Anatomy of Melancholy

“ Before I proceed to define the disease of melancholy, what it is, or to discourse farther of it, I hold it not impertinent to make a brief digression of the anatomy of the body and faculties of the soul, for the better understanding of that which is to follow; because many hard words will often occur, as mirach, hypocondries, emerods, &c., imagination, reason, humours, spirits, vital, natural, animal, nerves, veins, arteries, chylus, pituita ”

“ But melancholy and despair, though often, do not always concur; there is much difference: melancholy fears without a cause, this upon great occasion; melancholy is caused by fear and grief, but this torment procures them and all extremity of bitterness; ”

“ Such are the benefits of Melancholy, when she is only an occasional guest, and is not pampered or made the object of devotion. But Melancholy, though an excellent companion p. 163for an hour, is the most exacting and depressing of mistresses. The man who gives himself up to her, who always takes too long views, who broods on the future of this planet when the sun has burned out, is on the high-way to madness. The odds are that he does not travel all the way. He remains a self-tormented wretch, highly profitable to his medical man, and a frightful nuisance to his family. ”

“ They regarded each other with the greatest affection, and thought and felt in harmony. If one, for instance, bestowed anything upon the poor, it filled the other with joy. [24] Frequent attacks of illness disturbed, or [Pg 323] we should rather say promoted, their happiness. He was greatly troubled with the stone; and she suffered from the same disease, and also an affection of the liver. It is therefore not to be wondered at, that the oft-repeated illness of his wife filled Melanchthon with the deepest compassion, and that he often freely expressed his sorrows in his letters. ”

“ We should also regard his virtues as an example to be imitated by us; such as his piety, faith, earnest and fervent prayer, fidelity and diligence in office, chastity and modesty, prudence, anxiety to avoid everything which might cause tumults [Pg 219] and other offences, and a constant pleasure and desire to learn more and more.
Thus Melanchthon spoke with a sorrowful heart. He felt more than all how much he had lost in Luther, who might well be compared to the sturdy oak, against which this timid man could often lean. ”

“ Nor is it any wonder that, believing that such a thing as what we call a soul exists in connexion with the body which they see, they speak of and conceive of the soul when separate from the body as if it were in some form and shape visible to the eyes. Thinking, to Melanesia natives at any rate, is like seeing ”

“ Her sensitive nostrils quivered at the sunlight's touch. Her blue-shirted bosom, heaving ever so slightly from the exertion of climbing the companionway, moved the loose plaits of her hair hanging over her shoulders like ropes of molten gold. Hardship had drawn her features only slightly. Youth's capacity of quick recovery was hers. Physically she was little changed, but there was a subtle difference in her. Her whole being now seemed to breathe: "I have no doubt of life."
"I've changed and slept," she said as Paul's glance swept her. "I feel as if there had never been a storm." ”

“ Milichius: "It might be that a person would be very anxious to leave this life; but at the same time, no man could earnestly think of death, without shuddering." Melanchthon coincided with this, and said: "The great misery and troubles of life are not able to give a man joy in the hour of death. Something more is needful before a man can feel this." He retired to his bed, and rested for about three hours. When he had risen at one time, and Camerarius and Peucer were again placing him upon his couch, he began to sink under their hands. ”

“ Melanchthon was ordered to visit Thuringia, accompanied by Jerome Schurff, Erasmus of Haugwitz, and John of Planitz. Great indeed was the spiritual distress discovered by them! Melanchthon often went out and wept, as he writes himself: "What can be offered in justification, that these poor people have hitherto been left in such great ignorance and stupidity? My heart bleeds when I regard this misery. Often when we have completed the visitation of a place, I go to one side and pour forth my distress in tears. ”

“ Menalcas is really never Menalcas; he has no lucid Intervals; he is always another Man.
If we consult the Operations of our Soul, to discover the proper Causes of what is call’d Absence of Mind, we shall perceive that the Powers of it are sometimes contracted within themselves by a Multiplicity of Thought: In these Cases the inward Exercise of the Soul makes it unable to attend to any outward Object. But at other Times the Soul wanders from itself ”

“ God has set it in a place which you can neither reach by your rhetoric nor by your philosophy. That place is called Faith, in which are all things that we cannot see or understand. Whoever wishes to make these things visible, open, and comprehensible, as you do, will get sorrow and weeping for his pains, even as you have against our will." As he was closing the letter, he reflected that Melanchthon might think he had received little in reply to his question, what and how much should be conceded to their opponents. ”

“ I am not concerned if others are pleased to seek power and influence. The Son of God will judge the life and sentiments of every one, and he knows that I am only anxious to glorify the truth, to add to God's honor, and to promote the good of the Church." On the 21st of July, Flacius expressed his regrets concerning this reply in a letter to Languentius, and even wrote to Melanchthon, justifying himself, and assuring him that he had no reason to complain of him. ”

“ Analytikos. Is not the Queen—?
Menelaus. No! No! The whole world is but her mirror. And I'm expected to face that woman every morning at breakfast for the rest of my life, and by Venus that's more than even a King can bear!
Analytikos. Even a King cannot alter destiny. I warn you, whom the Gods have joined together—
Menelaus [in an outburst] . Is for man to break asunder!
Analytikos [deeply shocked] . You talk like an atheist.
Menelaus. I never allow religion to interfere with life. Go call the victim and see that he be left alone with the Queen. ”

“ Before going down, they sat on a bench surrounded by some other friends. And now Melanchthon quite unexpectedly said to Camerarius, as if giving him his blessing: "My dear Dr. Joachim, we have been joined in the bonds of friendship about forty years, and we have loved each other with a sincere and disinterested affection. We have been teachers of youth and faithful colleagues, each in his proper place, and I hope to God that our labors have not been useless, but have done much good. ”

“ These were accompanied by biting original notes from the hand of Flacius. Melanchthon said of him, in a letter written in January, 1550: "I believe that honorable men detest his poison. For he does not contend for a principal point of doctrine, but publishes books filled with slanders and lies, by which he wishes to gain these two points: to render me detested by the people, and even to rouse those against me who still regard me with friendly eyes. But God, the searcher of hearts, will protect me against this slanderer." ”

“ The sound of his voice alone would frequently calm him in his wildest moments, and when the torrent of his thought ran onward with mad speed, and shapes and images flitted before his disordered brain, and earthly combats were mingled in his mind with more dreadful conflicts, and that he burst forth into the violent excesses of his passion—then, the soft breathings of Melancthon’s flute, would still the storm, and lay the troubled waters of his soul—that rugged nature would yield even to tears, and like a child, he would weep till slumber closed his eyes. ”

“ He who sitteth in the heavens alone knows what influence he exerted. It would have been well for Melanchthon had he possessed such strong faith, and such a mighty spirit of prayer. But he looked too much to men, their power and their craftiness. And for this he was rewarded by complaints and sighs, but he did not conceal his sorrows from his paternal friend in Coburg. Through this, Luther opened the depth and power of his faith, and permitted the flame to spread even to Augsburg, that Melanchthon's heart might be encouraged. ”

“ In like manner, the best possible way to tame the refractory reason of man, and hold it in subjection, is to bind it with the silken cords of divine truth, and not fetter it with the harsh and galling absurdities of man's invention. Melanchthon himself furnished a striking illustration of the justness of this remark; for although, like other reformers, he taught the doctrine of a divine fatality of all events, in order to humble the pride of the human intellect, his own reason afterward rebelled against it. ”

“ I ain't no coward, you hear me, Melanctha? I never put my trouble back on anybody, thinking that they made me. I certainly am right ready always, Melanctha, you certainly had ought to know me, to stand all my own trouble for me, but I tell you straight now, the way I think it Melanctha, I ain't going to be as if I was the reason why you wanted to be loving, and to be suffering so now with me." "But ain't you certainly ought to be feeling it so, to be right, Jeff Campbell. ”

“ They travelled by way of Schulpforte and Erfurt, to Frankfort. They arrived there on the 26th of August, and here learned, to their great sorrow, that Schnepf, Strigel, Stössel, and the Counsellor Monner, of Weimar, were earnestly engaged in Worms, in urging a condemnation of all the errors which had been introduced. They intended this for Melanchthon particularly. He at this time wrote to Camerarius: "Many sorrows are troubling me, partly the cruelty of my foes, and also the misfortunes of my son, who, although he is still alive, is suffering great bodily and mental debility." ”

“ He was fully convinced that the grace of God alone accomplishes what is good in us, and that the will of man merely receives. The will of man could thus be active to a certain extent, but could not produce the new life. The actual Synergistic controversy did not arise until after the Leipzig Interim. In this, Melanchthon had said that in the work of repentance, man was not passive like a block or a statue. Flacius had repeatedly directed attention to this expression; [Pg 281] but it was Amsdorf who agitated this controversy towards the close of Melanchthon's life. ”

“ When he repeated them for the third time, Melanchthon moved his lips as if he was praying. More than twenty persons were gazing upon the dying man. Without the slightest motion, this worthy man gently fell asleep in the evening, at 7 o'clock, in the very same hour in which he first beheld the light of this world, 63 years and 63 days before. In the midst of prayer he celebrated his return home, as the old account says, "to his beloved Lord Jesus Christ, whom he always praised with his heart and mouth. ”

“ The Melanesians believe in the 'existence of beings personal, intelligent, full of mana, with a certain bodily form which is visible but not fleshly like the bodies of men. These they think to be more or less actively concerned in the affairs of men, and they invoke and otherwise approach them. ”

“ Presently, the Sharper returned to the ruin, rejoicing in that which he deemed he should get, 266and dug in the place, but found naught and knew that the Melancholist had outwitted him. So he began buffetting his face for regret, and fell to following the other whitherso he went, to the intent that he might win what was with him, but he failed in this, because the Melancholist knew what was in his mind and was assured that he spied upon him; so he kept watch over himself. ”

“ Although they were highly incensed at this Catholic league, they would hear nothing of an attack. How much Melanchthon was inclined to a scriptural peace, is shown in a letter addressed by him to the Elector on the 18th of May, 1528: "To have a good conscience, and to enjoy the friendship of God, is surely the best consolation in all afflictions. But if we should begin by seizing the sword, and commence a war with an evil conscience, we would have lost this consolation. Great sorrow and cares induce me to write this. ”

“ After awhile he forgot it as he soon forgot John and the cut of his sharp razor.
Melanctha almost forgot to hate her father, in her strong interest in the power she now knew she had within her.
Melanctha did not care much now, any longer, to see John or his wife or even the fine horses. This life was too quiet and accustomed and no longer stirred her to any interest or excitement.
Melanctha now really was beginning as a woman. She was ready, and she began to search in the streets and in dark corners to discover men and to learn their natures and their various ways of working. ”

“ There are still some divines who esteem Melanchthon's faults as his highest perfections, and look upon him as a man far in advance of his own time, or in other words, as a man who occupies their own position. But if these extollers of Melanchthon would take the trouble to examine his writings, and the additional trouble to compare their own amount of faith with that of the Master of Wittenberg, it would not only result to their own disadvantage, but it would be apparent that they are not even worthy to loosen the latchets of his shoes. ”