constantly discharging balls between me and it, I could not refrain from passing before that cannon in order to get at the rum § 428. Disordered action of the principle of self-preservation. As we advance upward from the Appetites to the re gion of the Propensities, such as the principle of self-preservation, the desire of knowledge, the desire of society, and the like, we shall find the latter, as well as the former, probably without an exception, subject, in certain individuals, to a greater or less degree of what may be termed a diseased or disordered action. We begin with the propensive principle of Self-preservation, or what may be designated in other terms as the natural desire of a continuance of existence. This principle, like the others of the same class, although not generally in so marked a degree, will sometimes manifest itself under such circumstances and in such a manner as obviously to show that its action is not a natural, regular, or healthy action. Persons under the influence of the disordered action of the principle which is connected with the preservation of life, multiply, as they would be naturally supposed to do, images of danger and terror which have no existence, nor likeness of existence, except in their own disordered minds. They not only see perils which are invisible to others, but are led to take a multitude of precautions which, in the estimation of those around them, are altogether unnecessary, and even ridiculous. Pinel, under the head of Melancholy, mentions a case which may be considered as illustrating this subject. "A distinguished military officer," he says, "after fifty years of active service in the cavalry, was attacked with disease. It commenced by his experiencing vivid emotions from the slightest causes; if, for example, he heard any disease spoken of, he immediately believed himself to be attacked by it; if any one was mentioned as deranged in intellect, he imagined himself insane, and retired into his chamber full of melancholy thoughts and inquietude. Everything became for him a subject of fear and alarm. If he entered into a house, he was afraid that the floor would fall and precipitate him amid its ruins. He could not pass a bridge without terror, unless impelled by the sentiment of honour for the purpose of fighting وو 429. Disordered and alienated action of the possessory principle There are instances, occurring with a considerable degree of frequency, of a disordered or alienated action of the desire of possession, or the Possessory principle. Some of these are voluntary; that is to say, are brought about by a course of action, of which the responsibility rests upon the individual. Others appear to be congenital or natural.-Among the class of confirmed misers, we shall be likely, from time to time, to find instances of the first class. There are individuals among this class of persons who have so increased the energy of the Possessory principle (Acquisitiveness, as it is sometimes conveniently termed) by a long voluntary course of repetition, that its action is no longer under the control of the Will, but has obviously passed over into the region of mental alienation. Such probably must have been the case with a certain individual mentioned by Valerius Maximus, who took advantage of a famine to sell a mouse for two hundred pence, and then famished himself with the money in his pocket. -It is difficult to tell, however, although a person may unquestionably become insane in his avarice, whether this is actually the case in any given instance, or whether, notwithstanding its intensity, it falls in some degree short of alienation. § 430. Instances of the second kind or form of disordered action of the possessory principle. There are other instances of the disordered action of the principle of Acquisitiveness, which appear to be congenital or constitutional. In the case of the persons to whom we now have reference, the disposition to get pos. session of whatever can be regarded as property, whether of greater or less value, shows itself, not only in great strength, but at a very early period of life. There are a considerable number of cases of this kind to be fourd in the writings of Gall and Spurzheim; and there are some notices of similar cases in a few other writers. Dr. Rush, * Pinel, as quoted in Combe's Phrenology, Boston ed. p. 241 for instance, in his Medical Inquiries, mentions a woman who was entirely exemplary in her conduct except in one particular. "She could not refrain from stealing. What made this vice the more remarkable was, that she was in easy circumstances, and not addicted to extravagance in anything. Such was the propensity to this vice that, when she could lay her hands on nothing more val uable, she would often, at the table of a friend, fill her pockets secretly with bread. She both confessed and lamented her crime." Some of the facts which are given by Dr. Gall are as follows." Victor Amadeus I., King of Sardinia, was in the constant habit of stealing trifles. Saurin, pastor at Geneva, though possessing the strongest principles of reason and religion, frequently yielded to the propensity to steal. Another individual was from early youth a victim to this inclination. He entered the military service on purpose that he might be restrained by the severity of the discipline; but, having continued his practices, he was on the point of being condemned to be hanged. Ever seeking to combat his ruling passion, he studied theology and became a Capuchin. But his propensity followed him even to the cloister. Here, however, as he found only trifles to tempt him, he indulged himself in his strange fancy with less scruple. He seized scissors, candlesticks, snuffers, cups, goblets, and conveyed them to his cell. An agent of the government at Vienna had the singular mania for stealing nothing but kitchen utensils. He hired two rooms as a place of deposite; he did not sell, and made no use of them. The wife of the famous physician Gaubius had such a propensity to pilfer, that, when she made a purchase, she always sought to take something.' § 431. Disordered action of imitativeness, or the principle of imitation. The proof that there is in man a principle of IMITATION, which impels him to do as others do, is so abundant as probably to leave no reasonable doubt upon the candid mind. This principle, as compared with its ordinary op eration and character, is found in some individuals to ex * Gall's Works, vol. iv., Am. ed., p. 132 hibit an irregular or diseased action. M. Pinel, as he is quoted by Dr. Gall, speaks of an idiot woman "who had an irresistible propensity to imitate all that she saw done in her presence. She repeats, instinctively, all she hears, and imitates the gestures and actions of others with the greatest fidelity; and without troubling herself with any regard to propriety."*-Under the form of Sympathetic Imitation, the disordered action of this principle becomes very important; so much so, that we shall leave the subject here for the purpose of considering it more at length than we could otherwise do, in a separate chapter. 432. Disordered action of the principle of sociality. The principle of Sociality, obviously one of the im planted propensities of our nature, may exist with such a degree of intensity as justly to entitle its action to be called a disordered, and, in some cases, even an alienated action. In connexion with this remark, it may be proper to revert a moment to the precise idea which we attach to the term alienation, considered as expressive of a state or condition of the mind. There may be an imperfection of mental action, there may be a disorder of mental action, which is nevertheless not an alienation of mental action. The term alienation properly applies to those forms of mental action which are so much disordered as to set at defiance any efforts of the Will to control them; in a word, they are involuntary. So that, in accordance with this statement, there may be either a disordered state of the principle of sociality or of any other principle, (that is to say, one which is irregular, but still is sus ceptible of correction under the efforts of the will;) or there may be, when this disorder is found to exist beyond certain limits, an alienated, an insane state. But, although this distinction should be fully understood, it is not neces→ sary, in the remarks which, for the most part, we have occasion to make, that we should always keep it distinctly in view. But to return to our subject. An irregular action of the social principle, whether it be truly alienated or exist Ga.l's Works, vol. i., p. 320. ૨ ૨ in some lighter form of disorder, may show itself in two aspects, which are entirely diverse from each other, viz. either in a morbid aversion to society, or in a desire of society inordinately intense.-Persons to whom the first statement will apply are generally, and for the most part justly, designated as Misanthropes. Under the influence of some sudden revulsion of the mind, of some great disappointment, of some ill-treatment on the part of near relatives and supposed friends, or of some other powerful cause, the natural tie of brotherhood, which binds man to his fellow-man, is snapped asunder, and the unhappy individual flees to the solitude of the rock and the desert never more to return. 433. Further remarks on the disordered action of the social propensity. There is another class of cases, which in their character appear to be directly the reverse of those which have just been mentioned. Individuals, when they are cut off from society, particularly the society of their friends, are sometimes the subjects of a misery inexpressibly intense. The innocent but unfortunate Foscari, who was banished from Venice in 1450, died, apparently in consequence of the mere mental anguish which he suffered. Cases are also enumerated of death resulting from solitary confinement in prison.* There is an exceedingly painful disease, founded in a great degree upon the disordered action of the social principle, which is termed by physicians Nostalgia, but which is more commonly known under the familiar designation of HOME-SICKNESS. This disease, which is sometimes fatal, is said to have frequently prevailed among the Swiss when absent from their na- . tive country. The beautiful sky which shone over them in their absence from their native land, the works of art, the allurements of the highest forms of civilization, could not erase from their hearts the image of their rugged mountains and their stormy heavens. They had society enough around them, it is true; but it was not the society which their hearts sought for, or in which, in existing circumstances, they could participate. They bowed their heads under the influence of a hidden and irrepressible See the large ed. of this Work, vol. ii., 144, 148. |