Volume 1
The anatomy of melancholy / edited by Rev. A.R. Shilleto.
- Burton, Robert
- Date:
- Reprint 1896 (3 vol set)
Licence: Public Domain Mark
Credit: The anatomy of melancholy / edited by Rev. A.R. Shilleto. Source: Wellcome Collection.
Provider: This material has been provided by UCL Library Services. The original may be consulted at UCL (University College London)
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![stole not whole verses, pages, tracts, as some do nowadays, con- cealing their Authors' names, but still said, this was Cyprian's, that Lactantius\ that Hilarius\ so said Minucius Felix, so Vic- torinus, thus far Arnobius: I cite and quote mine Authors (which howsoever some illiterate scribblers account pedantical, as a cloak of ignorance, and opposite to their affected fine style, I must and will use) sumpsi, non surripui,1 and what Varro* de re rust, speaks of bees, minimi nialeficcz [guocf] nullius opus vellicantes faciunt deterius? I can say of myself, whom have I injured ? The matter is theirs most part and yet mine,4 apparet unde sumptum sit (which Seneca approves) aliud tamen quam unde sumptum sit apparet ;5 which nature doth with the aliment of our bodies, incorporate, digest, assimulate, I do concoquere quod hausi, dispose of what I take. I make them pay tribute, to set out this my Macaronicon? the method only is mine own, I must usurp that of7 Wecker e Ter. nihil dictum quod non dictum priiis, methodus sola artificem ostendit, we can say nothing but what hath been said, the composition and method is ours only, & shows a Scholar. Oribasius, Aetius, Avicenna, have all out of Galen, but to their own method, diverso stilo, non diversa fide. Our Poets steal from Homer, he spews, saith Ailian, they lick it up.8 Divines use Austin's words verbatim still, and our Story-dressers do as much, he that comes last is commonly best, donee quid grandius aetas Postera sorsque ferat melior. 9 Though there were many Giants of old in Physick and Philosophy, yet I say with 10 Didacus Stella, A dwarf 'standing on the shoulders of a Giant may see farthet than a Giant himself ; I may likely add, alter, and see farther than my predecessors. And it is no greater prejudice for me to indite after others, then for A*,lianus Montaltns, that famous Physician, to write de morbis capitis11 after Jason Pratensis, Heurnius, Hildesheim, &*c, many horses to run in a P I have borrowed, not stolen.] [2 3. 16. 7.] [3 That they are by no means malicious, because they injure nothing they extract honey from. J [4 Whence it is taken appears, yet it appears as something different from what it is taken from.] 5 Seneca, Epistle 84, $ 5. ] [6 It means medley, farrago, which is exactly what this book is.] 7 Praef. ad Syntax, med. [8 Var. Hist. Lib. xiii. $22.] [9 Until a later age and a happier lot produce something more truly grand.] 10 In Luc. 10. torn. 2. Pygmaei Gigantum humeris impositi plus quam ipsi Gigantes vident. [n About diseases of the head.]](https://iiif.wellcomecollection.org/image/b21270818_001_0067.jp2/full/800%2C/0/default.jpg)
