in a pen, or take his young ones or companions from him, and see what effect it will cause. But who perceives not these common passions of sensible creatures, fear, sorrow etc. Of all other, dogs are most subject to this malady. In so much, some hold they dream as men do, and through violence of melancholy run mad. I could relate many stories of dogs that have died for grief and pine away for loss of their masters, but they are common in every author. Kingdoms, provinces and politic bodies are likewise sensible and subject to this disease, as Porterus and his politics have proved at large. As in human bodies, saith he, there be diverse alterations proceeding from humours, so be there many diseases in a commonwealth, which do as diversely happen from several distempers, as you may easily perceive by their particular symptoms. For where you shall see the people's civil, obedient to God and princes, judicious, peaceable and quiet, rich, fortunate and flourish to live in peace, in unity and concord, a country well-tilled, many fair-built and populous cities, will be inculite neatent, as old Cato said, the people are neat, polite and terse, will be bene, beatec, where we want, which our politicians make the chief end of a commonwealth, and which Aristotle, politics liber trace, chapter 4, calls Comune bonum, Polybius liber sex, octabilem et selectum startum, that country is free from melancholy, as it was in Italy in the time of Augustus, now in China, now in many other flourishing kingdoms of Europe. But whereas you shall see many discontents, common grievances, complaints, poverty, barbarism, beggary, plagues, wars, rebellions, seditions, mutinies, contentions, idleness, riot, epicurism, the land lie untilled, waste full of bogs, fens, deserts et cetera, cities decayed, base and poor towns, villages depopulated, the people squalid, ugly, uncivil, that kingdom, that country must needs be discontent, melancholy, hath a sick body, and had need to be reformed. Now that cannot well be affected till the causes of these maladies be first removed, which commonly proceed from their own default or some accidental inconvenience, as to be situated in a bad climb too far north, sterile, in a barren place, as the desert of Libya, deserts of Arabia, places void of waters, as those of Lop and Belgian in Asia, or in a bad air, as at Alexandreta, Bantam, Pisa, Durazzo, St John de Ulloa et cetera, or in danger of the seas continual inundations, as in many places of the low countries, and elsewhere, or near some bad neighbours, as Hungarians to Turks, Podolians to Tatars, or almost any bordering countries, they live in fear-steal, and by reason of hostile incursions are often times left desolate. So are cities by reason of wars, fires, plagues, inundations, wild beasts, decay of trades, barred havens, the seas' violence, as Antwerp may witness of late, Syracuse of old, Brunduzium in Italy, Rye and Dover with us, and many that at this day suspect the seas' fury and rage, and labour against it, as the Venetians to their inestimable charge. But the most frequent maladies are such as proceed from themselves, as first when religion and God's service is neglected, innovated, or altered, where they do not fear God, obey their prince, where atheism, epicurism, sacrilege, simony, et cetera, and all such impurities are freely committed, that country cannot prosper. When Abraham came to Gerard and saw a bad land, he said, sure, the fear of God was not in that place. Cyprian Ecovius, a Spanish choreographer, above all other cities of Spain, commends Bortheno, in which there was no beggar, no man poor, et cetera, but all rich and in good estate, and he gives the reason, because they were more religious than their neighbours. Why was Israel so often spoiled by their enemies, led into captivity, et cetera, but for their idolatry, neglect of God's word, for sacrilege, even for one Akhan's fault? And what shall we accept that have such multitudes of Akhans, church robbers, simoniacal patrons, et cetera? How can they hope to flourish that neglect divine duties that live most part like epicures? Other grievances are generally noxious to a body politic, alteration of laws and customs, breaking privileges, general oppressions, seditions, et cetera, observed by Aristotle, Bodin, Boteros, Junius, Arniscus, et cetera. I will only point at some of the chiefest, importentia gubanandi, ataxia, confusion, ill-government, which proceeds from unskillful, slothful, griping, covetous, unjust, rash, or tyrannizing magistrates, when they are fools, idiots, children, proud, willful, partial, indiscreet oppressors, giddy heads, tyrants, not able or unfit to manage such offices. Many noble cities and flourishing kingdoms by that means are desolate. The whole body groans under such heads, and all the members must needs be disaffected, as at this day those goodly provinces in Asia Minor, et cetera, grown under the burden of a Turkish government, and those vast kingdoms of Muscovia, Russia, under a tyrannizing duke. Who ever heard of more civil and rich populace countries than those of Greece, Asia Minor, abounding with all wealth, attitudes of inhabitants, force, power, splendour and magnificence, and that miracle of countries, the Holy Land, that in so small a compass of ground could maintain so many towns, cities, produced so many fighting men. Egypt, another paradise, now barbarous and desert, and almost waste by the despotical government of an imperious Turk. This is how we tutis yugo premitur, one saeth, not only fire and water, goods or lands, said Ibses Spiritus, ab insolentissimi victoris pendet nutu, such is their slavery, their lives and souls depend upon his insolent will and command, a tyrant that spoils all where so ever he comes, in so much that an historian complains, the old inhabitants should now see them, he would not know them, if a traveller or stranger it would grieve his heart to behold them. Whereas Aristotle notes, Noah exactiones, Noah onera imposita, new burdens and exactions daily come upon them, like those of which Zosimus liberduo so grievous, utwiri uxores, patres filios prostituarent, ut exactoribus equestu etc. they must needs be discontent, hink quitatum gemitus et pluratus, as tully holds, hence come those complains and tears of cities, poor miserable rebellious and desperate subjects, as Hippolytus adds, and as a judicious countryman of ours, observed not long since, in a survey of that great Duchy of Tuscany, the people lived much grieved and discontent, as appeared by their manifold and manifest complainings in that kind, that the state was like a sick body which had lately taken physics whose humours are not yet well settled, and weakened so much by purging that nothing was left, but melancholy. Whereas the princes and potentates are immoderate in lust, hypocrites, epicures of no religion, but in show, hypocrisy fragilius, what so brittle and unsure, what sooner subverts their estates than wandering and raging lusts, on their subjects' wives, daughters, to say no worse, they that should farquem priphere lead the way to all virtuous actions, are the ringleaders, often times, of all mischief and disilute courses, and by that means their countries are plagued, and they themselves, often ruined, banished, or murdered by conspiracy of their subjects, as Sardinopoulos was, Dionysius Jr., Heliogobalus, Periander, Pisistratus, Tarquinius, Timocrates, Kildericus, Apius Claudius, Andronicus, Galliarchus, Sforza, Alexander, Medi-case, etc. Whereas the princes or great men are malicious, envious, factious, ambitious, emulators, they tear a common wealth asunder, as so many Guelphs and gibbalines disturb the quietness of it, and with mutual murders let it bleed to death. Our histories are too full of such barbarous inhumanities, and the miseries that issue from them. Whereas they be like so many horse-leaches, hungry, griping, corrupt, covetous, our Ritikey mankipia, ravenous as wolves, for, as Tully writes, qui priest prodest, et qui pecudibus priest debet aorum utilitati incervire, or such as prefer their private, before the public good, for, as he said long since, reis privatae publikis semper oficere, or whereas they be illiterate, ignorant, empirics in policy will be deest facultas weirdus, Aristotle politics 5, chapter 8, et schientia, wise only by inheritance, and in authority by birthright favor, offer their wealth and titles, there must needs be a fault, a great defect, because, as an old philosopher affirms, such men are not always fit. Of an infinite number few alone are senators, and of those few, fewer good, and of that small number of honest, good, and noble men, few that are learned, wise, discreet, and sufficient, able to discharge such places, it must needs turn to the confusion of a state. For, as the princes are, so are the people, qualis rex, talis grex, and which antigonus right well said of old, quimaca donii regimerudit omnes etiam subditos erudit. He that teaches the king of Macedon teaches all his subjects is a true saying still. For princes are the glass, the school, the book, where subjects eyes do learn, do read, do look, where locus et kitius nos corumpunt withiorum exempla domestica magnis cum subiant animals auctoribus. Their examples are soonest followed, vices entertained. If they be profane, irreligious, lascivious, riotous, epicures, factious, covetous, ambitious, illiterate, so will the commons most part be, idle untrifts, prone to lust, drunkards, and therefore poor and needy, herpenia starcin empoie, caicat or guian. For poverty begets sedition and villainy. Upon all occasions, ready to mutiny and rebel, discontent still, complaining, murmuring, grudging, apt to all outrages, thefts, treasons, murders, innovations, in debt, shifters, cousiners, outlaws, profligatei farmi acuiti. It was an old politician's aphorism, they that are poor and bad, envy rich, hate good men, abhor the present government, wish for a new, and would have all turned topsy-turvy. When Catiline rebelled in Rome, he got a company of such debauched robes together, they were his familiars and co-agitors, and such have been your rebels most part in all ages, Jack Cade, Tom Straw, Kett, and his companions. Where there be many discords, many laws, many lawsuits, many lawyers and many physicians, it is a manifest sign of a distempered melancholy state as Plato long since maintained, for where such kind of men swarm, they will make more work for themselves, and that body politic diseased, which was otherwise sound. A general mischief in these our times, an insensible plague, are never so many of them, which are now multiplied, Seth Geraldus, a lawyer himself, as so many locusts, not the parents, but the plagues of the country, and for the most part, a supersidious, bad, covetous, litigious generation of men, crew many mulganatio, etc. a purse-milking nation, a clamorous company, gowned vultures. Quie exinuria we went sanguinechium, thieves and seminaries of discord, worse than any pollas by the highway side. Auri akipitres, Auri exteribronides, pecuniarum hamioly, quadruplatores, curiae harpagones, foritintinabula, monstra hominum, mangones, etc. They take upon them to make peace, but are indeed the very most derbers of our peace, a company of irreligious harpies, scraping, griping catch-polls. I mean our common hungry petty-foggers, rabulas forenses, love and honour in the meantime all good-laws and worthy lawyers that are so many oracles and pilots of a well-governed commonwealth. Without art, without judgment, that do more harm, as Livy said, quambela externa, farmes, morbiwe, than sickness, wars, hunger, diseases, and cause a most incredible destruction of a commonwealth, sayeth Cecilius, a famous civilian, sometime in Paris, as Ivy doth by an oak, embrace it so long, until it hath got the heart out of it, so do they, by such places they inhabit. No council at all, no justice, no speech to be had, nisi aum premulceris, he must be fed still, or else he is as mute as a fish, better open an oyster without a knife. Experto crede, seeth salisburiensis, in manu seorum milies inchidi, et caronimitis quinnulli, peperchit un quam, his longe clementi orest. I speak out of experience, I have been a thousand times amongst them, and caronimself is more gentle than they. He is contented with his single pay, but they multiply still, they are never satisfied. Besides, they have dhamnificas linguas, as he terms it, nisi funibus argenteis winchias, they must be fed to say nothing, and get more to hold their peace than we can to say our best. They will speak their clients fair, and invite them to their tables, but, as he follows it, of all injustice, there is none so pernicious, as that of theirs, which, when they deceive most, will seem to be honest men. They take upon them to be peacemakers, et fuere causas humilium, to help them to their right, patrokin nantor aflictis, but all is for their own good, but loculos pleniorum exauriant. They plead for poor man gratis, but they are but as a stale to catch others. If there be no jar, they can make a jar. Out of the law itself find still some quirk or other to set them at odds, and continue causas so long lustra aliquot, I know not how many years before the causas heard, and, when tis judged and determined by reason of some tricks and errors, it is as fresh to begin after twice seven years sometimes as it was at first. And so they prolong time, delay suits, till they have enriched themselves and beggard their clients. And as Cato invade against discocrates' scholars, we may justly tax our wrangling lawyers. They do consenescere in litibus, are so litigious and busy here on earth that I think they will plead their clients' causas hereafter, some of them in hell. Simlerous complains amongst the swissers of the advocates in his time that when they should make an end they began controversies and protract their causas many years, persuading them their title is good till their patrimonies be consumed and that they have spent more in seeking than the thing is worth or they shall get by the recovery. So that he that goes to law, as the proverb is, holds a wolf by the ears or as a sheep in a storm runs for shelter to a briar if he prosecute his cause he is consumed. If he so cease his suit he looseth all. What difference! They had want here to fore, saith Austin, to end matters per communes arbitros and so in Switzerland we are informed by Simlerous they had some common arbitraters or daisemen in every town that made a friendly composition betwixt man and man and he much wonders at their honest simplicity that could keep peace so well and end such great causes by that means. At fairs in Africa they have neither lawyers nor advocates but if there be any controversies amongst them both parties, plaintive and defendant come to their alpha kins or chief judge and at once without any father appeals or pitiful delays the cause is heard and ended. Our forefathers as a worthy choreographer of ours observes had want palculis cruculis aureis with a few golden crosses and lines in verse make all conveyances assurances and such was the candour and integrity of succeeding ages that a deed as I have often seen to convey a whole manner was implicite contained in some twenty lines or thereabouts like that skele or citala laconica so much renowned of old in all contracts which talis so earnestly commends to Atticus, Plutarch in his Lysander, Aristotle politics, Thucydides Liberunus, Diodorus and Suidos approve and magnify for that laconic brevity in this kind and well they might for according to Tertullian Kerta sunt palquis there is much more certainty in few words and so was it of old throughout but now many skins of parchment will scarce serve turn he that buys and sells a house must have a house full of writings there be so many circumstances, so many words such tautological repetitions of all particulars to avoid cavalation they say but we find by our woeful experience that to subtle wits it is a cause of much more contention and variance and scarce any conveyance so accurately penned by one which another will not find a cracking or cavalat or any one word be misplaced any little error all is disannulled that which is a law today is none tomorrow that which is sound in one man's opinion is most faulty to another that in conclusion here is nothing amongst us but contention and confusion we bandy one against another and that which long since Plutarch complained of them in Asia may be verified in our times these men here assembled come not to sacrifice to their gods to offer Jupiter their first fruits or merrimants to back us but an yearly disease exasperating Asia has brought them hither to make an end of their controversies and lawsuits tis multitudo perdentium et periuntium a destructive route that seek one another's ruin such most part are our ordinary suitors termers, clients new stirs every day mistakes, errors, cavils and at this present I have heard in some one court I know not how many thousand causes no person free no title almost good with such bitterness in following so many slights procrastinations, delays forgery, such cost or infinite sums are inconsiderately spent violence and malice I know not by whose fault lawyers, clients, laws both or all but as Paul reprehended the Corinthians long since I may more positively infer now there is a fault amongst you and I speak it to your shame is there not a wise man amongst you to judge between his brethren but that a brother goes to law with a brother and Christ's counsel concerning lawsuits was never so fit to be inculcated as in this age agree with thine adversary quickly etc Matthew 5 25 and of section 11 section 12 of the anatomy of melancholy volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the anatomy of melancholy volume 1 by Robert Burton section 12 democratus jr. to the reader part 10 I could repeat many such particular grievances which must disturb a body politic to shut up all in brief where good government is prudent and wise princes there all things thrive and prosper peace and happiness is in that land where it is otherwise all things are ugly to behold in cult barbarous uncivil a paradise is turned to a wilderness this island amongst the rest our next neighbours the French and Germans may be a sufficient witness that in a short time by that prudent policy of the Romans was brought from barbarism what Caesar reports of us and Tacitus of those old Germans they were once as uncivil as they in Virginia yet by planting of colonies and good laws they became from barbarous outlaws to be full of rich and popular cities as now they are and most flourishing kingdoms even so might Virginia and those wild Irish have been civilized long since if that order had been here to be taken which now begins of planting colonies etc I have read a discourse printed Anno 1612 discovering the true causes why Ireland was never entirely subdued or brought under obedience to the crown of England until the beginning of his Majesty's happy reign yet if his reasons were thoroughly scanned by a judicious politician I'm afraid he would not altogether be approved to return to the dishonor of our nation to suffer it to lie so long waste yea and if some travellers should see to come nearer home those rich united provinces of Holland, Zealand etc over against us those neat cities and popular towns full of most industrious artificers so much land recovered from the sea and so painfully preserved by those artificial inventions wonderfully approved as that of Bempster in Holland or Nihil Huik Par out similar in Wennias in Toto Orbe Saeth Berthius the Geographer all the world cannot match it so many navigable channels from place to place made by men's hands etc and on the other side so many thousand acres of our fens lie drowned our cities thin cold in respect of theirs our trades decayed our still running rivers stopped and that beneficial use of transportation wholly neglected so many havens void of ships and towns so many parks and forests for pleasure barren heaths so many villages depopulated etc I think sure he would find some fault I may not deny but that this our nation of ours is a most noble a most flourishing kingdom by common consent of all geographers, historians politicians and which Quentius in Livy said of the inhabitants of Peloponnesus may be well applied to us we are like so many tortoises in our shells safely defended by an angry sea as a war on all sides our island hath many such honourable eulogiums and as a learned countryman of ours right well hath it ever since the Normans first coming into England this country both for military matters and all other of civility hath been paralleled with the most flourishing kingdoms of Europe and our Christian world a blessed, a rich country and one of the fortunate isles and for some things preferred before other countries for expert seamen our laborious discoveries art of navigation, true merchants they carry the bell away from all other nations even the portugals and hollanders themselves without all fear saith Boteros following the ocean, winter and summer and two of their captains with no less valor than fortune have sailed around the world we have besides many particular blessings which our neighbours want the gospel truly preached church discipline established long peace and quietness free from exactions foreign fears, invasions domestical seditions well manured, fortified by art and nature and now most happy in that fortunate union of England and Scotland which our forefathers have laboured to effect and desired to see but in which we excel all others a wise learned religious king another Numa a second Augustus a true Josiah most worthy senators a learned clergy an obedient commonalty etc yet amongst many roses some thistles grow some bad weeds and enormities which much disturb the peace of this body politic eclipse the honour and glory of it fit to be rooted out with no speed to be reformed the first is idleness by reason of which we have many swarms of rogues and beggars, thieves, drunkards and discontented persons whom Lycurgus in Plutarch calls Morbos Republikai the boils of the commonwealth many poor people in all our towns Quitates ignobiles as Polydor calls them base built cities poor, small, rare in sight ruinous and thin of inhabitants our land is fertile we may not deny full of all good things and why doth it not then abound with cities as well as Italy France, Germany and low countries because their policy hath been otherwise and we are not so thrifty circumspect industrious idleness is the malus genius of our nation Terus justly argues fertility of a country is not enough except art and industry be joined unto it according to Aristotle riches are either natural or artificial natural are good land fair mines etc artificial are manufactures coins etc many kingdoms are fertile but thin of inhabitants as that duchy of Piedmont in Italy which Leander albertus so much magnifies for corn, wine, fruits etc yet nothing near so populace as those which are more barren England, safety London only accepted hath never a populace city and yet a fruitful country I find 46 cities and walled towns in Alsacia a small province in Germany 50 castles an infinite number of villages no ground idle no not rocky places or tops of hills are untilled as Munster informeth us in Graysgea a small territory on the Neckar 24 Italian miles over I read of 20 walled towns innumerable villages each one containing 150 houses most part besides castles and noblemen's palaces I observe in Turinger in Dutch land 12 miles over by their scale 12 counties and in them 144 cities 2,000 villages 144 towns 250 castles in Bavaria 34 cities 46 towns etc Portugalia in Taramnes a small plot of ground hath 1,460 parishes 130 monasteries 200 bridges Malta a barren island yields 20,000 inhabitants but of all the rest I admire Loesquichardines relations of the low countries Holland hath 26 cities 400 great villages Zeiland 10 cities 102 parishes Brabont 26 cities 102 parishes Flanders 28 cities 90 towns 1,154 villages besides Abbey's castles etc The low countries generally have 3 cities at least for one of ours and those far more populace and rich and what is the cause but their industry and excellency in all manner of trades Their commerce which is maintained by a multitude of tradesmen so many excellent channels made by art and opportune havens to which they build their cities all which we have in like measure or at least may have but their chiefest loadstone which draws all manner of commerce and merchandise which maintains their present estate is not fertility of soil but industry that enricheth them The gold mines of Peru or Nova Hispania may not compare with them They have neither gold nor silver of their own wine nor oil or scarce any corn growing in those united provinces little or no wood tin, lead, iron, silk, wool any stuff almost or metal and yet hungry Transylvania that brag of their mines fertile England cannot compare with them I dare boldly say that neither France nor any part of Italy Valencia in Spain or that pleasant Andalusia with their excellent fruits wine and oil No, not any part of Europe is so flourishing, so rich so populous so full of good ships of well-built cities so abounding with all things necessary for the use of man Tis our Indies an epitome of China economy and commerce industry is a lodestone to draw all good things that alone makes countries flourish cities populous and well-enforced by reason of much manure which necessarily follows a barren soil to be fertile and good as sheep, saith Dion mend a bad pasture Tell me politicians why is that fruitful Palestina, noble Greece Egypt, Asia Minor so much decayed and mere carcasses now fallen from what they were the ground is the same but the government is altered the people are grown slothful idle, their good husbandry policy and industry is decayed known fatigata out effeta humus as Columela well-informed Silvinus said Nostra fit in Nerthia etc may a man believe that which Aristotle in his politics Palsanias, Stefanus Sofianus, Gerbellius relate of old Greece I find here to four 70 cities in Epirus overthrown by Paulus Aemilius a goodly province in times past now left desolate of good towns and almost inhabitants 62 cities in Macedonia in Strabo's time I find 30 in Laconia but now scare so many villages saith Gerbellius if any man from Mount Tegetus should view the country round about and see tot de lycheas, tot orbes per peliponesum dispersas so many delicate and brave built cities with such cost and exquisite cunning so neatly set out in Peliponesis he should perceive them now ruinous and overthrown burnt, waste, desolate and laid level with the ground incredibile dictu etc and as he laments quest talia fando temperate alacrimis quest tam durus alferios so he prosecutes it who is he that can sufficiently condole and commiserate these ruins where are those 4,000 cities of Egypt those 100 cities in Crete are they now come to two what saith Pliny and Eilean of old Italy there were in former ages 1,166 cities Blondus and Machiavel both grant them now nothing near so populace and full of good towns as in the time of Augustus for now Leander Albertus confined but 300 at most and if we may give credit to Livy not then so strong and peasant as of old they mustered 70 legions in former times which now the known world will scarce yield Alexander built 70 cities in a short space for his part our sultans and turks demolish twice as many and leave all desolate many will not believe that our island of Great Britain is now more populace than ever it was yet let them read Bede, Leland and others they shall find it most flourished in the Saxon Heptarchy and in the conqueror's time was far better inhabited than at this present see that doomsday book and show me those thousands of parishes which are now decayed cities ruined, villages depopulated etc the lesser the territory is the richer it is Parvus said Benecultus Agir as those Athenian Lacedemonian Arcadian, Aelian Sysionian, Messinian etc Commonwealth of Greece make ample proof as those imperial cities and free states of Germany may witness those cantons of switzers reyty, grizzons waloons, territories of Tuscany luke and senes of old Piedmont, Mantua Venice in Italy Ragusa etc that prince therefore as Buterrus advises that will have a rich country and fair cities let him get good trades, privileges painful inhabitants, artificers and suffer no rude matter unraught as tin, iron, wool, lead etc to be transported out of his country a thing in part seriously attempted amongst us but not effected and because industry of men and multitude of trade so much avails to the ornament and enriching of a kingdom, those ancient massilians would admit no man into their city that had not brought some trade, Selim the first turkish emperor procured a thousand good artificers to be brought from Taurus to Constantinople the polandas indented with Henry Duke of Anjou their new chosen king to bring with him and hundred families of artificers into Poland James the first in Scotland as Buchanan writes sent for the best artificers he could get in Europe and gave them great rewards to teach his subjects their several trades Edward the third our most renowned king to his eternal memory brought clothing first into this island transporting some families of artificers from Gaunt Hither how many goodly cities could I reckon up that thrive wholly by trade where thousands of inhabitants live singular well by their fingers ends as Florence in Italy by making cloth of gold great Milan by silk and all curious works Arras in Artois by those fair hangings many cities in Spain many in France in Germany have none other maintenance especially those within the land Mecca in Arabia Petria stands in a most unfruitful country that wants water amongst the rocks as Vertomanus describes it and yet it is a most elegant and pleasant city by reason of the traffic of the east and west Ormus in Persia is a most famous marked town Hathnaught else but the opportunity of the Haven to make it flourish Corinth a noble city Lumen Greciae Tully calls it the Eye of Greece by reason of Kencrias and Lecheos those excellent ports drew all that traffic of the Ionian and Aegean seas to it and yet the country about it was Curva et Superchiliosa as Strabo terms it rugged and harsh we may say the same of Athens, Actium, Thebes, Sparta and most of those towns in Greece Nuremberg in Germany is situated in a most barren soil yet a noble imperial city by the sole industry of artificers and cunning trades they draw the riches of most countries to them so expert in manufactures that as Salas long since gave out of the like Sedem animae in extremis Digitis Habent their sole or Intellectus Agens was placed in their fingers end and so we may say of Basil, Spire Cambrai, Frankfurt etc it is almost incredible to speak what some write of Mexico and the cities are joining it no place in the world at their first discovery more populous Ricius the Jesuit and some others relate of the industry of the Chinese most populous countries not a beggar or an idle person to be seen and how by that means they prosper and flourish we have the same means able bodies, plant wits matter of all sorts wool, flax, iron, tin lead, wood etc many excellent subjects to work upon only industry is wanting we send our best commodities beyond the seas which they make good use of to their necessities set themselves a work about and severally improve sending the same to us back at dear rates or else make toys and baubles of the tales of them which they sell to us again at as great a reckoning as the whole in most of our cities some few accepted like Spanish loiterers and ale houses malting are their best plows their greatest traffic to sell ale metaran and some others object to us that we are no wits so industrious as the hollanders manual trades safety which are more curious or troublesome are wholly exercised by strangers they dwell in a sea full of fish but they are so idle they will not catch so much as she'll serve their own terns but buy it of their neighbours Tash Mare Liberum they fish under our noses and sell it to us when they have done at their own prices I am ashamed to hear this objected by strangers and know not how to answer it amongst our towns there is only London that bears the face of a city Epitome Britannia a famous emporium second to none beyond seas a noble mart but solar Crescate daycrests and yet in my slender judgment defective in many things the rest some few accepted are in meanest state ruinous most part poor and full of beggars by reason of their decayed trades by mad policy idleness of their inhabitants riot which hath rather beg or loiter and be ready to starve than work I cannot deny but that something may be said in defence of our cities that they are not so fair built for the sole magnificence of this kingdom concerning buildings hath been of old in those Norman castles and religious houses so rich, thick-sighted populace as in some other countries besides the reason Cardin gives de subtilitate rarem liber undecim we want wine and oil their two harvests we dwell in a colder air and for that cause we must a little more liberally feed of flesh as all northern countries do our provisions will not therefore extend to the maintenance of so many yet notwithstanding we have matter of all sorts of safety for traffic as well as the rest, goodly havens and how can we excuse our negligence, our riot drunkenness etc and such enormities that follow it we have excellent laws enacted you will say, severe statutes houses of correction etc to small purpose it seems it is not houses will serve but cities of correction our trades generally ought to be reformed once supplied in other countries they have the same grievances I confess but that does not excuse us wants, defects, enormities idle drones, tumults discords, contention lawsuits, many laws made against them to repress those innumerable brawls and lawsuits, excess in apparel, diet decay of tillage, depopulations especially against rogues beggars, Egyptian vagabonds so termed at least which have swarmed all over Germany, France, Italy Poland as you may read in Munster, Crancius and Aventinas as those Tatars and Arabians that this they do in eastern countries yet such has been the iniquity of all ages as it seems to small purpose Nemo in Nostra Kiwitate, Mendicus Esto, Seith Plato he will have them purged from a commonwealth as a bad humour from the body that are like so many ulcers and boils and must be cured before the melancholy body can be eased what Carolus Magnus the Chinese, the Spaniards the Duke of Saxony and many other states have decreed in this case Reed Aniseus, Poterus Osorius de Rubus when a country is overstocked with people as a pasture is oft overlaid with cattle they had want in former times to disburden themselves by sending out colonies or by wars as those old Romans or by employing them at home about some public buildings as bridges roadways for which those Romans were famous in this island as Augustus Caesar did in Rome the Spaniards the Indian mines as at Potosí in Peru where some 30,000 men are still at work 6,000 furnaces ever boiling etc aqueducts, bridges, havens those stupend works of Trajan, Claudius but Ostium, Dioclesiani Terma, Fuchinos Lacus that Piraeum in Athens made by Themistocles Ampitheatrums of Curious Marble as at Verona Quitas-Philippi and Heraclea in Thrace those Appian and Flaminian ways prodigious works all may witness and rather than they should be idle as those Egyptian pharaohs Maris and Cisostris did to task their subjects to build unnecessary pyramids, obelisks labyrinths, channels lakes gigantic works all to divert them from rebellion, riot, drunkenness Quo skillichet alantur et ne wagando laborare desuescant and of section 12 section 13 of the anatomy of melancholy volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org The Anatomy of Melancholy volume 1 by Robert Burton section 13 Democritus Junior to the Reader part 11 another eyesore is that want of conduct and navigable rivers a great blamish as Boterus Hippolytus Archolibus and other politicians hold if it be neglected in a commonwealth admirable cost and charge is bestowed in the low countries on this behalf in the Duchy of Milan territory of Padua in France, Italy, China and so likewise about corrivations of water to moisten and refresh barren grounds to drain fends, bogs and moors Massinissa made many inward parts of Barbary and Numidia in Africa for his time in cult and horrid fruitful and batable by this means great industry is generally used all over the eastern countries in this kind, especially in Egypt about Babylon and Damascus as Vertomanus and Gotardus Arthus relate about Barcelona, Segovia, Mercia and many other places of Spain, Milan in Italy by reason of which the soil is much improved and infinite commodities arise to the inhabitants the Turks of late attempted to cut that isthmus betwixt Africa and Asia which Sysostris and Darius and some pharaohs of Egypt had formally undertaken but with ill success as Diodorus Siculus records and Pliny for that Red Sea being three cubits higher than Egypt would have drowned all the country by this deterrent they left off yet as the same Diodorus writes Ptolemy renewed the work many years after and absolved in it a more opportune place that isthmus of Corinth was likewise undertaken to be made navigable by Demetrius by Julius Caesar Nero, Domitian Herodes Atticus to make a speedy passage and less dangerous from the Ionian and Aegean seas which could not be so well affected the Peloponnesians built a wall like our Picts wall above Skynute where Neptune's temple stood and in the shortest cut over the isthmus of which Diodorus Liberduo Herodotus Liberocto our latter writers call it Hexamillium which Amorat the Turk demolished the Venetians Anno 1453 repaired in 15 days with 30,000 men some, Seath Acosta, would have a passage cut from Panama to Nombre de Dios in America but to Arnus and Ceres the French historians speak of a famous aqueduct in France intended in Henry IV from the Loire to the Seine and from Rodinus to the Loire the like to which was formally assayed by Domitian the Emperor from Arard to Moselle Julius Tacitus speaks of in the 13 of his annals after by Charles the Great and others much cost hath in former times been bestowed in either newmaking or mending channels of rivers and their passages as Aurelianus did by Tiber to make it navigable to Rome to convey corn from Egypt to the city Seath Vopiscus he cut forwards made banks etc Decade Havens which Claudius the Emperor with infinite pains and charges attempted at Ostia as I have said the Venetians at this day to preserve their city many excellent means to enrich their territories have been fostered, invented in most provinces of Europe as planting some Indian plants amongst us, silkworms in the plains of Granada yield 30,000 crowns per annum to the king of Spain's coffers besides those many trades and artifices that are busy about them in the kingdom of Granada, Mersia and all over Spain in France a great benefit is raised by salt etc whether these things might not be as happily attempted with us and with like success it may be controverted by the enemy, vines fir trees etc Carden exhorts Edward the Sixth to plant olives and is fully persuaded they would prosper in this island with us navigable rivers are most part neglected our streams are not great I confess by reason of the narrowness of the island yet they run smoothly and even not headlong, swift or amongst rocks and shelves as foaming Rodanus in France, Tigris in Mesopotamia Violent Dorius in Spain with cataracts and whirlpools as the Rhine and Danubius about Schaffhausen, Lausenburg Lintz and Crem to Endanger navigators or Broad Shallow as Neca in the Palatinate Tigris in Italy but calm and fair as Aral in France, Hebrus in Macedonia Eurotus in Laconia they gently glide along and might as well be repaired many of them, I mean why Trent, Ooze, Tamesis at Oxford the defect of which we feel in the meantime as the river of Lee from where to London Bishop Atwater of Old or as some will Henry I made a channel from Trent to Lincoln navigable which now, saith Mr Camden is decayed and the mission is made of anchors and such like monuments found about Old Verulamium good ships have formally come to Exeter and many such places whose channels, havens, ports are now barred and rejected we contend this benefit of carriage by waters and are therefore compelled in the inner parts of this island because portage is so dear to eat up our commodities ourselves and live like so many boars and stye for want of vent and utterance we have many excellent havens royal havens Falmouth, Portsmouth, Milford etc equivalent if not to be preferred to that Indian Havana Old Brunduzium in Italy, Aulis in Greece and Brachia in Acania Suda in Crete which have few ships in them little or no traffic or trade which have scarcer village on them able to bear great cities said with derent politiki I could hear justly tax many other neglects abuses, errors, defects amongst us and in other countries depopulations, riot drunkenness etc and many such but I must take heed nae quid grauios de cam but I do not overshoot myself sus minerwam I am forth of my element as you peradventure suppose and sometimes veritas odium parrot as he said verjuus and oatmeal is good for a parrot but as Lucian said of an historian I say of a politician he that will freely speak and write must be for ever no subject under no prince or law but lay out the matter truly as it is but any can, will, like or dislike we have good laws I deny not to rectify such enormities and so in all other countries but it seems not always to good purpose we had need of some general visitor in our age that should reform what is amiss a just army of rosy cross men for they will amend all matters they say religion policy, manners sciences etc another Attila Tamalain, Hercules to strive with Akelius Augei stabulum purgare to subdue tyrants as he did Darmides and Bussiris to expel thieves as he did Cacus and Lacinius to vindicate poor captives as he did Hesioni to pass the torrid zone the deserts of Libya and purge the world and send tours or another Theban crates to reform our manners to compose quarrels and controversies as in his time he did and was therefore adored for a god in Athens as Hercules purged the world of monsters and subdued them so did he fight against envy lust, anger, avarice etc and all those feral vices and monsters of the mind it were to be wished we had some such visitor or if wishing would serve one had such a ring or rings as Timoleos desired in Lucian by virtue of which he should be as strong as 10,000 men or an army of giants go invisible open gates and castle doors have what treasure he would transport himself in an instant to what place he desired alter affections there were all manner of diseases that he might range over the world and reform all distressed states and persons as he would himself he might reduce those wandering Tatars in order that infest China on the one side Muscovy Poland on the other and tame the vagabond Arabians that rob and spoil those eastern countries that they should never use more caravans or Janissaries to conduct them he might root out barbarism out of America and fully discover Terra Australis incognita find out the northeast and northwest passages drain those mighty Miocean fens cut down those vast Hirkinian woods irrigate those barren Arabian deserts etc cure us of our epidemical diseases and all our idle controversies cut off our tumultuous desires inordinate lusts root out atheism impiety heresy schism and superstition which now so crucify the world catechize gross ignorance purge Italy of luxury and riot Spain of superstition and jealousy Germany of drunkenness all our northern countries of gluttony and intemperance castigate our hard-hearted parents masters tutors lash disobedient children negligent servants correct these spend thrifts and prodigal sons enforce idle persons to work drive drunkards off the alehouse repress thieves visit corrupt and tyrannizing magistrates etc but as Lucius Likinius taxed Timur you may us these are vain and absurd and ridiculous wishes not to be hoped all must be as it is Bokalinos may cite commonwealths to come before Apollo and seek to reform the world itself by commissioners but there is no remedy it may not be redressed Descendent hominase Tumdemum stutescre quando esse descendent so long as they can wag their beards they will play the naives and fools because therefore it is a thing so difficult impossible and far beyond Hercules's labours to be performed let them be rude, stupid ignorant, incult lapis super lapidem sediat and as the apologist will to si et gravio lentia laboret mundus vitio let them be barbarous as they are let them tyrannize epicurize, oppress luxuriate consume themselves with factions superstitions lawsuits wars and contentions live in riot, poverty want, misery rebel, wallow as so many swine in their own dung with Ulysses's companions stultos yubio esse libenter I will yet to satisfy and please myself make a new topia of mine own a new Atlantis a poetical commonwealth of mine own in which I will freely domineer, build cities make laws, statutes as I list myself and why may I not pictoribus atque poetis et cetera you know what liberty poets ever had and besides my predecessor patriotus was a politician a recorder of abdura a lawmaker as some say and why may not I presume so much as he did how so ever I will adventure for the sight if you will needs urge me to it I am not fully resolved it may be in terror australi incognita there is room enough for of my knowledge neither that hungry spanyard nor may a curious botanicus may be discovered half of it or else one of these floating islands in Mardadsur which like the sianian islands in the yukxin sea alter their place and are accessible only at set times and to some few persons or one of the fortunate isles for who knows yet where or which they are there is room enough in the inner parts of america and northern coasts of asia but I will choose whose latitude shall be 45 degrees I respect not minutes in the midst of the temperate zone or perhaps under the equator that paradise of the world will be semper virens laurus et cetera where there is perpetual spring the longitude for some reasons I will conceal yet be it known to all men by these presence that if any honest gentlemen will send in so much money as carden allows an astrologer for casting a nativity he shall be a sharer I will acquaint him with my project or if any worthy man will stand for any temporal or spiritual office or dignity for as he said of his archbishopric of utopia tis sanctus ambitus and not amiss to be sought after it shall be freely given without all intercessions bribes, letters et cetera shall be the best spokesman and because we shall admit of no deputies or advousons if he be sufficiently qualified and as able as willing to execute the place himself he shall have present possession it shall be divided into 12 or 13 provinces and those by hills rivers, roadways or some more eminent limits exactly bounded each province shall have a metropolis which shall be so placed as a centre almost in a circumference and the rest at equal distances, some 12 Italian miles asunder or there about and in them shall be sold all things necessary for the use of man startis oris et diables no market towns, markets or fares for they do but beggar cities no village shall stand above 6, 7 or 8 miles from a city except those imporiums which are by the seaside general staples, marts as Antwerp, Venice, Bergen of Old London et cetera cities most part shall be situated upon navigable rivers or lakes, creeks, havens and for their form regular, round, square or long square with fair, broad and straight streets houses, uniform built of brick and stone like Bruges, Brussels Lepidie, Bern in Switzerland Milan, Mantua Crema, Cambalu in Tartary described by Polis or that Venetian Parma I would admit very few or no suburbs and those of baser building walls only to keep out man and horse except it be in some frontier towns or by the seaside and those to be fortified after the latest manner of fortification and situated upon convenient havens or opportune places in every so built city I will have convenient churches and separate places to bury the dead in, not in churchyards a citadella in some, not all, to command it prisons for offenders opportune marketplaces of all sorts for corn, meat, cattle fuel, fish commodious courts of justice public halls for all societies bosses meeting places armories in which shall be kept engines for quenching of fire artillery gardens public walks, theatres and spacious fields allotted for all gymnastics sports and honest recreations hospitals of all kinds for children, orphans, old folks sick men, mad men soldiers, pest houses etc not built precario or by gouty benefactors who, when by fraud and rapine they have extorted all their lives oppressed whole provinces societies etc give something to pious uses build a satisfactory arms house school or bridge etc at their last end or before perhaps which is no otherwise than to steal a goose and stick down a feather rob a thousand to relieve ten and those hospitals so built and maintained not by collections benevolences and donories for a set number as in hours just so many and no more at such a rate but for all those who stand in need be they more or less and that, ex publico iorario and so still maintained no nobis solemn natisumus etc I will have cundits of sweet and good water disposed in each town common granaries as at desden in misnia, stettin in pommeland nuremberg etc colleges of mathematicians musicians and actors as of old at lab adeum in ionia alchemists physicians, artists and philosophers that all the arts and sciences may soon be perfected and better learnt and public historiographers as amongst those ancient persians qui in commentarios referei bant qui memoratu digna gere bantur informed and appointed by the state to register all famous acts and not by each insufficient scribbler, partial or parasitical pedant as in our times I will provide public schools of all kinds singing, dancing, fencing etc especially of grammar and languages taught by those tedious precepts ordinarily used but by use, example, conversation as travellers learn abroad and nurses teach their children as I will have all such places so will I ordain public governors, fit officers to each place treasurers, ediles, qui stores overseers of pupils widows goods and all public houses etc and those once a year to make strict accounts of all receipts, expenses to avoid confusion et seek viet no nabsumant as plenty to trajan quod pudiat di care they shall be subordinate to those higher officers and governors of each city which shall not be poor tradesmen and mean artificers but noblemen and gentlemen which shall be tied to residents in those towns they dwell next to times and seasons for I see no reason which Apolitus complains of that it should be more dishonourable for noblemen to govern the city than the country or unseemly to dwell there now than of old I will have no bogs, fens marshes, vast woods deserts, heaths, commons but all enclosed yet not depopulated and therefore take heed that every mans is no mans the richest countries are still enclosed as Essex, Kent, with us etc Spain, Italy and where enclosures are least in quantity they are best husbanded as about Florence in Italy Damascus in Syria etc which are like a gardens than fields I will not have a barren acre in all my territories not so much as the tops of mountains where nature fails it shall be supplied by art lakes and rivers shall not be left desolate all common highways bridges, banks correlations of waters aqueducts, channels public works, buildings etc out of a common stock curiously maintained and kept in repair no depopulations and grossings alterations of wood, arable but by the consent of supervisors that shall be appointed for that purpose to see what reformation ought to be had in all places what is amiss, how to help it at quid quicoe ferrat regio at quid quicoe recuset what ground is aptist for wood what for corn what for cattle gardens, orchards, fishponds etc with a charitable division in every village not one domineering house to swallow up all which is too common with us what for lords, what for tenants and because they shall be better encouraged to improve such lands they hold manure, plant trees drain, fence etc they shall have long leases a known rent and known fine to free them from those intolerable exactions of tyrannizing landlords these supervisors shall likewise appoint a quantity of land in each manner it's fit for the lords' domains what for holding of tenants how it ought to be husbanded but magnates equis miniaigens cognita remis how to be manureed till rectified hiks segates venunt ilig felicius ui arborei foitus alebi at quid inusa wirescunt gramina and what proportion is fit for all callings because private professors are many times idiots ill husbands, oppressors, covetous and know not how to improve their own or else respect their own and not public good utopian parity is a kind of government to be wished for rather than effected respublica cristiana politana campanela's city of the sun and that new atlantis witty fictions and plato's community in many things is impious, absurd and ridiculous it takes away all splendor and magnificence I will have several orders degrees of nobility and those hereditary not rejecting younger brothers in the meantime for they shall be sufficiently provided for by pensions or so qualified brought up in some honest calling they shall be able to live of themselves I will have such a proportion of ground belonging to every barony he that buys the land shall buy the barony he that by riot consumes his patrimony and ancient demeans shall forfeit his honours as some dignities shall be hereditary so some again by election or by gift besides free offices, pensions annuities like our bishoprics brevins, the basses palaces in Turkey, the procurators' houses and offices in Venice which, like the golden apple shall be given to the worthiest and best deserving both in war and peace as a reward of their worth and good service as so many goals for all to aim at honos alit artes and encouragements to others for I hate these severe unnatural harsh German French and Venetian decrees which exclude plebeians from honours be they never so wise rich, virtuous, valiant and well-qualified they must not be patricians but keep their own rank this is natura e bellum in fere odious to God and men I abhor it my form of government shall be monarchical nun quam libertas gratio ecstat quam subregae pil etc no laws but those severely kept plainly put down and in the mother tongue that every man may understand every city shall have a peculiar trade or privilege by which it shall be chiefly maintained and parents shall teach their children one of three at least bring up and instruct them in the mysteries of their own trade in each town these several tradesmen shall be so aptly disposed as they shall free the rest from danger or offence fire trades as smiths forgemen, brewers, bakers metalmen etc shall dwell apart by themselves dyers, tanners, felmongers and such as use water in convenient places by themselves noisome or fulsome for bad smells as butchers, slaughterhouses chandlers, couriers in remote places and some back lanes fraternities and companies i approve of as merchants, bosses colleges of druggists, physicians musicians etc but all trades to be rated in the sale of wares as our clerks of the market do bakers and brewers corn itself, what scarcity so ever shall come not to extend such a price of such wares as are transported or brought in if they be necessary, commodious which is nearly concerned man's life as corn, wood, coal etc and such provision we cannot want i will have little or no custom paid no taxes but for such things as are for pleasure delight or ornament as wine, spice, tobacco silk, velvet, cloth of gold lace, jewels etc a greater impost i will have certain ships sent out for new discoveries every year and some discreet men appointed to travel into all neighbouring kingdoms by land which shall observe what artificial inventions and good laws are in other countries customs, alterations or all tales concerning war or peace which may tend to the common good ecclesiastical discipline penes episcopus subordinate as the other no impropriations no lay patrons of church livings or one private man but common societies corporations etc and those rectors of benefices to be chosen out of the universities examined and approved as the literati in china no parish to contain above a thousand auditors if it were possible i would have such priest as should imitate christ should love their neighbours as themselves temperate and modest physicians, politicians contend the world philosophers should know themselves noblemen live honestly tradesmen leave lying and cousining magistrates corruption etc but this is impossible i must get such as i may i will therefore have lawyers, judges advocates, physicians etc a set number and every man if it be possible to plead his own cause to tell that tale to the judge which he doth to his advocate as it fares in africa, phantom, elepo ragusa so am quiskwek hausam dikerre tenetor those advocates, chirurgians and physicians which are allowed to be maintained out of the common treasury no fees to be given or taken upon pain of losing their places or if they do very small fees and when the cause is fully ended he that sews any man shall put in a pledge which if it be proved he hath wrongfully sued his adversary rashly or maliciously he shall forfeit and lose or else before any suit begin the plaintiff shall have his complaint approved by a set delicacy for that purpose if it be of moment he shall be suffered as before to proceed if otherwise they shall determine it all causes shall be pleaded supresso nomine the parties names concealed if some circumstances do not otherwise require judges and other officers shall be aptly disposed in each province, villages, cities as common arbitrators to hear causes and end controversies and those not single but three at least on the bench at once to determine or give sentence and those again to sit by turns or lots and not to continue still in the same office no controversy to depend above a year but without all delays and further appeals to be speedily dispatched and finally concluded in that time allotted these and all other inferior magistrates to be chosen as the literati in China or by those exact suffrages of the Venetians and such again not to be eligible or capable of magistracies, honours offices except they be sufficiently qualified for learning manners and that by the strict approbation of deputed examiners first scholars to take place then soldiers for I am of Vicatius's opinion a scholar deserves better than a soldier because a soldier's work lasts for an age, a scholar's forever if they misbehave themselves they shall be deposed and accordingly punished and whether their offices be annual or otherwise once a year they shall be called in question and give an account for men are partial and passionate, merciless covetous, corrupt, subject to love, hate, fear, favour etc. omne subregno graviore regnum like solons, areopagites or those Roman censors some shall visit others and be visited and weekend themselves they shall oversee that no prowling officer under colour shall insult over his inferiors as so many wild beasts oppress, domineer flee, grind or trample on be partial or corrupt but that there be aiquabile use justice equally done live as friends and brethren together and which Cecelius would have and so much desires in his kingdom of France a diapason and sweet harmony of kings, princes nobles and plebeians so mutually tied and involved in love as well as laws and authority that they never disagree insult or encroach one upon another if any man deserve well in his office he shall be rewarded ques enim we tutem am plectitur ipsam primiasi tolas he that invents anything for public good in any art or science writes a treatise or informs any noble exploit at home or abroad shall be accordingly enriched honoured and preferred I say with Hannibal in Enius hostem quiferiet erit mihi carthaginensis let him be of what condition he will in all office's actions he that deserves best shall have best end of section 13