ce, he had by his
indiscretion hazarded himself: many such I have observed. These are those
ordinary cautions, which I should think fit to be noted, and he that shall
keep them, as [2881] Montanus saith, shall surely be much eased, if not
thoroughly cured.

SUBSECT. III.--_Concerning Physic_.

Physic itself in the last place is to be considered; "for the Lord hath
created medicines of the earth, and he that is wise will not abhor them."
Ecclus. xxxviii. 4. ver. 7.[0000] "of such doth the apothecary make a
confection," &c. Of these medicines there be diverse and infinite kinds,
plants, metals, animals, &c., and those of several natures, some good for
one, hurtful to another: some noxious in themselves, corrected by art, very
wholesome and good, simples, mixed, &c., and therefore left to be managed
by discreet and skilful physicians, and thence applied to man's use. To
this purpose they have invented method, and several rules of art, to put
these remedies in order, for their particular ends. Physic (as Hippocrates
defines it) is nought else but [2882]"addition and subtraction;" and as it
is required in all other diseases, so in this of melancholy it ought to be
most accurate, it being (as [2883]Mercurialis acknowledgeth) so common an
affection in these our times, and therefore fit to be understood. Several
prescripts and methods I find in several men, some take upon them to cure
all maladies with one medicine, severally applied, as that panacea, _aurum
potabile_, so much controverted in these days, _herba solis_, &c.
Paracelsus reduceth all diseases to four principal heads, to whom
Severinus, Ravelascus, Leo Suavius, and others adhere and imitate: those
are leprosy, gout, dropsy, falling-sickness. To which they reduce the rest;
as to leprosy, ulcers, itches, furfurs, scabs, &c. To gout, stone, colic,
toothache, headache, &c. To dropsy, agues, jaundice, cachexia, &c. To the
falling-sickness, belong palsy, vertigo, cramps, convulsions, incubus,
apoplexy, &c. [2884]"If any of these four principal be cured" (saith
Ravelascus) "all the inferior are cured," and the same remedies commonly
serve: but this is too general, and by some contradicted: for this peculiar
disease of melancholy, of which I am now to speak, I find several cures,
several methods and prescripts. They that intend the practic cure of
melancholy, saith Duretus in his notes to Hollerius, set down nine peculiar
scopes or ends; Savanarola prescribes seven especi