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Robert Burton

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Name: The Anatomy of Melancholy
Author: Robert Burton

1651 English with a close modern English rendering

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The Anatomy of MelancholyMember 5 Subsection 1 Immediate, Internal, Antecedent and Proximate Causes…

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1651 English Page · Branch 355 of 1495

Member 5 Subsection 1 Immediate, Internal, Antecedent and Proximate Causes…

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1651 English

172–173

MEMB. 5. SUBSECT. 1. Continent, inward, antecedent, next causes, and how the body works on the Minde.

AS a Purly hunter, I have hitherto beaten about the circuit of the Forrest of this Microcosme, and followed only those outward adventious causes. I will now break into the inner rooms, and rip up the antecedent immediate causes which are there to be found.

For as the distraction of the minde, amongst other outward causes & perturbations, alters the temperature of the body, so the distraction & distemper of the body will cause a distemperature of the soul, and ’tis hard to decide which of these two do more harme to the other.

Plato, Cyprian, and some others, as I have formerly said, lay the greatest fault upon the soul, excusing the body; others again accusing the body, excuse the soul, as a principal agent. Their reasons are, because the manners do follow the temperature of the body, as Galen proves in his book of that subject, Prosper Calenus de Atra bile, Jason Pratensis c.de Mania, Lemnius l.4.c.16. and many others.

And that which Gualter hath commented hom.10.in epist.Johannis, is most true: concupiscence and original sin, inclinations, & bad humors, are radical in every one of us, causing these perturbations, affections, and several distempers, offering many times violence unto the soul.

Every man is tempted by his own concupiscence (James 1.14) the spirit is willing but the flesh is weak, and rebelleth against the spirit, as our Apostle teacheth us: that me thinks the soul hath the better plea against the body, which so forcibly inclines us, that we cannot resist,

Nec nos obniti contra, nec tendere tantum Sufficimus.

How the body being material, worketh upon the immaterial soul, by mediation of humors and spirits, which participate of both, and ill disposed organs, Cornelius Agrippa hath discoursed lib.1.de occult.Philos.cap.63,64,65. Levinus Lemnius lib.1.de occult.nat.mir.cap.12.&16.&21. institut.ad opt.vit. Perkins lib.1.Cases of Cons.cap.12. T.Bright c.10,11,12. in his Treatise of melancholy.

For as anger, fear, sorrow, obtrectation, emulation, &c. si mentis intimos recessus occuparint, saith Lemnius, corpori quoque infesta sunt, & illi teterrimos morbos inferunt, cause grievous diseases in the body, so bodily diseases affect the soul by consent.

Now the chiefest causes proceed from the Heart, humors, spirits: as they are purer, or impurer, so is the Minde, and equally suffers, as a Lute out of tune, if one string or one organ be distempered, all the rest miscarry,

4202.BurtonPrinted page 172, m: “Mores sequuntur temperaturam corporis.” “Character follows the bodily temperament.”

4204.BurtonPrinted page 172, n: “Scintillæ latent in corporibus.” “Sparks lie hidden in bodies.”

4206.BurtonPrinted page 172, o: “Gal.5.” Galatians 5.

4210.BurtonPrinted page 173, p: “Sicut ex animi affectionibus corpus languescit: sic ex corporis vitiis, & morborum plerisque cruciatibus animum videmus hebetari, Galenus.” “As the body languishes from the passions of the mind, so we see the mind dulled by bodily disorders and by many of the torments of disease.” Galen.

4211.BurtonPrinted page 173, q: “Lib.1.c.16.” Book 1, chapter 16.

4213.BurtonPrinted page 173, r: “Corporis itidem morbi animam per consensum, a lege consortii afficiunt, & quanquam objecta multos motus turbulentos in homine concitent, præcipua tamen causa in corde & humoribus spiritibusque consistit &c.” “Bodily diseases likewise affect the soul through mutual sympathy, under the law of their partnership. Although external objects stir many turbulent motions in a person, the principal cause nevertheless lies in the heart, humours and spirits, and so on.”

The Anatomy of Melancholy: Member 5 Subsection 1 Immediate, Internal, Antecedent and Proximate Causes…

p. 355

MEMBER 5 SUBSECTION 1 Immediate, internal, antecedent and proximate causes, and how the body acts upon the mind.

Like a hunter in the purlieus, I have so far beaten about the outskirts of the forest of this microcosm, following only those external, adventitious causes. I shall now break into its inner chambers and lay open the antecedent, immediate causes to be found there.

For just as disturbance of the mind, among other external causes and perturbations, alters the bodily temperament, so bodily disturbance and disorder will cause disorder in the soul; and it is hard to decide which of these two does more harm to the other.

Plato, Cyprian and some others, as I have said before, place the greatest blame on the soul and excuse the body. Others, in turn, accuse the body and excuse the soul from being the chief agent. Their reason is that character follows the bodily temperament, as Galen proves in his book on that subject, and as do Prospero Calano in On Black Bile, Jason Pratensis in his chapter On Madness, Lemnius in book 4, chapter 16, and many others.

And what Gwalther says in homily 10 on John’s epistle is most true: concupiscence and original sin, inclinations and bad humours, are rooted in every one of us, causing these disturbances, passions and various disorders, and often doing violence to the soul.

Everyone is tempted by his own concupiscence, James 1:14. The spirit is willing, but the flesh is weak and rebels against the spirit, as our Apostle teaches us. So it seems to me that the soul has the better case against the body, which inclines us so powerfully that we cannot resist.

We have not strength to struggle against it, Nor to strive so hard.

How the material body acts upon the immaterial soul, through the mediation of humours and spirits, which partake of both, and through disordered organs, is discussed by Cornelius Agrippa, On Occult Philosophy, book 1, chapters 63–65; Levinus Lemnius, On the Hidden Wonders of Nature, book 1, chapters 12 and 16, and chapter 21 of his Rules for the Best Life; Perkins, Cases of Conscience, book 1, chapter 12; and Timothy Bright, A Treatise of Melancholy, chapters 10–12.

For just as anger, fear, sorrow, disparagement, rivalry and so on, “if they occupy the innermost recesses of the mind,” says Lemnius, “are also harmful to the body and inflict the most dreadful diseases upon it”—cause grievous bodily diseases—so bodily diseases affect the soul through their mutual sympathy.

Now the principal causes proceed from the heart, humours and spirits: as they are purer or more impure, so is the mind, and it suffers correspondingly. As with a lute out of tune, if one string or one organ is disordered, all the rest go wrong.

4199.Continent is a medical term for a cause immediately maintaining the disease; next means nearest or proximate. Antecedent causes precede and prepare that condition. The heading gathers related categories rather than providing a rigorously separated classification. This begins First Partition, Section 2, Member 5.

4200.Purly means purlieu: land at the edge of a forest, with a particular history in forest law. Microcosm, “little world,” is the human being. Burton moves from a hunting metaphor to rooms and dissection. Adventious means arising from outside or added from without.

4201.Temperature here means temperament: the balance of bodily qualities and humours, not a thermometer reading. Distemper and distemperature mean a disorder of that balance. Mind and soul overlap in Burton’s vocabulary but have not been mechanically reduced to one modern term. His humoral explanations are historical, not current medical conclusions.

4203.Galen’s relevant work is commonly known as The Faculties of the Soul Follow the Mixtures of the Body. Manners means character or dispositions. The clause as a principal agent is compressed: the modern rendering understands the second group to excuse the soul from chief responsibility and assign it to the body. The cited early modern editions remain uncollated.

4205.Gualter is Rudolf Gwalther. Concupiscence means disordered or sinful desire, not exclusively sexual desire. Radical means rooted or fundamental. Burton brings inherited sin and bodily humours into the same causal account; the marginal sparks image reinforces their latent presence.

4207.James 1:14 supplies the account of temptation by one’s own desire. The willing spirit and weak flesh are from Matthew 26:41 (also Mark 14:38); the conflict of flesh and spirit is in Galatians 5:17, the chapter cited in the margin. Burton combines the passages.

4208.Virgil, Aeneid 5.21–22: the helmsman Palinurus says that the Trojans cannot force their course against the weather. Burton applies the image of irresistible adverse conditions to bodily influences upon the soul.

4209.Spirits here are subtle bodily agencies in historical physiology, not ghosts. Agrippa’s chapters 63–65 discuss passions and imagination acting upon bodies; the reference is broader than Burton’s immediate question about the body acting on the soul. Lemnius’s compressed list is provisionally divided between his two named works; its punctuation and numbering require collation. The Perkins and Bright chapter references are retained without claiming exact verification.

4212.Obtrectation is disparagement or detraction; emulation here is jealous rivalry. Consent is physiological sympathy or shared responsiveness, not conscious agreement. Burton explicitly argues for influence in both directions between bodily and mental states.

About This Reading Edition

Robert Burton’s Anatomy ranges across medicine, philosophy, poetry, religion, and everyday life in its inquiry into melancholy. This complete parallel edition pairs the 1651 English text with a close modern English rendering, preserving the three Partitions, Democritus Junior’s address to the reader, verse, and the historical index.

Historical Text and Translation

The historical text follows the sixth edition, printed at Oxford for Henry Cripps in 1651, using the McGill University Library copy. The supplied edition documents missing printed pages 98–99 supplied from another 1651 copy at the Bavarian State Library. Historical folio labels and their irregularities remain visible; web reader numbers identify reflowed passages and do not claim to reproduce PDF pagination.

About Diotimos Editions

Diotimos Editions prepared the close modern English rendering and editorial matter. All 8,755 original and modern passage pairs remain aligned, with verse breaks, italics, continuations, and linked annotations preserved. Burton’s 6,781 historical notes retain their attribution; 6,895 editorial notes remain distinct. The introduction, Note on the Text, contextual lexicon, indexes, source documentation, and bibliography are included. The engraved frontispiece remains available in the original downloads.

Rights

Burton’s historical text is in the public domain. The modern English rendering, introduction, notes, and editorial matter are © 2026 Diotimos Editions and appear with the site owner’s permission. The complete supplied PDF, EPUB, Word, and Markdown files remain available unchanged. The PDF and Word edition preserve the original parallel page layout.