 Section 1 of the Anatomy of Melancholy, Volume 1 This is a LibriVox recording. All LibriVox recordings are in the public domain. For more information or to volunteer, please visit LibriVox.org. The Anatomy of Melancholy, Volume 1 by Robert Burton, Section 1. Advertisement to the last London edition The work now restored to public notice has had an extraordinary fate. At the time of its original publication it obtained a great celebrity which continued more than half a century. During that period few books were more read or more deservedly applauded. It was the delight of the learned, the solace of the indolent and the refuge of the uninformed. It passed through at least eight editions by which the bookseller, as Wood records, got an estate. And notwithstanding the objection sometimes opposed against it of a quaint style and too great an accumulation of authorities, the fascination of its wit, fancy and sterling sense have borne down all censures and extorted praise from the first writers in the English language. The grave Johnson has praised it in the warmest terms and the ludicrous stern has interwoven many parts of it into his own popular performance. Milton did not disdain to build two of his finest poems on it and a host of inferior writers have embellished their works with beauties not their own, called from a performance which they had not the justice even to mention. Change of times in the frivolity of fashion suspended in some degree that fame which had lasted near a century and the succeeding generation affected indifference towards an author who at length was only looked into by the plunderers of literature, the poachers in obscure volumes. The plagiarisms of Tristram Shandy so successfully brought to light by Dr. Ferrier at length drew the attention of the public towards a writer who though then little known might without impeachment of modesty lay claim to every mark of respect and inquiry proved beyond a doubt that the cause of justice had been little attended to by others as well as the facetious Yorick would observed more than a century ago that several authors had unmercifully stolen matter from Burton without any acknowledgement. The time however at length arrived when the merits of the anatomy of melancholy were to receive their due praise. The book was again sought for and read and again it became an applauded performance. Its excellencies once more stood confessed in the increased price which every copy offered for sale produced and the increased demand pointed out the necessity of a new addition. This is now presented to the public in a manner not disgraceful to the memory of the author and the publisher relies with confidence that so valuable a repository of amusement and information will continue to hold the rank to which it has been restored firmly supported by its own merit and safe from the influence and blight of any future caprices of fashion. To open its valuable mysteries to those who have not had the advantage of a classical education translations of the countless quotations from ancient writers which occur in the work are now for the first time given and obsolete orthography is in all instances modernized. Account of the Author Robert Burton was the son of Ralph Burton of an ancient and gentile family at Lindley in Leicestershire and was born there on the 8th of February 1576. He received the first rudiments of learning at the Free School of Sutton Coldfield in Warwickshire from whence he was at the age of 17 in the long vacation 1593 sent to Brazen Nose College in the condition of a commoner where he made considerable progress in logic and philosophy. In 1599 he was elected student of Christ Church and, for form's sake, was put under the tuition of Dr. John Bancroft afterwards Bishop of Oxford. In 1614 he was admitted to the reading of the sentences and on the 29th of November 1616 had the vicarage of St. Thomas in the West Suburb of Oxford conferred to him by the Dean and Cannons of Christ Church which, with the rectory of Seagrave in Leicestershire given to him in the year 1636 by George Lord Berkeley he kept to use the words of the Oxford Antiquary with much adieu to his dying day. He seems to have in first benefit at Wallsby in Lincolnshire through the magnificence of his noble patroness, Francis Countess Dowager of Exeter but resigned the same as he tells us for some special reasons. At his vicarage he is remarked to have always given the sacrament in wafers. Wood's character of him is that he was an exact mathematician, a curious calculator of nativities, a general red scholar, a thorough-paced philologist and one that understood the surveying of lands well. As he was by many accounted a severe student, a devourer of authors, a melancholy and humorous person, so by others who knew him well a person of great honesty, plain dealing and charity. I have heard some of the ancients of Christ Church often say that his company was very merry, facete and juvenile and no man in his time did surpass him for his ready and dexterous interlarding his common discourses among them with verses from the poets or sentences from classic authors, which being then all the fashion in the university made his company the more acceptable. He appears to have been a universal reader of all kinds of books and availed himself of his multifarious studies in a very extraordinary manner. From the information of Hearn we learn that John Rouse, the Bodleian librarian, furnished him with choice books for the prosecution of his work. The subject of his labour and amusement seems to have been adopted from the infirmities of his own habit and constitution. Mr. Granger says he composed this book with a view of relieving his own melancholy but increased it to such a degree that nothing could make him laugh but going to the bridge-foot and hearing the ribaldry of the bargemen which rarely failed to throw him into a violent fit of laughter. Before he was overcome with this horrid disorder he, in the intervals of his vapours, was esteemed one of the most facetious companions in the university. His residence was chiefly at Oxford where, in his chamber in Christchurch College, he departed this life at or very near the time which he had some years before foretold from the calculation of his own nativity, and which, says Wood, being exact, several of the students did not forbear to whisper among themselves that rather than there should be a mistake in the calculation he sent up his soul to heaven through a slip about his neck. Whether this suggestion is founded in truth we have no other evidence than an obscure hint in the epitaph hereafter inserted which was written by the author himself a short time before his death. His body, with due solemnity, was buried near that of Dr. Robert Weston in the North Isle which joins next to the choir of the Cathedral of Christchurch on the 27th of January 1639-40. Over his grave was soon after erected a comely monument on the upper pillar of the said Isle with his bust painted to the light. On the right hand is the following calculation of his nativity and, under the bust, this inscription of his own composition. Pausis Notus, Pausiorbus Ignotus, Pick-Jasset Democritus Jr., Quivitum Dedit et Mortum, Melancholia, Obit Octo, Idus Genuieris, A.C. 1639. Arms, azure on a bend O between three dog's heads O, a crescent G. A few months before his death he made his will, of which the following is a copy extracted from the registry of the prerogative court of Panteberry. In Naminé des Amens, August 15, 1639 because there be so many casualties to which our life is subject besides quarreling and contention which happen to our successors after our death by reason of unsettled estates, I, Robert Burton, student of Christchurch oxen, though my means be but small, have thought good by this my last will and testament to dispose of that little which I have and being at this present I thank God in perfect health of body and mind and if this testament be not so formal according to the nice and strict terms of law and other circumstances, per adventure required of which I am ignorant, I desire how so ever this my will may be accepted and stand good according to my true intent and meaning. First I bequeath Aminem deo corpus terre, when so ever it shall please God to call me. I give my land in Hyam, which my good father Ralph Burton of Lindley in the county of Leicester Esquire gave me by deed of gift, that which I have annexed to that farm by purchase since, now leased for thirty-eight pounds per annum to my elder brother William Burton of Lindley Esquire, during his life and after him to his heirs. I make my said brother William likewise my nexecutor as well as paying such annuities and legacies out of my lands and goods, as are hereafter specified. I give to my nephew Casabillon Burton twenty pounds annuity per annum, out of my land in Hyam, during his life to be paid at two equal payments at our lady-day in Lent and Michael Miss, or if he be not paid within fourteen days after the said feasts, to destrain on any part of the ground or on any of my lands of inheritance. Item I give to my sister Catherine Jackson during her life eight pounds per annum annuity to be paid at the two feasts equally as above said, or else to destrain on the ground if she be not paid after fourteen days at Lindley as the other sum is out of the said land. Item I give to my servant John Upton the annuity of forty shillings out of my said farm during his life, if till then my servant, to be paid on Michael Miss Day in Lindley each year, or else after fourteen days to destrain. Now for my goods. I thus dispose them. First I give in hundred pounds to Christchurch in Oxford where I have so long lived to buy five pounds lands per annum to be yearly bestowed on books for the library. Item I give in hundredth pound to the university library of Oxford to be bestowed to purchase five pound land per annum to be paid out yearly in books as Mrs. Brooks formally gave in hundred pounds to buy land to the same purpose and the rent to the same use I give to my brother George Burton twenty pounds and my watch I give to my brother Ralph Burton five pounds. Item I give to the parish of Seagrave in Leicestershire where I am now rector ten pounds to be given to a certain Fayoffase to the perpetual good of the said parish oxen. Item I give to my niece Eugenia Burton one hundredth pounds. Item I give to my nephew Richard Burton now prisoner in London and hundredth pound to redeem him. Item I give to the poor of Hyam forty shillings where my land is to the poor of Nunn-Eton where I was once a grammar scholar three pound to my cousin Purphy at Wadley my cousin Purphy of Calcott my cousin Hales of Coventry my nephew Bradshaw of Orton twenty shillings apiece for a small remembrance to Mr. Whitehall rector of Cherkbee my own chamber fellow twenty shillings I desire my brother George and my cousin Purphy of Calcott to be the overseers of this part of my will I give more over five pounds to make a small monument for my mother where she is buried in London to my brother Jackson forty shillings to my servant John Upton forty shillings besides his former annuity if he be my servant till I die if he be till then my servant Robert Burton Charles Russell witness John Pepper witness an appendix to this my will if I die at Oxford or whilst I am of Christchurch and with good Mr. Payne's August the 15th, 1639 I give to Mr. Dr. Fell, Dean of Christchurch forty shillings to the eight cannons twenty shillings apiece as a small remembrance to the poor of St. Thomas Parish twenty shillings to Brace Nose Library five pounds to Mr. Rouse of Oriel College twenty shillings to Mr. Haywood XXS to Dr. Metcalf XXS to Mr. Shirley XXS if I have any books the University Library have not let them take them if I have any books our own library have not let them take them I give to Mrs. Fell all my English books of husbandry one accepted to her daughter Mrs. Catherine Fell my six pieces of silver plate and six silver spoons to Mrs. Isles my Gerard's herbal to Mrs. Morris my country farm translated out of French for and all my English physics books to Mr. Whistler the recorder of Oxford I give twenty shillings to all my fellow students Mr. of Arts a book in folio or two apiece as master Morris treasurer or Mr. Dean shall appoint whom I request to be the overseer of this appendix and give him for his pains Atlas Geographer and Ortelius Theatro Monde I give to John Fell the Dean's son student my mathematical instruments except my two cross-staves which I give to my Lord of Donal if he be then of the house to Thomas Isles the doctor Isles his son student Stalnach on Peralia and Lucian's works in four Tomes if any books be left my executors dispose of them with all such books as are written with my own hands and half my melancholy copy for Cripps half the other half to Mr. Jones Chaplin Enchanter my surveying books and instruments to the servants of the house forty shillings Robert Burton Charles Russell witness John Pepper witness this will was showed to me by the testator and acknowledged by him some few days before his death to be his last will Ida Tester John Morris STHD Prebendari Iqal Kree Aksan February 3rd 1639 Probatum Fuit Testamentum Suprascriptum et cetera 11th 1640 Juramento Willemey Burton Priest at executorist qui et cetera De Benet et Fillet et Tour Aministrand et cetera Corum Magriss Nathan Elias Stevens Rectore Eccalday Drayton at Eduardo Farmer Clericus Vigore Commisionis et cetera the only work our author executed was that now reprinted which probably was the principal employment of his life Dr. Farrier says it was originally published in the year 1617 but this is evidently a mistake the first edition was that printed in Porto 1621 a copy of which is at present in the collection of John Nichols Esquire the indefatigable illustrator of the history of Leicestershire to whom and to Isaac Reed Esquire of Staple Inn this account is greatly indebted for its accuracy the other impressions of it were in 1624 1628 1632 1638 1651 to 2 1660 and 1676 which last in the title page is called the 8th edition the copy from which the present is reprinted is that of 1651 to 2 at the conclusion of which is the following address to the reader to be pleased to know courteous reader that since the last impression of this book the ingenious author of it is deceased leaving a copy of it exactly corrected with several considerable editions by his own hand this copy he committed to my care and custody with directions to have those editions inserted in the next edition and the public good is faithfully performed in this last impression H.C. i.e. Henry Cripps the following testimonies of various authors will serve to show the estimation in which this work has been held the anatomy of melancholy wherein the author hath piled up a variety of much excellent learning scarce any book of philology in our land hath in so short a time fulers were these folio 16 tis a book so full a variety of reading that gentlemen who have lost their time and are put to a push for invention may furnish themselves with matter for common or scholastical discourse and writing would Athene oxaneensis vol 1 page 628 2nd edition if you never saw Burton upon melancholy printed 1676 i pray look into it and read the 9th page of his preface democratic to the reader there is something there which touches the point we are upon but i mention the author to you as the pleasantest, the most learned and the most full of sterling sense the wits of queen Anne's reign and the beginning of George I were not a little beholden to him archbishop herring's letters 12 month 1777 page 149 Burton's anatomy of melancholy he, Dr. Johnson said was the only book that ever took him out of bed two hours sooner than he wished to rise Boswell's life of Johnson vol 1 page 580 8th edition Burton's anatomy of melancholy is a valuable book said Dr. Johnson it is perhaps overloaded with quotation but there is a great spirit and great power in what Burton says when he writes from his own mind i bid vol 2 page 325 it will be no detraction from the powers of Milton's original genius and invention to remark that he seems to have borrowed the subject of la legro and ill-penseroso together with some particular thoughts expressions and rhymes more especially the idea of a contrast between these two dispositions from a forgotten poem prefixed to the first edition of Burton's anatomy of melancholy entitled the author's abstract of melancholy or a dialogue between pleasure and pain here pain is melancholy it is written as i conjecture about the year 1600 i will make no apology for abstracting and citing as much of this poem as will be sufficient to prove to a discerning reader how far it had taken possession of Milton's mind the measure will appear to be the same and that our author was at least an attentive reader of Burton's book may be already concluded from the traces of resemblance which i have incidentally noted in passing through the la legro and ill-penseroso after extracting the lines Mr. Wharton adds as to the very elaborate work to which these visionary verses are no unsuitable introduction the writer's variety of learning of course and curious books his pedantry sparkling with rude wit and shapeless elegance miscellaneous matter intermixter of agreeable tales and illustrations and perhaps above all the singularities of his feelings clothed in an uncommon quaintness of style have contributed to render it even to modern readers a valuable repository of amusement and information Wharton's Milton second edition in 1934 the anatomy of melancholy is a book which has been universally read and admired this work is for the most part what the author himself styles it a sento but it is a very ingenious one his quotations which abound in every page are pertinent but if he had made more use of his invention and less of his commonplace book his work would perhaps have been more valuable than it is he is generally free from the affected language and ridiculous metaphors which disgrace most of the books of his time Rangers Biographical History Wharton's Anatomy of Melancholy a book once a favorite of the learned and the witty and a source of surreptitious learning though written on a regular plan consists chiefly of quotations the author has honestly termed it a sento he collects under every division the opinions of a multitude of writers without regard to chronological order and has too often the modesty to decline the interposition of his own sentiments indeed the bulk of his materials generally overwhelms him in the course of his folio he has contrived to treat a great variety of topics that seem very loosely connected with the general subject and like Bale when he starts a favorite train of quotations he does not ask the group to let the digression outrun the principal question thus from the doctrines of religion to military discipline from inland navigation to the morality of dancing schools everything is discussed and determined Ferryard's Illustrations of Stern page 58 the archness which Wharton displays occasionally and his indulgence of playful digressions from the most serious discussions often give his style an era of familiar conversation notwithstanding the laborious collections which supply his text he was capable of writing excellent poetry but he seems to have cultivated this talent too little the English verses prefixed to his book which possess beautiful imagery and great sweetness of versification have been frequently published his Latin Elegiac verses addressed to his book show a very agreeable turn for railery iBid page 58 when the force of the subject opens his own vein of prose we discover valuable sense and brilliant expression such as his account of the first feelings of Bell and Polly persons written probably from his own experience see page 154 of the present edition iBid page 60 during a pedantic age like that in which the introduction appeared it must have been eminently serviceable to writers of many descriptions hence the unlearned might furnish themselves with appropriate scraps of Greek and Latin whilst men of letters would find their enquiries shortened by knowing where they might look for what both ancients and moderns had advanced on the subject of human passions i confess my inability to point out any other English author who has so largely dealt in quotation manuscript note of the late George Stevens Esquire in his copy of the anatomy of melancholy end of section one section two of the anatomy of melancholy volume one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the anatomy of melancholy volume one by Robert Burton section two democratist jr. to his book go forth my book into the open day happy if made so by its garish eye or earth's wide surface take thy vagrant way to imitate thy master's genius try the graces three the muses nine salute those who love them try to con thy lore the country city seek grand thrones to boot with gentle courtesy humbly bow before should nobles gallant soldiers frank and brave seek thy acquaintance hail their first advance from twitch of care thy pleasant vein may save may laughter cause or wisdom give her chance some surly Cato senator austere happily may wish to peep into thy book seem very nothing tremble and revere no forceful eagles butterflies air look they love not thee of them then little seek and wish for readers triflers like thyself of lewd full matron watchful catch the back or gorgeous countess full of pride and pelt may they say pitch and frown and yet read on my odd and silly course and yet amusing should dainty damsels seek thy page to con spread thy best stores to them be near refusing say fair one master loves thee dearest life would he were here to gaze on thy sweet look should known or unknown student freed from strife of logic in the schools explore my book prime mercy critic and folk withhold be some few errors pardoned though observed and humble author to implore makes bold thy kind indulgence even undeserved should melancholy white or pensive lover courtier snug sit or carpet night so trim our blossoms call he'll find himself in clover gain sense from precept laughter from our whim should learn it leech with solemn air hold thy leaves beware be civil and be wise thy volume many precepts sage may hold his well-fraught head may find no trifling prize should crafty lawyer trespass on our ground catiffs avant disturbing tribe away unless white crow an honest one be found he'll better wiser go for what we say should some right scholar gentle and benign with candor, care, and judgment thee peruse thy faults to kind oblivion he'll consign nor to thy merit will his praise refuse thou mayest be searched for polished words in verse by flippant spouter emptiest of craters tell him to seek them in some mockish verse my periods all are rough as nutmeg graters the dog-roll poet wishing thee to read reject let him glean thy jests and stories his brother I of lowly assembling breed Apollo grants to few Parnassian glories menaced by critic with sour furrowed brow mamas or choilas or scotch reviewer ruffle your heckle grin and growl and vow ill-natured foes you thus will find the viewer when foul-mouthed senseless railers cry thee down reply and show the robes thy stern they are not worthy even of a frown good taste or breeding they can never learn or let them clamor turn a callous ear as though in dread of some harsh donkey's gray if chid by censor friendly though severe to such explain and turn thee not away thy vain says he per chance is all too free thy smutty language suits not learned pen reply good sir throughout the context see thought chasen's thought so privy judge again besides although my master's pen may wander through devious paths by which it ought not stray his life is pure beyond the breath of slander so pardon grant tis merely but his way some rugged ruffian makes a hideous route brandish thy cudgel threaten him to baste the filthy fungus far from thee cast out such nauseous banquets never suit my taste yet calm and cautious moderate thy ire be ever courteous should the case allow sweet malt is ever made by gentle fire warm to thy friends give all a civil bow even censor sometimes teaches to improve slight frosts have often cured to rank a lap so candid blame my spleen shall never move for skillful gardeners wayward branches lap go then my book and bear my words in mind guides safe at once and pleasant them you'll find the argument of the frontest piece ten distinct squares here seen apart are joined in one by cutters art one old democratess under a tree sits on a stone with book on knee about him hang there many features of cats dogs and such like creatures of which he makes anatomy the seed of black collar to see over his head appears the sky and Saturn lord of melancholy to to the left a landscape of jealousy presents itself unto thine eye a kingfisher a swan and hern two fighting cocks you may discern two roaring bulls each other high to assault concerning venery symbols are these I say no more conceive the rest by that's a four three the next of solitariness a portraiture doth well express by sleeping dog cat buck and dough hairs conies in the desert go bats owls the shady bowers over in melancholy darkness hover mark well if be not as should be blame the bad cutter and not me for I under column there doth stand in a marato with folded hand down hangs his head tersen polite some diddy sure he doth indict his loot and books about him lie as symptoms of his vanity if this do not enough disclose to paint him take thyself by the nose five hypochondriacus leans on his arm wind in his side doth him much harm and troubles him full sore God knows much pain he hath and many woes about him pot and glasses lie newly bought from apothecary this Saturn's aspect signify you see them portrayed in the sky six beneath them kneeling on his knee a superstitious man you see he fasts praise on his idol fixed tormented hope and fear be twist for hell perhaps he takes more pain than now dust heaven itself to gain alas poor soul I pity thee what stars incline thee so to be seven but see the mad man rage downright with furious looks a ghastly sight naked in chains bound doth he lie and roars a mane he knows not why observe him for as in a glass thine angry portraiture it was his picture keeps still in thy presence betwixt him and thee there's no difference eight nine borage and hellebore fill to scenes sovereign plants to clear the veins of melancholy and cheer the heart of those black fumes which make it smart to clear the brain of misty fogs which dull our senses and soul clogs the best medicine that air God made for this melody if well assayed ten now last of all to fill a place presented is the author's face and in that habit which he wears his image to the world his mind no art can well express that by his writings you may gas it was not pride nor yet vain glory though others do it commonly made him do this if you must know the printer would needs have it so then do not frown or scoff at it deride not or detract a wit for surely as thou dost by him he will do the same again then look upon this beholden sea as thou likes it so it likes thee and I for it shall stand in view thine to command reader adieu the author's abstract of melancholy deologos when I go musing all alone thinking of divers things foreknown when I build castles in the air void of sorrow and void of fear pleasing myself with phantasms me thinks the time runs very fleet all my joys to this are folly not so sweet as melancholy when I lie waking all alone recounting what I have ill done my thoughts on me then tyrannize fear and sorrow me surprise whether I tarry still or go me thinks the time moves very slow if all my griefs to this are jolly not so mad melancholy when to myself I act and smile with pleasing thoughts the time beguile by a brookside or wood so green unheard unsought for or unseen a thousand pleasures do me bless and crown my soul with happiness all my joys besides our folly none so sweet as melancholy when I lie sit or walk alone I sigh I grieve making great moan in a dark grove or irksome den with discontents and furies then a thousand miseries at once my heavy heart and soul in sconce all my griefs to this are jolly none so sour as melancholy me thinks I hear me thinks I see sweet music wondrous melody towns palaces and cities fine here now then there the world is mine rare beauties gallant ladies shine what air is lovely or divine all other joys to this are folly none so sweet as melancholy me thinks I hear me thinks I see ghosts goblins fiends my fantasy presents a thousand ugly shapes headless bears black men and apes doleful outcries and fearful sights my sad and dismal soul all my griefs to this are jolly none so damned as melancholy me thinks I court me thinks I kiss me thinks I now embrace my mistress oh blessed days oh sweet content in paradise my time is spent such thoughts may still my fancy move so may I ever be in love all my joys to this are folly not so sweet as melancholy when I recount love's many frights my sighs and tears my waking nights my jealous fits oh mine hard fate I now repent but tis too late no torment is so bad as love so bitter to my soul can prove all my griefs to this are jolly not so harsh as melancholy friends and companions get you gone tis my desire to be alone near well but when my thoughts and I do domineer in privacy no gem no treasure like to this tis my delight my crown my bliss all my joys to this are folly not so sweet as melancholy tis my soul plague to be alone I am a beast a monster grown I will no light nor company I find it now my misery the scene is turned my joys are gone fear discontent and sorrows come all my griefs to this are jolly not so fierces melancholy I'll not change life with any king I ravished am can the world bring more joy than still to laugh and smile in pleasant toys time to be guile do not oh do not trouble me so sweet content I feel all my joys to this are folly none so divine as melancholy I'll change my state with any wretch thou canst from jail or dung hill fetch my pains past cure another hell I may not in this torment dwell now desperate I hate my life lend me a halter or a knife all my griefs to this are jolly not so damned as melancholy end of section two section three of the Anatomy of Melancholy volume one this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the Anatomy of Melancholy volume one by Robert Burton section three Democratic Junior to the Reader section Gentle reader I presume thou wilt be very inquisitive to know what antique or personate actor this is that so insolently intrudes upon this common theater to the world's view arrogating another man's name whence he is why he does it and what he has to say although as he said I am a free man born and may choose whether I will tell who can compel me if I be urged I will as readily reply as that Egyptian in Plutarch when a curious fellow would needs know what he had in his basket it was therefore covered I should not know what it was in it seek not after that which is hid if the contents please thee and before thy use suppose the man in the moon or whom though will to be the author I would not willingly be known yet in some sort to give thee satisfaction which is more than I need I will show a reason both of this deserved name, title and subject and first of the name of some ridiculous treatise lest any man by reason of it should be deceived expecting a pasquel, a satire some ridiculous treatise as I myself should have done some prodigious tenet or paradox of the earth's motion of infinite worlds in infinito avacuo ex fortuita atomorum colisione in an infinite waste so caused by an accidental collision of motes in the sun of which democratus held epicures and their master lusipus of old maintained and are lately revived by copernicus, brunus and some others besides it has been always an ordinary custom as Jelius observes for later writers and imposters to broach many absurd and insolent fictions and there's a name of so noble a philosopher as democratus to get some self-credit and by that means the more to be respected as artificers usually do novok vi marmore as kribunt praxaltilemsuo this not so with me non hic centaurus non gorgonas harpiasque in venis hominem pagina nostra sapet now centaurs here or gorgons look to find my subject is of man humankind though thyself are the subject of my discourse whatever men do woes, fears in ire, in sport joys, wanderings are the sum of my report my intent is now otherwise to use his name mercurius gallubelchicus mercurius britannicus use the name of mercury democratus christianus etc although there be some other circumstances for which i have masked myself under this wizard and some peculiar respect which i cannot so well express until i have sat down a brief character of this our democratus what he was was an epitome of his life democratus as he is described by Hippocrates and Laertius was a little weirish old man weary melancholy by nature a verse from company in his later days and much given to solitarness a famous philosopher in his age coia was with socrates wholly addicted to his studies at the last and to a private life there were many excellent works a great, divine according to the divinity of those times an expert physician a politician an excellent mathematician as diacosmos and the rest of his works do witness he was much delighted with the studies of husbandry, says Columella and often i find him cited by Constantinus and others treating of that subject he knew the natures differences of all beasts plants, fishes, birds and as some say could understand the tunes and voices of them in a word he was omniferium doctus a general scholar a great student and to the intent he might better contemplate i find it related by some that he put out his eyes and was in his old age voluntarily blind yet saw more than all greece besides and bright of every subject nihil in toto opificio naturae decor nonscripted a man of an excellent wit profound concede and to attain knowledge the better in his younger years he traveled to Egypt and Athens to confer with learned men admired of some despised of others after a wandering life he settled at Abdera a town in Thrace and was sent for Zither to be their recorder or town clerk as some will whereas others he was there bred and born however it was there he lived at last in a garden in the suburbs wholly betaking himself to his studies and a private life saving that sometimes he would walk down to the haven and laugh heartily at such variety of ridiculous objects which there he saw such a one was Democritus but in the meantime how does this concern me or upon what reference do I usurp his habit I confess indeed that to compare myself unto him for ought I have yet said were both impudency and arrogancy I do not presume to make any parallel antistat mihi millibus trecentes parvus sum nullus sum altum nexpero nexpero yet thus much I will say of myself and that I hope without all suspicion of pride or self-conceit I have lived a silent sedentary, solitary, private life mihi et muses in the university as long almost as scenocrates in Athens ad scenectomphere to learn wisdom as he did bend up most part in my study for I have been brought up a student in the most flourishing college of Europe augustissimo collegio and can brag with jovius almost in ea luke domikili vakikani totius orbis celeberimi per trigintia septem annos multa opportunaque didiki for thirty years I have continued having the use of a good libraries as ever he had a scholar and would be therefore either by living as a drone to be an unprofitable or unworthy member of so learned and noble a society or to write that which should be any way dishonorable to such a royal and ample foundation something I have done though by my profession a divine yet turbinae raptus ingenii as he said out of a running wit an unconstant unsettled mind I had a great desire not able to attain to a superficial skill in any to have some smothering in all to be a liquefies in omnibus nullus insingulus which Plato commends out of him lipsios approves and furthers as fit to be imprinted in all curious wits not to be a slave of one science or dwell all together in one subject as most do to have an oar in every man's boat to taste of every dish and sip of every cup which says mantain was well performed by Aristotle and his learned countryman adrian turnibus this rowing humor though not with like success I have ever had unlike arranging spaniel that barks at every bird he sees leaving his game I have followed all saving that which I should and may justly complain and truly which jessner did in modesty that I have read many books but to little purpose for want of good method I have confusedly tumbled over diverse authors in our libraries with small profit for want of art, order, memory, judgment I never traveled but in map or card in which mine unconfined thoughts have freely expatiated as having ever been especially delighted with the study of cosmography Saturn was lord of my geniture culminating etc and Mars principal significator of manners in partial conjunction with my ascendant both fortunate in their houses etc I am not poor I am not rich I have little I want nothing all my treasure is in my nervous tower greater preferment as I could never get so am I not in depth for it I have a competence from my noble and munificent patterns though I live still a collegiate student as democratus in his garden and lead a monastic life Ipsemi heatrum sequestered from those tomoths and troubles of the world at tankvam in specula positors as he said in some high place above you all like stoicus sapiens omnia saecula preterita presentique videns unovelut in tuitu I hear and see what is done abroad how others run, ride, turmoil and maserate themselves in court and country far from those wrongling lawsuits aulia vanitatem fori ambitionem radere mecum soleo I laugh at all only secure lest my suit go amiss my ships perish, corn and cattle miscarry trade decay I have no wife nor children good nor bad to provide for a mere spectator of other men's fortunes and adventures as they act their parts which me things are diversely presented unto me as from a common theater or scene I hear new news every day and those ordinary rumors of war plagues, fires, inundations thefts, murders massacres, meteors comets, spectrums, prodigies apparitions of towns taken, cities besieged in France, Germany, Turkey etc daily masters and preparations and such like which these tempestuous times afford battles fought so many men slain monomachies, shipwrecks piracies and sea fights peace, leagues, stratagems and fresh alarms a vast confusion of vows, wishes, actions addicts, petitions lawsuits, pleas laws, proclamations planes, grievances are daily brought to our ears new books every day pamphlets, corantos stories whole catalogues of volumes of all sorts new paradoxes opinions, schisms, heresies controversies in philosophy religion etc now come tidings of weddings, muskings, nummeries entertainments, jubilees embassies, tilts and tournaments trophies, triumphs, revels sports, plays then again as in a new shifted scene treasons, cheating tricks robberies, enormous villainies in all kinds funerals, burials, death of princes new discoveries, expeditions now comical then tragical matters today we hear of new lords and officers created tomorrow of some great man deposed and then again of fresh honors conferred one is let loose, another imprisoned one purchased another breaketh he thrives, his neighbor turns bankrupt now plenty, then again girth and famine one runs, another rides wrangles, laughs, weeps etc this I daily hear and such like both private and public matters amidst the gallantry and misery of the world jollity, pride, perplexities and cares, simplicity and villainy, subtlety knavery, candor and integrity mutually mixed and offering themselves I rub on privus privatos as I have still lived so I now continue statu quo prius left to a solitary life and my own domestic discontents savings that sometimes naked mentiar as doiogenes went into the city and democratised to the haven to see fashions I did for my recreation now and then walk abroad look into the world and could not choose but make some little observation non tam sagax observator ac simplex recitator notice they did to scoff or laugh at all what was a mixed passion bilem saepe giocum vestrii movere tumultus yevrecht mimics whose fond heats have been how oft the objects of my mirth and spleen I did sometimes laugh and scoff with lucian and satirically taxed with menipus, lament with heraclitus sometimes again I was petulantis plenic cahino and then again urere bilis cekur I was much moved to see that abuse which I could not mend in which passion have so ever I may sympathise with him or them this for no such respect I shroud myself under his name but either in an unknown habit to assume a little more liberty and freedom of speech or if you will need snow for that reason and only respect which Hippocrates relates at large in his epistle to Demigitus wherein he does express how coming to visit him one day he found Democritus in his garden at Abdera in the suburbs and there a shady bower with a book on his knees busy at his study sometimes writing, sometimes walking the subject of his book was melancholy and madness about him lays a carcasses of many several beasts newly by him cut up and anatomised not that he did condemn God's creatures as he told Hippocrates but to find out the seed of this atrabilis or melancholy when it proceeds and how it was engendered in men's bodies to the intent he might better cure it in himself and by his writings and observation teach others how to prevent and avoid it which good intent of his Hippocrates highly commended Democritus junior is there for bold to imitate and because he left it imperfect and it is now lost quasi succenturiator democriti to revive again prosecute and finish in this treatise end of section 3 section 4 of the anatomy of melancholy, volume 1 this is a Librivox recording all Librivox recordings are in the public domain for more information or to volunteer please visit Librivox.org recording by Morgan Scorpion the anatomy of melancholy volume 1 by Robert Burton section 4 Democritus junior to the reader part 2 you have had a reason of the name if the title and inscription offend your gravity were it a sufficient justification to accuse others it could produce many sober treatises even sermons themselves which in their fronts carry more fantastical names how so ever it is a kind of policy in these days to prefix a fantastical title to a book which is to be sold for as larks come down to a day net many vain readers will tarry and stand gazing like silly passengers at an antique picture in a painter's shop that will not look at a judicious piece and indeed as Scaliger observes nothing more invites a reader than an argument unlooked for, unthought of and sells better than a scoal pamphlet to maxima come Novitas excited Palatum many men, safe Galeus are very conceited in their inscriptions and able, as Pliny quotes out of Seneca, to make him loiter by the way that went in haste to fetch a midwife for his daughter now ready to lie down for my part, I have honourable precedence for this which I have done I will cite one for all Anthony Zara, his anatomy of wit in four sections members, subsections, etc to be read in our libraries if any man, except against a matter or manner of treatising of this my subject and will demand a reason of it I can allege more than one I write of melancholy by being busy to avoid melancholy there is no greater cause of melancholy than idleness no better cure than business as Rassus holds and howbeit stultus laba est inepti aum to be busy in toys is to small purpose yet hear that divine Seneca allude ageri quam nihil better do to no end than nothing I wrote therefore and busied myself in this playing labour all your sarquei diligentia od vitaum topolum ferriandi with vectius in macrobius atque otium in utile verter eb negatium simul et jacunda et idonia de care vita lectorum delictando simul atque monendo poets would profit or delight mankind and with the pleasing have the instructive joined profit and pleasure then to inform the judgment nor offend the heart shall gain all votes to this end I write like them, saith lucian that recite to trees and declaim to pillars for want of auditors as paulus eginetta ingenuously confesseth not that anything was unknown or omitted but to exercise myself which course if some took I think it would be good for their bodies and much better for their souls or peradventure as others do I am famed to show myself skire turum nihil est nisite skire hokskiat alta I might be your Thucydides opinion to know a thing and not to express it is all one as if he knew it not when I first took this task in hand et cordaite ille impelenscaneo negatium suscepi this I aimed at vell utlunirum animum scribendo to ease my mind by writing for I had gravedum cor fitum caput a kind of impostome in my head which I was very desirous to be unladen of and could imagine no fitter evacuation than this besides I might not well refrain for ubidola ibidigitas one must need scratch where it itches I was not a little offended with this malady shall I say my mistress melancholy or my malas genius and for that cause as he that is stung with a scorpion I would expel clavum clavo comfort one sorrow with another idleness with idleness would ex-vipara theriacum make an antidote out of that which was the prime cause of my disease or as he did of whom Felix Plutter speaks that thought he had some of Aristophanes frogs in his belly still crying weak orcs cogs cogs oop oop and for that cause studied physics seven years and travelled over most part of Europe to ease himself to do myself good I turned over such physicians as our libraries would afford or my private friends impart and have taken this pains and why not? Carden professor he wrote his book to console Atione after his son's death to comfort himself so did Tully write of the same subject with like intent after his daughter's departure if it be his at least or some imposters put out in his name which Lipsius probably suspects concerning myself I compare adventure of film with Marius in Salis that which others hear or read of I felt and practised myself they get their knowledge by books I mine by melancholising Experto Crede Roberto something I can speak out of experience Erem Navalis experientia me docuite and with her in the poet how'd ignore Mali Miseries Socorere disco I would help others out of a fellow feeling and as that virtuous lady did of old being a leper herself bestow all her portion to build unhospital for lepers I will spend my time and knowledge which are my greatest fortunes for the common good of all yea, but you will infer that this is Actum Agheri an unnecessary work Cranvan, this coctam, aponere the same again and again in other words to what purpose nothing is omitted that may well be said so thought Lucian in the like-seam how many excellent physicians have written just volumes and elaborate tracks of this subject no news here that which I have is stolen from others he may am pagina for us if that severe doom of Cinesius be true it is a greater offence to steal dead men's labours than their clothes what shall we come of most writers I hold up my hand at the bar among others and am guilty of felony in this kind habes confidentum reum I am content to be pressed with the rest it is most true tenet insanabili motoscribende cacoethes and there is no end of writing of books as the wise men found of old in this scribbling age especially wherein the number of books is without number as a worthy man saith presses be oppressed and out of an itching humour that every man hath to show himself desirous of fame and honour scribimus in docte docte quay he will write no matter what and scrape together at boots not wents bewitched with this desire of fame eti am medius in morvis to the disparagement of their health and scarce able to hold a pen they must say something and get themselves a name, saith Scaliga though it be to the downfall and ruin of many others to be counted writers scriptores ut salut enter to be thought and held polymaths and polyhistors upward imperitum vulgis of ventursi norman artists to get a paper kingdom nulla speichreister said amplifamai in this precipitate ambitious age nunc ut est cycleum inter imaturam eruditionum ambitiosum et prikeps to Scaliga's censure and they that are scarce auditors vix auditores must be masters and teachers before they can be capable and fit heroes they will rush into all learning to gatum armatum divine human authors rake over all indexes and pamphlets for notes as our merchants do strange havens write great tomes cum nunsint revered doctiores sed locaciores whereas they are not thereby better scholars but greater praetors they commonly pretend public good but as Gesna observes tis pride and vanity that eggs them on no news or alt worthy of note but the same in other terms as apothecaries we make new mixtures every day pour out of one vessel into another and as those old romans robbed all the cities of the world to set out their bad-sighted Rome we skim off the cream of other men's wits pick the choice flowers of their tilled gardens to set out our own sterile plots castant alios ut libros suos per se gracile's alieno adipae suffar chiant so dubious in vase they lard their lean books with the fat of others' works in erudii furres etc a fault that every writer finds as I do now and yet faulty themselves trium litterarum homines all thieves they pilfer out of old writers to stuff up their new comments scrape enius's dung hills and out of democratis pit as I have done by which means it comes to pass that not only libraries and shops are full of our putrid papers but every clothesstool and jakes scribbant, comina, quai leg, and cacantes they serve to put under pies to lap spice in and to keep roast meat from burning with us in France, says Scalga every man hath liberty to write but few ability here to fall learning was graced by judicious scholars but now noble sciences are vilified by base and illiterate scribblers that either write for bain-glorie need to get money or as parasites to flatter and collogue with some great men they put cut buzz chris criliasque ineptiasque among so many thousand authors you shall scarce find one by reading of whom you shall be any wit better but rather much worse quibus inficitor portius quam perficitor by which he is rather infected than any way perfected quitalia legit grididicit tandem gridskit naissaisonia nougas so that often times it falls out which Calimacus taxed of old a great book is a great mischief Cardon finds fault with Frenchmen and Germans for their scribbling to no purpose non inquit ab edendo deteriorio modo novum aliquit inveniante he doth not bar them to write so that it be some new invention of their own but we weave the same web still twist the same rope again and again or if it be a new invention tis but some wobble or toy which idle fellows write for as idle fellows to read and who so cannot invent he must have a barren wit in this scribbling age can forge nothing princes show their armies rich men vaunt their buildings soldiers their manhood and scholars vent their toys they must read they must hear whether they will or know ed cod cunque semul cartis elaborate omnes gesti et afono rediontes skire la cunque ed prerus et anus what once is said and written all men must know old wives and children as they come and go what a company of poets have this year brought out as Pliny complains to Sosius Tynesius this April every day some or other have recited what a catalogue of new books all this year all this age I say have our Frankfurt Marts or Domestic Marts brought out twice a year profferent Senova Ingenia ed ostentant we stretch our wits out and set them to sail Magno Canato nihil Agamus so that which guests no much desires if a speedy reformation be not had by some princes edex and grave supervisors to restrain this liberty it will run on in infinitum this time avidus libraum heluol who can read them as already we shall have a vast chaos and confusion of books we are oppressed with them our eyes ache with reading our fingers with turning for my part I am one of the number nos numerus sumus we are mere ciphers I do not deny it I have only this of Macrobius to say for myself om ne mehem nihil mehem tis all mine and none mine as a good housewife with one piece of cloth a bee gathers wax and honey out of many flowers and makes a new bundle of all floriferus autapes insultibus omnia libant I have laboriously collected this canto out of diverse writers and that Sine injuria I have wronged no authors but given every man his own which Hyrom so much commends in napotian he stole not whole verses pages tracts as some do nowadays concealing their author's names but still said this recipients that lactantius that hilarius so said minutius felix so victorinus thus far our nobius I cite and quote mine authors which how so ever some illiterate scribblers account pedantical as a cloak of ignorance and opposite to their affected fine style I must and will use some see non so repris and what Varro speaks of bees I can say of myself whom have I injured the matter is theirs most part and yet mine apparet and a symptom sit which sonica approves I'll you determine come on they sometimes it apparet which nature does with the ailment of our bodies in corporate digest assimilate I do con coquere called housey dispose of what I take I make them pay tribute to set out this my macaroni con the method only is my known I must usurp that of weka nihil dictum quad non dictum pious methodus solar artificum ostend it we can say nothing but what has been said the composition and method is ours only and shows a scholar our abacus asius avikenna have all out of Galen but to their own method diverso stilo non diversa fidei our poets still from Homer he spews saith alien they lick it up divines use Austin's words verbatim still and our story dresses do as much he that comes last is commonly best donek quid grandius itus postura sorsquae ferd melio though there were many giants of old in physics and philosophy yet I say with didacus teller a dwarf standing on the shoulders of a giant may see father than a giant himself I may likely add alter and see father than my predecessors and it is no greater prejudice for me to indict after others than for a alienus mon tultus that famous position to write demorbis capitis after jason pretenses hernius hildesheim etc many horses to run in a race one logician one rhetorician after another oppose then what thou wilt a latres liquet us quay nost et us quay et ganitibus improbis la quesas I solve it thus and for those other faults of barbarism Doric dialect extemporengian style tortologies apish imitation a rhapsody of rags gathered together from several dung hills excrements of authors toys and confusedly tumbled out without art invention judgment wit learning harsh raw rude fantastical absurd insolent indiscreet ill-composed indigested vain scowile idle dull and dry I confess all it is partly affected thou canst not think worse of me than I do of myself it is not worth the reading I yield it I desire thee not to lose time in perusing so vain a subject I should be peradventure loath myself to read him or thee so writing it is not operae pretium all I say is this that I have precedence for it which I socrates calls perfugium eus qui peccant others as absurd vain idle illiterate etc nonally alii idem feccant others have done as much it may be more and perhaps thou thyself novimus et quite et cetera we have all our faults schemus et hank venium et cetera thou censurist me so have I done others and may do thee ridimus in quae vicum et cetera tis lex talionis quid vocrole go now censure criticise scoff and rail nasutis cis us quae liket cis deni quae nasus non portes in nougas di quae plurameas epsae egocram dixi et cetera wort thou all scoffes and flouts are very momus than we ourselves thou can't not say worse of us thus as when women scald have I cried whore first and in some men censures I am afraid I have overshot myself though dares say vani vitupe rares tultae as I do not arrogate I will not derogate primus vestrum non sum necimus I am none of the best I am none of the meanest of you as I am an inch or so many feet so many parasangs after him or him I may be peradventure an ace before thee be it therefore as it is well or ill I have assaid put myself upon the stage I must abide the censure I may not escape it it is most true steelers virum agrit our style be razes and as hunters find their game by the trace described by his works multaumilius exsomenae crum linear mentis demoribus hominem djudicumus it was all Cato's rule I have laid myself open I know it in these treaties turned mine inside outward I shall be censured I doubt not for to say truth with erasmus nihil morosius hominem djudicus there is not so peevish as men's judgments yet this is some comfort or palata sikdjudicia our censures are as various as our palates treismii convivii prope dissentire vedentor posquentes vario multum diversa palato etc three guests I have dissenting at my feast requiring each to gratify his taste with different food our writings are as so many dishes our readers' guests our books like beauty that which one admires another rejects so are we approved as men's fancies are inclined pro capto lectoris abensufata libelli that which is most pleasing to one is a maracum sui most harsh to another quot homines told sed tentii so many men so many minds that which thou condemnest he commends quot pettis id sanae est invisum a cadumque doobus he respects matter thou art holy for words he loves a loose and free style thou art all for neat composition strong lines, hyperboles, allegories he desires a fine frontispiece enticing pictures such as hieron, natali the jesuit hath cut to the dominicals to draw on the reader's attention which thou rejectest that which one admires another explodes as most absurd and ridiculous if it be not point blank to his humour, his method, his conceit sequid forsome or missum quot is animal concap perit sequi dictio etc if ought be omitted or added which he likes or dislikes thou art mancipium pauci lectionis an idiot an ass nullus est or plegiaris a trifler a trivant thou art an idle fellow or else it is a thing of mere industry a collection without wit or invention a very toy facilia sic prutant omnes quite jam factor net dessa labris cogitant ubi via strata so men are valued their labours vilified by fellows of no worth themselves as stings of naught who could not have done as much un os quiscue abundat senso sor every man abounds in his own sense and whilst each particular party is so affected how should one please all quid dem quid non dem renius tuo quad duvet ille what courses must I choose what not what both would order you refuse how shall I hope to express myself to each man's humour and conceit or to give satisfaction to all some understand too little some too much quiz similitare in legendos libros atque in salutandos somines irulent cintantes quales said cribus vestibus in dute cint as Austin observes not regarding what but who write o rex in habit octoris calibritas not valuing the metal but stamp that is upon it canthorum aspicuant non quid in ale if he be not rich in great place, polite and brave a great doctor or full thought with grand titles though never so well qualified to dance but as baronius hath it of cardinal caraphas works he is a mere hog that rejects any man for his poverty some are too partial as friends to overween others come with a prejudice to carp vilify, detract and scoff quid in me forsan quid quid est omnicontemptu contemptius dudicant some as bees for honey some as spiders to gather poison what shall I do in this case as a dutch host if you come to an inn in germany and dislike your fair diet lodging etc replies in a surly tone aleod tibicoires diversorium if you like not this get you to another inn I resolve if you like not my writing go read something else I do not much esteem thy censure take thy course it is not as thou wilt nor as I will but when we have both done that of plinus secundus tetragin will prove true every man's witty labour takes not except the matter, subject, occasion and some commending favourite happen to it if I be taxed exploded by thee and some such I shall happily be approved and commended by others and so have been expertus loquor and may truly say with gilveus in like case absent verbo jack tantia herum corrandum pontificum et virorum nobilium familiaritatum et amicitiam gratas grei gratias et multorum bene laudatorum laudes sum inde from meritus as I have been honoured by some worthy men so have I been vilified by others and shall be at the first publishing of this book which probes of Perseus satires editum liberum continual mirare hominase atque avide teripere cairperant I may in some sort apply this to my work the first, second and third edition were suddenly gone eagerly read and, as I have said not so much approved by some as scornfully rejected by others but it was democratus his fortune idem admiratione et irisione habitus to a cynicus fate that superintendent of wit learning judgment and stuporum doctus the best of greek and latin writers in Plutarch's opinion that renowned correct of vice as Fabius terms him and painful omniscius philosopher that wit so excellently and admirably well could not please all parties or escape censure how is he vilified by Caligula Agelius his cheap propuna in aeo ple racque pernettiosa say the same Fabius many childish tracks and sentences he hath somo illaboratus too negligent often and remiss as Agelius observes oratio vulgaris et protreta decarques et ineptae sententiae eruditio plebea unhomely shallow writer as he is in partibus spinas et fastidia habet safe lipsius and as in all his other works so especially in his epistles aliae in arguteus et ineptis occupantor intracartus alecubi et parum compositus sine copia rerum hoc vecchit he jumbles up many things together in methodically after the stoics fashion parum ordinavit multa ocumulavit etc if Seneca be thus last and many famous men that I could name what shall I expect? how shall I that am Vix-Umbra Tanti philosophy hope to please no man so absolute erasmus holds to satisfy all except antiquity, prescription etc, set a bar but as I have proved in Seneca this will not always take place how shall I evade tis the common doom of all writers I must I say abide it I seek not applause non ego ventosa venus sofragia plebis again non sum adio informis I would not be vilified laudatis abunde non fastidius cittibi lector ero I fear good men censures and to their favourable acceptance I submit my labours et lingus manchipiorum contemno as the barking of a dog I securely contemn those malicious and scurral obloqueries flouts, cullums of railers and detractors I scorn the rest what therefore I have said pro tenuitate mea I have said end of section 4 section 5 of the anatomy of melancholy volume 1 this is a LibriVox recording all LibriVox recordings are in the public domain for further information or to volunteer please visit LibriVox.org the anatomy of melancholy volume 1 by Robert Burton section 5 democratus junior to the reader part 3 one or two things yet I was desirous to have amended if I could concerning the manner of handling this my subject for which I must apologise for my precari and upon better advice give the friendly reader notice it was not my intent to prostitute my muse in English or to divulge secreta minerva but to have exposed this more contract in latin if I could have got it printed any scurral pamphlet is welcome to our mercenary stationers in English they print all the East Wicks Simianuda Cacaret but in latin they will not deal which is one of the reasons Nicholas Carr in his aeration of the porcity of English writers gives that so many flourishing wits are smothered in oblivion lie dead and buried in this our nation another main fault is that I have not revised the copy and amended the style which now flows remissly which was first conceived but my leisure would not permit fakey neck quad potui neck quad wallowy I confess it is neither as I would nor as it should be cum relego script se se pudet quia plurima cerno me quacue quai fuerant yurike digna lini when I peruse this tract which I have ripped I am abashed and much I hold unfit et quad grauissimum in the matter itself many things I disallow at this present which when I writ non aya dem est itas non mens I would willingly retract much etc but is too late I can only crave pardon now for what is amiss I might indeed had I wisely done observed that precept of the poet nonum quepre mator in annum and have taken more care or as alexander the physician would have done by lapis lazuli 50 times washed before it be used I should have revised, corrected and amended this tract but I had not, as I said that happy leisure no amanuensis or assistants pancrates in lucian wanting a servant as he went from Memphis to Coptus in Egypt took a door bar and after some superstitious words eukates the relator was then present made it stand up like a serving man fetch him water, turn the spit serve in supper and what work he would besides and when he had done that service he desired turned his man to a stick again I have no such skill to make new men my pleasure or means to hire them no whistle to call like the master of a ship and bid them run etc I have no such authority no such benefactors as that noble ambrosius was to Oregon allowing him six or seven amanuensis to write out his dictates I must for that cause do my business myself and was therefore enforced as a bear doth her welps to bring forth this confused lump I had not time to lick it into form as she doth her young ones but even so to publish it as it was first written quick quid in bookum wanit in an extemporean style as I do commonly all other exercises a foodie quick quid diktawit genious males out of a confused company of notes and writ with a small deliberation as I do ordinarily speak without all affectation of big words, fustian phrases jingling terms tropes, strong lines that like a kester's arrows caught fire as they flew strains of wit, brave heats eleges, hyperbolical exornations, elegances etc. which many so much affect I am aquae poltor drink no wine at all which so much improves our modern wits a loose, plain, rude writer ficum walko ficum et ligonem, ligonem and as free as loose idem kalamol quodinmente I call a spade a spade animes heik scribol non auribus I respect matter not words remembering that of carden werba propta race non race propta werba and seeking with Seneca quid scribam non quemad modem rather what than how to write for as Philo thinks he that is conversant about matter neglects words those that excel in this art of speaking have no profound learning werba nitent falaris at nulas werba medullas intus habent besides it was the observation of that wise Seneca when you see a fellow careful about his words and neat in his speech know this for a certainty that man's mind is busied about toys there's no solidity in him no nest or namentum werile con kinitas as he said of a nightingale woxes I am therefore in this point a professed disciple of Apollonius a scholar of Socrates I neglect phrases and labour wholly to inform my reader's understanding not to please his ear it is not my study or intent to compose neatly which an orator requires but to express myself readily and plainly as it happens so that as a river runs sometimes precipitate and swift then dull and slow now direct then perambages now deep, then shallow now muddy, then clear now broad, then narrow doth my style flow now serious, then light now comical, then satirical now more elaborate, then remiss as the present subject required or as at that time I was affected and if thou vouchsafe to read this treatise it shall seem no otherwise to thee than the way to an ordinary traveller sometimes fair, sometimes foul hear champagne there enclosed barren in one place better soil in another by woods, groves, hills dales, plains, etc I shall lead thee through a variety of objects that which thou shalt like and surely dislike for the matter itself or method if it be faulty consider, I pray you, that of Columella nihil perfectum auta singulari consumatum industria no man can observe all much is defective, no doubt may be justly taxed altered and avoided it is not my study it is not my study taxed, altered and avoided in Gallen, Aristotle those great masters boni venatoris plures ferras capere non omnes he is a good huntsman can catch some, not all I have done my endeavour besides, I dwell not in this study non heek sulco stukimus non hoque pulware desudamus I am but a smatterer I confess, a stranger here and there I pull a flower I do easily grant if a rigid censurer should criticise on this which I have writ he should not find three soul faults as Scaliga in Terence but three hundred so many, as he has done in Cardon's subtleties, as many noble eras as Gul Laranbergius a late professor of Rostock discovers in that anatomy of Laurentius or Barochius the Venetian in Sacroboscus and although this be a sixth edition in which I should have been more accurate, corrected all those former escapes yet it was magnilaboris opus so difficult and tedious that as carpenters do find out of experience it is much better build a new sometimes than repair an old house I could as soon write as much more as alter that which is written if ought therefore be amiss as I grant there is friendly admonition no bitter invective otherwise as in ordinary controversies said we may contend and likely misuse each other but to what purpose we are both scholars say both young arcadians both alike inspired to sing and answer as the song required if we do wrangle what shall we get by it trouble and wrong ourselves make sport to others if I be convicted of an error I will yield I will amend I am a dictum sit I am not dictum esto in the meantime I require a favourable censure of all faults omitted harsh compositions pleonasms of words tautological repetitions though Seneca bear me out none qu'am nemis di kitur qu'ad nun qu'am satis di kitur perturbations of tenses numbers, printers faults I am a dictum sit tenses, numbers, printers faults etc. my translations are sometimes rather paraphrases than interpretations non adverbum but as an author I use more liberty and that's only taken which was to my purpose quotations are often inserted in the text which makes the style more harsh or in the margin as it happened Greek authors, Plato, Plutarch, Athens etc. I have cited out of their interpreters because the original was not so ready I have mingled sacra profanis but I hope not profaned and in repetition of author's names rank them pair accidents not according to chronology sometimes neoterics before ancients as my memory suggested some things are here altered expunged in this sixth edition others amended much added because many good authors in all kinds have come to my hands since and tis no prejudice, no such indecorum or oversight Nun qu'am ita, qu'qu'am bene subducta ratione ad vita am fuit qu'in reis aitas usus semper aliquid apotent novi aliquid morianto tilla qu'esquire te credas nesquias et qu'aitibi putaris prima in exercendo utrepudias ne'er was ought yet at first contrived so fit but new's age or something would alter it advise thee better and apon peruse make thee not say and what thou takes'd refuse but I am now resolved never to put this treatise out again ne quid nimis I will not hereafter add, alter or retract, I have done the last and greatest exception is that I, being a divine, have meddled with physic tantumne estabre toa ought itibi aliena utgures e'aque nihil qu'aiti atinent which menedamus objected to cremes have I so much leisure or little business of mine own as to look after other men's matters which concern me not what have I to do with physic quod medicorum est promittant mediki the lasidimonians were once in council about state matters a debauched fellow spake excellent well and to the purpose his speech was generally approved aggrave senator steps up and by all means would have it repealed though good because de honest arbato vesimo autore it had no better an author let some good man relate the same and then it should pass this council was embraced factum est and it was registered forthwith et seek bona sententia mansit malus auctor mutatus est thou sayest as much of me stomacosis as thou art and grantest per adventure this which I have written in physic not to be amiss had another done it a professed physician or so but why should I meddle with this tract hear me speak there be many other subjects I do easily grant both in humanity and divinity fit to be treated of of which had I written ad ostentatio nem only to show myself I should have rather chosen and in which I have been more conversant I could have more willingly luxuriated and better satisfied myself and others but that at this time I was fatally driven upon this rock of melancholy and carried away by this by stream which as a relit is deducted from the main channel of my studies in which I have pleased and busied myself at idle hours as a subject most necessary and commodious not that I prefer it before divinity which I do acknowledge to be the queen of professions and to which all the rest are as handmaids but that in divinity I saw no such great need for had I written positively so many books in that kind so many commentators, treatises pamphlets, expositions sermons that whole teams of oxen cannot draw them and had I been as forward and ambitious as some others I might have happily printed a sermon at Paul's Cross a sermon in St Mary's Oxon a sermon in Christchurch or a sermon before the right honourable right reverent a sermon before the right worshipful a sermon in Latin, in English a sermon with a name a sermon without a sermon, a sermon etc but I have been ever as desirous to suppress my labours in this kind as others have been to press and publish theirs to have written in controversy had been to cut off an Hydra's head least litem generat one begets another so many duplications triplications and swarms of questions in Sacrobello Hawk quod stili mucrone agitor that having once begun I should never make an end one had much better as Alexander the 6th Pope long since observed provoke a great prince than a begging friar, a Jesuit or a seminary priest I will add for Inexpugnabileghenus hoc hominum they are an irrefragable society they must and will have the last word and that with such eagerness impudence, abominable lying falsifying and bitterness in their questions they proceed that as he said furor necaicus an rapid vis acrior an culpa responsum date blind fury or error or rashness or what it is that eggs them I know not I am sure many times which Austin perceived long since tempestate contentiones serenitas caritatis of nubilatur with this tempest of contention the serenity of charity is over clouded and there be too many spirits conjured up already in this kind in all sciences and more than we can tell how to lay which do so furiously rage and keep such a racket that as Fabius said it had been much better for some of them to have been born dumb and altogether illiterate than so far to dote their own destruction at Milius furat known scribere namque tacare tutum semper erit tis a general fault so Severinus the dain complains in physics unhappy men as we are we spend our days in unprofitable questions and disputations intricate subtleties dailana caprina about moonshine in the water leaving in the meantime those chiefest treasures of nature untouched wherein the best medicines for all manner of diseases are to be found and do not only neglect them ourselves but hinder, condemn, forbid and scoff at others that are willing to inquire after them these motifs at this present have induced me to make choice of this medicinal subject if any physician in the meantime shall infer the sutur ultra crepidam and find himself grieved that I have intruded into his profession I will tell him in brief I do not otherwise by them than they do by us if it be for their advantage I know many of their sect which have taken orders in hope of a benefit tis a common transition and why may not a melancholy divine that can get nothing but by symony, professed physics Drusianus an Italian Crucianos, but corruptly Trithemius calls him because he was not fortunate in his practice for sook his profession and writ afterwards in divinity Marchilius fichinus was semel et simul a priest and a physician at once and T. linica in his old age took orders the Jesuits profess both at this time diverse of them, permissus superiorum chirurgians, pandas, boards and midwives et cetera many poor country vickers for want of other means are driven to their shifts to turn mountie banks quacksalvas, empirics and if our greedy patrons hold us to such hard conditions as commonly they do they will make most of us work at some trade as Paul did at last turn taskers mortsters, costamungers, graziers sell ale as some have done or worse however, in undertaking this task I hope I shall commit no great error or indecorum if all be considered a right I can vindicate myself with Georgius Brownus and Hieronymus Hemingius those two learned divines who, to borrow a line or two of mine elder brother drawn by natural love the one of pictures and maps perspectives and choreographical delights writ that ample theater of cities the other to the study of genealogies pend theatrum genealogicum or else I can excuse my studies with Lesseus the Jesuit in like case it is a disease of the soul on which I am to treat and as much appertaining to a divine as to a physician and who knows not what an agreement there is betwixt these two professions a good divine either is or ought to be a good physician a spiritual physician at least as our saviour calls himself and was indeed Matthew 4,23 Luke 5,18 Luke 7,8 they differ but in object the one of the body the other of the soul and use diverse medicines to cure one amends animum per corpus the other corpus per animum informed us in a learned lecture of his not long since one helps the vices and passions of the soul anger, lust, desperation, pride presumption etc by applying that spiritual as the other uses proper remedies in bodily diseases now this being a common infirmity of body and soul and such a one that hath as much need of spiritual as a corporal cure find a fitter task to busy myself about a more opposite theme so necessary, so commodious and generally concerning all sorts of men that should so equally participate of both and require a whole physician a divine in this compound mixed malady can do little alone a physician in some kinds of melancholy much less both make an absolute cure alterios seek altera poskit opem when in friendship joined a mutual sucker in each find and tis proper to them both and I hope not unbeseeming me who am by my profession a divine and by my inclination a physician I had Jupiter in my sixth house I say with Beroaldus known some medicus neck medicinae prosus experts I have taken some pains not with an intent to practice but to satisfy myself which was a cause likewise of the first undertaking of this project and of section 5