“The archness which BURTON displays occasionally, and his indulgence of playful digressions from the most serious discussions, often give his style an air of familiar conversation, notwithstanding the laborious collections which supply his text.  He was capable of writing excellent poetry, but he seems to have cultivated this talent too little.  The English verses prefixed to his book, which possess beautiful imagery, and great sweetness of versification, have been frequently published.  His Latin elegiac verses addressed to his book, shew a very agreeable turn for raillery.”—­Ibid. p. 58.

“When the force of the subject opens his own vein of prose, we discover valuable sense and brilliant expression.  Such is his account of the first feelings of melancholy persons, written, probably, from his own experience.” [See p. 154, of the present edition.]—­Ibid. p. 60.

“During a pedantic age, like that in which BURTON’S production appeared, it must have been eminently serviceable to writers of many descriptions.  Hence the unlearned might furnish themselves with appropriate scraps of Greek and Latin, whilst men of letters would find their enquiries shortened, by knowing where they might look for what both ancients and moderns had advanced on the subject of human passions.  I confess my inability to point out any other English author who has so largely dealt in apt and original quotation.”—­Manuscript note of the late George Steevens, Esq., in his copy of THE ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY.

DEMOCRITUS JUNIOR AD LIBRUM SUUM.

        Vade liber, qualis, non ausum dicere, felix,
          Te nisi felicem fecerit Alma dies. 
        Vade tamen quocunque lubet, quascunque per oras,
          Et Genium Domini fac imitere tui. 
        I blandas inter Charites, mystamque saluta
          Musarum quemvis, si tibi lector erit. 
        Rura colas, urbem, subeasve palatia regum,
          Submisse, placide, te sine dente geras. 
        Nobilis, aut si quis te forte inspexerit heros,
          Da te morigerum, perlegat usque lubet. 
        Est quod nobilitas, est quod desideret heros,
          Gratior haec forsan charta placere potest. 
        Si quis morosus Cato, tetricusque Senator,
          Hunc etiam librum forte videre velit,
        Sive magistratus, tum te reverenter habeto;
          Sed nullus; muscas non capiunt Aquilae. 
        Non vacat his tempus fugitivum impendere nugis,
          Nec tales cupio; par mihi lector erit. 
        Si matrona gravis casu diverterit istuc,
          Illustris domina, aut te Comitissa legat: 
        Est quod displiceat, placeat quod forsitan illis,
          Ingerere his noli te modo, pande tamen. 
        At si virgo tuas dignabitur inclyta chartas
          Tangere, sive schedis haereat illa tuis: 
        Da modo te facilem, et quaedam folia esse memento