itigated at least by some contrary passion, good counsel and
persuasion, if it be withstood in the beginning, maturely resisted, and as
those ancients hold, [6171]"the nails of it be pared before they grow too
long." No better means to resist or repel it than by avoiding idleness, to
be still seriously busied about some matters of importance, to drive out
those vain fears, foolish fantasies and irksome suspicions out of his head,
and then to be persuaded by his judicious friends, to give ear to their
good counsel and advice, and wisely to consider, how much he discredits
himself, his friends, dishonours his children, disgraceth his family,
publisheth his shame, and as a trumpeter of his own misery, divulgeth,
macerates, grieves himself and others; what an argument of weakness it is,
how absurd a thing in its own nature, how ridiculous, how brutish a
passion, how sottish, how odious; for as [6172]Hierome well hath it, _Odium
sui facit, et ipse novissime sibi odio est_, others hate him, and at last
he hates himself for it; how harebrain a disease, mad and furious. If he
will but hear them speak, no doubt he may be cured. [6173]Joan, queen of
Spain, of whom I have formerly spoken, under pretence of changing air was
sent to Complutum, or Alcada de las Heneras, where Ximenius the archbishop
of Toledo then lived, that by his good counsel (as for the present she was)
she might be eased. [6174]"For a disease of the soul, if concealed,
tortures and overturns it, and by no physic can sooner be removed than by a
discreet man's comfortable speeches." I will not here insert any
consolatory sentences to this purpose, or forestall any man's invention,
but leave it every one to dilate and amplify as he shall think fit in his
own judgment: let him advise with Siracides _cap. 9. 1._ "Be not jealous
over the wife of thy bosom;" read that comfortable and pithy speech to this
purpose of Ximenius, in the author himself, as it is recorded by Gomesius;
consult with Chaloner _lib. 9. de repub. Anglor._ or Caelia in her
epistles, &c. Only this I will add, that if it be considered aright, which
causeth this jealous passion, be it just or unjust, whether with or without
cause, true or false, it ought not so heinously to be taken; 'tis no such
real or capital matter, that it should make so deep a wound. 'Tis a blow
that hurts not, an insensible smart, grounded many times upon false
suspicion alone, and so fostered by a sinister conceit. If she be not