The Anatomy of Melancholy

For example, if a hare crosses our path as we set out, or a mouse gnaws our clothes; if three drops of blood fall from someone’s nose, the salt falls towards them, or a black spot appears on their nails, and so on. These and many similar things are discussed at length by Delrio, volume 2, book 3, section 4; Agostino Nifo in his book On Auguries; Polydore Vergil, On Prodigies, book 3; and John of Salisbury, Policraticus, book 1, chapter 13.

They are so deeply affected that, through the sheer force of imagination, fear and the Devil’s cunning, they bring the misfortunes they suspect down upon their own heads. What they fear shall come upon them, as Solomon foretells in Proverbs 10:24 and Isaiah declares in 66:4. If they could disregard and despise these things, they would not happen: “Their power rests in our belief, as the severity of an illness does in the thoughts of the sick.” They grow stronger or weaker according to the greater or lesser firmness of our belief.

“So-and-so pays the penalty,” says Crato of one such person; “if only he did not draw it upon himself!” He is punished, and is himself the cause of it.

“While we flee our fate, we fools run straight into it.” The thing I feared, says Job, has fallen upon me.

We may say the same of those troubled by their fortunes, or by evil destinies foreseen: “Foreknowledge of misfortunes torments many.” Foreknowledge of what is to come tortures many people, when astrologers or sorcerers predict it “because of an angry heaven,” whether it is a misfortune or death itself. This often happens by God’s permission: “Because they fear the demon,” says Chrysostom, “God therefore allows it to happen.” Severus, Hadrian and Domitian can testify to this; Suetonius, Herodian and the other historians tell strange stories about their fear and suspicion in such matters.

Montanus, consultation 31, gives an example of a young man made exceedingly melancholy in this way. Such fears have always tormented mortals, in every age, because of lying oracles and deceitful priests.

There was a spring in Greece, near Ceres’ temple in Achaea, where the outcome of such diseases could be learned: a mirror was lowered on a thread, and so on. Among the Cyanean rocks at the springs of Lycia was the oracle of Apollo Thyrxeus, where every fortune was foretold—sickness, health or anything else they wished. Thus ordinary people have always been deceived about future events.

Even today, “Fear of future events torments the Chinese exceedingly.” This foolish fear grievously tortures them in China, as Matteo Ricci the Jesuit tells us in his account of those countries. Of all nations, they are the most superstitious and most tormented in this way, placing such trust in their diviners “that fear itself makes the prediction credible”: fear itself, and imagination, cause it to come true.