A10663:389
A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the…A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the…
A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soul of man With the several dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edward Reynolds, late preacher to the honourable society of Lincoln's Inn: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.A treatise of the passions and faculties of the soule of man With the severall dignities and corruptions thereunto belonging. By Edvvard Reynoldes, late preacher to the honorable society of Lincoln's Inne: and now rector of the Church of Braunston in Northamptonshire.
London: printed by R. Hearne and John Norton for Robert Bostock, 1640
Modern spelling is a reading aid: the words are the author’s, only the spelling is modernized. Original shows the page as printed, with the transcription marks.
Another cause of Desire may be Admiration; A strange thing though monstrous and deformed calleth the eyes of every man unto it. Rarity is a marvellous Lenocinium, and enticer of Desire, •. stiv• nives, hybern• rosae as the Panegyrist spake, Snow in the Summer and Roses in Winter; the Birds of this Country, and the Roots of another; dainties hardly procured without the shipwrecks of men, to feed the gluttony rather of the eye than of the belly; these are the delights of the curiosities of men. The same fruits when they are worse but rarer, have a far greater value set upon them, then when exposed by their commons unto every mans purchase And it was1 a wise complaint of old Cato; That it went ill with the City when a Fish was sold for more then an Ox. We see Desires do not put forth themselves more freely in any then in children, I think the chief Reason of it is the same which the Philosopher giveth of their memories, because2 every thing to them is new and strange▪ for strange things as they make stronger impressions upon the Retentive, so they do upon the Appeti•ive faculties. And therefore we find Herod who3 cared nothing at all •or the Doctrine of Christ, because it was holy and divine, had yet a great ⟨p. 174⟩Desire to have seen his miracles, because they4 were wonderful. And Men have travelled far to see those persons and things, the fame whereof they have before admired, strange Learning, strange Birds and Beasts, strange Flowers and Roots, strange Fashions; yea, strange Sins too (which is the curiosity and corruption of Nature) are marvellous attractive, and beget emulation amongst Men. Nero gave rewards to the inventors of strange Lusts. Even Solomons Ships, besides substantial Treasure, did bring home Apes and Peacocks. Athens which was the eye, the flour, and Epitome of Greece (to show that this curiosity is the disease as well of Wits, as of Childhood) spent all their time and study in inquiring after new things.