[ 1526] To Compassionate others miseries.
THere is mention made of some Mountains,* 1.1 called Montes Lactarei, the milky Mountains, on which the Beasts that feed, do give such nourishing milk, that Mens bodies, (though much consumed away) do thereby, not onely receive strength and health, but fatnesse also, whereas the beasts them∣selves are exceeding lean; so that after a wonderfull manner the beasts do not profit by that grasse, by which the bodies of Men come on and prosper; they go up and down near the thickets of the Mountains meagre and thin, and as it were, sustaining the condition of those who are healed by them: Like to these beasts should Charity make every one of us,* 1.2 that as we comfort the Poor with the milk that we give them, the relief that we afford them, and that when we bestow our Alms, it should be cum sympathia et lacrymis, with tears and sympa∣thy of grief, as having a Fellow-feeling with them, and bearing part of their di∣stressed burthen, so that as passion wringeth tears from them, Compassion should do the like from us.