PREFAC E.

THE author of the celebrated work

intitled "THE ANATOMY of MELANCHOLY," has, in its feveral divifions, respectively fhewn, 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, be come, when carried to excefs, not only the bane of virtue, and, of course, the deftruction of earthly happiness, but the principal causes of that preternatural fermentation of the brain, which in time breaks down the mental beam, and precipitates the unhappy fufferers into the gulphs of melancholy, madness,

or despair. He has not, however, left the patients to linger under these maladies without hope of relief, but, while he traces the feveral 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, must spring from A CHASTE MIND; and that the adoration of God, to warrant a hope of eternal happiness, must be the effluence of CHRISTIAN PIETY. "It is

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certainly of the highest importance," fays a celebrated moralift, "that, in the common concerns of life, the “mind should maintain its fovereignty

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

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vigour of the foul, to caft clouds of

"the thickest darkness over the judg

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ment and understanding, and to "wreft them violently from the prin

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ciples of reason and the paths of

duty; that the paffion of Love fhould "be fo wifely managed and mode

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rated by the powers of reason, as

not to fix itself upon an improper object, procure base or unworthy fuel for its flame, prevent, in its "enjoyments, the discharge of other duties, or degenerate into difquie"tude or disease; and that, among "the opinions which it highly concerns all perfons to fettle and em

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brace, the chief are those which "relate to the adoration of THE AL66 MIGHTY;

"MIGHTY; the practice of the true: Religion being the only foundation. "of that sweet tranquillity, and ac-.

quiefence of mind, which Man in-wardly enjoys; and the very fence. "and bulwark of that probity which. "he is bound to exercise towards his "fellow creatures." These are the doc-. trines which it seems the object of "The Anatomy of Melancholy" to in-culcate; but the author, in performing this task, having, to a certain degree, so 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

regular perusal of it laborious and fatiguing, it was conceived that a felection of its principal parts might be made to form not only an entertaining, but an instructive volume. In attempting, however, to carry this idea into effect, it was found, to use the author's own expreffion, "impoffible "to bring fo large a veffel into fo fmall "a creek," without in fome degree changing its form, as well as reducing its fize, and leaving much of its very excellent materials behind. To reconftruct a new work with old materials, is always difficult, and frequently dangerous: the attempt, however, has been made in the following pages; but with what fuccefs the public must determine. The volume, compared with its great original, is a mere boat, formed