The Anatomy of Melancholy

MEMBER 6 Against envy, spite, rivalry, hatred, ambition, Self-love and all other passions.

Against those other passions and emotions, there is no better remedy than to equip ourselves as sailors do when they put to sea, providing everything needed to withstand a storm: furnish ourselves with philosophical and religious precepts and other people’s examples, “learning from others’ experience what may be useful to ourselves.” Balance our hearts with love, charity, gentleness and patience. Counter those unruly impulses of envy, spite, ill temper and hatred with their opposite virtues, as we bend a crooked stick the other way. Set endurance against hardship, patience against abuse, generosity against greed, courage against faint-heartedness, gentleness against anger and humility against pride. Examine why we are so disturbed: on what grounds, on what occasion? Is the cause real or imagined?

Then either calm ourselves by reason, or turn our minds to some other object, an opposite emotion, or reflection beforehand: “A man ought to consider how he will bear adversity. Returning from abroad, he should always keep in mind dangers, losses, exile, a son’s misconduct, a wife’s death or a daughter’s illness: these are common things and can happen, so that nothing may take his mind by surprise.”

Make them familiar—all kinds of calamities—so that when they happen they may trouble us less. “In prosperity, consider how you will bear adversity.” Or, after mature deliberation, avoid the effect or remove the cause, as people with toothache do by pulling the teeth right out.

To save its life, the beaver cuts off its own testicles; You too: cast off whatever harms you, and you will be safe.

The beaver bites off its testicles to save the rest: Do the same with whatever weighs you down.

Or, as people fencing with wooden swords learn through a few blows of the cudgel how to avoid an enemy’s strokes, let us arm ourselves against every violent assault that may invade our minds. A little experience and practice will accustom us to it. “An old fox,” as the proverb says, “is not caught in a snare”: an old fox is not so easily trapped. An old soldier in the world should, I think, remain untroubled, ready to meet every turn of fortune and every encounter, and answer with that resolute commander, come what may:

No new and unexpected form of hardship Rises before me, maiden; I have foreseen it all and gone through it beforehand in my mind.

No hardship takes me unawares, For I have long considered what may come.

This is not the first wound my breast Has felt; I have borne worse.

The Republic of Venice has this inscription in its armoury: “Happy is the city that thinks of war in time of peace”—a fitting motto for everyone’s home. Happy is the man who prepares for a future assault. Yet we often complain, fret and grumble without cause; we give way to emotions that we could resist, but will not.