EPIDEMIC DELUSIOXS. 17 



lately saw in the " stampede " at Aldershot. Or, again, a horse, even 

 if well trained, when he gets a new rider, sometimes, as we say, " tries 

 it on," to see whether the horse or the rider is really the master. I 

 have heard many horsemen say that that is a very familiar experience. 

 When yon first go ont with a new horse, it may be to a certain degree 

 restive ; but if the horse finds that yon keep a tight hand upon him, 

 and that his master knows well how to keep him under control, a little 

 struggling may have to be gone through, and the horse from that time 

 becomes perfectly docile and obedient. But, if, on the other hand, 

 the horse finds that he is the master, even for a short time, no end 

 of trouble is given afterward to the rider in acquiring that power 

 which he desires to possess. Now, that is just the case with our 

 minds ; we may follow out the parallel very closely indeed. We find 

 that if our minds once acquire habits habits of thought, habits of 

 feeling which are independent of the will, which the will has not 

 kept under adequate regulation, these habits get the better of us ; and 

 then we find that it is very difficult indeed to recover that power of 

 self-direction which we have been aiming at, and which the well- 

 trained and well-disciplined mind will make its highest object. So, 

 again, we find that there are states in which, from some defect in the 

 physical condition of the body, or it may be from some great shock 

 which has affected the mind and weakened for a time the power of the 

 will, very slight impulses just like the slight things that will make a 

 horse shy will disturb us unduly ; and we feel that our emotions are 

 excited in a way that we cannot account for, and we wonder why such 

 a little thing should worry and vex us in the way that it does. Even 

 the best of us know, within our own personal experience, that when 

 we are excessively fatigued in body, or overstrained in mind, our 

 power of self-control is very much weakened ; so that particular ideas 

 will take possession of us, and for a time will guide our whole course 

 of thought, in a manner which our sober judgment makes us feel to be 

 very undesirable. What, for instance, is more common than for a per- 

 son to take offence at something that has been said or done by his 

 most intimate friend, or by some member of his family ; merely be- 

 cause he has been jaded or overtasked, and has not the power of 

 bringing to the fair judgment of his common-sense the question 

 whether tnat offence was really intended, or whether it was a thing he 

 ought not to take any notice of? He broods over this notion, and 

 allows it to influence his judgment ; and, if he does not in a day or two 

 rouse himself and master his feelings by throwing it off, it may give 

 rise to a permanent estrangement. We are all of us conscious of 

 states of mind of that kind. 



But there are states of mind which lead to very much more serious 

 disorder, arising from the neglect of that primary discipline and cul- 

 ture on which I have laid so much stress. We find that ignorance, 

 and that want of the habit of self-control which very commonly ac- 



VOL. II. 2 



