nor her fortune saved her from the most decided propensity to theft. Lavater speaks of a physician, who never left the room of his patient without robbing them of something, and who never thought of the matter afterward. In the evening his wife used to examine his pockets; she there found keys, scissors, thimbles, knives, spoons, buckles, cases, and sent them to their respective owners.'

§ 179. Second form of the alienated action of the Possessory principle.

There is another, a second form of the irregular and alienated action of the Acquisitive Propensity, which differs from the first-mentioned modification in the important circumstance of its depending more upon the Will of the person himself than upon any constitutional or connatural trait. Cases of this kind, therefore, are voluntary; that is to say, are brought about by a course of action, the responsibility of which rests upon the individual himself.

Nor is there anything inconsistent with reason, any philosophical anomaly in this view. It is well known that all the principles of the mind rapidly increase in energy and facility of movement by mere repetition. Not only this; but the process may be carried so far as to give altogether an undue degree of strength to some one principle as compared with another. In other words, a right or healthy action of the mind may in this way be gradually converted into an inordinate, uncontrollable, or unhealthy action. Such as we see it not unfrequently in game* Gall's Works, vol. iv., Am. ed., p. 132.

sters, mercantile men, and in other classes of persons, whose minds are continually exercised upon the sole object of increasing their possessions.

Among the class of confirmed misers we shall be likely, from time to time, to find instances and illustrations of this view of the subject. There are individuals in this denomination 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 obviously no longer under the control of the Will, but has passed over, not merely into the region of temporary disorder, but of positive and permanent insanity. Such, probably, must have been the situation of 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 actual alienation.

§ 180. Reference to the singular case of Sir Harvey Elwes.

The reader will be able, probably, by consulting the resources of his own recollection, to understand the applications of this subject. Nevertheless, we take the liberty to delay a moment upon the wellknown and somewhat singular case of Sir Harvey Elwes, of Stoke, in the county of Suffolk, England.

Sir Harvey Elwes inherited from a miserly mother, and an uncle of the same parsimonious disposition, the large property of £350,000. This singular individual, as is sometimes the case with misers, is said to have punctually discharged his obligations towards others, and in some instances even to have conducted with liberality; but, in whatever concerned himself, his parsimony, notwithstanding his great riches, was extreme and unalterable. When travelling he accustomed himself to great abstinence, that he might lessen the charges of his maintenance; and for the same reason he supported his horse with the few blades of grass which he could gather by the sides of hedges and in the open commons. Like his predecessor, Sir Harvey, from whom he seems to have derived his title, and who was hardly less miserly than his nephew, he wore the clothes of those who had gone before him; and when his best coat was beyond the ability of any further service, he refused to replace it at his own expense, but accepted one from a neighbour. He was so saving of fuel, that he took advantage of the industry of the crows in pulling down their nests; and if any friend accidentally living with him were absent, he would carefully put out his fire and walk to a neighbour's house, in order that the same chimney might give out warmth to both. Although he never committed any of his transactions to writing, he could not have been ignorant of his immense wealth; but this did not prevent his being exceedingly apprehensive that he should at last die with want. "Sometimes hiding his gold in small parcels in different parts of

his house, he would anxiously visit the spot to ascertain whether each remained as he had left it: arising from bed, he would hasten to his bureau to examine if its contents were in safety. In later life, no other sentiment occupied his mind: at midnight he has been heard as if struggling with assailants, and crying out in agitation, I will keep my money, I will; nobody shall rob me of my property!' though no one was near to disturb him in its possession. At length this remarkable person died in the year 1789, aged nearly eighty, and worth nearly a million."*

181. Reference to the case of Jeremiah Hallet.

The case of Jeremiah Hallet, who recently died at Yarmouth, in Massachusetts, at the age of sixtyfour, is very similar in a number of respects to the foregoing. If the statements which were circulated at the time of his death in the public newspapers are correct (and we see no reason to doubt them), he was certainly a very eccentric character.-It is related of him that his mind was constantly engrossed by two subjects, viz., getting money, and the mathematics. The first was the business, the other the amusement of his life. He was a miser in every sense of the word; living alone for the last ten years of his life, and denying himself all the luxuries, and many of what are regarded the necessaries of life. He lived upon the coarsest fare; and would sit in his room in cool weather without a fire, when his wood

*Origin and Progress of the Passions (Anonymous), vol. i., p. 310.

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was rotting in piles; and a shingle served him for the double purpose of a fireshovel and bellows. It is a confirmatory evidence of the disordered state of his mind, that he committed suicide, probably for some reason connected with the excited and insane position of the acquisitive principle. After his death, on examining his rooms, it was found that the whole value of his furniture and bedding would not exceed three dollars, and every room was covered with filth and dirt.

And yet this man was profoundly skilled in the science of numbers, and could boast of greater proficiency in the higher branches of mathematics than any man in the part of the country in which he lived.

CHAPTER IV.

DISORDERED ACTION OF THE PROPENSITIES.

(III.) AMBITION, OR THE DESIRE OF POWER.

182. The desire of Power an original or implanted principle.

ANOTHER of the Original Propensities, if we may reason from the facts which are almost constantly presented to our notice, is the Desire of Power.-It is true, that power is not a thing which is directly addressed to or cognizable by the outward senses.