; as

democratic, are most admirable in theory; but in practice, as Polybius truly observes, they will never be found independent and unmixed* might be instanced in the ancient governments of Rome and Lacedemon, and in the modern governments of Germany and England: and therefore, it is in like manner of little consequence what physicians say of distinct species of diseases in their mootings and speculations, since,

"The great and tedious debates," says a sensible French writer of the old political school," about the best form of society, are only proper for the exercise of wit; and have their being only in agitation and controversy. A new form of government might be of some value in a new world; but ours is a world ready made to our hands, and in which each distinct form is blended by custom. We do not, like Pyrrho and Cadmus, make the world; and by whatever authority it is we assert the privilege of setting it to rights, and giving it a new form of government, it is impossible to twist it from its wonted bent, without breaking all its parts. In truth and reality, the best and most excellent government for every nation, is that under which it is maintained; and its form and essential convenience, depends upon custom. We are apt to be displeased at the present condition; but I do nevertheless maintain, that, to desire any other form of government than that which is already established, is both Vice and Folly. When any thing is out of its proper place, it may be propped; and the alterations and corruptions natural to all things, obviated so as to prevent their being carried too far from their origin and principles; but to undertake to cast anew so great a mass, and to change the foundation of so vast a building as every government is, is reforming particular defects by an universal confusion, and like curing a disorder by death."

D

in their patients' bodies, the diseases are generally entire and mixed.

CHAPTER III.

OF THE CAUSES OF MELANCHOLY.

GALEN observes, that "it is in vain to speak of cures, or think of remedies, until the causes of a disease have been traced and considered;" and, indeed, common experience proves so generally, that those cures must be lame, imperfect, and to no purpose, wherein the sources of the disease have not been first searched, that Fernelius calls it primo artis curativæ, and says, it is impossible, without this knowledge, to cure or prevent any manner of disease*. Empirics may by chance afford a patient temporary relief; but, from their ignorance of causes, cannot thoroughly eradicate the complaint. Sublatâ causâ tollitur effectus. It is only by removing the cause, that the effect is to be vanquished. To discern, however, the primary causes of the disease of melancholy, to shew of what they consist, and, amidst such a number of varying and frequently anomalous indications, to trace them to the spring from whence they flow, is certainly a task of almost insurmountable diffi

Rerum cognoscere causas, medicis imprimis necessarium, sine qua nec morbum curare, nec præcavere licet.

culty*; and happy is he who can perform it rightt.

Causes may be considered as either general or special. General causes are natural or supernatural. Supernatural causes are those which spring from God and his angels, or, by his permission, from the devil and his ministers; for the Almighty sometimes visits the sons of men with this direful disease, as a punishment for their manifold sins and wickedness, of which the holy scriptures furnish us with many instances, in the characters of Gehazit, Jehoram§, David, Saul, and Nebuchadnezzar**; but it more frequently proceeds from those natural

* Tanta enim morbi varietas ac differentia ut non facile dignoscatur, unde initium morbus sumpserit. Melanelius è Galeno.

† Montaigne, after commenting very pleasantly on the absurdity of pretending, amidst such an infinite number of indications, to discern the true sign of every disease, relates the celebrated fable from Æsop of the physician, who, having bought an Ethiopian slave, endeavoured to search for the true cause of the blackness of his complexion, and having persuaded himself that it was merely accidental, and owing to the ill usage he had received from his former masters, put him under a preparatory course of medicine, and then bathed and drenched him for a long time with cold water, in order to restore him to his true complexion; but the poor fellow retained his sable hue, and lost, irrecoverably, his health. But Montaigne entertained great prejudices against the useful science of medicine.

2 Reg. v. 27.

1 Par. xxi.

Psalm xliv. 1.

¶ 1 Sam. xvi. 14.

§ 2 Chron. xxi. 15.

Psalm xxxviii. 8. ** Daniel v. xxi.

causes which are inbred with us, as consanguinity and old age; and more frequently still from those special causes, or outward adventitious circumstances, which happen to us subsequent to our birth, and especially from our inattention to, and abuse of, the six non-naturals; of, 1. Diet; 2. Retention and Evacuation; 3. Air; 4. Exercise; 5. Sleep; and 6. Perturbation of the Mind; so much spoken of among physicians, as the principal causes of this disease. Hippocrates*, therefore, would have a physician take special notice whether the disease come from a divine supernatural cause, or whether it follows the course of nature; for, according to Paracelsus, the spiritual disease (for so he calls that kind of melancholy which proceeds from supernatural causes,) must be spiritually cured, and not otherwise; ordinary means in such cases being of no avail: Non est reluctandum cum Deo. Hercules, the monster-taming hero, subdued every antagonist in the Olympic games, even Jupiter himself, when he wrestled with him in the human form; but when the god revealed himself, and reassumed celestial power, Hercules declined the conflict, and retired from the vain strife against the power of the supreme. The Almighty can make the proudest spirits stoop, and cry out with Julian the apostate, Vicisti Galilæo. Ordinary means in such cases

* Lib. cap. 5. prog. But see Fran. Valesius, de Sacr. Philos. cap. 8. Fernelius Libri de abditis rerum causis ; and J. Cæsar Claudinus Rospons med. 12. resp. how this opinion of Hippocrates is to be understood.

will not avail. The wound, like that which was inflicted by the spear of Achilles, can only be healed by the hand that gave it. Physicians and physic, in such cases, are equally ineffectual: man must submit to the almighty hand of God, bow down before him, and implore his mercy*.

I shall, therefore, examine into those causes only which are within the reach of human power to mitigate or remove.

Consanguinity is that general or partial temperature which we derive from our parents, and which Fernelius calls præter-natural†; it being an hereditary disease; for the temperature of the parents is in general conferred upon the children; who are inheritors, not only of their parents' lands, but of their infirmities also. Where, therefore, the constitution of the original stock is corrupt, that of its offspring must needs be corrupt also ‡. The concurrent opinion of Paracelsus §, Crato ||, Bruno Seidelius, Montaltus**, and Hippocrates††, confirm this fact; and Forestus, in his medicinal observations, illustrates this point with several examples of patients who have laboured under hereditary melancholy, which, wherever it prevails, sticks to the family, and follows it from generation to

* 1 Peter v. 6. + Lib. i. cap. 2. Roger Bacon. § Ex pituitosis pituitosi; ex biliosis biliosi; ex lienosis et melancholicis melancholici. De Morb. Amentium,

To. iv. Tr. i.

Epist. to Monavius, 174.

** Cap. ii.

++ lbid.

De Morbo incurab. # Lib. x. Observ. 15.