Other related topics at:
All In Your Mind
497. Guilt Complexes; Melancholy;
Superstitions
"No disease of the imagination ... is so difficult of cure as
that which is complicated with the dread of guilt: fancy and
conscience then act interchangeably upon us, and so often shift
their places that the illusions of one are not distinguished from
the dictates of the other. If fancy presents images not moral or
religious, the mind drives them away when they give it pain; but
when melancholic notions take the form of duty, they lay hold on
the faculties without opposition, because we are afraid to
exclude or banish them. For this reason the superstitious are
often melancholy, and the melancholy almost always
superstitious."
Johnson: Rasselas [Imlac]
Note: If you haven't read it yet, please read this note of caution regarding quotes from
Rasselas.
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583. Fear; Melancholy;
Over-Anticipation
"The concern of things to come that is so justly censured is not
the result of those general reflections on the variableness of
fortune, the uncertainty of life, and the universal insecurity of
all human acquisitions, which must always be suggested by the
view of the world; but such a desponding anticipation of
misfortune as fixes the mind upon scenes of gloom and melancholy,
and makes fear predominate every imagination."
Johnson: Rambler #29 (June 26, 1750)
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