The Anatomy of Melancholy

He desires our salvation—“eager for our salvation,” says Lemnius—and therefore often pulls us by the ear to remind us of our duties: “so that those who erred might gain understanding,” as Isaiah says, 29:21, and so be reformed. “I am afflicted and at the point of death,” David confesses of himself in Psalm 88:15; and in verse 9, “My eyes are sorrowful through my affliction.” That made him turn to God.

Alexander the Great, at the height of his prosperity, had been deified by a band of flatterers and made a god. But when he saw one of his wounds bleeding, he remembered that he was only a man and abated his pride. “In sickness the mind gathers itself together,” as Pliny aptly perceived: in sickness the mind reflects on itself, judges itself and detests its former ways. He therefore concludes to his friend Marius that the consummation of all philosophy would be to remain in health as we were in sickness, or to fulfil even part of what we promised to do when ill.

Whoever is wise, then, will consider these things, as David did—Psalm 144, last verse—and make use of whatever fortune befalls him. If he suffers sorrow, poverty, sickness or any other adversity, let him seriously consider why this or that affliction, misery or incurable disease has been inflicted on him. It may be for his good: “It is for the best,” as Peter said of his daughter’s fever. Bodily sickness serves the soul’s health: “He would have perished had he not perished”—had he not been afflicted, he would have been utterly lost. For “the Lord corrects those he loves, as a father corrects the child in whom he delights.”

If, on the other hand, he is safe and sound, free from every kind of infirmity, “and has

Favour, beauty and health in abundance, And wholesome fare, with a purse that never fails.”

And has grace, beauty, favour, health, Wholesome food and abundant wealth.

Yet in the midst of his prosperity let him remember Moses’s warning: “Take care not to forget the Lord your God.” Let him not swell with pride, but acknowledge these as God’s good gifts and blessings; the more he has, the more thankful he should be, as Agapetianus advises, and he should use them rightly.

Now the instrumental causes of our infirmities are as varied as the infirmities themselves: stars, heavens, elements and so on. All the creatures God has made are armed against sinners. They were indeed once good in themselves; that many are now harmful to us is caused by our corruption, not by their nature. For since the fall of our first parent Adam they have changed: the earth has been cursed, the influence of the stars altered, and the four elements, beasts, birds and plants are now ready to hurt us.

“The chief things for human use are water, fire, iron, salt, meal, wheat, honey, milk, oil, wine and clothing: good for the godly, but turned to evil for sinners.” Ecclesiasticus 39:26. “Fire, hail, famine and scarcity: all these are created for vengeance.” Ecclesiasticus 39:29. The heavens threaten us with their comets, stars and planets, their great conjunctions, eclipses, oppositions, quartiles and other hostile aspects.