The Anatomy of Melancholy

“Therefore earthly things must be trampled underfoot, heavenly things thirsted for.” Scorn, I say, this passing earthly condition; look up to heaven. Think about what you are, rather than what others are: “What place you hold in the scheme of things”; what you will be, what you may be.

Do, I say, as Christ himself did when he lived here on earth; imitate him as far as you can. How many great Caesars, mighty monarchs, tetrarchs, potentates, and princes lived in his day! What abundance, what luxury, what splendid retinues! How much gold and silver, what treasures, how many magnificent palaces they had! What provinces and cities, vast territories, fields, rivers, fountains, parks, forests, glades, woods, chambers, and so on!

Yet Christ had none of this; he wanted none of it, voluntarily rejected it all. He could not be ignorant, could not make a mistaken choice. He despised it all and chose what was safer, better, more certain, and less likely to be regretted: a humble condition, poverty itself. Why, then, do you hesitate to follow him, to imitate him and his apostles, to imitate all good men? Follow in his divine footsteps, and you will not go eternally astray, as too many worldly men do, persisting in their dissolute ways to their own destruction and ruin. You will not go wrong.

Whatever your fortune, be content with it. Trust in him, rely on him, place yourself wholly in his hands. Know this, in conclusion: “It depends neither on the one who wills nor on the one who runs, but on God who shows mercy.” It is as God wills, not as men will. “The Lord makes poor and makes rich, brings low and raises up” (1 Samuel 2:7–8); “he lifts the poor from the dust and raises the beggar from the dunghill, to set them among princes and let them inherit the seat of glory.” Everything is as he pleases—the manner, the time, and the person. He who appoints the end, though unknown to us, also appoints the means that serve it.

Yes, but their present circumstances crucify and torment most mortals. They have no such foresight to consider what may happen or is likely to happen; they see only what is, without considering why or from whom it comes. “This will torment them”: their present misfortunes grind down their souls, as does the envious eye they cast on other men’s prosperity. “The neighbour’s cattle have a larger udder.” How rich, how fortunate, how happy he is!

Meanwhile he does not consider the other man’s miseries, the infirmities of body and mind that accompany his position. He keeps dwelling on his own imagined troubles and wants, whereas, if the matter were properly examined, he is in no distress at all and has no cause to complain.

Put away your complaints: The man who has what he needs to use is not poor.

He is not poor; he is not in need. Nature is content with bread and water, and whoever can rest satisfied with those may rival Jupiter himself in happiness. In that golden age, “the shade gave healthful sleep, and the gliding stream gave drink”: the trees gave wholesome shade to sleep beneath, and the clear rivers supplied drink.