generation*. Its descent is neither certain nor regular; for it frequently passes by the father, and fixes on the son, or takes every other, and sometimes every third in lineal descent. The young children of aged parents seldom possess a strong and healthy temperament, and are therefore extremely subject to this disease; and foolish, weak, giddy, angry, peevish, and discontented women, generally produce a progeny like unto themselves. The mind and disposition of the mother, indeed, are, it is well known, strongly stamped on the character of the child; and every degree of grief, fear, apprehension, or alarm, which she may, during pregnancy, unfortunately feel, endangers its temperature, and sows the seeds of this hideous disease; of which Baptista Portat, among many other instances, gives a memorable example of one Thomas Nickell, born in the city of Brandenburgh, in the year 1551, who, all the days of his life, went reeling and staggering, as if he were falling to the ground, owing to his mother, while pregnant with him, having seen a drunken man reeling through the streets, and likely to fall. To which we may add, the instance of the girl that was brought from the neighbourhood of Pisa, and presented to the king of Bohemia, with hair upon her skin resembling that of a camel, which is said to have been occasioned by an alarm which her mother received on seeing that animal * See also Rodericus à Fonseca, Tom. i. Consul. 69. and Lodovicus Mercatus, a Spanish physician, Tom. ii. Lib. 5. + Physiog. Calistis, I. v. c. 2. To be well born, is during her pregnancy. among the highest felicities of human nature; and it would be happy for the species, if such persons only as are sound both in body and mind were suffered to marry. Some countries were formerly so chary in this behalf, as to destroy every child that was crooked or deformed, either in body or mind, in order to preserve, as a national benefit, the common stock from degeneration; and though this law was severe in the extreme, and not to be tolerated in Christian countries, the prevention of hereditary disease is a subject of no small public importance, and ought to be attended to by those whose power is conferred for the purpose of promoting the health and happiness of mankind*. Old age, as it diminishes the energies of the mind, and increases the adust humours of the body, is an unavoidable cause of melancholy; but, by care and management, this species of the disease may be considerably delayed, and greatly mitigated, though it cannot be entirely removed. "Dotage," says Aristotle," is the familiar companion of age, which regularly engenders in its progress a superabundance of black choler:" and, indeed, we are told by the Royal Psalmist, that after seventy years all is trouble and sorrow. This truth is strongly confirmed in the characters of those persons who, having been engaged in high employments, in extensive concerns, in • The danger here mentioned is said to be one reason why marriages within the degrees of consanguinity are interdicted. situations of great command, or in business where many servants were to be overlooked, have resigned their respective engagements ex abrupto; especially in the memorable instance of Charles the Fifth, who resigned the government of Spain to his son Philip*. All persons, after a certain * The resignation of Charles the Fifth filled all Europe with astonishment; and gave rise, both among his contemporaries, and among the historians of that period, to various conjectures, concerning the motives which determined a prince, whose ruling passion had been uniformly the love of power, at the age of fifty-six, when objects of ambition continue to operate with full force upon the mind, and are pursued with the greatest ardour, to take a resolution so singular and unexpected. But while many authors have imputed it to motives so frivolous and fantastical as can hardly be supposed to influence any reasonable mind; while others have imagined it to be the result of some profound scheme of policy, historians more intelligent, and better informed, neither ascribe it to caprice, nor search for mysterious secrets of state, when simple and obvious causes will fully account for the Emperor's conduct. Charles had been attacked early in life with the gout, and, notwithstanding all the precautions of the most skilful physicians, the violence of the distemper increased as he advanced in age; and the fits became every year more frequent, as well as more severe. Not only was the vigour of his constitution broken, but the faculties of his mind were impaired by the excruciating torments which he endured. During the continuance of the fits, he was altogether incapable of applying to business; and even when they began to abate, as it was only at intervals that he could attend to what was serious, he gave up a great part of his time to trifling and even childish occupations, which served to amuse or relieve his mind, enfeebled and worn out with excess of pain. Under these circumstances of a premature old age, the functions of period, become melancholy, doting, and scarcely able to manage their affairs, through the common infirmities incident to age: filled with aches, sorrows, cares, and griefs, they frequently carle as they sit, mutter to themselves, and become covetous, suspicious, wayward, angry, waspish, and displeased with every thing around them; or else self-willed, superstitious, self-conceited, braggers, and admirers of themselves. These infirmities, so incident to old age, are generally most eminent in old women, and in such as are poor and solitary: and, indeed, all those extraordinary powers which old witches were supposed to exercise, and pretended to possess ; such as, bewitching cattle to death, riding in the air upon a coulstaffe, flying out of the chimney top, transforming themselves into the various shapes of cats and other animals, transporting their bodies, suddenly and secretly, from place to place, becoming "Posters ore the sea and land," meeting on the dreary heath, and dancing in a ring, and other “ supernatural solicitings" of the like kind, are all ascribed to the corrupted fancy, which is engendered by that morbid, atrabilious melancholy matter, attendant upon moping misery and rheumed age*. government far exceeded his strength; and having thus grown old before his time, he wisely judged it to be more decent to conceal his infirmities in some solitude, than to expose them any longer to the public eye. But he had no relish for attainments of any kind, and he sunk by degrees into the deepest melancholy. * Thus the angel Michael, describing to Adam, among Eating and Drinking.-Diet, the first of the six non-naturals before-mentioned, consists in meat and drink, and causes melancholy in proportion as it offends in quantity, quality, or the like. Food improperly taken, not only produces original diseases, but affords those that are already engendered both matter and sustenance ; for neither unwholesome air, nor the most violent perturbation, or any other cause, can work its effect, except its operation be assisted by a pre-disposition of the humours; so that, let the father of disease be what it may, Intemperance is certainly its mother; and from this source not only melancholy, but most other distempers, generally arise. Galen, Isaac the Jew, Halyabbas, Avecinna, four Arabian, and many other physicians, both English and foreign, have written copious treatises on this particular subject; and as their works are not generally found in modern libraries, I will briefly describe what kinds of food are in the opinions of these writers most likely to effect an alteration of the system, and to engender this melancholy humour. Beef other consequences of his fall, the condition of old age, Thy youth, thy strength, thy beauty, which will change |