perintending and regulating influence, there would have been more than a strong religious bias tending to actions recognised as praiseworthy; but some interest may attach to the question, whether this state of abstract spiritualization, as it is, would not at certain times, which have frequently occurred, and there is every prospect will again occur, have been esteemed a specimen of exalted and immaculate piety, worthy of all admiration and imitation. Have there not been periods when the man going about saying prayers has been preferred, or at least counted equal, to the man going about doing good? Is there, in the page of history, no psychological parallel to the case of J. R.? We believe that there are many.

Such parallels are to be found in times of great excitement, when the mind is led by early education, by the construction of society, and by that atmosphere of moral miasms which is created by public teaching and opinion tending to the cultivation of feelings purely venerative or mystical, to the exclusion or neglect of that philosophical investigation which gives to religion its stability and majesty, and of those sentiments of justice and mercy which give it practical efficacy. The first centuries of the Christian era may be pointed out as one of these periods. The irresistible truth of our Saviour's mission was acknowledged, but by men who, though they had abandoned the principles resulting from an impure and irrational faith, were strongly im pregnated with the mode of thinking that resulted from it; and who, leaving the altar of an "unknown God," still ignorantly worshipped him who was proclaimed-limiting duty to propitiation, and attributing excellence and merit to him alone, who, burying the affections and forfeiting the objects of intelligence, spent his life in praise and prayer. Reason, as applied to religion, was yet in the cradle; while Veneration, Wonder, Ideality, and the lower propensities, were in the full vigour of maturity.

The cause of asceticism was thus triumphant; and the extraordinary attempts to achieve a conquest over the stomach, were equalled only by the subjugation of every mental energy to one concentrated impulse. Of this creed Simeon Stylites appears to have been the most distinguished votary. Educated in a monastery-the established austerities of which he put to shame by the ingenuity and novelty of his own devices to torture the flesh, and where it required constant care to prevent him from committing pious suicide-he returned to the world to obtain the martyrdom which he coveted. Erecting a pillar, sixty feet in height, he chained himself to the summit, and, leaving every earthly thought and wish and habit below, devoted himself to adoration. For thirty years he kept this vow. His eye and soul were bent on the skies, and he stood, even at that elevation, unmoved. The intensity of this feeling of ve

neration rendered him insensible to impressions from without; for heat and cold, calm and tempest and disease, found and left him imperturbed and imperturbable. Pain, privation, and silent suffering, however, he did not deem sufficient, and he never ceased to perform acts of devotion. These consisted in praying with his arms extended in the form of a cross, and in bending the forehead to the feet. From these he never desisted. Upwards of a thousand repetitions were counted, following each other in rapid succession. At last his lips and limbs refused to obey the holy desire, and he died in the odour of sanctity, on what may literally be called the pinnacle of his greatness*.

We may now sneer at this Syrian anchoret, but much may be learned from ascertaining that no such sneers existed at the period in which he lived; that he was looked upon as most perfectly fulfilling the will of the living God; that his example was then and afterwards followed by thousands of hermits and ascetics; and that his conduct furnished a pretext and traditional injunction for the monachism of succeeding ages. At this moment, a small religious community almost realize his self-imposed severity by condemning themselves to perpetual silence, save when offering up the prayers of their ritual.

Yet in what do these enthusiasts differ from the maniac whose history has been detailed? Had he lived in the same times, or under similar circumstances, would not his singular delusion have been hailed as the fruit of inspiration? Would not his memory have been preserved and reverenced as a sacred thing? Or, to render the contrast more forcible, had Simeon Stylites, his immediate followers, or the Trappistes, been submitted to the same ordeal of examination as my patient-that of common sense-is it not certain that a commission of lunacy rather than a patent of saintship would have been issued in their behalf?

Predominating Organs.-Cautiousness, Destructiveness, Firmness, Wonder, and Veneration.

* See Gibbon's Decline and Fall, &c. chap. xxxvi.

This patient has been insane for thirty years. His previous history is scarcely known; but from the relations which he sometimes volunteers, it would seem that he was originally a farmer in a remote Highland glen, where fierce passions and dark superstition reigned in primeval power. He speaks of sanguinary feuds and protracted carousals, of dining with this laird, and taking snuff with another great personage, and of the familiar terms upon which he stood with the minister; for all of whom he testifies unqualified respect. He is equally at home in discourse, when recounting how such an one was possessed, and how strange and mysterious his own situation is; or when descanting on the horrors of ghosts, evil-spirits, witches, and other powers of darkness. Of the symptoms of his malady previous to confinement we are likewise ignorant; but it is probable that his friends were forced to have recourse to restraint, in consequence of the overt act of cutting off the tails of half a dozen cows, which, by this summary process, he proposed to disenchant. The keepers assert that, on admission, he was in a state of furious satyriasis; indulging in the grossest obscenities, and most revolting gestures and practices. The base of the brain is very large. The old ally of mental medicine, intimidation, was tried and with success. His frantic demeanour gave place to a calm, submissive, and obliging manner. The calm, however, is that of subjection, and not of docility; and now, from the native imbecility of his mind, began to appear the prominent parts of his character-a result explained by the small size of the organs of intellect, and his large Veneration and Love of Approbation.

Age and the chronic nature of his disease may have narrowed the circle of his delusions; but within their orbit his mind ever continues to roll, with the fixity of a natural law. His appearance is that of great humility; his reverence for every one around, almost all being in his estimation superior to himself, is profound; his ordinary occupations, for he works most willingly in the service of the establishment, are performed as duties exacted by a master, and are often interrupted by the number of his obeisances; for whenever addressed, his bonnet is raised and his head bent. He is completely under petticoat government, every maid-servant claiming him as a subject. All this be speaks the predominance and activity of Veneration. But what renders him especially an object of curiosity is his mode of worship. When among his companions he kneels every two or three minutes, and so long continued and so often repeated have these genuflexions been, that the floor now bears their impression, and his trowsers monthly tell the same tale. But this does not satisfy his longings. In his moments of greatest solemnity he prostrates himself, and kisses the earth three times; and this

custom he observes, although he should lie down in the deepest and dirtiest pool of the court-yard. He is wroth when interrupted, and expressed the greatest horror and astonishment when requested to exhibit this self-invented ceremony. He would deny the accuracy of this appellation; as the only explanation which he will vouchsafe on the subject is, that he acts after the manner of the prophets, and that he is unhappy when he does not do so. He can repeat large portions of the Scriptures, generally containing the titles and terms of honour and dignity applied to the Supreme Being; but he seems to retain little or no conception of the principles which even these passages contain. Here likewise Veneration is evidently the presiding feeling. His visions are of two kinds,-peaceful and pastoral, or belligerent. He sees from the window of his cell multitudinous herds of cows issue from the clouds in the west, and follow each other with such velocity and in such myriads, that the whole earth is covered, the sky darkened, and the sea filled with their numbers. The procession sometimes consists of larks. The organ of Number, which is considerable in his head, may account for the nature of this apparition; while the species of animals may have been suggested by his original occupations. Four or five times during each day and night he has to witness objects much less interesting to his pastoral imagination. He is molested by evil spirits of all grades, often by their chief, with whom he has to wage war; and most manfully is the struggle maintained. At these moments his eye opens, brightens, and becomes fixed; his brow is puckered and lurid; his lips are livid and protruded; he suddenly shrieks out the most hideous imprecations on his antagonist, tosses his arms, and kicks most unmercifully whatever object is nearest. The tug of war is sometimes fierce and protracted; but if approached in his wildest mood, and while howling forth his abusive epithets, he becomes instantly calm, raises his bonnet, and only looks back with a scowl on his tormentor, saying, "It's a fine day,”—a salutation which he utters even when the snow is up to his chin. most frightful conflicts occur during the night, when the cries he sends forth would imply that the result is unfavourable. He speaks of these encounters, and of his adversaries, with a degree of terror-struck awe and respect. At the onset his look is that of defiance and vengeance; at the close he expresses reluctance to allude to the matter, kneels down, and says that he is very much troubled. The demon is here conjured up by his Wonder and Cautiousness, which are both considerable; the strife is the result of his large Destructiveness and Combativeness. The latter are besides often manifested in quarrels with his fellow patients, who are for the moment treated as equals, but who,

5

His

whenever the storm of passion has subsided, immediately assume in his eyes the aspect of superiority.

Now here is the history of a St Anthony in the nineteenth century. Here is the same ceremonial piety, and similar satanic conflicts, attended with similar triumphs. The spiritual metempsychosis appears to have been more extensive in the primitive church. The transformations of the adversaries of him who may deservedly be called the Father of Superstition, were numberless; but although W. C.'s habits do not permit us to determine the aspect of his tormentors, that it is sufficiently hideous and loathsome may be gathered from his horror and desperation during the period of possession. In both characters there are clearly the common elements of perfect confidence in the nature of the services of worship performed, and perfect credence in the reality and presence of the phantoms which disease has conjured up. But, viewed through the medium of former opinions, or were the principles upon which these men have acted followed out to their legitimate application, what would be the conclusion of a philosopher? Simply that they have experienced strong, and to them irresistible impulses to worship the Deity, and in obeying these have chosen the most humble and abject postures expressive of submission;-that in repeated acts of this kind they have the delight of religious consolation ;-that to other individuals of less intense feelings of adoration, such conduct appears exaggerated, because it is at variance with their own, and because they rest content with and receive consolation from different or less humiliating modes of worship;—but that in these devotees it is the faithful manifestation and exact measure of their fraine of mind. Further, these men succumb to the suggestions of Wonder and Cautiousness highly excited, and believe supernatural agencies and appearances. If belief in, or apprehension of, the power of witchcraft, be a proof of madness, we must hold lunacy to have been epidemic in former times. Luther, Calvin, and even greater men, entertained this belief, and lived at liberty the admiration of mankind: it was, in truth, a bit of the orthodoxy of the day. Indeed the superstitious feelings of the former innovator-so his foes, and some even of his friends, allege-went much further. Rejecting as unworthy of credit his successful tilt with the blue-bottle fly, that being the incarnation in which Satan attempted to disturb him during composition, we yet find passages in his works which may be and have been interpreted as affirming the "manifest apparition of the devil to dispute with him."†

See the plate of his Temptation.

+ For the controversy on this subject see vol. iv. p. 546. of Scott's Continuation of Milner's Church History.