The anatomy of melancholy : what it is, with all the kinds auses, symptomes, prognostickes, & seuerall cures of it, in three partitions, with their severall sections, members, & subsections, philosophically, medicinally, historically opened & cut up / By Democritus Junior [i.e. Robert Burton]. With a satyricall preface conducing to the following discourse.

Robert Burton

Date:: 1676

Credit: The anatomy of melancholy : what it is, with all the kinds auses, symptomes, prognostickes, & seuerall cures of it, in three partitions, with their severall sections, members, & subsections, philosophically, medicinally, historically opened & cut up / By Democritus Junior [i.e. Robert Burton]. With a satyricall preface conducing to the following discourse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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$Jfaiah pronounccth a woe againft fuch men, cap. 5.21. that are wife in their own eyes, and prudent in their own fght. For hence wc may gather, that it is a great offence, and men are much deceived that think too well of tt anefpecial argument to convince pientespro- them of folly. Many men ( Seneca ) culdubio had been without queflion wife, had they not fuljfent, fi an opinion that they had attained toperfe^ ^tafTent ^ad ^tofi of knowledge already,even before they had fapientU gone half way, too forward, too ripe, prapro^ fmmum^ peri, too quick and ready , citb prudentes^ citb pii, citb mariii, citb patres, citb facerdo- tes, citb omnis officii capaces ^ curiof, they had too good a conceit of thcmfelves, and that marred all; of their worth, valouf, skill, art, learning, judgement, eloquence , their good parts; all their Geefc are Swans, and that manifeftly proves them to be no bet¬ ter than fools. In former times they had but feven wife men, now you can fcarce find fo many fools. Thales fent the golden Tr/- pos, which the Fifhermcn found, and the Ora¬ cle commanded to be * given to the wifefi, to Bias, Bias, io Solon, If fuch a thing were perveniffe. * idem* * VlutXT’ chits Solo- flpknM. now found, we fliould all fight for it, as the three GoddefTes did for the golden apple, we ^ arc fo wife ; we have Womcn-Politicians, Children Metaphyfitians every filly fellow can fquare a circle, make perpetual motions, find the Philofophers ftone, interpret Apoca- .lypfis, make new Theoricks, a new fyfteme of yrmp‘a- the world, new Logick, new Philofophy, jentibus Jgfoflra utique regio , faith Y Petronius , our plena, efi Countrey is fo fuU of deified fpirits, divine ^u^facilhis 1!°^ fioner find a God than pojsis Deum a man amongfi us, wc think fo well of our quam h(h felves , and that is an ample' teftimony of much folly, My fecond argument is grounded upon the like place of Scripture ^ which though before mention’d in effed, yet for fomc reafons is to be repeated (^and by Plato's good leave, may do it, ^ JY? 75 r^Kov vSiv pools ( faith David ) by reafon of their tranf- grejfions, &c* PfaL 107. 17. llmcc Mufeu- Lus inferrs all tranfgrelTors muft needs be fools. So we read Rom, 2* Tribulation and anguifh on the foul of every nian that doth evil; but all do evil. And//^f.65.14* <LPlTyfervants fhall fing for joy, and ^ ye fhaU cry for for- row of heart, and vexation of mind, ’^Tis ratified by the common confent of all Philofo- can find a phers. Difhonefiy ( faith Cardan ) is nothing faithful gifg ^Qiiy andmadnefs. Probus quisno- Pro°.2o.^. ^ Shew me an honeft man. Nemo cin pfa}/ noalus qui nonftultus, Wspabius aphorifm to 49. the fame end* If none honeft, none wife,then iiki mo- all fools* And well may they be fo accounted : fempiZlis, account him otherwife, Qui iter qut delapi- ^^ornat in occidentem , quum properaret in dit heri orientem ? that goes backtvard all his life, abfentis bo- weftward, when he is bound to the eaft? or VuTo^at ^ ‘ Mufculus ) that prefers momentany pleafures to eternity, that Jpends his mafiers goods in his abfence, forth^ with to be condemned for it? Nequicquam fa- pit qui fibi non fapit, who will fay that a fiefe man is wife, that eats and drinks to overthrow j perquam the temperature of his body > Can ydu ac- ndkuhm count him wife or difereet that would willihg- ^jlbomines ly have his health, and yet will do nothing that fhould procure of continue it ? Theodo- vivere, ret out oi Plotinus the Platdnifl, holds it a r i- qn-e Dlls diculoHS thing for a man to live after his own laws, to do that which is ojfenfive to God, and yet to hope that he fhould favehim': and d folfs when he voluntarily neglects his own fafety. Dlls vdle. and Contemns the means'^ to thinks to be dg.fdvosfim, livered. by another : who will fav tlftfe are wife? ^ price falum arewiiei' ^ ^ curamab- A third argument may be derived from the jtcerlnt. precedent, ® all men are carried away With ^beod, c.6, pafiion, difeontent, luft, pleafures, efre. they fj^^Yefu- generally hate thofe venues they fhould love, rat. gme- and love fuch vices they fhodld hare. There- affed. fore more than melancholy, quite mad, bruit beafts, and void of reafon, fo Chryfoflome con- tends ; or rather dead and buried alive as f Hor.L Thilo fade us concludes it for a certainty, offer.'], alt fuch that are carried away with paffions, ^foncluf or labour of any difeafe of the mind. Where cer¬ ts fear and forrow, there g Laftantius tmefi aiii^ maintains, Wifdom cannot dwell, ml morbis -qui cHpiet, metuet quoque porrb, labor antes ^ Qm met Mens vivit, liber mihi non erit unquam', Seneca and the reft of the Stqickj are of opini- g f on, that where is any the leaft perturbation, wifdom may not be found. What rhore ridi- culo'us, as ^ LaBantim urgetH ; than to hear ffJfYY how Xerxes w\\\p^cd the Hellefpont, threatned nequit. the Mountain Athos, and the like. To fpeak h f^idin{ ad rem, Z Pul- chrum bis dicere non nocet. a Malefa- ftors. bWho jtis vocan- d/iseif damnan- dus. , who is free from pafiion ? ‘ Mortalis nemo efi quern non attingat dolor, morbufiie, as ^ 7«/^ determines out ofan old Poem, no UrbYante'- mortal men can avoid forrow and ficknefs, &c,. * and forrow is an unfeparable companion of melancholy. * Chryfoflome pleads farther yet, - j’ that they are more than mad, very beafts, ftu- bitcerLfsi pified and void of common fenfe : par how there is ( faith he ) fi^all I know thee to be a man, under- when thou kickejl liks an afs, neighefi Like an horfe after women, ravefi in lufiUks abuU, * ravenefi like a bear ^ fiingefi like a fcorpion. An angry rakefll like a wolf, as fubtUe as a fox, as im- is a pudent as a dog ? Shall J fay thou art a man, ^ that hafi all the fymptomes of a beajl? HoW injlrlTin, fhall 1 know thee to be a man? by thy fhape ? fapientem That affrights me more, when I fee a beafi in caditi iikenefi of dmam Seneca calls that of Epicurus, magnificam \dcor. * vocem , an heroical fpecch, A fool flill be- mminm gins to live, and accounts it a filthy lightnefs k agnofeere in men, every day to I&y new foundations of their life ; but Who doth otherwife ? One tra- ^afimsn- vels, another builds; one for this, another for caldtres, that bufinefs , and old folks are as far out as the reft • O dementem feneebutem, Tully ex- claims. Therefore young, old, middle age, all efuZ%ofi are ftupid, and dote. mimes, ut nrftis vettrl indulgeas, quum rapias ut lupus, &c. at inquisformam homink habeo, id magis ferret, quum feoam hurnana fpecie videre me putem, m Epifi. lib. 2.1Stultus Jemper incipit vivere, feeda hominum li' vitas, nova quotidie fundamenta vita por.ere, novas jpts, ^c, E * sAEneas$

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