alleviated, by the suggestion of counteracting moral motives. If, for instance, the despondency of mind has arisen from some supposed injury, it is desirable to suggest all well-founded considerations which may tend to lessen the sufferer's estimate of the amount of the injury received. When the injury is very great and apparent, suggestions on the nature and duty of forgiveness may not be without effect. -But, whatever course may be taken, it is desirable that the attention of the sufferer should be directed as little as possible to his disease, by any direct remarks upon it. It was a remark of Dr. Johnson,! whose sad experience enabled him to judge, that conversation upon melancholy feeds it. Accordingly, he advised Boswell, who, as well as himself, was subject to melancholy of mind, "Never to speak of it to his friends, or in company."

§ 215. Disordered action of the passion of Fear. The passion of FEAR, inasmuch as there are va rious objects around us which are or may be dangerous, is obviously implanted in us for wise purposes. But it not unfrequently exhibits an irregular or disordered action. This disordered state of the affection may discover itself, when considered either in reference to the occasion on which it exists, or in reference to the degree in which it exists. In some cases, for instance, it is connected with objects which, in the view of reason and common sense, ought not to excite it. Some persons are afraid to be alone in the dark; it is exceedingly distressing Others are afraid (so much so, perhaps,

to them.

as to be thrown into convulsions by their presence) of a mouse, or a squirrel, or an insect. It will be necessary to refer to, and to give some explanation of cases of this kind, under the head of Casual Associations.

Sometimes the disordered action of the passion of fear is not so restricted and shut up, as it were, to a particular thing; but takes a wider range, attaching itself to all objects which can possibly excite the idea of danger, even in the slightest degree. Pinel, who, more than any other writer, is the great source of facts on this part of our subject, mentions an individual who was so subject to fears that he could scarcely get a few moment's repose, "not lying down till four or five o'clock in the morning. He passed the night in a state of constant fear; imagined he heard a voice speaking in a low tone; carefully shut his door; a moment after, feared that he had not closed it tight, and continually returned, and continually discovered his mistake. Another idea took possession of his mind; he would rise from his bed to examine his papers; he would separate them one after another; collect them again; believe that he had forgotten something; and be afraid of the very dust on the furniture. He would evince the greatest instability in his thoughts and intentions; would wish and not wish; constantly tormented by suspicion and gloom; he even feared to breathe the external air, and always kept himself within doors."

§ 216. Other illustrations of the disordered action of this passion.

Again, fear may exist with such an intensity as essentially to affect the very structure of the mind, and even cause insanity in the higher sense of the term. Probably the power of this passion is not well understood. Certain it is, that terrible results have often followed from the attempts of persons, particularly of children, to excite it in others, even in sport. Many instances are on record of individuals who have been permanently and most seriously injured, either in mind or body, or both, by a sudden fright. It is somewhere stated in the writings of Pinel, that he received into the hospital of which he had charge three insane persons within a very short time, whose insanity was caused in this

way.

Sometimes, especially when connected with permanent causes, it gradually expands and strengthens itself, till it is changed into despair. The distinctive trait of Despair, in distinction from all other modifications of fear, is, that it excludes entirely the feeling of hope, which exists in connexion with fear in other cases. Despair may exist, therefore, in a greater or less degree, and with a greater or less amount of mental anguish, in accordance with the nature of the thing, whatever it is, which occasions it. When great present or future interests are at stake, and the mind, in relation to those interests, is in a state of despair, the wretchedness which is experienced is necessarily extreme.

§ 217. Perversions of the Benevolent Affection.

The general division of the Affections, as is well understood, is into the Benevolent and Malevolent. There are some singular perversions of the benevolent affections, as well as those of an opposite kind, which are worthy of notice here. It is not unfrequently the case, that persons in a state of mental alienation are entirely indifferent to, and sometimes they even hate those whom, at other times, they love most sincerely and deeply. It is, perhaps, difficult to explain this, although it is practically important to know the fact.

Dr. Rush, in speaking of a singular apathy or torpor of the passions, which is sometimes found to exist, says: "I was once consulted by a citizen of Philadelphia, who was remarkable for his strong affection for his wife and children when his mind was in a sound state, who was occasionally afflicted with this apathy; and, when under its influence, lost his affection for them all so entirely, that he said he could see them butchered before his eyes without feeling any distress, or even inclination to rise from his chair to protect them."

II. There are other cases where there seems to be not merely an extinction of the benevolent affection, but its positive conversion into hatred. The same philosophic physician mentions the case of a young lady, who was confined as a lunatic in the Pennsylvania Hospital in the year 1802. One of the characteristics of her insanity was hatred for her father. She was gradually restod; and, for sev

eral weeks before she was discharged from the hospital, discovered all the marks of a sound mind, excepting the continuance of this unnatural feeling of hatred. On a certain day she acknowledged with pleasure a return of her filial attachment and affection, and soon after was discharged as cured.*

§ 218. Other cases of perverted Benevolent Affec

me.

tions.

III.-There are other cases where insanity is the indirect result of the mere intensity of the benevolent affections. In cases of this kind, the affections are so strong, so intense, that they are unable to withstand the shock of sudden and great opposition and disappointments. "A peasant woman" (says Dr. Gall) "became insane three times; the first, at the death of her brother; the second, at the death of her father; and the third, at that of her mother. After she had recovered the third time she came to consult As she was very religious, she complained to me of her unfortunate disposition to be afflicted, at the loss of persons who were dear to her, more than religion permits; an evident proof that she had yielded to grief, although she had combated it by motives which were within her reach." Pinel also mentions the case of a young man, who became a violent maniac a short time after losing a father and mother whom he tenderly loved. It is true that in these cases the proximate cause of the insanity is sorrow or grief; but the remote cause, and that without which the unfortunate result would not have existed,

* Rush on the Diseases of the Mind, p. 255, 345.