456 Notices respecting New Books. 



the bodily functions, even the highest of them, the power of thought 

 (inasmuch as it can control even that), it naturally follows 



"That a force which is capable of acting as an acceleration, a retarding 

 or a disturbance of the vital functions, must have no small influence over 

 so delicate an organ as the brain, and accordingly we find paralysis, inflam- 

 mation, or brain fever, and a variety of other diseases of this kind, pro- 

 duced in many instances by causes purely mental Now a force which 



can produce disease must have some power also in removing or prevent- 

 ing it; and my business tonight will be to endeavour at least to mark out 

 how far this force can be made available to so desirable an object." (Lecture 

 on Insanity, p. 9.) 



From this it will be clear what is the line of argument taken up with 

 reference to the awful subject of insanity ; and it is fully shown that 

 many cases of mental delusion may consist with moral responsibility, 

 and that " nothing but an extent of disease which destroys at once 

 all possibility of reasoning, by annihilating or entirely changing the 

 structure of the organ, can make a man necessarily mad." (Ibid.p.12.) 

 That there are such states in which the material organs of thought 

 are so affected as to reduce the unhappy person to a mere " helpless 

 machine," is unfortunately but too sure ; yet " such extensive struc- 

 tural disease is hardly compatible with life, and is of very rare occur- 

 rence." The facts detailed in this latter lecture, and the opinions of 

 Dr. Conolly and others whose attention has been long directed to 

 the subject of insanity, are indeed well worthy the most serious con- 

 sideration, and more than ever now, since this greatest of all human 

 afflictions is said to " have nearly tripled within the last twenty 

 years ! " and "that of the cases less than three hundred in one thousand 

 are the result of disease, or of unavoidable circumstances ; thus leav- 

 ing above seven hundred resulting from bodily excess or mental mis- 

 government." (Ibid. p. 49.) 



We have been anxious to show the connection which exists in 

 these " small books," because the three together form an abundant 

 proof of two propositions most essential to the welfare of the human 

 race ; the first, that it is the nature of truth not to be solitary. The 

 discoveries of modern anatomists have placed us in possession of 

 many of the laws which regulate the mechanism of the human frame, 

 even to the workings of those delicate fibres which are found to be 

 the mechanical instruments of thought. What is the result ? Are 

 we hereby reduced to acknowledge that we are mere machines ? 

 No ; we are enabled thereby to classify the phasnomena of our na- 

 ture ; for the anatomist and the chemist alike acknowledge that, 

 while tracing the laws of matter, they find a disturbing force which 

 has its source in other causes ; which cannot be referred to any con- 

 ceivable action of those laws, — nay, which is frequently at variance 

 with them ; and we thus arrive at that wonderful agency of the will 

 already noticed. Again, what are the observations of those whose 

 attention has been turned to the morbid action of that established 

 mechanism ? — that where sufficient motive can be adduced, that indo- 

 mitable will is able even here to step in, and at least in some degree 

 control or counteract the diseased action. 



