“A Wise Disease”: Spleen and Moral Philosophy in the essays of Jeremy Collier

Abstract

This paper analyses a series of essays by the non-juror priest Jeremy Collier (1650-1726) in which he tackled the subject of the spleen. Reading them in connection with the contemporary writings of William Temple, the paper studies the way in which Collier employed classical moral philosophy in his claim for a reformation of the manners. It argues that the priest made a critical appropriation of Stoicism through which he conceived the spleen as a sign of a moral crisis which demanded a government of the passions based on reason and faith. Finally, by way of an epilogue, the article suggests a filiation with the afterlife of the spleen in the 19th century, in terms of the idea of estrangement.