Enthusiasm

From the book

The Notebooks of Joseph Joubert, Volumes I–II

Joseph Joubert · Diotimos Editions · 2026

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enthousiasme

Enthousiasme can be an inspired or emotionally moving power.

Orientation

At a Glance

The wordEnthousiasme can be an inspired or emotionally moving power.
In JoubertJoubert explicitly separates enthusiasm, which moves, from verve, which stirs, and ranks both in relation to inspiration.
In this editionThe English translation preserves enthusiasm and the distinct verbs remuer/émouvoir as stir/move.
A place to beginEnthusiasm emotionally moves where verve stirs.

English renderings: enthusiasm

Meaning

Enthousiasme can be an inspired or emotionally moving power. It is stronger and more specific than ordinary eagerness.

Use in the book

Joubert explicitly separates enthusiasm, which moves, from verve, which stirs, and ranks both in relation to inspiration. The word can also rescue certain rhetorical amplification from blame: the swelling of apt words in contemplation comes from emotion and is therefore closer to enthusiasm than to declamation. But false enthusiasm takes fire for what does not naturally kindle or move, so the mere intensity of feeling is no guarantee of value. The statement that religious enthusiasm is a second, spiritual nature extends the term beyond literary production and qualifies its love of torments with “sometimes.”

Places to read

II, p. 610, entry 1, ¶1Enthusiasm emotionally moves where verve stirs.
II, p. 493, entry 7, ¶1Emotion can distinguish inspired amplification from declamation.
I, p. 466, entry 1, ¶1False enthusiasm kindles over an unworthy object.
II, p. 767, entry 4, ¶1Religious enthusiasm is described as a second nature.

Translation in this edition

The English translation preserves enthusiasm and the distinct verbs remuer/émouvoir as stir/move. Emphase becomes swelling where the contrast admits a favorable kind; translating it uniformly as bombast would prejudge the passage.

Source note

Beaunier 1938, I, pp. 466; II, pp. 493, 610, 767.

From the book

The Anatomy of Melancholy

Robert Burton · Diotimos Editions · 2026

Browse this book’s lexicon →

Enthusiasm

“Enthusiasmus” names inspired possession or transport; “Enthusiasts,” “enthusiasticks,” and the variant “Enthusians” name people regarded as, or claiming to be, inspired.

Orientation

At a Glance

The word“Enthusiasmus” names inspired possession or transport; “Enthusiasts,” “enthusiasticks,” and the variant “Enthusians” name people regarded as, or claiming to be, inspired.
In the Anatomy of MelancholyIn the early classification, “Enthusiasmes” sit beside revelations, visions, Sibylline prophecy and poetic fury among reported kinds of madness.
In this editionThe rendering varies with context: “fanaticall persons” becomes “people seized by prophetic frenzy”; “Enthusiasts,” “people seized by inspiration”; “Enthusiasmus,” “inspired possession”; “enthusiasticks,” “people who believe themselves inspired”; “Enthusiasmes,” “states of inspiration”; and “strange Enthusiasmes,” “strange claims of divine inspiration”.
A place to readFanatici as an opponent’s insult against Christians.

Meaning

“Enthusiasmus” names inspired possession or transport; “Enthusiasts,” “enthusiasticks,” and the variant “Enthusians” name people regarded as, or claiming to be, inspired. “Enthusiasmes” can mean states or claims of inspiration; Latin “Enthusiastæ” is a nominative plural naming enthusiasts. The immediate context determines whether Burton treats the inspiration as divine, alleged, delusive or bodily explained. Modern eagerness or passionate interest is too weak a general gloss.

The related “fanaticall” can mean seized by prophetic frenzy. But this family has a wider range: Latin “fanatici” is a hostile name applied to early Christians by their opponents, while genitive plural “fanaticorum” in a hospital report means of people described as mad. “fanaticke” also characterizes patients brought to a sacred cave. These occurrences do not by themselves identify everyone so named as a claimant to prophecy. “Inspire” likewise ranges from spiritual prompting to poetic stimulation, instilling deceit, and literally breathing into another’s mouth.

Use in the book

In the early classification, “Enthusiasmes” sit beside revelations, visions, Sibylline prophecy and poetic fury among reported kinds of madness. Some authorities in another taxonomy include enthusiasts and ecstatic or supposedly possessed people among proposed kinds of melancholy. Burton transmits competing arrangements rather than giving all these labels one settled relation.

The inspired person also serves as a counterexample to an overgeneral definition. After reporting the maxim that lasting fear and sorrow are inseparable marks of melancholy, Burton accepts objections. Prophetic people, the possessed, poets and continually cheerful or grandiose people are among the exceptions; Porta excludes lovers, Sibyls and enthusiasts from his fear-and-sorrow class. Burton’s conclusion is “not alwayes … but usually.” Enthusiasm therefore helps qualify a medical generalization; the passage does not prove that everyone called inspired is fearful or sorrowful.

A more favourable account connects inspired transport with exceptional ability. Laurentius interprets the Aristotelian association of melancholy and giftedness through a somewhat scorched humour mixed with blood. Such a condition is said often to produce divine rapture and “a kinde of Enthusiasmus,” stirring philosophers, poets and prophets. Mercurialis’s young, learned patient is an example of sanguine melancholy, not independent proof of supernatural inspiration. The following paragraphs disagree over bodily and demonic explanations of other extraordinary claims; Burton eventually distinguishes the violent, intensely heated condition from melancholy properly so called.

The preface supplies a useful positive boundary even where the headword is absent. Burton admits “holy madnesse” and spiritual drunkenness in good people, invoking Ficino and others, before warning about the opposite excess. Similarly, the music discussion’s marginal account says a religious listener may become divinely inspired and readier for worship; the body compresses this to greater devotion. These passages prevent “enthusiasm” from being flattened into a uniform condemnation of every spiritual transport.

In religious melancholy the person’s prior inclinations shape the alleged effects of the humour. The English says some seem inspired; the Latin margin explicitly locates the appearance in the people themselves, who imagine they are prophets and “inspirati,” inspired by the Holy Spirit. Someone already strictly religious may interpret the experience as prophecy or inspiration; excessive devotion, blind zeal and fear of judgement are assigned causal roles by the cited physicians. The statement “he is inspired by the holy Ghost” in the earlier symptom account represents the sufferer’s changing belief, alongside beliefs of salvation or damnation. It is not Burton certifying an actual revelation.

Bodily, environmental and spiritual explanations overlap without becoming identical. Burton claims that visions and “Enthusiasmes” never occur without excessive fasting, poor diet, illness, melancholy, solitude or similar conditions as preceding causes, forerunners or companions. That list does not assert that every named condition is present, or that each relation is exclusively causal. He calls these the Devil’s best opportunity and “sole occasion”: sole literally means only, although the construction still combines the bodily circumstances with the Devil’s deceiving agency. The modern “very occasion” does not separately reproduce that exclusiveness. He then reports Polydore Vergil’s stronger claim that supposed divine revelations proceed wholly from demonic prompting. His next discussion questions the authenticity of particular Sibylline prophecies while maintaining that people claiming inspiration exist and always arise from the causes he has described. The sick and “fanaticke” people taken to Charon’s cave are patients in a reported fasting regimen, not thereby themselves prophets.

His polemic is also directed inward. “Some of us” imagine themselves especially sanctified, inspired, and privy to God’s secrets. Claims of gifts can thus become spiritual pride within his own community as well as labels directed at other religions and sects. In the later catalogue he attacks “private Enthusiasmes,” alleged revelations governed by the claimant’s own spirit, citing Münster and other cases. Honorius’s belief that he is a god is explicitly a reported belief; the following comet image allows otherwise sensible discourse alongside a supposedly impaired imagination. None of these hostile descriptions should be adopted as a neutral account of a whole religious community.

Ordinary and literary inspiration remains distinct. Rustic lovers are “inspired” into songs, dances and gifts. The Latin “inspirant” describes lovers breathing into one another in an embrace; “inspirat” makes personified love instil stratagems; the wedding participle “inspirantes” describes the couple breathing love and desire into each other’s breasts. Conversely, Burton names the Devil as the agent who inspires priests with falsehoods, while the priests willingly cooperate for their own ends. He also attributes the instilling of sectarian hatred to the Devil. The verb does not itself specify a holy source or prophetic content.

The wider fanatical family also occurs in a remedy report. Bassardus’s marginal “fanaticos spiritus” means frenzied spirits, the object of an alleged expulsion. Burton’s English has “all phantasticall spirits”; the margin lacks that explicit all, and its modern rendering differs from the body’s interpretation as spirits producing phantasms. The surrounding discussion records disagreement about amulets, before Burton says they should not be rejected altogether. These are historical claims, not treatment recommendations.

Related entries

Religion and superstition; Religious melancholy; Ecstasy; Fear; Sorrow; Imagination; Madness; Daemon and genius; Zeal; Wit; Divine fury

Places to read

· paragraph 12–DJR-7-14Fanatici as an opponent’s insult against Christians.
· paragraph 31–DJR-12-33Approved spiritual transport and the danger of misapplying it.
· paragraph 17–DJR-22-24Competing medical classifications and Enthusiasmes among kinds of fury.
· paragraph 49–DJR-27-51Some authorities’ inclusion of inspired and ecstatic people in a melancholy taxonomy.
· paragraph 1–DJR-31-21Attributed spirit government and instruction, Burton’s rejection, divine permission and bodily mediation.
· paragraph 29–DJR-36-31Fanaticorum in the hospital report; the climatic generalization is subsequently qualified.
· paragraph 23–DJR-58-28Inspired exceptions to universal fear and sorrow.
· paragraph 21–DJR-60-26Giftedness, qualified divine rapture and competing accounts of exceptional states.
· paragraph 5–DJR-61-7Inspiration within a person’s varying thoughts.
· paragraph 13–DJR-85-15Music, divine inspiration and greater devotion in the Latin margin and shorter English body.
· paragraph 26–DJR-105-29Frenzied spirits in the attributed amulet claim, the body’s all phantasticall spirits, and qualified approval of amulets.
· paragraph 10–DJR-127-12Inspirant as reciprocal breathing in an erotic embrace.
· paragraph 63–DJR-131-65Inspirat as personified love instilling stratagems.
· paragraph 12–DJR-133-14Rustic lovers’ poetic and festive inspiration beside elite examples.
· paragraph 64–DJR-143-68The wedding blessing’s Latin participle inspirantes and distinct English stanza.
· paragraph 17–DJR-151-28The proposed religious category; some seem inspired, their own belief in the Latin margin, and effects shaped by inclination.
· paragraph 18–DJR-152-21Spiritual pride and the categories of excess and deficiency.
· paragraph 18–DJR-153-20Inspiration within Burton’s demonological explanation.
· paragraph 20–DJR-155-22Alleged demonic instilling of falsehood and the priests’ willing cooperation.
· paragraph 40–DJR-155-42Presumptuous gifts and inspirations within the polemic.
· paragraph 6–DJR-156-23Universal bodily precursors or companions, sole occasion, Polydore’s wholly demonic cause, positive contemplation, suspect visions and fanaticke patients.
· paragraph 1–DJR-157-7Internal solidarity and inspired hatred towards rival religion.
· paragraph 32–DJR-159-34Enthusians in hostile church-historical narratives.
Private inspiration, reported divine identities and the comet comparison.

In this edition

The rendering varies with context: “fanaticall persons” becomes “people seized by prophetic frenzy”; “Enthusiasts,” “people seized by inspiration”; “Enthusiasmus,” “inspired possession”; “enthusiasticks,” “people who believe themselves inspired”; “Enthusiasmes,” “states of inspiration”; and “strange Enthusiasmes,” “strange claims of divine inspiration”. The last rendering makes the disputed claim explicit. The modern wording supplies “the condition of” when explaining the cause of “those enthusiasticks and desperate persons”; it does not make every word of that expansion a separate equivalent of enthusiasticks.

“Enthusiasticall prisoner” becomes “inspired prisoner”, within a sceptical comparison. “Enthusians” becomes “enthusiasts”. Latin “inspirant” becomes “breathe into one another” in the erotic verse, while English “Inspiring sweet desire” becomes “Breathing sweet desire” in the wedding stanza. Original marginal quotations, their supplied editorial translations, and Burton’s shorter English paraphrases are kept distinct. No fresh collation of the named theological or medical authorities is claimed.

divino numine correptus

Printed “divino numine correptum” (Latin; phrase).

Enthusiasm

At a Glance

Meaning

Use in the book

Places to read

Translation in this edition

Source note

Enthusiasm

At a Glance

Meaning

Use in the book

Places to read

In this edition

divino numine correptus

enthusiasm · Enthusiasmes · local use 1

enthusiasm · Enthusiasmes · local use 2

enthusiasm · Enthusiasmes · local use 3

enthusiasmus

enthusiast · Enthusiasts · local use 1

enthusiast · Enthusiasts · local use 2

enthusiast · enthusiasticks

enthusiast · Enthusians

enthusiasta

enthusiastical

fanatical · fanaticall persons

fanatical · fanaticke

fanaticus · fanatici

fanaticus · fanaticorum

fanaticus spiritus

inspire

inspire · inspired · local use 1

inspire · Inspiring

inspire · inspired · local use 2

inspire · inspired · local use 3

inspired by the Holy Ghost

inspiro · inspirant

inspiro · inspirat

inspiro · inspirantes

inspiro · inspirati