second husbands, made their supplications to the goddess; all
manner of suits concerning lovers were commenced, and their grievances
helped. The same author, in Achaicis, tells as much of the river [5826]
Senelus in Greece; if any lover washed himself in it, by a secret virtue of
that water, (by reason of the extreme coldness belike) he was healed, of
love's torments, [5827]_Amoris vulnus idem qui sanat facit_; which if it be
so, that water, as he holds, is _omni auro pretiosior_, better than any
gold. Where none of all these remedies will take place, I know no other but
that all lovers must make a head and rebel, as they did in [5828]Ausonius,
and crucify Cupid till he grant their request, or satisfy their desires.

SUBSECT. V.--_The last and best Cure of Love-Melancholy, is to let them
have their Desire_.

The last refuge and surest remedy, to be put in practice in the utmost
place, when no other means will take effect, is to let them go together,
and enjoy one another: _potissima cura est ut heros amasia sua potiatur_,
saith Guianerius, _cap. 15. tract. 15._ Aesculapius himself, to this
malady, cannot invent a better remedy, _quam ut amanti cedat amatum_,
[5829](Jason Pratensis) than that a lover have his desire.

"Et pariter torulo bini jungantur in uno,
Et pulchro detur Aeneae Lavinia conjux."

"And let them both be joined in a bed,
And let Aeneas fair Lavinia wed;"

'Tis the special cure, to let them bleed in _vena Hymencaea_, for love is a
pleurisy, and if it be possible, so let it be,--_optataque gaudia carpant_.
[5830]Arculanus holds it the speediest and the best cure, 'tis Savanarola's
[5831]last precept, a principal infallible remedy, the last, sole, and
safest refuge.

[5832] "Julia sola poles nostras extinguere flammas,
Non nive, nun glacie, sed potes igne pari."

"Julia alone can quench my desire,
With neither ice nor snow, but with like fire."

When you have all done, saith [5833]Avicenna, "there is no speedier or
safer course, than to join the parties together according to their desires
and wishes, the custom and form of law; and so we have seen him quickly
restored to his former health, that was languished away to skin and bones;
after his desire was satisfied, his discontent ceased, and we thought it
strange; our opinion is therefore that in such cases nature is to be
obeyed." Areteus, an old author, _lib. 3. cap. 3._ hath an instance of a