t of the hinges of his
health." Vives compares them to [1592]"Winds upon the sea, some only move
as those great gales, but others turbulent quite overturn the ship." Those
which are light, easy, and more seldom, to our thinking, do us little harm,
and are therefore contemned of us: yet if they be reiterated, [1593]"as the
rain" (saith Austin) "doth a stone, so do these perturbations penetrate the
mind:" [1594]and (as one observes) "produce a habit of melancholy at the
last," which having gotten the mastery in our souls, may well be called
diseases.

How these passions produce this effect, [1595]Agrippa hath handled at
large, _Occult. Philos. l. 11. c. 63._ Cardan, _l. 14. subtil._ Lemnius,
_l. 1. c. 12, de occult. nat. mir. et lib. 1. cap. 16._ Suarez, _Met.
disput. 18. sect. 1. art. 25._ T. Bright, _cap. 12._ of his Melancholy
Treatise. Wright the Jesuit, in his Book of the Passions of the Mind, &c.
Thus in brief, to our imagination cometh by the outward sense or memory,
some object to be known (residing in the foremost part of the brain), which
he misconceiving or amplifying presently communicates to the heart, the
seat of all affections. The pure spirits forthwith flock from the brain to
the heart, by certain secret channels, and signify what good or bad object
was presented; [1596]which immediately bends itself to prosecute, or avoid
it; and withal, draweth with it other humours to help it: so in pleasure,
concur great store of purer spirits; in sadness, much melancholy blood; in
ire, choler. If the imagination be very apprehensive, intent, and violent,
it sends great store of spirits to, or from the heart, and makes a deeper
impression, and greater tumult, as the humours in the body be likewise
prepared, and the temperature itself ill or well disposed, the passions are
longer and stronger; so that the first step and fountain of all our
grievances in this kind, is [1597]_laesa imaginatio_, which misinforming
the heart, causeth all these distemperatures, alteration and confusion of
spirits and humours. By means of which, so disturbed, concoction is
hindered, and the principal parts are much debilitated; as [1598]Dr.
Navarra well declared, being consulted by Montanus about a melancholy Jew.
The spirits so confounded, the nourishment must needs be abated, bad
humours increased, crudities and thick spirits engendered with melancholy
blood. The other parts cannot perform their functions, having the spirits
drawn from them