GEN. II. . E. atoni rationis. able de gamester who cares for no one but himself may rage with SPEC. II. all the horror of despair; but the heart-ache belongs cum Despe- chiefly to the man of a warmer and more generous bosom, Ungovern- stung to the quick by a wound he least expected, or borne down, not by the loss of fortune, but of a dear friend or spondency. relative, in whom he had concentrated all his hopes. The Illustrated, well-known picture of Beverley is drawn by the hand of a master and he is represented as maddened by the thought of the deep distress into which his last hazard had plunged his wife and family: but if his selfish love of gaming had not triumphed over his relative love for those he had thus ruined, he would not have been involved in any such reverse. While Beverley was in despair; it was his wife who was broken-hearted. Causes innumerable. Suicide a frequent result, Guilty conscience, its effects in sometimes from imaginary causes; The sources of this most agonizing emotion are enumerable, and from the total shipwreck of all hope on which it is founded there is no passion of the mind that drives a man so readily to an act of suicide. To live is horror; the infuriated sufferer feels himself an outcast from God and man, and though his judgement may still be correct upon other subjects, it is completely overpowered upon that of his actual distress, and all he thinks of and aims at is to withdraw with as much speed as possible from the present state of torture, totally regardless of the future, or falsely satisfying himself by a perversion of his judgement, that there is no crime in his doing so. One of the severest causes of despondency is a conscience labouring under a deep sense of guilt for some -undivulged crime Unwhipt of justice. And so severe has the anguish been, in many cases, that the tormented wretch thus haunted by himself, and hating the light of heaven, has been compelled, as the less evil of the two, to surrender himself to the laws of his country, and court the disgrace of a public execution. Yet the same miserable feeling has sometimes followed from an ideal cause, especially in a mind of natural timidity, GEN. II. rationis. or constitutionally predisposed to a gloomy view of naFor such, by a mere exercise of their own meditations, but far oftener by the coarse, but empassioned ora- cum Despetory of itinerant preachers, are induced to believe that the UngovernAlmighty has shut them out for ever from the pale of able demercy, and that the bottomless pit is yawning to receive spondency. them. And under the influence of such an impression ideas excited they too frequently work themselves up into a state of by itinerant permanent insanity, or hurry themselves by their own hands into the horrors of a fate from which they feel assured that no repentance or power of religion can save them. or false preachers. great public and pecu liarly in a In the midst of great public calamities the passion of Common in ungovernable despondency is apt to become epidemic, calamities, and particularly, as M. Falret has well observed, where the constitution of the atmosphere, from being moist and hot, and consequently relaxing and debilitating, favours its spread. In 1806 the feeling of desperation was so relaxing common at Paris, that sixty suicides occurred during the atmosphere. months of June and July; at Copenhagen, in the course of the same entire year, three hundred: and in 1793 about thirteen hundred at Versailles alone. The sensation, however, whether general or individual, is most acute where there is little corporeal exertion, and consequently where there is time to cultivate and brood over it. Hence suicide is frequent in the distress of sieges, in the first alarm of civil commotions, or when they have subsided into a state of calmness, and the mischiefs they have induced are well pondered; but it seldom takes place in the activity of a campaign, whatever may be the fatigue, the privations, or the sufferings endured. On the fall of Fall of the the Roman empire, and throughout the revolution of empire. France self-destruction was so common at home, as at last Revolution to excite but little attention: it does not appear, however, of France. to have stained the retreat of the ten thousand under Xenophon, and, according to M. Falret, was rare in the French army during its flight from Moscow. Falret, de l'Hypochondrie et du Suicide. 8vo. Paris, 1822. Roman GEN. II. SPEC. II. Empathe ma atoni cum. Empassioned depression. Remedial treatment. Medicine In all these varieties of empathema the art of the physician can do but little, and in many of them nothing whatever. Yet where the heart suffers acutely and the mind is deeply dejected, sedatives and antispasmodic cordials may occasionally be found useful; and, as the abdominal viscera are greatly liable to be affected, the petite to fail, the liver to be congested, and the bowels rendered costive, these organs must be watched, and such not of much relief be afforded as they may stand in need of. Where aperients are required the warm and bitter resins will be employed generally answer the purpose best, alone or combined with rhubarb. Where love is the cause of disease, and the fair patient is young and delicate, suppressed menstruation, or even chlorosis is by no means unfrequent, followed by hysteria and other nervous affections that produce considerable trouble. avail : but may sometimes advantageously. Moral re sources. Excitement of opposite passions, or sudden reverses have In all cases of mental dejection, however, a kind and judicious friend is by far the best physician: medicines may do a little, change of scene and country, of custom and manners, a little also; but the soothing of tenderness and indulgence, and the voice of that friendship which knows how to discriminate opportunities, and seasonably to alternate admonition with consolation will accomplish more in the way of cure than all the rest put together. The despondency produced by the real sense of a guilty conscience or the visionary belief of eternal reprobation, may derive important and most salutary advantage from religious instruction when conducted with a judicious attention to the exigency of the case. But much circumspection and adroitness are requisite upon this point, for so rooted is the feeling to be extirpated that no ordinary means will suffice for its eradication, while, if it be forcibly snapped off, it will shoot out the wider and grow ranker than ever. The excitement of an opposite passion, or train of feelings, has sometimes been accompanied with success: for there are instances in which the slave of imaginary pain sometimes and misery has for ever forgotten his sense of visionary grievances under the stroke of poignant and real affliction; succeeded: especially under ava GEN. II. and the miser, when reduced by a sudden reverse of fortune to actual beggary, and thus completely disen- Empathe cumbered of the load that has hitherto so much oppressed him, has returned to his sober senses, and learned a juster estimate of worldly possessions. ma atonicum. Empassioned depression. Treatment. rice and visionary grievances. How far successful in hopeless love. answered The same attempt has often been recommended in disappointments under the passion of love; and, according to the concurrent report of the poets of ancient and modern times, many of whom profess to be well versed in this kind of discipline, it has very generally been attended with success. Where the emotion has more of a corporeal than a sentimental origin, this may easily be conceived; and it is possible that it may also sometimes have occurred under a purer feeling: though, for the honour of the human heart, I do not think this is much to be trusted to. Where the choice between two young persons Contingent of fair character is really imprudent, yet the affections assent has are so rivetted as to bid defiance to all forcible attempts better. to unfetter them, a promise of consent on the part of the reluctant parent at the distance of a given period of time, as a year and a half or two years, with an undertaking on the part of the lovers neither to see nor correspond with each other in the mean time, an engagement easily fallen into, has answered in many instances to which I have been privy. The ardour has gradually cooled on the one side or the other, the judgement has been more impressed with the nature of the imprudence, or a more attractive form has interposed, and settled the question irretrievably. While, on the contrary, if the fidelity should hold on both sides to the end, and the passion be heightened instead of depressed, as in this case there is most reason to suppose it would be, hard, indeed, must be the heart that would extend the restriction farther, and that would not wish joy to so deserving a couple. . SPECIES III. EMPATHEMA INANE. Hare-brained Passion. GEN. II. SPEC. III. Synonym of Pinel. Common origin. Striking example. WAYWARD AND UNMEANING PASSION, URGING TO INDIS- THIS is the manie sans delire of M. Pinel: a case of frequent occurrence but incorrectly named in this manner, since, in the opinion of all other nosologists, and perhaps all other pathological writers, the character of delirium (that is of diseased judgement, diseased perception, or both) is essential to mania. M. Pinel ascribes this species principally, and with great force of reason, to a neglected or ill-directed education upon a mind naturally perverse or unruly and gives the following striking example: An only son of a weak and indulgent mother, was encouraged in the gratification of every caprice and passion of which an untutored and violent temper was susceptible. The impetuosity of his disposition increased with his years. At school he was always embroiled in disputes and quarrels; and if a dog or a horse offended him he instantly put it to death. This wayward youth, however, when unmoved by passions, possessed a perfectly sound judgement. When he came of age, he proved himself fully competent to the management of his family estate as well as to the discharge of his relative duties, and even distinguished himself by acts of beneficence and compassion. But his deep-rooted propensity to quarrel still haunted him, and |