"Democritus to the Reader"

When I first took this task in hand, et quod at ille, impellente genio negotium suscepi (and, as he saith, I undertook the work from some inner impulse), this I aimed at, vel ut lenirem animum scribendo, (or) to ease my mind by writing; for I had gravidum cor, foedum caput, a kind of imposthume in my head, which I was very desirous to be unladen of, and could imagine no fitter evacuation than this. Besides, I might not well refrain, for ubi dolor, ibi digitus, one must needs scratch where it itches. I was not a little offended with this malady, shall I say my mistress Melancholy, my Egeria, or my malus genius [evil genius]? and for that cause, as he that is stung with a scorpion, I would expel clavum clavo [a nail with a nail], comfort one sorrow with another, idleness with idleness, ut ex vipera theriacum [as an antidote out of a serpent's venom], make an antidote out of that which was the prime cause of my disease.

--Robert Burton (1628)