The Anatomy of Melancholy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 2,057 pages of information about The Anatomy of Melancholy.

The Anatomy of Melancholy eBook

This eBook from the Gutenberg Project consists of approximately 2,057 pages of information about The Anatomy of Melancholy.
his cradle to his old age beholds the same still; still, still the same, the same.  Insomuch that [3199]Rhasis, cont. lib. 1.  Tract. 2. doth not only commend, but enjoin travel, and such variety of objects to a melancholy man, “and to lie in diverse inns, to be drawn into several companies:”  Montaltus, cap. 36. and many neoterics are of the same mind:  Celsus adviseth him therefore that will continue his health, to have varium vitae genus, diversity of callings, occupations, to be busied about, [3200] “sometimes to live in the city, sometimes in the country; now to study or work, to be intent, then again to hawk or hunt, swim, run, ride, or exercise himself.”  A good prospect alone will ease melancholy, as Comesius contends, lib. 2. c. 7. de Sale.  The citizens of [3201]Barcino, saith he, otherwise penned in, melancholy, and stirring little abroad, are much delighted with that pleasant prospect their city hath into the sea, which like that of old Athens besides Aegina Salamina, and many pleasant islands, had all the variety of delicious objects:  so are those Neapolitans and inhabitants of Genoa, to see the ships, boats, and passengers go by, out of their windows, their whole cities being situated on the side of a hill, like Pera by Constantinople, so that each house almost hath a free prospect to the sea, as some part of London to the Thames:  or to have a free prospect all over the city at once, as at Granada in Spain, and Fez in Africa, the river running betwixt two declining hills, the steepness causeth each house almost, as well to oversee, as to be overseen of the rest.  Every country is full of such [3202]delightsome prospects, as well within land, as by sea, as Hermon and [3203]Rama in Palestina, Colalto in Italy, the top of Magetus, or Acrocorinthus, that old decayed castle in Corinth, from which Peloponessus, Greece, the Ionian and Aegean seas were semel et simul at one view to be taken.  In Egypt the square top of the great pyramid, three hundred yards in height, and so the Sultan’s palace in Grand Cairo, the country being plain, hath a marvellous fair prospect as well over Nilus, as that great city, five Italian miles long, and two broad, by the river side:  from mount Sion in Jerusalem, the Holy Land is of all sides to be seen:  such high places are infinite:  with us those of the best note are Glastonbury tower, Box Hill in Surrey, Bever castle, Rodway Grange, [3204]Walsby in Lincolnshire, where I lately received a real kindness, by the munificence of the right honourable my noble lady and patroness, the Lady Frances, countess dowager of Exeter:  and two amongst the rest, which I may not omit for vicinity’s sake, Oldbury in the confines of Warwickshire, where I have often looked about me with great delight, at the foot of which hill [3205]I was born:  and Hanbury in Staffordshire, contiguous to which is Falde, a pleasant village, and an ancient patrimony belonging to our family, now in the possession
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The Anatomy of Melancholy from Project Gutenberg. Public domain.