To the feeling and reflecting there cannot be a subject of more profound interest than insanity. The man of quickest sensibility and of the most elevated and concentrated intellect will frequently be compelled to reflect how near he may in possibility stand to its blighted and fearful verge. He will most fully and sensibly appreciate the whole extent of the most fatal incident within the compass of mortal apprehension; the living separation from the pursuits of life and the sympathies of kind; the morbid fears and haunting phantoms of the brain; the embittering passions; the perverted perceptions and reasonings, and the moral death. These consequences which we here enumerate as attendant upon the milder forms of this dreadful disease render it superfluous to dwell upon the more revolting but not more truly afflicting forms which retain no trace of humanity but a frightful outward semblance.

Of late years insanity has become the subject of much humane and enlightened consideration. Its treatment is become more rational and humane, and a merciful limit has been placed to the legal construction of lunacy. The saner capabilities of the person thus unhappily visited are allowed for, and no one is now liable to be on the slightest foundation deprived of any legal or natural privilege consistent with his own welfare and the safety of others.

The physiologist and the metaphysical inquirer have also not been idle, nor have their labours been altogether fruitless. The first has, from a large induction of well-considered cases, ascertained all that is likely to be known of the forms and indications of this disease, and arrived at the probable inference as to its organic nature: while the precise description of organic disorder, or the precise organ affected, remains to exert the industry and perseverance of future inquirers.

With more ingenuity, but far less success, the metaphysical student, prosecuting his researches, sometimes in conjunction with the former, sometimes apart, has traced to a considerable extent the moral and intellectual characters of insanity, while he is still to

be regarded as comparatively unsuecessful in his attempts to reach to any precise knowledge of its intellectual principle.

The hallucinations of delirium and the dim phantoms of dreaming have been traced into an affinity with the phenomena of mental aberration by many writers upon this latter subject. They are all, it is not to be denied, reducible to some mode of organic affection, of which mind is the part affected of our compound nature. All, too, present many similar indications and results. They are, nevertheless, perfectly distinct, and in their principal indications wholly different. That a class of affections, the operation of which is probably confined to one small organ, should not only exhibit many common characters, but even in some of their various forms closely approximate, or even become identical, may be quite consistent with this position. And we do not deny that if of these any one is more open to experimental investigation than the rest, the kindred tribe of affections may (within due limits) be legitimately concluded upon from the facts thus derived. But we suspect that merely theoretical inquirers are often misdirected by the light of this ingenious analogy: and, if we may use the phrase, we think that the morals and metaphysics of insanity might be both more successfully and usefully explored in a different direction. The connexion between the mind and its diseased operations might (one should suppose) be more successfully traced in those cases in which the ordinary operations of the intellect are still discernible in combination with derangement, than where it can scarcely be said to exist in its natural condition. Nothing, indeed, can apparently be more remotely different from each other than many of these disorders to which the term insanity is applied. The ferocious maniac, whose looks and actions, as well as utterances, are below the level of the wild beast-the moping idiot, at whose foul resemblance humanity shudders-how broadly are they separated, in every feature, from the refined and exquisitely subtle mono-maniac whose intellect is manifested on every topic,

with more than natural activity and intelligence, while he is affected by some apparently slight error upon one subject. On this slight error depend results, curious, melancholy, and most important, under whatever aspect they are viewed: not because they are the workings of disease; but because they are the results of sane intellect governed and guided by diseased intellect.⚫

- Of such cases the common indication is, preeminently acute perception of all that passes, mingled with and interpreted according to some perverted perception: with this is often combined the most subtle, and exactest logic, deducing rigidly the most fallacious and revolting conclusions, from the most nonsensical assumptions. Such persons we have frequently conversed with on almost every topic within the range of ordinary information; and always had occasion to admire the prompt intelligence and sound judgment which mostly accompanied their opinionsso long as the one dark thought could be kept in abeyance. So remarkable, indeed, are the intellectual qualifications, thus dwelling as it were on the borders of insanity, that we have known one instance of very aggravated monomania, the subject of which was the adviser to whom most of his friends and neighbours resorted for counsel in all matters of difficulty and delicacy; and this even long after the influence of a single error had so perverted his views, that in all things relative to his own concerns he was nearly childish. Such is the class of cases to which we are desirous to call attention, and this not for the sake of any new light we can expect to add to professional knowledge or opinion, but because we think that the phenomena of which we shall speak have not been sufficiently observed, and are in some respects important.

When we undertake to comment upon the moral and social effects of insanity, it will be understood that the objects of our notice must be chiefly found be yond the ordinary scope of professional experience. And although correct reasoning requires that the slightest modification of disease must be stated as such, yet we shall be best understood by considering these effects as reducible to a place among the ordinary moral and social causes of which the operation is or might be similar. That peculiar effect to which we have applied the term social, has indeed no essential connection with its cause; as it is the influence which the aberrations of one may be sometimes observed to have on others. The moral may similarly be traced to processes, which, however originated, yet lie strictly within the natural and saner workings of the mind.

It is also of some importance to premise, that the application of the term, insanity, would be disputed in most of the particular instances which fall within our notice; as they are outside the limit of legal, or even, for the most part, of medical cognizance. But the actual phenomena of nature are not limited by those arbitrary distinctions, which are best understood as containing rules of application; and as fixing those lines of demarcation which are required to govern the uncertainty of human knowledge.

There is nothing more important to the friends of one affected with, or liable to this disease, than to be distinctly acquainted with the circumstances of its treacherous growth and progress, which, in many cases, baffle all observation, until it is past the power of all remedial means. In many instances, neither the mental or bodily symptoms are such as even remotely to suggest the melancholy truth. The slight disorders of the stomach and bowels, which so

often accompany the earlier stages of mental derangement are such as to be referable to many causes, but mostly too slight to be thought worthy of medical assistance. Should it, however, be resorted to, there is seldom anything to guide the attention of the physician to the fact. The indications of mental derangement having been not recognised as such, are omitted both by the patient and his friends; and the physician has nothing before him but a very common dyspeptic case, for which, as it is but symptomatic of concealed disorder, he prescribes with little, and that not permanent, success. Even when these symptoms have assumed a more decided character, it seldom occurs to resort to medical aid. The resources of domes tic quackery still appear to be sufficient for the commonest and least fearful of human ailments; and the hypochon driacal symptoms, though more decided ly perceptible, are not yet referred to their true character. In this stage also, by a very common perversion, the state of mental depression, and the constant recurrence of complaint, are explained into what is called hippishness, and appealed to as a kind of proof, that there is no disease-thus finding a treacherous security in the most aggravated proofs of danger.

A very similar, but much more serious, error takes place with respect to the moral and intellectual changes, which are seldom slow in making their appearance, with more or less intensity, and produce consequences which, while they destroy the happiness of their victim, extend on every side around him, and but too often cloud the peace of families with suspicions and resentments, of which they do not often discover the source, until the evil is done.

This last is one of those prominent, but little noticed, phenomena, to call attention to which is the main object of this notice of the subject. We have, in the course of our own experience, had the opportunity of witnessing the curious, but most melancholy and fatal process, by which the utter ruin of the happiness and union of whole families, as well as of the principal person, has been the consequence of an ignorance of causes and a misconstruction of effects, which to those who judged more justly, wore the appearance of infatuation. Such cases cannot, from

their nature, and from the feelings, and even reputations they involve, be dragged into the full daylight of public discussion; we cannot dissect. the living, even though they may be insensible to the knife; nor can we even have the benefit of accurately stating an anonymous case, because the facts of such cases are, in their nature, too special to escape personal application. What seems indeed to be a strange phenomenon of insanity is, the wonderful uniformity of the illusions to which it gives birth. It seems to be unaccountable that two persons in quite different stations, and having no intercourse with each other should agree in entertaining fancies, founded altogether upon the accidents of society, or upon the seemingly accidental errors of theoretical reasoning. Of such a nature is, for instance, the fancy of being haunted by a ventriloquist, or of being poisoned in food. Yet such is not merely a common case, but, we have some reason to believe, among the most common class of cases.

That class of cases to which we shall now give our entire attention, is by far the most usual in life; yet least studied by the professional; as it must, for the most part, appear in a more aggravated form to arrive within their peculiar province of observation. We shall content ourselves with popularly describing it as a state of morbid suspicion, which mostly begins with suspecting individuals, and ends with suspecting mankind. The importance as well as the difficulty of this case is owing to the fact of its similarity, both in its mode of exhibition and operation, as well as moral results, to the common conduct of sane persons. He who imagines that he is made of glass, or that his head is put on the wrong way, stands at once separated, by a broad and well-marked line, from sanity. But it is different with respect to the person who imagines his nearest friends, or the servants of his house, to be in some way leagued in enmity against him ;-the thing is not impossible, and he has reasons, which, if they were not the result of illusion, might be founded in fact, and are still proba ble. His error, and particularly his first error, is mostly quite natural; he lights upon some object of suspicion such as to afford very specious grounds;

he assumes that his next heir desires his death-and is probably right; but the cause of this suspicion is disease, and the grounds are false; still they are natural grounds, and hypochondriac suspicion converts them into observed facts. Every one is aware of this tendency of the suspicious mind, even in the absence of disease. The soundest minded man will seldom long entertain an error, in which his feelings are in any way concerned, without soon finding abundant reasons to confirm the notion. The slightest fact is enough when interpreted by prepossession. Thus, a suspicion engendered by insanity will, besides the diseased perception, be fomented and increased in its action, by the natural process : and a thousand minute observations of words, looks, and actions, partly distorted, and partly, or wholly, misinterpreted, will quickly afford grounds sufficient for the scrutiny of such reasoning as the subject himself can apply, or his friends offer.

These errors, when questioned in confidential intercourse, he can maintain by facts, which no one can undertake to deny, and by reasons which are perfectly consequent upon these facts; so that more or less, his friends are deceived, and taking his facts upon his unimpeachable veracity, acquiesce in his reasons, and adopt his conclusions. So far, we assume two facts: that the insane person is in the first stage of intellectual aberration, and that he is surrounded only by persons who are not aware of the nature of insanity.

The first ordinary indications of this case, though various as to particularsbecause they are mostly colored and formed out of the peculiar profession and habits of the individual-are yet easily represented by a case, to which all the rest will be found to bear the strictest relation of class.

An eminent watchmaker was observed by his near relations to fall into a sullen, reserved, and brooding habit; his anxiety about his trade perceptibly diminished, and he took very much to solitary walks in the suburbs of D

He had a cousin, to whom he had always been much attached. This person, at the instance of his wife, endeavoured to discover the occasion of his seeming dejection, and sought an opportunity of confidential talk with his relation. The other seemed gladly

to avail himself of an opportunity to unburthen his mind; and presently informed him that another well-known person in his own trade was anxious to supplant him with his customers, and employed persons for this purpose to malign his character. Of this he was in the first instance convinced by the hostility of his looks and manner on several late occasions ; that he had watched also his intercourse with many eminent persons, whose watches he had himself made: these had also betrayed that they were set against him, by the strangeness of their manner and by the questions they asked him in his own shop. Against all this, little could be replied; for he stated a variety of minute facts, which, as he stated them, gave the strongest color to his story. His cousin was completely imposed upon, and by confirming his story, led his wife and children also to believe him and to adopt his resentment. The first consequence of this was, that they all joined him in slandering and doing various ill offices to this supposed enemy. After a little time he was observed to become much more gloomy, reserved, and capricious in his fits of reserve; and one day assured his cousin, that everywhere he went he was insulted by some one, and that there could no longer be the least doubt that he was to become the victim of some horrid conspiracy against his life. Every one stared at him, he said, as if he were a monster; and he could hear some muttering frightful hints as they passed. His cousin, who was a simple person, and quite unacquainted with insanity, still had sense enough to perceive that there was much in these stories not easily accounted for, and hinted that he thought

So.

The other frankly acknowledged that it was unaccountable to himself, but that the evidence of his eyes and ears was not to be set aside. He could scarcely believe that he, or any one, without having committed some dreadful crime, could thus become the object of universal execration and espionage. He added that he had sure reason to know that some of his most intimate friends were concerned in it; as this alone could account for the certainty and rapidity with which all his motions became known to the public; nor

could he conceive why none of his family took any step in his defence, unless they were, for some iniquitous reason, become accessory to the plot. He then told, as facts, some occurrences which strongly heightened this suspicion; and although they were quite inconsistent with the known characters and habits of the persons concerned, they were yet so speciously and circumstantially told, that the cousin, knowing his character for veracity, could not deny or explain them

away.

The next stage of this malady took place elsewhere. One morning early he was missing at the breakfast-table; but a note was left for his mother, saying that he was obliged to travel upon commercial business, and could not return for some weeks. The next account was a visit from a very low person, who had attended him for some time in his walks, to say that he had a letter desiring him immediately to have his entire stock of watches sold off at the highest bidding, and to remit the amount to himself. Upon the annoyance and suffering of his wife, children, and mother, it forms no part of our intent to speak: that they were very great may be well conceived.

Some of his relations were living in the city of B. To these he went, and made his hapless story known with great fulness of detail, mentioning new particulars, which he had concealed from his own family at D--. They were shocked to learn that his mother and wife had joined in a plot with his cousin to take away his life by a slow poison; and that they had circulated reports of his conduct and character for the purpose of preventing the resentment of the town. They whispered about that he was a monster, and had contrived to produce a general abhorrence against him. All this was so avouched by strong facts, that it was impossible to doubt his account; and he was immediately joined in measures of an exceedingly cruel and vindictive nature against his own family at D.

Some time further elapsed-and the same series of observations and complaints which had taken place in D- began at B: but with such manifest exaggeration, as to cause suspicions of the truth. From telling

improbable incidents, he went on to incidents which were impossible. And after setting whole families by the ears together, he was discovered to be far gone in madness by all.

This case is an accurate sketch of half a dozen which have taken place within our immediate observation, and probably of hundreds which existtraceable only by the extensive mischief they have occasioned. The effects which we have loosely mentioned are, indeed, but a small part of those which actually take place. Some of them we shall presently notice.

These illusions, together with the moral influence they exert upon the mind, increase often with great rapidity. Their advances are, as in the above case, concealed by the spirit of distrust and reserve so often consequent upon insanity. The action of the intellectual faculties becomes more intense; observation becomes morbidly acute, and suspicion distorts all that is heard or seen into assumed intents-the perceptions of sense become subject to the illusions of the mind-the cunning is quickened, and the power of specious misrepresentation grows almost irresistible. There mostly too appears an increased intelligence upon such general subjects as are within the usual scope of the observation or knowledge. The conduct of acquaintances and neighbours is discussed with so much clearness and plausibility, and everything that presents itself to the mind, so well understood, that there is much added difficulty in suspecting a disease, the nature of which is commonly, but erroneously, supposed at variance with all this. Hence, when the turn of the insane person's mind is misanthropic, another cause of mischief arises. We can recollect, in one unhappy case which came within our notice, eight or ten persons, who were the acquaintances of an hypochondriac-each firmly persuaded that all the rest were the greatest scoundrels breathing. Until the course of circumstances and the accidental comparison of notes, undeceived one or two of them entirely, and the rest partially, and but partially, for it requires more than ordinary attention to disentangle a web of true and fictitious facts, such as the ingenuity and the poisoned fancy of