."

In such sort doth the torture and extremity of his misery torment him, that
he can take no pleasure in his life, but is in a manner enforced to offer
violence unto himself, to be freed from his present insufferable pains. So
some (saith [2739]Fracastorius) "in fury, but most in despair, sorrow,
fear, and out of the anguish and vexation of their souls, offer violence to
themselves: for their life is unhappy and miserable. They can take no rest
in the night, nor sleep, or if they do slumber, fearful dreams astonish
them." In the daytime they are affrighted still by some terrible object,
and torn in pieces with suspicion, fear, sorrow, discontents, cares, shame,
anguish, &c. as so many wild horses, that they cannot be quiet an hour, a
minute of time, but even against their wills they are intent, and still
thinking of it, they cannot forget it, it grinds their souls day and night,
they are perpetually tormented, a burden to themselves, as Job was, they
can neither eat, drink or sleep. Psal. cvii. 18. "Their soul abhorreth all
meat, and they are brought to death's door, [2740]being bound in misery and
iron:" they [2741]curse their stars with Job, [2742]"and day of their
birth, and wish for death:" for as Pineda and most interpreters hold, Job
was even melancholy to despair, and almost [2743]madness itself; they
murmur many times against the world, friends, allies, all mankind, even
against God himself in the bitterness of their passion, [2744]_vivere
nolunt, mori nesciunt_, live they will not, die they cannot. And in the
midst of these squalid, ugly, and such irksome days, they seek at last,
finding no comfort, [2745]no remedy in this wretched life, to be eased of
all by death. _Omnia appetunt bonum_, all creatures seek the best, and for
their good as they hope, _sub specie_, in show at least, _vel quia mori
pulchrum putant_ (saith [2746]Hippocrates) _vel quia putant inde se
majoribus malis liberari_, to be freed as they wish. Though many times, as
Aesop's fishes, they leap from the frying-pan into the fire itself, yet
they hope to be eased by this means: and therefore (saith Felix
[2747]Platerus) "after many tedious days at last, either by drowning,
hanging, or some such fearful end," they precipitate or make away
themselves: "many lamentable examples are daily seen amongst us:" _alius
ante, fores se laqueo suspendit_ (as Seneca notes), _alius se praecipitavit
a tecto, ne dominum stomachantem audiret, alius ne reduceretur