Book-bot.com - read famous books online for free

The Anatomy of Melancholy by Robert Burton
page 320 of 2094 (15%)
tetric, sad, and peevish: And if the western winds blow, and that there be
a calm, or a fair sunshine day, there is a kind of alacrity in men's minds;
it cheers up men and beasts: but if it be a turbulent, rough, cloudy,
stormy weather, men are sad, lumpish, and much dejected, angry, waspish,
dull, and melancholy." This was [1530]Virgil's experiment of old,

"Verum ubi tempestas, et coeli mobilis humor
Mutavere vices, et Jupiter humidus Austro,
Vertuntur species animorum, et pectore motus
Concipiunt alios"------

"But when the face of Heaven changed is
To tempests, rain, from season fair:
Our minds are altered, and in our breasts
Forthwith some new conceits appear."

And who is not weather-wise against such and such conjunctions of planets,
moved in foul weather, dull and heavy in such tempestuous seasons? [1531]
_Gelidum contristat Aquarius annum_: the time requires, and the autumn
breeds it; winter is like unto it, ugly, foul, squalid, the air works on
all men, more or less, but especially on such as are melancholy, or
inclined to it, as Lemnius holds, [1532]"They are most moved with it, and
those which are already mad, rave downright, either in, or against a
tempest. Besides, the devil many times takes his opportunity of such
storms, and when the humours by the air be stirred, he goes in with them,
exagitates our spirits, and vexeth our souls; as the sea waves, so are the
spirits and humours in our bodies tossed with tempestuous winds and
storms." To such as are melancholy therefore, Montanus, _consil. 24_, will
have tempestuous and rough air to be avoided, and _consil. 27_, all night
air, and would not have them to walk abroad, but in a pleasant day.
DigitalOcean Referral Badge