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
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

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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    400 h Malmt cum illk infxnire^ qiiam cum aliis bmi [intire. will not endure to fee, Religionis aBi all extremities, lolTes and dangers, take any pains, faft, pray, vow chaftity, wilful poverty, torfake all and follow their Idols,dieathoufand deaths, as fome Jews did to Pilates fouldiers, in like cafe, exertos [r&bentes jugulos, & mu- fiifejle fc feventes^ (as Jofephus hath it) chariorem ejje 'uith fibi legis patria ohfervatio- wm, rather than abjure, or deny the leaft par¬ ticle of that Religion which their Fathers pro- fefs, and they themfelves have been brought up in, be it never fo abfurd, ridiculous, they will embrace it, and without farther enquiry or examination of the truth, though it be prq- digioufly falfe, they will believe it : they will take much more pains to go to Hell, than we fhall do to Heaven. Single out the moft igno¬ rant of them, convince his underftanding, ftew him his errours, grofnefs, and abfurdities of his Sed, Non perjkadebi^ etiamfi perfttaferis, he will not be perfwaded. As thofe Pagans told the Jefuits in Japona, ^ they would do as their fore-fathers have done •, and with Ra- tholde the pripan Prince, go to Hell for com¬ pany, if moft of their friends went thither : they will not be moved, no perfwafion, no tor¬ ture can ftir them. So that Papifts cannot brag of their vows, poverty, obedience,orders, me¬ rits, martyrdoms, failings, alms, good works, pilgrimages : much and more than all this, I fhall fhew you, is, and hath been done by thefe fuperftitious Gentiles, Pagans, Idolaters and Jews : their blind zeal and idolatrous fu- perftition in all kinds is much at one; little or no difference, «nd it is hard to fay which is the greateft, which is the groffeft. For if a man ihalJ duly confider thofe fuperftitious rites amongft the Ethnicks in Japan, the Banni- ^ Acojla. am in Gafart, the idolaters, * Ame- 5* ricans of old, in Mexico efpecially, Mahome¬ tan Priefts, he fhall find the fame government almoft, the fame orders and ceremonies, or fo like, that they may feem all apparently to be derived from fome Heathen fpirit, and the Ro¬ wan Hierarchy no better than the reft. In a word, this is common to all fuperftition, there is nothing fo mad and abfurd , fo ridiculous, impoflible, incredible, which they will not believe, obferve, and diligently perform as much as in them lies; nothing fo monftrous to conceive, or intolerable to put in pratftice, fo cruel to fuffer, which they will not willing¬ ly undertake. So powerful a thing is fuper- f ftition. f O Sgypt (as Trifmegifitts ex- te, nligio- claims) thy Religion is fables, and fach as po- believe. I know that in true Rc- buU ^ervfligion itfelf, many myfteriesarc fo apprehen- incredihi- ded alone by faith, as that of the Trinity, which efpecially deride, Chrifts Incarnation, Refurredion of the body atthelaft day, qnod idea credendum ( faith Tertallian) quod incre- dibile, Q-c. many miracles not to be contro¬ verted or difputed of. Mirari non rimari fa- f Meditxt. pientia vera efl, faith \ Gerhardus, ^ in divi- tius. 19. C(E- nx dmin. nis as a good Father informs us) qaadam cre~ denda, quadam admiranda, fome things are to be believed, embraced, followed with all fubmiftion and obedience, fome again admired. Though Julian the Apoftate feoff at Chriftians in this point,quod captivemus intelleBaw tn obfe- quiumfidei, laying, (that the Chriftian Creed is like th^Pythagorean Jpfe dixit,'wt make our will and underftanding too ftavifhly fubjed to our faith,without farther examination'of the truth ; yet as St. Gregory truely anfwers, our Creed is altiorisprafiantia, and much more divine ; and as Thomas will, pie conftderanti femper jup- petunt rationes, oflendentes credibilitatem in myferiis [upernaturalibus , we do abfolutely believe it, and upon good reafons, for as Gre¬ gory well informeth us Tides non habet meri- tum, ubi humana ratio qnarit experimentum ; that faith hath no merit, is not worth the name of faith, that will not apprehend witf]^ a cer¬ tain demonftration .* we muft and Wfll believe Gods Word *,. and if we be miftaken or erre in our general belief, as * Richardus de fanBo Vi- ^ ub. \.dt Bore vows he will fay to Chrift himfelf at the odn. cap.x. day of Judgement; Lord, if we be deceived, thou alone haji deceived us : thus we plead. ^ But for the reft I will not juftifie that pontificial confubftantiation, that which ^ Mahometans * Vide and fews juftly except at, as Campanella con- Samfatis^ feffeth, Atheifmi triumphat. cap. 12. fol. 125. ^ieCiioTies jdijfcillimum dogma ejfe , nec aliud fubjoBum magis hareticorum blafphemis, & fiultis irri- chum Milt- fonibus politicorum reperiri. They hold it ira- poffible, 'Deurn inpane manducari -, and befides they feoff at it, vide gentem comedentem Deum * fuum, inqiiit quidam Maurus, J HuncDenm jLigiHof- mufea ^ vermes irrident, quum ipfurn polluunt man. Mus devorant, fubditus efi igni, aqua ^ latro^ nes furantnr, pixidem auream hums projler- nunt, ^ fe tamen non defendit hie Deus. fieri potefi, ut fit integer in fingulis hoflia par- ticuliSy idem corpus numero, ta n multis locis, coelo, terra ? &c. But he that fhall read the ‘ Turks Alcoran,the Jews Talmund, and Papifts i As true Golden Legend, in the mean time will fwear Ai Homers that fuch grofs fidions, fables, vain traditions, prodigious paradoxes and ceremonies, could ne- tmorple- ver proceed from any other fpirit, than that of /is, cAijops the Devil himfelf, which is the Author of con- tables. fufion and lies; and wonder withal how fuch wife men as have been of the Jews, fuch learned underftanding men as Averroes, Avicenna, or thofe Heathen Philofophers, could never be perfwaded to believe, or to fubferibe to the leaft part of them : aut fraudem non detegere : but that as J Vanninus anfwers, ob pub lie a potefiatis | nial.-^z. formidinem allatrare philofophi non audebant, deoraculis. theydurft not fpeak for fear of the Law. But I will defcend to particulars: read their feve- ral Symptomes and then guefs. Of fuch Symptoms as properly belong to fuperftition, or that irreligious Religion, I may fay as of the reft, fome are ridiculous, fome again feral to relate. Of thofe ridicu- • lous, there can be no better teftimony than the multitude of their gods, thofe abfurd Names, Adions, Offices they put upon them, their feafts, holy-daies, facrifices, adorations, and the like. The Egyptians , that pretended fo great antiquity, 300 Kings before exenter a- ties.