"But the eighteenth century, on the whole, loathed melancholy"

George Saintsbury's assertion that "the eighteenth century, on the whole, hated melancholy" provides a deep reflection on the cultural and intellectual position of the period, typically referred to as the Age of Enlightenment. This age was marked by a profound emphasis on reason, progress, and the valorization of human intelligence and scientific improvement. In this context, the notion of melancholy, often related to deep, contemplative unhappiness or pensive introspection, appeared contrary to the era's dominant worths.

During the eighteenth century, a duration characterized by optimism and a belief in the power of human reason to enhance the world, melancholy may have been deemed an obstacle to advance and logical idea. Enlightenment thinkers, such as Voltaire, Newton, and Kant, stressed clarity, optimism, and the potential of human factor to understand and change the world. Melancholy, with its roots in the more illogical and emotional elements of the human experience, stood in opposition to this intellectual framework, which prized the victory of logic over feeling.

Furthermore, the contempt for melancholy can be seen as a reaction versus the preceding Baroque age, which commemorated significant expressions of emotion and the Sublime, consisting of a fascination with styles of despair and terrible beauty. On the other hand, the Enlightenment's preference for balance, order, and rationality might have resulted in a cultural propensity to dismiss melancholy as a relic of a less enlightened time.

The literature and art of the duration also reflect this hostility. The rise of neoclassicism, with its focus on consistency and percentage, even more suggested a relocation far from the darker, more emotive elements characteristic of the previous era's artistic expressions. Humor and satire, as tools for both entertainment and social commentary, thrived during this time, typically serving to diffuse or mock the excessive seriousness and introspection that melancholy represented.

In summary, Saintsbury's observation highlights the wider philosophical and cultural currents of the eighteenth century, highlighting a collective effort to prioritize factor and development over the psychological depths and obscurities associated with melancholy. This belief, however, would not last forever, as the Romantic movement that followed would reincorporate and reembrace the melancholic in its mission to explore the full series of human feelings.