madness will devise. The sane action of the mind is both quickened and interwoven with the diseased faculties, in such a manner as to increase all its illusions and render them consistent. Thus, when it happens that the members of a family become objects of insane suspicion to one of their number, and are in turn made the depositaries of the black revelations of a hypochondriac fancy-it can easily be understood how mutual suspicion may spring up, and so influence them to each other, that each becomes readier to believe ill of all the rest. Nor will it be sufficiently allowing for the ignorance of many, and the infirmity of nearly all, to affirm that the subsequent discovery of the origin will be enough to remove all its consequences. It may be easily imagined by many of our readers, how ill feelings, sometimes aggravated by mutual offences, whether of word or deed, soon convert into substantial grounds of ill will, prejudices founded upon the slightest causes or none. Such, independent of the present subject, is but too observably the common course of family feuds in which a slight misinterpretation of a word or deed, blameless if not misunderstood, occasions years of bitterness. When once offended, there are many, (to speak moderately,) who will voluntarily look upon the darker side of everything-and even foster a mistake in which an angry feeling is bound up for it is the nature of most, to interpret from the feeling rather than by reason or cool reflection.

We must now turn our attention to 'the moral influences of these illusions upon the person whom they possess. Let us now suppose a common case. A man of intellectual temperament and habits believes as in the watchmaker's case, that his friends have engaged in an extensive conspiracy against him. This is the illusion; it is combined most probably with other fancies as to sight, sound, and tastewhich are partly the illusion of discase, partly moral and common to most; for it is the nature of all illusion to pervert reason and observation. What will then be the probable effect of this compound state of mind? The sane faculties cannot, we know, be so separated as not to be in some degree affected. The insane person will both reason

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and act upon his prepossessions, on the principle that they are true. will do evil offices, or refuse kind offices-he will avoid certain persons; and as the circle extends, most persons and all persons, to the extent that circumstances and counteracting influences or other causes permit. He will modify in the mean time his moral opinions of mankind, and (gradually) of moral obligation, to the facts he believes and the course he pursues. He will persuade himself that all men are selfish, unjust, and dishonest, and that they are leagued against him. He will next infer that he cannot be bound by any law of obligation to all or any. By degrees, (it takes time to alter habitual feelings,) he will reduce these principles to action, and become selfish-false-dishonest: while he also forms a code of morals by which all this is perfectly justified in his own thoughts: and he will feel himself (perhaps, for there are differences) the best as well as the most hapless and persecuted of mankind. Few can be extensively acquainted with the world, without having met one case or more of this prevalent modification of hypochondria.

The principal writers upon insanity seem to have recognized none of its secondary effects. Partly, we imagine, because it might be considered contrary to the exact method of a professional treatise to discuss insanity otherwise than as a disease. The delicacy of entering upon details seeming to implicate opinions upon the moral character of individuals, might also have its just weight. But more, we suspect, is due to the prepossession of those theoretical opinions to which we have adverted. From the desire to regard insanity wholly as diseasefrom the analogies of delirium and dreaming, and from some known cases, it would appear to have been inferred that the whole effects, moral as well as intellectual, caused by insanity, are wholly resolvable into this disorder.

Of the contrary, we have no doubt. In the cases chiefly within the scope of professional experience-it is very probable that the result of such a theory will mostly seem to be confirmed by the fact, that convalescence has put an end to all the perceptible consequences of disease, as completely as the

to

consideration, that in very many cases, medical persons (of ordinary intelligence at least) have little more guide them than the most ordinary symptoms of a dyspeptic habit-unless by the aid of rightly directed observation upon a variety of small indications which a knowledge of the person's habits alone can supply.

Insane persons are mostly conscious that their notions are not reconcilable to common experience; and are actuated by a jealous and sometimes highly vindictive apprehension, of their becoming the subject of remark or contradiction. For this reason they conceal their thoughts and become peculiarly reserved; while at the same time they are constantly letting fall mysterious hints easily understood.

The great test of the distinction between insanity and what is called eccentricity is, that the former is a sudden change, the other a permanent habit; we omit all consideration of the question as to their essential sameness or distinctness. In the particular class of cases which we are considering, there is, however, amore obvious distinction, as these illusions are almost uniformly resolvable into errors of sensation.

When a person who has been of sound mind and reasonable habits becomes, without any apparent cause, estranged, brooding, solitary, and dejected, slightly dyspeptic, and shortly after begins to account for it by incidents of an improbable, though still very possible kind, there are two exceedingly important cautions to be observed: such indications are part of any case to be submitted to a physician; and still more-nothing affirmed by the person thus affected, of any other person, that may in the least degree affect his character, is to be heeded. A question often arises-are such illusions to be contradicted or reasoned against. This we can only answer by stating, that there are two principles, which may serve to govern sound discretion upon this point. First, irritation should not be unnecessarily inflicted; and secondly, pernicious illusions, such as bear consequences dangerous to the insane person, or to others, must not be in any way confirmed. It is very well known, that a mental illusion, when it is the result of disease, is altogether indepenVOL. VI.

dent of the reason; and they who are acquainted with it by experience, are well aware that this is true to the extent, that a person under the influence of mental illusions of this class, can be thoroughly convinced of the fallacy of the impression, while they are at the same time unable to resist it: it affects them like the testimony of the senses, and produces an instinctive belief which cannot be entirely superseded by any force of reason, for more than a moment; the rational conviction passes, and the false impression continues. From this the inutility of reasoning is apparently to be inferred. This, however, has its limits :-in the milder cases, and the earlier stages, the organic affection is not confirmed or extensive; the effect of a strong moral and intellectual reaction may be productive of the best effects. The enlightened physician is aware, that although the disease is ruled to be purely organic, in its proximate cause, yet its origin is often purely moral. Hence the advantage or evil of judicious or ignorant moral treatment. But there is a limit to be found in the other principle, that an illusion leading to evil results, is to be counteracted, resisted, urgently opposed, as the case may call for or admit.

In cases of the kind of insanity under our immediate consideration, the advantage of social intercourse is incalculably great. An affection of this kind, like all moral affections of our nature, can be much alleviated by confidential communication, when judiciously and kindly entertained. The rankling of an unexpressed bitterness is thus expended by confessions; and turned from their channels, by seasonable suggestions into milder courses. But above all, the most deplorable consequences are never truly reached, until a growing dislike to his kind operates to drive the victim of some embittering and corrupting illusion into solitary life. Then a change at once begins, of the most truly lamentable kind. First, reason morbidly acute, changes side, and from being opposed to illusion, begins to support and even systematize it. All previous notions and experience; all things seen, felt, heard, or understood, from this moment, become "confirmations strong" interpreted to accord with illusions no longer resisted. Having

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believed for a time, (as has been said,) against reason, the sufferer now believes according to a theory, as firmly evidenced to his own mind as any of the conventional impressions of the social world. He winds his understanding in a web of sophistry, that nothing can henceforward break through; and presently begins to act upon it with resolution and sagacity. Will not this, it may be asked, lead him into absurdities so totally opposed to the laws of society, as to place him within their jurisdiction. It is not a consequence. Assuming his illusion for a first principle, and taking a basis of realities, such as the whole sane portion of his observation presents, he will, with wonderful acuteness and sagacity, adapt his system to that of the world; so that he will be, in his own secluded walk, quite free from any collision with it. Such intercourse as his purpose may require, will be regulated by much more discretion, than he could have exerted at the earlier period of his disease. And why he is now disciplined by his system-he no longer has two purposes, or two sets of feelings at war within him-his human weaknesses and affections have been obliterated and he considers those with whom he has to converse, as the instruments of his own purposes, or in some such class. We are, of course, for clearness, taking the extreme case. He is in this state, arrived at a stage of moral disorder, more melancholy than the worst example of intellectual annihilation, that the walls of Bethelem hospital ever enclosed. A totally hardened and corrupted heart, in which there lingers not a gleam of moral sympathy, or of old affections-or care for, or confidence in mortal. A state the more fatal, because it is not-as seems to be the inference from the writings of medical men-an immediate consequence of disease; but an effect of moral habits, and fallacious theories, which, however caused, are perfectly distinct, both in their growth and principle, from any case of insanity; and strictly reducible into another class of cases, in which the same moral errors, and similar philosophic principles have produced nearly similar results. We say nearly, because an allowance is still to be made for the cooperation of insanity.

In truth, and it is a curious truth, the actual existence of theories, and of classes, who practically maintain theories favourable to the state we have described, has the effect of maintaining, and partially concealing its true character. An insane person of this class that is to say, possessing his rational faculties entire can seldom go far without discovering a class of individuals, and a theory, such as to reconcile his general notions; the persons he may shun, but their notions he will adopt.

To obtain a true insight into the process we have described is easy. It is only to assume the truth of the illusive notion. By reasoning consequentially upon this, a set of conclusions, and of moral impressions quite distinct from insanity, are to be arrived at. And the person knows little, indeed, of his mind, who is not aware, how these, if sincerely acted on, must gradually alter the whole compound of the man.

The informed reader will probably recollect some curious cases, from which it would be inferred that all the varied consequences of even long continued instances of insanity have disappeared upon convalescence. And we can (stating this in its most difficult form) easily suppose the change of the whole mental action to be so great, or even total, that a system of moral habits, acquired under the ope ration of disease, may (however explained as to their growth) pass like a dream, and leave the old system of habits to resume their unimpaired dominion. But this admission does not impair our statement; which simply amounts to this, that in such cases of partial insanity, the mind, by rational consequences, and by its sane processes, attains a state of disorder which is not insanity. Such cases are very slight, so far as actual disease; but they are, in every case to which our experience reaches, either permanent, or subject to a very peculiar modification, in which the illusion gradually and very slowly wears away with the physical powers, leaving the moral condition disordered and depraved. It little matters how this is to be explained.

Practically, we fear, such cases are to be regarded as beyond the reach of human means. But they are peculiarly important, as affording an extended

scope to the search into causes, by sure observation of effects.

There is a large class of cases, connected nearly with the topics we have had under our present notice, of much deeper interest, and demand ing a more immediately practical attention. We mean the numerous instances in which, from different causes,

insanity is feared to lurk in the constitution of young persons. A professional volume on this topic, might well' claim the public attention. We should be too happy to have the opportunity of introducing such a valuable acquisition in these pages. We shall, at all events, offer some reflections upon the subject in a future number.

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THE appearance of such a work as this, at such a time as the present, is to us deeply gratifying. Such are the silent pleas which the church of Ireland proffers to the tribunal which is to try the cause between her and her persecutors. She has argued the question of her rights and deserts till even impudence itself has grown dumb if not abashed; she has descended into the arena of legal disputation, and won the high triumph of being abused by those who could not confute; she has stood upon the low ground of political utility, and established the important truth that she is indeed the keystone of the arch of union between the country she adorns and the nation that professes to rule it; she has done all this, yet this is but half of what she may do, and what (we thank Heaven!) she is doing. When before the tribunal of enlightened and candid reason, this church-or any church has demonstrated her temporal and secular merits, she is not justified to the extent of her justifiable claims; she has proved her expediency as a human in stitution, but it is a different test that is to vindicate her character as a divine one ;—that is, as one adopted of a heavenly Parent, sustained by His power, favored by His goodness, and inspired with a rich measure of His unbounded wisdom. Such an evidence can only be afforded by the efficient piety of her ministers, their activity in the work of evangelization, their zeal in the diffusion of all real knowledge as subservient to the growth of divine truth, and, as a consequence, their production of those works which preserve for the

ecclesiastical body a place in the van of the enlightened intellects of the age.

The church of Ireland, with many disadvantages, has on the whole nobly fulfilled these demands. But of late years, from a variety of causes, the efforts of the clergy have been more of a practical than of a speculative nature. They have laboured more for the good of the current generation than (except indirectly) for that of future ones;they have worked more with a view to the concerns of the literal immortality than for that metaphorical immortality which we are wont so fondly to ascribe to the creations of mind. Living in the midst of a divided people, surrounded by an artful and designing priesthood, struggling for the very existence of reformed Christianity in the country, they have been forced to expend their intellectual resources in providing against or remedying the temporary difficulties of a most harassing situation, in checking by direct opposition the incursions of that powerful heresy which for so many ages has overspread their land, and whose roots are sunk so deep in the soil of human nature, in protecting their scattered flocks from temptations to apostacy almost irresistible, in endeavouring to extend the light of general knowledge in the face of a darkness supported by the deepest policy; and in later times-alas that we should say it!-in the bitter task of obtaining the common necessaries that are to sustain the lives which assassination has scarcely spared. Such has been the condition of the Irish clergy; the very zeal of practical piety which would

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