 Section 1 of the Anatomy of Melancholy, Vol. 2. The Second Partition, The Cure of Melancholy. Partition 2. Section 1. Member 1. Unlawful Cures Rejected In veteran melancholy, howsoever it may seem to be a continuate inextricable disease, hard to be cured, accompanying them to their graves, most part as Montanus observes, yet many times it may be helped, even that which is most violent, or at least according to the same author, it may be mitigated and much eased. Nildesperandum, it may be hard to cure, but not impossible for him that is most grievously affected, if he but willing to be helped. Upon this good hope I will proceed, using the same method in the cure, which I have formally used in the rehearsing of the causes. First general, then particular, and those according to their several species. Of these cures some be lawful, some again unlawful, which though frequent, familiar and often used, yet justly censured and to be controverted. At first, whether by these diabolical means which are commonly practised by the devil and his ministers, sorcerers, witches, magicians etc., by spells, cabalistic words, charms, characters, images, amulets, ligatures, filters, incantations etc. This disease and the like may be cured, and if they may, whether it be lawful to make use of them, those magnetical cures or for are good to seek after such means in any case. The first, whether they can do any such cures, is questioned amongst many writers, some affirming, some denying. Valetius, Malleus Maleficarum, Haneus, Caelius, Del Rio, Rheorus, Libanius, Lavata, Holbrenna the Lutheran in Pistorium, Polydor, Tandlerus, Lemneus, Hippocrates and Avicenna amongst the rest, deny that spirits or devils have any power over us, and refer all with Pomponatius or Padua to natural causes and humours. Of the other opinion are Bodinus de Monomantiae, Arnoldus, Markelis Empiricus, Pistorius, Paracelsus, Agrippa, Markelius Fiquinas, Galeotus, Jovianus Pontanus, Strabo, Leo Swavius, Goklenius, Oswaldus Corleus, Ernestus Burgraveus etc. Cardon brings many proofs out of Ars Notoria, and Solomon's Decade works. Old Hermes, Artefius, Costoban Luca, Picatrix etc. that such cures may be done. They can make fire it shall not burn, fetch back thieves or stolen goods, show their absent faces in a glass, make serpents lie still, staunch blood, solve guts, epilepsy, biting of mad dogs, toothache, melancholy, et omnia mundimala, make men immortal, young again as the Spanish marquee is said to have done by one of his slaves, and some which jugglers in China maintain still, as Tribalius writes, that they can do by the extraordinary skill in physics and some of our modern chemists by their strange limbbecks, by their spells, philosophers' stones and charms. Many doubt, safe Nicholas Torellus, whether the devil can cure such diseases he has not made, and some flatly deny it. Howsoever, common experience confirms to our astonishment that magicians can work such feats, and that the devil without impediment can penetrate through all the parts of our bodies and cure such maladies by means to us unknown. Daneus, in his tract Dissoziarius, subscribes to this of Torellus. Erustus dilamis, maintenance as much, and so do most divines, out of their excellent knowledge and long experience, they can commit Agentes compatientibus, Collegeri seminarerum, Iaquamateriae acticare, as Augustine and Furs decivitate day, et detunetates book III, chapters 7 and 8. They can work stupendous and admirable conclusions. We see the effects only, but not the causes of them. Nothing so familiar as to hear of such cures. Sorcerers are too common, cunning men, wizards, and white witches as they call them, in every village, which, if they be sought unto, will help almost all infirmities of body and mind. Servatoires in Latin, and they have commonies in Catherine's wheel printed in the roof of their mouth, or in some other part about them. Resistant in Cantorum feistigias, Fursardus writes, Morbus assagis mortus propulsant, et cetera. That, to doubt of it any longer, or not to believe, were to run into that other sceptical extreme of incredulity, says Torales. Lios Ravius in his comment upon Paracelsus seems to make it an art which ought to be approved. Pistorius and others stiffly maintain the use of charms, words, characters, et cetera. Asvera est, said Palki Artifices Reperientor. The art is true, but there be but a few that have skill in it. Markelius Donatus proves out of Josephus eight books of antiquities, that Solomon so cured all the diseases of the mind by spells, charms, and drove away devils, and that Eleazar did it much before Vespasian. Langius holds Jupiter menocrates, that did so many stupendous cures in his time, to have used this art, and that he was no other than a magician. Many famous cures are daily done in this kind. The devil is an expert physician, as Godelman calls him. And God permits often times these witches and magicians to produce such effects, as Lavater Chapter 3, Book 8, Part 3, Chapter 1, Del Rio and others admit. Such cures may be done, and as Paracelsus stiffly maintains, they cannot otherwise be cured but by spells, seals, and spiritual physics. Arnoldus, Liberti Sigillus, breaks down the making of them, so does Rulandus and many others. Hockpositor. They can affect such cures. The main question is, whether it be lawful in a desperate case to crave their help, or ask a wizard's advice, which is a common practice of some men to go first to a witch, and then to a physician. If one cannot, the other shall. Lecteris in Necrian Superos Acheronte moviment. It matters not, says Paracelsus, whether it be God or the devil, angels or unclean spirits cure him, so that he be eased. If a man fall into a ditch, as he prosecutes it, what matter is it whether a friend or an enemy help him out? And if I be troubled with such a malady, what care I whether the devil himself or any of his ministers by God's permission redeem me? He calls a magician, God's minister, and his vicar, applying that of Vos'estis dey profanely to them, for which he is lashed by Erastus Part 1, Folium 45. And elsewhere he encourages his patients to have a good faith, a strong imagination, and they shall find the effects, let divine say to the contrary what they will. He proves and contends that many diseases cannot otherwise be cured. In Cantatione orte, in Cantatione curare debent. If they be caused by incantation, they must be cured by incantation. Constantinus, Book 4, approves of such remedies. Bartholus, the lawyer. Peter, erodius. Salicatus, Godifridus, with others of that sect, allow of them. Modocint, ad sanitatum, quai amagis fient. Secus non. So they be for the party's good, or not at all. But these men are confuted by Remigius, Bordinus, Godelmanus, Riarus, Delrio, Erastus. All are divine schoolmen, and such as right cases of conscience are against it. The scripture itself absolutely forbids it as a mortal sin. Leviticus, chapters 18, 19, 20, Deuteronomy 18, etc. Romans 8, 19. Evil is not to be done that good may come of it. Much better it were for such patients that are so troubled to endure a little misery in this life than to hazard their soul's health forever. And as Delrio counseleth, much better die than be so cured. Some take upon them to expel devils by natural remedies and magical exorcisms, which they seem to approve out of the practice of the primitive church, as that above cited of Josephus, Eleazar, Irenaeus, Tertullian, Augustine. Eusebius makes mention of such, and magic itself has been publicly professed in some universities, as of old in Salamanca in Spain, and Cracow in Poland, but condemned, Anno 1318, by the Chancellor and University of Paris. Our pontifical writers retain many of these adjurations and forms of exorcisms still in the church, besides those in baptism used. They exorcised meats, and such as are possessed, as they hold, in Christ's name. Read Hieronymus Mengus, chapter 3, Petrus Tereus, part 3, chapter 8. What exorcisms they prescribe, besides those ordinary means of fire, suffumigations, lights, cutting the air with swords, cap 57, herbs, odours, of which tostatas treats, 2, chapter 16, Cloistio 43. You shall find many vain and frivolous superstitious forms of exorcisms among them, not to be tolerated or endured. End of section 1 Section 2 of the Anatomy of Mellon Holly, volume 2. 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 Mellon Holly, volume 2, by Robert Burton, section 2. Partition 2, section 1, member 2. Lawful Cures, First from God Being so clearly evinced, as it is, all unlawful cures are to be refused. It remains to treat of such, as are to be admitted, and those are commonly such which God has appointed, by virtue of stones, herbs, plants, needs and the like, which are prepared and applied to our use, by art and industry of physicians, who are the dispensers of such treasures for our good, and to be honoured for necessity's sake, God's intermediate ministers, to whom in our infirmities we are to seek for help. Yet not so that we rely too much, or wholly upon them. At your Principium we must first begin with prayer, and then use physique, not one without the other, but both together. To pray alone and reject ordinary means, is to do like him in aesop, that when his cart was stalled, lay flat on his back, and cried aloud help Hercules. But that was too little purpose, except as his friend advised him, roti stute ipsi annettaris, he whipped his horse's whistle, and put his shoulder to the wheel. God works by means, as Christ cured the blind man with clay and spittle. Orrandum est utsit mens sana incorpore sano. As we must pray for health of body and mind, so we must use our utmost endeavours to preserve and continue it. Some kind of devils are not cast out, but by fasting and prayer, and both necessarily required, not one without the other. For all the physique we can use, art, excellent industry, is to no purpose without calling upon God. Nil juvat imensos kratero, promittere montes. It is in vain to seek for help, run, ride, except God bless you. Non siculit apes, dulchem eloborabunt saporem, non animum kitherave cantus, non domus et fundus, non eris akervus et aurii, aegroto possund, domino deducere febres. With house, with land, with money, and with gold, the master's fever will not be controlled. We must use our prayer and physique both together, and so, no doubt, but our prayers will be available, and our physique take effect. This is at Hezekia, practiced, 2 Kings 20. Luke the Evangelist, and which we are enjoyed. Colossians 4. Not the patient only, but the physician himself. Hippocrates echizen required this in a good practitioner, and so did Galen in that tract of his. This a rule which he does in Colcate, and many others. Hiperius in his first book, speaking of that happiness and good success which all physicians desire and hope for, in their cures, tells them that it is not to be expected, except with a true faith they call upon God, and teach their patients to do the like. The council of Latteran, canon 22nd, decreed they should do so. The fathers of the church have still advised as much. Whatsoever, though take us in hand, says Gregory, let God be of their council, consult with him. But heal us those that are broken in heart. Psalm 147.3. And bind us up their sores. Otherwise, as the prophet Jeremiah, chapter 46, 11 denounced to Egypt, In vain shall though use many medicines, for those shall have no health. It is the same council which communeus that politic historiographer gives to all Christian princes, upon occasion of that unhappy overthrow of Charles Duke of Burgundy, by means of which he was extremely melancholy and sick to death. In so much that neither physic nor persuasion could do him any good, perceiving his preposterous error be like, advises all great men in such cases, to pray first to God with all submission and penitency, to confess their sins, and then to use physic. The very same fault it was, which the prophet reprehends in Asa king of Judah, that he relied more on physics than on God, and by all means would have him to amend it. And it is a fit caution to be observed of all other sorts of men. The prophet David was so observant of this precept, that in his greatest misery and vexation of mind he put this rule first in practice. Psalm 77.3 When I am in heaviness I will think on God. Psalm 86.4 Comfort the soul of thy servant, for unto thee I lift up my soul. And verse 7 In the day of trouble will I call upon thee, for thou hearest me. Psalm 54.1 Save me, O God, by thy name, etc. Psalm 82.20 And test the common practice of all good men. Psalm 57.13 When their heart was humbled with heaviness, they cried to the Lord in their troubles, and he delivered them from their distress, and they have found good success in so doing, as David confesses. Psalm 30.12 Though has turned my mourning into joy, though has loosed my sack-clothes, and guarded me with gladness, therefore he advised all others to do the like. Psalm 31.24 All these that trust in the Lord be strong, and he shall establish your heart. It is reported by Pseudas, speaking of Ezekiah, that there was a great book of old, of King Solomon's writing, which contained medicines for all manner of diseases, and lay open still as they came into the temple. But Ezekiah, King of Jerusalem, caused it to be taken away, because it made the people secure to neglect their duty in calling and relying upon God out of a confidence on those remedies. Minutius, that worthy council of Rome in an oration he made to his soldiers, was much offended with them, and taxed their ignorance, that in their misery called more on him than upon God. A general thought it is all over the world, and Minutius' speech concerns us all. We rely more on physics, and seek oftener to physicians than to God himself. As much faulty are they that prescribe, as they that ask, respecting wholly their gain, and trusting more to their ordinary receipts and medicines many times, than to him that made them. I would wish all patients in this behalf, in the midst of their melancholy, to remember that of zero CDs, Ecclesiastes 1, 11 and 12. The fear of the Lord is glory and gladness and rejoicing. The fear of the Lord make us a merry heart, and give us gladness and joy and long life, and all such as prescribed physics, to begin a nominate day, as Mesoedid, to imitate Laelius' affonte eugubinus, that in all his consultations, still concludes with a prayer for the good success of his business, and to remember that of Crito, one of their predecessors, fugi avaritiam et sine uratione et invocations dei nihil facias, avoid covetousness, and do nothing without invocation upon God. End of section 2. Section 3 of the Anatomy of Melancholy, volume 2. 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 2 by Robert Burton, section 3. Partition 2, section 1, member 3. Whether it be lawful to seek to saints for aid in this disease. That we must pray to God, no man doubts. But whether we should pray to saints in such cases, or whether they can do us any good, it may be lawfully controverted. Whether their images, shrines, relics, consecrated things, holy water, medal, benedictions, those divine amulets, holy exorcisms, and the sign of the cross, be available in this disease. The papists on the one side stiffly maintain how many melancholy, mad, demoniacal persons are daily cured at St. Anthony's Church in Padua, at St. Writers' in Germany, by Our Lady of Loretto in Italy, Our Lady of Sychem in the Low Countries. Cryed Caiketh Lumen, Egris Salotem, Mortuus Vitam, Cloudis Gressum Reddit, Omnis Morbus Corporis, Anime Cureth, at in Ipsos De Moniz Imperium Exocet. She cures Hald, Lame, Blind, all diseases of body and mind, and commands the devil himself, St. Lipsius. Twenty-five thousand in a day come thither, Cryst Nicene Numen in Illum Volcumstic in Duxet, who brought them, in Orbus in Oculus Onium Gesta, or by Novitia. New news lately done. Our eyes and ears are full of her cures, and who can relate them all? They have a proper saint, almost for every peculiar infirmity. For Poison, Guts, Agus, Petronella. Saint Romanus for such as our possessed, Valentine for the falling sickness, St. Writers for Madmen, etc. And as of old, Pliny reckons up gods for all diseases, Lilius Geraldus repeats many of her ceremonies. All affections of the mind were here to for accounted gods. Love and sorrow, virtue, honour, liberty, conjury, impudency, had their temples, tempest, seasons. Crepitas Ventris, Deo Vacuna, Deo Chlorachina. There was a goddess of idleness, a goddess of the draft, or jakes, prayer puts, boardy gods, and gods for all offices. Varo reckons up 30,000 gods. Luccian makes Podagra the Gout, a goddess, and assigns her priest and ministers, and melancholy comes not behind. For as Augustine Mentioneth spoke for this evitative day, Chapter 9, there was of old Angaronna Deo, and she had her chapel from feast. To whom, safe Macrobius, they did offer sacrifice yearly, that she might be pacified as well as the rest. It is no new thing, you see this of papists, and in my judgment, that old doting libsius might have fitted dedicated his pen after all his labours, to this our goddess of melancholy, than to his vergo herlenses, and be in her chaplain. It would have become him better. But he poor man thought no harm in that which he did, and will not be persuaded about that he doth well. He had so many patrons and honourable presidents in the like kind, that justify as much, as legally, and more than he their sayeth of his lady and mistress. Read about superstitious costa, and Gretzes trapped the croquet. Laurentius Arcturus Phantius Bellamine Del Rio Gregorius Tullusanus Struzius Ciconia Tiraeus Ironimus Mengus And you shall find intimate examples of cures done in this kind by holy waters, relics, crosses, exorcisms, amulets, images, consecrated beads, etc. Beradius, the Jesuit, boldly gives it out that Christ's countenance, and the Virgin Mary's, would cure melancholy, if one had looked steadfastly on them. Pimorales, the Spaniard in his book, confirms the same out of Carthusianus, and I know not whom, that it was a common proverb in those days, for such as were troubled in mind to say, ianus advidendum filium mariae Let us see the son of Mary, as they now do post to St. Anthony's in Padua, or to St. Hilary's at Pratier in France. In the closet of that church, there is at this day St. Hilary's bed to be seen, to which they bring all the madmen in the country, and after some prayers and other ceremonies, they lay them down there to sleep, and so they recover. It is an ordinary thing in those parts to send all their madmen to St. Hilary's cradle. They say the like of St. Tubery in another place. Geroldus cangrentus tell strange stories of St. Curicius's staff, that would cure this and all other diseases. Others say as much as Hospinion observes of the three kings of Cologne. Their names are written in parchment and hung about a patient's neck with the sign of the cross will produce like effects. Read Lippermannus, or that golden legend of Jacobus de Voragini. You shall have infinite stories, or those new relations of our Jesuits in Japan and China, of Matthias, Ricius, Acosta, Loyola, Xavierus's life, etc. Jasper Belga, a Jesuit, cured a madwoman by hanging St. John's Gospel about her neck and many such. Holy water did as much in Japan, etc. Nothing so familiar in their works as such examples. But we on the other side seek to God alone. We say with David, Psalm 46.1 God is our hope and strength and help in trouble, ready to be found. For their catalogue of examples we make no other answer but that they are false fictions or diabolical illusions, counterfeit miracles. We cannot deny but that it is an ordinary thing on St. Anthony's Day in Padua to bring diverse madmen and demoniacal persons to be cured. Yet we make a doubt whether such parties be so affected indeed but prepared by their priests by certain ointments and drums to cause them the commonality. As Hildesang well said, the light is commonly practised in Bohemia, as Matthew always gives us to understand in his preface there is comment upon Tios Corriday. But we need not run so far for examples in this kind. We have a just volume published at home to this purpose. A declaration of egregious Popish imposters to withdraw the hearts of religious men under the pretense of casting out devils by Father Edmunds, Aelius Weston, a Jesuit and diverse Romish priests, his wicked associates with the several parties' names, confessions, examinations etc. which were pretended to be possessed. But these are ordinary tricks only to get opinion and money, mere imposters. A scolapius of old that counterfeit God did as many famous cures, his temple as Strabo relates was daily for the patients and as many several tables, inscriptions, pendants, donaries, etc. to be seen in his church as at this day are Lady of Loretto's in Italy. It was a custom wrong since. Suspendis se potenti vestimenta maris deo. Horace, Ode's Book 1, Ode 5 To do the like in former times they were seduced and deluded as they are now. It is the same devil still called heretofore Apollo, Mars, Neptune, Venus, Escolapius, etc. as Lac Tantius Book 2, The Originae Errorist, Chapter 17 observes. The same Jupiter and those bad angels are now worshiped and adored by the name of Saint Sebastian, Barbara, etc. Christopher and George are coming their places. Our Lady succeeds Venus as they use her in many offices. The rest are otherwise supplied as Loretto writes, and so they are deluded. And God often winks at these imposters because they forsake his word and betake themselves to the devil as they that do seek after holy water, crosses, etc. Riaris, Book 4, Chapter 3 What can these men plead for themselves more than those human gods? The same cures done by both, the same spirit that seduceth. But read more of the pagan God's effects in Augustine, the Civitate Day, Book 10, Chapter 6 and of Escolapius especially in Titconia, Book 3, Chapter 8. Or put case they could help. Why should we rather seek to them than to Christ himself? Since that he so kindly invites us unto him. Come unto me, or ye that are heavy laden, and I will ease you. Matthew 11. We know that there is one God, one mediator between God and man Jesus Christ. 1 Timothy 2.5 Who gave himself a ransom for all men. We know that we have an advocate with the Father, Jesus Christ 1 John 2.1 that there is no other name under heaven by which we can be saved but by his who is always ready to hear us and sits at the right hand of God and from whom we have no repulse. Solace both, solace protest, correct universals, tankwams, singalus et unum quem quae nostum et solemn. We are all as one to him. He cares for us all as one. And why should we then seek to any other but to him? End of Section 3. Section 4 of The Anatomy of Melancholy Volume 2 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 Anasimham The Anatomy of Melancholy Volume 2 by Robert Burden Section 4 Partition 2 Section 1, Member 4 Subsection 1 Physician, Patient, Physic Of those diverse gifts which our Apostle Paul said God hath bestowed on man this of Physic is not the least but most necessary and especially conducing to the good of mankind. Next, therefore, to God in all our extremities for of the most high cometh healing Ecclesiasticus 38.2 We must seek to and rely upon the Physician who is Manus Dei, said Hierophilus and to whom he hath given knowledge that he might be glorified in his wondrous works with such doth he heal man and take away their pains Ecclesiasticus 38.6.7 When thou hast need of him let him not go from thee. The hour may come that their enterprises may have good success Versiculums 13 It is not therefore to be doubted that if we seek a Physician as we ought we may be ease of our infirmities such a one I mean as is sufficient and worthily so cold for there be many mountain banks, quacksalvas empirics in every street almost and in every village that take upon them this name make this noble and profitable art to be evil spoken of and contempt by reason of these base and illiterate artifices but such a Physician I speak of as his approved learned, skillful honest etc of whose duty, Weka Creto, Julius Alexanderis Hyurnius etc. treated large for this particular disease him that shall take upon him to cure it Paracelsus will have to be a Magician, a Chemist a Philosopher, an Astrologer Tornacerus Severinus the Dane of his followers require as much many of them cannot be cured but by magic Paracelsus is so stiff for those chemical medicines that in his cures he will admit almost of no other Physic the writing in the meantime Hippocrates, Galen and all their followers but magic and all such remedies I've already sendered and shall speak of chemistry elsewhere Astrology is required by many famous Physicians by Fissinus, Creto Phrenelius doubtful and exploded by others I will not take upon me to decide the controversy myself Johannes Arsertus Thomas Baudirius and Maginus in the preface to his mathematical Physic shall determine for me Many Physicians explode Astrology in Physic Sethi, there is no use of it but I will be proved Physicians by Physicians that defend and profess it Hippocrates, Galen Avicenna etc that count them butchers without it Homicidus, Medicos, Astrology Ignorus etc Paracelsus goes farther and will have his Physician predestinated by others but I will be proved by Physicians that have his Physician predestinated to this man's cure and time of cure the scheme of each geniture inspected gathering of herbs of administering astrologically observed in which Thurnus series and some Iathromathematical professors are too superstitious in my judgment Hellebore will help but not always not given by every Physician etc but these men are too proemptory to have conceded as I think but what do I do in deposing on that which is beyond my reach a blind man cannot judge of colours nor eye per adventure of these things only thus much I would require honesty in every Physician that he be not over careless or covetous harpy like to make a prey of his patient Carnificis namco est as Weca notes inter ipsus cruciates ingens precium exposcare as a hungry surgeon often produces and wire draws his cure so long as there is any hope of pay non mesura cutem nisi plena crores chirudo many of them to get a fee will give Physic to everyone that comes when there is no cause and they do so irritare silente morbum as he earniest complains stir up a silent disease as it often followed out which by good counsel good advice alone might have been happily composed or by rectification of those six non natural things otherwise cured this is naturae bellum infer to a pun nature and to make a strong body weak Arnoldis in his 8 and 11 aphorisms gives cautions against and expressly forbidden it wise physician will not give but upon necessity and first try medicinal diet before he proceed to medicine cure in another place he loves those men to scorn that think longest syrups expugnare d'amornes at any me fantasmata they can purge fantastical imaginations and the devil by physical another caution is that they proceed upon good grounds so be there be need of physics and not mistake the disease they are often deceived by the similitude of symptoms sathearnious and I could give instance in many consultations wherein they have prescribed opposite physics sometimes they go too perfunctorily to work in not prescribing a just cause of physics to stir up the humor and not to purge it does often more harm than good mountainous invades against such perturbations that purge to the house terror nature and molest the body to no purpose it is a crapped humor to purge and as larenceus calls this disease the reproach of physicians bazaardus, flachel and midiqum they are lush and for that cause more carefully to be respected though the patient be averse satelarenceus desire help and refuse it again though he neglect his own health it behoves a good physician but most part they offend in that other extreme they prescribe too much physics and tire out their bodies with continual potions to no purpose atheus tetrabiblos 2nd chapter 90 will have them by all means therefore to give some respite to nature to leave off now and then and lilius afonte urchubinus in his consultations founded as he there witnessed often verified by experience that after a deal of physics to no purpose left to themselves they have recovered it is that which nicholas piso donatus altomarus still inculcate dare requiem natorai to give nature rest subsection 2 concerning the patient when these precedent cautions are accurately capped and that we have now got a skillful an honest physician to remind if his patient will not be conformable and contend to be ruled by him all his endeavours will come to no good end many things are necessarily to be observed and continued on the patient's behalf first that he be not too niggardly miserable of his purse or think it too much he bestows upon himself and to save charges and dangerous health the ebderites when they sent for bounties promised him what reward he would all the gold they had if all the city were gold he should have it naaman the syrian when he went into israel to alisha to be cured of his leprosy took with him ten talons of silver six thousand pieces of gold and ten changes of raiment two kings five another thing is that out of bashfulness he do not conceal his grief or trouble his mind let him freely disclose it by that means he procures himself much mischief and runs into a greater inconvenience he must be willing to be cured and earnestly desired par sanitatis vele sanar fuid sanika does a part of his cure to wish his own health and not to defer it too long cui blandiendo dulce nutrivit malum so recusot ferre cot subit yugum he that by cherishing a mischief doth provoke too late at last refuse it to cast off his yoke helleborum frustra cum yam kutis eigra tumibit pascantis vidias venienti occurite morbo when the skin swells to seek it to appease with hellebore is vain meet your disease by this means many times or through their ignorance and not taking notice of their grievance and danger of it contempt, supine negligence, extenuation, wretchedness and peevishness they undo themselves the citizens I know not of what city now when rumour was brought their enemy were coming could not abide to hear it and when the plague begins in many places and they certainly know it they command silence and hush it up but after they see their foes now marching to their gates and ready to surprise them they begin to fortify and resist when this too late when the sickness breaks out and can be no longer concealed then they lament their supine negligence disno otherwise with these men and often out of prejudice alothing and distaste of physics they had rather die or do worse than take any of it barbarous humanity melanchthon terms it and folly to be deplored so to contend the precepts of health good remedies and voluntarily to pull death and many melodies upon their own heads though many again are in that other extreme too profuse, suspicious and jealous of their health too apt to take physics on every small occasion to aggravate every slender passion imperfection impediment if their finger do but ache, run, ride send for a physician as many gentle women do that are sick without a cause even when they will themselves upon every toy or small discontent and when he comes they make it worse than it is by amplifying that which is not Heronimus capivachus sets it down as a common fold of all melancholy persons to say their symptoms are greater than they are to help themselves and which mercurialis notes concilium 53 to be more troublesome to their physicians than other ordinary patients that they may have changed of physics a third thing to be required in a patient is confidence to be of good cheer and have sure hope that his physician can help him the maskin the arabian requires likewise in the physician himself that he be confident he can cure him otherwise his physics will not be effectual and promise with all that he will certainly help him make a belief so at least galeotus gives this reason because the form of health is contained in the physician's mind and as Galen holds confidence and hope to be more good than physics he cures most in whom most are confident axiocus, sick almost to death at the very side of Socrates recovered his former health Paracelsus assigns it for a very long time but he does not know Paracelsus assigns it for an only cause why Hippocrates was so fortunate in his cures not for any extraordinary skill he had but because the common people had a most strong concede of his worth to this of confidence we may add perseverance obedience and constancy not to change his physician or dislike him upon every toy for he that so doth set Jainus the maskin or consults with many falls into many errors or that uses many medicines it was a chief caveat of Seneca to his friend Lucilius that he should not alter his physician or prescribe physics nothing hinders health more a wound can never be cured that has several plasters Creto, concilium 186 texts of all melancholy persons of this fold this proper to them if things fall not out through their mind and that they have not present ease to seek another and another as they do commonly that have sore eyes twenty one after another and they still promise all to cure them try a thousand remedies and by this means they increase their malady make it most dangerous and difficult to be cured they try many set the mountainous and profit by none and for this cause concilium 24 he enjoins his patient before he take him in hand perseverance and sufferance for in such a small time no great matter can be affected and upon that condition he will administer physics otherwise all his endeavor and counsel would be to small purpose and in his thirty first counsel for a notable matron he tells her if she will be cured she must be of a most abiding patients faithful obedience and singular perseverance if she remit or despair she can expect or hope for no good success concilium 230 for an Italian abbot he makes it one of the greatest reasons why this disease is so incurable because the parties are so restless and impatient and will therefore have him that intends to be eased to take physics not for a month a year but to apply himself to their prescriptions all the days of his life last of all it is required that the patient be too bold to practice upon himself without an improved physician's consent or to try conclusions if he read a recede in a book for so many grossly mistake and do themselves more harm than good that which is conducing to one man in one case the same time is opposite to another an ass and a meal went laden over a brook the one with salt the other with wool the meal's pack was wet by chance the salt melted his burden the lighter and he thereby much eased he told the ass who thinking to speed as well wet his pack likewise at the next water but it was much heavier he quiet tired so one thing may be good and bad to several parties upon diverse occasions many things, Seth Pannottis are written in our books which seem to the reader to be excellent remedies but they that make use of them and take for physics poison I remember in Valeriola's observations a story of one John Baptist and Neapolitan that finding by chance a pamphlet in Italian written in praise of Hellebol would need to adventure on himself and took one dram for one scruple and had not he been sent for the poor fellow had poisoned himself from whence he concludes out of the messiness second and third everisms that without exquisite knowledge to work out of books is most dangerous how unsavory a thing it is to believe writers and take upon trust as this patient perceived by his own peril I could recite such another example of my own knowledge of a friend of mine that finding a recede in Brasovola would need to take Hellebol and substance and tried on his own person but had not some of his familiars come to visit him by chance he had by his indiscretion many such I have observed these are those ordinary cautions which I should think fit to be noted and he that shall keep them as Montana said shall surely be much eased if not thoroughly cured subsection three concerning physics physics itself in the last place is to be considered for the Lord had created medicines of the earth and he that is wise will not uphold them of such doth the apothecary make a confection etc of these medicines there be diverse and infinite kinds plants metals animals etc and those of several natures some good for one hurtful to another some noxious in themselves corrected by art very wholesome and good simple mixed etc and therefore left to be managed by discreet and skillful physicians and then supplied to man's use to this purpose they have invented method and several rules of art to put these remedies in order for their particular ends physic as hypocrite defines it is not else but addition and subtraction and as it is required in all other diseases so in this of melancholy it ought to be most accurate it being as mercurialis acknowledges so common affection in these art times and therefore fit to be understood several prescripts and methods I find in several men some take upon them to cure all melodies with one medicine severally applied as at panacea arempotabile so much controverted in these days herbasolus etc paracelsus reduces all diseases to four principal heads to whom severines ravaluscus lyosuavius and others adhere and imitate those are leprosy gout, dropsy falling sickness to which they reduce the rest as to leprosy, ulcers, itches furfers, scaps etc to gout, stone colic, toothache headache etc to dropsy, aches jaundice, cogexia etc to the falling sickness belong polecy, vertigo cramps, convulsions incubus, apoplexy etc if any of these four principal be cured all the inferior are cured and the same remedies commonly serve but this is too general and by some contradicted for this peculiar disease of melancholy of which I am now to speak I find several cures several methods and prescripts they did intend the practic cure of melancholy setgerades, in his notes to hilarious set down nine peculiar scopes or ends Savanarola prescribes seven special cannons Elianus Montaltus chapter 26 Ferventinas in his empirics Hercules Saxonia etc have there several injunctions and rules all tending to one end the ordinary is three fold which I mean to follow the atetica pharmaceutica and shiokika diet or living apothecary, surgery which weca, crato, grianarius etc and most prescribe of which I will insist and speak in their order end of section four section five of the anatomy of melancholy volume two 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 Anna Simon the anatomy of melancholy by Robert Burton section five partition two, section two, member one subsection one diet rectified in substance diet dieteticae or living according to fuchsius and others comprehends those six non-natural things which I have before specified are special causes and being rectified a soul or chief part of the cure Johannes Arculanes chapter 16 in nine rasis accounts the rectifying of these six a sufficient cure grianarius tractatus 15 chapter nine calls them propriam et primam curam the principal cure sodoth montanus crato mercurialis altomaris et cetera first we tried lemnius names them the hinges of our health no hope of recovery without them Reineres Solenander in a seventh consultation for a spanish young gentleman that was so melancholy she abhorred all company and would not sit at table with her familiar friends prescribes this physique above the rest no good to be done without it aretes book 1 chapter 7 an old physician is of opinion that this is enough of itself if the party be not too far gone in sickness crato in a consultation of his for a noble patient tells him plainly that if his highness will keep at a good diet he'll warrant him his former health montanus concilium 27 for a nobleman of france admonisheth his lordship to be most circumspect in his diet or else all his other physical be too small purpose the same injunction I find verbatim in Julius Caesar, Claudinus, Scolti Italianus Lilius, Affante Agubinus often brags that he had done more cures in this kind by rectification of diet than all other physique besides so that in a word I may say to most melancholy men as the fox said to the weasel that could not get out of the garner macracavum repetes quem macracepisti the six non-natural things caused it and they must cure it which house however I treat of as proper to the meridian of melancholy yet nevertheless that which is here set with him in Tully though writ especially for the good of his friends at Tarentum and Sicily serve most other diseases and help them likewise if it be observed of these six non-natural things the first is diet properly so called which consists in meat and drink in which we must consider substance quantity quality and that opposite to the precedent in substance such meats are generally commanded which are moist easy of digestion and not apt to engender wind not fried roasted but sourd set the leiscus piece of etc hot and moist and of good nourishment Crete Considium 21 book 2 admits roast meat if the burned and scorched superfissies the brown we call it be paired of Salvianus book 2 chapter 1 cries out on cold and dry meats young flesh and tender is approved as of kid, rabbits, chickens feel, mutton capons, hens, partridge pheasant, quails and all mountain birds which are so familiar in some parts of Africa and in Italy and as Dublinius reports the common food of boars and clowns in Palestine Galen takes exception of mutton but without question he means that ramy mutton which is in Turkey and Asia Minor which have those great fleshy tails of 48 pounds weight among us witness it the lean of fat meat is best and all manner of broth and potage with borage, lettuce and such wholesome herbs are excellent good especially of a cock boiled all spoon meat Arabians commend brains but Lorenzius chapter 8 accepts against them and so do many others eggs are justified as a nutritive wholesome meat butter and oil may pass but with some limitation so Kratos confines it and to some men sparingly at set times are in sauce and so sugar and honey are approved all sharp and sour sauces must be avoided and spices or at least seldom used and so saffron sometimes in broth may be tolerated but these things may be more freely used as the temperature of the party is halt or cold or as they shall find inconvenience by them the thinnest, whitest smallest wine is best like nor strong and so of beer the middling is fittest bread of good wheat pure well purged from the bran is preferred Lorenzius chapter 8 would have it needed with rainwater if it may be gotten water pure thin light water by all means use of good smell and taste like to the air in sight such as is soon hot soon cold and which apocrity so much approves if at least it may be had then water is purest so that it fall not down in great drops and be used forthwith for it quickly purifies next to it fountain water that rise at the east and run at eastward from a quick running spring from flinty, charky, gravelly grounds and the longer a river runneth it is commonly the purest though many springs do yield the best water at their fountains the waters in hotter countries as in Turkey Persia, India, within the tropics are frequently pure than ours at the north more subtle, thin and lighter as our merchants observe by four ounces in a pound pleasanter to drink as good as our beer and some of them as Coespis in Persia preferred by the Persian kings before wine itself Clitorio Cricunque Sitim de Fonte Leverit Vina Fugit Chaudetque Meris Lundis Many rivers I deny not are muddy still white, thick like those in China Nile in Egypt Tiber at Rome but after they be settled two or three days defecate and clear, very commodious useful and good many make use of deep wells as of old in the Holy Land lakes, cisterns when they cannot be better provided to fetch it in carts or gondolas as in Venice or camelsbacks as at Cairo in Egypt Rathsevilius observed 8,000 camels daily there employed about their business Sankiput in Trunks as in the East Indies made four square with descending steps and is not a miss for I would not have anyone so nice of that Grecian callus sister to Nicophorus emperor of Constantinople and married to the Minasas, Silvius Duke of Venice that out of incredible wantonness Comuniu aqua autinolabat would use no vulgar water but she died Tanta that minor Arthur Fertidissimi puris copia of so fulsome disease that no water could wash her clean Plato would not have a traveller lodge in a city that is not governed by laws or had not a quick stream running by it Ilut enum animum Hoc corimpet valetudinum one corrupts the body the other the mind more than needs too much curiosity is not in time of necessity any water is allowed however pure water is best and which as pinnars holds is better than gold and a special ornament it is and very commodious to a city when fresh springs are included within the walls as at Corin in the midst of the town almost there was arcs altissima scatens fontibus a goodly mound full of fresh water springs if nature afford them not they must be had by art it is a wonder to read of those stupid aqueducts an infinite cost has been bestowed in Rome of old Constantinople, Cartage Alexandria and such popular cities to convey good and wholesome waters Reed Frontonus, Lipsius Plinius, Book 3, Chapter 11 Strabo in his geography that aqueduct of Claudius was most eminent fetched upon arches 15 miles every art 109 feet high they had 14 such other aqueducts besides lakes and cisterns 700 as I take it every house had private pipes and channels to serve them for their use Peter Gilius in his accurate description of Constantinople speaks of an old cistern which he went down to sea 336 feet long 180 feet broad build of marble covered over and sustained by 336 pillars 12 feet asunder and in 11 rows to contain sweet water infinite cost in channels and cisterns from Nileus to Alexandria had been formally bestowed to the admiration of these times their cisterns so curiously cemented and composed that it beholder would take them to be all of one stone when the foundation is laid and cistern made their house is half built that Sagovian aqueduct in Spain is much wondered at in these days upon 3 rows of pillars one above another conveying sweet water to every house but each city almost is full of such aqueducts amongst the rest he is eternally to be commanded that brought that new stream to the north side of London at his own charge and Mr. Otho Nicholson founder of our waterworks an elegant conduit in Oxford so much have all times attributed to this element to be conveniently provided of it although Galen had taken exceptions at such waters which run through leaden pipes Op carusam quae in ease generatur for that anxious seruse which causes dysentery and fluxes yet as Alsarius crucius of Ghana well answers it is opposite to common experience if that were true most of our Italian cities Montpellier in France with infinite others would find this inconvenience but there is no such matter for private families in what sort they should furnish themselves let them consult with Petrus Crescentius the agricultura book 1 chapter 4 Pamphilius hierilacus and the rest amongst fishes those are most allowed of that live in gravelly or sandy waters pikes, perch, trout gudgen, smelts, flounders etc. Hippolytus salvienus takes exception at carb but I dare boldly say with Dubravius it is an excellent meat if it cannot from muddy pools that it retain not an unsavory taste erinarchius marinus is much commanded by Oribacius Aetius and most of our late writers Creto, concidium 21 book 2 cendres all manner of fruits as subject to putrefaction yet tolerable at sometimes apples at second course they keep down vapours and have their use sweet fruits are best as sweet cherries, plums, sweet apples per mains and pippins which Lorenzius extols as having a peculiar property against this disease and Plato magnifies omnibus modus apropriata convenient but they must be corrected for their wind needus ripe grapes are good and raisins at the sun muskmanans well corrected and sparingly used figs are allowed and ailments blanched tralianus this commends figs salvianus, olives and capers which others especially like of and so of pistic nuts montanus and mercurialus out of avansaur admit peaches pears and apples baked after meals only corrected with sugar and any seed or fennel seed and so they may be profitably taken because they strengthen the stomach and keep down vapours they may be said of preserved cherries plums, marmalade of plums quinces etc but not to drink after them pomegranates, lemons, oranges are tolerated if they may not too sharp crato will admit of no herbs but borage, begloss, endive fennel, aniseed, balm colanius and arnoldus tolerate lettuce, spinach beads etc the same crato will allow no roots at all to be eaten no proof of potatoes, parsnips but all corrected for wind no raw salads but as Lorenzius prescribes in broth and so crato commends many of them or to use borage, hops, balm steeped in their ordinary drink avansaur magnifies the juice of a pomegranate if it be sweet and especially rose water which he would have to be used in every dish which they put in practice in those hot countries about Damascus if we may believe the relations of Vettamanus many hogs heads of rose water are to be sold in the market at once it is in so great request with them subsection 2 diet rectified in quantity man alone said carden eats and drinks without appetite and uses all his pleasure without necessity animae vitio and thence come many inconvenience and send to him for there is no meat whatsoever otherwise wholesome and good but if unseasonally taken or immoderately used more than the stomach can well bear it will engender crudity and do much harm therefore crato advises his patient to eat but twice a day and that at his set meals by no means to eat without an appetite or upon a full stomach and to put 7 hours difference between dinner and supper which rule if we did observe in our colleges it would be much better for our health and our custom that tyrant so prevails that contrary to all good order and rules of physics we scarce admit of 5 if after 7 hours tearing he shall have no stomach let him defer his meal or eat very little at his ordinary time of repast this very cancel was given by prosper callanus to cardinal cacius laboring of this disease and platterus prescribes it to a patient of his to be most severely capped guianerius admits of 3 meals a day but montanus ties him precisely to 2 and as he must not eat over much so he may not absolutely fast for as celsus contends book 1 jackanus 15 in 9 rasas repletion and inination may both do harm in 2 country extremes moreover that which he doth eat must be well chewed and not hastily gobbled for that causes crudity and wind and by all means to eat no more than he can well digest some think the more they eat the more they nourish themselves eat and live as the proverb is not knowing that only repairs man which is well concocted not that which is devoured melancholy man most part have good appetites but ill digestion and for that cause they must be sure to rise with an appetite and that which socrates and his aries the physicians in macrobius so much require centaerum enjoins rusticus to eat and drink no more than will satisfy hunger and thirst lesius the jesuit holds 12, 13 or 14 ounces or in our northern countries 60 and most for all students weaklings and such as lead an idle sedentary life of meat, bread etc a fit proportion for a whole day and as much or little more of drink nothing pesters the body and mind sooner and to be still fed to eat and engurgitate beyond all measure as many do by over much eating and continual feast they stifle nature and choke up themselves which, had they lived coarsely or like galley slaves being tied to an aura might have happily prolonged many fair years a great inconvenience comes by variety of dishes which cause at the precedent this temperature than which, said avicenna nothing is worse to feed on diversity of meats or over much sartorias like in lucum quenare and as commonly they do in muscovy and iceland to prolong their meals all day long or all night our northern countries offend especially on this and we in this island ampliter viventes in brandyis et canis as polidor notes are most liberal feeders but our own hurt does odi puer aparatus excessive meat breathed sickness and gluttony caused choleric diseases by surfiting many perish but he that died it himself prolonged his life iglasiasticus 37 29 30 we accounted a great glory for a man to have his table daily furnished with variety of meats but hear the physician he pulls thee by the ear as thou sittest nothing can be more noxious to thy health than such variety and plenty temperance is a bridle of gold and he that can use it aright ego non sumis viris compao set similimum deo yudico is like a regard than a man for as it will transform a beast to a man again so it will make a man a god to preserve thine honor health and to avoid therefore all those inflations torments obstructions and diseases that come by a full diet the best way is to eat sparingly of one or two dishes at most to have ventrumbene moratum as Seneca calls it to choose one of many and to feed on that alone as Kratos advises his patient the same council Prosper Calanus gives to Cardinal Cassius to use a moderate and simple diet and though his table be jovially furnished by reason of estate and guests but for his own part to single out some one savoury dish and feed on it the same is inculcated by Kratos Considium 9, Book 2 to a noble personage affected with this grievance he would have his highness to dine or sup alone without all his honourable attendance in curtly company with a private friend or so a dish or two, a cup of rainish wine etc Montanus, Considium 24 for a noble matron and joins her one dish and by no means to drink between meals the like Considium 229 or not to eat till he be in hungry which rule Berngarius did most strictly observe as Hilbertus writes in his life and which old temperate men do constantly keep it is a frequent solemnity still used with us when friends meet or to go to the ale house or tavern they are not sociable otherwise and if they visit one another's houses they must both eat and drink are reprehended not moderately used but as some men nothing can be more offensive they had better, I speak it with Saint Ambrose pour so much water in their shoes it much avails likewise to keep good order in our diet so eat liquid things first broth, fish and such meats as are sooner corrupted in the stomach harder meats of digestion must come last crater would have the supper less than the dinner which carden disallows than that by the authority of Galen and for four reasons he will have the supper biggest I have read many treatises to this purpose I know not how it may concern some few sick men but for my part generally for all I should subscribe to that custom of the Romans to make a sparing dinner and a liberal supper all their preparation and invitation was still at supper many reasons I could give but when all is said pro and con carden's rule is best to keep that we are accustomed unto though it be not and to follow our disposition and appetite and some things is not a miss to eat sometimes of a dish which is hurtful if we have an extraordinary liking to it Alexander Severus loved hairs and apples above all other meats as Lempridius relates in his life one pope, pork, another peacock etc what harm came of it I conclude our own experience was the best physician that diet which is most propitious to one is often pernicious to another such as the variety of palates humours and temperatures that every man observe and be a law unto himself Tiberius in Tacitus did laugh at all such that 30 years of age would ask council of others concerning matters of diet I say the same these few rules of diet he that keeps shall surely find great ease and speedy remedy by it it is a wonder to relate that prodigious temperance of some hermits anchorites and fathers of the church he that shall but read their lives written by Herum, Athanasius etc how epistemious heathens have been in this kind those curae and Fabritiae those old philosophers as planning records book 11 Xenophon, book 1 emperors and kings as Nikephorus relates of Mauritius Ludovicus, Pius etc and the admirable example of Ludovicus Cornaris a patrician of Venice cannot but admire them this have they done voluntarily and in health what shall these private men do that are visited with sickness and necessarily enjoined to recover and continue their health it is a hard thing to observe a strict diet at qui Medici vivit, misere vivit as the saying is quala hock ipsum iret vivere his si privates fures as good be buried as so much the bard of his appetite excessive Medicina malum the physic is more troublesome than the disease so he complained in the poet so thou thinkest yet he that loves himself will easily endure this little misery to avoid a greater inconvenience a malus minimum better do this than do us and as Tully holds better be a temperate old man than a lascivious youth it is the only sweet thing which he advises so to moderate ourselves that we may have Senectutem in Juventutem at in Juventutem Senectutem be youthful in our old age stayed in our youth discreet and temperate in both end of section 5 section 6 of the anatomy of melancholy volume 2 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 Anna Simon the anatomy of melancholy volume 2 by Robert Burton section 6 partition 2 section 2 member 2 retention and evacuation rectified I have declared in the causes what harm costiveness had done in procuring this disease if it be so noxious the opposite must need to be good or mean at least as indeed it is at this cure necessarily required maxima conducid set mantaltus chapter 27 it very much avails Altomau's chapter 7 commence walking in the morning into some fair green pleasant fields but by all means first by art or nature you will have these ordinary excrements evacuated Piso calls it beneficium ventris the benefit, help or pleasure of the belly for it doth much ease it Laurentius, chapter 8 Creto, concilium 21, book 2 prescribes it once a day at least where nature is defective art must supply by those lennative, electories suppositories condyed prunes terpentine clisters shall be shown Prospercalinus liber de atrabile commence clisters in hypochondriacal melancholy still to be used as occasion serves Peter Namander in a consultation of his pro-hypochondriacal will have his patient continually lose and to that end sets down there many forms of potions and clisters Macrialis, concilium 88 if this benefit come not of its owner court prescribes clisters in the first place Sodoth, montanus, concilium 24 concilium 31 and 229 he commends terpentine to that purpose the same he ingeminates concilium 230 for an Italian abbot it is very good to wash his hands and face often to shift his clothes to have fair linen about him to be decently and calmly attired for so does Viziant nastinus defiles and dejects any man that is so voluntarily or compelled by want it deleth the spirits Baths are either artificial or natural both of their special uses in this melody and as Alexander supposed book 1 chapter 16 yield as speedy a remedy as any other physic whatsoever Aetius would have them daily used Galen cracks how many several cures he had performed in this kind by use of baths alone and Rufus pills moistening them which are otherwise dry Rasis makes it a principal cure Totacura sit in humectando to bathe and afterwards anoint with oil Jason pretenses Laurentius chapter 8 and montanus set down their peculiar forms of artificial baths Kratos concelium 17 book 2 commands mellows, chamomile, violets, borage to be boiled in it and sometimes fair water alone and in his following council Balneum aqua dulcis solum seppissime profus compertum habemus Sodorth Fuchsius book 1 chapter 33 Frisimalica 2 concelium 42 in Trincavelius side herbs, prescriber ram's head and other things to be boiled Furnelius concelium 44 will have them used 10 or 12 days together to which he must enter fasting and so continue in a temperate heat and after that, frictions all over the body Lilius egubinus concelium 142 and Christopherus ereris in a consultation of his hold once or twice a week sufficient to bathe the water to be warm not hot for fear of sweating Felix Plato observation is Libre 1 for a melancholy lawyer will have lotions of the head still joined to these baths and with a lay wherein capital herbs have been boiled Laurentius speaks of baths of milk which I find approved by many others and still after bath the body to be anointed with oil of bitter almonds of violets, new or fresh butter capons grease especially the backbone and then lotions of the head and brocations etc these kinds of baths have been in former times much frequented and diversely varied and are still in general use in those eastern countries the Romans had their public baths very sumptuous and stupid as those of Antoninus and Diocletian Pliny, Book 36 said there were an infinite number of them in Rome and mightily frequented some bathed seven times a day as Commodus the Emperor is reported to have done usually twice a day and they were after anointed with the most costly ointments rich women bathed themselves in milk some in the milk of 500 she-esses at once we have many runes of such baths found in this island among those peritans and rubbish of old roman towns Lipsius, Rosinus Scald of Antwerp and other antiquaries tell strange stories of their baths Gilles reckons up 155 public baths in Constantinople of fair building they are still frequented in that city by the Turks of all sorts men and women and all over Greece and those hot countries to absturge but like that fulsomeness of sweat to which they are their subject Bysbequeus in his epistles is very copious in describing the manner of them how their women go covered a maid following with a box of ointment to rub them the richer sort have private baths in their houses the poorer go to the common and are generally so curious in this behalf that they will not eat nor drink until they have bathed before and after meals some and will not make water but they will wash their hands or go to stool Leo Afer, book 3 makes mention of 100 several baths at Fez in Africa most sumptuous and such as have great revenues belonging to them Baxter of chapter 14 speaks of many ceremonies amongst the Jews in this kind they are very superstitious in their baths especially women natural baths are praised by some discommended by others but it is in a diverse respect Marcus consulted about baths condemns them for the heat of the liver because they dried too fast and yet by and by in another council for the same disease he approves them because they cleanse by reason of the sulfur to be drunk Eretius, chapter 7 commends alum baths above the rest and Mercurialus, concedium 88 those of Lucca in that hypochondriacal passion he would have his patient tarry their 15 days together and drink the water of them and to be bucketed or have the water poured on his head John Baptista, Sylvaticus 64 commends all the baths in Italy and drinking of their water whether they be iron, alum sulfur Soda of Hercules is Saxonia but in that they cause sweat and dry so much he confines himself to hypochondriacal melancholy alone accepting that of the head and the other Trincovelius, concedium 14, book 1 prefers those proectin baths before the rest because of the mixture of brass, iron, alum and concedium 35, book 3 for a melancholy lawyer and concedium 36 in that hypochondriacal passion, the baths of Aquaria and concedium 36 the drinking of them Frisimilica consulted amongst the rest in Trincovelius, concedium 42, book 2 prefers the waters of Epona before all artificial baths whatsoever in this disease and would have one 9 years affected with hypochondriacal passions flight to them as to a holy anchor of the same mind as Trincovelius himself there and yet both put a hot liver in the same party for a cause and sent him to the waters of St. Helen, which are much hotter. Montonus, concedium 230 magnifies the calderinian baths and concedia 237 and 239 he extorted it to the same but with this caution the liver be outwardly anointed with some coolers that would be not overheated but these baths must be wearily frequented by melancholy persons or have used to such as are very cold of themselves for as Cabilius concludes of all Dutch baths and especially of those of Barden they are good for all cold diseases not for choleric, hot and dry and all infirmities proceeding of colour, inflammations of the spleen and liver our English baths are as they are hot must need to incur the same sender but the Turner of old and the Jones is written at large of them of cold baths I find little or no mention in any physician some speak against them Carden alone out of Agathainus commends bathing in fresh rivers and cold waters and advises all such as me to live long to use it for it agrees with all ages and complexions and is most profitable for hot temperatures as for sweating, urine bloodletting by hemorrhoids or otherwise I shall elsewhere speak of them Immoderate venus in excess as it is a cause or in defect so moderately used some parties and only help a present remedy Peter Forestis calls it Abtissimum Remedium a most opposite remedy remedy anger and reason that was otherwise bound Avicenna or Abacus contend out of ruffus and others that many madmen, melancholy and fevering of the falling sickness have been cured by this alone Montaltus chapter 27 the melancholya will have it drive away sorrow and all illusions of the brain to purge the hardened brain from ill smokes and vapours that offend them and if it be omitted, as Veleska supposes it makes the mind sad the body dull and heavy many other inconveniences are reckoned up by Mercados and by Rodriguez Acastro the melancholya virginum and monialium obsemines retentionum saviuns sepe moniales et virgines but as platterers adds sin nubans sanantur they rave single and pine away much discontent but merge man's all Marcellus Donatus tells a story to confirm this out of Alexander Benedictus of a maid that was mad ob mences inibitos coming of vicinam mirituriam inchidiset a quindecam viris ea dem nocta compressa mensium largo profluvio cot pluribus anes antaconstiterat non sinemac no pudor manamenti restituta disquesit but this must be rarely understood for as Arnoldus objects quit coitus at melancholycum sucum the affinity of these two except it be manifest that superabundance of seed or fullness of blood be a cause or that love or an extraordinary desire of venus have gone before or that as Lodovicus Mercatus accepts they be very flatious and have been otherwise accustomed unto it Montaltus, chapter 27 will not allow of moderate venus to such as have the gout palsy, epilepsy, melancholy except they be very lusty and full of blood Lodovicus, Antonius in his chapter of venus forbids it utterly to all wrestlers, ditches, laboring manetetra vicanus and Marsilius Cognatus puts venus one of the five mortal enemies of a student it consumes the spirit and weakens the brain Haleabas, the Arabian and Jason pretenses make it the fountain of most diseases most pernicious to them who are cold and dry. A melancholy man must not meddle with it, but in some cases. Plutarch in his book The Sanitat of Twenda accounts of it as one of the three principal signs and preservers of health, temperance in this kind to rise with an appetite to be ready to work and abstain from venery. Triens salubarima are three most healthful things. We see their opposites, how pernicious they are to mankind, as to all other creatures they bring death and many feral diseases Emordicus brevis est aetos et rara senectus Aristotle gives instance in sparrows which are parum vivacus obsalachitatem short lived because of their salacity, which is very frequent, as scopias and priapas will better inform you. The extremes being both bad the medium is to be kept, which will probably be determined. Some are better able to sustain, such as are hot and moist, phlegmatic as Hippocrates insinuated some strong and lusty, well fed like Hercules, proculus the emperor, lusty laurance prostibulum feminae mesalina, the empress that by filters and such kind of lascivious meats use all means to enable themselves and brag of it in the end. Conforimutas enum oxidi Vero paucas per ventrum vidisti as that Spanish Celestina merely said others impotent of a cold and dry constitution cannot sustain those gymnics without great hurt done to their own bodies of which number, though they be very prone to it, are melancholy men for the most part. End of section 6 Section 7 of the Anatomy of Melancholy, volume 2 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 2 by Robert Burton Section 7 Partition 2 Section 2 Member 3 Part 1 Air rectified with a digression of the air As a long-winged hawk when he is first whistled off the fist, mounts aloft and for his pleasure fetcheth many a circuit in the air still soaring higher and higher till he become to his full pitch and in the end when the game is sprung comes down a main and stoops upon a sudden, so will I having now come at last into these ample fields of air wherein I may freely expatiate and exercise myself for my recreation a wild rove wander round the world mount aloft to those ethereal orbs and celestial spheres and so descend to my former elements again In which progress I will first see whether that relation of the Friar of Oxford be true concerning those northern parts under the pole. If I meet Obitair with the wandering Jew or diverse artefacts or Lucian's Icarum in Ippus they shall be my guides whether there be such four Euripes and a great rock of loadstones which may cause the needle in the compass still to bend that way and what should be the true cause of the variation of the compass Is it a magnetical rock or the pole star, as Carden will or some other star in the bear as Marsilius Fikinus or a magnetical meridian as Maorolicus well Cetus in Weynaterai as Agricola or the nearness of the next continent as Cabeus will or some other cause as Scaliger, Cortesius, Conimbrichensis Peligrinus contained why at the Azores it looks directly north otherwise not In the Mediterranean Olivant as some observe it varies 7 degrees by and by 12 and then 22 degrees near Raskaburg in Finland the needle runs round if any ships come that way though Martin Ridley write otherwise that the needle near the pole will hardly be forced from his direction Tis fit to be inquired whether certain rules may be made of it and that which is more prodigious the variation varies in the same place now taken accurately, tis so much after a few years quite altered from that it was after we have better intelligence let our Dr Gilbert and Nicholas Cabeus the Jesuit that have both written great volumes of this subject satisfy these inquisitors whether the sea be open and navigable by the pole arctic and which is the likeliest way that of Bartisson the Hollander under the pole itself which for some reasons I hold best or by Fratum Davis or Nova Zembler whether Hudson's discovery be true of a new found ocean any likelihood of Buttons Bay in 50 degrees Hubbard's Hope in 60 that of Ut Ultra near Sir Thomas Rose welcome in North West Fox being that the sea ebbs and flows constantly there 15, 14, 12 hours as our new cards inform us that California is not a cape but an island and the West winds make the neap tides equal to the spring any probability to pass by the straits of Anyan to China by the promontory of Tabin if there be, I shall soon perceive whether Marcus Polus the Venetians narration be true or false of that great city of Kinsai or Kambalu whether there be any such places as Mateus Ricius the Jesuit hath written China and Kataya be all one the great Ham of Tartary and the King of China be the same Shuntain and Kinsai and the city of Kambalu be that new Peking or such a war 400 leagues long to part China from Tartary whether Presbiter John be in Asia or Africa Marcus Polus Venetius puts him in Asia the most received opinion is that he is emperor of the Abysses which of old was Ethiopia now Nubia under the equator in Africa whether Guinea be an island or part of the continent or that hungry Spaniards discovery of Terra Australis incognita or Magellanic be as true as that of Mercurius Britannicus or his of Utopia or his of Luchinia and yet in likelihood it may be so for without all question it being extended from the tropic of Capricorn to the circle and Tartic and lying as it doth in the temperate zone of the Abus but yield in time some flourishing kingdoms to succeeding ages as America did unto the Spaniards Shelton and La Maia have done well in the discovery of the Straits of Magellan in finding a more convenient passage to Mare Pacificum me thinks some of our modern Argonauts should prosecute the rest as I go by Madagascar I would see that great bird Rook that can carry a man with an elephant with that Arabian phoenix described by Adrychomius see the Pelicans of Egypt those Scythian Griffys in Asia and afterwards in Africa examine the fountains of Nileus whether Herodotus, Seneca Pliny, Book 5, Chapter 9 Strabo, Book 5 give a true cause of his annual flowing Pagafeta discourse rightly of it or of Niger and Senegal examine Carden and Niger's reasons and the rest is it from those Aetesian winds or melting of snow in the mountains under the equator for Jordan yearly overflows when the snow melts in Mount Libanus or from those great dropping perpetual showers which are so frequent to the inhabitants within the tropics when the sun is vertical and cause such vast inundations in Senegal, Marinyan or Onoko and the rest of those great rivers in Zona Torida which have all commonly the same passions at set times and by good husbandry and policy hereafter no doubt may come to be as populace, as well tilled as fruitful as Egypt itself or coach in China I would observe all those motions of the sea and from what cause they proceed from the moon as the vulgar hold or earth's motion which Galileus in the fourth dialogue shows his system of the world so eagerly proves and firmly demonstrates or wins as some will why in that quiet ocean of Dua in Māori Pacifico it is scarce perceived in our British seas most violent in the Mediterranean and Red Sea so vehement irregular and diverse why the current in that Atlantic ocean should still be in some places from in some again towards the north where they come sooner than go and so from Moabar to Madagascar in that Indian ocean the merchants come in three weeks as Scaliger discusseth they return scarce in three months with the same or like wins the continual current is from east to west where the Mount Athos, Pelion Olympus, Ossa, Caucasus, Atlas be so high as Pliny Solinos Mela relate above clouds, meteors or be nek au rai nek wenti spirant in so much that they that ascend die suddenly very often the air is so sub-tile twelve hundred and fifty paces high according to that measure of Dikai Arcus or seventy-eight miles perpendicularly high as Jakobus Mazonius expounding that place of Aristotle about the Caucasus and as Blancarnus the Jesuit contends out of Clavius Demonstrations de Crepusculis or rather thirty-two stadiums as the most received opinion is or four miles which the height of no mountain doth perpendicularly exceed and is equal to the greatest depths of the sea which is, as Scaliger holds fifteen hundred and eighty paces others one hundred paces I would see those inner parts of America whether there be any such great city of Manoa or Eldorado in that golden empire where the highways are as much beaten as between Madrid and Valladolid in Spain or any such Amazons as he relates or gigantic Patagones in Chica with that miraculous mountain Ibu-Yapab in the northern Brazil Cuyus-Yugum-Sternitor in Amoinissima Planitium etc. or that of Pariacaca so high elevated in Peru the peak of Tenerife how high it is seventy miles or fifty as Patricius holds or nine as Snellius demonstrates in his Eretosthenes see that strange Circhnitz Xerxes Lake in Carniola whose waters gush so fast out of the ground that they will overtake a swift horseman and by and by with his incredible celerity are sucked up which Lazius and Wenerus make an argument of the Argonauts sailing underground and that vast den or hole called Esmelon in Muscovia quite visitor Horiando Hiatu etc. which if anything casually fall in makes such a roaring noise that no thunder or ordnance or war-like engine can make the like such another is Gilber's cave in Lapland with many the like I would examine the Caspian sea and see where and how it exonerates itself after it hath taken in Volga Yaxaris, Oxus and those great rivers at the mouth of Obi or where what vent the Mexican lake hath the Titicacan in Peru or that circular pool in the Vale of Terapia of which Acosta book three chapter sixteen hot in a cold country the spring of which boils up in the middle twenty foot square and hath no vent but exhalation and that of Mare Mortum in Palestine of Thrasimine at Perusium in Italy the Mediterranean itself for from the ocean at the Straits of Gibraltar there is a perpetual current into the Levant and so likewise by the Thracian Bosphorus out of the Uxine or Black Sea besides all those great rivers of Nile, Poe, Roan etc. how is this water consumed by the sun or otherwise I would find out with Thracian the fountains of Danube of Ganges, Oxus see those Egyptian pyramids Thracian's bridge Grotto de Sibila Lucullus's fishponds the temple of Nidroze etc and if I could observe what becomes of Swallows Storks, Cranes, Cuckoos Nightingales, Redstarts and many other kind of singing birds waterfalls, hawks etc some of them are only seen in summer some in winter summer observed in the snow and at no other times each have their seasons in winter not a bird is in Muscovy to be found but at the spring in an instant the woods and hedges are full of them how comes it to pass do they sleep in winter like Guesnes, Alpine mice or do they lie hid in waterfalls in the bottom of lakes and rivers spiritum continentes often so found by fishermen in Poland and Scandia two together mouth to mouth wing to wing and when the spring comes they revive again or if they be brought into a stove or to the fireside or do they follow the sun as Peter Martyr, Legat Babylonica book 2 manifestly convicts in Egypt he saw swallows Spanish kites and many such other European birds in December and January very familiarly flying and in great abundance about Alexandria will be Floridae Tumcarbores Aquidaria or lie they hid in caves rocks and hollow trees as most think in deep tin mines or sea cliffs as Mr. Carru gives out I conclude of them all the death of cranes and storks once they come whether they go as yet we know not we see them here some in summer some in winter they are coming and going in the night in the plains of Asia the storks meet on such a set day he that comes last is torn in pieces and so they get them gone many strange places ismi, uripe, chesonesi havens, promontries, straits lakes, baths rocks, mountains, places and fields where cities have been ruined or swallowed battles fought, creatures sea monsters, remora etc minerals, vegetables zoophytes were fit to be considered in such an expedition and amongst the rest that of Harbastien's Tata Lamb Hector Boethius' goose-bearing tree in the orchards in the garden book 7 chapter 36 Dererum Wallietate subscribes Vertomanus' wonderful palm that fly in hispaniola that shines like a torch in the night that one may well see to write those spherical stones in Cuba which nature hath so made and those like birds, beasts fishes, crowns, swords swords, pots etc usually found in the metal mines about Mansfield and in Poland near Nockow and Palukie as Munster and others relate many rare creatures and novelties each part of the world affords amongst the rest I would know for a certain whether there be any such men as Leo Swalius in his comment on Paracelsus de Sanitate to Enda and Gaginas records in his description of Muscovy that in Lukomoria a province in Russia lie master sleep as dead all winter from the 27th of November like frogs and swallows benumbed with cold but about the 24th of April in the spring they revive again and go about their business I would examine that demonstration of Alexander Picolomi Nails whether the earth's superficies be bigger than the seas or that of Archimedes be true the superficies of all water is even such the depth and see that variety of sea monsters and fishes mermaids, semen, horses etc which it affords or whether that be true which Jordanus Brunus scoff set that if God did not detain it the sea would overflow the earth by reason of his higher sight and which Josephus Blancarnus the Jesuit in his interpretation on those mathematical places of Aristotle foolishly fears and in a just tract proves by many circumstances that in time the sea will waste away the land and all the globe of the earth shall be covered with waters resum teniatis amici what the sea takes away in one place it adds in another he thinks he might rather suspect the sea should in time be filled by land trees grow up, carcasses etc that all devouring fire omnia de waranzet consumens will soon cover and dry up the vast ocean with sand and ashes I would examine the true seat of that terrestrial paradise and where Ophir was when Solomon did fetch his gold from Peruana which some suppose or that Aurea Cersonesus as Dominicus Niger Arias, Montanus Goropius and others will I would censure all Plinus Solinuses, Straboes Sir John Mandeville Laos Magnuses Marcus Poluses lies correct those errors in navigation reform cosmographical charts and rectify longitudes if it were possible not by the compass as some dream with Mark Ridley in his treatise of magnetical bodies chapter 43 for as Cabeus fully resolves there is no hope thence yet I would observe some better means to find them out I would have a convenient place to go down with Orpheus Ulysses, Hercules, Lucian's Manipus at St. Patrick's Purgatory at Trafonius's Den Heckler in Iceland Aetna in Sicily to descend and see what is done in the bowels of the earth do stones and metals grow there still how come fir trees to be digged out from tops of hills as in our mosses and marshes all over Europe how come they to dig up fish bones, shells beams, iron works, many fathoms underground and anchors in mountains far remote from all seas An O1460 at Bern in Switzerland 50 fathomed deep as shit was digged out of a mountain where they got metal ore in which were 48 carcasses of men with other merchandise that such things are ordinarily found in tops of hills Aristotle insinuates in his first book, Danumidia and familiarly in the Alps Seath Blancarnus the Jesuit the like is to be seen came this from earthquakes or from Noah's flood as Christians suppose or is there a vicissitude of sea and land as anximities held of old the mountains of Thessaly would become seas and seas again mountains the whole world be like should be new molded when it seemed good to those all commanding powers and turned inside out as we do hay cocks in harvest top to bottom or bottom to top or as we turn apples to the fire move the world upon his centre that which is under the poles now should be translated to the equinoctual and that which is under the torrid zone to the circle arctic and Antarctic another while and so be reciprocally warmed by the sun if the worlds be infinite and every fixed star a sun with his compassing planets as Brunus and Campanella conclude cast three or four worlds into one or else of one world make three or four new as it shall seem to them best to proceed if the earth be twenty one thousand five hundred miles encompassed its diameter is seven thousand from us to our antipodes and what shall be comprehended in all that space what is the centre of the earth is it pure element only as Aristotle decrees inhabited as Paracelsus thinks with creatures whose chaos is the earth or with fairies as the woods and waters according to him are with nymphs or as the air with spirits Dionysiodorus a mathematician in Pliny that sent a letter at Superos after he was dead from the centre of the earth to signify what distance the same centre was from the superficies of the same Viz forty two thousand stadiums might have done well to have satisfied all these doubts or is it the place of hell as Virgil in his Einides Plato, Lucian, Dante and others poetically describe it and as many of our divines think in good earnest Anthony Rusca one of the society of that Ambrosian college in Milan this great volume de inferno book one chapter forty seven is stiff in this tenet tis a corporeal fire toe as he there disputes whatsoever philosophers write saeth surius there be certain mouths of hell and places appointed for the punishment of men's souls as at heckler in Iceland where the ghosts of dead men are familiarly seen in the places that mortal men might be certainly informed that there be such punishments after death and learn hence to fear God Grantsius subscribes to this opinion of surius so doth coloris chapter two diber de immortalitate animae out of the authority be like of St. Gregory, Durand and the rest of the schoolmen who derive as much from Etna in Sicily, Dipari, Hera surius, Vulcanian islands making Terra del Fuego and those frequent volcanoes in America of which Acosta book three chapter twenty-four that fearful Mount Heckler Birg in Norway and a special argument to prove it where lamentable screeches and howlings are continually heard which strike a terror to the auditors fiery chariots are commonly seen to bring in the souls of men in the likeness of crows ordinarily go in and out such another proof is that place near the pyramids in Egypt by Cairo as well to confirm this as the resurrection mentioned by Corn Manus Cameradius, Braden Bacchus and some others where once a year dead bodies arise about march and walk after a while hide themselves again thousands of people come yearly to see them but these and such like testimonies others reject as fables illusions of spirits and they will have no such local known place more than sticks or flagathon, Pluto's court or that poetical Infernos where Homer's soul was seen hanging on a tree etc to which they ferried over in Karen's boat or went down at Hermione in Greece Compendiaria ad Infernos via which is the shortest cut Queer Nulom amortuis Nulom aulokii exposcunt Seith Gerbellius and besides there were no fees to be paid well then is it hell or purgatory as Bellamine or Limbus Patrim as Galuchius will and as Rusca will for they have made maps of it or Ignatius's parlour Virgil sometimes Bishop of Saltburg as Aventinus Anno 745 relates by Bonifarcus Bishop of Mence was therefore called in question because he held antipodes which they made a doubt whether Christ died for and so by that means took away the seat of hell or so contracted it that it could bear no proportion to heaven and contradicted that opinion of Austin, Basil, Actantius that held the earth round as a trencher whom Acosta and common experience more largely compute but not as a ball where Christ died the middle of it or Delos as the fabulous Greeks feigned because when Jupiter let two eagles loose to fly from the world's ends east and west they met at Delos but that scruple of Bonifarcus is now quite taken away by our latter divines Franciscus Ribeira in chapter 14 apocalypsis will have hell a material and local fire in the centre of the earth one Dutch mile in diameter as he defines it out of those words exewit sanguis de terre per stadia me les ex quenta et cetera but Lesius, book 13 de Moribus di Winis chapter 24 will have this local hell far less one Dutch mile in diameter all filled with fire and brimstone because, as he there demonstrates that space cubically multiplied in a sphere able to hold 800,000 millions of damned bodies allowing each body six foot square which will abundantly suffice cum kertum zit in quit, facta subductione known futuros kenties mile miliones dam nandorum but if it be no material fire as Thomas, Bonaventure, Sonchinus Voscus and others argue it may be there or elsewhere as Kekerman disputes for sure somewhere it is kertum est alecubi et si definitus curculus non assignator I will end the controversy in Augustine's words better doubt of things concealed than to contend about uncertainties where Abraham's bosomies and hellfire wicks are mansuetes are contentiosis nun quam in weynitur scarce the meek the contentios shall never find if it be solid earth tis the fountain of metals waters which by his innate temper turns air into water which springs up in several chinks to moisten the earth's superficies and that in a tenfold proportion as Aristotle holds or else these fountains come directly from the sea by secret passages and so made fresh again by running through the bowels of the earth and are either thick thin, hot, cold as the matter or minerals are by which they pass or as Peter Martyr and some others hold from abundance of rain that falls from that ambient heat and cold which alters that inward heat and so, per consequence the generation of waters or else it may be full of wind or a sulfurous innate fire as our meteorologists inform us which sometimes breaking out causes those horrible earthquakes which are so frequent in these days in Japan, China and often times swallow up whole cities let Lucian's Manipus consult with or ask of Tiresias if you will not believe philosophers he shall clear all your doubts when he makes a second voyage End of Section 7