mihi plaudo simul ac nummos contemplor in arca_, as he
said in the poet, it so revives the spirits, and is an excellent recipe
against melancholy,

[4161] _For gold in physic is a cordial,
Therefore he loved gold in special._

_Aurum potabile_, [4162]he discommends and inveighs against it, by reason
of the corrosive waters which are used in it: which argument our Dr. Guin
urgeth against D. Antonius. [4163]Erastus concludes their philosophical
stones and potable gold, &c. "to be no better than poison," a mere
imposture, a _non ens_; dug out of that broody hill belike this golden
stone is, _ubi nascetur ridiculus mus_. Paracelsus and his chemistical
followers, as so many Promethei, will fetch fire from heaven, will cure all
manner of diseases with minerals, accounting them the only physic on the
other side. [4164]Paracelsus calls Galen, Hippocrates, and all their
adherents, infants, idiots, sophisters, &c. _Apagesis istos qui Vulcanias
istas metamorphoses sugillant, inscitiae soboles, supinae pertinaciae
alumnos_, &c., not worthy the name of physicians, for want of these
remedies: and brags that by them he can make a man live 160 years, or to
the world's end, with their [4165]_Alexipharmacums, Panaceas, Mummias,
unguentum Armarium_, and such magnetical cures, _Lampas vitae et mortis,
Balneum Dianae, Balsamum, Electrum Magico-physicum, Amuleta Martialia_, &c.
What will not he and his followers effect? He brags, moreover, that he was
_primus medicorum_, and did more famous cures than all the physicians in
Europe besides, [4166]"a drop of his preparations should go farther than a
dram, or ounce of theirs," those loathsome and fulsome filthy potions,
heteroclitical pills (so he calls them), horse medicines, _ad quoram
aspectum Cyclops Polyphemus exhorresceret_. And though some condemn their
skill and magnetical cures as tending to magical superstition, witchery,
charms, &c., yet they admire, stiffly vindicate nevertheless, and
infinitely prefer them. But these are both in extremes, the middle sort
approve of minerals, though not in so high a degree. Lemnius _lib. 3. cap.
6. de occult. nat. mir_. commends gold inwardly and outwardly used, as in
rings, excellent good in medicines; and such mixtures as are made for
melancholy men, saith Wecker, _antid. spec. lib. 1._ to whom Renodeus
subscribes, _lib. 2. cap. 2._ Ficinus, _lib. 2. cap. 19._ Fernel. _meth.
med. lib. 5. cap. 21. de Cardiacis_. Daniel Sennertus, _lib. 1. pa