Chorus sancti Viti, or S. Vitus' dance; the lascivious dance, a Paracelsus cals it, because they that are taken from it, can do nothing but dance till they be dead, or cured. It is so called, for that the parties so troubled were wont to go to S. Vitus for help, and after they had danced there a while, they were certainly freed. Tis strange to hear how long they will dance, and in what manner, over stooles, formes, tables, even great bellied women somtimes (and yet never hurt their children) will dance so long that they can stir neither hand nor foot, but seem to be quite dead. One in red clothes they cannot abide. Musick above all things they love, and therefore Magistrates in Germany will hire Musicians to play to them, and some lusty sturdy companions to dance with them. This disease hath been very common in Germany, as appears by those relations of Sckenkius, and Paracelsus in his Book of Madness, who brags how many several persons he hath cured of it. Felix Platerus de mentis alienat. cap. 3. reports of a woman in Basil whom he saw, that danced a whole month together. The Arabians call it a kinde of Palsie. Bodine in his 5. Book de Repub. cap. 1. speakes of this infirmity; Monavius in his last Epistle to Scoltizius, and in another to Dudithus, where you may read more of it. The last kinde of madness or melancholy, is that demoniacal (if I may so call it) obsession or possession of devils, which Platerus and others would have to be præternatural: stupend things are said of them, their actions, gestures, contortions, fasting, prophesying, speaking languages they were never taught, &c. many strange stories are related of them, which because some will not allow, (for Deacon and Darrel have written large volumes on this subject pro & con.) I voluntarily omit. Fuschius, institut. lib. 3. sec. 1. cap. 11. Felix Plater, Laurentius, adde to these another Fury that proceeds from Love, and another from Study, another divine or religious fury; but these more properly belong to Melancholy; of all which I will speak apart, intending to write a whole book of them. * a Lascivam Choream. To. 4. de morbis amentium. Tract 1. plurimum rem ipsam comprobante. de mentis alienat. Cap. 4. de mel. Lib. 1. cap. de Mania. Eventu ut SUBSEC. SUBSEC. V. Melancholy in disposition, improperly so called, ELANCHOLY, the subject of our present Discourse, is either in Disposition, or Habit. In Disposition, is that transitory Melancholy which goes and comes upon every smal occasion of sorrow, need, sickness, trouble, fear, grief, passion, or perturbation of the minde, any manner of care, discontent, or thought, which causeth anguish, dulness, heaviness and vexation of spirit, any wayes opposite to pleasure, mirth, joy, delight, causing frowardness in us, or a dislike. In which equivocal and improper sense, we cal him melancholy that is dull, sad, sowre, lumpish, il disposed, solitary, any way moved, or displeased. And from these Melancholy Dispositions, no man living is free, no Stoick, none so wise, none so happy, none so patient, so generous, so godly, so divine that can vindicate himself; so well composed, but more or less, some time or other he feeles the smart of it. Melancholy in this sense is the character of Mortality. Man that is borne of a woman, is of short continuance, and full of trouble." Zeno, Cato, Socrates himself, whom Elian so highly commends for a moderate temper, that "nothing could disturb him, but going out, and coming in, still Socrates kept the same serenity of countenance, what misery soever befell him," (if we may believe Plato his Disciple) was much tormented with it. Q. Metellus, in whom Valerius gives instance of all happiness, "the most fortunate man then living, borne in that most flourishing city of Rome, of noble parentage, a proper man of person, well qualified, healthful, rich, honourable, a Senator, a Consul, happy in his wife, happy in his children," &c. yet this man was not void of Melancholy, he had his share of sorrow. Polycrates Samius, that flung his ring into the sea, because he would participate of discontent with others, and had it miraculously restored to him again. shortly after, by a fish taken as he angled, was not free from Melancholy dispositions. No man can cure himself; the very h f De quo homine securitas, de quo certu gaudium? quocunq; se convertit, in terrenis rebus amaritudinem animi inveniet. Aug. in Psal. 8. 5. * Job 1. 14. * Omni tempore Socrate codem vultu videri, sive domu rediret, sive domo egrederetur. h Lib. 7. cap. 1. Natus in fortissima totius orbis civitate, nobilissimis parentibus, corporis vires habuit & rarissimas animi do.es, uxorem conspicuam, pudicam, alices liberos, consulare decus, sequentes triumphos, &C. Alian. gods gods had bitter pangs, and frequent passions, as their own Surgit amari aliquid in ipsis floribus angat.” n "Even in the midst of laughing there is sorrow," (as " Solo- 66x Natalitia in 1 Lipsius cent. 3. ep. 45. ut calum, sic nos homines su* Homer. Iliad. mus: illud ex intervallo nubibus obducitur & obscuratur. In rosario flores spiVita similis aeri, udum modo, sudum, tempestas, serenitas: m Lucretius 1. 4. nis intermixti. ita vices rerum sunt, præmia gaudis, & sequaces curæ. 1124. " Prov. 14. 13. Extremum gaudii luctus occupat. quit celebrantur, nuptiæ hic sunt; at ibi quid celebratur quod non dolet, quod P Apuleius 4. florid. Nill quicquid homini tam prosperum non transit ? divinitus datam, quin ei admixtum sit aliquid difficultatis ut etiam amplissima quaqua lætitiâ, subsit quæpiam vel parva querimonia conjugatione quadam 4 Caduca nimirum & fragilia, & puerilibus consentanea mellis, & fellis. crepundiis sunt ista quæ vires & opes humanæ vocantur, affluunt subitò, reponte delabuntur, nulio in loco, nulla in persona, stabilibus nixa radicibus consistunt, sed incertissimo flatu fortunæ quos in sublime extulerunt improviso recursu destitutos in profando miseriarum valle miserabiliter immergunt. VaHuic seculo parum aptus es, aut potius omnium noslerius lib. 6. cap. 11. trorum conditionem ignoras, quibus reciproco quodam neau, &c. Lorchanus Gallobelgicus lib. 5. ad annum 1598. is 1 S t is not fit to live in this world (as one condoles our time), he knows not the condition of it, where with a reciprocalty, pleasure and paine are still united, and succeed one another in a ring." Exi è mundo, get thee gone hence if thou canst not brook it; there is no way to avoid it, but to arme thy self with patience, with magnanimity, to oppose thy self unto it, to suffer affliction as a good souldier of Christ; as Paul adviseth constantly to hear it. But forasmuch as so few can embrace this good counsel of his, or use it aright, but rather as so many bruit beasts give a way to their passion, voluntary subject and precipitate themselves into a Labyrinth of cares, woes, miseries, and suffer their souls to be overcome by them, cannot arme themselves with that patience as they ought to do, it falleth out oftentimes that these Dispositions become Habits, and "many Affects contemned (as "Seneca notes) make a disease. Even as one Distillation, not yet grown to custome, makes a cough; but continual and inveterate causeth a consumption of the lungs:" so do these our melancholy provocations and according as the humor it self is intended, or remitted in men, as their temperature of body, or Rational soul is better able to make resistance; so are they more or less affected. For that which is but a flea-biting to one, causeth insufferable torment to another; and which one by his singular moderation, and well composed carriage can happily overcome, a second is no whit able to sustaine; but upon every small occasion of misconceived abuse, injury, grief, disgrace, loss, cross, humor, &c. (if solitary, or idle) yeelds so far to passion, that his complexion is altered, his digestion hindred, his sleepe gone, his spirits obscured, and his heart heavy, his Hypocondries misaffected; winde, crudity, on a sudden overtake him, and he himself overcome with Melancholy. As it is with a man imprisoned for debt, if once in the gaole, every Creditor will bring his action against him, and there likely hold him: If any discontent seize upon a patient, in an instant all other perturbations (for-quá data porta ruunt)will set upon him, and then like a lame dog or broken winged goose he droops and pines away, and is brought at last to that ill habit or malady of melancholy itself. So that as the Philosophers make eight degrees of heat and cold: we may make 88. of Melancholy, as the parts affected are diversly seized with it, or have been plunged more or less into this infernal gulph, or Horsum omnia studia dirigi debent, ut humana fortiter feramus. statem. waded deeper into it. But all these Melancholy fits, howsoever pleasing at first, or displeasing, violent and tyrannizing over those whom they seize on for the time; yet these fits I say, or men affected, are but improperly so called, because they continue not, but come and go, as by some objects they are moved. This Melancholy of which we are to treat, is an habit, morbus sonticus, or Chronicus, a Chronick or continuate disease, a settled humor, as Aurelianus and others call it, not errant, but fixed; and as it was long increasing, so now being (pleasant, or painful) grown to an habit, it will hardly be removed. SECT. I. MEMB. II. SUBSEC. I. Digression of Anatomy. EFORE I proceed to define the Disease of Melancholy, course farther nent 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 Myrache, Hypocondries, Hemrods, &c. Imagination, Reason, Humors, Spirits, Vital, Natural, Animal, Nerves, Veins, Arteries, Chylus, Pituita; which of the vulgar will not so easily be perceived, what they are, how sited, and to what end they serve. And besides, it may peradventure give occasion to some men, to examine more accurately, search farther into this most excellent subject, and thereupon with that Royal Prophet to praise God," (for a man is fearfully and wonderfully made, and curiously wrought)" that have time and leisure enough, and are sufficiently informed in all other worldly businesses, as to make a good bargain, buy and sell, to keep and make choice of a faire Hauke, Hound, Horse, &c. But for such matters as concerne the knowledge of themselves, they are wholly ignorant and careless; they know not what this Body and Soul are, how combined, of what parts and faculties they consist, or how a man differs from a Dog. And what can be more ignominious and filthy (as Melancthon well inveighs) "then for a man not to know the structure and composition of his own body, especially since the knowledge of it tends so much to the preservation of his health, and information of his manners ?" a y Lib. 1. c. 6. Fuschius. 1. 3. sec. 1. cap. 7. Hildesheim fol. 130. * Psal. 39. 13. De anima. Turpe enim est homini ignorare sui corporis (ut ita dicam) ædificiu, præsertim cum ad valetudinem et mores hac cognitio plurimum conducat. To |