He labours, expanded to gigantic dimensions. brooded over it in silence and sorrow, and died in a madhouse. Such are the results (and the history of literary men gives too many sad instances of them) when this power is permitted to operate without the checks of a sound judgment. This is the process by which generous minds, dwelling too intently upon the evils which all flesh is heir to, are often converted into misanthropists. They mingle the cup of poison with their own hands, and drink it. § 156. Of inordinate. Imagination, the opposite of Misanthropical. It is to be noticed, further, that the operation of the imagination is sometimes just the reverse of what has been mentioned, particularly in those persons in whom the element of hope is naturally strong. The souls of such persons have no harmony with thoughts of evil. If the inflictions of present sorrows cannot be avoided, they flatter themselves with coming good, and build airy castles for the future. They are like the cottage maiden whom some English poet celebrates. "Nor, while she turns the giddy wheel around, Pleased with the present and happy in the future, they kindle the torch of the imagination at the fires of a rejoicing heart. It is not with them, "Who shall show us any good?" but who shall show us anything that is not good? Infinite are the crea tions which their busy invention forms, some to be realized to-morrow, some to be realized the next year; some located in their native land, and, as it were, on the very tomb of their fathers, and others shining in some distant and conjectural El Dorado of the East or West. Their imagination is all upon one track, onward to the regions of light. They see no darkness in the clouds; they hear no rumbling of the tempest. They How different this state of mind from that which has just now been described. But, unfortunately, it is equally at variance with the true state of things. Such a man is a marvel to his neighbours, who, although they are not misanthropes, do not see all things bright; but brightness and darkness mingled together, with a full proportion of the latter. wonder he is so happy, and yet they call him a fool. They shake their heads in their wisdom, and mournfully predict that he will end his days in a madhouse. And so it is. But the distinctive trait of his malady does not leave him even there. His mind is in ruins; but it is shrouded in a rainbow. He rattles his chains with joy, and makes the walls of his prison echo with his songs. CHAPTER VIII. NATURE AND CAUSES OF IDIOCY. § 157. Idiocy generally implies a defective action of the whole Mind. WE propose to close this part of the general subject with some remarks upon Idiocy. A topic which naturally has a place in a work that professes to treat of defective or imperfect, as well as of disordered mental action. In the matter of arrangement, it is of but little consequence whether we introduce this subject here or in some other place. Idiocy does not imply merely an imperfect action of the External Intellect, or of the Internal Intellect, or of the Natural and Moral Sensibilities, but of the whole. Generally speaking, it may be considered as covering the whole mental area; presenting a scene of desolateness and vacuity throughout. It has, therefore, no specific place in the minor divisions into which the treatise naturally resolves itself. Nevertheless, as the basis of this unfortunate state of mind may, with a good degree of probability, be generally located in the intellect, we have concluded to introduce the following remarks in reference to it in the present connexion, rather than in the subsequent part of the work, which has particular relation to the Sensibilities. Such is the nature of the subject that it will not require an extended discussion. § 158. Of the degree of Intellectual Power possessed in Idiocy. It will be proper, in the first place, in entering upon this subject, to notice some of the marks or characteristics which are commonly found to attach to a state of idiocy. And here the first remark is, that persons in this condition will always be found to have but few ideas of any kind whatever. This small number of ideas they are able, except in some extreme cases, to compare together, so far as to distinguish those in which there are any striking differences. Such, however, is the general weakness, and, at times, the total incapacity of the power of relative suggestion, that the class of General Abstract ideas, which are of such a nature as always to imply the exercise of that power, are not only fewer in idiots than those of any other class, but are ill-defined and indistinct. The few ideas which they actually possess, they are sometimes, but not always, able to combine together, and to form from them some simple propositions. They have, however, the power of deducing inferences from the comparison of a number of consecutive propositions, that is, by reasoning only in a very small degree. great feebleness of reasoning power is to be attributed partly to the fewness of the ideas and propositions which they possess; partly to the dulness of their susceptibility of perceiving relations, the exercise of which is always implied in the comparison of Their propositions; and partly, in some cases, to a great weakness of memory. We say in some cases, because idiots have occasionally been found, who, while they have been deficient in every other mental power, have still been remarkable for memory. There is one characteristic of idiocy which very seldom fails; and that is, an inability to give attention. We never, for instance, find an idiot who can steadily attend to a long argument, and estimate the point and weight of its conclusion; even if it be of such a simple nature that he can understand the separate ideas and propositions involved in it. § 159. Of the natural and moral Sensibilities in Idiocy. Such is the intellectual power, or, rather, want of intellectual power, which characterizes the condition of this unfortunate class of persons. If we pass from the Intellect into the region of the Sensibilities, we shall find them estranged, in an almost equal degree, from the common measure of human emotion and passion. In general, they take but a little interest in the loves and hatreds, the joys and the sorrows of others, even of their near friends. They show no disposition to engage in the pursuits which fire the hearts and prompt the efforts of all around them, but appear to be lost, if one may use the expression, in the abyss of their own fatuity. Their want of emotion, as well as the defect of thought, is indicated by a vacant gaze, and a general absence of meaning and expression in the countenance. If we pass from the natural to the moral sensibil |