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mak<strong>in</strong>g us calm or melancholic (stableor neurotic <strong>in</strong>troversion). Aristotlenoted that the melancholic temperamentwas associated with em<strong>in</strong>ence <strong>in</strong>philosophy, poetry, and the arts (todaywe might classify this as openness toexperience). <strong>The</strong> seventeenth-centuryEnglish poet John Milton wrote IlPenseroso (“<strong>The</strong> Th<strong>in</strong>ker”) and L’Allegro(“<strong>The</strong> Merry One”), <strong>com</strong>par<strong>in</strong>g “thehappy person” who frolics <strong>in</strong> the countrysideand revels <strong>in</strong> the city with “thethoughtful person” who walks meditativelythrough the nighttime woods andstudies <strong>in</strong> a “lonely Towr.” (Aga<strong>in</strong>,today the description <strong>of</strong> Il Penserosowould apply not only to <strong>in</strong>troversionbut also to openness to experience andneuroticism.) <strong>The</strong> n<strong>in</strong>eteenth-centuryGerman philosopher Schopenhauercontrasted “good-spirited” people (energetic,active, and easily bored) with768/929

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