brilliant fancy, the unrivalled memory, were all subject to occasional eclipse. Along the chords the finger strayed, And an uncertain warbling made.' Ever and anon he paused and looked round him, like one half-waking from a dream, mocked with shadows. The sad bewilderment of his gaze showed a momentary consciousness that, like Samson in the lap of the Phi listine, 'his strength was passing from him, and he was becoming weak like unto other men.' Then came the strong effort of aroused will-the clouds dispersed as if before an irresistible current of purer air-all was bright and serene as of old, and then it closed again in yet deeper darkness. Under these circumstances, it was no wonder that his medical advisers assured him repeatedly and emphatically that, if he persisted in working his brain, nothing could prevent his malady from recurring with redoubled severity. His answer was, 'As for bidding me not work, Molly might as well put the kettle on the fire, and say, Now, don't boil.' I foresee distinctly, that if I were to be idle, I should go mad!' The fate of Swift and Marlborough was also before his eyes; and in his journal there is an entry expressive of his fear lest the anticipated blow should not destroy life, and that he might linger on, a driveller and a show. 'I do not think my head is weakened — (this was a subsequent entry) - yet a strange vacillation makes me suspect. Is it not thus that men begin to fail— becoming, as it were, infirm of purpose? 'That way madness lies-let me shun that. And when at the Court-house of Jedburgh he faced the rabble populace, and braved their hootings, the same idea of impending calamity was still present to his mind, as he greeted them on turning away, in the words of the doomed gladiator, Moritures dos saluto." As the plough neared the end of the furrow,' to use Scott's own expressive phrase, he was still urged on by his fixed habits of labour. "Under the full consciousness that he had sustained three or four strokes of apoplexy or palsy, or both combined, and tortured by various attendant ailments, cramp, rheumatism in half his joints, daily increasing lameness, and now of late gravel, (which was, though last, not least,) he retained all the energy of his will, and struggled manfully against this sea of troubles." Dean Swift had a singular presentiment of his imbecility. Dr. Young, walking one day with Dean Swift some short distance from Dublin, suddenly missed the Dean, who had lagged behind. He found him at a distance, gazing in a solemn state of abstraction at the top of a lofty elm, whose head had been blasted by a hurricane. He directed Dr. Young's attention to the summit of the tree, and heaving a heavy sigh, exclaimed, "I shall be like that tree, I shall die at the TOP first." It is not difficult to account physiologically as well as pathologically for the singular phenomena previously referred to. I had under my care a lady who informed me, that for six years previously to her becoming insane, she was perfectly convinced, from her mental and bodily sensations, that the seeds of the malady had taken root, and that insanity had, even at that time, commenced to germinate. Another patient said, that in early life, when at college, he was convinced that the mind had received, as he termed it, a "twist," in consequence of his having passed many sleepless nights, caused by several weeks of continuous, and unremitting laborious mental work. So conscious was he, at the time, of the mischief that had been done to his brain, that he exclaimed, whilst anxiously pacing the room, "I shall die a lunatic!" He subsequently repeated the same expression to a college friend. At the age of forty-eight he became insane, and tried on several occasions to commit suicide. I have known several patients who have had, for a long period prior to the manifestation of insanity, these singular warnings of approaching brain and mental disorder. If damage is done to the delicate cerebral structure in early life by moral or physical causes, and the material lesion, whatever be its nature, is (as is usually the case,) of slow and progressive growth, we can easily understand the existence of abnormal physical sensations within the head, as well as of morbid mental impressions (engendered by changes in the nervous tissue of the brain), which would, in many cases, necessarily give rise to the anticipation of insanity, or to the dread of some type of disease of the brain developing itself at an after period of life. CHAPTER VIII. Stage of Exaltation. THIS stage will be considered in its twofold relation: viz., 1. Psychical Exaltation. 2. Somatic Exaltation. 1. PSYCHICAL EXALTATION.-For some period before the more active symptoms of cerebral and mental exaltation are manifested, the patient is observed to be wayward, capricious, passionate, and impulsive. He is irritable, and fractious, peevish, and pettish, exhibiting, what would (under less suspicious states of mind, and more favourable conditions of bodily health) be termed, an "unhappy infirmity of temper." These symptoms of psychical exaltation, are occasionally associated with alternate fits of vital depression, and mental confusion. The patient is subsequently morbidly anxious about trifles, slight ruffles on the surface, and trivial annoyances, occurring in the family circle or during the course of business, worry, flurry, tease, and fret him, nothing satisfying, or soothing his mind, and everything, to his distempered fancy, going wrong within the sacred precincts of domestic life. He is quick at fancying affronts, and greatly exaggerates the slightest and most trifling acts of supposed inattention. The least irregularity on the part of the domestics excites, angers, and vexes him. He is suspicious of, and quarrels with his nearest relatives, and mistrusts his best, kindest, and most faithful friends, often harbouring the most absurd and unfounded misgivings in regard to the purity and fidelity of his wife, attachment and affection of his children. When in this premonitory stage of mental derangement, bordering closely on an attack of acute insanity, he twists, distorts, misconceives, misconstrues, and perverts in a most singular manner every look, gesture, action, and word of those closely associated, and nearly related to him. The expressions of love, affection, kindness, endearing sympathy, and friendship which greet him, without reservation, on all sides, are viewed as evidences of enmity and ill-will, or as well-contrived, cunningly devised, carefully and adroitly arranged masks to hide some latent design, and artfully veiled conspiracy against his life, liberty, and property! All objects within the range of his perverted senses are tinctured and distorted by a disordered vision, jaundiced eye, and morbidly exalted, and excited fancy. In this incipient phase of mental derangement, he shakes with fear at the reflection of his image, crouches with apprehension at the reverberating sound of his own footsteps,-trembles at the melancholy sighing of the wind through a neighbouring copse,-turns pale at the echo of his voice, falls back aghast with horror at the recognition of his shadow, mistaking it for a frightful phantom, or grim spectral image, "Fierce as ten furies; terrible as Hell,"* following with a determined energy, and malignant aspect, closely in his wake, and with resistless impetuosity dogging his every footstep! "Black Melancholy sits, and round her throws |