Friday, October 23, 2026
The World
Robert Burton (1577-1640), Anatomy of Melancholy, Pt. I, Sec. 2, Memb. III, Subs. 10 (vol. 1, p. 274 of the Everyman edition):
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In a word, the world itself is a maze, a labyrinth of errors, a desert, a wilderness, a den of thieves, cheaters, etc., full of filthy puddles, horrid rocks, precipitiums, an ocean of adversity, an heavy yoke, wherein infirmities and calamities overtake, and follow one another, as the sea waves; and if we scape Scylla, we fall foul on Charybdis, and so in perpetual fear, labour, anguish, we run from one plague, one mischief, one burden to another, duram servientes servitutem [undergoing a hard bondage], and you may as soon separate weight from lead, heat from fire, moistness from water, brightness from the sun, as misery, discontent, care, calamity, danger from a man.
