Precise

Use in the book

The dependent chaplain must take his patron’s religious colour. Burton compares him to a bird or butterfly controlled by a child’s string: if the patron is precise, the chaplain must be so; if papistical, the clergyman must conform or be dismissed. The contrast makes a strict Puritan an appropriate local modernization of precise. The main point is enforced dependence, not a definition of every form of religious strictness. The following complaint contrasts such pliant clerics with university men denied useful employment.

The later polemic makes the inward direction of the attack explicit: Precisians appear even in our own bosoms, at an extreme opposed to the Roman practices Burton has attacked. He accuses these opponents of rejecting ceremonies, music and church government; some reject universities and human learning. His qualifications vary, so the whole list cannot be assigned to every person labelled a precisian. Another passage calls many of them intellectually formidable and otherwise sensible, while locating their alleged disorder in the particular religious matter, through the comet whose shape is regular except where it blazes.

The object of excessive scruple is often a practice Burton regards as permissible. Some of us, he says, are too precise, make a matter of conscience of every trifle and lose the legitimate use of recreation. The original English margin extends the complaint to refusing secular authors and disciplines, while saying that such opponents deserve pity rather than refutation. Burton’s comparison with Indian abstinence is part of that argument, not an adequate neutral classification of the communities he names.

Strict religious conduct and outward appearances are also distinct. In the hostile account of wives who attend church to see, be seen or seek lovers, precise and holy is governed by seem. Burton continues a Platina-attributed charge of hypocrisy rather than establishing the motive of every woman attending worship. Elsewhere precisely given describes an actual prior disposition in the historical medical argument: the bodily humour is said to impress symptoms according to the sufferer’s inclinations. The conditional does not make all scrupulous believers ill.

Preciseness enters the proposed response to particular prophets, dreamers and disturbed sufferers. Burton first calls for laws, fines, burned books and prohibited gatherings for the common people. He then recommends changing individual sufferers’ lives and combining discussion, threats, promises and persuasion with medicine. Public suppression and individual management are different parts of the paragraph, not synonyms for cure. The following reports include a counterfeit angel used to end a fast and Rhazes’s account of combining persuasion with medicine. The categories and coercive remedies belong to Burton’s period.

Strictness can coexist with vulnerability rather than confident self-righteousness. Burton reports Lemnius’s claim that solitary, precise or very devout people are more troubled in conscience, then gives Foreest’s minister whose rigorous Lenten fasting and meditation preceded terrifying perceptions. The minister believed himself already in hell; the physician disputed that belief, and the narrative ends in cure. Later the most devout and precise, with tender consciences and least cause for alarm, are said to be especially liable to be wounded by frightening preaching. These passages do not validate their fear of damnation.

The concluding counsel returns to precise life under an important condition: if the sufferer certainly knows that the malady arose from such observance, fasting, meditation, books or severe preachers. The sentence is interrupted and syntactically loose, as the note explains. The continuation calls for removing the troubling cause, redirecting thought and restorative recreation with friends’ help. It is not an unconditional instruction that every religious person should abandon devotion.

Outside religious controversy, strictness can be excessive or simply exact adherence. Over precise eating rules specify ounces, foods and hours; Burton objects particularly when they are imposed on healthier bodies. Yet Montanus is elsewhere reported as tying a patient precisely to two meals, in a discussion that rejects both overfilling and absolute fasting. The queen precise about nursing carries maternal insistence too far, but the next paragraph allows another nurse when the mother is unable. These examples concern regimen and care, not Puritan identification.

Royal seclusion supplies another ordinary adverb: ancient Persian kings are said to have precisely observed the practice of remaining out of sight to preserve reverence. The point in the consolation is the ruler’s loss of ordinary freedom. In the prophetic catalogue, by contrast, precisely set down refers to the claimed year, month and day of the world’s end. Burton mocks the claim to privileged knowledge. Exact detail is not evidence of a prediction’s truth.

Related entries

Religion and superstition: the confessional grounds of the criticism.

Curiosity: scruple, exactness and attentive care.

Zeal: sincere devotion distinguished from misdirected excess.

Church patronage: the material dependence of the chaplain.

Religious melancholy: prior disposition and the historical causal account.

Places to read

1. Subsection 2 The Quantity of Food as a Cause · paragraphs 32–35over-particular diet, distinguished from every regulated regimen.
2. Subsection 15 Love of Learning or Excessive Study With a Digression on the Misery of Scholars and Why the Muses Are Melancholy · paragraphs 32–35the patron’s religious position and enforced chaplaincy conformity.
3. Member 4 Subsection 1 Non-Necessary, Remote, External, Adventitious or Accidental Causes: First, the Nurse · paragraphs 32–34strict nursing observance, the too-jealous qualification and allowance for another nurse.
4. Subsection 2. Diet Corrected in Quantity · paragraphs 3–6precisely limiting a patient to two meals.
5. Member 3 Against Poverty and Want and Other Such Adversities · paragraphs 16–19scrupulous royal seclusion.
6. Causes of Jealousy. Who Are Most Susceptible. Idleness, Melancholy, Impotence, Prolonged Absence, Beauty, Sexual Licence, Being Unfaithful Themselves. Temptations Arising From Time, Place and People; Mistreatment as a Cause · paragraphs 53–57seeming precise and holy in the hostile portrayal of churchgoing.
7. Its Object, God; What His Beauty Is; How It Attracts. The Parts and People Affected · paragraphs 21–25precisely given as a prior religious disposition.
8. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 14–18Precisians within Burton’s own religious camp.
9. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 19–21an exactly specified end-of-world prediction.
10. General Symptoms: Love of Their Own Sect; Hatred of All Other Religions; Obstinacy and Ill Temper; Readiness to Undergo Any Danger or Adversity for It; Martyrs; Blind Zeal and Blind Obedience; Fasts and Vows; Belief in Incredible and Impossible Things. Particular Symptoms Among Pagans, Muslims, Jews and Christians; and Among Christians, Heretics Old and New, Schismatics, Scholastic Theologians, Prophets, Enthusiasts and So On · paragraphs 26–28rigorists, misguided zeal and otherwise coherent understanding.
11. Subsection 4. Prognosis of Religious Melancholy · paragraphs 48–50; note 12654too precise and the original English margin on secular learning.
12. Subsection 5 The Cure of Religious Melancholy · paragraphs 23–26preciseness, public suppression and individual treatment.
13. Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraphs 18–21precise fasting in Foreest’s reported case and its eventual cure.
14. Causes of Despair: The Devil, Melancholy, Meditation, Distrust, Weakness of Faith, Harsh Ministers, Misunderstanding Scripture, Guilty Consciences, and So On · paragraphs 39–42precise hearers and frightening sermons.
15. Treatment of Despair Through Medicine, Good Counsel, Consolation, and So On · paragraphs 25–28precise life and the conditional recommendation to change the cause.

In this edition

The principal equivalents remain distinct: precise becomes a strict Puritan in the patronage contrast; Precisians becomes religious rigorists in the attack within Burton’s camp; and preciseness becomes religious scrupulosity in the treatment passage. The first is a local confessional expansion, the second a wider name for strict people, and the third an abstract quality. None supplies a universal definition of the family.

Other constructions require other equivalents. Over precise becomes over-particular; precisely given becomes strictly religious; precise fasting becomes rigorous fasting; precisely observed becomes observed so scrupulously; and precisely set down becomes set down exactly. In the nursing phrase, strict translates precise while zealous remains a separate adjective. The English margin is original marginal text, not a modern body translation.

Precisely given already has a full construction record in Religious melancholy. The treatment clause is shared with distempered in Complexion and temperament, while the secular-learning margin has a route in Humane learning. Curiosity already explains the nursing anecdote’s curiously and its limiting continuation. The present family supplies complementary components and senses rather than claiming those passages as new discoveries.

The supplied notes preserve a difference in the chaplain comparison: Heinsius’s Latin margin has a butterfly or caterpillar, while Burton’s body has a bird or butterfly; the precise Heinsius passage remains unlocated. The editor identifies the opposite-extremes quotation as Horace, Satires 1.2.24, and the tares image as recalling Matthew 13.

precise; religiously strict

Strict or scrupulous in religious observance; in the patronage contrast, identified by the edition as a strict Puritan.

Grammar: Adjective precise, predicated of the patron or describing religious practice; context supplies the confessional force.

Original text: “If the Patron be precise”. In the modern column: “If the patron is a strict Puritan”. The chaplain must match the patron’s religious allegiance or lose his place. A satire on enforced conformity, not an assertion that every strict person is a Puritan. Strict Puritan expands precise from the contrast with papistical; the whole conditional clause is aligned.

Original text: “seem to be precise and holy forsooth”. In the modern column: “appear scrupulously religious and holy, indeed”. Apparent strictness is accused of hiding an illicit motive for church attendance. Burton continues a hostile Platina-attributed portrayal of unfaithful wives; it is not an account of all women or worshippers. Scrupulously religious explains precise; appear retains the limit imposed by seem.

Original text: “precise, or very devout”. In the modern column: “strict in religious observance or very devout”. A disposition named among those supposedly more liable to distress of conscience. Lemnius’s occupational and age generalizations are reported historical claims, with seldom and mostly qualifications. The strictness is religious; precise is not a diagnosis or general accuracy.

Original text: “most devout and precise”. In the modern column: “most devout and strict in religious observance”. Devout, sensitive hearers may be wounded by terrifying sermons despite having least cause for alarm. Burton says many/common cases, not every rigorous believer, and records their former presumptuous assurance. Most qualifies the coordinated religious attributes; strict in religious observance expands precise.

precisian

A person insistently strict in religious observance, used as a polemical name for a rigorist.

Grammar: English plural personal noun Precisians or precisians; capitalized or lower-case forms refer to people, not an abstract degree of precision.

Original text: “Precisians”. In the modern column: “religious rigorists”. Rigorists appear with schismatics and some heretics inside Burton’s own camp. The hostile garden/weeds analogy and opposite-extreme charge are Burton’s, not neutral membership classifications. Religious rigorists gives a broader polemical sense than treating every named person as a member of one party.

Original text: “Great precisians of mean conditions and very illiterate”. In the modern column: “Strict religious zealots of humble standing and little learning”. The label introduces people whose errors are linked with misguided zeal, fasting, meditation and melancholy. Most part limits the causal assertion; the continuation allows formidable intellects and sensible conduct in other matters. Strict religious zealots renders Great precisians as a construction; humble standing corresponds to mean conditions, not the noun itself.

preciseness; excessive scruple

Excessive strictness or scrupulousness in religious conduct, treated by Burton as a possible source of disturbance.

Grammar: Abstract noun preciseness; related adjective precise intensified by too.

Original text: “too precise”. In the modern column: “too exacting”. Excessive exactness makes matters of conscience out of trifles. Some of us limits Burton’s self-directed criticism; his comparison with Indian communities is polemical. Too retains the judgement of excess; exacting renders precise.

Original margin: “so precise”. The English margin describes rejection of secular learning as excessively scrupulous. The margin accuses opponents of ignorance but says they deserve pity rather than refutation. Original English marginal wording is retained; there is no corresponding separate modern-column phrase.

Original text: “preciseness”. In the modern column: “religious scrupulosity”. One alleged cause of disturbed minds among particular prophets and dreamers. The passage shifts from public suppression to individual management; fasting, meditation, preciseness or melancholy are listed alternatives, not one uniform diagnosis. The modern makes the religious field explicit.

precisely given; precise life

Disposed to strict religious observance, or living according to it.

Grammar: Precisely is an adverb modifying given in a predicative disposition phrase; precise is an adjective modifying life.

Original text: “If they have been precisely given”. In the modern column: “If they have been strictly religious”. A prior religious disposition directs the form of the alleged symptoms. Conditional if and prior have been matter; the statement does not say that all devout people become ill. Religious is inferred from the local topic, not an explicit word in precisely given.

Original text: “precise life”. In the modern column: “a life of strict religious observance”. The concluding treatment names rigorous religious conduct among possible antecedents. The condition is If the party affected shall certainly know; the source’s interrupted syntax remains qualified in the supplied note. Life remains life; precise expands to strict religious observance.

precise; excessively particular

Scrupulously exact or strict in observing a regimen or rule, without necessarily naming a religious party.

Grammar: Adjective precise, modified by over or coordinated with zealous.

Original text: “being over precise”. In the modern column: “They are over-particular”. Over-exact eating rules are opposed to the previous extreme of indulgence. The continuation specifies healthier bodies; this is not a ban on every medically regulated diet. The modern resets the clause; over-particular translates over precise.

Original text: “so precise and zealous in this behalf”. In the modern column: “so strict and zealous in this matter”. The unnamed queen insists scrupulously on nursing her child herself. Burton checks the anecdote with too jealous and then allows another nurse when the mother cannot nurse. Strict supplies precise; zealous remains a distinct coordinated adjective.

precise fasting

Rigorous or exacting fasting.

Grammar: Adjective precise modifying the practice noun fasting, not a personal sectarian label.

Original text: “precise fasting in Lent”. In the modern column: “rigorous fasting during Lent”. Foreest’s reported minister develops religious distress after rigorous fasting and excessive meditation. The minister believes himself already in hell; the physician’s first-person account in the continuation is not Burton’s autobiography, and the case ends in reported cure. Rigorous renders precise; during Lent matches in Lent.

precisely; strict observance

Strictly, scrupulously or with exact adherence to a prescribed rule.

Grammar: Adverb precisely modifying a restriction or the observance of a practice.

Original text: “ties him precisely to two”. In the modern column: “limits him strictly to two”. Montanus confines the patient to two meals, unlike Guainerio’s allowance of three. A reported medical regimen within explicit rejection of both overeating and absolute fasting. Strictly renders precisely; to two refers to meals supplied by the preceding clause.

Original text: “which the Persian Kings so precisely observed of old”. In the modern column: “a practice the ancient Persian kings observed so scrupulously”. Strict adherence to royal seclusion is contrasted with an ordinary person’s freedom. A reported generalization about ancient rulers whose source remains uncollated, not a claim of Puritan allegiance. Scrupulously renders precisely; the practice is seclusion to preserve reverence.

precisely; exact specification

Exactly or with particular detail.

Grammar: Adverb precisely modifying set down.

Original text: “precisely set down when the world shall come to an end, what year, what moneth, what day”. In the modern column: “They set down exactly when the world will end: the year, the month, the day”. The alleged prophets specify an exact date, which Burton criticizes as presumptuous. The precision is the claim to detailed specification, not Burton’s certification of accuracy or of a true prophecy. Exactly renders precisely; the date’s components come from the rest of the construction.