ting all
those vices and maladies to the mind. Even so doth [1577]Philostratus, _non
coinquinatur corpus, nisi consensuanimae_; the body is not corrupted, but
by the soul. Lodovicus Vives will have such turbulent commotions proceed
from ignorance and indiscretion. [1578]All philosophers impute the miseries
of the body to the soul, that should have governed it better, by command of
reason, and hath not done it. The Stoics are altogether of opinion (as
[1579]Lipsius and [1580]Picolomineus record), that a wise man should be
[Greek: apathaes], without all manner of passions and perturbations
whatsoever, as [1581]Seneca reports of Cato, the [1582] Greeks of Socrates,
and [1583]Io. Aubanus of a nation in Africa, so free from passion, or
rather so stupid, that if they be wounded with a sword, they will only look
back. [1584]Lactantius, _2 instit._, will exclude "fear from a wise man:"
others except all, some the greatest passions. But let them dispute how
they will, set down in Thesi, give precepts to the contrary; we find that
of [1585]Lemnius true by common experience; "No mortal man is free from
these perturbations: or if he be so, sure he is either a god, or a block."
They are born and bred with us, we have them from our parents by
inheritance. _A parentibus habemus malum hunc assem_, saith [1586]Pelezius,
_Nascitur una nobiscum, aliturque_, 'tis propagated from Adam, Cain was
melancholy, [1587]as Austin hath it, and who is not? Good discipline,
education, philosophy, divinity (I cannot deny), may mitigate and restrain
these passions in some few men at some times, but most part they domineer,
and are so violent, [1588]that as a torrent (_torrens velut aggere rupto_)
bears down all before, and overflows his banks, _sternit agros, sternit
sata_, (lays waste the fields, prostrates the crops,) they overwhelm
reason, judgment, and pervert the temperature of the body; _Fertur [1589]
equis auriga, nec audit currus habenas_. Now such a man (saith
[1590]Austin) "that is so led, in a wise man's eye, is no better than he
that stands upon his head." It is doubted by some, _Gravioresne morbi a
perturbationibus, an ab humoribus_, whether humours or perturbations cause
the more grievous maladies. But we find that of our Saviour, Mat. xxvi. 41,
most true, "The spirit is willing, the flesh is weak," we cannot resist;
and this of [1591]Philo Judeus, "Perturbations often offend the body, and
are most frequent causes of melancholy, turning it ou