endured.
[2597]_Quaedam occulta quaedam manifesta_, some signs are manifest and
obvious to all at all times, some to few, or seldom, or hardly perceived;
let them keep their own council, none will take notice or suspect them.
"They do not express in outward show their depraved imaginations," as
[2598]Hercules de Saxonia observes, "but conceal them wholly to themselves,
and are very wise men, as I have often seen; some fear, some do not fear at
all, as such as think themselves kings or dead, some have more signs, some
fewer, some great, some less," some vex, fret, still fear, grieve, lament,
suspect, laugh, sing, weep, chafe, &c. by fits (as I have said) or more
during and permanent. Some dote in one thing, are most childish, and
ridiculous, and to be wondered at in that, and yet for all other matters
most discreet and wise. To some it is in disposition, to another in habit;
and as they write of heat and cold, we may say of this humour, one is
_melancholicus ad octo_, a second two degrees less, a third halfway. 'Tis
superparticular, _sesquialtera, sesquitertia_, and _superbipartiens
tertias, quintas Melancholiae_, &c. all those geometrical proportions are
too little to express it. [2599]"It comes to many by fits, and goes; to
others it is continuate:" many (saith [2600]Faventinus) "in spring and fall
only are molested," some once a year, as that Roman [2601] Galen speaks of:
[2602]one, at the conjunction of the moon alone, or some unfortunate
aspects, at such and such set hours and times, like the sea-tides, to some
women when they be with child, as [2603]Plater notes, never otherwise: to
others 'tis settled and fixed; to one led about and variable still by that
_ignis fatuus_ of phantasy, like an _arthritis_ or running gout, 'tis here
and there, and in every joint, always molesting some part or other; or if
the body be free, in a myriad of forms exercising the mind. A second once
peradventure in his life hath a most grievous fit, once in seven years,
once in five years, even to the extremity of madness, death, or dotage, and
that upon, some feral accident or perturbation, terrible object, and for a
time, never perhaps so before, never after. A third is moved upon all such
troublesome objects, cross fortune, disaster, and violent passions,
otherwise free, once troubled in three or four years. A fourth, if things
be to his mind, or he in action, well pleased, in good company, is most
jocund, and of a good complexion: if idl