INSANITY. 629 



ally reanimated human bodies after death ; and this fancy I must have 

 got from a dramatic work by Bishop Coxe, entitled " Saul," in which 

 the evil spirit sent to trouble that unfortunate monarch reanimated 

 and took possession of the body of a priest whom Saul had slain. I 

 mention these instances as serving to show the dream-like character 

 of insanity. 



I was confined in an asylum, and during the first part of the time 

 I thought I was unjustly imprisoned, I knew not why, and that my 

 friends were not far off, doing all they could to liberate me. I could 

 hear them, as I thought, talking to me from some place not far dis- 

 tant. Many insane patients, with whom I have conversed, while they 

 and I were convalescing, have told me that they also had heard similar 

 voices, and been deceived much in the same way. This is called 

 "false-hearing." Since my recovery I have had several attacks of 

 it, but not to such an extent as to create any delusion. Sometimes 

 after a day's hard work, or after reading or writing too long, I have 

 heard voices that sounded as though they were out-doors, or in an 

 adjoining room, or in the air. I have experimented with them for 

 the purpose of finding out, if possible, how the brain is affected to 

 produce them. They have led me to believe that there is a great 

 deal more " unconscious cerebration " going on in every man's brain 

 than any one is aware of. While listening to these voices, and con- 

 scious all the while of the fact that they were purely imaginary, I 

 have heard remarks that astonished me ! What was this but the 

 mind surprising itself by its own communications? I have heard 

 long conversations at such times, and when, for the sake of experi- 

 ment, I have for the moment treated them as realities, I have received 

 replies that staggered me for the time being, and almost led me to 

 believe some intelligent being was talking to me. There can be no 

 doubt that there have been many people who, without knowing it, 

 have been victims of false hearing, and have honestly thought they 

 were hearing the voices of their disembodied friends, while in fact 

 they were being deceived by an unconscious mental action going on 

 in a disordered brain. 



The question, " What is insanity ? " will probably never be fully 

 and satisfactorily answered ; and one reason for this may be because 

 there are so many different kinds. One kind makes the patient lively 

 and hopeful : he believes himself a king, or immensely wealthy ; and 

 he is full of the wildest projects. Another kind of insanity is directly 

 the reverse in its characteristics ; it is called melancholia, and often 

 sinks the patient in the depths of despair. Then there is softening 

 of the brain, that ends in dementia, or total absence of intelligence, 

 so that the patient does not know enough to eat or drink, although 

 his body may be apparently in a healthy condition. But, generally 

 speaking, insanity may be said to be a state of delusion in which the 

 mental faculties, to which it would be necessary to appeal in order to 



