tural melancholy; so doth leanness, hirsuteness, broad veins, much
hair on the brows," saith [1294]Gratanarolus, _cap. 7_, and a little head,
out of Aristotle, high sanguine, red colour, shows head melancholy; they
that stutter and are bald, will be soonest melancholy, (as Avicenna
supposeth,) by reason of the dryness of their brains; but he that will know
more of the several signs of humour and wits out of physiognomy, let him
consult with old Adamantus and Polemus, that comment, or rather paraphrase
upon Aristotle's Physiognomy, Baptista Porta's four pleasant books, Michael
Scot _de secretis naturae_, John de Indagine, Montaltus, Antony Zara.
_anat. ingeniorum, sect. 1. memb. 13. et lib. 4._

Chiromancy hath these aphorisms to foretell melancholy, Tasneir. _lib. 5.
cap. 2_, who hath comprehended the sum of John de Indagine: Tricassus,
Corvinus, and others in his book, thus hath it; [1295]"The Saturnine line
going from the rascetta through the hand, to Saturn's mount, and there
intersected by certain little lines, argues melancholy; so if the vital and
natural make an acute angle, Aphorism 100. The saturnine, hepatic, and
natural lines, making a gross triangle in the hand, argue as much;" which
Goclenius, _cap. 5. Chiros._ repeats verbatim out of him. In general they
conclude all, that if Saturn's mount be full of many small lines and
intersections, [1296]"such men are most part melancholy, miserable and full
of disquietness, care and trouble, continually vexed with anxious and
bitter thoughts, always sorrowful, fearful, suspicious; they delight in
husbandry, buildings, pools, marshes, springs, woods, walks," &c. Thaddaeus
Haggesius, in his _Metoposcopia_, hath certain aphorisms derived from
Saturn's lines in the forehead, by which he collects a melancholy
disposition; and [1297]Baptista Porta makes observations from those other
parts of the body, as if a spot be over the spleen; [1298]"or in the nails;
if it appear black, it signifieth much care, grief, contention, and
melancholy;" the reason he refers to the humours, and gives instance in
himself, that for seven years space he had such black spots in his nails,
and all that while was in perpetual lawsuits, controversies for his
inheritance, fear, loss of honour, banishment, grief, care, &c. and when
his miseries ended, the black spots vanished. Cardan, in his book _de
libris propriis_, tells such a story of his own person, that a little
before his son's death, he had a