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AND ENGLISH PHYSICIAN ENLARGED. 
197 
a scorpion, Wormwood, an herb of Mars, 
gives you a present cure; then Mars, cho- 
leric as he is, hath learned that patience, to 
pass by your evil speeches of him, and tells 
you by my pen, That he gives you no af- 
fliction, but he gives you a cure; you need 
not run to Apollo, nor Aisculapius; and if 
he was so choleric as you make him to be, 
he would have drawn his sword for anger, 
to see the ill conditions of these people 
that can spy his vices, and not his virtues. 
The eternal God, when he made Mars, 
made him for public good, and the sons of 
men shall know it in the latter end of the 
world. Et celum Mars solus babet. You 
say Mars is a destroyer; mix a little Worm- 
wood, an herb of Mars, with your ink, 
neither rats nor mice touch the paper writ- 
ten with it, and then Mars is a preserver. 
Astrologers think Mars causes scabs and 
itch, and the virgins are angry with him, 
because wanton Venus told them he de- 
forms their skins; but, quoth Mars, my 
only desire is, they should know them- | 
selves; my herb Wormwood will restore 
them to the beauty they formerly had, and 
in that I will not come an inch behind my 
opposite, Venus: for which doth the great- 
est evil, he that takes away an innate 
beauty, and when he has done, knows how to 
restore it again? or she that teaches a com- 
pany of wanton lasses to paint their faces? 
If Mars be in a Virgin, in the nativity, they 
say he causes the cholic (it is well God hath 
Set some body to pull down the pride of 
man.) He in the Virgin troubles none with 
the cholic, but them that know not them- 
selves (for who knows himself, may easily 
know all the world.) Wormwood, an herb 
Of Mars, is a present cure for it; and 
whether it be most like a Christian to love 
him for his good, or hate him for his evil, 
judge ye. I had almost forgotten, that 
charity thinks no evil. I was once in the 
Tower and viewed the wardrobe, and there 
_ Was a great many fine clothes: (I can give 
\ 
them no other title, for I was never either 
linen or woolen draper) yet as brave as 
they looked, my opinion was that the moths 
might consume them; moths are under the 
dominion of Mars; this herb Wormwood be- 
ing laid among cloaths, will make a moth 
scorn to meddle with the cloaths, as much 
as a lion scorns to meddle with a mouse, or 
an eagle with a fly, You say Mars is angry, 
and it is true enough he is angry with many 
countrymen, for being such fools to be led. 
by the noses by the college of physicians, 
as they lead bears to Paris garden. Melan- 
choly men cannot endure to be wronged in 
point of good fame, and that doth sorely 
trouble old Saturn, because they call him 
the greatest infortunate; in the body of man 
he rules the spleen, (and that makes covet- 
ous men so splenetic) the poor old man lies 
crying out of his left side. Father Saturn’s 
angry, Mars comes to him; Come, brother, 
I confess thou art evil spoken of, and so 
am I; thou knowest I have my exaltation in 
thy house, I give him an herb of mine, 
Wormwood to cure the old man: Saturn 
consented, but spoke little, and so Mars 
cured him by sympathy. When Mars was 
free from war, (for he loves to be fighting, 
and is the best friend a soldier hath) I say, 
when Mars was free from war, he called a 
council of war in his own brain, to know 
how he should do poor sinful man good, 
desiring to forget his abuses in being called 
an infortunate. He muster up his own 
forces, and places them in battalia. Oh! 
quoth he, why do I hurt a poor silly man 
or woman? His angel answers him, It is 
because they have offended their God, 
(Look back to Adam:) Well, says Mars, — 
though they speak evil of me, I will do good 
to them; Death’s cold, my herb shall heat | 
them: they are full of ill humours (else — 
they would never have spoken ill of me;) 
my herb shall cleanse them, and dry them; 
they are poor weak creatures, my herb ha 
strengthen them; they are dull y 
