CHAP. IX.
MOreouer such as are angrie ought to forbeare all serious studies,* 1.1 or at least wise they are to exercise them without lassitude, and the minde ought not to be busied in many things, but to be entertai∣ned with more pleasing studies. Let the reading of Poets pacifi•• him, and the ouerloking of Histories content him with varieties, let him be handled more tenderly a••d delicately. Pithagoras pacified the per∣turbations of the mind by his Harpe. But who knoweth not that Clarions and Trumpets doe wonderfully moue? and that there are some straines of voice and musick which make the mind tractable? Great things are profitable for con∣fused eyes, and there are other coulors that content the feeble sight, and the brightnes of some other doth blemish them, so the studie of pleasant stories doth comfort languishing spirits. We must flie the places, the pleas, and courts where audience is giuen, all which doe exulcerate the minde, and beware like∣wise to weri•• our bodies. For lassitude consumeth all that which is sweete and plausible in vs, and awakeneth that which is sharpe and stirring. For this cause they that haue no good stomack intending to imploy themselues in some mat∣ters of importance, are accustomed to represse the cholericke humor which tra∣uell stirreth ouer much, by eating some little thing, and the rather because hun∣ger extinguisheth natural heat, hurteth the bloud, and staieth the course therof, by reason that the veines are trauelled, or because the body being attenuated & faint incountereth the soule. Vndoubtedly for the same cause & consideration sickmen & old men are subject vnto anger. And therfore for the same causes are hunger & thirst to be auoided because they exasperate & inflame mens minds.