Tremendous almost to the point of impossibility, I said, a few pages
back, having in mind the immense task Burton undertook. First, he
undertook a monument of classification easily comparable to the work
of Darwin or of Huxley. He wanted to be all-inclusive, to be clear cut
and exact, leaving out nothing. So there was made a kind of chart which
he calls his synopsis. Then came other charts, one for each partition,
with divisions and sub-divisions most wonderful. It is difficult to
convey an idea of the magnitude of the scheme without example. For
instance he takes up the task thus:
In diseases
consider
-----------------------------
Their causes Definition, Member,
Division.
--------------- -----------------------
Of the body Of the head
300 which are and mind.
Epidemical
Impulsive Instrumental. or
Particular In disposition
Sin, concupiscence &c
Intemperance or
and all second
causes Habits as
(listed names)
Then comes the ramification, quite impossible to reproduce here. But
to give an idea, he lists under the heading “Habits,” Dotage, Phrensy,
Madness, Ecstasy, Lycanthropia, Chorus Sancti Viti, Hydrophobia,
Obsession of Devils, Melancholy.
So far so good, but it must be borne in mind that about each of these
“Habits” he has much to say, quoting, arguing, coming to conclusions.
But that is not all. The word Melancholy starts him off again and there
is another classification, another chart. Considering it, he finds four
main heads, the first of which is Equivocations. That again subdivides
into two, each again ramifying, but the first of the two subdividing
into seven, while at the other end of the chart, we arrive by
degrees at “The Causes of Melancholy.” So there is another classified
chart with tremendous ramifications intended to show which causes of
Melancholy are “Evident, outward and remote” and which are “Contingent
and Inward.” Then “Particular Causes” has its separate classification
showing how a melancholy state may arrive from many causes, too many to
list here, but among which are “Bad diet, distempered liver, improper
evacuations, idleness, excess or defect of venery” and much more. But,
remember, in the book proper, each one of these is carefully considered
and argued. Yet it is not finished, the plan is not laid. There must
be further consideration. What he calls “non-natural” things that man
encounters must be considered, so there is another classification with
an examination of the sub-heads growing therefrom and he discovers
that there must be studied the effects of the eating of certain kinds
of bread, of flesh and fish and herbs, the quality and the quantity of
them, the digestive processes, corrective medicines, the temperaments
of men and how such are affected by desire, by exercise, by excessive
sexual gratification or the reverse, by study. And bear in mind, that
there is to follow what is really an essay about each and every subject
found in the classification, which essays deal with vegetarianism,
celibacy, temperance and drunkenness, cooking, conduct, education. All
that comes in the first classification under the head of A. Then B and
C follow, each with its ramifications, down to the furthermost item.
It is like the laying bare of the respiratory system of man, passing
from the mouth to the ultimate bronchial tubes, capillary--like things
almost invisible. Yet all that I have swiftly outlined, is but a third
part of the classification or synopsis for the First Partition, which
ends with “How a melancholy or mad man offering violence to himself is
to be censured.” Much more is to follow. There is a similar analysis of
the second and also of the third partition, the last grouping, a most
tremendous one, dealing with Religious Melancholy in which he passes
in review the whole known world of human thought, touching on such odd
subjects as the plurality of worlds, polygamy, atheism and pantheism,
quaint marriage laws, country life and a hundred other things. The book
is a dictionary, an encyclopedia, a library in itself. As for the man,
he seems to have read everything and remembered everything he had read.
And the Anatomy was his digestion, as it were.
But perhaps the greatest wonder is the odd scraps of information that
are to be found, hints of things of vast interest if the reader does
but choose to follow up the clue. For instance, a moment ago I chanced
to open the first volume at random and found a reference to a canal
where the Suez Canal is now. Readers of Washington Irving’s _Life of
Mahomet_ will recall that in that book is a similar reference. But hear
Burton: “The Turks of late attempted to cut that isthmus between Africa
and Asia, which Sesostris and Darius and some Pharaohs of Egypt had
formerly undertaken, with ill success....” To verify that you must go
to Herodotus.
Similarly, Burton tells us of other things, not dragged in by the
ears to display his erudition by any means, but mentioned quite _en
passant_, to elucidate some point or to amplify some argument. So we
find him writing of great floods in Zealand, of the courtesans in
Venice, of the jealousy of dogs, of spots on the sun, of the pied piper
of Hamelin, of the climate of Iceland. He leaves out nothing and all is
fish that comes to his net.