6. Piso, Jacchinus, cap. 15. in 9.  Rhasis, Capivaccius, Hildesheim, &c., all inculcate this as an especial means of their cure, that their [3401]"minds be quietly pacified, vain conceits diverted, if it be possible, with terrors, cares,” [3402] “fixed studies, cogitations, and whatsoever it is that shall any way molest or trouble the soul,” because that otherwise there is no good to be done. [3403]"The body’s mischiefs,” as Plato proves, “proceed from the soul:  and if the mind be not first satisfied, the body can never be cured.”  Alcibiades raves (saith [3404]Maximus Tyrius) and is sick, his furious desires carry him from Lyceus to the pleading place, thence to the sea, so into Sicily, thence to Lacedaemon, thence to Persia, thence to Samos, then again to Athens; Critias tyranniseth over all the city; Sardanapalus is lovesick; these men are ill-affected all, and can never be cured, till their minds be otherwise qualified.  Crato, therefore, in that often-cited Counsel of his for a nobleman his patient, when he had sufficiently informed him in diet, air, exercise, Venus, sleep, concludes with these as matters of greatest moment, Quod reliquum est, animae accidentia corrigantur, from which alone proceeds melancholy; they are the fountain, the subject, the hinges whereon it turns, and must necessarily be reformed. [3405]"For anger stirs choler, heats the blood and vital spirits; sorrow on the other side refrigerates the body, and extinguisheth natural heat, overthrows appetite, hinders concoction, dries up the temperature, and perverts the understanding:”  fear dissolves the spirits, infects the heart, attenuates the soul:  and for these causes all passions and perturbations must, to the uttermost of our power and most seriously, be removed.  Aelianus Montaltus attributes so much to them, [3406]"that he holds the rectification of them alone to be sufficient to the cure of melancholy in most patients.”  Many are fully cured when they have seen or heard, &c., enjoy their desires, or be secured and satisfied in their minds; Galen, the common master of them all, from whose fountain they fetch water, brags, lib. 1. de san. tuend., that he, for his part, hath cured divers of this infirmity, solum animis ad rectum institutis, by right settling alone of their minds.

Yea, but you will here infer, that this is excellent good indeed if it could be done; but how shall it be effected, by whom, what art, what means? hic labor, hoc opus est. ’Tis a natural infirmity, a most powerful adversary, all men are subject to passions, and melancholy above all others, as being distempered by their innate humours, abundance of choler adust, weakness of parts, outward occurrences; and how shall they be avoided?  The wisest men, greatest philosophers of most excellent wit, reason, judgment, divine spirits, cannot moderate themselves in this behalf; such as are sound in body and mind, Stoics, heroes, Homer’s gods, all are passionate, and