The Anatomy of Melancholy,

This historic book may have numerous typos and missing text. Purchasers can download a free scanned copy of the original book (without typos) from the publisher. Not indexed. Not illustrated. 1824 Excerpt: ...this complaint, is that which is effected by rectifying the passions and perturbations of the mind; for a quiet mind is the true voluptas or summum bonum of Epicureans; the highest blessing man can enjoy: and Galen, the common master, from whose fountain all subsequent physicians fetch their water. relates, that he has cured many patients of this infirmity by the right settling alone of their minds. Music is one, and not the least powerful, of those many means which philosophers and physicians have prescribed to exhilarate a sorrowful heart, and to divert those intense cares which accompany this complaint. Musica est mentis medicina mesta; a roaring-meg against melancholy: it rears and revives the languishing soul; affects not only the ears, but the very arteries; awakens the dormant powers, raises the animal spirits, and renders the most dull, severe, and sorrowful mind, erect and nimble. The effect of music upon the human soul is wonderful: Athensus calls it a matchless and inexhaustible treasure; and Cassiodorus says it will not only expel the severest grief, soften the most violent hatred, mitigate the sharpest spleen, but extenuate fear and fury, appease cruelty, abate heaviness, and bring the mind to quietude and rest. The harps of Orpheus, Amphion, and Arion, charmed all nature with their powers: even--Things inanimate have moved. And, as with living souls, have been inform'd By magic numbers and persuasive sounds. Music, divine music, besides the excellent powers it possesses of expelling many other diseases, is a sovereign remedy against despair and melan-_ ctaoly, and will drive even the Devil himself away. Canus, a musician at Rhodes, when Apol-lonius inquired what he could effect by means of his pipe, told him that he could make a melan-choly ma...