very melancholy man,

[3533] "Utere convivis, non tristibus utere amicis,
Quos nugae et risus, et joca salsa juvant."

"Feast often, and use friends not still so sad,
Whose jests and merriments may make thee glad."

Use honest and chaste sports, scenical shows, plays, games; [3534]
_Accedant juvenumque Chori, mistaeque puellae_. And as Marsilius Ficinus
concludes an epistle to Bernard Canisianus, and some other of his friends,
will I this tract to all good students, [3535]"Live merrily, O my friends,
free from cares, perplexity, anguish, grief of mind, live merrily,"
_laetitia caelum vos creavit_: [3536]"Again and again I request you to be
merry, if anything trouble your hearts, or vex your souls, neglect and
contemn it," [3537]"let it pass." [3538]"And this I enjoin you, not as a
divine alone, but as a physician; for without this mirth, which is the life
and quintessence of physic, medicines, and whatsoever is used and applied
to prolong the life of man, is dull, dead, and of no force." _Dum fata
sinunt, vivite laeti_ (Seneca), I say be merry.

[3539] "Nec lusibus virentem
Viduemus hanc juventam."

It was Tiresias the prophet's council to [3540]Menippus, that travelled all
the world over, even down to hell itself to seek content, and his last
farewell to Menippus, to be merry. [3541]"Contemn the world" (saith he)
"and count that is in it vanity and toys; this only covet all thy life
long; be not curious, or over solicitous in anything, but with a well
composed and contented estate to enjoy thyself, and above all things to be
merry."

[3542] "Si Numerus uti censet sine amore jocisque,
Nil est jucundum, vivas in amore jocisque."

Nothing better (to conclude with Solomon, Eccles. iii. 22), "than that a
man should rejoice in his affairs." 'Tis the same advice which every
physician in this case rings to his patient, as Capivaccius to his, [3543]
"avoid overmuch study and perturbations of the mind, and as much as in thee
lies live at heart's-ease:" Prosper Calenus to that melancholy Cardinal
Caesius, [3544]"amidst thy serious studies and business, use jests and
conceits, plays and toys, and whatsoever else may recreate thy mind."
Nothing better than mirth and merry company in this malady. [3545]"It
begins with sorrow" (saith Montanus), "it must be expelled with hilarity."

But see the mischief; many men, knowing that merry company is the only
medicine against melancholy, will t