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1 
 
 GIFT OF 
 
 B 
 
 ^9 Market 
 

 
71 
 
/■tC 
 
 J{^ 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 ON 
 
 PARTIAL DERANGEMENT OF THE MIND 
 
 IN SUPPOSED CONNEXION 
 
 WITK 
 
 RELIGION. 
 
 BY THE LATE 
 
 JOHN CHEYNE, M.D. F.R.S.E. M.R.I.A. 
 
 II 
 
 Physirian-Gcneral to His Majesty's Forces in Ireland, &c. &c. 
 
 WITH A PORTRAIT, 
 AND AUTOBIOGRAPHIC AT- SKETCH or TV." AUTHOR. 
 
 DUBLIN : 
 WILLIAM CURRY, J UN. AND COMPANY, 
 
 LONGMAN, BROWN, AND CO. LONDON. 
 FRASER AND CO. EDINRTIRfJH. 
 
 1843. 
 
C5- 
 
 ■IOL06\ 
 UBRARY 
 
 DUBLIN 
 
 PRINTED BY JOHN N. FOLDS. Si)?.', AXD I'A 
 
 5, Biichelor's-wnlli. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Pape 
 Autobiographical Sketch .... 1 
 
 ESSAY I. 
 
 Introduction . . . . , .47 
 
 ESSAY II. 
 
 On false perceptions and supposed demonism . . (JO 
 
 ESSAY III. 
 
 On (lisordfi- of the mind, confined to a single faculty . 78 
 
 ESSAY IV. 
 
 Of a disordered state of the Mffections , . . 121 
 
 KSSAY V. 
 
 On insanity in supposed connexion witli reli^;ion . . lol 
 
 ESSAY VI. 
 
 On the constitution of man, upright, fallen, and regenerate 14!» 
 
 272903 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 Page 
 
 ESSAY vir. 
 On conscience ...... 169 
 
 ESSAY VIII. 
 On faith . . . . . . .188 
 
 ESSAY IX. 
 
 On love to God, charity, and hardness of lieart . . 206 
 
 On hope ....... 235 
 
 ESSAY XI. 
 
 On the presence and absence of devotional feeling . 249 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 A SUCCINCT account, such as I am about to give, 
 of the life of a physician who, witliout much 
 literary or general scientific information, attained 
 confidence and consideration, may suggest useful 
 hints to the junior membei's of the medical 
 profession to whom it is addressed. 
 
 The particulars of my birth, parentage, and 
 education may soon be told. 
 
 I was bom on the third of February, 1777, in 
 Leith, where my father, John Cheyne, practised 
 medicine and surgery. He was a man of great 
 cheerfulness, benevolence, good sense, and single- 
 ness of mind. He Avould visit the poor as promptly 
 as the rich, and his half-crown was as freely given 
 to those who had no means of procm'ing food, 
 as his prescription. 
 
2 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 My father succeeded his uncle, John Cheyne, 
 a kindred spirit, who had acquired the name 
 of " the friend of the poor." Of my great grand- 
 father 1 know little, but that he and his family 
 were devoted to the Stuarts, to whose agents 
 they had lent considerable sums of money, which 
 were never returned ; and that his portrait by 
 Sir John Medina still hangs in the hall of 
 the College of Surgeons of Edinburgh, of which 
 he was a member, as were also my father and 
 grandfather. 
 
 jMy mother was the daughter of Mr. WiUiam 
 Edmonstone, Fellow of the Royal College of 
 Surgeons, and of liis wife Cecilia Bayne, sister 
 to William Bayne, who was mortally wounded 
 in Lord Rodney's great battle, while in command 
 of the Alfred scventy-four-gun ship, and was 
 the senior of the tln-ee captains to whom a monu- 
 ment was erected in Westminster Abbey. This 
 Cecilia Bayne was daughter of Alexander Bayne, 
 Professor of Scots Law in the University of 
 Edinburgh, whose life appears in the " Penny 
 Cyclopaedia," and who is noticed in Disraeli's 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 3 
 
 " Calamities of Authors." My mother Avas an 
 ambitious woman, of liouourable principles, con- 
 stantly stimulating her children to exertion, and 
 intently occupied with theu' advancement in 
 life. 
 
 By the advice of one of my father's friends, 
 I was, after passing four years at the Grammar 
 School of Leith, sent to the High School of 
 Edinburgh in my tenth year, and at once placed 
 
 under the care of Dr. , the Rector, or 
 
 head master, for whose class I was in no respect 
 prepared. In consequence of this ill-advised 
 step I was very unhappy, being unable to keep up 
 with many of my companions, and I often feigned 
 sickness and submitted to take medicine that I 
 might be kept from school. Dr. , doubt- 
 less a very eminent master, was a vain man, and 
 so passionate as to inspire his scholars with the 
 utmost terror ; when he found that we had been 
 idle he would flog a Avhole form till he became 
 pale and breathless and unable to proceed, and 
 then he would throw himself into his chair, rail 
 at our base ingratitude, and magnify his own 
 
4 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 merit, till the paroxysm ended in a conviction 
 that he was the most learned, Avise, and virtuous 
 man of his age. Certain it is, that my impatience 
 to escape from his rule knew no bounds, and 
 that during my whole life he has continued to 
 preside over a great portion of my uneasy 
 dreams. 
 
 Soon after I left the High School I was 
 placed under the care of a clergyman of the 
 Episcopal Church of Scotland, a good scholar, 
 but an idle and dissipated man. Both master 
 and pupil had more relish for frivolous talk than 
 for Homer or Virgil ; and as he did not exact 
 careful preparation, I did not read much for him ; 
 so that, although I went to him daily for two 
 years, little was added to my knoAvledge of Greek 
 or Latin. 
 
 In my thirteenth year I began to attend my 
 father's poor patients : I was sent to ascertain 
 that they Avere supplied with medicines, to bleed 
 them, dress their wounds, and report upon their 
 condition. In this way I acquired an early 
 licrpiaintance with diseases ; and my success in 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 5 
 
 treating them seems to me to have arisen more 
 from my knowledge of their expression, than from 
 any other qualification that I possessed. 
 
 Before I reached my sixteenth year I had begun 
 to attend medical lectures in the University of 
 Edinburgh ; and in this premature commence- 
 ment of my professional studies, which was the 
 second false step in my education, there was 
 nothing apparently incongruous, as I had then 
 attained full growth, and had the appearance of 
 a young man of eighteen or nineteen. Dining at 
 a boarding-house every day with several medical 
 students, who were qualifying themselves for the 
 Doctorate, I found that I was as well acquainted 
 with medical subjects as most of them, and there- 
 fore I unhappily resolved upon presenting my- 
 self for examination by the professors when they 
 did. By attending a club, of which the members 
 alternately examined each other in anatomy, phy- 
 siology, theory and practice of physic, &c., and 
 by the assistance of JNIr. Caudlish, a celebrated 
 grinder of that day, my superficial knowledge of 
 Latin and of medical science was made to answer 
 
6 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 the end in view : I passed my examination 
 without difficulty, and obtained a medical degree 
 in June, 1795. 
 
 On tlie day after I obtained my degree, having 
 ])reviously passed an examination at Surgeons 
 Hall, I left Edinburgh for Woolwich, the head- 
 quarters of the Royal Regiment of Artillery, in 
 which corps I had received the appointment 
 of assistant-surgeon. With them I served in 
 various parts of England till the end of 1797, 
 when I obtained the local rank of surgeon, and 
 accompanied a brigade of horse artillery, com- 
 manded by Lieutenant-Colonel, afterwards Sir 
 Edward HoAvorth, to Ireland. With part of 
 that brigade, commanded by Lord Bloorafield, 
 I was present at the actions with the rebels 
 Avhich took place at Ross, Vinegar Hill, &c. 
 in 1798. While I Avas assistant-surgeon and 
 surgeon in the artillery, from 1795 to 1799, my 
 time was spent in shooting, playing billiards, 
 reading such books as the circulating library 
 supplied, and in complete dissipation of time. 
 In fact, I learned nothing but ease and pro- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 7 
 
 priety of behaviour. At last I became dissatis- 
 fied with my prospects, anxious to distinguish 
 myself in my profession, and persuaded that unless 
 I made a strenuous effort I must be content with 
 a subordinate station, which my vanity Avould 
 not have permitted me tamely to occupy. 1 
 therefore left the horse artillery and returned 
 to Scotland in 1799, when I was appointed to 
 the charge of the Ordnance Hospital in Leith 
 Fort. 
 
 I now undertook to act as assistant to my 
 father, whose practice, especially among the poor, 
 was very extensive. From the cases which fell 
 to my lot in our division of the business of the 
 day, I selected the most interesting ; these I jour- 
 nalized, and when I foresaw that a disease w^ould 
 end unfavourably, I took measures to ensure per- 
 mission to open the body. At this period I 
 formed a friendship with ]Mr. afterwards Sir 
 Charles Bell, who was occupied in the study ol' 
 pathology, laying the foundation of future emi- 
 nence. He opened most of the bodies which 1 
 obtained permission to dissect, taught me manv 
 
M AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 things which I iiright not otherwise have learned, 
 and confirmed my taste for distinction. As an 
 example of diligence in study he could not be 
 surpassed, and it Avas already manifest that he 
 was a man of genius. 
 
 From this period, my object was very simple, 
 and my plans were soon formed. I resolved, 
 Avhenever I should think myself fit for the under- 
 taking, to attempt to establish myself as a phy- 
 sician in a large city, and in the meanwhile to 
 devote every leisure hour to the necessary pre- 
 paration. 
 
 My attention was directed principally to the 
 diseases of children, and to acute and epidemic 
 diseases, which I had the fullest opportunity of 
 studying. When a well-marked case occurred, or 
 when an epidemic arose, I obtained the best mono- 
 gi-aph I could on the subject, and attentively com- 
 pared it with the opinions of the most experienced 
 of my professional brethren, whom I had frequent 
 opportunities of meeting, and then I filled up my 
 case-books. Thus, by means of observation, read- 
 ing, and the experience of others, my mind was 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 9 
 
 made up on the most important points of prac- 
 tice, and I acquired a facility of prescription, es- 
 pecially in acute diseases, which proved of great 
 advantage to me, particularly in dispensary prac- 
 tice. AYith respect to chronic diseases, in addition 
 to the assistance which I derived from books and 
 observation, I obtained a mass of consultations, 
 many of them written with great care by the 
 most eminent physicians in Edinburgh during the 
 middle and towards the end of the eighteenth 
 century, which had been preserved by my grand- 
 uncle, father, and grandfather. 
 
 I endeavoured to become acquainted with the 
 characters of those who moved in the highest 
 rank in the profession, and to discover the causes 
 of their success ; and I ascertained that, although 
 a man might acquire popularity by various means, 
 he could not reckon upon preserving public favour 
 unless he possessed the respect of his own profes- 
 sion ; that if he would effectually guard his own 
 interests, he must in the fii-st place attend to the 
 interests of others ; hence, I was led carefully to 
 study and liberally to construe that part of medical 
 
10 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 ethics which regulates the conduct of physicians 
 towards each other. 
 
 The surgeons in Edinburgh during this period 
 of my residence in Scotland were thrown into a 
 state of disagreeable excitement by an attack 
 which Dr. Gregory made on their connexion with 
 the Royal Infirmary. Dr. Gregory assailed the 
 system of attendance in a series of pamphlets 
 written with great spirit and humour, and suc- 
 ceeded in effecting its overthrow. The angry feel- 
 ing, which I saw at this time exhibited, was such 
 as to lead me to resolve on avoiding professional 
 disputes, and suffering injury rather than attempt- 
 '^' .. ing to right myself, unless my character were 
 likely to be endangered by forbearance. I have 
 since shut my eyes and ears against some very 
 obvious attempts Avhich have been made to prove 
 that I had acted ignorantly, and have lived to see 
 my opponents become steady and useful friends. 
 
 After passing nine years in the study of patho- 
 logy and in the practice of medicine, I resolved 
 upon leaving Scotland, and instituted inquiries 
 in several parts of England without discovering 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 11 
 
 any sitiiatiou which promised to suit me. I was 
 more anxious for an opportunity of distinguishing 
 myself than of securing a large income, and with 
 that view I offered «my services to the late Dr. 
 Rollo, surgeon-general to the artillery, who some 
 years before wished to establish a school of clinical 
 medicine at Woolwich for the instruction of the 
 medical officers of the artillery, then a numerous 
 body. I proposed to give clinical instruction to 
 the junior officers of the establishment ; and all 
 I asked in return was the rank, pay, and allow- 
 ances of a physician to the forces. But my 
 application came too late — disappointment and 
 disease had quenched Dr. Hollo's zeal for the 
 improvement of the department o^■er which he 
 had presided with great ability, and I never 
 received an answer to my application. 
 
 About this time I was furnished with a very 
 particular account of the state of the medical com- 
 munity in Dubhn, which probably made the deeper 
 impression upon me, as it came Irom one who was 
 not aware of my intended removal from Scotland. 
 1 immediately prepai'cd myself for a visit to Dublin, 
 
12 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 whither I went In the latter end of March, 1 809, 
 leaving Mrs. Cheyne in Antrim Avith her father, 
 the Rev. Dr. Macartney, vicar of that parish. 
 
 I soon determined upon remaining in Dublin, 
 in which city I found the profession respected. 
 This Avas chiefly owing to the eminent physicians 
 who had flourished there during the preceding 
 fifty years. Dr. Smith, remarkable for his muni- 
 ficence; Sir Nathaniel Barry, whom Mr. Grattan 
 once characterised to me as the most accomplished 
 gentleman he had ever known ; Dr. Quin ; Dr. 
 Plunkett, the witty, accomplished, and amiable 
 brother of the Lord Chancellor ; Dr. Perceval, 
 distinguished for scientific knowledge, but more 
 so for his philanthropy : the memory also 
 of M'Bride, Cleghorn, and Pm'cell, was still 
 cherished by many. Moreover, I soon discovered 
 that the field was extensive, and the labourers 
 liberally rewarded. The physicians Avhom I found 
 in the confidence of the public Avere mostly of the 
 school of Cullen : they Avere possessed of good 
 general information, but chiefly rehed on the 
 accuracy of their symptomatology ; they had paid 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAI> SKETCH. 13 
 
 but little attention to morbid anatomy. Much of 
 the purely medical practice of Dublin was passing 
 into the hands of the surgeons, who, although 
 certainly less skilful in the treatment of acute 
 diseases, were better acquainted with the nature 
 and tendency of the organic lesions. In this state 
 of things I discerned good grounds of hope : I 
 was sufficiently well acquainted with acute dis- 
 eases, and, thanks to Sir C Bell, I had acquired 
 a taste for pathology. 
 
 In the latter end of 1809 I took my position as 
 a candidate for public favour in Dublin, where I 
 had passed the summer, neither expecting nor 
 indeed wishing for rapid advancement : what is 
 easily acquired is little valued, and not unfre- 
 quently soon lost. I had a few friends, who 
 being much dissatisfied with my apparent apa- 
 thy, and the obscurity in which I lived, wished 
 me to go into company, and even to give enter- 
 tainments to those who had it in their power to 
 advance my interests; and so much was I m'ged 
 to this course, that at last I reluctantly yielded to 
 their importunities ; but as my circumstances did 
 
14 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 not admit of my providing entertainments with 
 comfort to myself, I refused to repeat the in- 
 judicious experiment. True it is, that my friends 
 could derive but little encouragement from my 
 apparent progress — from the 9 th of November, 
 
 1810, to the 4th of May, 1811, a period of nearly 
 six months, I received only three guineas; but 
 then I felt that prejudices agamst me were giving 
 way, and that I Avas beginning to be regarded 
 with good-will by some of the most respectable of 
 my professional brethren, Avho, in the latter end of 
 
 1811, procured for me the situation of Physician 
 to the Meath Hospital. 
 
 This was for me a very important step : for 
 although the old Meath Hospital was a small, 
 mean, and gloomy building, yet my colleague. 
 Dr. Egan, was much esteemed, and among the 
 six surgeons to that hospital, there were at least 
 three Avho stood high in their profession; more- 
 over, the officers of that hospital are elected by the 
 members of the medical board, who thus placed me 
 on their own level. My situation, therefore, not 
 only afforded me an opportunity of evincing atten- 
 
AUTOBlOGRAnilCAL SKETCH. lo 
 
 tlon and knowledge of disease, but it Avas the 
 best attestation which I could have obtained of 
 competency to perform the duties of an hospital 
 physician. What I most required was to be 
 sufficiently accredited. 
 
 Durinoj the late war the College of Surijeons 
 had become an extensive nursery for the supply of 
 medical officers to the army and navy ; and aljout 
 this time the directors of the School of Surgery 
 thought it expedient to add to their other pro- 
 fessorships one of the practice of physic. My 
 attendance upon the Meath Hospital procured my 
 election to this office : my lectm-es at the College 
 of Surgeons, which were very full on the subject 
 of military medicine, were attended by nearly all 
 the surgeons and assistant-surgeons in the gar- 
 rison, to whom they were free. These lectures, of 
 which I delivered five courses, and my duties at the 
 Meath Hospital, the seat of a crowded dispensary 
 in which I daily prescribed for all the medical pa- 
 tients, occupied whatever time could be spared from 
 practice now increasing as ra[)idly as my friends 
 could wish. In 1812 mvfecs amounted to £47'2. 
 
16 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 
 
 In October, 1815, I was appointed by the Lord 
 Lieutenant one of the physicians to the House of 
 Industry, which lay at a distance of two miles 
 from my house. I had there to visit daily upwards 
 of seventy patients in acute diseases, most of these 
 labouring under fever, of whom probably eight or 
 ten demanded careful examination. As I had 
 experienced and well-trained sick-nurses, who 
 allowed nothing to escape their observation, the 
 rest of the patients required only a glance of the 
 eye ; so that the visit was always finished in little 
 more than an hour. But I have ever experienced 
 great fatigue from that stretch of mind which 
 arises from going the round of an hospital. Then 
 the walk to and fro occupied more than an hour, 
 and I invariably reached home much exhausted : 
 I therefore felt it necessary to resign my pro- 
 fessorship at the College of Surgeons, as well as 
 my charge of the Meath Hospital, that my pri- 
 vate practice, which in 1816 yielded me £1710, 
 might not suffer by the extent of my official 
 duties. 
 
 When I received my appointment of Physician 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 17 
 
 to the House of Industry, Dr. Edward Percival, 
 who came to Dubhn at the same time that I did, 
 was one of the physicians to that estabUshment. 
 We immediately resolved upon endeavoming to 
 form a Clinical School and a Museum of Morbid 
 Anatomy at the House of Industry, both of which 
 objects it seemed we could, with the aid of the 
 surgeons, accomplish without much difficulty. 
 Within the precincts there was an extensive fever 
 hospital, an hospital for chronic diseases, spacious 
 wards and separate cells for lunatics, a large 
 asylum for destitute children, and an immense 
 number of paupers with constitutions in every 
 stage of disorganization. Our plan also included 
 digested annual reports of the diseases which fell 
 under our observation, and this ultimately led to 
 the publiofttion of the Dublin Hospital Reports : 
 but the plan failed. Dr. Edward Percival shortly 
 after settled in Bath ; consequently I was left 
 alone. The fever which ravaged Ireland for up- 
 wards of two years became epidemic in Dublin in 
 1817, and the House of Industry was converted 
 into a depot for fever patients, of whom upwards 
 
 c 
 
18 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 of seven hundred were accommodated in that in- 
 stitution. And then in many of the wards dy- 
 sentery afterwards broke out, and became the chief 
 object of my solicitude, during the latter part of 
 my connexion Avith the House of Industry. 
 
 Upon the death of Dr. Harvey, the Physician- 
 General to the Army in Ireland, I applied without 
 success for his situation. There were several ap- 
 plicants, whose claims the Lord Lieutenant found 
 it not easy to adjust, and therefore he escaped 
 from the difficulty by appointing Dr. Percival, 
 who had not applied for the vacant office, but 
 who, in point of character and standing, had a 
 better title to the situation than any of those who 
 were candidates for it. Dr. Percival accepted the 
 office, on condition that the Lord Lieutenant 
 would permit hiiu to assume an assistant in the 
 duty of attending the General Military Hospital. 
 I was appUed to by Dr. Percival to render him 
 this assistance ; but in order to comply with his 
 wishes I thought it necessary to resign my situ- 
 ation in the House of Industry. Indeed, I think 
 I must have done so before long, as my practice 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 19 
 
 was rapidly increasing, and the time required 
 by my hospital duties was more than I could 
 spare. 
 
 Dr. Percival soon afterwards resigned his office, 
 upon which I w^as appointed to succeed him by 
 Earl Talbot, then Lord Lieutenant of Ireland : 
 my patent bore the date of October 7th, 1820. 
 The situation of Physician-General, which was 
 abolished in the end of 1833, was conceived, when 
 I obtained it, to confer on the possessor the high- 
 est medical rank in Ireland ; and as my practice 
 yielded £5000, which was about its annual ave- 
 rage during the next ten years, I felt that I had 
 fully attained the object of my ambition. 
 
 My constitution, naturally weak, was always 
 injured by fatigue of body or anxiety of mind ; 
 and hence before long I was obliged to circum- 
 scribe my practice, by refusing to go to a distance 
 from Dublin, or to undertake attendances in the 
 country. I am convinced, had my health per- 
 mitted me, that I could have added £1500 a year 
 to my income. 
 
 By a good arrangement, punctuality, attention 
 to the interests and feelings of my professional 
 
20 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 brethren, and prudence — the means which had 
 apparently led to my advancement — I now tried 
 to avoid those reverses to which professional life 
 is ever subject. 
 
 As I was much more generally employed as a 
 consulting than as an attending physician, I en- 
 deavoured to escape interruption in my chief line 
 of business. I returned to my house at appointed 
 times to form new engagements, but I left no ac- 
 count of my route when I set out from home. When 
 I was tracked and obliged to yield to an unexpected 
 requisition, the patient for whom I was sent was 
 perhaps dead ; or he was dying and I was unable 
 to leave him ; or the attack was over and he was 
 again well, and my sole recompense was a com- 
 plimentary speech ; or I was led to supersede the 
 family physician engaged elsewhere, which gave 
 rise to explanations, and to a negotiation to re- 
 place him in the attendance. In the meantime, 
 disappointment to those patients and their medical 
 friends who were waiting for me necessarily oc- 
 curred, and thus a ruffle of the spirits, very un- 
 favourable to the consideration of a difficult case, 
 arose and continued for several hours. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 21 
 
 Had these interruptions taken place frequently, 
 the character for punctuality which I was exceed- 
 ingly anxious to establish and maintain would 
 soon have been destroyed. I had often observed 
 that punctuality, which is not much practised in 
 Ireland, is no where regarded with more com- 
 placency. Punctuality precludes the necessity of 
 explanations and excuses^ often awkward, and 
 more frequently than we are aware of, not strictly 
 true. Punctuality is considered by junior and 
 subordinate members of a profession as manifesting 
 respect for their feelings and occupations ; it is 
 felt to be a comphment ; and it is a compHment in 
 which there is no surrender of truth. AVTien a 
 case of disease was assuming an unfavourable as- 
 pect, and when the question was mooted — to 
 whom shall we apply for further help ? it has, in a 
 multitude of instances, been decided in my favour 
 solely by the consideration that I would appoint 
 the earhest hour for a meeting, and that I niiglit 
 be expected to appear within five minutes of the 
 appointed time. 
 
 I always endeavoured to prevent changes of the 
 
22 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 medical attendants in a family, unless in cases of 
 obvious neglect or ignorance ; and even then I 
 never hinted at a substitute. If requested by a 
 patient to recommend a surgeon, accoucheur, or 
 apothecary, to attend in his family, I mentioned 
 the names of three or four men of established cha- 
 racter, and advised my patient to discuss their 
 merits with his friends, and decide at his leisure. 
 
 I was much employed in the families of my 
 medical brethren. I found this a painful dis- 
 tinction. Perhaps I was selected, not by the 
 father of the family, but by the patient, his 
 son or daughter ; or by the mother, contrary to 
 the father's wishes, which would have led him to 
 introduce a friend of his own. I often had to bear 
 all the responsibility of an attendance on a case of 
 which I had not the complete direction. Again, 
 nothing but necessity can induce many medical 
 practitioners to admit a physician into their fa- 
 milies : perhaps they idly think that thus they 
 acknowledge their own incapacity. Then, if a 
 case proves fatal, and the treatment has deviated 
 one hair's-breadth from that which the head of the 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 23 
 
 family would have adopted, he connects the issue 
 with the infatuation which led him to place con- 
 fidence in one who, he now thinks, was his in- 
 ferior in skill and experience. Still an attendance 
 in the family of a respectable medical practitioner 
 cannot be declined, and, moreover, it is often 
 highly useful ; and hence it was my endeavour to 
 make it as little irksome as possible. I made it a 
 rule never to acquaint any one, not even my own 
 family, with the names of the patients who were 
 under my care. When I went into the family of 
 a medical practitioner, I ordered my carnage to 
 stop in a neighbouring street, and walked to the 
 house in which the patient lay : I fully and ex- 
 plicitly stated my opinion to the head of the family, 
 and avoided all explanations ^vith others, and I 
 generally declined writing the prescription Avhicli 
 was to go to the a[)othecary. My closeness, which 
 was proverbial, and my deportment, which was as 
 little assuming as possible, kept these invidious 
 attendances from being materially injurious, except 
 from the great anxiety which they caused. 
 
 Physicians are oftener deprived of the good- 
 
24 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 will of their patients by paying what are deemed 
 unnecessary visits than by neglect. I know no 
 way of avoiding this evil but by an explanation 
 before the physician takes his leave : if there be 
 any doubt relative to the expediency of an ad- 
 ditional visit, it ought then to be cleared up. If 
 a future visit appear necessary, it is better that it 
 should be fixed by the patient himself or his family 
 than by the physician ; and by a little address this 
 can generally be brought about without difficulty. 
 After I was established in extensive business, it 
 was understood that I never returned to a patient 
 unless when requested to do so ; and this simple 
 rule materially contributed to my comfort, as it 
 completely removed from me the imputation of 
 making superfluous visits, which I have known 
 brought against physicians who were incapable of 
 so improper a proceeding, but who were less alive 
 than they ought to have been to the unworthy 
 suspicions of some of their patients. 
 
 The physician who possesses the confidence of 
 the public, is able, in an extensive class of obsti- 
 nate diseases, to effect improvements in the health 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH, 25 
 
 of his patients which appear to the ignorant ahnost 
 miraculous. The cases to which I allude are those 
 in which disease, however occasioned, is prolonged 
 by depression of the mind, which excludes all hope 
 of recovery. In such cases a physician, unless he 
 obtains dominion over his patients, so far from 
 affording relief, fails in every prescription ; nay, 
 prescriptions unexceptionable in all respects appear 
 uniformly to aggravate the symptoms which in 
 general they alleviate. The physician is felt to 
 be a chief cause of the patient's suffering ; but 
 instead of looking to those influences which im- 
 prove the general health — such as a proper regi- 
 men, air and exercise, change of scene, and amuse- 
 ments which do not exhaust the spirits — he is led 
 by disappointment to the exhibition of medicines 
 more and more active, till the patient in despair 
 refuses all further aid, or seeks help from some 
 other quarter, or very generally, if affluent, goes 
 to the metropolis to consult the Radcliffe or the 
 Mead of his day. A popular physician, with a 
 composed yet decided and rather unyielding man- 
 ner, to such a patient appears almost hke a minis- 
 
26 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 tering angel. The most obvious directions appear 
 like words of inspiration ; the merest placebo that 
 ever was stuck upon an apothecary's file is a 
 panacea, or is combined with consummate skill, 
 and restores health and enjoyment of life. I have 
 witnessed many of these Hohenlohe cases, as they 
 are called in Ireland. In Dublin many a patient 
 under my care has been restored to health by the 
 same means which have signally failed in the 
 country : thus, in certain cases, reputation pro- 
 motes success, and success continues to uphold 
 reputation. 
 
 It must, however, be admitted, that professional 
 success, like every other good thing in this life, has 
 in its nature many of the seeds of decay. The 
 same circumstances Avhicli tended to bring the 
 present favourite into general repute are probably 
 already operating in behalf of his destined suc- 
 cessor. Thus the physician, to whom his fellow- 
 citizens award the possession of most skill, is 
 generally called upon to assist when all assistance 
 is too late, and sarcastic remarks tending to pro- 
 mote his downfall are made when the patient dies 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 27 
 
 and becomes the subject of ephemeral talk. As 
 there are every where those who judge of merit 
 by success, it is perhaps insinuated that before long 
 the favourite of fortune, who so frequently appears 
 as the undertaker's provider, will be reduced to 
 his proper level. I recollect a time when seven of 
 my patients, in families who were in easy circum- 
 stances, died of fever within a week : five of them, 
 it is true, were in a state almost hopeless when I 
 first saw them, l)ut this would not have preserved 
 me from distrust. I OAved my immunity to their 
 belonging to diiferent classes of society which had 
 no knowledge of each other, and to my rule of 
 not talking of my patients; had the fact been 
 knoAvn, it Avould probably have given a shock to 
 my reputation from which it might not easily 
 have recovered. 
 
 The course of my prosperity was at last ar- 
 rested by the failure of my health. In the year 
 1825, when I was about to enter on my forty- 
 ninth year — a period which is often critical to 
 those who are engaged in anxious business — I 
 became affected with a species of nervous fever. 
 
28 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 In the autumn of that year dysentery proved fatal 
 to many of the inhabitants of Dublin; disap- 
 pointment often attended the means which I em- 
 ployed for their relief, and a pretty constant de- 
 pression of spirits was the consequence of unsatis- 
 factory practice : at the same time my mind was 
 harassed by anxieties not connected with my pro- 
 fession. I became so weak that I was not able to 
 dress in the morning till I had had coffee, and 
 when I returned from a day of toil at seven or 
 eight o'clock in the evening, I was obliged to go 
 to bed to obtain rest before I was able to dine. 
 After a struggle of two months, I went to Eng- 
 land, where I recovered some strength, and thought 
 I was again able for business, to which I returned 
 too soon. I found one of my most-esteemed pro- 
 fessional friends, the father of fifteen children, 
 labouring under a disease which ultimately proved 
 fatal. He had awaited my return, in order to 
 put himself under my care. His sufferings proved 
 an incubus on my spirits, which strangled every 
 cheerful thought. I now began to comprehend 
 the nature of my own illness — a climacteric disease 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICi<.L SKETCH. 29 
 
 was forming, which ever since has been slowly 
 executing its aj^pointed mission. 
 
 By relaxing as much from care as I could, 
 sleeping out of town, getting an experienced 
 friend to act for me at the General Military Hos- 
 pital, and confining myself to the duties of in- 
 spection, the progi-ess of my illness was retarded, 
 and I continued in Dublin till the beginning of 
 1831, when medical practice at last proved an 
 intolerable burden : my sleep was broken and un- 
 refreshing ; in the morning I was languid and 
 dispirited, and in the evening I had a high degree 
 of nervous fever. I resolved upon relinquishing 
 business and retiring to England, at a time when, 
 had my health been unimpaired, I might in all 
 probability have retained my practice undiminished. 
 I foimd my conclusion of its stability partly on my 
 income in 1829 and 1830 : between the 1st of 
 February and the 31st of May, 1829, I received 
 £2230, which was more than I had ever received 
 in any period of equal duration. But my chief 
 reliance was on the undiminished good-will of my 
 professional brethren, from whom I received the 
 
30 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 foUoAving addresses, when they understood that it 
 was not my intention to return to Dublin : — 
 
 "Dublin, 7th March, 1831. 
 
 " Dear Sib — We the undersigned, Fellows, Honorary Fellows, 
 and Licentiates of the College of Physicians in Ireland, im- 
 pressed with the deepest sentiments of esteem for your private 
 virtues, and respect for your exemplary professional character, 
 beg leave to address you on the only subject connected with your 
 long career of public life that has caused a feeling of sorrow in 
 our minds. 
 
 "We cannot but deeply lament the absence of one who, 
 whilst occupying for many years the very first rank in his pro- 
 fession, equally maintained its respectability and protected our 
 interests. In you we have witnessed the enlightened practitioner 
 and experienced the disinterested friend. Faithful alike to your 
 patients and your colleagues, you became pre-eminent without 
 exciting jealousy. Your extensive information and sound prac- 
 tical judgment, the candour and kindness which you have ever 
 shown to your brethren, and the sterling integrity and dignified 
 deportment which have always been conspicuous in your inter- 
 course with every member of the profession, have so fully com- 
 manded our highest esteem and unlimited confidence, that we 
 should hail with sincere pleasure your return to that important 
 station amongst us which you have so long and so deservedly 
 occupied. 
 
 " We beg you to accept the assurance of our unceasing regard, 
 and of oui- anxious wishes for your welfare." 
 
 [Here follow the names of forty-five of the most eminent 
 physicians practising in Dublin.] 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 31 
 
 " SiK — We, the Apothecaries of Dublin, have this day assem- 
 bled at a General Meeting, in order publicly to express senti- 
 ments which we have long entertained towards you in private. 
 
 " To convey these sentiments to the full extent in which they 
 are felt would be to us most agreeable — to you perhaps painful. 
 Although convinced that truth is not flattery, we sacrifice our 
 feelings to yours, and we suppress a part of what it will ever 
 give us pleasure to declare, when the occasion is more opportune 
 than the present. 
 
 " Permit us, however, to express, as our unanimous opinion, 
 founded on the long acquaintance with you which we have had 
 the pleasure of enjoying, that amongst those who within our 
 recollection have occupied the prominent station of head of the 
 Profession of Medicine in this metropolis, not one has ever 
 ranked higher in acquirements, in professional integrity, or in 
 those qualifications which constitute the gentleman. 
 
 " Allow us therefore to profess a sincere friendship, founded 
 on esteem of your qualities and admiration of your talents ; and 
 believe us, when we declare, that in the community there are 
 none who feel a more ardent wish for your happiness and welfare 
 than, 
 
 " Sir, your attached friends, 
 "THE APOTHECARIES OF DUBLIN. 
 " M. Donovan, Chairman. 
 " J. Leech, Secretary. 
 
 •■9th April, 1831 ■■ 
 
 Being of the opinion of those who think it 
 better to wear out than to rust out, and seriously 
 aj)prehen(.linii- the consequences of want of .suitable 
 
32 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 occupation to a mind which had been long in a 
 state of excessive activity, I no sooner found 
 myself in a country village in England than I 
 devised such employment as might be not incon- 
 sistent with health slowly dechning, and with 
 diminished poAver of application. Three mornings 
 in the week I went to a neighbouring cottage and 
 saw the sick villagers, giving them advice and 
 dispensing medicines which were prepared in my 
 family ; and thus many an attack of illness was 
 nipped in the bud, and much suffering lessened. 
 On a foiu-th morning the sick came to me from 
 distant parts of the country, for whom I pre- 
 scribed ; and, as there was no physician within 
 twelve miles of the post town nearest to my 
 house, I was occasionally consulted by some of the 
 more respectable families in the neighbourhood. 
 
 A charge is often brought against physicians, 
 that after they have gathered in their own harvest 
 they never think of showing how the ground may 
 be cultivated by others: I wished to prove that 
 I still retained an interest in my profession, even 
 after it had ceased to yield me emolument, and 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 33 
 
 therefore I gladly undertook to write some articles 
 for " The Cyclopedia of Practical Medicine," in 
 compUance with the request of Dr. Tweedie, one 
 of the editors of that work. I was thus again led 
 to the use of my pen, and began to extend my 
 inquiries to other subjects, recollecting and re- 
 cording facts and reasonings, which in the huiTy 
 of business I had almost let slip : but an end was 
 soon put to my employment by the formation of 
 a cataract in my right eye in the beginning of 
 1833, which soon deprived me of the use of that 
 organ, and since that period the eye has become 
 so dim and my strength so much exhausted, 
 that I have altogether ceased to exercise my 
 profession. 
 
 Sherington, October, 1835. 
 
 The foregoing short narrative was written, 
 merely in the hope of interesting those who, in 
 seeking to attain in his own profession a similar emi- 
 nence with the >vriter, might desire to learn the 
 means which in his case led to the accomplishment 
 of that end. His having written it with this one 
 
 D 
 
34 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 object in view will account for his not making 
 any mention of the growth in his mind of those 
 rehgious principles, which all who knew him in- 
 timately were well aware exercised complete con- 
 trol over his actions, and of which his friends 
 might, therefore, have expected to find the record 
 in his autobiography. These principles, however, 
 are so clearly advanced and so earnestly advocated 
 in the following essays, that his silence respecting 
 them in the brief history of his life is of the less 
 consequence. It has appeared desirable to prefix 
 it to the following essays, because it was written 
 almost contemporaneously with them ; and like- 
 wise, because, although they are of a nature to 
 be read with interest by the general, as well as 
 by the merely pi'ofessional reader, yet the end he 
 had in view cannot fail of being attained by its pub- 
 lication together with a work which it is thought 
 must be welcomed by the members of a profession 
 with whom he so long labom'ed, and from whom 
 he received so many lasting proofs of esteem and 
 attachment. 
 
 The essays he intended should have been pub- 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 35 
 
 lished anonymously : two causes combined to make 
 liim desire that it should be so. In the first 
 place, being removed from all books by which he 
 might have been assisted in properly digesting his 
 subject, he was compelled to depend in a great 
 measure on memory, and the resources of his own 
 experience ; and next, being distracted by severe 
 domestic anxiety, superadded to rapidly declining- 
 health, he did not possess the same confidence in 
 his own unassisted powers, Avhich he no doubt 
 might have done were there nothing to disturb 
 his attention. In fact, he had recoiurse to the 
 composition of the essays rather for the purpose 
 of diverting his thoughts from subjects which 
 weighed heavily on his mind, than Avith a view 
 to publication. They were produced when one 
 of his sons was in the balance between life and 
 death, reduced to that state by the effect of a 
 gun-shot wound intended for another, and whilst 
 he himself was rapidly advancing to the termination 
 he had so long and clearly foreseen — " Turn demum 
 sanaj mentis oculus acute cernere incipit, ubi cor- 
 poris oculus incipit hebescere." 
 
36 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 His own sketch leaves but little of his biography 
 untold. In a very few months after he had made 
 his last corrections in the manuscript of the fol- 
 lowing work, the general breaking up of his 
 constitution, which hitherto had been secretly 
 progressing, exhibited itself definitively in mortifi- 
 cation of the lower extremities ; and after a 
 confinement to his bed of six weeks, he died on 
 the 31st of January, 1836. 
 
 Thoroughly aware of the nature of his case, and 
 its probable result, yet calm and collected in the 
 contemplation of it, he prepared during his illness 
 ample du-ections for the conduct of his family after 
 his departure; showing, in his last act, that con- 
 sideration for the welfare of others, ^vhich under 
 all circumstances had characterized his conduct 
 through life. 
 
 From what source he derived support and com- 
 fort, whilst contending Avith pain and languor on 
 his death-bed, may be gathered from the following 
 unfinished letter addressed to his valued friend, the 
 Rev. Peter Eoe, of Kilkenny : — 
 
 " My dear Friend — On a bed oi' languishing, from which 
 I know not that I shall ever rise, I write a few lines once more 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 37 
 
 to thank you for the seasonable visit which you paid to Shering- 
 ton in the summer, and to assure you that my regard for your- 
 self, Mrs. R., and your child is unabated. I earnestly pray 
 that all of you may have an abundant supply of the grace of 
 the Lord Jesus Christ. 
 
 " You may wish to know the condition of my mind. I am 
 humbled to the dust by the consideration that there is not one 
 action of my busy life which will bear the eye of a holy God. 
 But when I reflect on the invitation of the Redeemer, (Matt. 
 xi. 28,) and that I have accepted that invitation; and more- 
 over, that my conscience testifies that I earnestly desire to have 
 my will in all things conformed to the will of God, I have 
 peace — I have the promised rest— promised by Him in whom 
 was found no guile in His mouth." 
 
 These lines were penned with a trembling hand, 
 but they breathe a composed spirit : and the friend, 
 for whose satisfaction they were written, proved 
 the estimation in which he held such a record of a 
 dying Christian's hope, by carrying the letter con- 
 stantly about him. 
 
 The following memorandum, drawn up by Dr. 
 Cheyne not long before his decease, will convey to 
 the reader the best idea of his character and state 
 of mind at the time. 
 
 " DIRECTIONS REL.\TIVE TO MY BURIAL, ETC. 
 
 " My body, attended only by my sons, is to be 
 carried to the grave by six of the villagers, very 
 
38 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 early on tlie fourth or fifth morning after my 
 decease. I would have no tolling of bells, if it 
 can be avoided. The ringers may have an order 
 for bread, to the amount usually given upon such 
 occasions ; if they get money they will spend it in 
 the ale-house ; and I would have them told, that 
 in life or death I would by no means give occa- 
 sion for sin. My funeral must be as inexpensive 
 as possible : let there be no attempt at a fimeral 
 sermon. I Avould pass aAvay without notice from 
 a world which, Avith all its pretensions, is empty. 
 — ' Tinnit, inane est.' 
 
 "Let not my family mourn for one whose trust 
 is in Jesus. By respectful and tender care of their 
 mother, by mutual affection and by irreproachable 
 conduct, my children Avill best shoAv their regard 
 for my memory. 
 
 " My decease may be announced in the Irish 
 newspapers in the following words — ' Died at 
 
 Sherington, Newport Pagnel, Bucks, on the 
 
 day of Dr. Cheyne, late physician-general 
 
 to the forces in Ireland.' Not one word more ; 
 no panegyric. 
 
AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 39 
 
 " I believe there is a vault belonging to the 
 manor, but if it be under the chiu-ch I should not 
 wish my body to be laid in it, but in the church- 
 }ard, two or three yards from the wicket which 
 opens from the path through the fields. I pointed 
 
 out the spot to , and chose it as a fit place for 
 
 a rustic monument, without marble or sculpture, 
 a column such as is represented in the accompany- 
 ing sketch, about seven or eight feet high. On 
 the column, on hard undecomposing stone, ai-e to 
 be engi-aven the folloAving texts — St. John iii. 16, 
 ' For God so loved the icorld,'' &c ; St. MatthcAv 
 xi. 28, 29, 30, ' Come unto me, all ye that labour,' 
 ike. ; Hebrews xii. 14, ' Folloiv peace icith all 
 men,' &c. 
 
 " As these texts are meant to rouse the insen- 
 sible passenger, they must be distinctly seen. 
 The following inscription is to be engraven on 
 the opposite side of the column : — 
 
 '■^Reader ! the name, profession, and age of him 
 whose body lies beneath, are of little importance ; 
 but it may be of great importance to you to know, 
 that, by the grace of God, lie icas brunglit to luoh 
 
40 AUTOBIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH. 
 
 fa the Lord Jesus, as the only Saviour of sinners, 
 and that this ' looking unto Jesus' gave peace to 
 his soul. 
 
 " Reader ! pray to God that you may he in- 
 structed in the Gospel, and be assured that God 
 rvill give his Holy Spirit, the only teacher of true 
 wisdom, to them that ask him. 
 
 " If any objection be made to tlie spot pointed 
 out for the interment of my body, let some other 
 be chosen where the inscription on the column 
 to be erected over me may be seen to advantage. 
 The monument is for the benefit of the living, 
 and not in honour of the dead. 
 
 " I wish the inscription to be preserved, and 
 leave this to my children and my children's chil- 
 dren." 
 
 These directions were scrupulously attended to ; 
 and the monument, which marks the spot where 
 Dr. Cheyne lies burled, besides the texts and in- 
 scription given above, bears only the initials, J. C . 
 
 A. C. 
 
 May, 1843. 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 PARTIAL DERANGEMENT OF THE MIND. 
 
PREFACE. 
 
 The Avriter of the following pages has often had 
 to listen to those who affimi, that there is in evan- 
 gehcal religion a tendency to produce a deranged 
 state of the understanding ; and he fears that he 
 has been seldom able to remove that prejudice, so 
 deeply rooted is it in the worldly mind. 
 
 At a season when it was desirable to find such 
 occupation as would divert him from anxious 
 thought, he was induced to write the following 
 essays, which are obviously the result of recollec- 
 tion rather than of study, and, without exception, 
 are in a crude and unfinished state. Had he been in 
 the habit of recording his observations in ^Titing, 
 or even had he been possessed of the necessary 
 books of reference, and had not his poAver of appU- 
 CAtion been imi)aired by declining health, he is 
 persuaded that he could have produced a fulness 
 
44 PREFACE. 
 
 of evidence which would have more firmly esta- 
 blished the positions to which he is desirous of 
 obtaining the reader's assent. These positions 
 are : — 
 
 I. — That mental derangements are invariably 
 connected with bodily disorder. 
 
 II. — That such derangements of the under- 
 standing, as are attended with insane speculations 
 on the subject of religion, are generally, in the 
 first instance, perversions of only one power of 
 the mind. 
 
 III. — That clergymen, to whom these essays 
 are particularly addressed, have little to hope for 
 in placing divine truth before a melancholic or 
 hypochondriacal patient, until the bodily disease, 
 with which the mental delusion is connected, is 
 cured or relieved. 
 
 IV That many of the doubts and fears of 
 
 truly religious persons of sane mind depend either 
 upon ignorance of the constitution and operations 
 of the mind, or upon disease of the body. 
 
 The writer avails himself of this opportunity 
 of expressing his conviction that an opinion which 
 
PREFACE. 45 
 
 obtained a good many years ago, and is still preva- 
 lent and influential, relative to the all-importance 
 of the moral government of the insane, has pre- 
 vented improvements founded upon pathology in 
 the treatment of that class of sufferers, which 
 might, ere this, have been introduced into general 
 practice. AVhereas, if the principles which the 
 writer wishes to establish, were to be acted upon, 
 more immediate attention would be paid to the 
 disorder of the body Avliich supports the derange- 
 ment of the mind, and more frequent removal of 
 the latter might be expected. 
 
 It must not be inferred from this that the writer 
 wishes to discountenance all attempts to benefit 
 the insane by moral discipline. All that he insists 
 on is, that its right place should be assigned to 
 this mode of treatment. 
 
ESSAYS 
 
 PARTIAL DERANGEMENT OF THE MIND. 
 
 ESSAY I . 
 
 INTRODUCTORY. 
 
 •• It caunot be doubted that to consider the faculties of tlie mind separately, would 
 contribute to facilitate the study of pneiuuatology, as well as to lead to very import- 
 ant knowledge in regard to the nature and varieties of insanity. In some instances 
 of mental derangement, all the powers of the mind axe either actually enfeebled, or 
 more than usually excited. In other instances the change or perversion afifects but 
 one or a few of the intellectual faculties, while the others are found to acquire a new 
 degree of development and activity." — Pinel ox Insanity. 
 
 That inquiries of great importance have been 
 obstructed by untimely endeavours at classifica- 
 tion, is a truth which has been well exemplified 
 in the case of disorders of the mind. The division 
 of them into dejection and fury — into melancholia 
 and mania — has at last been found untenable : 
 melancholic despondency often exquisitely mai'ks 
 derangement of the mind as occurring in the tem- 
 perament in which we have been taught to expect 
 only maniacal fiu-y ; and the converse is also in 
 various cases observable. 
 
48 
 
 Again, when a tendency to insanity is inherited, 
 it will perhaps appear as melancholia in one gene- 
 ration, and mania in the next. 
 
 The paroxysm sometimes originates in moral 
 causes, frequently in intemperance ; but in a great 
 proportion of instances, although a previous devia- 
 tion of the mind from consistency of thought and 
 feeling be discoverable, we have not been able 
 to detect any relation between the temperament of 
 the sufferer and the peculiar form of his derange- 
 ment. 
 
 Again, interchanges between melancholy and 
 raving madness are frequent : an individual who 
 may have been as dark, silent, and motionless as 
 Gibber's statue — his mind long engaged in brood- 
 ing over expected misery — will sometimes start 
 into action, and at once be tilled with the wildest 
 and most impracticable expectations and projects ; 
 happiness and prosperity will reel before him, his 
 countenance will beam with gaiety and hope, and 
 he will obtain a degree of bodily strength to 
 execute his insane purposes, which nothing can 
 restrain but fetters and manacles. Sometimes we 
 may observe sudden conversion into joyous ex- 
 travagance from the despair of what is termed 
 religious madness. Like the thunderstorm which 
 follows a close and oppressive condition of the 
 atmosphere, and is the prelude to a serene sky. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 49 
 
 the change from melancholy to universal and wild 
 delii-imu often leads to recovery ; and hence 
 
 " Moody madness laughing wild 
 Amid severest woe," 
 
 however shocking to the eye of a common ob- 
 server, inspires the physician with hope ; it shows 
 him that the mind has fallen into general disorder 
 to the relief of a part of it, which, when oppressed, 
 is the seat of one of the most obstinate kinds of 
 insanity. 
 
 Whether Pinel may have supposed the observa- 
 tion which we have prefixed to this essay his own, 
 we presume not to say: it entered not into the 
 ethics of the French medical writers of his day 
 to acknowledge an obligation to a German or 
 English physician. Pinel must have been very 
 careless not to perceive that Sir Alexander Crich- 
 ton, whose work on insanity he has criticised with 
 unbecoming severity, and of course must have 
 read, had already acted upon the suggested prin- 
 ciple of classification. In the quotation from 
 Pinel, however, whether the observation be origi- 
 nal or borrowed, is contained the idea of a more 
 hopeful arrangement of the disorders of the mind. 
 This arrangement we adopt as the basis of the 
 following remarks, although we are aware that a 
 doctrine is assumed Avhich is rejected by many 
 psychological writers, and which, however probable 
 it may be, has not been proved — namely, that the 
 
50 ESSAY I. 
 
 mind, whatever unity of essence it may have, 
 operates as though it were an aggregate of distinct 
 faculties. 
 
 To this assumed doctrine we are not wedded. 
 We think indeed that it receives support from the 
 state of the mind in dreaming, and still more in 
 somnambulism, where some faculties are active — 
 as the imagination and memory — while others are 
 inactive ; from certain faculties being exhausted 
 by study or close application, Avhile others remain 
 fresh and ready for vigorous exercise ; from the 
 phenomena of monomania, or insanity confined 
 to one mental endowment, the mind m every 
 other point being sane — so sane as to detect its 
 own partial insanity ; from the destruction of some 
 faculties and principles by external injury or 
 disease of the brain, while the mind is otherwise 
 unimpaired ; from the successive development of 
 certain of its endowments, instead of the equable 
 development of the whole mind : thus the percep- 
 tions are in a perfect state long before we are 
 capable of reflection ; and from a consideration 
 of the discoveries of Sir Charles Bell, who has 
 shown that the nerves, although in structure more 
 simple than the brain, which is the seat of thought 
 and feeling, possess distinct faculties in separate 
 bundles of fibres — there being fibres Avhich convey 
 sensations, and fibres which convey the mandates 
 of the will to be executed by the muscles. 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 51 
 
 But whether this be the true theory of the con- 
 stitution of the mind, or whether the mind be a 
 simple subsistence, with varied powers of operation, 
 is a question which, if determinable, would require 
 a much greater extent and accuracy of psychological 
 knowledge to decide than belongs to the writer 
 of these pages. In truth, he pretends to little 
 knowledge of the mind more than what he has 
 learned from observation ; from having long wit- 
 nessed the passions and affections in unrestrained 
 action ; from having long viewed the drama of 
 life from behind the scenes, and attended to the 
 manifestation of character in health and disease : 
 from his having been for some years in superin- 
 tendence of a considerable number of insane per- 
 sons, nearly one hundred ; and, lastly, from intro- 
 spection, especially while suffering from lowness 
 of spirits, arising from dyspeptic nervousness, 
 aggravated by the wear and tear of a life of con- 
 tinued over-exertion. If, however, the reader 
 should have arrived at the conclusion that the 
 mind is uncompounded — that its faculties are 
 but varied conditions or operations of one simple 
 subsistence — we are not so established in our 
 own opinion as to wish to unsettle his ; more 
 especially as we apprehend he will not encounter 
 any difficulty in accommodating cither to the 
 arrangement which has been adopted iu these 
 essays. 
 
52 ESSAY I. 
 
 Mental derangement may arise — 
 
 First — From a disordered condition of the 
 organs of sense. 
 
 Secondly — From a disorder of one or more of 
 the intellectual faculties. 
 
 Thirdly — From a disorder of one or more of the 
 natural affections and desires. 
 
 Fourthly — From a disorder of one or more of 
 the moral affections. 
 
 Fifthly — From groups of faculties and affections 
 being disordered, thereby involving derangement 
 of the whole mind. 
 
 Our intention is, to confine the following obser- 
 vations to the first four of these varieties of de- 
 ranged mind : the fifth may be reserved for a 
 separate inquiry. 
 
 While the mental faculties continue in their 
 natural state, the individual will retain his peculiar 
 character ; but if any one of the faculties of the 
 mind should lose its natural strength or activity, a 
 change of conduct, generally speaking, Avill soon 
 take place : the individual will appear to act upon 
 new motives, or motives which formerly influenced 
 him will become more or less powerful. A faculty 
 may be altogether destroyed, in which case the 
 party may be deprived of the benefit of that 
 influence which one faculty often exercises over 
 the rest, and inconsistency of conduct or insanity 
 will be the consequence. Again, if a faculty be- 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 53 
 
 come so inordinately active as to resist the control 
 which other faculties exercise over it, inconsistency 
 or derangement will also be the result. Thus, 
 either impaired or uncontrolled activity of one or 
 more of the faculties may lead to complete mental 
 derangement. The affections and moral senti- 
 ments, as well as the intellectual faculties, may be 
 in a state of undue activity or inactivity, of apathy 
 and indifference, or of passion and emotion — and 
 the apathetic or impassioned state of the affections 
 or sentiments may also end in insanity. 
 
 Excitement of a faculty may lead to its ex- 
 haustion, and exhaustion again be followed by 
 excitement. One faculty may be in a state of un- 
 due activity, while other faculties may, at the 
 same time, be inactive ; and hence occasional ca- 
 price is to be accounted for. Sometimes the whole 
 of the mental faculties are natui'ally torpid, or 
 become inactive, as in cases of idiocy or amentia : 
 sometimes they are all excited, for a time or per- 
 manently, as in a paroxysm of delirium ferox, or 
 in the inculpable cases of mania universalis ; the 
 latter affection frequently depending upon causes 
 which at once excite the whol6 of the brain, as 
 contagion, coup de soleil, ardent spirits, &c. 
 
 It would appear that the disturbance of one 
 faculty sometimes affects all the rest, universal 
 derangement ensues, and the case is hopelessly 
 complicated. There is no doubt, however, that 
 
54 
 
 some of the faculties may be disordered, and there 
 may be a degree of consciousness of the disorder, 
 ■which may be acted against, so that the duties of 
 life and station may be performed, and nothing 
 may be discovered but slight pecvdiarities of think- 
 ing, or of behaviour ; indeed, even one of the more 
 important faculties may be disordered, and the 
 sufferer, knowing it to be so, may refuse its sug- 
 gestions as he would false information conveyed by 
 one of the senses : but, to adopt the language of a 
 celebrated physiologist, " if we consider a deranged 
 faculty to be not deranged, or if we distinguish its 
 derangement, but are unable to control its influ- 
 ence, we are insane." There are some faculties 
 which are so necessary to moral and intellectual 
 government, that when they become disordered, 
 the mind in consequence is affected to such a de- 
 gree, that it is necessary, even although he may 
 have a prevalent consciousness of the disorder, to 
 remove the individual from his place in society. 
 
 When any faculty, affection, or sentiment is 
 disturbed, the disturbance may exist in every 
 degree, from pecuharity or eccentricity in those 
 subjects in which the disordered faculty is chiefly 
 exercised, to downright insanity. As may be ex- 
 pected, many persons who have been habitually 
 eccentric finally become insane. Many who are 
 periodically affected with insanity, in the interval 
 between the attacks of that distemper are very 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 55 
 
 in-egular in tlieir conduct ; in their best state they 
 are not in perfect sanity. It is further observable, 
 that there is often great oddness and irregularity of 
 behaviour in individuals belonging to fluuilies in 
 which insanity is hereditary : they are often argu- 
 mentative; in moral questions ever in search of first 
 principles, or occupied in splitting hairs ; dogmatic ; 
 in conduct impracticable ; devoid of consideration 
 for the feelings of others ; reckless of conse- 
 quences ; not disconcerted by their own failures ; 
 although worthy and even clever, they will neither 
 "lead nor drive." The nature of some of those 
 peculiarities Avhich, after having long formed part 
 of the character, at last merge in insanity, will be 
 alluded to in the sequel. 
 
 We may here remark, that changes of character 
 frequently arise from some one of the faculties 
 being inordinately excited, or from some mental 
 ■power, the property of which is to moderate the 
 excited faculty, being depressed. Sometimes the 
 sensualist is spiritualized, the proud man becomes 
 humble, the ambitious man lowly ; and when the 
 moral change in these respects is for the better, so 
 far from exciting any apprehension, it may be 
 viewed with unmixed pleasure. But, on the con- 
 trary, if the change of character is for the worse — 
 as when a generous man becomes miserly, a moral 
 man dissolute or knavish, a sober man drunken, or 
 a well-tempered man passionate — we are not merely 
 
56 
 
 distressed, but alarmed at the prospect of conse- 
 quent insanity. 
 
 The activity or inactivity of the mental faculties 
 may depend upon the condition of the brain : — 
 
 First — On the supply or exhaustion of sensorial 
 power. Sensorial power is exhausted by long con- 
 tinued exercise either of body or mind, and until 
 restored by rest, food, sleep, &c., the full vigour of 
 the mental powers cannot be given to any subject 
 of thought. 
 
 Secondly — Upon the state of the circulation of 
 the blood in the brain. For example : some are 
 rendered incapable of attention by any quantity of 
 fermented liquor, however small, which is sufficient 
 to excite the circulation. There are others whose 
 power of thought is never so great as when they 
 are, to a certain extent, excited by -wine. Some 
 are incapable of study except in the morning and 
 early part of the day ; others have the power of 
 application increased in the evening, apparently 
 from stimulating food taken at dinner. A distin- 
 guished statesman, upwards of seventy years of 
 age, dines largely at a late hour, and after drinking 
 wine freely, retires to his cabinet at eleven o'clock, 
 and is actively engaged in business till three or 
 four o'clock in the morning. Schoolboys, in ge- 
 neral, find it easiest to learn their lessons in the 
 evening ; some of them, however, have most power 
 of application in the morning. In many persons 
 
[NTRODUCTORY. 
 
 57 
 
 who are devoted to literary pursuits, unless the due 
 point of cerebral excitement, arising from the 
 quantity and quality of the ingesta, is obtained, 
 the mind is unfit for study. In the life of President 
 Edwards, we learn that he spent thirteen hours 
 daily in his study; that he was able to do so 
 is remarkable, as liis constitution was infirm and 
 his health indifferent, but then it appears that in 
 eating and drinking he was constantly watchful. 
 " He carefully observed the effects of different 
 sorts of food, and selected those which best fitted 
 him for mental labour. Having also ascertained 
 the quantity of food which, while it sustained his 
 bodily strength, left his mind most sprightly and 
 active, he scrupulously confined himself within the 
 prescribed limits." 
 
 When the mind has been long and actively en- 
 gaged — if we may use the term, overwrought — a 
 great dislike, which is sometimes permanent and 
 invincible, may be observed to mental labour of 
 the same nature. We were at a large and cele- 
 brated classical school, along with several boys dis- 
 tinguished for application, and ranking high in the 
 estimation of an eminent master, by whom they 
 were tasked to the utmost. Yet none of them 
 have, to my knowledge, made any figure in life, 
 either as scholars or men of business. In the 
 medical profession we have known students who 
 signally exerted themselves while they were 
 
58 
 
 making ready to be examined for a medical degree ; 
 but, so far from evincing continued pleasure in 
 scientific pursuits, they have since degenerated into 
 mere traders. In a justly celebrated university, in 
 which the examination for a fellowship requires a 
 length and closeness of application which is suf- 
 ficient to impair the power of most minds, it has 
 been observed that many of the felloAvs, after their 
 election, have lost all their original relish for 
 learning, and have become men of little perform- 
 ance, although originally of great promise. 
 
 As the elasticity of the mind may be lost by its 
 being long bent, so may its strength be withered 
 by a stunning blow : hence it is that fatuity has 
 sometimes followed an overwhelming calamity. 
 In this way some of the natural affections have 
 been destroyed. 
 
 That a mental endowment should retain its 
 vigour, it is necessary that it be moderately exer- 
 cised. If the exercise of the religious sentiments 
 be interrupted, for example, by too exclusive an 
 attention to science, communion with God will lose 
 its relish. Claudius Buchanan, while at Cam- 
 bridge, wrote to a friend as follows : — "I find this 
 great attention to study has made me exceedingly 
 languid in my devotional duties : I feel not that 
 delight in reading the Bible, nor that pleasure in 
 divine things, Avhich formerly animated me. On 
 this account have many serious students, in this 
 
INTRODUCTORY. 59 
 
 university, wholly abandoned the study of mathe- 
 matics ; for it seems they generally feel the same 
 effects that I do." 
 
 The mutual influence of the mental powers 
 being still but Httle known, there is often great 
 difficulty in discovering the faculty primitively 
 disordered ; a point which, unless we can ascertain, 
 we need scarcely hope completely to understand 
 any case of insanity. This it is also which renders 
 the treatment of such cases so difficult. 
 
60 
 
 ESSAY 11. 
 
 ON FALSE PERCEPTIONS AND SUPPOSED DEMONISM. 
 
 There are many cases which show that in conse- 
 quence of a disordered condition of the organs of 
 sense, or of that portion of the brain with Avhich 
 the external senses immediately communicate, in- 
 formation is conveyed which an individual, unac- 
 quainted with the nature of false perceptions, as 
 they are technically called, being unable to rectify, 
 will refer to supernatural agency, will act upon, 
 and thereby forfeit his right to be considered a 
 person of sound mind. 
 
 We know an instance of a remarkable delusion 
 arising from complete loss of feeling in the left 
 side of the body, caused by an attack of palsy, 
 which first originated, and then fatally terminated 
 in apoplexy. In the morning the individual main- 
 tained that he had two left arms, and, when we 
 tried to convince him that he was under a miscon- 
 ception, he promptly offered to produce the sup- 
 plementary arm. " There it is," said he, patting 
 his left shoulder Avith his right hand. " Well, 
 then," it was asked, "where is the other?" On 
 which, turning round his head with great alacrity 
 
FALSE PERCEPTIONS. 61 
 
 to show it, he seemed iiiucli disappointed when lie 
 could discover but one arm, vehemently declaring 
 " that there were two in the night." The expla- 
 nation of this insane delusion is not difficult. In 
 a paralytic arm or hand, even when the facidty of 
 distinguishing the tangible properties of external 
 substances is lost, and motive power is destroyed, 
 the sense of existence, which belongs to every 
 part of the body, may be altered, as it was in this 
 case. No defect was discovered by the patient, 
 who had not attempted to move the limb ; but 
 when he applied his hand to it in the dark, the 
 sense of touch, as residing in the skin, being lost, 
 it felt like a foreign substance, and the reasoning 
 power being weakened by the disease of the brain, 
 he fancied that by some strange process of conju- 
 ration a dead limb had been attached to the living 
 one, which lay, as he conceived, underneath. 
 
 That species of insanity which is brought on by 
 continued inebriation, commences in disturbances 
 of the organs of sense, arising from cerebral ex- 
 citement. In delirium caused by intoxication, 
 before the reasoning power is altogether over- 
 whelmed, the drunkard sees double, hears things 
 not as they are uttered, and sometimes acts upon 
 the delusion ; and Avhcn, by long continued intem- 
 perance, the disease of drunkards, entitled de- 
 lirium tremens, is established, these false percep- 
 tions continue, by which, in a great measure. 
 
62 
 
 delusion of the mind is sustained. We have 
 often heard sufferers under delii'ium tremens affirm 
 that they saw and heard fairies, elves, devils, 
 spirits watching them, grinning at them, whisper- 
 ing together, and conspiring against them ; and 
 hence these unhappy maniacs are often to be ob- 
 served suddenly starting up and listening with 
 apparent attention at doors, cupboards, or crevices 
 in the walls, or looking under the bed, or up 
 the chimney, or slyly peeping out of the window. 
 We have been told by such persons that their 
 perceptions have become wonderfully keen and 
 accurate ; sometimes they reason on their state, 
 and conclude that by a lately acquired power of 
 vision, they are enabled to see things which are 
 hidden from others : a man labouring under in- 
 sanity produced by intoxication, lately told us 
 that he could hear what was uttered in a whisper 
 at a distance of half a mile. 
 
 The ear is very liable to be deluded— a person 
 may fancy that he hears the hissing of a boiling 
 kettle, the ringing of bells, the roaring of the sea, 
 the clamours of a tumultuous crowd, and a variety of 
 discordant sounds, as well as articulate voices, if the 
 circulation of the brain, or of a part of that organ be 
 diseased. On the other hand, oral language is not 
 always understood — words, even when distinctly 
 heard, convey no meaning — audible language ceases 
 to be intelligible when visible language is, as in 
 
FALSE PERCEPTIONS. 63 
 
 the case recorded by Dr. Darwin of Shrewsbury, 
 of an old gentleman who was superannuated, 
 whose hearing and vision Avere perfect, but who 
 could only call up a train of ideas from the latter. 
 When he was told it was nine o'clock and time 
 for him to eat his breakfast, he repeated the words 
 distinctly, but without understanding them. Then 
 his servant put a watch in his hand, upon which 
 he said, " Why, William, have I not had my 
 breakfast, for it is past nine o'clock ?" On almost 
 every occasion his servants conversed with him by 
 means of visible objects, although his hearing was 
 perfect ; and when this kind of communication was 
 used he did not appear impaired in his intellects. 
 This state came on from a stroke of the palsy ; 
 and, till he and his servants had recourse to this 
 language of signs, he was quite childish. * 
 
 It has been observed that hearing is more fre- 
 quently disordered than sight or any other of the 
 senses. When two or more of the senses become, 
 at the same time, instruments of delusion, it will 
 require no small force of reason to resist the decep- 
 tions which are thus practised on the mind. The 
 apparitions which attended Nicolai, the celebrated 
 Prussian bookseller, not only peopled his apart- 
 ments, but spoke to him. When maniacs converse 
 with imaginary beings, both the eye and ear must 
 
 * Dai-wiii's Zoonomia, cliap. iv. pp. 2, 3-8. 
 
64 ESSAY II. 
 
 be deceitful, at a time Avlien the reasoning power 
 is incapable of contending with a depraved state 
 of these organs and detecting their treachery. 
 Indeed, when delusions both of hearing and 
 sight co-exist, nothing can prevent insanity, un- 
 less a correction be found in an enlightened 
 judgment. The moment an individual believes 
 in the reality of his false perceptions, he becomes 
 insane. 
 
 Many persons are disturbed with vertigo — every 
 object on which they fix their eyes appears to spin 
 round, or is seen double — or they perceive cob- 
 webs, meshes of a net, or muscce volitantes, as 
 often as they eat pastry, or butter in the least 
 rancid, or in short any thing which disturbs the 
 proper action of the stomach. By physicians it 
 is universally admitted that these and all other 
 false perceptions of the organs of sight, hearing, 
 taste, smelling, or touch, are referable to disease 
 of the brain, or of the digestive organs acting upon 
 the brain, or a portion of it. 
 
 It is not uncommon for those Avho are deluded 
 by their senses, to fall into a persuasion that they 
 are under demoniacal influence; and, when they 
 are willing to explain the nature of their disquie- 
 tudes, we cannot wonder at this their conclusion. 
 We will describe one of these cases in the Avords 
 of a sufferer — " Such a state as mine you are pro- 
 
FALSE PERCEPTIONS. 65 
 
 bably unacquainted with, notwithstanding all your 
 experience ; I am not conscious of the suspension 
 or decay of any of the powers of my mind. I am 
 as well able as ever I Avas to attend to my busi- 
 ness ; my family suppose me in health, yet the 
 horrors of a mad-house are staring me in the face. 
 I am a martyr to a species of persecution from 
 within which is becoming intolerable. I am urged 
 to say the most shocking things — blasphemous and 
 obscene words are ever on the tip of my tongue ; 
 hitherto, thank God ! I have been enabled to re- 
 sist, but I often think I must yield at last, and 
 then I shall be disgraced for ever and ruined. I 
 solemnly assure you that I hear a voice which 
 seems to be within me, prompting me to utter 
 what I would turn from with disgust if uttered 
 by another. If I were not afraid that you would 
 smile, I shoidd say there is no way of accounting 
 for these extraordinary articulate whisperings, but 
 by supposing that an evil spirit has obtained pos- 
 session of me for the time : my state is so wretched 
 that, compared with what I suffer, pain or sickness 
 would appear but trifling evils." This individual, 
 it may be observed, had a perfect knowledge of 
 divine truth, but that his heart was thereby in- 
 fluenced is more than questionable, inasmuch as, 
 although there had been sharp conflicts within, 
 still the love of money, which by nature possessed 
 his soul, was unsubdued. AVe have known this 
 
66 
 
 affection in an individual who had not a glimmer 
 of divine light. 
 
 Those who suffer in this way are often of a low 
 desponding spirit. In one variety of this distem- 
 per, the sufferer is urged, by a voice as if from 
 Avithin, to commit suicide ; and with such impor- 
 tunity is the injunction, " Go and hang yourself," 
 "Kill yourself," "Drown yourself," " Take poi- 
 son " — with such importunity is it repeated, that 
 we have little doubt of its having been yielded to, 
 and of this delusion of the ear having been the 
 cause of many of the acts of self-destruction which 
 are unexpected, and otherwise unaccountable. A 
 medical practitioner, lately deceased, informed us 
 that his father was one day sent for to Mr. Cow- 
 per, then labouring under an attack of fanatical 
 insanity supported by auricular delusions, whom 
 he found with a pen-knife sticking in his side, with 
 which, conceiving that he had received a mandate 
 from heaven to that effect, he had made an effort 
 to kill himself. 
 
 These affections lead in another way to suicide. 
 A gentleman of our acquaintance, (whose father 
 died while insane,) in consequence of some false 
 perceptions which he interpreted into tokens of 
 incipient derangement, went to his bedchamber, 
 charged his fowling-piece, and shot himself through 
 the head. His conjecture, indeed, was not Avith- 
 out foundation, as there are certain delusions of 
 
FALSE PERCEPTIONS. 67 
 
 the senses which end in insanity ; but his deplor- 
 able act of self-miu'der was prompted either by 
 madness already commenced, or by a mistaken 
 alarm bearing down all the restraints of reason and 
 principle. False perceptions often pass away along- 
 with the bodily ailment which gave rise to them : 
 and even if there were a more invariable connexion 
 between them and insanity, this would afford no 
 shadow of excuse for the crime of suicide com- 
 mitted by a sane person through fear of becoming 
 insane. 
 
 We had several opportunities of seeing a young 
 woman, of limited understanding, with strong 
 devotional feelings, but ignorant of the doctrine 
 of the cross, during a protracted attack of insanity. 
 When her illness was beginning, she was liable 
 to be disturbed while in prayer. Thus when about 
 to repeat the Lord's Prayer she was impelled from 
 Avithin to say, " Our Father which art in hell," 
 with such vehemence, that she was forced to start 
 up, otherwise she must have yielded to the im- 
 pulse. Such agony of mind we have seldom wit- 
 nessed, as the poor young woman endured when 
 she related this affecting incident. It may not be 
 amiss to add, that the character of the paroxysms 
 of her insanity was peculiar. She woidd evince 
 a very mischievous malignity of expression and 
 j)urpose, would even attempt to bite any one she 
 could lav hold of, after which she would assume an 
 
68 
 
 expression of great compunction, and melt into a 
 flood of tears. 
 
 We have heard these and similar cases accounted 
 for on the assumption of demonism, but we never 
 have seen a case of disordered mind, even when 
 attended with the most subtle malignity, which 
 could not more easily be explained upon natural 
 principles. We acknowledge the power of Satan, 
 and it may be as great as ever in the dark places 
 of the earth, which have received no benefit from 
 Christianity ; but as there are no rules for distin- 
 guishing between the workings of the human 
 mind, when influenced by bodily disease — when 
 yielding to its unrestrained propensity to evil, and 
 when acted upon by Satan, the extent of Satanic 
 agency cannot be known, nor ought the mode of 
 its operation to be assumed upon conjecture. It 
 is one of the devices of man's great enemy, to 
 have his power, nay, his existence, denied by those 
 who are his subjects ; and we only play his game, 
 and confirm Sadducean principles, when we allege 
 of Satan what we cannot prove. Probably, 
 nothing so much weakened the influence of Luther 
 as his account of his conflicts with the devil. The 
 mind of the reformer yielded to delusions practised 
 upon it by his senses ; and consequently many 
 who are unwilling to admit the power of his judg- 
 ment and the rectitude of his principles, especially 
 the minions of superstition and the abettors of 
 
FALSE PERCEPTIONS. 69 
 
 infidelity, have persuaded themselves that the 
 master spirit of his age — with whom the Charleses, 
 the Henrys, and the Francises, were no more 
 to be compared than Ahab was with Elijah — was 
 a dreaming and credulous enthusiast. 
 
 Those who admit the authority of Scripture are 
 not permitted to doubt that when om- Lord cured 
 the demoniacs he actually dispossessed them. It 
 could not have been, as some have alleged, that 
 he merely removed epilepsy or insanity. Without 
 entering into all the particulars of the discussion, 
 any Christian w4io will read with attention the 
 fourth and eighth chapters of St. Matthew's gospel 
 must reject the hypothesis of Mede, that the 
 demoniacs mentioned in the gospels laboured under 
 natm-al diseases. In the fourth chapter it is ex- 
 pressly specified that our Lord "healed all sick 
 people that were taken with divers diseases and 
 torments," including epilepsy, Ave may fairly 
 infer, " and those which were possessed with 
 devils," a separate class, " and those which were 
 lunatic," or of unsound mind. In the eighth 
 chapter the same distinction is observable between 
 casting out devils and curing diseases ; sixteenth 
 verse, " and he cast out the spuits with his Avord, 
 and healed all that were sick." But the relation 
 which decides the question is that of the miracle 
 performed in the country of the Gcrgcscnes (chap, 
 viii. verse 28 et seq.) ; before we can believe that 
 
^0 
 
 the two men who came out of the tombs were 
 maniacs or epileptics, it must be proved that 
 disease is not merely a mode of animal life, but 
 something substantive and transferable from one 
 class of beings to another — from man to the lower 
 animals. 
 
 The Christian knows quite enough of the nature 
 and power of Satan to be continually on his guard 
 against him, and he knows who is his protector. 
 Of the nature of Satan he knows, first, from his 
 Hebrew name, that he is his enemy, his accuser — 
 he is the enemy and accuser of the church and 
 brethren : he falsely accused believing Job before 
 God ; and he falsely accuses God, injecting into 
 the minds of the brethren hard thoughts of God, 
 and of the first-born of many brethren ; he raises 
 up doubts with respect to the divine government, 
 and the deliverance of sinners from his own do- 
 minion by the ransoming blood of Jesus : secondly, 
 that he is the power of darkness — the power ruling 
 over the children of darkness ; he is the god of 
 this world, who blinds the minds of them which 
 believe not; he is the power by wliich spiritual 
 light and comfort are shut out — he being ever 
 ready to intercept the rays which continually 
 emanate from the Sun of Righteousness, and 
 which would otherwise penetrate the often dark- 
 ened soul of the Christian. Such is the power 
 of the great apostate, that he was able to inter- 
 
FALSE PERCEPTIONS. 71 
 
 pose betAveen God and the God-man, Avhen our 
 blessed Lord from the cross cried with a loud 
 voice, " My God, my God ! why hast thou for- 
 saken me." It is utterly impossible to conceive 
 that the sympathy of God with Christ could 
 cease ; but dm-ing "the hour and power of dark- 
 ness" Satan was permitted, like a dense cloud, to 
 suiTOund Calvary, that our Lord, with none to 
 help, might bear the whole burden of sin — that 
 he might tread the wine-press alone. 
 
 Cases in which there are false perceptions, such 
 as we have described, are recurrent with those 
 disordered states of the digestion which act upon 
 the nervous system : for example, in what may be 
 called dyspeptic hysteria. In this state of the 
 system, spectral illusions frequently occur of an 
 unusual or fantastic kind, which more resemble 
 the sleights of Katterfelto or Charles, than the 
 machinations of the prince of the power of the air. 
 We knew a lady, under the influence of irregular 
 hysteria, who had been reading with great interest 
 Klopstock's " Messiah," and who, for several days 
 after she had finished that book, constantly saw 
 before her eyes a large K. We have often heard 
 nervous females say that as soon as they shut their 
 eyes they perceived a great variety of figures 
 forming a crowded assembly, some of whom they 
 recognised as acquaintances, others were strangers ; 
 some were engaged in grave and earnest conver- 
 
72 
 
 sation, others Avere laughing, others mocking and 
 deriding them ; some were playing cards, others 
 were dancing. A lady now sitting in the room 
 with us says, that when she is nervous, as soon 
 as she shuts her eyes in bed, she sees a number of 
 human beings all around her. Two or three nights 
 ago, when she went to bed and closed her eyes 
 she saw three heads, like living busts, which did 
 not disappear even when she opened her eyes ; 
 but generally these bubbles melt, as breath into the 
 wind, when the eyes are opened. A phantas- 
 magoria of a similar kind is exhibited in other 
 diseases, and may be Avitnessed by many at the ex- 
 pense of a moderate dose of laudanum. A gen- 
 tleman, while recovering from a severe attack of 
 gout in the stomach, amused his physicians with 
 a very lively description of a scene which he wit- 
 nessed as often as he shut his eyes ; among the 
 dramatis personcB^ the writer of these pages played 
 an important part — assuming a pragmatic activity, 
 which seemed to divert the imaginative patient 
 exceedingly. It is probable that they who have 
 formed a lively conception of the personal appear- 
 ance of Satan, from prints or paintings, have often 
 had their conceptions realized in nervous or febrile 
 diseases, or after taking narcotic medicines ; and 
 it is but charitable to believe that popish legends, 
 which describe victories gained over Satan by holy 
 enthusiasts, have had their origin in delusion of 
 
FALSE PERCEPTIONS. 73 
 
 the senses, rather than that they are pious frauds. 
 If we are to attribute the cases which we have 
 described to the tempter becoming ventriloquist, 
 we must refer every case of false perceptions to 
 the same actor. If diabolic agency be thus re- 
 tained, the theory of Richard Baxter will scarcely 
 be objected to by the physician, seeing that his 
 craft is thereby exalted at the expense of that of 
 the exorcist. "If it were," says Baxter, "as 
 some fancy, a possession of the devil, it is possible 
 that physic might cast him out. For, if you cure 
 the melancholy (black bile), his bed is taken away, 
 and the advantage gone by which he worketh ; 
 cure the choler (bile), and the choleric operations 
 of the devil will cease : it is by means and humours, 
 in us, that he worketh." 
 
 Deluded by their senses, some have supposed 
 that they have seen one of the saints or apostles, 
 or even their Saviour, smiling upon them, beckon- 
 ing to them ; nay, have heard the most tender and 
 encouraging words, by which the burden of sin, 
 they affirm, was at once removed, and permanent 
 assurance imparted ; — there is every reason to 
 believe that these cases are caused by a disordered 
 condition of the organs of sense : the vision of the 
 excellent Colonel Gardiner, we have little doubt, 
 was of this nature. To his case the observation 
 of Edwards, relative to supposed miraculous sug- 
 gestions, appears applicable : " It is possible that 
 
74 
 
 such suggestions may be the occasional or accidental 
 cause of gracious affections, for so may a mistake 
 and delusion." We are convinced, although the 
 vision described by Colonel Gardiner was an illu- 
 sion, that his conversion to God was genuine : the 
 change Avhich took place in his life and conversa- 
 tion, could not have been owing to any agency but 
 that of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 It is remarkable, and not less so than humbling, 
 that Christians of the greatest eminence should 
 have yielded to a similar delusion, and have taken 
 comfort and assurance (in the present dispensation 
 unauthorized) even fi'om a dream. It is evident 
 that the celebrated nonconformist, Mr. John Howe, 
 must have yielded to a weakness of this kind when 
 he wrote as follows on a blank leaf of his Bible — 
 " December 26, 1689, after that I had long 
 seriously and repeatedly thought with myself, that 
 besides a full and undoubting assent to the objects 
 of faith, a vivifying savoury tastd and relish of 
 them was also necessary, that with stronger force 
 and more powerful energy they might penetrate 
 into the most inward centre of my heart, and 
 there, being deeply fixed and rooted, govern my 
 life ; and that there could be no other sm-e ground 
 whereon to conclude and pass a sound judgment 
 on my estate Godward ; and after I had, in my 
 course of preaching, been largely insisting on 2 
 Corinthians i. 12 — ' This is my rejoicing, the 
 
FALSE PERCEPTIONS. 75 
 
 testimony of a good conscience,' &c. this very 
 morning I awoke out of a most ravishing and 
 dehghtful dream, that a wonderful and copious 
 stream of celestial rays from the lofty throne of 
 the divine majesty, did seem to dart into my open 
 and expanded breast. I have often since, with 
 great complacency, reflected on that very signal 
 pledge of divine favour vouchsafed to me on that 
 noted memorable day, and have with repeated 
 trcsh pleasure tasted the delights thereof."* Thus 
 it would appear that Mr. Howe's spiritual comfort 
 was not built, as it ought to have been, on the 
 Spirit bearing witness Avith his spmt — on the wit- 
 ness of an enlightened conscience — according to 
 the text upon which he had been largely insisting, 
 but on a dream which was more likely to influence 
 a credulous fanatic, than the man who to the face 
 Avithstood a superstition entertained by CromAvell 
 when in the fulness of his power.j 
 
 Before we conclude this essay we may aUude to 
 the course which ought to be pursued with those 
 who conceive themselves under the immediate 
 influence of Satan. 
 
 If they are of sane mind, we must lay before 
 them an explanation of such cases. We must 
 explain the nature of false perceptions, in order 
 to show that a disordered state of the nerves, or of 
 
 * Calamy's Life of Howe— p. 230. f Ibid. p. 22. 
 
76 
 
 the brain, or stomach, or organs of reproduction, 
 will account for the delusions — more particularly 
 of the organ of sight — which harass them; that 
 sparks, flashes of light, halos, or, on the other 
 hand, flies, motes, tadpoles, temporary blindness, 
 are produced by disorder of the optic nerve or 
 brain ; that noises of a discordant kind, or articu- 
 late sounds, solely depend upon accelerated cu-- 
 culatlon through the brain, or affections of the 
 auditory nerves ; that the senses of taste or smell 
 are rendered painfully acute or perverted by dis- 
 ordered conditions of those parts of the brain from 
 which proceed the gustatory or olfactory nerves. 
 We must inform them that many of these unusual 
 perceptions have been removed at once by cupping 
 or a mercurial purgative : we can assure the reader 
 that we have succeeded in relieving those who 
 
 had supposed themselves demoniacally possessed 
 
 given over to Satan — from a mountain of per- 
 plexity by showing them the true cause of their 
 sufferings. 
 
 Again, the minds of those who, as they con- 
 ceive, at the prompting of Satan ai'e tempted to 
 utter blasphemous and obscene words, may be 
 relieved and their theory controverted by the result 
 of an appeal to Him who conquered Satan, and 
 who will aid all who come to Him in faith. If the 
 appeal fails, the sufferer may be assured that 
 disease, and not the devil, is the enemy with 
 
FALSE PERCEPTIONS. 1 j 
 
 which he has to contend, and that he must seek 
 relief from his physician. 
 
 We once, by a very obvious question, relieved 
 the mind of a young gentleman who thought 
 that, if he were not in some measure to blame, he 
 never would have been persecuted by injections 
 into his mind of wicked thoughts, and articulate 
 promptings of blasphemy. We asked him if he 
 were locked up in a chamber with a profane 
 swearer, would he consider himself blamable for 
 hearing words which he disliked and protested 
 against? This young gentleman was delivered 
 from the supposed temptations by mild purgatives, 
 alkaline bitters, and country air. In a Avord, we 
 must cure the choler, and the choleric operations 
 of the devil will cease. 
 
78 
 
 ESSAY III. 
 
 ON DISORDER OF THE MIND, CONFINED TO A SINGLE FACULTY. 
 
 In none of the faculties of the mind do we discover 
 more diversity of power than in the memory. It 
 varies both in quickness and retentiveness : ge- 
 nerally a quick memory is not retentive, and a 
 retentive memory is not quick ; but some few have 
 memories both quick and retentive ; and some can 
 neither acquu-e easily nor retain long. Some can 
 recollect facts, but not the inferences drawn from 
 them ; some lose all distinct recollection of facts, 
 but never forget the conclusions which they serve 
 to establish. Some retain a distinct recollection 
 of every place they have visited; on others 
 the impression made by scenery is evanescent. 
 But our concern is not with the original con- 
 stitution of memory, unless in connexion with 
 those changes in its condition to which many 
 are liable, while their other mental faculties are 
 unaltered. 
 
 In consequence of excitement of the brain, or of 
 external injuries of the head, the recollection of a 
 language, long forgotten, has been restored ; and 
 again, by the same means, the knowledge of a 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. i\) 
 
 language has been suddenly lost. In the latter 
 
 part of his life, the of was insane. 
 
 In his last illness, as his end approached, he per- 
 fectly recovered his senses, but Avith this peculiarity, 
 that he had lost all power of speaking the English 
 language, or any other but Latin : he talked freely 
 in Latin to all who were about him, and under- 
 stood those who could speak to him in that tongue ; 
 and in this state he conthiued till he died. We 
 knew a lady, liable to periodic insanity, who, in 
 several of her illnesses, replied in French to every 
 question, from a seeming forgetfulness of her mother 
 tongue ; at the same time her mind was occupied 
 with occurrences which took place at a period of 
 life when she lived with some French emigrants to 
 whom she was greatly attached ; on her recovery, 
 she resumed the use of the English language. 
 This case resembles others, in which, in conse- 
 (juence of disease of the brain, all the events which 
 occurred during a particular period have been for- 
 gotten. Dr. Abercrombie, in his excellent work 
 on the mind, tells us that he attended a young 
 lady in a protracted illness, in which the memory 
 became much impaired. She had lost the recollec- 
 tion of a period of about ten or twelve years, but 
 spoke with perfect consistency of things as they 
 stood before that time. In the beginning of De- 
 cember, 1789, the celebrated John Hunter, when 
 at the house of a friend, was attacked with a total 
 
80 ESSAY III. 
 
 loss of memory as to places ; he did not know in 
 what part of London he was, not even the name of 
 the street when told it, nor where his OAvn house 
 was situated ; he had not a conception of any 
 place existing beyond the room wherein he was 
 attacked, and yet he was perfectly conscious of the 
 loss of memory. He took notice of impressions of 
 all kinds from the senses, and therefore looked out 
 of the Avindow, although it was rather dark, to see 
 if he could be made sensible of the situation of the 
 house. His memory gradually returned, and in 
 less than half an hour was perfectly restored. The 
 attack was evidently connected with a diseased 
 state of the brain ; it was followed by vertigo, 
 intolerance of light and of sounds, false perceptions, 
 vigilance, &c. 
 
 It is very remarkable that the mind should 
 sometimes retain a power of performing many 
 of its acts in a perfect manner, while it is un- 
 able to perform the most important of them all 
 — that of connecting the present with the past and 
 the future. In the case of Mr. Hunter, conscious- 
 ness was imdisturbed, for he w^as enabled to com- 
 prehend what was passing in his own mind, and to 
 discover that his recollection of places was lost ; 
 he then, after a process of just reasoning, endea- 
 voured to renew his connexion with surrounding 
 objects, expecting that, were this accomplished, he 
 would be able to lay hold of the last link of the 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 81 
 
 broken chain. If the mental functions be not 
 separate and independent, is it not surprising that, 
 as in youth certain faculties come into active 
 operation before others, so in advancing life the 
 mind is not broken down simultaneously — does not 
 yield by uniform and gi'adual decay, as might be 
 expected were it uncompounded and its several 
 faculties only varied modes of action, but some one 
 faculty — frequently that under consideration — is 
 debilitated or destroyed before any failure is dis- 
 coverable in the rest ? 
 
 Is it not moreover surprising that while one 
 faculty is becoming weak, others are acquiring 
 vigour? We have known persons, who in youtli 
 possessed a peculiarity of memory by Avhich they 
 could at once recognise an individual Avhom they 
 had seen but for a moment ten or twelve years 
 before, as they advanced in life unable to recog- 
 nise those to whom they had been formally intro- 
 duced within the preceding week ; yet while their 
 recollection of persons had thus failed, they were 
 daily improving in wisdom and knowledge : after 
 one of the characteristics of a vigorous memory was 
 lost, their power of analysis had improved. Some 
 artists, after a decline of memory, have in age sur- 
 passed the most admired works of their manhood, 
 fi'om their taste having been exalted by an im- 
 proved knowledge of nature and of the principles 
 of composition. 
 
 G 
 
82 ESSAY III. 
 
 In consequence of inflammation of the brain or 
 of a portion of it, arising during fever, or caused 
 by over-exertion of the mind, violence of the pas- 
 sions, intemperance, &c., complete loss of memory, 
 productive of permanent incapacity, has often en- 
 sued. Sometimes certain classes of facts have been 
 forgotten ; sometimes the order of events is dis- 
 turbed. A gentleman whose illness commenced 
 with an affection of the brain, forgot many impor- 
 tant occurrences in his own history and that of his 
 nearest relatives, some of whom, who had been 
 dead for many years, he thought were still alive, 
 and had been seen by him a day or two before ; 
 some of his friends, who were living abroad, he 
 conceived were dwelling in a neighbouring street ; 
 and he imagined himself in London, when in fact 
 he was not in England. The derangement of his 
 mind appeared to depend not merely upon his 
 forgetting some events while he remembered others, 
 but in his forgetting the order of those which he 
 did recollect ; and it seemed as if he sometimes 
 would receive the suggestions of his imagination as 
 facts ; but certainly he had not lost the power of 
 comparison, or of connecting effects with causes. 
 If the circumstances of a case, in their just re- 
 lations, were placed before him, he would reason 
 upon it and come to a sound conclusion. He knew 
 that his mind was disturbed, and that this dis- 
 turbance, were it proved, might deprive him of the 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 83 
 
 control of a large fortune ; and hence nothing could 
 be more waiy than his conversation with a phy- 
 sician, or with any one whom he suspected ol' 
 sinister motives. 
 
 We have alluded to the influence of excited cir- 
 culation of the brain on the faculties of the mind. 
 The following certificate of a physician of eminence 
 will show how the memory of the gentleman, whose 
 case we have just referred to, was affected by in- 
 creased action of the cerebral vessels, " Mr. 
 
 manifests all that confusion of thought which must 
 necessai-ily result from his memory of times, 
 places, and events being impaired. His memory 
 of persons seldom fails, except during paroxysms 
 of fever and excitement, to which he has been 
 liable. When in a state of calmness and compara- 
 tive exemption from fever, his reasoning powers 
 are singularly clear and correct, and his memory of 
 words and language is vmimpaired ; he expresses 
 himself remarkably well and forcibly." We have 
 known two cases in which the memory was per- 
 manently injm-ed — in one of them completely de- 
 stroyed—by the protracted use of foxglove. The 
 judgment of the patient who had suffered least of 
 the two, was not affected, and he retained a quick 
 perception of wit or humour. 
 
 When the intellect is universally impaired 
 
 when not merely the memory but the reflective 
 faculties are weakened, there is, as miii^ht be ex- 
 
84 ESSAY III. 
 
 pected, no consciousness of the deficiency; but 
 when, as in the case just related, only one faculty 
 is impaired, the loss sustained is detected by the 
 sufferer as readily as the loss of one of the senses 
 could be : a fact which appears much more in 
 accordance with the existence of a plurality of 
 faculties in some manner independent, than with 
 the notion of the whole mind being engaged in 
 every act of memory, comparison, judgment, &c. 
 
 Insanity is so prevalent in some families, that 
 we have known two, tlu'ee, or four children of the 
 same parents sufferers under that disorder. In the 
 families of a brother and two sisters there were ten 
 cases of insanity — five in one family, two in an- 
 other, and three in the third, out of tAventy mem- 
 bers. When insanity is inherited the disorder is 
 generally periodic, the lucid intervals being often 
 of long duration. When insanity occurs early in 
 life, and is even completely recovered from, it may 
 be expected to return. The attacks which take 
 place late in life are often incurable. 
 
 The fits of periodic insanity, when they recur, 
 even at the distance of many years, often closely 
 resemble each other — the same faculties are dis- 
 turbed, the very same hallucination returns. Fre- 
 quently the infirmities of character, peculiar to the 
 individual, enter into the paroxysm, and we may 
 witness a resemblance in the complexion of the 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 8o 
 
 attack in several persons nearly related. In some 
 families one dark expectation of misfortune pre- 
 vails: but we have seen a larger proportion of 
 cases of periodic insanity, in which, after sleepless 
 nights, the imagination has become pleasantly ex- 
 cited — perhaps hope and hilarity were the chief 
 features of the delusion ; and during the whole of 
 the paroxysm, a great diversity of thoughts and 
 fancies of a bright and sunny kind rapidly passed 
 through the mind ; at last, as if the unduly active 
 facidties Avere completely exhausted by long and 
 intense excitement, dejection followed, even before 
 perfect sanity was restored. Again, the subjects 
 of periodic derangement sometimes pass through 
 a paroxysm in states of alternate excitement or 
 depression. They wiU easily understand such 
 changes, who, being endowed with much activity 
 of imagination, and having spent the greater part 
 of a night in concocting some scheme of avarice, 
 ambition, or benevolence, or in planning the grati- 
 fication of some passion or affection, discover in 
 the morning that the project is as impracticable 
 as in the night it appeared natural and easy of 
 accomplishment. The revolution in sentiment 
 arises from complete exhaustion of the over-active 
 facidty, but still more from judgment regaining 
 the ascendant. 
 
 We have no doubt that various immoral and 
 vicious practices ought to be ascribed to insanity. 
 
86 ESSAY III. 
 
 When periodic insanity has shown itself in a large 
 family, it is probable that some members of the 
 family will evince a propensity to thieving or 
 swindling. And when more children than one of 
 the same parents, bursting through all the re- 
 straints imposed by carefully-instilled principles 
 and established habits, engage in swindling trans- 
 actions, it will often appear, upon inquiry, that 
 insanity has previously broken out in that 
 family. 
 
 When in such families the imagination is the 
 faculty most liable to be disturbed, the maniac will 
 fix upon some object to be realized, and will dis- 
 regard every probable contingency which might 
 seem to interfere with its attainment. The imagi- 
 nation, during the whole of a paroxysm of insanity, 
 Avill often retain an activity by Avhich every process 
 of reasoning is disturbed. One object, perhaps 
 unattainable, or a succession of such objects, will 
 engross the mind, all arrayed by an over-active 
 fancy in such colours as to become intensely desi- 
 rable, and to lead to irregular, strange, and absurd 
 efforts in order to their appropriation. If, for a 
 time, you can altogether detach the mind of the 
 lunatic from every thing connected with the favour- 
 ite object of desire, he will probably evince his 
 usual accuracy of judgment, or he will do more 
 — he will not only express himself judiciously, but 
 in language so appropriate and forcible as to lead 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 8( 
 
 the inexperienced auditor to exclaim, " This is not 
 folly but Avisdom." This it is which so often has 
 enabled a monomaniac, when instructed by an artful 
 lawyer, to deceive a jury, and to preserve his place 
 in society at the expense of his fortune and to the 
 ruin of his family. 
 
 In the cases to which Ave are alluding, not only 
 are the efforts to obtain a favourite object uTCgular 
 and absurd, but they are dishonest also. We 
 know a large family in which there is great diver- 
 sity of character, connected with an inherited ten- 
 dency to mental derangement. One individual of 
 this family, devoted to the highest interests of 
 man, has been exposed to danger in his attempts, 
 perhaps not always the most judicious, to extend 
 a knowledge of true religion ; others, although 
 sometimes odd or fantastical, have passed respect- 
 ably through life, performing their relative duties 
 in an in-eproachable manner ; one has been guilty 
 of various incongruities of conduct ; one is an in- 
 corrigible liar ; one a dexterous swindler ; and tAvo 
 have been in a lunatic asylum. Falsehood and 
 swindling, in such mdividuals, are but symptoms 
 of mental derangement. 
 
 To substantiate this account of insanity, the 
 following example is produced. A solicitor, a 
 member of a family liable to insanity, had acquu-ed 
 confidence by attention, acuteness, and conduct in 
 no respect unprofessional, Avhcn to the astonish- 
 
88 ESSAY III. 
 
 ment of his friends he offered himself as a candi- 
 date to represent a close incorporation in parlia- 
 ment. Although this Avas absurd, he saw no 
 obstacle in the way of success. The true explana- 
 tion of his conduct was soon manifest. When he 
 fell under our observation, although he had never 
 attempted composition unless in the line of his 
 profession, yet to our surprise we found him one 
 morning with a very long copy of doggerel verses. 
 He had during the night written many sheets of 
 lampoons, which he recited with a vehemence of 
 manner and variety of intonation, which, for two 
 or three minutes, was very amusing. One of his 
 brothers, ignorant of the extraordinary character 
 of monomania, expressed his astonishment, while 
 he gave those present to understand that the 
 maniac had never in his life written a copy of 
 verses ; " that he was as clear of the sin of poetical 
 composition as of dabbling in the black art." This 
 species of excited imaginativeness is by no means 
 singular. A madman who Avas cured by Dr. Willis 
 gave Dr. Davis of Sheffield the following account 
 of his case — " I always expected with impatience 
 the accession of the paroxysms, since I enjoyed, 
 during their continuance, a high degree of plea- 
 sure ; they lasted ten or twelve hours. Every 
 thing appeared easy to me. No obstacles pre- 
 sented themselves either in theory or practice. 
 My memory all of a sudden acquired a singular 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 89 
 
 degree of perfection. Long passages of Latin 
 authors reciuTecl to my mind. In general I have 
 great difficulty in finding rhyming terminations, 
 but then I could write in verse with as much 
 facility as in prose. I was cunning, mischievous, 
 and fertile in all kinds of expedients." Pinel 
 tells us of a literary gentleman who, during his 
 paroxysms, soared above his usual mediocrity of 
 intellect, and declaimed upon the events of the 
 French Revolution with gi-eat force, purity, and 
 dignity of language, although a man of but 
 ordinary ability. 
 
 In some persons, the imagination becoming un- 
 duly inactive, hatches a series of conspiracies appa- 
 rently threatening their lives and fortunes ; and such 
 natural colom-ing is given to every fresh invention 
 as to delude persons even of discrimination who are 
 ignorant of the almost endless variety of mental 
 aberration. An elderly lady having discovered a 
 considerable sediment in the last glass of a bottle 
 of sherry, which had not been properly fined, per- 
 suaded herself that it was a deadly poison which 
 her grocer had procured for her destruction. Then 
 she left her house in the country, from a suspicion 
 that her baker, who was a Roman Catholic, meant 
 to poison herself and family, who were Protes- 
 tants. Then she transferred her suspicions to her 
 apothecary, and left him because she fancied he 
 had infused slow poison into one of her medicines. 
 
90 
 
 Then she was convinced that her attorney was 
 hurrying on the sale of part of her late husband's 
 property that he might purchase it at an under- 
 value, and made out so plausible a case against him 
 as to give him great uneasiness. One suspicion fol- 
 lowed another as long as she lived, yet when she 
 was not under the influence of an insane imagina- 
 tion, her judgment was clear, and her command 
 of language, both in writing and talking, was 
 such, that to many who knew not her suspi- 
 cions — and few were admitted to her confi- 
 dence — she appeared an able and intelligent 
 woman. The over-excited state of her imagina- 
 tion succeeded torpor of the mind, caused, as it 
 seemed, by the stunning effects of her husband's 
 death. 
 
 The instances in which insanity is confined to 
 the imagination are so diversified, that it Avould 
 be vain to attempt a description of every variety 
 of this species of monomania. From what has 
 been stated, however, the reader may perceive 
 that the imagination may be insane, while the 
 other faculties, were they not acted upon by it, 
 Avould be in a natural state ; and if this be ad- 
 mitted, our object is accomplished. 
 
 To review all the intellectual faculties, in order 
 to show that each may be disordered, while the 
 rest of the mind is sound, would lead us to extend 
 this essay beyond all proportion ; we therefore 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 91 
 
 mean to limit om'selves to a particular considera- 
 tion of two powers of the mind, which have 
 hitherto been but little attended to; and thus, 
 while fulfilling our object, we hope to give more 
 interest to the inquiry than were we to describe 
 the disorder of faculties Avhich have already been 
 often under examination. 
 
 To prove what havoc may be produced by a 
 single faculty being destroyed, while the intellect 
 in other respects remains inviolate, we will first 
 introduce to our readers a curious affection of the 
 mind, erroneously referred, as we conceive, by 
 eminent medical writers to a defective state of 
 the memory. The gi'adations of this disorder, 
 from the slightest attack to that which is con- 
 firmed and hopeless, preserve the same definite 
 character. 
 
 The affection to Avhich we allude is an interrup- 
 tion to the power of expressing thought, even 
 when the mind is in other respects unimpaired. 
 Striking instances of this affection, borrowed fi'om 
 the writings of German psychologists, may be 
 found in Crichton's " Inquiry ;" but they are mis- 
 placed in that work, being arranged under the 
 head of disorder of the memory, whereas, in the 
 cases quoted by Crichton, as well as in many of 
 the same nature which we have witnessed, while 
 the individual is deprived of the power of commu- 
 nicating his recollections, his memory is retentive 
 
92 ESSAY III. 
 
 with respect to persons, places, events and their 
 order.* 
 
 This affection may be partial or complete, tem- 
 porary or permanent. 
 
 The power of pronouncing a letter is sometimes 
 lost, and this may be considered as the slightest 
 species of the affection under consideration. In 
 the seventh volume of " The Psychological Maga- 
 zine," an instance of this kind is recorded by 
 Professor Griiner, of Jena. After the patient had 
 recovered from an attack of acute fever, one of 
 the first things he desired was coffee, {kaffee,) but 
 instead of pronouncing the letter/, he substituted 
 in its place the letter z, and therefore he asked for 
 a cat (katze) ; and in every word which had an / 
 in it he committed a like mistake. Similar cases, 
 we think, have been related by English physicians, 
 l3ut we are not able to refer to them. 
 
 In describing threatenings of epilepsy. Dr. 
 Beddoes shows how much the powers of expression 
 are disordered before that disease is established. 
 In some cases the strokes of letters in writing are 
 misplaced, and one word is employed for another, 
 bearintr some resemblance in sense or sound : but 
 
 * Since these essays were written our attention has been called 
 to a paper written by Mr. John Inglis Nicholls of Inverness, in 
 the third volume of " The Phrenological Transactions," which 
 contains two cases of this affection, the true nature of which 
 Mr. Nicholls fully understood, and has satisfactorily explained. 
 
DISOKDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 93 
 
 the parties immediately correct themselves as soon 
 as the sound strikes their ear : for instance, "Every 
 one feels very languid in this icet weather — I mean 
 hot weather;" or, "Come, who will sit down to 
 supper? here is only cold meat and jmddiny — I 
 mean pie." In another place he says — " at many 
 moments the memory refuses the commonest words, 
 and the organs of speech Avithhold their service 
 altogether." An epileptic, from whose journal Dr. 
 Beddoes has quoted largely, says that there were 
 moments when his organs of speech were incapable 
 of expressing a thing which nevertheless he per- 
 fectly conceived.* 
 
 The power of pronouncing or writing the names 
 of individuals and places is often lost. Some per- 
 sons have lost the power of pronouncing their own 
 name. It is quite common to hear men, especially 
 as they advance in life, declare that they are un- 
 able to recollect the names of their acquaintances, 
 and add, " I suppose I shall forget my own name 
 at last ;" but if Ave inquire into the nature of the 
 failure, we shall find that it is not of memory, but 
 of utterance, as every thing in connexion with the 
 individual whose name cannot be recollected — his 
 appearance, character, circumstances, are stored up 
 in the mind. In like manner, when the power of 
 expressing the names of places is lost, their relative 
 
 * Hygeia, vol. iii. p. 48. 
 
94 ESSAY III. 
 
 situation, history, all the particulars which origi- 
 nally rendered them interesting, are distinctly 
 remembered ; the conception of the subject is 
 perfect ; nothing is lost but the power of giving it 
 a name. Sometimes one word is substituted for 
 another, Avith which it has no apparent connexion, 
 as was done by a patient of Sir Alexander Crich- 
 ton's. " Instead of asking for a piece of bread he 
 would ask for his boots : when they were brought, 
 he knew that they did not correspond with the 
 idea he had of the thing which he wished to have, 
 and was therefore angry ; yet he would still de- 
 mand his boots, or shoes, meaning bread. If he 
 wanted a tumbler he would call for a basin, and if 
 it was the basin he wanted, he would call for a 
 tumbler or dish. He evidently was conscious that 
 he pronounced wrong words, for when proper 
 expressions were used by another person, and if he 
 was asked if it was such a thing he wanted, he 
 always seemed aware of his mistake, and corrected 
 himself by adopting the appropriate term." 
 
 In the third volume of " The Hygeia," by Dr. 
 Beddoes, the very curious and well-knoAvn case of 
 Dr. Spalding, of Berlin, is quoted, and erroneously 
 referred to mere hurry of ideas preceding epilepsy. 
 On the 31st of January, 1772, he had to speak to 
 many people in quick succession, and to write 
 many trifling memorandums concerning very dis- 
 similar things, so that the attention was incessantly 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 95 
 
 impelled in contrary directions. He had at last to 
 draw out a receipt for interest ; he accordingly sat 
 down and wrote the first two words requisite, but, 
 in a moment, became incapable of finding the rest 
 of the words in his memory, or the strokes of the 
 letters belonging to them. He strained his atten- 
 tion to the utmost in endeavouring leisurely to 
 delineate letter after letter, with constant reference 
 to the preceding, in order to be sure that it suited. 
 He said to himself that they were not the right 
 strokes, without being able in the least to conceive 
 wherein they were deficient. He therefore gave up 
 the attempt, and partly by monosyllables, and 
 partly by signs, ordered aAvay the man who was 
 waiting for the receipt, and cpiietly resigned him- 
 self to his state. For a good half hour there was 
 a tumult in part of his ideas. He could only re- 
 cognise them for such as forced themselves upon 
 him without his participation. He endeavoured to 
 dispel them to make room for better, which he was 
 conscious of in the bottom of his thinking faculty. 
 He threw his attention, as fiir as the swami oi" 
 confused intruding images would permit, on his 
 religious principles ; and said to himself distinctly, 
 that if by a kind of death he was extricated from 
 the tumult in his brain, which he felt as foreign 
 and exterior to himself, he should exist and think 
 on in the happiest quiet and order. With all this 
 there was not the least illusion in the senses. He 
 
96 
 
 saw and heard every thing about him with its proper 
 shape and sound, but could not get rid of the strange 
 confusion in his head. He tried to speak, for the 
 sake of finding whether he could bring out any 
 thing connected ; but however vehemently he 
 strove to force together attention and thought, 
 and though he proceeded with the utmost delibe- 
 ration, he soon perceived that unmeaning syllables 
 only followed, quite different from the words he 
 wished. He was as little master now of the 
 organs of speech as he had before found himself 
 of those of writing. "I, therefore," says he, 
 "contented myself with the not very satisfactory 
 expectation that if this state should continue I 
 should never, all my life, be able to speak or write 
 again ; but that my sentiments and principles, 
 remaining the same, would be a permanent spring 
 of satisfaction and hope, till my complete separa- 
 tion from the unfortunate ferment of the brain. 
 I was only sorry for my relations and friends, who, 
 in this case, must have lost me for duties and 
 business and all proper intercourse with them, 
 and looked upon me as a burden to the earth. 
 But after the completion of the half-hour, my 
 head began to grow clearer and more quiet. The 
 uproar and vividness of the strange troublesome 
 ideas diminished. I could now carry through my 
 process of thought — I wished now to ring for the 
 servant, that he might request my wife to come 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 9( 
 
 up. But I required yet some time to practise 
 the right pronunciation of the requisite words. 
 In the first conversation with my family, I pro- 
 ceeded for another half hour slowly, and in some 
 measure anxiously, till at length I found myself 
 as free and clear as at the beginning of the day, 
 only I had a very trifling headache. Here I 
 thought of the receipt which I had begim, and 
 knew to be wrong. Behold, instead of fifty 
 dollars for half a year's interest, as it should have 
 been, I found in as clear and straight strokes as 
 I ever made in my life — '■fifty dollars through the 
 sanctification of the bri- with a hyphen, as I had 
 come to the end of the line ; I could not possibly 
 fall upon any thing in my previous ideas or 
 occupations which, by any obscure mechanical 
 influence, could have given occasion to these 
 unintelligible words." 
 
 The case just described serves well to illustrate 
 the suspension of that faculty by which thought 
 is communicated by speech or writing. Spalding 
 had been engaged in a way not to exhaust or 
 perplex his mind. The memorandums he had 
 been making related to things of no great impor- 
 tance, and his attention had not been long on the 
 stretch, having been relaxed by the dissimilarity 
 of the concerns with which he was occupied. 
 Dm-ing the attack he was in possession of all his 
 faculties save one. The confusion of mind may 
 
 H 
 
98 ESSAY III, 
 
 be ascribed to alarm, lest he should never again be 
 able to communicate with his friends. In explain- 
 ing his feelings, he adopts a very extraordinary- 
 theory of mind. He says he endeavoured to expel 
 his tumultuous ideas, to make room for better, 
 Avhich he was conscious of in the bottom of his 
 thinking faculty. But, in truth, his thinking 
 faculty, notwithstanding his apprehensions, was 
 in a state of integrity. He had an act to perform, 
 w^hich he was as incapable of as of" flying to Pots- 
 dam ; and he felt that had he persevered in the 
 attempt to accomplish it he would have exposed 
 himself to the suspicion of insanity, which, by 
 looking inwards, he knew was not threatened ; 
 for not only was there no illusion of the senses, 
 but his principles, sentiments, and affections were 
 unaltered. How then did he act ? With the 
 greatest presence of mind : he got rid of all wit- 
 nesses, that by rest and quiet he might regain 
 that equanimity which is in general so conducive 
 to fluency of expression ; nor did he admit his 
 friends till he had proved to his own satisfaction 
 that he could once more communicate with them 
 on an equal footing. As has been conjectured, 
 Dr. Spalding was threatened with epilepsy. 
 
 In the disease which is called catalepsy, especially 
 when in connexion wuth hysteria, all poAver of 
 expression is lost, even when every thing which 
 is said and done in the apartment in which the 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 99 
 
 patient lies is perfectly well understood. Such 
 also is the case in hysteric faintnesses, in which 
 inarticulation Avould seem to depend, not on failure 
 of the faculty of expression, but rather on suspen- 
 sion of all muscular power, which is not the case 
 in disorders in which the powers of the body and 
 mind having been suspended are all recovered 
 with the exception of the faculty of speech : of 
 this we have seen many proofs after febrile 
 diseases, where the convalescent has evidently 
 understood every thing which was said, has been 
 obedient to his physician and attendants, and ob- 
 servant of propriety, but for days, or even weeks, 
 was unable to articulate one word. We have 
 known persons affected in this manner, not only 
 after typhus fever, but after small-pox, where the 
 eruptive fever has run high ; all of whom, if we 
 recollect right, perfectly recovered under medical 
 treatment. 
 
 ■ The power of correctly spelling is sometimes lost 
 or interrupted. One individual, already alluded 
 to as liable to periodic insanity, when threatened 
 with a paroxysm of that disease, was observed to 
 spell many words literally as they are pronounced. 
 In her letters written after her recovery her spell- 
 ing was faultless. When in an otherwise sound 
 mind the power of conununicating thought by 
 speech is completely interrupted, there is generally 
 a defect of a similar kind in An-itins; which curious 
 
100 ESSAY III. 
 
 phenomenon we apprehend can be accounted for 
 only by supposing that oral and written language 
 are but manifestations of one and the same faculty 
 of the mind. When words are uttered articu- 
 lately, but with incoherence, by a person of other- 
 wise sound mind — words when ivritten distinctly, 
 and even correctly spelt, are often without the 
 slightest connexion or apparent meaning ; lan- 
 guage oral or Avritten, as the faculty of communi- 
 cating thought is destroyed, not in the tongue or 
 the hand — the words are articulate, the writing 
 is perfect: it is the power of language in the 
 mind, if we may so speak, which is destroyed. 
 
 The relation of two anecdotes will make the 
 subject more intelligible. A gentleman was robbed 
 by a servant, in whom he reposed confidence, of a 
 large sum of money ; the thief conceived that his 
 master, having lost the power of speech, was in a 
 state of complete fatuity, and would never dis- 
 cover his loss. In this, however, there was a 
 great mistake committed ; for the master, a power- 
 ful and determined man, brought the culprit to an 
 escritoir, which he opened, and showing the empty 
 drawer in which his money had been kept, dis- 
 tinctly signified that he knew by whom he was 
 robbed, and that instant destruction might be 
 expected, unless the money were restored, which 
 was done forthwith. The second anecdote to be 
 related is of a similar kind. A physician affected 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 101 
 
 with this disorder, who skilfully adopted and 
 steadily pursued the best means of relief, being 
 scrupulously attentive to diet and regimen, and 
 taking a course of medicine with the greatest 
 regularity, at a time when he was unable to utter 
 or to write two Avords in connexion, was informed 
 by a note, that an important paper could not be 
 found, which had been laid up in the archives 
 of an incorporation, of which he was a principal 
 functionary. He, in consequence, repaired to the 
 office of the town clerk, and in presence of several 
 friends at once put his hand into a pigeon-hole 
 and took out the missing muniment, at the same 
 time uttering a loud and discordant laugh. This 
 gentleman was capable of receiving information 
 by all the accustomed channels, but when so 
 received, he was totally incapable of transmit- 
 ting it. 
 
 AYith the following history (our histories have 
 been rather numerous, but such a subject is best 
 explamed by instances) we mean to conclude our 
 account of an affection of the mind which has 
 often cut off an individual, possessed of every 
 faculty but that of expressing thought or feeling, 
 from all the pleasures of social intercourse, and 
 deprived him of all ability of serving himself or 
 others. " A gentleman, now in the sixty-seventh 
 year of his age, Avho .was an excellent classical 
 scholar, and possessed of a strong imderstanding, 
 
102 ESSAY III. 
 
 sedentary, voluptuous, and especially addicted to 
 the pleasures of the table, and of a full habit of 
 body, after dining heartily and drinking freely 
 of claret, on Wednesday, the 12th of May, 1823, 
 was attacked with sickness of stomach and dis- 
 turbance of mind ; during the whole night he was 
 restless and confused, and he lost all power of 
 making himself understood, unless by signs. On 
 Thursday he called out loudly, and appeared 
 incoherent ; but by means of signs he made his 
 servants understand that his friends were not to 
 be allowed to see him. On Friday he was much 
 flushed, extremely irritable, and he lost the power 
 of language, which he has never regained. He 
 would earnestly, as it would seem, implore atten- 
 tion and then express himself as follows — ' T. C 
 the little c. and the large C and after many 
 attempts, equally unmeaning, he would desist, 
 evidently disappointed, but submissive. Wliile 
 he was thus unable to express himself, either by 
 words or with his pen, he had a perfect recollec- 
 tion of past events, and understanding of what 
 was said to him, and implicitly followed the advice 
 of his physicians, but with no benefit, as his words 
 continued foreign to the subject of his thoughts, 
 and quite incoherent or unmeaning. By the atten- 
 tion of his friends and those whose society he was 
 wont to relish he was gratified ; he would take their 
 hands and kiss them, while he would evince stern 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 103 
 
 displeasure when others intruded. Although his 
 articulation Avas distinct, he had lost the power of 
 reading aloud as well as of writing. He has, 
 however, applied himself with great diligence to 
 the recovery of these poAvers, and he can now 
 distinctly copy any manuscript and read Avith 
 accuracy, but he continues unable to put tAvo 
 Avords of his own together, so as to convey a 
 meaning. He reads and transcribes in the morn- 
 ing, and plays backgammon in the evening. His 
 recollection of recent events begins to fail, which 
 is not remarkable at his advanced age." 
 
 The case Avhich we have just related was an 
 instance of paralysis. Similar cases have been 
 attended Avith distortion of the mouth, formication, 
 flushings, and vertigo. They depend upon disease 
 of the brain, but sometimes they are completely 
 recovered from. It may be proper to add, that 
 Ave kncAv a gentleman Avho lost the power of ex- 
 pression, both by speech and writing, Avhile his 
 other faculties were uninjured, in consequence of 
 a fall from his horse, by Avhich the loAver and 
 central part of the frontal bone Avas much injured. 
 In cases such as have been described, the poAver of 
 conveying meaning or emotion by signs, gestures, 
 or by a change of features, may be unimpaired. 
 
 The loss of the faculty of expression by speech 
 or AATiting is often a symptom of that kind oi' 
 palsy of Avhich there are generally several attacks 
 
104 ESSAY III. 
 
 before the fatal one. The following description 
 of the death of the widow of Burns the poet, 
 copied from the Dumfries Courier, is an example 
 of the affection to which we allude : — 
 
 " On the Saturday preceding her death she was 
 seized with paralysis for the fourth time, and, 
 although perfectly conscious of her situation and 
 the presence of friends, became deprived, before 
 she could be removed to bed, of the faculty of 
 speech ; still she lay wonderfully calm and com- 
 posed, and suffered from weakness rather than 
 pain. Frequently she gazed with great earnest- 
 ness on her grand-daughter Sarah, and it was easy 
 to read what was passing within, from the tears 
 which filled her aged eyes and trickled down her 
 cheeks. To another individual she directed looks 
 so eager and full of meaning, as to impress him 
 with the idea that she had some dying request to 
 make, and deeply regretted that it was too late, 
 for she was unfortunately incapacitated from utter- 
 ing a syllable, guiding a pen, or even making an 
 intelligible sign. [What were her tears and looks 
 full of meaning ?] On the morning of Wednes- 
 day a fifth shock, unperceived by the attendants, 
 deprived Mrs. Burns of consciousness, and from 
 that time tiU the hour of her death, which took 
 place about midnight (March 26, 27), her situation 
 was that of a breathing corpse — and thus passed 
 away ' Bonny Jean.' " 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 105 
 
 The power over language is often Avonderfully 
 enlarged in the commencement of intoxication, 
 and in some maniacal paroxysms, from excitement 
 of the brain. In such cases other faculties acquire 
 unusual activity, as we have stated in treating of 
 the imagination ; the memory also may be pecu- 
 liarly active, and what had long been forgotten 
 may be presented in glowing colours, "and bril- 
 liant thoughts and apt comparisons enliven the 
 conversation of dull men ;" but the most striking 
 part of the phenomenon is the force, rapidity, and 
 propriety of expression. 
 
 These opposite conditions of the faculty of ex- 
 pression receive some illustration from the influence 
 of insanity on the musical faculty. Dr. Cox 
 relates an instance of a musical professor whose 
 talent was improved while under mental derange- 
 ment. His ideas, as executed on the vioHn, were 
 wonderfully striking and original. Dr. Cox re- 
 tained in his possession some beautiful and admired 
 variations of popular airs composed by this musician 
 in the very acme of a musical paroxysm. "\Ye 
 learn from the same Avriter, that cases had occmTed 
 in his practice in which a patient, possessed of 
 profound knowledge of music as a science and 
 skill in playing on various instruments, lost both 
 while under mental derangement, and recovered 
 both with returning sanity. We believe such 
 occurrences are not rare. 
 
106 
 
 The power of expression was very curiously 
 affected in a person subject to short paroxysms of 
 catalepsy,* who after recovering answered almost 
 any number of questions proposed to him while 
 the attack subsisted. It was evident that the 
 organ of hearing was duly affected by articulate 
 sounds, but that a suspension took place in some 
 part of the sensorium, between the ear and the 
 vocal organs. In some manner related to this 
 case is that of a young lady, liable to occasional 
 determinations of blood to the head, and to what 
 French authors call vertifjes epileptiques, in whom 
 there is a long pause between the perception of 
 what is ludicrous and the natural expression of 
 mirth. When any thing is related which pro- 
 duces laughter in a company, she is unmoved, but 
 some time after, when, with all present, the ex- 
 pression of merriment is expended, she begins to 
 laugh, and laughs heartily, to the astonishment 
 of those who are not acquainted with this tardi- 
 ness in the expression of her mirth, and to the 
 amusement of her friends — nothing being more 
 diverting than a laugh after due deliberation. 
 
 Weeping is as much the language of grief as 
 speech is of thought. Tears hav€ been interrupted 
 by a severe injury done to one of the affections, as 
 effectually as words by the destruction of one of 
 
 • Beddoes. 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 107 
 
 the faculties of the mind. How ready are those 
 who are under a stunning bereavement to declare, 
 while the wound of their heart is fresh, that they 
 cannot shed a single tear ! How often have we, 
 in passing through this vale of tears, heard the 
 following lament : — " Oh ! that I could only cry ! 
 I feel as if it would so relieve me ! There 
 seems nothing natural in my grief. I, who wept 
 so bitterly for my father, have not a single tear to 
 shed for my child." This tearless state sometimes 
 remains to the very end of life ; and avc may hear 
 individuals, who were originally possessed of the 
 liveliest aifections, declare to the following effect : 
 — " Ever since my husband, or son, or daughter 
 died, my aifections have been frozen, and my eyes 
 dried up." It is very generally observable, Avhen 
 the fost bitterness of grief is overpast — when the 
 more violent, selfish, or ecstatic stage of the passion 
 has had time to subside, that tears will again begin 
 to flow. 
 
 When, by means of sudden or overwhelming 
 misfortune, the natural expression of grief is lost, 
 it may be restored through the excitement of some 
 other affection than that which originally suffered. 
 Of this a touching instance may be found in 
 Bishop Jebb's 139th letter to Mr. Knox. "Mr. 
 Wilbcrforce one day proposed to take me out to 
 pass next Tuesday with our valua])le friend Mrs. 
 H. Thornton, at Clapham. I most gladly em- 
 
108 ESSAY III. 
 
 braced the offer. She was much affected, and 
 spoke freely to me about her feelings. At first 
 she had been reduced to a state of inert grief, 
 which would have made her willingly lie down in 
 the same bed with him that was just gone, and die 
 with him. A sense of affection and duty to her 
 children soon roused her from this torpor, and she 
 then felt and continued many days to feel as if she 
 were in heaven. This high- wrought feeling, how- 
 ever, could not long remain, and nature since has 
 had its griefs and tears." On this passage we 
 Avould offer the following short observation. By 
 the " inert" state of her grief, we understand that, 
 though it was profound, so that she willingly would 
 have died with her husband, yet that it was with- 
 out its natural expression — there was no wailing. 
 Then another affection was roused, and that assu- 
 rance of divine protection, which is the inheritance 
 of the servants of God, filled her mind with gra- 
 titude and joy. Lastly, as the ecstasy subsided, 
 and when her anguish was exhausted, nature had 
 its " griefs and tears." It is always desirable that 
 tears should come to the relief of the deeply 
 afflicted ; and it is wiser to allow the first gush of 
 grief to be over, before we attempt, by religious 
 consideration, to moderate its poignancy. 
 
 It may be alloAvable to observe, that, in the 
 dying state, all power of expressing thought 
 may be lost, together with the power of voluntary 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 109 
 
 movement ; a slow and scarcely audible breathing, 
 with a faint flutter in the artery, which the most 
 erudite touch alone can recognise as a pulse, and a 
 low degree of animal heat, may be the only evi- 
 dences that the soul still inhabits its tenement of 
 clay ; and yet, as consciousness may exist, and 
 God may still permit an apparently lost sheep to 
 be brought into the fold of the Good Shepherd at 
 nearly the end of the eleventh hour, we are not to 
 despair. It may happen in such a state, as it hap- 
 pens in catalepsy, Avhere the service of the other 
 senses is suspended, that the ear still maintains a 
 communication between the soul and the material 
 world, and may admit a message from God de- 
 livered by the lips of a faithful servant ; nay, at 
 such a time, a formerly-despised message may recur 
 to the mind Avith saving power. One of the most 
 soothing observations ever made is to be found in 
 Cowper's letters, in reference to this topic. " An 
 operation is often performed within the curtains of 
 a dying bed, that the doctor and nurse have no 
 suspicion of. The soul makes but one step out of 
 darkness into light, and makes that step without a 
 Avitness." We can trace, in NcAvton's 44th Ser- 
 mon, on " The Triumph over Death and the 
 Grave," a community of sentiment in this respect 
 betAveen CoAvper and his friend, probably arising 
 from that interchange of thought Avhich sweetened 
 the best part of the poet's existence. Alluding to 
 
110 ESSAY III. 
 
 the manner in which novices are sometimes enabled 
 to meet death, Newton observes — "In a few hours, 
 under the influence of God's teaching, they often 
 learn more of the certainty and importance of 
 divine things than can be derived from the ordi- 
 nary methods of instruction in many years." 
 When life is ebbing, let the passionate grief of all 
 present be stiUed, and every vain expression of 
 regret suppressed : the tear wiU floAV, and the 
 breast will heave ; but a wife, a parent, or child, 
 who is unable to subdue the loudness of grief, 
 which doubtless often adds to the pang of final 
 separation — who is unable, with reverential sub- 
 mission, to acknowledge the hand of God, ought 
 to withdraw, and let the dying man hearken that 
 he may yet live. A brief service might be used, 
 fitted to soothe the minds of the living, while 
 it brought peace to their departing relative — a 
 Utany for the chamber of death. At such a time, 
 a selection from Scripture, showing forth the help- 
 lessness of man, and the power and mercy of God, 
 never more signal than in our extremity, verse after 
 verse slowly expressed, might solemnize the mind, 
 and, much better than the passing-bell, suggest 
 intercession for the dying — prayer, it may be, 
 short as the publican's, but of equal pre valency.* 
 
 * It would be unreasonable, we think, to deduce from the 
 foregoing observations an argument in favour of postponing 
 repentance : yet, at the desire of a friend who has read this 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. Ill 
 
 As the expression of mirth or grief may be 
 suspended or lost, so may it be disproportionate 
 or excessive, especially when the body is unstrung 
 by disease or age : then every pleasurable emotion 
 may be followed by laughter, and every kind word 
 produce tears. Sometimes these expressions of 
 opposite feelings are strongly associated. We knew 
 a gentleman under paralysis, (indeed we can re- 
 collect several such instances,) Avhose laughter, 
 which the merest trifle would cause, invariably 
 ended in sobbing and tears, as if he felt and grieved 
 over his own weakness. 
 
 That one faculty may be affected by the con- 
 dition of another, or of a group of faculties, is 
 shown by the different conditions of the memory 
 and imagination, imder different degrees of mental 
 excitement, partial and general. Names or facts 
 which cannot be called to mind when the reasoning 
 faculties are in active exercise, Avill often be recol- 
 lected when they are less active, and vice versa. 
 A lively impression made upon one of the senses, 
 for example, by a favourite scene not viewed for 
 many years, or the chime of the village bells, after 
 one has been long accustomed to the " dusky lane 
 
 essay, we enter a caveat against any such false inference. Tho 
 physician who has stood beside many a death-bed, and knows 
 what men are when oppressed by pain or languor, ought to be 
 the last person in the world to give any testimony that could 
 encourage so desperate a delusion. 
 
112 ESSAY III. 
 
 and wrangling mart ;" or even the breeze which 
 has passed over a sweet-briar hedge, will at once 
 call up ideas and slumbering feelings invested with 
 much of the freshness of youth. The power of 
 expression also often depends, in a great measure, 
 upon the state of other faculties : some who ex- 
 press themselves with clearness in common col- 
 loquy, invariably stammer when they have to 
 speak in public, and can scarcely make themselves 
 intelligible. Again, we know a gentleman, who 
 completely loses a remarkable hesitation of speech, 
 which painfully interrupts his ordinary conver- 
 sation, as often as he has to address an assembly of 
 people ; but then his speeches are delivered with a 
 degree of warmth Avhich is almost passionate. This 
 he frequently deplores, declaring, at the same 
 time, that he must either be silent, or permitted to 
 speak Avith vehemence. 
 
 It is curious to trace the disorder of a faculty, 
 beginning with the slightest deviation from its 
 natural state, and proceeding to the extremity of 
 its derangement : and this we mean again to at- 
 tempt. In Dr. Conolly's valuable work on In- 
 sanity, there is a chapter on the inequalities or 
 weaknesses of the human understanding, in Avhich 
 the slighter deviations from sanity are described in 
 a manner which is not only very entertaining to 
 the medical reader, but which cannot fail to be 
 useful to the psycliologist. 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 113 
 
 We have tliscovered, in certain individuals who 
 were perfectly sane, a strong inclination to com- 
 plete whatever they undertook, even when they no 
 longer had any interest in doing so. It seemed as 
 if an unfinished work were a source of dissatis- 
 faction or reproach : they have what has humour- 
 ously been called " the lust of finishing." We 
 have knoAvn persons who, Avhen they saw a herd of 
 cattle in a field, or a drove upon the road, were 
 unable to resist a desu-e to count them, even when 
 they felt that to do so was mere loss of time; still, 
 if they once began, they were unable to stop ; 
 others, in like manner, are impelled to count the 
 palee in a fence. Some, when they drink, take 
 only a certain number of mouthfuls, which they 
 always count, that they may not fall short of, nor 
 exceed, the stated number ; others are dissatisfied 
 when they discover a print or picture hanging out 
 of the perpendicidar ; others, when a number of 
 things are lying in confusion, so that they will 
 leave the most important occupation to eifect their 
 re-adjustment, and that in the house of another as 
 well as in their o^vn. A man of gi'eat power of 
 thought, and of imagination also, who in his youth 
 had been subject to epilepsy, a person of methodi- 
 cal habits, once acknowledged to the writer of this 
 essay a most ridiculous passion for regulating his 
 study, even Avhen, to every eye but his own, it 
 might seem m perfect order. " Nay,"' added he, 
 
 I 
 
114 
 
 "I will confess a propensity which I am not al- 
 ways able to resist ; namely, to rise and lift a 
 chair, and to thump with it on the ground a 
 certain number of times, and then replace it in an 
 exact line with the rest : nay, more, I am some- 
 times, as it were, impelled to subject a whole 
 range of chairs to the same discipline. And when 
 I overcome this fancy I experience dissatisfaction 
 — a sort of scruple which seems as if it belonged to 
 the non-performance of a duty ; and now, my dear 
 sir, what is this but insanity?" And then he 
 would force a laugh, at the same time that he 
 blushed for shame. 
 
 We were told of a lady by her friend and hear 
 relative, that when she returned from a party, 
 even after midnight, she never failed to visit her 
 drawing-room, nay, if we recollect, all her public 
 rooms, and if she found any of the fiu-niture dis- 
 arranged, would herself, before going to bed, put 
 every article in its allotted place, although she 
 knew that before she arose in the morning all this 
 would be done by the housemaid. " Oh !" con- 
 tinued her friend, " she Avas, from her passion for 
 order, the greatest plague that ever lived." 
 
 This infirmity of the mind — this habit of un- 
 dertaking and studiously completing unprofitable 
 labom-s, sometimes belongs to whole families. 
 Most of the members of a family, in which the 
 Avriter of these pages was intimate, lay under this 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 115 
 
 sinister influence. For example, one of them, 
 whose house stood near a lake seven miles in 
 circumference, round which he rode every day of 
 his life, when he gave his horse to his servant, 
 would frequently say, " Lord help those who must 
 ride in all Aveathers." Their insane propensity 
 had among themselves the name of " the j)ru- 
 loffals," a seemingly unmeaning word, to express 
 what to many of their acquaintances was a subject 
 of mh'th, and to some of their friends of regret. 
 This peculiarity we might not have alluded to, 
 were it not that in other families in which we 
 have detected it, as well as in this family, there 
 was not only a self-imposition of useless tasks, 
 and a slavish addictedness to orderly mechanical 
 adjustments, but a strong tendency to derange- 
 ment of the mind. The reader may find a case 
 in Avhich this tendency merged in insanity, in an 
 article on that subject in " The Cyclopsedia of 
 Practical Medicine," in which, after a history of 
 the insane individual, the author, Dr. Pritchard 
 of Bristol adds, " In the meantime he acquired 
 strange peculiarities of haljits. His love of order 
 in placiruj things in ichat he considered order and 
 regularity teas remarkable. He teas continually 
 putting chairs, ^'c, in their places; artd if articles 
 of ladies' work or books icere left upon a table, he 
 irould take an opportunity, unobserved, of putting 
 them in order, generally spreading the work smooth, 
 
116 ESSAY III. 
 
 and putting the articles in rows. He would steal 
 into rooms belonging to other persons for the pur- 
 pose of arranging the various articles. So much 
 time did he consume in trifles, placing and re- 
 placing, and running from one room to another, 
 that he was rarely dressed by dinner time, and 
 often apologized for dining in his dressing-gown, 
 when it was well known that he had done nothing 
 the whole morning but dress. He would often 
 take a walk in a winter evening with a lantern, 
 because he had not been able to get ready earlier 
 in the day, He would run up and down the gar- 
 den a certain number of times, rinsing his mouth 
 with water and spitting alternately on one side 
 and then on the other, in regular succession. 
 In short, his peculiarities were innumerable, but 
 he concealed them as much as possible from the 
 observation of his wife, whom he knew to be 
 vexed at his habits, and to whom he always be- 
 haved with the most respectful and affectionate 
 attention, although she could not influence him in 
 the slightest degree. He would, however, occa- 
 sionally break through these habits ; as on Sun- 
 days, though he rose early for the purpose, he was 
 always ready to perform service at a chapel a 
 mile and a half distant from his house. It was a 
 mystery to his friends when and how he prepared 
 these services. It did not at all surprise those 
 who were best acquainted with his peculiarities to 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 117 
 
 hear that in a short time he became notoriously 
 insane. He fancied his wife's affections were 
 alienated from him, continually affirming that it 
 was impossible she could have any regard for a 
 person Avho had rendered himself so contemptible. 
 He committed several acts of violence, argued 
 vehemently in favour of suicide, and was shortly 
 after found drowned in a canal near his house. It 
 must not be omitted that this individual derived a 
 disposition to madness by hereditary transmission: 
 his father had been insane." 
 
 We once knew an elderly gentleman, whose 
 time was completely spent in the adjustment and 
 re-adjustment of his dressing-room, folding and 
 unfolding his clothes, &c. ; so that he was scai-cely 
 ready for dinner when the appointed hour arrived, 
 and he found no leism'e for exercise, or for receiv- 
 ing or visiting his friends. He was a person ol' 
 weak intellect, and could not account for his 
 want of leisure. He said he had " a slowness," 
 for Avhich he would often " wonder if there was 
 any remedy." We have seen him at his dressing- 
 table with his breakfast tray beside him at three 
 or four o'clock, and have heard him declare that 
 he began to dress at seven or eight ; and we 
 scarcely ever left him without being asked "is 
 there no cure for a slowness ?" We believe that 
 this gentleman had a strong tendency to insanity, in 
 a paroxysm of which his only sou hanged himself. 
 
1 18 ESSAY III. 
 
 Dr. Johnson was often under the influence of 
 " the prologals," and there can be but little doubt 
 that he was often on the very brink of insanity. 
 This latter opinion receives support from many 
 passages in his life, which we might easily refer 
 to ; the former we may deduce from the following 
 quotation from the life of the great philologist, in 
 which are described certain of his ways, which 
 seem to have puzzled his very entertaining biogra- 
 pher. " He had another peculiarity, of which 
 none of his friends ever ventured to ask an ex- 
 planation. It appeared to me some superstitious 
 habit Avhich he had contracted early, and from 
 which he had never been called upon by his reason 
 to disentangle himself. This was his anxious care, 
 to go out or in at a passage by a certain number 
 of steps, at a certain point ; or at least so as either 
 his right foot, or his left, I forget which, should 
 constantly make the first actual movement when 
 he came close to the door or passage. This I con- 
 jecture, for I have, upon innumerable occasions, 
 observed him suddenly stop, and then seem to 
 count his steps with a deep earnestness ; and when 
 he had neglected or gone wrong in this sort of 
 magical movement, I have seen him go back again, 
 put himself in a proper posture to begin the cere- 
 mony, and having gone through it, break from 
 his abstraction, walk briskly on, and join his com- 
 panions. A strange mixture of something of this 
 
DISORDER OF A SINGLE FACULTY. 119 
 
 nature, even when on horseback, happened when 
 he Avas in the Isle of Skye. Sh' Joshua Reynolds 
 has observed him to go a good way about, rather 
 than cross a particular alley in Leicester-fields." 
 
 We have frequently known a paroxysm of in- 
 sanity commence as follows. There was exhibited 
 a gi'eat passion for writing. As we have already 
 observed, the individual could no longer spell cor- 
 rectly, but was always engaged in vn-iting with 
 the air of one who had the most important 
 business to transact ; perhaps a few lines written 
 diagonally, corresponding in number, occupied the 
 comers of the paper ; and then the centre of it 
 Avas filled up with words in the form of lozenges, 
 crosses, triangles meeting at their right angles ; 
 and so on, displaying a fantastic taste for an 
 orderly disposition of words, the litera scripta 
 being unintelligible and incoherent, even when 
 there was every appearance of the most studious 
 finish. 
 
 If we examine an extensive asylum for the 
 insane, we shall probably discover one or two 
 cells kept with scrupidous attention in a state of 
 neatness and order ; every thing will be found in 
 its proper place, every thing clean and bright ; 
 every little ornament which may have been laid 
 hold of by the pitiable tenant, ostentatiously dis- 
 played. The walls are decorated with prints, 
 and if such are not attainable, little ojlarinff fres- 
 
120 
 
 cos, representing ladies with plumes of feathers 
 and long trains ; peacocks with expanded tails ; 
 kings dressed in scarlet robes, with crowns on 
 their heads — the work of the lunatic — are often 
 made to supply their place ; great attention being 
 paid to the arrangement of these works of rude 
 art, so as to evince a love of order ; every print 
 or drawing having its companion or its pendant. 
 Such patients are generally irascible and violent ; 
 and nothing with more certainty produces a 
 paroxysm of maniacal rage than intrusion into 
 their apartments with unscraped shoes, unless it 
 be an attempt to displace any of their ornaments, 
 or to remove a print from the wall. 
 
121 
 
 ESSAY IV. 
 
 OF A DISORDERED STATE OF THE AFFECTIONS. 
 
 We next proceed to a consideration of certain 
 deranged states of the natural affections and of the 
 desires, in order to show that disturbance of the 
 whole mind may also take place in consequence of 
 one of these endoAvments becoming much excited 
 or depressed — being in a passionate or apathetic 
 state. 
 
 And, first, with respect to the affection by 
 which the sexes are mutually attracted. Abun- 
 dant proofs might be brought forward of complete 
 disorder of the mind and conduct, produced by the 
 encouragement and discouragement of romantic 
 love — by attachment founded upon hope, and ex- 
 alted by disappointment. It is thus that such a 
 conflict takes place as has often ended in the 
 erotomania of systematic nosologists. We knew 
 an instance in which a physician of eminence coim- 
 selled a marriage betAveen a young gentleman and 
 a lady upwards of tAventy years older than himself, 
 to whom he had formed an attachment, from a 
 consideration, as we conceive, that no cases of 
 sentimental love were so likely to lead to derange- 
 
122 
 
 ment as those wherein there was incongruity in 
 point of age, by which excessive imaginativeness 
 might be inferred. 
 
 The sentiment of love, when it has been en- 
 grossing and extravagant, is sometimes suddenly 
 extinguished : the fire from its intensity soon burns 
 out — a fate to which all passionate affections are 
 liable, and which will account for the faithlessness 
 of sanguine lovers, who frequently become jilts. 
 Some men are constantly transferring their affec- 
 tions from one female to another, and at last they 
 contract marriage of a sudden, probably from a 
 discovery of their own discreditable mutability, or 
 upon considerations purely mercenary. 
 
 Love may be extinguished in various ways, but 
 chiefly through a discovery of a degradation, real 
 or supposed, of the object of attachment; nay, 
 degradation effected even by the lover himself Avill 
 produce not merely indifference but disgust, as in 
 the case of the brutish Amnon. If the lover is 
 much alive to the opinion of others, a discovery 
 that he is a subject of ridicule has in some instances 
 destroyed a strong attachment : love has thus 
 yielded to Avounded vanity. Love has been con- 
 verted into indifference by the lover being betrayed, 
 in the prosecution of his object, into a situation 
 which has led to self contempt : thus love may 
 yield to wounded pride. We remember an in- 
 stance in which peculiar circumstances betrayed a 
 
DISORDER OF THE AFFECTIONS. 123 
 
 lover into a highly ludicrous position, to the per- 
 ception of Avhich a lively attachment fell a sacrifice 
 in one moment. 
 
 The desu-e of having children is so strong with 
 many, that, even while then- cup is overfloAving 
 with blessings, they are discontented if this ingre- 
 dient be denied. It was not enough that Abram 
 was prosperous beyond all his contemporaries, 
 while he was without a son. When the word of 
 the Lord came to Abram, saying, "Fear not, 
 Abram ; I am thy shield and exceeding great 
 reward," what was the reply of the Father of the 
 Faithful ? " Lord God ! what wilt thou give me, 
 seeing I go childless, and the steward of my house 
 is this Eliezer of Damascus ? And Abram said. 
 Behold, to me thou hast given no seed, and lo ! 
 one born in my house is mine heir." If the desire 
 of the patriarch, or of Hannah, had a reference to 
 the promised seed, we cannot, it is to be feared, 
 extend the same interpretation to the expression of 
 Rachel's dissatisfaction. " Give me childi-en, or 
 else I die !" Avas the murmur of discontent. Such 
 an impatient desire for a possession attended with 
 many cares and dangers sometimes fills the Avhole 
 mind, and insanity has been caused by chagi-in on 
 account of the marriage-bed proving ban-en. On 
 the contrary, some have no wisii for children, and 
 are devoid of parental aftection ; and some who 
 have been attached parents have lost all regard for 
 
124 
 
 their children, and, conscious of the change, have 
 acknowledged and bewailed a want of affection 
 which they have ignorantly viewed as criminal. 
 We have heard of a lady, who, by force of prin- 
 ciple, or regard for character, discharged her ma- 
 ternal duties after every feeling of affection for her 
 children was eradicated. But the most extraor- 
 dinary moral phenomenon connected with parental 
 affection is, that hatred will sometimes usurp the 
 place of love in the mind of a father or mother of 
 dutiful and affectionate children, and irresistibly 
 urge to child-murder, at 'a time when the reasoning 
 faculties seem undisturbed. 
 
 Parental affection is more liable to extinction in 
 women than in men ; and it seems to us highly 
 probable* when an affectionate mother conceives a 
 rooted and unfounded dislike to her children, that 
 the change will be found to depend on bodily 
 disease. This opinion receives some support from 
 the fact of the affection of a mother to her newly- 
 born child being capable of sudden extinction by 
 disease, no other inroad being made on the consti- 
 tution of the mind. We have heard from a phy- 
 sician, who was master of the largest lying-in 
 hospital in the British empire, that the approach of 
 the fatal disease called puerperal fever might often 
 be detected by the disgust which the mother con- 
 ceived for her infant. She would entreat that it 
 might be removed from her sight ; and it is re- 
 
DISORDER OF THE AFFECTIONS. 125 
 
 markable that this change of feeling would take 
 place before any other symptom of approaching 
 illness was discoverable, and before any suspicion 
 of the formation of a dangerous disease connected 
 with childbii'th could be entertained by the mother. 
 
 Affection for a wife, parent, friend, or superior, 
 is liable to like extremes. Sometimes it waxes 
 cold; sometimes it is extinguished, or converted 
 into hatred : while again it is sometimes stirred up 
 into extravagant ardour. Those who originally 
 possessed parental or conjugal affection in a high 
 degi-ee, have so completely lost all sense of these 
 affections, as to meditate or even accomplish the 
 death of a husband or parent. While attachment 
 to a wife, parent, or prince, unaccountably unless 
 on the assumption of insanity, has occupied the 
 soul as an exclusive passion. 
 
 We have often remarked a complete loss of 
 natm-al affection in lunatics : sympathy Avith their 
 fellow-patients or their friends, and all attachment 
 to their wives and children, being destroyed. They 
 will listen to the calamities of others Avithout mani- 
 festing the least feeling, being completely engrossed 
 with some little selfish interest or insane specu- 
 lati6n of their own. This apathetic state, which 
 sometimes belongs even to the lucid interval, may 
 follow extravagant attachment, but more frequently 
 it would seem to depend upon an excited state of 
 one or more of the intellectual faculties, Avhercby 
 
126 
 
 all interest is confined, as it were, to one naiTow 
 channel of thought. 
 
 The desire of possessing what we consider 
 valuable property, powerfully influences the course 
 of human events, inasmuch as it chiefly gives 
 theu' consistency to most great undertakings. But 
 an object may become so desirable as to usurp, in 
 the heart, that place which God claims as his 
 own, and then it becomes an idol. To acquire an 
 independent fortune, by a steady but subordinated 
 effort is justifiable, but how often does the pursuit 
 of independence give rise to avarice and "covet- 
 ousness, which is idolatry." 
 
 The desire to which we are alluding is to be 
 observed in its opposite extremes : as weak in the 
 spendthrift, who squanders property of every de- 
 scription wdth recklessness, and exchanges the 
 power of dispensing happiness for one gewgaw 
 after another, or for a succession of momentary 
 gratifications, until the scene closes in despicable 
 beggary, and sometimes in drivelhng folly ; and 
 as strong in the miser, who derives no benefit from 
 his daily increasing hoard, but while engaged in 
 amassing, deprives liimself of all those enjoyments 
 Avhich it is the only true object of riches to pur- 
 chase. 
 
 It is the deshe to possess which leads the man 
 of taste and classical learning to collect a splendid 
 library ; the man of taste, endowed with a refined 
 
DISORDER OF THE AFFECTIONS. 127 
 
 perception of what is beautiful in form and colour- 
 ing, to collect statues and pictures ; the man void 
 of taste, but Avith abounding vanity, to collect — 
 without any just principle of choice — perhaps 
 valuable but incongruous cm-iosities, as cai'vings 
 in ivory, misshapen idols, gaudy birds, loathsome 
 reptiles, the canoes, moccassins, and feathery coro- 
 nets of savages, old pottery, armour, rings, and 
 croziers. We have heard of a collector, who being 
 a worshipper of the great, gloried, as his chief 
 possession, in a vial of sacred blood — not of St. 
 Januarius, but of the since buried majesty of 
 England, George the Fourth, Avhich he obtained 
 from the royal cupper. 
 
 Under the influence of this desire, modified 
 however by peculiarities of character, may be 
 ranked the collectors of old plate and old china ; 
 and those whose happiness seems to consist in the 
 exclusive possession of rare flowers, quadrupeds, 
 or birds — such as the tulip or auricula fancier^ 
 the envied possessor of the genuine breed of King 
 Charles's spaniels, of an unique species of parrot 
 or macaw, or even of a vile and mischievous, but 
 rare monkey. 
 
 In a gentleman, of whose history the following 
 is an a])stract, the love of property underwent 
 various changes in the course of his life, according 
 to his circumstances and pursuits. In his youth, 
 
128 
 
 while he lived in the country, he was remarkable 
 for his breed of horses ; then he retained in his 
 house skilful cabinet makers, employed in framing 
 from costly woods furniture of an exquisite form 
 and polish ; then he bought up rich and valuable 
 porcelain ; next he became a bibliomaniac ; and 
 finally a collector of pictures, in which occupation, 
 as his taste was considerable, he was for a time 
 successful. But his appetite sm-vived his taste, 
 and he fell into the hands of picture dealers — 
 generally greater sharks than jockeys — and at last 
 squandered his fortune. When he obtained pos- 
 session of an object of desire he was satisfied : 
 when a picture on which he cast a longing eye 
 became his property, he would leave it locked up 
 in a garret for years — at last he would forget his 
 own pictures. We learned from a picture dealer, 
 whom he patronized, that this gentleman once 
 offered seventy guineas for one of his own land- 
 scapes, which the dealer purposely left in his 
 patron's way ; attaching that price to it to try 
 whether he had forgotten it. 
 
 The collectors of such things as are sold at 
 auctions below their value, often afford cm'ious 
 examples of an active propensity to accumulate 
 articles which are useless to the purchaser. We 
 knew two persons Avhose heirs obtained possession 
 of an immense heap of all kinds of bargains, 
 
DISORDER OF THE AFFECTIONS. 129 
 
 Avhich it had been the chief business of life to 
 collect. In many of the rooms were locked up 
 services of china, Brussels and Turkey carpets, 
 enamelings, bales of brocade, and many kinds of 
 rich stuffs, which, from their patterns, must have 
 been in fashion not less than fifty years before the 
 purchaser's death. 
 
 The cupidity of misers and collectors sometimes 
 becomes not merely the ruling passion, but the 
 only passion of their souls ; gaining such an 
 ascendancy, that at last it subdues all other desires 
 which might have proved con-ectives to it; and 
 when these are completely mastered, the mind is 
 left in a state of derangement, which is generally 
 incurable. 
 
 When any of the desires are inordinately en- 
 gaged, there is, as we learn fi*om the great Phy- 
 sician, but one method of cure — namely, excision 
 of the object of desire, even if it be as precious 
 as the right eye or right hand. A gentleman who 
 had a taste for painting was induced to purchase 
 some pictures, which, as he did it judiciously, 
 were admired, and his vanity was thereby gratified. 
 Being of an ardent mind and susceptible of flattery, 
 he betook himself to the formation of a gallery, 
 in which he Avas proceeding with success, Avhen he 
 began to discover that his new pursuit interfered 
 with matters of more importance. At last his 
 
 K 
 
130 ESSAY IV. 
 
 pictures seemed to hang before him in chm'ch, 
 as Mr. Grimshawe's well-known cow followed him 
 into the pulpit, and then the collector deemed it 
 full time to stop. The example of Mr. Grim- 
 shawe, who sold his favourite cow, was imitated 
 by this gentleman, who, from the moment he dis- 
 covered that he was setting up an idol in his heart, 
 never purchased another picture. 
 
131 
 
 ESSAY V. 
 
 ON INSANITY IN SI'PPOSED CONNEXION WITH RELIGION. 
 
 We now approach the chief object of tliis work, 
 and proceed to inquire into those disordered states 
 of the mind which ai'e connected, or supposed to 
 be connected, with religion. That mental derange- 
 ment may originate in superstition or fanaticism — 
 by either of Avhich, behind a visor of religious 
 zeal, all sobriety of mind is invaded, to the inter- 
 ruption of social and domestic duties — will be 
 understood by those who know that insanity, in 
 the predisposed, may ai'ise from any cause which 
 excites, at the same time that it agitates, the mind. 
 But that true religion — Avhich removes doubts and 
 distractions, explains our duties and reconciles us 
 to them, and teaches that all things work together 
 for good to them that love God, and thus not only 
 guides but supports us as we toil through the 
 weary maze of life ; which, in every pursuit, de- 
 mands moderation and method, and calms every 
 rising storm of the passions — that true religion 
 should be productive of insanity is not easily 
 credible, and would re([uire the clearest evidence. 
 AVhen, from French physicians, we learn that 
 
132 ESSAY V. 
 
 before the Revolution a large proportion of the 
 insane of France were monks, we cannot draw 
 any conclusion in favour of the opinion that religion 
 causes insanity, from the fact of its prevalence 
 among a class of men over whom superstition 
 domineered. And it would be equally unfair to 
 conclude that Ave are to trace insanity to tri^e 
 religion, because evidences of monomania are to 
 be discovered among fanatics at home, who have 
 mistaken unequivocal symptoms of hysteria, or the 
 inarticulate growlings of enthusiasm for manifes- 
 tations of the Holy Spirit. 
 
 In a person devoted to religion, who may have 
 become insane, it is desirable, as in every other 
 case of insanity, to ascertain what faculty, affec- 
 tion, or sentiment is primitively disordered. If 
 we find that all right religious feeling is in abey- 
 ance, while, through exaggerated pride, vanity, 
 selfishness, or imaginativeness, the mind becomes 
 deranged, surely the case ought not to be ranked 
 under the head of madness from religion. 
 
 Prejudice is never stronger than against those 
 Avho, from having been worldly, become religious. 
 No change is less agreeable, not even a change 
 from respectability of conduct to the sort of pro- 
 fligacy Avhich defies public opinion, than that which 
 leads a man, Avhose previous motives were of a 
 purely secular kind, to make the attainment of the 
 kingdom of God his first object, by which he 
 
INSANITY CONNECTED UITH RELIGION. 133 
 
 necessarily rises in the moral scale. That any one, 
 formerly on our o^vn level, should take, or affect 
 to take, higher ground, offends our self-love : "he 
 is too good for me," may generally be translated, 
 " he rebukes me by painfully reminding me of his 
 superiority of principle." Hence it frequently 
 happens that when a man really turns to God, fii'st 
 he is represented as a hypocrite, then a fool, and 
 last of all a madman. That his motives and his 
 judgment will be arraigned, every neophyte may 
 expect, as being matter of uniform experience ; 
 and that madness is a consequence of divine 
 teaching is a conclusion which is as old as the 
 days of Fortius Festus. 
 
 So prevalent is the notion that religion leads to 
 derangement of the mind, that when an individual 
 &st betrays symptoms of insanity, the question 
 is often asked — " Is he a saint ?" And if it be 
 admitted that he is a man of piety, it is probable 
 that no further explanation of the calamity will 
 be sought after. If, on the contrary, it appears 
 that his religion has been merely a decent respect 
 paid to a code of approved observances, then a 
 further inquiiy into causes will probably enter into 
 the gossip of the hour. We knew an instance 
 in which this point was treated in the following 
 manner, by two ladies Avho were sitting in judg- 
 ment upon a poor governess who had become 
 very eccentric. " Fray," sai<l one present, " is 
 
134 
 
 Miss very religious ?" " By no means," was 
 
 the answer; "she is just proper." Upon which 
 reply being made, and one of the chief supposed 
 causes of insanity thus set aside, the ladies inves- 
 tigated the parentage, habits, and misfortunes of 
 the young Avoman, and, after some talk, the cause 
 of her insanity — for such it proved— was settled to 
 their satisfaction. 
 
 If a person who has been brought under re- 
 ligious influence becomes insane, there will not be 
 the slightest hesitation in pronouncing the case 
 one of religious madness. An unmarried lady, 
 nearly fifty years of age— member of a family in 
 which religion was an object of the first considera- 
 tion, and in which the soundness of her religious 
 views was not called in question — was observed to 
 pay unusual attention to her dress, which gradually 
 became such as would have been more becomino- 
 in a girl than in one of her mature age. Then 
 she began to moot points regarding the wisdom of 
 entirely giving up the world — the duty Avhich all 
 owed to society of maintaining a distinction of 
 ranks, the propriety of attending the court draw- 
 ing-rooms, &c. Then she imagined, whenever she 
 drove out, that there were people watching an op- 
 portunity of addressing her, and ready to deliver 
 messages from persons of rank and station, ex- 
 pressive of their 'regard, and surprise that she did 
 not visit them ; and, under the influence of these 
 
INSANITY CONNECTED WITH KELHUON. 135 
 
 delusions, which rendered it necessary to remove 
 her from the observation of her acquaintances, 
 she seemed to have lost all sense of religion. 
 
 The true explanation of this case is obvious. In 
 consequence of bodily disease — of one of those irre- 
 gularities of the circulation which take place at 
 critical periods of life — the brain became affected, 
 and the mind suffered in consequence. The senti- 
 ment of vanity, naturally strong, but for a long- 
 time suppressed, became ungovernable, and swept 
 away every trace of religious feeling. If any prin- 
 ciple could have withstood the extreme activity of 
 this sentiment, it was religion, which, it proved 
 the greatest comfort to a very sensible and attached 
 family to know, had once been the rule of this 
 lady's life. 
 
 A friend of ours was one day riding with a 
 clergyman of refined manners, who, for a good 
 many years, had been devoted to the service of 
 God. To the amazement of our friend, his com- 
 panion, without any adequate provocation, fell into 
 a paroxysm of ungovernable fury, swearing at a 
 wood-ranger, and threatening him with vengeance, 
 because he had been dilatory in obeying an order 
 which he had received relative to a matter of 
 little importance. 
 
 Had this fact become public, all the devotedness 
 to his profession, for which this. excellent clergy- 
 man was distinguished, would by many have been 
 
136 
 
 considered as assumed ; and his habitual humility 
 of demeanour, arising from a sense of his own 
 imworthiness, as the result of hypocrisy. Such 
 things must be expected. Such is a part of the 
 hardness which must be endured by the good 
 soldier of the cross. We cannot entertain a doubt 
 that this was a monomaniacal explosion, in which 
 aristocratic pride, much fostered during the youth 
 of this member of a noble family, was roused by 
 cerebral excitement, and for a time resumed its 
 original ascendancy. We come to this conclusion 
 upon the following considerations : — First, This 
 gentleman had shortly before undertaken a duty 
 which led to over-excitement of the brain. Se- 
 condly, He appeared quite imconscious of the 
 incongruity of his conduct — an unconsciousness 
 which is one of the usual attendants upon insanity. 
 And lastly, his only brother died in a mad-house. 
 
 Those who are gratified when they hear that 
 any convert to the doctrine of the Gospel becomes 
 insane, as this seems to sanction their dislike to 
 the religion of Scripture, generally forget that, 
 during the insanity of such persons, devotional 
 feeling, instead of being exalted, is often, to all 
 appearance, extinguished, to revive in its sti-ength 
 and purity when the paroxysm is over. We knew 
 a gentleman, pious himself, and an instrument of 
 good to the souls of others, who was liable to 
 returns of insanity, during which his religious 
 
INSANITY CONNECTED WITH RELIGION. 13T 
 
 principles lost all power, he became purely selfish, 
 and could take no interest in any thing but his 
 health : he was in continual dread of death, which, 
 being a brave soldier, as well as an established 
 Christian, he looked upon without apprehension 
 when his mind was sane ; he imagined that he 
 would die during sleep, and he had a sick-nurse 
 constantly in his room, whose sole employment 
 it was to watch him and rouse him whenever he 
 began to slumber. 
 
 A widow lady who possessed considerable natural 
 ability and a cultivated understanding, and was 
 devoted to religion, but devoid of prudence, en- 
 gaged in a speculation which required a considera- 
 ble capital. She never doubted that she would 
 find means of liquidating debts incurred by her 
 in order to support an undertaking, Avhich had 
 been a subject of prayer, as all her undertakings 
 were. To doubt in this matter would be, as she 
 thought, to dishonour God. During the week 
 she was in a state of unceasing labour of body 
 and mind ; and when Sunday came round and her 
 secular duties were suspended, her mind instead of 
 finding . rest was in a state of rapture. Months 
 and years rolled round, pecuniary embarrassments 
 increased, and bankruptcy was impending, yet the 
 destitution of her children was little considered 
 in comparison with the injury which she thought 
 relinrion must sustain from her discredit. Her 
 
38 
 
 religious opinions gradually became even more en- 
 thusiastic, and then she lost sight of her pecuniary 
 difficulties ; and we witnessed her first overt act of 
 insanity in a composition on which probably some 
 of her friends looked with admiration, namely, a 
 scheme of the Gospel which she caused to be 
 printed in the form of two inverted pyramids, 
 which met at their pointed ends. She went 
 shortly after to the house of a friend in the 
 country and proclaimed the millennium, which she 
 said had begun that day. She has ever since been 
 in confinement. 
 
 Now this case of insanity, which in fact arose 
 from imprudence in an enthusiastically religious 
 woman, ought not to be attributed to religion. 
 No event in life ought to become a subject of 
 prayer until it has received the sanction not only 
 of the conscience but of the understanding also. 
 When a matter is doubtful, we may pi'ay to have 
 our understandings enlightened ; but when it bears 
 the stamp of imprudence, we are not to pray for 
 leadings or openings of Providence to show that 
 we ought to set about it. As Mr. Scott has ob- 
 served, "When any undertaking is inexpedient, 
 or inadvisable in the opinion of competent judges, 
 and yet the inclination leans that way, in this case 
 that which men call the opening of Providence is 
 generally no more than a temptation of Satan." 
 We are not to expect that the providence of God 
 
INSANITY CONNECTED WITH RELIGION. 139 
 
 will favour any plan which is formed in opposition 
 to all prudent calculation, and to the verdict of 
 those faculties which are given for the direction of 
 our conduct. Then again, when exhausted with 
 fatigue and anxiety, instead of an intermission of 
 labour, this poor lady sought relief from neurotic 
 medicines ; and Sunday, which is meant to be a 
 day of holy repose, Avas occnpied with religious 
 exercises of that kind which stimulates the imagi- 
 nation. We envy not the moral constitution of 
 the individual who woidd aver that this, the effect 
 of enthusiasm, Avas a case of " insanity from re- 
 ligion;'-' and we trust that none will henceforth 
 consider the terms religious insanity, and insanity 
 in a religious person, as convertible. 
 
 jNIaniacs, Avho, when sane, were mattentive to 
 religion, in the course of theu* derangement will 
 sometimes fix upon a theological dogma, which they 
 first pervert and then incessantly rave about. "We 
 almost invariably observe," says an able writer, 
 " in long continued cases of insanity, when the 
 hallucinations are in any degree variable, that per- 
 verted ideas of religion will present themselves, 
 though utterly unconnected with the original cause 
 of excitement." Yet in returns from establish- 
 ments for the insane such cases are generally re- 
 ported under the head of " insanity from religion." 
 
 We may remark, that there is need of greater 
 caution than is usually observed, when we would 
 
140 
 
 assign the cause of an attack of insanity. A 
 young man of family became monomaniacal : he 
 considered himself a lost being, was in a state of 
 mute despair, refused to take food, and made fre- 
 quent attempts to choke himself. We were told 
 that a few weeks before he had been in Scotland 
 with Mr. Campbell of Row, had partaken in his 
 delusions, and that fanaticism had gradually de- 
 generated into insanity. This seemed satisfactory, 
 and instead of grieving over the unsoundness of 
 their doctrines, we were not sorry to have an 
 opportunity of saying, "Ah! you see how the 
 strange opinions of these visionaries are driving 
 people mad." Now the real cause of the young 
 gentleman's derangement of mind was a wounded 
 conscience, as I afterwards learned from a respect- 
 able surgeon who had been consulted by him just 
 before he became insane. After having received 
 a deep view of the depravity of man, and making 
 a profession of religion, he met some companions 
 with whom he had formerly been intimate, and 
 imprudently agreed to dine with them ; after 
 dinner he was betrayed into drinking wine with 
 freedom, which led to other irregularities, at the 
 recollection of which he was so conscience-struck 
 that remorse ensued, and at last ended in complete 
 insanity. We would therefore say, with reference 
 even to fanatics, let every man bear only his own 
 burden. 
 
INSANITY CONNECTED WITH RELIGION. 141 
 
 Instead of drawing upon our memory for an 
 additional supply of instances of insanity in sup- 
 posed connexion with religion, we will refer to 
 examples of the same kind which have been col- 
 lected by others, and will briefly allude to those 
 cases of mental derangement produced by a per- 
 version of religion, which Dr. BmTOwes has pub- 
 lished in his elaborate Avork on Insanity. (See his 
 second commentary, under the title of " Religion 
 in reference to insanity.") 
 
 The first example is that of a lady, " regular in 
 her devotions according to the rules of the Esta- 
 blished Church," who, while listening to the doc- 
 trines of Swedenborg, Avent to the sacrament of 
 the Lord's supper, and finding not one drop of wune 
 in the chalice which Avas presented to her, hurried 
 from the church in dismay, the emptiness of the 
 cup seeming to her superstitious mind to prove 
 that she was rejected of God ; a paroxysm of mania 
 ensued. The second example is that of an un- 
 married lady of 27, Avho was "always attentive to 
 her religious duties," whose insanity is traced to her 
 having been brought into communication with some 
 " gloomy sectarians."' The third is that of a son 
 of a hypochondriacal and gloomy fiither, who, that 
 the boy might be educated in the strict principles 
 of religion, placed him " under the care of several 
 divines in succession, each of whom was enjoined 
 to be very attentive to his religious instruction. 
 
142 
 
 Many of tlie most abstruse doctrines of religion 
 -were pressed upon him ; his mind became bewil- 
 dered. At length he conceived that his sole duty 
 Avas to pray for the remission of his sins, and to 
 study the Bible and particular homilies. When he 
 walked out he cared not in what puddle he knelt : 
 if at meals, his food was quitted for prayer. Soon 
 he was pronounced insane." By the way, we 
 cannot guess where divines could be found, unless 
 in St. Luke's, who would press abstruse doctrines 
 of theology on the mind of a child, and allow him 
 to say his prayers in a puddle. The fourth ex- 
 ample is that of a young lady of genius, ardent 
 imagination, and in every thing an enthusiast, 
 whose disquietude of mind ending in insanity, is 
 traced to the preaching of " a minister, not more 
 remarkable for his zeal than his persuasive powers 
 in enforcing certain dubious tenets." The fifth is 
 the case of a girl of 17, alternately the worshipper of 
 Shakspeare, Eadcliffe, Byron, &c. who was assailed 
 ])y "a seriously-inclined neighbour, who, pitying 
 her flightiness, undertook to reform her by his 
 pious exhortations ;" before a furious fit of mania 
 broke out, she read only pious books, and was 
 particularly anxious to attend every church where 
 she learnt the sacrament was to be administered." 
 The last example is that of a lady, wdio, while 
 under great affliction, was by a near relative " ve- 
 hemently exhorted to seek alleviation in religion, 
 
INSANITY CONNECTED WITH RELIGION. 143 
 
 Avhich advice was enforced by spiritual arguments, 
 intermixed with many abstract doctrinal points 
 which were new to the sutFerer." From these, 
 instead of deriving consolation, she at last in her 
 perplexity was led to adopt the most dangerous 
 sophisms for truths. " Shortly complete insanity 
 was developed." 
 
 What connexion, Ave would ask, have the doc- 
 trines of Swedenborg, the influence of gloomy 
 sectarians, abstruse doctrines of theology — perhaps 
 touching the divine decrees — the enforcing of 
 dubious tenets, abstract doctrinal points, nay, the 
 pious exhortations of a seriously-inclined, it may 
 have been very ignorant neighbour — what con- 
 nexion have all these things with belief in the 
 Grospel — the good news — the glad tidings of salva- 
 tion? The soberest, clearest, simplest, most cheer- 
 ing proposition which was ever placed before the 
 mind of man — believe, and thou shalt be saved ; 
 which requires no preparation but a spiritual appe- 
 tite, and is more comprehensible by the illiterate 
 than by the learned, ever looking for " some great 
 thing." If we simply look to the incarnate God, 
 who, after fulfilling all righteousness, died upon 
 the cross that we might live, and if that doctrine 
 which proclaims liberty to the captive, and pours 
 balm into the wounded heart, should produce melan- 
 choly, which is the usual type of religious madness, 
 it would be a phenomenon in the history of the 
 
144 
 
 human mind which would defy every attempt at 
 explanation. 
 
 We firmly believe that the Gospel, received 
 simply, never, since it was first preached, produced 
 a single case of insanity ; the admission that it has 
 such a tendency ought never to have been made to 
 the enemies of the cross. We have granted that 
 fanaticism and superstition have caused insanity, as 
 well they may : nay, derangement of the mind 
 may often have been caused by the terrors of the 
 law ; but by the Gospel — by a knowledge of and 
 trust in Jesus — never. 
 
 We are convinced, however, that any one who 
 knows the plague of his own heart, rather than rest 
 in regularity of devotion according to the rules 
 of any church — a habit of worship at stated 
 times being not incompatible with the merest for- 
 mality — would run the risk of the cell, the clay 
 cap, and the iron muff, even the scourge, if, as in 
 the barbarism of fonner discipline, it were added ; 
 we are convinced that he would prepai'e himself to 
 live without one beam from the eye of affection to 
 relieve the loneliness and monotony of confinement, 
 never • disturbed but by the yell of fury, the scream 
 of pain, the laugh of folly, or the groan of despair. 
 We repeat, rather than rest contented with the 
 outward forms of periodical devotion according 
 to the rules of the Established Church, or any 
 church that ever was established, a believer would 
 
INSANITY CONNECTED WITH RELIGION. 145 
 
 incur the worst of those ills at which humanity 
 shudders. 
 
 Some have taught that "he w^ho follows that 
 form of religion which he has been accustomed to 
 consider the true one — in which he has been edu- 
 cated, is not likely to have either his conscience or 
 understanding disturbed : if doubts, however, arise, 
 he may find himself in perplexity, and insanity may 
 be developed." But what is man to do when 
 doubts arise on the subject of religion? What 
 ought the reformers to have done, when they 
 began to call in question the tenets of the Church 
 of Rome ? To remain steadfast in error, lest lu- 
 nacy should be produced during the conflict be- 
 tween their new and old opinions ? The Christian 
 is not permitted to take any doctrine as established 
 until in sobriety he has brought it to the law and 
 to the testimony : he is not to believe every spirit, 
 or any spirit, which is opposed to the great scrip- 
 tural doctrines concerning the person and offices of 
 Christ. If doubts arise, they must be removed by 
 searching the Scriptures, in determining the sense 
 of which he must make diligent and faithful use of 
 all the helps placed at his disposal. He must im- 
 plore tiie Holy Spirit to enlighten his understand- 
 ing by removing the mists of passion and preju- 
 dice, and to aid his reason in estimating the 
 reasonings of others. All this he must do, unless 
 he is prepared to exercise his private judgment 
 
 L 
 
146 
 
 only in the one fotal determination to acquiesce in 
 the doctrine of human infallibiUty. When it is 
 affirmed that, by an overweening zeal in impressing 
 on youth subtle doctrines of theology and dubious 
 questions, the victims of insanity are multiplied, 
 while we admit the folly of such a procedure, we 
 would demand proofs of the allegation, which is 
 generally nothing more than a covert attack upon 
 true religion, made by those who are ignorant of its 
 nature. We may often hear of insanity caused by 
 enthusiasm, and a frequent attendance upon con- 
 venticles. Insanity is in general preceded by ex- 
 citement of the mind, which may exist for a long 
 time before the attack formally begins, and which 
 very often does appear in the form of enthusiasm ; 
 and this may naturally lead the excited individual 
 to frequent one place of worship after another. 
 But Avhat physician possessed of caution would 
 venture to affirm that the enthusiastic conduct of 
 the maniac was the cause of the paroxysm, and not 
 its commencement ? 
 
 True religion is a preservative, although by no 
 means a complete preservative, against derange- 
 ment of the mind. We have no intention of con- 
 cealing that we have known many instances of 
 insanity among believers, but it was not caused by 
 their creed. We have also known instances in 
 which all sense of religion has been permanently 
 destroyed by insanity. Of such cases we would 
 
INSANITY CONNECTED WITH RELIGION. 14? 
 
 remark, that the believer has no right to expect 
 for his believing friend exemption from evils aris- 
 ing from the state of the body, on which insanity 
 always depends. Let him moreover recollect, that 
 as total insanity puts an end to moral account- 
 ability, nothing Avhich may take place during a 
 paroxysm of that disorder can affect the future 
 happiness of his friend. 
 
 Dr. Combe has treated the subject under con- 
 sideration with so much good sense, in the follow- 
 ing quotation, that we think the reader who has 
 not seen his work on mental derangement can 
 scarcely fail to thank us for calling his attention to 
 a passage in which the truth is stated Avith so 
 much clearness and sobriety. " When fairly ex- 
 amined, indeed, the danger is seen to arise solely 
 from an abuse of religion, and the best safeguard 
 is found to consist in a right understanding of its 
 principles and submission to its precepts. For if 
 the best Christian be he, who in meekness, humi- 
 lity, and sincerity, places his trust in God, and 
 seeks to fulfil all his commandments, then he who 
 exhausts his soid in devotion, and at the .same time 
 finds no leisure or no inclination for attending to 
 the common duties of his station, and who, so far 
 from arriving at happiness or peace of mind, be- 
 comes every day the more estranged from them, 
 and finds himself at last involved in disease and 
 despair, cannot be held as a follower of Christ, 
 
148 
 
 but must rather be held as the follower of a phan- 
 tom assuming the aspect of religion. When in- 
 sanity attacks the latter, it is obviously not religion 
 that is its cause ; it is only the abuse of certain 
 feelings, the regulated activity of which is neces- 
 sary to the right exercise of religion ; and against 
 such abuse a sense of true religion would, in fact, 
 have been the most powerful protection. And the 
 great benefit of knowing this is, that Avhenever we 
 shall meet with such a blind and misdirected excess 
 of our best feelings in a constitutionally-nervous or 
 hereditarily-predisposed subject, instead of encou- 
 raging its exuberance, we should use every effort 
 to temper the excess, to inculcate sounder views, 
 and to point out the inseparable connection which 
 the Creator has established between the true 
 dictates of religion, and the practical duties of life, 
 which it is a part of his purpose in sending us here 
 to fulfil." 
 
149 
 
 ESSAY VI. 
 
 ON THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN UPRIGHT, KALLEN, AM> 
 
 REGENLUATE. 
 
 By acquiring a just view of the present constitu- 
 tion of man, we may learn that his obedience to 
 God must of necessity be imperfect, " by the in- 
 firmity of his nature," even the mature Christian 
 " cannot always stand upright ;" all he can hope 
 for is, that his desire to serve God, proceeding 
 from a right principle, shall be earnest and sincere. 
 
 Man's body was originally formed " of the dust 
 of the ground." " Into his nostrils God breathed 
 the breath of life, and man became a living soul." 
 As the man consists of body and soul, so again 
 the soul itself contains two principles, recognised 
 in Scripture as carnal and spiritual ; the one i)rin- 
 ciple connecting it, as it were, with earth, the 
 other with heaven. 
 
 God created man in his own moral image ; in 
 knowledge, righteousness, and true holiness. The 
 soul of man, like a miiTor, reflected the intellectual 
 and moral beauty of the Creator ; and the body of 
 man, with all its natural appetites and desires, was 
 so subordinated, in virtue of the superiority of the 
 
150 
 
 spiritual principle or godliness — reliance upon God 
 producing confonnity to his will — as to be merely 
 the minister of the soul. 
 
 Godliness is a positive principle — ungodliness 
 being a negative term, might therefore be used to 
 denote merely the absence of godliness. We 
 might speak of ungodliness in the way we do of 
 cold, which is merely the absence of the matter of 
 heat ; or ungodliness might be likened to dark- 
 ness or ignorance, which is the absence of light or 
 knowledge ; or to death, Avhich is the extinction 
 of life. 
 
 But ungodliness and sin are commonly taken to 
 be synonymous : in Scripture the ungodly and 
 sinners are identical.* And the reason of this seems 
 to be, that the want of godliness leads to absolute 
 sin. Those who are " without God in the world," 
 being, as St. Paul implies in the second chapter of 
 Ephesians, " dead in sins." As animal corruption 
 takes place when life is extinguished, so does moral 
 corruption when godliness, the principle of spiritual 
 life, is lost. Brookes states forcibly that sin arises 
 from the absence of qualities which go to the for- 
 mation of the character of God : "God is light, 
 sin is darkness ; God is life, sin is death ; God is 
 heaven, sin is hell ; God is beauty, sin is deformity." 
 
 The predominance of the spiritual principle 
 
 * Romans v. 6 and 8. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 151 
 
 manifested itself in full affiance in God. When 
 Adam partook of the forbidden fruit, although 
 his motive was different from that of Eve,* yet 
 the proximate cause of his disobedience, like hers, 
 was a loss of godliness, of dependence on God 
 for happiness, of trust in God — it was loss of 
 faith ; first the image of God was lost, and then 
 moral corruption followed. This is no new doc- 
 trine. It is clearly taught by Bishop Hopkins in 
 the following passage. " Men's natm'es are not 
 now become sinful by putting any thing into them 
 to defile them, but by taking something from them 
 which should have preserved them holy. We 
 have nothing more in us by nature than Adam had 
 in innocency ; and if it be said that we have cor- 
 ruption in us by natm-e, which he had not, that 
 is to have not more but less. He had the free 
 power of obedience ; he had the perfect image of 
 his ^Nlaker in all the divine qualities of knowledge 
 and holiness, which we have not, and are therefore 
 said to be corrupt, not as though there were in 
 our original any real positive qualities which Avere 
 not in Adam, but because he had these holy 
 qualities which are not in us. And therefore 
 when we say that Adam communicated to his 
 posterity a corrupted nature, it must not be un- 
 derstood as if that nature which we receive were 
 
 • 1 Tim. ii. 14. 
 
152 
 
 infected with any vicious inclinations or habits 
 which should sway or determine our will unto 
 evil ; but the meaning is, that Adam communicated 
 to us a nature which hath a power to incline and 
 act variously ; but withal, he did not communicate 
 to us the image of God, nor the powers of obe- 
 dience, which should make all its inclinations and 
 actions holy and regular ; and, therefore, he com- 
 municated a nature corrupted, because it was de- 
 prived of that grace ivhich should have kept it 
 from sin." 
 
 The same doctrine was taught long before the 
 time of Bishop Hopkins, as will appear from the 
 following curious extract from a volume of ser- 
 mons, lately published by the Rev. J. Bloom, 
 which were preached in the reign of James I. : 
 " St. Austin in three words hath cleared this 
 matter against Faustus the Manichee, ' Diabolus 
 suggerit, homo consentit, Deus deserit ; non infun- 
 dendo malitiam, sed subtrahendo gratiam, ut non 
 ab illo irrogetiu- aliquid, quo sit homo deterior, sed 
 tantum quo sit meHor non erogetur.' The devil 
 works by suggesting, man by consenting, and 
 God by forsaking; not by the infusion of any 
 poison of wickedness, but only by the substrac- 
 tion of the influence and assistance of the Holy 
 Spirit; so that God gives nothing to make a 
 man worse, but only withholds what might make 
 him better." 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF xMAN. 153 
 
 When in Scriptiu'e it is said, " by one man sin 
 entered into the world, and death by sin,"* the 
 expression must not be taken as proving that 
 original sin is an essential attribute, forming a new 
 and positive element in the nature of every de- 
 scendant of Adam. As there have been those 
 who sinned not "after the similitude of Adam's 
 transgression," the word sin in this passage must 
 mean " guiltiness in the sight of God," rather 
 than " transgression of the law." Thus all ha\'e 
 sinned, or come into a state of condemnation before 
 God, and so incurred death and all the penal conse- 
 quences of disobedience, because of the transgres- 
 sion of their federal head. 
 
 The denunciation of God to Adam concerning 
 the forbidden fruit was, " In the day which thou 
 eatest thereof thou shalt surely die." But as 
 Adam did not literally die on the day on which 
 he eat of the forbidden fruit, the death tlu'eatened 
 must be imderstood as mortality, or perhaps more 
 generally as the entire penalty due to sin, includ- 
 ing death as the most obvious part of it. AVe are 
 hardly warranted in presuming that a tendency 
 to disease and a consequent liability to death was 
 the immediate change physically produced in the 
 body of Adam by the forbidden fruit : though 
 such a theory would accord with the view of those 
 
 * Romans v. I'J. 
 
154 
 
 who have suggested that the forbidden fruit may 
 have been a slow poison. The probability of a 
 great physical change being produced by the re- 
 ception into the system of a previously unused 
 or deleterious substance, might be supported by 
 many analogies ; for instance, the nature and func- 
 tions of insects modified by food— the fecundity 
 of the bee depending upon what apiarians have 
 called the royal jelly ; or the eifect of food upon 
 beasts of prey : the tiger of Bengal, having 
 attained full growth, may continue domesti- 
 cated in the compound, and playful so long as 
 he is fed on vegetables, but the moment he 
 obtains the taste of blood he will dash into 
 the jungle, from the friend becoming the enemy 
 of man. 
 
 It is well known that the physical nature of man 
 depends upon the food Avith which he is supplied. 
 As it is not generally ascertained how much man's 
 moral depends upon his physical nature, or what 
 changes in the temper and disposition are pro- 
 duced by physical influences, we will state a fact 
 to show that a great moral revolution may be 
 brought about by the absorption of a deleterious 
 substance into the system. If the human body 
 is dissected before putrefaction takes place (and 
 putrefactive decomposition, be it noted, is the 
 only certain criterion of death) the dissector, if 
 he cuts himself, or if he has a wound in his hand, 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 
 
 15.3 
 
 is in danger of absorbing from the cadaver a some- 
 thing which is frequently destructive of Ufe. Thus 
 many promising anatomists have perished, and 
 thus the surgeon is emphatically warned agamst 
 premature dissection. A good many years ago 
 a medical gentleman of liberal mind and amiable 
 disposition, while engaged in the dissection of a 
 body which was quite fresh, imbibed the poison 
 refen-ed to through a puncture of the skin, in 
 consequence of which he had well nigh died. 
 From the time of his illness, from which he very 
 slowly recovered, it Avas observed that he was 
 morose and selfish. The conclusion of this short 
 history is remarkable. Several years afterwards 
 the same individual came under the influence of 
 godliness, and one of the first eifects of this — the 
 only principle of true reform — was an act of gi-etit 
 generosity ; and ever since his life has been a 
 course of gentleness and unostentatious benefi- 
 cence. Bishop Bm-net has illustrated the perma- 
 nent injury which the physical nature of man sus- 
 tained at the fall — our inheritance from Adam of 
 a tendency to disease and death — by a reference 
 to the well-known fact of a hereditary disposition 
 in some families to insanity, consumption, gout, 
 and other diseases. 
 
 At whatever time this liability to disease super- 
 vened, it is plain that the moral constitution of 
 man immediately suffered great injury : tlie mean- 
 
156 
 
 ness and equivocation of Adam* show that he at 
 once lost the uprightness of his original nature. 
 That the carnal principle rose on the ruins of 
 godliness appears in the envyings and strife of the 
 firstborn of Adam. As man began to multiply, 
 sensuality became universal : that they success- 
 fully contended against spirituality is evident from 
 the declaration of the Lord — " My Spirit shall not 
 always strive with man, for that he also is flesli " 
 — he is altogether carnal ; and hence the wicked- 
 ness of man became so great "that every imagi- 
 nation of the thoughts of his heart was only 
 evil continually," " and the earth was filled with 
 violence." 
 
 It seems that the mind can now perceive and 
 think and act only by means of the bodily 
 organs : compress the nerves Avhich convey sensa- 
 tion, and all perception of the qualities of bodies 
 will be interrupted ; compress the brain, and 
 thought will be suspended ; compress the nerves 
 of motion, and the mandates of the will can no 
 longer be executed. If we suppose that at the 
 fall the body was first corrupted, it could no longer 
 be a fit recipient for a soul created to reflect the 
 image of God. Through the injury sustained in 
 the first instance by the physical constitution of 
 man, we might conceive that his mental consti- 
 
 * Genesis iii. 10, 11, 12. 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 157 
 
 tution was injured, and his judgment and aiFections 
 became depraved. Every fresh inroad which is 
 made on the mind — every instance of amentia, 
 delii'ium, or insanity — is connected with super- 
 added disorder of the body. As has akeady been 
 observed, false perceptions are ever symptomatic 
 of disease. Dissections after lethargy, fatuity, 
 stupor, coma, &c. always disclose morbid appear- 
 ances in the brain or its membranes, upon the state 
 of which these diseases depend. Sharp febrile pa- 
 roxysms seldom occur Avithout producing delirium. 
 We never saw a case of mental derangement, even 
 where it was traceable to a moral cause, in which 
 there was not reason to believe that bodily disease 
 could have been detected before the earliest aber- 
 ration, had an opportunity of examination offered. 
 Not only does every deranged state of the intel- 
 lectual faculties and the natural affections depend 
 upon bodily disease, but derangements of the 
 religious and moral sentiments also originate in 
 diseases of the body. The mind, it is true, Avill 
 often continue sound, and will display vigour and 
 activity during lassitude, sickness, and pain, or 
 during disease of the brain itself. We kncAv a 
 case in which conversion to God — a change of 
 conduct from a change of heart — took place after 
 an attack of complete palsy of one side of the 
 body, which depended upon a diseased condition 
 of one of the hemispheres of the brain : but this 
 
158 
 
 only shows that there are distempers of the body 
 which do not affect the mind, as well as distempers 
 which do. 
 
 As we are ignorant of the nature of the mind, 
 so are we ignorant of the nature of the affections 
 and passions, unless as they concur Avith certain 
 bodily phenomena, and influence the expression 
 and conduct. One set of passions, connected 
 with excitement of the nervous system and circu- 
 lation, impart vigour, and lead to active exertion ; 
 another, with a depressed state of the nerves and 
 enfeebled action of the heart, debilitate the body, 
 and impede exertion. The former are called the 
 exciting, the latter the depressing passions. But 
 what do we know of the nature of these ? What 
 do we know of the condition of the mind while 
 under the dominion of anger, ambition, or jea- 
 lousy ; or of fear, grief, or despair ; but in as far 
 as the former are attended with a glow, the latter 
 with a chill, of peculiar feeling, or as they influ- 
 ence the perceptions, judgment, or will. Health 
 is often injured or altogether destroyed by the 
 violence of the passions ; but this is owing to the 
 disturbance of the body in which the passion 
 manifests itself. Violent anger has induced an 
 attack of jaundice : it is attended with excitement 
 of the brain and nervous system ; in many with 
 acceleration of the pulse ; — and these states of the 
 system disturb the secretions, and especially retard 
 
THE CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 159 
 
 the flow of the bile, whereby it is thrown back 
 and absorbed. Again, a sudden and unexpected 
 calamity or disappointment, by the debility which 
 it causes, has relaxed and emulged the hepatic 
 vessels, and thereby led to a violent, perhaps fatal, 
 attack of bilious vomiting. 
 
 It is observable that many of the same animal 
 feelings, Avhich belong to the passions, are also 
 producible by causes merely physical. The con- 
 templation of a contingency which is full of 
 responsibility or danger will cause a sense of 
 anxiety identical with that angina which is symp- 
 tomatic of several diseases of the heart. We 
 intend in the sequel to show that the sinking of 
 despair is not more absolute than the hopeless- 
 ness which depends purely upon disease of the 
 nervous system. An intelligent female has just 
 supplied us with an exemphfication of the iden- 
 tity of feelings originating in moral with those 
 originating in physical causes. " Often," she 
 observes, " before a storm I have felt the utmost 
 nervousness and apprehension of misfortune, along 
 with a sudden attack of diarrhoea. I was once 
 desired to give up the suckling of one of my 
 infants, which I thought involved no great sacri- 
 fice, but when the hired nurse came to my house 
 to take charge of my child, wounded maternal 
 feeling produced the same apprehensive nervous- 
 ness, which in many hundred instances had been 
 
160 
 
 caused by the approach of a storm, and it was 
 followed by the same complaint." A happy or 
 imhappy temperature of the body will produce 
 joyousness in the midst of danger, and fearfulness 
 where no fear is. 
 
 From the soul becoming the minister of the 
 body, in consequence of the ascendancy of the 
 carnal principle, many evil practices have arisen 
 which have still further impau-ed the physical 
 constitution of individuals and families, and 
 thereby further degraded then- minds. For ex- 
 ample, to preserve domestic purity, intermarriages 
 between near relatives are prohibited. When 
 the divine law in this respect is broken, a dege- 
 nerate offspring, as in the case of the Bourbons, 
 may be expected. Even from the intermarriage 
 of first cousins, inveterate forms of scrofula are 
 sometimes generated, and a liability to insanity. 
 Various diseases — originating in sensuality — 
 descend in families. A vicious habit of intem- 
 perance will excite in children, procreated after 
 the habit is established, a propensity to the 
 same habit, which has descended to the third 
 generation. 
 
 So powerful is the carnal principle, that although 
 it may lose much of its strength, it will not be 
 completely brought under subjection during the 
 life of the body. When the soul is created anew 
 by the Holy Spirit, a principle is introduced by 
 
THE MORAL CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 161 
 
 which the soul, which had been dead to God, rises 
 again into life and obedience. This principle is 
 the same Avith that of which the soul was de- 
 prived at the fall — namely, godliness ; the change 
 is from death unto life, in other words, from ig- 
 norance and darkness to knowledge and light :* 
 according to Scriptm'e, " man being rencAved in 
 knowledge, after the image of Him that created 
 him." By the gradual recovery of godliness the 
 soul faintly reflects the image of its Creator, but 
 the body continues vile ; the carnal tendency, 
 though weakened, will exist till the body is cut 
 down by the scythe of death, by which alone the 
 believer's soul can be fitted for paradise. 
 
 To complete this view we have onlv to add, 
 that, at the resurrection, the body, freed from all 
 carnal dispositions, will be re-united to the soul. 
 To adopt the words of Whitby, " our bodies shall 
 then wholly serve our spirits, and minister unto 
 them, and depend on them, and therefore may be 
 called spiritual," and man will then be fitted for 
 heaven. 
 
 Thus there ai'e two things never to be forgotten 
 by the Christian desirous of living in a more pure 
 and serene air, who is kept in sadness by his 
 inability to serve the Lord God of Israel in holi- 
 ness and righteousness : — Fu-st, that the Holy 
 
 * Acts xxvi. 18. 
 
162 ESSAY VI. 
 
 Spirit — even when he re-introduces into the soul 
 the principle of obedience to God, a principle 
 of rectitude, thereby effecting a moral change, 
 which amounts to a complete transformation of 
 the mind — leaves the body fallen, degraded— a 
 body of death — the carnal principle fiercely war- 
 ring with the spiritual desu-es of the renovated 
 soul. This is clearly laid down in the eighth 
 chapter of Komans : " If Christ be in you"— if 
 ye are in union with Christ, if he have taken 
 possession of you by his Spirit — " the body is 
 dead because of sin" — yom- bodies, it is true, are 
 under a laAV of death in consequence of man's first 
 transgression of the commandment of God — " but 
 the spirit is life because of righteousness ;" but 
 your souls have revived through the justification 
 wrought by Christ. And, secondly, the Christian 
 must remember, that although regeneration, for any 
 thing we know to the contrary, may be the work 
 of a moment, even while a man appears perishing 
 on a wave, yet the growth of the spiritual prin- 
 ciple is generally a work of time, of difficulty 
 inconceivable, unless by the experienced Christian, 
 and not completed till the soul of the dying saint 
 is on the wing. In the beginning of the struggle 
 the carnal mind would seem to prevail. St. Paul 
 has addressed incipient Christians as carnal men — 
 the fruits of carnality still ripening ; although of 
 the family of God, it is only in a more advanced 
 
THE MORAL CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 163 
 
 and are enabled by the word of God to overcome 
 the wicked one, who is continually endeavouring 
 to quench the fire which the Holy Spirit unob- 
 servedly feeds. " Notliing," says Luther, " ca^i 
 be more useful for sincere and pious persons, than 
 to know St. Paul's doctrine concerning the contest 
 between the flesh and the spirit" — a knowledge 
 which cannot be obtained unless by those whu 
 from experience have learned the strength of the 
 contending principles. 
 
 It would indeed be a dark sign of any profess- 
 ing Christian, were he to cease to follow after 
 righteousness as if it were imattainable ; but that 
 measure of righteousness, which will satisfy hmi, 
 who understands the comprehensiveness of the 
 law — of that commandment which is exceeding 
 broad, or who has taken Him who has fulfilled 
 the law as his example, is unattainable dm-ing the 
 life of our debased body. Perfection, as preached 
 by that great and useful man, Mr. Wesley, at the 
 beginning of his ministry, is unattainable by an 
 imperfect being, and will belong to man only when 
 he is perfected by the union of a spiritual body 
 to a soul which will clearly reflect the image of 
 God.* 
 
 * " But, of believers, if you ask me why the apprehensions of 
 eternity are not a thousand times more lively, I answer, their 
 apprehensions must be suitable to their state. Our state here is a 
 
164 ESSAY VI. 
 
 We have heard it said, that " by love to God, 
 love to man, and self-love, a tripod is formed, on 
 which the character of the regenerate man must 
 rest.* Self-love, without which man cannot watch 
 over his true interests, is not incompatible with 
 the discharge of his duty to God, and is the mea- 
 sure by which he is to ascertain that his duty to 
 his neighbour is faithfully performed."! At the 
 fall the place of self-love was usurped by selfish- 
 ness, a principle which, as it leads to injustice — to 
 an unjust preference of our supposed interests to 
 our obligations to God and man — it is the Avork of 
 the Spirit to subdue. 
 
 We enter not into a consideration of that sys- 
 tem which represents man as being in every thing 
 selfish in his motives, and consequently hypocritical 
 in his life and conversation. This doctrine has 
 been considered by ethical writers as a foul libel, 
 and in their hands we leave the task of vindicating 
 the natural man from every such aspersion. Our 
 opportunities of studying the mind, of penetrat- 
 
 state of imperfection ; and so will all our apprehensions be imper- 
 fect. . . Our state here is a conjunction of the soul to a frail 
 distempered body ; and so near a conjunction, that the actions of 
 the soul must have great dependence on the body ; and therefore 
 our apprehensions are limited by its frailty ; and the soul can go 
 no higher than the capacity of the body will allow." — Baxters 
 Divine Life, p. 40. 
 
 * St. Luke X. 27. 
 
 f See Butler's Sermons upon the Love of our Neighbour. 
 
THE MORAL CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 165 
 
 ing the chambers of its imagery, lead us to con- 
 clude that selfishness and hypocrisy are subdued 
 even in many eminent believers but by very sIoav 
 degrees. Many Christians will probably receive 
 this opinion with as little satisftiction as moral phi- 
 losophers regard the charge of universal selfishness 
 l)rought against the motives of the natural man. 
 Christians will hardly call in question the influence 
 of selfishness, but they will strenuously endeavour 
 to acquit themselves of being hypocritical. 
 
 We are certain that they are sincere in their 
 disapprobation of hypocrisy, and in their struggle 
 against the odious efibrt to appear what they are 
 not ; but in general so confirmed are habits of self- 
 delusion, that there are few who can form a just 
 estimate of their own dispositions ; and hence, if 
 they would know whether selfishness and hypocrisy 
 may lurk in the heart of a believer, they must 
 examine the inward thoughts of others, not as dis- 
 played in confessions of the living, but of the 
 dead, made at a time Avhen no eye but that of God 
 Avas alloAved to penetrate the confessional. We 
 may find the necessary information in the auto- 
 biographies of Christians, or in their diaries, many 
 of which, although never meant for the eye of the 
 public, have been printed. If such a course ol' 
 inquiry be allowed, the reader may be referred to 
 a work in general circulation among Christians, 
 we mean " The Private Thoughts of the Rev. T. 
 
166 ESSAY VI. 
 
 Adam," in which the strength and vigilance of the 
 spiritual principle may be discovered in successful 
 contention with the carnal, and that in the case 
 of a man who, it must be admitted, was remark- 
 ably fi'ee from self-seeking and insincerity, in the 
 opinion of all but himself. It is well known by 
 those who understood him best, that the conduct 
 of Mr. Adam was distinguished for candour, yet 
 a conscience enlightened by the Holy Spirit was 
 constantly charging him with selfishness and hypo- 
 crisy. If it be alleged that Mr. Adam was need- 
 lessly scrupulous, it may be repUed, that we have 
 a glimpse of the infirmities Avhich gave rise to so 
 much self-reproach ; and they were evidently not 
 imaginary evils, but such as must have humbled 
 a man of so tender a conscience to the dust. 
 
 Rochefoucault has said, " We acknowledge our 
 faults in order to repau' by sincerity the hurt they 
 do us in the opinion of others. We confess small 
 faults to insinuate that we have no great ones." 
 What has Mr. Adam said on the same subject? 
 ■•' An open admission of the wickedness of my 
 disposition is looked upon as a mark of great in- 
 genuousness, when in truth it is nothing but self- 
 deception, counterfeit humility, and a stratagem to 
 reinstate myself in my own good opinion, or the 
 esteem of others ;" and again, " When we open 
 ourselves to others, it is partially and hypocriti- 
 cally, with prevarication and great tenderness to 
 
THE MORAL CONSTITUTION OF MAN. 167 
 
 ourselves, and with design to be flattered and 
 admired by them, rather than counselled and 
 convinced." 
 
 It would be easy to show from their own con- 
 fession, that hypocrisy and selfishness have often 
 lingered long in the hearts of other eminent be- 
 lievers, but we deem it unnecessary to piu-sue so 
 disagreeable a subject. In Scripture there are no 
 grounds for tliinking that the regenerate at once 
 become disinterested. " All seek their own.'" 
 The Christian truly gi'ieves to find that he is not 
 disinterested, notwithstanding his earnest desire 
 to be so ; he acts against selfishness with all his 
 might, and his conduct daily becomes more liberal, 
 so that, like Mr. Adam, to every one but himself 
 he appears to act fi'om disinterested motives ; but 
 if he is rightly instructed in the divine law, he 
 must know that the "motives of his best actions 
 are not pure — that debasing alloys enter into those 
 things which appear to others most right."* What 
 course then is he to pursue? Is a sense of the evil 
 that remains in his heart to lead to despau- ? Not 
 so ! He knows from the Holy Spirit that if we 
 say we have no sin, we deceive ourselves, and make 
 - God a liar ; and he knows that if any man sin, he 
 has an advocate with the Father, whose intercession 
 he is to apply for with as little delay as possible. 
 
 ♦ H. More as applied to herself. 
 
168 ESSAY VI. 
 
 For the believer, who, in dwelling upon his 
 transgressions, feels that his access to God is inter- 
 rupted, the histories of many of the Old Testa- 
 ment saints have been written in vain : they have 
 been written in vain if they do not demonstrate 
 the power of the carnal principle in the strongest 
 believer, and the power of the grace of God in the 
 weakest. 
 
16!) 
 
 ESSAY VII. 
 
 ON CONSCIENCE. 
 
 " Conscience is a preat ledger-hook, in which all our offences are written anil 
 registered." — Burton. 
 
 While religion requires the active exercise of the 
 intellectual faculties, and governs all the affections, 
 we are led to look for its chief seat in the con- 
 science, and in the sentiments of faith, charity, and 
 hope: and we apprehend that the mental sufferings 
 of the Chi'istian, as connected with religion, and 
 the cases of monomania which have been termed 
 religious madness, are generally to be ascribed to 
 the disordered condition of one or more of these 
 endowments. 
 
 That there is within us a standard of right and 
 wrong, no one avIio has attended to the operations 
 of his own mind will deny. To this standard 
 every doubtful case is brought, that the actor may 
 pass upon himself sentence of acquittal or con- 
 demnation ; by the former he Is left in a state of 
 complacency, by the latter in a state of dissatisflic- 
 tion. This is the natural conscience, by submitting 
 to the authority of which we acknowledge, in a 
 manner, our belief in the existence of a moral 
 srovernor of the world. 
 
170 ESSAY VII. 
 
 The conscience^ like every other mental endow- 
 ment, is improved by being properly exercised ; by 
 this means habitual rectitude of conduct is esta- 
 blished. If the conscience is much exercised, at 
 the same time that the intellectual faculties are 
 weak or easily perverted, scrupulosity and incon- 
 sistency will be the consequence, of which the 
 recollection of the experienced reader will supply 
 him with many examples. With some the con- 
 science is naturally insensible, becomes more so 
 from disuse, and stUl more so from being frequently 
 violated : every one knows that an evil propensity, 
 when yielded to, at last acquires such force as to 
 destroy the power of moral opposition. With 
 every renewed indulgence the ability of resisting 
 temptation is weakened : this is felt by those who 
 frequent the gambUng-table, the cock-pit, or the 
 ring ; who indulge in the use of ardent spirits, 
 opium, tobacco, and other narcotics, which become 
 irresistibly attractive, partly from habit and partly 
 from loss of mental energy caused by their acting 
 injuriously upon the nervous system. In the 
 drunkard, not merely is the criminal propensity to 
 the use of liquor confirmed by every repeated act of 
 intoxication, but the whole mind becomes weak ; 
 judgment as well as conscience is rendered inactive, 
 so that, even with certain destruction of body and 
 soul in view, he is unable to resist the temptation 
 of ardent spirits. It is matter of daily observation, 
 
ON CONSCIENCE. 171 
 
 that men, originally true and honest, become false 
 and knavish through habits of intemperance, and 
 at last have their consciences destroyed as if seared 
 with a hot iron. This destruction of the con- 
 science is especially the effect of the disease arising 
 from continued inebriety, to which we have already 
 alluded under the title of delirium tremens. 
 
 Diseases of the brain or nervous system are 
 sometimes productive of a similar moral change. 
 We once knew a young woman, affected with St. 
 Vitus's dance, accompanied Avith slight palsy, who 
 lost all respect for truth, of which before her illness 
 she was by no means regardless. We have no 
 doubt that hysteria, especially in some of its ir- 
 regular fomis, has a tendency to weaken conscien- 
 tiousness. We have traced the existence of that 
 disease in some women who pretended to live 
 without food, who apparently had no higher mo- 
 tive than a desire to awaken sympathy : we are 
 acquainted with the particulai'S of a case, in which 
 a young woman affected with hysteric tympany, 
 though pretending to live Avithout food, had a 
 comfortable meal brought to her at night, when 
 the inhabitants of the house in which she lodged 
 were in bed and asleep. Females who are liable to 
 anomalous hysteria often give highly exaggerated 
 descriptions of their sufferings ; sometimes they 
 will feign diseases, more especiaUy epilepsy. A 
 young Avoman of fortune and family, unquestion- 
 
172 ESSAY VII. 
 
 ably under the influence of hysteria, used to adopt 
 the strangest methods of exciting compassion : one 
 of them, in which she was more than once detected, 
 was the laceration of her gums with a needle or 
 pin, to procure blood, with which she would satu- 
 rate a cambric handkerchief, in order to produce it 
 in the morning, as a proof that she had expecto- 
 rated blood ; and in producing the bloody hand- 
 kerchief she would pretend to cough, her cough 
 being manifestly a voluntary act. We knew this 
 young lady for a good many years, during which 
 neither the hysteric symptoms nor any attempt at 
 deception connected with them took place, unless 
 while there existed a very disordered state of the 
 stomach and intestines, and probably of the liver 
 also. When this disorder was absent, although 
 passionate and artful, there was nothing in her 
 conduct to alienate the regard of many respectable 
 friends. Another female, also affected with hys- 
 teria, of which we had every proof that could be 
 desired, who had suffered under a variety of very 
 odd complaints, at last, after long bondage, had 
 her recovery signalized by a miracle. She re- 
 (juested a dignitary of the church of which she was 
 a member to administer the eucharist to her, after 
 which she was restored to the enjoyment of health : 
 all this being in strict accordance with a super- 
 natural intimation conveyed to her in a vision or 
 dream. These cases we refer, not to any original 
 
ON CONSCIENCE. 173 
 
 want of principle, but to moral insensibility pro- 
 duced by disease, wbich frequently causes the 
 standard of rectitude to decline from that more or 
 less upright state, in which it is to be found in 
 every sane mind. Of a similar nature are those 
 cases of what has of late been called moral insanity ; 
 cases of impaired principle, in which individuals 
 who had long maintained an unsullied character 
 have, in the commencement and during the pro- 
 gress of a paroxysm of madness, lost all regard for 
 honour and honesty, and have addicted themselves 
 to falsehood, theft, SAvindlmg, and to practices of 
 an infamous natm*e, with scarcely a probability of 
 escaping detection. 
 
 That the conscience is more or less active, ac- 
 cording to the state of the body, we can have no 
 doubt. We have shown that the conscience is 
 much affected by gross sensuality ; so likcAvise is it 
 by refined voluptuousness — " she that liveth in 
 pleasure is dead." When the body is exhausted by 
 pain or sickness, or even by fatigue, the conscience 
 becomes less sensitive : in that half dreamy state 
 which often precedes sleep, especially after great 
 fatigue, trains of thought or lines of conduct are 
 allowed to pass through the mind in review, which 
 would be at once dismissed were the body in vigour 
 and the conscience on the alert. In nervous ha- 
 bits, certain states of the weather conduce to irri- 
 tability and a petulant disregiurd of the leeliugs of 
 
174 ESSAY VII. 
 
 others, which is a clear manifestation of slumbering 
 conscientiousness ; so that a celebrated humourist, 
 who was much under the influence of the atmo- 
 sphere, used to aver that man ought not to be 
 considered an accountable being during the preva- 
 lence of the east wind. 
 
 That man is accountable for his conduct, so long 
 as exaggerated irritability stops short of derange- 
 ment, we would Avithout reservation maintain : 
 the fretfulness produced by disease he must curb : 
 it is one of the trials sent to exercise man in re- 
 signation to the divine will, and in that patience 
 without which he cannot hope to inherit the pro- 
 mises.* Sanctified experience of this kind esta- 
 blishes a disposition of mind which leads the 
 Christian to prefer the power of patient submission 
 to a removal of suffering. 
 
 On the standard of right and wrong a law is 
 inscribed, by which man is taught to discharge his 
 duty not only to his fellow-creatures but to God. 
 That law was published by Him who is the light 
 of the world, and is couched in the following 
 terms : — " Thou shalt love the Lord thy God 
 with all thy soul, and with all thy strength, and 
 with all thy mind ; and thy neighbour as thyself." 
 The Divine Teacher, moreover, has supplied us 
 with two tests, by which we may discover that we 
 
 * Heb. vi. 12. 
 
ON CONSCIENCE. llO 
 
 are obeying this laAv : — First : " He that hath my 
 commandments, and doeth them, he it is that loveth 
 me." Thus, love to God is proved by obedience. 
 Secondly : •' All things whatsoever ye would that 
 men should do unto you, do ye even so unto them, 
 for this is the law and the prophets." This is the 
 summary, not merely of the second table, but of 
 the morality of the Avhole Bible : herein we are re- 
 quired, in every transaction, to change place, in 
 idea, with our neighbour, and guard his interests 
 as carefully as if they were our own. In this para- 
 gi-aph we have described the enlightened conscience. 
 
 Thus judgment, seated on a moral throne, 
 stamps approbation or disapprobation on every act 
 of the regenerate man, according to its conformity 
 with the illuminated standard. It is observable 
 that this illumination is the work of God the 
 Sanctifier, without Avhose aid the above law and 
 commentary, although published by the Saviour 
 of the world himself, continues to be a dead letter: 
 without the aid of the Holy Spirit, conscience, 
 although it may to a tolerable extent regulate 
 matters between man and man, completely fails 
 in enabling us to perform our duty to God. A 
 satisfactory account of this matter is given in the 
 eighth chapter of Bunyan's Holy War, an allegory 
 less interesting and popular, yet scarcely less in- 
 structive than the Pilgrim's Progress. 
 
 As in this life man is upon trial, we are taught 
 
176 
 
 that every one of his acts, even though it may 
 be condemned by his conscience, must be sub- 
 mitted to a court of review, over which perfect 
 justice, in the person of God the Son, will preside, 
 that not only of their deeds, but of every idle 
 word that men shall speak, they shall give account 
 in the day of judgment. 
 
 Before man is born again, his conscience may 
 be awakened: his conscience may become more 
 sensitive from a view being obtained of .his ac- 
 countability to God the Father, before the Gospel 
 is fully understood and received. The convicted 
 sinner, in virtue of an awakened conscience, may 
 discover that not one of his acts will bear the 
 scrutiny of Him " whose fan is in his hand, who 
 will throughly purge his floor, and burn up the 
 chaff with unquenchable fire ;" and there can be no 
 doubt that, in consequence of such a discovery, 
 a sense of guilt, a painful looking for of judgment, 
 and the despair of ignorance may sometimes have 
 ended in complete derangement of the under- 
 standing. 
 
 One of our friends told us that the convictions 
 of his conscience actually drove him mad. This 
 happened many years ago, and the reader will 
 learn, with pleasure, that our friend has never had 
 the slightest return of insanity since : in a profes- 
 sion which requires continued exertion of the re- 
 flective powers, he is allowed by aU to act with 
 
ox CONSCIENCE. 177 
 
 sobriety and wisdom. Such cases may be ex- 
 pected, so long as mental agitation shall continue 
 to be one of the causes of insanity ; but we would 
 again protest against these being considered as 
 examples of insanity from religion. What is the 
 essence of religion ? Is it not a knowledge of 
 Chi'ist as a protector and Saviour ? Had our 
 friend been acquainted with the Gospel, he would 
 have known that there was balm provided for his 
 wounded spirit, Avhich, had it been skilfully ap- 
 plied, would have preserved him from distraction ; 
 he was approaching the sanctuary, but had not yet 
 entered it ; he was as if bitten in the wilderness, 
 but had not directed his eyes to the brazen serpent 
 — he was as a manslayer, Avho had not yet reached 
 the city of refuge, while behind him he seemed to 
 hear the steps of the avenger of blood : in fact, 
 in this case it was not the Gospel Avhich dealt the 
 blow, but that severe pedagogue the law, disjoined 
 from the Gospel. By a rugged and thorny path, 
 however, he was at last led to Christ. Had he been 
 earher aware of that Scriptm-e, " He that hearcth 
 my word, and believeth on Him that sent me, 
 hath everlasting life, and shall not come into con- 
 demnation," he would have known that believers 
 come before the judgment seat of the Son of God, 
 doubtless to be tried, but chiefly to be assoiled, 
 and to receive a reward proportionate to their 
 obedience ; and hence, instead of having to con- 
 
 N 
 
178 ESSAY VII. 
 
 tend with the dark surges of despair, he might 
 have gently floated into a haven of safety and rest. 
 What his case required was, a spiritual physician 
 skilled in the administration of the elixir, which 
 was prepared on Calvary. 
 
 In addition to the observation which we have 
 already made relative to cases in Avhich insanity 
 may be connected with a conviction of sin, we 
 would humbly suggest that if such conviction is 
 the work of the Holy Spirit, we may be confident 
 of this very thing, that " he which hath begun a 
 good work will perform it until the day of Jesus 
 Christ." When the mind, duly apprehending 
 the holiness and justice of God, reels and sinks 
 under the weight of its convictions, it is not im- 
 probable that the seed may have been sown, and 
 then, although it may not spring up, it will not be 
 exposed to the evil influences which usually cause 
 it to perish ; it has fallen neither by the way-side, 
 nor on a rock, nor yet among thorns, but it may 
 be on a good soil — in a heart softened by the grace 
 of God. Hence, as its life is not extinguished, 
 nothing but a return of sanity may be required 
 to make it spring up as a productive plant bear- 
 ing an hundred fold. 
 
 Our experience of, and inquiries into the nature 
 of insanity, during a period of forty years, enable 
 us to say, that such cases as that which we have 
 just related are not in the proportion of one in a 
 
ON CONSCIENCE. 179 
 
 thousand to the instances of insanity Avhich arise 
 from wounded pride or disappointed ambition. 
 
 In pursuing this subject we would observe that 
 conscience may be the seat of suffering from two 
 causes. It may suffer under a Aveight of sin, 
 which, pressing upon the spirit, may produce 
 misery intolerable. " The spirit of a man will 
 sustain his infirmity, but a wounded spirit who 
 can bear." A man of fortitude will bear calamity 
 under every complication while he has the testi- 
 mony of a good conscience, but who can bear up 
 under a sense of self-inflicted degradation and de- 
 served punishment. " My punishment is greater 
 than I can bear," cried the conscience-stricken 
 Cain, and in despair he became a fugitive, and 
 "went out from the presence of the Lord." In 
 addition to his fears, probably pride suggested to 
 him that he could bear, in comparative solitude, 
 Avhat was insufferable in the society of those who 
 were acquainted with his crime ; and hence, he 
 forsook the family of his father at the same time 
 that he fled from the altar of God, whom he knew 
 only as a righteous judge. Or again, conscience 
 may be tormented with scruples. The state of 
 remorse is natural and compatible with a sound 
 and active condition of that great moral instru- 
 ment ; extreme scrupulosity shows it to be either 
 unsound or in disorder, and it is of importance to 
 distinguish between its sound and unsound state. 
 
180 
 
 The foregoing observation applies alike to the 
 enlightened and the natural conscience, the latter 
 being the same instrument Avith the former. 
 The enlightened is but the natural conscience, 
 strengthened in its spring and more perfect in its 
 movement. 
 
 How then shall we distinguish between a 
 sound and an unsound state of the enlightened 
 conscience ? Chiefly by the right application to it 
 of the blood of the Lamb of God. Thus it is 
 freed from a sense of guilt — purged from dead 
 works.* If the internal suffering is not assuaged 
 by the blood of sprinkling, the conscience is un- 
 sound and unable to fulfil its appointed func- 
 tion. If the blood of Jesus imparts no relief, its 
 unsoundness is probably connected with bodily 
 disease. 
 
 Again, how shall we distinguish between a 
 sound and unsound state of the natural conscience ? 
 Chiefly by attending — First, to the cause of com- 
 punction. Secondly, to the state of the bodily 
 health. On the second of these considerations, 
 which it Avill always be necessary to attend to with 
 care, we would offer some remarks. 
 
 If Ave discover that there is what must be 
 counted a disproportion between its cause and the 
 degree in which remorse exists, it will be our duty 
 
 * Heb. ix. 14. 
 
ON CONSCIENCE. 181 
 
 to inquire into the state of the bodily health of the 
 sufferer. If Ave discover that the conscience is 
 disturbed at times, and that at other times, with- 
 out any mental change having occurred to relieve it, 
 ease is restored; and more especially if it should ap- 
 pear that disease of the digestive system, or fever, 
 or nervous irritabihty concurs with the disquietude, 
 we may infer that the conscience is unsound in con- 
 sequence of some disease of the body which is 
 exercising an evil influence over the mind. Some 
 examples of this influence may be presented to the 
 reader. Thus females at the turn of life are liable 
 to what are called " heats" of a transient but very 
 distressing nature — " A sudden flushing heat, suc- 
 ceeded by instantaneous perspiration continuing for 
 a few seconds,"* which then passes away after it has 
 produced a sense of compunction, which would be 
 intolerable if it were to continue. Again, there is 
 a slight and equally transient form of epilepsy, 
 which some individuals have described as a state of 
 great mental distress — of perplexity and depression, 
 like a frightful dream. They have, as it appears, 
 an imperfect reminiscence of some overwhelming 
 calamity, or they have a sense of remorse for which 
 they are not able to assign a cause.t 
 
 These affections are recognised by medical 
 
 * Fothergill, vol. ii. p. 207. 
 
 t Cycloppedia of Pnictical Medicine, vol. ii. p. 85. 
 
182 ESSAY VII. 
 
 writers ; and there are many such, which, although 
 they may not have been recorded in medical books, 
 are well known to the observant physician. For 
 example, there is no state of greater misery than 
 that which sometimes exists during the first stage 
 of the delirium of fever, when a succession of ob- 
 jects is presented to the mind, all, as it were, 
 steeped in the slough of despond: the lingering 
 night, dragging its slow length along, seems as if 
 it would never end ; the sufferer, it is true, slum- 
 bers, but only to awake more Avretched in the 
 discovery of time lagging so — that, instead of an 
 advance of hours, perhaps not more than two or 
 three minutes have passed since he last looked at 
 liis watch. Delusion of mind frequently takes the 
 form of remorse for some crime, tlie exact nature of 
 Avhich cannot be realized. Sometimes, as it should 
 seem, during fugitive slumbers, a crime, perhaps 
 actually committed by another, is presented to the 
 mind in a lively dream; and upon awaking, all 
 sense of identity being lost, which is a common 
 effect of dehrium, the crime dreamt of is appro- 
 priated, and remorse ensues ; or the conscience, 
 becoming scrupulous, clothes some indifferent 
 action in all the array of guilt, at the same time 
 that every gleam of hope is excluded ; that senti- 
 ment falling a victim to the tyranny of a disturbed 
 conscience. 
 
 The gloom which occasionally attended the last 
 
ON CONSCIENCE. 183 
 
 illness of Mr. Scott (see chap. xvi. of his Life, by 
 the Rev. J. Scott,) shows how much the comfort 
 of the dying saint may be interrupted by bodily 
 disease acting upon the mind. It is observed (p. 
 511) — "No doubt this dejection was occasioned, 
 in great part, by disease, as it always came on Avith 
 the daily paroxysm of fever." This did not escape 
 the sagacity of the venerable sufferer, who clearly 
 discerned (p. 512) that his uncomfortable state of 
 mind was referable to disease. When the fever 
 came on with great violence, the gloom so dis- 
 tressing to his affectionate family was proportionate 
 to the severity of the paroxysm ; the fever always 
 deprived him of his cheerfulness, and consequently 
 of his power of encouraging his attendants. It is 
 exceedingly important to keep in view the follow- 
 ing observation of ]Mr. Pearson, in his Life of 
 Mr. Hey, of Leeds, as bearing upon our present 
 subject : — " Good men may be um-easonably de- 
 pressed, and bad men elevated, under the near 
 prospect of death, from the mere operation of 
 natural causes." 
 
 The anguish of a troubled conscience, depending 
 upon acute diseases, may be of short duration. 
 But disturbances of the conscience depending upon 
 chronic diseases may endui-e for a long time, and 
 after they have subsided may return at stated 
 seasons, or they may return with certain constitu- 
 tional distempers, as in the case of our great moral 
 
184 ESSAY VII. 
 
 poet. In his case we learn, " that conviction of 
 sin and despair of mercy were the two prominent 
 evils with which he was continually tormented. 
 The accuser of the brethren was every where busy 
 with him, night and day, bringing to his recol- 
 lection the commission of long-forgotten sins, and 
 charging upon his conscience things of an indiffer- 
 ent nature as atrocious crimes." Such attacks are 
 frequently the effect of a species of slow nervous 
 fever, to Avhich Cowper was liable, especially, if 
 we recollect right, in the spring. During his first 
 paroxysm an imseasonable effort was made by his 
 friend, the Rev. Martin Madan, to calm the mind 
 of Cowper by a declaration of the Gospel of Christ : 
 this only aggravated his sufferings. The morning 
 after a second interview with Mr. Madan he was 
 in a condition described as follows : — " He was 
 now again in the deepest mental anguish ; the 
 sorrows of death seemed to encompass, and the 
 pains of hell to get hold of him ; his ears rang 
 with the sound of the torments that seemed to 
 await him ; his imagination presented to him many 
 horrible visions, and led him to conceive that he 
 heard many horrible sounds ; his heart seemed at 
 every pulse to beat its last, his conscience scared 
 him, every moment he expected the earth would 
 open and swallow him up." He was thereupon 
 placed under the care of Dr. Cotton, of St. Albans, 
 who, after four months of skilful treatment, sue- 
 
ON CONSCIENCE. 185 
 
 ceeded in improving his health, upon which his 
 delusion gave way. He was then able, upon 
 reading the eleventh chapter of St. John's Gospel, 
 to obtain a view of the benevolence, goodness, and 
 mercy of the Saviour ; and he tells us that the 
 cloud of terror rapidly passed aAvay, and whatever 
 his friend Madan had said to him long before 
 revived in all its clearness. 
 
 We have little prospect of conquering feeUngs 
 of remorse depending upon bodily disease, unless 
 we first cure the disease which maintains them. 
 Moral or religious statements or aro-uments will, 
 as in the foregoing case, rather promote the delu- 
 sion than remove it, so long as bodily disease is 
 unmitigated. Indeed the observation may be ex- 
 tended to every disordered state of the mind 
 which is supported either by disease of the brain, 
 or of a distinct organ acting upon the brain. An 
 enthusiastic person who, as it afterwards appeared, 
 was himself not sane, obtained permission to read 
 and expound the Scriptures to lunatics who were 
 under the medical care of a pious friend of ours. 
 Our friend soon perceiving that none of his 
 patients improved under the experiment, and that 
 some of them became more disturbed, induced the 
 governors of the asylum in which it was tried to 
 Avithdraw their consent, and to exclude the en- 
 thusiast from the unpromising field of his labour. 
 
 In cases such as Cowper's the conscience may 
 
186 
 
 be disquieted by fears or by scruples after the 
 health of the body is seemingly restored ; then 
 indeed considerations calculated to remove needless 
 apprehension, to give peace to the soul, may be 
 presented to the sufferer by a pious friend or 
 clergyman. 
 
 There are some who instead of being driven to 
 despair or madness by the upbraidings of con- 
 science, suffer under an apprehension that their 
 sorrow for sin is inadequate — bearing no propor- 
 tion to their guilt. 
 
 These individuals ought not to forget that there 
 is no rule laid down in Scripture by which we 
 are enabled to determine the necessary amount 
 of sorrow for sin, and that no pure church has 
 taught that the sinner is to be saved by the pun- 
 gency of his convictions. It has been well ob- 
 served, whether by J\Iiss Graham or her excellent 
 biographer, we are not certain, that to require 
 a determinate quantity or depth of penitence, 
 as ' a preparation for faith, would be an infringe- 
 ment upon the freeness and simplicity of the 
 Gospel. 
 
 Happily, however, there is a test by which 
 the reality of conviction of sin may be proved. 
 The believer is not to try his sincerity by the 
 intensity or the endurance of his feelings of re- 
 morse, but by its fruits, which are repentance 
 toward God, and faith toward our Lord Jesus 
 
ON CONSCIENCE. 187 
 
 Christ ; the existence of which graces again must 
 appear in obedience to the divine law, acquiescence 
 in the divine appointments, and an increasing 
 earnestness of desire that no pleasures, no inter- 
 ests, no affections, no idols may bar the access 
 of the Holy Spirit to the soul. " His convic- 
 tions are not to be judged of by the believer from 
 the degree of terror or alarm that may accompany 
 them, but by the search they may put him upon 
 — seeking after salvation by Christ. As God, in 
 natural matters, puts forth no greater power than 
 is necessary to produce the effect, so it is in moral 
 and spiritual things. Some will be more bowed 
 down than others ; but he that is least so as to 
 internal feelings, and is put upon seeking for 
 mercy through Cluist, is sufficiently affected : the 
 strongest convictions which do not issue in this 
 are ineffectual, the weakest that lead to Christ are 
 blessed."* 
 
 * Sermon on Justification, by Dr. Brown of Cheltenhaiif. 
 
188 
 
 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 ON FAITH. 
 
 The mind of fallen man consists of the same 
 faculties, affections, and sentiments Avhich formed 
 the mind of man when he was upright. The 
 difference, as we have stated, arises from the loss 
 of godliness. The sentiments of faith, love, and 
 hope must have existed in perfect harmony in the 
 mind of Adam. But faith, or trust in God, 
 which, like a key-stone, connected every other 
 religious and moral sentiment, becoming weak and 
 shaken, disobedience and its consequences ensued, 
 and the whole mind fell into ruin. In what 
 manner and to what extent tlie mind suffered 
 may be questioned, but it is certain that it con- 
 tinued to bear testimony to the existence of a 
 being whose "eternal power and godhead is known 
 by the things that are made." The god, however, 
 of fallen man is but a creature of his own fancy, 
 which has often " changed the glory of the in- 
 corruptible God into an image made like to cor- 
 ruptible man ;" and hence, such being its object, 
 his faith must be spurious: shice man's first dis- 
 obedience faith has never been pure and rightly 
 
ON FAITH. 189 
 
 exercised, unless in those, avIio, being instructed 
 by the Holy Spirit, are brought again under his 
 influence. If the mind of man be sane and his 
 faith scriptural, then will love to God and charity 
 be in due exercise ; but if his faith be spurious, 
 that is, if his trust rests in an unworthy object, 
 then may the sentiments of love, charity, and 
 hope be under an influence which will deprive his 
 conduct of every quality which can render it 
 pleasing in the sight of God. 
 
 In considering the sentiment of faith, we would 
 first endeavour to obtain an understanding of its 
 basis and true nature. Faith may firmly rest upon 
 a variety of foundations :* one man may believe 
 that Jesus of Nazareth is the Christ on the testi- 
 mony of John the Baptist ; another may be con- 
 vinced by the miracles of our Lord and his disciples ; 
 another, by the evidence of prophecy ; another by 
 a consideration of the excellence of the doctrine 
 which our Lord taught, and which soars above 
 all human wisdom ; another, by the character of 
 om- Lord, without spot or blemish ; another, by 
 the perfect harmony of Scripture — by the manner 
 in which the simplicity of the New Testament is 
 made to dovetail into the complexity of the Old — 
 by the agi-eement between the law and the Gospel, 
 which is a demonstration of the truth of both ; 
 
 * St. John xiv. 11. 
 
190 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 another, by the character of the apostles : ano- 
 ther, by the moral change which flows from 
 the work of the Spirit ; and multitudes, by the 
 support which the Gospel affords them in every 
 trial. Christian faith, on whatever grounds it 
 rests, is the same sentiment in all believers — 
 namely, a reverential trust in the Son of God 
 alone, for protection and salvation here and here- 
 after. All other kinds of faith entertained by 
 those to whom Christ is preached, however strong- 
 may be the sentiment, are spurious. True faith 
 necessarily produces genuine love to God, love 
 to the people of God, obedience to the law of 
 God, and it generally produces hope of eternal 
 blessedness. Happy are they in Avhom such are 
 its fruits ! 
 
 Diseases of the body, consequent delusions of 
 the organs of the senses received as truths, or 
 defect of judgment, often give to faith an excite- 
 ment productive of fanaticism. Thus individuals 
 may be led to suppose that they have been visited by 
 their Saviour, and have received from him a com- 
 mission to execute some specific duty ; that they 
 have been endoAved with the extraordinary gifts 
 of the Holy Spirit — such as the power of Avorking 
 miracles, prophesying, or speaking in unknown 
 tongues ; that they are to expect conversion to 
 take place in a sudden and sensible manner, or 
 during violent exertions of the body, &c. In- 
 
ON FAITH. 191 
 
 stances of such delusions have been but too com- 
 mon m these our days in highly imaginative per- 
 sons, who Avould seem to think that the Gospel 
 still requires the support of miracles ; or, in other 
 words, that the doctrine of the Bible brought 
 home to the heart by the teaching of the Holy 
 Spirit, is not equal to all the purposes of conver- 
 sion and edification. 
 
 Excitement of spurious faith — and faith is 
 spurious when the blood of atonement is, in ig- 
 norance, supposed to be insufficient for salvation — 
 when we would mix something of our own with 
 the finished work of Christ, or when any creatiu-e 
 is associated with Christ in his intercessorial 
 office, may produce very wonderful effects upon 
 the bodily and mental constitution. The supposed 
 miracles which were performed in Ireland several 
 years ago, owed their success to the strength of 
 spurious faith. In many more instances the 
 attempts of Roman Catholic priests would have 
 succeeded had the principles of selection, hereafter 
 to be stated, been understood by them. In the 
 successful cases it was seen how extremes some- 
 times meet — hoAv superstition and fanaticism pro- 
 duced the same effect on a jVIrs. Stuart and a 
 ^liss Fancourt. 
 
 The supposed miracles performed through the 
 intercession of Prince Hohenlohe consisted in the 
 removal, by the power of a strong mental influence 
 
192 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 on the nervous system, of diseases — such as Le- 
 verett, Greatrakes, Mesmer, or Perkins, or any- 
 other person skilful in inspiring confidence by 
 bringing the sentiment of faith, or even of hope, 
 under the influence of a deluded imagination, could 
 equally Avell have cured. We could slate more 
 surprising things, eifected by fear or joy, than any 
 of the miracles published by the Roman Catholic 
 prelates for '• the comfort and support of an in- 
 jured, vilified, and oppressed people."* As, for 
 example, the case of an elderly woman, bedridden 
 for seven years, unable, as she beheved, to leave 
 her bed during the whole course of that time 
 except when lifted, who, when she heard that her 
 house was about to be attacked by an armed mul- 
 titude, got up, dressed herself, and walked a dis- 
 tance of five miles to a place of safety. We have 
 known several instances of palsy of the lower ex- 
 tremities caused by panic and dismay, and cm-ed 
 by hope and joy. Thus we knew a lady of a 
 hysterical constitution, who, having lost the use of 
 her limbs immediately after the sudden and unex- 
 pected death of her husband, completely regained 
 her locomotive powers on the eve of her second 
 marriage. 
 
 The nun of the convent of St. Joseph, the sub- 
 ject of the principal Irish miracle, afforded a most 
 
 • Bishop Doyle. 
 
ON FAITH. 193 
 
 striking illustration of the power which the imagi- 
 nation may exert over the nervous system through 
 the excitement of spurious faith. Whilst she was 
 recovering from a typhus fever, the chapel of the 
 convent having been consumed by fire on the night 
 of the 10th of March, 1819, she escaped from her 
 dormitory and took refuge in an adjoining field, 
 long after midnight, and, as she believed, from the 
 dampness of the grass contracted the disease under 
 which she lingered four years. Again, on the 
 morning of the 1st of August, 1823, after having 
 been for several months confined to bed, totally 
 deprived of the power of assisting herself, or of 
 moving out of the position in which she was laid, 
 she declares that she was impressed with a belief 
 that God, through the intercession of Prince Ho- 
 henlohe, in a supernatairal manner had interfered 
 in her behalf; that after having fulfilled the con- 
 ditions generally prescribed by the prince, and 
 prepared herself by a sacramental confession, which 
 she was only able to make by signs, to receive the 
 most adorable eucharist, that the liev. Mr. Meagher 
 oifered the divine sacrifice of the mass in her 
 chamber; that she could not receive the blessed 
 eucharist but as a viaticum ; that when receiving it 
 she could not project her tongue beyond the teeth : 
 that at the conclusion of the mass, perceiving no 
 alteration in herself, she was mentally making an 
 act of resignation to the divine will, and invokincr 
 
194 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 the holy name of Jesus, when she suddenly per- 
 ceived she had strength to exclaim — "Holy! holy! 
 holy ! Lord God of Hosts ! heaven and earth 
 are full of thy glory;*' and that strength was 
 given her, without any assistance, to raise her- 
 self in the bed, to kneel erect, to prostrate herself, 
 to adore the goodness of God, to dress herself, 
 and to walk down to the chapel to give thanks to 
 the Almighty. 
 
 Any one who will compare the affidavit of the 
 nun of St. Joseph's, in which the history of her 
 case is comprehended, Avith the description of hys- 
 teria in Dr. Whytt's w^ork, will perceive that she 
 had many unequivocal symptoms of that disease. 
 Her illness commenced while she laboured under 
 great nervous exhaustion and depression of mind ; 
 her convalescence commenced under circumstances 
 productive of great mental elevation. She had 
 heard that " Christ, by visible signs, had assured 
 the Irish Roman Catholics that they were still ob- 
 jects of his compassion ;" she shared in the unusual 
 excitement which pervaded the professing members 
 of the Roman Catholic community in Ireland, in 
 consequence of these declarations : thus prepared, 
 the congregated multitudes in the chapel of St. 
 Joseph's, iheii sympathy, together with that of 
 the sisterhood in the convent, the belief that a 
 foreign saint of high rank was making interest for 
 her in the courts above, and the imposing rites of 
 
ON FAITH. 195 
 
 the Roman Catholic church, produced the impulse 
 that set her in motion — and this is the great de- 
 sideratum in debility essentially nervous ; then the 
 congratulations of her friends and of the most 
 respected authorities in her church, and the accla- 
 mations of the croAvd under the dominion of an 
 epidemic superstition, sustained her faith ; and 
 these influences acted so powerfidly on her nervous 
 system, that she was in a few weeks restored to 
 health and strength : and it is only just to add, 
 that there are no grounds for charging either her, 
 or the attending priests, or the attesting arch- 
 bishop, with deceit ; they Avere as much convinced 
 of the reality of the miracle — they were as little 
 acquainted with the rationale of the ciu"e, as the 
 most ignorant of their people.* 
 
 Of the illness of the nun of St. Joseph's there 
 was a natural cause, sufficient to account both for 
 its origin and removal. Then, again, it was not a 
 
 * It was expected by many Protestants, who, at first, were 
 needlessly disquieted by the eclat of the Irish miracles, that the 
 recovery of the nuu of St. Joseph's would not be permanent. But 
 we happen to know that one of the physicians who had seen Mrs. 
 Stuart, when bedridden, who attested her convalescence, watched 
 the whole transaction with attention, and publicly declared that 
 her cure admitted of explanation upon natural principles, ex- 
 pressed a confident hope that her recovery would be complete 
 and lasting ; which it proved to be. He founded his expectation 
 on his knowledge of the nature of the disease under which she 
 laboured, and the impression made by an honest belief on her 
 part that she had been the subject of a great miracle. 
 
196 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 cure, but the beginning of a cure, which took 
 place on the first of August, while Prince Hohen- 
 lohe was interceding for her. On the fourth of 
 August, three days after, as we learn from a me- 
 dical attestation, she reported that there existed a 
 degree of weakness of her limbs ; her pulse was at 
 120, and one of her issues was open and freely- 
 discharging, as it were to protect her constitution 
 from the effect of the miracle. The cm^e, conse- 
 quently, was not perfect: she was not "whole 
 every whit." As Bishop Douglas has observed, 
 " a cure left imperfect has little pretension to be 
 considered miraculous ; because it being imperfect 
 naturally points out a failure of power in the 
 person who brought it about." Indeed, had Arch- 
 bishop Murray been acquainted with the rules 
 established by Bishop Douglas for distinguishing 
 true from spurious miracles, he would hardly have 
 ventured to proclaim "this new and wonderful 
 manifestation of the goodness of God, in the in- 
 stantaneous restoration of health to Mary Stuart, 
 of the convent of St. Joseph ; which he had the 
 happiness to witness." 
 
 Whether a Roman Catholic miracle is to be at- 
 tempted by a living or a dead priest, by Prince 
 Hohenlohe or the Abbe Paris, by the holy sacrifice 
 of the mass or the holy thorn, there are certain 
 qualities in the subject of the miracle scarcely to 
 be dispensed with, if success would be ensured. 
 
197 
 
 If the disease to be removed be seated in a vital 
 organ, it ought to be a disease of function not of 
 structure : the imagination ought to be powerful ; 
 there ought to be a strong tendency to hysteria ; 
 and the party ought to be of the female sex ; and, 
 by the way, these are the very qualifications which 
 entitle an individual to the benefits of animal 
 magnetism. If any new leader of a sect would 
 bolster his sanctity by pretensions to supernatural 
 power, let him not lose sight of these hints. 
 
 If the nun of St. Joseph's, instead of being con- 
 fined to bed, and subjected to bleedings, blister- 
 ings, and other remedies against apoplexy — ex- 
 tensive issues and a low regimen — had, in the 
 earlier part of her illness, been removed from the 
 monotony and gloom of her convent to a cheerful 
 dwelling in a watering-place, under the care of a 
 confident professor of the healing art, skilful in 
 acting on the weaker parts of the mind, who would 
 have been liberal in his allowance of nourishment, 
 she might have been restored to health Avithout a 
 miracle. 
 
 The cases, of which there are specimens in 
 every asylum for the insane, of persons who sup- 
 pose themselves possessed of inspiration, endowed 
 with the power of working miracles, prophets of 
 the ISIost High God, incarnations of the divinity, 
 depend upon an insane excitement of the sentiment 
 under consideration. 
 
198 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 Of this, the monomania of Brothers, Joanna 
 Southcote, &c., arising from a fanatical credulity 
 merging in insanity, there is a very complete exhi- 
 bition in a gentleman who, imagining himself the 
 Son of God, has for several years been publishing 
 volumes of inspiration and prediction. When the 
 events predicted do not come to pass, he expresses 
 not the slightest disappointment, merely saying 
 that his mind was not sufficiently spiritual when he 
 was prophesying, and that his Heavenly Father, 
 to humble him, had postponed the great event, 
 whatever it might be, to a future day. His last 
 publication, which he calls " The Revelation of 
 the Glory of God with respect to all Europe," 
 concludes as follows : " And now, my son, accord- 
 ing to my promise I have given unto thee all 
 Europe for thy dominion. Thy government shall 
 be this — thou shalt divide the whole into twelve 
 parts, according to the twelve tribes of Israel ; 
 and from each part shall be taken twelve men, 
 who shall form the great council of the whole 
 state, and they shall sit in England. Thou thy- 
 self shalt choose one sixth part of the whole ; the 
 kings who are under thy dominion, according to 
 thy will, they shall choose one third part of the 
 whole, and the other half shall be chosen by the 
 governments of the states now established. Of 
 the whole number, one hundred and twenty shall 
 form the larger body of the council of the state ; 
 
199 
 
 and twenty-four shall be senators. The tenth part 
 of all that every man hath shall go to the wants 
 of the state ; taking from it my portion which is 
 a tenth part of the whole, and that I give unto 
 thee-" He has a summary way of discharging 
 the national debt, and expresses a very decided 
 opinion upon two subjects not a little perplexing 
 to politicians — namely, free trade, and the poor 
 laws. We may here observe in passing that one 
 of the most curious features of insanity is the ease 
 with which the insane dispose of problematical 
 questions. 
 
 Faith Avith many, although genuine, is naturally 
 weak, and under a sense of its weakness such persons 
 move heavily along. In others, faith is sometimes 
 lively, and sometimes languid ; an irregularity, 
 wliich is also a frequent cause of great disquietude. 
 Both of these states we shall have occasion to 
 revert to hereafter. 
 
 Genuine faith is sometimes inactive in bodily 
 diseases ; for example, in tlie commencement of a 
 sick headache, the individual appears to himself to 
 be not only without faith, but to be completely 
 incapable of devotional feeling, yet the sentiment 
 is only dormant — consciousness of moral obligation 
 arising from faith, is uninjured, and such a sense 
 of the reality of religion felt, as would enable an 
 individual so affected, to yield his life rather than 
 
200 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 violate the law of God ; he knows the value of 
 his possession, but it affords him no pleasure ; he is 
 unable to engage in prayer to God : no one will 
 pray to God unless under a sense of fear or of 
 love. His fear is removed by a knowledge of the 
 Gospel ; his feelings of love for the time are, as it 
 were, frozen by disease. Faith may undergo a 
 temporary interruption, as in the case of INIrs. 
 Newton, who was confined to the house for nearly 
 two years before she died in December, 1790. In 
 the beginning of October she was confined to her 
 bed, and Avas soon after deprived of all locomotive 
 power. In this state distrust arose in her mind, 
 which applied to the whole system of truth, and 
 she said, " If there be a Saviour" — " If there be 
 a God ;" and this condition continued for a fort- 
 night, when there is reason to believe that her 
 doubts were removed. We are rather surprised 
 that a man so instructed as IMr. Newton was 
 should account for his Avife's temporary unbelief 
 by referring to Satanic influence that which evi- 
 dently depended on bodily disease. Mrs. New- 
 ton's was a case of palsy, probably depending upon 
 a disease of the brain, by which the foundation of 
 religion was disturbed, while her affections were 
 uninjured. 
 
 Faith is sometimes permanently annihilated : 
 probably of this natm-e was the celebrated case 
 
ON FAITH. 201 
 
 of the Rev. Simon Brown. For many years Mr. 
 Brown supposed that God had caused his rational 
 spirit to perish, and had left him only an animal 
 life, in common with tlie brutes. Mr. Brown pro- 
 bably thought that man was formed of three 
 distinct subsistences — the material body, the prin- 
 ciple of mere animal life or the animal soul, and 
 the rational immaterial spirit; and experiencing 
 nothing of the sentiment of trust in God, or 
 faith, according to his theory the only proof 
 of the existence of the rational spirit, he pro- 
 bably thought that that part of his constitution 
 was destroyed. He affirmed that — " under a 
 Christian profession and sacred character, he had 
 lived a life of defiance to God, who, as a suitable 
 punishment, had left him without any principle of 
 religion, entirely destitute of the knowledge of 
 God, and tenderness of soul towards Him ; and 
 hence he alleged it would be profane in him to 
 attempt to pray, and incongruous to be present 
 at the prayers of others." No other faculty of 
 his mind appeared to have sustained any injury : 
 at the time when he supposed that his soul was 
 annihilated, so unimpaired were his intellectual 
 powers, that his friends declared he could reason 
 as if he had two souls. 
 
 True believers often think that they are Avithout 
 fiiith, and pine under the delusion. We would 
 
202 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 beg to call the attention of all such to the follow- 
 ing considerations, Avhich, perhaps, will restore 
 peace to their souls : — 
 
 With respect not only to faith, but to charity 
 and hope, evil consequences have ensued from 
 considering them merely as sentiments, without, 
 at the same time, recollecting that they are also 
 principles of action. Faith, as a sentiment, is 
 synonimous with trust in God upon scriptural 
 grounds ; as a principle, it is the true source of 
 love to God and love to man for Christ's sake, 
 and of the hope of eternal happiness. 
 
 We are to try our faith, charity, and hope, not 
 by their strength as sentiments, which we have 
 no means of ascertaining, but by their operation 
 as principles, in Avhich no mistake can be made 
 by any one who will diligently seek for informa- 
 tion in Scripture. It may be safely affirmed that 
 although a sentiment may apparently exist with- 
 out being a principle of conduct, yet that a prin- 
 ciple cannot exist if the sentiment be wanting : 
 Avhile the sentiment apparently is strong the prin- 
 ciple may be weak, and while the sentiment 
 apparently is weak the principle may be strong. 
 That the true disciple may be known — that he 
 may not only be distinguished from, but that 
 he may distinguish, the mere professor, our Lord 
 has said, " by their fruits ye shall know them" — 
 
ON FAITH. 203 
 
 by the fruits of holy, principles the one may be 
 distinguished from the other. Devotion, what- 
 ever amount of complacency it may cause, is of 
 little value unless it invigorates our principles and 
 leads to more implicit obedience to the divine 
 will. Christianity is more a matter of action 
 than of feeling : as some quaint author observed, 
 " religion is a motion, and not a notion" — it is he 
 that upon just principle " doeth" that shall enter 
 the kingdom of heaven. If a believer thinks 
 that he is without faith, let him ask himself — is 
 there any earthly consideration for which he would 
 barter the trust, weak though it may seem, which 
 he reposes in his Saviour. If he can truly ansAver 
 in the negative, he may be certain that his faith 
 is genuine ; it may indeed need confirmation ; he 
 may, and ought to pray for its increase — but he is 
 not absolutely faithless. 
 
 The sentiment of faith, however weak, cannot 
 be dead in the mind of any one who is enabled 
 to cry with sincerity, " Help thou mine unbelief." 
 This is proved in the affecting instance of the 
 anxious parent by whom this petition was fii'st 
 presented, accompanied with tears. Oiu- Lord 
 had explained that the son would be healed if 
 the father had faith. He had faith — such a 
 measure as to know whence that gi-ace should 
 come. The sentiment was weak — according to 
 
204 ESSAY VIII. 
 
 his own judgment, so weak, as to be more like 
 unbelief than faith — but it led him to acknowledge 
 Christ as his " Lord," it dictated prayer — " help 
 mine unbelief;" and its reality was accredited in 
 the healing of his suifering child. 
 
 When we read that neither circumcision availeth 
 any thing, nor uncircumcision, but "faith," it is 
 added, lest there should be any mistake, " which 
 Avorketh by love" — faith which binds us to Christ 
 by grateful affection shown in our conduct. In 
 no part of Scripture do we learn more of com- 
 munion with God than in St. John's First Epistle 
 — no where are the graces of faith, charity, and 
 hope more clearly explained, and this is done by 
 representing them in action, as yielding their 
 fruits. " Believe in the Lord Jesus Christ, and 
 love one another." " This is the love of God, 
 that ye keep his commandments." " But who is 
 he that hath this world's goods, and seeth his 
 brother have need, and shutteth up his bowels 
 of compassion from him, how dwelleth the love 
 of God in him ?" " Let us not love in word 
 or in tongue, but in deed and in truth." Lastly, 
 respecting hope — " Every one that hath this 
 hope in him, purifieth himself, even as he is 
 pure." 
 
 Were we not frequently to consider our faith, 
 charity, and hope in action, there would be even 
 
ON FAITH. 205 
 
 greater difficulty in keeping the soul alive than 
 there is. The Christian character may be summed 
 up in two words — namely, love and obedience ; 
 applicable to the sentiment of grateful adoration 
 and the principle of submission to God's law and 
 acquiescence in his government. So long as the 
 behever in Jesus can perceive the latter — the 
 only test of the vitality of his faith — to be in 
 action, the existence of the former need not be 
 questioned. 
 
206 
 
 ESSAY IX. 
 
 ON LOTE TO GOD, CIIAEITT, AND HARDNESS OF HEART. 
 
 When love to God, in imaginative persons, es- 
 capes from the necessary restraint of reverential 
 fear, it may introduce into the exercises of devotion 
 a familiarity productive of effects obviously in- 
 jurious to the interests of religion. We have too 
 much regard for Methodism to rake from the 
 mouldering heap of its early annals specimens of 
 this kind of enthusiasm. By enthusiasm of a dif- 
 ferent kind, more allied to superstition than to 
 fanaticism, recluses of former times were infected : 
 they entertained for their canonized patrons a sen- 
 timent which there is reason to think degenerated 
 into a species of spiritual erotomania, of which 
 also instances might easily be produced, exempli- 
 fying a very revolting form of mental derange- 
 ment. Both of these varieties of enthusiasm 
 belong to religion, not as a system of well-ordered 
 principles, by which the conduct in every trial is 
 to be regulated, the heart pm-ified, and a meet- 
 ness to partake in the inheritance of the saints 
 established, but as a matter of feeling, Avhich would 
 die away unless it were supported by sympathy or 
 
ON LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 207 
 
 excitement, or by an over active and unrestrained 
 imagination. 
 
 Two apprehensions frequently disturb those who 
 are most concerned about their eternal interests, and 
 prove fatal to their present comfort. First — That 
 they are without love to God ; and, secondly — 
 That they are without love to their Christian 
 brethren. After considering this perplexing spe- 
 cies of mental disquietude, it would appear to us 
 that the conclusions which these Christians arrive 
 at, with respect to their own condition, are very 
 often unfounded, and that the error arises from 
 mistaken notions concerning the nature of evan- 
 geUcal love and the means of supporting it. 
 
 With respect to love to God, it has been re- 
 garded by many as a thing to be judged of only by 
 Avarmth of feeling, in Avhich it is thought by them 
 to consist : they suppose that the lack of such feel- 
 ing depends always upon the hardness of their 
 hearts, or on the withdrawing of the light of God's 
 countenance, Avhereby they are left in darkness and 
 deadness, in proof of the divine displeasure, as a 
 punishment for sin, and especially for sinful neglect 
 or abuse of the privilege of prayer. 
 
 It is possible that such opinions may have origi- 
 nated in the confused statements of some of those 
 who took the side of Fenelon, in the fimous con- 
 troversy respecting the love of God. One of the 
 principal terms in the proposition disputed about, 
 
208 
 
 viz — whether love to God be a sentiment purely 
 disinterested — was not properly defined. Polemics 
 attached different meanings to the word " disin- 
 terested," or used it without any distinct meaning 
 at all. There is a sense in which love may be 
 called disinterested, as it is conceived to be inde- 
 pendent of all regard to past or future benefit ; but 
 strictly speaking, love, like any other affection, — 
 except deliberate self-love, — is disinterested, for its 
 object is something out of ourselves.* Bishop 
 
 * " Must we then, forgetting our own interests, as it were go out 
 of ourselves, and love God for his own sake ? No more forget 
 your own interest, no more go out of yourselves, than when you 
 prefer one place, one prospect, the conversation of one man to 
 that of another. Does not every affection necessarily imply that 
 the object of it be itself loved ? If it be not, it is not the object 
 of the affection. You may and ought, if you can, but it is a 
 great mistake to think you can love, or fear, or hate any thing, 
 from consideration that such love, or fear, or hatred, may be a 
 means of obtaining good or avoiding evil. But the question 
 whether we ought to love God for his sake or for our own being 
 a mere mistake in language, the real question which this is mis- 
 taken for will, I suppose, be answered by observing, that the 
 goodness of God already exercised towards us, our present de- 
 pendance upon him, and our expectation of future benefits, ought, 
 and have a natural tendency, to beget in us the affection of gra- 
 titude, and greater love towards him, than the same goodness 
 exercised towards others ; were it only for this reason, that every 
 affection is moved in proportion to the sense we have of the 
 object of it : and we cannot but have a more lively sense of 
 goodness, when exercised towards ourselves, than when exercised 
 towards others. 1 added expectation of future benefits, because 
 the ground of that expectation is present goodness." — Bishop 
 Butler. Sermon xiii. 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 209 
 
 Butler has shown that we have in our minds 
 various affections which tend towards and rest in 
 their objects. Love is one of these affections; 
 and its peculiar object is goodness, which satisfies 
 it in the same way as food satisfies hunger. When 
 therefore the inestimable goodness of God is re- 
 vealed to us, our love is necessarily drawn out 
 towards Him. We love Him for what He is — for 
 His own excellence. 
 
 But how are we to know what He is ? How 
 are we to discover His goodness ? 
 
 It has not been hidden even from the heathen. 
 St. Paul tells us that God left not himself Avithout 
 witness, in that he did good, and gave rain from 
 heaven, and fruitful seasons, filling men's hearts 
 with food and gladness ; and thus his goodness, as 
 well as his eternal power, was to be seen, being 
 understood by the things that were made — by the 
 Avorks of His creation and providence. But what 
 the heathen could know of God's character was as 
 notliing compai'ed with what is set before us in the 
 Gospel. It informs us what God is, by telhng us 
 what a miracle of love and mercy He has wrought 
 in our redemption. We do not mean to say that the 
 Gospel conveys this Avondrous intelligence to the 
 hearts of all : there are self-closed eyes, Avhich can- 
 not see what is Avritten in its glorious pages ; self- 
 stopped ears, that cannot hear its blessed tidings. 
 To them that believe the Go5])el manifests the lovt; 
 
 p 
 
210 
 
 of God, because that " God sent his only begotten 
 Son into the world, that we might live through 
 him;"* and this manifestation of divine love in the 
 work of redemption was not owing to any previous 
 love in us to God ; loving much is not the cause, 
 but the effect of divine love. 
 
 Love to God "is of God;" for it is written, 
 " The Lord thy God will circumcise thine heart 
 to love the Lord thy God with all thine heart, 
 and with all thy soul."t From the fountain of 
 divine love there is a perennial stream, which 
 waters and refreshes the earth, flowing, like every 
 other gift of the Spirit, through Christ as through 
 a conduit into the hearts of his people, animating 
 their obedience, and returning to its source in 
 thanksgivings. Hence we are rightly instructed 
 to pray to God that he would " graft into our 
 hearts the love of his name," and that he would 
 pour into our hearts such love as that we may love 
 him above all things.^ 
 
 God was first in his love to man. Unless that 
 Scripture, "We love him because he first loved 
 us," be cancelled, it is evident that man's love to 
 God must be held to arise in God's love to man ; 
 and that it arises in its fullest development during 
 the perception of redeeming love, is apparent from 
 
 * 1 Johu iv. 9. t Deut. xsx. 6. 
 
 I Collects for Seventh and Sixth Sundays after Trinity. 
 
1 
 
 LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 211 
 
 these words — " Hereby perceive we the love of 
 God, because he laid down his life for us." " I 
 have loved thee with an everlasting love, therefore 
 with loving kindness have I drawn thee." A con- 
 sideration of the great deliverance wrought out for 
 himself and his brethren — of the peace which he 
 enjoys, and the hope that is set before him, these 
 are the kindnesses, the proofs of love from before 
 the foundation of the world, by which the great 
 God has drawn the Christian. 
 
 The unregenerate man, though he may have 
 tolerably adequate notions of God's power, can 
 scarcely form any conception of his goodness. That 
 he can love the God of the Bible is impossible ; to 
 the true God he is, as it were, the abstract of 
 hatred — he is " enmity against God."* No man 
 can understand the perfection of God's character, 
 unless the believer in Christ the Saviom*, Avho is 
 " The brightness of his Father's glory, and the 
 express image of his person."t In beholding the 
 power, and wisdom, and love of the everlasting 
 Son, we behold the power, and wisdom, and love 
 of the Father; their attributes are the same — "He 
 that hath seen me," saith Cln-ist, "hath seen the 
 Father ;''J " If ye had knoAvn me, ye should have 
 known my Father also."§ It is truly observed by 
 
 * Romans viii. 7. t Heb. i. 3 ; 2 Cor. iv. 4 ; Coll. 
 
 ^ John xiv. 9. § John xiv. 7. 
 
212 
 
 Traill, (Throne of Grace, Sermon V.) "all curious 
 studies about the nature, being, properties, and 
 attributes of God, are nothing but pretty pieces of 
 philosophy : there is nothing of sound theology in 
 these thoughts, unless they be limited, directed to, 
 and determined by that discovery of himself which 
 God makes to us in and by his son Jesus Christ." 
 
 The love of God is, by the believer, j6rst dis- 
 covered during an act infinitely merciful and gra- 
 cious, and the benefit conferred on him is such as 
 to fill his whole soul with joyful amazement, so 
 that he can hardly contemplate God under any 
 other aspect than as his merciful benefactor : he 
 tastes his loving kindness and loves him in return ; 
 grateful love takes possession of his soul, and will 
 be in proportion to the sense he entertains of the 
 danger which he has escaped, and of the price 
 which has been paid for his deliverance. 
 
 That love to God, in the first place, springs from 
 gratitude, and is proportionate to the sense of 
 obligation, is a doctrine Avhich we humbly submit 
 our Lord himself taught in the house of Simon 
 the Pharisee. 
 
 Our Lord. — " Which of the creditors will love 
 him most ?" 
 
 Simon. — " He to whom he forgave most." 
 07ir Lord — " Thou hast rightly judged." 
 Our Lord confirms the judgment of Simon 
 with respect to the superior love of the bankrupt 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 213 
 
 creditor, to whom the larger debt was forgiven ; 
 and hence, the inference to be drawn from the 
 parable is, that of two persons who have made a 
 discovery of the mercy of God in the forgiveness 
 of their sins, love will predominate in the bosom 
 of him, who obtains the liveliest sense of the 
 thraldom from Avhich he has escaped. If "to 
 whom little is forgiven the same loveth little," to 
 whom much is forgiven the same loveth much. 
 Thus the great foundation of love to God is a 
 sense of forgiveness — a sense of obligation. God 
 is here represented simply as a benefactor ; and 
 pardoned sinners, in virtue of the principle of gra- 
 titude which belongs to the nature of man, must 
 love in proportion to the benefit conferred upon 
 them : to adopt the words of Mr. Scott, " in 
 proportion to theu' degi'ee of guilt, or rather of 
 their OAvn estimation of it." 
 
 Let us suppose that Ave had just escaped the 
 dangers of shipAvi-eck through the assistance of a 
 stranger from the shore, afforded at the risk of liis 
 own life ; before giving way to om- feehngs do we 
 wait to ascertain the character of our benefactor ? 
 Certainly not ! No such inquiry would be deemed 
 necessary, but gratitude would find immediate vent 
 in the most cordial expression of thanks. 
 
 But, when the first emotion of lively gi-atitude 
 had subsided, Ave naturally Avould endeavour to 
 ascertain the character of our benefactor in the 
 
2^14 ESSAY IX. 
 
 hope of discovering, in its excellency, an additional 
 reason for loving him. If we find that he is a 
 selfish person, and that his exertions were solely 
 influenced by hope of reward, how shall we then 
 feel ? Full of disappointment, and most anxious 
 to get rid of the obligation by liberally repaying 
 the stranger for his services. It would be impos- 
 sible to feel love or gratitude to such a person. 
 But, if he should prove a good man, if he were 
 actuated by philanthropy, affection for him, thus 
 receiving a moral sanction, would be cherished. 
 In like manner, a more loving impulse will be con- 
 veyed by every new discovery of the perfection of 
 the divine character made by him whose love com- 
 menced in having " tasted and seen how gracious 
 the Lord is." 
 
 Thus, while love originates in a grateful sense of 
 obligation, it is the character of the benefactor which 
 maintains that sentiment; the giver for his own sake 
 is loved, and not for the sake of the gift, as when 
 his motive is shown to be discreditable, the senti- 
 ment is detroyed. Yet, until we obtain additional 
 experimental knowledge of the character of the 
 giver, it would seem that we have no other way 
 of estimating his amiability than by the value of 
 the gift. How can we express the perfection of 
 love, unless in the words of our blessed Lord, 
 " Greater love hath no man than that a man lay 
 down his life for his friends." Here the sacrifice 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 215 
 
 made is manifestly the gauge by which the senti- 
 ment is measured. 
 
 We have thus admitted that a consideration of 
 the excellency of God in addition to a sense of his 
 mercy, gives strength to that love of which he is 
 the object. The Christian, when by divine teach- 
 ing he acquires a more clear conception of the love 
 of God, Avhen God is discovered to be "altogether 
 lovely" — when the condescension of the Creator 
 to the low estate of the creature becomes mani- 
 fest, will, in his reflex love, experience more of 
 fiUal confidence, and consequently more of compla- 
 cency — he will feel an earnest desire to be " more 
 grateful than he ever yet has been."* 
 
 We ought not to forget that in the first love of 
 believers, the kindness of their youth — the love 
 of their espousals, according to the testimony of 
 many who have advanced in faith, submission, 
 obedience, and virtue, there is more glow than in 
 after life, when their language is, "Oh! that it 
 were with me as in months past." "Oh ! that the 
 same flame of holy gratitude warmed my soul." 
 They fear that an extended experience of the 
 goodness of God has not always sufficiently main- 
 tained the fervency of that love which is felt by 
 the newly-converted Christian. This was the case 
 with the members of the Ephesian Church, sup- 
 
 * Mr. Wilberforcc's Pravcrs. 
 
216 ESSAY IX. 
 
 posed to have been the best mstructed of the 
 primitive churches in the depths of religion, and 
 consequently in knowledge of the divine character, 
 and yet " they left their first love." 
 
 We grant that there may often be a mistake, 
 arising from ignorance, made by Christians, re- 
 specting the declension of their love to God. That 
 sentiment cannot always be maintained in its 
 original ardour ; grateful aflPection in the newly 
 awakened mind of many a Christian rises to a 
 height which it may never again reach. More- 
 over, when clearer views of the character of God 
 are acquired, the impression thereby produced will 
 appear to bear no proportion to his goodness, and 
 yet a much stricter conformity to the will of God 
 may be apparent. 
 
 When, as among the Christians at Ephesus, 
 there is truly a decay of love, it may be asked, 
 how is that sentiment to be restored ? We answer, 
 by the application of the same means by which the 
 affection was first excited. Reflection upon our 
 own unAvorthiness and God's unspeakable goodness 
 will, in a healthy mind, awaken feelings of affec- 
 tionate dependance upon our Heavenly Father. 
 Such reflections, accompanied by prayer, will 
 quicken our faith, and lead us to patient and 
 cheerful continuance in well doing. The love of 
 the Ephesians had evidently declined along with 
 their zeal in God's service. Hence they were ex- 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 217 
 
 horted to repent and do their first works ; but this 
 requu-ed a revival of their faith: and faith and love 
 to God go hand in hand. 
 
 The grateful affection of those who have ex- 
 perienced the philanthropy of God in the work 
 of redemption will doubtless be exalted by a con- 
 sideration of his omnipotence ; hence, love to God 
 is nowhere more cordially felt than in the country, 
 where every leaf and flower and blossom proclaims 
 the presence of God — " Where the green things 
 upon the earth, and the fowls of the air bless the 
 Lord." In this sense we may still hear the voice 
 of the Lord in the garden without being afraid. 
 Nowhere does man more easily escape from the 
 power of that temptation which leads him to think 
 himself too mean to. be an object of the care of the 
 mighty God, than when it is manifest that every 
 lily of the field owes its glory, and every blade of 
 grass its verdure to divine Providence. There 
 the true worshipper is made to feel that the eye of 
 an omnipotent God watches over him with as much 
 care as it does over the planetary system. There 
 we find that God is as intently conversant about 
 the smallest as about the greatest things. " If he 
 were not as intent about the soul of an individual 
 being, as he is about the general concerns of the 
 universe, then he would do one thing more per- 
 fectly than another, which is impossible with 
 
218 
 
 God."* How naturally did the little flower in 
 the desert revive the confidence of the way-AVorn 
 traveller. When we have caught a glimpse of the 
 Son of God, how wonderfully is our gratitude 
 enlivened by contemplating this still beautiful 
 world, created by him, and upheld by the word 
 of his power. 
 
 Many a Christian has sunk into dejection 
 when considering how imperfectly he obeys these 
 commandments, " Thou shalt love the Lord thy 
 God with all thy heart, and with all thy soul, and 
 with all thy mind. This is the first and great 
 commandment. And the second is like unto it, 
 Thou shalt love thy neighbour as thyself." Nor 
 can comfort be restored till he obtain a clear under- 
 standing of the nature of evangelical love to man 
 as well as to God. By some the sentiment of 
 charity is deemed to consist in a kind of sympa- 
 thetic complacency, which is to be judged of by 
 its kindly gloAv, in the absence of which they con- 
 ceive they are not entitled to be considered in com- 
 munion with the saints, and consequently that 
 they are still of the world. But let us inquire 
 what Scripture teaches concerning this matter. 
 
 Love of the brethren "is of God,"t hence our 
 
 * Kirke White. t 1 Jo^in iv. 7. 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 219 
 
 prayer is, that, through the Holy Spirit, God 
 would pour into our hearts " that most excellent 
 gift of charity."* The argument in the fourth chap- 
 ter of the 1st Epistle of St. John is built, first, on 
 the consideration of the nature of man; and secondly, 
 on the view which the apostle presents of love 
 to God. Gratitude, or a desire to return benefits 
 from a love of the benefactor, is a part of the 
 moral constitution of man, to which God appeals 
 in the preface to the Decalogue, " I am the Lord 
 thy God Avhich brought thee out of the land of 
 Egypt, and out of the house of bondage." I have 
 freed this people from grinding slavery, and thereby 
 have established a claim to their gratitude ; and 
 this they are to manifest in their obedience to the 
 following code of moral and religious institutions. 
 In like manner, as our Lord has been pleased to 
 make obedience to his precepts the test of love to 
 God, we are most especially to show our sense of 
 his love by obedience to that commandment, "that 
 he who lovcth God love his brother also." 
 
 Love to the brethren is maintained by good 
 offices continually interchanged, according to the 
 will of God, by a community of principles and 
 pursuits ; but brotherly love is of God, it origi- 
 nates in the new birth — " Whosoever believeth 
 that Jesus is the Christ, is born of God"t the 
 
 * Collect for Quinquagesima Sunday. f ' John v. 1. 
 
220 
 
 Spirit ; and every one who, from faith, has a love 
 to God, necessarily loves the brethren — "Every 
 one that loveth Him that begat, loveth him also 
 that is begotten of Him ;" every child of God, as 
 the son of the same father, acquires a title to 
 a brother's love. Brotherly love stands first in 
 the catalogue of the fruits of the Spirit ; it is not 
 only the effect, but it becomes the test of regene- 
 ration, " every one that loveth is born of God." 
 The reader who may view this matter differently, 
 will do well to consult the homilies for Rogation 
 week, in the third of which he will find " That 
 it is verily of God's work in us, the charity where- 
 with we love the brethren." 
 
 Of the nature of love to God we can know 
 nothing unless we apply to Scripture, where, 
 however, there is no formal definition of that 
 sentiment ; in truth, it does not admit of being 
 defined. When Ave attempt to define the senti- 
 ment of love to God, and pronounce it to be a 
 grateful sense of the divine mercy, or a compla- 
 cent sense of the divine excellency, we at best 
 but substitute several words for one, without 
 more distinctly establishing the character of the 
 sentiment. In like manner, what do we learn 
 of the nature of charity, when we define it as 
 being a benevolent sympathy with our fellow- 
 creatures ? 
 
 But we may perfectly understand love as a 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 221 
 
 principle, Avlien it is in action — when it is fulfilling 
 the law ; and, if it be active as a principle, we 
 need entertain no doubt of the existence of the 
 sentiment of love. In one chapter of St. John's 
 Gospel (xiv.) we may find a test of the reality 
 of love to God three times stated affirmatively, 
 (ver. 15, 21, 23,) and once negatively (24). In 
 all the texts referred to, obedience to the com- 
 mandments of God being made the only criterion 
 of love — " For this is the love of God, that ye 
 keep his commandments;" "He that hath my 
 commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that 
 loveth me." We verily believe that the following 
 course, honestly pursued, never yet led to dis- 
 appointment : — Man is first to acquire from Scrip- 
 ture, through the implored assistance of the Holy 
 Spirit, a knowledge of the will of God ; then love 
 to God in Christ is to be evinced, by keeping his 
 words ; and then the believer may expect fresh 
 supplies from the Father and from the Son : from 
 the fountain of love fresh supplies will be received 
 in fresh manifestations of the glory of Christ. 
 The way in which these graces act and re-act 
 upon each other ought never to be lost sight of. 
 Faith begets love, love begets obedience, and 
 obedience prociu-es fresh supplies of that influence 
 which sustains faith. Faith, love, and obedience 
 are indissoluble ; if faith be lively and genuine, 
 love and obedience must follow : they do necessa- 
 
222 
 
 rily spring out of a true and lively faith.* Faith 
 is the foundation of the love of God, and the 
 love of God of charity. According to Mr. Adam, 
 " If I have faith in Christ, I shall love him ; if I 
 love him I shall keep his commandments ; if I do 
 not keep his commandments, I do not love him ; 
 if I do not love him, I do not beheve in him."t 
 Thus although we may be unable to define by 
 words our conception of the sentiment of love, we 
 learn how its existence may be ascertained, and 
 how it may be supported also. 
 
 Love to God is not only of divine origin, but, 
 when introduced into the heart by the Holy Spirit, 
 it is kept alive solely by divine power. It is the 
 Lord who continues to direct the heart of the 
 believer into the love of God, J carrying the heart 
 more and more, in a direct line, into an experi- 
 mental acquaintance with the love of God. 
 
 If the reader should be dissatisfied with the 
 view which we have given of this matter, and 
 
 * Article XII. 
 
 t Mr. Charles, of Bala, writes as follows : — " Faith is in no 
 other way to be known but by its fruits and eiFects. The im- 
 mediate effect of faith is love. They are united together, and 
 that not once, but always. Nor can there be any divine love 
 but what springs from this faith. ' We love God because he 
 first loved us.' I understand love in the large sense, as the 
 soul's conformity to God, which follows immediately upon the 
 act of justifying faith." 
 
 + 2 Thessalonians iii. 5. 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 223 
 
 still lament over the hardness of his heart, we 
 would recommend the following passage, -which 
 we have known to remove the most perplexing- 
 doubts. It is quoted from the works of Richard 
 Baxter, to whom multitudes of desi)onding per- 
 sons of aU sorts — learned and unlearned, rich and 
 poor — for many years made continual application 
 for advice : — 
 
 " But, first, as to the soft heart it consists in 
 two things — 
 
 " First, that the will be persuadable, tractable, 
 and yielding to God, and pliable to his will. 
 
 " Secondly, that the affections and passions be 
 somewhat moved here withal about spiritual things. 
 
 " Some degree, more or less, of the latter doth 
 concur with the former; but it is in the former 
 wherein the life of grace doth lie, and the latter 
 is very various and uncertain for a man to try his 
 condition by. Many do much overlook the Scrip- 
 ture meaning of the word hard-hear tedness. Mark 
 it up and down concerning the Israelites, who are 
 so often charged by Moses, David, Isaiah, Jere- 
 miah, &c. to be hard-hearted, or to harden their 
 hearts, or stiffen their necks, and you Avill find 
 that the most usual meaning of the Holy Ghost 
 is this — they were an untractable, disobedient, ob- 
 stinate peo})le, or as the Greek word in the New 
 Testament signifieth, which we often translate 
 unbelievhig, they were an unpersuadable people— 
 
224 
 
 they set liglit by God's commands, promises, and 
 severest tlu-eatenings and judgments themselves. 
 Nothing would move them to forsake their sins, 
 and obey the voice of God. Hardness of heart 
 is seldom put for want of tears, and never at all 
 for the want of such tears when the will is tracta- 
 ble and obedient. Examine yourselves, then, by this 
 
 rule God offereth his love in Christ, and Christ 
 
 with all his benefits to you ; are you willing to 
 accept them? He commandeth you to worship 
 him and use his ordinances, and love his people 
 and others, and to forsake your known iniquities, 
 so far that they may not have dominion over you. 
 Are you willing to do this ? He commandeth you 
 to take him for your God, and Christ for your 
 Eedeemer, and stick to him for better for worse, 
 and never forsake him. Are you Avilling to do 
 this? If you have stiff, rebellious hearts, and 
 will not accept of Christ and grace, and will 
 rather let go Clu'ist than the world, and will not 
 be persuaded from your known iniquities, but are 
 loath to leave them, and love not to be reformed, 
 and will not set upon those duties as you are 
 able which God requu-eth, and you are fully con- 
 vinced of— then you are hard-hearted in the Scrip- 
 ture sense. But if you are glad to have Christ 
 with all yom^ hearts, upon the terms that he is 
 offered to you in the Gospel, and you do walk 
 daily in the way of duty as you can, and are 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 225 
 
 willing to pray, and are willing to hear and wait 
 on God in his ordinances, and willing to have all 
 God's graces formed Avithin you, and willing to 
 let go your sweetest and profitablest sins, and it 
 is your daily desire — Oh ! that I could seek God 
 and do his will more faithfully, zealously, and 
 pleasingly than I do ! Oh ! that I was rid of this 
 body of sin ! these carnal, corrupt, and worldly 
 inclinations, and that I was as holy as the best 
 of God's saints on earth ! And if, when it comes 
 to practice, whether you should obey or no — 
 though some unwillingness to duty, and willing- 
 ness to sin be in you — you are offended at it, 
 and the greater part of your will is for God, and 
 it is but the lesser which is towards sin, and 
 therefore the world and the flesh do not lead you 
 captive ; I say if it be thus with you, then you 
 have the blessing of a soft heart, a heart of flesh, 
 a new heiut, for it Is a willing, obedient, tractable 
 heart — opposed to obstinacy in sin, Avhich Scripture 
 calleth a soft heart. 
 
 " And then for the passionate part, Avhich con- 
 sisteth in lively feeling of sin, misery, mercy, &c. 
 and in weei)ing for sin, I shall say but this — 
 
 " First, many unsanctificd persons have very 
 nmch of it, who yet are desperately hard-hearted 
 sinners. It dependeth far more on the temper of 
 the bodij than on the grace in the soul. Women 
 usually can weep easily, and cliildren, and old 
 
226 ESSAY IX. 
 
 men. Some complexions incline to it and others 
 not. Many can weep at a passion sermon or at 
 any moving duty, and yet will not be persuaded 
 to obedience — these are hard-hearted sinners for 
 all their tears. 
 
 " Secondly, many a tender godly person cannot 
 weep for sin, partly through the temper of their 
 minds, which are more judicious and solid, and 
 less passionate, but mostly from the temper of 
 their bodies, which dispose them not that way. 
 
 " Thirdly, deepest sorrows seldom cause tears, 
 but deep thoughts of heart; as greatest joys 
 seldom cause laughter, but inward pleasure. I 
 Avill tell you how you shall know whose heart 
 is truly sorrowful for sin, and tender — he that 
 would be at the greatest cost or pains to be rid 
 of sin, or that he had not sinned. You cannot 
 weep for sin, but you would give all that you have 
 to be rid of sin. You could wish when you dis- 
 honoured God by sin, that you had spent that 
 time in suffering rather; and if it were to do 
 again on the same terms and inducements, you 
 would not do it ; nay, you would live a beggar 
 contentedly, so you might fully please God, and 
 never sin against him, and are content to pinch 
 your flesh, and deny your worldly interest for 
 the time to come, rather than wilfully disobey. 
 This is a truly tender heart. On the other side, 
 another can weep to think of his sin ; and yet if 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. Hi 
 
 you should ask him — what wouldst thou do, or 
 what wouldst thou suflfer, so thou hadst not 
 sinned, or that thou mightest sin no more? Alas ! 
 very little ; for the very next time that he is put 
 to it, he will rather venture on the sin, than 
 venture on a little loss, or danger, or disgrace in 
 the world, or deny the craving flesh its pleasures. 
 This is a hard-heai'ted sinner. The more you 
 would part with to be rid of sin, or the greater 
 cost you would be at for that end, the more 
 repentance you have, and true tenderness of heart. 
 If men should go to heaven according to their 
 weeping, what abundance of children and Avomen 
 there would be for one man. I'll speak truly 
 my OAvn case. This doubt lay heavy many years 
 on my own soul : when yet I would have given 
 all that I had to be rid of sin ; but I could not 
 weep a tear for it. Nor could I weep for the 
 death of my dearest friends, when yet I would 
 have bought their lives, had it been God's Avill, at 
 a dearer rate than many who could weep for them 
 ten times as much. And since my nature is 
 decayed, and my body languisheth in consuming 
 weakness, and my head is more moistened, and my 
 veins filled with phlegmatic blood, now I can 
 weep ; and yet I find never the more tender- 
 heartedness in myself than before."* 
 
 * Thirty -two Directions I'or ffettiu^ Sijiritual Peace. — Vol. ii. 
 
228 ESSAY IX. 
 
 Charity, as a principle, is the origin of benefi- 
 cence — first, to the household of faith, and then to 
 all mankind. Charity, as we have seen, flows 
 from the love of God, but we have no knowledge 
 of it except when it is in operation. Our blessed 
 Lord has shown an utter disregard for charity as 
 a mere unfruitful sentiment, while he has taught 
 that whosoever, from a principle of charity, shall 
 give a cup of cold water only to one of the 
 weakest of his disciples, shall in nowise lose his 
 reward. 
 
 If the believer should pine, as many have done 
 all their lives, under an apprehension that he is 
 devoid of love to God, let him bring his conduct 
 before the tribunal of his conscience, and try if 
 he has left undone those things which he ought 
 to have done, and done those things which he 
 ought not to have done ; and if he discover that 
 he has not wilfully neglected his duty, or per- 
 severed in offending against either table of the 
 laAv ; if his obedience, though imperfect, is sincere 
 — floAvs from love to God, and is filial, he may be 
 assured that he loves God, and that " the Lord 
 will spare, as a man spareth his own son that 
 serveth him." If the believer continues dissatis- 
 fied on account of the hardness of his heart, and 
 will analyze his feelings, he may discover that his 
 disappointment arises from a conviction that he 
 has nothing of his own to ijive to God — no free 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 229 
 
 offering of love. But in truth he has nothing of 
 his own, "for all things come of Thee, and of 
 Thine own have we given Thee." Let him then, 
 when he discovers that he has nothing but what 
 he has received, be thankful that the fountain 
 from which he is supplied is inexhaustible, and 
 that he is permitted to show his love by his 
 obedience, and by giving cheerfully what he has 
 freely received. "If," says Dr. Townson, "we 
 wish to satisfy our minds about the great question, 
 whether we love God, the way is to examine 
 our practice, and if we find it conformable, so far 
 as human infirmity will permit, to the holy will, 
 and law, and commandments of God, Ave then may 
 be assured that we love him. 
 
 " Nothing can be more dangerous than for anv 
 man to try himself by the supposed strength of 
 his benevolent feelings : there may exist in an 
 individual a strong inclination to administer to 
 the wants of the poor, the sick, or the desolate ; 
 he may have such consideration in his beneficence, 
 as to relieve its object from every sense of obliga- 
 tion ; what he dispenses may seem to be taken 
 from his superfluity ; a favour conferred on another 
 may thus be made to assume the colour of a favour 
 confen-ed on himself; yet all this may be wthout 
 the motive which constitutes charity — it may not 
 be ' out of a pure heai^ and of a good con- 
 science, and faith unfeigned ;' it may be the 
 
230 ESSAY IX. 
 
 kindness of one who does not acknowledge Christ 
 as God, or who is leading a life of impurity, or 
 who, being ignorant of God's righteousness, acting 
 upon a fatal theory, is going about to establish 
 a righteousness of his OAvn. Church of England 
 men know, or ought to know, that " works which 
 spring not of faith in Christ, for that they are 
 not done as God hath willed and commanded 
 them to be done, have the nature of sin." 
 
 All the intimate friends and selected companions 
 of Christians must be members of the Church of 
 God ; but the judgment may lawfully be exercised 
 in choosing them according to congeniality of dis- 
 position, simplicity of manner, godly sincerity of 
 purpose, extent of information, and length of ex- 
 perience, especially with regard to spiritual things 
 — such as may tend to edification and comfort in 
 time of trial. There may be Christians with whom 
 we are united but by one tie, whose habits, attain- 
 ments, and tastes may be so diverse from ours, as 
 to preclude sympathy unless as members of one 
 body : social intercourse with them may be impos- 
 sible. Do what we may, we cannot bring ourselves 
 to say that they are objects of love in the common 
 acceptation of the word. Although the seed of 
 the word may have taken root in them, they may 
 as yet be so imperfectly under the influence of those 
 principles which teach gentleness, reasonable com- 
 pliance, and respect for the feelings of others, that 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 231 
 
 we cannot but shrink from them. Again, we may 
 find it impossible to maintain with Christians that 
 friendship Avhich was established before we were 
 fully acquainted with their characters. Suppose a 
 Christian friend, rash and credulous, had allowed 
 himself to listen to a tale of detraction, by 
 which your sister or your child was dishonoured; 
 that he had conceived it his duty to bring the case 
 before you in all its disagreeable nakedness ; that 
 he had evinced little or no feeling in doing so. 
 Upon careful inquuy you discover that unprin- 
 cipled persons had practised upon his credulity ; 
 that their calumnies were unfounded ; and that 
 he has needlessly trampled upon the tenderest in- 
 stincts of your nature. Is it possible that, on one 
 Avho has acted with such indiscretion, you can 
 continue to look with complacency? The confidence 
 on which friendship rests is destroyed. Yet that 
 man is still to be an object of Christian charity. 
 You are to give him the full benefit of your 
 prayers. You are to assist him in his difficulties, 
 to protect his character and property as you would 
 yom- own ; if consistent with your appointed duties, 
 you are to lay down your life to ensure his eternal 
 happiness — " Hereby perceive we the love of God, 
 because he laid down his love for us, and we ought 
 to lay down our life for the brethren."* 
 
 * 1 John iii. 10. 
 
232 
 
 A stronger case even may be imagined. Sup- 
 pose the reader were to discover that a man, Avhom 
 he had befriended, were playing the part of an 
 lago. Sm-ely none could behold such a being 
 without horror. Yet Scripture requires us to love 
 our enemies withoiit exception, to do good to them 
 that hate us, and to pray for them that despitefully 
 use us : we are to follow the example of our 
 Master. We have in our hearts an equal prone- 
 ness to evil, although it may not be the same kind 
 of evil, with this son of Belial who has been con- 
 jured up for the occasion : and yet Christ died for 
 us. Let us then place the cross and the suffering- 
 Redeemer before our eyes, and we shall know the 
 nature of charity ; in no other way can we arrive 
 at a knowledge of brotherly love. 
 
 Thus love to God and charity are not to be 
 considered as mere raptm^e and sentiment. The 
 exuberance of devotional feeling which we discover 
 in writings such as Rutherford's, in which elo- 
 quence and truth can with difficulty escape from 
 the trammels of florid extravagance, may be very 
 hurtful to those who do not, like Rutherford, view 
 religion as requiring constant watchfulness over 
 our own affections and attention to the interests of 
 others. One verse of Scripture — as, for instance, 
 the 21st of the seventh chapter of St. Matthew — 
 contains more substance than all the tomes filled 
 with the breathings of enthusiasm that were ever 
 published. 
 
LOVE TO GOD AND CHARITY. 233 
 
 The state of a believer towards his heavenly 
 King may be illustrated by that of a subject upon 
 receiving a favour from his prince. The grateful 
 subject can show his obligation only by respectful 
 and implicit obedience to the will of his sovereign, 
 as expressed in the laws and institutions which he 
 has ordained. The believer is on a similar footing 
 with his Lord ; who has sanctified that perfect com- 
 pendium of man's duties Avhich was delivered fi-om 
 Sinai, and has desired his followers to prove their 
 affection, not by passionate expressions, but by 
 making these his commandments their rule for 
 life. 
 
 If a believer, submitting his conduct towards his 
 neighbour to the inquisition of his conscience, shall 
 discover that whatsoever he would that men should 
 do unto him even so he is ready to do unto them ; 
 and if he finds that he has ever been willing to give 
 meat to the hungry brother, drink to the thirsty, 
 shelter to the stranger, clothes to the naked, and 
 every comfort in his power to the sick and the 
 prisoner ; that while he has visited the fatherless 
 and widows in their affliction, he has kept himself 
 unspotted from the world, and that in all these 
 things he has been acting in grateful obedience to 
 the divine Avill ; Avhen he is brought to will only 
 that which he knows to be the will of Christ, how- 
 ever cold his sentiments may seem, he may be 
 assured that he loves the brethren — he may be 
 
234 
 
 assured that "this is love, that we walk after his 
 commandments . " * 
 
 In deranged states of the mind love to God is 
 sometimes completely extinguished. There are 
 also states of derangement which are accompanied 
 with hatred to God, expressed in the language of 
 defiance. Mr. Haslam relates the case of a poor 
 bedlamite, who cursed the Almighty for creating 
 him, and wished to go to hell that he might not 
 be disgraced by an association with God. 
 
 Philanthropy is very generally extinguished 
 during madness. We have known individuals 
 originally amiable, who have become misanthropic, 
 some of whom laboured under a chronic disease of 
 the gastro-hepatic system. Misers often suffer 
 under a similar kind of dyspepsia : their appetite 
 may be good, yet they do not digest well ; they 
 are thin and sallow. They are well represented in 
 the celebrated picture of Quintin Matsys, which 
 probably contains the portraits of two misers taken 
 from the life. The misanthrope is often a miser ; 
 and the miser is generally a misanthrope. When 
 we hear men characterized as " the most amiable 
 in the world, so long as money is not in question," 
 we may suspect that their charity is as weak as 
 their avarice is strong. 
 
 * 2 John 6. 
 
235 
 
 ESSAY X. 
 
 ON HOPE. 
 
 We next enter upon a consideration of the senti- 
 ment of hope, or the expectation of happiness, by 
 the aid of which man accomplishes the pilgrimage 
 of life. It is scarcely needful to say, that hope 
 is the same sentiment, Avhether it be occupied with 
 the things of time or eternity, whether it be well 
 or ill founded. The unregenerate man is enabled 
 to bear a burden, under which he would othei'wise 
 often sink, by the expectation of certain illusory 
 advantages, such as riches, fame, or power. In 
 the regenerate man, hope is a solid expectation of 
 eternal happiness, the foundation of which is a 
 sense of his interest in the Lord Jesus Christ, 
 " which is our hope;"* "the hope of Israel ;"t 
 " the hope of glory ."$ 
 
 Of the genuineness of the Christian's hope we 
 are to judge, as of his faith and charity, by its 
 fruits, and not by the liveliness of the sentiment. 
 
 Hope may be strong, active, or extravagant, 
 weak, inactive, or extinct, or it may be alternately 
 active and inactive. 
 
 * 1 Tiai. i. 1. f Acts xxviii. 20. * Coll. i. 27. 
 
236 ESSAY X. 
 
 No sentiment more frequently influences, or is 
 influenced by the state of the health than hope. 
 We have known many, Avho in health were hope- 
 ful, desponding under disease. Depression of 
 spirits arising from misfortune will soon injure 
 digestion. Indigestion from physical causes will 
 produce despondency, even when there is no moral 
 cause to account for the destruction of hope. The 
 essence of that species of monomania, which is 
 generally termed melancholy, and which always 
 depends upon bodily causes, is the suppression 
 of hope. 
 
 When evangelical hope is weak, not from bodily 
 disease, but in consequence of the natural constitu- 
 tion of the mind, the remedy must be sought in 
 such exercises as strengthen faith ; for hope is a 
 natural product of faith. Let the dejected believer 
 address himself with prayer to the study of God's 
 Avord, and he will find abundant sources of com- 
 fort. " Whatsoever things Avere written afore- 
 time, were written for our learning : that we, 
 through patience and comfort of the Scriptures, 
 might have hope." The believer must not forget 
 that his God is the God of hope, who is able to 
 fill him with all joy and peace in believing, that 
 he may abound in hope, through the power of the 
 Holy Ghost.* 
 
 * llomans xv. 4, 13. 
 
23: 
 
 Hope is sometimes of such strength as to lead 
 to expectations of success in opposition to all 
 reasonable probability. Every reader must recol- 
 lect many individuals who can see only, to use a 
 common expression, the bright side of every 
 contingency : every object glitters, and appears 
 within reach, and a discovery that it owes its bril- 
 liancy to lacker, and that it either eludes the grasp, 
 or crumbles into dust when laid hold of, affords 
 them no instruction. The next gaud that presents 
 itself, although equally fragile, seems equally de- 
 sirable ; and thus in old age, having been unable to 
 profit by experience, they are as sanguine as they 
 Avere in boyhood. The same extravagant sentiment 
 may enter into the religion, if it can be so called, 
 of such persons, and they will construct, upon an 
 unauthorized conception of the character of God, 
 a bubble-scheme of eternal happiness, which never 
 bursts till " the story of their days is shut up." 
 
 There are others who may be said to be without 
 hope, so feeble is that sentiment; who perceive 
 only the dark side of every object, and are unwill- 
 ing to engage in any enterprise, from an anticipa- 
 tion of failure : whether the happiness of this 
 world or the next be their object, the prospect is 
 not cheered by one ray of sunshine. In the case 
 of those who do not look beyond the present state 
 of existence, although the foreground may be 
 beautifully cultivated, gloomy and barren precipices 
 
238 ESSAY X. 
 
 form the distance. In the midst of wealth and 
 respectabihty some gloomy anticipation — beggary, 
 the loss of character, the death or disgrace of chil- 
 dren, or other relatives, will turn a cup of sweets 
 into gall. No matter how goodly a store of pre- 
 sent happiness is placed before the mind, it will 
 seem to contain in it a principle of speedy dissolu- 
 tion. This is the melancholy described by Gray 
 the poet — " which is sure of every thing that is 
 unlikely, so that it be frightful, and excludes and 
 shuts its eyes to the most probable hopes and 
 every thing that is pleasurable." In those, again, 
 whose chief concern is with eternity, all the com- 
 forts of religion are sometimes destroyed by the 
 extinction of hope, caused by some groundless de- 
 lusion connected with disease ; for example, a sup- 
 posed cognizance of some divine decree. We once 
 heard a lady of pure principles of religion and 
 morality, while labouring under hopelessness from 
 bodily disease, declare that God had doomed her 
 to destruction, and that he had appointed the in- 
 gratitude of persons employed by her as the means 
 of effecting this purpose. In this class of sufferers 
 there is in general an additional cause of distress 
 in the dread of yielding to expected temptations. 
 A solicitude regai'ding apprehended temporal evils, 
 with which attacks of hopelessness in pious per- 
 sons may commence, often yields to overwhelming 
 distress relative to eternity. They imagine that 
 
239 
 
 they have been deceiving themselves with false 
 hopes, that they have been playing the part of 
 hypocrites, and never had any principle of genuine 
 religion. 
 
 Very remarkable instances of this affection in 
 certain states of the constitution sometimes occur. 
 A young lady for several years was uniformly re- 
 duced to the lowest dejection two days before the 
 end of the month, and continued so for a week. 
 During this period she was altogether without 
 hope : to use her own words, she apprehended 
 failure in every undertaking in which she was 
 obliged to engage ; and her sympathies, even with 
 those to whom she was attached by the strongest 
 ties, were completely interrupted. 
 
 In like manner, in females, a wish to commit 
 suicide, which usually arises from despair, is pe- 
 riodic, and has been observed to return at the end 
 of the month. We are convinced, from obser- 
 vation, of the truth of a remark made by Dr. 
 Burrows, namely — that the operation of purgative 
 medicines has removed a propensity to suicide, 
 which has also been removed by diarrhoea spon- 
 taneously occurring. 
 
 Moods of melancholy, of which the chief cha- 
 racteristic is hopelessness, are produced, in some 
 nervous females, by changes in the weather ; so 
 that they are unerring barometers. We have 
 often known them predict a storm twenty-four 
 
240 
 
 hours before a single gust of wind was heard. By 
 the way, the insane are under a similar influence : 
 maniacs of all classes are subject to tumultuous 
 agitation upon the approach of stormy or very 
 warm weather. The attacks of nervous hope- 
 lessness, which sometimes arise after a flow of 
 high spirits, may be discovered by the expression 
 of the sufferer, from Avhich all cheerfulness is 
 banished ; it is attended Avith inequality of temper, 
 outbreakings of fretfulness, and uncertainty of con- 
 duct, and is caused not merely by a disturbed state 
 of the female health, and by atmospheric influence, 
 but by indigestion also. These sufferers, who 
 often meet with but little sympathy, are erro- 
 neously supposed to be yielding to caprice, when 
 perhaps they are in a state of great distress, with- 
 out natural affection, objects of sell-reproach, per- 
 haps feeling deserted of God, left Avithout spiritual 
 aid in their struggles with pride or unfounded 
 jealousy. These unhappy moods of the mind have 
 destroyed the love of relatives and friends, Avho, had 
 they understood the true cause of such perverted 
 feeling, would have had their attachment to the 
 sufferer strengthened by generous pity. We have 
 reason to beheve, that by such a state of uncer- 
 tainty of feeling sad inroads upon conjugal hap- 
 piness have been made. Sometimes this distressing 
 state of mind becomes habitual, and ends in con- 
 firmed melancholy. That it is symptomatic of 
 
241 
 
 bodily disease is proved by its being often relieved 
 by those influences which improve health, by the 
 use of medicines which improve the condition of 
 the organs of digestion, and by suitable diet. 
 Change of ah* and scene, absence from towns, or 
 from situations in the interior of the country Avhere 
 it commenced, and especially the sea-breeze, may 
 be expected to produce a suspension of that hope- 
 lessness which has long embittered existence. 
 
 The following is the description which a young- 
 lady, of sound religious ])rinciples, gave of herself : 
 — " After enjoying about two or three weeks of 
 comparative ease, my comfort is broken in upon 
 by lowness of spirits, without any assignable 
 cause. In waking hours a drowsiness seizes upon 
 me which I cannot resist, and which is accom- 
 panied with complete indisposition for thought or 
 action ; my rest at night begins to be broken ; I 
 am flushed in the morning, and have a hurried or 
 rather flurried feeling which renders tlie very 
 thought of occupation distressing, and my views of 
 all subjects, moral or divine, are overspread with 
 gloom ; trifles assume an air of importance, and 
 every duty is invested with diflSculty." Such in- 
 dividuals often pass the night in a state of great 
 disquietude from distension and numbness in the 
 arms and legs, frum a fidgety restlessness which 
 renders every position intolerable for any length of 
 time, from heat of the surface of the body pre- 
 
 R 
 
242 
 
 eluding sleep, to which symptoms are added in- 
 creased depression of mind and horror, together 
 causing a degree of exhausting wretchedness which 
 in the morning leaves the sufferer with a feeling of 
 utter inability to encounter the business of life ; 
 and the very unsatisfactory performance of duties 
 justifies the apprehension felt, for with every act 
 there is a degree of u-ritability mixed up which 
 manifests itself in expressions of petulance and im- 
 patience, which again have a recoil in self-reproach ; 
 and hence the day is spent in misery equal to the 
 night. The chief ingredient, however, in this 
 complicated wretchedness is the absence of hope : 
 if any engagement is to be fulfilled, the difficulties 
 with respect to the best method of proceeding 
 appear so great — the probability of failure so out- 
 weighs the probability of success, that indecision 
 and delay are the consequences. Then distrust is 
 infused into the mind, not only in regard to what 
 is expedient, but to what is right — not merely in 
 regard to judgment but to principle ; and thus a 
 consciousness of both mental and moral inaptitude 
 is felt by those who have evinced, in trying circum- 
 stances, the utmost ability and promptitude. 
 
 High and low spirits often alternate ; these op- 
 posite states of the mind depending on the presence 
 or absence of hope. Activity and excitement of 
 every faculty of the mind, as Avell as of the body, 
 leads to inactivity and collapse. We scarcely 
 
ON HOPE. 243 
 
 know, in the following instance, which was the 
 insane state of the sentiment, whether its activity 
 or its inactivity ; but the one certainly was con- 
 nected with the other. 
 
 A gentleman, whom we frequently met in con- 
 vivial society upwards of thirty years ago, was 
 uniformly on alteraate days in a state of. depression 
 and elevation of spiiits, equally remote from the 
 golden mean. Those Avho dined with him on his 
 low day and on his high day might have supposed 
 that he Avas acting a part on one of these. On the 
 former, he sat with fixed eyes, evidently full of 
 gloomy thoughts, answering in monosyllables, the 
 pensieroso of the company, a mute picture of 
 despair, a kill-joy, by his lengthened countenance 
 and lugubrious expression infecting every one with 
 sadness. On the following day, none so gay as he, 
 the allegro — mu'thful, jovial, talkative, boisterous, 
 engi'ossing all conversation, his buoyancy of spirit 
 oppressive and incongruous — a complete bore. So 
 exti'aordinary was the change, that no identity of 
 character was maintained : he reminded one of the 
 pasteboard toy, such a favourite with children, 
 wliich represents a weeping or a laughing coun- 
 tenance, according as it is upright or reversed. 
 There existed scarcely a doubt that this state of 
 mind, which continued for many years, was con- 
 nected with a peculiar condition of the organs of 
 assimilation ; as, just before he became affected in 
 
244 
 
 this way, there was a sudden and remarkable change 
 in his appearance, arising from entire loss of 
 corpulency. 
 
 Melancholy, in pious persons, resembles that 
 affection as it occurs in those who are not under 
 the influence of religion, in every thing but the 
 subjects which engage the mind. At first, hope- 
 lessness, which is common to both classes of the 
 disordered, occurs only occasionally — for part of a 
 day, or for a day or two — and then is succeeded 
 by a revival of hope ; but at last despair is fixed 
 and immovable, to the destruction of all sense 
 of adoption in the Christian ; he ceases to regard 
 God as a merciful Father, and when reminded of 
 the tenor of the Gospel— the offer of pardon to 
 every penitent believer — he will probably quote 
 and pervert some text, or refer to some dream 
 or vision, as a proof that his name has been blotted 
 out of the book of life, and of his being doomed 
 to destruction. Then, perhaps, he will embrace 
 and apply to himself a doctrine which is not to 
 be found in Scripture ; he will aver that he is in 
 a state of reprobation — destined to destruction for 
 some imaginary sin. There is no doctrine in holy 
 Avrit more clearly laid down than that there is not 
 a human being, however enormous and multiplied 
 his sins, Avho may not come to God in the ap- 
 pointed way ; consequently reprobation, as a 
 melancholic man understands it, is a figment quite 
 
245 
 
 irreconcilable with the invitation of our blessed 
 Lord. But, in truth, the Christian in whom hope 
 is suspended, in consequence of disease, is in gene- 
 ral unable to derive comfort from any portion of 
 Scripture. As has been observed by a late writer 
 on spiritual comfort,* " When he reads or hears 
 of the threatenings of the violated law, it is with 
 application to himself; but when he reads or hears 
 of the promises of the Gospel, he says ' they do 
 not belong to me, the greater the mercy of God, 
 the more miserable am I who have no part in 
 it;'" he courts seclusion, and is averse to every 
 kind of occupation ; his thoughts are mostly of 
 himself; as Baxter says, they are Hke millstones, 
 which grind on themselves, when they have no 
 grist. These persons dare neither travel nor stay 
 at home, neither speak nor be silent, but are 
 wholly made up of perplexing scruples, ensnaring 
 themselves with vows and austerities ; they wear 
 mean clothes, rather than such as are suitable to 
 their station in life, and forbear all diet which 
 pleases the appetite. They dare not hope, and, 
 therefore, dare not pray ; and, finally, they dare 
 not receive the sacrament of the Lord's supper, 
 lest their own damnation should be the consequence 
 of their receiving unworthil3\ 
 
 Then comes the climax of their misery, in 
 
 ■• Dr. Colquhouii. 
 
246 
 
 ESSAY X. 
 
 a persuasion that they have committed the sin 
 against the Holy Ghost, which, while it confirms 
 their despair, shows how incapable they are of 
 understanding Scripture. The sin against the 
 Holy Ghost can never be repented of, and there- 
 fore a dejected penitent cannot have committed 
 that sin. 
 
 It is no part of our undertaking to enter 
 minutely into a consideration of any of the sub- 
 jects which we are treating of, and therefore we 
 take leave of melancholy, with the following ob- 
 servations relating to its treatment : — 
 
 Some who, while in health, apparently have no 
 sense of religion, when they fall into melancholy 
 are engrossed Avith the terrors of judgment — their 
 certainty of punishment — the endless night of 
 despair — the worm that never dies ; they declare 
 that they seem to perceive the fire kindled in 
 which they are to agonize — hear its flame crack- 
 ling — are scorched by its heat — and are already 
 living under a sulphurous canopy ; yet these are, 
 of all men, the least ready to Hsten to the Gospel, 
 to the philanthropy of Christ, and the certainty 
 of reconciliation to God. Tell them that you can 
 ensure their recovery, and they will listen to you 
 with interest, although they may affect to dis- 
 believe you ; but talk to them of Jesus, and pro- 
 bably you will confirm their despair. 
 
 When hope is altogether inactive, the imagina- 
 
ON HOPE. 247 
 
 tion is often in a state of inordinate activity ; and 
 thus there is a power not only of magnifying the 
 real evils of life, but of creating unreal evils. 
 In melancholies there is often much subtlety of 
 reasoning, although it never leads to right con- 
 clusions. If we endeavour to show a person 
 labouring under melancholy, that his anticipations 
 of wretchedness are not only improbable but un- 
 reasonable, sometimes the whole power of an active 
 and excited fancy will be called forth in support 
 of their likelihood. If, in the eagerness of our 
 desire to disabuse him, we make one false step, 
 if there be the least inaccuracy in our statement, 
 or if in the chain of an argument there be one link 
 wanting, so alert is he and ingenious in the art of 
 self-tormenting, that he will discover the defect, 
 and, when least expected, successfully attack the 
 weak point, while he will set aside, as irrelevant, 
 every part of any appeal to him to which he 
 is unable to reply. If he can discover in our 
 statements or reasonings nothing which he can 
 refute, he will assume an air of chilling indif- 
 ference, or appear not to listen to what is addressed 
 to him. 
 
 It ought not to be forgotten that if we could 
 prove that every thing in the lot of a person 
 affected with melancholy promises happiness, we 
 should make no impression thereby, as the repre- 
 sentation, however incontrovertible, is, as it were, 
 
248 
 
 addressed to a part of the mind totally inactive. 
 But whether this be the explanation of the matter 
 or not, it is certain that the prejudices of those 
 valetudinarians, who are in despair of happiness, 
 are generally invincible by argument. Sometimes 
 by treating them as if they were not open to con- 
 viction, refusing to reason with them when they 
 are argumentative, which they often are, talking 
 of thera in their presence as if they were in a state 
 of hopeless delusion, or dropping hints of their 
 being irrational and unaccountable, you will rouse 
 other faculties or sentiments, and through pride 
 or vanity, or perhaps through the medium of 
 some of the aifections, the whole mind may be 
 excited, and the spell may be broken — this, we 
 must admit, is a very rare occurrence. 
 
 One point, however, with respect to melan- 
 choly is never to be forgotten — namely, that if 
 curable. It is by medical rather than moral treat- 
 ment ; consequently, that all such cases ought, 
 in the first instance, to pass through the hands of 
 the physician. 
 
249 
 
 ESSAY XI. 
 
 ON THE TRESENCE AND ABSENCE OF DEVOTIONAL FEELINO. 
 
 We beg to introduce the observations which we 
 intend to make on the interchange between de- 
 votional feeling and apathy, with an attempt to ex- 
 plain the condition of the mind during communion 
 with God in meditation and prayer. 
 
 First, there can be no right communion with 
 God unless there be previous union with Christ. 
 
 Secondly, to the Christian the endearing attri- 
 bute of God is his mercy. Grateful love exists in 
 all who are united M'ith Christ. 
 
 Thirdly, the Christian approaching the throne 
 of grace, under the guidance of the Holy Spirit, 
 has such a sense of his own impurity and the holi- 
 ness of God, as must abate every imagination of 
 pride and swelling of vanity. 
 
 Fourthly, in the mind of every instructed Chris- 
 tian there is an understanding that love must be 
 proved by obedience to the divine commandments ; 
 one of which is, that he love the brethren, and 
 hence, with the foregoing graces, chai'ity must 
 ever concur. 
 
 Fifthly, in communion with God there must 
 
250 
 
 also be a sense of his presence felt by the Chris- 
 tian, and a confident expectation that his suppli- 
 cations will be granted in as far as they are con- 
 sistent with his true interests ; therefore, hope will 
 always be in activity. 
 
 Sixthly, there ever exists, during prayer, an 
 anxiety to address God in expressions the most 
 respectful and elevated, consequently the imagina- 
 tion also must be active. 
 
 Seventhly, in promoting communion with God 
 other powers conspire — as memory and the reflec- 
 tive faculties. But, if we consider in what prayer 
 chiefly consists, it will be found that along with a 
 pacified conscience, faith, love, charity, hope, and 
 an imagination sanctified, are the mental endow- 
 ments chiefly exercised during communion with 
 God. 
 
 If, through the influence of the Holy Spirit, 
 faith is lively and genuine, love, charity, and hope 
 may be expected to follow in its train, and then 
 the happiness of the believer will be as complete 
 as it can be in this world. 
 
 Thus it would appear that communion with 
 God requires a combined and vigorous eifort, a 
 highly active state, of various faculties and senti- 
 ments. In intercessory prayer the affections also 
 are deeply engaged. It is well known that the 
 mind is never thus generally and actively occupied 
 without exhaustion of the whole system being 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 251 
 
 felt. Of the influence of a highly devotional frame 
 upon the body, it would not be difficult to bring 
 forward many illustrations, but Ave may trust to 
 one, namely, to the remarkable case of the Rev. 
 S. Flavel, (to be found in his Pneumatologia ; or, 
 a Treatise on the Soul of Man,) as it will clearly 
 show the nature and extent of that influence. 
 
 " I have, with good assurance, this account of 
 a minister, who being alone in a journey, and will- 
 ing to make the best improvement he could of 
 that day's solitude, set himself to a close examina- 
 tion of the state of his soul, and then of the hfe 
 to come, and the manner of its being, and living 
 in heaven, in the view of all those things which 
 are now objects of faith and hope. After a time 
 he perceived his thoughts begin to fix, and come 
 closer to these great and astonishing things than 
 usual ; and as his mind settled on them, his aflPec- 
 tions seemed to rise with answerable liveliness and 
 vigour. 
 
 " He therefore (while he was yet master of his 
 own thoughts) lifted up his heart to God in a 
 short ejaculation, that God would so order it in 
 his providence, that he might meet with no inter- 
 ruption from company, or any other accident in 
 that journey, which was granted him, for in all 
 that day's journey he neither met, overtook, nor 
 was overtaken by any one. Thus going on his 
 way, his thoughts began to swell and rise liigher 
 
252 
 
 and higher like the waters in Ezekiel's vision, till 
 at last they became an overflowing flood. Such 
 was the intention of his mind, such the ravishing 
 tastes of heavenly joys, and such the full assurance 
 of his interest therein, that he uttei'ly lost sight 
 and sense of this world, and all the concerns 
 thereof; and for many hours knew no more where 
 he was, than if he had been in a deep sleep upon 
 his bed. At last he began to perceive himself 
 very faint, and almost choking Avith blood, which, 
 running in abundance from his nose, had coloured 
 his clothes and his horse from the shoulder to the 
 hoof. He found himself almost spent, and nature 
 to faint under the pressure of joy unspeakable and 
 insupportable ; and at last, perceiving a spring of 
 water in his way, he with some difficulty alighted 
 to cleanse and cool his hands and face, which were 
 drenched in tears, blood, and sweat. 
 
 " By that spring he sat and washed, earnestly 
 desiring, if it were the pleasure of God, that it 
 might be his parting-place from this world ; he said 
 death had the most amiable fiice in his eye, that 
 ever he beheld, except the face of Jesus Christ, 
 which made it so ; and that he could not remember 
 (though he believed he should die there) that he 
 had one thought of his dear wife, or children, or 
 any other earthly concernment. 
 
 " But having drunk of that spring his spirits 
 revived, the blood stanched, and he mounted his 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 253 
 
 horse again, and on he Avent in the same frame of" 
 spirit, till he had finished a journey of nearly thirty 
 miles, and came at night to his inn, where, being- 
 come, he greatly admired how he came thither, 
 that his horse without his direction had brought 
 him thither, and that he fell not all that day, which 
 passed not Avithout several trances of considerable 
 continuance. 
 
 "Being alighted, the innkeeper came to him 
 with astonishment (being acquainted with him for- 
 merly). 'Oh! sir,' said he, 'what is the matter 
 with you ? You look like a dead man.' ' Friend,' 
 replied he, ' I was never better in my life. Show 
 me my chamber, cause my cloak to be cleansed, 
 warm me a little wine, and that is all I desu-e of you 
 for the present.' Accordingly, it Avas done, and a 
 supper sent up which he could not touch, but re- 
 quested of the people that they would not trouble 
 or disturb him that night. All this night passed 
 without one wink of sleep, though he never had a 
 SAveeter night's rest in all his life. Still, still the 
 joy of the Lord overflowed him, and he seemed to 
 be an inhabitant of the other Avorld. The next 
 morning being come, he was early on horseback 
 again, fearing the diver tisement in the inn might 
 bereave him of his joy ; for he said it was now 
 Avith him, as a man that carries a rich treasure 
 about him, Avho suspects every passenger to be a 
 thief. But Avithin a few hours he was sensible of 
 
264 
 
 the ebbing of the tide, and before night, though 
 there was a heavenly serenity and sweet peace upon 
 his spirit, which continued long with him, yet 
 the transports of joy were over, and the fine edge 
 of his delight blunted. He, many years after, 
 called that day one of the days of heaven, and 
 professed he understood more of the light of 
 heaven by it, than by all the books he ever read, 
 or discourses he ever entertained about it." 
 
 In the foregoing narrative it would appear that 
 self-examination proved highly satisfiictory to Mr. 
 Flavel. The Spirit of God bare witness with 
 his spirit that he was a child of God ; his faith 
 was without wavering ; the love of God was shed 
 abroad in his heart ; his hope was assured, and 
 his imagination enabled him in some sort to realize 
 the state of the blessed ; such were his ravishing 
 foretastes of heavenly joys that he lost all sense 
 of this world, and it is matter of little surprise 
 that death had the most amiable face, in his eye, 
 that he ever beheld. But the reader will probably 
 have anticipated an observation which we are about 
 to make — namely, that this high pitch of devo- 
 tional feeling had nearly proved destructive of 
 life : it seems probable that had not the bleeding 
 come to the relief of the highly-excited brain, 
 apoplexy would have been the consequence ; under 
 the power of " a divine ecstasis," to use the words 
 of Dr. Watts, a dissolution of mortality had 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 255 
 
 nearly taken place, and Mr. Flavel's desire to be 
 Avith Christ Avas well nigh gi-atified, by a sudden 
 removal to the upper sanctuary. It cannot be 
 denied, moreover, that rapture of a similar kind 
 may, with equal certainty, be produced by super- 
 stition in a credulous nun, or by fanaticism in an 
 imaginative Irvingite, as by the exalted faith of 
 this man of God. The same sentiments and 
 faculties of the mind are in operation in all these 
 cases, and the excitation of fanatical credulity may 
 be as great, or gi-eater, than that of genuine faith. 
 Had the excellent Mr. Venn been thoroughly 
 acquainted with this subject he would scarcely 
 have written as follows : — " Sometimes I have 
 touches Avhich I would give the world would last, 
 but in an hour they are gone. While they last 
 the heart swells Avith the vehement desire expressed 
 in the hymn — 
 
 • Nothing, in all things, may I see ; 
 Nothing, in earth, desire but thee.'" 
 
 Were these touches to last, the frame so produced 
 Avould be incompatible Avith the business of life, 
 and Avould probably produce disease of the nervous 
 system, Avhich re-acting on the mind, Avould lead to 
 confirmed fanatical insanity. 
 
 We apprehend that certain gi-oups of faculties 
 are more ready to lull into disorder than others ; 
 and perhaps future inciuiries may discover a unifor- 
 
256 
 
 mity in this matter, which has hitherto escaped 
 notice. As the intellectual faculties, which concur 
 in the process of judgment, have all been observed 
 in disorder, at the same time that the other powers 
 of the mind have been but little disturbed, so an 
 individual may be apathetic or ecstatic without 
 any considerable defect in the reasoning powers. 
 The concurrent derangement of certain faculties 
 Avould seem to be connected with their habits of 
 co-operation when in a natural state. The Avhole 
 of that part of the mind which is chiefly occupied 
 during communion with God, may be over-excited, 
 while the rest of the mind is inactive ; or, con- 
 trariwise, it may be languid, while the intellectual 
 faculties are unduly active. Or one sentiment, as 
 faith, may be destroyed, to the extinction of love 
 and hope ; or enlargement in prayer, flowing from 
 love, hope, and charity, may be restrained by 
 inactivity of the imagination, on which a supply 
 of suitable thoughts depends ; as we have already 
 observed, imaginativeness may be excessive, while 
 hope is extinct; but we believe it will more fre- 
 quently happen that where one is lively or torpid, 
 the other will be so likewise. 
 
 We recommend a careful consideration of Mr. 
 Flavei's case to those persons who understand and 
 acknowledge the long-suffering of God and his 
 loving kindness, who live a life of obedience to 
 the divine will, and yet feel as if they were with- 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 257 
 
 out faith, hope, and charity, and actually deny 
 themselves all spiritual comfort, because they are 
 Avithout that enjoyment which arises from elevated 
 devotional feeling. To all such it may confidently 
 be said, if you will glorify God by your life and 
 conversation in this world, you will be certain of 
 enjoying him in that which is to come. Moreover, 
 it is necessary to remember that much of the en- 
 joyment which is derived from the exercises of 
 religion, depends upon the temperature of the 
 mind and upon the association of feelings. Some 
 experience an immediate elevation upon entering 
 the cathedral "with high embow'red roof," while 
 others, in those temples built by our dissenting 
 Ijrethren in violation of the rules of taste, have 
 equal aptitude for devotion ; some hsten, without 
 the least emotion, to a chant from the pealing 
 organ, Avliich banishes earth, and seems to bring all 
 heaven before others who have a perception of the 
 wondrous power of harmony. But let it never be 
 forgotten that it is not a lofty or sublimated ima- 
 gination, and natural or cultivated taste, but a 
 broken heart and a contrite spirit that constitutes 
 the acceptable worshipper of God. 
 
 The happiness which a Christian, possessed ol 
 lively feelings, experiences in communion with 
 God, is diligently to be sought for, so long as it 
 promotes obedience, especially in the exercise of 
 Christian charity ; but if it fails to produce that 
 
258 ESSAY XI. 
 
 effect and to animate our endeavours to the per- 
 fecting of holiness, it is a mere luxury, an un- 
 profitable, it may be, a dangerous indulgence. Let 
 not those who are ready to charge themselves with 
 leanness of soul, who are without that pleasure 
 Avhich is derived from freedom and enlargement 
 in prayer, be thought of unfavourably, even when 
 they are unable to take comfort from a view of 
 the cross, so long as they earnestly desire to love 
 Him supremely who was nailed to it : so long as 
 a closer union with their Saviour, with a more 
 Uvely apprehension of his excellency, is the first 
 object of their prayers, they may be assured of 
 his sympathy. We will again quote from Baxter, 
 for the comfort of such : " If you feel not that 
 you love God, do you feel that you would fain 
 love him ? If you do so, it is a sign that you 
 do love him — when you not only desire to 
 have such an evidence of salvation in you, but 
 when you desire love itself, and love to love 
 God. Had you not rather have an heart to 
 love him perfectly, than to have all the riches 
 in the world — had you not rather live in the love 
 of God, if you could reach it, than live in any 
 earthly pleasure ? If so, be sure he hath your 
 heart. The will is the love and the heart: if 
 God hath your mill he hath your heart 
 AND LOVE." In these concluding words is the 
 marrow of divinity. 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 259 
 
 Does religion consist in ecstatic enjoyment? MVe 
 trow not. Wheat part of the exercises of the 
 closet is of more importance than confession of 
 sins — implying consciousness of guilt, and shame, 
 and confusion of face. What more acceptable to 
 God than intercession for others. Yet what op- 
 pression of spirit does the parent feel M'hen pre- 
 paring to intercede for his unregenerate children, 
 or the master for his unregenerate servants. "What 
 sadness does the true philanthropist experience 
 Avhen he bears on his prayers the inhabitants of 
 a city self-devoted to INIoloch ; or of a town where 
 the murmurs of churchmen and dissenters resemble 
 the growlings of beasts of prey before their spring 
 — where, what between formality and hypoci'isy, 
 religion is discernible chiefly as an instrument for 
 retaining or acquiring political power; or of a 
 village Avhich every year is steeped more and more 
 in sensuality, and in which the leading passion 
 is hatred raging against superiors. Can the 
 Christian patriot enjoy himself when, ever}' time 
 he thinks of his country, he is reminded of the 
 reeling and crumbling to pieces of that fabric in 
 which he has enjoyed hberty of conscience and 
 freedom of action. There can be but little enjoy- 
 ment when the church of God is threatened on 
 all sides, and when its members expect to be 
 carried away captive to the rivers of Babylon, 
 where they will no longer be able to sing the 
 
260 
 
 songs of Zion. Even were every such apprehen- 
 sion removed, and were the broad way and its 
 dense descending mass shut out from his sight, 
 every pilgrim who views his own narrow and 
 thorny path, and the weaknesses and sufferings 
 of his fellow-travellers, must groan and lament 
 over both. How strikingly do those beautifully 
 simple lines of Kelly's show that many a man of 
 true charity can have but little enjoyment, even 
 from Christian fellowship — 
 
 " While here I walk on hostile ground, 
 The few that I can call my friends 
 Are, like myself, with fetters bound, 
 And weariness our steps attends." 
 
 The Christian doubtless has joy even in the 
 midst of such trials ; he is commanded to rejoice ; 
 but it is joy when he falls into divers temptations 
 
 these being a proof of the love of God, and 
 
 intended to work in him patience necessary for 
 the warfare which will lead to a crown of glory ; 
 or it is joy of the Holy Ghost,* contemporaneous 
 with much affliction; or it is a rejoicing in the 
 testimony of conscience ; or a rejoicing that his 
 name is written in heaven — it is joy in reversion ; 
 a rejoicing in the day of Christ ; a joyful looking 
 forward to that state, where, instead of restless 
 anxiety, and pain, and fear, and sorrow, and dis- 
 
 • 1 Thessalonians i. 6. 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 261 
 
 satisfaction, there will be a perfect sabbatism, a state 
 of rest, purity, and love, and the largest measure of 
 gratitude and happiness, growing with a growing 
 knowledge of the goodness of God, and an in- 
 creasing capacity of more perfectly serving and 
 glorifying God, and a certainty of the continuance 
 of the blessings which God hath prepared for them 
 that love him — in short, it is a rejoicing in hope.* 
 But let not those who are unable, from tempera- 
 ment or disease, to realize the joys of the more 
 lively Christian, on that account, condemn them- 
 selves, and imagine that theu' prayers are not heard : 
 absence of spiritual comfort is a great, but perhaps, 
 a necessary trial ; let them not gratuitously add 
 self-4'eproach to the evils which it produces. 
 
 The state of the Christian most desirable is 
 peace rather than emotion. If the believer is able 
 to say — " My joy, though not extravagant, is 
 calm and abiding, and my great aim is to know 
 that I am the Lord's, through Christ ; that I have 
 found favour in his sight ; that his peace rests 
 upon me ; and that I can confidently approach 
 him in prayer ;" — we apprehend he has just cause 
 to be satisfied as to the state of his soul ; and the 
 reader will probaljly concur in our opinion Avhen 
 he learns or is reminded that there, between the 
 inverted commas, are the words in which his own 
 
 * Romans xii, 12. 
 
262 
 
 religious feelings are described by the apostolic 
 Svvartz. There ought ever to be a sobriety in the 
 joy of the Christian. What is the temper of mind 
 fitting those who are soon to depart? — "that they 
 be sober, grave, temperate, sound in faith, in 
 charity, and patience." Sobriety, obviously mean- 
 ing sedateness and circumspection, appearing in a 
 habitual control of the appetites, passions, and 
 feelings, and opposed to all vehemence of excite- 
 ment, is the fruit of sound doctrine.* 
 
 Were it not that our minds, as well as our 
 bodies, cannot be excited beyond certain limits ; 
 were it not that a degree of collapse is produced 
 by excitement, that a sense of exhaustion which 
 disqualifies man for continued application, is felt 
 when he has been too long occupied, the mind 
 would probably fall into derangement oftener than 
 it actually does. Indeed, as it is, derangement 
 sometimes takes place when the predominant 
 faculty, the master passion, or reigning affection 
 is over-excited or unfavourably acted upon. If 
 we examine the wards of Bedlam, it will be found 
 that a portion of the individuals who are confined 
 within its walls have become insane from the 
 uncontrolled violence of their passions ; as, for 
 instance, from long-continued or extreme fear, 
 grief, deeply-wounded pride or vanity ; and that 
 
 * I Timothy ii. 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 263 
 
 such persons have been respectively of a timid, 
 affectionate, proud or vain disposition. 
 
 Long-continued exhilaration induces languor 
 and depression, referable to exhaustion of the 
 tacidties which have been in active operation. For 
 example : how jaded does a young woman of 
 vivacity appear after an evening spent in a large 
 and briUiant company. Her vanity has for many 
 hours been gratified by a consciousness of superior- 
 ity over those who are less distinguished or less 
 attractive ; her hope has been raised by flattery, 
 and her imagination has been dazzled by the splen- 
 did mockery and idle state of luxury and fashion. 
 Exhaustion takes place in that part of the mind 
 which has been over-excited. Even on the fol- 
 lowing day she is dissatisfied and desponding, and 
 wonders that she could have yielded to such a 
 delusive dream. She is unable to take pleasure in 
 her ordinary pursuits — in the pleasant round of 
 domestic duties. This is attributed to fatigue and 
 general exhaustion of the mind, but erroneously ; 
 it is exhaustion of certain faculties only. Had she 
 been engaged in watching a parent in sickness 
 during a longer period than she has spent in the 
 maze of folly — even had she not laid her head on 
 the pillow, she would have resumed her daily task 
 with alacrity : and her flower-garden, or the green 
 field, or shady lane, with the ireshness of the 
 morning, or the visit of a cordial friend — all these 
 
264 ESSAY XI. 
 
 things, instead of being oppressive, would have 
 revived her spirits and elevated her thoughts. 
 
 A degree of exhaustion, of a very different kind, 
 but admitting of a similar explanation, will often 
 obtain in consequence of the mind being engaged 
 in long continued and uninterrupted devotional ex- 
 ercises; and hence arises that temporary insensi- 
 bility to the goodness and mercy of God which is 
 complained of by believers as affording a proof of 
 their ingratitude, and which is nothing more than 
 an intermission of grateful feeling, arising from its 
 previous strength and fervency. The recollection 
 of a life spent in unbelief and disobedience, fol- 
 lowed by a sense of reconciliation to God — of guilt 
 washed out with blood, will often, as in Mr. Fla- 
 vel's case, fill the grateful mind with a delightful 
 sense of affection — heaven will be seen by the eye 
 of faith. While the mind is thus transported, the 
 miseries of the present life will be lost sight of, and 
 a joy will be felt which they alone can understand 
 who have experienced the effects of the peace of 
 God in stilling the troubled conscience. Com- 
 pared with these seasons of spmtual comfort, the 
 gratifications of sense or of taste are without savour. 
 But, after great excitement of the devotional senti- 
 ments, the same kind of collapse which follows 
 long sustained activity of sentiments of a lower 
 order may be expected ; and the same consider- 
 ations which in the mind, when fresh, produce joy. 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 265 
 
 Avhen presented to the exhausted mind will excite 
 little or no emotion. 
 
 Probably one of the best illustrations of" this 
 important fact, namely — the deadness of the soul 
 which follows animated devotional feelings, is 
 afforded by the annual meetings of religious so- 
 cieties in London and Dublin. Day after day the 
 importance of the objects, the eloquence of the 
 speakers, the sympathy of the hearers, keep up a 
 state of pleasurable excitement, which at last ex- 
 hausts the mind and ends in apathy, attended with 
 disappointment and self-condemnation at gratitude 
 to God being so transient. We have known ex- 
 citement of the mind thus occasioned give rise in 
 delicate females to nervous diseases ; and we are 
 persuaded that to some, after a succession of meet- 
 ings at Exeter Hall or the Kotunda, the calm 
 service of a chm'ch will appear as insipid as plain 
 food after a ragout. Let it not for one instant be 
 supposed that we are insensible to the benefits 
 which have arisen from meetings of societies for 
 the dissemination of the Scriptures, for the main- 
 tenance of Christian missionaries, or schools con- 
 ducted on Christian principles. These are objects 
 beyond all praise ; and in assemblies which meet 
 for their support, " the liberal deviseth libei*al 
 things," and the Gospel is often preached in the 
 most emphatic manner, so that many a one at a 
 Bible meeting has been first awakened to the 
 
266 ESSAY XI. 
 
 reality of unseen things. Christianity is never 
 more attractive than when engaged in quenching 
 sectarian feelings : in these meetings it is exhibited 
 to the admiring eye arrayed in that robe of Catho- 
 licism which it is destined to wear at some pro- 
 bably yet remote period. We allude to these 
 societies, not to disparage them, but simply to 
 exemplify a moral phenomenon, which it imports 
 the pious clergyman to understand. 
 
 In perusing the memoirs of those who have 
 devoted themselves to God, nothing has appeared 
 to us more remarkable than their ignorance of or in- 
 attention to many of those things which affect their 
 spiritual enjoyment; and as Christians have no- 
 thing to apprehend from truth, it would seem that 
 the subject to which Ave refer may, with a prospect 
 of advantage, be inquired into by one who fears 
 God, and has been in the habit of attending to the 
 influence which the body exercises over the mind, 
 and the mind over the body, in all men, but espe- 
 cially in Christians. 
 
 We find Christians complaining of a state of 
 mind which appears to form the greatest trial to 
 which they are exposed in their journey through 
 the wilderness. While at one time every earthly 
 advantage would be surrendered for one glimpse of 
 Jesus, at another all interest in religion is sup- 
 pressed ; there would appear a complete deadness 
 to spuitual things ; their devotional sentiments 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 267 
 
 become so weak that they seem scarcely to exist ; 
 prayer is burdensome ; their hearts are Hke the 
 nether millstone. They are dejected and melan- 
 choly, and regard themselves as mere cumberers of 
 the ground, born only to sin and to abuse the 
 mercies of their God, to disgrace the religion 
 which they profess and perhaps preach, and to bring 
 dishonour on that blessed name by which they are 
 called ; and to this state of suffering there is a 
 painful addition in the accusations of conscience. 
 They persuade themselves that their deadness is 
 their own fault, feeling as if greater diligence in 
 following God would have kept them closer to 
 him ; and they even think that he has left them as 
 it were stranded, to punish them for their worldly- 
 mindedness. 
 
 This state of suffering often follows a season 
 during which the heart was filled with intense love 
 to God and Christ so that it was ready to break, 
 from the longing desires it had to go forth after 
 God, in which there was such a view of heaven, 
 and such an antepast of its pure pleasures, that the 
 desire of flight into another world was so strong as 
 to be scarcely resistible. In short, the believer 
 one day is in a state of the most melancholy de- 
 jection ; the next in the chariot of Amminadib — 
 the soul moving with an angel's speed. At one 
 time every affection is frozen ; then again the 
 winter is past, and the rain is over and gone, the 
 
268 ESSAY XI. 
 
 flowers appear in the earth, the time of the singing 
 birds is come, and the voice of the turtle is heard 
 in the land. From the diary of a devoted servant 
 of God we select, from its brevity chiefly, a speci- 
 men of devotional excitement and collapse : — 
 "July 1. Much sweetness of prayer this morn- 
 ing. In the afternoon was sunk and depressed ; 
 seemed a poor, miserable, useless wretch." The 
 description of such alternations of elevation and 
 depression, which have been liberally introduced 
 into the lives of Christians, are surely suffi- 
 cient to illustrate this species of trial to which 
 they are obnoxious, and need not be repeated in 
 future publications. Moreover, we are by no 
 means convinced that there is not virtually a breach 
 of trust in exposing the records of Christian ex- 
 perience, perhaps meant to be secret, to the in- 
 spection of the public. Again, these relations, 
 while they have not benefitted the pious, have 
 been subjects of merriment to the profane. 
 
 They who thus suffer from supposed eclipses of 
 the countenance of God ought to recollect, to use a 
 common illustration, that many a warm heart can 
 feel only by fits, and is often as insensible as even 
 the coldest. We apprehend if the believer, in 
 whose heart the love of God glows the most 
 steadily, were asked whether there were not times 
 in which he was insensible to the goodness of 
 God, his answer would be oriven under a sense of 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 269 
 
 humbling ingratitude. In the diaries of the most 
 eminent Cln-istians nothing is more frequent than 
 expressions of abasement during returning seasons 
 of complete worldly-mindedness. What, then ? Is 
 religion dormant in those times of apathy ? He 
 little knows the power of the Gospel who would 
 draw such a conclusion. To a Christian in a state 
 of desertion, as he calls it, let Satan propose to give 
 all the kingdoms of the world and the glory of 
 them, as a reward, not for falling down and wor- 
 shipping him, but for the deliberate violation of 
 one of the least of the commandments of God, 
 and the great apostate would at once discover the 
 strength of that empire which has been founded on 
 the ruins of his own mighty kingdom. Let not 
 him who is set to obey the law of God faint when 
 he has no sense of the love of God. Clouds often 
 are more needful than sunshine for the Christian 
 when transplanted into a new soil. In the tem- 
 porary absence of holy desires, there may be good 
 counsels and just works which are equally from 
 the Spii'it. Many observant Christians have been 
 taught by experience that there is danger in great 
 Avarmth of devotional feeling. Mrs. Savage, the 
 daughter and sister of two great men, Philip and 
 IVIatthew Henry, has said in her diary, to which 
 Mr. Jay has prefixed a beautiful preface : "I have 
 this week had more warmth in my affections than 
 usual, and herein is my misery, that whereas my 
 
270 
 
 straitness is a means to humble me, my enlarge- 
 ments often help to pufF me up." Mr. Charles 
 has remarked in a spirit of true philosophy — 
 " Great elevations we cannot long enjoy without 
 injury to the soul ; continued sunshine Avould not 
 suit our condition, and even an occasional sun- 
 shine, though necessary to prevent despondency, is 
 scarcely ever vouchsafed, without its being abused 
 in some way or other, by the busy working of sin." 
 
 We were told by one whose days are spent in 
 following righteousness, faith, charity, peace, and 
 whose nights are often past in sleepless depression, 
 that although her principles would not permit her 
 to take an opiate unauthorizedly, yet she rejoiced 
 when she had permission from her physician to do 
 so, as even when it did not produce sleep, it gave 
 her great freedom in prayer. Can it be thought 
 that the tears and sighs of this conscientious suf- 
 ferer, with her disjointed aspirations, were less 
 acceptable to God than those overflowings of de- 
 votional sentiment which depended upon animal 
 excitement, the effect of a drug ? 
 
 What shall Ave say then — shall we discounte- 
 nance fervour of devotion, lest it be followed by 
 exhaustion or insensibility ? God forbid ! Far be 
 it from us to condemn the overflowings of a heart 
 deeply impressed with the goodness of God, so 
 that there be nothing disorderly in their expres- 
 sion. Let all the faculties of the mind, all its 
 
ON DEVOTIONAL FEELING. 271 
 
 affections, every sentiment combine in the worship 
 of God. When we find ourselves active, and alert 
 in body and mind, our spirits high, and our under- 
 standing clear and capable of great things, then 
 let us take ourselves to prayer, be it noon or 
 night, " let us give to God om- best times."* Let 
 us pray for the same spirit which was in David, 
 when in that glorious descant in which, fearing to 
 lose the remembrance of all the benefits which 
 God had bestowed on him, he burst into praise, 
 " Bless the Lord, oh, my soul, and all that is 
 within me bless his holy name." Or let us ex- 
 claim with the Blessed Virgin, " My soul doth 
 magnify the Lord, and my spirit hath rejoiced in 
 God my Saviour." All we would contend for is, 
 that in surrendering ourselves to the work of devo- 
 tion, in devoting ourselves to God, especially in 
 the closet or sanctuary, we are not to forget these 
 two considerations : first, that warmth of devo- 
 tion will produce no benefit unless the fruits of the 
 spirit are thereby ripened ; and secondly, that the 
 languor, coldness, deadness which follow animated 
 exertions, belong to the constitution of the body, 
 and instead of being brooded over, ought to sug- 
 gest the necessity of a change of occupation, 
 whereby the body may be refreshed and the mind 
 unbent. Let the sufferer at the same time be 
 thankful that a low and comfortless frame produces 
 
 * Buchanan. 
 
272 
 
 no desire to return to the pleasures of the world, 
 no inclination to exchange the land of Canaan for 
 the plain of Jordan, though well watered every 
 where, even as the garden of the Lord. 
 
 It has been said that believers have their sum- 
 mer and winter seasons, both necessary, both 
 profitable ; but it does not seem to be sufficiently 
 understood that the latter owes its chill to the 
 former — that cold is much more felt after extreme 
 warmth. In addition to the testimony of Mrs. 
 Savage and Mr. Charles, let us attend to what the 
 pious Rutherford has said upon this subject. " As 
 nights and shadows are good for floAvers, and 
 moonlight and dews better than a continued sun — 
 so is Christ's absence of special use, and it hath 
 some nourishing virtue in it, and giveth sap to 
 humility, and furnisheth a fair field to faith." In 
 concluding we would remark, that while of most 
 men neither the soul nor the body would bear a 
 very long continuance of a highly devotional frame 
 of mind, yet when the affection of the Christian 
 to his God is benumbed, his language ought to be, 
 " I will wait upon the Lord ;" at every appointed 
 season mindful of that promise, " They that wait 
 upon the Lord shall renew their strength." 
 
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