ride, neglect, or contemn,"
but rather, as Lemnius exhorteth, "to pity, and by all plausible means to
seek to redress them:" but if satisfaction may not be had, mild courses,
promises, comfortable speeches, and good counsel will not take place; then
as Christophorus a Vega determines, _lib. 3. cap. 14. de Mel._ to handle
them more roughly, to threaten and chide, saith [3455]Altomarus, terrify
sometimes, or as Salvianus will have them, to be lashed and whipped, as we
do by a starting horse, [3456]that is affrighted without a cause, or as
[3457]Rhasis adviseth, "one while to speak fair and flatter, another while
to terrify and chide, as they shall see cause."

When none of these precedent remedies will avail, it will not be amiss,
which Savanarola and Aelian Montaltus so much commend, _clavum clavo
pellere_, [3458]"to drive out one passion with another, or by some contrary
passion," as they do bleeding at nose by letting blood in the arm, to expel
one fear with another, one grief with another. [3459] Christophorus a Vega
accounts it rational physic, _non alienum a ratione_: and Lemnius much
approves it, "to use a hard wedge to a hard knot," to drive out one disease
with another, to pull out a tooth, or wound him, to geld him, saith
[3460]Platerus, as they did epileptical patients of old, because it quite
alters the temperature, that the pain of the one may mitigate the grief of
the other; [3461]"and I knew one that was so cured of a quartan ague, by
the sudden coming of his enemies upon him." If we may believe [3462]Pliny,
whom Scaliger calls _mendaciorum patrem_, the father of lies, Q. Fabius
Maximus, that renowned consul of Rome, in a battle fought with the king of
the Allobroges, at the river Isaurus, was so rid of a quartan ague.
Valesius, in his controversies, holds this an excellent remedy, and if it
be discreetly used in this malady, better than any physic.

Sometimes again by some [3463]feigned lie, strange news, witty device,
artificial invention, it is not amiss to deceive them. [3464]"As they hate
those," saith Alexander, "that neglect or deride, so they will give ear to
such as will soothe them up. If they say they have swallowed frogs or a
snake, by all means grant it, and tell them you can easily cure it;" 'tis
an ordinary thing. Philodotus, the physician, cured a melancholy king, that
thought his head was off, by putting a leaden cap thereon; the weight made
him perceive it, and freed him of his fond imagina