On Melancholy.

Cover -- Title Page -- Copyright -- Contents -- Introduction -- On melancholy -- Democritus Junior to the Reader -- Democritus Senior -- Burton's self-description -- Burton gives his reasons for writing -- The itch to write -- A loose, plain, rude writer -- Humanity remains the same -- The mischief of great men -- The virtue of great men -- The world -- Unequal rewards -- Holland and England compared -- Our national idleness -- Burton's Utopia -- Critics and scholars -- Burton's object -- The First Partition -- Habit or disposition? -- The four humours -- Those pre-disposed to melancholy -- Fairies -- The Devil -- Old age -- Parental inheritance -- Dietary prohibitions -- Drink a cause of melancholy -- Quantity of food -- Venery - too little and too much -- Idleness -- Solitariness -- Abbeys and Monasteries -- Imagination -- Fear -- Disgrace -- Envy -- Emulation -- Discontents -- Self-love -- Our obscurity -- The miseries of scholars -- Bad education -- Loss of liberty -- Poverty -- Loss of friends -- Futile philosophy -- The outward symptoms of melancholy -- Irrational fears -- Obsessions -- The Chaos of Melancholy -- Melancholy adust, or the burning of the four humours2323 A technical passage. Burton describes how melancholy 'adust' - or burnt melancholy - could be produced in the body by burning any of the four humours. Burnt melancholy itself could produce melancholy adust, but so could burnt blood, phlegm or choler. Each of these adustions, by burning a person's dominant humour and so upsetting the balance of their natural temperament, could cause different symptoms of melancholy madness. -- Melancholy of maids and widows -- The Second Partition -- A digression of the air -- Bird migration -- Fossils and continental drift -- The variety of species -- Other worlds -- Travel -- Pastimes -- The joy of study -- Sleep -- A friend's counsel.

Discontents -- Gentility -- One sorrow drives out another -- The benefits of wine -- The Third Partition -- Love melancholy: preamble -- We are all mad -- Love's effects -- Bestiality and homosexuality -- Lust in age -- Personal preference -- Foul mistresses -- Anaphrodisiacs -- Love's best refuge -- Jealousy -- Religious melancholy: preamble -- The Devil's instruments -- Ignorance and superstition -- Sectarian hatred -- Islam -- Latter-day prophets -- Despair -- Overcoming despair -- Valediction -- Biographical note -- About the Publisher -- SELECTED TITLES FROM HESPERUS PRESS.