The anatomy of melancholy : what it is with all the kinds, causes, symptons, prognostics & several cures of it / In three partitions with their several sections members & subsections philosophically, medicinally, historically opened & cut up by Democritus Junior [Robert Burton] with a satirical preface conducing to the following discourse.

  • Burton, Robert, 1577-1640.
Date:
1924
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Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The anatomy of melancholy : what it is with all the kinds, causes, symptons, prognostics & several cures of it / In three partitions with their several sections members & subsections philosophically, medicinally, historically opened & cut up by Democritus Junior [Robert Burton] with a satirical preface conducing to the following discourse. Source: Wellcome Collection.

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    heretofore, with many such, of which read Tostatus in 2 Reg. cap, 6, qucest 43. Thyreus, cap. 57, 58, 62, &c. de locis infestis, Pictorius, Isagog. de dcemonibus, <fcc., see more in them. ^ Cardan would have the party affected wink altogether in such a case, if he see aught that offends him, or cut the air with a sword in such places they walk and abide; gladiis mini et lanceis terrentur, shoot a pistol at them, for being aerial bodies (as C'aelius Rhodiginus, lib. 1. cap. 29, Tertullian, Origen, Paellas, and many hold), if stroken, they feel pain. Papists commonly enjoin and apply crosses, holy water, sanctified beads, amulets, music, ringing of bells, for to that end are they consecrated, and by them baptized, characters, counterfeit relics, so many masses, pere¬ grinations, oblations, adjurations, and what not? Alexander Albertinus a Rocha, Petrus Thyreus, and Hieronymus Mengus, with many other pontifical writers, prescribe and set down several forms of exorcisms, as well to houses possessed with devils, as to demoniacal persons; but I am of ^emnius’s mind, ’tis but damnosa adjuratio, aut potius ludijicatioy a mere mockery, a counterfeit charm, to no purpose, they are fopperies and fictions, as that absurd “story is amongst the rest, of a penitent woman seduced by a magician in France, at St. Bawne, exorcised by Domphius, Michaelis, and a company of circumventing friars. If any man (saith Lemnius) will attempt such a thing, without all those juggling circumstances, astrological elections of time, place, prodigious habits, fustian, big, sesquipedal words, spells, crosses, characters, which exorcists ordinarily use, let him follow the example of Peter and John, that without any ambitious swelling terms, cured a lame man. Acts iii. “In the name of Christ Jesus rise and walk.” His name alone is the best and only charm against all such diabolical illusions, so doth Origen advise: and so Chrysostom, Hcec erit tibi baculus, hcec turris inexpug nabilis, hcec armatura. Nos quid ad hcec dicemus, plures fortasse expectabunt, saith St. Austin, Many men will desire my counsel and opinion what is to be done in this behalf; I can say no more, quam ut verd fide, quae per dilectionern operatur, ad Dcum unum fugiamus, let them fly to God alone for help. Athanasius in his book, De variis qucest, prescribes as a present charm against devils, the beginning of the lxvii. Psalm: Exurgat Deusy dissipentur inimici, &c. But the best remedy is to fly to God, to call on him, hope, pray, trust, rely on him, to commit our¬ selves wholly to him. What the practice of the primitive church was in this behalf, Et quis dcemonia ejiciendi modus, read Wierus at large, lib. 5. de Cura. Lam. meles. cap. 38. et deinceps. Last of all: if the party affected shall certainly know this malady to have proceeded from too much fasting, meditation, precise life, contemplation of God’s judgments (for the devil deceives many by such means), in that other extreme he circumvents melancholy itself, reading some books, treatises, hearing rigid preachers, &c. If he shall perceive that it hath begun first from some great loss, grievous accident, disaster, seeing others in like case, or any such terrible object, let him speedily remove the cause, which to the cure of this disease Navarrus so much commends, navertat cogitationem d re scrupu- losa, by all apposite means, art, and industry, let him laxare animum, by all honest recreations, “refresh and recreate his distressed soul;” let him direct his thoughts, by himself and other of his friends. Let him read no more such tracts or subjects, hear no more such fearful tones, avoid such companies, and by all means open himself, submit himself to the advice of good physicians and divines, which is contraventio scrupulorum, as he calls it, hear them speak to whom the Lord hath given the tongue of the learned, to be able to I Non desunt nostra setate sacrificuli, qul tale quid attentant, sed a caeodaeuione inisi pudore sufFecti sunt, et re infecta abiernnt. m Done into English by W. B„ 1613. nTom. 2. cap. 27. num. 282 Let him avert bis thoughts from the painful object.” 0Navarrua.