278 HORACE ON INSANITY. 



It may be said, in reply, that when there is no mental hal- 

 lucination there can be no insanity, since insanity consists in the 

 existence of one or more false mental impressions, retained con- 

 trary to the evidence of the senses and of the reasoning pow- 

 ers, or in consequence of the diseased state of the former or the 

 enfeebled or deficient state of the latter. The want of self- 

 government and the strength of the passions can with difficul- 

 ty be considered as disease. In many cases which have been 

 brought forward as of moral insanity, there has been evident delu- 

 sion of mind ; as in those persons who have been impressed with an. 

 irresistible desire to commit murder. In others, on the contrary, a 

 long indulgence of the worst passions of human nature, the total ab- 

 sence of self-controul, of moral and religious constraint, impatience 

 of contradiction and reproof, and utter selfishness, have led to a si- 

 milar state of blood-thirsty and inhuman ferocity. This was the 

 state of mind of Nero, of Tiberius, of Nadir Shah, and of many 

 other scourges of the human race, who in their turn "^ have shut 

 the gates of mercy on mankind ;*' and it is the state of many who 

 consummate a long life of wickedness by shedding the blood of a 

 fellow creature. Though the excessive development of evil passions, 

 and the perversion of the natural affections, are well characterized 

 under the term moral insanity, it becomes a most difficult matter to 

 define the boundary between a crime to be punished and a disease 

 to be pitied and relieved. Well-marked hallucination, of course, 

 exempts its unfortunate subject from the penalties exacted from the 

 criminal; but, in cases such as those just referred to, the responsibi- 

 lity of the medical witness becomes very serious. 



Horace alludes to a case in which some doubt appears to exist in 

 his mind as to whether the crime was committed under the influence 

 of insanity or otherwise. The case is that of the murder of Cly- 

 temnestra by her son Orestes, and the facts are these. Agamem- 

 non, king of ^lycenae and Argos, on returning from the siege of 

 Troy, was barbarously murdered by his wife (Clytemnestra) and 

 her paramour (iEgisthus). Orestes, the son of Agememnon and 

 Clytemnestra, arrived at manhood, revenges his father's death by 

 the murder of -^igisthus and his mother. He afterwards became 

 insane. Speaking of this murder, Horace asks, 



" Au tu reris cum occisa insanisse parente 



Ac non ante malis dementem actum Furiis, qukm 



In matris jugulo ferrum tepefecit acutum ?" 



This, however, was evidently a case of premeditated murder, for 



