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Melancholy is a very different thing from bad humor, and of the two, it is not nearly so far removed from a gay and happy temperament.  Melancholy attracts, while bad humor repels.

Hypochondria is a species of torment which not only makes us unreasonably cross with the things of the present; not only fills us with groundless anxiety on the score of future misfortunes entirely of our own manufacture; but also leads to unmerited self-reproach for what we have done in the past.

Hypochondria shows itself in a perpetual hunting after things that vex and annoy, and then brooding over them.  The cause of it is an inward morbid discontent, often co-existing with a naturally restless temperament.  In their extreme form, this discontent and this unrest lead to suicide.

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Any incident, however trivial, that rouses disagreeable emotion, leaves an after-effect in our mind, which for the time it lasts, prevents our taking a clear objective view of the things about us, and tinges all our thoughts:  just as a small object held close to the eye limits and distorts our field of vision.

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What makes people hard-hearted is this, that each man has, or fancies he has, as much as he can bear in his own troubles.  Hence, if a man suddenly finds himself in an unusually happy position, it will in most cases result in his being sympathetic and kind.  But if he has never been in any other than a happy position, or this becomes his permanent state, the effect of it is often just the contrary:  it so far removes him from suffering that he is incapable of feeling any more sympathy with it.  So it is that the poor often show themselves more ready to help than the rich.

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At times it seems as though we both wanted and did not want the same thing, and felt at once glad and sorry about it.  For instance, if on some fixed date we are going to be put to a decisive test about anything in which it would be a great advantage to us to come off victorious, we shall be anxious for it to take place at once, and at the same time we shall tremble at the thought of its approach.  And if, in the meantime, we hear that, for once in a way, the date has been postponed, we shall experience a feeling both of pleasure and of annoyance; for the news is disappointing, but nevertheless it affords us momentary relief.  It is just the same thing if we are expecting some important letter carrying a definite decision, and it fails to arrive.

In such cases there are really two different motives at work in us; the stronger but more distant of the two being the desire to stand the test and to have the decision given in our favor; and the weaker, which touches us more nearly, the wish to be left for the present in peace and quiet, and accordingly in further enjoyment of the advantage which at any rate attaches to a state of hopeful uncertainty, compared with the possibility that the issue may be unfavorable.