Proteus redivivus, or, The art of wheedling or insinuation obtain'd by general conversation and extracted from the several humours, inclinations, and passions of both sexes, respecting their several ages, and suiting each profession or occupation / collected and methodized by the author of the first part of the English rogue.

Of Melancholy.

OF all the four Temperaments, this is the great∣est enemy to life and good society; as to the first, because its qualities being Cold and Dry, do most of all disagree from the lively qualities, Heat, and Moisture; either with its Coldness extinguishing natural inherent heat, or with its Dryness sucking up the native Moisture. As to the second, Society, as all Creatures whatever delight in it, so he is averse to it, and seems to be a man, made to be alone. He may curse his Godfather Saturn for his ill qualities; for he had them all from him; a fellow of that malig∣nant nature, that let him be in Copulation with the best (though with Madam Venu••, when she is in a merry pin, and in good humour) yet will he dull, and obscure their benevolent influ∣encies.

A man of his temper, by his contemplative faculty, and by the assiduity of sad and serious meditation may prove a dangerous Machiavili∣an, and may haply invent such stratagems,

whims & policies, as were never put in practice, and which may have a happy success,; but he is no man for a nimble denterical, pregnant, and extemporary Invention; no man at a pleasant Conceit, a Comical Jest, quaint Expressions, varnish'd Metaphors, nor gracefull Delivery; wherefore, he that intends to ingratiate him∣self into his acquaintance, must not think to do it with A la mode Songs, repetition of Witty Verses, as Epigrams, Epithalamiums, &c. nor with culd ingenious Sentences out of Plays; he had rather hear a Wolf howl at Midnight, or a Consort of Screech-Owles, ac∣companied with the scratching Courtship of a dozen Cats promiscuously generating; if you Laugh, and show your Teeth to him, he had rather see a Bear grin at him; and the sound of a Violin is more dreadful to him than the crowing of a Cock to a Lyon. If you intend to win his heart, you must endeavour to look like Lazarus, newly risen from the Dead; or like the Daemoniacks coming out of the Tombs; you must make no noise, not so much as open your Mouth, for fear the Air should whistle through your Teeth, and if you must speak, let it be so, as if you intended never to speak more.

I pity that man that is troubled with this Malignant constitution, for it is the Spring of

all sad and bad Humours, the Aqua Fortis of good Company; for he is a contemplative Slum∣berer, and sleeps waking.

He is distinguished from the other three com∣plexions, by his black swarthy Visage, slow pace, and sad countenance; he entertains hatred a long time in his Breast, and is rarely reconci∣led to his Enemy. It is a long time before he can be made a Friend, yet he is of a kind Na∣ture to them with whom he hath long conversed, and is constant in his affection and Friendship; and he that will obtain it, must humour his ridi∣culous Passions, of which he hath too many; what he Conceits, you must Swear is Real; for he hates contradiction, being so much Wedded to his own fond opinion. If he vainly imagin he is made of Glass, (as I have read of one that did) keep your distance, lest coming too near him, he suspect you for an Enemy, and that by a justle you design his Ruin, breaking his brittle Fabrick into pieces; if as another, he thinks him∣self composed of Butter, you must half starve with him in the cold, rather than injure his con∣ceit, by perswading him to sit by the Fire, and hazard his dissolution; if (as Burton relates of one) he thinks he hath a Nose so big, that the Room wherein he sits is too little to contain it; you must when you give him a visit, squeez your self into it, for fear of hurting his Nose,

till you come to the back of his Chair, there without injury to discourse with him; if as ano∣ther, who thought himself Dead, and therefore would not Eat, you must sit with him in a VVinding Sheet at a Table furnisht with Meat, and confessing your self to be Dead too, fall on, that by your Example you may perswade him to Eat too, since his Brother Dead-man does it; if as another, who took a conceit he was a God, you must seemingly worship his Deity, till by your Knavish dealing with him, you make him confess his Humanity; if as another, he fancy he is so light, that he must wear Iron Shoes to hinder the VVind from tripping up his heels, lay your Politick weights and Stratagems on his Shoulders, till he groan under the weight of your Cozenage and Deceits. In short, you must deal with him as with men of all other complexions, by a congruity, and suiting with the humour of the Person; for without this, the Wheedle shall miss of his intended advantage.