th himself to be a dog, cock, bear, horse, glass, butter, &c. He is
a giant, a dwarf, as strong as an hundred men, a lord, duke, prince, &c.
And if he be told he hath a stinking breath, a great nose, that he is sick,
or inclined to such or such a disease, he believes it eftsoons, and
peradventure by force of imagination will work it out. Many of them are
immovable, and fixed in their conceits, others vary upon every object,
heard or seen. If they see a stage-play, they run upon that a week after;
if they hear music, or see dancing, they have nought but bagpipes in their
brain: if they see a combat, they are all for arms. [2520]If abused, an
abuse troubles them long after; if crossed, that cross, &c. Restless in
their thoughts and actions, continually meditating, _Velut aegri somnia,
vanae finguntur species_; more like dreams, than men awake, they fain a
company of antic, fantastical conceits, they have most frivolous thoughts,
impossible to be effected; and sometimes think verily they hear and see
present before their eyes such phantasms or goblins, they fear, suspect, or
conceive, they still talk with, and follow them. In fine, _cogitationes
somniantibus similes, id vigilant, quod alii somniant cogitabundi_, still,
saith Avicenna, they wake, as others dream, and such for the most part are
their imaginations and conceits, [2521]absurd, vain, foolish toys, yet they
are [2522]most curious and solicitous, continual, _et supra modum_, Rhasis
_cont. lib. 1. cap. 9._ _praemeditantur de aliqua re_. As serious in a toy,
as if it were a most necessary business, of great moment, importance, and
still, still, still thinking of it: _saeviunt in se_, macerating
themselves. Though they do talk with you, and seem to be otherwise
employed, and to your thinking very intent and busy, still that toy runs in
their mind, that fear, that suspicion, that abuse, that jealousy, that
agony, that vexation, that cross, that castle in the air, that crotchet,
that whimsy, that fiction, that pleasant waking dream, whatsoever it is.
_Nec interrogant_ (saith [2523]Fracastorius) _nec interrogatis recte
respondent_. They do not much heed what you say, their mind is on another
matter; ask what you will, they do not attend, or much intend that business
they are about, but forget themselves what they are saying, doing, or
should otherwise say or do, whither they are going, distracted with their
own melancholy thoughts. One laughs upon a sudden, another smiles t