PREFACE.

THE author of the celebrated work

intitled "THE ANATOMY of MELAN

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CHOLY," has, in its several divisions, respectively shewn, that an inordinate pursuit of the common pleasures of life, an unrestrained indulgence of the affections of the heart, and a mistaken notion of our duties towards God, become, when carried to excess, not only the bane of virtue, and, of course, the destruction of earthly happiness, but the principal caufes of that preternatural fermentation of the brain, which in time breaks down the mental beam, and precipitates the unhappy sufferers into the gulphs of melancholy, madness, a 3

or

or despair. He has not, however, left the patients to linger under thefe maladies without hope of relief, but, while he traces the several caufes from which they flow, has, like a kind physician, pointed out the means by which they may be prevented or cured; by fhewing that the pleasures of life, to be truly enjoyed, must be guided by TEMPERANCE; that the affections of the heart, to produce felicity, muft fpring from A CHASTE MIND; and that the adoration of God, to warrant a hope of eternal happiness, must be the ef fluence of CHRISTIAN PIETY. "It is

certainly of the highest importance,” fays a celebrated moralift, that, in "the common concerns of life, the "mind fhould maintain its fovereignty over its own motions and affections,

" which

"which tend, in general, to impair the “health of the body, to destroy the

vigour of the foul, to cast clouds of "the thickest darkness over the judg

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ment and understanding, and to “wrest them violently from the prin“ciples of reason and the paths of

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duty; that the passion of Love should

"be fo wifely managed and mode. "rated by the powers of reafon, as "not to fix itself upon an improper object, procure base or unworthy « fuel for its flame, prevent, in its

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enjoyments, the discharge of other duties, or degenerate into difquie“tude or disease;" and that, among "the opinions which it highly con"cerns all perfons to fettle and em

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brace, the chief are thofe which

"relate to the adoration of THE AL66 MIGHTY;

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PREFACE.

MIGHTY; the practice of the true Religion being the only foundation of that sweet tranquillity, and acquiesence of mind, which MAN inwardly enjoys; and the very fence "and bulwark of that probity which "he is bound to exercise towards his "fellow creatures." Thefe are the doctrines which it seems the object of "The Anatomy of Melancholy" to inculcate: but the author, in performing this tafk, having, to a certain degree, fo overwhelmed the strong sense, pointed wit, happy illuftrations, bold metaphors, and humorous obfervations, which his work contains, with long, though ingenious digreffions, multitudes of quotations, frequent repetitions, and other extraneous or fuperabundant matter, as to render the

regular