THE STUDY OF CHARACTER 595 



It is fortunate that the older currents of thought, medical and 

 otherwise, were summarized at the very period at which they were des- 

 tined to retirement by Harvey's fundamental discovery. Burton's 

 "Anatomy of Melancholy" is a collection of all the mystic, fantastic, 

 engaging and (to our minds) incredible procedures of an ambitious 

 science, suggestive of the waste-products of the mind. Burton anat- 

 omizes the humors, recognizing the four primary juices 

 without whicli no living creature can be sustained; which four, though they be 

 comprehended in the mass of the blood, yet have their several affections. . . . 

 Blood is a hot, sweet, temperate, red humour, prepared in the meseraic veins, and 

 made of the most temperate, parts of the chylus in the liver whose office is to 

 nourish the whole body, to give it strength and colour, being dispersed by the 

 veins through every part of it. And from it spirits are first begotten in the 

 heart, which afterwards by the arteries are communicated to the other parts 



and so on, with a like conjectural anatomy and acrobatic physiology 

 for the other humors. Burton's appetite for the occult inevitably made 

 him a believer in astrology. It is a fact that his horoscope is pictured 

 on his tombstone, but it is presumably but a rumor that he assisted 

 the fulfillment of the prediction of the time of his death by hanging 

 himself. Burton's work is suggestive in view of the career of the 

 doctrines which superceded the "temperaments" as practical exponents 

 of character. It indicates the ready temptation for views of this nature 

 to degenerate into vain pseudo-science, and under a common enthu- 

 siasm and prepossession to bring together in mutual tolerance diverse 



that he is "full colerick of compleceioun " and should beware of the "sonne in 

 his aseensioun. " Among the artists, Albrecht Diirer reflected the current belief 

 that temperament was responsible for the differences of men. He urged that 

 artists should present the features and proportions suitable to the characters of 

 their subjects. One of his ripest productions, commonly known as "The Four 

 Apostles, ' ' also bore the title of ' ' The Four Temperaments. ' ' — St. John repre- 

 senting the melancholic, St. Peter the phlegmatic, St. Paul the choleric, and St. 

 Mark the sanguine. 



The affiliation of "humors" and temperaments appears in the transferred 

 use of the former term. The dramatic material of the age of Elizabeth with its 

 free emphasis of personality, was typically staged in Ben Johnson's (1574-1637) 

 "Every Man in His Humour" and "Every Man Out of His Humor." The 

 following is from the induction to the latter. 



"To give these ignorant well-spoken days some taste of their abuse of this 

 word humour," the argument proceeds: "Why, humour as 'tis ens, we thus 

 define it. To be a quality of air, or water. And in itself holds these two prop- 

 erties. Moisture, and fluxure: as, for demonstration, Pour water on this floor, 

 'twill wet and run: Likewise the air, forced through a horn, or trumpet, Flows 

 instantly away, and leaves behind A kind of dew; and hence, we do conclude. 

 That whatsoe'er hath fluxure, and humidity. As wanting power to contain itself, 

 Is humour. So in every human body, the choler, melancholy, phlegm, and blood, 

 By reason that they flow continually In some one part, and are not continent, 

 Eeceive the name of Humours. Now thus far It may, by metaphor, apply itself 

 Unto the general disposition : As when some one peculiar quality Doth so possess 

 a man, that it doth draw All his affects, his spirits and his powers. In their con- 

 Auctions, all to run one way, This may be truly said to be a humour." 



