bashful, moped, solitary, that would
not eat his meat, or sleep, and yet again by fits apt to be angry, &c.

_Solitariness._] Most part they are, as Plater notes, _desides, taciturni,
aegre impulsi, nec nisi coacti procedunt_, &c. they will scarce be
compelled to do that which concerns them, though it be for their good, so
diffident, so dull, of small or no compliment, unsociable, hard to be
acquainted with, especially of strangers; they had rather write their minds
than speak, and above all things love solitariness. _Ob voluptatem, an ob
timorem soli sunt_? Are they so solitary for pleasure (one asks,) or pain?
for both; yet I rather think for fear and sorrow, &c.

[2531] "Hinc metuunt cupiuntque, dolent fugiuntque, nec auras
Respiciunt, clausi tenebris, et carcere caeco."

"Hence 'tis they grieve and fear, avoiding light,
And shut themselves in prison dark from sight."

As Bellerophon in [2532]Homer,

"Qui miser in sylvis moerens errabat opacis,
Ipse suum cor edens, hominum vestigia vitans."

"That wandered in the woods sad all alone,
Forsaking men's society, making great moan."

They delight in floods and waters, desert places, to walk alone in
orchards, gardens, private walks, back lanes, averse from company, as
Diogenes in his tub, or Timon Misanthropus [2533], they abhor all
companions at last, even their nearest acquaintances and most familiar
friends, for they have a conceit (I say) every man observes them, will
deride, laugh to scorn, or misuse them, confining themselves therefore
wholly to their private houses or chambers, _fugiunt homines sine causa_
(saith Rhasis) _et odio habent_, _cont. l. 1. c. 9._ they will diet
themselves, feed and live alone. It was one of the chiefest reasons why the
citizens of Abdera suspected Democritus to be melancholy and mad, because
that, as Hippocrates related in his Epistle to Philopaemenes, [2534]"he
forsook the city, lived in groves and hollow trees, upon a green bank by a
brook side, or confluence of waters all day long, and all night." _Quae
quidem_ (saith he) _plurimum atra bile vexatis et melancholicis eveniunt,
deserta frequentant, hominumque congressum aversantur_; [2535]which is an
ordinary thing with melancholy men. The Egyptians therefore in their
hieroglyphics expressed a melancholy man by a hare sitting in her form, as
being a most timorous and solitary creature, Pierius _Hieroglyph. l. 12._
But this, a