If that may not be hoped or expected, yet ease him with comfort, cheerful speeches, fair promises, and good words, persuade him, advise him. Many, saith [3447]Galen, have been cured by good counsel and persuasion alone. Heaviness of the heart of man doth bring it down, but a good word rejoiceth it, Prov. xii. 25. And there is he that speaketh words like the pricking of a sword, but the tongue of a wise man is health, ver. 18. Oratio, namque saucii animi est remedium, a gentle speech is the true cure of a wounded soul, as [3448]Plutarch contends out of Aeschylus and Euripides: if it be wisely administered it easeth grief and pain, as diverse remedies do many other diseases. 'Tis incantationis instar, a charm, aestuantis animi refrigerium, that true Nepenthe of Homer, which was no Indian plant, or feigned medicine, which Epidamna, Thonis' wife, sent Helena for a token, as Macrobius, 7. Saturnal. Goropius Hermat. lib. 9. Greg. Nazianzen, and others suppose, but opportunity of speech: for Helena's bowl, Medea's unction, Venus's girdle, Circe's cup, cannot so enchant, so forcibly move or alter as it doth. A letter sent or read will do as much; multum allevor quum tuas literas lego, I am much eased, as [3449]Tully wrote to Pomponius Atticus, when I read thy letters, and as Julianus the Apostate once signified to Maximus the philosopher; as Alexander slept with Homer's works, so do I with thine epistles, tanquam Paeoniis medicamentis, easque assidue tanquam, recentes et novas iteramus; scribe ergo, et assidue scribe, or else come thyself; amicus ad amicum venies. Assuredly a wise and well-spoken man may do what he will in such a case; a good orator alone, as [3450]Tully holds, can alter affections by power of his eloquence, comfort such as are afflicted, erect such as are depressed, expel and mitigate fear, lust, anger, &c. And how powerful is the charm of a discreet and dear friend? Ille regit dictis animos et temperat iras. What may not he effect? As [3451]Chremes told Menedemus, Fear not, conceal it not, O friend! but tell me what it is that troubles thee, and I shall surely help thee by comfort, counsel, or in the matter itself. [3452] Arnoldus, lib. 1. breviar. cap. 18. speaks of a usurer in his time, that upon a loss, much melancholy and discontent, was so cured. As imagination, fear, grief, cause such passions, so conceits alone, rectified by good hope, counsel, &c., are able again to help: and 'tis incredible how much they can do in such a case, as [3453]Trincavellius illustrates by an example of a patient of his; Porphyrius, the philosopher, in Plotinus's life (written by him), relates, that being in a discontented humour through insufferable anguish of mind, he was going to make away himself: but meeting by chance his master Plotinus, who perceiving by his distracted looks all was not well, urged him to confess his grief: which when he had heard, he used such comfortable speeches, that he redeemed him e faucibus Erebi, pacified his unquiet mind, insomuch that he was easily reconciled to himself, and much abashed to think afterwards that he should ever entertain so vile a motion. By all means, therefore, fair promises, good words, gentle persuasions, are to be used, not to be too rigorous at first, [3454]or to insult over them, not to deride, neglect, or contemn, but rather, as Lemnius exhorteth, to pity, and by all plausible means to seek to redress them: but if satisfaction may not be had, mild courses, promises, comfortable speeches, and good counsel will not take place; then as Christophorus a Vega determines, lib. 3. cap. 14. de Mel. to handle them more roughly, to threaten and chide, saith [3455]Altomarus, terrify sometimes, or as Salvianus will have them, to be lashed and whipped, as we do by a starting horse, [3456]that is affrighted without a cause, or as [3457]Rhasis adviseth, one while to speak fair and flatter, another while to terrify and chide, as they shall see cause. When none of these precedent remedies will avail, it will not be amiss, which Savanarola and Aelian Montaltus so much commend, clavum clavo pellere, [3458]to drive out one passion with another, or by some contrary passion, as they do bleeding at nose by letting blood in the arm, to expel one fear with another, one grief with another.