792 THE POPULAR SCIENCE MONTHLY. 



the greatest care ; but no sooner had his patient left the office than he 

 would run out to take the paper away, fearing that he had made a 

 mistake, that he had prescribed a poisonous dose of some medicine, or 

 had given some direction inconsistent with the symptoms. 



The doubting folly assumes an infinite number of different forms. 

 Without making an excessive use of subdivisions, we must establish a 

 few categories. 



We give the first place, in the order of dignity, to the metaphysi- 

 cians. They are constantly preoccupied with the insoluble problems 

 of philosophy. They are continually questioning about God, about 

 the universe, about the creation of the world. They will ask them- 

 selves, Who created the Creator ? They seek for the origin of language. 

 They trouble themselves about the end of things, about the immortal- 

 ity of the soul ; or, turning their attention to the physical universe, 

 they endeavor to comprehend the phenomena of nature and the fluids 

 that direct them. Our patient belongs to this category. The great 

 object of his preoccupations is self, personality, the real existence of 

 the objects of which he has a subjective perception. He reproduces 

 without knowing it the ideas and often the expressions of the great 

 philosophers who have cast the lead into these abysses. Next to the 

 metaphysicians, we should place those whom I will call the realists. 

 They are occupied with more or less trivial questions that do not per- 

 mit any elevation of thought. A Russian prince, mentioned by Grie- 

 singer, wanted to know why men were not as large as houses ; another 

 patient, why the fire-place that warmed his room was fixed against the 

 wall instead of being in the middle of the room ; a third, why there 

 was only one moon instead of two. Once started in this course, the 

 patient attaches himself with a morbid tenacity to the most insignifi- 

 cant subjects, and they become for him the point of departure of an 

 intellectual torture. 



Next are the scrupulous, of whom Esquirol's patient offers a fin- 

 ished type. They are always reproaching themselves about every- 

 thing, are tiresome with the precision of their speech, and are con- 

 stantly afraid that they have not told the exact truth. 



The timorous form a fourth class. They are people who, always 

 afraid they will compromise themselves, are incessantly taking exag- 

 gerated precautions, and live in a perpetual disquiet. A woman, who 

 was an artist and very intelligent, could never go into the street with- 

 out a fear that some one would fall down from a window to her feet. 

 She would ask what the consequences of such an accident would be, 

 and saw herself already arrested and taken to prison under an accusa- 

 tion of homicide. 



A fifth class, whose mania is really insupportable, are the counters. 

 They are persons who, wherever they may be, are concerned with the 

 number of objects. In the doctor's office, instead of being occupied 

 with the subject of consultation, they are counting the buttons on the 



