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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$n liiptm arttibus tminU K nor. .y Lib. de the Sniffers of the Advocates in his time, that when they fliould make' an end, they began Coniroverfies^ and frotraH their cmfes many years^ ferfwading them their title is good^ till their patrimonies he confnmed, and that they have [pent more in feeing than the thing is worth, or they JhaU get by the recovery. So that he that goes to Law as the Proverb is, holds a Wolf by the ears, or as a fheep in a ftorm runs for ihelter to a brier, if he profe- tute his caufe he is confumed, if he furceafc his fuit he lofeth all • what difference ? they had wont heretofore, faith ^ jinfiin, to end matters, per communes arhitros ; and fo in men here affembled , come not to facrifice to their gods , to offer Jupiter their prfi fruits, or mertiments to Bacchus • but an yearly difeafe exafperating .iifa hath brought them hither, to make an end of their controvert Jtes and law fuits, ’Tis multitudo perdentium pereuntium, a deftrudive rout, that feek one anothers ruine. Such moft part are our ordinary fuiters, termers, clients, new ftirs every day, raiftakes, errours, cavils, and at this prefcnt,as I have heard in fbme one Court, I know not how many ihoufand caufes: no perfon free, no title almoft good, with fuch bitiernefs in following, fo many flights, pro- craftinations, delayes, forgery, fuch coft (iot infinite fums are inconfiderately fpent) vio- Switz.erlandy ( we are informed by y Simle- mlvet. re-rasy ) they had fome common arbitrators, or pub. Jii- dayefmen in every Town, that made a friendly j lence and malice, I know tiot by whofe faulty ^ompoption betwixt man and man, and he much i^VNyets, Clients, Laws, both or all; but as ' hone ft fimplicity, that reprehended Qtrinthians, longfince, fi cor.6* qui arnica, keep peace fo well, and end fuch great caufes I may more appofitely it^fer now: There is a aliqita by that means. At ^ Fez. in jffricky they]fault amongft you, and ^ fp^^k. have neither Lawyers nor Advocates but if jhame, Js there not a S wife man amongft you, to judge between his brethren P but that a eta PL fat. brother goes to Law with a brother* And 49* 8. * Chrifts counfel concerning Law-fuits, was ^ never fo fit to be inculcated, as in this age; ^ .Agree with thine adverfary epuickly, ed Ser- Matth. 2%. nions, ^{o ^ ^ intituled, and preached by our Regius Profenbur, D. Vridtattx t printed at London by Fcelix Kingjion, 1621,, tranfa^i- one fi fieri psjfity lites tollant. Bgo majo- there be any Controverfies amongft them, both parties Plaintiff and Defendant come to their Alfakins or chief Judge, and at once ^rum any farther appeals, or pitiful delays, titatem caufe is heard and ended. Ourforefathers, admsror, as * a worthy Corographerof ours obfcrves,had qui fic wont pauculis cruculis aureis, with a few gol- ^vifimu^' ^J^olTes, and lines in verfe, to make all con- TonipofL veyances, affurances. And fuch was the can- mf, &c. dour and integrity of fucceeding ages, that a z tlenard Deed ( as I have oft fecn ) to convey a whole ^’nefonm was implicife contained in fome twen- ver/rutra- thereabouts • like that feede or qjirpars Sytala Laconica, fo much renowned of old in judicem ' aU- contrads, which ^ Tulty fb earneftly com- ‘n’li&Ti jitticiu. Plutarch in his Lyjander, .Ariftotle poltt.Thucidides lib, i. ^‘T>iodorm tranpgit, and Suidas approve and magnifie, for that audit: Laconick^hrevky in this kind, and well they 5/ fff,, might, for according to ^ Tertullian, certa funt tio, lachry- p^^^cts, there IS - much more certainty in fewer mofueque words. And fo was it of old throughout; morx but now many skins of parchment will fcarce nofeunt. fgj.yg Jjg J.}^ Jjyyg ^gjjg ^ [iQufe muft hub. 16. anouiefuilof writings, there be fo ma- (pifl. ad ny circumftances, fomany words, fuch tauto¬ logical repetitions of all particulars (to avoid cav illation they fay) but we find by our wo- ful experience, that to fubtle wits it is a caufe of much more contention and variance, and fcarce any conveyance fo accurately penned by one, whieli another will not find a crack in, or cavil at, if’anyone word be mifplaced, any little errour, all is difannulled. 1 hat which is Law to day, is none to morrow, that which is found in one mans opinion, is moft faulty to another >, that in conclufion, here is nothing amongft us but contention and confufion, we bandy one againft another. And that which long lince « Plutarch complained of them in j^fia, may be verified in our times. Thefe Attkum, epifl. II. c Biblioth. 1. A'Ub. de^ Anim. e Lib. ma. jor. morb. CQjp.an animi. Hi non conveniunt ut diU more majorum facra faciant, non ut Jo- vi primitias ojfhant, aut Baccho commeffationes, fed annivsrfa- rius morbus exafperans A[iam hue cos coegit, ut contmtiones hie peragmt. I could repeat many fuch particular grie¬ vances, which mull difturb a body politick; To Ihut up ail in brief, where good govern¬ ment is, prudent and wife Princes,.there all things thrive and profper, peace and happinefs is in that Land : where it is otherwife, all things arc ugly to behold, incult, barbarous, uncivil, a Paradife is turned to a wildernefs. This Ifland amongft the reft, our next neighbours the French and Germans, may be alufficient witnefs, that in a fhort time by that prudent • policy of iht Bomans, was brought from bar>- barifm; fee but what f^fampotts of us, and Tacitus of thofe old Germans, they were once as uncivil as they in Virginia, yet by planting of Colonies and good Laws, they became from. barbarous outlaws, ‘ to be full of rich and pulous Cities, as now they are, and moft filhing Kingdoms. Evenfo might Virginia, fine artifice^ and thofe wild Irijh have been civilized long sabelUcus fince, if that order had been heretofore taken, Gema, which now begins, of planting Colonies, c^c. ^aUkviL ,Ihave read adifeourfe, printed uinno i6iz. ret German Difeovering the true caufes, why Ireland was never entirely fubdued, or brought under obedience to the Crown of Fsighnd, until the^nmTuertt beginning of his zMajefties happy reign. Yet utolim if bis reafons were throughly fcanned by ztrifiem cul~ judicious Politician, I am afraid he would not altogether be approved, but that it would turn ito the difhonour of our Nation, to fuffer it to mem. ^ lye fo long wafte. Yea, and if fome travel- k By his lerslhould fee (tocomeneerer home) thofe rich, united Provinces oi HoHand, Zealand, ^c, over againft us; thofe neat Cities and po-there, pulous Towns, full of moft induftrious Artifi¬ cers, »$

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