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COMMON MIND-TROUBLES. 
 
COMMON 
 MIND-TROUBLES. 
 
 BY 
 
 y. MORTIMER'GRANVILLE. 
 
 NINTH THOUSAND. 
 
 LONDON: 
 
 W. H. ALLEN & CO., 
 13 WATEELOO PLACE, PALL MALL. S.W. 
 
 1885. 
 
SIOL-LIB. 
 
 Q4i cf fij. SreoJ^erJjJ 
 
 liONDON : 
 PBINTED BT W. H. AliLEN AND CO., 13 WATEBIJOO PliAOB 
 
TO THE READER. 
 
 I AM encouraged by the reception which has 
 been accorded to my previous papers on the 
 subject of mind-troubles, by the press, the 
 public, and the profession, to adventure a 
 further selection. I would only ask the scien- 
 tific reader, if any such should honour this 
 little volume by his notice, to remember that 
 these essays, like those which have preceded 
 them, were not written for persons who have 
 professionally investigated the phenomena of 
 which they treat. The sole purpose has been 
 to seize on a few salient difficulties and grapple 
 with them, in the interests of self-help. The 
 key-note of the theme is the presumption that 
 there is often — if not generally — a stage of con- 
 scious embarrassment preceding mental derange- 
 ment or mind weakness, and while this condi- 
 tion exists there is hope in the power of repair 
 
 202539 
 
vi Preface. 
 
 and self-recovery which exists in the mind not 
 less than in the body. To this belief I must 
 adhere. 
 
 J. MORTIMER-GRANVILLE. 
 Oct, i8'78. 
 
 Note to the Fifth Thousand. 
 
 The success which has attended this series of 
 papers gives me ground to hope they have been 
 found useful. I have therefore determined to 
 issue a new edition, simultaneously with the 
 appearance of a complementary series under 
 the title '' The Secret of a Clear Head." Read 
 together I trust these little books may be 
 helpful in mental hygiene. 
 
 J. M.-G. 
 
 Apfil 1879. 
 
CONTENTS. 
 
 FAGB 
 
 Failings •••••••• i 
 
 Defects of Memory 13 
 
 Confusions of Thought. • • . 23 
 Sleeplessness from Thought . .35 
 Hesitation and Errors in Speech 46 
 
 Low Spirits 57 
 
 Tempers — Good and Bad . . .66 
 ** Creatures of Circumstance* • 78 
 
"l^ 
 
 FAILINGS. 
 
 We all have our failings^ and for the most part 
 we regard them tenderly. They do not count as 
 offences; scarcely are they held to be faults. It 
 is always a probable conjecture that an error of 
 omission has been unintentional; not unfrequently 
 it seems possible it was unavoidable. A sentiment 
 of pity for, and even sympathy with, weakness 
 overpowers the sense of grievance; the voice of 
 the inward monitor is silenced, and the self-excused 
 conscience sleeps. Meanwhile failings are the worst 
 and most mischievous, the deadliest and least curable, 
 of the ills to which the moral nature of man is heir. 
 They are the sources of evil whence spring the 
 blackest vices of human character, the false roots that 
 nourish and sustain its parasites, and steal the sap of 
 its inner life. A failing is not merely negative ; its 
 sinister aspect is one of positive wrong-doing, wherein 
 some behest of the will is disobeyed, a measure of 
 moral power wasted, a rebel habit formed or fostered. 
 To compassionate failings in others is to beg the 
 
 B 
 
Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 question of fact for the sake of politeness ; to look 
 with leniency on the errors which self would fain 
 palliate, by assuming that they are unavoidable^ is to 
 play the traitor to Truth, and let the enemy into the 
 citadel ; whereas conscience is set to guard the nature 
 of man from treachery not less carefully than to 
 protect it against assault. 
 
 Failings may be moral, mental, or physical, as they 
 show themselves in the character, the intellect, or the 
 bodily habit and powers. It generally happens that 
 what strikes the observer as a failing is compounded 
 of errors in feeling, thought, and action combined. 
 The practical question is how the overt evil came into 
 existence ; or, if happily the failing should be detected 
 in an earlier stage of growth, before it has betrayed 
 its presence by ugly consequences, we may ask : what 
 are the mischievous forces, where are they at work, 
 how can they be counteracted ? Why has this person 
 the " faihng " of a tendency to excessive indulgence in 
 drink or the gratification of some unbridled passion ; 
 and that individual a seeming inability to recognise 
 and pursue the right and honest course of conduct 
 . in the presence of any so-called " temptation " or 
 difficulty ? 
 
 A search for the causes, and the conditions which 
 have determined the development, of failings is 
 reasonable, and it will not be profitless. Many of 
 
Failings. 3 
 
 the shortcomings we deplore as irremediable might 
 be amended, perhaps wholly eradicated, if, with the 
 light experience and science can bring to bear on the 
 subject of human character, the will were charged 
 resolutely to look for the hidden sources of weakness, 
 pliability, subjugation to passion, moral obliquity or 
 seeming lack of principle, together with those less 
 blamed but equally disastrous defects, indolence, 
 want of perseverance, and indifference to truth, which 
 combine to form or are themselves what the weak- 
 minded and the unwise call " failings." 
 
 Some of the most regrettable and injurious failings 
 which disfigure and defame the character run through 
 families, appearing in successive generations and seem- 
 ing to be inherited. This theory of their perpetuation 
 is well founded ; and it has been adduced as conclu- 
 sive evidence of the truth of the hypothesis that mind, 
 and, of course, character, is the mere outcome of 
 matter. The force of the argument obviously rests 
 on the assumption that nothing more than, or outside, 
 matter can be transmitted from parent to child ; that 
 a particular constitution of brain and nerve centres, a 
 special arrangement or combination of the elements 
 which compose the mind-organ, may be reproduced, 
 and, if it is, a similarity of character will be entailed ; 
 but as for the independent existence of mind, or spirit, 
 that is a pure figment of the imagination, which science 
 
 B 2 
 
Common Mind-Troubles, 
 
 will sooner or later drive beyond the pale of credulity, 
 and to which, even now, only a few thinkers, crippled 
 by prejudices, avowedly cling ! 
 
 Let us examine this proposition at close quarters. 
 It may be stated thus. All we know of mind is ex- 
 pressed, and understood, by physical agencies and 
 in the formulae of material force. Speech communi- 
 cates thought, and we think in words. The faculty 
 of forming and employing words is a brain function. 
 If a particular region of the brain be injured or 
 diseased, the power of using language, at least in 
 speech, is generally lost. The materialist argues from 
 this and many similar facts that mind is the product 
 of matter. He fails to perceive that the only warrant- 
 able deduction from his own data is that mind or 
 spirit, call it what we will, can only express itself 
 through the brain as an instrument. As well deny 
 the skill or independent existence of a musician 
 because he cannot play the full score of an opera 
 on a flute, as infer the non-existence of a soul from 
 the fact that man cannot perform intellectual work 
 without the organ of thought — the brain ! 
 
 The capacity of the instrument doubtless limits the 
 expression, but it supplies no measure of the power 
 or skill of the performer, except in so far as the use 
 he makes of the instrument may be a bad one. This 
 exception is of great significance, and there will be 
 
Failings. 5 
 
 something more to say about it presently. Meantime it 
 is evident that, while the range of brain-power deter- 
 mines the manifestation of mind, it neither measures, 
 nor affirms, nor disproves the independent existence 
 of mind. The anatomist, the physiologist, and the 
 chemist declare their inability to discover the traces 
 of a soul in the physical organism. That no more 
 proves the non-existence of a soul than the failure to 
 recognise more than a certain number of planets at 
 any stage in the history of astronomy demonstrated 
 that there was nothing further to find. 
 
 History and experience attest the folly of denying 
 the existence of the unknown. And it is especially 
 unwise, or unscientific, to assume the non-existence 
 of a psychical power, working in or through the 
 physical nature of man, because it is only upon the 
 hypothesis that such a power exists we are able to 
 understand and explain some of the commonest and 
 most clearly-defined phenomena of mind and cha- 
 racter. For example, two individuals are found to 
 have had brains of microscopically similar quality, 
 and of equal weight. They are both highly developed, 
 and any differences they present to the critical ob- 
 server, armed with the most subtle tests which science 
 •can devise, are of a nature which experience has 
 shown to be functionally unimportant. The two indi- 
 viduals have, during life, been surrounded by circum- 
 
Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 stances which throw no light on their idiosyncrasies. 
 Nevertheless the moral character of the one has beens 
 wholly bad, that of the other strikingly exemplary. 
 How is it possible to account for this difference except 
 on the hypothesis of a soul ? 
 
 There is no more wide-spread, but utterly ground- 
 less fallacy, than that which strives to associate virtue 
 or vice with particular forms of development. It is 
 true that there are grades of animal excellence, and 
 the lower are likely to be the more brutal ; but the 
 higher and most perfect growth is not only compatible, 
 but frequently found in association, with an excess- 
 of evil attributes. In short, the most delicate and 
 efficient instrument may be put to the worst purposes. 
 What determines the event ? What made this person 
 with the highest intellectual organism an unscrupulous 
 wrong-doer, the enemy of his species, and a discredit 
 to human nature, while that individual with a physical 
 organism so nearly identical that science can detect no 
 difference was distinguished by characteristics entirely 
 opposite ? The superficial answer to this crucial inter- 
 rogatory is : circumstances, education, the influence 
 of example, opposition, health — these, in short, the 
 environments, made the difference. The rejoinder 
 will not stand the test of experience. Let any one 
 turn over in his memory the histories of lives he has 
 observed. The most tenderly nurtured go astray. 
 
Failings, 7 
 
 while, on the other hand, the neglected and, as it 
 would seem, demoralised by "circumstances," rise 
 above the accident of associated evil influences, to 
 attain the highest moral growth. 
 
 The appeal against materialism lies to the instinct 
 of common sense. If mind were the mere outcome 
 of matter, science would long since have discovered 
 some tolerably constant relation between peculiarities 
 of physical development and manifestations of cha- 
 racter ; whereas every step onward in the progress of 
 research tends to disprove the existence of any certain 
 dependency or connection between morals and matter. 
 Even such links as compose the stock-in-trade of the 
 physiognomist and phrenologist are shown to be 
 illusory, except in so far as they may be the effects, 
 rather than the causes, of character, and are produced 
 by culture — witness the effects of education on facial 
 expression in the case of criminals. The theory of a 
 criminal conformation of cranium has been abandoned 
 like the silly affectation of being able to detect an 
 offender by his " hang-dog " or " murderous " look. 
 
 " Failings " must be studied in the light of the 
 lessons these facts and considerations combine to 
 teach. The moral question involved is one of respon- 
 sibility for the use each individual may make of the 
 brain-power allotted to him. The neglect to employ 
 gifts and capacities is as grave an error, from an 
 
8 Co7nmon Mind-Troubles. 
 
 ethical point of view, as their application to a bad 
 purpose. The servant who buried his talent in the 
 earth was held accountable for the failure to use it, 
 and thereby increase its value. The parable sets forth 
 a truth of the highest practical interest. We are 
 responsible for the development, by use, of the facul- 
 ties vouchsafed to us. If they are allowed to remain 
 in abeyance, or a rudimentary state, we are to blame 
 for the deficiencies and the failings to which this 
 neglect gives rise, and are without excuse. The obli- 
 gation to act up to the level of known duty cannot be 
 avoided. A ^^ failing " is an act of contempt for the 
 law of development by use. It is disobedience to an 
 understood command. The fact that it is recognised 
 makes a failing an offence. There may be short- 
 coming in the performance of a good resolve. Few, 
 if any, merely human efforts are entirely successful ; 
 but the failure which occurs when an endeavour is 
 made in the energy of a resolute and well-aimed pur- 
 pose is not so much a fault as an insufficiency. The 
 rising tide reaches its highest level by successive 
 efforts. Self-improvement is effected in the same 
 fashion. The motive power of persistent good endea- 
 vour is accumulative — ever advancing like the great 
 tidal wave of the ocean — though the ground is con- 
 quered by short and seemingly only half-successful 
 advances. 
 
Failings. 9 
 
 Failings, however, as we are now regarding them, 
 are excused faults in the character which the indi- 
 vidual makes no serious effort to repair. Some defects, 
 as we have seen, are inherited, and upon them it is 
 the custom to bestow great commiseration and little 
 blame. Now, in truth, these are the least pardonable, 
 because, if they are known to have been transmitted 
 from parent to child^ the latter has, generally, the 
 advantage of an example, ever present to memory, by 
 which to correct his personal deficiencies. If the 
 ^* failing" be a vicious propensity, he can recall its 
 hideousness, and thus stimulate will and conscience 
 to aid him in eradicating the fault. If it be some 
 form of deficiency, as indolence, lack of perseverance, 
 want of principle, or the like, he can study, as in the 
 pages of history, the evil consequences entailed by 
 the defect, and with diligence order his own conduct 
 in better courses. Inherited failings are the least 
 excusable. Even the materialist, who claims them as 
 the fruit of physical peculiarities, must concede that 
 by special culture they can be remedied, the healthy 
 organism being susceptible of increased development 
 in any particular direction when the proper stimuli 
 are intelligently apphed with a view to its improve- 
 ment. The apologist for failings which have been 
 inherited can find no comfort in the philosophy of 
 materialism. 
 
lo Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 Failings which are peculiar to the individual may be 
 less easy to detect, and the subject of these defects is, 
 in a measure, dependent upon experience and the mo- 
 nitions of those around him for the information needed 
 to correct them. This should keep the wise teachable 
 and apt to profit by the lessons life is ever reading lor 
 their instruction. A self-reliant spirit is manly, and 
 therefore commendable ; a self-sufficient spirit is un- 
 reasonable^ and therefore despicable. It is strange how 
 few of us grow really wiser as we grow older. The work 
 of self-improvement is seldom commenced until forced 
 upon the judgment by some awakening experience,, 
 and this is rarely vouchsafed until the ductile period 
 of youth has gone by. Early in the adult age of man 
 his habits become rigidly formulated, and failings are 
 then hard to mend. A world of unhappiness and dis- 
 appointment might be spared the later years of life 
 if the young would be warned to begin the business 
 of training the character before it is firmly set in the 
 mould of circumstances, with all the coarse elements 
 — ^inherited and contracted — uneliminated, and the 
 errors of inconsistency and imperfect development 
 uncorrected. 
 
 It is in the period of youth and adolescence that 
 the mind may be most hopefully cultivated and the 
 moral character intelligently formed. No greater mis- 
 take can be made by a young and vigorous mind than 
 
Failings, 1 1 
 
 to treat the faculty of reason and the instinct of moral 
 judgment as parts of the being which may be left to 
 their own devices. The young man bestows some 
 thought on his muscular system — he trains his eye, 
 cultivates his ear, and takes credit for prudence when 
 he strives to develop the vigour and to foster the 
 healthy growth of his body. Is it wise — ^nay, is it not 
 rather the worst of folly and shortsightedness — to 
 neglect the ordinary development of those higher 
 powers which man possesses in a more exalted degree 
 than any of the lower animals ? Taking care for the 
 body while the mind is neglected is the worst of 
 failings — the most calamitous and the least excusable. 
 
DEFECTS OF MEMORY. 
 
 The faculty of remembering is not one of the higher 
 intellectual powers or functions. Animals far below 
 man in the scale of intelligence exhibit a capacity for 
 recollecting their associations with places, persons, and 
 events after a long interval of time has elapsed ; and 
 even idiots, with slow and imperfect apprehension, are 
 not unfrequently seen to perform what must, in their 
 condition, be regarded as feats of memory. Never- 
 theless, loss or serious impairment of the faculty will 
 produce grave mental disability; and when either of 
 these evils occurs, in the case of an individual who 
 has previously given no indication of deficiency or 
 defect, the change may reveal ground for uneasiness, 
 and, in every case, must create anxiety to discover the 
 cause. 
 
 Memory, using the term in its popular signification, 
 is made up of two powers or faculties — that of fixing 
 or retaining a subject-thought in the mind, and that of 
 recalling it at will. It is a common experience to feel 
 conscious of knowing a thing — for example, the name 
 
Defects of Memory, 13 
 
 of a person or place, the whereabouts of a missing 
 article, the date or order of sequence of an event — 
 but to be unable to recall the information in detail. 
 Either of these powers may be at fault in a case of 
 " loss of memory ;" and it is of the highest practical 
 moment to ascertain which of the two is defective, 
 not only with a view to repair, if that should be pos- 
 sible, but because a clue may be discovered to the 
 precise nature and cause of the malady. 
 
 The retention or fixing of ideas is very much a 
 matter of habit. There are, doubtless, differences as 
 to the strength and clearness of the original perception 
 which will affect the quality of the impression. Some 
 persons do not receive an idea as rapidly as others, 
 and many who display the greatest celerity of appre- 
 hension seem satisfied with simply taking up an idea 
 for a moment, and letting it drop instantly afterwards. 
 Those who exhibit this peculiarity do not, in fact,, 
 appropriate the object, and convert it into a subject ; 
 they seize on it as a porter grasps a package with 
 which he has no concern — by the cord or corners, or 
 in any way most convenient. Some persons learn by 
 ear, and catch the jingle of word-sounds, not their 
 meaning. Children who have a special facility for 
 picking up verses are seldom really quick in study, or 
 retentive. Others acquire information by the eye ; 
 anything they can picture or dispose in a particulai 
 
14 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 order or place — for example, a square — is appropriated. 
 Such minds are generally endowed with a lively per- 
 ception of form and proportion. A third class of 
 learners are dependent on the power of connecting 
 scraps of information for their retention of facts ; they 
 seem to be perpetually making a piece of patchwork, 
 and anything that can be tacked into a notch, or on 
 to the extremity, of the work in hand can be received, 
 while what is not capable of being so placed is sacri- 
 ficed, however valuable. All these, and many similar, 
 methods are peculiarities in the way of receiving im- 
 pressions or ideas; but, speaking generally, they do 
 no more than lodge the subject in the outer chamber 
 of the mind, from which it may be swept by the first 
 rough wind, or roughly ejected on the slightest internal 
 commotion. 
 
 When therefore the memory becomes a blank, or 
 seems to have suddenly shifted and lost its cargo, it is 
 necessary, in the absence of any significant symptom 
 of disease, to inquire whether what has happened is 
 not simply the discharge of useless lumber. This sort 
 of experience occurs not uncommonly just as a youth 
 has completed that which is, under a serious mis- 
 apprehension of facts, called his " education ;" and 
 many a poor fellow has been driven to distraction, 
 hounded on by professional harpies, with the dread 
 'that he is sufiering from some terrible and life-blighting 
 
Defects of Memory. 15 
 
 defect. What has taken place is the sudden heeling 
 over of a deck-laden craft, with the discharge of her 
 laboriously collected but badly stowed cargo into the 
 sea. If the vessel rights herself quickly, it is no bad 
 thing to have got rid of the incumbrance, although it 
 may be provoking to reflect that it is too late to put 
 back into port and load again. The only expedient is 
 to haul on board some of the more useful portions of 
 the floating wreck and stow them in the hold. A 
 break-down of this nature happens every now and 
 again, and will occur while the practice of "cram- 
 ming " boys at school and at college for " competitive " 
 examinations continues to find favour. It was a so- 
 cially and mentally mischievous thought that notion of 
 " competitive tests ;" and among the suflerers are not 
 only the many youths and young men who experience 
 the mind-panic to which we are alluding, but the mul- 
 titude of overtaxed and weakened brains that are 
 abandoned as incapable — among them some of the best 
 for real work — by competitive teachers and trainers of 
 the young, who conform their educational methods to 
 the spirit and fashion of the day. 
 
 When loss of memory occurs in the manner indi- 
 cated, whenever it happens soon after leaving school, 
 on the completion of any great eflbrt, or at the 
 moment when the mind is for the first time brought 
 face to face with the real business of life, instead of 
 
1 6 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 giving way to crazy alarm the victim of this misfortune 
 should set to work to repair the loss caused by the 
 accident, not by repeating the errors of a faulty edu- 
 cational process, but by developing his faculty of 
 retention by honest and patient work in a new and 
 healthy direction. In short, one half the so-called 
 cases of *^ loss of memory " are simply the break-down 
 of a training which has been unnatural. The circum- 
 stance that the faculty of remembering seems to be 
 itself impaired by the catastrophe is not in the least 
 surprising, because, in addition to the immediate 
 effects of the shock, there is the discovery that the 
 power of retention is in truth wanting. The real 
 faculty of memory has not been developed by the 
 system adopted, and the untrained mind has to be 
 cultivated anew. Only what has been thoroughly 
 learned can be perfectly remembered, and no process 
 other than that which brings the natural faculty of 
 knowledge into active exercise can perform the true 
 functions of memory, or is worthy to be so called. 
 
 The fixing of subject-matters in the mind depends 
 directly on the manner in which they are received 
 and dealt with in thought, immediately after they 
 have been appropriated, while the power of re-col- 
 lecting the ideas or impressions put away in the mind 
 is the outcome of an orderly method of arrangement, 
 and for this reason always susceptible of development. 
 
Defects of Memory. 17 
 
 Just as an orderly but forgetful person may deposit an. 
 article carefully in a suitable place and afterwards be 
 wholly unable to find it, so a mind may have treasured 
 up an idea thoroughly and safely, but be at a loss to 
 recover it when v/anted in conversation or thought. 
 It is the fashion to assert that in such a case there 
 must have been something amiss in the process of 
 "putting away." There may have been a defect in 
 this stage, but that is not a necessary inference from 
 the fact of forgetting. The fault is quite as often in 
 the manner of looking for an object or an idea as in 
 placing it. Very much depends on the knowledge an 
 individual possesses of his intellectual property. If 
 he is in the habit, so to say, of frequently taking out 
 his treasures of information and his ideas and examin- 
 ing and dusting them, he will probably be able to find 
 them readily when required. 
 
 It is doubtless very unscientific to employ such a 
 simile, because, as everybody knows, or thinks he 
 knows, ideas are registered by the combination, or 
 some change in the constitution, of cells in the cere- 
 bral tissue of the brain ; but for plain folk the notion 
 of "placing" and "finding" ideas at will is more 
 intelligible than the jargon of scientists, and possibly 
 fully as accurate. The one point to make clear is 
 that inability to remember is as often a fault in method 
 as a defect of power ; and every sufferer should exhaust 
 
 c 
 
1 8 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 all the milder and more comprehensible hypotheses 
 of his difficulty before he worries himself with the 
 graver and less easily remedied. To throw a few 
 practical hints together, I may jot down the following 
 results of experience and observation. 
 
 It is seldom any good to goad the memory roughly 
 in a moment of forgetfulness. Instead of making a 
 violent and distressing effort to find the right word, if 
 it does not suggest itself, think of another that will do 
 as well; possibly the defaulting term will thus be 
 recovered by association; if not, another may be sub- 
 stituted. It is annoying to forget a familiar name or 
 term; but the feeling of chagrin, and the collateral 
 disturbance caused at the moment, are little likely to 
 strengthen the memory. An idea, term, or phrase, 
 which has not quickly responded to the call of the will, 
 should be made the subject of special thought and 
 examined at close quarters — in fact, learnt — when it is 
 found. In this way the memory may be strengthened, 
 whereas by conflict at the critical moment of forgetful- 
 ness it will be weakened. It is useless^ and worse, to 
 resort to what are called technical memories. The 
 inducement to adopt formulae of facts or figures is 
 very strong when the pressure of work to be "got up" 
 in a given time is great ; but the practice is ruinous to 
 the faculty of thought, because it not only throws it out 
 of use, but cripples it 
 
Defects of Memory. 1 9 
 
 The way to fix a subject in the mind is to master 
 it thoroughly under all its aspects, so that the Reason 
 and Judgment may be familiar with it, each in its 
 province appropriating some special fact concerning it. 
 Real knowledge of a subject implies its being brought 
 in detail to the direct cognisance of each of the leading 
 powers or faculties of the mind in turn, so that if one 
 forgets, the others will recall, it People take only a 
 passing glance at an object, and wonder they cannot 
 recollect it. The faculties differ in their power of 
 retention. In some minds Reason is the most highly 
 gifted with the power of taking in, or perhaps finding, 
 subjects. When this is the case, the individual re- 
 members only what he has reasoned about ; and, if he 
 has forgotten anything, he must search it out and 
 recover it by a process of reasoning, or it will be lost 
 Every thoughtfiil mind should try to ascertain which 
 of its constituent faculties is the most effective in this 
 work and train it for the purpose. Half the folk who 
 go through life bemoaning their want of memory have 
 excellent faculties ready for the business of recollec- 
 tion, but from ignorance or inattention persist in 
 imposing the task on the most incompetent; for 
 example, striving to remember by the ear when sight 
 is their best remembrancer, or trusting to the special 
 senses when the reasoning faculty has special fitness 
 for the function. Memory is not so much a faculty as 
 
 c 2 
 
ao Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 a function, which may be performed by either, or 
 several, of the powers of mind ; but these require to 
 be specially cultivated. 
 
 It follows from what has been said that " defects of 
 memory " are of very diverse natures, and need to be 
 closely investigated before any general conclusion is 
 drawn from the mere fact of partial impairment 
 or even total failure. Some of the phenomena of 
 disease are extraordinary. There may be loss of 
 power to remember the occurrences of a particular 
 period of life, near or remote. This form of malady 
 is — in the absence of special brain disease— generally 
 more closely connected with the function of apprehen- 
 sion than with that of recollection; the least well- 
 appropriated facts are those forgotten. Again, there 
 may be failure with respect to certain classes of sub- 
 jects — for example, dates and figures — or the defect 
 may be limited even to certain numbers. Often when 
 this happens there has been, in former years, either 
 excessive activity with regard to the particular subjects 
 of thought which are, as it were, effaced from the 
 memory, or they were never thoroughly mastered. 
 Some scientists explain these peculiarities by the hypo- 
 thesis that certain congeries of corpuscles in the brain 
 have been destroyed. It may be so ; but the circum- 
 stance that occasionally the whole blank is refilled, as 
 though by an electric shock, would seem to show that 
 
Defects of Memory. a i 
 
 they are rather thrown out of the vital circuit for a 
 while by some diversion or interruption of the current. 
 The hypothesis of science is obviously susceptible ot 
 this interpretation of the facts. Any cause or state 
 which impairs the integrity of the circulation of blood 
 through a part of the brain, or disturbs the rhythm of 
 nerve energy, may impair the memory; and this is 
 why loss of memory or disorder of the function comes 
 to possess grave interest. 
 
 It is, however, important to disabuse the mind of 
 the mischievous impression that failure of memory 
 must needs be a sign of disease, whereas it may be 
 the consequence of defective training or overloading. 
 Meanwhile it is necessary to realise that probably no 
 early indication of brain disturbance is likely to be 
 more significant than this mental peculiarity. The way 
 to test the symptom subjectively is to cast about for 
 any possible cause of bodily weakness — anything that 
 is likely to have impoverished the blood, or lowered 
 the tone of the system — such as loss of appetite, or 
 deficiency of nourishment, either in respect of quantity 
 or quality, the abuse of stimulants, or excess of any 
 kind, which produces depression after temporary ex- 
 citement, loss of sleep, undue bodily or mental labour, 
 constitutional disease, in short anything which will 
 weaken or exhaust. If a cause is discovered, it must, 
 if practicable^ be instantly removed, and the effect 
 
22 Common Mind-Troubles, 
 
 watched. If no serious harm has been done, and the 
 real source of the mischief has been discovered and 
 removed, the brain will resume its normal condition, 
 slowly perhaps, but sufficiently soon to show that the 
 true method of treatment has been adopted. 
 
 These cases of loss of memory are nearly all 
 amenable to self-help, and while the physician may 
 fail, and the empiricist do dire mischief with his 
 " opinions " and his drugs, the intelligent sufferer can 
 cure himself. The golden maxim of health, and the 
 precept of self-recovery, is capable of expression in 
 one word, " Order." This is the universal law of 
 natural life. It governs society, and it must control 
 the individual. Tested by this standard, all that is 
 right, true, moral; and excellent in conduct will be 
 readily distinguishable from the wrong, the false, the- 
 unholy, and the despicable. Life itself, in its integrity, 
 is orderly action, and every defect of life, every form 
 of disease, all failure whether of body or mind — and 
 failure of memory among the multitude of unnatural 
 phenomena — is the fruit and consequence of a lack of 
 order. In its lighter manifestations defect of memory^ 
 is due to the disorderly management of thought ; in 
 its graver forms it is the consequence of disorder in 
 the nutrition and action of the brain. 
 
CONFUSIONS OF THOUGHT. 
 
 To become confused in thinking is a common-place 
 experience, but it is often the cause of great dis- 
 comfort, and when of frequent occurrence begets the 
 fear of permanent derangement. Sometimes the 
 thoughts seem to crowd in on the mind, Uke a pack 
 of wolves, with furious rush and almost savage im- 
 petuosity, while the consciousness is scared, and 
 helpless to resist the onslaught or re-estabHsh order. 
 In this condition of affairs the mental instrument or 
 organism, the part with which we think, is weakened 
 either by disease of the body affecting the mind, as 
 when a person is struck down with fever or any other 
 malady producing wild delirium ; or by the exhaustion 
 following continuous strain in a particular direction, 
 as when the thoughts are fixed too long on some 
 subject of anxiety or perplexity. This state is also 
 apt to occur when the blood is impoverished, and the 
 brain is pressed to work without sufficient nourish- 
 ment, or cheated to use up and exhaust, in its ordinary 
 business by the abuse of alcohol and other stimulants. 
 
24 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 the strength Nature designs to be stored for a time ot 
 sickness or extremity. 
 
 The confusion that takes the form of violent dis- 
 order of thought is nearly always due to a physical — 
 that is, a bodily — cause, and must be met by measures 
 adapted to the improvement of the general health. 
 Sometimes the evil may be cured by a judicious 
 alteration in the character of the food, and the avoid- 
 ance of drinks that give energy for the moment at the 
 cost of collapse afterwards. A new order of meals, a 
 totally different, though equally, or more, nutritious, 
 diet ; longer, or occasionally less sleep, may inaugurate 
 a better state of matters ; but often it takes more than 
 this to mend the mischief Change of scene and / 
 complete diversion of thought into fresh channels may 
 be necessary. Nearly always there is some potent, 
 though hidden, perhaps unsuspected, cause at work 
 undermining or disorganising the bodily, and indirectly 
 the mental strength. 
 
 In another condition, somewhat resembling that 
 already described, but essentially differing from it, 
 there is an inroad of thoughts, less like ravening 
 wolves than silly sheep, that seem to come tumbling 
 over each other in sheer stupidity. The sensation is 
 rather plaguing than appalling, but it is wondrously 
 annoying, and, if not remedied, may in the long run 
 prove fully as troublesome, and even disastrous, as the 
 
Confusions of Thought, 25 
 
 more vehement malady to which we have alluded. In 
 some instances there is a considerable element of the 
 grotesque in this experience, and the possessor of a 
 mind so disordered passes for a wit ; but the humour 
 is maudlin, and the current is uncertain; he breaks 
 down suddenly in his play of pleasantries, and the 
 watchful observer can detect the signs of conscious 
 weakness and inability to revive the unnatural gaiety 
 of a false state. When there is no conscious humour 
 in the whirl of thoughts, it may be simply worrying 
 or distressing, as when the mind longs to be at rest, 
 " if it were only for a short half-hour ;" or is earnestly 
 desirous of fixing itself on some topic — perhaps one of 
 serious or even solemn concern — but cannot comman 1 
 the attention. 
 
 Sufferers from this form of confusion go on for 
 years, harassed and exhausted by the turmoil of living 
 in a crowd and din of thoughts from which escape 
 seems impossible. The disorder — like the rapid pass- 
 ing of scenery as one is borne along a line of railway 
 at high speed, like the ceaseless rush of water, like the 
 swarming of bees — pursues its victim even into the 
 realm of sleep. Of course persons who are so affected 
 do sleep, and the brain rests, or they would not be 
 able to go on year after year with impunity ; but they 
 have none of the comforting sensations produced by 
 natural repose ; they feel awake and worried, or be- 
 
26 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 wildered up to the last moment of consciousness, and 
 they rise, without any sense of being refreshed, to a 
 state of weariness which ill befits them for the struggles 
 and anxieties of another day. 
 
 This is a /^^/^^-disturbance, in contradistinction ta 
 that indicated above, although in a large proportion 
 of instances the state was first established by the 
 irritation set up in the course of some bodily disease ; 
 or it has become confirmed — so to say, stereotyped on 
 the brain — by prolonged physical suffering. For the 
 time being, whether it be brief or long, the mind is 
 incapable of acting as its own master, and is practi- 
 cally a mere piece of machinery for making the 
 simplest impressions perceptible to the consciousness, 
 without order or judgment, and with little or no power 
 of distinguishing between the pictures derived directly 
 from the external world through the senses, and those 
 that come tumbling out of the recesses of the memory 
 as though some mental house-cleaning process were 
 on hand, and the whole establishment in the direst 
 confusion. The faculty of " thinking " seems to be in 
 abeyance, and the consciousness is a forced spectator 
 of the disorder on its own premises, powerless alike to 
 restrain or re-arrange. 
 
 The cure for this state of mind is generally com- 
 plicated and too often impracticable. The cause 
 must be removed, and as this is not unfrequently 
 
Confusions of Thought. 27 
 
 inseparable from the mode of life, the personal state^ 
 and entangling circumstances of the sufferer, to insist 
 on the first condition of recovery is like commanding 
 the rising tide to retreat. That is why so many 
 persons struggle on year after year under this form of 
 confusion; and, unless relief is afforded by the course 
 ot events, weak minds finally succumb to the worry 
 without respite. Anything that will break the mono- 
 tonous rhythm of a life thus wearing itself away may 
 be the means of recovery. Sometimes domestic 
 calamities are blessings in disguise, and in after-times 
 there is cause to look back with gratitude on what at 
 the moment of its infliction appeared an overwhelming 
 disaster. Of course the pleasurable reliefs are the 
 most to be desired, and they accomplish a cure with 
 the least risk and greatest celerity. Meanwhile it is 
 noteworthy that minds labouring under this peculiar 
 form of weakness, and seemingly ever on the brink of 
 ruin, are not especially prone to be crushed by any 
 great sorrow or to be unseated by a sudden shock. 
 Their peril is that of exhaustion by the worry that 
 haunts them ; in other respects they are as strong as 
 the average of intellects, and hence the good prospect 
 of cure that lies in the path of proper treatment, 
 whenever, happily, that is practicable. 
 
 Next to the removal of the cause of this mind-state, 
 and sometimes, though rarely, successful without its 
 
28 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 removal, is the inspiration of new vitality into the 
 Will. By a strong effort of the judgment the mind in 
 certain instances reclaims control of its own territory. 
 This is a noble triumph of " self-help " at which all, 
 especially those who are unable to shake off the coil 
 of crushing circumstances, should aim, and upon 
 which the intelligent mind should set and centre its 
 remaining strength. There is a wonderful faculty of 
 self-development in every part of the being of man, 
 whether mental or physical, and each faculty grows by 
 use. The effort which succeeds in restoring order, or 
 keeping the rushing thoughts disentangled if not 
 orderly, does more than passing good ; it reconquers 
 some portion of the province of mind from the rebel 
 crew who run riot and threaten to perpetuate the 
 confusion that reigns within. 
 
 The best method of procedure is to busy the faculty 
 of thinking with some unaccustomed topic — the way 
 to do something, or the cause and reason of an un- 
 explained phenomenon. It is generally useless to try 
 to mend the confusion by a direct effort to control the 
 thoughts. The sovereignty of the will can only be 
 re-established by an exercise of independent authority 
 acting at first in a new sphere. For example ; let the 
 sufferer select a subject and manner of thought of 
 which he has no previous experience. The desultory 
 thinker may commence the study of mathematics; 
 
Confusions of Thought. 29 
 
 while the mind accustomed to figures should be en- 
 grossed with history or fiction. In any case^ and 
 whatever the subject selected, the exercise which is to 
 be remedial must be undertaken as a task^ a certain 
 number of pages set down to be read or transcribed^ 
 whether the attention is interested or not. Persever- 
 ance, and a renewal of the effort at stated times, say 
 once or twice a day, always as a duty imposed by the 
 will, and enforced by the same authority, generally 
 succeed. If in process of time the mastery is so far 
 recovered that a complete train of reasoning can be 
 pursued without irritation, the gain will be considerable. 
 The confusion of which we are now speaking may 
 be experienced in any degree, from that occasional 
 loss of the command of thought which begins in 
 desultory thinking or reverie, to an utter lack of any 
 power to do more than lie at the mercy of thoughts 
 which neither are bidden nor can be dismissed. The 
 points to make clear are (i) that the condition is 
 essentially mind-debility, and (2) that it has been 
 brought about either by weakness of the controlling 
 power, or rebellion of those agents of the conscious- 
 ness whose function it is to perform the duty of 
 impression receivers and carriers, to bring the inner 
 self into relation with the outer world, and inform and 
 affect it with the intelligence of events transpiring 
 around. When these agents are not under discipline. 
 
30 Common Mind-Troubles, 
 
 they come rushing into the presence with burdens of 
 all descriptions — ^good, bad, and worthless — and heap 
 them on the mind, with no regard to will, order, or 
 memory. 
 
 There are other forms of confusion of thought 
 which might be particularised, but they all group 
 under one or other of the two broad classes I have 
 attempted to describe. The confusion may be general 
 or partial, impairing the thinking powers as a whole 
 and in relation to every variety of subject, or relating 
 only to some. It may apply to past events, categories 
 of names and numbers, or only to trains of reasoning 
 in which something has to be " thought out," and the 
 mind is found incapable. These are points of dis- 
 tinction of great interest to the psychologist, but 
 scarcely worth the attention of a sufferer who is 
 interested to get rid of the burden rather than to 
 examine its intimate nature and construction. Undue 
 anxiety about the subjective symptoms of the malady 
 is to be avoided; and, although to some tempera- 
 ments it is a relief to understand an enemy, little is 
 likely to be gained by dwelling upon the evil. Better 
 far concentrate effort on the work of self-cure. 
 
 Every known cause of weakness must be eradicated 
 from the habits of life ; the Will is therefore the first 
 agent in the task of recovery. Regrets are useless, 
 and mere wishes will be vain. "Resolutions" and 
 
Confusions of Thought, 3 1 
 
 ** intentions " are generally of no force. The resolves 
 begotten of fear are the least trustworthy of all. If 
 the mind has been weakened by vicious self-manage- 
 ment, or by allowing petty annoyances to get the 
 better of the judgment, it is not much good to vow 
 and protest amendment. The simplest and least violent, 
 or demonstrative, processes of persuasion are always the 
 best in dealing with self. Never mind the future, and, 
 as far as possible, forget the past. Man lives in the 
 present, and this matter of self-remedy is an affair of 
 now. It is because we find the sorrow of evil courses 
 to be an immediate experience that we try to reform. 
 The conscious misery of being unable to command 
 one's own thoughts should be enough to make any 
 man or woman anxious to regain the lost, or restore 
 the failing, power of self-control. To accompHsh this 
 result, the authority of the master-faculty of mind 
 must be instantly brought into action. " Why is 
 this susceptibiHty or that propensity my tyrant?" 
 ^* Why do these troubles so deeply affect me ? " ** Why 
 am I the slave of a particular impulse ? " These are 
 the questions the Judgment must ask itself; and 
 when the humiliating answer comes, "I have neg- 
 lected to fortify my mind against these annoyances," 
 or, **I have allowed my inclinations to run away 
 with me," Will should re-assert its supremacy with 
 the self-respect becoming a faculty which was destined 
 
32 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 to command, but, through error or indolence, has 
 sunk to obey. 
 
 Those who allow their whole being to engross 
 itself with circumstances, and never rise above the 
 dead level of surrounding and pressing facts, are 
 always likely to be overwhelmed by the afflictions 
 of the life that absorbs them. The road is ever 
 rough and troublesome to those who tread the path 
 with eyes bent on its ruggedness and difficulties. 
 It is sorry work tearing through the brambles with- 
 out the hope of rest and a compensating pleasure 
 beyond, and, when the eyes are never lifted above 
 the jungle, a man might, for all mental and moral 
 purposes, as well grope his way through one of those 
 dense forests where the light of day never penetrates 
 and the air is stagnant and reeks with wild decay. 
 Those who are void of any hope and comfort in life 
 except that which they can pick up in its dark re- 
 cesses and on hard flinty roads fall an easy prey to 
 gloomy and plaguing thoughts, which nothing but 
 a better and higher view of the present and the 
 future can amend. 
 
 The feelings do not become blunted by misfortune ; 
 the faculty that feels grows more acutely irritable as 
 its peculiar function is exercised on trifling annoy- 
 ances, until at length the whole sensibility becomes 
 morbid and the mind diseased. The like is true of 
 
Confusions of Thought. 33 
 
 the effect produced on propensities and inclinations 
 which are allowed to throw off their allegiance to the 
 authority of Judgment and Will. Each act of re- 
 bellion confirms the spirit of revolt, and quickly the 
 unbridled instinct or appetite — be it vanity, or the 
 passion for pleasure^ or anything else — begins to 
 usurp control of the higher faculties it has deposed. 
 In process of time it obtains the mastery of the mind 
 itself, and the individual becomes insane. 
 
 This is the painful and humiliating history of many 
 a ruined life. The evil began in the indulgence of a 
 wanton, because undisciplined, ambition or longing 
 for self-gratification. The licence was repeated ; and, 
 as a spoilt child, the aspiration, whatever it may have 
 been, became importunate. Before long the Judg- 
 ment ceased to be consulted ; next the Will lost the 
 power to check ; and then, growing with its rebellion, 
 the insurgent instinct succeeded in subjugating the 
 faculties of mind one after the other until all mental 
 power became the slave of the tyrant, and the errant 
 forces fell to destroying each other, or to revolving 
 round a single " fixed idea." 
 
 To avert this mischief there is only one possible 1 
 remedy, and that is the recovery of self-control. Con- 
 fusion of thoughts is disorder, and the disorderly 
 action of forces which are endowed with the highest 
 
 D 
 
34 Common Mind- Troubles. 
 
 powers of influence for good or evil can never be safe. 
 The wear and tear of mind and of the intellectual 
 gear is self-destructive, and the smallest damage to 
 the supreme power and authority of the Will ought to 
 be instantly and earnestly repaired 
 
SLEEPLESSNESS FROM 
 THOUGHT 
 
 Inability to stop the rush or flow of thoughts often 
 seems to be the cause of wakefulness ; but it may be 
 the inabiUty to sleep that throws the brain into a state 
 of worrying excitement. This last explanation is the 
 more probable, because the thoughts that engross or 
 distress the mind as the head lies sleepless and un- 
 resting on its pillow are more forcible, vivid, and, 
 generally, painful, than those which engross the atten- 
 tion by day. In part, this intensifying of thought by 
 night is due, no doubt, to the exclusion of external 
 objects and impressions. The mind is, as it were, 
 thrown in on itself, and left a prey to its own reflec- 
 tions. There is, however, more in the exaggerated 
 and distorted state of thought, when the brain will 
 not or cannot sleep, than mere isolation explains. If 
 the mind is absorbed or engrossed within itself by 
 day, when there is no question of sleep or sleepless- 
 ness, however oppressive or torturing thought may 
 prove, it does not lose the faculty of 'estimating sorrows 
 
 D 2 
 
35 Common Mind-TroMbles. 
 
 and losses, pains and gains, by comparing them with 
 other experiences ; whereas, it is one of the disagree- 
 able features of sleepless thought, that the most • 
 trifling evils and causes of anxiety assume unnaturally 
 vast proportions, so that what would occasion no 
 distress by day, is the source of acute suffering or 
 annoyance at night. 
 
 From these and other circumstances and experiences 
 it may be concluded, that what is called " sleeplessness 
 from thought" is, in fact, a state considerably more 
 compHcated and unnatural than the phrase implies. 
 It is a condition in which the brain, so to say, stops 
 short on the way to sleep, and the mind, being adrift 
 from its moorings to firm fact, is tossed up and down^ 
 and to and fro ; while, ignorant of its position, it still 
 busies itself with the objects on shore, until their 
 bearings and proportions are lost or confounded. This 
 is why those who are habitually sleepless find it good 
 policy to get up and read when the fit of wakefulness 
 comes on. Not only does the act of reading produce 
 drowsiness, but the mind is prevented from passing 
 into a state of turmoil so distressing and injurious as 
 that which too commonly occurs in sleeplessness from 
 thought. 
 
 The loss of power to cast off the burden of tiie 
 day, and find rest in unconsciousness or forgetfulness 
 at night, is one of the greatest of personal afflictions. 
 
Sleeplessness from Thought. 37 
 
 Only those who have endured it know how terrible 
 this experience, in its worst form, may prove. There 
 is no escape anywhere, no respite, no — even momen- 
 tary — lessening of the strain on the mind, when sleep 
 is impossible ; and the worry is increased when the 
 mind, instead of finding ease, falls into a state in 
 which every source of disquietude seems exaggerated. 
 Sleeplessness of this sort is often the prelude — and it 
 may be either the first indication, or itself the cause — 
 of insanity. The condition into which the mind is 
 thrown when endeavouring to sleep is essentially 
 unsound and tends to disease. 
 
 Physicians, realising the peril of the position, give 
 their patients a drug of some sort to procure sleep. 
 They do this with the double purpose of breaking the 
 habit of wakefulness when this has been formed, and 
 of rescuing the mind from a condition in which it is 
 unsafe. The method of treatment would be more 
 satisfactory if we could only believe that what is called 
 " sleep " would put an end to mental activity. Un- 
 fortunately there is little ground for such a hope. " To 
 sleep — perchance to dream !" The gain will be small 
 if the mental disquietude and disturbance are not 
 relieved by the poisoned and mimic sleep produced by 
 drugs. The danger will be only masked, not removed. 
 Those who adopt this treatment point to cases in 
 which, after a few doses of a sleep-potion, the sufferer 
 
38 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 has regained the power of falling asleep naturally. 
 Such patients have undoubtedly been benefited by 
 something, but it is still an open question whether the 
 relief may not be due to mental influence rather than 
 the medicine. However this may be, the point in 
 which we are chiefly interested is the state which 
 precedes and seems to bar sleep. We recognise its 
 perils ; in what way or by what means may they be 
 avoided ? 
 
 Examined closely, the condition of thought-worry 
 preventing sleep will be found to be one in which the 
 thinking faculty is beyond control. We may start a 
 subject, but we cannot either keep the attention fixed, 
 or compel thought to take rational and comparative 
 views of the objects presented to it. There is a 
 tendency to exaggeration, which the judgment is 
 powerless to restrain or correct. There is at the 
 same time another peculiarity, which throws more 
 light on the nature of the condition, namely, an 
 impulse to repeat ; the mind goes over the same 
 ground again and again. The explanation of this 
 phenomenon is simple and suggestive; there is a 
 perpetual endeavour to sleep, and although the circum- 
 stance may not be recognised, each train of thoughts 
 breaks off at the precise moment when it ought to 
 become a dream, and every recommencement s a 
 new departure after a fresh act of wakefulness. 
 
Sleeplessness from Thought. 39 
 
 It requires careful notice of the subjective symp- 
 toms to perceive the real nature of this experience. 
 The faculties appear to be fully awake and in great 
 activity, but their highly sensitive state is the effect 
 of an arrest of the tendency to sleep. This is the 
 counterpart of what some individuals feel when they 
 are too suddenly awakened. They seem to be con- 
 scious, and to recognise the persons and objects 
 around them ; but a sense of apprehension, amount- 
 ing almost to horror, holds them spell-bound, and 
 fancy colours the scene with hues in harmony with 
 the disordered state of thought. This happens on the 
 way back to perfect wakefulness, when the return is 
 tardy. The condition we are describing occurs on the 
 road to sleep, when the way is barred. The point to 
 make clear is, that it is quite as likely the distressing 
 thoughts of a sleepless person are the consequence of 
 the wakefulness, as that the inability to sleep is occa- 
 sioned by thinking. 
 
 Thoughts, passing through the mind when the 
 brain is falling into a state of sleep, ought to be of a 
 nature to change easily into a dream. They are 
 essentially transitional, half-defined ideas and infer- 
 ences, like those present to the consciousness of a 
 person slowly awakening, until he is thoroughly 
 aroused. The problem is to carry the mind over 
 the boundary line, and convert what is conscious 
 
40 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 but uncontrollable thought into a dream. If this 
 can be accomplished naturally — that is, without the 
 aid of drugs, which stupefy the consciousness and 
 burlesque the state of sleep rather than produce it — 
 the subject of thought will be soon changed, and 
 oblivion, or at least forgetfulness, induced. The 
 solution of this problem may be attempted by either 
 of two processes. 
 
 I. A particular thought, or train of thoughts, pre- 
 sent to the mind may be seized upon at the moment 
 of their occurrence, while as yet they are manageable, 
 and turned into grotesque, thus preparing them to 
 become the material or centre of an amusing dream. 
 This method is less easy to describe than to carry 
 out ; but experience proves that it is abundantly 
 efficacious. Fancy must be directed to play with the 
 thought, and weave a little scene or story out of its 
 slenderest threads. Just enough effort to preserve 
 the connection of ideas is necessary, or the expedient 
 will fail, thought reverting to its former worrying 
 courses. The secret of the method lies in holding the 
 thought fixed, and projecting the train of ideas by 
 fancy on a line which may carry it into dreamland, 
 the dreaminess of thought inducing sleep. This is a 
 perfectly natural and rational process, and it is harm- 
 less, whereas the production of stupefaction by drugs 
 is artificial, and more or less perilous to brain and 
 
Sleeplessness from Thotcgkt. 41 
 
 mind. The one lulls the consciousness to sleep, the 
 other overpowers it with a poison. 
 
 2. The alternative mental method by which sleep 
 may be sought, consists in giving thought a mono- 
 tonous task in the way suggested by those who can 
 win sleep by counting, repeating, and the like expe- 
 dients. This is more difficult in really bad cases of 
 ** sleeplessness from thought " than that first described 
 — in which an idea, or train of ideas, already present 
 to the mind, is converted into grotesque. The mind 
 is not easily taken out of itself when engrossed with 
 worrying topics, and, though fancying corn-fields and 
 rising tides, or counting and piling up packages, or 
 smoking an imaginary pipe, and watching the clouds 
 of tobacco-smoke rise over the head — so as to direct 
 the eyes upwards as in sleep — are good enough 
 devices, it is not always practicable to shut out dis- 
 tressing or plaguing ideas, and concentrate the atten- 
 tion on these meaningless conceptions for the full 
 success of which the sleep-wooer needs a vacant 
 rather than a harassed mind. It is an effort quite as 
 great as the wakeful, but worried, can make, to turn 
 a troublesome thought into grotesque imagery ; but 
 this is easier than to call up a wholly new and 
 incongruous idea. 
 
 It may be worth while to try the connecting and 
 monotonous imagining method familiar to everybody , 
 
42 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 but when that fails, as it generally does, recourse 
 should be had to the artifice I have suggested ; and as 
 a rule it will be found to succeed, although at first, if 
 the mind be possessed by unpleasant broodings or 
 bodings, the effort to think grotesquely will be grim 
 and resented. For instance, a man plagued with dis- 
 tressing circumstances, and dreading ruin, should 
 force his mind to pursue the train of thought until the 
 comic side of a reverse ot fortune becomes apparent — 
 following out the straits to which he will, perhaps, be 
 reduced, some new phase of life upon which he may be 
 compelled to enter, the strange acquaintances he is 
 likely to form, the wonderful scenes he will witness, 
 and the remarkable places he may visit. The element 
 of probability must be disregarded, and the mind 
 allowed, or rather compelled, to work out the idea. 
 The effort will, at the outset, be laborious and uncon- 
 genial, but unless the mind be wholly devoid of 
 humour, the severity will relax, and with relief will 
 come sleep. 
 
 " Sleeplessness from thought " is, as I have tried to 
 show, not unfrequently wakefulness induced by phy- 
 sical conditions, and thought as a consequence. It is. 
 quite as easy to carry exertion beyond the limits of a 
 natural longing for repose, and past the point at which 
 the brain readily finds relief in sleep, as to stop short 
 of the necessary but undetermined and ever varying 
 
Sleeplessness from Thought. 43. 
 
 measure of exercise required to favour sleep. The 
 majority of persons who suffer from persistent wake- 
 fulness, are addicted to excess of activity rather than 
 indolence. They work hard and exhaust themselves, 
 though not in the right way. Some are too much 
 engrossed with pleasure, and dissipate their strength ;. 
 others are so absorbed with work, that they cannot 
 shake off its obligations in the time set apart for rest. 
 Perhaps the most general cause of sleeplessness 
 of the kind we are considering, is the habit of carrying 
 work over from day to day, instead of parcelling it 
 out so as to create natural breaks in the enterprise, 
 when the mind can rest with the consciousness that 
 duty has been discharged, and a task accomplished. 
 Nothing so much conduces to sleep as the feeling 
 of contentment, and this feeling can generally be 
 produced by giving the mind a tale of work in the 
 morning, which may be completed before the time of 
 rest. When the obligation has been fulfilled, the 
 mind seeks, and generally finds, repose as the re- 
 compense of its toil. To break off suddenly in the 
 middle of labour, and expect to command sleep at 
 call is unreasonable. The relations of body and 
 mind are intimate, but it is seldom that the physical 
 part of man's nature can be so subjugated that he 
 shall sleep instantly at will. Regularity is essential 
 to orderly and harmonious working, and not mere 
 
44 Commo7i Mind-Troicbles. 
 
 punctuality as to the measure of time, but the fulfil- 
 ment of the day's duty within the time allotted for its 
 performance. 
 
 It is a common mistake to plan the business of 
 the following day at night. This is like turning over 
 a new page, when the book should be closed and 
 laid aside. The task of laying out schemes for the 
 future ought to be the first duty on waking, and if it 
 were then discharged, many mischievous dreams, and 
 much of the feeling that a whole night has been spent 
 in dreaming, would be avoided. The fatigue of a 
 reluctant waking, with no immediate purpose present 
 to the mind, often undoes the effect of rest in sleep. 
 When people begin to toss on their pillows, they 
 should rise ; or if that be impossible, then begin' 
 to arrange the work of the coming day. Each night 
 should see the book of life closed with the feeling that 
 the account has been duly made up. It is the task 
 of the morning to carry over the debit or credit, and 
 start afresh. No one who is wise will risk the peril of 
 carrying over the balance before sleep. There are 
 iifty physical and mental reasons why the balance 
 of the day*s work should not be even, struck at night, 
 but one is all-sufficient. Sleeping on resolves for 
 self-improvement is a mistaken policy ; in the interval 
 of sleep the motive-effort subsides, and the evening 
 and morning story seldom agree. Better far finish 
 
Sleeplessness from Thought. 45 
 
 the work of the day, close the record, and seek rest^ 
 When the consciousness returns, examine the situa- 
 tion, lay plans for the future, and while the impression 
 lasts, act on it. 
 
 We are too fond of moralising at night, and of 
 resuming the business or pleasures of life in forget- 
 fulness of the lessons taught, and the resolves sug- 
 gested by reflection, after the lapse of memory which 
 sleep even in its lightest forms supplies. Sleeping 
 and waking are states which are mutually dependent,, 
 and must succeed each other in orderly sequence if 
 health is to be preserved. Life is very much an affair 
 of rhythm, and a sound mind in a sound body can be 
 secured only by concord, method, and orderly self- 
 control, by the WilL 
 
HESITATION AND ERRORS IN 
 SPEECH. 
 
 Speech is, in a practical sense, more than the mere 
 instrument of thought. It is so far an essential part 
 of the faculty or function of "thinking," that little 
 beyond a simple recognition of the impressions re- 
 ceived through the sensations can be accomplished 
 without the aid of language — at least in one of its 
 elementary forms. Thought and speech are so con- 
 nected, that it is impossible to separate them. It is 
 not a necessity that speech should be articulate and 
 audible. It may be set in any key, from the loudest 
 voice-utterance to the mere self-conscious conception 
 of certain sounds, as when a person thinks the pro- 
 nunciation of a word, clearly marking its peculiarities 
 in his own mind, but in a manner imperceptible to 
 any one else. If the performance of this act — pro- 
 nouncing a word in thought — be closely examined, it 
 will be found that there is an impulse, as it were, to 
 move the lips and tongue, but so restrained, that 
 commonly no obvious muscular action takes place. 
 
Hesitation and Errors in Speech. 47 
 
 There are exceptions to this limitation which not only 
 prove the rule, but show how intimately thoughts and 
 actions are connected. 
 
 In sleep, during dreams, and in the case of some 
 persons, especially the aged and feeble-minded, when 
 awake, the lips move with nearly every thought, 
 though no audible sound is emitted. When the 
 restraint, normally exercised, is less forcible, or the 
 impulse stronger, the thinker involuntarily speaks his 
 thoughts ; and comical stories are told of persons who 
 have betrayed their real sentiments inopportunely by 
 this process of thought-speaking. Faults in speech 
 are, therefore, likely to be due to defects in thought, 
 the two faculties being mutually dependent; or the 
 reverse may be the case, and impediments and errors 
 of speech react mischievously on the mind. Much 
 interest and importance attach to the conclusion 
 arrived at with respect to the real cause of the hesita- 
 tion or error which marks the utterance of any 
 particular sufferer. 
 
 First, make quite sure that it is not ordinary con- 
 fusion of thought, consequent upon a slovenly habit of 
 thinking or the miserable practice of allowing thoughts 
 to drift, which has produced the faltering or mistake 
 that occasions anxiety. Many persons permit their 
 minds to become overrun with tangled scrub, so that 
 nothing short of the most acute or agile powers of 
 
48 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 way-finding can carry a thought safely through the 
 domain, and then they complain of the difficulty of 
 thought-driving ! Clear away the jungle that renders 
 the mind impassable, and thought will no longer be 
 found to wander by circuitous paths, and too often be 
 irrecoverably lost. The only measure by which this 
 self-improvement can be accomplished is one of 
 culture j the degree of labour required will vary from 
 that of a settler in the backwoods, who finds it 
 necessary to clear and dig every square yard of the 
 land he would convert to useful purposes, to the 
 ordinary weeding and breaking the clods which may 
 suffice to repair the results of a single season of 
 neglect. In any event, however great or small the 
 task may be, the cultivation must be accomplished, or 
 this, tlie most troublesome and inconvenient cause of 
 speech-blundering, a weedy, tangled, and lumpy state 
 of mind cannot be remedied. We are not now con- 
 cerned with faults of the motor apparatus or mechan- 
 ism of the voice; and, excluding these, it may be 
 asserted that, of all causes of hesitation or error in 
 speech which lie, so to say, deeper than the surface, 
 the neglect of self-control in thought is the most 
 common and, in many senses, the most mischievous. 
 
 If a person who has previously been an easy and 
 fluent speaker begins to hesitate in his utterance, 
 there is generally reason for anxiety. Supposing the 
 
Hesitation and Errors in Speech, 49 
 
 general health to be good, and nothing specially 
 notable to have happened in the life of the individual 
 which might have produced what is commonly called 
 a " shock " to the mind or the nervous system, there 
 is probably some physical or mental disorder in the 
 background, to which attention should be directed. 
 If the cause be physical, the attempt to speak will 
 generally be accompanied by trembling or twitching 
 in the muscles of the mouth, the lips, the nose, or the 
 jaw. Should any such symptom be perceptible to 
 friends, or self-detected, it will be wise to seek medical 
 advice without delay, because it may be produced by 
 conditions the most important, or comparatively trivial, 
 and no one except a skilled practitioner can determine 
 from which of several sources the agitation springs ; 
 whether it indicates mere weakness or serious disease. 
 Commonly, when there is none of this trembling or 
 twitching, and sometimes even when these are present, 
 the hesitation is mental. Either the mind is too busy 
 with a crowd of thoughts to maintain proper command 
 of the word-finding function, or that faculty is so 
 enfeebled that it seems incapable of any reasonable 
 activity in the service of the Will. It is quick enough 
 in the response to influences which have no right to 
 usurp control, but when the master-spirit of thought, 
 the Judgment ruling by the Will, issues a mandate, 
 the faculty is powerless to obey. This comes of a 
 
5o Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 riotous or vicious habit of thinking. The mind- 
 weakness which results from the terrible error of 
 mental dissipation, whatever the direction in which 
 the thoughts are permitted to disport themselves, is 
 one of the most perilous conditions of exhaustion into 
 which the faculties of a still sound brain can be 
 allowed to sink. It is a state of which the mind in 
 danger is itself conscious long before any indication 
 becomes recognisable by others. Hesitation in speech 
 is one of the earliest external symptoms which indicate 
 this malady, but when that occurs, the weakening 
 power has generally been in secret operation for a 
 length of time sufficient to accomplish serious mischief. 
 It is not, as a matter of fact, too late to mend matters ; 
 but the individual who has permitted his mind to pass 
 into this condition has incurred a great peril. 
 
 This is a point on which it is necessary to speak 
 plainly. Habits of musing, brooding, or conjuring up 
 mental pictures and scenes in which the thinker is 
 himself an actor, and into which he gradually brings 
 his faculties of imagination, and even his sensations, 
 are the overlooked, the unconfessed, perhaps the 
 unrecognised, causes of by far the larger number of 
 attacks of ** insanity." And, though it seems cruel to 
 say so, the great majority of poor creatures, especially 
 the younger and middle-aged persons, who with 
 wrecked minds drag out weary years in lunatic 
 
I 
 
 Hesitation and Errors in Speech, 5 1 
 
 asylums have themselves to thank for the experience. 
 Any one of a score of existing causes may over- 
 balance the mind or occasion the outbreak and deter- 
 mine the particular form the mind-malady ultimately 
 assumes ; but the predisposing cause which renders 
 the disaster possible and entails all the evil conse- 
 quences is the morbid habit of allowing the thoughts 
 to wander uncontrolled, at first innocently, then in 
 forbidden paths, and finally wherever the haunting 
 demon of the inner life, a man's worse nature, his evil 
 self, may lure or drive them ! 
 
 The habit of preoccupation which sometimes shows 
 itself by hesitation in speech is less dangerous than 
 weakness, but it should not be neglected. Having 
 ^* too much to think about " is not so bad as having 
 exhausted the power of voluntary thought, but it is an 
 evil. " Too much " does not always mean more than 
 the mind ought to be able to receive and deal with. 
 It is quite as often too much for the defective discip- 
 line of thought maintained, as really more than a due 
 quantity for the mind engaged if the business of 
 thinking were properly conducted. There is a marked 
 tendency in modern education — and it increases each 
 year — to neglect the training of minds. The subjects 
 which were principally useful for purposes of mental 
 •development and exercise are being eliminated be- 
 cause they do not commend themselves to the com- 
 
 £ 2 
 
52 Common Mind-Trottbles. 
 
 mercial instinct of the day as producing marketable 
 information. Greek, Latin, mathematics, and the Uke^ 
 are not possessed of a high value in the mart of com- 
 merce or on 'Change, and they are therefore lightly 
 estimated. 
 
 We are beginning to reap the fruit of this time- 
 serving policy in education, and it takes the form of a 
 general break-down of young minds when set to any 
 duty which involves dealing with a crowd of thoughts 
 at once. The untrained and disorderly thinker cannot 
 choose his words, he has " no time '' to arrange them^ 
 and can seldom find them when wanted. He is 
 "thinking of something else." It has come to be 
 thought rather clever to be "abstracted," and " so 
 engrossed," " with many things to think about 1'^ 
 These are the pitiful excuses offered by a generation 
 of incompetent and confused thinkers when their 
 speech betrays them. A clever talker will often 
 bridge over the gap between two right words in place 
 of interposing a wrong one. It is amusing and, in a 
 certain sense, interesting to notice how admirably this 
 is done by self-possessed though confused speakers ; 
 but the evil of disorderly thought lurks behind, and 
 may be detected through the flimsy, though ingenious, 
 artifice. 
 
 The remedy for a growing hesitancy in speech, 
 when not the result of serious mind-weakness — and 
 
Hesitation and Errors in Speech, 53 
 
 the person affected is generally secretly conscious of 
 the cause — is a better method of thinking. The first 
 effort must be to preserve greater calmness: the 
 second, to be more orderly in thought. There is 
 a process in thinking which is the counterpart of 
 dotting the ^''s and putting in the stops in writing, or 
 of knotting the thread and " fastening off" securely in 
 needlework. If this be neglected, as it commonly is 
 by what are called rapid — another word for careless, 
 reckless, or impetuous — thinkers, entanglement and 
 confusion in thought, showing themselves in hesitation 
 and errors of speech, are inevitable. 
 
 Verbal blunders are generally due to confusions of 
 thought, but sometimes to disease. It is important 
 to distinguish between the two varieties of this fault 
 The former is a matter for self-improvement, the latter 
 will require medical aid. If the mistakes made seem 
 to follow no particular line of error — if they are, so to 
 say, general or capricious, the wrong words substituted 
 for what it was wished to say being taken at random, 
 perhaps from some other sentence at the moment 
 darting across the mind — the "confusion" may be 
 safely set down as one to be cured by mind-discipline. 
 If, on the contrary, particular words, previously 
 familiar and ready at hand, are forgotten, certain 
 numbers dropped out of memory, and a sort of 
 method seems to determine the occurrence of faults 
 
54 Common Mind-Troubles, 
 
 in speaking or writing, the matter may be more serious^ 
 and advice should be sought. It is a curious feature 
 of the early forms of speech-disorder springing from 
 physical sources — for example, incipient disease of the 
 brain — that particular elements of knowledge seem to 
 be effaced, and special processes of thought or reason- 
 ing can no longer be performed, although the great 
 mass of mind-work goes on unimpaired. 
 
 A world of trouble would be saved if, in all mental 
 derangements, apart from brain-disease, persons who 
 feel things going amiss with them (and I am convinced 
 this premonition of mind-disorder is a common expe- 
 rience), whether the sensation be one of " irritabihty '^ 
 or of " confusion," would undertake of their own free 
 motive, to cure the evil by subjecting the consciousness 
 to a regular course of training. The best plan is ta 
 set the mind a daily task of reading, not too long, but 
 sufficiently difficult to give the thoughts full employ- 
 ment while they are engaged. This should be per- 
 formed at fixed hours. Perfect regularity is essential, 
 because the object is to restore the rhythm of the 
 mind and brace it up to higher tension. When, as in 
 the class of cases we are considering, hesitation and 
 errors in speech are the characteristic symptoms of a 
 break-down or impaired vigour of mind, much good 
 will often be done by reading aloud for an hour or 
 more daily to the family. 
 
Hesitation and Errors in Speech. 55 
 
 It is not only useless but harmful to read aloud 
 when alone; the mind conjures up an imaginary 
 audience, and this habit of " conjuring up " things is 
 one of the short cuts to insanity which should be care- 
 fully avoided, more particularly by those who are 
 most expert in the exercise — the highly imaginative. 
 Another drawback consists in the fact that when a 
 person reads aloud, without a real audience to engross 
 that portion of the thoughts which will wander from 
 the subject, the mind becomes engaged with the sound 
 of the voice through the faculty of hearing; and this 
 paves the way for other mischief. It is by gradually 
 substituting in fancy, and then mistaking, their own 
 voices for those of other beings that the weak and 
 morbidly-minded become impressed with the notion 
 that they are honoured or plagued, as the mood may 
 determine, with communications, super or extra- 
 natural — which are in truth the echoes of their own 
 imaginary utterances. 
 
 By reading aloud any healthy and improving work 
 which is so interesting as to engage the thoughts, the 
 strained connections between thought and speech will 
 be relieved. Properly employed, this is one of the 
 most patent and effective of remedies for disorders of 
 the faculty of speech ; but it is essential to success in 
 the experiment of self-cure that the book read should 
 be of a nature to interest, and sufficiently difficult to 
 
^6 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 hold the attention. In some cases the exercise is 
 rendered more effectual by reading aloud in one lan- 
 guage from a work written in another — for example, 
 a French book to an English audience. This gives 
 practice in the choice of words, and brings the memory 
 into play, the two faculties it is desired to develop and 
 strengthen. Hesitation and errors in speech are of 
 great moment, view them as we may. In their less 
 serious forms they demand a vigorous effort for self- 
 improvement ; in their more grave varieties they por- 
 tend they existence of perils to brain and mind 
 
LOW SPIRITS. 
 
 There is enough in the daily experience of life to 
 depress the feehngs and rob the mind of its buoyancy, 
 without having to encounter lowness of spirits as a 
 besetting mental state or malady. Nevertheless, it so 
 frequently assumes the character of an affection essen- 
 tially morbid, attacks individuals who are not naturally 
 disposed to despondency, and gives so many un- 
 mistakable proofs of its close relations with the health 
 of the physical organism, that it must needs be included 
 in the category of disease. The constitutional melan- 
 choly which distinguishes certain types of character 
 and development, is a setting in the minor key rather 
 than depression. Within, the compass of a lower 
 range, individuals of this class exhibit as many changes 
 of mood as tnose whose temperament is, so to sa)-, 
 pitched higher, and who therefore seem to be capable 
 of greater elation. 
 
 It is important to ascertain at the outset whether a 
 particular person upon whom interest may be centred 
 is not naturally characterised by this restrained or 
 
58 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 reserved tone of feeling ! Unhealthy conditions of 
 mind are generally to be recognised by the circumstance 
 that they offer a contrast to some previous state. 
 The movable, excitable temperament may become fixed 
 and seemingly unimpressionable, the self-possessed 
 begin to be irritable, the calm, passionate. It is the 
 change that attracts attention, and when low spirits 
 come to afflict a mind wont to exhibit resilience and 
 joyousness, there must be a cause for the altered tone^ 
 and prudence will enjoin watchfulness. Mischief may 
 be done unwittingly by trying to stimulate the un- 
 controllable emotions. 
 
 There are few more common errors than that which 
 assumes lowness of spirits to be a state in which an 
 appeal should be made to the sufferer. We con- 
 stantly find intelligent and experienced persons, who 
 show considerable skill in dealing with other mental 
 disorders and disturbances, fail in the attempt to 
 relieve the pains of melancholy. They strive by 
 entreaty, expostulation, firmness, and even brusque- 
 ness, to coerce the victim, and prevail upon him to 
 shake off his despondency. They urge him to take 
 an interest in what is passing around, to bestir him- 
 self, and put an end to his broodings. This would be 
 all very well if the burden that presses so heavily on 
 the spirit simply lay on the surface, but the lowness 
 of which I am speaking is something far deeper than 
 
I 
 
 Low Spirits. 59 
 
 can be reached by "rallying." It is a freezing of 
 all the energies ; a blight which destroys the vitality, 
 a poison that enervates and paralyses the whole- 
 system. 
 
 It is no use probing the consciousness for the cause 
 while the depression lasts — as well look for the weapon 
 by which a man has been struck senseless to the earth, 
 when the victim lies faint and bleeding in need oi 
 instant succour. If the cause were found at such a 
 moment, nothing could be done to prevent its doing 
 further mischief Supposing it be discovered that the 
 malady is the fruit of some evil-doing or wrong 
 management of self, the moment when a crushed 
 spirit is undergoing the penalty of its error is not 
 that which should be selected for remonstrance. It 
 is vain to argue with a man whose every faculty of 
 self-control is at its lowest ebb. The judgment and 
 the will are dormant. The show of feeling made by 
 the conscience in the hour of dejection is in great 
 part emotional, and the purposes then formed are 
 sterile. The tears of regret, the efforts of resolve, 
 elicited in the state of depression, are worse than 
 useless ; they are like the struggles of a man sinking 
 in a quicksand — they bury the mind deeper instead of 
 freeing it. 
 
 The state of mental collapse must be allowed to 
 pass; but here comes the difficulty; the moment 
 
6o Com^non Mind-Troubles. 
 
 reaction takes place, as shown by a slight raising of 
 the cloud, it will be too late to interfere. The mind 
 will then have entered on another phase not less 
 morbid than the depression which it has replaced. 
 There is no certain indication of the right moment to 
 make the effort for the relief of a sufferer from this 
 progressive malady. The way to help is to watch the 
 changes of temperament narrowly and, guided by time 
 rather than symptoms, to present some new object of 
 interest — a trip, an enterprise, a congenial task — at 
 the moment which immediately precedes the recovery. 
 The soul lies brooding — it is about to wake ; the pre- 
 cise time can be foreknown only by watching the 
 course of previous attacks ; whatever engrosses the 
 rousing faculties most powerfully on waking, will 
 probably hold them for awhile. It is a struggle be- 
 tween good and healthy influences on the one hand, 
 and evil and morbid on the other. If it be earnestly 
 desired to rescue the sufferer, the right method must 
 be pursued, and wrong and mischief-working proce- 
 dures — among which preaching, persuading, moralis- 
 ing, and rallying are the worst and most hurtful — 
 ought to be carefully avoided. When the thoughts 
 are revived and the faculties rebound, they must be 
 kept engaged with cheering and healthful subjects. 
 
 There is no greater error than to suppose good has 
 been accomplished when a melancholic patient has 
 
I 
 
 Low Spirits. 61 
 
 been simply aroused. The apparently bright interval 
 of a malady of this class is even more perilous than 
 the period of exhaustion and lowness. The moment 
 the mind resumes the active state, it generally resumes^ 
 the work of self-destruction. The worst mischief is 
 wrought in the so-called lucid interval. The con- 
 sciousness must be absorbed and busied with healthful 
 exercise, or it will re-engage in the morbid process 
 which culminates in depression. The problem is to 
 keep off the next collapse, and this can be accom- 
 plished only by obviating the unhealthy excitement 
 by which it is commonly preceded and produced. 
 Healthy activity promotes nutrition, and replenishes 
 the strength of mind and body alike \ all action that 
 does not improve the quality of the organ acting,, 
 deteriorates it and tends to pervert normal function. 
 
 The continuous morbid state of melancholy is 
 progressively built up of successive attacks of lowness 
 and despondency. It is in the intervals of seeming 
 relief, while this deadly work is in progress, that the 
 cause may be discovered, and probably removed. In 
 most cases the sufferer is conscious of the way the 
 depression has been brought about, or of the train of 
 reflections by which it has been ushered in ; but it 
 is vain to hope, and a mistake to try, to elicit the 
 fact by questioning. The existence of any known 
 cause will be repudiated. Unless the patient becomes 
 
62 ^ommon Mind-Troubles. 
 
 his own physician, there is little chance of a direct 
 cure. 
 
 The mind commonly varies in mood with the state 
 -of the body, and when energy is exhausted, the im- 
 pulse or flow of the animal spirits is checked. De- 
 pression often springs from a physical cause, and if 
 no mistake were made in dealing with it, small mischief 
 would result. Unhappily, serious misconception pre- 
 vails. It has been discovered that by the use of a 
 stimulant the reserve of nervous strength which 
 nature has designed to act, not merely as a resource 
 in emergency, but as the foundation stock of energy, 
 the basal cause of resilience — as the contained air of 
 a bagpipe — may be pressed into the service of the 
 passing moment \ and careless of the ruinous impoHcy 
 of this resource, stimulants are administered, and the 
 excitement produced is mistaken for healthy action. 
 The exhausted brains, irritable nervous systems, im- 
 paired intellects, incapable of any useful work, and 
 the blighted lives, of those who resort to this pernicious 
 palliative for low spirits, should warn the sufferer 
 inclined to try the expedient, and act as a deterrent to 
 friends searching for a remedy. Lowness is exhaus- 
 tion, and anything which tends to use up the reserve 
 of strength, must ultimately increase the evil it is 
 meant to cure. By stimulating instead of nourishing 
 the brain, the mind is, in process of time, reduced to 
 
Low Spirits. 63 
 
 a condition of lasting incompetency, whereas, without 
 such mistaken assistance, it would, probably, recover 
 its buoyancy. 
 
 There is always danger of converting a mere tempo- 
 rary suspension of function, dependent upon recover- 
 able debility of an organ, • into permanent incapacity 
 by pressure of excitement, while the lapse of power 
 continues. The peril is especially great in relation to 
 functions of the brain. It is therefore a measure of 
 common prudence to treat the state o£.Jow spirits as 
 one of temporary exhaustion, and to give time for 
 recovery by the process of brain nutrition. If a mind 
 is conscious of having passed through one cycle of 
 elation and depression, it should avoid the cause, 
 whatever that may have been. It is always a wretched, 
 and generally a ruinous bargain, that a debased judg- 
 ment makes with self for the purchase of a transient 
 pleasure. The prudent will not thus barter mental 
 strength and sanity for a passing distraction. It 
 matters little what the dissipation may be, except that 
 some forms of self-gratification ruin body and mind 
 together : however unnatural, or untimely, or inordi- 
 nate, excitement is brought about, it acts in the same 
 pernicious way, impairing, and at length destroying, 
 the vitality. 
 
 It would be difficult to name any state or mood so 
 commonly deplored and little understood, as this we 
 
64 Common Mind-Troubles, 
 
 are considering. Men and women may drag out 
 weary existences in sorrow and difficulty, enduring 
 that most poignant of pains, the heartache, without 
 suffering from this malady. The depression they 
 experience is rather that of crushing and pressure than 
 exhaustion. The mind makes an instant effort ta 
 rise when a gleam of hope, however weak and evan- 
 escent, glints across the path. It is astonishing how 
 elastic are the healthy spirits, and with what ready 
 energy they recover when relief comes. Meanwhile, 
 the loss of resilience which supervenes on repeated 
 exhaustion increases with each attack. The truth 
 about this lowness will never be known, unless its 
 real nature is recognised. AHenists speak of *^ rotary 
 mania," in which paroxysms of excitement and periods 
 of melancholy succeed each other. This is only an 
 intensified development of the state we are speaking 
 about. Periodic attacks of low spirits — call the mood 
 by what name we may — are morbid manifestations of 
 the same kind, though less in degree, and as yet 
 unformulated. 
 
 Let those who suffer from this infliction beware ; 
 let them above all things, recognise the nature of 
 the malady, and foresee its issue. Let them also 
 realise how completely, at the outset, the prevention 
 of the evil lies within the scope of their own powers 
 of self-help. When once the disease has passed 
 
I 
 
 Low Spirits. 65 
 
 beyond this early stage, it rests with others to help ; 
 and if they will ponder the hints here thrown together, 
 they may be able to avoid doing mischief, and perhaps 
 lend lasting aid. Two opposite extremes are to be 
 avoided with equal care — doing too much, and doing 
 too little. The error of interference in cases where 
 meddling must be mischievous must be great ; but 
 the fault of standing by idly while poor folk drift into 
 hopeless melancholy or dementia is greater. It needs 
 extraordinary patience and a large share of natural 
 intelligence to determine when and how to interpose. 
 I have tried to show that the time must be judged by 
 the period of the attack rather than the symptoms ; 
 and it follows from what has been said that the 
 endeavour must be to lead the mind back to health 
 by new paths which shall awaken new sentiments and 
 call up fresh impulses. The two most deadly perils 
 to be avoided are despondency and quackery. There 
 is always hope in Nature loyally obeyed^ and despaii in 
 ** special " treatment, however sagaciously applied. 
 
TEMPERS— GOOD AND BAD. 
 
 Bad temper, or, more accurately speaking, want of 
 temper, is one of the most regrettable and the gravest 
 defects of character. The explosive irritability that 
 makes a man "boil over," as the saying is, "like 
 milk " when heated by the slightest provocation can- 
 not be set down as by any means the most serious 
 form of fault. It stands in the same relation to real 
 malignity as, what is commonly called, " nervousness " 
 to cowardice. The man who starts at the cracking 
 of a piece of furniture may not flinch before the 
 onslaught of a deadly foe ; trembling at an unexplained 
 sound or shadow, he may stand with a face of flint 
 when known danger has to be encountered. In the 
 same way the superficially excitable are often the 
 most self-controlled and imperturbable when the first 
 outburst of passion has, so to say, cleared the atmo- 
 sphere. Such temperaments may not conduce to the 
 easiest relations and the smoothest intercourse in 
 domestic or social life, but they are incomparably 
 more compatible with the requirements of genuine 
 
Tempers — Good and Bad, 67 
 
 friendship than many of the placid and inscrutable 
 mental constitutions not so readily understood. 
 
 Temper of mind and character is something akin to 
 the tension of strings in a musical instrument, or the 
 temper of steel. If the stretch be equally distributed, 
 the sounds produced, or the cohesion and elasticity 
 possessed, are well formulated and trustworthy. If 
 there be faults in the quality or character, the vibra- 
 tions fail to emit a true tone, and the strength is 
 treacherous. In short, temper is an outcome of per- 
 sonal constitution in which the separate qualities and 
 the mutual reactions of mind and body play a con- 
 spicuous part. To grasp the subject in any scientific 
 sense it would be necessary to take into account more 
 •of the mental and physical properties than can be 
 comprehended within the limits of a brief paper. Let 
 ius rest content with a cursory glance at some of its 
 •more practical phases. 
 
 The emotional part of man's nature seems to lie 
 near the surface, and responds most readily to those 
 external impressions which act superficially. This is 
 why " feeling," in its popular sense, affords no certain 
 measure of the inner and deeper qualities of sympathy 
 and benevolence. The sentimentality expressed by 
 the emotion may be great when there is little or no 
 real interest or kindness. The surface is stirred by 
 the passing breeze, but the depths are sullen and stilL 
 
 F 2 
 
68 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 On the other hand, a deep current of genuine feeling 
 beneath may impart so much motion to the whole that 
 the surface will be less responsive to external influences, 
 just as the flutter of a falling leaf may ripple the mirror- 
 like pool, while a stone hurled into the strongly 
 running stream will scarcely disturb it. 
 
 The annals of crime curiously and painfully illustrate 
 the value, or rather worthlessness, of what is called 
 " feeling." Not a few of the most malignant and 
 cruel murders have been perpetrated with remorseless 
 ingenuity, occupying months or even years in elabora- 
 tion, by men and women of highly emotional natures^ 
 and exhibiting traits of acute sentimentality and quickly 
 responsive feeling. Some of the notorious poisoners 
 have been persons of almost preternaturally sensitive 
 organisation. Nothing therefore can be inferred from 
 the mobility of a temperament as to the qualities of 
 heart that underlie the demeanour. Nevertheless there 
 ought to be a general accord between the upper and 
 lower strata of the character, and, if the psycho- 
 physical constitution be well grown and tempered^ 
 there will be conformity. 
 
 Tempers are " good " or " bad " as they hold the 
 qualities, the properties of mind and body in unison. 
 It is too much the practice to judge temper less by the 
 general character than by its accidental peculiarities. 
 If the temper always, or even commonly, reflected the 
 
Tempers — Good and Bad. 69 
 
 character, of which it is only a quahty, this rough and 
 ready method might be permissible ; but that is 
 rarely the fact. The majority of mankind have been, 
 so to say, beaten into shape and moulded by associa- 
 tions. The result of this education by circumstances 
 is found to be a heterogeneous rather than a perfectly 
 consistent character, and without homogeneity there 
 cannot be an accurate and equable temper. *^ Hasty " 
 tempers are the product of an irritabihty that often, if 
 not generally, lies on the surface. The fault is nearly 
 always due to some want of confoiTnity in the relations 
 of mind and body; one is weaker than the other. 
 The weak of body are irritable because their physical 
 powers do not instantly and adequately fulfil the 
 behests of the mind. 
 
 Perhaps there is no more persuasive evidence in 
 support of the belief that the brain is only the instru- 
 ment, not the source and factor, of mind, than the 
 impatience with which the Will overrides, and the 
 intolerance with which it treats, the brain-weaknesses 
 and incapacities of which the mind is self-conscious. 
 Take, for example, the irritability begotten of a sense 
 of humiliation and vexation because it is impossible to 
 encounter the ills of daily life with greater equanimity 
 — a common cause of irritability, which is seldom 
 understood, and for which few persons make allow- 
 ance, though it is extremely painful to the sufferer. 
 
Common Mind- Troubles. 
 
 What is this temperament but a mind irritated by the 
 weakness or imperfection of its own brain-power? 
 The individual is irritable because he is irritable. 
 Cause and effect are confounded, and the conscious- 
 ness is embarrassed by the inability to extricate itself 
 from the tangle. Those who are worn by pain or 
 worrying distress of body or mind know by bitter expe- 
 rience how terrible this irritability is ; and how small 
 is the sympathy to be expected from those around. 
 A most painful self-consciousness of this kind is that 
 endured by persons in seeming health but of weakly 
 physical constitution, and those who are the victims of 
 secret suffering. The struggle to be calm, to exercise 
 self-control, to blunt the sensibility to petty annoy- 
 ances, to oppose a bold and courageous front to cir- 
 cumstances, is exhausting, and matters grow worse 
 instead of better, despite the effort and wasted 
 strength. It may be some consolation, and even 
 helpful, to those affected with this form of irritability 
 to know that their peculiarity is not wholly unrecog- 
 nised, and that it arises from bodily causes, although 
 the experience is mental. 
 
 The weak or small of mind, on the contrary, suffer 
 less inconvenience from their irascible tempers than 
 they inflict on those who are exposed to their fury. 
 The full-blooded and passionate have generally more 
 animal force than they know how to keep under 
 
I 
 
 Tempers — Good and Bad. 71 
 
 proper control. The superfluous energy must find a 
 vent, and, provided always that this can be accom- 
 plished harmlessly, the explosion, though unpleasant, 
 is not to be regretted. Vigorous constitutions caged 
 by local disease or disabihty are especially prone to 
 this form of outbreak. In the case of prisoners it is 
 often developed to the dimensions of a periodic 
 malady, and, the storm being misunderstood, is too 
 frequently punished as a new crime or intentional 
 act of rebellion, whereas it ought to be treated as an 
 explosive disease. 
 
 The remedy for this last-mentioned form of " tem- 
 per," whether the mind be healthy but small, or 
 morbid or unoccupied, which is much the same in 
 effect, should be sought in work. The physical force 
 needs to be utilised, and it will be well if it can be 
 turned to account with some worthy purpose and 
 result. If the " Bengal tigers," and the passionate 
 folk generally, of all ages and conditions of life, who 
 storm and rage through the world, to the discomfort 
 of those with whom they are brought into contact, 
 could be supplied with congenial occupation, and a 
 vent for their energy in some useful physical enter- 
 prise they would be spared many regrets, and those 
 around them much needless annoyance, and even 
 injury. The self-cure of this temperament should 
 take the form of exercise, of sufficient quantity and 
 
72 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 kind to give the body more work, and the mind 
 better command of the organism and machinery for 
 which it is responsible. 
 
 The reverse order of temper — the sullen and un- 
 impressionable — is generally to be regarded with 
 distrust or anxiety. There is a certain stolid tem- 
 perament, the complement of stupidity, of which no 
 judgment can be formed except from the character as 
 a whole ; it may be either the fruit of general inert- 
 ness, or a lack of quick sensibility, under which lurk 
 the vices of pure animalism. When, however, we 
 find a cold immovable exterior with indications of 
 quick intelligence behind, there is reason to mistrust 
 appearances, and cherish some fear of the reserve 
 maintained. It would not be universally just, but it is 
 generally true, to say of these mysterious tempera- 
 ments, that they are dangerous. The moral nature 
 seems hide-bound. The inner being, the "heart" — 
 call it what we may — is not in natural relations with 
 the outer world ; companionship, in any real sense, is 
 difficult, and confidence, unless it has been engendered 
 by long observation of conduct, is impossible. The 
 temper may be stable, but it is not trusted, because it 
 lies beyond the reach of ordinary social tests, and 
 affords none of the familiar and accepted indications 
 of character. It is like a barometer with the face 
 covered. The mercury may be duly affected by the 
 
Tempers — Good and Bad. 73 
 
 external conditions, but there is nothing to show that 
 it is, and the individual is a moral sphinx. 
 
 When an immovable temperament is allied to a 
 kindly and honest nature, the individual is at first 
 regarded with suspicion, if not dislike; and if, in 
 process of time, he comes to be understood, he is 
 respected rather than loved. There can be no 
 question that this frigid, insensible exterior, with an 
 unimpassioned character, is to be regretted. Those 
 who feel themselves dissociated, as it were, from those 
 around them by the lack of average sensibility, will 
 do wisely to cultivate the emotions, at least so far as 
 to obtain command of the faculty of expression. It is 
 a misfortune to be so reserved that confidence cannot 
 be inspired, even when the real feelings are genial 
 and benevolent. Sometimes this reserve is simulated 
 rather than actual. An acute sensibility may be 
 repressed by the spectacle of emotional display, and 
 conduct known to be at variance with the actual 
 character, in others. The observer represses his own 
 " feelings," and by degrees they become immovable. 
 
 Occasionally the like effect is produced by contact 
 with natures uncongenial or insincere. The man with 
 a seemingly cold and insensate temperament has io 
 self-defence, or under the influence of a strong feeling 
 of aversion, retired into himself, and is henceforth 
 apparently immovable, though not really unmoved. 
 
74 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 In the study of individual character, it is necessary to 
 take all these possibilities into account, and make due 
 allowance for every factor contributing to the general 
 result. The complexity and delicacy of the task 
 naturally render misconceptions probable ; and not a 
 few of the characters and tempers we encounter are 
 what mistake has made them. The honest and sturdy 
 mind will struggle against the force of circumstances^ 
 and break down the barriers accident may have raised 
 around it. In this work of correction faults of 
 temper may be amended, while false impressions are 
 removed. 
 
 The really sullen temper probably no sort of treat- 
 ment, addressed to the mere remedying of surface 
 defects, can improve. It is the almost constant 
 counterpart of an unsympathetic nature, selfishly intent 
 upon its own secret ends and purposes. The isolation 
 at the surface is the reflex of isolation at heart. The 
 lack of response to appeals from without is due to the 
 fact that their force is not felt. There is no expres- 
 sion of feeling because there is none to express. The 
 self-consciousness is engrossed with its own concerns, 
 and unmoved by those considerations of regard for 
 the outer world and its affairs which give shape to the 
 anxieties of hope and fear that stir the emotions and 
 influence the conduct of less obdurate beings. The 
 combination of a sullen temper with an intelligent 
 
Tempers — Good and Bad. 75 
 
 mind argues thorough selfishness of the lowest type^ 
 which no mere change of manner can transform. It 
 does not follow that the inner nature with its motives 
 and impulses must be malignant, but they have na 
 direct relations with the surroundings of the individual, 
 and are neither responsive to the mute appeal of 
 suffering nor sympathetic with the sorrow or happiness- 
 of others. 
 
 It would be wrong to say that the world lays toa 
 much stress on mere peculiarities of "temper," but 
 it cannot be denied that the prevailing method of 
 forming an estimate is unsound. Idiosyncrasies of 
 temperament are not immediately under the control 
 of the will;, and it is well that this should be so. 
 Direct attempts to reform vices of temper are there- 
 fore commonly unavailing. The aim should be to 
 amend those defects of the inner character out of 
 which the faults of manner and method spring. Irri« 
 tabihty should be cured by attention to the physical 
 health and avoidance of habits of thought which leave 
 the mind a prey to the caprices of fortune, or render 
 it the creature of circumstances. To most minds the 
 cultivation of emotional sensibility is a mistake. Un- 
 fortunately the conventional developments of taste, 
 especially that of the dramatic instinct — which all 
 highly sensitive natures possess — give impetus to the 
 growth of sentimentality, and, unless the " heart " be 
 
76 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 as tender as the " feelings " are acute, there is a per- 
 petual peril that the outer temperament will cease to 
 represent the inner consciousness, so that the emotions 
 no longer express the deeper sentiments ; and, when 
 this happens, irritability of temper and insincerity of 
 character are quickly established. 
 
 True temper, in the best and only worthy sense, 
 implies perfect truthfulness and consistency. If the 
 heart be right, the temper may be improved by acquir- 
 ing more complete control of the emotional nature ; 
 but improvement must begin within and work out- 
 wards. If the outside of the cup and the platter be 
 cleansed while the interior is foul, the pretended im- 
 provement will not only be unreal, but it will consist 
 in the assumption of a fictitious calm more mis- 
 chievous than the wildest vagaries of the uncontrolled 
 mind. Temper is a quality of order and self-manage- 
 ment, which to be natural must spring naturally from 
 an orderly and well-disciplined nature ; and, unless it 
 be thus produced, it is not temper at all, but the 
 counterfeit presentment of a quality ; worse than 
 valueless because false, and fostering insincerity. 
 Strong and deep feeling will generally seek warm 
 expression in telling tones and vigorous deeds. The 
 glamour of judgment which enforced restraint casts 
 over a nature practised in self-control is only excel- 
 lent when passion is ruled by reason rather ths^n 
 
Tempers — Good and Bad, 77 
 
 curbed by policy or a cold passionless sentiment of 
 self-interest and esteem. The expert novelist endows 
 his consummate scoundrel with perfect temper, while 
 he credits the guileless hero with an impulsive and 
 generous emotional nature which hardly brooks con- 
 trol. In the main, the principle embodied in this 
 method of portraiture is true to nature, albeit the arti- 
 fice is somewhat hackneyed and apt to be exaggerated 
 in detail. 
 
 The Supreme Ideal of Perfect Humanity presents 
 entire sincerity as the first feature of excellence, and a 
 faithful expression of the deeper traits of the character 
 completes the picture. The moment consistency is 
 marred either by excess of seeming emotion on the 
 one hand, or by artificial restraint on the other, 
 harmony and every claim to respect for integrity are 
 destroyed. 
 
"CREATURES OF CIRCUM- 
 STANCE." 
 
 There is a humiliating, though apologetic view of 
 human nature and life, which regards men and women 
 as "creatures of circumstance." Every philosophy 
 -must recognise that both mind and body are influenced 
 ,in a remarkable degree by their surroundings, and 
 that the conditions of growth determine, or at least 
 largely qualify, their development; but this is far 
 short of saying that man is not only by accident, but 
 by design, simply what the influences at work around 
 him and the forces that operate on his physical and 
 mental organism combine to make him. The hypo- 
 thesis crude Materialism propounds represents man- 
 kind as constituted of lumps of clay cast into the 
 midst of a scene where everything — except the plastic 
 being man — is hard and exercises a moulding power 
 •over character, while human nature alone is passive 
 and impressible. 
 
 There is always value in a doctrine or view of life 
 which has survived the test of ages, and there can be 
 no question brt that there is truth in the dogma of 
 
^* Creatures of Circumstance.^^ 79 
 
 Materialism. Let us see what the measure of that 
 truth really is. We know that as to his physical 
 nature man is, in fact and experience, largely influenced 
 by the food he eats, the air he breathes, and the con- 
 ditions which compel the development of certain parts 
 of his organism, while they allow others to lie dormant. 
 The savage, who lives principally on the game he 
 hunts, will be essentially animal in his type, and, while 
 those powers and faculties which are called into action 
 by his pursuits are vigorous, others, not so imme- 
 diately useful, will be neglected. The like is true of 
 the dweller in cities, who has his food brought to him, 
 and in whose dietary gross substances are to some 
 extent replaced by more refined and less animalising 
 elements of nutrition; he can scarcely vie with the 
 savage in quickness of eye or fleetness of foot, but he 
 surpasses him in powers better adapted to the needs 
 of civilised life and a higher mental development. 
 The brain is just as amenable to the laws of develop- 
 ment as any other part of the body, and the character 
 is, in large measure, the outcome or moral reflex of 
 the brain. 
 
 Again, the whole being of man is influenced by the 
 associations amid which he is placed ; the sounds, the 
 sights around him are factors in his personal develop- 
 inent. The type of humanity found on the sea coast 
 differs from that encountered in inland districts, and 
 
8o Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 every characteristic form of locale produces its special 
 results. Not only does the habit of life affect the 
 organism, but the impression wrought continuously by 
 external objects exerts a controUing formative influ- 
 ence by directing the thoughts into certain channels 
 and, so to say, making grooves for, and giving certain 
 turns and twists to, the mind. It is easy to see how 
 widely different the sympathies and emotional nature 
 must be in the case of a being brought up amid the 
 wild associations of a boisterous clime, and in that of 
 one bred under the silent suasive influences of a scene 
 seldom disturbed by the stronger forces of the physical 
 world, and therefore presenting only its milder and 
 more genial phenomena. 
 
 Peculiarities of development wrought by the ope- 
 ration of external circumstances on individuals may 
 be reproduced by inheritance in tlieir offspring, and 
 in this way what were at first personal traits come to 
 be family and even national and racial characteristics. 
 These, in process of years, are modified by surround- 
 ing influences, changes of scene, and contact or 
 mingling with other types of character, so that at 
 length stock features of development in body and 
 mind are blended or confused, and it is difficult, if 
 not impossible, to trace them back to their several 
 original sources. Thus far we see men and women 
 may be, and in truth are, " creatures of circumstance." 
 
" Creatures of Circumstancer 8i 
 
 The student of nature finds, as he traces the de- 
 velopment of body and brain, in the animal kingdom, 
 increased perfection of special organs, side by side 
 with the appearance, or improvement, of certain 
 faculties. For example, as the eye, the ear, the nose, 
 and the tongue and palate are more constantly and 
 perfectly developed, the special senses are found to 
 be present in higher form. In the same way, though 
 not quite so directly, the development of certain 
 portions of the brain is parallel with the exhibition of 
 faculties which constitute the phenomena of mind. 
 The observer is fully justified in reasoning by in- 
 duction, and assuming the connection of the physical 
 and mental facts as cause and effect ; but he is not 
 justified in pretending to be able to decide which are 
 the causes and which the effects. No law is more 
 clearly embodied in nature than that which makes the 
 development of an organ dependent upon its use. 
 
 Well-meaning but short-sighted persons have gone 
 astray and done mischief by rejecting the teachings 
 of Darwin. The doctrine of Evolution finally dis- 
 poses of the fundamental dogma of the materialistic 
 philosophy by showing that no organ continues to be 
 developed when it has ceased to be used, and none is 
 wanting when there is a need for it. The blacksmfth 
 develops the muscles of his arm by use in his trade. 
 The spur of the cock has dwindled down to the mere 
 
 G 
 
82 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 rudiment of an organ of defence since the animal has 
 been domesticated. The history of Hfe and organisms 
 shows beyond question that the lower animals have in 
 a very marked degree been, in this way, creatures of 
 circumstance, losing what they did not require, and 
 developing organs adapted to their special needs. The 
 simple reasoning of analogy explains that what has 
 happened with the body has happened with the brain. 
 Man has received a highly-developed brain because 
 he has also received a mind to use it. Brain has been 
 suddenly developed to a high degree of perfection, for 
 the service of mind, instead of mind being nothing 
 more than the outcome of brain. If the latter were 
 the fact, the chain of development would have been 
 perfect ; as it is, scientists search in vain for the " miss- 
 ing link." Spirit and mind have appeared suddenly. 
 
 If mind were the mere outcome of matter in the form 
 of brain, every one with a large and healthy headpiece 
 should be intellectual. The children of well-disciplined 
 and virtuous parents ought to be docile and virtuous > 
 unless compelling circumstances made them otherwise, 
 and even then the hereditary leaning to virtue would 
 be evident. We know this is not the fact, and the 
 conviction is forced upon us that brain is not the 
 essence of mind, but only its agent. Meanwhile the 
 mind has no other instrument of expression than the 
 brain ; so that, even if a man with a small or imperfect 
 
" Creatures of Circumstanced 83 
 
 brain happens to have a large and powerful mind, he 
 cannot show himself the possessor of an intellect in 
 excess of his brain-power. The study of cases of 
 idiocy throws much interesting light on this subject. 
 It is found by experts in the treatment of this most 
 pitiable class of human creatures that by discovering 
 an avenue to the mind the intellect may be educated \ 
 in process of time, the results obtained in the way of 
 enlightenment are very remarkable. The instrument 
 existed, but the power behind, which should have 
 brought it into action, was dormant. 
 
 Science has nothing to teach which should tend to 
 unsettle the faith of any man in the belief that there is 
 a soul or a mind — call it what we please — behind the 
 veil of the flesh, and to which the physical and mental 
 faculties of humanity are the means of expression and 
 intercourse with the outer world. The more perfect 
 the instrument, the wider its compass, the better its 
 tone, the higher in point of excellence will be the 
 function it performs ; but neither the range of the 
 performance nor its character can be a certain measure 
 of the power behind ; the defects observed may be 
 either the fault of the instrument or the deficiency of 
 the moving energy. 
 
 We are " creatures of circumstance " up to a certain 
 limit, and circumstances exert a powerful influence on 
 both our bodies and minds; but this fact neither 
 
84 Common Mind-Troubles. 
 
 explains nor excuses the faults of individual character 
 — still less does it lessen the weight of personal respon- 
 sibility. Those who seek refuge from an accusing con- 
 science — reproachful for neglect — in this hypothesis, 
 are looking for protection where none can be found. It 
 is the bounden duty of man to emancipate his being 
 from the thraldom of surrounding influences. It is 
 fortunate w^hen these are good ; but no merit can then 
 arise from the effect they produce on his character. 
 The noble part to play is to "get the better of circum- 
 stance " and triumph over depressing and distracting 
 forces which war against the interests of the soul. 
 
 The infinitely humiliating figment that man's nature 
 is wholly plastic is one which should be repudiated by 
 the instinct of self-respect. We know and feel in 
 our inner consciousness that we can bufiet the waves, 
 and struggle long and valiantly for life, even if we 
 cannot reach the shore. Much mischief has been 
 wrought on weak minds by the craven plea that man 
 is the creature of circumstances. It is time to fling 
 that sinister aphorism to the winds, and replace it by 
 one of bolder and more pregnant import. Man is the 
 master of circumstances. Those he has not himself 
 created he can subjugate, and employ as means to his 
 own noble and honest ends. 
 
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