nonsense.

chance to remain in his memory, to be no better than The prudent aim of a wise physician who was summoned to advise in such case, mindful that fever of mind is no more healthy than fever of body, would be to abate the mental ignition by enjoining rest and quiet of mind in order to get sane and sober thought, just as his aim would be to subdue inflammation in order to get the wound healed.*

This intermediate state of mental exaltation between commonplace thought and actual raving, with its corresponding heat of feeling and enthusiasm of conduct, when it was manifest as a sort of prophetic fury, would naturally produce different effects in different minds—in the minds of believers the opinion of supernatural inspiration, and in the minds of unbelievers the opinion of madness. It is certain that Paul's discourse and manner before Festus, when he related the extraordinary story of his vision on the way to Damascus and of his consequent conversion from persecutor to disciple, looked like madness, for Festus could not help exclaiming, as he listened to him, "Paul, thou art beside thyself; much learning

*In the succeeding letter of Fors Clavigera to that in which he describes his illness and sets forth his theory of it, Mr. Ruskin informs the workmen of England that the essential difference between him and other political writers is "that I never say a word about a single thing that I don't know; while they never trouble themselves to know a single thing they talk about."

doth make thee mad."* Although Paul earnestly denied the imputation on that occasion, yet it was an imputation which his words on another occasion prove that he knew was current against him; for to the Corinthians he writes that if he is beside himself, it is in doing God's work. So that they had reason to glory in him either way-"For whether we be beside ourselves, it is to God: or whether we be sober, it is for your cause."† Holiness or madness, that is, according to the stand-point of sympathy or antipathy from which it was contemplated by outsiders; for if all people had the same errors or delusions, however extreme these might be, nobody would be thought mistaken or mad.‡

There is a feature in Mr. Ruskin's case, as described by himself, which carries its special instruction—namely, his evident and natural reluctance fully to acknowledge to himself as insane those things in his thought and conduct which were not sane, and his inclination to make his behaviour out to be more

*Acts xxvi. 24.

† 2 Cor. v. 3.

Even Christ was accused by his enemies, and suspected by his friends, of being mad, when he was drawing the multitude around him by his acts; for "when his friends heard it, they went out to lay hold on him for they said, He is beside himself" (Mark iii. 21). So again, with regard to his teaching, when a division arose among the Jews because of his words, "Many of them said, He hath a devil, and is mad; why hear ye him? Others said, These are not the words of one that hath a devil" (John x. 20, 21).

consistent and reasonable than it appeared to others. Now, this is a feature not uncommon after mental illness, and very notable after some forms thereof, especially after that intrinsic derangement which grows stealthily as a pathological development of character, and is much a growth of self-love or egoism, as distinguished from the extrinsic insanity, so to speak, which, not native to the character, falls upon the individual accidentally, as a foreign invader; and the persistence of a positive morbid hallucination or delusion after all the other delirious symptoms of the malady have disappeared, which is noticed in some cases of otherwise apparently pretty complete mental recovery, is but a more striking manifestation of the same tendency. Such are the natural infirmities of human nature that it seems impossible for wounded self-love to accept sincerely the humiliation of its entire overthrow; it strains instinctively to find redeeming excuses and explanations, or takes obstinate refuge in some entrenchment of the ruins, from which it refuses to be dislodged by evidence and argument.

It is the form of delusion that ensues as the climax of a morbid development of character, as an intrinsic evolution of the individual's nature rather than an extrinsic accident to it, which alone is of special interest in relation to the subject of the present in

quiry. In fact, we are concerned mainly with the mental deformities that are the outcomes of unfortunate growths of mind rather than with the derangements of the mental balance which are produced by actual disease. Naturally, therefore, the difficulty is sometimes to say whether it is madness or not that we are in face of.

There are two types of insane delusions, of quite contrary nature, characterizing the two leading classes of mental disorder, and corresponding to the two ordinary mental moods of depression and exaltation to which every one is subject. In the one case, the afflicted person is in a state of abject fear and misery, full of vague apprehensions of evil to come, incapable of heart in his affairs or of hope of them, apathetic, inert, despairing, and sure that he is, or is about to be, overwhelmed by some unspeakable calamity— perhaps it is that he is forsaken by God and given over to eternal damnation: this is, so to speak, the delirious climax of a natural mood of melancholy. In the other case, we are confronted with an individual who is in a state of mental elevation and exaggerated self-confidence, buoyant and busy, making light of difficulties, despising apprehensions, eager to plan and bold to execute the projects which he is prolific in forming, who, perhaps, growing in presumption, in the end rises to the conviction that he is one of the

great personages of the world: * this is, so to speak, the delirious climax of a natural mood of elated feeling and sanguine thought.

Notably there is a contrast of the same kind between the constitutions of different minds, which, according to their dominant tones respectively, are predisposed naturally to see things in dark and despairing, or in bright and hopeful, light: there is the gloomy and melancholy disposition which is easily moved to fears and apprehensions; and there is the bold and sanguine disposition which just as naturally takes confident and hopeful views. Now, it is curious and interesting to notice how these two contrary dispositions have given rise to two contrary forms, but equally absurd developments, of religious superstition. The gloomy and apprehensive mind, dreading all sorts of unknown evils from unknown agents, has had recourse to all sorts of supplications, observances, ceremonies, and sacrifices, in order to appease the invisible powers whom it feared; has implored and purchased the mediating help of those who pretended to direct converse and influence with them, and whose

*He who passionately believes himself to be wiser and better than all the world is very liable in the end to become the deluded monarch of a world of his own invention; more especially when he takes things in tragical earnest, and is entirely destitute of the saving power of looking at himself, in any degree, from the outside, and of gently satirizing himself, if need be, as an actor in the play who is not wholly its dupe. A sense of humour is a saving help in such case.