THE MONOMANIAC. 203 



" I wish to learn the various causes of so deplorable a divorce as 

 that of reason from the mind." I answered. 



" Various, indeed a melancholy object ! I'll tell you the cause of 

 my derangement : it was sheer infection. I saw delirium so faith- 

 fully portrayed that my brain blazed as though it had been ignited 

 at a living flame ; the distorted demon of phrenzy throned himself on 

 my temples, and plugged each artery leading to the seat of know- 

 ledge with lead j he drew back the strings of my eyeballs till they 

 nearly cracked he tightened every tendon, and deadened every 

 pulse he tickled into fearful excitement all my nerves he palsied 

 every vein he made to bubble with fire every drop of life blood, 

 and when my head shot, quivered, and whirled under these tortures 

 he placed his mouth to my ear shrieked forth a peal of maddening 

 laughter, and thrusting his fingers into the quick of my brain crushed 

 it into ten thousand particles dispersing on each precious fragment 

 a million ideas which reason, thought, and instruction had garnered 

 there, and forming in their place a hollow for himself and Idiotcy, 

 his bride, to dwell in ! I feel them now gambolling with hideous 

 mirthfulness ! I hear them laugh ! they rouse me from my slum- 

 bers ha ! ha ! ha ! avoid me avoid me !" 



I stepped aside in shew of compliance, but perceiving him to 

 stagger with feebleness, occasioned by his over- wrought imagination 

 against the wall, I felt encouraged again to approach. He waved 

 me off, and for some moments a deep silence permitted his recent 

 ravings to ring with ten-fold horror on my memory, but Hill sud- 

 denly interrupted it by exclaiming. te What you are still here, in 

 spite of my cautions." 



" Yes," said I, " for I feel assured that you will not attempt to 

 attack me." 



" Oh, but I don't know that," rejoined the Monomaniac ; " I feel 

 one of my most dreadful paroxysms coming on ; however, I will 

 bind myself up, so that, if you keep your distance, you may remain 

 unhurt." I now prepared myself for something terrible, and re- 

 moving to a point whence I could easily escape in case of real dan- 

 ger, I watched his proceedings intently. My expectations were not 

 fulfilled: Hill with an expression of blended sense and cunning 

 gathered up a wisp of straw from the ground, and putting his arms 

 behind him, twisted it round his wrists. He then hitched the frail 

 handcuff (so to term it) on a peg in the wall, and began to writhe 

 and contort himself in a manner far from terrific j sometimes stamp- 

 ing, sometimes jumping; at another moment he wagged his elbows 

 backwards and forwards and distorted his features ; then struggled 

 as if to release himself and fell to stamping] again in short the 

 whole exhibition could only be likened to the impotent fury of a 

 child, who, in sport, wishes to frighten its nurse by pretending to fall 

 in a passion, making wry faces and beating the ground with its 

 feet to heighten the effect. Yet the sense-deprived Hill fancied him- 

 self worked by uncontrolable rage ; for he kept exclaiming, " Is 

 not this deadful ? Isn't it awful? I am now almost unmanagable- 

 I should injure you if I was not tied up only look now ! see ! lis- 

 ten ! how shockingly I rave I shall burst a blood-vessel I must 



