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 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated

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Modern English Page · Branch 506 of 1495

Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated

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1651 English

283–284

I would for these causes wish him that is melancholy, to use both humane and divine authors, voluntarily to impose some task upon himself, to divert his melancholy thoughts: To study the art of memory, Cosmus Rosselius, Pet. Ravennas, Scenkelius detectus, or practice Brachygraphy, &c. that will ask a great deal of attention: or let him demonstrate a proposition in Euclide in his five last books, extract a square root, or studie Algebra:

Then which as Clavius holds, in all humane disciplines nothing can be more excellent and pleasant, so abstruse and recondite, so bewitching, so miraculous, so ravishing, so easie withall and full of delight, omnem humanum captum superare videtur.

By this means you may define ex ungue leonem, as the diverbe is, by his thumb alone the bigness of Hercules, or the true dimensions of the great Colossus, Solomons temple, and Domitians Amphitheater out of a little part.

By this art you may contemplate the variation of the 23 letters, which may be so infinitely varied, that the words complicated and deduced thence will not be contained within the compass of the firmament; ten words may be varied 40320 severall wayes:

by this art you may examine how many men may stand one by another, in the whole superficies of the earth, some say 148456800000000 assignando singulis passum quadratum, how many men, supposing all the world as habitable as France, as fruitfull and so long lived, may be born in 60000 years, and so may you demonstrate with Archimedes how many Sands the mass of the whole world might contain if all sandy, if you did but first know how much a small cube as big as a Mustard-seed might hold, with infinite such.

But in all nature what is there so stupend as to examine and calculate the motion of the planets, their magnitudes, apogeums, perigeums, excentricities, how far distant from the earth; the bigness, thickness, compass of the Firmament, each star, with her diameters and circumference, apparent area, superficies, by those curious helps of glasses, astrolabes, sextants, quadrants, of which Tycho Brahe in his mechanicks, opticks (divine opticks) Arithmetick, Geometry, and such like arts and instruments?

What so intricate and pleasing, withall as to peruse and practise Heron Alexandrinus works, de spiritalibus, de machinis bellicis, de machinâ se movente, Iordani Nemorarii de ponderibus proposit. 13. that pleasant tract of Machometes Bragdedinus de superficierum divisionibus, Apollonius Conicks, or Commandinus labours in that kinde, de centro gravitatis, with many such Geometrical Theorems, and Problems?

6011.BurtonPrinted page 283, *: “Ad 2. definit. 2. elem. In disciplinis humanis nihil præstantius reperitur: quippe miracula quædam numerorum eruit tam abstrusa & recondita, tanta nihilominus facilitate & voluptate, ut &c.” On definition 2 of book 2 of the Elements. “Nothing more excellent is found in human disciplines, for it brings to light certain marvels of numbers so abstruse and hidden, yet with such ease and pleasure that,” and so forth. This note is printed across the foot of the page.

6013.BurtonPrinted page 284, †: “Which contained 1080000 weight of brass.” Already English: which contained 1,080,000 weight of brass. Burton does not specify a unit here.

6016.BurtonPrinted page 284, *: “Vide Clavium in com. de Sacrobosco.” See Clavius in his commentary on Sacrobosco.

6018.BurtonPrinted page 284, dagger: “Distantias cœlorum sola Optica dijudicat.” Optics alone determines the distances of the heavens.

The Anatomy of Melancholy: Member 4 Exercise of Body and Mind Regulated

p. 506

For these reasons I would advise a melancholy person to use both secular and religious authors, and voluntarily set himself a task to turn aside his melancholy thoughts: to study the art of memory—Cosmus Rosselius, Petrus Ravennas, Scenkelius Detected—or practise shorthand, and the like, which will demand close attention. Or let him demonstrate a proposition from the last five books of Euclid, extract a square root, or study algebra.

As Clavius holds, nothing in all human learning can be more excellent or pleasing: so profound and hidden, so enchanting, so marvellous, so captivating, yet so easy and full of delight, that “it seems to surpass all human understanding.”

By this means you can determine “the lion from its claw,” as the proverb goes: Hercules’ size from his thumb alone, or the true dimensions of the great Colossus, Solomon’s Temple, and Domitian’s amphitheatre from one small part.

By this art you can contemplate the permutations of the twenty-three letters, which can be varied so endlessly that the words combined and derived from them would not fit within the compass of the heavens. Ten words can be arranged in 40,320 different ways.

By this art you can examine how many people could stand side by side over the entire surface of the earth—some say 148,456,800,000,000, “allowing each a square pace”; how many could be born in 60,000 years, supposing the whole world as habitable as France, as fertile and its people as long-lived. And, with Archimedes, you can demonstrate how many grains of sand the entire bulk of the world might contain if it were all sand, provided you first knew how many a small cube the size of a mustard seed could hold—and countless other such questions.

But in all nature, what is so astonishing as examining and calculating the motions of the planets, their sizes, apogees, perigees, eccentricities, and distances from the earth; the size, thickness, and extent of the firmament; each star, with its diameters, circumference, apparent area, and surface—using those ingenious aids, glasses, astrolabes, sextants, and quadrants, which Tycho Brahe discusses in his work on instruments; optics—divine optics!—arithmetic, geometry, and similar arts and instruments?

What is so intricate and at the same time so delightful as studying and putting into practice the works of Hero of Alexandria on pneumatics, war machines, and self-moving machinery; proposition 13 of Jordanus Nemorarius’s On Weights; that delightful treatise by Machometes Bragdedinus, On the Division of Surfaces; Apollonius’s Conics; or Commandinus’s work in this field, On the Centre of Gravity, with many similar geometrical theorems and problems?

6010.“Humane” means secular or humanistic, contrasted with religious writing; “brachygraphy” is shorthand. The memory references retain Burton’s forms pending exact identification and edition checks; Scenkelius detectus is presented as a title, literally Scenkelius Exposed. Clavius’s Euclid circulated as fifteen books, so Burton’s “five last” should not automatically be mapped onto the last five of a modern thirteen-book edition.

6012.Christopher Clavius was an editor and commentator on Euclid; the Deutsche Digitale Bibliothek records a fifteen-book edition. Burton’s marginal Latin breaks off at ut &c.; the concluding phrase in the body is therefore preserved without being inserted into the incomplete note. His exact commentary passage remains uncollated.

6014.The proverb ex ungue leonem means inferring the whole from a part. Burton gives Hercules’ thumb as another example. “Diverbe” means proverb or saying. The Colossus is the giant statue at Rhodes; neither the weight unit nor the calculations behind these architectural examples is supplied here, and none is silently added.

6015.Twenty-three letters reflects the Latin alphabet’s older grouping of letter forms. The printed “ten” and “40320” are preserved: 40,320 is the number of arrangements of eight distinct items, whereas ten distinct items have 3,628,800 arrangements. The error is flagged here rather than silently repaired in the modern text.

6017.These enormous numerical claims are Burton’s reported calculations, not verified estimates. A square pace is a historical area measure; no conversion is imposed. Archimedes’ Sand-Reckoner does estimate the sand a cosmic volume could contain, but uses a poppy seed, not Burton’s mustard-seed cube. The number and the 60,000-year supposition are retained. The discussion next turns to astronomy and mechanical inventions.

6019.Apogee and perigee are the most distant and nearest points of a body’s orbit relative to the earth; eccentricity concerns departure from a centred or circular arrangement. “Firmament” retains Burton’s celestial framework. Glasses here includes optical lenses and mirrors; these sextants and quadrants are historical astronomical instruments. The reference to Tycho’s mechanics concerns his instruments, not a modern textbook of mechanics.

6020.The catalogue juxtaposes pneumatics, mechanics, the geometry of conic sections, and centres of gravity. Latin titles are translated in the modern column. The printed names Machometes Bragdedinus and Iordani Nemorarii are retained on the left; the precise editions and proposition numbering await collation.

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.